Got off the phone with Ebay a little while ago this AM. It seems that Ebay double billed me for my store this month. They have to have an approval to get it fixed… any way just figured i would mention in case it happened to others.
9/8/18 – 9/15/18
Total items in store (beginning of week): 358
Items sold: 11
30 day sell through (rate): 13%
Total Sales: (no shipping): 154.52
Average price: $14.05
Cost of items sold: $34.63
Average cost per item: $3.15
Gross profit: $119.89
Highest item sold / best sale: Antique Framed Cross Stitch Art Needlepoint – sold $60, paid 1.00
New items listed: 17
Will be listening while tackling 10 packages to ship, including a crystal chandelier dumpster find!
9/9 – 9/15/18
eBay store totommyto
Total store items: 608
Number of items sold: 10
eBay sales (not counting s/h): $896.25
Cost of items sold: $30
Consignment payouts: $58
Highest price sold: $400 dumpster find, one of those ‘busy’ vintage crystal chandeliers
Average Price sold: $89.62
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $22
Number of items listed this week: 14
Etsy store oldfleatoymarket
Total store items: 608
Number of items sold: 7
Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $180
Cost of items sold: $14.50
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $40 two card stock die cut sheets vintage Halloween graphics
Average price sold: $25.71
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $20
Number of items listed this week: 28
A rare Monday off from the regular job, so now to the garage for some wonderfully hot & annoying shipping, and a first run listen to the Podcast!
T-Satt,
You and Jay put out some great information, one to listen to again without doing chores!
I deeply appreciate you making yourself available to put out info like that, (following the great example of our hosts I’m sure).
Here is the free chandelier, small enough to ship without having to suspend in a hanging mode from the top of a very sturdy box (or crate!). I still have a bear to tame.
I have another like it listed as well for $500 make an offer. The two were found together next to a dumpster outside of a lighting store. Its were I go for good free packing materials and every now and then a surprise. If a $300 offer comes in on the one still listed, I’m grabbing it. With the packing involved, anything less than that, I hope I continue to have the luxury to say NAH!
totommyto: WOW! That is awesome that you found these. Excellent price, and love ROI of Infinity!
Thanks as well. I love talking with Jay, as we come at things from different perspectives, but have a lot in common. It lets me see that there are some things that are universal, while there are multiple paths to get there.
Yes, it was so interesting listening to the two of you bounce the different business styles off one another and all of the factors, numbers and nuances involved. I have been doing this more or less numbers blind for 16 years, sold in the fields another 3 or so prior to that. It is only early spring this year that I paid attention to numbers not counting what I needed to know for taxes.
Oddly, I’m not even so sure exactly what Sell Through Rate is! Yup! Since this was one of the three big numbers you mentioned, it would be prudent for me to take a look at that, closely.
Thank you again.
Sell Thru Rate: Total number of items sold divided by Total Inventory. Shown as a % of Inventory. This shows your sales velocity, similar to Inventory Turnover in Accounting.
This works for number of sales per day, or week, or a month. Question is…what is relevant?
Sales per day…too small of a timeframe for me. Sales per week is the minimum I would look at. Again, even though I track this weekly, I show the STR in Monthly terms (what % of my inventory would be sold in a month if the week I’m calculating was a month long). I can write out the formula if you would like.
Ok, so if I started with 603 items in my store last Sunday, and sold 10 items over the week, my sell though rate would be 1.65%, correct? Now what to do with this number? How will knowing this number help my business? I have a feeling there is no simple answer to this question.
totommyto: Yes, your weekly STR is 1.65% (I would calculate this on a monthly basis, so it would be ((10/7)*30)/603=7.1%.
What this means is that you sold 1.65% of your inventory this week. Now, is that good or bad? For that answer, what was your STR last week? More importantly, what was your STR during this same week last year? Also, what is your STR compared to others that you see that post here on Scavenger Life, primarily someone that has a similar size store and sells similar items? That is where it will provide more information.
It is also good to know if you want to project what your business will produce in the future, either to see what you can do if you continue on this current path, or trying to back into how much inventory you will need to list to generate a certain dollar level of sales per week, or how long it will take for you to get solid returns on your investment (on inventory purchases and time) if you continue your current path.
My Store Week Sept 9-15, 2018
Total Items in Store: 1154
Items Sold: 16
Total Sales (Not inc. shipping): $509.44
Cost of Items Sold: $52.24
Highest Price Sold: $98 (Hand Knit Sweater)
Average Price Sold: $31.84
STR: 5.9%
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $100
Number of items listed this week: 21
Well, can’t wait to listen to the Podcast (tonight) “T-SATT For President”.. 🙂 In the meantime, posting numbers before my son goes off to kindergarten. He likes to “sneak” into my eBay storage room to take out any toys for sale.. right now we are playing with a vintage light brite.
Looking over my numbers, I am excited because I can see I had my best week of sales ever. (First $500 week.) May not sound like much, but I would like to start seeing more weeks like this and upwards in the future. At the beginning of the year I made a commitment to start sourcing higher priced items, ($30 and up) and as you all know, it can be hard! Earlier in the month I was scanning racks of clothes and came across a sweater that looked well made and “different” somehow – I bought it for $4.00 and took it home and realized that it was a hand knit one of a kind sweater. I listed it for $200 best offer and thought “no way in hell…” but low and behold.. someone offered me $98 so .. yeah! That was a great sale! I also had a “Zero Sale Day” but a fewer higher priced sales were able to compensate for that. I had 1 high dollar return also (and another coming), so I am not liking free returns at this moment in time!
Zero day sale? You’re lucky! I had zero ebay sales from Sun-Wed!!!! Weird! Glad I went through that, once is enough though. Then a nice explosion of sales Thurs and Fri. Your sales as well turned around nicely!
My 22 year old niece has three young boys and started ebay a few months ago in typical bull fashion! She is up to 1000 items and is doing well at this stage, and said she is trying to find higher price items. I told her, “Don’t we all!” Special hats off to the eBay Moms!
