front porch trash

front porch trash

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Pi(e), Magic Wands and Addoway


I hope March has been better to you than me.

I finished up February with a "pffffftt". It may have been a short month but I did have my sales.
Yep...I hit 3 daily sales. Again, some days singles sales only to make them up in the next day or so. So I ended up with 3.14 sales for the month.  Hence the pi(e).

I know I shouldn't complain with 88 sales for the month of February, but I kinda get used to having enough to pay bills and buy groceries and gas. You know, its habit forming that surviving thing.

While at the GW outlet I picked this up for the little princess' dress up box.

Press the button on the handle and the star flashes and makes "magic" sounds, like tinkerbell. Turns out it is just a toy and not the real thing. I tried waving it over my phone to make it ka-ching but no luck. I tried waving it over my items as I was listing them, but ditto on the no luck.

I need to wave the d@^^# thing over March on the calendar. Maybe it would perk things up some. So far in March I have sold 8 items averaging just over $15 each. Now, while not good, it is sales. I started out March on Saturday with no sales. It has been a long time I've had a day with nothing, especially a Saturday. I swear I am running out of cheap things that I have listed. Maybe I should just list all of the items I have for sale under $10 in a special place so customers could just buy those. Geeze, it is certainly frustrating.

I have been searching for alternative selling venues on the internet. Craigslist here is very spotty and I really don't like strange people coming to my house or meeting them in the parking lot somewhere. Kinda creepy and these days you never know. The few times I have met ebay buyers they never have correct change even though I reminded them to bring the correct amount. What, didn't they know what the price was before they met you?

Does anyone have a store on Addoway? I just imported all my items from ebay to Addoway last night. Nothing yet, but it was simple. The site is linked to various social media sites so you can "buy from friends or friends of friends". I seriously doubt that I have any friends that have purchased from Addoway or know anyone who has purchased there. I really don't want to link to my blog since I discuss my finds, where I purchased them and the cost. That couldn't be helpful to sales!! There is no place on Addoway that tells how many items or how successful they are sales wise. The site is free to list and sell or you can purchase a pro membership for $8.95 a month to "increase views and sales up to 6x.." I don't know how easy it will be to ship or invoice or communicate. Nothing going on over there for me yet.

I can tell you that their site is clean and my pictures and templates show up very well. On Bonanza the listings all have the titles squished together and the photos are sometimes wonky. At least on Addoway things import clean. I did purchase the pro membership primarily to have them sync my sales on Addoway and ebay so hopefully I won't have something sold on ebay and it still show up on Addoway.  Anyway, I'm willing to try it for a couple of months to see how it goes. You can check out Addoway here.

I think I'll go put fresh batteries in the magic wand. Maybe that's what it needs, a power boost.


6 comments:

  1. February was very slow for me. I sold a total of 53 items for the month. No pie for me.

    I tried selling on Bonanza a couple of years ago for a short time. I think I quit without having any sales through them. I have an Etsy account and would like to start doing some items there but have been focused on ebay. I also sell some books on Amazon if I see that a particular book sells for a better price there than ebay. Otherwise I list the majority of my books on ebay. I too don't want to deal with people coming to my home or meeting people somewhere else to try Craigslist.

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    1. I have two etsy stores, and they both are sitting empty. When I was doing crafts and painting I kept some things in the stores. But it is very hit and miss on etsy. You have to have the "right" thing that is en vogue at the minute.

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  2. i dont do craigslist. Period. because i live so close to a major city people think they are entitled to everything free. sigh. I havent done bonanza and i havent even heard of Addoway. Etsy is spotty at best (im not crafty at all its all vintage and only a few items in my store at the moment) i bought some inventory to boost my amazon presence. The sales were really solid (baby category...new items only. toys sell really well too again only new unless its collectible) but i ended up pulling everything off amazon 2 nights ago. After a really strong 2014, the fees are too high and their payment schedule sucks. All said and done you could hypothetically be waiting months to get paid. I think ebay and your magic wand are your best bets :D

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    1. Amazon scares me. The prices to buy are high,IMO, so I figure it is expensive to list. In most of my shopping I don't really find a lot of new in package items. I have been reading about how to buy discounted seasonal items at Target and other stores and resell them on Amazon and ebay. It seems like a lot to invest even if the profit is good.

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  4. My sales have been really slow this year - lowest sales since 2011. Hope it picks up soon. I've been selling on Bonanza for a few years. I use the term "selling" very loosely as I only make a handful of sales per year. I think last year I sold 2 items through Bonanza, but it's free and it certainly doesn't hurt. They now offer free sync with eBay so you don't run into any trouble. I thought of selling on Amazon but it seems to have a high learning curve. And I've also been hearing about how high their fees are, etc. I've also been on Etsy, but again, not enough vintage product and sales to make it full-time. So I'll just stay with eBay where I'm comfortable.

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