I could have put several new auctions up today but.......

I have a heaping table of things to list on Listia.

I have to pace myself to make sure I have enough to cover postage.

I love it when they receive their package and give feedback. Makes me feel like Santa Claus.

Today I was inspired to work on my sewing and creative stuff. While doing so I came up with an awesome idea.

Sometimes you just got to go with the flow.

I don't really have much else to share.

Another great tip for your auctions. Always try to have more than one auction going at a time. The more auctions you have going the more bids and watchers you will get on all of them.

I feel that I now have the expertise to say that. I have done over 50 auctions in my first month, and only 2 so far ended without any bids. They both went on the 2nd relist.

Happy Thanksgiving to all that are reading along and following my journey here. I would love to hear your questions and comments.

Laurie

BTW I updated the Paypal links here:
http://onlinerummagesaleitems.blogspot.com/2013/09/i-recently-came-across-great-deal-on.html

If you don't want to mess around with bidding and just want to buy some hacky sack balls and get them on their way to you fast, and in time for stocking stuffers.

A Few Tips to get more Bids on Your Auctions.

I think there may be several amatuer listers on Listia.

It amazes me when I see a listing with only one picture and only one line in the description.

If you want the search engines to pick up your auctions, (meaning more visits, higher bidder numbers) than you need to make your auction more appealing.

It doesn't cost anything to add pictures like it does on Ebay, so put up as many as you can. Take one with a coin or a yardstick or ruler, to show actual size. Take front back and side pictures.

In your description be wordy. Add as much detail or story as you can. I recently listed some scrapbook cutouts that I made using my sizzix. I actually have three different items in saved searches.

Because of my wording, my scrapbook aucitons are coming up under my "sizzix" saved search. Here is a screenshot of an alert email I got from listia today. Can you imaging how pleased I was to see that the first 3 listings under "sizzix" were all mine. :)

This is also a great way to research what others are doing, especially in categories of items you may list on a regular basis.

I will be writing an ebook soon for more tips like this. It will be for sale, but anyone who comments or subscribes to this blog will get it free when it first comes out. So don't hesitate to comment, and leave your suggestions, questions, or ideas.

Laurie

BTW I picked up a few extra badges this week without even trying. 

Hit 50, got two new badges, and Have scored some great auction wins on Listia!

Well it has been a few days since I did any posts about my experiences and the learning curve I am documenting with My Listia Journey.

The other day I got a 100 percent feedback badge, I had finally caught up with auctions out there and feedback given. That was because during the second week of the month I slowed down on the listings a bit.

After I got up to almost 40,000 in credits, :o) I spent some time buying instead of listing. LOL

I won a $15 amazon gift card, and I also landed a bluetooth WiFi dongle for one of our desktop computers. Those two items alone recouped the money I have spent on shipping.

Here is a screenshot of my current badges, I haven't even been at it a whole month yet.  37 of them already.

That means all the other "little wins" that have been coming in the mailbox every few days is just gravy, or like Listia says, Free Stuff.

This morning Listia gave me an Early Bird Badge, because I checked in at 6:30. I can honestly say that wasn't the first time I had checked in that early, but it was the first time I was given a badge for it. LOL

What annoys me about Listia.

Well they don't have to put everything I put on my watch list on Listia  up on Facebook and list it as something I want.

 Half the stuff I put on my watch list on Listia is just so I can study what others are doing and how successful they are with different types of auction listings.

I am actually working on stocking stuffers for the kids for Christmas, I really don't need Listia advertising that on my Facebook.

I ran a couple auctions on Ebay, my ebay id is "bluejeansicecream" not that it really matters. I didn't have much success with my listings, I was hoping some of the traffic I get here from my Listia package advertising would pull it over there, didn't happen.

I am having fun with Listia though, and I have found a lot of unique very inexpensive gifts for several family members in the process.

There something about winning an auction at the last minute, like tonight on Listia.

I won one auction by only 6 credits, that really gets your juices flowing and puts a smile on your face.

It is much easier on the budget playing around with this on Listia instead of Ebay.

Slowed down my auction listing this week, for a few reasons.

Well, the newness and the excitement of Listia is wearing off, and I got a little overwhelmed with all the trips to the post office.

