Scavenger Life Episode 301: Our Best eBay Week Ever

I would say that having your employee has boosted your sales considerably. As far as getting much more for the medal than others are asking–you guys are amazing. I have honestly tried to do the same on some things, but it usually doesn’t work for me. On to my numbers:

Total Items in Store: 420 etsy, 215 ebay
Items Sold: 17–4 on ebay, 13 on etsy
Total Sales: $809.95 ($117 on ebay, $689.97 on etsy)
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Thonet chair on etsy)
Average Price Sold: $62
Returns: 0

I had an excellent week too–I assume that tax refunds are starting to come in and people are treating themselves.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by omfug.

Total Items in Store: 390
Items Sold: 19
Total Sales: $697.58
Highest Price Sold: $70 (Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Kit)

I found a stack of 8, shrink-wrapped Dave Ramsey FPU kits at a church thrift. I sold 6 of them this week, for $70 a piece. I’m going to be sad when they are all gone!

I attended my first estate sale last Sunday, and another this Sunday. They were polar opposites: the one last week was in a very nice neighborhood, with many high quality items. Most of what I bought are items that will have to wait for the right person to come along, so no quick flips like the FPU kits. The prices were very reasonable, (Le Creuset stockpot for $60, that I can resell for $170? Sure! Ferragamo shoes for $4? Absolutely!)

The sale from today was in a very rural area, with 99% low quality, worn out items. Even at 50% off today, the house was still very full, because the quality was low, and the estate sale company priced everything very high! Rusted out chest freezer for $100? Dirty old blanket with holes in it for $60? Er, no thanks. I bought 2 vintage Betty Crocker cookbooks, and that was it. The place made me feel sad for the lady that used to live there. 🙁

Can’t wait to listen in the morning! I had a pretty good week too, but you guys with 82 sales all together is simply amazing! Can’t believe you had enough time to do all that other great stuff instead of just packing & shipping!

Store Week March 5-11, 2017

Total Items in Store: 874
Items Sold: 23 (3 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $150
Total Sales: $967.89
Highest Price Sold: $199.99 (1960s Red Sox jacket)
Average Price Sold: $42.08
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $300
Number of items listed this week: 32

Great week of sales for me, multiple higher dollar items, multiple items selling same day as listing – plus I’ve already had a $245 Sunday (not included in the above numbers). Other than the Red Sox jacket, other great sales included three vintage Best locks without keys ($90 total, $3 COGs) selling within an hour of listing, 1980 Lake Placid Olympics poster selling for $90 ($4 COGs), $200 worth of records ($15 total COGs).

Estate sales on Saturday were also very fruitful. It was bitterly cold, so maybe that scared some of the crowds. From one sale of an obvious world traveller, bought a book of 500+ postcards with their original 1925 itinerary (John/Spinacheatr was kind enough to give me a few pointers after I contacted him), a photo album of a family trip to Wales, a box of another 270+ postcards (1950s/60s), and a photo of a civil war soldier (bought for $20, put it up for $200). Another sale a guy was just pulling things out of a basement as he was cleaning it out, no attachments and everything was for sale. There were only 3 of us there at the time and the other two guys were fighting over old tools – I dug around and found some nice old tobacco pipes, a box of Christmas decorations that were only Waterford ornaments, a box of old Zippos, and then a set of old tarot cards. Pretty good little weekend!

• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by Brian Treasures from Grandmas.

Store Week 3/5/17 – 3/11/17

Total items in store: 1163
Items sold: 31
Cost of items sold: $30.15
Total sales: $919.60 (best week ever!)
Highest price sold: $150 (9 yards of cowboy/western print fabric)
Average price sold: $29.66
International Sales: 0
Returns: 0 (But I did have 1 cancelled and 2 unpaid)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $15.01

Awesome week! Sunday was nuts. 10 sales and over $400. Then it kind of petered out as the week went on with lots of little sales. But they add up, so I’ll take it! The down side is that it was like pulling teeth getting people to pay up this week. I still have 2 unpaid ($85 that I didn’t count in my sales), and several that were really slow to pay. Weird how they come all at once.

Sold two tam o’shanters this week. Thanks for the tip, guys! Looking forward to listening!

Awesome week for Jay and Ryanne–I like selling that much in a whole month! Those woodworking tools will sell like hotcakes. I hoped for a minute that Ryanne was buying the Japanese pottery for herself, but no of course not! And I love the lobster (crab) art.

