What Do You Think of When You Hear Labor Day Weekend?

It's hard to believe that this weekend is Labor Day weekend. That spells the end of summer and back to school routine for many families. Even when the kids are grown and out of the house this weekend still means the end of summer fun and hot sunny weather. Around here many schools start before Labor Day but when I was growing up this was our last fun weekend before school started.

I also think of fall with those cool crisp days and nights getting darker earlier. There are many people that don't like the fall and nights that get dark so early are you one of those people? I love all the seasons and enjoy the changes that each one brings. When the nights get dark early it forces us inside as a family to enjoy an early dinner and a relaxing evening together.

It won't be long and we will be seeing the leaves turning colors and what a beautiful time of year this is in PA. I call this sweater weather when they days are still warm and the nights you need a sweater. This time of year also has people thinking about the upcoming holidays since Christmas is not far off.

Speaking of  Christmas we sell a variety of collectible items that make great unique gifts for that special someone on your list. So if you want to get a jump on your holiday shopping stop by The Book Corner Cafe at eBay and check out items.

A Gaggle of Friends

So the original point of this blog was supposed to be to promote my friends and family who sell on ebay.  And to vent about ebay's stupid management decisions. Well that's a waste of my breathe so I'm back to promoting the friends and family. 

To wit, here are a few of my friends and their items they have listed right now:

Cranberry Frosted Art Glass bowl

Now would that not make a wonderful wedding or anniversary gift?

And my friend Suzanne has these great coffee or hot chocolate mugs..

Corningware Coffee Mugs - Dusty Blue


You better bid on these before I do because I love all things blue.. (and I sure need some pretty mugs..)





Of course, if you're a baker or a grandmom (or a cookie store) THIS is just perfect (ok you can put cupcakes in it too if you want... )

Cupcake Cookie Jar

 

Don't ask me why they are different sized pictures cause I've got NO clue.

My very good friend Debbie has a lot of hardware in her listings... NO I mean real Hardware - check out these door handles.   Here's the picture

Are they not great??

Then there's a favorite of mine (new favorite..)  This seller has some vintage stuff and says he's adding more.. 

VHS Rock and Roll Music Videos Lot 

And my friend Kathy has a Build-a-Bear lot for sale here (her store is great!! )

Build a Bear Candy 

 And my friend Angela has these awesome men's silk suspenders (braces)

Men's Burgundy and Cream Button Suspenders / Braces made in England.

And not really last or least are my two friends Trish who is having a 20% off sale on everything in her store..  Birdhouse Books

And Suz who is have a 15 % off sale and offers free shipping.  MyMomsBooks

LAST of all is me - my store is Depressionglasswarehouse Where I have a lot more than Depression Glass. So come on in and browse.  We do combine shipping and we also have a sale running but mine is 25% til tomorrow

Birdhouse Books Loves Vintage Books and Pretty Paper

Hi vintage friends!

I would love to invite you to visit my eBay store, Birdhouse Books.  You can also find me at my blog,   View from the Birdhouse.

My name is Trish.  I grew up in a family that went antiquing on weekends for fun.  Road trips always involved a stop at a little antique store in an out of the way location.   From childhood, I was fascinated with vintage paper - especially vintage Valentines and Christmas cards.  

My special favorite, though, is vintage children's books.  I love them!  I have a small collection of vintage picture books featuring dachshund dogs, and some favorite Little Golden Books.  I especially like Little Golden Books with dog stories, Christmas themes, and Eloise Wilkin illustrations.

You'll find all of these things - and a little more - in my shop on eBay.  I've sold since 2003 at eBay and have recently opened a shop at Etsy as well:  Birdhouse Books on Etsy.

Here are a few photos of things you will find at Birdhouse Books:

Vintage Children's Books like this one.  Pictured, Riddles Riddles from A to Z by Trina Schart:

Fun and unique vintage cookbooks, like 75 Glamorous Rice Dishes.  (Yes, rice can be glamorous!):

I love Roadside Americana and always have a selection of vintage postcards featuring motels, restaurants, amusement parks, and old fashioned tourist attractions.

Vintage Valentines!  Don't they remind you of childhood Valentine exchanges at school?