Thanks, totommyto! Also, congrats on your Chandelier find – that is pretty awesome you sold it for $400 and someone just threw it out… You had a fantastic week! Does your niece listen to SL? Tell her to join us!
About a year ago I had a new in box Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story 2 sitting on the top shelf of a tall storage rack in my ebay room. My son spotted it, “assumed” it was for his Birthday, and climbed up there to get it. He ripped up the box and also broke off Buzz’s head.
Oh man….if it would have been near the floor I could have understood…but 8 feet in the air? I typically (wrongly) assume things that high are safe from my kids. Needless to say, I was more than a bit upset. That was going to be one of the stars of my holiday season inventory.
I could write a book on the things that ebay sellers with lots of children have to contend with that childless sellers do not.
Retro, that is too funny… sorry about your Buzz Light Year! I completely agree – NOTHING IS SAFE 🙂 There have been numerous times when my little kids decided to just “pop some tags” off … well yeah.. whatever it is that I just photographed and listed… Arghhh.. now you just diminished the value by 50%!!!! If you really want to get me mad.. they know better than to not mess with my ebay stuff now. (But they still do it given the opportunity.)
One bad day I was at a garage sale with my kids trying to negotiate for something and then my 4 year old runs up and says “Mom, you gonna sell that on eBay?” (instant deal killer there…) Then my 12 year old, after I had said “Oh, man, I only have $1.50 in my pocket…” pipes in …”Well, you have $20 in the glove compartment..” (double deal killer)… as we were hurrying away down the looong driveway…. my son walks into our van with a large car in his hand that he didn’t pay for and I had to have him walk back up the driveway to return it and apologize to the owner. I don’t like scavenging with my kids in tow, but as a stay at home mom, I usually don’t have a choice so just have to roll with it and do the best I can.
Ahem…hows about a wife story? The only damage my kids ever did was wanting my finds, and sometimes getting them. At least the appreciation for vintage seeds were planted. Now the Wife story.
Earlier on, an offspring of my eBay sales was doing consignment custom model builds. Buyers, later turned clients would ask me to build this or that model tank or such war thing from such and such an era from this or that unit. One build was for a WWII vet who served in France during WWII with the field artillery. I built up a vintage plastic 155 mm howitzer model kit up, and custom built the tube to show the recoil effect that I knew a fellow artilleryman would appreciate. I made mud, lined up wheel tracks in the mud, strew combat debris here and there and was almost done short of some final black wash painting. I put the diorama up on the top shelf of my closet away from the kids. I came home from work that night to check on my baby, it was all in pieces, arranged on the diorama mud to look something like a field gun. My wife had pulled it down for some reason, it slid off and broke into many pieces. She offered no reason why she pulled it down, she still doesn’t! It almost broke me. The project was finished successfully in the end and on time. I don’t build models for money no more.
totommyto, thanks for the good laugh – If a mystery shoebox appeared in my husbands top closet shelf, I would probably definitely look in it! Did you send out the chandelier? That is a beautiful piece. You reminded me I bought a 1960’s chandelier 7 tier, hollywood regency style for $7 at a thrift once.. it was amazing! But, I plugged it in and it started smoking – scared the heck out of me. Also I did not want to pack the darn thing and didn’t want to store it for a local pick up… so I ended up taking off all the crystals (89 total) and lotted them up in groups. I am still selling them! They do sell.. both individually and in groups. I made about $100 so far off various crystals and then I sold the base sans teardrops … that sold for ~ $100 (probably could have gotten much more but I was hungry for a sale) and it was much easier for me to ship that way.
eBaymom,
What to defend another wife! However, I asked her JUST NOW (this moment while poking these words) and she still says she doesn’t know! It was on a flat base, she knew what it was. She knew I kept it up there. She was very upset I remember. It was so funny how she stacked the pieces like it would magically repair itself.
I packed and shipped the chandelier today. A nice win. It did take almost two hours to pack but I charged $40 for the handling. Also all new packing materials were paid for through handling as well. I purchased a box for $12 but did not care for the box strength. I had a very durable box stored in my garage, a bit smaller than I would have liked but very strong. The smaller dimensions actually allowed me to ship Priority rather than regular Parcel. There was money left over that I thought about sending to the buyer but did not. Two reasons for that. One, I actually had to file a non pay to get paid and the buyer waited right to the last day to pay and with no communication. Also, with a project like this, it is understandable if a piece arrives broken. I have the extra money available to help with a small refund if need be.
I too have purchased chandeliers before just to sell the prisms. I appreciated this one enough to tackle it whole. If it arrives safely on the other end, I’m putting a notch on my shipping sword. If it does not, I’m plucking the other one sitting in my garage and lotting it out!
I had a few good days of sales, the kind you’d like to have everyday, but alas. Still nudged the #s up, and I’m listing more and more in anticipation of 4Q (and being gone for 2 weeks in October). I’m also actively culling items that are lower dollar or not likely to sell, things I’ve been sitting on for years. Dipping my toes more into clothing, but being really intentional about it, so slow going. Not trying to buy more stuff that’s not going to sell! 🙂 And thinking I might get out of shoes….I have plenty of decent shoes, but guess my prices are too high; they aren’t moving at all, for months now.
09/09/18 – 09/15/18
Total Items In Store: 946
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales: $794.12
Cost of Items Sold: $61.24
Highest Price Sold: $150 – Harley Davidson Womens Black Leather Chaps
Average Price Sold: $33.09
Returns/Refunds: 1 replacement poster print sent out, after mail damage
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $72.55
Number of Items listed this week: 76
Silverfoxfinds,
I too would like to add more clothing other than vintage, or graphic tees, so I guess I’ll be looking for what everyone else looks for.
It seems you will obviously do well with whatever you are hunting.
Week of 9/9-9/15
Total Items in Store: 2,709 (Up 55% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 65
Number of Items Sold: 65 (Down 21% YOY)
(Includes 1 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 10% (Down 10% YOY)
Total Product Sales: $2,079 (Up 4% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $434
Highest Item Sold: $140 – NEW Banana Republic 2 Button Suit
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 21-16
Going to work hard this week to load up our photographer with items this week, as he is off for a week next week. While he is gone, we are going to tackle some mini-death pile items that we wanted to photo ourselves to get those up and listed.