I have had increasingly good weeks as long as I am home enough to list. This week’s top seller was a pair of gorgeous old majolica wall sconces that I picked up from a flea market for $8 last summer. I listed them for $250 and forgot about them until they sold this week. Also sold a duvet for $100 to someone in Hawaii with calculated shipping which came to $54. But the shipping they selected was Fedex ground–which can’t happen to Hawaii, so it wouldn’t let me print out the label. So I was surprised to find it actually fit into a medium flat rate box to Hawaii for only $12.50! Shall I send an email letting them know I have upgraded them to Priority? Yikes! I also sold a little rabbit figure that was listed 5 years ago and now I can’t find it, after all that. I found another one on ebay and bought it ($5 more than mine) and the seller is shipping it to my customer and will send me the tracking number. Wow, that was close. Now where did that rabbit hide?

• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by Linda Shields.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by Linda Shields.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by Linda Shields.

Hi Jay and Ryanne – Congratulations on your 300th episode (last week) and your great week this week! I really love you guys and you have made a very positive impact in my life.

I also had a nice week of steady sales. Here are my numbers:

My Store Week March 5-11, 2017
Total Items in Store: 825
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $37
Total Sales: $338
Highest Price Sold: $80 (vintage lite brite)
Average Price Sold: $28.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $83

RR Store Week March 5-11, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1246
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $26.25
Total Sales: $626.86
Highest Price Sold: $239.99 (50s Vibra King Massager)
Average Price Sold: $36.52
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $67.95
Number of items listed this week: 52

Not bad at all. Again, I’m inching closer to my short term goal of $700 a week. That massager sale felt great. When researching the item, I was shocked at how much they go for. I priced mine high without Best Offer. Took a couple of weeks, but it sold, the second massager to sell this year. Vintage massagers are always on my radar. I also sold a World War II Navy “dixie cup” hat for a Best Offer of $100 on a $139.99 listing. It was a blue one, which apparently is very rare. I had the only one on eBay, and it sold within a few days.

I hit five estate sales over the past couple of days, and they really gave up the goods. I agree with Brian from Treasures From Grandma; I love the 50s/60s homes with families that have lived there for decades. And thankfully I had a couple of them this week. Few things make me happier than digging through boxes of junk and pulling out gems. So much fun! And again, I cannot stress enough the importance of forming a friendly relationship with local estate sale companies. I tend to see the same handful of people almost every weekend, and I’ve built up a great rapport with most of them. That rapport is the difference between someone itemizing each and every piece I put in front of them, and someone eyeballing my pile and giving me an incredible deal with a wink of the eye.

*Paul*

Good morning! So exciting to hear about everyone having good sales!

To your question about the meta tag for mobile. It was explained to me as basically a safety net. Your listings may look fine on mobile today but the tag makes sure they will continue to be mobile friendly. The fix is easy with the bulk editor. You can copy the code and then click item description. Click “switch to html editor” and then paste in the code.

Then you can copy the code into the HTML of your templates and you are all set. Have a great week!

Week of Mar 5 – 11
* Total Items in Store: 719
* Items Sold: 16
* Cost of Items Sold: $75.36 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $527.81
* Highest Price Sold: $179 Claire Murray wool runner rug
* Average Price Sold: $34.24
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $10
* Number of items listed this week: 56

Whatever randomness of good sales hit Jay and Ryanne this past week also hit me! Of course, it could just be my listing higher value items lately since I’m following the advice to spend more to make more. Prior to the $179 sale, my highest sold item was $125! So, that is a biggie for me. I also had two other over $50 sales that really boosted my average this week.

After spending quite a bit on inventory for the past month or so, this week I skipped the online auctions. There were two that I thought about bidding on, but prices got too high on one, and I decided to skip the other. Instead, I went to a school rummage sale and bought a box full of stuff for $10. The majority of items should be priced very nicely, but I did buy one or two duds. No big deal, part of learning. Some of the items are winter stuff that I put in storage for end of summer listing.

This week, I plan to go to a live auction on Thursday and an online auction that is ending on Thursday evening. Whether I bid on the online auction will depend on how much I spend during the day in the live auction.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to be hit with a big snow storm, so the kids will probably be home from school, and I’m not sure I will be able to get much done.

