Scavenger Life Episode 296: Are You Keeping Up With Your Inventory System?

Pricing is interesting, I am trying to advise a friend who is getting started about pricing–her natural tendency is to price cheaply. My take is somewhat different than yours, I go by my gut, I look up sold prices, but as Jay found out, many ebay sellers are willing to give away their stuff very cheaply (so much so that someone could buy most of their merchandise on ebay to resell on ebay and elsewhere.) At any rate, I just price in a way that I am comfortable with and can make a profit on–especially since I have a fraction of the inventory that you and many others have, I need to keep my income moving. Even so, my per unit average is decent, around $40. Here are my stats this week:

Total Items in Store: 215–>ebay, 413–>etsy
Items Sold: 18 (11 on etsy, 7 on ebay)
Total Sales: $917.63 ($340 on ebay, $576 on etsy)
Highest Price Sold: $145 (mink coat on etsy)
Average Price Sold: $50.97
Returns: 0

I got close to a $1000 week, but “no cigar” as they say.

Store Week 1/29/17 – 2/4//17

Total items in store: 973
Items sold: 18
Cost of items sold: $22.05
Total sales: $707.50
Highest price sold: $115.00 (Lot of Barney videos)
Average price sold: $39.31
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $0.94

Barney videos …who knew?! They sold overnight, so that was pretty cool. I also sold one other Barney video on its own for $25. This was a pretty awesome week for me, so I’m hoping it keeps up!

Today I’m working on sorting slides. I got a bunch from the 1950s and 60s, including quite a few from the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. Very cool. If anyone has any tips on photographing or listing them, they would be appreciated. I might have to listen to the old podcast about slides again now that I have some!

Hello everyone, I thought it was overdue time to post my numbers:

January 29-February 4, 2017

Total Items in Store: 716
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $18.82
Total Sales: $349.09
Highest Price Sold: $61.41 (Pair of Polo Ralph Lauren Shoes)
Average Price Sold: $23.27
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $481.83
———-
Bonanza: 0

Trying to clear out older low priced items and get rid of death piles of clothes… Hoping to do that soon so I can start focusing on better inventory. It’s going to take a while though. My consistent profit winners are name brand shoes. They are bread and butter items that consistently bring good profits for me.

RR Store Week January 29-February 4, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1141
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $39.99
Total Sales: $619.81
Highest Price Sold: $89.99 (Kliban cats bookends)
Average Price Sold: $28.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10 new/95 sell similar

Funny, I just bought another shelving unit for my office. I was almost out of storage space. It’s a pretty small room, and my inventory was slowly creeping in on me. Feels good to see more carpet. I also utilize the walls; instead of decorating, I hang up as much as I can on hooks. And not just artwork. Anything with a peghole, loop, or hook is up there.

I’m finally over the bulk of my gluten detox/withdrawal, so now I can get back to listing actual new items, not just sell similar-ing old inventory. But it really does help to dig into your stale listings and update them, especially since postal rates have gone up again. I sold a shirt yesterday that’s been in my store for at least three years within two days of relisting it at a lightly lower price. Move that old stuff OUT.

Another tip: that B. Kliban cat stuff really sells well. I inherited a small collection, and its been flying out the door at top prices. I grab anything with those cats whenever I see it.

*Paul*

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Rydell Relics.

Sorry to hear about your dislocated knives.

I LMAO’d at “SPORTSBALL”.

Total Items in Store: 345
Items Sold: 33
Cost of Items Sold: $53.00
Total Sales: $471.10
Highest Price Sold: $69.99 (brass and glass miniature curio cabinet)
Returns: 0 (I had one started late last week, and got it closed the week)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $50
Number of items listed this week: I lost count

I have had a lot of sales lately, and I have lost track of how many listings I did, or even how many items are in my store on a given day. I seem to hover around 350. I inch closer to 400, and then a bunch of things sell, and I’m back down to 350. It’s a good problem to have. 🙂

I feel bad for you Jay. Drafts are so much slower and more tedious than just sell similar. With drafts you have to create each one from scratch and fill in all of the fields and even if you use a template, you have to keep going back out to get it again. Whereas sell similar it carries over all of your info and you can just delete out the pics and change the title and some specifics and everything else stays the same which makes life so much easier. You’re getting shafted Jay lol or just paying your listing dues after Ryannes had to do it all of these years.

