Amy said: I'd love to know about your listing process. There are so many steps - cleaning, photographing, researching, listing, etc. Do you do it in batches or one at a time. What do you find works best for you?
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Yes, there is a lot involved in listing items on eBay. I have several different systems that I use, depending on my mood and what I'm listing. Sometimes I use the assembly line method, other times I use the divide and conquer method, other times I'm totally random.
#1 - Assembly Line: This is my preferred method, because I can get a TON of items listed in one sitting when I use the assembly line method. I mostly use this for shoes, but it works well on clothing too. With this method, I will spend an entire afternoon washing 20 or 30 pairs of shoes. Then I will spend that entire evening polishing them. Depending on what I have going on that day, I'll either spend the late evening taking pictures, or I'll wait and do that the next morning. And then of course I either edit the pictures or pay my daughter to do that. Then I'm ready to just sit down and crank out the listings.
If you're using the assembly line method for clothes, it would look a little different (unless you polish your clothes!). After I've washed and dried a lot of clothing to list, I'll take 10-15 items into my eBay room and take the pics (on my mannequin). Then I grab another pile and another. I try to do at least 30 in one session to make it worth the effort. Then I spend awhile editing the pics. Here, there are 2 different ways you could continue. You could do all your measuring/weighing at once by jotting all the details down on a piece of paper. Then take that information to the computer and do you listing from your paper. I prefer to measure and weigh as I go, so I take my pile of clothes to my table and get cracking.
#2 - Divide and conquer: This is the method I use on items that don't really need any prep work. Grab all the turntables, or all the board games, or all the stuffed animals, or all the .... you get the idea. Snap photos quickly, edit them, and get to work. It's pretty similar to the assembly line method, but there aren't as many steps. I just pull out all the like items and get them done in one afternoon or evening.
#3 - Random: AKA panic mode. This is the mode I resort to when I just can't stand the piles any longer! I grab a bin and get it all done. No matter what it is. No matter what cleaning it needs. No matter if it's efficient or not. Just get that bin done and put away. I'm sick of looking at it. This method is especially effective on those bins of items that aren't home runs. They're just so-so items, so you keep putting them back in the bin while you list the more interesting items. Or they're the items you don't want to deal with - the puzzles that you don't want to count the pieces of, or the coat that you don't want to sew the button back on. This is my least favorite method, because it usually involves all the unpleasant tasks that I've been putting off. But sometimes the piles are just so overwhelming, and the mess is so out-of-hand, that I've just got to get it done.
The main idea with any of my methods is once you start, don't stop. Don't move on to anything else until you are done. Here's an example: I took pictures of 50 tops one afternoon. I edited all of them the next day. I started listing them the next day. No, I didn't list all 50 tops in one day. It took me longer than a week, as a matter of fact. But I didn't get distracted by taking pictures of other things or listing more interesting things. When I had a few minutes, I listed one or two. Little by little, I chipped away at them. Because I had done a huge chunk of prepwork ahead of time, it was no big deal for me to just sit down and quickly write up a listing when I had a second.
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What's YOUR listing method?
I dont buy as nearly as much inventory as you do and I stay away from shoes and clothes. When I do buy something, when I get it home, I will put everything out on the table. I take off all the price stickers, clean what needs to be cleaned, take pictures of everything, edit the pictures and then list them. I try to get what I bought done on the day I buy it. Again I dont buy much, at most it has been 10 items, so it goes pretty quickly and now since I no longer have a ts to walk to I only go out once or twice a week
ReplyDeleteI do my shopping every Monday. I usually buy between 60-80 items of clothes. Once home I separate them into piles of blouses, dresses, pants, etc. Ideally, I would take pictures on Tuesday, doing about 20-30 items an hour. After I finish, I will then edit my photos. Then, again ideally, on Wednesday and Thursday, I would write my listings. I put all the clothes in a basket and take that to my computer, where I will measure & list each item. I use Turbo Lister with my own templates and I can save all my listings until I'm ready to upload, usually Sunday evening. If I go thrifting/saling on Friday/Saturday, then I will photograph each non-clothing item on Sunday, but they usually wait until Tuesday. It takes me most of the day to write up 25 listings, inbetween doing chores and other things. It's all very time consuming and never ending so every once in a while I will take an "eBay break".
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I go shopping every Monday and buy anywhere from 35-50 items. I like to come home and photograph them that day and then they get put into a basket. I usually edit my pictures that night and most of my listing gets done on Tuesday. I don't like to wait too long to get things into my store, the faster I can get it in the sooner I can make my money back plus some!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to say thank you for all of the valuable information you provide!!!! You are so awesome, and for a newbie, it is so great to have all this at my fingertips.
ReplyDeleteI have no listing method.......I list a couple of items here and there when I can, but I'm doing this just for "extra" money! My two year old is my main distraction.
I'm usually in constant panic mode. But sometimes I get my act together enough to do the assembly line thing! Love your blog!
ReplyDeleteWow, this is great to read about. I've been listing for 3 years now, but just started "full time" ebaying this Sept. I'm still at the organizing phase of things, I lose alot of stuff (hate to do that after it's been bid on)....I go to an auction on Wed and have been "saling" on Sat. I definitely shoot a bunch of pictures at a time, I like to do it as soon as I buy also, otherwise stuff gets lost. I try and list 5 items each night, also I'm also working Etsy (1 a day goal). I don't use any listing service yet, thanks for sharing all this info.
ReplyDeletegretchen
I'm not sure if you have posted about this before but could you give us some hints/tips about how you photograph your items? In this post you talk about editing your photos. I would love to get some pointers so my listings look more "professional!" Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWill do, Kim!
ReplyDeleteI'm also interested in how you handle your inventory when you bring it home. I can't seem to keep my receipts and purchases straight. Any suggestions? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAmy, when I get home from shopping, I immediately enter my purchases into my spreadsheet, jot my total down in my recordkeeping book, and shove the receipt into my expandable ebay folder. Then I shove all my inventory in a pile for another day. The shopping is a lot more fun than the cleaning/testing/listing. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jessica! I think I just need to get better about entering things into my spreadsheet and not waiting. Sometimes it can be a little overwhelming though when I come home with a big score.
ReplyDeleteSo on average how much time per week do you spend on your ebay business? I just started selling items a few months ago. It's been going well but I am not sure it is worth the time.
ReplyDeleteActively, I probably spend 3 or 4 hours a week listing, 2 or 3 hours a week cleaning/prepping items (more on shoe cleaning weeks), 4 hours photographing/editing, 8 hours listing. Probably another 5 on packaging/shipping. I also try to edit listings and do relists periodically, maybe an average of 2 hours a week.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt it's more than I'm estimating, but the numbers I just listed add up to 26. Even rounding up to 30 hours, over the course of a month, that ends up being an hourly rate of over $20 per hour. Net. To me, that is totally worth it.
If you're relatively new, you're probably spending more time on everything than I do. I've gotten pretty quick at it. The more you do it, the faster you'll get, making the return on your time investment much more worth it!
Of course, if I count the gazillion hours I spend on the boards READING about eBay, then I'm down to about 50 cents per hour. :)
I have a slightly different question about inventory. First, do you use an inventory numbering system? If so, when you enter your purchase into the spreadsheet, it's largely identifiable by this number? How do you categorize things. And then, how do you put the inventory number on the items for sale? Sticky labels, pinned pieces of paper? I'm wondering, at the end of the process, when the item sells, how you locate it amongst a lot of clothing and how you determine how much you paid originally, to get an accurate profit/loss accounting? In other words(!), what's your inventory process? thanks much.
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