And got to carve time for new sourcing options. That has to be key for our business for 2019…
Regarding sourcing and what you choose to sell. Just curious if the price point of $20-30 per item is a conscious choice? Personally I tend to chase high dollar items somewhat obsessively. I think it makes at least some sense as I’m trying to optimize primarily time & secondarily space. Is there a strategy behind what you buy (heavy on clothes) or is it more buying what you know?
We’ve found that people seem willing to donate items with $20-$30 very easily. Its the also price point where other people also overlook because $20-$30 items are everywhere.
At $50+ items, I felt that fewer people are willing to donate these items. Plus thrift stores will often pull those items and price them higher. Plus plenty of other scavengers are on the hunt for those items. So you can certainly find $50+ items, but takes more time and may cost you more.
$20-$30 items are around us all day at pennies on the dollar.
So, Jay is 100% correct. We don’t try to find these items, those are just the items that we average out to. For us, volume it part of the key, so I won’t turn down a $10 net profit item when I’m in the Wild, I just pick them up and add it to the cart. I don’t like it if that is ALL that I’m finding, but I don’t turn it away.
Basically, we average out to that, by having $15-$20 shirts with $30 sweaters with $100 suits. We are looking for the big pops, but gather the little guys on the way. Like hunting and gathering…I’m looking for the Elk, but I’m picking nuts, berries, and leafy greens on the way…
I think it all depends on the $10+ net profit item – I’m all in on an item I know will sell very quickly (anywhere up to 2 months) – I sell these items daily, they are easy to find, and pay for my time out scavenging. They are usually repetitive, so listing is very easy – just a new photo, copy a sold/existing listing, and done. It is also easy to buy – you know what you have got soon as you see one. Most of them have an endless supply (I tend to find them at every store, at least one), and there is endless customers buying them.
These $10+ net profit items are great for chewing up overhead costs across multiple items, making higher profit items more profitable on a per item basis.
Inglewood: 100% agree. For me, a $10 net profit item HAS to have a short listing time. In clothing, I can list that item in about 6-8 minutes. So on a Profit/Hour scale, it is worth the time.
Now, on hard goods? Veronica ups the bar now. Longer to list (selecting categories, researching price and keywords, she has to do the photos, etc.). So it comes down to how low do you want to go in profit for the time invested.
Capital too. I’ll put out $2 for a shirt that will net me $8-$10 profit…Not $100 to net the same $8-$10. All comes back to Time, Talent, and Treasure….
I sold 26 items on Ebay on Saturday! I’m trying to slowly get back into “work mode,” so I guess Ebay helped me out on that front this week. Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be my listing days with laser focus, but the amount of sales on Saturday completely messed up my anticipated workflow. So, I ran packages to the post office on Saturday instead (was planning on staying in all day to list), sourced some good items at a local thrift, came home, and listed around 20 items. I had been hoping to list 30-50 that day. On Sunday, I packed all of the items that had sold on Saturday, plus additional items that came in through the day. I got only 10 items listed yesterday (was planning on another 30-50 listed).
I AM NOT COMPLAINING. I was just not expecting that level of sales. It was a good work interruption. 🙂
I really can’t forecast at all what will sell when. My ebay store is currently up to 9,500 items. On normal days, I will sell 3-10 items per day. Then, there are days I will sell 20-30. I cannot predict when those days will be, they just happen whenever I hit the sweet spot of enough interesting items with right buyers for those items. I also don’t believe in the Ebay conspiracy of my store being shut on or off on certain days.
I’ve actually started working hard again because I know I’ll be lazy again come icy days in Winter. My “death piles” are vast, I have been sourcing a lot this past week to add a lot more to them, and then I will nibble through them during the Winter when I won’t want to leave the house for weeks at a time other than to get mail dropped off.
Items in Store 1128
Items Sold 29
Total Sales $976.05
COGS $86.10
Total Profit $889.95
Average profit $28.71
Average sales price $31.49
Ughhh!!! I was soooo close to breaking the $1000 threshold this week. I had a crappy weekend of sales which kept me from it. I do have a trend of three consecutive weeks selling over $900, which is very awesome! My listing fell off toward the end of the week due to other commitments. I also had to do some cleaning/organizing of my ebay space that took some of my listing time from me.
We are supposed to be at the beach this week, but the hurricane ruined our plans. I was able to get all my money back, so yay for that. The good news is that we were able to score a free vacation from my brother in law to Williamsburg VA. Free resort condo for 5 nights for free? That’s the scavenger way.
This week I have a bunch of stuff ready for photos so hopefully we can get a bunch of stuff listed and keep banging on the $1000 door.
Total Items In Store: 427
Items Sold: 7
Total Sales: $338
Cost of Items Sold: $127 + $3 free shipping
Highest Price Sold: $117 (Set of 4 new bowls, paid $34 Spring clearance)
Average Price Sold: $48
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of Items listed this week: 20
Mercari update: Listed 4 our winter clothes, 0 sales this week
So I’ve not been shopping much at all and I’m selling off the last 35% of my RA inventory. Some of the returns are not as great, in part because they are the last of my new inventory to move.
I’m becoming a more seasoned seller, but I’m still working through my newbie backlog piles. Therefore, I don’t spend much time analyzing numbers despite having a business background. In terms of what to buy (used and vintage primarily now), I will continue to buy what I like and consider valuable with a better eye on the potential net vs. time investment. Even with the California pricing, the mark up is so high that I can virtually always make at least 4x and sometimes much more. I really don’t have much use for forecasting since my schedule and time for Ebay listing is so variable. Finally, I don’t want to look too closely at the numbers for one big reason. Our family pays such high taxes (even higher this year), that I really don’t want to know my after tax #. 🙂
Enjoyed the podcast though. Starting last year I did start to group my backlog items by season and focus on listing those 2-3 months ahead. I also lowered the priced on my Christmas stuff during the season, since I didn’t want to hold on to any of it for anther year potentially. I’m also paying closer attention to my initial pricing. I have more shipping time capacity and would like to see better velocity. In the past I tended to price higher than solds and wait it out.
