Scavenger Life Episode 384: Was Packing Annoying?

This topic has 85 replies, 31 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 5 months ago by Sharyn.

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- 11/04/2018 at 6:46 pm #51170
  Ryanne
  Keymaster
  Location: Virginia
  @ryanne
  Yes, yes it was. And that’s a good thing! Join the conversation in the forum>> Our Store Week Oct 28-Nov 3, 2018 Total Items in Store: 8194 It
  [See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 384: Was Packing Annoying?]
- 11/04/2018 at 9:08 pm #51174
  ebaymom
  Participant
  Location: Ohio
  @ebaymom
  My Store Week Oct 28-Nov 3, 2018
  
  Total Items in Store: 1134
  Items Sold: 17
  Gross Sales: $336.99
  Cost of Items Sold: $46.22
  Highest Price Sold: $67 (Vintage Tape Duplicator)
  ASP: $19.84
  STR: 6.4%
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 16
  
  Congrats on the Ouija sale! Yes, packing was slightly annoying – I have 6 things to pack tonight, which is more than normal for me on a Sunday night. It “feels” like Holiday sales are starting to begin… I hope this is a good week for everyone!
- 11/04/2018 at 9:48 pm #51176
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  2018-10-28 – 2018-11-03
  
  Total Items In Store: 2559
  Items Sold: 16
  Cost of Items Sold: $60
  Total Sales: $658.15
  Highest Price Sold: $106.25 – Vintage Hat
  Average Price Sold: $41.13
  Buyer Shipping $ $158.48
  Avg. Daily $ $94.02
  
  — Items Listed
  # Items Listed 36
  $ Listed $1616.66
  ASP $ Listed $44.91
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $126
  
  Gut Sales Report for the week: Sales were about the same as the last 2 weeks. I am starting to list more. Looking to hit 3000 items by year end.
  
  What I learned:
  I went to a Kansas concert that was awesome. The show was done very well. I started thinking that there are many things that go into making a great concert. Much like there are many things that go into making a great ebay business. When you can get each piece of the business working at a high level, then you can put on a “great show”. For me, all areas of my business having been evolving to the next level. The one area that I need to concentrate on is better storage for my containers. My system works well, but all of my containers are stacked on top of each other. That means that if something sells from the bottom container, I have to move the top 4 or so containers to get to it. It works, but it is inefficient and takes some work. I would like to build custom shelving with PVC pipes to stream line this. That will be a lot of work and cost but I think the payoff will make it worth it.
  
  Most difficult Estate Sale I went to an estate sale early in the morning that started at 8AM. Most painful estate sale because it was raining and very hard to see in the dark. I got there at 7:35AM and I got #70! I went to eat and came back around 8:15AM. The house was built in the 1920’s with very narrow streets and cars could only park on one side of the street. With all the people there, I had to park on the next block over and walk back. I had to stand waiting in the rain till about 9:15AM. As I was standing in the rain, I wondered if it was worth it. The people in line said that one guy got there at 4AM and got #23. They said that the guy giving out the numbers got there at 4PM the day before the sale and spent the night in his car. There were some neat things there from the 1960’s, but it really wasn’t worth the wait. But, it was fun waiting in line with other people. I got to know a couple that went to a lot of estate sales in the area. We shared stories of previous estate sales that we both went to. The lady was mocking the people coming out of the house with few and wierd things. She would say softly, “Was that worth the wait?”. And the guy handing out the numbers just came out with a small box. It was also amusing listening to the estate sale regulars talking about the on-line sellers. The one guy said he should try selling some of the things he has bought. The other guy said, “Is all that packing and shipping worth it?” I did get some good stuff, but nothing too much out of the ordinary. I did get the scavange of the week there: 14 Beatles 8-Track Tapes that were in excellent condition. I went back on Saturday for the half off day and got some more good items.
  
  Mark S
  - 11/05/2018 at 7:32 am #51180
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    PVC piping is definitely not strong enough to hold heavy bins. My recommended material is 2×3 lumber. It is cheaper than 2×4’s, is plenty strong enough, and that extra inch gained by using 2×3 instead of 2×4 adds up over multiple shelves.
    
