Question:
Leaving out the time spent acquiring the item, how much time do you think you spend on the average selling an ebay item? Obviously this varies from area to area. Some things take more packaging time. Some take more inspection and description time. Etc. But including time spent inspecting, writing descriptions, scanning, posting the auction, emailing winners/bidders, packaging, going to the post office/ups, banking, etc… How much time do you spend per item? — Michael Redman — Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Michael+Redman
Response:
Like the amount time I would spend running a retail store. Harold – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Leaving out the time spent acquiring the item, how much time do you think you spend on the average selling an ebay item? Obviously this varies from area to area. Some things take more packaging time. Some take more inspection and description time. Etc. But including time spent inspecting, writing descriptions, scanning, posting the auction, emailing winners/bidders, packaging, going to the post office/ups, banking, etc… How much time do you spend per item? — Michael Redman — Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Michael+Redman
Response:
Like the amount time I would spend running a retail store. Harold
Interestingly that’s somewhat where I’m coming from. I owned a retail store for over 20 years. The amount of time I spend per sale on ebay is much (_much_) higher than in retail, but that’s offset by the low overhead and the higher mark-up on the type of items I sell on ebay. I’m trying to streamline the time I spend per sale. Every once and a while, I find a method of cutting a minute or two from each sale (bulk listings, templated html, formatted emails, etc.) but I’m still searching for more methods. Unfortunately mostly what I sell are collectables which means that each item has a different description…or at least a different description of condition which requires new writing for each auction. What I’m curious about is approx. how much time people spend per item so I know if I can shave a lot of time or if I should be satisfied with how much time I’m spending. Right now, I’m at about 30 minutes per completed transaction. — MIchael Redman — Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Michael+Redman
Response:
Right now, I’m at about 30 minutes per completed transaction. — MIchael Redman
Hi Michael I am curious if the 30 minute figure includes the time you spend buying new inventory to replenish what you have sold. It seems to me that i spend much more time looking for inventory to replace what i sell than i do selling what i have in stock. Best Regards Tom.
Response:
Right now, I’m at about 30 minutes per completed transaction. — MIchael Redman Hi Michael I am curious if the 30 minute figure includes the time you spend buying new inventory to replenish what you have sold.
No it doesn’t count hunting & gathering. I had a retail shop for over 20 years and just put it to bed about a year ago so I have a storage unit of product (games, books, comic books, magazines, more paper stuff) I do spend many hours a week doing garage sales and the like, but that’s partially entertainment and I’m looking for a number of things other than items to sell on ebay. So that activity exists, but I’m not too concerned about the time I spend on it. The 30 minute figure is fine with me for higher ticket items, but doesn’t work very well (in my mind at least) for $5.00 items. — Michael Redman — Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Michael+Redman
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Like the amount time I would spend running a retail store. Harold Interestingly that’s somewhat where I’m coming from. I owned a retail store for over 20 years. The amount of time I spend per sale on ebay is much (_much_) higher than in retail, but that’s offset by the low overhead and the higher mark-up on the type of items I sell on ebay. I’m trying to streamline the time I spend per sale. Every once and a while, I find a method of cutting a minute or two from each sale (bulk listings, templated html, formatted emails, etc.) but I’m still searching for more methods. Unfortunately mostly what I sell are collectables which means that each item has a different description…or at least a different description of condition which requires new writing for each auction. What I’m curious about is approx. how much time people spend per item so I know if I can shave a lot of time or if I should be satisfied with how much time I’m spending. Right now, I’m at about 30 minutes per completed transaction. — MIchael Redman
How often do you revise your auctions? — Ring
Response:
The 30 minute figure is fine with me for higher ticket items, but doesn’t work very well (in my mind at least) for $5.00 items. — Michael Redman
Agreed, it takes the me same ammount of time to sell the higher priced items as it does the $1.00 items, once i sell off my left over store inventory i won’t be dealing in items that sell for less than $25.00. What i found to be a real time saver was incorporating a data base into my ebay sales, when a buyer responds to my request for payment i simply paste all the information into the data base and it records the sale and prints the shipping label, when the payment arrives i ship the item. I use a HTML template to post my auctions and a text templete for payment instructions. When all is said and done it takes me about 10 minutes total to proccess a sale. Best Regards Tom.
