Scavenger Life Episode 323: What Keeps You Up At Night?

Week August 6-12, 2017

Total Items in Store: 915
Items Sold: 34 (19 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $161 (16.4% of sales)
Total Sales: $982.50
Highest Price Sold: $80 (Beatles White Album with inserts)
Average Price Sold: $28.90
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 7 sales, $205.86 (21% of total sales), $10.65 fees (5.2% of sales)

Another really great week for me, but this time driven by Amazon. I believe this is only the 2nd or 3rd time ever that my Amazon sales (19) outdid my eBay sales (15) in given week. I only have like 6 different items listed on Amazon, with quantity. They’re just some RA items with high profit margins and sales really come in waves, potentially when stock is short or there is a delay in shipping from retail. Whatever, I’ll take it – not high dollar individually, but an awesome 10x profit margin.

Update on the record cache I bought last weekend… sold 10 for $375 gross this week. Halfway to hitting my total purchase price of the lot ($750), but only a quarter of the way through the inventory. Getting exciting.

No listing or picking this week. Was away for a funeral in western PA, although I did make a connection on LetGo that I may have my brother meet up with to pick some items.

8/6/17 – 8/12/17

Total Items in Store: 2,088
Items SOld: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $35 (around)
Total Sales: $348
Highest Price Sold: $112.50 for an Antique Boat Propeller
Average Price Sold: 29
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 165
Number of items listed this week: 11

Not a great week for sales. Friday – Sunday was dead.

I had a good experience at an estate sale. I went on Thursday and found a lot of nice
shoes that I was interested in, but the prices were in the $12-$20 range. This was a bit steep for me even though they were great shoes.

So, I figured the shoes will probably not move well in an estate sale and especially at those prices. I found out they would have 40% off the next day.

So, on Friday I went back with the strategy to ask them if I bought a large quantity of shoes, could I get 60% off. They said they could get close to that and that they would work with me. So I got 11 pair and I ended up getting 54% off.

So, I paid about $5.90 a pair, but the average selling price is $60.44. So, that is a good strategy to use for shoes at an estate sale. Don’t think it would work as well for other items. I think it is the fact that shoes do not sell well at estate sales, even if they are great shoes.

Mark S

Aug 6-12 2017

• Total Items in Store: 832
• Items Sold: 22 eBay 2 Bonanza 2 Facebook Marketplace
• International 3 GSP
• Total Sales $1433 $1233 eBay / $150 Bonanza / $50 FB Marketplace
• Highest Price $300 Pioneer amplifier
• Average Price Sold: $55
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $170
• Cost of items purchased this week $50

I’m not kept awake by much these days, used to be that an upcoming sale could keep me restless, but as R&J have pointed out, after awhile of doing this you find there is just so much stuff available that what you miss is inconsequential.

Another good week for sales, though for some reason they all came early in the week. Clumpy sales gonna clump.

Sales: CAD$409, 5 items
COGS: $40
Gross profit (after fees): $302
Expenditures (incl. new inventory): $60
Net profit: $242
Hours: 5.5, hourly rate $44/hr
Cashflow: +$282
Listed: 12 items, $255+

Notable items: gigantic vacuum tube $0–>$140 (part of a lot that already paid itself). This thing was suuuuper cool and I really hate to see it go. But obviously the person who bought it likes it more than I do.

Scavenging this week was not stellar, but it was *cheap*, which is something I need to focus more on. Best item was a box of fluorescent lights, should bring $100 for $5 cost.

Aug 1- Aug 13
Items in store: 357
Sold: 13
Total sales: $427.36
Highest price sold: $225.45 (Vintage Canon FD Lens)
Average price sold: $32
Returns: 1 (Tie that was 0.5″ too wide. O.o?)
Refunds: 1 (John Deere plate that had my reflection in the main photo. Buyer claimed it was plain background, not a cool background like in the photo.)
Money spent on new inventory: $0 Been working on death piles
Items listed: 70

Ever wonder “did I price that too low?” when something sells really fast? I wasn’t sure how to price the Canon lens and it sold immediately. My two return/refunds were less than $10. Mostly low-dollar sales, the lens took the average up.

