Episode 83: Surprise, Surprise

Sometimes things feel the same week in and week out, but other times surprises keep us all on our toes! In today’s episode we ask, what has surprised us in the past week - surprises in sourcing or about what’s selling and shipping out?
We also get the chance to talk about some of those little nooks and crannies of constant decision-making in a business, like how we think about shipping insurance coverage, how we are using or noticing new features and platform updates, and more. 

We are so proud and excited to officially be Bronze sponsors of eBay Open LIVE IN PERSON in Las Vegas and streaming EVERYWHERE, August 12-14! We will BE THERE! If you want to be there too, whether in person or virtually, register HERE.

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! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Cellar Club Podcast episode number 83 Drop That Beat Hello everybody, how are we doing today? Hot. To say the least.

SPEAKER_00: 0:14

Speaking of dropping that beat, we kind of look like beets or like eggplants, maybe.

SPEAKER_02: 0:19

Uh Anna, Anna is, because you know where she went when she wants you to be the beat to the beach, and I look like a beat because I got sunburned.

SPEAKER_00: 0:29

Uh not that bad. Actually, though, thank you for noticing. My skin is a color now instead of just pale nothingness.

SPEAKER_02: 0:44

Because I have farmer stand. Because I worked on my yard and I get colored pretty good. And I took off my shirt and I was like, oh. So so uh I I can't rock shirtless yet. Sneak short. I'm not I'm not I'm I'm not Glenn yet, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 1:03

Me neither. Honestly, who among us besides Glenn?

SPEAKER_02: 1:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11

I mean the last time I went shirtless was what time is it? So probably like what noon?

SPEAKER_02: 1:20

I was like outside or inside? Hold on, it was just like at noon.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28

Yeah, no, I'm too old for that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31

Um well just trying to catch up. Um, what are you guys' activities besides reselling this summer? What have you guys been up to? Um, and uh, we know Anna went to the beach, so a little tell us a little bit more about your outdoor activities non-related to business.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54

Well, this was great. I went to the beach with my really good friend, my Bessie, my former podcast co-host of my previous podcast, Katie. Um, but yeah, we actually used to go frequently, I would say at least once a year, we'd end up going to the beach. A lot of times it was this time of year, that was between our birthdays, kind of like right in the middle of our birthdays. Um, and so it finally worked out this year. We both have moved, you know, to different states and stuff since we used to go regularly. So this was the first time in like, I think three or four years that we actually went and it was awesome. I had not been to a beach at all in like years, which is really sad. I love the beach. Um, but you know, there's been a lot of like moving across the country and stuff in my life in the last few years. So I just haven't made it out to a beach. I've taken other trips and done other stuff, but not had my toes in the sand. So this was like really great. Um, but it was just a couple days, and so so you know, normal summer activities for me at my home now, as it stands, usually does not include the beach, but I love going on walks and I love um hiking. I love going on float trips, which I hope to do more of now that I live in the Midwest. Missouri has beautiful, um, totally clear rock bottom rivers. I don't know if anybody knows about that, but you know, you think about a river and like floating on a river, it sounds like muddy. It's not like that in Missouri in a lot of places. It's really beautiful and clear. So I'd love to do more of that. But yeah, you'll catch me this summer for sure, like enjoying my backyard, um, gardening a lot. I have a big garden going and it is like really popping now. So I've been spending a lot of time out there and just kind of generally improving the property. So I like to work, you guys. It's like I like doing yard work and any other kind of work. So I'm always like doing a project.

SPEAKER_01: 3:43

What about these? Very nice. I'm just trying to stay cool at this point. I mean, it was like 105 yesterday.

SPEAKER_00: 3:49

I don't blame you. That's insane.

SPEAKER_01: 3:51

Uh yeah, and this is not even the hottest yet, right? No, no, it's not the hottest yet. So um, anything that I do, as long as it's indoors, um, I'm fine. So I haven't really been doing anything outside. I mean, unless it's like way, way late. You should go early. You go early out early, but you know, just taking the daughter to like little uh little park thing around here or yeah. Um we went to what did she like? Whole Foods. There's a little cart she was able to push around herself and thrilling. Yeah, go shop herself and right. Just don't get used to spending a lot of money though, because well, you know. Anyway. Well you know there's a budget for that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00: 4:38

It's easy to do at Whole Foods, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_01: 4:40

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00: 4:40

Fill up that little baby cart, and you're like, whew not total.

SPEAKER_01: 4:46

So that was it. Nothing, nothing really uh just staying busy, of course, with selling, but that's another topic very soon.

SPEAKER_02: 4:53

Oh sorry about there. But uh the outdoor stuff that we've been doing is I call it hot girl walk. So uh me and JC have been doing hot girl walk every after dinner. Um it's a lifestyle change that we've committed to, and it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Um that is fun. We've seen places we've never seen that's two minutes outside of our house. Um there's actually like a river um like five minutes from our house, and it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00: 5:28

That is cool. I I love that my town is like small, but you know, it's like on a grid. Basically, all the streets are like a grid. And it's amazing how far across town you can walk in like 10 or 20 minutes. Yeah, but that's what I love so much about getting to know what all is around. Like the best way to do that is on foot because if I'm driving, I'm not looking at everything or like not paying close enough attention. So it really is a whole different world.

SPEAKER_02: 5:52

Yeah, so that's what I've been doing. Um a lot of uh you know decompressing kind of vibe, enjoying nature. It's it's not too hot yet, like during the hour.

SPEAKER_00: 6:04

It's not 105.

SPEAKER_02: 6:06

No, no. After like after dinner, it's like it's like 70, 75. So it's it's bearable.

SPEAKER_00: 6:13

I feel like it's just getting to the point in the Midwest where you have where where you have to pay attention to like, oh, it's the heat of the day right now. Let's avoid going outside during the worst of it. Like we're just turning that corner, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 6:25

And then Glenn just well Glenn just lives in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:29

How like how cool does it actually get at night there? Is it drastic or is it just like, oh that's 90 instead of 105?

