This week on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly, we welcome Stephanie Inge, also known as Steph in Texas. Stephanie has sold on eBay for over 24 years, selling everything from low-carb taco shells to Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Stephanie was the first seller to start a meetup, in 2002, the Dallas eBaybes and eMales. Stephanie also advocates for sellers on the eBay Government Relations team and also sells on Etsy, Poshmark, and Facebook Marketplace.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the e-commerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and a hub for information on growing your business. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
Links
Seller Community Podcast on Anchor
Doug Smith (snoop.dougie) linktree
Trish Glenn (Super Sale Trish) Instagram
Episode Links
meetup.com/dallasebaybesandemales/
meetup.com/dfwsocialmediamarketing/
Intro
Doug: This week on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly, Danna and I welcome Stephanie Inge, also known as Steph in Texas. Stephanie has sold on eBay for over 24 years, selling everything from low-carb taco shells to Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Stephanie was the first seller to start a meetup, in 2002. Stephanie also advocates for sellers on the eBay Government Relations team and also sells on Etsy, Poshmark, and Facebook Marketplace.
Stephanie is the founder of the oldest and largest eBay Meet Up Group, Dallas eBaybes and eMales. The Dallas group was established in 2002, meets once a month, and has over 350 members.
Stephanie is also hosting one of the eBay Open seller-led kick-off parties, among ten others across the country, at her Dallas eBaybes & eMales meetup in Dallas, Texas.
By the way, List Perfectly is a main sponsor of eBay Open, and we will have some amazing giveaways for eBay Open attendees, so be sure and attend virtually.
We’ll also be at ALL of the in-person studio events, in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. So make it to those if you can as well. I’ll be in Atlanta with Danna Crawford so come up and say “hi!”
We’ll also have game-changing announcements right before and during eBay Open so keep those ears and eyes open! GET IT!?
But enough of my yakkin’!
Let’s listen in on the chat Danna and I had with Stephanie Inge, passionate, connected, and old-school!
Stephanie Inge
Doug: Welcome to The Seller Community Podcast. Today Danna and I are super thrilled, and super lucky to be joined by eBay community legend, Stephanie Inge, also known in the eBay community as Steph in Texas. So we’re going to jump right in and allow Stephanie to introduce herself.
Stephanie: Hi guys, it’s a pleasure to be here with y’all today. Hall of Famer, Danna Crawford, and I feel very blessed to be invited. I’ve been selling on eBay since March of 99, so a little over 24 years. I teach eBay. Over the years I have diversified. And I would say in the last four years, eBay has still, got my heart and always will. But I have sold everything under the sun.
And when my students ask me what do you sell? I’ve sold everything from low-carb taco shells to a Harley Davidson. So that’s, that’s a wide spread and eBay did call me when I tried to sell the Harley because they knew that was out of my wheelhouse and so that was the first time I felt very protected once I answered the right questions, they reinstated the listing.
So that should make everybody feel comforted. I think because they are looking out for us and, anyway, the low-carb taco shells are a whole nother story that I won’t get into, but it was very profitable and I was sold in the case. I didn’t just sell a box of taco shells here and there.
And it was only me and one other girl that sold those. It was wide open and it was when low carb first was trendy, but now it’s available everywhere. Again, you ride the wave till it dies out and then you pivot and go on to a new wave and so that’s what I do.
Danna: Steph and I go back a few years. I remember first meeting you as an education specialist at a meeting and I can’t remember if it was Boston in 2007 or Chicago.
Stephanie: It was Boston.
Danna: That’s what I thought. And we had lobster.
Stephanie: I ate my weight in clam chowder. Every day. It was so good.
Danna: Yes, I agree. That’s right. So it was Boston. And that was such an honor for me to connect with you. That was my highlight of meeting Meg Whitman that year too.
Stephanie: Yes, that was really cool. We’ve been through several CEOs over the years, but she was the first that I met. And I really like that, them being available, for us to meet, John Donahoe, and Devin Wenig, and then now Jamie but, eBay has to pivot, right? Everybody has to pivot. I think that’s the new buzzword, pivot.
Doug: And in addition to events like that, all those different kinds of eBay events that Danna has also done all those CEOs. Now, did you launch the first eBay meetup or one of the first?
