Seller Club Podcast
Seller Club Podcast
Episode 76: Summer Surge
This summer isn’t for coasting—it’s for capitalizing. If we were always anticipating a December-level summer surge instead of a slowdown, what would we be doing and thinking differently? How could we actually prepare for a summer surge - and could that possibly help us create one?
We also want to personally invite you to an event this week that’s geared toward creating summer success in our stores on eBay: the Summer Seller Check In. Even if you can’t make it to the event in real-time, get registered anyway so you can have access to replay it on demand. We know y’all are listening to podcasts and stuff while you work, so get in there and listen on demand or even relisten!
Get registered for eBay’s next virtual seller event, The Summer Seller Check-In, happening May 7th! https://ebay.to/4cHWbta
If you love podcast content created for eBay sellers, don’t forget to follow us @sellerclubpodcast and @ebayforsellers and @sellerledger on Instagram.
Check out the best bookkeeping software for sellers out there–Seller Ledger–for an entire month for free → https://tinyurl.com/4vdbsjbp
Thanks so much for tuning in–tell a friend, rate, subscribe, review, and meet us back in the clubhouse again next week!
Yo, what is up everybody? It is finally May. Drop that beat. Yo yo yo what's up?
SPEAKER_00:Hey, hey. It's May.
SPEAKER_01:It's May. It's May. I I almost made a uh post last night. Um The post? The post. Yes. I know the one. I was gonna post it and I just fell asleep and I woke up. You woke up and it was and I woke up really regretting it. I was like, oh, that was my one chance.
SPEAKER_00:I have to wait a whole year.
SPEAKER_01:Now I have the um I have the uh made a fourth be with you, you know. Right of that. Instead of the Timber Lake that we're talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Instead of a Timber Lake. Or uh Classic. Or or or Lakers in Five.
SPEAKER_02:No, Kenny, come on. We didn't have to go there for this episode.
SPEAKER_00:He did it anyway. He did it anyway.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Say say say your feelings. This is your press gone.
SPEAKER_02:Uh this is yeah, it's an embarrassing loss for the uh well, I don't play for the team, so right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01:I mean you you you partly owned. You almost said you own him, you part you're part owner.
SPEAKER_02:Part owner for this glorious franchise to go down like this. It's embarrassing. No center, no defense. I mean, this is what happens. Yeah. So now all my Lakers stuff will have to sit for next year.
SPEAKER_00:Well, business aside, you can be a little bit less embarrassed, like one person less embarrassed, because I didn't even know about this.
SPEAKER_01:So I I I only play it pay attention to headlines, so mind you, but on on playoffs, you know, I kind of like watch the highlights. But yeah, um, Los Angeles Lakers got knocked out of the first round in playoffs. Um by a really good team. First round? Yeah, first round. First round isn't big. By a really good team, though. Um, Up and Coming Rising Star. Um, probably one of the hottest shoes right now by Anthony Edwards 81s.
SPEAKER_02:Um Adidas is holding on to those for dear life. I know, that's all they have. That's all they have right now.
SPEAKER_01:That's all Adidas have going. So they're probably paying him extra just to win games to just like hey, the more you win, the more we sell shoes.
SPEAKER_02:And if they're not, they should be.
SPEAKER_01:It's a little incentive. Um but yeah, so uh quick sports roundup there. Um uh Golden State still trying to get past round one. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um I mean the playoffs NBA just there's so many fouls and commercial breaks and they make more money.
SPEAKER_01:They make more money.
SPEAKER_00:It's kind of a buzz kill though.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it is because it's so long.
SPEAKER_00:You can't your momentum is just no a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_01:That's why I can't stand watching the full game. It's like highlights, all automatic highlights. Um but that's cool. Uh Cleveland number one. Oh, yeah, Cleveland. Cleveland's number one, and Oklahoma number one. So that's never I've never heard of that in the last ten years, I guess.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and the Jersey side of things that you know why would it be good for you? I guess for eBay. Well, I don't really don't have a lot of Cleveland stuff, but one of the interesting things is that like MLB does like City Connect jerseys every year. So they have like a Blair's White Sox mashup one. Oh, they're mixed, okay. Yeah, people really like right now. And it's kind of funny though, so like the first time for next year or for this season for NFL, they're doing like a rival jersey or something. So like only only eight teams get it, and then like So it's like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, something like that. Yeah, so when they play a rival in the division, they have to wear this certain jersey. So it's like they they do all these certain things to make extra jersey on. Yeah. And it's just uh another another money-making thing that it's it's kind of crazy and how we already know how wasteful things are in general with like different clothing and stuff, but for the jersey stuff, it's just another money-making little ploy that they that they do.