Bah, I finished a nice long post and there was an error and I lost it. Forgot most of what I wrote, so here are just my numbers again:

Store Week 1/29/17 – 2/4//17

Total items in store: 741
Items sold: 13
Cost of items sold: $120.11
Total sales: $884
Highest price sold: $500 (lot of phonograph discs)
Average price sold: $68
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0 (although 2 non paying bidders)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $96

Week January 29-, Feb 42017
Total Items in Store: ~125
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $34.16
Total Sales: $302.17
Total Net Profit (after shipping and COGs) :$172.50
Highest Price Sold: $49.54 Stonehenge Midwinter Sun Dinner Plates
Average Price Sold: $32
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $17
Number of items listed this week: 8

Best week so far, both in total items sold and revenue. After costumer bought Midwinter Sun Dinner plates, I sent them a message that I had the coordinating bowls and could combine shipping and he thanked me for the info and bought those as well! First time I have sold multiple items to the same buyer.

Week of Jan 29 – Feb 4
* Total Items in Store: 632
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $30.14 + $51.70 Commission
* Total Sales: $367.37
* Highest Price Sold: $80 Vintage hand carved wooden chess set
* Average Price Sold: $28.20
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 30

Very happy with my average price sold this week – for me, this is quite high. I noticed that three items that sold this week were from an online auction in September. That auction had great, quality stuff, which is definitely a “pipeline” for me.

I ended up not buying anything this week, which is good because I have much to list from a live auction purchase from last week. I was going to bid on an online auction, but there was some exceptional stuff there which drove up prices on the just good stuff. I passed, but some other good auctions are ending this week.

The wood chess set was something I bought at an estate sale for $20 and it sold for $80 a day after I listed it. Very happy with the profit and quick turn around.

I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I just wanted to pipe up that I’ve officially hired someone to come in and help me dig out from years of disorganization and help create a real, functional eBay space and inventory system (as well as do some much-needed work in other spaces around the house.) She’s here today and is already making huge progress. It’s incredible.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Habnab.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Habnab.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Habnab.

Store Week Jan 29 – Feb 4
Total Items in Store: 441
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $45
Total Sales: $717
Highest Price Sold: $128 sealed vintage mermaid doll
Average Price Sold: $42
Returns: 0
International Sales via GSP: 4
Money Spent on New Inventory: $55

Good, solid week. Reached my goal of $100 per day, and pleased that happened with odd mid-priced items, rather than the rare for me $200+ high priced item. The sealed mermaid doll was found with a bunch of other vintage doll items at Savers. I never look at dollish things, but the sealed vintage packages drew me like a magnet and I’ve made a few hundred off of the lot. Definitely pays to scavenge outside your comfort zone.

Total Items in Store: 604
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $38.55
Total Sales: $392
Profit: $353.45
Highest Price Sold: $50 (Transformers Hoodie)
Average Price Sold: $26.13
Average Profit: $23.56
FBA items sold: 4
Total FBA sales: $90.85
FBA COGS: $22
FBA Fees: $35.22
FBA Profit: $33.63
FBA Average profit: $8.41

And thus ends my January no scavenge, no list month. It is good to know that I can take a whole month off and still make about $400 a week. I was able to take all that saved time and invest it into myself. I am much healthier and I’m also down a shocking 34lb when I weighed in this morning. I am not dieting or doing anything other than eating well, eating enough (not starving myself) , walking a lot, and getting adequate sleep.
I finally shopped for the first time this weekend at the local Goodwill. I was definitely a shop-addict. I will be thrifting much less from here on out until I start listing more regularly.

As for Amazon FBA, I went through and competitively priced every item I had. Items have started selling slowly but surely. I’m just trying to sell off as much as I can before the LTSF this month. I will pull any item I have priced at $9.99 or less on the 14th.

A while back I had mentioned that we converted our dining room into our homeschool room, and the old school room/den was going to become the dedicated place for ebay listing. Well I experimented with listing yesterday. Wow, the lighting is very, very bad out there! I tried daylight shooting with natural light, daytime room only lighting (there are 6 60w led bulbs in the room), and night time room only lighting. I either had harsh highlights from the window or harsh shadows from the light placement or both! My phone (iphone 7) does not take sharp enough photos due to the inadequate light density at my table.

I’m either going to get a light box with some softbox lighting, or switch to using my DSLR to photograph.