Total Items in Store: 591
Items Sold: 8
Cost of Items Sold: $41
Total Sales: $244
Profit: $203
Highest Price Sold: $38 Nike Jordan Shoes
Average Price Sold: $30.50
Average Profit: $22.54

I feel like a broken record posting my numbers week after week, but it keeps me connected to my store. Another week no listing, another week selling 8-10 items and making $200. I had big plans for this past weekend, but we had family come in unannounced and that killed all plans.

I so very, very much want to hit listing hard and I really need to. Real Life ™ just keeps getting in the way. I love seeing how having an employee is pushing your numbers higher. Since I don’t have time to list, I’d love to hire someone to photograph and create generic listings for me. Photos, measurements, and item specifics. If they could do all that and create a very basic title, I’d be happy as a clam.

3/5 – 3/11

Total Items in store: 393
Items sold: 6
Cost of items sold: approx. $41
Total Sales: $238
Highest price sold: $120 honda window motor
Average price sold: $40
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $0

Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????

Ebay to Amazon – 5 sales – $494, COGS – $165, fees – $73, profit – $256
Got my house flip ready to go on the market and discovered a problem with the title. It is going to take me a couple of weeks to get resolved. Got a contract on another house to flip with my boss on Saturday. Purchase price $87,000. Expected remodel cost $45,000. Expected sale price $165,000. I actually believe our sale price will be higher, but this was the number we used to evaluate. I will keep everyone informed.
Sent a couple of boxes in to Amazon this week. Still not 100% caught up on sending in ebay to amazon items yet.

My Store Week March 5-11, 2017
Total Items in Store: +/- 220
Items Sold: 10
Cost of Items Sold: $125
Total Sales: $373
Highest Price Sold: $100 (J. Crew coat)
Average Price Sold: $37.00
Returns: 0

This week was a big improvement over last week, marred only by a) having to take a loss on an item (paid $80, sold $65) and b) still not meeting my income goals. I worked on listing this week, and have finally pushed my inventory back over 200 items. I’m planning on hitting an auction Thursday and getting some more items to list. I actually have no death piles at the moment.

Last week, a friend hooked me up with someone who has a houseful of interesting items to sell. Instead of going to the auction (great art on offer) and junk store last Thursday for a much-needed sourcing trip, I met up with this person at her house, which was really stuffed to the gills with high quality items. Based on what my friend had told me, I was anticipating a consigment-type deal which (even though I don’t love consigment) would have been pretty sweet. Instead, as the homeowner and I spoke, I slowly realized that what she wanted was just someone to talk her through the listing process; she was having a high-end antique shop/estate company come in for the art and antiques, and just wanted to learn how to list things like shoes and ties on eBay. Due to her low level of tech competence and other factors, it took over 2.5 hours for us to list a single pair of shoes (shoes which cost more than I made all week.) I got nothing — not an offer of coffee — honestly, scarcely even a “thank you” — in return. Sigh! So frustrating. I don’t blame my friend; she legitimately misunderstood what this person wanted. I was trying to think outside my usual box re: sourcing, but it didn’t work out, at all.

Again, I’m hoping the blizzard is cleared up by Thursday and I can get to the auction and junk store this week. About to dash to the thrift just to see if there’s anything there before I hunker down for the storm.

3/5 – 3/11/17

Approximate # of Items in Store: 220
# of Items Sold: 10
Average Cost of Items Sold: $6.23
Total Sales: $433.37
Highest Price Sold: $90 – Vintage Swimsuit
Average Price Sold: $43.34
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $28.36
Number of items listed this week: 3

Had some leftover free listings in February, so I relisted what I had held over from last summer. Five out of my ten sales were sandals/swimsuits.

Like others have mentioned, I’ll be snowed in tomorrow. Going to change my handling time from one to three days.

Congrats on a good week of sales R&J. Glad things are going well for your stores.

I’m still listening to the show as I write this…

My stats for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1589
Items Sold: 26
Total Sales: $623.51
Cost of Items Sold: $66.85
Average Price Sold: $23.98
Average Cost of Item: $2.57
Highest Price Item Sold: $119.95 – 28 point Chilean Spurs
Number of items listed this week: 37
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 209
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 78
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 52
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.64%
# of Hats Sold: 16 (61% of sales)

Another consistently normal week of sales for me (from a $ perspective). A couple of highlights for me. My wife came with me to an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. She rarely comes sourcing with me (and usually just shops for herself when she does) but on this occasion she noticed some interesting spurs. I would have overlooked them if my wife hadn’t picked them up. We paid $30 for them when I saw they sell on eBay. They got lots of interest and sold in a few weeks for $119.95. They are going to Poland via GSP:

Another of my favorite sales was a small pile of Miami Beach hotel brochures from the 1950s that sold for $36.95. I sold a similar group from Las Vegas hotels from the 1970s a couple of months ago. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for this kind of thing.