SPEAKER_00:I have a question about jersey people. So, like my family, a lot of sports fans in my family, some of them own like nice jerseys, but it's not like they wear jerseys every day. Right. But if you're like really diehard fan, do you think there's people that just have an entire wardrobe of jerseys and they just wear a jersey every day?
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, I know somebody. Yeah, there's some diehard collectors right next to you.
SPEAKER_00:That is not a jersey, okay? I see.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no, he's like you have a closet full of jerseys.
SPEAKER_00:But you don't like wear one every they're like special, like you wear them maybe. He wears them. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I do wear them, but there there's some hardcore collectors out there that do have like a full closet of them.
SPEAKER_01:Everything the whole and it's like very correct, right? Like the the hat that would be perfect. It's like period correct. The hat had to be that era or that year, you know. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I mean the collectors they they know what they want. But yeah, when it comes to I don't know, everyday wardrobe, I don't know. It's just kind of like Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's what I was thinking, like with all these like different mashups and like you know, like one-off kind of special edition jerseys, like how many can somebody tolerate?
SPEAKER_02:I know they're expensive too. I mean, if you just go flat out to fanatics, I mean So what one you're definitely spending over a hundred no matter what, right? Like, and that's just the minimum for like the basic screen print ones or like a hundred to one hundred thirty.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and and then they get rid of the player then it's irrelevant.
SPEAKER_02:And then they just go down on clearance and so on. So it's and so on.
SPEAKER_01:And we buy them. And we try to flip them. Yeah. So Anna, what have you been up to? Um uh obviously me and Glenn's been up to sports catching up.
SPEAKER_00:Not sports, not sports, but the very broad category of not sports. No, but actually, I do have something to report, and this is what I've been doing lately, so it is answering your question. But um, if you guys recall, in April, my goal was to get every single unlisted thing listed. I was not yet willing to say I had a death pile. I had a pile, but it hadn't been around for that long. But it was kind of like deferred. No, it hadn't died fully. Maybe on hospice, but anyway, it was, you know, auction stuff that I had kind of just bought over time over the last couple months and kind of put all of that aside to do all of it at once. And so I was like, I'm gonna do this, you know, by the end of April because I felt like for whatever reason, arbitrarily, if it crossed over into May with me, it would die, and then it would become a death pile. It's been there too long.
SPEAKER_01:So it may have died.
SPEAKER_00:It may have died, correct. I see what you did there. Appreciate it. But I did it, and what I did was 132 totally one-off items. Like, you know, some of it was clothing, some of it was housewares, some of it was one of them was an umbrella, like so many random things. But I did all the photos in one day and did some of the like uploaded some of them to drafts, and then the next day got all of the rest drafted and got all of them listed. So in two days, Monday and Tuesday, I knocked it completely out, and I was so happy that I got it done because with a whole bunch of different kinds of items, sometimes it's really hard to really predict how long it's gonna take. Like some things require more than others, you know, switching to like different types of things is not as fast as doing a bunch of the same kind of thing at once. So I still streamlined it as much as I could, but I was just like really honestly relieved to get that knocked out and a couple things immediately sold, which is always great too. But I was not gonna like do any more auction sourcing or really source anything else. It's also like raging yard sale season here finally, and I was like, if I don't get this done before May, you're gonna have more pile. Yeah, and I was like, I am not going to source anything else till I get this done. So now I get to go frolic amongst the citywide yard sale this weekend, and I get to bid on a really awesome auction that I had had my eye on already. So that was just really rewarding. And I noticed like because I usually don't keep a pile of stuff around, it was kind of bothering me. And I was like, oh man, and the weather was super nice, so I was like, I've been procrastinating doing this, and I was on a walk with my bestie who's like one of my neighbors too, and she was like, She's like, Anna, you're procrastinating, just plan to procrastinate, just plan to do it like the last two days of the month, and then you don't have to like stress about it in the meantime, just know that you're gonna do it then. And I'm like, Oh yeah, that is a really smart thing to do.