Have a great week everyone!

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Retro Treasures WV.

My numbers for the week of 1/29/17:

Total Items in Store: 90
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $67
Total Sales: $596 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $129.99 (Baby Alive)
Average Price Sold: $42.57
Returns: 0

This was a really good week for me, and I sold another 5 items on SuperBowl Sunday so a good start to the new week, too. Feels like my increase in listing is finally starting to pay off.
I am so excited because I finally replaced my camera that was long overdue for retirement. (And I got exactly what I wanted, scavenger style). I know it’s faster to take photos in the app directly from your phone but I just was having so many issues with it. I find it awkward to hold such a small device, and always seem to move a little when snapping the photo. And then in the app, my photos would sporadically be rotated when I went to finish up the listing on my pc. The eBay pictures were loaded but “invisible” so adjusting brightness or cropping was impossible. Tried an ipad, and the photos looked great on the ipad screen, but barely useable when uploaded to eBay. Maybe there was a setting I was missing, but I just could not get it right.
So anyways, I got a Sony Cybershot RX100 which blows any camera I’ve ever used before out of the water. And I paid less than half of retail ($199) by calling around and finding a new, open box one at Best Buy. The only issue was the charger was missing, but the camera I replaced was a Cybershot so I already had a charger that fit! Love it!
I picked up a cache over the weekend on a local selling site…a 17 pound collection of Matchbooks! It’s not something I would normally mess with, but got them for free, so I thought “its time to learn about matchbooks!” Any experts out there? I could just split it into 2-3 huge lots but I think I might take the time to sort through and lot by interest (tobacco, gasoline, girly, by state, etc.) I haven’t looked it up yet, but anyone know if there’s any restrictions on shipping matches? Hoping I can ship them 1st Class.

1/29 – 2/4

Total Items in store: 408
Items sold: 8
Cost of items sold: approx. $39
Total Sales: $546
Highest price sold: $ $420 HVAC components
Average price sold: $18 – without components
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $748

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

Ebay to Amazon – 8 sales – $864, COGS – $402, fees – $108, profit – $354
My ebay week was an anomaly, but a welcome one. I have been averaging about $100 per week over the last few months, but haven’t listed more than 10 or 15 items in a month for over a year.

Little girl #2 came along Dec. 27th. Her and momma are happy and healthy. It has been nice to slow down for a while, but now it is time to crank it back up. I have started pushing stuff back into Amazon. There seem to be more limitations, but it still seems to be a good opportunity. I also purchased a house to flip, so that is going to be my main goal for the next few weeks – to get that ready to list. Once that is done I should be able to start listing on ebay again. My wife dropped to about 8 hours per week at her office, so she is going to start processing amazon stuff for me during the day. I am teaching her now.

I haven’t listened to the podcast, but I use a numbered tote system for ebay inventory, then add the tote # to custom sku field

The week was not too bad, a few days with no sales, put perked up a bit. The Catholic book on St Therese was a great sale I have sold this book twice for $75.00 each time and pick it up for a $1.00. I have a good eye for vintage catholic books because I read a lot of those kinds of books.

Items in store: 644
Items sold: 11
Cost of items sold: $10.00
Highest item sold: Photo album of St Therese $75.00
Average price of items sold: $21.63
Money spent on new inventory:$10.00
New items listed:12

Here are my numbers for this week:
S.L Weekly Post
Total Items in Store: 1498
Items Sold: 17
Total Sales: $507.75
Cost of Items Sold: $90.75
Average Price Sold: $29.87
Average Cost of Item: $5.34
Highest Price Item Sold: $149.95 Set of Snap On Ball Peen Dead Blow Hammers (bought at auction for $60)
Number of items listed this week: 53
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 204
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 116
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 50
Sell-through rate: 1.13%
# of Hats Sold: 9 (52% of sales)

I enjoyed the show this week. You guys were very chatty and obviously having a good weekend. Lots of interesting stories and comments.

One of the best tips I got when I first started eBay was to set up a good inventory system. I’ve used a spreadsheet since I started. By being very very careful about copying the descriptions of listed items into the spreadsheet and putting everything into numbered tubs and putting the tub# into my spreadsheet, I can find items very quickly. I have over 900 hats on ebay now which are stored in lots of tubs so I couldn’t operate without some quick way to find a specific hat.