Quick ps. re Mercari. It’s been really interesting to see how simple, fast, and slick it is and what they are doing that Ebay is not. For example, they (not the seller) prevent you from making lowball offers. Not certain but I believe the cutoff is something like 75% of the asking price. Also, they do a great job with alerts about price drops and new items you are searching for, something Ebay has just started to do regularly. As a seller you get reminded to drop the price on items with more likes, or asked if you still want to sell old listings. So they kind of get involved with your inventory management on Mercari.
Sales have been decent on etsy and ebay, I just wanted to remind people to check the Halloween costume rack in the thrifts, I found a WW2 Marine’s tunic for $6.99 that I sold for $225 and a 30’s velvet dress found for $10 that went for $65, this is really the only time of year I take a good look at clothing since, in general, I find it boring and too prone to returns.
I’m with you Sue, clothes are boring, high end brands and rare items are all I look for, I could never sit down with a dozen dress shirts to list, I’d drift off onto something else before I has 3 listed.
Sep 9 – 15
Total Items in Store: 1785
Items Sold: 22
Total Sales : $920
* above yearly average of $801
* above 2017 total week sales of $252
Highest Price: $120 (Antique Leschen & Sons Rope Co Brass Advertising Paperweight)
Average Price: $42
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $41
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $7
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 59
Sales really seemed slow last week, so I was really surprised at my totals! And I powered through almost 60 new listings too which isn’t bad. My highest priced sale sold within a few hours of listing so I’m wondering if I may have priced it too low. But I’m still happy with the $120 for a simple advertising piece. That on top of a $105 pen and a $50 Beach Boys hat. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised at my numbers.
I’ve decided to take some time off from listing this week. I’ve been neglecting things around the house too much. Plus, I’ve started diving into the huge pile of 35mm slides that’s been accumulating in the corner. So far it’s been mostly junk that I’m throwing in a box to sell as a big lot. But I’ve found some gold in dem hills. Walt Disney World. Ringling Brothers Circus. Military ships and airplanes and trains. I have a good feeling that some of these will do well.
Thanks for taking the time to do another interview, Troy! I always enjoy hearing your perspective on how to run a business, even though most of it goes over my head. LOL!
Thanks Doubly! Don’t hesitate to ever ask a question if you have one. Deep inside, I’m a teacher at heart, so I love to help. I guess I’m a student as well, as I’m always trying to learn something new!
Your inventory is getting real. You have a nice business going these days!
Great interview! I like to think about these things a lot too. Personally being in growth mode, prediction is a lost cause right now, but cashflow is critical.
Now if only I actually acted on my own advice…
Sales: CAD$358, 3 items.
COGS: $123 –> Item profit: $176
Expenses: $381 –> Cashflow after tax: -$128
Listed: $3650, 15 items
Notable sales: first 30 of 430 smoke detectors sold for $190, which gives me a $75 profit on the whole lot, with 400 of them left to sell. The funny thing is, these were what I considered the cheap crappy ones. Almost didn’t list them.
Scavenging: nice auction haul for about $300, cornered the market in brake pads and emergency respirators. Best were a couple of gas valve controllers, should be $2000 each.
Oh, and I finally hit 500 listings! Running with the big dogs! 😉
This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by simplicio.
Cashflow is always so critical to a small business. It is what kills most of them. They literally grow themselves to death (yep, its a thing). THAT is my main reason for watching numbers and forecasting cash each week.
I’ve owned a couple businesses and the one piece of advice I received that really stuck with me was to spend as little as possible on the business until cash flow was calculable, steady and you’ve saved a lot of it and even then try not to make physical improvements just guaranteed money making expenditures.
In short, don’t spend money….yet.
Steven S: Amen. To be successful, plan to be in the muck, keep costs down, and be frugal while you are growing. If you start a business and the first thing you do is measure for curtains in the corner office…not gonna be there long.
For me, best advice is this: How will this extra cost INCREASE PROFIT. That is it. Work your butt off until you can ONLY get better by hiring someone. Only increase overhead when you HAVE to do that to grow Revenue and Profit.
The rest is vanity…
Now, with a caveat that you HAVE to like your life. We “could” cram more inventory in our house and save the outside warehouse cost. But we would hate our life. At a low cost to the bottom line, worth the money. Plus, at some point, we want these items over there so when we are out of town, we can pay someone to go there and do the shipping, rather than give them a key to our house…
It was great talking with Troy. He reminded me how all our choices matter when trying to scavenge for a living. From how much you cook at home to where you choose to live. From what kind of car you choose to drive to how many kids you have. These are all part of the equation.
Here’s our numbers for the week:
Our Store Week Sept 16-22, 2018
Total Items in Store: 8056
Items Sold: 48
Gross Sales: $2,168.25
Cost of Items Sold: $110
Cost of helpers: $144
Highest Price Sold: $350 (wool rug)
Average Price Sold: $45.58
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
Number of items listed this week: 150
Our inventory costs are really not a big part of our equation for the most part. Buying table lots at auctions is really cheap. If you can find the right auctions, the quality of stuff can be amazing.
Just a short reminder, if you have a eBay store, make sure to use your shipping supply coupon before the end of September or it will expire. The link I used to find my coupon was: https://www.sd.ebay.com/subscriberdiscounts/viewOffer/Q3Premium2018. Hopefully this link will work for others also. It basically is located in ‘subscriber discounts’ on the Manage My Store page. I think there are less choices for box sizes this time, but I mainly buy the padded envelopes anyway.
GREAT episode that answered many of my reseller business musings I have.
QUESTION: We seem to talk about STR in terms of units or listings sold v. inventory not as % of available sales. Which is more accurate for a 10% STR? To say that you sell 50 items per month in a 500 item store, or you sell $10,000 per month in a $100,000 store? I would assume the cash number, right?