Total Items in store: 295
Items sold: 12
Cost of items sold: approx. $161 New + $8 Used
Total Sales: $474
Highest price sold: $111 (new pair of Anthropologie shams – paid $44 but it was over a year ago.)
Average price sold: $40
Number of items listed this week: +/-12

A better week. Still busy but I did get more Easter items posted. I’ve been working on a bit of store maintenance and it’s a little bit frustrating to see the recommendations from Ebay. Some of my items are significantly under the average price, but they just want me to put free shipping on everything. Hmm.

I’m still on my no scavenge challenge but I’m sitting at my computer Saturday morning and suddenly see all kinds of cars coming and going on our usually quiet cul-de-sac. There was an estate sale at the former home of an 85 year old lady literally around the corner. Since it came to me I decided it wasn’t cheating. The people running the sales were pricing crazy low and the place was crawling with people – she had no kids and they were looking to clear the house. It turns out this company let in their antique mall people the day before. I ended up buying mostly potted plants and everywhere there was the ghost of great items that had been recently picked. On the desk was a slide rule instruction booklet for example – no slide rule. After my backlog is clear someday, I’m joining Brian and Paul at estate sales. Much of the town was built up in the 1960s and the prices are all over the place but I’ll keep educating myself so I can spot things others miss. That’s the real thrill of it!

Mar. 05 – 11
Total Items in Store: 570
Items Sold: 15
Total Sales: $662
Highest Price: $135 (Vintage Occupational Shaving Mug)
Average Price: $44
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $84
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $371

I, too, had a nice week of sales. Mostly bread and butta’ but I did sell a couple $100+ items. One was a signed copy of a duck decoy book that’s been out of print for a while. I’ve learned to be on the lookout for “old and wealthy” hobby things and duck and waterfowl items often fit that bill nicely.

I went to my first big auction of the season and really went hard… and unfortunately so did everybody else there. I bet there was easily 800K or more spent total. I made out with lots of glassware (which I don’t have too much interest in but is very prevalent in my area so suck it up buttercup and make that money). And thanks to your “what sells” videos, I bought a box full of Waechterbach mugs for $15, some even made in West Germany!

I had a slightly rude buyer who could potentially cause some problems when he gets his item this week. He sent me an offer of $35 for a $40 item, but in the comment box asked for free shipping. I sent him a counter offer with the same $35 price but wrote that I don’t do free shipping. He accepted and paid but made a curt little comment about how if I was going to accept a lower price, than I should have been fine with giving him free shipping as well. Wow. Well I’m expecting at least some neutral feedback there, but I know I have a good case to get it removed.

Week of March 5-11
Total items in store 741
Items sold. 6
Total sales. $59.99
Avg price. $ 9.99
COGS $5.25
Returns-0 Cancelled-1
# of items listed. 41
$ spent on new inventory. $31.64
Highest sale- $11.99 vintage Snow White Tin (cost $2)

Slowest week EV-AH! I was listing like crazy compared to sales. I was getting really discouraged when I sold 3 decent priced items in a couple of hours. Next week’s stats should look a whole lot better. My scavenge of the week actually happened at my dad’s house. I was doing something in his bedroom when I found an old Lane chest model box filled with vintage ladies hankies in excellent condition. I also found a small 3-drawer lacquer box filled with vintage clip earrings. Mom passed away 3 years ago and we are still finding stashes! I cannot believe how many pairs of earrings that woman owned! I’m keeping a few pieces I’m sentimental about, but the rest will keep me busy for weeks.

March 5-11
Total items in store: 104
Items sold: 0
Total sales:
Highest price sold:
Average price sold:
Returns: 0
Total Listed: 0
Amount spent on inventory: $103

My first time ever posting my numbers and they’re a little bleak. Somewhat embarrassing, really. However, I’ve been laid up all year and this weekend was my first time out after knee surgery. Finally off the crutches! I figured the only way to go from here is up! LOL. Instead of working in the business, I spent my invalid time working on the business, catching up with the forum, doing all our taxes (first time our CPA will ever have our taxes before October!) and creating my new inventory system. I’m thrilled with how it’s working out; I’ve already reduced my space usage for listed items and stuff is much easier to find. It should also mesh with Mike’s Easy Auction Tracker program as it uses the SKU in the listing.