SPEAKER_01:Do a scheduled procrastinator.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right. I'm like, okay, I'll just schedule my procrastination this time. But I have to report that it worked out really well, and it it really did let me off the hook for like a couple more days while the weather was really nice, and I just totally enjoyed what I was doing, knowing I'm gonna buckle down and knock this out in two days, and I did. So yay! So that was a big success.
SPEAKER_01:Nice weather while we've been getting hammered with storms.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, I was gonna say now it's all rainy, and actually, when I when I was actually working on all those listings, it was crappy weather. So it worked out really well because it was then I didn't feel so bad.
SPEAKER_01:Two nights ago missing the outdoors. Two nights ago we had hailstorm. Yeah. Size of M M's. Peanut MMs. I was getting worried. I was like, if this thing gets bigger, it's gonna break some windshields. Yeah. Um, so uh good thing I pulled a minivan in the garage because I can only fit one in my garage because my garage needs uh an overhaul.
SPEAKER_00:You have a pile.
SPEAKER_01:Uh not quite. It's just clutter. Yeah. Um so that's been it. How's the weather been in El Paso Glen? Um, pretty coasty already?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, getting hot already, so and dumb wind, so wind is always always a factor, but so you get like sand, sandstorm, mini sandstorm.
SPEAKER_01:It sucks.
SPEAKER_00:I just imagine like Tasmanian devil like dirty devils.
SPEAKER_01:So you gotta wear some eye protective glasses all the time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you should be at all times. And people their allergies get all wild and oh yeah, yeah, it's a bad time. But yeah, okay. But congrats to Anna again for knocking out that whole non-death pile.
SPEAKER_00:So I evaded the the infamous death pile, which is great, and now I get to joy sourcing again. Not add to any kind of pile.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Well, we are 34 weeks away from Christmas, guys.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, what?
SPEAKER_01:And um time is flying.
SPEAKER_00:How did you get from it's gonna be May to Christmas is coming?
SPEAKER_01:Well, somewhere Q4. Right, right. We we're taking Q4, we're taking a little ahead this year, but before Q4, there is this phenomenon that is real, could be real, or may not be real at all. That people just rave. I mean, people are already quitting eBay, right, Glenn? We see that on YouTube thumbnails. I greet eBay, um giving up eBay. Whether it's a clickbait or not, they're apparently Dude, I'm I'm looking at their views, I'm like, I was like, this is uh, you know, for a lack of better word, this is a terrible take. But I look at their views, it's getting views. I was like, okay, you're a YouTuber, you're not a seller. Yeah, they love the negativity or the scare. Yeah, the scare it's like it's like wait, is YouTube is reselling YouTube becoming mainstream media now? Yeah, lol.
SPEAKER_00:It's like the Death Eaters and Harry Potters.
SPEAKER_01:I know, I just I I get sent links, I get sent links, and I'm like, oh, like and most of them are like terrible. Um but I brought up Q4 Christmas time because um most sellers go hard in Q4. So but before we think about that, what if seller slow uh summer so slowdown is not a thing. Anna, what's your take on that?
SPEAKER_00:Um, well, you guys told me last summer that the summer slowdown does not in fact exist.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that was that was Glenn. That was Glenn.
SPEAKER_00:Glenn told us. Glenn's sales stole. Gen is apparently softening on his dance about this. No, but I will say, obviously, we acknowledge, right, people's stores have different types of seasonality, but in my circles, the summer slowdown is like a widely recognized thing. However, there have been anomalies over the years in which the summer slowdown was non-existent or was totally different than like kind of a typical year in reselling. And I really like this idea too, Ken. Like, what if the summer slowdown was like the opposite? Like, even what if we what if we think about it like if we lived in an alternate universe and instead of the slowdown, it was a surge, right? Because like how would we approach our stores differently if we were expecting a surge? The way we do, the way most of us do in Q4. Like, we know it's gonna be go time, and there's certain ways that we like prepare for that, and it's like automatic about it. It's like automatic. But like honestly, what if this is a year where in real life, like, there is a summer surge?
SPEAKER_01:Well, um, let's pass the mic to Mr. Summer Surge himself, Glen Duzzlerhacks. Um, tell us what has been help what has helped you um kind of like transform summer as a sales party instead of uh sales pity.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think that when I mean I know a lot of people are gonna try to catch on for like trends and everything, but honestly, with you know, listing every day and not I guess kind of like taking it easy with the vacations and all of that. I know you wanna go and we wanna go.
SPEAKER_00:I know you want to go.
