May Be On The Right Path

Sorry, it's been two weeks again since last post.

Postings are now up to 1311 (as of this moment). Seems like it should be more than that at 30 – 35 new listings a day. I'll have to start logging my productivity. Last Monday, I took 6 ads to the PO. Today, I will take 10 in 9 packages, altho it was a 3 day weekend. Everything still shows progress.

Had a great weekend. Spent Saturday and Sunday with some family and friends at my brother's lake in New York State. Nicely remote. 90 acres of woods with a 20 acre lake in the middle and a cabin with running hot water, electricity, all the comforts of home. It is always nice to get away even for a little bit. Talked a lot about the internet and its potential. My brother is going to get his publishing business going one of these days.

Back to scanning.

Happy Tuesday.

Thoughts on Volume of Listings

Since I was here last, I've been scanning away and got the listings up to just over 1100. I think I got to 1102 at one point and felt like I had reached a goal. Then, wouldn't you know it, people bought some, so my count went down below 1100. Believe, me, I am not complaining.

It reminded me of a time way back when we took our three kids to a fish farm in upstate New York. Somebody's Eddy - Pond Eddy, maybe? I suppose I could look it up, but the scanner is cooling off. Anyway, it was a place where they stocked the pools and streams with trout and you paid for what you caught. The kids were maybe 4 to 7 and hadn't been fishing before. I got the corn on the oldest son's hook, then on the daughter's, then on the youngest son's, and before I could bait my own hook, the oldest was back with a fish and needing more bait. Got him off again and here came the daughter, with the youngest son in line behind her. It was half an hour before I managed to get my own hook in the water. I think maybe they learned how to do part of it by then—sure didn't have to wait long for a fish. And I don't even like them, but we went home with about $18 worth, which I did help eat—we weren't rich enough to waste them. The point is that while it was fun helping the kids fish, I wanted to fish myself and couldn't get there because of helping them.

Listing the ads reminded me of that. I just hope the ad buyers are as hungry as those trout were.

I've learned another interesting fact: watchers have nothing to do with buyers. Out of about 100 ads sold, about 7 or 8 had watchers. It is fun to see items being watched—at least you know that the listings are being found and considered. At this very moment, there are about 54 listings being watched out of 1120 or so. One even has three watchers. It was about the same yesterday, and there were 6 sales. Nothing today so far (2 PM).

The clerk at the Post Office told me this morning that I must be doing pretty well since I'm there every day. I want to think that the PO people probably see all of us eBay shippers, and have a pretty fair idea of shipping volumes. We'll see.

I have found two sites that are looking for "homemade" photographs to sell to buyers. Competition for the expensive stock photo places, using amateur photographers. Sounds like a good idea. I will post that info another time - soon, I promise.

Happy Wednesday.

A Reconfiguration of the Percentage Idea

It has turned out that my idea of judging success by the percentage of sold items to ended listings is no good. eBay doesn't count "Good Til Cancelled" store items as ending when they roll over every thirty days. The "Ended Listings" figure only shows items which have been put up for auction, not listed directly to store inventory.

The new plan is to divide the "Number Sold" by the total of "Active Items" plus "Number Sold." Instead of 21%, I get a figure of 8.9%. It is just occurring to me that to get a monthly figure, the "Number Sold" would have to be "Number Sold in Month," which means that it is going to be a couple extra steps that are not immediately presented by eBay's figures. They do give Sales Reports, which have shown that 8 or 9 percent figure, but the reports are published with a delay of many days. Maybe that is OK for someone who has been at it for a longer time. I am anxious to get the figures right now - sign of the times, eh?

People continue to buy ads I almost didn't even list. I take it that means that my thinking is not what should be guiding the world. There's a lesson in humility. I'll take it. Character building.

So, if volume is the answer, I'd better get scanning.

Happy Wednesday.