I was supposed to be on the Death Pile Challenge 2017, but we visited my MIL this weekend in Corpus Christi and she’s a Goodwill Junkie. They were having a half-price sale this last Saturday and she wanted to “help my business” by spending my money instead of hers. 😉

Scavenge of the week: A Donald Trump Signature Collection Presidential Paisley neck tie. Bought for $0.50 and they sell for about $38. Didn’t even know he had a brand of clothing/ties!

The mobile friendly test is testing to see if you have the mobile friendly code entered in the HTML portion of the listing description. The code essentially formats it so when viewed on mobile, there is no scrolling side to side – only up and down and mobile users don’t have to pinch to zoom to view small text. Your listing with just text will still show on mobile, but users often have to scroll side to side to view the description without that special code entered in the HTML area. Hope that helps 🙂 -Kat

March 5-11 2017

• Total Items in Store: 716
• Items Sold: 20
• International 4 (3 GSP)
• Total Sales $1432
• Highest Price $200 DVD VCR Combo
• Average Price Sold: $72
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $40
• Cost of items purchased this week $50

I can hardly believe I only spent forty bucks on the stuff I sold and that may be a generous estimate. All those free speaker parts.
Fantastic items at last Saturday’s auction, I went big on some really nice Sansui pieces and came away empty, someone wanted it for more than my high dollar limit which was over $800 in 2 cases. Then I went and over bid on an Eames style lounge chair and ottoman, it’s an older replica but I’ve wanted one for a long time. A $300 gift to myself.

https://imgur.com/gallery/9YG1x

March 5-11 2017
• Total Items in Store: 9144
• Items Sold: 142
• Total Sales $3427.51
• Highest Price $420 1:8 Porsche Car Model
• Average Price Sold: $24
• Returns: 5 (Clothing/DVD)
• Cost of Items Sold: $355
• Cost of items purchased this week $150

Been awhile since I posted, finally found a part time employee to take some of the pressure off. Amazon is still tanking, with new fees it’s getting harder to make the same net off of similar books. So sliding focus more on to ebay, last four weeks have all been great. Top sellers this was a 1:8 Porsche Car model for $420, set of Goosebumps books for $145 and a Beachbody exercise dvd set for $150.

Went to a moving/storage auction a few weekends ago and bought two wooden moving containers for $600. One of them had a lot of fabric piled up in the front of the container, couldn’t really see anything else but boxes. In the very back was three Singer sewing machines two 221 featherlights and newer Serger model along with a older Pfaff machine. Funny you picked the locks, I used a hammer on one of them and was about to use it on the second when my wife found the keys in the sewing table drawer. The case I used the hammer on was in bad shape anyway (my justification). The machines were great and what I was hoping to find. But, we also have about two hundred lbs of material to sort through and an estimated 500 or so vintage sewing patterns.

Happy to hear of so many having good weeks. I unfortunately did not have such a good week, at least not compared to where I have been recently. My Numbers:

Total Items in Store: 410
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $0 – Lots of old things and things just handed off to me.
Total Sales: $146.59
Highest Price Sold: $33 – Imation SuperDisk drive for Mac
Average Price Sold: $16.29
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $3.18
Number of items listed this week: 74

Sales just seemed to trickle in this week, and mostly for a bunch lower priced items. The good thing is a lot of those items are ones that I had sitting around for a while. 2 of them were among the very first things I listed, so that felt good even if I was hoping more head gone out the door.

I did get a lot of listing done this week which feels great. I have a bunch of boxes given to me by some friends that are moving cross-country, and it’s some pretty good stuff (books, records, home decor). So I focused in and listed a bunch of it, but there is plenty to go.

I also had to do a bunch of listing this past week because I didn’t think I would have any time to this week due to family stuff. But now I am sitting in snow/ice storm with time to list. As long as our power doesn’t go out.

Jay, Ryanne: I think one of the reason why your sales were so good last week is due to the free coupons eBay has been handing out. A friend of mine told me about this last week He said he received a $10.00 coupon good for use on eBay. I went home and found that eBay gave me a $25.00 coupon.

I thought about buying some shipping supplies, but didn’t really need much. Then I realized that I have been wanting to get a second scale to put in my basement. I have a small scale in the office I have on the main floor of my house. I sometimes package items in the basement if I need a bit more room. Now, I won’t have to carry the scale downstairs. It wasn’t really necessary, but it is sure convenient.