SPEAKER_01: 6:35

Yeah, it's like sometimes it's like 85. It was like 91 the other day at night, so it's still brutal.

SPEAKER_00: 6:44

The devil's armpit.

SPEAKER_02: 6:45

The uh just kidding, the uh the pros and cons of not having uh ice or winter. But they actually get ice, you get to get hail right now. Yeah, we'll get hail.

SPEAKER_00: 6:57

Well, hail bad.

SPEAKER_02: 6:59

Yeah, yeah, we'll get hail, we'll get hail. Um well, um, since uh Glenn kind of started it, summer sales.

SPEAKER_01: 7:07

Oh right, fine. They're down, okay?

SPEAKER_00: 7:13

Fine. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 7:15

Is that what everybody wanted to hear? No. No, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:18

Okay, but actually, okay, I have a question. This is like maybe a bigger question, but I think your answer, the the attitude in your answer is perfect for this question. What has anything about your store lately been surprising you? Like, are you surprised that it's down, or did you kind of anticipate that? Like, like, is that a surprise? Are you disappointed, surprised, or you knew, or you're okay with it? Like, where are you at?

SPEAKER_01: 7:45

I'm not okay with it, but I it's because I started off when the month started off kind of low, I didn't like where this was headed. I'm like, is this gonna continue this way or can I climb back? But then again, I did have like a big sale. I think one of the jerseys sold for like 500 something last month. So that alone kind of kind of inflated, plumped up these numbers. Right. And so um getting into this month though, it did start off a little slow, and I was like, okay, well, let's just get back into it. I'm sure it'll climb up. And actually leading into so last week was actually a really good week. Um, you know,$900,$2,000 days that were in there. Um, but then the last three days leading up to Father's Day is just trash.

SPEAKER_00: 8:41

Yeah, it like erased all the progress you made.

SPEAKER_01: 8:43

Yeah, like$81 out of there.$80.

SPEAKER_00: 8:48

I've had some sub 100 days too, and I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 8:52

Yeah. Today,$60.

SPEAKER_00: 8:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 8:56

Like bad. I don't know. Yeah. The day's not over. It's bad, bad. So lowest of I've seen in a while. Yeah. Last week was really good, but no, not not having it.

SPEAKER_00: 9:09

Is anything about your sales maybe besides just like the amount or like the dollar amount or the volume, but anything else besides what is selling surprising you right now?

SPEAKER_01: 9:20

Well, on Thursday, well, my sale ended on Wednesday. And that Thursday, when I had no sale, I had the highest sales of like the last two weeks. So they're they paid full price. Yeah, there was no offers, no sales. They just paid full price. And and now I'm running a sale again because of the Father's Day stuff. So it's all right, let me get a little sale going.

SPEAKER_02: 9:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:47

And uh it's not helping it. So that was kind of weird.

SPEAKER_02: 9:50

Yeah, last week for us was the I don't know why I keep saying this. I think last week was the sl the slowest week we've ever had so far. Like this year. Um, so yeah, I was I kind of went into like, you know, felt like a rookie and fell into like a panic mode. It's like throwing my store. Somebody, somebody on eBay turned off the switch.

SPEAKER_00: 10:17

Have you been listing less?

SPEAKER_02: 10:18

Um I obviously I've been listing less, but we we did do a a bulk list last week, you know, the week prior. So I was like, I was expecting a lift out of that, but maybe not yet.

SPEAKER_00: 10:32

Right. I was gonna say, but it hasn't been like a month, so it hasn't hit yet.

SPEAKER_02: 10:36

And then talking about like running a sale, I don't know for some reason, Glenn, this is probably a more heightened time that people get into like a panic buy because the sale is ending. Because even though last week was the slowest week we've had, Friday we hit 1600. That's sweet. And then the rest was just like sub thousand dollar days. So I was like, huh. And then I was like, what happened? And then the next day I woke up, there was a sale that ended that night. So, you know, I wonder everybody was like, oh, sale's about to end, or you know, they get a notification and they just start buying. Um, but that's kind of like um the observation that I have. Um and um it's uh kind of uh weird because I told somebody this that when you're selling like sub fifty dollar clothing pieces, um people wanna like offer 25. Yeah, you know, like 50% off. I'm like, bro, like that's I know it's only 25. Right. I'm only it's twenty I know it's only twenty-five off, but if you're used to selling like shoes, twenty-five off is not bad discount. But when it's like a clothing and and you know how like your percent there's a percentage offer, right? Like buyer offered 25, 50% off. I'm like, no, and then now I feel bad countering only five dollars off or three dollars off.

SPEAKER_00: 12:11

I never feel bad doing that because I'm like, let me put you in the right mindset here. Like, we're talking five dollars, not five times five dollars.

SPEAKER_02: 12:19

Yeah, and then some somebody somebody told me like it's better that you always counter offer and not decline, but I'm I'm I'm just in a decline mode now. I'm like, no, like not even in a ballpark, you know. Like, and then I finally told somebody else, like, um, this guy's like a$39 t-shirt wants 28, 28 in months, and I said 33 bottom, right? And he's like, Oh, there's other people selling it for like I other said like go buy him, yeah. And then and then that was the last it, and then two months later he says 28 again, and then I said no, and I said, Come back when you have five dollars more. That's what I said. I was just like done with I mean it was better than pulling an N and blocking the person.

