Anyone interested in a £300 by Easter ebay selling thread?

[carrotsandcelery]

Inspired by the threads before Christmas, I was hoping we could get another thread going to motivate us as we sell and ask each other questions as we go along.

I am hoping to start selling again once the dc go back to school next week.

Anyone else want to join me?

here
never had to block anybody before :(

Thanks SNOWball. If it was a free listing the first time how does that affect it?

I've made the £300 (yay) but not without fuss and it's rather put me off ebay tbh. One item to wrong address, one item has disappeared in transit, and today I've just checked my feedback to see that a buyer has marked me down for P&P costs (when she paid £2.00 and the actual postage was £2.73, not counting packaging) and for dispatch time (when I posted it at 10am the day after she paid for it). What is with people, why would she do that?!

Fascinating reading the fback left by your fussy buyer, Snowball, frequently found items to be too small, didn't she?!

How to create blocked buyers list.

I have 3 people on my blocked list. The latest of which threatened me with a negative feedback if I didn't refund extra postage. People really don't take into account the packaging of P&P. The annoying thing was that she was bidding on another of my items which I had to end early in case she won because blocking them only blocks them for future bids, not any current ones :(

I state on my listings that it will take 2 days to post and by second class and I almost always send next day and by first class in the hope of keeping my P&P rating up - some people still give less than 5.

On the bright side, up to £823 now :) Although no more ebay for a few weeks while we're on holiday. I hope I can keep the momentum up when we return.

I only have 3 things listed as I don't want to be off posting packages etc when the dcs are on half term (which starts tomorrow for us).

I will be swayed by free listings however as I have a few things to relist

reb £823 is amazing. Well done. You will motivate me to keep going after the holiday

OMG, that's an amazing total, rebecklet.

I'm at £154, which is halfway - yay! I took £130 out of Paypal into my bank account yesterday, which was very satisfying.

I'm at £102.66 now with loads to list and re-list. Not looking forward to the post office bit though.

Yay for Tamoo for reaching £300! CointreauVersial and mygirllollipop you will soon be there too :)

Do you know when the next free listings will be carrot?

Oh poo, one of my buyers unhappy, with an item that costs £4 to post & I basically profitted only £2 on. Claims that the item didn't match description or photos; I couldn't disagree more but it's a matter of subjective opinion. I just refunded her the lot (sigh) & asked her to donate said item to a charity shop (who I expect will be delighted to have it).

And put her on my blocked bidders list. (only satisfaction I could get, really).
I think my net profits are back down around £30, which will vanish if my anxious buyer still hasn't received item (as they claim). Now they are saying not to worry, delivery bound to be slow due to bad weather ; I'm convinced that they're trying it out before they decide if they want to keep it.

Poo. Eyeing up the rest of my lot & wondering if I should just send to charity shop.

ragged that sounds like a spate of bad luck. I had one a wee while before Christmas and it put me right off but here I am with £220 in my paypal account now. Don't be put off by a few dodgy customers. There are lots of really lovely ones out there too. (Please remind me of this when it is my turn for the awkward customers again!)

Will do.

I heard there may be a free listings this weekend from a friend-of-a-friend who had an email about it.

Ooh, I hope so. I've got two (maybe three) buggies to put on and still have the PM mansion lurking in my room which was meant to go on before Christmas .

I have now increased my target as I have seen a house I'd like to buy...I reckon I could raise £150k with the amount of stuff I have around the place . Well, maybe not that much but I think I'd be able to raise a couple of grand if I tried really hard. I still have £600 in PP from before Christmas.

Free listing this weekend. Just found email.

