I didn’t take a week away from ALL work, just the listing, blogging (not a lot of that was getting done anyway), and basically spinning my wheels tweaking listings.  My orders were still shipped every day and all Best Offers and customer inquiries were handled daily.

Originally I thought that one hour a day would be sufficient to handle all of the above.  Wrong!  The first thing that I realized was that my shipping is taking me way too long for the amount that I have.  Whether it’s my level of distraction while doing shipping or the disjointed way I do it that’s the problem I’m not sure.  It does need to be streamlined however.

After a few days of sun, fun, non-business reading, and garden daydreaming, the brain fog lifted and some business issues that needed work came to light.

• As I said above, my shipping needed to be streamlined. I had already gone back to using Endicia exclusively.  For some reason about a year ago I started using PayPal shipping.  Blech!  Don’t know why I waited so long to go back to Endicia but I finally did.  It’s so much easier and faster.  No one has ever been able to tell me why PayPal doesn’t do First Class International shipping either.  That’s a mystery I guess.  Goodbye PayPal shipping.  I don’t miss you.
• Double (triple) listing on multiple venues needs to be stopped immediately.  This is the main reason for my spinning wheels and causes too much confusion.  I have a pretty good idea now (after years of doing this) which venues are best for which items.  Pick one and list it there.
• My days of selling new products are soon over. This was never the avenue that I wanted to go down and just because there are products nearby that I have access to does not justify (at this point) selling them.  There are so few new products that I can be competitive and stay within my formula of getting at least 250% of what I pay for an item.  Any seller knows that a margin like that is best found in used, or in my case, vintage products.  A better reason to stop selling new products? They don’t excite me. My thrill of selling a Made in China widget just because I can is minuscule in comparison to the joy I get from selling that unique, hard-to-find collectible to just the right collector who was ecstatic that I offered it.  Trust me.  This happens frequently.  And I love that part.
• My eBay listings need to be reviewed daily for possible ending and re-listing on another site.  I’ve been doing this more often and will now be doing this task daily.  EBay fees are not in proportion with what I currently earn there and some fee-trimming is overdue.  I have Amazon, Etsy, Bonanzle, eCrater, to list on and will be trying ebid.net.
• I get too many emails. I’ve been sifting through my Inbox during my vacation week and unsubscribing to just about everything.  My favorite blogs have been moved to Google Reader and I have bookmarks for all the rest of the sites that I like to read.  I do NOT need most of the emails that I get.  The necessary work emails are more than enough.
• Social media needs to be easier to navigate – Facebook, Twitter, and the like serve a purpose personally (Facebook is my water cooler) and for business but they can become total clocksuckers.  :-)  I’ve just made lists on Facebook – an A List and B List – of my friends that I read regularly.  Everyone else I can read when I have time.  It’s not hard to be on my lists.  If you’ve had any interaction with me at all and you don’t post products all day long or Twitter incessantly, you’re on the lists.  By the way, hiding Twitter and Tweetdeck from my Wall has helped clean it up immensely.  I recommend it to anyone who’s tired of reading a status update that ends in a shortened URL.  Damn that bit.ly!  I don’t have time to click on it to read the rest!  Now I don’t see them at all. Good riddance.

Another thing that occurred to me last week was that I am a one person operation so “simplify” should be at the forefront of every major decision that I make.  K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) should be my mantra.  There is no shipping department, photographer, listing team, or inventory shopper here other than ME, so time is precious (isn’t it anyway?) and wasting it is not an option.  I also needed to be aware that because I am only one person, I need to stop comparing myself to sellers that have warehouses, business partners, kids that do shipping, brothers who are photographers, etc.  I am what I am. (Popeye was right.)  Stop comparing myself to others and just keep at it.  It’s for the most part supposed to be fun.  Right?

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What better day to add to my Etsy store that I created a few weeks ago?  I still have some tweaking to do but I’m pretty happy to be moving some invisible items from eBay to Etsy, which plays much nicer with Google from what I’ve read.

Here’s my new store.

I’ll be posting my results here if they’re blogworthy.  Several of my friends do very well on Etsy.  Even though nothing in my store will be handmade, every item will be vintage, unique, and quality.  Any of my ephemera, cabinet cards, photos, books, etc. that were languishing on eBay will hopefully get some new life on Etsy.  I have some prints that will go directly to Etsy since I think they’re a better fit there.

I won’t be delisting many items yet because I still hold out some semblance of hope that eBay’s new search might actually be better than the current abyssmal one I’m suffering with right now.  You never know with eBay though.  They’re such a wild card right now with their Core Search that I’m just about worn out from trying to constantly “please” their Search Gods.  Their algorithm changes with the wind and quite frankly, I’m tired.  It’s still in the back of my mind that if things remain the same as they are now, I’ll close my store and just use the 100 free auctions and also list some FP.  Move the rest elsewhere.  The deadline for that decision is three months, possible two if there’s no significant change upward.  Just typing out loud at this point.