I’ve been working on listing a minimum of 10 items per day. Almost made it, but life. I ended Friday with 350 listings and have decided that I must hit each Friday on a new “50”, which means I”ll make 500 listings on Friday Sep 1st. I’ve ordered a new, old camera that allows me to set manual white balance and also a 1:1 aspect ratio to produce a square photo. I’m hoping that it will reduce my photography time.

Regarding the issue about cancelling an order because the item is broken, I recently had an issue and I followed a suggestion from Suzanne A Wells. I contacted the buyer and offered them an alternate item up to the value of the item plus a bit extra for the inconvenience, or a refund. If the buyer accepted it, I would send it and upload the tracking number. If the buyer declines, I send the refund with reason “buyer cancelled.” The buyer accepts the cancellation and there’s no eBay ding on your side. In my case, the buyer requested a refund and I processed it. No default.

I listened to the podcast while driving to my contract gig this morning. Normally I come in on Tuesdays, but since one of my lights in the studio broke on Saturday, and the new ones will arrive today, I decided to work the contract gig today, so I can be ready to list again tomorrow.

Regarding Team List it & Forget It vs. Team List it & Attend It, we are Team Attend It, but I would say there are three types. Team Forget IT, Team Attend It, and Team Hyperseller. The Hyperseller is continuously looking to be on the first page of search, and doing whatever they can to get there and maintain it. We met a seller at eBay Open that sells iPhone cases (I laughed so hard when he said that, since I have heard J&R talk about those so much), and he has one person that FULL TIME does nothing but reprice and tweak his eBay listings to stay on the first page. I know some others that look to be on the first page that much, and that to me is a Hyperseller. If you are selling multiquantity (like hundreds of the same), then spending this time makes sense to increase velocity, but if you are selling single quantity, then the ROI on this time spent is not worth it (Unless you are Chris Lynn from 10KontheBay selling the $10k Apple shoes. If you haven’t heard of this, you should look at it. Amazing find!)

We became Team Attend It because for many of our commodity type items (clothing especially), we would see that if we didn’t update the listing after 60 days, we would not get any views or watchers, but when we changed the gallery photo, changed price, etc., we would get views again. This has become too much of at time suck at 1,500 items, which is why we went to SixBit. It can Auto Relist the items for us (gaining the bump on 30 day items on the first and last 24 hours), plus we can now sort our listings by create date and resend them as NEW listings in bulk. Keeps the velocity up but saves the time.

I still believe in Team Attend IT, as our STR dropped way too low when we went Team Forget It, but now it is about growing a larger inventory (either in # of items or $ Value) while maintaining that STR. We want to avoid having items that we worked to get listed, but NOBODY is seeing.

If you list it…but nobody is seeing it…is it really listed?

Total Items in Store: 335
Items Sold: 10
Cost of Items Sold: $4 used + $135
Total Sales: $316
Highest Price Sold: $50 new pajama bottoms (paid $24, listed 9 months but sold immediately after I added free shipping)
Average Price Sold: $35
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0

A fairly good week, though I did make less than double on some older new RA items. I’ve started a free shipping experiment and did sell a couple of NWT items that have been sitting in my store for quite a while so that’s pretty interesting. One also had a promotion on it. The other I had dropped the price much lower before to try to move, but the free shipping (due to the timing) with a higher price I think really did it. The item only weighed three ounces. I’m definitely going to continue free shipping when I list new first class items and see how it goes. No sense in being stubborn about it now that I feel comfortable with estimating shipping costs. I consistently weigh at listing times but will have to think about my ongoing sales % and pricing. Overall, I need to see more movement out of the store since sourcing is so easy for me. Hopefully free shipping will help.

Another thing I’ve been doing is cleaning out my listing improvements page daily. This week I found a toggle on the analyze listing page where you could ask Ebay not to bug you again for 30 days. So getting some relief from the same ones popping up again and again with unhelpful suggestions. One day I only had one. Hit the toggle and cleared it. Then my store door changed from red to blue. Tin foil hat time.

I made another post in the forums about this summer just being chaos for our family. I look forwarding to school starting in the next couple of weeks and I’m hoping to get Fall and Winter pile items listed if life smooths out. Plan to keep shopping to a minimum and it will be hard because it’s rummage sale season around here. Have a great week!