Great to hear that Jay is experiencing what it’s like to do the full listing experience. I think it makes a lot of sense to have those skills. Will we hear that Jay has been doing all the shipping next week? 🙂

I’ve received packages where the seller has underpaid shipping. It annoys me much more than it should.

Thanks for the podcast!

Week January 29-, Feb 42017
Total Items in Store: 299
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales: $541.51
Average Price Sold: $17.47
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $224.53
Number of items listed this week: 53

Last week a thrift store had a sale, $1 jeans and half off winter coats. This is a big but picky thrift store that inspects clothes for stains and missing buttons and sends the junk to the Goodwill. I bought 75 or 80 pair of jeans and a bunch of winter coats. I focused on good brand names, like 7 or Guess but also picked up a bunch of Levi’s that seem to sell well.
This week I need to finish listing that stuff and organize my storage. I can fit 300 items on the 4 steel racks I have but they’ve become disorganized.
I also moved up in store. My monthly ebay bill went from $200 to $450 due to increased sales. I switched to a premium store at $75 per month.
I’m inspired by the Patriots comeback win last night so I’m going to use that energy to list and organize this week.

Wow, 8 lbs on a 1st class label!I hope they get this guy if this is his regular practice. On the other end of the spectrum, I made a 1 ounce mistake and received a bill from the destination post office.
It was a first class item, Ebay charged 6.95 for 16 ounces. The po letter states it was 1lb 1oz and I should have paid 10.44 for a rounded up 2 pound item through Ebay. However, deficiencies are always paid at retail rate and that would have been 12.40. So, I owe the post office the difference of the retail rate, which is 5.45.
I am fortunate that they did go ahead and deliver the item and they did not charge the customer. I’m not sure how it happened and will need to tare my scale more often. Usually I am careful and will do things like cutting down the inside flaps of a box if its that close.
I’m not upset, I made a mistake, will pay and move on. From listening to the podcast, I have adopted the viewpoint that the post office is my partner, and truly, where would I be without them? I have had very few problems with them and many, many successes.

Thanks for the podcast, as always it is much appreciated!

Total Items in Store: 330
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $112 (RA clearance) + 12 (used) + 0 (my kids’ spongebob dvds)
Total Sales: $363
Highest Price Sold: $56 Peet’s coffee mug
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns & Int’l Sales: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $40 Rummage sale – a brief reprieve from the 6 week no scavenge challenge.
Number of items listed this week: 2

Grateful for the sales since the work week after vacation was busy and then we hosted a Superbowl party yesterday. Also cheated and went to a rummage sale early Sat. am. I’m looking forward to reworking how I do things and getting my old purchases out. I posted some vintage items on the forums that I’ve sold and realized how dated some of my listings are – some even recited incorrectly that I don’t do international shipping (from my newbie days when I was using someone else’s copy and afraid to do GSP.) Then I ended some Christmas Papyrus wrap listings because they went into the attic and realized I didn’t have Christmas in the title! I also have tax prep work to do. BUT hanging in there with this. I really, really enjoy selling on Ebay and participating here and I have the hunger *favorite episode*. Going to keep doing my best to squeeze it into my life.

Hey guys! Good week here after a lot of listing. I have set the goal of 1000 completely brand new listings in the month of February. I’m not sure we will get it done but we are certainly going to try. The hardest part is finding 1000 items to list. Sometimes I wish I had death piles.

Anyhow I use Sixbit and absolutely love it. You can do inventory management from it although like I am sure you guys know the idea of going through old inventory and assigning it an inventory number seems like a huge job and we only have 1500 items! So, I am still doing inventory the way I always have. The benefit for me with Sixbit is speed of listing. There is no spinning blue circle, no issues with Ebay being down, it also has one of the best photo editors around. You can also access old listings that have already sold, so say you found those same knives a year from now you could grab your old listing and just relist it. There is a definite learning curve to it though and I don’t know if it is available for Mac. If you guys have any questions feel free to send me an email and I can show you screenshots of my process.

Hope you guys have a great week!