SPEAKER_00: 13:09

I mean, I'm not above it. I mean, I'm not, and like I don't want you messing with me or buying my other stuff and then having problems. I just I got no time for that. But I do think it's hard to actually read the the buyer, a random buyer who's making an offer, who makes a ridiculous lowball offer. It's like, are they just are they using a smart negotiating tactic? Right, or are they, or do they really expect to get it for that much? There is no way for you to know that unless you can. No, you yeah, you always you know, and it's like if they decline it outright, then you're like, okay, well then you're not actually my buyer. But if they're like, okay, yeah, maybe I'll I'll offer you$10 below what you just offered me, then it's like, okay, well, you're obviously just trying to shoot low so that I meet in the middle somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_02: 13:53

Yeah, I've I've had a buyer buy like because like offered like you know, fifty dollars off and I counted ten dollars off and they bought it. I'm like, wait, wait, where did that come from? You know, it's like yeah, it's just a tactic. Yeah, they just needed that free shipping basically, right? Or something like that. Kind of like that, offset the cost.

SPEAKER_00: 14:11

Um, speaking of offers, have you guys noticed any difference using the new the centralized offers hub on eBay? Like have you used any of the features and stuff yet?

SPEAKER_02: 14:20

I I I I see I only use it for kind of like the status, right? Like what what scent. But what I actually liked about it is it made me stop doing the automated offers.

SPEAKER_00: 14:34

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02: 14:36

Only because it gets annoying because I cannot edit that listing's price.

SPEAKER_00: 14:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 14:42

Because there's a so so what what I liked about it is now I could highlight all of it what I had sent offers automatically and end it. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 14:51

Or cancel it right update your list.

SPEAKER_02: 14:53

What do you that retract? What's what's the name of that? Oh, not or switch it to not automated or something like that. Or end automation. That's the thing. I'm looking at it right now. So you can click all of it and automation. So now I don't do automated, but what happened is it made me more like religious about sending offers during the morning and at night.

SPEAKER_00: 15:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 15:14

Um, made me kind of just like kind of like see what people are watching.

SPEAKER_00: 15:18

I really like it. Like I like the better visibility and the ability to kind of sort offers by different criteria and kind of see what's going on with these different things.

SPEAKER_02: 15:27

Yeah, I wish there's like uh more filter, right? There's not much more filter than we have right now. It's just it just shows you quantity. I wish it would be like high to low, you know what I'm saying? Like you could.

SPEAKER_00: 15:38

Well, I think there's more coming, I'm pretty sure. Like I was reading an update about that recently, and there were some interesting things in there that I haven't looked into on my own offer hub yet, but I assume they're like building out more features, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 15:51

What about you, Glenn? Do you send offers?

SPEAKER_01: 15:53

Um, I'll do it through the phone, though. I can just do it on the app. Um, but I try to do it on the on the mornings that I don't have any like active sales going on. I don't want to like add more to one of the office. Yeah.

unknown: 16:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:09

Being too good of a deal.

SPEAKER_02: 16:11

Yeah, sometimes I do that just to kind of like bait people to spend money. Um you know, when I have like a really high ROI, you know, item, and I was like, come on, you know, come on. And I have like three of them. Someone. Um that's kind of been what I'm up to. But um also what I've done um talking about I I I asked myself, so what are you gonna do now that you just hit your lowest week of the year? Um so this is what I did. I went to my listing, I sorted low to high on views the last 30 days.

SPEAKER_00: 16:51

Which you can only do if you have under 5,000 listings.

SPEAKER_02: 16:54

Yes, it's crazy. If you have under 5,000 listings, you can sort views.

SPEAKER_00: 17:00

Yeah, I can sort by watchers, but not views.

SPEAKER_02: 17:03

So Anna can't sort by views, but we do.

SPEAKER_00: 17:07

I want to get down to that so that I can sort of.

SPEAKER_02: 17:10

Yeah, yeah. I think I think that's healthy. That I think I think uh also then I would share your strategy after a giant chunk of my story.

SPEAKER_00: 17:16

Um how do I get to 5,000?

SPEAKER_02: 17:18

Yeah, then but uh but what I did is I ended a hundred listings that had zero views the last 30 days. I'm like, that's outrageous. Yeah, zero, yeah. Like that's wild. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_00: 17:32

I'm sure it was across the board, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02: 17:34

Yeah, well, mostly like cheaper items, too. Like I had like women's uh biker shorts. Um what I would say though, they're older listings. Yeah, I wonder if they just became stale and just kind of like got hated on, right?

SPEAKER_00: 17:49

And this is what's something I factor in when I'm doing self-similar. Yeah, it's like looking at the older, yeah, it's dependent on that. Like I wish we could reviews.

SPEAKER_02: 17:58

So I know we have filters now, right, on the listings. I wish we could filter age. Like, remember if we like filter uh filter only over 90 days, yeah, right, right?

SPEAKER_00: 18:09

And then you can sort it, but you can't filter it.

SPEAKER_02: 18:11

And then you could sort by views because there are older listings that have watchers. I don't want to end those, right? Right, but when they have like zero views, and obviously there's no watchers if there's zero views, right? Um, so I ended all of them and I pretty much just edited pricing and I played with it. You know, like I had some like shorts that were like$19.99 free shipping, and then all of a sudden I switched it to$14.99 plus$4.99 shipping. And you know, just kind of like same money, right? Same money. Um, but kind of like felt good for for the consumer or something like that. Um, so that that went well. Uh I sold and cleared out some. A lot of them were just like terrible like sizing left, like two uh like X room small and women's or two XL, like kind of just like uh what do you call that? Uh extreme sizes, you know, like none of the middle. Um, so so I was kind of like glad that I was moving those and just kind of refresh them. Um check because some of them too. I noticed maybe you guys could uh chime in on this, is when you bulk edit some of this, like some of them have no shipping options. Have you guys had an issue?

SPEAKER_00: 19:25

I haven't had that issue, I don't think, but I use policies.

SPEAKER_02: 19:28

Yeah, I use I use policies too.

SPEAKER_00: 19:30

So like some of them just had no policies?