I think I am team attend some things and forget others. I usually attend stuff that I’m into for a lot of money and need to move, or is taking up a lot of space, or has a market that diminishes with time.

For example I have 20 units of a CPU hanger thing that is in pretty big boxes taking up an entire wall of shelving in my garage. I am trying pretty hard to move those babies, tweaking prices etc. But some weird knickknack? Put a crazy price on it and forget it.

Agree. We don’t completely forget, and have moved our Attend to a periodic basis. Once every 2-3 months, we can look at our older items and see if they are getting traffic. We may have needed better keywords, better pricing, etc. We know we make mistakes sometimes…

Total Items in Store: 845
Items Sold: 13
Cost of Items Sold: $41.25
Total Sales: $305.75
Profit: $264.50
Highest Price Sold: $50 Adidas shoes
Average Price Sold: $23.52
Average Profit: $20.34

Life has been very busy this past week. Things are breaking around the house much too frequently lately. Toilet, dishwasher, sink, garage door opener… dang. I also fixed up the latest truck I bought by rebuilding the front end. I’m sooo glad I bit the bullet and did that project. That is the kind of car repair work that everyone dreads, no one wants to do, and mechanics charge and arm and a leg for.
Once I committed to it, it really isn’t that hard though. I was able to rent the tools I needed from Adavance Autoparts for free. Now I have a solid truck with minimal investment and I’ll make a bit of money when I put it up for sale in a couple weeks once the title comes in.

I guess I’m kind of an obsessive person because I attend constantly. I have to see how many views and watchers each thing has basically all through the day or when I’m bored. Kind of wish I could get away from this habit because I get mad when I see 6 or 7 watchers on something and no one is buying. Especially when it only $12 like this cassette tape I have.

I’m at a point where I can no longer thrift or go to garage sales for quite a while. I think I’ve said in the past that I don’t have a lot of room. Literally one small closet in a one bedroom apartment and I’m at max capacity. I still have plenty to list and may get close to two hundred items eventually.

I’m finding that every time I list the newest items are the one to sell. Maybe I’m just learning how to price so that they sell quickly and I was asking too much for stuff in the past for it to sell within a quicker time frame. I’m going to try to get a two bedroom rental next year after I’m married but we’ll see.

Wow, I did a long post, then went back to edit a typo, and it disappeared. ???

Brian – yes, I could have tried that. Two reasons I didn’t: 1. These were shoes I don’t usually see and I wanted to research some of them. 2. If I bought the first day, I would keep with wondering if I could have done better on the last day.

I lived near Myrtle Beach for a decade. Right in line for the Solar Eclipse. I would have gladly put you guys up for the event. Now living in NH, it will look like a normal winters afternoon 🙁

Does anyone remember an eclipse event in the mid 90s? It cast very strange shadows. It was a very rare occurrence. It was like reverse shadows and had kind of a neon green coloring to everything. Very strange. Almost scary. Freaky

About tending listings….can’t remember where I saw this, I think one of the videos from ebay open…but as I remember, ebay said something like 90% of all purchases are made from a listing on the first page of search results. So, it might not be imperative to be at the very top of the page, but it obviously is important to be on the first page. Thing is, for a lot of what we sell, if the buyer has been specific enough with his search, there often is only one page of search results…

So I’m mostly a list it and forget it type, but willing to make changes, run promotions etc…If I sold mostly new commodity type stuff, then yes, I’d tend my listings more carefully.

RR Store Week August 6-12, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1,338
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $17.98
Total Sales: $480.53
Highest Price Sold: $107.99 (vintage Ray Ban sunglasses)
Average Price Sold: $28.27
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $14.99
Number of items listed this week: 38

Numbers like this is what keeps me up nights. I don’t really wake up through the night though; it’s falling asleep initially I have real problems with. I try to just relax, have a cocktail, and let myself get sleepy naturally. But before I know it, it’s 3:30am, I’m three cocktails in, and I’ve watched half a season of Star Trek: Voyager. But the relaxation exercises are helping, as is a homeopathic sleep aid. And after dealing with doctor’s appointments and DMV hell last week, I finally have this week clear to just list list list.