And of course there are vintage Christmas cards that evoke nostalgic holidays from the past:

I've enjoyed chatting with you here and sharing a peek inside my shop.  Hope you have a great day with some fun retro finds!

Sharing my links with you:

• Birdhouse Books on eBay
• Birdhouse Books on Etsy
• View from the Birdhouse blog
• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Twitter

How Do You Promote Your eBay Items?

I am part of a wonderful online group this is working together to promote our eBay items. We started by sharing our items and liking them when eBay had the like, want and own buttons showing on our listings. They now are showing up some of the time for some of us and not for others so I started to look at other things we could do as a group.

We all are store owners and so I thought it would be a great idea to post our store link and have the group promote it. I post 2 stores in the morning and then we promote each other in various ways like Twitter and Facebook. eBay gives us traffic reports which is a great tool and where we can check on our store front traffic.

You can find me at the Book Corner Cafe and I sell a wide variety of vintage items including racing and Christmas items.

Beth can be found at the Depression Glass Warehouse who also sells a wide variety of vintage items including Depression Glass.

Elaine is quite the expert on vintage antique books and art prints and can be found at the Phoenix rising 2000 store.

Katarina has a great store name The Very Desperate Housewife and sells many beautiful fashion items along with many other things.

Marion's Store can be found at  This N That Freeland Enterprises and has a large variety including both Avon products and vintage items.

Suz is the place to shop at if you love books and other vintage items. She can be found at My Mom's Books

If you love Cross Stitch items Susannes Little Corner is the place to shop.

I just wanted to share with you what some of my friends are doing to help promote our items and increase sales so what are you doing to increase your sales?

How Important is Social Media?

We all spend countless hours seeing email, newsletters, blog posts etc about Social Media and do you really know how important it is?

We also know if you sell anywhere or anything you need to use Social Media but how and where to you start?

One way to start is using blogs and that is why a special friend of mine started this blog and she sells at the Depression Glass Warehouse.

Beth is one smart woman and know how important social media is an has encouraged all of us to post and use the blog to help each other with sales.

I have learned a lot from my friend and sell at The Book Corner Cafe on eBay and I also have my own site Book Corner Cafe. Stop by and check out our site for more information.

I am hoping the rest of our group here will pop in and introduce themselves to you and their selling sites. We all encourage and support each other in both our personal and professional lives. We truly are an online family.

I Come to Bury Caesar, Not to Praise Him

I really have no clue what the title of my post has to do with anything except I was sitting here trying to think of something to write about and that is what came into my head.

I have had a love/hate affair with eBay over this past year. I became convinced I could sell there full-time. I admitted that it wasn't going as planned. I stopped listing completely on their website for about a week and a half...and now....well, now...I have returned, but I'm going at it part-time.

Instead, I am focusing most of my energy on writing. For those that don't know me, I do freelance writing and also some virtual assistant work. Recently, I acquired a few more clients, so at the moment I am figuring out how to make all the pieces work. I'm hoping to add a few more clients, but I have to get my routine figured out and need to get a website done...and...well...there is just a lot more to working as a writer than simply putting words on a computer screen and sending the work to your clients.

Meanwhile, I'm still plugging along with eBay. I can't quite make the break with them when I have so much stuff in this house that I need to get rid of, but I don't need to give them my full attention right now either. I guess at the moment --- I am not burying eBay, but I'm not really praising them either. And how's that for pulling the post and the title together?


When Sushiboofay is not driving herself crazy writing for her clients or listing on eBay - she also works on her own little blog called The Freelance Misfit. It's not a real active blog right now, but she hopes to change that soon. She could also really use some Followers there! :-)

Check Your "NEW" Seller Dashboard

So have you check your NEW seller dashboard yet?

     I was explaining the "back end" operations of an eBay store to a new seller yesterday and noticed as I did that the Seller Dashboard has changed..down in the middle where you get your performance information and your "upload" time on your tracking.  

If you haven't seen it yet..here's one to look over 

 

The best part is that center won where it says CREATE A REPORT so now I can see which exact listings eBay says I didn't ship and upload tracking on in a timely basis.  Go check out yours. (and if you figure out how to get the report? let me know. I created one and it said it would be ready soon? that was last night and so far no word on it.)