Wins: Accruing more vintage goodies from the Bins is so fun. Will I have the patience for long-tail? We will see. 🙂 Fast flips in under 1 week listed this week include a home therapy neck device, Red Wing boots, and some vintage pillowcases 70s.
bcfo: “QUESTION: We seem to talk about STR in terms of units or listings sold v. inventory not as % of available sales. Which is more accurate for a 10% STR? To say that you sell 50 items per month in a 500 item store, or you sell $10,000 per month in a $100,000 store? I would assume the cash number, right?”
Yes and no…
Lemme ‘splain…
You are correct that if you take your Sales $ divided by your Inventory $, that is a true (the most true) representation of your STR (lets call that Dollar STR). Now, I don’t do that, but for good reason.
If you saw that your Dollar STR was up compared to last year… Is it up due to Volume (more sales) or Price (Higher Average Selling Price)? Ahhh, here part of the secret sauce…
As part of my weekly numbers, I calculate the Volume Variance and the Price Variance for each week. So, I can see the change in volume (number of sales this year vs number of sales last year) AND I can see the change in price (ASP this year vs last year).
By using a Price/Volume calculation, this shows WHY I’m up or down…volume or price?
Quick Formulas: Change in Volume x Prior Year Price is Volume Variance. Change in Price x Current Year Volume is Price Variance.
As an example, here are the numbers for us for the week of 9/8. We were up $453 in revenue vs last year. Now, we sold 82 items in 2018, only 63 in 2017. Last year’s ASP was $27.10, so our Volume Variance was Favorable $515 (82-63)*$27.10 Our ASP this year was $26.35, so our Price Variance was Unfavorable $62 ($26.35-$27.10)*82.
So by breaking the two items out, I can see that we are up $453, $515 due to more sales and lost $62 due to lower prices.
It is even more important this week. YOY we were up $72, but Volume was down $416 and Price was up $488. So even though the week was pretty flat to last year, our higher pricing made up for lower volume. Good to know (and continue to look at why our STR is lower than last year).
Hope that helps. Lemme know if you have questions!
Troy, This information is all great.. Thank you very much. I fell like it is the “Cliff Notes” Economics MBA class I always wanted.
So let me get this straight… for academic purposes…
I’m going to look at my current weekly sales compared to 2017.
In 2017 –> $376.31 Sales, 18 sales, $20.91 ASP
In 2018 –> $509.44 Sales, 16 sales, $31.84 ASP
This is a $133.13 increase in revenue vs. last year.
Volume Variance = (16-18)*(20.91) = -$41.82 (unfavorable due to less sales)
Price Variance = (31.84-20.94)*16 = $174.4 (favorable due to higher prices)
So, like you … the higher pricing has made up for slightly lower volume. Last year my STR was 8.8%.. today it is 5.9%. Trending downward…
Yep, perfectly done. Price/Volume Variance is something that I like to see on a regular basis so that I can tell WHY we are up or down. Let’s me know where to look. This can be done Current Month to Prior Month, Current Year to Prior Year, or Current Month to Forecast.
Again, as you can see, THIS was what I did for a living…analyzing the heck out of data to understand WHY the numbers were what they were, so that I could understand where to put more or less effort in improving the bottom line. This is also why I started breaking out Clothes vs Shoes vs Hard Goods. Soon I will be able to do the same analysis that I do now, but at a deeper level, as these three parts of the business move differently. And honestly, if I can do it easily (praying), I would like to break down clothes even more (shirts, pants, jeans, suits, sport coats, other) so that I can see the price and selling dynamics of each over time. This lets me see if trends are changing and I can change pricing and sourcing to move from one segment to another.
@T-Satt – have listened to about half the show so far, thank you SO MUCH for your continued knowledge sharing. I can’t wait to finish. (and of course @Ryanne & @Jay for always donating their time)
Haven’t posted since I believe 8/27, so here are my last three weeks in aggregate. I’ve been listening, but life/holidays/family/work got in the way of posting & keeping up with numbers.
(3 weeks) August 26th – September 15th, 2018
Total Items in Store: 958
Items Sold: 46 (2 Amazon, 1 FB Marketplace)
Cost of Items Sold: $326 (20.2% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,610.11
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Pair of 1977 Bose Speakers https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/230352367662072)
Average Price Sold: $35.00
Returns: 0
Number of items listed: 80
Cost of inventory listed: $1,127
Promoted listings test: 15 sales, $526.21 (32.7% of total sales), $30.07 fees (5.7% of sales)
The high sellers for the period were actually won at a local auction – bought 2 pairs that I was going to use, but they were far too big when I got home with them. Paid $90 for 4 total speakers, sold one pair for $200 so far.
Travelling for work later this week, but hope to get back out to serious sales next weekend – it’s been too long.
Total Items in Store: 1528
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $16.25
Total Sales: $431.29
Highest Price Sold: $49.99 (tie: vintage coat and Egyptian record)
Average Price Sold: $19.60
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 4
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Adjusting to life working for someone else again has been a challenge, to say the least. But I think I’m finally finding the balance I’ve been lacking the last few weeks. I’m getting into a regular routine and slowly easing back into regular listing. It’s been tough, but the steady income takes a huge amount of stress off of me. I’m planning to drop a day at the shop in the near future and make that an eBay day. Even when eBay picks up again, I want to keep the barbershop gig, as the money gets better every week as the shop grows its clientele. So instead of selling on a second platform like Etsy or Poshmark, I’ll use the barbershop as a second revenue stream. I love doing eBay and I love working at the shop, so it’s a win/win.
Ok, off to listen to T-Satt’s words of wisdom. Feels good to be back!