Stephanie: I did in 2002. The reason for it is because I was really loving what I was doing, obviously, and still do. But back then there weren’t a lot of eBayers and I wanted to connect with people that spoke my language and did what I did. And I was reading an article and I can’t remember, it may have been in that magazine that eBay used to publish once a month, and there was a girl in Atlanta, Georgia, that had thrown some kind of happy hour and invited people. There was no social media. So I guess she found people like I ended up doing through the eBay community boards. And so I thought, Oh my God, that’s what I want to do. And that’s how it started. And our first meeting was at a Chili’s and I think we had 15 people at the first meeting, which was, it was great. And that was the only meeting we had there because the second meeting we had doubled the number of people. And so we have always met well for the most part at restaurants and then we went to a country club and we’ve been in banquet rooms and hotels.
But right now for the last several years, we’ve had a really good location. It’s actually in a classroom owned by a local I.T. company that allows us to use their facilities in the evenings. And so it’s got all the high tech projectors and the large screens that come down from the ceiling, so I don’t have to lug all that stuff across Dallas in the five o’clock traffic, it’s so it’s really been wonderful and we have grown to about 400 and probably 70 members over the years, and just organically, I don’t advertise or anything, and COVID, like everybody else has put a big damper on that. There are still a lot of people who are stuck in their houses thinking they can’t come out, but it’s slowly but surely. coming around and we’ve been meeting back in person since late last year.
Danna: That’s great. I know everybody enjoyed watching you grow. It was just like the Dallas eBaybes and eMales and it was really fun and inspiring to many of us that tried to follow in your footsteps.
Stephanie: And I know I used to have many conversations with you, Danna you need to do this for Florida, and my vision was always to see at least one group in every state, and there have been people that have started groups and just, they fizzled out for one reason or another, but I’m glad that eBay finally got behind us and, they give us a platform to advertise our meetings and they come to visit our groups. It’s really been helpful for a lot of people who can’t attend the live events. It gives them that chance to get up close and personal. So I really like that.
Danna: On a local level. And they send swag too.
Stephanie: They do. Yeah, that’s always a plus.
Danna: It is. It is. So I’ve always been impressed with your ability to market affiliate programs. And I think, in my opinion, you’re like the trailblazer of getting the meetups going, and then you got into affiliate marketing, it seemed like you were always marketing things. List Perfectly has a referral program that I know users would appreciate any marketing tips you may have for promoting their links.
Stephanie: Social media is a great way to do that. If they have a list or a meetup or some type of group obviously you can promote it in person or through emails when you’re communicating with your list or your people. Meetup doesn’t provide us email addresses, there’s a built-in, you know what I’m talking about through the platform we can communicate and over the years I have gotten individual emails, but email is a great way to do this.
Here’s another tip, okay, as an eBay instructor, you have students who will ask you what do you use to edit your photos. Or what kind of lighting do you use? Or what do you put it on a mannequin or, blah, blah, blah. So rather than have to answer the same questions over and over again, I made a FAQ email that I could just send out if someone asks me those questions and every one of those answers. Or an affiliate link for things that I already use. So it’s just a win. They get to know what I use with a direct link and then I get passive income and way back in the day when I really was, making not a ton of money, but I would say four or $500 a month in affiliate commission.
Remember when eBay had the About Me page? I used that specifically for my students. And basically, what I’m telling you I’m doing now with email I had a whole page. It was just resources where they could learn more about eBay through books, through courses. Equipment or programs like List Perfectly, which weren’t in abundance back then, but every month I’d get an envelope because back then they didn’t do that, they didn’t send it to PayPal.
And my husband would say, Steph. What’s this check for? I said hell, I don’t know. Just give it to me. So it was just like a bonus every month. I didn’t know where it came from. I didn’t even care. It was just from links. And so now with social media, you can do that as well.
Let’s just pretend that you found an awesome USB turntable. And you say, Oh my God, to digitize your albums. And so you were just going to share that with your friends on your Facebook page. Y’all got, y’all have to have this USB turntable, for your audiophile friends. Why not just make that an affiliate link? So if they happen to click on it, it doesn’t matter if they buy that turntable. For 24 hours, there’s a cookie set on their browser. So anything they buy within that 24-hour period, Doug’s going to get commission on. And so it’s just a no-brainer.
