Scavenger Life

When we started selling on eBay, it was 2008 when banks were collapsing across the country and hundreds of thousands of people were losing their homes. We didn’t own much of anything. eBay was a way to make some money in a rural community.

Fifteen years later, banks are collapsing again. I’m not educated enough to know how serious things are in the economy. We’re still helpless to do anything about the larger world, but we know we can work and be smart. Our financial lives have grown since 2008 and yet scavenging and listing on eBay is still part of our habit. Our scavenger knowledge have only improved. Nothing else has really changed. Here’s one of the first weeks we started publicly posting our numbers.

No magic or secrets. Just listing the same as before. Hope you had a good week.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
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Our Store Week March 12-18, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9316
Items Sold: 21
Gross Sales: $1,335.52 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,062.02 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $117
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $110 (antique scale)
Average Price Sold: $50.57
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Let’s talk numbers. We have about 9300 items for sale on eBay. 18 items sold this week. 5 of those sold items were over $30. This week is a new week.

A couple podcast listeners stopped by our cafe to say hi. Unfortunately we weren’t there. You can always send us an email to let us know you’re coming and we can try to make sure we’re around. Our staff is always confused when people call us Scavengers. They don’t really understand that part of our lives 🙂

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

Our Store Week March 5-11, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9345
Items Sold: 18
Gross Sales: $785.10 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $613.71 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $68
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $100 (vintage dinner plates)
Average Price Sold: $43.61
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

It was a normal steady week for us on eBay. We sold two broken appliances (aka “for parts”) which is always fun. I’m glad to see there’s a desire to fix broken items, especially when they may not be available anymore.

When we first started the podcast in 2008 and posting our weekly numbers, we got some blowback from sellers because we were “revealing all the secrets”. It’s not realistic to think that we ever had that much reach to affect US society reselling habits. But if we helped move the needle on how people saw all the trash/junk around us, we’re very happy. We hope we helped in the slightest way to remind people that used items are extremely useful and valuable…and to show there’s a simple system to sell these items. Reselling is now a normal, popular activity. More competition for sure, but hopefully less stuff ending up in the landfill.

Our coffee business is growing and keeping us excited. We just signed a contract with our local hospital chain to roast the coffee they serve in their cafeterias. They’ll be serving much better coffee and we now added hundreds of pounds to our roasting schedule each week. Our two roasters are excited to soon be roasting full time. Plus our cafe is now a hive of activity on a daily basis with local people understanding we’re the place on Main Street to hang out. We now work laptops at the cafe and watch the action. It’s a joy to see and  a good sense of accomplishment.

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

Our Store Week February 26 – March 4, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9357
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $1,024.88 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $766.91 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $60
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $110 (vintage cowbell)
Average Price Sold: $33.34
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $75
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

A slow week. We sold sixteen items. A buyer purchased a $250 painting that would have saved the week…but the person immediately cancelled. Ooof.

Hey, it’s the end February and Spring is coming. Lots to do.

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

Our Store Week February 19-25, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9320
Items Sold: 16
Gross Sales: $764.26 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $628.40 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $24
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $90 (upholstery fabric)
Average Price Sold: $39.27
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 20
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

It starts with an offer. And then another offer. And another. The offers are high offers on the most random stuff you have in your inventory. This is when you know a Prop Master has found you. Anyone who sells vintage items on eBay has probably had the joy of this encounter. With a Hollywood budget, price seems to not matter. Authenticity of the items are the value they seek.

Our week ended with a bang when a Prop Master purchased a list of vintage items from us for a TV show he’s working on. We don’t know what show, but he seemed to need a lot of glassware. Won’t be fun to pack; still happy to sell though. After he let us know what he needed, we sent him links to similar items we had. But as quick as he came, he disappeared.

Otherwise, we sold a lot of clothes. We all wear clothes so I guess it’s a good thing to sell.

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

Our Store Week February 12-18, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9327
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $1,297.04 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,071.00 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $36
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $120 (vintage metal detector)
Average Price Sold: $46.56
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $75
Number of items listed this week: 20
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

No job is guaranteed but a steady paycheck is nice if you have a job. Since we don’t work traditional jobs, we do not have steady pay checks or “guaranteed money”. Instead we depend on “cashflow” which can make projecting for the future tricky. Whatever we sell that week on eBay, or renting, or in our coffee shop is the money we have to spend to pay the bills and invest in what we’re doing.

On eBay, we like to make about $1000 a week (or more!). It’s not do or die, but that amount makes our life much easier by taking care of bills, thus letting us spend other money we make on projects we love. If eBay sales were to ever stop for us, we’d have to make different financial choices with our cash flow.

This week we had barely sold $300 by Thursday. eBay was slow. No offers. What we were selling was clothes under $20. That’s always tough. What was wrong? Thankfully we had a big Saturday where suddenly we had a lot of offers and sales. We didn’t make our $1000 goal but we came close and all felt right in the world 🙂

Our biggest sale (and most fun) was a vintage metal detector. We found it left on the street in the trash. Ryanne parted it out and sold “untested and as is”. One buyer purchased all the parts and assume will put it back together. Nice!

We also sold a couple free promotional postcards for $25 that we got at a performance we went to. I wish we grabbed a a whole stack of them. I forget that there are collectors for everything. Hope you had a good week.

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

Our Store Week February 5-11, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9334
Items Sold: 21
Gross Sales: $1,062.11 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $864.22 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $87
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $120 (vintage metal detector)
Average Price Sold: $41.15
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 20
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)