It's All In The Details

As I sit here this morning going over my April sales numbers, I can't help but notice how well I have done since getting back into ebay.  When Cassini hit, I moved away from ebay due to the huge drop in sales.  I instead went over to amazon and starting ramping up my business over there.  As you probably know by now, the profit margins at amazon using FBA were half of what they were with ebay.  But I stuck with it for 1 1/2 years before finally throwing in the towel.  It wasn't until the end of March of this year that I finally decided to head back over to ebay and give it another try.  I'm glad I did.

Prior to Cassini I was selling probably 80 items per month.  After Cassini, my sales dropped to about twenty or thirty.  Knowing this made me a little gun shy heading back into the ebay world.  But I knew other sellers who were able to adapt to Cassini and bring their sales back up.  So I wondered what they had done to accomplish this.  In addition to talking to them, I also did my homework.  I researched what others were saying about Cassini and how to work in conjunction with it to increase their sales.  The answer to this was simple. It was all in the details.  Let me explain.

Ebay is having to compete with amazon, and to some extent the other online platforms.  But what ebay has over them is the ability for sellers to sell used items that are not permitted on these other platforms.  If you are looking for something specific and want it used, most likely ebay is the only platform where you are going to find it.  In addition, ebay recognized that the buyer experience was what was going to keep them relevant.  They had to change in order to meet the requirements of their buyers.

Enter Cassini.  Cassini took the search to another level.  The primary role of Cassini is to match a buyer with the best seller for them.  It factors in things like feedback, price, customer service and yes, item details.  No longer can you just cram keywords into your title and descriptions and get a high placement.  You have to bring value to the buyer.  Cassini's algorithm is designed in such a way as to minimize the effects of keyword spamming.  But it's not just these items that factor into where you show up in search results.  You also have to have a decent sell through rate.  For Cassini, if you are selling a high percentage of your listings, then you must have items that are in demand and therefor you will rank higher.  Cassini also rewards you for having as much information in your listings as possible.

So what makes a great listing?  To begin with, you want as much detail in your title as possible.  Things like brand, color, style, size etc.  You cannot just say "Women's blouse blue with flowers size 8".  Now your title should be "Chico's Petite Blue Flowered 100% Non-iron Cotton Blouse Size 8".  See the difference?  All the specifics about that blouse are now in the title.  But it doesn't end there.  Below your pictures is an area for item specifics.  This is where you input specific details about your item.  Every single entry should be filled out.  Even if one of them is unknown, put that in the field.  Cassini wants all the details.  The more you fill in the better off you are going to be.

Once you get to your description, your first line should be your title once again.  Below that should be a bullet list of details about the item.  Things such as 100% Non-iron Cotton keeps your blouse crisp and clean, Beautiful floral pattern, Long Sleeves, Machine washable, etc.  When filling in your item condition, make sure you are honest.  Note any defects or markings that may be of significant importance to the buyer. Don't try to sugar coat anything.  That's a sure way to get a return and negative feedback.  Lastly, make sure to do your homework on pricing.  Look at similar items in similar condition that have already sold.  For me, I try to be in the middle between the low and high priced sales.  Don't under or over price yourself.  You'll either have a low margin, or be sitting on an item for a while.

Follow these best practices and watch your sales increase.  Cassini loves data.  Make sure you are feeding it what it wants.

So You Want To Be A Millionaire Seller?

Ah the dreams of the new ebay seller.  They see story after story of an ebay seller who made a million dollars selling stuff on ebay, and they want to be the next success story.  So how does one accomplish this lofty goal?  What does it really take to make a million dollars selling on ebay?  Well, I'm glad you stopped in for this little chat because I am going to explain it to you.

There is no real secret to selling a million dollars on ebay.  Of course people are tempted by all of these courses that promise to reveal insider 'secrets' to accomplishing this goal.  And of course that information comes at a price, and usually a hefty one at that.  It's all smoke and  mirrors.  A lot of reading and regurgitating information that is already freely available if one has the patience to look for it.  I'll give you the real secret.  The real 'insider' information that will transform your life forever.  you have but to read on!

First, you must know how to sell on ebay.  You have to understand how to get people to buy your item instead of from the hundreds or thousands of competitors out there.  For me, I am not the cheapest seller in my niche.  I sell at higher prices than my competitors.  So why do people buy from me vs. the other guys I am competing with?  It comes down to a couple of points.  First, I follow all of the ebay rules.  Ebay will tell you exactly how to get sales.  The problem is most people don't have the time or inclination to follow the guidelines ebay has set up to help sellers.  This is the first step in being a successful seller.  Follow what ebay wants you to do to the letter.

Next, you have to have exceptional customer service.  The phrase 'The customer is always right' is something ebay lives and breathes, so you had better do the same.  Yes it sucks when we get returns, but it is no different that what retail stores go through.  Accept it and move on.  It's nothing personal, it's just a part of doing business.  Get the item back and resell it.  It sold once, it will sell again.  Feedback is your lifeline.  While most buyers pay little attention to it, ebay pays very close attention to it.  Their search engine, Cassini, uses it to weigh what sellers go to the front of the search line.  Get bad feedback and you move to the back of the bus until you redeem yourself.

While those two points are a simplification, they are the two top items to keep track of.  Do your research and learn the other factors ebay uses to score your listings against other sellers.  Trust me, you'll be glad you did!  Follow the guidelines and watch your sales take off.

Now for the meat.  How do you sell a  million dollars on ebay?  It really is a  simple formula.  Ready for it?  If you sell an item for $1, then all you have to do is sell one million of that item.  See?  Simple.  Now no one is going to do that, but you get the idea.  If your item sells for $10, sell 100,000.  If it sells for $50, sell 20,000 and so on.  It's that simple.  It's a volume game.  The higher your sale price, the less you need to sell to get that million dollars.  So what's stopping you?  As you sell you gain confidence and begin to grow.  Follow your instincts and get those sales!  Quit waiting for the lottery or a rich relative to kick the bucket.  There is plenty of cash out there for the taking.  You just have to figure out how to get it!

