How to Make Sure That Your Item Is Ready for Resale

Okay so you have clothing, shoes or other items that you want to sell online. You want to sell on eBay, Amazon, etc. but how do I get started? Here are my 3 steps to help make sure that your item is ready for resale.

First, make sure that your items are decent looking. This means no holes, stains, or animal hairs. You’d be amazed what poor conditions so many items are. I have seen a store on a resale platform where the seller says that because she owns a cat that all items will come with car hair! No SHE DID NOT! That’s unacceptable because no customer should have to tolerate that. I wash all of my items. Sometimes I dry clean them if the instructions say so. Just because it is resale doesn’t mean that you can sell anything.

Second, research your price for copywriting and fair market value. The prices vary from new to pre-owned (worn). I have sold both. In addition, please add if you have the original box but that gets a higher price. If you are selling pre-owned, the rule of thumb is pricing it 50% your original price. You also need to know how to write your description so that it sells. In eBay, the sold listings feature will help you see how much an item sells but also the words used to get the sale.

Third, photos are everything. Please photograph your items in a well-lit place. Lighting is very important because the first time your customer receives his merchandise is after paying. I normally take a minimum 3 photos (front, back and side). If it is a shoe, photograph the soles and inside the shoe.

Bonus tip – If there are stains or thread missing, divulge that information in your description. Also photograph it. The customer needs to know because it is all of perfect information and not practicing fraud.

Making sure that your resale items are decent, properly researching your items’ copywriting and fair market value and photographing your items in good lighting are my ways to ensure that your item is ready for resale!

I am a tall women’s fashion luxury consignment reseller. My motto is giving tall women ‘Neiman Marcus merchandise at rock bottom prices.’ Shop my store: www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

Why I Love Resale

I have been in luxury consignment resale since June 2016. It has been an unmatched journey marked with highs and lows (mostly highs). Resale has provided me with a lot of personal and professional opportunities. Here are my 5 reasons and 1 bonus on why I love resale!

I get to find my items nice, new homes

I have so many items that I haven’t worn in over 1-2 years. I love sending them to new homes and buyers who appreciate them.

I help people save money (it’s the economist in me)

One of the reasons for getting into resale is because I’ve seen how outrageous some of the prices are. I know that you need to make a profit (my store does turn one) but gouging people is not the way to do business.

Tip : I price my pre-owned (worn before) ½ the original price. That’s market value and fair use. I have a 100% customer feedback rating so people agree with me!

Resale community

I like being a part of the resale community. I have learned so much from Raiken Profit’s YouTube channel. It’s great to have a support system where people are reaching a common goal.

Improved my sales pitch

Resale has improved my sales pitch. I have had to become a fashion blogger, create sales images in Canva, and do livestreams on Periscope, Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Resale has helped me improve professionally.

Provided me with an income stream

Resale has given me extra money along the way. I have saved and used that money to prepare for my ITIL Foundation certification course. I use my resale money to pay for the GreyCampus Udemy ITIL Foundation prep course.

Bonus : Instant PayPal

Instant PayPal is a feature you receive when you have high customer feedback rating. I have a 100% customer feedback rating so I instantly receive my PayPal money transferring it directly to my bank account the next day. It is like a reward for supplying high quality customer service.

These five reasons (and one bonus) are my reasons why I love resale. What are yours? Feel free to shop my tall women’s luxury consignment store: www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

Shop Affordable Luxury for the Tall Woman on the Go

I run a tall women’s luxury consignment eBay store. My motto is offering you Neiman Marcus merchandise at near rock bottom prices. I carry Stuart Weitzman, Alice + Olivia, and Michael by Michael Kors. Shop affordable luxury here: www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Keeper of my Word

                I have noticed as of lately that people are emailing me after the sale. Yesterday is the same. I received an email for my Stuart Weitzman Dunkirk boots saying that she would pay $75. I quickly relisted changing it from auction to fixed price. I gave it $100 fixed price emailing her back then returning to sleep.

                This morning I see 2 bids: 1) for $90 and 2) the other $75. Well, I have kept my word accepting the $75. Although the other bid is $15 more but I am kept my word. Integrity is very important to me as a businesswoman. It is the best way to run my shop.