You see all these cute girls modeling their clothes that they got on Amazon and stuff. That’s all they’re not selling anything. Yeah. All of that’s affiliate. They’re driving traffic to Amazon so you can buy a cute outfit and pray that you look as cute as they do. And once you’re there for 24 hours, they get their commission, and so it’s really a great and very popular way to make money.
With reels now on Instagram, you could do the same thing, maybe not model clothes, but talk about something that you use on a daily basis that just happens to be for sale on Amazon, but Amazon’s not the only game in town. eBay has an affiliate program.
List Perfectly has an affiliate program. So we could go on there and talk about how List Perfectly is making my job and my life so much easier. And just happened to have my link down there. If you want to just try it out for two weeks. So if you’re going to talk about it, why not maybe make an accidental profit?
It’s not accidental, but it’s just a bonus if someone actually clicks on it. Doesn’t cost them anything. It doesn’t cost you anything. And it’s really the best way to drive traffic. I know List Perfectly, y’all don’t do any advertising. It’s all word of mouth. And that’s a testament to how good the program is. Y’all have grown a lot since it first came out. And it’s all organically.
Doug: Part of you and part of a lot of sellers, but part of you in particular is your brand. So tell us more about your brand and how you came up with your brand name, and how you named your brand.
Stephanie: That one’s easy because when I started, the internet was fairly new and they still called it the worldwide web, information superhighway. And I really didn’t know that much about it, and so I thought, Oh my God, I’m getting ready to get on the world wide web and start selling stuff. And I don’t want some pervert knowing if I’m a female, so I didn’t want to give my full name. And my friends call me Steph, and I’m in Texas, and so I thought, that way they won’t know if I’m Steph or Stephen, or Stephanie or Stephen. And so I felt safe. And people over the years, it seems like a lot of people for one reason or another, maybe because we talk slowly or I don’t know what it is, but they seem to trust us and they think we’re friendly. And so I thought if I threw in Texas, that would be a plus. And so that’s how it came to be.
Danna: I like that. I like that a lot. Speaking of brands, Steph has done such a good job with that. I always think of you when I see anything like a Texas flag or even an outline of Texas. I actually think of Steph in Texas.
Stephanie: So that makes my heart feel good.
Danna: It’s true. And I didn’t make that up or lie. It’s so true. And after all these years. That still is your selling name. You’ve stuck behind your brand all of these years.
Stephanie: And when people say, what’s the name of your company? I don’t really have a company. I’m a one-woman show, but here’s what it is, and it’s just the Dallas eBaybes and eMales. We have diversified over the years, but everybody knows our name. I sound like friends, right? But I’m not gonna change it after all these years. Just people who know us just know that we will cover more than just eBay. Mostly it is eBay or marketing or programs that can help us. But I think everybody has diversified a little bit. And if not, they’re thinking about it.
Danna: Sure. But it’s a great identification of you and your brand and a great example of the risk involved if you rebrand. You’ve held strong to your brand like Coca-Cola.
Stephanie: Yeah. People don’t like change. It makes me uncomfortable. But we’ve experienced that with eBay, just the colors. Sure. I still like the old colors. And every time I put this tape, this turquoise tape I have on my packages, I think, why did they do that? If it’s not broken, why did they try to fix it? But anyway, I like the old colors. Just for the record.
Doug: So speaking of change and the old colors, You have been on eBay for years. We talked about that, but have you expanded to other marketplaces?
Stephanie: I have. I tried Amazon for a while and the FBA part. In theory, it’s great, but there are so many obstacles and restrictions and it’s just Next to impossible. If you start doing really well, Amazon competes against you and so I don’t sell on Amazon. Haven’t probably in about 4 or 5 years, but at one of the eBay Opens, I was talking to a friend of mine from LA and she was talking, We went to dinner. She’s talking all about Poshmark. Well, I’ve heard of that. And I said, but, do you really do well? Oh, God. Yeah. And I’m going, Oh, I can’t wait to get back to Dallas. And so, I was fired up. I came home and dipped my toe in the water.
When I first started, it was just clothing, shoes and accessories. So that was all right, but they have expanded. So they actually let you sell just about everything, there are a few exceptions and so I used List Perfectly to cross-post to Poshmark. And when it’s applicable, I will cross-post to Etsy. So those are my three platforms and Facebook Marketplace.
