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Hello All!
Yes, I am very happy to report that I did it again and once again am thrilled to report that I was able to earn money on eBay while I was on vacation. This was the longest vacation I have ever taken while an eBay seller, and I had my doubts about whether or not this would work. But I am happy to give you this report:
How Much I Earned
While on vacation for 18 days, I sold 9 items and had gross earnings of $154.65!
Okay, that's not a lot you might be thinking, BUT if I had closed my eBay store while I was away, I would have had no sales for a total of $0.00. That means nada!
Our Vacation
My husband and I just returned from a 14-day cruise across the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Southampton, England stopping in Bermuda, Ireland, England and France along the way. We ended in Southampton, England and spent a few days in London since we were so close. I am not telling you this to brag, but to let you know it is possible to take a long term vacation and still earn money on eBay.
The Key to Making Money on eBay While on Vacation
The key to going away on vacation and still earning money on eBay is to make sure you extend your handling time (how long you have to ship items) on all of your items for sale. Since we were going to be away 18 days, I put my store on vacation but still allowed people to see my items and purchase them. eBay will then put a statement across the top of the screen that says the seller is on vacation which may result in delayed shipment. That way the buyer knows up front that there may be a wait for shipping. I extended my handling time to 20 days.
Bulk Editing Makes it Easy
If you have a store, you can use the bulk edit feature and do 50 items at a time. That makes it easier. I had 350 items so I had seven pages of items to change the handling time on, BUT with the bulk edit feature, I just did it seven times. Uf you don't have a store, I am not sure what the length of time is that you can extend your handling time to. If any of you don't have a store and can check that out, please let us know in the comments.
Minimal Work Required
Now, this is not to say I didn't do any work while on vacation. But the work I did was minimal because the internet is very expensive on a cruise ship so I didn't spend too much time on it. We stayed overnight in a hotel in Florida the night before the cruise. That night, and the next morning, I revised five of my items each day. (Even if you don't have anything new to list, eBay likes to see activity on your account, so always try to revise at least five items a day).Then we set sail on the cruise ship, and I didn't do anything for 11 days!
On our 11th day at sea, I logged onto my eBay account and was happy to see that three items had sold, even though the waiting for shipment was 20 days! I spent one hour online updating and revising my items that needed to be relisted. Since the 11th day was a Sunday and I like to end my auctions on Sunday, I relisted 40 of my items as auction items and just relisted the rest as 30-day Buy it Now. And that was it during the cruise.
Once we got off the cruise ship and were at the hotel in London, I spent about 20 minutes each night revising items. It made for a nice relaxing vacation and I still made money!
Have you gone away on vacation and still made money on eBay? Please share your experience in the comments below.
If you would to read about our trip and see some pictures, click the link below (or if it doesn't click for you, copy and paste the link into your browser):
https://hubpages.com/travel/What-I-Did-on-My-Two-Week-Transatlantic-Cruise-to-Europe