SPEAKER_02: 19:32

I yeah, I wonder if it happened when I switched, because I just switched this year. Oh I used to not have business policy, so now I have business policy. So I switched and I was like, obviously that's not gonna sell. Um and then so so I just started like ending those and kind of like refreshing them. And also like editing it, like you know, like I'm expect I'm wanting 30 bucks for the shorts. I was like, no, maybe that's not really the market. Yeah, the market is 25 now. Yeah, um, you know, it don't matter how much retail it is, if the market is flooded with this design, then you know it may be sixty dollar retail and everybody's letting go for like twenty-five.

SPEAKER_00: 20:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 20:12

Um so that's kind of like what I did, and um it kind of like it kind of like helped us a little bit the last three days. So that's my strategy to uh kind of like my post panic um distress change that I did on my store.

SPEAKER_01: 20:29

So what about like when you have to update the tracking? Like if a buyer's like, hey, I haven't gotten my item, and then you have to upload the tracking, and then it up pre-uploads the like tracking for you.

SPEAKER_02: 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:44

It's like grayed out, and then I don't know how to get out of that screen. Like, are you on desktop? No, on phone.

SPEAKER_02: 20:52

Oh, you have to go to desktop.

SPEAKER_01: 20:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 20:55

Yeah, yeah. You have to go desktop. Anything that has to do with like buyer hasn't received, you gotta resolve it on desktop. Yeah, because like yeah, there's some things that you cannot click on the yeah, I don't know what it's like.

SPEAKER_01: 21:13

Like, what am I scanning here?

SPEAKER_02: 21:15

Oh, maybe it's like letting you scan the actual package like labels. Yeah, but I don't have it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:23

Yeah, that's like one of the weirdest things that you cannot do in the app that's kind of like frustrating because I want to resolve it right then and there. Yeah, I'm not on my desktop, so I gotta remember to do that like you know when I do have access to the desktop, but I'd rather just do it there.

SPEAKER_02: 21:38

No.

SPEAKER_00: 21:39

I know. I think it's like silly that you have to upload, it's like the tracking number's in there already. And if it's not moving, like that should be already obvious in the tracking information.

SPEAKER_02: 21:51

Like, I don't know why we have to go in and provide that's what Poshmark is really good at, their updating system. So if if there's a delay on that package on the estimated, it actually even alerts the seller. So even though I don't need to know, right? But it's kind of a good heads up, like, hey, your customer might reach out to you, but this package is being is is delayed in not arriving in the expected delivery date. And and I've I've been a buyer as well, and the buyer gets communicated that so it's like an automated system. So which is like, you know, because we've had you know packages that had sat on a you know a big hub before, and then eBay kind of just doesn't they they don't, there's no updates at all.

SPEAKER_00: 22:38

Yeah, no, it's like you're at the mercy of the carrier.

SPEAKER_02: 22:41

Yeah, it just yeah, it just says that when it's ship, right? That's it. And then good luck, you know, and it's just like I wish there was like a steps to like inform the buyer that's well I will say pro tip for anyone who is a buyer or a seller on eBay, if you're shipping stuff with USPS and you're like, you know, looking at the tracking in your eBay order, that's great.

SPEAKER_00: 23:05

It usually has all the most important information, but I have found that sometimes if it gets stalled or something, actually copying the tracking number and going to the USPS website will give you more detailed information. Yeah, and sometimes more current information by just a little bit. So if you're like, what is going on with this thing? Or it will even say like, hey, this this pack basically this package isn't lost. It's just delayed and it's still in transit.

SPEAKER_03: 23:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:32

And though those kind of little nuances are not always showing up all the way through to the eBay or together.

SPEAKER_02: 23:38

Yeah, it's not translated. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:40

Yeah, but like I almost always, when I have to go find information for a buyer, get at least some little hint of what's going on, like a little more clearly if I go to the USPS website. So just a pro tip for anybody dealing with that nonsense. It's never fun.

SPEAKER_01: 23:56

Nope.

SPEAKER_00: 23:57

Um, so either of you guys have any other have experienced any other surprises this month in your store? That's kind of my like topic that I have in mind is like what's been surprising us about our businesses lately. And I feel like there's been a few that you've mentioned already, but like does anything else come to mind that you really want to mention?

SPEAKER_01: 24:20

Surprises in the business. I guess for summer.

SPEAKER_00: 24:24

Yeah, for summer. Like, I'll give you one of mine.

SPEAKER_01: 24:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 24:27

Um, I've been very surprised this this month, specifically in June. I have been selling so much outerwear, like almost one a day. With my ASP for it is like$110. My average cost of goods is under$30. So it's like, you know, basically tripling my money. But I'm like almost one a day. And like, why? It just seems so crazy. I mean, one reason, which we all know, is that because I had it listed, right? Like it could sell because it was listed. But I was just really surprised that it was so consistent and so frequent for summertime. Like, I really thought that would be winding down by now, and it seems like it is not wound down at all. And it's really it's challenging for me on any given day to like see a big trend in the type of inventory that's selling from my store because it's so miscellaneous. So when I can actually notice a trend, it's kind of a big deal.

SPEAKER_02: 25:24

But I I think I could agree with you on that one, that I think it's more like it's not really I've I've had more outerwear for sure this year compared to last year, but I've also had more shorts compared to last year. But um, I sold a hoodie yesterday. I mean, over the weekend, this is over the weekend, a hoodie, uh, pants, another crew neck, um, another like tack fleece jacket. I probably sold four or five jackets over the weekend.

SPEAKER_00: 25:56

True, like jackets and pullovers too. I wasn't even counting those, but some of those have been selling.

SPEAKER_02: 26:00

I don't know. I don't know the rhyme and reason. Have you noticed anything like that, Glenn, before? Um maybe people going on trips.

SPEAKER_01: 26:09

Yeah, maybe. I mean, the outerwear stuff is is interesting for sure because I think that even on whatnot, a lot of people have still been selling outerwear and they've actually still been doing pretty good.