SPEAKER_02:But like But when you're still when you're still doing it, you're still gonna see the same kind of results because you're putting in that work, but sometimes we do want to take that little break during the summer. I think on the whatnot side what helped was just kind of um those same buyers are still looking forward to your shows. It's more of like a entertainment type of factor that comes into play. So if they're still working their daily, you know, and weekly schedule, they're looking forward to you on that Tuesday night or Friday night or whatever. So that kind of still stays the same in a way. On the eBay side, I almost feel like you still have to not double up your listings you normally do, but things just can't stop. Um it's like a little mini vacation, I think, is fine. But sometimes even putting the store in vacation mode and stuff, getting back into it can take some time. Sometimes more time than you think.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I think that's interesting too because I mean I think about what a typical what my life is typically like in Q4, especially in December. And I do take time off, and it's still crazy, you know. Like I have like holidays and like family stuff and traveling every single year in December for like what adds up to be a couple of weeks, you know, over November and December. So it's not like you can never take time off, but what I'm really hearing, unsurprisingly, between the lines of what you're saying is consistency, right? It's like don't let up, but you can still plan for like rest, relaxation, recreation in your life throughout that. You just can't like let the whole summer get really like loose, loosey goosey, right? Like you still have to be like driven and still doing the things that work.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I think one of the things that maybe we can, you know, um dive into is like do we have an inventory strategy that we put in place for summer? Um comparing it to Q4, we're always thinking about like any giftable items, you know, um in the sneaker world, we always like look into like brand new with box, you know, a lot of like newer items that you know instead of buying full retail, um, a lot of people are buying it on eBay for less than retail that way, you know, you get a bougier uh gift on a budget. Um so I think I could go talk about the strategy that we have this year that just kind of like has maybe like happened two or three times already is um the off-season buying. So buying out of season items. Um during Q4, we bought a lot of summer clothing and that's the only time you see it at that price. You know, we're talking about 75-80% off, sometimes ninety percent off, because nobody in the stores are buying you know shorts, tank tops, and stuff like that. Um so I was just looking at the data that last month uh we sold uh 95 pairs of shorts. Oh my gosh. So that's April. So I you know, we should circle back after um you know May and see if it starts boosting up because I definitely notice it, but obviously we don't wanna, you know, base it on feelings. We wanna base it on numbers.
SPEAKER_00:So I guess the the numbers beat of feelings. I want I feel like we should have the audience if anybody has sold more than 95 pairs of shorts, message us. If you can beat Ken's 95 shorts, you might get a prize.
SPEAKER_01:I think I know who's gonna beat me. I think I do too.
SPEAKER_00:He's gonna have all of our merch ever made before long.
SPEAKER_01:Um, so that's kind of like the strategy. Um, it's it's kind of hard to, I guess. I I don't know, uh correct me if you uh give me your take on this because summer's coming up. I I think we still have two, three months, you know, till two months till peak summer. So maybe we still have 30 days to really prep and buy and source that stuff and expect it to sell within the next 90 days. So that's kind of what I'm thinking, like not trying to really, you know, have uh inventory that you're not gonna sell quicker. Because I'm I'm I'm in a mode right now where where I feel like I want items to sell within like you know, within three to six months. So that's kinda like my my goal right now. So um anybody who wants to go uh about your inventory strategy for getting to Q4. I mean Q summer. Q summer Q summer.
SPEAKER_00:Summer surge. Um, well, I have a question. So about what you just said, like you're ex you're one expecting things, wanting for them to sell within 90 days, but is there like some kind of a caveat there of like like for example, um recently, really recently, it's already maybe too warm to think, oh, if I buy a bunch of outerwear right now, right? It's gonna sell. But if I found, which I did, a$900 Patagonia coat that we talked about last episode for$70, of course I'm gonna buy that. And I'm happy to wait until winter for that to sell because it's worth so much. So how like what's the relationship there?
SPEAKER_01:I I think well, I think that goes through the off-season buying. Yeah, um, I think you will always have the most advantage ROI when you're sourcing off-season.
SPEAKER_00:On the way off season, but to have immediate sales, you have to like balance correct that.