Yesterday I picked up a last minute DJ gig; three hours of all 80’s music at venue walking distance from my pad. A super easy $100 bucks. They also asked me to DJ every Monday night, starting tonight. $75 bucks plus really good food and drinks. It may not sound like much, but an extra $300 bucks a month is nothing to sneeze at, especially since it’s so easy for me. That’ll be a nice boost as I ride out the slow summer.

*Paul*

Edited to add: I have moved from “List It And Forget It” to “List It And Tend It”. I did a lot of gardening this summer, and as a result, lots of old items are now in new homes. I can confidently say that the experiment worked. As my store grows, I probably won’t have time to do so much tending, but for now, it’s working. But “List It And Forget It” got me on the path I’m on now. Still sound advice.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Rydell Relics.

I wish I could get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time every night. I don’t have trouble sleeping but my husband wakes up at least every 2 hours sometimes more often. And he is on two types of meds that make him sleepy that don’t work. When he goes to the bathroom he turns the light on, makes all sorts of noise and then snores when he falls asleep. Gives me plenty of time to think about everything.If I could only list everything I think about every night I would have no death piles!!

Week of 8/6-8/12
Total Items in Store: 1,602
Items Sold: 53
Number of Items Listed This Week: 111
Total Sales: $1,294.18
Cost of Items Sold: $275.03
Highest Item Sold: $62 – 1968 World Of Barbie Double Doll Pink Trunk Carrying Case Lot w/ Clothes

Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 18-13.
Competition: Highest Total Sales: Troy leads the year $24.0k to $19.1k

Finally getting our weekly listing numbers back closer to where we want them, and we have crossed the 1,600 barrier for the first time. I listed for 3 days this week (1 day of Admin work, 1 day of consulting, 1 day of sourcing), while Veronica listed for 5 days (1 day sourcing). Our improvements to our listing process are starting to show up, and we are getting more done per hour now. Still not done improving, but we are on the right track.

We are starting to experiment with ways to increase our ASP and Profit Per Item as well. This is requiring an increase in capital expenditures as well as a lower ROI, but if it increases the PPI and the velocity is there, it works long term. We all have the three T’s (Talent, Treasure, & Time), but Time is the only one that you can’t grow. We see that we are getting to the point of maximization (for the life we want) with the two of us for listing, so we want to increase the PPI now.

Items in store: 554
Sold 7-13 Aug: 19
COGS: $118.50
Sales: $925.50
Highest sold: Gucci horsebit loafers for $179 BIN; 1920s campy Ship print for $130 (Best Offer).
Listed: 17
Store: Lowcountryfashionfinds
Favorite sale: 3 yearbooks from all-girls Chicago area high school from years 1947-1949 to same buyer, at $45 each BIN. Bought at Estate sale for $1 each.

A great week of sales, even though only 19 items were sold. I loved selling the ship print for $130 from the 1920s that I paid five dollars for. It’s going to Massachusetts. I bought it a year ago but only put it up on eBay about three weeks ago. I tried to sell it locally but had really low offers of $40. I was nervous about shipping such a large Framed print with glass, box was about 33″ x 55″. But I packed it as well as I could, and it’s off. I’m going to look for more art at estate sales. Funny story about an estate sale this past weekend in Charleston. I found a painters wooden box, vintage from the 50s, I closed up the case and put it between my feet while I was looking at china and I had a woman literally try to take it from between my feet. I told her that it was mine, and she gave me a dirty look, told me I should be holding it, and walked away. I just laughed, which I think made her angrier. I found some half-finished pastel prints under the bed, which they gave me 10 for $10. I listed them and we’ll see if anybody’s interested in partially completed art.

I don’t know what I would do without this side hobby. I try to read only the headlines and not watch CNN, but I work for the federal government and of course we have to stay up to date. So every day is rather stressful now. I have 11 months to retirement. In comparison to the Korea and Charlottesville situations, I like that I have control over my eBay store. I might not control what people buy, but I can control what I put in, and my reaction to customers when they do buy items. I received a negative feedback yesterday from a customer who bought a $25 pair of boots. I had opened an unpaid item case after five days. Then she paid. The negative feedback was just the number “2”. I emailed her last night and asked if I could help in anyway and if she would like a return. I’ll wait a few days to see if I get a response, then I’ll call Ebay and ask for it to be removed. Just a grumpy buyer. Not a grumpy dictator.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by ThriftShift.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by ThriftShift.