Response:
How often do you revise your auctions?
I’m not sure what you mean by "revise". With what I sell, so far every auction is a new one (although some of the descriptions are templated). — Michael Redman — Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Michael+Redman
Response:
How often do you revise your auctions? I’m not sure what you mean by "revise". With what I sell, so far every auction is a new one (although some of the descriptions are templated). — Michael Redman
After you put up an auction you have the option of revising it. It is a link in the jargon at the top of auction sites. Once you’ve made a revision people can tap on a link to see what revisions you have made. You can change the title, category, description and a number of other things as long as there has been no bids. Once there is a bid you can not revise your auction. — Ring
Response:
Oh, that "revise". Very rarely. Only happens when I made a mistake in listing. Have had to do it probably 1-2% of the auctions. — Michael Redman – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – How often do you revise your auctions? I’m not sure what you mean by "revise". With what I sell, so far every auction is a new one (although some of the descriptions are templated). — Michael Redman After you put up an auction you have the option of revising it. It is a link in the jargon at the top of auction sites. Once you’ve made a revision people can tap on a link to see what revisions you have made. You can change the title, category, description and a number of other things as long as there has been no bids. Once there is a bid you can not revise your auction. — Ring
– Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Michael+Redman
Response:
. No it doesn’t count hunting & gathering.
I don’t consider that time as "time spent selling" either. For me, searching for the collectibles is the most fun part of the process (although I keep track of my mileage, naturally). It’s sort of like asking an avid golfer to include his time on the links networking with business clients as time spent on the job. The 30 minute figure is fine with me for higher ticket items, but doesn’t work very well (in my mind at least) for $5.00 items.
I probably also spend 30 minutes per item, give or take a bit. I try to trim the time by doing things like taking pictures of hundreds of items at once, in a sort of assembly-line fashion. I also try to put up batches of auctions of similar items at once, so I can make use of a template with very little variation between items. Like you, I also used to sell this stuff at a retail outlet (in my case, an antique mall). The prep time for that was considerably less – still has to clean up and research the items, but obviously didn’t have to worry about taking pics, writing descriptions, handling emails/feedback, or packaging the items. On a per-item basis, Ebay is much more time-consuming. The advantage being, if I put up 50 items on Ebay, they have a much better chance of selling within one week, while the stuff I’d place in my antique mall booth might take months to sell (or get removed when I got sick of looking at them). The biggest advantage Ebay has is that some of those items that I might be otherwise clueless about and sell for a few bucks sometimes end up skyrocketing in price, thanks to the fact that the bidders know more about than I do. When I sold at the mall, if something sold the first day I put it out, that always left me with the nagging feeling the item was worth a whole lot more – now I don’t have to worry too much about my stuff hitting a "fair market price."
Response:
That’s my estimate of how much time I spend per auction, too. It does not include the time I spend searching for inventory, which I consider my weekend fun 
. I will not list anything for under $5.00, and of course my hope is that my 5 buck items will end up selling for much more. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Right now, I’m at about 30 minutes per completed transaction. — MIchael Redman
Response:
Leaving out the time spent acquiring the item, how much time do you think you spend on the average selling an ebay item?
Entirely too. That’s the reason most people will never make a living at it. Unless you can develop it to where you can almost automate the process, you better be selling $100 and up items in order to justify all the background work. Then again, you’ve got the powersellers who do tremendous volume by either selling tons of the same item, or providing short descriptions and no pix, don’t answer email, and if you don’t fit into their system, you’re screwed. That’s the American way, I guess. — This is Usenet. The Real World is down the hall and a sharp left past your ego. — Dave Ratcliffe, on 7/4/00 in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet
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