Overview
In episode six we talk to Vikki Eagan, the lvpinkpeacock who shares her tips and tricks for growing your business on Etsy and other platforms, vintage selling, seller community, using List Perfectly, and more! We’ll answer a seller emailed question, have a List Perfectly tip, and a seller shoutout.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the #1 resource for the seller community across all platforms and hub for information on growing your business with List Perfectly. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast, leave a message or ask a question at https://anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com.
To save 30% off of a new List Perfectly account or an upgrade, make sure you use Vikki’s code lvpinkpeacock77.
Links
thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast
Seller Community Podcast on Anchor
Episode X Links
BOSS Facebook Group
consignmentchats.com
Transcript
Intro
Liz:
So good morning, Doug, how are you?
Doug:
Good morning, Liz. I’m okay. You know, a lot going on, but I’m all right. Excited to be here, talking with you as usual…
Liz:
Yeah. What are we? This is episode…
Doug:
Six.
Liz:
So we’re on episode six now. It feels like we just started recording last week. Um, this is great. Last week with Maria. That was just an amazing interview. And I can’t wait for today. We get to hear from Vikki better known as lvpinkpeacock. Have a little discussion with her, talk about etsy, but how are you? What’s new with you?
Doug:
Okay. Oh, you know, just, buying a house, you know, little things like that little life stresses like that. So yeah, little life stresses like that. So hopefully we don’t pack any other life stresses into the same amount of time. But so that’s been taking up a little bit of time, you know, a little bit of a distraction
Liz:
Buying a house is super stressful. And then you add in the, all the new laws and regulations with COVID. I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine…
Doug:
But, a lot has changed, and nobody can afford to live in California. So, there you go. We pay for the weather.
Liz:
And we, we pay a lot, but we don’t get all the warm weather. Coming off of our fourth biggest snowstorm in history. I do get a basement. That is, that is one thing that I do like about our house in Colorado. It’s pretty standard here. I don’t know if anybody watches the interviews that we post on the List Perfectly YouTube, you can kind of see where I record is actually in my office. It’s a bedroom in the basement and, uh, you know, I come down here every morning with my coffee. I’m sitting here with my coffee. Now we’re recording. And I take out my phone and I pull my inventory that’s from the prior day’s sales and this morning, let me tell ya. I was like on order number six or seven this morning. And I was totally amazed. I was like, wow, I sold everything I listed yesterday. This is amazing. I started putting them all in clear plastic bags and I kept going. I’m like, well, this is strange. And I looked down and I was on my active listings page. I did not have enough coffee before coming downstairs this morning. I thought I was on a roll. So I’m pretty sure I’m not the only seller that’s ever done that, but it’s the first time it’s happened to me and I could just laugh at myself. So I don’t know. Now, now those seven orders are all packaged up for when they do sell. That was really no time lost. Right?
Doug:
Put a post-it note on them. And Liz is in her basement and I’m in my office, which, has a lot of the stuff I had in my bedroom as a teenage boy, but it’s true. But the funny thing is, as I see bins of inventory stacked behind Liz, and she’s got like stuff that’s scoping over out of the frame and I’ve got like my five that are behind me. That’s like all my stuff, but I know Liz has like multiple rooms full of stuff and I do not, but you know…
Liz:
Well, we’re, we’re in different parts. I consider myself for whatever sellers want to call full-time versus part-time I consider myself a full-time seller. Right. Because this is my main job. Um, but I know that’s not yours. So, I mean, there’s a difference. And so I always it’s, I did an interview once and we laughed because we were talking about inventory and inventory management. And I was like, look, when I started out and when I was part-time, I had one tub. I was a two-tote seller. I had two totes, one unlisted and one listed. I mean, we all start somewhere. We all stopped somewhere, whether that be at two totes or 10 totes or 10,000 totes…
Doug:
But that makes it easier to find your stuff when you sell it, you know, where it’s going to be.
Liz:
An entire podcast on…we’re going to have to talk to somebody about inventory management and how to really get your inventory organized to save time. As long as you are pulling inventory from your sold listings page, I think you’re, you’ll be on track.
Doug:
You’ll be all right. You know what, but yeah, you’ve got tips. Teresa’s got tips, my friend and friend of the show Joey Ruffalo, he’s got an interesting tip too, that we’ll have on…I’ll keep it a mystery, but he’s got a, he’s got an inventory tracking system that he does and he works it into the listings. So he knows what’s what and where it’s easy to find, but you know, little tips and tricks. And speaking of that, we got some cool news. This week, you know, the podcast is doing well, six episodes in, we’ve had some great people on and we are actually already in the, based on downloads in the top 10% of podcasts. So that’s, that’s really good.
Liz:
That’s really good. I think it says a lot about the quality of guests that we have on and really the quality of listeners and those that are listening and supporting us. So thank you so much.
Doug:
We’ve got some good backing too. So that’s, that’s helpful, but yeah, a lot of big, a lot of big-name guests.
Liz:
It’s been amazing and I’m super excited for today’s interview also. So what do you say Doug let’s get started?
Doug:
We should get started. Yeah, this is a good one. So, so what do we have this week Liz?
Liz:
So Doug this week, we’ve got our friend Vikki Egan, better known as lvpinkpeacock in our community. We’re going to talk to Vikki about Etsy, List Perfectly and more. Vikki’s a seller on eBay, Poshmark, Etsy, and Maccari, she is a meetup organizer in fabulous Las Vegas. Oh, I’m missing Las Vegas this year…and she’s also the co-host of the YouTube channel, Katy and Vicky, that she does with her partner, Katy.