    I just built another 75″ wide x 22″ deep x 76″ high wood shelf this weekend. It took me less than an hour to build and install with my nail gun and miter saw. Lumber cost was $23. Plywood shelving was free from work.
    - 11/05/2018 at 8:51 am #51185
      Mark S
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @mark-s
      
      Retro,
      
      PVC piping is actually very strong. Tensile Strength will tell you how much it will hold. As you can see below, if I use Schedule 50 .75″ pipe, it will hold 362 pounds before it starts to bend. It is not the addition of the weight of each bin, it is just each bin because each Bin will have its own shelf. See the chart below:
      
      https://imgur.com/a/n1vFFxy
      
      Also, I have over 200 containers. If I build that many wood structures and then decide to move to an off-site location (very probable), the moving of the wood shelfs wood (pun) be very difficult. PVC pipe just comes apart to a manageable size and you just move it easily.
      
      Mark
      - 11/05/2018 at 8:53 am #51187
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        I meant Schedule 40, not 50.
      - 11/05/2018 at 10:05 am #51197
        
        Retro Treasures WV
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @retro-treasures-wv
        
        Yes, but you are loading the pipe in shear/bending moment when building shelving. If you built 6ft long shelves, that thing is gonna sag even without weight on it. You would need to keep your span to 2′ or less to have any strength at all. This would greatly increase your material costs. That’s ALOT of fittings.
        
        Many of us have used the plastic “industrial” shelving units you can buy at Home depot. They work…okay. These have PVC vertical members and rigid honeycomb pvc shelves. In reality they hold about half the weight they say they do and start to sag even then over time.
        
        2×3’s are half the price of 1″ sch 40 pvc pipe and you don’t need any expensive fittings. The first couple of wood units I built I used screws, so they can be disassembled easily. I changed to nails this time because it is soooo much faster… and I have a framing nailer purchase to justify. Lol!
        
        I only need 9 2×3’s 8′ long to make 4 shelves (5 total levels of storage including the floor level) at 75x22x76
        I build the shelf frames and then secure them directly to studs on two walls. Then I just need one vertical support at the corner not near a side wall. If I made this free standing I’d only need 12 boards. My boards cost $2.30 for premium 2×3 pine.
- 11/04/2018 at 9:51 pm #51177
  Winchester38
  Participant
  Location:
  @winchester38
  October 28 – November 3, 2018
  Store 1
  Total Items in Store: 1,404
  Items Sold: 18
  Gross Sales: $510.84
  Cost of Items Sold: $49.00
  Highest Price Sold: $149.99 (dog training collar)
  Average Price Sold: $28.38
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $55.34
  Number of items listed this week: 36
  
  Store 2
  Total Items in Store: 534
  Items Sold: 9
  Gross Sales: $98.34
  Cost of Items Sold: $3.60
  Highest Price Sold: $13.59 (vintage patch)
  Average Price Sold: $10.93
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $12.00
  Number of items listed this week: 20
  
  Amazon.ca sales: $39.58 (Approx $9.90 net profit)
  Amazon.com sale: $326.04 (Approx $81.51 net profit)
  
  Haven’t listened to the new episode yet; will tomorrow morning at my day-job.
  
  Solid week for us. Nothing outstanding, but steady. We’re pushing to get our listings up, and to clear out some of the older, lower priced inventory. Lots of packing cheaper stuff, but it’s gone…
  
  Had a solid find this past week. Found a dog training collar with case and accessories for $7.99. Listed it, and it sold in a few days for $149.99.
- 11/05/2018 at 8:10 am #51182
  MaggieStL
  Participant
  Location: Oakville, MO
  @maggiestl
  I had to laugh at the cereal box packing 🙂 I use whatever I have near that works.
  
  PS: I like tape 😉 I have about 100 rolls so I use it liberally!
  
  This week I packed over 60 items from a small charm to water skis! I also am seeing a tremendous uptick on Facebook Market Place sales. We did over $500 this week in local sales, our best week to date.
  
  I’m excited to have found an auction where I buy 5 gallon containers of floor finish. I buy each container for between $3-5 and I have two steady buyers now at $40 per container. In the store my customers say it costs them $75. So a win win for us both.
  
  I wish you all steady sales!
  - This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by MaggieStL.
- 11/05/2018 at 9:19 am #51193
  simplicio
  Participant
  Location:
  @simplicio
  Posting problems… bear with me…
  
  Sales: CAD$997, 11 items, COGS: $250 (still paying off big lots) –> Item profit: $596
  Expenditures: $586 –> After-tax cashflow: $105
  Hours: 10, $11/hr
  Listed: $2350, 5 listings
  Notable sales: nothing huge – electrical cabinet for $150, blank cassette tapes for $120, POS display readouts for $160.
  