Shop my store: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Pause for the Cause

                Okay I am the first to admit that having 4 sales in 5 days (one of those days was Veterans Day, a federal holiday) is time and energy consuming. You have to pack, write thank you letters and ship. Resale is hard work so I have taken a slight break Monday. All I’ve done is track my Saturday package. I haven’t relisted anything. I even let some things expire. I just take a break from the madness (It also helps that I am getting instant PayPal payments because now I don’t have to wait until the buyer receives her package to receive my money.)

                Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure - All Hail Instant Payment PayPal

                Resale is not an easy business. I have been doing it for 5 months. I have listed, relisted, negotiated, fought fraudsters, checked ungrateful customers and been surprised by shipping weight more than once at the post office. Throughout it all, I’ve written thank you cards, purchased materials and shipping the same day as payment. All of this toiling and seed planting have reaped me a bountiful harvest: I now qualify for PayPal’s instant payment.

                This blessing ranks right up there like manna from heaven! Liquidity and solvency are important to every business. Instant payments mean that I can transfer the money to my bank. I achieve liquidity because these transfers are cash infusions. Also with cash on hand I stay solvent by paying my bills!

                Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure - 120 Days In

                This 30-day period is my slowest because I have taken myself offline after the Depop failure. I have emotionally regroup from that. I have only sold one item for $55; and, I am perfectly okay with that because eBay’s fees are super slow. The last thing I need right now is a heavy heart and high fees. I do think that I will reassess what I do regarding selling my clothes.

                Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure - 90 Days In

                Right after Labor Day, I am in a very nadir place. I have decided to sell my clothing items on Depop. I have seen some YouTube personalities mention it so I say ‘why the heck not?’ Well after 6 weeks with no role (I’ve even done a Labor Day sale plastering my photos everywhere from Blogger to Instagram to Pinterest with no such luck.). I have never experienced no sales. It has taken me less than 2 weeks to get my first eBay sale. I declare defeat deleting my Depop store.

                This has taken a whole lot out of me. First, I’ve devoted time towards learning a new system. Second, I have created a separate marketing campaign. Third, I am still stuck with unsold inventory which costs me time, space and money. I so need a break from resale!

                Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Some People Are Not Your Customers

                No sooner do I accept the Kate Spade black patent leather tote bag then the buyer emails me through eBay saying ‘please disregard’. Now this is a new one: a customer saying that she wants to cancel an order after doing a bid. I am like ‘huh?’ because this has never happened to me. I agree to cancel because I refuse to fight over $26. Inside I feel like blocking this buyer for her messiness. However, I decide against it because she is probably petty and I need to conserve my energy for more sales.

                This incident magnifies that not everyone is my customer. eBay is a global auction place where anyone and everyone can come into your store; however, not everyone should be my client. You need to be discerning because some clients do not want to pay; and, you are in business to sale!

                Since I am now selling purses, I may get these customers because unlike my shoes and dresses, purses have a wider demographic. What I will do is ask more questions and screen them because cancelling orders hold up merchandise.

Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Receiving my 14th Gold Star

                I have been under the weather for the previous two days. It has been wrenched. I am just happy to have loaded up my store, done my Periscope and built rapport with people. My two packages have been shipped. When I feel better, check my eBay profile and see my 14^th gold star. I am extremely grateful whenever I receive these gold stars because I am honored that they truly love my stuff (I am getting teary-eyed even typing this because I am very happy that I have a successful store. 4.5 months into this eBay adventure!). Seeing this rating reinvigorates my spirit to be better and restock my store.

Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Wheeling and Dealing

                My eBay store activity has picked after these two sales. Also, I am happy that those weird midnight requests are gone. I have noticed something new that is happening to me. I am starting to receiving offers and counteroffers. This is a new trend so I am starting to flex my counteroffer muscle. In one such case, I have a brown embossed Kate Spade purchase where someone pitches me $35 for $75. I counteroffer $45. It is fair because half of $75 is $37.50. She has not replied but I am standing in my price and fairness. Since the beginning my counteroffer policy has always been ½ of the stated price. I am not bending over that. Remember, even though I am decluttering, this is a business. As a seller, my goal is to make a profit. I always tuck that MBA in the back of mind. It is the reason why I have made over $3200 in sales in 4 ½ months.

Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Foot Fetish?