Week of Aug 6-12
* Total Items in Store: 1001
* Items Sold: 17
* Cost of Items Sold: $66.75 + $7.45 Commission
* Total Sales: $284.96
* Highest Price Sold: $45 Vintage 1987 Pantone Book
* Average Price Sold: $16.76
* Returns: 1
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $224
* Number of items listed this week: 39

An OK week. My COGS were up because I sold a pair of shoes that my daughter decided she didn’t like after wearing them a few days. Plus, I made a few purchasing mistakes lately. Nothing that I won’t be able to make money on; just not the normal ROI I’m used to.

I hit over 1000 listings for the first time! Last month, I had to pay a few dollars because my sales plus my new listings were over 1000, but my active items never hit that number. This month, eBay extended an additional 500 listings for free (in certain categories), so I’m not getting the $0.10 fee show up on new listings.

Comments on the podcast:

My sleeping pattern went to crap after I had kids. Plus, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to go to the bathroom in the middle of most nights. Then there is my kitty cat’s new habit of climbing on top of me at about 4:30AM because she decides it’s play time.

I had a retracted offer this week as well. This is the first time that has ever happened to me. After hearing a few other forum folks mention it, plus Ryanne & Jay, I wonder if someone is playing a joke – kind of like a crank call – to folks that post their sold items on this forum (like myself). I’d like to know if other people on the forum had this happen to them this past week. I’m also wondering if anyone on the forum who does NOT post their items has had a retracted bid. Or, maybe this is just a conspiracy theory.

August 6- 12 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 496 // Ebay 481 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 4 // Ebay 19
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $2.49 // Ebay $65.34
Total Sales: Etsy $35.40 // Ebay $327.82
Highest Price Sold: Dr. Martens Boots for $70
Average Price Sold: $15.79
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 22 (Listed at $320)

Went on a 4-day trip to visit family we don’t often see. It was nice to see sales continue to come in even while I was away. I also stopped by my mom’s house and she gave me a bunch of items to list. One was a big box of my great Uncle’s stamp collection. I am pretty intimidated by it. I’m not sure where to start with it.

I listed a little antique Steiff dog this week that I picked up at a garage sale in June for a couple of dollars. It didn’t look like much to me after I perused the Solds. I was thinking of just putting it on BIN for $29. But when I’m unsure of value I like to run it through an auction first. So I started the auction at $29. So far it’s up to $89.00, and it has about 5 days to go. I’m glad I tried that.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Linda Shields.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Linda Shields.

This is a South Carolina weatherman. He keeps updating the Solar eclipse event. In my opinion he is the best weatherman in the country. Anything and everything you’d want to know about the eclipse, he has it. https://www.facebook.com/EdPiotrowskiWPDE/

He also would alert us to the exact time the Space Station would be visible in SC. I enjoyed being able to look up and see it.

New England we are lucky if we get the right weather forecast as its happening.

Yep. We relist so that we don’t fall down in search, and we know that once items are 60 days old, eBay considers them “stale” and drops them down. You dealt with that a few months ago I remember. This is where SixBit is worth the price. We can manage our relisting and “Attending” efficiently, to both gain time for listing and keep the velocity of sales.

You have a larger inventory because you built this up earlier than we did, and because you have a lower STR based on the products you sell. You made me think and I did the forecast for 2019 (like I said, Cost Accounting Geek!).

2019
New Listings – 6,000
Sales – 5,961
Annual STR – 18%
Ending Inventory – 2,837

I had not done the forecast for 2019, but what I was seeing coming in 2018 will be there in 2019. We will be at stasis, with our listings and sales at the same rate. So at that, we would not grow to your level of inventory unless we:

1) Add more long tail items – requires space
2) Add an employee – being discussed now
3) Increase listing process to beyond 500/month – we look at Chris Lynn’s model, where he does 125 listing a day…on his own.