  Funny you guys mentioning magazines: a long time ago, I made a great sale on some obscure magazines and started thinking that was a great niche. So I got a huge free lot of model train and other magazines, which WILL NOT MOVE… until yesterday, I sold a big box of woodworking mags for $40. Lesson learned, I probably won’t buy them again, or at least not without very high solds.
  
  So I spent a lot of money this week, on one auction lot. $580 for a lot of electrical supplies, mostly because of 3 NIB switches that MAY be worth $2500 each. The trouble with this item is it’s hard to price, no ebay solds. I hope I’m right about them because otherwise it was a bad buy. Right or wrong, I doubt they’ll sell fast.
  
  This lot came with tons of other stuff, including some fire protection mats that may be worth $1500, but a lot of the rest of it is connectors for teck cable and conduit hangers, stuff like that. As an ebay item, these things are marginal. They don’t really sell on ebay, they aren’t worth that much, and they’re a logistical nightmare because of a million little boxes and part numbers. When I had stacked them all around the couch downstairs, I decided I’d rather pull out my own fingernails than go through them and add them to inventory. So I listed them as a big lot on kijiji for $100 (maybe 1/4 of the eventual ebay price). A local electrician immediately grabbed them all for $100. We both couldn’t be happier. I’m also glad to see some cash from that lot reduce my effective cost a little bit. Sometimes a quarter in the hand is worth a dollar in the bush.
  
  I still have one more carload of stuff to get today from that lot. Another manufacturing bankruptcy auction.
  - This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by simplicio.
- 11/05/2018 at 10:24 am #51200
  Retro Treasures WV
  Participant
  Location:
  @retro-treasures-wv
  Jay or Ryanne,
  
  The forum ate my numbers post. I waited 5-10 minutes to try and edit my photo link, but no dice. Still ate it. Could you please recover it for me?
  - 11/05/2018 at 11:37 am #51210
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Retro Treasures WV wrote:
    
    Items in Store 1078
    Items Sold 18
    Total Sales $660.00
    COGS $48.00
    Total Profit $612.00
    Average profit $34.00
    Average sales price $36.67
    New Listings 16
    
    I sold two pair of shoes this week for $100+ each. My favorite sale though was a set of Vintage original 1984 Apple stickers that were still sealed for $50.
    
    I stopped by the Goodwill on Friday near my house. They didn’t have much of interest – just had two pair of shoes and a shirt. I hesitated before I got to the checkout to look up a pair of boots I had in my cart – turned out to be Nocona Snake skin boots. Very nice! Well that hesitation turned out to be quite fateful. As I started to hand my things to the clerk, one of the other workers came up to me slightly out of breath and said ” Glad I was able to catch you! I was going as fast as I could since you were here. I just brought out a bunch of shoes. Since you’re a shoe guy I thought you might like to see them.”
    
    This is when it pays for the employees to know I’m a reseller. I stopped checking out and went back to look. I audibly said “Oh my gosh!” as I saw what she had brought out. She had an entire cart full of like new or very good condition high end running shoes – Brooks, Asics, Hoka One One. I bought all of them – 30 pair including the 2 pair of shoes I originally had in my cart.
    
    In other news, this weekend was fairly nice weather wise so I cleared out a part of my garage and put together my second large storage table along with a 75″ long 5 shelf wooden storage rack.
    Here is a photo of the table:
    
    I can fit 12 bins plus some odds n ends on the two shelves below the table surface. It is a super heavy duty table/shelving unit. They came from Elder Beerman when they closed.
    
    It felt good to make so much progress in my ebay room, but it did come at the cost of listing.
    - 11/05/2018 at 11:59 am #51216
      Retro Treasures WV
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @retro-treasures-wv
      
      Thanks!
      