Have fun and let me know when you make it big!

What Kind Of Seller Are You?

When selling on ebay, most new sellers take the shotgun approach.  They find items they have and start trying to sell them.  When something sells, they try to find another item like it and try to sell that one.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  That's the typical cycle.  The problem is that sometimes that one sale on that one item is all you will ever get.  You just happened to list it at the right time when that one seller was looking for it.  It may take another year or even longer for someone else to come searching for that item.  If you do that enough times you wind up with a bunch of stale inventory.  So what is the best approach in selling?

There are typically two types of sellers.  I liken these to two types of retail stores.  You have Walmart that sells a wide range of products.  They try to be all things to all people.  There are also ebay sellers who do the same thing.  The down side to this is that you need a ton of space to be able to offer a wide enough range of products in order to keep a consistent flow of income coming in.

The second type of seller is specialized.  Kind of like Victoria's Secret.  They sell one type of item.  They found a 'niche' of products that sell very well.  They have a ready set of customers who look for their product.  They can turn inventory quickly and therefore do not need a huge storage area to accommodate their business.  You see a lot of that in the mobile phone and accessories categories.  Some people sell cases while others sell power adapters.  They typically sell a product they are familiar with and knowledgeable about.

Neither approach is better than the other.  It can work for any seller.  The difference comes in with how you prefer to run your business.  If you are new and not sure what to sell, then the Walmart approach may be the best way to start.  It allows you to test several types of products before settling on a niche item.  Of course there are those sellers who love the treasure hunt and will never be a niche seller.  I was this type of seller for many years.  I was always on the hunt for the next treasure.  I would find a hot seller and ride it until it cooled down, then pick another.  All the while I just listed other stuff I thought might sell.

The point of all of this is to help you figure out what type of seller you want to be.  Know the pros and cons of each type and jump feet first into selling.  Don't sit back and wait for the perfect product to land in your lap.  You may wind up waiting your life away.  Start listing items and you may just end up finding a real gem hiding in the array of products you are listing!

Long Tail or Quick Sale

When I was heavily into ebay, I wanted to get my product up and sold with as much profit as I could, in the least amount of time.  I wanted quick inventory turn.  As I started to dabble with amazon FBA, I started to learn about long tail sales and how I should be using them.  So what exactly is a long tail sale, and why would I want to use it?  Let's dig a little deeper into this, shall we?

So what is a long tail sale?  Long tail refers to an item that you sit on for an extended amount of time.  Think of a house or a car, big ticket items.  Most generally, these items take time to sell because of their price point.  The more expensive something is, the longer it takes to sell it.  Conversely, the cheaper something is the quicker it sells.  This is a normal sales cycle, and all retailers know it.  When they have long tail items that have exceeded their threshold for acceptable time frames, they will run a sale to try and move the inventory.  The key is knowing what to buy and how long to hold it.

My strategy for long tail sales is fairly simple.  The longer it sits, the more I need to make.  Let's take a look at a text book as an example.  Text books are generally only going to sell really well twice per year.  Text books will generally have a high resale amount.  So you look at a text book and see the rank is 3.5 million.  Not such a good rank, and most people would pass on it.  It indicates a slow moving item.  Now let's dig a little deeper on this book.  We see that we can purchase this book for $1.99 at a thrift store.  We know the rank, and we can see the selling price right now is at $129.95.  Now the trick is knowing if this price is going to remain steady, drop or increase as text book season begins.  More than likely it will go up.  So for a $1.99 investment, and maybe 5 or 6 months of waiting, I get a hefty profit on that buy. Not too shabby considering storage fees on a book is fairly small.

Now take another item you purchase for $1.99.  Rank is 1 million, and the current selling price is $14.95.  Is this a good long tail candidate?  Most likely not.  Unless it is a very small, lightweight item you are going to rack up storage fees that will start eating into the profits on this item.  FBA fees on this item are going to be at least $4 at a minimum, and probably more like $5.  So take out your initial cost, the FBA fee and you are left with $8.96.  If your storage fees are $0.60/mo, and it sits for six months, you are now down to $5.36.  Take out the cost of FBA stickers and inbound shipping fees and you are down under $4 profit.  Go over 6 months and you are going to get hit with long term storage fees and now you are probably under $3 profit.  Not so attractive now is it?

You really need to understand your sales funnel as it pertains to your profit/loss.  You have to know what your fees are going to be the longer something is going to sit in the warehouse.  Amazon is really a numbers game, and with a few exceptions it is also a quick turn game.  People who can turn inventory very quickly are the ones who generally do very well.  The other segment that does really well are those who can afford to play the long tail game.  I know sellers who only buy long tail items and are willing to wait a year or two for a payout.  How they manage it is they have a huge inventory.  Eventually enough time passes and these items start to hit their sales time frame and they will have huge profits on almost a daily basis.

With ebay, it's a little different ball game.  Long tail still works, however you are now dealing with storage limitations.  Ebay is another venue where people want in and out with a quick inventory turn.  The same rules are going to apply for the most part, it's just a different angle.  Ebay is going to charge a fee for listing the item.  Even if you have a store, the cost is divided by your monthly store allocation.  With a premium store, it is costing you $0.06 each time you list the item.  Not a huge cost, but an expense nonetheless.  My question is always "can I afford to use the shelf space for this, or can I get more inventory for the same money"?  I also look at how much alternate inventory I can buy with the cash I am going to tie up into this item.

An example is a pair of designer shoes.  When I sold shoes I would look at a pair of shoes I could buy for $89.  Now my normal channel for sourcing would have shoes in the $5 - $10 range.  So now I have to figure out if the profits on that $89 pair of shoes was going to exceed the profits I could make on selling 8 - 10 pairs of the lower priced shoes.  Let's say my average sale price on the lower end shoes was $24.95.  After all fees, I would have a profit of about $10 - $13.  Multiply that by say 8 pairs of shoes and I have a profit of between $80 and $104.  So now I know I have to sell these $89 shoes for at least $200 in order to make the same amount of profit.  Not only that, but the lower end shoes are going to sell in a month or two where the higher end ones may take 6 months.  Which is the better deal?  For me, the lower end shoes.  If I were to buy the higher end shoes, I would want to sell them for at least $275 to make it worth my while.