So I wanted to share my new store with any reader that wanted to take a look.  It feels good to breathe some fresh air into some listings and also have a place to move eBay listings to.  The price is the same (.05 per month) but I suspect that the search on Etsy is WAY better since they were one of three venues that originally partnered with Google in December 2009.  On that note, I got an email from eBid.net that it’s my one year anniversary today on that venue which is one of the three also (eCrater being the third).  I’ve got so few listings on eBid (one maybe?) and I’ve done close to nothing there even though I bought their $49.95 Lifetime Membership last year – free listing for life? I think.  This is another place that I’ll be investigating closer.

How will it turn out?  Your guess is as good as mine (might be better), but you’ll hear it here first.

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The way I see it, this list is a microcosm of our society’s buying habits.  Our society scares me.

These customers were so desperate to get these listings that they went to the trouble of putting themselves on a waiting list.  Not a bad idea.  Except that when I think too hard about it, I can’t understand why there would be a waiting list for Me and My Likker (A Revised Edition) .  This was listed in my last Out of Stock report post which was about 6 months ago.  Not only is it still on the waiting list but, according to Amazon, there were many recent customers added to it.  Contrary to popular opinion, hillbillies can read.  Apparently there’s internet in them thar hills too.

People fascinate me almost as much as these lists.  Here’s an example of what I can only guess is a popular activity since this book is sold out and buyers are waiting impatiently to get their hands on it, among other things. 101 Sexy Dares has one copy available at $399.99 or, if you’re smarter than the average dumb person, you’d buy the Kindle version for $14.27 plus the Kindle for $259.99 and still be ahead.

I’m hesitant to admit in writing that I might just find this book hysterically funny:  Cyanide and Happiness: I’m Giving You the Finger.   I’ve never been easily offended and the more unpolitically-correct, the better.  Now if I had just known about this book and it was sitting on my shelf right now, I could cash in BIG.   But I guess my adult serious side has now surpassed my formerly- juvenile sense of humor because I’ve never heard of this comic book and will probably never see it on This Old House or Antiques Roadshow.  Guess I’ve aged.  Boo.

The Olympics is surely the cause for the run on this book: When I Grow Up I’m Going to Be a Hockey Star .  How did Wayne Gretzsky or Bobby Orr succeed without this one?

This book has nothing to do with pins that say cool things.  It’s about a magazine that was published in 1950 for less than a year.  And people are still lining up to get the reprint.   Best of Flair is definitely something to look for at your next estate sale.  This one will net you a few lobster dinners if that’s your thing.

Last one for today.  Did you know that you can get certified to be a PMP?  There’s an exam and flashcards are available for study.  Just not right now on Amazon. Flashcards for Passing the PMP Exam is possibly something that my husband could use because he’s a PM.  He doesn’t use the title PMP because he’s not certified.  Or maybe because it just sounds stupid.

On a somewhat serious note:  Silliness was in order today due to a variety of sucky events over the last couple of days beginning with a funeral for a childhood friend and (hopefully) ending with some crappy business issues.  More silliness may be required.  Forewarned is four-armed.  sick  ;-)

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Why can’t I sleep and why is my head spinning? During another night of insomnia I did some more navel-gazing (I’ve been doing a lot of that lately) and what I concluded was that there were many reasons for my dazed confusion.

EBay is changing again. Once again we were notified months ago of some mysterious looming changes ahead that we would be given “plenty of advance notice” in order to adjust our listings – again.  Oh my!  What could they be?  No one knows.  Let’s all speculate on the chat boards as to how they’re going to screw the sellers again.  The naysayers come up with every horrific scenario under the sun and I start to believe some of it.  Some bad things have happened in the past, right?  It could happen again.  Well, the announcements were made, the dust has settled, and I won’t detail the changes here because they’re still new and won’t even go into effect for 10 weeks.  In a nutshell, I’m not the least upset with any of the changes.  When I get my May invoice I will know for sure whether I’ve been had or not.  My head hurts just thinking of all of the time I will spend between now and then while I go forth with my new listing plan under the assumption that eBay is telling me the truth.

I’m slowly focusing on doing more business on other venues. I just uploaded 1000 listings to my store on eCrater and I’m pleased that it was so easy to do.  However, I need to adjust each listing and take out the eBay lingo and references to my eBay newsletter and to adding me as a “Favorite” – an eBay thing.  I did one page of 40 listings yesterday and that was enough for one day.  Some of the words were pushed together and the categories needed to be changed on each one.  I’d like to have these done by the day of the first Google upload (1/31) but there’s no way that I’ll have 25 more pages done by then.  Crisis?  No, but I’d like to look somewhat like a professional seller.  Oh well.  On the plus side, this is an absolutely free venue that gets a phenomenal amount of Google hits (I’ve been tracking it for a long time) regardless of the “prettiness” of my listings.  But my head spins just thinking about all of the revisions that I need to do there to get up to speed.

I sell on multiple venues. Even though I have an inventory management system, it doesn’t work for all venues so I must still manually delete some items that sell.  It’s also time-consuming to keep up with all of the changes that occur on each site although eBay has all of them beat in that category.  At last count I sell on ten sites and track payment deposits, seller fees, returns, and customer inquiries for each one.  Some days Linda Blair’s head could not spin as fast as mine.