Doug:
So I believe we’re going to cover all that in the interview, but you know, #Vegas girl, there have to be other #vegasgirls, but we know Vikki and, brigh light city going to set my soul on fire…you know, that song Viva Las Vegas?
Liz:
Come on Elvis. Come on. Elvis. Let’s talk to Vikki.
Doug:
Well made famous by Elvis. But my favorite version is actually by the seminal San Francisco…this is where Liz is going to doze off…the seminal San Francisco punk rock band The Dead Kennedys also do a fantastic version of it, but, all right, Liz, so I’ll get back on script. What else do we have this week?
Liz:
So this week we’re going to have seller shout-outs.
Doug:
You’ll get a weekly List, Perfectly tip.
Liz:
We’ll answer some seller questions. The seller community podcast is produced by List Perfectly every week for your enjoyment and show notes are found at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast.
Liz:
Let’s get started with our featured guest to Vikki Egan, the lvpinkpeacock.
Growing on Etsy With @lvpinkpeacock
Liz:
Today, I’m super excited to welcome our friend Vikki to the show. Vikki started selling online on eBay in 1998 in the, collectibles and antiques category. She’s since expanded her niche. Specializing in vintage clothing, Vikki has actually expanded and she’s now on five selling platforms. She runs her local meetup. She is a co-host on the Katy and Vikki show and she also runs a Facebook group called boss business for online selling success. Vikki, welcome to the show today. So Vikki, if you don’t mind, tell us how you got started in the antiques and collectibles business and how you found your way to eBay.
Vikki:
I am from New England originally, specifically from Rhode Island and everything in Rhode Island is antique pretty much. That’s really how it started when my ex and I first got together, I owned a home and he owned a home and we got together and we found that we had duplicates of almost everything, all kinds of duplicates, CDs, and DVDs. And at that time, those things were selling super well on eBay. And we decided to unload our duplicates on eBay and on half.com, which was a division of eBay back then. So I found out just how easy it was to sell online. And then I started going to garage sales, which I had never gone to before I picked up two things at a garage sale. Once one of them being an antique cash register, I paid $2. That thing weighed 75 pounds. I put it on auction on eBay. I had never done an auction. I don’t even know why I bought this thing. I just knew it was old. I knew very little about it. I researched as best as I could. It ended up selling for something like $1,700. And then I had to take it to ups and figure out how to package it. And that cost me hundreds, but it didn’t matter because at that point I was hooked. I was like, okay, why, why does, why are not more people doing this? This is the easiest thing in the world. Why am I working my butt off 50, 60 hours a week? Why can’t I sell all the things on online? And that was where it started.
Doug:
And how many years selling on eBay?
New Speaker:
So I started in 98. So this is actually my 24th year on the platform. I wasn’t always a seller. I was a very occasional seller at first selling odd things here and there. I was more of a buyer than a seller, but that first thing that I sold was actually, I think in 2002, uh, so 19 to 2002, I was just a buyer.
Doug:
And what made you shift to full-time?
Vikki:
I became full-time in 2009. I was a mortgage broker. So I was a mortgage broker in the height of the mortgage business. And then when the market and everything crashed in 2008 and 2009, I lost my job along with millions of other people. I was the regional sales director for Countrywide home loans, and that was the second-largest banking institution in the entire country. And they closed. So when that happened, I decided I was going to go back to school and I went back to nursing school. I went back to school for nursing and I needed to make X number of dollars in order to continue going to school and help contribute to the household and pay bills. And I knew that the easiest way to do that was to ramp up. Um, my eBay business, I had, I was very part-time on eBay and I sold for fun and for fun money, but I knew that I could, if I had more time, I could put more time into it and make more money. Uh, so that’s what I did. I went to school full-time and I sold on eBay. Full-time
Vikki:
You’re, full-time on eBay, but you’ve expanded over the last couple of years. So what made you decide to expand your empire and tell us, tell us why you decided to expand and what platforms you’re on now, and how that’s working out.
Vikki:
About three years ago, I decided to expand to Etsy as a platform. And I had a part-time assistant working for me, and I would have, she would manually copy and paste and put some listings on Etsy for me, and I would pay her by the hour. So it wasn’t all of my listings and it wasn’t a lot and it did cost me a bit to do it. Uh, but that was where it started. And I started selling more on Etsy that way. And I was only on Etsy until 19 months ago when I jumped on with List Perfectly so 19 months ago with List Perfectly, I decided to put everything that I, that qualified on Etsy much faster, obviously. And I also added Mercari and Poshmark. And then as of the end of last year, I have also added Facebook marketplace as, another revenue stream. I’m on five platforms now. Um, eBay is still my number one 75% of my income is still eBay followed by Etsy and Poshmark are kind of neck and neck right now. And then, you know, Mercari is probably the least it’s, it’s pretty slow, but it’s, again, List Perfectly makes it so easy that it’s silly to not put the stuff up. And then, um, Facebook marketplace is starting to really pick up for me too. It’s a little clunky of a, of a platform, but I like being in on it early. And I think it’s only going to get better as, as they figure out what the heck they’re doing there. So I, you know, I like it.
Liz:
I want people listening to know a little more about Vikki. You’re better known as lvpinkpeacock on all platforms. How many items do you have listed right now
Vikki:
My store has about 3,300 items listed on eBay? My primary platform, I have just under 2000 listed on both Poshmark and at Etsy. And then I probably have about 1500 on Mercari and maybe around a thousand on Facebook Marketplace now.