If you can stomach the wait, and the amount of cash investment you are going to be hanging out for a year or two, then this may be a great strategy for you.  If you need to turn inventory to generate income, then this is probably not going to be a good place for you to invest your money.  So the next time you are sourcing and you find something with a high rank, or is a slow seller dig a little deeper.  See if the return is going to be worth the wait.  You may be surprised at what you will find.

Know your numbers!

When I started selling, I gauged my success on whether I had cash left over after a sale.  Did I get my original purchase price back as well as covering any fees?  If so, then I was good to go.  As I started growing my business, things got a little muddled and I knew I had to do something to get things organized.  I also knew that I was going to have to up my game to a full fledged business as my income rose.  Keeping track of tax information seemed rather daunting.  But it really is fairly simple to track all of this with a simple spreadsheet.

 There are certain things that have to be tracked for taxes, and some things you don't think about that need tracked as well.  Things like mileage, meals while out sourcing, cost of goods, sales tax paid, etc.  It doesn't take long to loose control if you're not organized.  And the last thing you want is to have to pay more taxes than you should because you got lazy.  Paying lower taxes is like getting a raise!  So how do you track all of this in an easy to follow format?

First you are going to need a spreadsheet program.  Either Microsoft Excel, Open Office spreadsheets, etc. will do the trick.  Next you are going to want to make a couple of "books" within the spreadsheet.  Books are the tabs along the bottom that allow you to have multiple spreadsheets in one file.  One would be named mileage, one expenses, and one for inventory.  You are going to want to create formulas to be able to track totals in real time.  I use this one for mileage:  =SUM(B1*54.5).  Put your formula in the D column.  Put your date in A1 and mileage in B1.  Now, move your mouse over the lower right corner of the D1 column and you will see your courser turn into a + sign.  Click and drag down the D column as far as you think you'll need.  I normally start with 100 rows.

As you input your mileage, you will see the D row automatically calculate the amount of your mileage deduction.  Once the year is finished, you can do a auto-sum on the entire column and get the total of your annual mileage deductions.  You can do the same thing for your expenses sheet.  There are more calculations you can do to further simplify things, but this will get you started and give you a foundation to build on.  But what about inventory?  How do you track your purchases and your selling expenses?  That is a little more involved, but still fairly simple.

On your third sheet, you are going to want to create several columns.  Date, description, purchase price, sale price, ebay fee, paypal fee, shipping fee if you do free shipping and a profit column.  I use formulas for most of these columns so I know exactly what my profit is per item.  When an item sells, I open this up and enter the sale price.  Using my formulas, excel then does the math to deduct my ebay fees and my papal fees in addition to subtracting my purchase price.  My profit column now shows what's left.  I also have an ROI column that shows my percentage of ROI.  So here is an example of what should be in this sheet.

As I add in sales amounts, everything is automated so I know at a glance if I am profitable, and by how much.  You can go one step further and add in a sale date and a formula to calculate how long it took an item to sell.  This is good info to know how fast certain items are selling.  There are a number of ways to manipulate the data.  Let's say you want to know if a sale is above a certain ROI level.  Simply write a formula to change the color of your ROI number if it is above say 80%.  The possibilities are endless.  At the end of the year, you can hand a copy over to your CPA and your job is done.

In addition to knowing your numbers, you can use this spreadsheet (or create a new one) and use it to calculate a selling price based on your ROI.  Use the following formula based on cost being in the A column, and desired ROI in the ROI column, as a decimal (i.e. .75 for 75%) =SUM(A2/(1-B2)).  As an example, I buy an item for $4.95.  I want a 75% ROI on that item.  I simply input my $4.95 into my A2 cell, and column C2 automatically sets the price to $19.80.  Easy way to see what you need to charge for a product based on purchase price.  If you have excel on your mobile phone, you can use this while you are sourcing to see if there is enough profit in an item to make it worth buying.

Now you know how to track your business.  Having this information is ammunition you need when sourcing products to sell.  It does no good to have small profit items, or items that take months to sell...unless that is a strategy.  I'll cover that in another post, but for now this will suffice.  Stay diligent and keep track of everything.  You'll be glad you did.

Diversity is King!

When I first started selling on ebay, I followed the advice of the so called ebay "gurus".  I found a niche and began selling in it.  I rarely ventured out of my niche.  Over the years I changed niches and finally settled on one that had a ready supply of inventory in just about every thrift store and yard sale around.  Life was good.  I averaged about $8k a month in sales, and was profiting about $5k.  Then I started hearing about amazon.  I started seeing these huge sales figures and decided to see if I could pull that off as well.  I took a leap of faith and jumped right in.

I took me about a month to get a real grasp of how amazon worked, but once I got it, I was off to the races!  I can still remember watching my sales for one day climb by $100 every 30 minutes or so.  I hit $1,200 in one day!  Life was good, and I was finally on my way.  I had found the secret to huge sales on amazon and life was never going to be the same again!  At least that's what I thought.  Reality was a much bigger bummer.

I cruised along for a year with amazon and kept a comfortable $15k/mo sales flow rolling right along.  As my previous post stated, I was not looking at the real data, just the sales figures.  I had cash in the bank so I figured I was profitable.  I was, but not to the extent I thought.  After getting a rude awakening with the assistance of Inventory Labs, I had to completely rethink what I was doing.  But that wasn't the only reality check I was to get.  No, my next one was the biggest hit yet.

I joined some online selling groups, and started seeing a trend that really picked up steam in Q4 of last year.  People were starting these BOLO groups.  Be On the Look Out, or BOLO groups were sharing items they had found at a deep discount that were selling for nice profits on amazon.  As these lists grew in popularity, they got the attention of the usual suspects who know how to turn anything into a way to make money.  Enter in the BOLO paid groups.