Back in the saddle again

Last year when I decided to try it as a full-time writer, I also realized I wasn't going to have much time for eBay or Bonanza. The fact that eBay raised its fees for store owners also may have had something to do with part of my choices.


Last week was suppose to be the day I returned to eBay - at least on a a part-time basis; however, that didn't happen because (as usual) some other stuff got in the way. I'm missing it though. Today while writing about the Highway 78 Yard sale over at my blog, I realized that it's been over a year since I've actually been to a yard sale. I enjoy going to them, even though I have yet to get up at the break of dawn to get to the "good stuff" (before someone else does) at one. I just can't roll out of bed in the middle of the night and have it together enough to be ready to get out and get at it.


Anyway, lots of thinking going on here today as I try to figure out how to organize my schedule enough to not only write, but also sell some items too. I think I either need more hours in the day, an assistant, or both.

A Little Lesson on Photos for Online Listings

It is something I run into every day on eBay, poor quality pictures in a listing. Since the days we were allowed to start inserting photos into listings I can remember this was an area I could stand out as a seller. The old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is absolutely correct!

Even after all these years I still find myself struggling to get the best pictures possible of items, I like to think I do a pretty good job, but always room for improvement I'm sure!

So some tips:

1. Have adequate lighting, here are two examples good lighting and poor lighting...

2. Crop as much excess from around the actual item for sale and you can still see in the examples above the difference.

3. Take photos with this thought in mind, "my customer does not have this item in their hand so I must in essence put it in their hand and take the best photos of all pertinent angles including the bottom, especially in the case of porcelain and glass items even if they have nothing on them."

4. Make your images large enough to view without enlarging, people in this day and age are not into clicking on things to see them, you will lose people's interest fast if you make them click through to see the item they may be interested in.

5. If there is ANY damage on the item include a closeup! Can't emphasize this enough. You can sell something with a crack or chip but will get treated harshly in the feedback department if you didn't set buyer expectation on what they were receiving.

Here is one of my most recent listings:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220752085889&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

If you are viewing this past the point the auction is still available for viewing here are just a couple of the photos of these G. Armani Running Free sculpture...

In order to even think I will get my opening bid and beyond I have to include several high quality photos of the item. No one would ever consider paying hundreds of dollars for an item they couldn't see clearly.

You don't have to be a professional photographer to sell online, you don't have to have a fancy camera even! Just take clear, well lit , detailed photos and you will be at the higher end of the price range on the items you sell!

Dear eBay, WTH is this?

Dear eBay?? WHAT do you think you're doing??  I paid for that listing... I didn't agree to share the page with 10 other people (nor did you offer to charge me just 1/10th of the listing cost if I shared the page..)  GET THOSE OTHER PEOPLE OFF MY PAGE!

.

My Other Favorite Holiday - Halloween!



Stars and Moon Pumpkin Courtesy of Taryn



Regurgitatin Pumpkin - Mike



Cannibal Pumpkin - Mike

Please visit our website Depression Glass Warehouse for great Holiday Gifts!

Happy Face Pumpkin - I think Taryn did this one too!

This would be me!

  

Announcing the Grand Opening of ElfCloset

It's hard to believe that 12 years ago this little venture called Ebay would result in a family full of entrepeneurs! When I started on Ebay Jordan was only 6 years old, through the years she has helped in the family business not only with helping pick out cool stuff but assisting in the shipping and photography departments as well.

Now here we are with a second generation Ebayer! Her id is ElfCloset - this is due to her tiny size and her nickname of Elfy.

She is specializing in trendy teen fashions, and boy does the girl have an eye for finding this stuff!

Check out her great Back To School Fashions!

This-n-that-Freeland Enterprises presents MORE END OF SUMMER SALE GOODIES!!

Because so many of our members are participating and this is a much shorter sale, I'm going to profile each one today, briefly and then send you off to explore their eBay store on your own. 

First up today is This-N-That-Freeland-Enterprises.  This store is owned by my friend Marion. She's got quite a few "crafting" items on sale like these craft kits (and also some crafting books )  but she also has some "car parts" listed as well.

Like a lot of us on OBS (a closed yahoo group) Marion has some Little Golden Books listed but Marion is "crafty" and she loves to make these beaded necklaces (among other things) and she has several others listed as well.