Liz:
Vikki sells one-off items. So the true vintage, I don’t even know. Do you even have any multiple listings? You probably have none. So Vikki is the true vintage thrifted pre-owned one-off items. We really want to talk to you also about Etsy. So tell us a little bit about what Etsy is and what the platform is for.
Vikki:
That is an online marketplace, not dissimilar to eBay, but it is a little bit more specified, whereas you can sell anything on eBay pretty much. I mean, you can sell down to the kitchen sink, right? Uh, but on Etsy you are specifically selling vintage items. By their definition vintage is 20 years or older. In the, in the real world, as far as clothing and antiques and things like that. Vintage is technically 25 years or older, but Etsy puts it at a 20 year. And also you are to sell handmade items, they’re handcrafted items or any of the supplies that are required for doing those types of things, to make things, that’s kind of their niche. So Etsy has always been a little bit more of a person-to-person niche because it is not, you’re not selling multiples when you’re selling something handcrafted. It’s all, they’re all going to be a little different when you’re selling something vintage. You’re not going to find 10 of the same 50 year old dress, in various sizes. So by doing that, they’ve been able to keep their focus a little bit different. The market is not quite as big as eBay, but it’s, I think it’s pretty close. I’m not sure what their numbers are, but I think it’s pretty close. It is still a worldwide market, but it’s a platform that I sell a lot on and it’s making good money. So I do love it.
Doug:
How does the Etsy platform compared to the others? Like the fees, the interface all around, what, you know, what do you, what stands out for you on Etsy?
Vikki:
The platform is similar to eBay in that it’s, it’s very dialed down as far as your item, specifics and categories that you can, list something in one of the things that it has that eBay does not have is a great place for you to use keywords and hashtags and things like that. That’s something that’s very, we all know is very good for SEO and eBay does not have that capability. As of yet, there are ways around it. We all know that there’s ways for you to insert certain words and keywords, but there are specific areas in Etsy for you to do that. It is, like I said, it’s very dialed down. It is a little, it does take a little bit to get a hang of the platform. Just like eBay. It’s not one of the easy ones. It’s not, you’re not going to pop up a listing in, in 15 seconds. Like you can on Mercari or Poshmark, where you only have five categories to choose from are a little bit more intensive. You do have to figure out some things you do have to figure out shipping policies, uh, just like you do on eBay. You have to create policies and things like that around your shipping. It’s a fairly easy platform to use once you get used to it, just like eBay. I think eBay is so easy. And I know that it’s not for a lot of people, but I’ve been on it forever. So for me, I find it easy. It’s like anything else? Repetition makes you a little bit more of an expert at it.
Liz:
What sets you apart to make you successful on Etsy? Is it something with their promotions? Is it that you’ve got your shipping perfected? Or do you think it’s simply your products or customers?
Vikki:
I think it’s a little bit of all of those things. I think it’s, I think first and foremost, it comes down to the products. If you don’t have something people want to buy, then it doesn’t. None of the other things matter. You need to have a product that somebody is looking for. That someone wants though. The thing about Etsy is that I, I sell specifically vintage clothing on Etsy men’s and women’s vintage hard goods as well, household items and things like that, but primarily clothing seventy-five to 85% of my, my items on Etsy are clothing vintage in general is a item. That’s the other thing that you need to understand about the market. It’s not something that you’re going to flip in two or three days. It’s, you’re constantly building up your inventory. So that’s something we’ll sell six months from now and having a large inventory. You know, some people want to sell through 50% or a hundred percent of their items. Every 90 days. That’s not going to happen if you’re a vintage seller and that’s okay. A high sell-through rate is never going to be my thing. You know, my sell-through rate is probably eight or 9% monthly, but I’m still doing good, a good six-figure income. It’s not that I’m sitting on my merchandise. It’s, you’re constantly changing it. It’s just a different business model than other people are going to have their selling hot commodity, replenishable, fast turning items. The thing about Etsy is that you want to take good photos. Photos are important. Uh, I think they’re important every platform, but I feel like Etsy, it’s very important because it’s going to set you apart from all the other vintage sellers. If you have good photos, people that tend to stage photos with models do even better. I don’t do that because I cross-promote across several platforms and it’s not conducive to every platform, but I have a feeling if I did, I’d probably sell even more.
Liz:
There is money to be made in vintage, but there is a higher ASP or average selling price. So your, so your return on investment typically is worth the wait.
Vikki:
Yeah, absolutely. My, my sell-through rate may not be high, but the cost of acquiring goods is, is very low. And my average sell, sell price is it’s $65 on eBay and it’s about $80 on Etsy. That’s the other thing about Etsy. You can command a higher price for the same exact item. You know, that’s the thing about using lists perfectly. You learn what people are willing to pay on different and what they’re looking for on different marketplaces. Every marketplace has a different shopper. There are different buyers on every marketplace and you may sell something. I may have something for sale for $60 in my store on, you know, on eBay and no interest. And it’ll sell for a hundred dollars on Etsy. You’re going to, you’re just commanding a completely different audience. If someone were actually searching for that specific item and not just searching on that platform, they’d find my cheaper item on another platform. But they don’t, which means that the Etsy buyer is specifically an Etsy buyer, the eBay buyer is specifically an eBay buyer.
Doug:
In terms of Etsy. What are your, what are your top three selling points? Like what are your favorite things about selling on Etsy?