                Now I was fresh off the holiday sales webinar feeling great. I had a full store and was about to retire when I saw that I had a message on eBay. I assumed that it was from one of my newer sales. Nope! It was from someone asking about the Rene Caovilla. These inquires were old hat. There were so many people asking about them. I even had people direct message me on Instagram about them; yet, they were still in my store. I relisted them at least twice. I opened up the message and here was someone telling me that I needed to photograph myself wearing the sandals. Yo! Was the person contacting me a foot fetish person?! It was 12:55 am after all. I shot the photo (no fingernail polish. No one got this at this ungodly hour of the morning!). I admitted that I was sideswiped by that strange request. I woke up later that day seeing the Rene Caovilla

Shop my eBay store: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure - Holiday Promo Prep

                I registered for this Holiday webinar happening on Halloween for two reasons: 1) I knew that I would get something out of it from the teacher and 2) I had not had an eBay sale in 1 week. I needed to do something different to get a different result. It was first advertised as a lottery selection. If you reshared the coach’s Periscope and Facebook Live livestreaming content, you would enter a lottery to be picked for a free ticket. I never believed that pay thing because I was already enrolled so why would not I had been accepted. That was neither here nor there. I registered for the webinar. It was not like I was trick or treating (Sidebar : I did tell my father to go to the Heinen’s grocery store and pick more candy for the kids in the neighborhood). I might as well did some personal development plus this webinar could help my bottom line.

                I attended the webinar where I learned and laughed so much throughout. The coach gave us 30 ways to make money. I started taking notes because I knew that my eBay store would benefit from this. The light bulb came on : I would put several of my Kate Spade purses up for sale. Accessories were huge! Although women may not fit a size 12 shoe or dress, every woman wore a purse. That addition expanded my target market. That meant more money and I sorely needed that. Even though the webinar ended at 11pm, immediately I started photographing my items. I uploaded 2 Stuart Weitzman sandals and 5 Kate Spade purses. I was proud to had done that all before midnight. I knew that I was ready for tomorrow and more sales.

Shop my eBay store: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – How to Make over $3200 in eBay Sales

I decided that for Nanowrimo (national novel writing month) to write about my eBay Adventures. I perused my seller dashboard (the first time in at least one month) and saw that I cumulatively sold $3231. That was astounding given that I had started this June. I sold 30 items. I was extremely happy at my progress. Now it’s story time:

Resale is Rough

                Selling on eBay is hard. I had to take September off because I was so drained. Although you look at the sales numbers thinking that this is good, it is very hard fighting bad customers, nothing selling and fraudsters. I am happy to have rebound

Constant Improvement is Key

                When I first started, I did not know what the proper box dimensions were. I shipped everything in the same box. Now I was wiser, I bought boxes that saved me money. The white boxes saved me hundreds of dollars in shipping.

Change Your Global Shipping Price to Above $50

                I learned this the hard way. Initially, it was $40 but after a couple of Paris global USPS priority shipments and I upped that price to $50. $10 was a lot of money to part with when your global shipping was $45.

No Global Shipping for Lower-priced Items

                Anything under $125 dollars was US only. There was not enough return on investment to make it globally. I was glad that I established that rule in the beginning else global shipping would eat all of my profits.

Be a Stickler for Customer Service

                I have always learned from my customers and shipped the same day as payment. I felt that if they paid for it, why not ship it the same day. Also I expanded to shipping on Saturday ahead of a holiday because people want their stuff. Doing this has a wonderful side-benefit: PayPal releases your money faster. I am now receiving instant PayPal even before I ship the product. PayPal trusts me so much that I automatic receive my money allowing me to transfer it into my bank account. It feels good to be rewarded because I have stood on these shipping the same day at payment receipt. There are some people who make hundreds of thousands of dollars yet PayPal still holds their money until their customers received their merchandise. After 4 months, I deserve this.

Visit my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Firing Your Bad Customers

                I have received an email from a customer who wants a discount on an already worn, discounted item. I have told her that I could not honor her request for 3-4 reasons. Below is the synopsis of my response:

                Thanks for the correspondence and concern but I will not give you a discount and these are my 3 reasons.

·         First, the stilts price was originally $100. I agreed to your $65 best offer bid. That was already a 35% discount.

·         Second, I also extended my shipping deadline to accommodate you because you were on vacation. My normal shipment was 2 business days. I shipped on Saturday which was not a business day and outside the original scope of what I did for my other customers. You mentioned vacation after purchase.