You simply can't go wrong shopping with This-n-That so stop in and browse this week while the sale is on - remember the sale ends at Midnight on Tuesday so don't dawdle!

Little Golden Books Live On and On

There's just something about Little Golden Books. Maybe it's memories from my childhood? Maybe it's the artwork ot the authors. I always love to find these treasures and sell them in my ebay store My Moms Books.

Little Golden Books were initially published in 1942 by Simon and Schuster and sold for .25 cents. In 1958 Simon and Schuster sold it’s interest to Western Printing and Lithographing Company. In 2001 Random House acquired Golden Books for about 85 million dollars.

The first 12 books published in 1942

1. Three Little Kittens illustrated by Masha

2. Bedtime Stories illustrated by Tibor Gergely

3. Mother Goose

4. Prayers for Children illustrated by Eloise Wilkin

5. The Little Red hen

6. Nursery Songs by Leah Gale

7. The Alphabet from A to Z by Leah Gale

8.The Poky Little Puppy illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren

9. The Golden Book of Fairy Tales by Winfield Hoskins

10. Baby's Book of Objects

11. The Animals of Farmer Jones by Leah Gale

12. This Little Piggy and Other Counting Rhymes by Phyllis Maurine Fraser

I know some wonderful ebay stores who like Little Golden Books as much as I do. Stop by often for their ever changing inventory   (right click on store name, click OPEN IN NEW WINDOW to go to the store without closing this blog!)

Hound Dog Books and Collectibles

 

Treasures From Trish

Birdhouse Books

Deja-Vu-Postcards-and-Collectables

Depression Glass Warehouse

My Moms Books

It's Here, Store's in Core

Yesterday was the BIG day at Ebay. Spring Fee changes go into effect. We all have known since January 26. Of course we’ve been very busy figuring how these changes in fees will impact our bottom line. Ebay has provided a fee calculator to help in our decision on how we want to sell on Ebay.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/FeeIllustrator2010.html

Stores as we have known them to function in the past are gone. Store merchandise is now going to be part of Ebay’s core site. A huge change for sellers who rarely had their store merchandise show up in customer’s searches.

Will this raise a new problem for sellers as the whole Ebay site is flooded with merchandise? I saw little changes to my inventory yesterday even though it is visible for all to shop.

Today I did sell a book internationally that I’ve had in my store for some time. Possibly this is a good sign of what is to come? I am being very optimistic as I REALLY want this new Ebay model to work. I know all my seller friends at "These Are The DSRs Of Our Lives" feel this way too.

So how is everyone else doing with this change? We’d love to hear your thoughts…..

I’ll chat with you again next month, in the mean time List More Sell More (LMSM) Sound familiar?

Bonanzle is the Place To Be

Are you an Ebay seller that is deciding what you are doing with your Ebay store ? Are you a smaller seller that doesn't want to pay the fees? Are you a business looking for alternatives to Ebay then Bonanzle  is the place to be.

Bonanzle is a great site with easy listings, numerous payment options, discussions boards and overall a great selling and buying experience. They are adding new user friendly features all the time and the sense of community is amazing. You will find discussion boards to help and promote each other and there is very little negative posts unlike other places.

The owners are amazingly quick to deal with any issues and answer email very fast when an issue arises.

One of the best things is how quick and easy it is to list on Bonanzle. They have a one page form for title, category, pictures and in only a few minutes you can have a listing up and ready for sale and they send your items to Google regularly. You can find more information on how to list on this blog.

There are also 3 ways to become a member one is free and two paid memberships with advantages listed on the site.

I think every online seller will need to take a hard look at their numbers, their sales, their fees and what and where is the best place to sell their items. There really is no right answer for this but it is very important you look at your business and your numbers and sell on the places that are right for you.

If you don't already sell on Bonanzle check it out you will be very happy you did.

Checking My Christmas List

Each year for my holiday gift giving, I buy things throughout the year so that I really don’t have to do marathon shopping after Thanksgiving. Everything is even gift-wrapped and under the tree when December 1st comes around. Not this year though! The holiday season has crept up on me and this is different from my usual way of doing things. This year is also different in that I’ve joined the Online Business Success Yahoo group since I know I need to do a lot more with my online stores . And this group has some wonderful members who are always willing to help with encouragement, information, and help with all kinds of online/offline related problems!

