What a box of comics actually costs you in time
Every comic seller has a number in their head for how long a box takes, and almost nobody has measured it. These are three of my own boxes, listed to my own eBay store with Point and Sell. Your table, phone and box will give you a different number, so time one of your own before you trust anyone's.
One step is not timed: reviewing and pricing the rows before you approve them. How long the photographing takes is up to you; the point is that you list as fast as you can photograph.
The three boxes
| Measured | Box 70 AA | Batch 56 AA | Box 64 AA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comics | 25 | 49 | 78 |
| Photos | 247 | 490 | 780 |
| Upload to the review screen | about 5 minutes | not timed | not timed |
| Identification | not timed | 2 minutes | not timed |
| Reviewing and pricing | not timed | not timed | not timed |
List as fast as you can photograph
Batch 56 AA: 49 comics, ten shots each, shot on the phone's camera page, and 2 minutes of identification once the last shot was in. The photos upload while you shoot, so there is no upload to wait for at the end. The shooting is the bigger half of the job. If you want a box to go faster, your shooting rhythm is where the minutes are.
The biggest box, including what went wrong
Box 64 AA was 78 comics, 780 photographs, and 74 came back right. Of the four misses, one had the wrong issue number, two carried the cover's series name rather than the name I file them under, and one was a different comic. Two more rows were refused at approval for a missing publication year rather than given a guessed one. Six rows out of 78 needed a hand.
The two mistakes that cost an upload all 24 of its rows
Box 70 AA went wrong in two ways that have nothing to do with photography.
1. Store category names are not store category IDs
If you have an eBay Store, the File Exchange column
StoreCategoryID wants the numeric ID, not the name you see in
Seller Hub. Upload the name and every row is refused:
Input data for tag StoreCategoryID is invalid
All 24 rows, for one wrong field. The number is at the end of each category's URL under Seller Hub, Store, Categories. With the numbers typed in, the same file went 24 for 24.
2. A lot priced at the box's price
Eight issues merged into one lot listing, and it kept the single price typed for the whole box: a $2.99 lot of eight. Nothing looks wrong with that row, and you find out when it sells.
Point and Sell refuses both now: a store category that is not a number, and a lot at the box's single price. If you list another way, check those two before you upload a box.
Get eBay's report every time
A bulk upload is not finished when the file is accepted. eBay's report names every row it listed and every row it refused, with the reason. Box 70 AA's first upload looked fine until the report said all 24 rows were refused. Download it, read it, keep it.
So what does a box cost?
On these boxes, at ten shots a comic: however long your photographing takes, five minutes to get a 25-comic box onto the review screen, a couple of minutes of identification, and then your own reviewing and pricing.