Scavenger Life

We spent about $300 in shipping costs this week sending out the 40 items we sold while out of town. I personally love the new way eBay handles money: take out all shipping, fees, etc before sending us our profits. Makes more sense than the old days of getting a big chunk of change, and then getting bills from eBay and Paypal at the end of the month.

Our helper photographed all the items we found on the streets on NYC. We’re listing them now.

Hope you had a good week. Buy some of our coffee to get you going! We’re roasting tomorrow in the snow 🙂 broadporch.coffee
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Our Store Week January 9-15, 2022

Total Items in Store: 7999
Items Sold: 32
Gross Sales: $1,479.07 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $877.22 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $68
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $125 (set of enamel bowls)
Average Price Sold: $27.41
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 50
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

We just got back from a twelve day trip to NYC. Thankfully we could enjoy the city during a crazy pandemic by being triple vaxxed, wearing masks, and avoiding indoor spaces with too many people. This meant we walked the street and parks, people watched, ate good take out, and scavenged. Came home with two big bins of free stuff we found on the street. We’re in heaven.

We sold 40 items while using eBay’s new-ish “Time Away” feature. We received several “where is my item” messages but otherwise no cancellations. Nice to sell while on vacation. Ryanne is spending the day packing!

One cool thing we sell are old magazines. Not vintage magazines, but magazines that are a year or two old. We get cheap subscriptions, put them in our vacation rentals for guests to enjoy, and then re-sell them.. We break even on the cost and may even make a profit if we get a good subscription deal.

We closed our coffee shop and roastery down for ten days so owners/employees could take a breather. Coffee roasting starts again tomorrow. Cafe opens Thursday after a day of deep cleaning.

Hope you guys are safe and plugging away.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week January 2-8, 2022

Total Items in Store: 7923
Items Sold: 24
Gross Sales: $1,807.77 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,463.65 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $104
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $320 (set of pottery bowls)
Average Price Sold: $60.98
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 50
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Happy New Year! Felt like 2021 flew by and we hope everyone made it out without too many scrapes and bruises.

We’re in NYC for 10 days on an urban vacation. It feels like a crazy place to be with the new virus surge, but we’re double vaxxed + masked up, so it’s business as usual. We’re enjoying street scavenging on our long walks through all the different neighborhoods.

Our biggest sale was a 55″ TV we had in one of our rentals. Since we kept the box, it’ll be easy to ship. We used it for three years and resold at almost full purchase price. I guess people fall in love with certain models/brands. Otherwise, our other sales was a lot of random cool items. The beat goes on into other year.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week December 26, 2021-January 1, 2022

Total Items in Store: 7923
Items Sold: 28
Gross Sales: $2,017.30 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,595.75 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $346
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $600 (55” TV)
Average Price Sold: $56.99
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 50
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

It’s been fun to read everyone’s updates. Scavenging is such an ever changing business that pivots on what’s available and what people want. And for those of us who like to pay very little for inventory, it’s an even bigger puzzle.

Hope you guys are having a great holiday. We’re spent another quiet one at home while the world stays crazy.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week December 19-25, 2021

Total Items in Store: 7867
Items Sold: 35
Gross Sales: $1,653.77 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,263.42 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $112
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $250 (shearling coat)
Average Price Sold: $36.09
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 30
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Solid week of sales. Candlesticks seemed strangely popular. We love helping home designers make their places cool 🙂

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week December 12-18, 2021

Total Items in Store: 7862
Items Sold: 30
Gross Sales: $1,814.06 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,375.89 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $88
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $120 (antique enamel pot)
Average Price Sold: $45.86
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 30
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

We haven’t done any serious scavenging in months as we work through our backlog of inventory. We’re hoping that when we’re ready to buy from auctions again, prices will have gone down. But maybe the pandemic has permanently forced most estate auctions to go online which means a lot more buyers have found a new place to collect. Box lots and table lots really couldn’t be beat.

We remember when thrift stores had what seemed an endless amount of cool items for cheap…until thrift stores became popular and the quality of items went way down. Yard sales and estate sales were awesome!…until everyone realized you could look up prices for “solds” on eBay so yard sales started pricing items high.

Obviously there’s always great deals anywhere you go if you look hard enough and have a deep knowledge of things. When we get back to scavenging, we look forward to finding new places to find deals. The places other people overlook. We like to buy cheap!

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week December 5-11, 2021

Total Items in Store: 7863
Items Sold: 30
Gross Sales: $1,560.24 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,175.64 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $68
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $215 (antique business card)
Average Price Sold: $39.18
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 30
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)