So, it’s only right that I’d go shopping for some of my Christmas gifts from some of the stores represented from this awesome group.

For my husband who absolutely loves a good history book, I know he would enjoy “MacArthur, His Rendezvous with History” from Momsbks on Amazon.

For my son who is a budding photographer, I know he would love Shell Russell’s photo poster of the Highlandtown Lake at Sunset
She’s such a gifted photographer! Check it out here.

For my stepson who has hundreds of die cast collectible cars, he would love Beth Cherkowsky’s listing from Depression Glass Warehouse

For my brother, the fine wine connoisseur, a couple of lovely brandy snifters from Sushiboofay's.

For my sister-in-law who is one of the best hostesses I know and has gorgeous Christmas china, I’d choose Katarina’s Very Desperate Housewife’s Pfaltzgraff serving platter. I know she’d love it!

Ok, for me…I just love Kat’s Closet, switchflops in cork. Wow, these are so versatile and soooo cute!

It's not too late or, should I say, too early to start my Christmas shopping this week!

Offering a Second Chance

What do I mean by Offering a Second Chance ? Well this can be explained in 2 different ways .

When you sell an item on ebay and unfortunately the highest bidder doesn`t pay for the item for whatever reason, ebay allows you to Offer to other bidders on that item, what`s called a Second Chance Offer

Usually the 2nd offer chance will go to the next highest bidder under the Winning bid.

There is a link to use for this purpose in the Items Sold Column on your My Ebay Page

Clicking this link will send an email to the bidder that you choose (by checking the box next to their ebay ID ) explaining about the 2nd Chance offer and how to complete the transaction

You have the option of waiting 1, 3, or 5 days to give the person time to receive, read, and choose to accept or decline the offer

Offering a 2nd Chance will help you the seller in 2 ways.

#1 Hopefully you will sell the item to the next bidder and avoid having to relist the item and pay listing fees again.
Although you will be charged the Normal Final Value Fees for that item

#2 When you have multiples of an item listed on ebay you can also offer to any of the bidders from the 1st listing a 2nd Chance Offer and therefore selling 2 or more of the same item from One Listing.

Again offering a 2nd Chance like this will avoid having to do a New Listing and being charged Listing Fees BUT you will be charged the Final Sellers Fee for each Offer that is accepted.

I have used the Second Chance Offer many times for both Reasons and rarely have the Offers rejected although that can happen.

You can find me on ebay here http://stores.ebay.com/KDMORE-CRAFTS-AND-MORE?refid=store

Offering a Second Chance however is NOT the same as an actual bid during a Live Auction therefore the other bidders are not contractual committed to purchasing the item.

So I hope this explanation is Helpful to some and Profitable as well.

Thanks for reading my Blog

Kathy

eBay's On SALE! Did you know?

Did you know that eBay is in the middle of a sale on Auction listings?  Well, neither did I and that's another blog post (eBay's struggles to communicate with their sellers!). But thanks to an alert friend who passed on the information, I now know that ebay is running a 33% off sale on ALL auction listings - doesn't matter the starting price, or the category!

So if you have some items you were planning on listing at auction instead of Store, or Fixed Price, well, NOW is the time!  The sale was announced on the eBay General Announcement page and runs through October 11, 2009. You can visit THIS PAGE for all the details, exclusions, etc.


Janelle Elms, of OSI RockStars, is a great source to stay up-to-date with eBay announcements on her twitter account. the announcement was posted at 12 PM PST and you can see that Janelle had it out there right away! 

osirockstars
2:55pm, Sep 25 


Now trust me, I could turn this into another post about managing your twitter account - cause I PROMISE you, Janelle is way too busy to sit by the computer and post each and every ebay announcement as they come out. But, just join Rock Stars and you can take the class about putting twitter on automatic pilot too, LOL

WOOHOO - Cat's on her way!!

WOOHOO!!! OUR CAT is on her way as a writer!! She'll be along soon to talk about it I"m sure!! but I stole the picture and ran over here. LOL!

GOOD JOB CAT!! Hopefully it's just the first of many and fame and fortune will start rolling in!