Vikki:
One is that they actually pay more money for your item. That’s that’s my favorite thing, right? We’re in this to make money overall after all. Secondly, I like that the customers are a lot more laid back. I do find that, the neediest buyers are on Poshmark first, eBay second. They don’t return anything. People on Etsy don’t return anything. You don’t have returns for fit. You don’t have returns care. I changed my mind. You don’t have returns because I, you know, I don’t like it anymore. Uh, you just, I, I very rarely get returns, maybe one or two a year. I like that, obviously that aspect of the sale being done when it’s done, but it’s a little bit more person to person when you get feedback they’re going to specifically, and they don’t leave feedback a lot. It’s even less than the feedback left on other platforms. But when they do leave feedback, lot of times, they’re going to send you a picture of them wearing the item or using the item or the item in their home. That’s part of their feedback. And I think that that’s fun. Like I want to know that this dress from 1945 is now living a new life on somebody in New York city. Send me that picture. I want to see that. I think that’s great.
Liz:
That’s really cool. It’s very personal. So somebody like me, that’s never sold on Etsy, but I have maybe 10 things that I want to put on Etsy. What would be your best piece of advice for me to get started on Etsy?Go
Vikki:
Go buy a couple of things on Etsy first, that way you understand how the platform works a little bit. I say the same thing to anybody on any platform. You need to be a buyer before you can be a seller. You need to understand how the process works. Um, and it doesn’t have to be something expensive, but get on there, scroll around, look and see how the categories look, look, and see how different shops present themselves. Um, I think that it’s important for you to get an overall feel of what the platform is like. And once you’ve bought a few things, then go ahead and list a few things, take, pick, you know, take your good photos, uh, use the keywords in the hashtags. I’m very lazy at that. I don’t do it nearly as much as I should. And I, and I have admitted that before, but if you lose use the keywords, you’re going to be very high in SEO. And you know, if you really want to manipulate the search engine for Etsy, tie it into a Pinterest account, Pinterest and Pinterest boards really, really help Etsy. As far as the algorithms on when, you know, when you do a search on Google for something what’s going to come up. Most of the time first is Pinterest. Pinterest is super heavy, uh, in the search algorithms on Google. And while it may not always work for eBay, it does work well for Etsy. I don’t know what the reasoning is behind that. That’s above my pay grade, as far as, you know, computer technology, creating Pinterest boards, uh, and, and tying it into your Etsy account is, is, is something that works really well too.
Liz:
Do you have anything else to add for Etsy? Is there any other information on Etsy that you would like to share?
Vikki:
I just want to tell people not to not be afraid of Etsy. I think there is a lot of miscommunication out there still because Etsy did start as a, primarily a site for people to sell handmade items. That’s not all it is. There is some beautiful vintage items to be found there, and it’s a great place to sell vintage. So if you have vintage items in your, in your store, whether it’s eBay or sitting in your death pile that you need to list, but don’t discount Etsy, you’re going to get better prices on Etsy overall than you will on almost any other site. It’s absolutely my favorite site to sell on. Even if it’s not the site where I make the most money
Liz:
Vikki, you’re a valued member of the selling community. I met you through the selling community. I’m pretty sure on Facebook, on YouTube.
Vikki:
Absolutely. I don’t mean to interrupt you. I’m sorry. I met you and Doug both at the same night, eBay Open 2018 at the Sky Lounge. I met you both the same night, but I didn’t meet you until 2018. And, uh, and that was when I met Doug as well.
Liz:
You also run the Facebook Boss Business for Online Selling Success, that group is an absolutely amazing group, not just for eBay, but for reselling and for really just up-to-date news on what’s going on in the reselling world, whether it be a fee change or shipping, and there’s how many, there’s over 6,00, 7,000 members.
Vikki:
Yeah, we have about 7,000 members in the group now. It’s, it’s actually, we’ve been intentionally small. We’ve, we’ve been, we’ve stayed small on purpose. We don’t need, or want to be a hundred thousand person Facebook group. And not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we’ve kept it small so that our membership is about 95% active, which is almost unheard of in a Facebook group. And we try to keep it so that we kind of know everybody. And it’s, you know, I can’t say I know all 7,000 members don’t get me wrong, but we like to keep it intimate. So people are not afraid to ask questions and people are not afraid that their questions are going to get lost in the shuffle. And the Facebook group is Theresa Cox’s baby. I can’t take credit for that, she created that Facebook group because she wanted to be able to talk about business aspects of reselling. And that seems to be so verboten in Facebook groups, everybody’s like call your tax accountant, call this call that, well, we we’ve all been there. We do. And the questions, we can answer some questions. It’s okay to talk about business questions and inventory questions and tax questions. When you have people that are knowledgeable about these topics, they’re not forbidden. Yeah. So we we’ve, we’ve loved building a community around that Facebook group and, and our, you know, Katy and my fiance and myself with our YouTube show, we feel like we tied at hand in hand with the boss Facebook group. You know, our, our viewers from YouTube go to BOSS and BOSS members come to our YouTube channel and vice versa. So it’s been nice building it up over the past few years and building a community. And that’s kind of what it’s all about.