These groups charged a monthly fee and provided BOLO's daily.  Of course any time you out a deal, the inevitable is going to happen.  A ton of people are going to buy it, list it on amazon and then compete for the buy box.  If you didn't get your inventory in quick enough, you were caught in the tail end of price wars we call a race to the bottom.  There were instances that by the time my inventory hit the warehouse (2 days usually), the prices had already tanked and I was loosing sometimes $5 - $10 an item!  That is huge when you are scanning product and find a deal that gives you a $15 gross profit only to see it evaporate in 2 days!  But that was not the end of it.  It was about to get worse.

The next wave I should have seen coming.  People were outing BOLO deals so fast that a lot of the time they were gone before most people could even get to the store.  But never underestimate the power of an enterprising mind to find a new way of generating income from an FBA seller.  Enter the new wave of Online Arbitrage!  The art of retail arbitrage only shopping via online stores.  Not to be outdone, these industrious individuals figured out how to hire people from overseas (usually the Philippines) for a few dollars a day to do nothing but scour the internet for deals.  They would put together spread sheets and sell these to their subscribers.

I say all of this to show that it was hard enough to find deals only to see your profits evaporate with these people pushing out their finds to hundreds if not thousands of other buyers.  Not only does it shrink your profits, but now you have to source from more and more venues just to get enough inventory to keep your sales numbers up.  I was getting burned out.  I had to start expanding my product sourcing to more and more categories just to keep my sales up.  In addition, I was having to travel farther and farther just to get enough inventory of what I was finding.  This was not going as well as it had when I had started.  I decided to head back to ebay.

When I started ramping ebay back up, I sat back and thought about what I had done with amazon.  I had learned that with amazon you want to have as much inventory in as many categories as you can.  It's what they refer to as going wide, not deep.  I had always done the deep, not wide and have a niche.  So what would happen to ebay if I followed the same formula as amazon?  Well, it turns out I was getting the same results!

I expanded my inventory to include categories I had never really sold in over the last 15 years.  As I expanded, an amazing thing happened.  I was increasing my sales once again.  I know there were other factors involved, but I fully believe this was the biggest change that affected my sales.  I was no longer niched down.  By expanding my inventory I was exposing my products to more and more potential buyers.  It mad perfect sense.  If you think about it, imagine going to Walmart and only finding clothing and shoes.  Or going to Kohl's and finding only jewelry and housewares.  There is a reason these stores sell such a diverse set of inventory items.  They want to appeal to the broadest segment of the purchasing population as they can.  And now I was doing the same thing!

It took selling on amazon to teach me that diversity is king.  Keep your inventory as wide as possible.  Sales are going to come from all sorts of different buyers with different sets of buying habits.  The more you can appeal to the more sales you are going to generate.  Be adventurous.  Don't be afraid to try something new.  Get out there and get the sales you have been missing and increase your revenue!

If you want to read my whole story, I have written a kindle book about my journey.  I might release an updated version later this year which will include my journey back to ebay, but I haven't decided yet.  If you have kindle unlimited, it's free to read.  Otherwise it's $.99 cents.

How I sold six figures on amazon in 9 months.

Shipping...Free or Not?

Several years ago ebay starting pushing free shipping.  They were trying every promotion they could think of to get sellers to offer free shipping.  I remember getting coaching calls form ebay, and each and every time they would start off the call with wanting me to switch to free shipping.  Fast forward a couple years and Cassini hits.  Sales started plummeting and I started experimenting with several different strategies to try and get my sales cranking again.  I was willing to try just about anything.

I played with titles, I played with item specifics.  I even redesigned my listings in the hopes of triggering something with Cassini to get my sales back up.  Nothing seemed to work.  So, being adventurous, I decided to try free shipping.  I had over 1,500 listings, and I methodically went in and changed every one of them to free shipping.  Guess what happened?  NOTHING!  Not a single change in my sales metrics.  So much for free shipping!

This was also a time when I was being introduced to amazon FBA, so I let ebay just run itself without much effort from me to keep things fresh and worked on learning amazon.  I saw great increases in sales revenue from amazon and decided to just let ebay sell down and keep it at a minimum.  I was convinced amazon was the ticket.  As with any perceived good plan, it never quite works out the way you think it does.  I sure did have some good sales.  I was averaging over $15k a month in sales.  But I was only keeping about $4k for myself.  Something just didn't seem right.

It was at this point I decided to use a program called Inventory Labs.  Provided you put the correct data in, it will show profit/loss not just per item, but per category as well.  Here is where the light bulb went off for me.  In one particular category, I spent nearly $9k in purchasing inventory, and yet I only had $1,800 in gross profit.  Talk about a serious bummer.  Especially when a smaller category had cost of goods at $2,500 with gross profits of $1,600.  It was at this point I started to realize the disparity between sales figures and actual profit.  How I longed for the good profits of ebay.

So now I was facing a dilemma.  I could continue down the amazon path and keep getting small returns for a lot of work, or I could pick ebay back up and try to figure out how I could get sales rolling again.  I decided on the latter.  I started thrifting and yard sales again and gradually started to see my sales pick up.  I had gotten rid of free shipping and went with calculated.  Some items I did flat rate on, but the majority were calculated shipping.  I cleaned up my listings and made them optimized for mobile.  So what was really responsible for my increase in sales?

As long as I have been selling, I have had a pessimistic attitude about buyers in general.  I figured most, if given the opportunity, would screw you out of your money.  For that reason I never went beyond a 14 day return policy.  But this time around I figured if I was changing everything, I may as well change that.  I opted for a 30 day return policy.  And guess what?  No buyer has taken advantage of me.  I was once again building my revenue stream with ebay.  So much for the free shipping!