I also have spent about 25 bucks altogether on shipping. But I am getting neat stuff ever day in the mail. I used a gin option yesterday to get a WiFi Dongle for the desktop. We have two computers in the shop, and when we get them back we are going to be short one WiFi hook up. So will save me spending $20-30 on the 1st.

 It is nice being able to get rid of something I don't need, make someone else smile, and be able to get something I need for that same amount of money. So I don't REALLY mind the trips to the post office. Especially when I get excited wonderful feedback from the people who have received my packages.

My badges keep increasing without me even really trying to do anything. I have been at it for more than 20 days now, so I am eligible to use the GIN option, I have my Seller's Wings badge. :)

I listed a few of those today, we will see how that goes.

More badges, receiving feedback fast, and packages, whew... I need to slow down.

Well, I have learned a lot about listia in the past two weeks. I have sent out several packages and received stuff in the mail already. I am currently sitting on about 15,000 credits, still waiting an several thousand more pending.

I acomplished something I have needed to do for quite some time too. Put some listings up on my Ebay site. You can view them here.
 http://www.ebay.com/usr/bluejeansicecream

So if you liked the Listia auctions for the Hacky Sack Balls or the Plastic Circle Cases and you don't want to fight away all your listia credits you can buy them at my ebay site.

1 Dozen Plastic Circle Container -Snap Lid, Use for craft supplies,
and

1 Dozen Hacky Sack Foot (Kick) Balls NIP Great Christmas Stocking Stuffer

 Are you wondering yet about my "How to make money with Listia?" If I can use Listia to make sells on Ebay, than that is one way. 

Do you suppose there are people on Listia who would put out cash for the items they see. I know for a fact there are because I have found stuff on Listia and jumped right over to Ebay to see how much the cost there. I guess time will tell if the above items work. I will keep you updated.

One of the first items I got came with a business card with both her Listia and Ebay ids printed on them. That is smart marketing.

 

 

Another trip to the post office, got to get my printer hooked up!

I just shipped off 5 more packages. I sent out 3 yesterday too. So by the weekend I should have  super load of credits put in my account. :o)

I have decided I am only going to provide tracking if a winner requests it. That will save quite a bit because it is  90 cents. On 5 packages like I mailed today that is almost 5 dollars, Most of them average around 2 dollars first class. 

I need to do the math and see where I am with credits versus shipping costs. Actually someone needs to create a piece of software to figure this out. LOL

My first Coke rewards auction ended at 202 bids for 3 lids. Not bad. I have already delivered the codes, waiting on feedbacks and credits for this one. Fast and Easy Credits. :o)

More later......
 

I received 9,000 credits today, and I decided to gamble a little bit before I got these,

6300 more Pending Credits in winning auctions today.

Wow. I mailed out 3 more, and will have 5 to go out tommorrow. 















These finished tonight. I am doing pretty good, no losing auctions and I am stacking up the credits.

Today I also learned about Listia Raffles.

I had about 400 credits before the Hacky Sack credits were awarded tonight and I gambled it all away on 6 raffles that end on Wednesday. I thought what the heck, give it a try once and see what happens.

While doing it I learned how one lady took a $55 Walmart gift card and got a 166,000 credits for it. That is 4 times the value if you were buying the credits with that amount of cash. Taking the gamble and researching this lady's auction, was worth what I gambled in the secrets and lesson I learned. I think I will give that tip away to people who comment here at my blog.

I need to get some interactivity going on here. :)
I am definitely going to have to keep tabs on the math. It cost me about 9 bucks to mail out the three packages. Would have been only 6 but it costs 90 cents to put a tracking # on it. I may have to reconsider that option. ;(

5 Auctions End Today, All seem to be Going strong with hours still left to go!

Well, I think I am doing some things right on my  Listia auctions. 

As my title states, I have 5 Listia auctions ending today. 

That's because it has been over a week since I started on  Listia, and I put most of them up for at least a week. 

A week ago today was the 4th day and I was starting to get the swing of things.

Here is a screenshot I took of my  Listia page when I woke up this morning. 

Not bad for an amatuer, if I say so myself.

Today is going to be exciting. But the first thing I have to do is go to the post office and ship out the items that ended yesterday. :o)

 I do plan on using online postage for my Listia shipping, (more about that in the posts to come) but I currently don't have a working printer hooked up to any of our computers at home. 