Liz:
So Katy and Vicki do a Sunday live show where they break down their real numbers. They don’t say, Hey, I, I sold $5,000. Look at me. They say we sold $5,000, but let’s break it down. So I love watching that show. I love how you keep it real, but I will tell you, okay. So I do listen to you. I do watch. I know, but that side chat during the live is like a Sunday family reunion of BOSS group. And I love it. It’s like a time for us to kind of chat. So we get the best of Katy and Vikki breaking down real numbers, breaking down fees, breaking down all of that plus a hall, right? So we get to see what you sold, like your highlights and your halls. But we also get that side chat of, kind of feels like family,
Vikki:
Katy and I just came back from Palm Springs, where we went for the weekend and who do we meet up with his four of our reseller friends that were strangers a year ago. And we, we hung out with our reseller friends, uh, socially distanced, uh, and we had a, we had a great time. And these are people that we know because of our Facebook group, because of our YouTube channel, uh, because of the online selling community that we didn’t know a year ago or two years ago. So it’s, it’s, you know, that’s what building a is about. We talk about it all the time. We, we use the term stranger friends on our show a lot, and we talk about how, uh, you know, you may know somebody only online, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a limited friendship. It just means that you haven’t met yet. And we love that sense of community. And it’s, it’s been a lot of fun getting to know people over the years. Uh, I’m somebody that would say five years ago, I’m not a joiner. I’ve been a seller online forever. I have never belonged to Facebook groups. Um, I have never gone to the eBay events up until eBay Open started, even though they were in an hour away from me, I didn’t do them. It wasn’t my thing like selling online was a very solitary thing for me and I am so grateful. I went into my first eBay Open and realized that there is this wonderful community out there that I absolutely wanted to be a part of.
Liz:
Katy is glad. And I’m also glad. And Doug is also glad. And everybody that knows you from these events are glad you went too.
Speaker 3:
We’re talking about the seller community. So the seller community is so much more than just one little aspect. You’re very, you know, now you are very visible, very vocal in the seller community, across many of these aspects. What does being a leader and member in the selling community mean to you?
Vikki:
I think that being a leader and a member of the, uh, selling community or the reselling community is, is an important thing. I think that when you’re a leader in any aspect of your life, you need to lead by example, you know, I’m, I’m not perfect. I’m not a perfect seller. I’m not a perfect reseller. I’m not a perfect person, but I do believe in that there is enough out there for everybody and bringing people up to your level and to your knowledge and teaching them how to do things properly and teaching people how to be proud of what they do. And self-sufficient only creates a better community for everybody. Uh, you know, a better, if you’re a better seller, then that makes a better platform for me to be a better seller, helping to build a community of people that support one another and lift one another up is very important. I think that there’s enough diversity in this world. You do not need it in the reselling community. There’s enough going on everywhere else and everybody else’s life. So bringing people together and creating a sense of community, whatever that means to you, it’s very personal. Whenever I get a message or a phone call, and somebody says, Hey, you told me how to do this. And I sold this and I made all this money and thank you so much. And you know, that means a lot to me. I’m like, Oh, you’ve listened to something I didn’t at work. Yay. I’m so glad it worked for you.
Speaker 3:
In your opinion, who’s doing community well and who isn’t?
Vikki:
You know, I think anyone that is working within the community to help elevate other people are people that are doing it correctly. As in any community, there are people that are in this business for themselves and that’s okay. We’re all in it for ourselves for to a certain degree. We’re not here to be charity cases across the board. But I think that anyone that is looking to build up the community around them in a positive manner is doing it right. Like Amanda and Clara, like List Perfectly. And I’m not meaning to sound like a, um, just a commercial for List Perfectly, but it’s true. They created a product for sellers for themselves that they realized would work for other sellers. And they didn’t just put this product out there and start charging money for people to use this product and say, look at all this money with me, yay. They created a product and have now created a, an entire community around that product. That is how you create community. That is how you give back to the community. They shop from other sellers in the community. They’re constantly revamping their product to make it better for us. We would be using it. If it was 10 steps ago, they keep making it better every month or every few weeks and changing it up because they want it to be better for sellers. And they are the biggest cheerleaders for sellers that are successful from using their product. And that’s that’s community. Those are leaders in the community, people that, um, you know, that run meetup groups and I run a meetup group, but there are plenty of people that run meetup groups and people that do that. We don’t get paid to run meetup groups. There’s no, no monetary advantage to doing that. It’s because you want to have a community of people that want to gather and share information with each other.
Liz:
We’re going to move on to some rapid-fire questions, just some quick questions.
Speaker 4:
Double points. So if you need to catch up, this is where you catch up.
Liz:
No wrong answers.
Doug:
We know what your favorite selling platform is. What’s your least favorite selling platform and why?
Vikki:
Posh, I’m going to say that I’ve kind of started to figure it out. It took me awhile. I’ve been selling on posh now for a year and I figured it out, but I still don’t like it.
Liz:
Out of all of your years of selling, what has been your most memorable sale?
Vikki:
I think it still has to be that first sale that, that cash register that I sold. I had no idea what I was selling. I literally paid $2 for it. It’s sold for over $1,500. I had no idea what I was doing and Len like, like a drug addict. That is my high that I’ve been chasing for going on 24 years now. But, um, that’s really it, that that’s probably my most memorable sale.
Doug:
What’s your most expensive sale?
Vikki:
When I first started selling on eBay, I did a lot of consignment selling. So I have sold Rolex watches for customers. Breitling watches, but probably my most expensive sale was a 1955 Thunderbird. I’ve sold cars, I’ve sold diamonds, I’ve sold motorcycles. Uh, that’s probably my highest priced out of everything you sell. What is your favorite? So your favorite type of item, uh, vintage women’s dresses, probably my top category as well. It’s the first place I’m going to look when I’m in a thrift store or at an estate sale. I’m going to the closets and you know, anything vintage 1930s and through the seventies and eighties. Uh, but I specifically love the forties and fifties era, which is harder and harder to find.
Doug:
Okay. What’s your favorite List Perfectly feature?
Vikki:
Oh, bulk crossposting right? Yeah.
Liz:
Who are your favorite podcast co-hosts? There is a wrong answer.
