Scott, your store is good. Scott Sells Stuff is pretty easy to find. :D (There's no reason to read all this on the next video. And hopefully none of this kills your fun, my dude.) But we can always try new things: - Instead of using two pieces of foam board for your backdrop (It cuts your items in half visually) take a single piece of the big white construction paper and curve it over the foam board. It will remove the seam you see in many of your listings. I know you're trying to reduce it by using non-square photos, but this is just way easier and faster. No editing needed. - When something isn't a standard size putting a measurement in the title will increase your changes of someone noticing your listing. For examples, the cedar salmon box could say 10" in the title. The Foul Shot Madball could say the diameter (nowhere in the listing shows that it's full basketball size.) The cast iron paperweight, the dwarf on a turtle, etc. - Your titles are generally good. Personally I'd have rearranged some words, but I'm probably wrong. The general rule of thumb is the first 5 words are the most important. You're good in that regard for the most part. Keep up the good work. - I love the 1990s style website design of your store page. It gives it an old timey feel. If someone says your store "looks dated" that's what they're talking about. - I noticed this with your Nightmare on Elm Street 3 VHS. It kind of stretches because of the way your lens is so close. I find zooming in and moving your camera/phone back gives better, more true-to-real images if you need close up shots. (I didn't see very many of these.) - I like that you're putting condition in both the condition line and description line. I should do more of this myself. I tend to just use the AI answer in the description like the lazy slob I am. I also like that you're putting more information in some of your listings when you've done some research. It adds overall provenance and more relevant keywords for SEO. - Adding more "relevant" item specifics is supposed to help eBay's search tool find your goods better. It'll help it show up in more searching because it can put you in more metadata categories. As a general rating, I'd give you infinite beavers out of 10.
Hi Scott and Carl. Funny you were talking about the dogs barking in the background. When I was just about to comment I hear banging on the steel roof of my garage. It is the crows demanding to be feed. Just on of the joys of working for one's self. I get a kick out of listening to you two arguing when both are basically saying the same thing. 😂. Hopefully Canada Post doesn't strike because I just mailed a few things Friday. I do see UPS is giving very good rates right now. Thanks again, Randy.
"It helps me when I do the editing part of it" -- You mean like adding links to the description? HMM? 😂 Carl, back when I played WoW I had a guild named "Wayward Redshirts" lol. Also Scott totally did a rural Southwestern Ontario thing and pronounced "Star Trek" as "Star Track" lmao my step brothers and step mother say it like that too and they're in Huron County lol. Sorry to hear your flea market booth hasn't been going too great lately, Carl. That is frustrating. But glad you're not too bored yet! I don't know if there are much similarities between that and eBay but the last two years I sold more in January than I did in December. So weird. I agree that people should quit shutting down so early. It totally does make it look like the whole place is about to close and then you're left there with even fewer customers. I understand if it happens once in a while, if they're not feeling well or they really have to be somewhere.. but if it were me, I would treat it like a shift at any other kind of job and be there the length of time I'd committed to. Hopefully things improve with the holidays coming up! Re: selling all those soldiers to the one guy for half the asking price, I guess go with your gut. For me it would depend on: how badly I need the money, how much stuff I have taking up all my space, how well they are currently selling (which you said they are selling really well), etc. I think if it was an in-person deal I might be more willing to let them go for less if someone is buying a whole bunch of them. In this case I might be upfront with him and say that you just listed them and you can only go down to x amount right now.. maybe ask him to check back with you in a few months? In that case he can either wait and maybe get a better deal but risk them being gone by then, or buy them at your asking price (or a much smaller discount) now and be guaranteed to get them. Long story long, WHO KNOWS?! lol I'm with you Carl re: listening to stuff rather than watching. I am still distracted enough to write novels like this (lol), but there are some channels where I feel the need to actually WATCH so I don't really put them on while I'm working--so I appreciate that this is audio! Someone is changing their entire store based on one podcast? (I missed what podcast it was, care to share?) Yeesh.. I wouldn't want to have that hanging over me if I was that podcaster and they fail.. (although, if they want to get rid of their ephemera... gimme!) I have "PRINT AD" as my first two words in my titles for those. I really don't think people's listings are being deliberately hidden by eBay though. CARL I totally agree with you re: eBay conspiracy theories. They drive me batty too. Like, show me the evidence if you're going to make a claim. How hard is that? That said, my mum and I have both removed a lot of listings all at once because we bought those items when we first started reselling and they really were crap lol. Some stuff we sold at yard sale/auction and other stuff got re-donated. But.. to remove thousands of items based on one episode of one podcast.. We all need to take information from multiple sources and decide what works best for us. Even if those people are going to attempt to emulate that dude's store *exactly*, their results will still not be the same! I do agree that having a stricter sourcing strategy will help overall. But getting it listed MIGHT be just as important... right Carl? lol. But yes absolutely if you're taking advice from anywhere, recognize that most comparisons are apples to oranges and maybe discuss with people who sell successfully in your niche. Considering whether I'm going to actually list something is something I've gotten better at when buying lol.. that's one reason I do so much paper now! I don't mind shipping the occasional glass item but I don't pick up platters or larger things that I'm going to have to make a frankenbox for lol. "I blame Randy" lmao way to throw him under the bus Carl 😂 haha, "expert on knobs" 😂 SCOTT do not call yourself "the beaver picker" omg lmao Alright this 2 hr episode took me probably 4 hours to actually get through because I kept rewinding it lol.. but have a good week!