SPEAKER_03: 26:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 26:20

Um, which is surprising though, for for summer.

SPEAKER_00: 26:24

Um I would say wonder though, if like, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but it's I was just thinking out loud here. Like, I wonder if retailers, because this is mostly retail ARB stuff, some of it has also been used or vintage, but like, or pre-loved or vintage. But um, I wonder if the retailers are not selling out a rare. Yeah, so it's like now anybody who wants one or they regret not getting it earlier, like now this is the secondary market.

SPEAKER_02: 26:50

I mean they're not they're not in stores for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 26:53

Yeah, like at least not in person, right? Yeah, maybe on the retail, not the basic cleaning. But I I feel like that has to have something to do with it. But how long will that last?

SPEAKER_02: 27:03

Like till August, until they start stopping for fall season, which is good.

SPEAKER_00: 27:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:10

Um if you're a shopper right now, uh like websites are selling pants so cheap. Just like for personal.

SPEAKER_00: 27:20

It's like personal pants only.

SPEAKER_02: 27:22

Yeah, personal pants.

SPEAKER_00: 27:22

Not retail arb.

SPEAKER_02: 27:24

Yeah, because yeah, because you know, you know they've mine gets murky sometimes, you guys. Yeah, you know they've ran through all that inventory already, you know, like this past season. Um what about you guys' traffic? Um that's one of the things that I've um we're 18% down the last 30 days on our traffic.

SPEAKER_01: 27:46

Um that's interesting then, because that would be I mean, I'm not gonna say people on the app in general, but I mean, not looking at your items for whatever reason that may be. Yeah, yeah. That's it, that is interesting. Let me go through the impressions and stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 28:02

18% down an impression last 30 days, which resulted to 15% down in my last 31 days of sales. And I've always said this before that they're closely related. I mean, they're they're basically related, they're brothers.

SPEAKER_00: 28:19

So my traffic is 16% up in the last 30 days, but if you recall a week or two ago, I can't even remember, it's it was a couple weeks ago, I bumped my paid ad rate up one percent. And I wonder if that's what No, no, it can't be. It can't be.

SPEAKER_02: 28:40

No, it can't, it can't be. Because if I mean you can keep you can you can look into the the difference of your organic and promoted. 1% is not gonna give you that much.

SPEAKER_00: 28:50

Okay. I'm gonna find out how to look into it.

SPEAKER_02: 28:52

What about yours, Glenn? Uh what's your uh what about your sales, Anna? Are you on green?

SPEAKER_00: 28:57

Um, hold on, I'm looking at the other thing first. I can't do two things at once. My sales are up six percent.

SPEAKER_02: 29:06

Yeah. So it's lifting it. What about you, Glenn?

SPEAKER_01: 29:10

Uh impressions are down 23%. Uh listing views are down 13%. Quantity is down, quantity sold is down 5%. But sell-through rate has gone up and conversion rate has gone up.

SPEAKER_02: 29:25

Yeah, yeah, that's usually like well, what about your sales? Are you on red?

SPEAKER_01: 29:31

Um for the month. Yeah, yeah, I'm down. Yeah, I'm down for 30%. How many percent? Uh let me go back to the other screen real quick. Uh so last 31 days I'm down 11%.

SPEAKER_02: 29:44

Okay. Well, that's actually not bad. You're weathering your m your 20% down of um, but you're converting a lot. That's uh yeah, that's interesting. You just have to convert. I think that's the biggest thing. Is if you're converting a lot, um, you know, like the lower. Traffic is not and and that's with everything. I know I'm converting a lot because I'm more generous and accepting offers. My my sale conversion rate is up 20%. That's only because like I know it's gonna be slower, you know, throughout the summer. So I'm like, okay, you're getting extra 10%, even though I don't want it.

SPEAKER_00: 30:21

I don't want to get too I um I just thought of another one. I have a shi a shipping surprise as well.

SPEAKER_02: 30:32

Okay, so is it good or bad?

SPEAKER_00: 30:34

I think it's neutral. That's still surprising. So like I used to use these padded priority flat rate mailers like all the time. Like basically any time I would send a pair of jeans and other stuff too, but really commonly with jeans. Sometimes shoes if they'd fit.

SPEAKER_02: 30:54

Real quick, why not USPS ground?

SPEAKER_00: 30:56

Um, it was USPS, like it was it was usually cheaper because it was flat rate. It was like eight bucks or something back in the day, right? I haven't used it at all since ground advantage came out. It has never been cheaper. Like it's never been the cheaper option. And I I haven't looked like every single time, but like over the last however long it's been since ground advantage really became a thing, I have periodically checked on it. Like, would this be cheaper? Oh, this is a thing that is a little heavy, it's over a pound, but it would fit in this mailer. Would it be cheaper? Usually, still no, ground advantage was still cheaper.

SPEAKER_03: 31:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 31:30

So, anyway, I have for whatever reason just noticed in the last couple weeks that there are now a few items that would have been cheaper if I sent them in that envelope. Because I think Ground Advantage has made some little adjustments based on, you know, their data. Like, okay, what are the rates? Whatever. The rates have like changed a little bit. So there are now these fringe cases where that would still be the better way to send it. It would get there faster and it would be cheaper. So I ordered like a pack of them free from USPS to have on hand now, and now I'm gonna have to start checking again.

SPEAKER_02: 32:03

Huh. What about you, Glenn? When you ship jerseys and stuff like that, are you UP USPS ground or do you consider putting it on a poly mailer?

SPEAKER_01: 32:12

Um, if it's less than a hundred dollars. Yeah, less than a hundred dollars sold and it's like uh hundred pound jersey.

SPEAKER_00: 32:21

Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_01: 32:22

100 pound jersey. If it's if it sells for less than a hundred dollars and it weighs like fifteen less than a pound, for sure, ground advantage. Okay comes out to like six dollars and forty cents.