Vikki:
I have only ever listened to one. No, actually that’s not true. I’ve listened to a few. So if we’re talking about reselling, it absolutely is you guys hands down.
Doug:
So what do you know now that you wish you knew when you started, so if you could do some kind of time machine and go back…
Vikki:
Well, I started before there were smartphones, so that was an adventure in itself. But what I would have done years ago that took me a long time to do is I would have sought out the reseller community. This isn’t a new thing. It’s just a little bit easier to find people now, I think had I known how much fun and how much joy I would have gotten out of meeting so many people and finding so many amazing, great friends that I have business in common with. I would have sought this out a lot earlier way prior to the first eBay open. Had I known that I could have met so many great people and been involved in the community. It would have helped me as a seller in general, but I really I’ve missed out on that by not having that prior to that, I think.
Doug:
That was a big switch for me at eBay. When I did my first real seller event, we went out to Kansas City and just met a bunch of sellers. And then I became kind of fascinated from there. And, um, you know, then eBay Open and then meetups and then all the other stuff. And just, that’s kinda what brought me back to is just, you know, the seller community. It’s, there’s not really anything like that.
Vikki:
There’s nothing like it. I think, you know, you walk into a group of resellers and you go to an event like an eBay Open or an in-person event, and you immediately have something in common with everybody in that room. There’s no such thing as needing an icebreaker. You say your name and what do you sell? And people talk about themselves. It’s all you want to know, what do you sell? Everybody sells something. So what do you sell? That’s, that’s your conversation right there? That’s your icebreaker. You don’t have to do icebreaker events like you do at corporate conferences. It’s not like that. You know, being, being an eBay seller for me has meant that I’ve, I make a very good living, doing something that I love and making a good living, doing what I love, allows me to give back to other communities that I’m involved in and gives me the time and the money to dedicate to the volunteering and, and giving back to, uh, certain nonprofit organizations that I work with. I couldn’t do that a nine to five job. Vikki. Do you have anything else that you would like to add today? I just want to say thank you for having me as your guest. I’m super excited about this podcast and the audience that you guys are going to reach. And, um, I’m glad that this is a new part of our reseller community.
Doug:
Thanks for being on and thanks for, you know, being a supporter and advocate. And for all that you do for the seller community, I mean, your shows, your YouTube shows awesome. And you know, your participation in the Facebook group and just, you know, all that you do to mentor and help out and then, uh, you know, just supporting them.
Vikki:
Thanks.
Liz:
Vikki, let our listeners know how they can find you what platforms.
Vikki:
So I’m on a lot of the selling platforms, Instagram and Facebook and all of those things. Everything is under the same umbrella, lvpinkpeacock, that’s my store name and every platform. And that’s also my Instagram handle. I do by store name, not my personal name. So I’m pretty easy to find.
Liz:
And also on the Katy and Vikki show on YouTube.
Vikki:
Oh yeah. That too. YouTube Katy and Vikki.
Liz:
Once again, we want to thank our guest Vikki for joining us on the show today.
Vikki:
Thanks guys. Thanks for having me.
Etsy With Liz and Doug
Doug:
Liz. So this Etsy, I mean, obviously I know what it is, but I actually am nervous to admit, I don’t know a ton about Etsy. I mean, obviously I know what it is, what they sell, but I don’t sell on there because I don’t make handmade goods and crafts and I’m an eBay boy. So when I see Etsy, for some reason, my brain always autocompletes it to eBay, but you know, you know, more about Etsy than I do. And obviously Vikki told us a lot about Etsy. Tell me what you know about it.
Liz:
So honestly, um, I have listings on Etsy, a whole five listings out of my 2000 items that I sell. I have five that are eligible to be listed on Etsy since it is just for vintage, what they consider 20 years plus, and for handcrafted goods. So, and it’s not really what I sell. So really I just know how to put items on Etsy and wait for buyers to find me which hasn’t happened yet. I’m pretty sure there’s an algorithm thing going on there that I haven’t figured out. I’m sure that the items that I have just simply isn’t enough, but really that’s all I know about Etsy. It’s, it’s a fairly inexpensive place to list, but yeah, you can get started on a listing for as little as 20 cents.
Doug:
That is interesting. And what’s funny is my wife sells on there, so I dunno, she sells stuff…
Liz:
Oh my gosh, so we need to have her on for extra bit. Right. So because your wife sells handmade.
Doug:
Yeah. She makes crafts and um, all kinds of little handmade stuff and she sells on Etsy and Poshmark and Mercari and eBay and Facebook. So she does much better than I do. I don’t know why you’ve been trying with my five bins back there.
Liz:
You’re like, you’re just her helper, right?
Doug:
That’s right. Actually shipping department, marketing, customer service, things like that, but no, she’s got big plans. It does take a team. And as we say, you have to think of yourself as a business.
Liz:
Absolutely. You know, speaking of business, I ran across an interview that the Etsy CEO, Josh Silverman did that I found really interesting. So International Women’s Dy was on March 8th. Okay. And, uh, Josh Silverman went on and did an interview that day and kind of had the following to say about Etsy and women in business. I found this very interesting since I really don’t know a whole lot about Etsy. But what he had to say was active sellers on Etsy have grown 67% year over year. There are now 4.4 million active sellers on Etsy. And over 80% of those are women. And importantly, two thirds of sellers on Etsy say that their sales stayed stable or grew during the pandemic. So yeah, your wife is part of that 80% of the growing population of sellers on Etsy. Also two thirds of sellers say that it’s a primary or meaningful source of their income.
Doug:
Obviously a lot of growth during the pandemic year. But, you know, that audience is great and it kind of makes sense, too.
