Well, these are the factors I use to decide what goes off-sale on rotation:
- Obviously, seasonality.
- Watchers.
- Views.
- Profit - not % profit, but actual cash. A slow selling item that will yield £150 profit when it eventually sells, is better kept on sale at the expense of a £5 profit slow seller.
- Complementary sales - I keep a selection of the accessories on sale, because a potential buyer may need a collar and studs to go with their shirt. Even if the collar and studs are low-profit in themselves.
- Returning or regular buyers. Someone who's just bought volumes 1-3 may well be back next month for volumes 4-6. Someone who's just bought a red jumper may come back for a blue or green one if they like it. A costume buyer who's bought a school blazer, may come back for more school uniform next week.
- Turnover - if you need £x a week to pay the bills, you may need to keep steady low-value sellers visible or even sell something at a loss now and then.
- Visibility. If you've got 30 different types of army belts for sale, always keep a couple on show, and if buyers want something slightly different, they'll often message you to ask. If you don't have any army belts for sale, they won't.
- (Don't laugh, please!) convenience of packing. If I've got lots of non-work commitments, I don't want to be spending all afternoon packing an antique dinner service. So awkward stuff goes off-sale for a few months at busy times of year.
And here are my methods to prevent accidents:
- have a routine and stick to it. Organize relists and rotation at a regular time and day when you are awake and not likely to be interrupted by the phone or visitors.
- put manual notes on the "eBay seller's notes", with dates. "Bottom cupboard, third shelf down 3.10.23" or "Check pictures before relisting" or "Can't locate item 1.12.24. DO NOT RELIST TILL FOUND."
- Have a unique identifier for each item, whether it's an unchanging item title, or a stock number.
- If in doubt about anything, put a note on the listing, take it off sale, and physically stock-check the item before relisting.
- Use the gallery picture and title to help you distinguish similar items. One black morocco Bible looks much like another if you're in a hurry, so having "1894 inscription" or "illustrated by Millais" in the title will prevent accidents.
- Do a physical stock-check regularly, and if you can't find something, take it off sale till you can. I aim to check my fast sellers every 3 months and slow sellers every 12-18 months. There are usually a couple of anomalies (items that aren't listed at all, wrong stock levels, accidental duplicates, or items sold on another channel).
- When you find something that seems to have come accidentally unlisted, put it on the "waiting for relisting" shelf until you've got time to see to it.
Hope this isn't too basic, but for me, listing and rotation is a matter of idiotproofing my routine.
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Cesario, the Count's gentleman