SPEAKER_01:Because again, you know, what's gonna hurt is your capitalization, your cash flow. Um, because also too, you're thinking outerwear or Q4 stuff are more expensive. If you think about it, right? Like you're thinking jackets, yeah, boots, uh, coat, you know, sweater compared to t-shirts. It it's kind of weird because we're shipping way more packages, but not making as much sales. Because you know, there's$30 shorts, you know,$25 t-shirts. I'm like, oh, that's kind of you know, like hurts, right? That kind of like hurts, but in a way, that's the only way you could fight the slowdown is to surge more in quantity to offset the lowering of ASB.
SPEAKER_00:And maybe for some people that means running a bigger sale or promoting more where it's like you're moving more, but you know, you're making a little bit less. Oh like, but overall, the volume of what you're selling is kind of making up for that.
SPEAKER_01:Because you have to, because I think this would be like if it didn't sell through Q4 and it passed Q1, we're in Q2 already, and if it's not a summer item, you should be starting to think like, okay, like this is about to be three quarters in my store. How do I offload this? Yeah, you have to find a creative way to offload it. Um so that's kind of like the strategy that I'm looking at. What about you, Glim?
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's a battle of summer slowdown. I'm just gonna be buying like mini Trader Joe's totes and these and these like Lubboo-Boo dolls. Bro, I mean if I want them to sell fast, then I'm just gonna be getting the boo-boo!
SPEAKER_01:I don't even know how to say it, but isn't he like a self-made billionaire already or something like that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, with these these figure dolls, they're out of control right now. And I can are they the new Bini babies? I don't know. I'm about to Google it. Oh, you're gonna be. I'm about to Google it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, how do you spell it?
SPEAKER_02:L-A-B-U-B-U.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, so uh it's like um it's like Funko Pops, but surprise Funko Pop, right? It's like the L O L Dolls again all over. Um But they're they're pretty like affordable in a way, right? Yeah, yeah, little monsters. Yeah, yeah. They're like the the the better version of Teletubbies. Oh my god, these are absolutely haunted. No, yeah, yeah. Because they got like uh they got like different energy, right? They have like love, they have those kind of things.
SPEAKER_00:These are like like care bears. It's like care bears.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they are care bears, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But it's kind of like it reminds me a little bit of where the wild things are.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, kind of the same look to it. Man, but everything on their site on Popmart is like sold out. Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like people lining up. Uh and correct me if I'm wrong, are they all um what do you call that? Surprise? Um I think so.
SPEAKER_02:No, like there's some pricey ones on here you can see on their own, but some are like 280, 170, like banner figures and they're gone. Like they're all sold out.
SPEAKER_01:Like, yeah, you in this economy, right? Like, if we're no like uh the uh uh the priorities messed up. Listen that's all I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00:I live with an action figure collector to whom I am married, and so I kind of understand. Well, don't tell them about it. As a bystander, no, I will not. Yeah, it doesn't need to start another collection.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I know. Um to your point, Glenn, that could be a thing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's a trendy, the Trader Joe's thing is trendy too. I mean those things are just selling like crazy.
SPEAKER_00:It's diversifying.
SPEAKER_02:Like I mean, there are some sellers that literally drop everything they were doing. Yeah. Um, if it was, you know, somewhat consistent, but nothing really over the top, and they just go and figure out how can I get more of these trendy items, whether I get a handful or whether I get a hundred of them somehow, they're trying to figure that out. Um, I mean, which is smart too, if you can do it, but I think that if you're one of those sellers that you're plugging away with your game plan, you're probably not going to divert into something like that. You know, you're gonna stay true to your your your business.
SPEAKER_01:To your point on the trade Trader Joe's mini tote bag, all right. I ran I ran the data. 9800 listings on just Trader Joe's mini tote. Just a mini tote. Right?
SPEAKER_02:And he's checking to see how many sold. Yeah. 7400 results.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man. What's the highest? Well, like, I think they're like I think they're like five bucks or something, but like we're selling for 35.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I see some here like four packs for like 40. Yeah, so they're probably going down because there's a lot of sellers, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, or they have to be that cheap, right? Or holy moly, somebody sold four for 250. Four for 200. Just the same uh pastel mini canvas bag.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. They're limited. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:They're exclusive.
SPEAKER_00:Guys, there are wants and then there are needs, okay?
SPEAKER_01:And there's Trader Joe's mini tote bag. Yeah, then there's a whole other category. And the boo-boo. You know what? They need the mini to fit in the tote bag. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They need the mini tote bag for the boo-boo dolls.
SPEAKER_00:So Glenn's gonna do the winning combo of the winning combo.