I maintain two blogs that I love. This one, which is more personal, and my shopping blog that I started in December because I love to share good deals with the readers.  If I made enough money on either one or both I could probably sit all day and write.  Let’s face it, hardly any one makes that kind of money blogging.  Bloggers write because they like it.  If I didn’t like writing, I never would have taken on the additional tasks of having two blogs.  I have some followers, whom I greatly appreciate, and I get a scattered comment once in a while (yay!).  Honestly, even if I didn’t have any readers, I would probably still sit here and blather on just the same.    Therapeutic? Yes.  Additional work?  Shakes spinning head yes.

I use a full spectrum of Social Media. Twitter is my friend.  I maintain a personal Facebook page as well as a business Facebook Fan Page.  I spend a lot of time tweeting and Facebooking.  Too much time probably.  LinkedIn is another place I network.

I’ve started to write articles for eHow. This site has been on my To Do list for ages and I’ve just recently signed up and written two articles there.  I have a long range plan for this site and it seems to be one more thing that I really enjoy doing.  Because I need more to do…  :-)

Should I scale back on something? No.  I like selling on multiple venues and I’m not ready to give up on eBay or my writing.   The social media is my connection to the outside world.  No way I’m giving that up.

Am I complaining? No.   Wah, wah, wah, right?!  Some days, but not many.  All of the above are choices that I’ve made a part of my life willingly because I actually like this whole gig.  It’s a lot some days, but I love it.  I just wish there were more hours in the day.  Until there are, I’ll just have to find a better way to unwind and stop spinning.

Do you also find yourself adding more to your list even though your plate is full?

How do you handle all of the multi-tasking involved with eCommerce? Make my day and leave a comment and let me know.  I’d love to hear from you.

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Some titles are no surprise:

•   Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One (1) (Fortieth – 40th – Anniversary Edition) (Vol 1) (Hardcover)

Have you seen the movie “Julie & Julia” yet?  I loved it.  Not only have I always loved Julia Child and remember watching her cooking show when I was, ummm, a ‘child’, but the movie also told the story of a young woman who cooked her way through Julia’s cookbook (the one above) and blogged about her experience with each and every recipe.   I knew immediately that this book (in print since 1971) would fly off the shelf.  Boy, do I wish I had 1000 copies of this one sitting in my inventory.  Look at the price that this once-common title is commanding today.  I could hire my own personal chef with that kind of money.

Lots of textbook titles are out of stock.  Makes sense.  It’s back to school time right?

•   Handbook of Anesthesiology 2008
•   Physics: Principles with Applications (6th Edition) (Updated)
•   Financial Accounting

As a grandparent to an 18 year old starting his second year in college, I can relate to the pain that these kinds of prices inflict.  Ouch!  

Maybe someone could explain to me why this book is in demand:

• OPEN IN THIRTY SECONDS: Cracking One of the Most Secure Locks in America

From the description, “The chronology of how Medeco security was cracked is a good story, especially if you enjoy technically-based intellectual challenges that have serious security implications in the real world.”  Hmmm, a how-to book on bypassing high security locks.  I wonder who (or what radical terrorist group) snapped these up.  By the way, there are now two of these listed if you’re interested in lock-picking in government secret clearance areas.

On the plus side, it’s always nice to see that the Bible is still a hot-selling item.  I’m pretty certain that it’s been a top seller for a few years now, and I’m also certain that there are probably a few thousand other editions available for sale on Amazon.com.  This is the edition that made the Out of Stock list:

• KJV Black Leather Bible (Bible Kjv)

Is it just me or is the following book the most far out fascinating thing that you’ve ever seen in print?

• Lego for Adults – build real working LEGO guns

Seriously.  LEGO weapons that actually work.  Who knew?  G.I. Joe maybe, or PMS Barbie?   “ The THRILLER AUTOMATIC and the THRILLER COMPACT are slide action crossbow pistols with highly engineered cocking & chambering mechanisms.“  Awesome.

No book on the list was even close to being as disturbing as this sold out title:

• Women Who Love Psychopaths

From the book description,”…The book details the methods psychopathic men use to lure and seduce women. It gives an inside look at what it is like to experience intimacy with a psychopath. Most importantly, the book shows the inevitable harm that result from involvement with psychopaths.”  Really?  That’s a shocker.  What disturbs me most about this book is that it’s out of stock.  Are there that many women who needed this advice?  

If you’re lucky enough to have any of these books on hand, you can sell them right now on Amazon for a whole lot more than you probably paid for them.  Don’t wait, though.  Things change real fast.

How long do you think that this one will be in demand?

• Me and My Likker (A Revised Edition)

“This is the revised edition of the original 1999 publication Me and My Likker, the true story of a mountain moonshiner.”  Is there a resurgence of moonshining?  Maybe it’s the economy…

Do you know of any other weird trends in the online selling world?  Please leave a comment.  I’d love to hear from you!

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