I don’t really do that well on the Facebook marketplace because I think that kind of lends itself better to large items that are hard to ship. I may be wrong, but what I have found is just touching back on the affiliate program. It’s crazy and y’all may have experienced this before, but you’ll go on there and you’ll see you know, a brand new item ships free. You go, wow, how in the world can they afford to do that?
Guess what? It’s not really an affiliate, although some are. What they do is they list the item they use Amazon, the picture that’s on Amazon, and when it sells they log into Amazon using their Prime account and they ship it to their friend, Danna Crawford in Florida. And so you’re going, wow, ’cause it always arrives in the Amazon box.
So it’s either an affiliate link or they’re doing it the way I just told you. And so that’s why a lot of people are doing that on Facebook Marketplace which is great because we couldn’t afford to pay for free shipping. It’s just another way to add a revenue stream to your list of streams.
And if it says shipping, sometimes I’ll ask, now, is this coming from Amazon, and if they don’t answer me, I usually know. Yep. That’s what it means, but I don’t have an objection as long as I’m getting the free shipping. That’s a win.
Danna: Yeah. As long as you’re getting your item. So they’re using their Prime account.
Stephanie: Yeah. And I can use List Perfectly for that too to post to Facebook and I love being able to delete the listings once it’s sold. There are just so many benefits and when Clara and Trish were in Dallas, a couple of months ago. They didn’t actually teach, they talked about some of the benefits of List Perfectly, which was great. So I learned one thing or a few things, but I started utilizing the platform way more than I ever had. And I knew that’s the way I should have been doing it all along. And by that, I’m talking about now I list everything in the List Perfectly platform.
I was intimidated to do that because again, I’m old school and I’ve only ever created my listings on eBay, then I would export them into List Perfectly. And then I would export them from List Perfectly into the other platform. There’s got to be an easier way.
So now I do it like I’ve told you, and it is so much easier. And then at the bottom, I actually put in my cost of goods and then the price. And then when it’s sold, I can put in the shipping and all that. And I’m going like, I can’t believe I didn’t know this even existed. I was only just scratching the surface.
So it really makes me excited every time I get to mark something sold or add a new listing. People don’t realize how powerful that program is. And y’all aren’t paying me to say that, but I am living proof. It is amazing. And I can’t believe it took me so long to figure that out.
Danna: I know exactly how you feel. I fell in love with the program too. So it’s made my life easier. You list directly on List Perfectly.
Stephanie: Here’s something you can use. Okay, so people ask me how much does it cost? I said they have different subscriptions. I’m on the $ 49-a-month subscription. $49 a month. I’ll go. Okay, you go find an assistant. You hire somebody who will do all your listings for $49 a month, which is about a dollar and a quarter of a day. You go find somebody that will work and do all that for a dollar. They’ll go, oh, I never thought about that, but it’s like having an assistant, who’s going to work for 50 bucks a month. I think that’s a hell of a deal. So you’ve got to put things in perspective. And so I think it’s great. Don’t go up on the price on me now. But I love it.
Danna: I know I, I do too. And that’s why I took a position with the company.
Stephanie: Well they were smart to hire you.
Danna: I too only promote things that I believe in. So you’ve also impressed me with your knowledge of issues that online sellers face like state taxes and such. So please share your story about how you got involved with eBay’s government relations.
Stephanie: I don’t remember how I found it, but It’s very important. They also go by eBay Main Street, but it’s eBay Government Relations. They have offices all over the world, but the one that I’m familiar with is the one in Washington DC. And I’m going to talk about the main issue right now. And I’ll touch on the 1099 K, which is also taxes. A lot of eBay sellers, and this, I don’t mean this in a negative way, but most people hate politics. This has nothing to do with politics, but when they hear government, they’re going ugh, and this could affect all of us, online sellers.
It’s not just an eBay thing. It’s all platforms. But I just got back from Washington, D. C. I think May 12th. And I spent two and a half days out there. It’s my 3rd time to go, but this time it was to lobby our legislators to vote against what’s called The Shop Safe Act I won’t go into long detail on it, but suffice it to say, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. It still does. eBay would have 13 hoops to jump through and it’s all about the big brands who actually introduced this. And then they’ve got people in their back pocket in DC. Jerry Nadler is the main one. He’s in New York. Anyway, they don’t like us reselling their stuff, their brand, and I had the opportunity to meet with eBay’s GR lawyer, very knowledgeable, he’s like the one that looks at it’s all about counterfeit.