SPEAKER_01:With uh truckload of iPads coming for keyboard. Well, yeah, the truckload of iPads definitely coming for. It'll be for key four.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, it is interesting though. I feel like if you are, if you do tend to experience a slowdown in the summer, but you are being consistent. I mean, I think for a lot of people, you know, it's a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's like they expect it to be slow, and so inadvertently, like their attitude and their behaviors, it everything loosens up, and then it is slower. But it's like how much of that is because of how you have changed your approach, expecting it to be slow. So, anyway, if if you need to hear that, if that's you, then like take the challenge that Glenn is saying, just be consistent, just actually stick to kind of your your typical approach and your typical effort and energy and see if that how much that changes it. But, you know, even if it is a little bit slower, maybe maybe you do that and it still seems slow to you. Like maybe it is a good time to do some kind of a reasonable experiment, but not at the cost of your consistency.
SPEAKER_01:Well, to to that point, I want to bring up this point that you know I kind of wrote down that so on summer slowdown or surge you're gonna have a shift in mindset. Right? Like we mentioned, everybody talks about the summer slowdown, and when you say it, right, you start believing it.
SPEAKER_00:Um and yeah, and you believe it, so you act like it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I've always said it before that men Glenn mentioned it already there that the there's vacations coming up. And it's usually during sh summer. I don't want to go to vacation in summer because it's the busiest time of the year, it's the hottest time of the year. Yeah. I that's not a good idea. So that's a pro tip right there. Um go on the non-peak. You might actually even get a sale.
SPEAKER_00:Um you might, but a lot of people have to revolve around school schedules and stuff like that. And it's like school, but school runs everything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's why uh I rem remember uh I remember in the university that we were allowed to I think thirty percent um was your max cutoff of so if you had ten classes you can skip three. Hmm. Right? And uh professor get mad. It's like Mr. Gaetano, uh you're on your second um you're on your second uh s absentee day or something like that. And three late is equals to one absent. This was the s the Jesuit university I went. They we they checked. I mean some professors didn't, but the people that checked. So I would always do two absents and two late. Like one late till like you get three and then you get you they drop you in that class, and they they always say, Why do you always push the limit? I said, It was made for a reason, so why not use it? Yeah, that's for me. That's like taking away for people that are worried about like skipping classes, you can skip class. Skip class, that's fine. Just tell them there was snow. You know, there's snow day. Or uh yeah, have you seen those trends where Have you seen that trend um like texting your boyfriend to uh pretend that you fainted on a ring camera? Have you seen that? So Anna, picture John walking out the door and say, like, hey Anna, start falling down. Oh, start falling down because I need to call off work and I need to show this to my boss. And people would read it and just start like, ooh.
SPEAKER_00:Like that.
SPEAKER_01:So so yeah, there are ways. That's funny. Yeah, you yeah, you don't have to uh follow, follow the There are ways.
SPEAKER_00:Lying is clearly one of them. So there's that.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's acting, it's acting, it's acting.
SPEAKER_00:It's acting, it's acting. Yeah, it's not real life. King of the reframe.
SPEAKER_02:Uh but that's why summer slowdown really happens to begin with, because people do go on the vacations during that time. So they're spending money on their trips, and everything is going up, especially everybody wants to go to Disney, so everything like that is. True. Not everybody, but the ones that do, they know that they gotta uh put a plenty of uh plenty of money aside to make these trips.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, it's like six thousand dollars at least.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so when they come back, then they gotta kind of rebuild for Q4.
SPEAKER_00:So Yeah, yeah, by the time you're back in the swing, it's like now you are prepping for Q4.
SPEAKER_01:Huh. Okay. So so will it be a real statement that the people that have slowdowns are the people that have vacations. Mentally or physically?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think mentally and physically a little bit of both.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. You have to, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You have to treat it like an all-year ground.
SPEAKER_01:If you're locking like Glenn and consistent like Glenn, summer slowdown. What is that? Like Billy slows down when he's sleeping.
SPEAKER_00:I haven't been on an actual vacation in like five years, so but I have moved multiple times in the last vacation. Two to three times.
SPEAKER_01:That's vacation.
SPEAKER_00:It probably took up the same or more bandwidth as much.
SPEAKER_01:More. Or as vacation. More.