Now I have been increasing sales by a good amount over the last few months, and as always I keep watching for news/tips just to see if I miss anything that may benefit my sales.  During a recent round of research, I stumbled upon a video by a guy who was a part of the Cassini design process.  He went into how Cassini worked and how your listings are filtered for searches.  Cassini is dynamic and it changes based on what the buyers are demanding and looking for.  What they discovered was that buyers really didn't prefer free shipping over tradition shipping.  Imagine that!  It only took them 2 years to figure it out!

So now I knew that free shipping had nothing to do with my sales.  I did however feel that the increase in return time contributed to my increase.  I think an increase in return time from 14 to 30 days helped get my sales back on track.  There were other factors, but I think this was the start of that upward trend.  Never just accept that what ebay is telling you is the gospel.  There are a few things that are, such as optimized for mobile, but policies, and business practices are not.  Experiment and see what works in your store.  You may just find the one item you never really thought about could be the restriction in your sales funnel.

Amazon vs. Ebay...which is best?

This is an argument that has been raging over the last year or so as amazon selling has gained popularity as an alternative to ebay.  Most of this was driven by the Cassini roll-out that caused sales to tank on ebay.  But which is the best platform?  Well, it turns out that this is not such an easy answer as saying one is better than the other.  It really depends on a lot of factors.  Each seller has different goals and abilities that can push them to one venue over the other.  What I will do here is present the case for both and then you can weight the pros/cons for each and decide which one fits your situation.

Ebay has long been the defacto standard for online selling.  But as amazon has matured, and especially after the ebay Cassini roll-out caused sales on ebay to plunge, more and more people have been lured to amazon.  Amazon is truly an amazing platform to sell on.  Sales are quick, selling prices are higher in most cases and if you are using FBA your job is done once you send your products in.  But how much money are you truly making?  That has been the topic of some serious debate.  Hopefully, I can make some sense of it.

There is a reason why amazon sellers talk about their sales numbers.  It is truly impressive to see someone start selling on amazon, and then a month later they have $10k in sales.  But what does that really mean?  How does that translate into cash you actually get to keep?  Ahh...therein lies the heart of what it takes to be a successful amazon seller.  You see, sales figures for amazon, especially FBA, are very misleading.  Amazon charges a lot to be your fulfillment and customer service company.  Most of the time you are going to be lucky to see a 25%- 35% gross profit from your sales.  And that is BEFORE you pay taxes!

When I was heavily into FBA, I generally found myself being stuck in the rule of thirds.  What that means is, if I buy an item for $5 then I have to sell it for $15 in order to make a $5 gross profit.  Of course the higher priced the item is, the less of a third you need.  But it is all relative to what you spent on an item.  So, if you use the rule of thirds and do the math on our $10k/mo. new seller, even at 35% they kept $3,500 for that month.  Now take out taxes at about 30% and you are left with $2,450.  Have a margin at 25% and you are left with $1,750.  So at the high end, you made just over $600 per week net profit.  If it took you 40 hours to get everything purchased and sent into amazon, then you earned about $15/hour.  Now this isn't a sexy number and neither is $32k a year, providing these numbers are consistent month to month.  But saying you had $120k in sales for the year makes you look impressive.

Now let's move on to ebay.  With ebay, you are generally buying thrift store or yard sale items at a very low price, marking them up by as much as 1,000% and selling them.  With ebay you are generally making a 55% to 65% gross profit.  So let's take that $10k/mo. and apply ebay numbers to it.  At the low end of 55%, you will have a gross profit of about $5,500.  After taxes, you are left with about $3,850, or about $962 a week and a pay rate of about $24/hour.  So now with annual sales of $120k, your net profit is now about $46,200.  Much more impressive.  It's not hard to see where the higher profit margins are.  But most people are impressed by the sales numbers and do not realize the true profit is way lower.  As with anything, there are exceptions to evry rule, but this scenario would probably pertain to the average seller.

So why choose amazon over ebay if the profits are much lower?  Well, it comes down to a couple of things.  First, do you have the storage space to keep ebay items until they sell?  Do you want to spend the time dealing with shipping, returns, customer complaints?  If the answer is no, then you are probably a candidate for amazon FBA.  You have to ask yourself if the trade off in profits is worth the work and hassles.  For some it is, for others it's not.  I dabble in both, but I try to buy highly profitable items for amazon so I can exceed the rule of thirds and get closer to 40% margins.  Those items are not always easy to find, or readily available in large quantities.  But when I do find them it's a nice payout for minimal effort.

Ebay is my bread and butter and amazon is my bonus.  By doing both I am capitalizing on the best of both worlds.  I am fortunate that I have enough space to store inventory for ebay.  Not everyone has that luxury.  You have to decide what is more important to you.  You also have to decide if you can scale either business.  It's a lot easier to scale ebay than it is to scale amazon.  But if you have the drive to scale amazon then you stand to make a substantial amount of money.  Choose what works for you.  Maybe try both, you never know which way you will wind up going, but at least you will pick the best fit.

Are You Keeping It Fresh?

As ebay has evolved over the years, nothing has been more frustrating and upsetting as the Cassini roll-out.  Sellers saw their sales take a serious nose dive.  Some sellers never recovered and have moved on to other venues.  But those who have stuck it out and adapted are starting to see a return to profitability as ebay continues to be a great source of revenue.  The problem is, if you don't understand the new playground, you are not going to make it.  So what exactly do you need to do?

As with any online selling venue, change is inevitable.  How we handle that change is what separates the wheat from the chaff, as they say.  Whining and complaining in every online forum and facebook group you can find will do nothing to turn things around for you.  It will just frustrate you and make others think you are just a chronic whiner.  But there is hope if you can adapt and change.  But this will require you to retrain yourself with new selling habits.

Gone are the days of fancy layouts and jazzed up titles.  No more of the java script rotating banners, etc.  No more wordy business policies at the bottom of your listings.  No, what ebay wants now and what Cassini wants is simple, plain and easy to read listings.  Ebay is targeting the mobile platform very heavily and if your listings are full of fluff, it's not going to get exposure like your mobile optimized competitor.  Your items are going to fall down the search rankings and become relegated to the bottom of the list for eternity.  You need to change your listings and make them for the mobile platform.  Get rid of the tri-color text, get rid of the rotating banners and anything else that does not pertain to the listing.  If it doesn't look good on your phone, then it won't look good to Cassini!