SPEAKER_00: 32:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 32:35

If it's a hockey jersey that's up to 3XL, it's definitely gonna weigh over two pounds. Yeah, and most of the hockeys, I don't think I've sold a hockey less than 100, then definitely going in that padded flat rate. So how much do you count? It's like$9.40.

SPEAKER_00: 32:54

It was like$9.40, yeah. I just did one today.

SPEAKER_01: 32:57

So that's probably gonna be my best option with the weight, where it's going, also with it being insured just in case you know, like being a little bit more expensive. So it's kind of like where we're going on that.

SPEAKER_00: 33:12

I've got a question for you about that too, because recently eBay talked about how their ship cover insurance has expanded. Um, don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure it's like$15,000, up to$15,000 for like domestic and up to$10,000 for international or something shipments. But that made me wonder when I just read about that recently. How do you guys determine if you're gonna pay additional insurance, like over and above the$100 that's built in? How do you determine if you're gonna pay? A, if you're gonna pay it at all, the additional insurance. And B, do you use ship cover or do you use the carrier's insurance? And like what's your decision-making process around that? Because like I do, I have my own, but I'm curious what yours is.

SPEAKER_01: 33:56

What I mean, it has to be like something that's really, really above and beyond. I mean, like that, I think like that$500 jersey I did do up to the$500. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:08

Yeah, but if it if it was like$120 and it's not breakable, what are you really what are you paying for? What if it doesn't if it gets lost, right?

SPEAKER_01: 34:17

Yeah, if it gets lost. Yeah, that case of just doing the the padded flat rate envelope. Yeah, send it off.

SPEAKER_02: 34:24

Hmm, that is Jenkins. Um well one JC Googles the address.

SPEAKER_00: 34:32

And sees it looks sketchy if it's like high dollar. It's funny.

SPEAKER_02: 34:41

So like we see here's the thing with shoes, right? Most of the expensive shoes go to AG. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't, right? So I'm looking at it. The most expensive items that I I sold 350. Um the hockey skates, rollerblades. Um no insurance, just straight up. Um and the only time I did I actually don't do insurance a lot. I think a thousand is my uh a thousand that doesn't go to age. I would say five hundred would be like I would look into it.

SPEAKER_00: 35:23

But are you surprised Ken has a very high risk tolerance? Oh, high risk.

SPEAKER_02: 35:27

That's why, that's why like I remember like the PS5. I pretty much almost got taken. I remember because um, but I do uh instead of doing insurance, I do a a signature confirmation. Oh yeah, because I've I've there's high chance of I mean high chance of winning a case. Item not a receive. I just don't know about the electronics because they can lie that it's not working.

SPEAKER_00: 35:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 35:56

You know, like okay, they receive it, but it's not working, and then they switch a route on you and you're gone, you know. So I think that's the only time, but but yeah, so far I've I haven't had uh that was the only horror case. I mean, like so far we've been talking about you know the podcast, like that's not bad.

SPEAKER_00: 36:14

Yeah, that was like early on, too.

SPEAKER_02: 36:16

Yeah, and I got my money back, yeah. And a broken PS5, so I might take away PS5. I might now have a PS5, as is just get it repaired. I should need to get it repaired.

SPEAKER_00: 36:29

Yeah, I feel like I selling a lot more stuff that's breakable. Yes is like okay, well, if it's fragile and it's expensive, then I probably am going to insure it, even though I trust my packaging skills. Um, but a lot of times, you know, it's like like I was asking Glenn, well, if it's like$20 over what the built-in insurance is, am I really gonna pay a lot more money to only protect$20 more doll of value? Like and especially there, this shouldn't really factor in, but for some reason it does in my mind, like on some level, I'm like, well, how much did I pay for this item? Like, would I would I be willing at the end of the day to take$20 less for this item or not? Or am I like breaking even at that point somehow? Hopefully not. That wouldn't have been a great sale anyway, but you know, it's like I look at the the by cost.

unknown: 37:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:20

I can eat the buy costs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 37:22

If I eat I could eat the buy costs, I was like, I'm fine.

SPEAKER_00: 37:25

But I would say mainly I'm just looking at is this thing breakable? Breakable. Am I really insuring a large amount beyond what's built in? And is it likely to have anything happen to it except that it could get lost? Because that could happen in any package, but you're always that's always a risk, you know, with any carrier, any package. But also, I feel like I have generally used the carrier insurance. I'm not sure why, because you know, seeing this update about how ship cover on eBay has expanded made me kind of look more closely at shipcover, and I'm like, this sounds really good and really easy to use. So I'm probably gonna start using that.

SPEAKER_02: 38:03

That'd be interesting to figure out how they process the claims and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00: 38:06

Yeah, it seems like faster, honestly.

SPEAKER_02: 38:08

Right, because like they already have the info and they have the buyers info as well. Um, also, Glenn, have you shipped any expensive jerseys through AG? Authenticity?

SPEAKER_01: 38:20

Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_02: 38:21

Oh. Did they qualify? Do some of them qualify? No.

SPEAKER_01: 38:24

No.

SPEAKER_02: 38:25

Have you seen any? No. That'll be interesting, huh? Because I've shipped uh actually use expensive jacket that I wore personally. Uh, one of those bomber jackets uh went to AG. I think uh 250 was the 250 was the cutoff. Then I don't know. Uh you know, obviously over time AG has kind of like gone put the threshold lower. Um, but you haven't seen any jerseys that are an AG. That might be a good pitch for them.

SPEAKER_01: 38:51

I would love for them to go to AG. That wouldn't be that would eliminate a lot of my competition that's on there.

SPEAKER_02: 38:57

Yeah. Oh, that is true, huh? The like the fakes, right? Like, huh?

