Today we started the time-consuming task of getting our next set of eBay auctions listed. We are aiming to have them up by the evening of the ninth.
It takes Kathi and myself about 40 man-hours of work from start to finish of one eBay cycle.
This time I have 62 items to pull to complete the sheet that Kathi gives me showing what items will be relisted and what needs to be pulled fresh. The pull will take a couple of days of on and off activity. We usually have around 150 items in total in a listing cycle.
Then, I will probably shoot about 500 pictures, crop and sort them, and load them into the listing service that we use for our eBay auctions.
Next we measure the stones using electronic digital callipers, and Kathi records these measurements
Kathi will then engage in the tedious process of making and affixing labels for each of the small plastic bags in which we keep the individual stones inside of their own velour pouches for protection.
She then creates the auctions by inserting all of the measurements into existing auction templates for each type of stone, and schedules them for posting on eBay.
Once they are posted, she has to make an entire new set of labels for the bags. These labels show the eBay auction number for each item. It is the only way to keep things straight and avoid future mistakes.
Once the auctions are up and running, we watch for and answer questions from potential clients, and Kathi keeps track of which items receive bids and moves them into a separate bin.
On auction night Kathi does most of the work by pulling sold items and placing them and their related mineral information cards into client specific bags. Some clients will buy only one item, while others will buy many. The most that any one client has ever purchased in one eBay cycle is 40!
Sometimes auctions night is boring (there is nowhere near as much last second bidding as there used to be), and sometimes it is really exciting (when there are bidding wars).
After all of the auctions close, we both work on sending out invoices.
The next day is called “Pack and Ship Day”. Kathi does bubble mailers and I do boxes. Kathi prints all of the mailing labels and I put them on the packages. The goal is to get everything that has been paid for to the post office by 6:30.
In our most recent listing cycle we sold 71 items. P & S day is tiring but rewarding at the same time. It means that soon clients all over the world will be receiving stones that they will love.
After a couple of days almost all items that sold will be paid for and shipped. There are always one or two clients who wait several days to pay, and we have to watch for those payments to come in.
After seven days we will send out reminders to anyone who has not as yet paid. We almost never wind up with unpaid items which is a much more frequent problem for many eBay sellers than it is for us.
eBay is a lot of work, but it is a great way to generate new clients and also to increase awareness of our Kathi’s Krystals website.