So these numbers are allowing us to look at the future and decide where to do with the business. And a pivot will be coming…

There is no question that what you have done has worked, and that was because you started with items that people wanted and you made the listings work for you. You start there, and you will be successful. None of us will succeed in this business without that.

“–Why do those numbers help you?
–What’s the difference if you sell 17%, 22%, etc?
–What actions do you take based on what specific numbers?
–Do you think you have much control over what sells beyond scavenging quality items and providing a good listing?”

All great questions. They help me get a perspective on what the business can do and where it can go by doing what we are doing…or doing things differently. So when the STR goes from 22% to 14%, like in the summer, by using our ASP (Average Selling Price), I can predict what our monthly revenue will be. With that, we can look at our fixed and variable costs and determine our monthly profit each month. And then we can see how we will live (like you say…don’t look at your Q4 numbers and expect them all year). When and how much should we throttle up or down inventory purchases? If we do, what impact does that have in our listing process? (if we don’t buy enough, we can’t sell in the future) If we increase our efficiency in listing, how will that impact our income? If we increase our ASP (buy focusing on higher dollar items), how does that impact income (and do we have to spend more to get those items?). It allows us to look at different scenarios and what impacts those have on the business.

For example, if we want to start focusing more on items with a 2X ROI but a higher ASP (so, rather than 4X shirts that I buy for $5 and sell for $20, I look at a $50 pair of jeans that I sell for $100), what capital requirements does that take, and how does that change the business when we can list those jeans in the same amount of time as the shirt? Time is a push, but capital requirements are higher, and a lower ROI, but higher return on our time.

To do this right is to break our inventory down into subcategories (shirts, jackets, shoes, collectibles, holiday, etc.) and forecast each category individually. I have to do this efficiently so it is not a time suck, but this is what I have done for 20+ years for other companies…time to make it work for us.

I have this model set up so that I can change numbers (new listings, STR, ASP, and Purchase Cost (for inventory) and what that does if we change things. Helps to run a lot of What-If Scenarios. It was what prompted me to look at our listing processes and see how we can get more efficient. If I spend $80 for a light box for Veronica to use in her studio, how does that increase the number of listings we can do, and how long before that purchase pays for itself? (It was within 1 month) How quick would SixBit pay for itself if we can eliminate time doing relisting but maintain our current velocity of a 19% STR? (less than 1 month)

Can I control the sales side? Not completely…none of us can. But I can predict it and see what it does to our numbers. And I can make sure that I am purchasing properly based on those numbers. If I see that our STR is trending down relative to the same month in past years, I can analyze what we have in inventory so see why. Is it more long tail items and I need to prepare for that in the future month’s revenue and expenditures? Or are they bad buys that I need to get rid of and avoid in the future?

Veronica is the right brain creative and got this business started. I’m the left brain analyzer and run the numbers and see how they work. We come at this differently, and that is perfect. If both partners in the business are the same…one of them isn’t needed. I think you and Ryanne are the same…

These numbers had us change from listing cycling jerseys (unless very high end), ski helmets, and kids winter boots. All items we did early on, but when I started running the numbers on these and looking at our time, we realized that it wasn’t worth it. When I looked at how many we can do based on time, the average profit, the STR, we saw that we just couldn’t make enough money each month.

And it is why I make sure that I’m as efficient as possible on shirts now, so that if I average $10.84 profit per shirt (my current average), I want to be able to list them (cradle to grave) at least 4 per hour (my current average). If I can list 6 per hour (my goal), then I can use that extra time to source more suits at $29.70 average profit, but I can only do 3 per hour. Or I can source other items. Or I can look at Amazon. Or work on a rental property. Or spend time with family.

I live on numbers…

Week August 6 – 12, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1100
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $ 24
Total Sales: $ 228.4
Highest Price Sold: $ 79.99 (home school curriculum)
Average Price Sold: $ 15.22
International Sales: 0 (GSP 0)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 20
Money spent on photographer: $100
Number of items listed this week: 25

Low sales for the number of items in the store keep me awake at night. I began questioning myself if it is worth my time and effort any more to keep going with Ebay. I have to admit I have listed very little the last few weeks due to travel and generally extremely busy summer. We still have another big trip coming up in September so I will push till then.