SPEAKER_01: 39:03

Like that would be pretty cool if they went to AJ.

SPEAKER_00: 39:04

We should lobby for that to uh get that included.

SPEAKER_02: 39:08

eBay open Glenn. We'll we'll love we'll we'll we'll get them.

SPEAKER_00: 39:12

We'll get them have a little conversation. That would be good.

SPEAKER_01: 39:16

I would also apply for the uh position to manage that.

SPEAKER_00: 39:20

Oh my gosh, yes. Like you could be the main authenticator.

SPEAKER_01: 39:23

Yeah, can I be the like jersey?

SPEAKER_00: 39:26

Glenn, it seems like all of your jerseys are getting are passing with flying colors. Why is that? That's called a conflict of interest. Oh that would be so cool though, if you were like in charge of that. I would love that.

SPEAKER_01: 39:40

Yeah, that'd be cool.

SPEAKER_00: 39:41

Yeah, you could sell off all your jerseys to Ken and then Yeah, no, I'll I'll fulfill for Glenn. I'll be the warehouse.

SPEAKER_02: 39:47

I'll be the warehouse.

SPEAKER_00: 39:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 39:49

Um huh, let me see. That would be an interesting because they do handbags, and some handbags are like 150 bucks. They go authenticity guarantees. Yeah. Huh. That's a me. We're gonna make that happen pretty soon.

SPEAKER_00: 40:03

I mean, that was not on my bingo card, but they do trading cards already, right?

SPEAKER_02: 40:08

Like trading cards, like I don't know what's the what's the uh threshold, but they authenticate them already. There's jewelry, there's watches. Jerseys jerseys are expensive, like the like the I mean like the$500 one gotta be gotta be up there.

SPEAKER_00: 40:25

It's like a good niche too. Like I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 40:28

So right now, streetwear with a price of$200 or greater, they should just put it under streetwear. It is nobody like buys a$200 jersey and plays basketball in them.

SPEAKER_00: 40:40

Right, it is streetwear. Oh well, and it's it's fan stuff too, though. It'd be hard to like fan shop. Fight yeah, fight between the fan shop and the streetwear crowd.

SPEAKER_01: 40:51

It's like yeah, fan shop's not gonna be too thrilled that you're taking their category.

SPEAKER_00: 40:58

Well, then start authenticating fan shop.

SPEAKER_01: 41:00

Yeah, here we go. Fan shop.

SPEAKER_00: 41:01

You want fan shop?

SPEAKER_01: 41:06

I don't know. They're their problem. Yeah, AG wants it, they want the jerseys, and I support AG. Oh let's make it happen.

SPEAKER_02: 41:18

I can make it happen.

SPEAKER_01: 41:20

I think another thing to add, I guess, for what's going on right now, which a lot of golf. Like, I've seen golf has its own category right now on whatnot. Oh it does, yeah. And a lot of people I've been getting more DMs like you still have some of those golf shoes, which I do, but they were not like selling too great on eBay after a while. A lot of them are in my zero view category right now. Um, so I might need to start dumping those on whatnot. But a lot of people have been asking for golf. Obviously, right now is like a perfect season for it. Um, so anything that you have right now, definitely get that listed on the on the golf side of things. Well, I guess for newer cleats, I would say too, or newer shoes. Definitely makes sense, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 42:10

Yeah, I think uh golf has like a uh its own category, you know. Like I I think it's becoming mainstream now. A lot of people um, you know, kind of like our golfers now. I've seen people release like golf, like is is it that or just our group of friends are getting older and yeah, I think and like they always say, my dad always told me the older you get, the smaller the balls you play with.

SPEAKER_00: 42:38

Wow. I I don't think I can argue with that, honestly. Right?

SPEAKER_02: 42:44

Like, next thing you know, uh you play basketball, right? And then and then now you do tennis, and then you do like pool table or ping pong or now you're going to pinball, yeah, pinball marbles or marbles you go back and then you lose them. You go back in time, then you lose your marbles.

SPEAKER_00: 43:04

Dang!

SPEAKER_02: 43:05

You're done. You're done.

SPEAKER_00: 43:07

Oh my gosh. My if I had to play this is a game, not a sport, but if I had to play like a game forever, it would be skee ball. That is my favorite, like arcade game. You know what skei ball is? No. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 43:22

I do know what it is. So you kind of like roll, it's kind of like a bowling. You like roll the ball and then it like kind of like plops up into what would you call these things?

SPEAKER_00: 43:29

Like concentric circles that are worth it. That's what I call.

SPEAKER_02: 43:33

Like, I thought that was curling.

SPEAKER_00: 43:35

No, that's a different thing. Oh, that's a different thing? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 43:37

I'll gotta Google that one.

SPEAKER_00: 43:39

You got you'll love it, yeah. But it's it's way more fun than bowling in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02: 43:42

No, no, curling.

SPEAKER_00: 43:43

It's like an arc- I know, I'm saying love. Oh, it's kind of like bowling, like it kind of is, but I know what this is.

SPEAKER_02: 43:50

This is an arcade game. This is an arcade game. I didn't know this was key bowl. This is what it's called? Yes. Oh, this is a this is uh I like this. This gets my money all the time.

SPEAKER_00: 43:59

Yeah, same. I like just camp out there.

SPEAKER_02: 44:02

Yeah, because she's just like, I got this. I got it. And there's no way. There's no way you get the the middle one. It's a lucky shot.

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

I get it sometimes. That's what keeps it's like gambling. That's what keeps you there. You're like, oh, but I just got it. I'll get it.

SPEAKER_02: 44:14

Speaking of sports, has anybody picked up pickleball?

unknown: 44:18

No.

SPEAKER_02: 44:19

Glenn?

SPEAKER_00: 44:20

I've played once or twice, and it's really funny. Have you played?

