Continuing to Be Patient

Do you ever list something for sale and think it will sell quickly, only to find it languishing in your sales listings, month after month? I imagine this happens to all of us, and probably more often than we'd like. I know I posted recently about thrifting and waiting; the Zildjian tee I mentioned in that post still hasn't sold, unfortunately.

It's always a thrill when one of those lingering items finally does sell. That happened for me this week when I sold this Billabong hoodie that I bought at the Goodwill Outlet over the summer. I'd thought with the skull design and the thick, comfy fabric, it would sell right away. Oh well. It sold over the weekend; I had listed it multiple times at auction and as a buy it now with different prices. It finally sold for just over $13, plus shipping. I probably paid a a dollar or two for it, since it was part of a "by-the-pound" purchase.

I see a lot of Billabong stuff selling on eBay, but it hasn't been too lucky for me so far. I have another Billabong t-shirt that's been hanging around since October. I think it will sell eventually, too. I bought it for a dollar at a rummage sale, so no worries.

T-shirts don't take up much space, so it doesn't bother me too much to wait for them to sell. I do have a couple that I might just need to accept as ones that aren't going to sell, but then again, you never know...

How Many Items Should I List on eBay?

Well, school has started back up (my day job is working as a college English teacher), so I haven't had as much time to focus on eBay. I'd built up my number of listings to 130 total, as I'd taken advantage of a couple of promotions from eBay which allowed free listings. Many of those listings have expired--and some have sold!--and my number of listings is below 50 again.

My goal this weekend is to finish some schoolwork and then get my number of listings built back up. I think getting to 75 is a reasonable goal. I do have a lot of expired items that I could relist, which is easy enough, but I also want to get some new listings posted as I have some new "inventory" that I want to try posting. Suzanne and I went to a great rummage sale last weekend, and I have some t-shirts to list from that as well as some really cute vintage Playmobil toys which include several little skateboarder figures and their tiny skateboards. I also have three silk neckties, a cap from a beer company, and (of course) my usual pile of thrifted tees that I haven't gotten around to listing yet.

As a side note, I've noticed that the few hats I've listed have been good sellers. I've sold a Guinness beer driving cap, a University of Washington Huskies baseball cap, and most recently a Tyrol hat. Trish found the Tyrol hat at a garage sale a few weeks ago, and we made sure to list it right away, to catch the Oktoberfest crowd. Here's a photo.

I think the only hat that hasn't sold so far is the Indiana Jones hat Trish and I found at the Goodwill Outlet this summer. We're still hoping that someone will want it for a costume and that it sells before Halloween!

How many items do you try to keep listed on eBay? I'd love to reach 100 listings again. I know other people have even higher goals in terms of items listed, sometimes into the thousands!