Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A Day in the Life of an eBay Seller

The alarm goes off at 7:00 AM.  It feels much too early!   I get up, walk the dogs, and sit down to breakfast.  Over breakfast I check in at work-related social media sites:  my business page on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.   Then I come here to blog.  (This is one of my favorite parts of the day!)

I pack anything that sold and drop it off, usually in the neighborhood "blue box."  (Most of my packages are small, and I always print postage on eBay, so they can be mailed in any USPS mailbox.)   If I have any bigger packages, they need to go to the Post Office, which is thankfully only 2 miles away.

Then it is time to list items in my eBay store.  Over summer I'm listing just a few new items a day (5 most days).   I look into one of my "treasure boxes" of unlisted inventory.  (You'll find a peek into one of the boxes above.)  These are items I found at local yard sales, estate sales, or thrift stores.  I try to list similar items on any given day in order to expedite listings.  It is much faster to list 5 motel postcards, 5 cookbooks, or 5 children's books at the same time.

At this point the pups will want to walk again.   This is a nice break!

By now it is probably lunch time, so I make something fast -- usually a sandwich with fruit or yogurt.

Then I settle in for the long afternoon.  This is tedious, so I make sure to have something fun to listen to (usually XM Radio - oh how I love XM!).  Each afternoon I open up Turbolister, my listing program, and pull out my inventory cards.  I am going through items A - Z and checking titles and item specifics.  I am pulling some lower value items to donate.  I am also saving photos to my computer if the listing was created before 2013.   In early 2013 I had a major hard drive crash and lost all my photos.   I had backed up most of my personal pictures but have very few of the eBay pics here.  (I know - not smart!  I learned!)  My goal is to complete this process by Labor Day.  This work fills the afternoon, broken only by a late afternoon dog walk. 

By the time dinner rolls around (6:00 PM) I am delighted to turn the computer off and take a break.  I find I am spending much less time on the computer outside of work hours these days.  I do enjoy my personal Facebook page, and I usually pop in there most often (via iPad or phone).  

This schedule will change in September.  I am excited about Fall, and look forward to spending time on Etsy.  I am trying to freshen up my eBay listings and save photos this Summer, so I can put some real energy into Etsy this Fall.  I will have to post another day in the life then.

3 comments:

BookCornerCafe said...

I always love reading what you write and having a schedule is great. Sounds like this is working just perfect for you and looking forward to hearing about Etsy.

Deb
www.bookcornercafe.com

Bob Gilliland said...

As an on sabbatical eBay seller this brings back a ton of memories. Definitely looking forward to hearing about Etsy.

Birdhouse Books said...

Deb, thanks! I am looking forward to hearing about your Etsy too!

Bob, thanks for commenting and hooray for Etsy! I just love that site (both listing there and shopping there as well).