Once you have your listings optimized, this now becomes a game of outsmarting Cassini.  And yes, it is possible!  Gone are the days of relisting every single item.  The ONLY time you should be relisting is if you have a multiple quantity item that has had sales.  This is because the item will carry over it's sales stats and keeps your rankings.  It does no good to relist an item that has very little traffic.  Your listing is going to carry over and Cassini already knows it's not popular, so back to the bottom you go right out of the gate.  Instead, use Sell Similar.  But don't just sell similar, make sure you change at least one thing in your listing.  It can be a word, or adjusting an image contrast by 1 or anything that makes it different than the last time it was listed.  Why?  Because when you change something on a sell similar, Cassini now thinks it's a brand new listing, and you jump to the top of the search.

It really is that simple!  I have been using that strategy for about 6 months now, and have seen my sales increase month over month.  I do a lot of experimenting and I track my metrics to see what works and what doesn't.  There are other ways to increase your revenue, but that is a topic for another day.  In the meantime, try these changes and see if your sales don't start creeping up.

You're welcome!

I'm back!!!

After a long break, I am back to posting.  I took a break while I was working on building my amazon business.  I became a full time seller back in June of 2015, and haven't looked back.  I have also started a youtube channel as a more creative outlet instead of just writing blog posts.  Please check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwmlYlGBE3cXZOW5RZ3nvcA

I have also written a book about my selling experiences.  Specifically, what I did to create over six figures in sales in nine months on amazon.  It's not a step-by-step how to book, but more of my story and what I did.  I also talk about some of the strategies I used and the tools I used.  It's a cheap read at $0.99, and if you have kindle unlimited, it's free to read.  Here is a link to it:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BLXQ5SA

While I will continue to post to the blog, I will be focusing more on my youtube channel.  I hope you'll stop by and leave a comment, like and subscribe.  You can also leave comments for topics you would like me to cover.  I'll do my best to provide the content you are searching for.

Have a great selling day!

It Takes Work

I've posted other articles concerning my past and how it shaped my life.  But I wanted to go a step further and talk about how I got to where I am.  Nothing I have achieved has been handed to me.  Hopefully this will inspire someone else to go for what they want.

As I moved from teenager into adulthood, I knew I wanted to own my own business.  I tried a few things but never really hit on anything that worked.  I also held a number of jobs during that time.  I delivered pizza, worked for a carnival, sold vacuum cleaners, serviced porta potties, did construction labor just to name a few,  At one point I worked part time for a grocery store and full time doing construction.  By focus always remained on owning a business.

I bounced around the country for a few years doing primarily cable TV installations.  It was towards the end of this time that I was hired by a small HVAC business owner.  It was a family business, and very small.  The owner mentored me and taught me the business.  Fast forward a couple of years and I was ready to start my own HVAC company.  I had worked for many other companies, but even with my experience I could not get a decent wage.  I decided it was time to try it on my own.

I started my business with a $400 van and some hand tools.  I took out an ad in the local paper and the rest is history.  I priced myself just slightly lower than the top dog in my market.  But the one thing I did different was I provided excellent customer service.  I also took a leap of faith in my manufacturer of the equipment I sold.  They offered a 5 year parts warranty.  I added 5 years labor warranty to it and was the first to offer a 5 year parts and labor warranty in my market.

That was the catalyst that launched my business to the next level.  In 3 years I went from a start up to the second largest HVAC company in the area.  I was grossing $500k per year.  But I knew I did not want to be moving furnaces when I got to be 50.  So I sold the business and moved into the computer field.  I taught myself most of what I now know.  If someone wouldn't hire me to do a job I wanted to do, I just started a business and did it myself.

The point of all of this is to show that being confident and putting in the hard work does have it's rewards.  During my computer career I have held positions from basic support guy to a Director's level position.  I have been a CEO, President and owner.  I have managed fortune 500 enterprise systems and developed military technology.  And all of this was with no formal education.  This was all self taught.  I knew what I wanted to do and I figured out ways to make it happen.

All too often I see people wanting to reach their goal, but they go about it the wrong way.  They rely on others to provide the knowledge.  I don't discourage anyone from asking questions.  I still do it myself.  However, there is a fine line between asking for the keys to the kingdom and asking for assistance in figuring something out.  If I had not taught myself to do the things I did, I would have never found some of the things I enjoyed doing.  I would have never learned the things I learned which has helped me in my career path.

Never let anyone tell you that you cannot do something.  And on the same token, never ask anyone to do the work for you.  Learn.  Be a sponge.  use trial and error.  It's the only way you will ever figure things out.  Nothing, and I seriously do mean nothing, can take the place of hard earned experiences in failure.  The more you fail, the more you will succeed.  Each success after a failure is better because you built it up based on the knowledge of what you learned not to do.

Don't let the thought of failure keep you from realizing your dream.  Dare to fail.  Get up and try again.  It is usually during those moments at the bottom of a failure that your greatest triumphs will arise.

Success is earned.

As I was listening to my morning radio program, I had a thought concerning how people become successful.  We've all heard the stories of how someone went from the depths of despair to being wealthy in a short period of time.  We envy these people.  We wonder why we can't do it.  But the truth is, we can all do it.  We just sabotage our own endeavors.

Speaking directly about an ebay business, I realize that most people who try to do an ebay business really have no clue of the potential they have sitting in their lap.  Never before has there been a way for someone to start and own a business for little or no cash investment.  There are virtually no barriers for people to create an income and take it as far as they want to.  The problem is, everyone wants it now.  We are impatient and have a short attention span.  We have been conditioned to expect instant gratification.