They’re making it sound like they’re doing this to protect the public. But really what they’re trying to do is get rid of the little sellers. And I’m just going to say like us, I don’t know how big y’all are or how little you are, but what it would entail is a three-strike you’re out policy.
As a seller, we would have no recourse. We would have no due process to prove that our item was not counterfeit. If a brand calls eBay emails, eBay, and I’m using eBay as the example, they would have to remove the listing. Three of those would get you banned from the site for life. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been selling for 28 years, you would be banned, no questions asked.
And here’s another sweet little nugget. On top of that, they would require that eBay, or whatever platform it is, include your name, your at-home address, which is where most of us operate out of, and your phone number. Now, isn’t that special? That’s if they want to serve us with papers for a lawsuit, they know where to find us.
I’m not making this up. You can pull it up, Shop Safe Act, and read it for yourself. eBay would have to supposedly verify the authenticity of our items and also we would have to prove where the item originated from. If we’re buying used items, we don’t always have that information.
As I said, eBay has 13 hoops they would have to jump through. So they’re lobbying hard trying to get them not to pass this. It’s not up for vote right now, but it will be sometime this year. Another thing was passed in the middle of the night, based on this, on what eBay shared with us during COVID, when it was a skeleton crew working on Capitol Hill and it was 1099. Used to, it was $20,000 before we’d get a 1099.
Sometimes during COVID, someone got a wild hair and changed that to $600 from $20,000. eBay’s lobbying hard to get them to revise that. They said that they would agree to $10,000, but ultimately, they would like it to return to the $20,000 threshold just to protect us because one person and this could be Facebook, it doesn’t matter, could just sell a bicycle and all of a sudden, just something out of their garage that they don’t use anymore, all of a sudden, they’re getting a 1099 k.
So anyway, those are the two issues that we were talking about The Shop Safe Act could put a lot of people out of business. If you’re selling vintage paper, like menus, I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about it. I sell a lot of clothing, shoes, and accessories. If someone wants to put you out of business, all they have to do is send three emails and it’s curtains.
Danna: Wow. Yeah. Thank you for representing because…
Stephanie: I don’t mean to interrupt you, but to answer your original question, how I got involved with eBay Main Street or Government Relations, same thing. If anyone out there who is listening wants to get involved with people like me who are part of that program, we’re called a small business ambassador or SBAN. They’re welcoming new members for people who would like to get involved on a more, deeper level, but you don’t, even if you don’t want to get involved, if you want to make sure that the people in DC hear from you, the Government Relations website has links and phone numbers where you can call your legislators or email them directly and voice your opinion on this Shop Safe Act. So you don’t have to get involved. You can just voice your opinion and just log into the website. Just Google it or there’s probably a link somewhere on the eBay site.
And the one thing I mentioned to eBay because a lot of people are in the dark and have no idea that this stuff exists, right? I think eBay could really do a big service by putting a link, reading about current legislation that may affect your small business, and just putting a link on the main page so people know, and can educate themself, about what’s going on behind the scenes.
Doug: And I think that site’s ebaymainstreet.com.
Danna: And I just wanted to add to that, that I like the advantage of, I’m not confident enough to go like you do to go before the legislation and all of that. So I appreciate that you do that. But what I do, my part is to always log in and sign up for the emails because it allows me to put in my name and simply email my representatives and they have them custom-made. They have them pre-made.
Stephanie: So you don’t have to think of what to say.
Danna: No, I don’t have to think of what to say and I don’t have to go to Washington. So thank you though for going and being a part of that.
Stephanie: It was an invitation from eBay and once a year they have what is called eBay Advocacy Day. And so they select constituents from various states, and then they fly us out there and then, there’s a briefing and stuff like that. If you get involved, you may have the opportunity to accept an invitation like that.
Danna: Sure. So the community plays a huge part for online sellers in so many ways as we got into a little bit. But since you’re so active in the online community, can you please share your top three reasons why people should connect with the community?