SPEAKER_00:But you know what though? This kind of flows into my inventory strategy, which is a little different, which is that a lot of people are moving this time of year. There's moving sales, a lot of people are doing the estate auction for their parents who are downsizing, or a lot of people are doing yard sales and spring cleaning. Like, so for me, this totally is prime time to be hitting up like yard sales and auctions, especially. And and probably there's trickle into the thrift stores for that too. But you know, usually yard sales are cheaper than the thrift store, so you might as well go catch all the stuff in the wild where where you know the attitude of the person there is like, I'm not bringing this thing back into my house, it's one day only, like, take it or it's going away. So that's a great uh position to be in to bargain and to get an even better price on things.
SPEAKER_01:Your money goes way further, right? Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And honestly, there's so much overlooked value in things that people are just sick of seeing around their house and they just want to get rid of it. They don't really care what it's worth, they're not going to spend the effort to like get the most they can out of it. So those are like really good sourcing situations. Um, and so for me, like, but the the only like downside of that in my opinion is that you have to spend a lot more time, right? Because there's way fewer things at a yard sale than there are in a thrift store or even in a retail store. So, but if you can still be strategic and take advantage of things like, for example, this weekend in my town is the citywide yard sale, and on Saturday, or no, on Friday, there are like 90 sales in the town.
SPEAKER_01:Man, you should have told me I would have gone there.
SPEAKER_00:And that's people who are like registered to do it. I'm sure other people are gonna throw their stuff out on the front porch or whatever too.
SPEAKER_01:I would have gone there for the donuts.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, you can still come. It hasn't happened yet. But that is like something to take advantage of for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Glenn, do you would you still go to garage sales?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, they're definitely fun. I mean, it's it's a fun thing to do. Uh maybe when I'm uh ready to retire on on eBay and I can just full circle back to yarn selling. Yeah, I could just do like a little hobby and kind of like.
SPEAKER_00:Could you?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. Could you just do a hobby?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. My hobby's like every day, five hours a day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Why is it a million-dollar hobby?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, list ten listings a day, you know. Yeah, okay, fine. Maybe you'll be a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00:You're gonna do the exact same thing and just call it a hobby.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my new business venture is a hobby.
SPEAKER_00:I just think when you need a new challenge, right? Like maybe you go back out back into the wild where it's not it's not as predictable and consistent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That'll be fun. That'll be fun. Yeah. I might do that when I when I'm bored. Not retiring. I I've I I have mentioned it though multiple times. Um I'll retire at 45. How older you're five. Another ten years it's gonna go by quick. I know. That's what I want it quick. If I if I'm only doing that just because of the house payment. Okay, got it.
SPEAKER_02:Makes sense, right?
SPEAKER_01:Um Yeah. And by then I'd be sick of my house. It's either I'm gonna just rent it out and buy an island in the Philippines or move into an RV or something.
SPEAKER_00:Those are like opposites, but exactly.
SPEAKER_01:You have ten years figure out which I'd be really Americanized and get an RV. Yeah, I'd get it.
SPEAKER_00:Or you could have an RV on an island. And then you can travel around the island. I think that's the thing.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, you do know I'm from the Philippines. There's 7,100 islands, and there's no way of like taking RVs to places like that.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, ferry.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the ferries are so slow. Like a two-hour boat ride is.
SPEAKER_00:But you'd only have to take it there once, because then you live in it after you get there.
SPEAKER_01:It's so small. The island's so small, you'd be done in a like it could literally circle around in an hour. Wow. Some islands don't even have roads for RV. Oh, a yacht. That's what we need. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I agree on. We do need. Um so huh. Well, that was a weird tangent there. Oh, I know. It's because we went for the city. Welcome to the Cellar Club podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we're in all sorts of things. But I can say for um, I guess one last thing before we leave when it comes to like the summer things and um, I mean, I think running promotions wild though on the platform. Um I don't think you need to be like, I guess everything needs to be dirt cheap either. Because I think you have you still have to hold on to the items that you know are worth it. And like Ken said too, so with Q4 right after that, you don't want to like I don't know, dump out early just to kind of keep sales coming in. Yeah, like four more months you're there at the selling time of the year.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and what do you think about the fact that there are a lot of sellers who are kind of at least mentally, maybe behaviorally, checking out during the summer? It's like that might that might be an advantage for you, right? Like maybe people will see and buy your stuff because other people aren't listing as much and aren't being as consistent. And yeah, I don't know. Maybe that's the way that you can keep your edge and not feel like you just have to like sell everything off.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think sometimes dep uh like desperation comes into play when you're like, man, sales have been slow. Like, let me run this an extra whatever percentage off. Or you start taking like you know, lower offers that you normally wouldn't take.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because you want just like the sales to keep trickling in. And you do have to stay patient knowing that the best time of the season is coming right after that. So I would just you know, just keep plugging away like you normally would. And and just getting ready for that.