Hi all. I knew mumsnet would be helpful when looking for eBay advice - this is gold - thanks! I've been reading this thread (had to skim some, tbh, as there is so much info!). I'm new to selling on eBay and was thinking of selling off my old maternity clothes and had a few queries, would gratefully receive any tips:

1. I was thinking of doing some bundles, e.g. 'work dresses', 'casual tops' and the like. Is this the best way? Also if I have some 'premium' items (like mamas & papas expensive when new items) is it worth listing those separately?
2. I'm most likely to be able post out on Thurs / Fri as toddler in nursery so just me and the newborn. Looks like listings best to end on Sun/Mon - will people be happy to wait 3 days for posting if I'm explicit in listing of post out days?
3. Is it worth holding off spring/summer items for a bit? I've also got some cold weather items too - am I too late to list these?

So many questions! Hope everyone's £300 target is coming along - I'm very inspired by you all.

My anxious buyer (no surprise) now clamouring for refund. Bloody Chancer. I KNEW, didn't I?
I am dragging feet a bit but will probably refund later today. TOSSER.

I wouldn't know about Free weekends either, but for this thread. :). Can't cope with marketing emails so opted out. I will grit my teeth & try a few more listings, in hope of nicer buyers in future.

@Tankgirl (I loved that movie, but the original paper comic was very pornographic, I guess you know? :)):
I think you can get away with 3 day delay to post if you state it very explicitly in the description, Just make it very very obvious.

I can't believe it, the buyer I blocked (after refunding partial postage to her) has now reversed her payment (of over £50!) through paypal. I have emails from her confirming she received the items because she was complaining about the cost of postage. How can she think she can get away with this?!

On the bright side - yay for free listing weekend!

Thanks ragged - that's helpful. I suspect that even if I'm v explicit re posting times I may well still get whingers judging from some of the experiences I've read in this thread...!

Re tank girl - I've actually never seen movie to my shame as I'm always tank girl on forum boards! I own all the comic books, as well as others by artist, it's not particularly pornographic per se - but there is a fair amount of references to her shagging kangaroos.. Hmmmmm.

It's just possible I saw a naughty knock-off version of the comic Definitely featured lots of actual shagging.

I admire you're resilence Rebecklet, I am well cheesed off, but will do what I think I "should" do this weekend, & go ahead & do some listings.

Sorry to hear you are all wrestling with awkward/dishonest customers. I have to say, I've been very lucky in my eBay career; I've only ever had one non-payer (a £2 item; decided he "couldn't afford it" ), one dissatisfied lady who returned the item for a refund, and one parcel that went astray and eventually turned up back on my doorstep (the buyer was very understanding). No negs as yet

Anyway, everything from last weekend is paid for and posted, and I have about 12 items on a ten-day listing, ending just when I get back from holiday.

Tankgirl - bundles are particularly good for kids clothes; I've never done them for adult clothes, but I don't see why not. Keep premium stuff separate, though.

Regarding posting days, just say very clearly in your listing "I post on Thursdays and Fridays only". There's no rule which says you have to end the listings on Sunday/ Monday; they are supposedly the most popular times, but people look all week. Just don't finish the auction at 9am on a Monday morning!!

I'd wait a bit for Spring/Summer stuff - I don't expect anyone can face shopping for strappy dresses and flipflops while there is snow on the ground!

Question, help please!?:

I've refunded my schizophrenic anxious buyer who had item not delivered; Paypal fees have been refunded for that transaction, but what about seller fees (the 10% worth £3.50 to me)? Do they get refunded later? Have I followed wrong sequence of events to get them back?

Tank (I used to ride a horse called that - you can imagine what he was like ) I often end auctions on a Tuesday after 8pm and have made good money on them. That would make a Thurs/Fri postage totally fine.

I think if you say Thurs/Fri in your listing then no one can complain. I have seen that sort of thing loads.

I would hold out with the Spring Summer stuff too. It might sell now but won't make as much money. You could try the the winter stuff, especially kids stuff, as they do grow out of things mid season. The only thing is you will be competing with the sales in the shops too.

I have never done bundles on anything so I have no knowledge there. Sorry. I can see how a holiday abroad bundle or a back to work bundle would work though. Let us know how they sell. You can look on completed listings on the "How to Sell" page and it would give you an idea if things like that have sold and how much for. You could compare with selling the items individually.