Stephanie: I think my first reason is probably not anything to do with business, but I just like connecting with people who do what I do. And the second thing that it’s just a residual of that is I always learn something from people just in casual chat, like by saying, Oh, I learned about such and such today, it could have been List Perfectly or a new shipping program. So the education I get from networking with other people who do what I do.
And then the third reason I would say is it’s an accountability thing, you feel if you’re just out here floundering all alone In your home office you don’t really have anybody to report to, obviously, which is a good thing. But when you’re connected, people ask how many listings do you have. Or how are your sales? You feel I don’t know if you’d say competitive, but you want to feel like you’re doing your job and you don’t want to look like a deadbeat in front of your peers. When I say accountable, that’s what I mean, it inspires me and it makes me want to do better.
There’s a couple in our group. I don’t know if y’all know them. Herb and Martha Oberman. It’s a husband and wife team and they usually have 10, 000 listings. Herb has been sick lately and Martha called me one day just to let me know she wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting, which should be the least of her worries. And she said, oh my God, she said we’re down to 7, 000 listings. I went, oh my God, I better start listing. If you only knew how many I had, but so I think a couple that are their age can crank out 10,000 listings. I could buckle down. And so I’ve really been doing that lately. And so I think those three reasons are the primary ones: education, friendship, and accountability.
Doug: So you’ve seen a lot of changes with eBay over the years. Look in your crystal ball, Stephanie, and tell us what you think the future holds for resellers, do you have any predictions for future trends?
Stephanie: Right now, and I had this conversation with Adam Ireland when I was in D.C. I was not scolding him, obviously, but I was just trying to talk, just like I reasoned with him. And anyway, so eBay, and this is exactly how I put it I said Adam, when I first started selling on eBay, you too, Danna, it was like the only game in town. And that’s what everybody was talking about. And it was synonymous with auctions. Every night on Letterman or, one of those late-night shows, somebody was showing up with some crazy thing they had sold on or bought on eBay.
And of course, there were stories, and backstories, but nevertheless, eBay was all in the news and known for auctions. So let’s fast forward to 2023. Okay, you’ve got Whatnot it’s all the rage, I know people that are killing it on Whatnot okay, and now Poshmark has live auctions where we can take the stuff we always already have listed and put it up for auction, a live auction and people are all about the excitement of the auction and the interaction, with a live breathing person. And so I’m going, Adam, the person that invented the freaking auctions isn’t even doing it, y’all should be leading the pack.
He goes we’re talking about it. And so my prediction, he said, they’re talking about it. And my hope is that eBay goes back to allowing us to do live auctions so we can compete in the same arena as these other platforms. You can do live auctions on Facebook. I don’t know about YouTube, but I don’t do YouTube.
Anyway, so that would be my immediate crystal ball prediction is whether it’s because I know it’s not going to be because of me, but it’s just the time of the timing, it’s everybody else is doing it and I wish eBay really was leading the pack because that was their niche and they were good at it.
And it would just bring a whole new dimension to eBay, the excitement and a way, another way for us to connect with the community and branding, it would still go through the platform and so that is my immediate prediction. As far as everything else, my next conference call when I hang up with y’all will be my quarterly call with eBay so I’ll find out more but I don’t expect to hear anything about auctions but I really have no predictions. I think it’s just going to be the same, same thing that we’ve seen all along, that they are thinking more and more about the sellers, which I like, whereas before we used to always be convinced that they were in favor of the buyers. But I think now they’re really taking a look at the sellers. And I like that. I feel like they’re listening more than they used to. I’m not saying they didn’t, but it just seemed like they didn’t.
Doug: No, that’s interesting. I was there during the Devin Wenig era and he was very buyer-oriented. So that was a lot of his push. And then they do have some eBay lives, but it’s pretty limited.
Stephanie: Oh, it’s very limited. But, a little birdie, and I’m not going to mention any names, told me that Jamie I don’t know if I’m pronouncing it right, Iannone, is very seller-oriented and community-oriented oriented and he likes connecting and stuff. And so I just hope that he’s the big kahuna. So I hope that he really pushes that because when I asked Adam about that he said that they’re trying to reach more sellers by doing the virtual thing, but you can’t really connect with people and I’m sorry, the clapping tunnel on the Internet is nothing like the real clapping tunnel.
Danna: I was there. I was there for the virtual. I was there for the recording.