Liz:
It really does. Also, in this interview, it was on a CNN business interview that he did on that day. You know, that they were talking about the pandemic and who was the hardest hit. And they were saying women were proportionately hit harder than men in the workforce, which have forced more women to stay at home and create their own businesses. Doing this Etsy even came out and said, hey, 55% of Etsy sellers are multichannel sellers, which means that they are crossposting to other sites, just like Vikki. She’s an eBay seller. She’s an Etsy seller. She’s a Mercari seller, she’s a Poshmark seller.
Doug:
And we know so many sellers that sell across the board. And I think that’s what you’ve got to do now. And then again focused on handmade or vintage items and crafts, and then they’ve got, jewelry, bags, clothing, home, decor, furniture, toys, art, craft supplies, and tools. And then like you said, this is interesting too. The vintage items must be at least 20 years old. I think that’s really interesting. And, but you know, this shows too that they’ve really found their niche and they’ve really got an audience, that appreciates that niche sells it. I’d be super interested in the future to look more into the, you know, the buyer demographics as well and see what the, what the buyer base is, probably pretty similar.
Liz:
Maybe. Vintage is hot right now. You know, we say 20 years plus 20 years ago, that was 2001
Doug:
Oh, I was thinking like the 80s…
Liz:
20 years ago was only 2001 that doesn’t feel like 20 years ago.
Doug:
I think I had a mustache and goatee then. It was like, you know, the nineties, the early nineties wanted it back already.
Liz:
The information on Etsy that I found that I thought was very interesting. So to all of my fellow women, fellow women, sellers out there, great job getting out there and making a business of yourself on Etsy and other multichannels.
Doug:
And maybe someday we’ll have Josh on and we’ll be like, Josh, you need to push it out to, you know, not just 20 years, let’s make it at least back to the eighties. I don’t know.
Liz:
It still feels current when you’re our age. Okay. Let’s quit aging.
Doug:
That’s true. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, you know, Vikki gave us some great insight into selling on Etsy and I’m sure we’ll have more in the future. Uh, anything else on Etsy, Liz?
Liz:
That’s all I’ve got today, Doug.
Liz:
All right. Thanks.
List Perfectly Tip
Liz:
So Doug, I hear that you have a great tip for List Perfectly users today.
Doug:
I do. Usually the tips come from you, and Liz this may be a surprise, but this tip actually comes from you too. It’s pretty much the checklist that you post and that you use. So this is Liz and List Perfectly. So Liz Perfectly’s daily checklist, daily checklist, you would say, or weekly, or what do you do?
Liz:
Just if I find that something is getting hung up, just, it’s a really quick checklist that I run through whenever I feel the need.
Doug:
All right. So here’s the recommended checklist. Get your pencils. And this is the checklist to ensure that your List Perfectly extensions are working correctly or that List Perfectly is working correctly. Number one is your Google extension up to date: Number two, do you have the most recent List Perfectly extension installed. Number three, clear your cache. That’s always important. Number four, click contact us in the Help portion of List Perfectly and let the help wizard walk you through any other possibilities. And remember that’s your 24-7 support everyday great tool you can go through and you can record your screen. You can record your voice. And then on the List, Perfectly side, they can look at what’s going on and maybe help you diagnose it. So those are some quick good tips. That’s actually a great overall tip and, a checklist to check regularly. Probably the first stuff you should look at if you have an issue.
Liz:
Absolutely.
Doug:
All right. That’s our List Perfectly tip…that’s our Liz Perfectly tip for the week.
Seller Question
Doug:
Welcome to seller questions. Liz, you can tell by my voice that I’m super excited? This is probably about as excited as I get, but we got an email question. I’m super excited. We got an email question.
Liz:
The first emailed question. Thank you, emailer.
Doug:
I know. And where can sellers email us Liz?
Liz:
If you have a question, you can email us at podcast@lisperfectly.com. So what do we have this week, Doug?
Doug:
Well, first of all, our submitter asked to be anonymous, which is fine. So I’m going to read this in my anonymous voice. “Liz and Doug. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking the time to read my email. I have a relative who has a small eBay business with about 5,000 items sold since 2001 and has a perfect rating. However, they’ve asked me to take over the business, which I am unable to do as it has over a hundred thousand items in storage. I have personally sold random items here and there, but this is inventory that will require a warehouse and a few employees, any suggestions on where to start?” So what do you think Liz? This is a really interesting one because I mean, that’s a lot of stuff, first of all, and that’s a lot of ramp up for somebody that sounds like they’re a casual seller.
Liz:
Yeah. That is a lot like a hundred thousand. It’s easy to just think that number. But then when I look at my inventory and thinking how much space in a warehouse that would take that is a lot.
Doug:
Well, and it, really depends too on what they are. I mean, what is the stuff? Is it big stuff? Is it little stuff? Is it clothing? We don’t know. And that’s just so much and logistically, you know, you’ve got to think of everything across the board. We have our friends, eBliss Reseller Solutions and they have a warehouse in Denver and they’ll take your stuff, but they don’t take that much. They don’t take that much inventory because they can’t, that’s, that’s a ton. And so I don’t know, this person would probably have to basically start up their own business and super ramp up.