Week of Sept 9 – 15
* Total Items in Store: 1204 eBay, 7 Mercari
* Items Sold: 21
* Cost of Items Sold: $25.55 + $10.50 Commission
* Total Sales: $338.64
* Highest Price Sold: $37.50 Vintage Iron City Beer Sign
* Average Price Sold: $16.12
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 28 eBay + 7 Mercari
I decided to re-photograph some jewelry listed on eBay and move them over to Mercari. This is my first time listing there. Some of the new listings were a grouping of several separate items, so more items were dropped from eBay than were listed on Mercari. Eventually, I’ll list them back on eBay, but now I’m trying Mercari out for size.
My library has added a number of services over the past few years in order to keep up with the times and be of more use to the town. One thing they added was a Makerspace. This is an area for arts and crafts, video taping, and similar projects. They have stuff you can take out similar to a book. I saw on Facebook recently that they had a photography kit for selling online, so I reserved it and picked it up on Friday. It includes a photo tent, desktop lights, back drops, a scale, etc. I used it for the Mercari photos, and I’m very happy with them. I have the kit for only 2 weeks, but I may go out and buy some of these items for myself. It’s only good for smaller things, but I already have floor lights for larger items.
T-Satt really enjoyed listening today to you and Jay rap about numbers and spreadsheets. Do you have a way of pulling the shipping costs and eBay fees associated with each sale in order to determine net profit. eBay doesn’t seem to make it easy for me to find this data on a sale by sale basis. I’d love to be able to pull all this into a spreadsheet on a regular basis and see my “true” profit on sales for that week or month.
LoveJam: Easiest and cheapest way to do this is to use Easy Auction Tracker. Links with your eBay store, pulls all that data in, and costs $50/year. It is a spreadsheet, so already has the data the way you need it.
Yes.. EAT – Easy Auction Tracker will do a whole lot of this for you automatically. We used it for years when we had the antique booths. For $50 a year, it interfaces with Ebay, Pulls down all of your listings, then tracks the cog, COGS, the current value of items listed, and has places for other input and SKU numbers, inventory control, etc., etc. They have plenty of video / demo pages.
The nice thing about the author-developer of EAT is that he has most of the multiple tabs set up with MACRO’s and Automatic Formulas. All you have to do is click on the Download tab either monthly, weekly or daily and after the Ebay download then click on the Profit Tab and there it is. Everything except the Sell Through Rates we talk about presented for you. It will even present you the numbers in chart form.
It will only go back 90 days when you first start so if you buy it now, you will get numbers back to approx. early june, then will get the numbers from today forward every time you click the update tab. They even have a fall Sale that will be discounted and then for current subscribers, in the fall each year, you get the new update for I think about half price +/-.
This is a great APP for those that want to know COGS, seperate shipping costs, what is the profit before and after shipping costs, what is the value of my current inventory, what is the listed Sales price of all inventory listed, and other things with the least amount of calculations for you, and the easisest learning curve of all of the 3rd party APPs.
We use WonderLister and have used SixBit but changed, Mark S uses WonderLister and Troy of course uses SixBit. These are very robust programs and have a fairly larger learning curve.
But for none number types, those with limited time, those that want things automated and don’t mind $25-$50 bucks a year, the EAT is a great place to start with knowing your numbers.
The author of EAT will also add columns for you and add custom things, but at a small cost of course. If you know how to build spreadsheets then you can custom it yourself, which is what I did.
And for $50/year, EAT is a perfect way to start for low cost. Very easy to use. Plus, if you know spreadsheet stuff, you can add tabs and do analysis on the data that it brings in.
Easy Auction Tracker is great for me. It looks cluttered at first glance but is very easy to use without even using the tutorials and has all of the basic numbers I need at this point. I just have to enter my COGS from my paper records, which I wish I did monthly, but alas I do toward the end of the year. I didn’t know about or overlooked the Fall special. Thanks Mike!
Yep.. You’re welcome. It also has an inventory tab that we used to enter each item we bought as we brought it back to the office. The one thing that is VITAL to any and all of these APPs and Processes is that you come up with a unique and individual way of assigning a unique number to each piece or lot if grouping to every inventory item. We use pre-numbered tags with a few spaces for additional write in data. But even a consecutive numbered tape on or tie on tag will do. For proper inventory reporting and tracking every item you buy and list for resale should have it’s own separate number associated and assigned to it. Even if you buy table, bag or tray lots, when you separate the items out, come up with a cost per item as discussed here on SL many times, and then assign a unique number to each item and it’s cost.
That number will need to go into EAT along with the cost of that item in order for the proper analysis of cost of item sold, monthly, annual cost of your inventory, how many items you have, how many have sold, and things like that.
Also we have built into our system our own unique SKU number which tells us the item number, how much we paid for it, when we bought it and where it is located. It took us a while to work out a good system for that, but we have been using it for a few years now.
In my opinion, Inventory Tracking, Inventory Managment all goes hand in hand with Inventory Costing.
Just my opinion and that and $.50 will get you 1/3 of a fried chciken drumstick. A Southern Boys favorite, well besides smoke, wet style BBQ Pork Country Style Ribs. 🙂 🙂
1000% agree Mike. The first place to start on good Inventory Management is that EACH LISTING HAS A UNIQUE SKU. It all starts there. Whether EAT, SixBit, or WonderLister, they all REQUIRE a unique SKU to operate correctly.
We do this now in all our processes. When we list items, we have a Google Doc that we share that has all our items, along with a column for the next SKU. We create the listing, add to the Google Doc, get the next SKU (and add the inventory location to the end of it), write that on a tag, and hang the tag on the item. When the photographer does his part, his first photo is the tag, so we know which of our listings the next set of photos should be attached to. Items are returned with the tags, tags stay on the item and are put away. When the item sells, the SKU has the location, we find that number, picked and out the door. This helps us ship out shirts, pants, and jeans in 60 seconds, beginning to end.
For hard goods, when they are prepackaged and sent to the outside warehouse, the SKU and Location are written on the box (with a small description for more confidence. Print the labels at home, labels go over the SKU, drop it off at the post office on the way back home. Done.
T-Statt: Thank you for the info on the breakdown. This is what I have been looking for to truly gauge growth (or decline). My husband is in finance, but somehow when you explain it it goes down easier! ha!