I witnessed the Solar eclipse in 1999 in Europe when I was still back home. Luckily, I was on vacation at the Black Sea in a hotel right on the beach and I just had to walk out of my room to watch it. It was impressive for the time it was going on but generally people were not obsessed and after it was done, everyone moved on with their day. I have to admit when I became totally dark, I got goosebumps on my neck. I think it is worth seeing at least once when you have a chance.

Hey I’m back! I had a long hiatus from eBay and SL due to our transfer to DC and a multitude of things going on with the kids (all good) over the last 6 months but now I’m trying to get back into my favorite hobby of 40-some years (and about 20 of them without eBay! Can you imagine?). Regarding selling games, electronics, etc. that I cannot test, what I do is only pick up those types of items if they are free or pretty close to it and appear to be in excellent condition, will ship for first class package or small flat rate priority box, and will sell for a decent price to make it worth my while but below market for that item. In the listing I do not mention at all whether I have tested them or not but I do state in item condition that functionality is guaranteed. (I offer 30 day returns as well.) Then I just cross my fingers when the item sells but I’m ready for an immediate, apologetic, and cheerful 100% refund including shipping if it’s bad and I will tell the buyer to keep the item or toss it if they wish. Or perhaps offer partial refund if the situation warrants it. This has worked for me very well and has only cost me a couple bucks over the years and the loss of a few items that had been virtually free to me. Never a negative FB, knock on wood.

In DC, on the Washington Navy Yard in SE.

Oh, not me anymore, I’m long retired from that. My wife is the one who is still the glutton for punishment.

I looked up and 4 weeks had gone by since I looked closer at my numbers and stats, not good. These are abbreviated stats, and total sales include shipping costs since I took the quick total off of ebay for each week.

So during this time, I wasn’t focused on listing & of course it shows. I was also experimenting with not running auctions or sales regularly like I had been. I signed up with GoDaddy and got up to date with that for 2017, so far I like the system alot. I also worked on my etsy store and cross-posted alot of my vintage items, but not all, since I’m trying to make that a more curated site, and plan on mixing in original artwork there. I went through inventory and clear bagged almost everything (soft goods) that wasn’t hanging and that I felt strong about storing for the long haul. I donated a bunch and sent in a thredup bag. So the store shrunk, but home feels better with everything gone through & better organized. I also have no more consigned items in the store which feels great. The items are now listed in my mom’s store, which I try to only work on when I’m visiting her. This separation feels good, since there’s more than enough to do at home.

So my small store was able to live off its momentum for just a short while. When there was a run of about 4 days of no sales, that was too much and I did start to run auctions again, which helped alot. My strategy has been to toggle between auctions starting at the lowest decent offer I would take on something, and if it doesn’t sell, doing a bin for 30 days at a strong price w/ best offer. I’ve also been starting most new listings out without a best offer option and holding strong for a month, then reevaluating, this has felt good. I’m also only running sales on my sale category-things I really want to get rid of for one reason or other, rather than a storewide sale, this also feels like a good change. So that’s enough of a break and low sales, time to get back to listing more. Thank you always for the podcast and for this place to reflect.

July 23-29, 2017
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: approx. $11
Total Sales: $204.25
Highest Price Sold: $37.00 Mini Boden Girls dress (auction)
Average Price Sold: $18.56

July 30-Aug 5, 2017
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: approx. $11.00
Total Sales: $262.77
Highest Price Sold: $54.00 Barefoot Dreams Bamboo Long Cardigan Sweater
Average Price Sold: $23.88

Aug 6-12, 2017
Items Sold: 4
Cost of Items Sold: approx. $4
Total Sales: $63.52 OUCH!
Highest Price Sold: $29.99 Alice + Olivia cashmere sweater dress
Average Price Sold: $15.88

Aug 13-19, 2017
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: approx. $16 +consignment payout of 46.50 = 62.50
Total Sales: $468.57
Highest Price Sold: $75 VTG Ruby Z Bean Finneran Ceramic Deer/Reindeer? Necklace
Average Price Sold: $29.28

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by dearmila. Reason: redundancy
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by dearmila. Reason: omission