Carl, if you wear a top hat you should go the whole way. Vest and suit with tails. When shoppers are around shout out like a carnival presenter. STEP RIGHT UP! STEP RIGHT UP! GREAT BARGAINS TO BE FOUND HERE! FIND SOMETHING FOR YOUR BOO! FIND SOMETHING FOR YOU! Try out some sales showmanship.
OK, trash talk time. (Not actually trash talk. Just personal perspective.) I think the guy you were talking about is Polish Pete. He was probably the algorithm guy on Bearded Picker's podcast. All of these folks telling you BS about py-krylov and whatever ebay's AI tool is are feeding you garbage that they themselves don't have half a clue about. It's misinformation at best. None of them I've heard understand contextual machine deep learning, how they implement AI, or neural nets or even what constitutes metadata. DO NOT base your entire business on someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. I feel bad for the folks realigning their entire business based on a misinformed understanding.
Scott, tell the toy soldier whale that the big deal you did with him was to recoup a part of what you invested in them. Be honest about it. Tell him you'd be a fool to offer such a large discount for everything. You appreciate the business, but the finances just don't make sense. If you explain your end of the business a lot of folks will understand and act accordingly. If he gets salty then eff him. (And get them all listed man. Burn through them. Christmas is coming.)
Scott, your store is good. Scott Sells Stuff is pretty easy to find. :D (There's no reason to read all this on the next video. And hopefully none of this kills your fun, my dude.)
But we can always try new things:
- Instead of using two pieces of foam board for your backdrop (It cuts your items in half visually) take a single piece of the big white construction paper and curve it over the foam board. It will remove the seam you see in many of your listings. I know you're trying to reduce it by using non-square photos, but this is just way easier and faster. No editing needed.
- When something isn't a standard size putting a measurement in the title will increase your changes of someone noticing your listing. For examples, the cedar salmon box could say 10" in the title. The Foul Shot Madball could say the diameter (nowhere in the listing shows that it's full basketball size.) The cast iron paperweight, the dwarf on a turtle, etc.
- Your titles are generally good. Personally I'd have rearranged some words, but I'm probably wrong. The general rule of thumb is the first 5 words are the most important. You're good in that regard for the most part. Keep up the good work.
- I love the 1990s style website design of your store page. It gives it an old timey feel. If someone says your store "looks dated" that's what they're talking about.
- I noticed this with your Nightmare on Elm Street 3 VHS. It kind of stretches because of the way your lens is so close. I find zooming in and moving your camera/phone back gives better, more true-to-real images if you need close up shots. (I didn't see very many of these.)
- I like that you're putting condition in both the condition line and description line. I should do more of this myself. I tend to just use the AI answer in the description like the lazy slob I am. I also like that you're putting more information in some of your listings when you've done some research. It adds overall provenance and more relevant keywords for SEO.
- Adding more "relevant" item specifics is supposed to help eBay's search tool find your goods better. It'll help it show up in more searching because it can put you in more metadata categories.
As a general rating, I'd give you infinite beavers out of 10.
Hi Scott and Carl. Funny you were talking about the dogs barking in the background. When I was just about to comment I hear banging on the steel roof of my garage. It is the crows demanding to be feed. Just on of the joys of working for one's self. I get a kick out of listening to you two arguing when both are basically saying the same thing. 😂. Hopefully Canada Post doesn't strike because I just mailed a few things Friday. I do see UPS is giving very good rates right now. Thanks again, Randy.
"It helps me when I do the editing part of it" -- You mean like adding links to the description? HMM? 😂
Carl, back when I played WoW I had a guild named "Wayward Redshirts" lol.
