Saturday, August 16, 2008

I don't know where to start...

I have a GIANT task ahead of me right now.

As you may recall from a previous post, eBay recently changed their policy on Store listings. Items can no longer be listed for under $1. As a result, I have been adding more and more inventory to http://www.donsmagicandsundry.com/ as I get in new cards that I would sell for under a buck.

However, eBay has allowed Store inventory items that were listed before the policy change to renew every 30 days, and therefore a lot of cards I had listed remained available, a feature I think many customers found appealing since no-one else could then newly list that item for my price.

That all changed last night. I awoke this morning to find over 4000 emails in my inbox from eBay, telling me of the items that had been removed from inventory. Roughly 50% of my entire stock (actually probably well over 50%, since I have more copies of the lower priced cards - let's say 50% of my listings) have been removed.

All at once.

No warning.

SO, now I need to go through 4000+ listings and decide whether to:
  1. Relist on eBay, upping the asking price to $1
  2. List the cards on the "branch store"

I actually had this task on my mental "to do" list for when I finished processing Lot 47 (which is almost done), but I had planned to spread the work out over weeks, taking one set at a time and adjusting the prices or closing the eBay item to list the cards on the other store. That way the bulk of the inventory would stay accessible, and there'd only be a few minutes between taking them down at eBay and putting them up at the other store where they wouldn't be available.

Now, instead, I have thousands of cards that people can't buy until I get this fixed. Ye gads!

Needless to say (although I will anyway), I have my work cut out for me. I will temporarily put a hold on Lot 47 (all that's really left is to take photos of Uncommons & Rares I've never listed before to get them up, and deal with all of the Commons). Instead I will bury myself in the daunting task of getting my inventory cleaned up. Woo-hoo. What fun.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to slink off and cry quietly in a corner for a while...