Jan 29-Feb 4
Items/listings in store 1482/1348
Sold 12
COGS $14.57 for items, $55.88 free shipping = $70.45 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $251.71
Highest Price Sold: $32.49 shipped pair of Womens Carhartt lumberjack pants- cogs 2.50.
Lowest Price Sold $12.85 (3 pack of Chi-Chi’s Salsa– cogs 0, shipping 6.30, packaging .25, fees $1.60 = $8.15, profit = 4.70)
Average price Per Sale $20.96
Intl – 0
Returns –0
$ spent On New Merch –$0
Listed New 41 Items
Return rate 1.20% overall / 1.92 clothing

Better week than last but still only about 50% of average. The lowest price sale of the salsa was another of my ‘They pay me to take them out of the store after coupons and gas points’ deals with the salsa. They actually cost -40 cents per jar. I usually sell a bunch at a yard sale ($1 per jar or 6 for $5) but that is not for a few months still. happy to get them out of here!

On our storage here. My wife and I rent garages at are apartment $90.00 each. We have them well organized with shelves

Jinedo58, you just solved a riddle for me. When we lived in an apartment complex, there were several families that had garages with shelving systems, FULL of totes and boxes. I blew them off as crazy hoarders, but now I wonder if they were ebay sellers! 🙂

So, I had a return opened last week, and then got it closed, because the buyer never uploaded tracking to show they shipped it back, even after I sent her a label, (the one she snottily requested).

Guess what shows up in the mail today? Yeah. The returned item. She never printed my label, and she never bothered to print one through the ebay return system. She paid at the post office counter for a new one. Never uploaded any tracking to ebay or Paypal, never contacted me via ebay or email to say “I sent this back”.

What the heck?

Jan 29-Feb 4 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 322 // Ebay 113
Items Sold: Etsy 5 // Ebay 3
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $15.74 // Ebay $11.14
Total Sales: Etsy $81.25 // Ebay $77.97
Highest Price Sold: Dr. Martens Boots $34.99
Average Price Sold: $19.90
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 48

Ryanne, I hope the post office you called squashes that person’s postage scam. O_O

I have an inventory system in place now, and it is work to keep it up, but I have found that despite this upkeep work it makes my life less stressful. I just fill up a box as I list things, give the box a number then put it on a shelf. I have also have an inventory spreadsheet with the name of each item and the number of the box it is in. I also have a few shelves just for larger bulky items or things I don’t want to stack on top of eachother. For these I just give the shelf itself a number.

I am realizing how slow it is to list things I am unfamiliar with. With vintage toys (my Etsy shop) listing things is a breeze. I am working on specizlizing in shoes for my eBay shop, but I am feeling the learning curve. Picking out key words, figuring out what the sizes are (Is it stamped in UK/US/EU, all, one or none of those), and figuring out what flaws or issues need to be highlighted. The learning process is fun though. 🙂

I lost my top rated seller status due to my inventory system (lack of). I could not find several items in the past month so all went out late which ended up with me losing TRS. I’m hoping to get it back soon but I’ve noticed a big dip in sales since. Ouch.

Trying this for the third time since my post from home seems to be vanishing.

main/t-shirt/postcard
Items in store: 170/113/10
Items Sold: 4/1/0
Total Sales: $530.49/$20/$0
COGS: $258.27/$0
High items: $500 Invicta watch/$20 vtg. 1990 Rickey Henderson Oakland A’s t-shirt
Total Profit: $163.16/$14.55
International: 1- Watch to Italy
Returns:0
New listings: 4/2/0
Spent on new stuffs: $14.49

Watch was sold last week on Best Offer, but customer asked to hold off payment until this week and did so promptly when he said he would. COGs is high on that and my net profit on this spend more for nicer things experiment is about $150. I’m in no rush to repeat this level of paying up as it was more stress than necessary and I am happy to focus on finding the $50 items that are just a few $$’s.

The house project is moving along and we are trying to get the occupancy permit by March 1st. Part of the post move-in project list is my eBay storage area in the basement. I have my shelving area designed and will get a space for shipping. I’ll be using storage bins labeled to track the inventory against a spreadsheet.

Made a bet on the “sportsball” game and picked up an Atlanta Falcon’s Reebok Polo shirt from Goodwill on Sunday for $4.49. Got it listed during the game when they were far ahead. I went to bed, woke up to see the Patriots had won the game. Oh, well, it is a nice shirt and will sell. Maybe they will make another run next year!