So for the time being I need to go to the Post Office because I plan to get tracking numbers for all of my packages.

I will definitely be updating this blog as the day or evening goes on, so until then......

Laurie

Making a list of popular Listia items, after 5 completed Auctions, and more than 20 to go.

Well I have about a week and a half experience on Listia so far. I have earned almost 15,000 credits so far with my listed auctions only, not all the ones they throw in here or there for various tasks you do.

I just updated the badge image in my sidewall on the right, I now have 20 badges on Listia. :o) That didn't take long at all.

I have about a dozen items on a list that I am putting together of items that seem to be very popular. I am going to share it after a few more weeks of research, I will probably put together a short ebook about my experiences with Listia.

I will give it away free to people who subscribe and comment here on my blog.

But I can tell you a few things that work like a charm for me with my Listia auctions.

If you want to get a flame by your auctions, (meaning they are on fire LOL) do the following.

List a few new auctions in the last half hour of your auction ending. You will be on the front page of browsing Listia in two areas, auctions ending soonest, and newest auctions listed.

That is a lot of advertisement  on  the Listia first or second page for your auctions at the same time.

Start your auction with a low bid. I haven't had any of the 5 auctions that have ended go without a bid.

 I have one, (a keyring that I sewed) that I started out at 2000 and it still doesn't have any bids at Listia yet . It will probably still get a bid, but if I have to relist it I may change the starting amount.

Here is another tip. Try to have at least 5-10 Listia auctions going at once. The more going at once the more likely you are to get someone to bid on more than one auction. This will actually save you on shipping costs if they win more than 1.

I have several more ending today at Listia, and I plan on putting up quite a few for this afternoon. After my exerience from selling on Ebay years ago, I know that ending on a Sunday afternoon or Evening is one of the best ending times you can have. It all depends on the item.

Only a little research or time will tell if that is true on Listia too.

I will probably make another post here this evening.

2 Auctions ended, over 6000 credits, and they went to the same person, cool!

I just learned something else new about Listia . 

Once an auction ends, even though the buyer receives a notice saying "credits transfered" it can take up to 20 days to "receive" your credits from the winning bids.

My first two Hacky Sack Auctions netted me  9581 in credits. If I were to buy that amount it would have cost me: around $25. I guess I will wait to see how much they cost to ship before I figure out how far ahead of the game I am. :)

It was fun seeing my auction picture on the ending soonest front page of Listia tonight, though! Here is a screenshot:

It kind of sucks but it does make sense. You really shouldn't get them until the buyer/bidder receives their stuff. Or you have to wait 20 days.

I plan on getting a shipping transaction code when I mail them out, it will probably speed up the receiving credits process with Listia. It does say, too that once you become a more trusted seller they can come quicker under certain circumstances. Didn't give me details on those circumstances.

If you look at the updated badge box on the side of blog here, I received 3 more badges on Listia since the auctions ended.

Well, I got some more auction badges and am learning about Get it Now Listing requirements on Listia.

Well, I got some more auction badges on Listia today. Here is the latest screenshot image.

Notice the little candy corn. That is for checking in on or being active with  Listia today, Halloween, I guess. :o)

Anyhow, my first auctions end tonight and it is really exciting whatching the credits go up. I have 16 up currently.

I listed my first digital auction at Listia . I created some bottle cap images using my MTC software. These are things crafters, especially crafters with kids are interested in and they seem to be going for high credits on Listia . 

Anytime I can get credits without having to ship something free is like free money the way I look at.

I also learned what a GIN auction is. Similar to the Buy it Now on Ebay, GIN on Listia is offering to end an auction early if someone wants to give a set amount of credits for your item. Listia charges a 10% fee on your winning amount, plus I think it is 100 or 500 credits to just list or relist a GIN. 

You are also not eligible for this until you are a trusted seller or have your seller wings badge. One of the requirements for that is to be on the site for 20 days, so I still have a few days to go for that.

I just learned tonight, too what tiered auction is. I will save that for another post. Happy Halloween!

Advice to one of my fans from a moderator, we can all learn from this.