The evidence for this is the amount of credit card debt US consumers have racked up over the last couple of decades.  We can't wait to save the cash for something, we have to have it now.  This carries over into just about every aspect of our lives.  Just look at the car insurance commercials.  It started with 15 minutes or less, and is now at 7.5 minutes.  How long will it be before it is 30 seconds or less?  If you are going to succeed and be able to grow your business to the level you want, then you need to learn how to have patience and to wait for the rewards.

We as a society could take lessons from immigrants who come to our country with not much more than the clothes on their backs.  They live simply and save their money so they can achieve the success they came to this country to attain.  They work long, hard hours and do what they have to do in order to succeed.  We have been conditioned to expect quick results, and to also live beyond our means.  I have been guilty of this as much as anyone.  If you want to have an independent life and to also control your income, then you need to get back to basics and live simply.  You need to buckle down and not just work hard, but you also have to do the research required.

I see people constantly asking facebook groups how to run their business.  They refuse to do the homework.  They refuse to do the research, and then wonder why they are not getting the sales others are.  Knowledge that is not earned is worth nothing. Trial and error are the true methods of learning how ebay works.  It varies from seller to seller and category to category.  There are a ton of research tools available not just from ebay but also from third party vendors.  But don't get caught up in the research so much that you are spending your profits just to pay for those tools.  Be smart about it.  Use the tools that make you a more profitable seller.

Constantly asking others what price you should charge does nothing to educate yourself on a products value.  You will never learn value that way.  I have spent years researching profitable brands.  Why on earth would I want to give away that information?  I earned that knowledge.  It cost me time and money to have that knowledge.  Asking me for that information is an insult to my hard work.  It's time people started taking ownership of their business.  If you are too lazy to look up a product to know it's value, then you have no business trying to sell on ebay.  I'm sorry, but that is the truth.

This post isn't intended to degrade anyone, but rather to give you the honest truth and to hopefully motivate you to do what you need to do in order to be successful.  Take a few moments and do an honest assessment of your situation.  If you can't pick up an item and know it's value, or how to find it's value without asking an online group, then maybe you need to go back to square one.  Learn research first, then move forward.  You'll have a much greater success rate than relying on others.

It's your fault!

You read that right, it's your fault.  I see a flurry of posts, comments and articles about how Cassini and ebay are killing everyone's sales.  While there is a smidgen of truth to that, most of it falls back on us the seller to adapt.  We can complain all we want, but the bottom line is that ebay is a business, and they will do what they feel is in their best interest, not ours.

I see a lot of new sellers, and some veteran sellers, complaining about the lack of sales.  If you are not getting sales, then you have not adapted.  The goal of Cassini is to match as close as possible a good seller with the right buyer.  So how can you get to the point where you are matched more often?  Well, that seems to be the secret sauce that no one really knows the recipe for.  But there are some things you can do to try and figure it out.

One thing I have learned over the years is to experiment.  Because the one thing that runs true with ebay, is that what works for me may not work for you.  You can't keep doing the same things and expect things to change.  If you keep doing the same things you will continue to get the same results.   So if you are not changing things, then you are at fault, not Cassini or ebay.

The first thing you should try is auctions.  There is a reason why ebay keeps offering free listings for auctions.  They want auctions.  It is what they are known for.  Adding auctions to the mix will increase views almost immediately.  Now that's not to say it will increase sales.  That part falls on you to have not just the right items, but to have them priced accordingly.  With auctions, don't just run them at 9pm at night.  Try different times of the day and days of the week.  You may just find that the people looking for your item are not on at night.  They may be on first thing in the morning, or during lunch.  It's up to you to figure it out.

Another thing I constantly preach is to list, list and list!  You can't expect to make $2,000 a month if you only have 100 listings.  While it can be done, it is a long shot at best.  You should have at least 20 items newly listed and ending each and every day.  You want to show up in newly listed and ending soonest searches.  The goal is to get as many listings in as many search slots as you can.  Missing some of them can mean you don't get the sales.

When you do experiment, make sure you do it for a month at a time.  You can't expect instant results.  It takes time to get things lined up in the search results.  Ebay is not a get rich quick scheme.  It takes work, sometimes hard work to get the results.  Those of us who make good money at it have done it for a long time and have learned to adapt.  We also recognize it is work.  Most full time sellers treat it like a job.  They are disciplined enough to do what it takes to succeed.  If you are lazy or are looking for the quick, easy buck then you are going to fail.

The bottom line is to find what works for you.  Once you do, don't rest easy, because as soon as you do ebay will change things and you'll be behind the eight ball trying to catch up.  It's just like a good relationship.  Keep things fresh and interesting and it will last.

Can I make a full time income?

This post is coming from a simple discussion on one of my facebook groups.  A lot of people want to sell full time, but don't seem to know how.  It really is an easy concept, but it is one of those things that just buzzes over peoples heads because they over think it.  Once you break it down into manageable data, it really is simple to figure out.

Everyone's situation is different as are their sales models.  For the purposes of this post, I am going to generalize and keep things fairly simple.  Once you understand the concept, it's real easy to port the information over to your situation.  My example will be making a few assumptions based on average sellers and sales numbers.  While there are a lot of us who are above these numbers, it does reflect what the averages are.  So, here we go.

To put yourself into a position to sell full time, you need to make sure you understand your profit margin.  The average runs about 60%.  So out of each sales, you get to keep 60 cents per dollar.  So if your item sells for $20, then on average you will profit about $12.  Our analysis will be based on that sales number just to keep things simple.  I would venture to say that the average seller would need to sell about $4,000 per month in order to sell full time on ebay.  So, based on the 60 cents per dollar profit number, you would expect to see $2,400 as money in your pocket.

So, how do you get to that amount?  Well, it's purely a numbers game.  If we are selling our product for $20 and we want to reach $4,000 in sales, then we need to sell 200 items per month.  In ebay terms, you generally will sell about 10% of what you have listed per month.  So to sell 200 items, you need to list 2,000 items.  Now you can see why the name of the game is not just listing quantity, it's listing quality.  Take the same $4,000 and an average sales price of $40 and you only need to sell 100 items and list 1,000 and so on. You get the idea.