Jan 29-Feb 4 2017

• Total Items in Store: 703
• Items Sold: 13 eBay 1 Truegether
• International 0
• Total Sales $740
• Highest Price $190 Turntable
• Average Price Sold: $53
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $35
• Cost of items purchased this week $145

Thankful for slow sales as I’m getting organized after the move. It’s a challenge to find things right now but I want to do it right the first time. Right now I’m listing big items or parts off of big items to get hem out of the way.

Now that all my unlisted stuff is in the same room, it really keeps me from scavenging more but old habits are are hard to break. I saw a rare Technics Quadraphonic 8-track recorder on CL and stopped into my favorite pawn shop and picked up a Dual turntable for $20.

My new mailman is great, he picks up about 1:00 and is more than happy to take my packages, no scheduling necessary.

Been a while since I’ve been on, missed you guys! I was working on a kids book for my dad that he wrote so he could see it before he passes…..finally published it! Any who…..

My first year doing taxes and I think I will be okay, still trying to figure out how to do COGS. I did it but I am not happy with how I do it since it interferes with my listing process. do I keep track of each indiviual item I bring ins cost or do I just do what is spent minus what I sold

for shipping with a full time job, I ship with 1 business day so I don’t ship on weekends. I schedule pick ups every Monday Wed and Fri and I package every Tuesday Thursday and Sunday night. so if a person orders on Monday I package and print on Tuesday which is within the 1 business day and then it goes out Wednesday morning. If someone orders something on friday I will ship that night and have a pick up on saturday …if I can. If not as long as it goes out on Monday then I am still within the shipping time…all this and I am a top rated seller now.

I found a company that tracks my sales tax and pays it for me to the state quarterly or annually so now thats one less thing on my plate. I also filled out and paid my It-204-ll fees.

I also made a business decision that my book inspired me to do. My book royalties in honor of my dad, %10 goes to the MS Society. For ebay I decided that %10 of ALL my sales will be going to St Judes. Whats nice is that Ebay lets you bake it into the listing. I have noticed since doing it that people are willing to pay a little more on an item,plus Ebay discounts my fees. It is kind of a win win

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by brooklyn_procurement.

Here’s a horrible story of a woman who who died who was apparently robbing a clothing donation box at 2:00am.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Woman-dies-after-arm-get-stuck-in-clothing-drop-off–box.html

brooklyn_procurement,

Would you be willing to share the name of the company you found to help with sales tax?

thanks

It brings me great joy to hear that Ryanne is a Star Trek fan. Some of my best memories are of hanging out with my Grandpa watching Star Trek. I am more of a covert fan, but have been considering getting a tattoo of the logo. 🙂

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by Ashana.

I signed up for a Paypal Business account thinking the rates would be better, but the info I’m seeing on Google says it used to be cheaper is not anymore. The rates are the same as a Personal account. The only difference is you can accept credit cards directly. If I’m wrong, somebody please tell me.

thank you b_p, I’ll check it out.

January 29 – February 4, 2017

Items listed – about 100
Items sold – 2
COGS – 20 cents
Total Sales – 17.94
Highest – 15.95 (Book of drawings of Grand Prix and Sports Cars)
Returns – 0
International Sales – 1 (GSP)
Money spent on new inventory – 0
New items listed – 4

I hit my goal of having 100 items listed by end of January, then a couple of things sold, so I got a couple more listed. The international sale was my first one (yay!), and it was an auction. One bid at my starting price for a refrigerator magnet. Buyer paid about $20 for shipping, customs, etc. so I hope he likes it!

Went camping for a couple of days, and it gave me a chance to think about what I want to do in February. Will still be sourcing and listing, but want to also focus on ending items that I’ve had listed for nearly a year, and list again with sell similar, reworking the titles, descriptions and prices as needed. Also need to double-check shipping on things I listed before I got a scale to weigh them. I also want to try listing a few things on Etsy and maybe Instagram, just to see if some things might do better there.

And need to work on inventory storage. It is under control right now, but I want to get a better system in place so I don’t get overwhelmed or lose items.

I have what I think is an almost fail-proof inventory system. I have almost all my listed items in numbered totes,(larger items are on shelves) with the item name and tote # on a word program, and every couple of weeks I email the list to myself in case of computer failure or accidental deletion. I also put the tote # in the custom sku area of the listing.

However, when I have a sold item that’s listed in tote 11 on the inventory sheet and on the custom sku area and it’s not there (Hello, tote 13), hours of looking ensue. And there have been items that I’ve forgotten to account for anywhere. My husband suggested I go through every tote and list each item on a notepad. Old School to the umpth degree.