This morning I had an email telling me I had a new fan. Whenever I get a new fan, I visit their auctions just to see what they are doing and learn from it. I found the following comment.

I am going to try the suggestion below that is in bold print. I am not exactly sure why that would help your auction do better but I am sure there is a reason. :o) Will let you know how it goes.

"In order to have better results with this auction, please add more details regarding your item. Your auction is missing a description or picture. These two things will go a long way in instilling confidence in potential bidders. We also highly recommend that you include pictures of the actual item that is being auctioned, (not just use stock photos from the manufacturer).

For higher valued items, please include a notecard or piece of paper with your Listia username in one of the pictures of the actual item.

This will also reduce the number of questions that your bidders will ask, and most importantly, you`ll get the best results with your auction.

Thanks for making these changes and good luck with your auction!"

Of all the things I posted yesterday, the one I would have least expected is the first to get a bid, the peace sign notebook. Who would of known.

5 days and lots of badges, and Learning All Kinds Of Things

Well I have been at this Listia thing off and on for 5 days now.

I am learning all kinds of things, and also getting lots of badges. Check out the screenshot of what I have earned so far.

 Click on the picture and it will take you to my page when you hover your mouse over the badge it tells you what it is for.

Here is a link to my current auctions:

www.listia.com more free stuff on Listia

I have been browsing, fanning, watching and commenting while learning what others are doing to rack up the credits fast. It is interesting to say the least and I am keeping notes, and will be experimenting with what I am learning and let you know as I go what works and what doesn't.

I would love to hear your comments and feel free to even ask questions. Especially if you are new to Listia, I will give you advice from what I have learned so far.

I won and recieved my first "digitial auction" tonight.

 I didn't really need those coaster instructions, I could have easily found that same info on the web, (I have good secret reasearch skills, LOL) but I bid on it for two reasons.

I wanted to help this Listia lister out, it was for a very small amount of credits, and it brought me a 1 by my name for feedback super fast, instead of that big ugly 0.

I am thinking, and pretty sure I need to get just one more auction up and I will receive another badge for 10 auctions. Got to look around the house for 1 more item. :o)

I am keeping everything that I have listed in a box and will be getting it packaged and ready to mail before the auction ends.

Lots Of Ways To Earn Credits And Get Traffic To Your Listings

Unlike ebay, you can  comment and like and dislike auctions,  just like you do posts on facebook. 

You can do this on any auction  you look at on Listia. 

This brings Traffic of people to your listings after you make comments about their listing. 

 It's amazing how fast you can build your fans and get results. Especially if you have some good listings yourself. 

This is just one of the first things have learning about Listia.

 I'll be sharing everything in post as the days go on.

I commented on the creativity of a piece of jewelery tonight. I told I was new and still learning by visiting other auctions.

He warned me that I would become addicted, and gave me an A+++++ for my first few listings. Oh yeah he also became a fan. 

I can see how this could easily become an addictive habit.
 

I won my first auction today. It was fun.

I am learning quickly.

For one, even if you don't win, when you bid, you lose those points. It is not like Ebay where you only spend the money if you win the auction.

Two of the three auctions I currently have up have flames next to them. This means they are Hot. (cool huh)

Well I have already been able to "spend" some of those credits, even though the auctions aren't ending. I can see this becoming somewhat addicting. :o)

My first auction I got quite low. An old issue of Sew News Magazine. I was excited about it because it has two things I love covered in it. Machine Embroidery and embellishing blue jeans. To learn more about these hobbies, visit my profile here on Blogger and see my other blogs.

Currently my biggest problem is getting organized at home and  having a good place set up to "take pictures"
I do plan on listing lots of things for sell on Ebay this winter too, but for some items it makes more sense to earn credits for them on listia. More on this as I learn the ins and outs.

Laurie

I have discovered something new online!

 I recently was referred to a new auction site through facebook that gives things away free. You get credits to bid with by listing and sending things to others.

An awesome way to get rid of junk instead of donating it to goodwill.

I am a beginner with this, so I decided to create this blog to journey my adventures with this site. I plan on using credits to get Christmas presents.

I know I need to keep track of how much I spend on shipping, but I have started my first few auctions with free shipping and they are going like firecrackers.

You can sign up here:

www.listia.com more free stuff on Listia