Anyway, I bought a nice scale on eBay for ~$29.00, so it only cost me $3.00.

I was just listing to this week’s podcast and Ryanne was talking about paying taxes at the auction you guys went to last week. When I go to local auctions, I always take my tax license with me and have them set me up as a reseller so I don’t have to pay sales tax on my auction items. It saves me a little over 8% on whatever I purchase at auction.

I don’t collect sales tax for items shipped out of state, but I do collect/pay sales tax on items that I ship within the state I live in, at least that’s the rules where I live. Plus the Dept of Revenue here gets quit ornery if you don’t collect/pay sales tax.

What has your accountant said about sales tax?

I do the same. I am in NJ. I use my reseller’s certificate for the online and live auctions that I go to, and I don’t pay NJ sales tax. When I sell to someone outside of NJ, no tax is paid. When I sell to someone in NJ, I collect sales tax from the buyer. Once every quarter, I submit the taxes electronically to the state. I just started this for the 4th quarter last year, so I’ve only paid once. Go Daddy Bookkeeping spit out the collected taxes for the quarter pretty easily.

My numbers for the week of 3/5/17:
Total Items in Store: 101
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $46
Total Sales: $261 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $65 (another nerf gun…but they have not paid yet and I had to open a case)
Average Price Sold: $23.72
Returns: 0

First week since the new year that I did not reach my weekly listing goal. I’m pretty bummed about that but it couldn’t be helped. I have been making great progress on my unlisted stash and really want to get all the older purchases up before the buying season begins in another month or so.

I’m in Arizona. I file my sales taxes monthly online. It’s a breeze to do.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by Clarity.

I have been reluctant to post my numbers since I am such a small seller compared to the numbers you guys have, but lately I have been seeing smaller sellers post their numbers, so maybe next week, I’ll take the plunge!

Hey, Losingitagain, did you see my numbers? I posted here for the first time ever, and you can’t possibly be worse than those!

Wow, who’da thunk I’d be happy to share my embarrassing numbers? Taking one for the team. Yeah! 🙂

Mar 5-11 2017

Total items in store: Etsy 293 // Ebay 220
Items Sold: Etsy 3 // Ebay 8
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $3.68 // Ebay $22.63
Total Sales: Etsy $54.55 // Ebay $99.18
Highest Price Sold: Vtg Kids Book “Unicorn Magic” $35
Average Price Sold: $13.97
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 45 (Listed at $860)

Well, I don’t think this week will be tough to beat.

Had my first 1000 dollar week of 2017 March 5 – 11. I am up 40% over the last 30 days. The biggest difference is I have begun to introduce more new shoes into my listings. I have also had a string of better finds at the thrift stores as of late, I think people have begun spring cleaning. Hopefully I can stay on this wave and keep things moving up the graph chart. Also, now that I am digging into my taxes, I am finding maybe I am not as bad off as I thought. By the time I write off ebay and shipping fees, miles, cogs, and supplies I shouldn’t have to pay too much, and maybe I can escape not paying SE quarterly taxes up to this point as well based on these numbers.

On selling old photos: Long before I was an ebay seller I was an avid scrapbooker and family historian. Back in those days, I was buying old family photos on ebay and it was amazing.

My favorite find was a photo of my 2nd great grandmother, Annie, who I have a big charcoal drawing of but no photos. I know all about her life, she was in this religious revival cult in Maine called Shiloh and they had a thing for fasting and she was malnourished and died shortly after my great grandfather was born so after she died her sister drew the charcoal drawing of her so little Charles would know what his mother looks like. It is an amazing drawing and I have it hanging in my law office. But no photos of Annie. Until I found one on Etsy! I have searches on Ebay and Etsy for my family name, which is a little unusual for a surname which makes searching easier. I was able to find lots of other old family photos. It was wildly fun to search and find photos of my own relatives.

I used to be quite active in a scrapbooking website called Get It Scrapped and I encouraged scrapbookers to find their old relatives on ebay too. I think when you are listing old photos – make sure to put all the information in the title and/or description – anything written on the back of the photo; the photographer’s name and location etc. Family historians, genealogists and scrapbookers are searching for their old relative’s photos.

P.S. I couldn’t find a link to a photo of the scrapbook page I made with the photo, but here’s a link to the video I made about making the page (so you can see the photos I found on etsy/ebay and see how I used them): https://youtu.be/zqC5cY_rrsg

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by KatieScott.