LoveJam- Go to PERFORMANCE at top, then SELLING COSTS. (choose a date range if needed). Scroll down a bit and you will see each of your transaction + shipping fee + other fees. It will not show Fed Ex labels since those bill month end.
I THINK when you pull your sales report (make sure to do this every 90 days or the sales disappear from ebay site) it breaks it out for you.
bcfo: Thanks! Veronica tells me that a lot too. I have the heart of a teacher I think (I have been in that role a lot in my life), so I like to break things down so that new concepts can be easily understood. I have to understand things myself that way, so I guess I like to do that for others as well.
For those that ship directly to Canada using USPS, or use the GSP to ship to Canada, just an FYI that there may be a postal strike in the next couple weeks.
This will not affect couriers like UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.
Sept 9-15
Total Items in Store: 1551
Items Sold: 38
Cost of Items Sold: $195.09
Total Sales: $1052.64
Highest Price Sold: $110(Beauties of the Red Mansion plates)
Average Price Sold: $27.70
Returns: 1 shirt did not fit
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $161
Number of items listed this week: 28
Great podcast and info – keep them coming. I had a good week and will be taking next week off w/o internet access so will probably not be able to follow along here.
My first reaction to this week’s podcast was-NO NOT NUMBERS! Usually when you guys go to town talking about numbers, my eyes glaze over and I need a nap. I listened and I did learn a few things in spite of myself. I have been feeling guilty about scavenging because of my death piles, but in reality, this is the season to ‘get the good stuff cheap’. By the end of October, garage, yard and rummage sales are winding down. I find that by tackling my death pile I have become a more discriminating scavenger. I have been tweaking my listings and between that and taking the ‘What the hell was I thinking when I bought this item’ stuff out of the death pile, I made $68 by putting the stuff in a friends garage sale. She’s having the Vietnam Vets pickup the leftovers, so it’s not coming home. Still tweaking listings, having some moderate success with auctions and putting a dent in the death pile, so progress is being made! Actually sold more last week than I thought I did, and keeping my fingers crossed the upward trend continues!
eBay September 9-15
Total sales. $187.12
# sold. 21
Avg. sale. $8.91
Items in store. 1,076
Returns. 0 last week, yesterday I had 2 returns and one canceled sale in a 30 minute time frame-yikes
COGS. $25.42
$ spent on new. $9.95
Highest sales. $19.99 Noel Angel Candle Holders/$20 Nottingham Lace tablecloth
September is looking as strong as August. Heading to Chattanooga, TN this weekend for a trip with friends. Plan to spend a day sourcing too. Will be nice to buy in a new area for a change.
9/9 – 9/15
Total Items in Store: 1073
Items Sold: 43
Gross Sales: $1699
Cost of Items Sold: $172
Net eBay Sales (After Shipping, Fees): $1330.68
Highest Price Sold: $199 (Orvis Wool Jacket)
Average Price Sold (Gross): $39.51
Average Price Sold (eBay Net): $30.95
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $221.91
Thanks, T. I feel my eye is getting more discerning and I make it a point to list everything I buy. I don’t want any deathpiles. I do not want to be a hoarder 😉
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet and likely won’t get to until next week, but “numbers” are on my short list to tackle. I’ve been ramping up buying and listing to support my dive into full time. Now that I’ve topped the 1000 mark I am focusing on other areas of improvement. I will be going with one of the third party apps after doing some research. I’ve talked a bit to Mike about Wonderlister as I have SQL XP and would love to get my hands dirty in custom reporting.
Awesome episode. I loved hearing Troy contrast the factors and choices that lead to different selling models for Jay/Ryanne vs Troy/Veronica. I look forward to someday implementing more detailed tracking of my business (maybe), but I am still working on just learning and growing this business. I am putting off attending to detailed spreadsheets in part because I just retired from doing spreadsheets (literally) and in part because it still feels like investing time into something that will not give me much return yet. I know there will come a time and I am glad I have this episode to put back on the player when I am ready to dive deeper. Thanks so much Troy and Jay for such awesome content.
I had the best eBay week/month ever! Sunday I went with a friend to help set up a garage sale for an elder couple that had been wealthy hoarders in their home since 1961. For almost no labor, I got first pick of a garage whose main function for the last 60 years has been repository of every unwanted gift, mostly still new in the original package. I walked away with a van load for $150 and have watched things sell as fast as I can list them!
I retired at the end of June this year and took a month long trip with my daughter. I did wonder whether eBay would continue to hold my interest/attention in retirement. My experience is that my interest has grown since retiring. I love finding old stuff, buffing it up, photographing it and listing. Of course the sales are a huge pay off too. I retired with some big potential expenses partially unaccounted for (kid’s college, unknown health care costs) or at least accounted for but in a bare bones way. (aside: I am a big believer that you have to take risks in life. When the pay off is that you can have one more year of life in a healthy body free to do whatever you want, having a $20,000/year expense in 2 to 4 years that you could meet in one of several ways, none of which include eating cat food is a risk I am willing to take). My great happiness is that my eBay chops are getting better – I am sourcing better, listing better and seeing higher income as a result. Anyway here are my numbers:
Total items listed: 290
Items sold last week: 14
Gross: $342.77
COGS: $28
Highest Price Sold: $199 (Vintage Atari T-shirt)
Average Price Sold (Gross): $24.48
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150
aperture: I’m really glad the talk on numbers has helped. Let me know if you would like my spreadsheet to capture your numbers. Formulas are already done for you, just drop in some numbers once a week. I’m at tsatterf@yahoo.com if you would like my file.
Presenting my final Investment and Diversification Strategy
First, @T-Satt Troy, it is so great to hear your voice again, hope you have even more opportunities to share your passion, your knowledge and your experience. Rock’n’Roll!!!!!!
I have frozen for the first time in many many years my strategy that encompasses many of the scope of the conversation with Troy plus other things we’ve been talking about during the last 3-4 months. The main topic across all buckets is that I MUST have fun. So everything I do is to have fun.