Also Scott totally did a rural Southwestern Ontario thing and pronounced "Star Trek" as "Star Track" lmao my step brothers and step mother say it like that too and they're in Huron County lol.
Sorry to hear your flea market booth hasn't been going too great lately, Carl. That is frustrating. But glad you're not too bored yet! I don't know if there are much similarities between that and eBay but the last two years I sold more in January than I did in December. So weird.
I agree that people should quit shutting down so early. It totally does make it look like the whole place is about to close and then you're left there with even fewer customers. I understand if it happens once in a while, if they're not feeling well or they really have to be somewhere.. but if it were me, I would treat it like a shift at any other kind of job and be there the length of time I'd committed to. Hopefully things improve with the holidays coming up!
Re: selling all those soldiers to the one guy for half the asking price, I guess go with your gut. For me it would depend on: how badly I need the money, how much stuff I have taking up all my space, how well they are currently selling (which you said they are selling really well), etc. I think if it was an in-person deal I might be more willing to let them go for less if someone is buying a whole bunch of them. In this case I might be upfront with him and say that you just listed them and you can only go down to x amount right now.. maybe ask him to check back with you in a few months? In that case he can either wait and maybe get a better deal but risk them being gone by then, or buy them at your asking price (or a much smaller discount) now and be guaranteed to get them. Long story long, WHO KNOWS?! lol
I'm with you Carl re: listening to stuff rather than watching. I am still distracted enough to write novels like this (lol), but there are some channels where I feel the need to actually WATCH so I don't really put them on while I'm working--so I appreciate that this is audio!
Someone is changing their entire store based on one podcast? (I missed what podcast it was, care to share?) Yeesh.. I wouldn't want to have that hanging over me if I was that podcaster and they fail.. (although, if they want to get rid of their ephemera... gimme!) I have "PRINT AD" as my first two words in my titles for those. I really don't think people's listings are being deliberately hidden by eBay though. CARL I totally agree with you re: eBay conspiracy theories. They drive me batty too. Like, show me the evidence if you're going to make a claim. How hard is that? That said, my mum and I have both removed a lot of listings all at once because we bought those items when we first started reselling and they really were crap lol. Some stuff we sold at yard sale/auction and other stuff got re-donated. But.. to remove thousands of items based on one episode of one podcast.. We all need to take information from multiple sources and decide what works best for us. Even if those people are going to attempt to emulate that dude's store *exactly*, their results will still not be the same!
I do agree that having a stricter sourcing strategy will help overall. But getting it listed MIGHT be just as important... right Carl? lol. But yes absolutely if you're taking advice from anywhere, recognize that most comparisons are apples to oranges and maybe discuss with people who sell successfully in your niche.
Considering whether I'm going to actually list something is something I've gotten better at when buying lol.. that's one reason I do so much paper now! I don't mind shipping the occasional glass item but I don't pick up platters or larger things that I'm going to have to make a frankenbox for lol.
"I blame Randy" lmao way to throw him under the bus Carl 😂
haha, "expert on knobs" 😂
SCOTT do not call yourself "the beaver picker" omg lmao
Alright this 2 hr episode took me probably 4 hours to actually get through because I kept rewinding it lol.. but have a good week!
Carl, if you wear a top hat you should go the whole way. Vest and suit with tails. When shoppers are around shout out like a carnival presenter.
STEP RIGHT UP! STEP RIGHT UP! GREAT BARGAINS TO BE FOUND HERE! FIND SOMETHING FOR YOUR BOO! FIND SOMETHING FOR YOU!
Try out some sales showmanship.
OK, trash talk time. (Not actually trash talk. Just personal perspective.) I think the guy you were talking about is Polish Pete. He was probably the algorithm guy on Bearded Picker's podcast. All of these folks telling you BS about py-krylov and whatever ebay's AI tool is are feeding you garbage that they themselves don't have half a clue about. It's misinformation at best. None of them I've heard understand contextual machine deep learning, how they implement AI, or neural nets or even what constitutes metadata. DO NOT base your entire business on someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. I feel bad for the folks realigning their entire business based on a misinformed understanding.
Scott, tell the toy soldier whale that the big deal you did with him was to recoup a part of what you invested in them. Be honest about it. Tell him you'd be a fool to offer such a large discount for everything. You appreciate the business, but the finances just don't make sense. If you explain your end of the business a lot of folks will understand and act accordingly. If he gets salty then eff him. (And get them all listed man. Burn through them. Christmas is coming.)