Wednesday, September 11, 2013

An Acme delivery

I get many compliments on my fast shipping, but sometimes I amaze even myself.

For example, I sold a pair of new in box Chevrolet Racing shoes yesterday, boxed them up last night, and had them in my truck this morning, waiting to be dropped off at the post office.

These shoes apparently raced to their buyer
Before that could happen, though, I got this positive feedback from the buyer:

Got here super fast in great condition!

I was so confused that I went out to my truck to make sure they had not been picked up and subsequently delivered by Acme, the super fast company from the Road Runner/Coyote cartoons.

The shoes were still in the truck, so obviously the buyer had me confused with another seller.  At least now, though, I don’t have to worry about negative feedback should the shoes not fit.

Another buyer made me work to understand his feedback when he left me this:

Exactamente lo que esperaba , muchas gracias.

For my non-Spanish speaking readers, that translates to:

“Exactly what I expected, thank you very much.”

Google Translate is a wonderful tool.

Elsewhere in my little online world, this past weekend pretty much was a bust.  Even Duc, who has been thrifting for only a month, has learned enough to recognize junk when he sees it, and is not afraid to tell me, discretely, after surveying a sellers’ wares.

Speaking of junk, there also was nothing but junk at the auction on Saturday night, despite having a new seller with enough stuff to fill several tables.  I was hopeful upon first glance, but upon closer examination, I noticed yellow Wal-Mart “defective/returned” stickers still attached to many of the items.    To paraphrase Dana Carvey, who impersonated President George H.W. Bush on Saturday Night Live, “not gonna buy it … wouldn’t be prudent.”

We did buy a small case (four bottles) of Softsoap, though, for $2, figuring it was a decent deal.    Wrong again. As it turns out, the Softsoap was actually the replacement base (no pump) for the upscale Ensembles line, which has a larger pump than normal Softsoap.  Did I mention that the Ensembles line has been discontinued?   Obviously, the soap won’t go to waste, since I can just pour it into another bottle.  However, it just shows that you have to be careful when buying even insignificant things at an auction.

On a totally unrelated subject, I’m proud to say that I have surpassed the 1500 positive feedback milestone on Ebay.  I know, that’s a drop in the bucket for many of you, but I’m late to the ’bay, having concentrated most of my efforts on Amazon for the majority of my selling career.  Over on the big river, though, more than 2400 customers have left me feedback (99% positive).
While gathering my feedback numbers, I decided to delve further into my selling statistics.  According to The Art of Books, my online inventory management system, I have sold close to 15,000 media items and toys since 2007, not counting sales from Amazon’s FBA program or Ebay.  To ship everything, including Ebay, I have purchased more than $51,000 worth of postage through Endicia.

Pretty amazing, at least to me, and makes me tired just thinking about it.

As for this coming weekend, nothing has caught my eye so far, sales-wise.  It might be a good day to stay home, and list, list, list.

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on your feedback! I recently hit 1400 but it took me 9 years to get there. Most of my customers don't even leave any. I have 25 sales in the past 60 days with no feedback.

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  2. Congrats on 1500! I have a long way to go. You're inspiring. I haven't delved into auctions, but i think I'm going to start going when garage sale season winds down. I hope this week brings you lots of treasures and zero junk :)

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