SPEAKER_01: 44:23

Have you played Glenn? I've not played, but I know it's definitely I think it got popular maybe like two years ago, and then now there's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02: 44:30

Now it's just taking off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's like there's like uh there's like places that they converted, like tennis places that they've converted to tennis. Um I like it because like I feel like it can dominate. It's like it's like basketball, but with the lower rim, because you can dunk it. You know what I'm saying? Like it's like volleyball.

SPEAKER_00: 44:49

You're not supposed to do that. Right, it's like zone.

SPEAKER_02: 44:51

It's like volleyball, but you can spike, you know, like like I love it. I love it. I'm old.

SPEAKER_00: 44:57

My parents play, and they're like my stepdad, especially. He plays like all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 45:01

It's pretty good, right? Like, it's a it's a good I'm I'm glad they came up with sports that people can, you know, do do it. Yeah, but it's more like a tennis type of thing.

SPEAKER_00: 45:10

It is it is, it's like a net game.

SPEAKER_02: 45:12

It's basically like a table tennis, it's like you're standing on a table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it is, a giant ping-pong table.

SPEAKER_00: 45:19

Kind of. There's nuances, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 45:21

You're hitting it, but you're not necessarily moving around a lot.

SPEAKER_00: 45:23

I mean, you're running back and forth.

SPEAKER_02: 45:26

Yeah, if if if if you're playing against people that place it, you know, that puts a ball in a different places, then you have to run. But if like a bunch of rookies, they're just you know, basically passing the ball.

SPEAKER_00: 45:39

Somebody write in and explain pickleball to Glenn.

SPEAKER_02: 45:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 45:42

And skee ball to Ken.

SPEAKER_02: 45:44

It's the skee ball. Pickleball Glenn, you'll pick it up. As long as you don't spike in the kitchen. They call it the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00: 45:51

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02: 45:51

What the heck? Whoever's gonna get it. It's like the first line. You know, the first line, if you're in the first line, you cannot spike. So you gotta you can only spike from the back. And here's the thing: no matter how hard you hit it, the ball don't go that fast because it's hollow. It's like, like, yeah, I've tried. I've tried to hit somebody and it doesn't really hurt.

SPEAKER_00: 46:13

Okay, I have one more surprise to tell you guys.

SPEAKER_01: 46:15

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 46:16

I don't know if you have any other ones to share, but just in the interest of like keeping the train slightly on the tracks. Um I recently discovered, this was actually through Seller Ledger, that I have sold mo more things by far to New Jersey than anywhere else. Isn't that funny? Who would have thought? I would love to know why that is.

SPEAKER_02: 46:40

New Jersey's AG.

SPEAKER_00: 46:43

That's true.

SPEAKER_02: 46:44

There's AG, there's an AG.

SPEAKER_00: 46:46

But there's also Vegas, and there's also like EI EIS, um, you know, goes to Chicago-ish. So it's like way more than just what I've sold through AG, I think. But that's a good point. That probably inflated it some. But they I I discovered that in like the reports section on Seller Ledger. I haven't like, I just don't look over there a whole lot except for the Schedule C page. So I was like, oh, what's this? Oh my gosh, look, you can sort by where you've shipped things to.

SPEAKER_02: 47:14

Where's that uh under?

SPEAKER_00: 47:15

It's under reports.

SPEAKER_02: 47:16

Okay. And it's it's really sales by state.

SPEAKER_00: 47:19

Yeah, isn't that fun? So if you haven't looked at that, check it out. Um but yeah, I was I was actually I was looking in there because recently Seller Ledger updated like in their in the reports section, there's now like a balance sheet and you can do journal entries. And like I used to do accounting that way a long time ago. But they've basically made some more accountant friendly like options within Seller Ledger, but the balance sheet lives in that reports page too. So when I was over there looking at it, I realized, oh my gosh, look at this other thing too. So anyway, that's just a little shout out to Seller Ledger.

SPEAKER_02: 47:56

And seller ledger, it's a Seller Ledger. Okay, okay. Yeah, um, but but I'm I'm gonna tell you that it's has to be it's AG because mine is New Jersey by three times the next person.

SPEAKER_00: 48:10

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02: 48:11

And then the next one's Nevada, which is also AG, right? And then the big sense. And then the big state, Florida, California, Texas.

SPEAKER_00: 48:19

Yeah, mine is like New Jersey and then California.

SPEAKER_02: 48:21

Let me see the lowest. I've sold some uh armed forces in the Pacific.

SPEAKER_00: 48:28

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02: 48:30

Uh South Dakota, Virgin Islands down there. Whoa, DC? I've only sold 134 bucks to DC. Get my DC people a lot. You know why? Because there's a bunch of resellers in DC and they rather buy from them. Or there's no buyers in DC, they're all a bunch of resellers. Yeah, they're all sellers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:53

It could be. Or before the end of June. I'll just say that. Oh, yeah. We'll have a really fun surprise on our social media. Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 49:06

You guys gotta keep tuning in because we might drop that giveaway.

SPEAKER_00: 49:11

We just might. It's a high time for a giveaway, and we're gonna have so much fun stuff rolling into eBay Open. Um, we're sponsors of eBay Open, which is so fun. And I don't know, there will be a lot more to say about that. But even between here and there, we're gonna be doing some really cool stuff. So please do stay tuned and obviously go support our sponsors. We've been talking about all of them on this episode just exactly incidentally, because we love them all and we use them and just part of running our businesses.

SPEAKER_02: 49:37

Yep, make sure you follow eBay for sellers to keep up with all the news. Um, eBay for sellers have been uh pumping some good content lately too.

SPEAKER_00: 49:45

Yeah, they have.

SPEAKER_02: 49:45

Um, and we will see you at eBay Open whether you are in person or virtual.

SPEAKER_00: 49:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 49:52

So virtual is free, and there's still time to get tickets, in person events. And we will see you on the next episode. Peace. See ya. Bye.