Any Improvement?

Not Much!  This time I listed two thimbles.  I still didn’t put an amount in the reserve because I like the idea of the market deciding the value.  I added $3.00 to the shipping cost to cover my time and travel to the post office.  This time each thimble sold for only $.99!  Dang it!  So, the shipping was $7.60 including my handling fee plus the $.99 equals $8.59 each for a total of $17.18.  Then the actual postage was $4.78 and PayPal took $1.10 and Ebay took $1.37 leaving me with a profit of $9.93.  So, I guess you could call that a little progress.

One of the buyers wrote me an email and mentioned that she couldn’t understand why the shipping was so high on such a small item.  Maybe the key is to be as honest as possible about the shipping and put an amount as the reserve.    I would like to make at least $5 off of each thimble.  Before I give up and sell the whole box at once I think I’ll give it one more shot.  I’ll list two more with a minimum bid of $5 each and offer to combine the shipping.  If I don’t see any further improvement I’m selling the whole darn box full of thimbles.  It’ll be like a treasure chest for a thimble collector out there.  That idea sort of reminds me of those little grab bags I used to beg my mom for at Hello Kitty.  You could get a small bag of suprise items for a dollar or the big bag for $5.  Remember that? 

Ebay Rookie

I just sold something on Ebay for the first time.  It didn’t go how I expected it would.  I was entrusted with the task of selling someone else’s thimble collection.  I decided the best thing to do would be to test the waters by putting just one thimble out there at a time.  I listed it as a auction items so that people could bid on it.  Since I only had limited knowledge about the actual value of the thimble I decided not to put any amounts in the reserve price or buy it now price.  A reserve price is the lowest amount that you will sell your item for so, when the bidding is finished if the highest bid isn’t equal to or above your reserve you don’t have to sell the item.  The buy it now price is, I think, self explanatory.  The auction went for 6 days with no bids and no one watching the thimble.  Then on the last day *bam* it sold for $3.25.  I had also asked for $3.00 in shipping so, the grand total was $6.25.  Well, then PayPal took $.48 and the shipping was $2.39 so I ended up with a net profit of $3.38.  I then have to split this profit with the owner of the thimble collection leaving me $1.69.  I still have about 25 or so thimbles left to sell.  For the next ones I plan to add in a little to the shipping section for handling but, I’m thinking this venture is probably not going to send me on a vacation to Disney.  I just have to take the $1.69 and not let it go to my head.  To all my friends and family out there, I promise you that I won’t let the money change me!  I’m still Tracy “from the block”.