Stephanie: Okay. But it’s still not the same as from a viewer’s perspective. And I hope that they do go back to in-person events, the little 2-hour or 3-hour thing that they had, they’re calling it a hybrid event, right? It’s just to me, it doesn’t get people really excited. And I like people to get excited about eBay because I get excited. And I want them to see why I get excited. I get excited when I have a big sale or a big profit, I should say. But the thing that really gets me going is the people. The friendships that I have made over the years or with people that I would have never met and the opportunities and the doors it has opened for me. I would have never gone to Capitol Hill. It’d be like the Beverly Hillbillies DC, but the opportunities it has afforded me being on a podcast with people like y’all. It just really makes my heart so happy it really does, even after all these years.
Doug: We know you sell on Poshmark as well. Let’s move over to Poshmark. So it’d be interesting to get your perspective and any Poshmark tips that you have for new sellers and making more sales.
Stephanie: It’s super easy to list on Poshmark. There are not all the item specifics, so it goes really quickly. But since I’m listing everything through List Perfectly it’s super easy there too. I don’t have to jump through so many hoops or boxes. Then the two things that really stick out to me that I absolutely love. One is shipping. The buyer pays the same amount on shipping up to five pounds and Poshmark collects that. They collect all the money, but as soon as an item sells, they send me a shipping label. So I’m not paying a commission on shipping and I don’t have to listen to people complain, that my shipping’s so high and I can use any priority mailbox. It doesn’t matter if it’s a flat rate, a regional rate. If I have a flat rate, a priority mailbox, I can put it in there up to five pounds, so I don’t have to weigh it. Shoes don’t weigh five pounds, so any box, no weighing, and you have your shipping label and no complaints about shipping.
There are three things. They don’t really believe in returns, and they call it Reposhing. If somebody doesn’t like something send them an email. They’ll ask them and there’s a little button if you don’t like it, or you’ve worn it three times and are tired of it, they can click a button to Reposh it. It brings in all the pictures, the listing, and everything. And boom, it’s for sale.
So Reposhing, shipping, and then probably the best thing is no deadbeat bidders because before someone can buy something or make an offer to buy something, they have to make sure their credit card is on file. And so when you get an email that something’s sold, there’s no waiting three days so it’s a really great thing, and the emails you get from them, even if you screw up and as a new seller, you’re going to have pitfalls.
One time I shipped out and I’m all about shipping as fast as possible. And eBay’s always encouraged us to do that. So I did the same thing on Poshmark or wherever I sell. So I shipped an item out and all of a sudden they sent me an email. Don’t ship such and such. I already did. What do I do now? They said we have a 3-hour window where they allow someone to cancel a purchase that I wasn’t aware of. They said, but since you didn’t know, we’ll go ahead and deposit the funds into your account. Since you didn’t know and no worries, it happens to the best of us. So they don’t slap you on the wrist and make you feel like if you do that again, they’re just really a positive reinforcement. It’s more like social selling in many ways where they encourage people and a lot of times reward people for sharing other people’s listings with their followers and that’s how you get elevated in the searches.
Instead of just, the best match or, having the right keywords or whatever. It’s all about sharing your own listings. And then what it’s everything is reciprocal. When you share other people’s listings with your followers, usually they’ll come back and share three or four of your listings with their followers. So it’s just everything, it’s like it is about a virtual community. I’ve met some people in person, but it really encourages people to help each other. And I love that. That whole atmosphere.
Danna: Right. Oh my gosh, Steph, it’s just been so much fun talking with you. I hope that we get to see you at an event really soon.
Stephanie: I’m going to try and go to the BOSS Reseller Remix. I know y’all were there last year. So if so, maybe I’ll see y’all there.
Doug: Awesome. Thanks for joining us, Stephanie. Do you have any final words?
Stephanie: Let’s try to make sure that damn Shop Safe Act doesn’t pass. And if you’re not using List Perfectly, jump in there and at least try it for a couple of weeks and the best advice I can give is to create the listing on that platform. It’ll make your life so much easier. It really will.
Doug: Thank you, Stephanie.
Stephanie: Okay. Bye bye.
Outro
Doug: The Seller Community Podcast is sponsored by List Perfectly and Listing Party. Find more information at listperfectly.com and listingparty.com.
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