·         Third, my description clearly stated worn and I priced my merchandise as such.

·         My store policy clearly stated no returns. I made no misconceptions about the material or my policies. I had accommodated your shipping request and accepted a deeply discounted item.

I had a situation like this before and eBay sided with me because I made no misrepresentation. Also you would have to explain to eBay how your telling me that you have been on vacation post-purchase would be in your favor. All of our correspondence was through eBay and that would be used in the decision-making process.

What I have learned throughout my 120 days on eBay, that sometimes you have to fire your customers because they are trying to take advantage of you. As a seller, never become a doormat!

Visit my eBay store at www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6.

eBay Adventure – Weather or Not

                I have been checking the USPS mail tracker feverishly because one of my packages is going to Florida. As many of you know, Hurricane Matthew has wrecked the Sunshine State. Whenever I check the tracker, it says weather delay. It is all up and down my tracking notes. I will be the first person to tell you when I started my eBay decluttering process that I had no idea that I would have been shipping into the eye of the hurricane; yet, here I am shipping my order on Saturday directly into the middle of Hurricane Matthew. I just pray for everyone’s safety (including the postman!) and that my buyer receives her package unharmed.

Visit my store: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Standing Up for Myself

                The person who tried underbidding me at $150 returned with a $200 offer. I accepted it because it was closer towards 50% ($225). I stood up for myself because there was no way that I allowed any buyer to undermine me! That was someone that you had to learn as an eBay seller. There were people out there trying to nickel and dime. It was mandatory to stand firm because this was a business and as a seller you must have a breakeven analysis and cost of goods sold (the cost to ship your product).

I brought up cost of goods sold aspect because it a vital part of revenue. In business sale – cost of goods sold = revenue. Cost of goods sold is a uniform price. The post office charged you, the seller, the same amount of the package dimensions regardless of sales price. Lowering your sales price meant a cut into your revenue. That was why I stood up and declined the $150 but accepted the $200 because I needed a buffer and to generate revenue! eBay was a business and the buyers would respect that!

Visit my eBay store at: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Sometimes You Have to Walk Away

                Feeling great about my current momentum, I took to Periscope showcasing my sales and my new merchandise. Also I loaded the replay into my HootSuite redistributing it across all of my social media platforms. That was the behind the scenes work that most sellers did not understand. You cannot simply open a store. You had to do marketing and business development. Maintaining this blog and doing my Periscopes (converting some of my best into YouTube videos) were part of my marketing campaign. I would had been remissed thinking that my two newer sales were a result of my sharing my photos online, blogging and Periscope.

                Later Thursday night I checked my eBay to get the store link for a blog post. I received an announcement saying that I had a bid. I saw that someone wanted $150 for a new $450 item and I flatly declined it saying that it was too low. No one was getting me on a new item for 1/3 the cost. That was highway robbery. I would had entertained something over $325 but come on, now no one would get a Gianvito Rossi shoe for $150! Sometimes you had to walk away from a sale which I did. There might be a very real possibility that I would have to relist my item; and, I am okay with that because I had retained my integrity and sales policy!

                Visit my store at http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Increasing Sales Report

                Thursday morning the only thing that I had to do was drop off my eBay order to the post office. Nothing more, nothing less. I went about my morning walk (I must process everything), breakfast and the usual stuff. The one thing I did not do was check my email because I would be reacting to someone that happened in the past and during the morning I focused on the present and future which were occurring today.

                Upon my returning home, I checked my email and saw two new sales. I was happy because people were noticing my store. There were so many eBay stores out there and for someone to buy from me was great. Since it was not 9am, I was all set to pack up these shoes when I received a message from the buyer. She told me to delay the shipment due to travel. I was okay with that because I received the money and she gave me a heads up.

                Visit my eBay store at: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Breaking the Ice

                Immediately after relisting my items, I received a sale. It was at night and completely unexpected. I was grateful even though it was $25 because someone decided to part with her money. You had to be grateful for that especially after a 3-week layoff. I hoped that this first sale created some momentum for my store because I surely needed it (and the items were piling up. Remember, decluttering was my original reason for opening the eBay store.). I still considered uploading some of my clothes to do another go round.

                Visit my store at: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6