eBay

esclyons · ‎07-29-2017

i try to do it twice a year. but as my listings get higher, it is harder to accomplice.. we all know the item we sold, or ended.. somehow finds it way back into the selling stream occasionally .. what do you all do to stop this from happening, i actually twice had a sold item show up in my unsolds, so it got relisted.. then of course i didn't have it..

so should i just print a list of everything i have listed and verify it one by one, or does anyone have any other ideas.??

appreciate your input..

cumos55 · ‎07-30-2017

I view my Active listings on a daily basis....

I can view the listings that will end each day early on the morning of each day..

This gives me a view of my visitors and watchers... and I can also see if if there is something strange with any listing....

I sometimes I will look for a listed item.... and could not find the item listed.

The listing may be ended by me,,, and then the item is found when I search for something else.... and the listing gets relisted..

Always careful if a listed item cannot be found... but then it does get found... eventually

Sometimes I may also choose to edit a listing

Right now I have about 140 listings ending each day......

All of my books are in bookcases. .....Where a book is placed is based on my primary store category

cumos55 · ‎07-30-2017

My coin collection is in those small square holders, with them organized onto storage pages in a three-ring binder.

(Actually my father's coin collection as the primary start of my collection)

With those sheets of coins for sale you may choose to slip the larger sheets of coins into full size sheet protectors 8.5 inches x 11 inches, available at Staples...

There are photo albums with sheets much larger than 8.5 x 11.... if needed. (I find them at Value Value and other Thrift stores)

I use different sizes of albums to store things that differ in size.... mainly large artwork prints, and large 8 x 10 personal photos

Where you store something may help in determining if something gets lost on eBay.

Although I do not keep a record of each sale with my inventory... you may choose to keep a copy of an email when a coin is sold, .. that email received from eBay when an item is sold.... in with each category of coin....

Lots of three ring binders full of coins stored in major categories... and subcategories....

with everything in bookcases that can hold three ring binders

There are also filing cabinets that can hold three-ring binders.

There is one thing I do with listed items.... If I have several copies of the same book... the listed copy has a small unmarked sheet marker... one-quarter the size of an 8.5 inches x 11 inches sheet of paper.... placed just inside the front cover of the book

In your situation you can have small circle dots (Most likely available at Staples) placed on the holder of a listed coin..... or even have listed coins on separate sheets in a binder as well... with everything listed by category... coins by denomination.

Use your imagination to categorize, and in turn store items, whether listed or not listed... and then those sold emails

Continually thinking of how to store items so that they are easily found.

One thing I never do is make a major change of where something is stored.... If I change the storage place for too many things at once..... things seem to get lost.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-30-2017

If you put your listings into alphabetical order, duplicates will show up promptly.

My books are alphabetical by order in bookcases, sewing patterns by maker and number in bankers boxes.

Stamps are by country and Scott number. If I had more of them I'd use the small 3-ring binders we had in the shop, but at the moment it's redboxes. (They are a thing. They are called redboxes because they are red. Unitrade sells them.)

http://www.unitradeassoc.com/CoinHolders.htm

Which coin catalogue do you use? Is there one that is recognized internationally?

Postage bundled by value. In value order.

But the relisted sold item is a running fear. I spotted one last week. The Firefly Zoe LootCrate which sold fast and then reappeared.

hlmacdon · ‎07-30-2017

I manage everything through a dedicated inventory program. Periodically I dump a CSV file from the inventory program into excel. I then dump active listings into excel and match them against each other which quickly identifies anything listed that isn't in stock, or anything that is in stock that isn't listed. Entire process takes less than 5 minutes. Once or twice a year I'll do a physical inventory count.

momcqueen · ‎07-30-2017

I've never had that Sold item show as Unsold and all mine are on GTC or Auto-Relist. I haven't ever done an inventory verification. If I have it listed, I have it on-hand....somewhere.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-30-2017

OTOH, I gather you are a Real Professional, doing eBay as part of your Real Life business.

We did an annual inventory before we retired and closed the store. It was a two or three day process for half a dozen people.

How do you handle shoptheft? That was always our disappointment with the store inventory. Finding cards with switched or missing stamps. Ugh.

hlmacdon · ‎07-30-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:
OTOH, I gather you are a Real Professional, doing eBay as part of your Real Life business.
We did an annual inventory before we retired and closed the store. It was a two or three day process for half a dozen people.

How do you handle shoptheft? That was always our disappointment with the store inventory. Finding cards with switched or missing stamps. Ugh.

I've worked retail and ecommerce for a number of years so ebay is sort of a natural extension from there, turning a hobby into a secondary source of income. A lot of the basic skills learned can carry over to selling on ebay, with the most useful thing being getting to grips with some basic excel functions like vlookups since you can get CSV data sources from ebay and paypal which can cut down on a lot of work that would otherwise be done manually. I sell/procure in USD where there is volatility so having an inventory program that tracks average costing allows me to dump a CSV file into excel with all of my costing, then I quickly match that up to current FX rates and check my margins after ebay/paypal costs. A big part of the ecommerce side is managing data rather than the products themselves as you eventually end up dealing with thousands of SKUs.

As far as dealing with shop theft? Finding out where your shrink is coming from. High value items you can always secure with a number of different solutions but that isn't cost effective for everything. Doing period stock checks/counts helps identify where you might have an issue. Having a good staff helps as you can catch the more obvious things like people switching tags/barcodes. Over the years I've seen some pretty creative ways inventory goes missing, with quite a bit of that being on the employee side so you have to watch your staff as well. I've seen situations where mid 6 figures worth of inventory walk out the door from a single employee.