Liz:
So this listener says that they are unable to do it because there are a hundred thousand items, a warehouse, and clearly a few employees, if that were me and somebody were asking, I think it would help them out by maybe trying to just sell it off as a wholesale. Yeah. You could do that or split it up into maybe three wholesale lots. Um, or if they wanted to keep some, I know you mentioned eBliss, so ebaliss is good for one-off items. Yeah. So, you know, you just take your one-off items, you inventory and you ship it to them and they fulfill and ship your inventory for you. They warehouse it. So you don’t have to think about that, but yeah, a hundred thousand might be too much. If any of our listeners have been in this situation email us, let us know what you would do or what have you done in the past. We’ll maybe follow up with this answer because this one actually really has me stumped. I don’t know. Part of my brain is like, Ooh, I want to know more like, should you take it on, but I’m not ready for that.
Doug:
Yeah. And that’s the thing is, is if you have a suggestion or you can help, or you’re interested in maybe buying out some of the stuff, shoot us an email at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com and we can connect you. You know, I guess the other thing you can do is if you’ve got stuff that’s stored, I mean, you could sell stuff here and there, but you know, there’s an opportunity to unload this stuff. We know big sellers that have their own warehouses that might be able to take it on. But, again, you know, we need to know what the stuff is, you know, where it is, things like that. But again, you know, if only we were connected with a community that could help, but that’s the cool thing about this. It’s like, yeah, let’s try and help this seller out.
Liz:
If you have any solutions or you have any questions, like Doug said, email us. Maybe we’ll just follow up with this next week.
Doug:
All right. Cool. Well, very exciting. That’s our seller question for the week. Our first emailed question, we hope there will be many more, not too many. We want to manage them, but we also, I mean, this is a good example. It’s something we really couldn’t answer, but we’re putting it out there for help. So again, if you have a question, email us at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com. Ask a question on Facebook or Instagram, tag us, use the hashtag #sellercommunitypodcast. And you can always go to the List Perfectly Facebook group. And then again, you know, if you have any suggestions or want to help out, shoot us an email and we will connect you. Thanks Liz.
Liz:
Thanks Doug.
Seller Shoutout
Doug:
All right. We’ve got a seller shout out this week. Liz, who do you have?
Liz:
I found an Instagram account that caught my attention. It is called consignmentchats, and I found this very interesting because the topic of consignment comes up often in our community. Questions that I see all the time like, should I consign? How much should I charge? What should I include in my consignment contract? And this account really caught my eye because they have some really great resources. They have an Instagram account where they talk about consignment. They have a YouTube channel where they talk step-by-step and then answer, a lot of these questions, Libby, Molly, and Tiffany, they share a wealth of knowledge on everything that I just mentioned above. It’s a great resource for those getting started with consignment. Those that are, that are curious about consignment, and actually could be a really good resource, even if you’re experienced in consignment. And you want to be part of that community that does consignment also. Anyways, you can find them on Instagram at consignmentchats, their website, consignmentchats.com and on YouTube as consignmentchats. And of course, that will all be in the show notes for you to find them. So great job. Great resource.
Doug:
All right. Thanks for that seller shout out Liz.
Outro
Liz:
Thanks for joining us this week on the seller community podcast from List Perfectly. This week on episode six, we got to talk to Vikki Egan, better known as lvpinkpeacock
Speaker 2:
And Liz, just so I’m clear, what’s the LV stand for?
Liz:
Viva Las Vegas. Oh, and by the way…
Doug:
You got to sing it, sing it for me.
Liz:
Okay. I don’t know how to Viva Las Vegas. I don’t know how to say…
Doug:
In tune, but off tune, but that was excellent.
Liz:
Viva Las Vegas. I can’t sing that one. Sorry. Hey. And by the way, I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that Vikki’s promo code for List Perfectly to save 30% off your first month of List Perfectly, or if you wanted to do a first-time upgrade. So let’s say you’re on a simple plan and you wanted to try the business or pro plan. You can use this coupon code for that too for one time. So to save 30%, make sure you use Vikki’s code lvpinkpeacock77. Nice. We’re going to put that in the show notes.
Doug:
We will put that in the show notes too. And I’m going to hop in here and go off script, but List Perfectly’s done a lot of awesome upgrades, like the last couple of weeks, and we’ve got a lot more big stuff planning and, you know, within the last two to three weeks, my son has been listing for me and putting my listings into List Perfectly. And he literally said the other day, these upgrades have made my process much easier. So…
Liz:
Oh my gosh. That’s awesome. So Doug, tell us too, like, cause I know how old is your son?
Doug:
He is 13.
Liz:
So a 13 year old is noticing these upgrades and it’s even making his life easier. Yeah, I think that’s pretty amazing.
Doug:
Yeah. And he used to list for me, he would do my drafts on, eBay and then I would go in and finish them up, but he says it’s much easier now. And I love, we love that. Add a Product button that just came up, just cuts out a couple of steps. So, you know, the process is going well. So from the mouths of babes 13 year old boys…
Liz:
Yes. Well that’s awesome. Thank you for sharing that.
Doug:
Yeah. A ringing endorsement. Yes. All right. Well, Liz, we also had seller shout outs
Liz:
And we give you a List Perfectly tip.
Doug:
We answered a seller question from email. You can find us at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast. All the links to all the different streaming sites, show notes, supplemental material, everything you need. You can leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast. You can actually record a message there and send it to us. And we could put other voices on the air and make you a star or email us at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com. You can take my place when Liz lets me go. Also post a question in the List Perfectly Facebook group, use the hashtag #sellercommunitypodcast and mention Liz or myself, Doug.
Liz:
You can listen to us anywhere you listen to podcasts and be sure to subscribe and tell your friends. You can also follow us on Instagram. I am coloradoreworn. Doug is snoop.dougie and of course be sure to follow listperfectly. Also find the List Perfectly Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/listperfectly.
Liz and Doug:
See you next week!