But I decided to do it, and he has lugged, so far, 34 totes into our living room, and I’ve taken them apart item by item listing them on a .25 Walmart notebook. (we buy a case when the school supplies come out in August)

Not only will I have a 3rd backup inventory, but it’s been fun seeing what stuff I’d forgotten about that have been listed for months, years, and what stuff I don’t even remember when/how/why I bought. I’ve even started putting an asterisk next to NWT items that would be suitable as gifts for our grandkids.

I now only have to go through maybe 12 boxes, and then he’ll help me clean up/out the purple ebay room-it has personal stuff in there too that we are going to move into a different room.

The only items I have ever done similar/like to a tote or box have been cups or hats. For fun I counted how many items are in one particularly full tote, and there are 37. I have totes and totes of eclectic items living together.

And that’s how I do it! (Oh crap, I just remembered I have a china closet and a bookcase full of items to re-inventory too)

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by thrifty2.

For keeping up with inventory, you might find want to consider Google Forms, especially if you are familiar with Google products.

I have created a very quick and easy demo form that can be accessed through the link below. I promise you the form does not collect any important data. It is strictly an interactive demonstration.

Google Forms Demo

I use Google Forms extensively at my 9-5 job to collect registration information for events and other processes. This past summer, I created a form for my husband to use when he worked for tips as a pedicab driver in downtown St. Louis. He bookmarked the form on his phone to log income, number of riders, payment method (cash or square), and any comments to note about the ride.

It’s fun and easy to use, give it a try!

If you are having a problem logging into usps.com, change your language to Spanish and it will work…their English server is down…but you can change back to english as soon as you log in…

Hi you two! I almost feel like I know you as I have listened to a lot of your podcasts. I am a seller out of Wyoming of all places and consistently sell at least 10k per month. You guys are as close to my business perspective as I have seen. Not into the quick flip and understand business in general. I remember seeing the Mr. in ugly Christmas sweaters before I knew you had a u-tube channel. I come from a strictly antique and collectible background have moved into retail. Would love to chat sometime and give back a little. As far as my inventory is concerned I have over 4000k items and 3200 listings.

Tav

At least -=- I have done up to 20k+. But it’s a lot of work. My last 3 months are around 14k average I don’t have that slow of period as you list what is selling. I am not listing sweaters during the summer I list camping gear and swimsuits. I started selling antiques in college. I then did 10 years of corporate servitude. I have a few areas I would consider myself an expert, but always trying to learn more. I source a lot of my antique inventory from on-line. A lot of my vintage stuff comes from gsales and antique stores, Auction houses, estate blowouts, thrift stores, etc etc. In other words I have been around the block a couple times.

Tav

Generally my cogs are around 20% if that. It really depends on the item. I try and at least 10x my money but as you know that isn’t always possible. I would say I average 10x my money, some way more, some way less.

Tav

Why do you not mention your helper by name ?

I think (although I’m not 100% sure) you mentioned her name when you first talked about giving her a trial.

You are always saying.. your helper did this, your helper did that.

What happens, in say a couple of years time when you have 5 or 6 employees .. Will it be a case of ‘helper one’ did some photography, ‘helper two’ did the titles, ‘helper three’ did the listings, ‘helper four’ packed the boxes .. etc etc.

OK, she might not want her name to be used, then just give her a nickname. How about Brianna (number 20 is the current top USA baby girl names)

Regards from the UK

Brian

Better late than never.

1/29–2/4/17

Approximate # of Items in Store: 240
# of Items Sold: 12
Average Cost of Items Sold: $5.63
Total Sales: $619.72
Highest Price Sold: $200 – Guitar Neck
Average Price Sold: $51.64
Returns: 1 – $250 Coat (OUCH!)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $19.89
Number of items listed this week: 6

Hi @brooklyn_procurement I was looking into taxjar tonite since I’ve had some questions about paying sales tax for this year. Just wondering if in your eBay store, is it set up to automatically charge sales tax for buyers within your state? or if not, is taxjar figuring out what to pull out of your in-state sales to accurately pay what should be paid for your sales tax?

Currently i’m not charging sales tax in my ebay store, so am wondering how I’m going to figure it out correctly at the end of the year. Any feedback you may have would be much appreciated, thank you!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by dearmila. Reason: grammar