The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge came to an end with the auctions that ended the evening of Sunday, October 5th.

With a net profit of $10,847.95 for the five months, I obviously fell well short of my goal of $15,000 net profit. Readers who wish to see the details for the last two weeks of The Challenge can do so by clicking here.

Even though my final figure is well short of my $15,000 goal, I hope that the last five months have demonstrated garage sales, thrift shops, and book sales can be a profitable source of inventory for someone wanting to sell on eBay.

I’d like to thank those readers who took part this year. I hope in one fashion or another, you were able to learn something that will make your endeavors on eBay more profitable in the future.

Photograph by photographia.

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It appears that once again I’m playing catch-up, having to report the results from two weeks to be caught up with this years Challenge. This report will cover both week 20 and week 21.

The number of garage sales in Grand Forks the last few weeks has declined significantly resulting in a decreased number of listings. This smaller number of items found has also led to smaller dollar amounts in sales.

Because of this, last Saturday I chose to get up early and drive to Barnesville, Minnesota for their annual City Wide Garage Sale Extravaganza. It will likely turn out to be a good decision. I went to 54 garage sales in Barnesville. Those sales resulted in 40 new items that are currently listed on eBay.

If I had stayed in Grand Forks I would have gone to 14 fresh sales on Saturday. While it’s impossible to know what I might have bought, no regulars that I’ve talked to reported buying anything of any significance, so it’s unlikely I would have either.

All that said, if you would like to see the details of how the Challenge is doing along with what I bought this last week you can do so at Gary’s 2008 Garage Sale Challenge - Week 20 & 21. You will notice that my mileage expense for last week was up significantly. That is due to the 220 mile round trip I made to Barnesville.

The short version is that at the end of week 21, with two weeks remaining I have made a net profit of $9747.77. Considerably short of the $15.000 goal I had set at the beginning of the Challenge.

Photograph by photographia.

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Today Mitzi at The Vintage List provided a link to an excellent blog post by Harry Rinker on The Ruby Lane Blog.

Mr. Rinker has been around the antiques/collectibles business for many years and is highly respected by many people in the trade.

While his entire post is worth reading if you sell antiques or collectibles on eBay (I happen to believe he’s 100% right on in his vision of eBay’s future), today I want to comment on the small part of his post that finally caused him to speak out about what’s going on at eBay. That is…

“I am finished with eBay. I have close to 1,300 positive feedbacks as a buyer. I never sold a single object on eBay. I am a good customer. But, I will be damned to hell if I am going to allow eBay to dictate how I should pay for my purchases. My checks are good, none bounced. I am taking my business elsewhere.“

Mr. Rinker is NOT the only buyer taking eBay’s decision to no longer allow personal checks and money orders as a personal slap in the face.
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The number of garage sales in Grand Forks has fallen off considerably over the last two to three weeks and the last couple Saturdays have seen only six to ten new sales. There’s nothing to suggest that tomorrow will be any different, so I’m hoping a little travel will make tomorrow more productive than if I stayed in town.

I’ll be leaving the house sometime between 5:00 and 5:30am Saturday morning and, fortified with a large cup of strong black coffee, will make the 110 mile drive to Barnesville, Minnesota for their area-wide Fall Rummage Sale.

That means burning a lot more gas than staying in town would, but according to their ad in the Fargo Forum there will be more than forty rummage sales in Barnesville and the surrounding area. That many sales is just too tempting to pass up this time of year.

Tomorrow I’ll let everyone know whether it was a wise decision or not.

Photograph by brendan.lally.

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MC018 eBay Listing Removed: Search and Browse Manipulation

That was the subject line of an email I received last night from eBay.

the email advised me that eBay had taken it upon itself to terminate one on my auctions because I used the two-word phrase “Like New” in my headline.

It went on to say…

“Sellers are not permitted to include any information that does not describe or is not directly relevant to the item being sold within a listing. Any information included within a listing that may misrepresent the terms of sale is also not permitted.“

Apparently I was foolish enough to think that the term “Like New” actually described, and was therefore relevant to, a set of books I was selling that appeared as though they had just come off the shelf at Barnes & Nobles.

eBay’s thinking in not allowing me to use the term “Like New” in my headline is that I am misleading buyers who are searching for a “New” set of these books. Their logic is that some poor sap will be drawn into my web of deceit and, realizing that I’m out to mislead and/or defraud them, never again return to eBay to make a purchase.