SPEAKER_00:So well, um, speaking of plugs, I have a plug for something directly related to this topic. So let me just share that with you guys. On May 7th, there is going to be eBay's Summer Seller Check-in virtual event.
SPEAKER_01:I thought you were gonna say summer seller slowdown.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, it's the opposite of that. Actually, surge is summer. Yeah, if you want to have the summer surge that we've been talking about, like this is actually a great event to attend because they are intentionally, you know, sharing a bunch of information and content that's about selling more, faster, better sales velocity, helping you utilize social media for your business, keeping your listings fresh for the summer, like they're thinking summer too in the way that they've curated what they're talking about in this um event. So, anyway, always tons of networking opportunities at the check-ins. And I heard that we are gonna be getting some hot off the press information and insights from the shipping team. I love the shipping team, they're awesome. So I'm really excited. I have no idea what those things are that they're gonna talk about, but I'm really looking forward to that part. Um, so anyway, if you are not registered yet, we have a link to register for it. It is May 7th, um, 12 p.m. Pacific time, right? 3 p.m. Eastern. But it is going to be like in our link tree, it's gonna be in our show notes. And I don't know how many people who listen to this podcast have been to these kind of virtual events before, but it's hosted on this virtual platform called Ring Central. So that's what the registration is about. It's getting you registered to be able to enter the platform and attend the event. And even if you can't be there, like those times don't work out for you, or whatever, you can't be there and register. Still register. Yeah, still register because there is so much good content and they will send it out to you afterwards so you can replay it on demand whenever you do have time. And we know you guys listen to podcasts while you work all the time, so you can hear directly from people from eBay, some of our faves, friends of the show, seller advocates are gonna be there.
SPEAKER_01:As a matter of fact, change it to your listing time, May 7th, 12, 12 p.m. Yeah. Start listing, start doing all the photos right before it, and as soon as it starts, start listing. You hear it in the background, um, and you'll be on your computer anyway.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. But you know, like I said, even if you can't make it that day for whatever reason, still register because then you can still have access to all the content afterwards and play it whenever you have time. So that is my plug, but yeah, it's gonna be great. I'll be there for sure. I can't wait to hear what's gonna be shared because there's always something pushing the ball forward, and um, I'm really excited about this summer. I feel really motivated and inspired um in my business right now. So I'm not like sweating a summer slowdown per se, but I still think whatever we can do to kind of stay up to date on things and just keep getting better quarter over quarter, year over year, like this this is a big part of what's helped me continue to evolve as a seller. So I just wanted to invite you if you haven't registered yet.
SPEAKER_01:Well, there you have it. Make sure you follow eBay for Sellers on Instagram. You shout out to eBay for being a sponsor of this podcast and also sell a ledger make your bookkeeping easy. So easy. Make sure you follow them at Seller Ledger on Instagram as well. Try their software for free for 30 days, no credit card required. And one last question before we leave. And even in the chat, are you guys taking a vacation this summer?
SPEAKER_02:Glenn? Um not that I know of at the moment. So that's a no. That's a no. I mean, maybe work-related stuff, but as far as vacationing, like straight up chilling, probably not.
SPEAKER_00:When Ken gets a yacht, will you?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's a different story. Okay, yacht is a.
SPEAKER_01:So I'll at least take one in ten years. Yacht is a minimum. Um, what about you, Anna?
SPEAKER_00:I'm actually gonna say the same answer, Glenn just said. Not that I know of. However, it's a little bit more trending towards yes, taking one because like I said, we haven't actually been on a vacation in like so many years because we've chosen to like move and uproot our life multiple times, and that is expensive and takes a lot of time. So this year our goal is to go on an actual vacation, but I don't know if it's gonna happen in the summer or not. So we'll see. Yeah, it doesn't have to be in the summer. It's not planned yet.
SPEAKER_01:So if that tells you, I wanna my answer was I want to go on a vacation in June. Um but bearing if the sales on May it's gonna be good. If it's good, we're going. If it's not good, like your sales in your store? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In my my store. So that's pretty much it, and we will see you in the next one. Peace. See you. Bye bye bye.