For me, I average about $39 per sale, and have around 1,200 listings active.  I average around 153 sales per month.  As you can see, my numbers are pretty close in line with my example.  If you want to sell full time, then do the math and figure out where you need to be.  Don't be throwing darts in the dark.  Set your goals and work towards them.  It's ok to start small until you figure things out.  Gradually raise your prices by buying more desirable products.  You'll find things a little less intimidating once you understand how things work.

It's not rocket science.  There is no secret.  Hard work and knowing your numbers is all it takes.  So go out there and make your own way!

Being organized

Here is a video I did showing my setup and how I do things.

How do you do your business?

Saturday Haul Video

A quick video showing some of the items I picked up at yard sales this weekend.

Friday Q & A and Sale of the week

Ask away on any topics you wish.

The sale this week was a Gleason Bros. vintage cowboy hat with the original box.  Picked it up at a local thrift store for $10.  Sold in less than two hours for $109.99.  Gotta love sales like that!

So what was your sale of the week?

Maximize your profits

I frequently look at other sellers and what they have sold.  Of particular interest is how much they sell their items for.  In this business there is a saying, fast nickle or slow dime.  Fast nickle means you price to move where slow dime means you are willing to wait for the higher margin even if it takes some time.  So which one are you, and are you doing the right thing?

A post by another member in one of my groups is what got me on this track.  When I first started ebay, I was fast nickle guy.  Get it, sell it.  Make what I could and move on.  What I soon figured out was that it took just as much time to list the fast money, low profit items as it did the slow moving, high profit items.  So my logic kicked in and I figured out that it was better to list the slow dimes and make as much profit as I could.  Now I do still sell some fast nickles, but by and large mine are mostly slow dimes.  Of course following this model does have drawbacks.

In order to make a decent business with the slow dime method requires storage space.  You are going to accumulate a lot of items and they are going to sit waiting for the right buyer.  The more you have, the more frequent your sales are gonna be.  This is one of the considerations you have to take into account when deciding how you are going to run your business.  Are you a Walmart seller, or are you a Nordstrom seller?

The down side to the fast nickle is that once you gain a following, it will be hard to make the transition to a slow dime seller.  You will slowly lose your following and have to build new followers.  This can take a toll on sales as you make the transition.  For me, the slow dime approach is the best fit.  I want high profit margins.  I want to be able to enjoy life and not have to work constantly to feed the fast nickle inventory system.

The other down side to fast nickle is you wind up devaluing brands.  Each time something sells under market value, the next one will have to come down in order to compete.  People see something valued at $50 selling for $19.99 and they start seeking out other $19.99 ones.  The closest one they can get to that price is the one they are going to buy.  Sellers panic and start lowering prices to get sales.  Next thing you know, no one is making a decent margin.  Think I'm making this up?  One perfect example is Polo Ralph Lauren shirts.  They used to be a decent margin shirt.  Now you are lucky to get $19.99 for one.  They have to be special labels to get anything above that.

Don't make the mistake of working yourself out of business.  Fast nickle on ebay will only work for so long.  Sooner or later those fast nickel items we be devalued so much that you can't make enough to justify selling them.  Be smart and make sure you are getting the margins you should.  Don't leave money on the table.

Youtube bound!

I finally decided to start making youtube videos.  I figure it will give readers a glimpse into my thrifting life and see what I buy.  Still trying to decide on topics, if any to include in the series.  But, for now here is the first one:

Slow and steady...

After reading a post in one of my groups, it sparked a topic I felt I should blog about.  It concerns new sellers and their quest for knowledge in finding what to sell.  Everyone wants to have that ultimate source for the killer stuff that sells almost as fast as you list it.  I mean after all, the web is filled with these sorts of people.  You see their success stories all the time.  Or do you?

While there may be a few like that, they are the exception rather than the rule.  What usually happens when someone discovers a product that sells well is this.  Word spreads and soon hundreds if not thousands of sellers are looking for the same item.  As they find and list them, each seller drops their price just a bit to compete with the next guy.  This continues until the product is virtually worthless because the price has been driven into the ground.  This is know as a race to the bottom.

The real success and sustainability with ebay is what we call bread and butter items.  These are the items that are priced anywhere from $25 - $45.  This is the sweet spot for decent items to sell at.  If you are sourcing correctly, these items will net you anywhere from $15 to $35 profits per item.  This is what you want the majority of your ebay business to contain.  They sell frequently and create a steady income stream, provided you have a decent amount of inventory listed.  That's not to say that you don't want to carry the higher end stuff, but you want stuff that has a constant influx of revenue.

The higher end stuff doesn't sell every day.  It normally requires the right person to see it.  That can take a few days or a few months.  These are what we call long tail sales.  They take a while to sell, but the profits are usually worth the wait.  Focus your energy on the bread and butter items.  Don't stress about finding the high end items.  You'll find them when you least expect to.

New sellers normally drop the "what sells best on ebay?" question.  My answer is almost always the same.  Sell what you know first, then expand.  As most seasoned sellers know, not everything will sell well for everyone.  It's an odd quirk with ebay.  One person can sell the heck out of coffee mugs while the next guy can't give them away.  Find your own way.  Find what works for you and quit obsessing over what other people sell.

New sellers almost always fall into the same trap.  It's called shiny object syndrome.  They either read about something or see a youtube video about something someone is selling, and immediately go out and start buying it.  They have not learned the basics of sticking to what you know and expanding slowly.  They wind up either giving up because they can't seem to sell stuff, or they wind up with a bunch of stuff being re-donated.  Don't be that guy!  Do your homework.  Research these items and be sure you can sell them at the profit margins you need.

Slow and steady.  Be methodical in your approach.  Expand your inventory into other products slowly.  Just because you listed an item and it sold in a couple days does not mean it is a hot seller.  Take your time and see how these new items perform over time.  Nothing sucks more than buying a butt load of product only to find out it will take 2 years to clear them out.