My strategy has different modules or buckets or components:
(1) Long Term, Safe Retirement Driven Investment:
Here I have:
(a) A very large managed brokerage account that is untouchable, only grows, never drops, and also works as emergence cushion.
(b) Relatively large IRA 401K with constant contributions
(c) Wife’s moderate IRA 401K with eventual contributions
(d) Decent Non Managed Brokerage, here is where I have fun in the stock market. I don’t gamble, I don’t bet, etc. here is where I go when I have the cravings.
(2) Children:
Since we passed halfway through, I will only summarize: I pre-paid in full 4 year College plans for all of them, all included. My daughter is long graduated, the older boys on top of the pre paid college plan got massive scholarships so they had money for their car, savings, etc. Love them, super proud.
(3) Wealth Building and Protection with Silver and Gold
I set my clock to periodically buy Silver and or Gold. Mostly 1 t Oz government issued coins.
And here is my mindset:
(a) there is 9 times more silver than gold physically available today
(b) gold is worth 94 times more than gold
(c) gold production still growth fast
(d) Silver production has diminished and new mines are rare to uncover.
(e) Silver investors plan to exchange silver for gold when it reaches 50:1
(f) here I have many positive outcome scenarios. I am even selling all sterling silverware in exchange for 1 Oz coins to add to my cushion
(4) Investing to sell and then to buy:
Here is the last category I took many years to grasp:
(a) On line alternative/crowd investments like The Lending Club. This is a mid term strategy where I add a couple of thousand every couple of years. These moneys are lent to people who cannot achieve bank level investment. After a couple of years or when the notes are fulfilled, I transfer to my account and buy Silver or Gold.
(b) Investing Apps, for example Acorn. This is my dream come through, once a day it swaps all accounts I linked and round up all fractions to $1. This difference is added to an investment in a portfolio of 3-5 Vanguard funds. Instead of living there, every six months I sell the equivalent of 1/2 t Oz of Gold or 36 tOz of Silver. This depends on the very transaction day.
(5) Angel Investor and Hedge Funds investing:
Similar to the above, I use two platforms for certified investors. One is named Seedinvest.com for Certified Angel Investors. With $1000 you can start investing in what you believe. The site/company is run by its founders, all Ivy League finance experts that communicate on a 1 to 1 basis with all members. Here I use my Consulting company as the Investor Agent/Holding.
The other one is named WeFunder.com. This is an investment crowdfunding, most likely for those companies that don’t get the multi million Round A and B like the ones on Seedinvest. Here with $100 you can invest on the pre money phase which is great. After a period you can either get your cash back with high interest (much above market) or convert your investment in stocks of the company, which is my interest. Here I use both my Holding (mostly for tech and bio tech which is what i like) and the company that owns the eBay store (for anything related to technology dedicated to health and fitness)
Some constraints, assumptions, corollaries, rules:
i – I have many, like 10 savings accounts in different banks for all my family members. First I always open a new savings when I have a promotion like open and get $50-$100 on spot, no brainer. Second, they work as transitional for the movements. They help me isolate the daily cash flow of the checking accounts and don’t get mixed or fall under temptation.
ii – I hoard coins. Every Christmas I have $100 in coins, I usually add to my Consulting LLC account.
iii – I left completely real estate in any format. My last 2 properties were sold last year.
iv – Both my companies are self sustainable. They pay themselves and distribute profit to to owners (Me :-)). I do it accordingly to avoid making confusions between business with personal.
That’s all folks … hmmmm, probably not. I will update if I left something out
I love your mindset in what you laid out, looking for different long and short term ways to have your money work for you, finding investments as well as wealth preservation methods. There is too much to unpack in what you laid out, but by rereading a lot of what you laid out, and the thoughts behind why you are doing this, from a high-level perspective, there is a lot to learn there.
T-Statt:
You mentioned in a comment back in July on the blog that you would be trying Poshmark. Have you posted on it and if so have you had any sales?
Itemsfromthesouth: I have not done any Poshmark at this point. We shifted our focus to studying new sourcing methods, as I’m more concerned with efficient and high ROI sourcing that we can do while I’m gone (preparing for my 5 week hike of the Colorado Trail next year).
Poshmark is like a thorn right now. I may just have to bite the bullet and try to start crossposting there after the Junk Jaunt. If it doesn’t have good results in Q4, then it isn’t worth it, but I really want to invest time into other sourcing avenues as well.
@Jay, compared to my peers in retirement, I am 10 years younger, I play ZERO golf and spend 1/5 as much money on stuff like new cars, new furniture, kitchen remodel, high cost gardening (I plant seeds or get starter plants). When we travel, it is always cheaper than my peers (I built a camper out of a 2009 Kia Sedona minivan and I always have the cheapest rig at any campground I have ever visited).
What I do that is similar to other retirees: I walk 2 miles per day as my baseline and try to add one hard thing (hike with altitude gain or bike ride) every day. I go to the library a lot. I get all my chores done during the day when everyone else is at work (love this). I garden. I watch TV about 2 hours per day with my wife and kids if we can find stuff we all like. (I suspect that I watch les than others, but who knows what people do in their own homes).
Really, I only know a handful of retired people because almost all my peers are still working and I have not been retired long enough to find out what pickleball is.
A man after my own heart. I guess it was the WW2 generation and Baby Boomers who were given the brief American fantasy that retirement meant complete leisure.
Generations before them never believed that active life stopped at a certain age. I know GenX to now know we’re in it for the long haul. The difference now is knowing that real luxury is owning you own tie so you can choose what you do.
apertue:
I am retiring NEXT year and do know what pickleball is. I play 2 to 3 nights a week. If you like being active and you have courts near you…give it a try. It is very addictive!
For those of you asking what the heck pickleball is: Think of Pingpong and tennis. Half the size of a tennis court with a small paddle and a whiffle ball. Sounds strange to picture…google if if interested. It is fun for all ages!
Home › Forums › Scavenger Life Episode 377: Talking Numbers with TSatt (Troy)