Realizing that trying to logically discuss something with an entity that more and more is demonstrating it has a collective IQ of somewhere in the 30 to 40 range, I simply removed the offensive two-word phrase from my headline and re-listed the item.

However, on the off chance that anyone from eBay might ever read this post I do have a few questions that I’d be interested in hearing eBay’s response to.
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As part of the numerous changes taking place in September and October, eBay launched their new 30-day fixed price listing format earlier today. This new feature has received a considerable amount of press among eBay related blogs, forums, and discussion groups the last few weeks. Some good and some not so good.

While many people have little, or nothing, nice to say about 30FP, I think before making blanket statements about it, each of us owe it to ourselves, as sellers, to do some brainstorming about how we might be able to use it to improve our businesses and make them more profitable.

I can immediately see two possible ways it may help me sell more product for more money. Today I began testing both to a limited degree and will continue to do so for the next 30 to 60 days.
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Once again a variety of things happened over the last two weeks and the results for week 18 of the 2008 Garage Sale Challenge never got posted. This leads to another catch-up post including both week 18 and week 19 which just ended.

The seventeenth week of the Challenge saw an upswing in the number of garage sales in Grand Forks (probably due to summer winding down) which resulted in a dramatic increase in purchases and the number of listings for week 18. I had 42 qualifying items listed and they resulted in sales of $914.03. In addition, Amazon also did quite well bringing in $273.19 in book sales.

There were very few garages sales during week 18 because of the long Labor Day weekend and people wanting to get out of town. I did have a fair amount of luck at the thrift stores however, and between the thrift stores and a few garage sales I picked up 20 qualifying items that ended Sunday evening. Seventeen of the twenty items sold bringing in $451.78. Amazon sales for the week were a dismal $55.46. This was a result of my having to be gone most of the week and having to put Amazon on vacation for the majority of the week.

Due to the problems I had a few weeks ago with the Challenge update posts breaking the blog I am no longer going to include the table of updated figures and the list of what I currently have on eBay here any longer. Readers who want to view these can do so at Gary’s 2008 Garage Sale Challenge - Week 18 & 19.

Photograph by photographia.

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Over the course of the next few weeks there is going to be a lot of discussion about the changes eBay will be implementing between now and October. Much of it will be nothing more than negative rants delivered by people who would probably complain if they won the lottery.

But amid all the garbage, there will be a few rational sellers whom will provide some valid ideas. One of those sellers is Cliff Aliperti who writes the Movie Profiles and Premiums blog. Cliff talks about the approach he is taking toward some of the changes in his recent post eBay Changes - Test 1.

The thought Cliff has put into his testing, along with the way he is implementing it, serve as a model as to how any serious seller should approach eBay’s recent changes.

Photograph by Dylan Duvergé.

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The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines customer as “one that purchases a commodity or service“.

The upcoming changes eBay announced on Tuesday, along with changes implemented during the last few months, make it clear that eBay has never owned a dictionary.

Increasingly, eBay is operating under the delusion that the people who come to eBay to make purchases (buyers) are their customers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since eBay’s inception, no buyer has ever spent a penny purchasing a commodity or service from eBay.

eBay’s revenue is generated entirely by sellers who purchase services from them. Sellers are eBay’s customers. If eBay sustain their growth and increase profits, they need to understand that and focus on creating an environment in which ethical sellers can thrive and continue to grow.

Photograph by Larry Page.

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Several things came up here last week and one results was the update for week 15 of the Challenge didn’t get posted. I had most of it done last Tuesday, but finishing it kept getting delayed from one day to another, and it never got done. Now the update for week 16 is due too and I find myself no closer to having week 15 done than I was a week ago.

So, to get up-to-date, this is going to be an abridged version of both weeks 15 and 16. About all you will get is the table showing the results for the two weeks along with my expenses so far for week 17.

I do have 65 qualifying items running on eBay this week, but I’m not going to list them all here. They consist of 20 unsold items that I re-listed along with 45 fresh purchases made last week. Anyone interested in what they are can see them by using the link to my auctions in the “Information” section of the right sidebar.

Here’s how things look at the end of week 16.

Things are getting back to a semblance of normal here so next week’s update should be on time and in the regular format.

Photograph by emdot.

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