Hauls like this are few and far between for me. So I'm Thrilled! 17 lbs of jewelry. $100 Mostly 1980's-Y2K but tons of great pieces. All individually bagged and name brands are all tagged. At least 75 Avon necklaces. Brighton, Cookie Lee, Lia Sophia, Alex and Ani, Silpada, Monet, Jessica Simpson, Trifari, Japan, Real pearls, freshwater pearls, some 925, glass, Murano, semi precious stones, I could go on and on. 🙌🏻 This is clearly the cleanest lot of jewelry I have ever bought and I am overjoyed with the fact that I'm not going to have to separate and untangle and research and look through a loop at every hallmark (I'm 1/2 blind so that's my nightmare.) i got some pretty depressing news at the doctor today so I needed a good thing to happen. This was the good thing. 🙏🏻❤️🙌🏻 A good lot like this makes up for the 10 crappy ones prior😉! I hope everybody has a great week. It's just so awesome getting to know all of you and visiting your shows and having you visit mine. Feels like a little family forming! .

I wanted to share this with you all. I found this little brooch at an antique mall and paid $7 for it. I thought he would bring a little bit because of being a mushroom. When I went to sell him for a starting bid of $1, I turned him over to look for a makers mark and seen 14 K. I thought surely not but I was like let me test him and bring him back next show. I took him to the jeweler. He told me it was solid gold, coral ball, and emerald eyes. His comps were pretty high, some as high as $1500. I sold him for $750!! He was only about two inches long!!

I feel like I have had success in the 6 months that Ive been doing Whatnot as Virginiatreasurehunter. Some may disagree, but I am very happy with how my business has grown. Ive had people asking how I started and built things up and I thought I’d share if anyone is interested. Keep in mind this worked for me, it may not be the best way for you. -Consistancy. I tried a couple of different times and dates before I settle on Friday evening being my ‘set show’ day. I have a show every Friday, I have adjusted the times, but my shows are Friday evenings and I stick to it. Ive only cancelled one (I had the flu and wanted to die, so I thought $$$-It costs money to make money. I DID pay to promote for the first 3 months. The analytics showed I was getting sales from promotion, but more importantly I was getting bidders and return visitors who initially came in from promotion. $$$-MORE ‘It takes money to make money’. (This is the really unpopular one). I had $1 starts my first show, $3 starts after that, now I do all $4 starts. Yes I lost money on many items in the beginning. I sold many awesome pieces, many that I would guess Brad would get $30-$80 in his shows, for $3-$15. I knew I had to do this to build my business and considered it an acceptable loss. I congratulated my buyers (very upbeat and cheery, even when I was sad about it) and moved on to the next item. This has cost me the most money, and its been worth every penny. -KEEPING PEEPS IN THE ROOM. I did/do this several ways. I thought ‘People have so many rooms they can scroll through, how can I keep them in mine?’ My show thumbnail and title gave people a reason to stay. To start I gave a lot of jewelry away. - Plan your background thoughtfully. Give them something that takes time to look at. Brad uses a mirror and his zany personality along with the flats of amazing jewelry he’s selling. He’s shopping with a show, personified! However, for us mere mortals….. I now set up all ‘bangers’ in the background. Amazing higher end pieces I have preloaded, a few for auction, but mostly in the BIN. I do run flash sales during my shows on those pieces and I always make a nice profit on them. I could do a better job of featuring them during my shows..but that another topic, lol. By having those in the background there is always something really nice to look at, and if asked I tell people to look in the shop at the piece then I show the item up close and run the sale. I think people sometimes look and then research and come back because I am often asked to run a piece a second time, and then it sells, sometimes even a show or two later.

I keep hearing about the algorithm and how it helps you get buyers into your room. Can anyone tell me how this works?

If it is advice, it may not be good advice. The jury is still out. The reason it may not be good advice is because USPS adjustments probably count against you on a seller dashboard/scorecard, in the same way that seller-initiated cancelations do. I get anywhere from 1 to 5 postage adjustments on my ledger per show, and my seller metrics/score/standings don't seem to be negatively inpacted--yet? Anyway, this new bill back policy is probably affecting me to the tune of $200-300 per month. That's pretty gnarly. I'm probably catching a charge on something that is 6oz on the label but 8oz in the box. I wonder if it published material, showing how much it has to be over to bill it back to us. I doubt it. Aren't we always at the mercy of the post office? Don't get me started on the number of underweight boxes I ship. Probably 5x the number that are overweight. Do I get money back? No, the post office keeps that money, while they continue to raise rates like clockwork. I don't like clocks or watches. 😅😅 I welcome anyone to chime in on the subject, until then, here's the rant.