      Now to try again with photo:
      
      https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4843/45006966124_d2726a677b_k.jpg
      - 11/05/2018 at 11:59 am #51217
        
        Retro Treasures WV
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @retro-treasures-wv
        
        Eh, close enough!
- 11/05/2018 at 10:32 am #51201
  Julie B
  Participant
  Location: Georgia
  @julie-b
  Paypal Not Accepted 3 or 4 days ago I used my eBay supplies coupon. After the coupon I still owed $4 and guess what…. Ebay’s shipping supply store no longer takes Paypal because of course, it’s opted into the new payments platform. Very annoying since I have $$$ in my PayPal acct that I can’t use to pay for ebay brand supplies. Boooo! Eventually, PayPal is supposed to be an option within the new payments platform, so we’ve been told.
  
  Free Shipping I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseam with strong opinions on both sides. I’ve always been team Free Shipping because both my husband and I always filter our searches for Free Shipping (habit due to Amazon Prime membership probably) but today I shipped 7 items, the 2 heaviest of course sold clear across the country to California (a majority of my sales are to CA). My total profit on 7 items was only $35 for items that had otherwise good sale prices! Even though I try to work an estimate of the postage cost into my price, CA postage always kills me because I guess I never figure enough in to cover West Coast shipping. I’m finally thinking of switching over to calculated, at least for items over 2 lbs. Ebay has had so many policy changes in the last few years that I don’t even remember what the “perk” was for offering free shipping. Maybe it was just the Fast and Free stamp that appears on the listing – if so, that is no longer worth it for me.
  - 11/05/2018 at 11:41 am #51211
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Let Amazon race to the bottom with Free Shipping. Those sellers are making very slim margins, hoping to make up in volume. Good luck to them.
    
    On eBay, only commodity sellers have to compete with free shipping to differentiate themselves from pages of the same exact item. For us vintage, weirdo sellers, I see very little Free Shipping.
    
    If we were to do Free Shipping, I’d raise my cost to ship to the farthest place from me. Its more expensive for people who live close to you, but then you dont get killed on Postage across the country. Ultimately, Calculated Shipping is the most fair and transparent IMHO.
    
    Do you think you sell more because you have Free Shipping? If its not a significant sales generator whats the point?
- 11/05/2018 at 10:42 am #51202
  Sharyn
  Participant
  Location: Central NJ
  @sharyn
  Week of Oct 28 – Nov 3
  * Total Items in Store: 1209 eBay, 11 Mercari
  * Items Sold: 6 eBay
  * Cost of Items Sold: $7.35 + $9.17 Commission
  * Total Sales: $171.06 eBay + $0 Mercari + about $2100 from online auction
  * Highest Price Sold: $90 Set 4 hand-turned brass table legs from the 1950s
  * Average Price Sold: $28.51
  * Returns: 0
  * Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  * Number of items listed this week: 22
  
  This was another rather poor week on eBay for me. I’m usually doing the same as everyone else, but this week I seem to be lagging. On the other hand:
  
  The online auction I set up for a friend through MaxSold finally finished up this weekend. We made around $6000 in sales! MaxSold gets a 30% commission, and my friend and I will split 50/50. So, I’ll end up with a little under $2100! The highest bid was a saxophone that sold for $751!! The next highest item was a trombone that went for $266. I have to wait until my friend gets paid, then she will write me a check.
  
  The pickup was on Sunday. It went very smoothly, but I made one stupid mistake. I accidentally gave someone an Xbox 360 lot when they should have received a PC games lot. I guess I didn’t check against the lot numbers on my list. The thing is that the person who won the Xbox lot hadn’t shown up by the time I called it into MaxSold, and I think they probably had decided to not bother. Oh well, they got a refund because I’m too damn honest. The bid was only about $21, and my friend was not at all concerned about losing out on it. We did have one buyer who didn’t pay (their credit card didn’t work when MaxSold went to get payment), and one buyer (other than the Xbox guy) who didn’t show up (they won’t get their money back).
  
  All-in-all, it was a great experience with a nice payback.
  - 11/05/2018 at 11:42 am #51212
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Congrats on the big auction sale.
  - 11/05/2018 at 2:52 pm #51234
    totommyto
    Participant
    
    Location: Naples, Fl
    @totommyto
    Sharyn,
    What if an opportunity like this comes along again, all things about the same, will you do it? Do you think you might actually look for an auction gig like this in the future? Multiple income stream on occassion?
    - 11/05/2018 at 3:43 pm #51237
      Sharyn
      Participant
      
      Location: Central NJ
      @sharyn
      
      Sure, I’d like to do that as a secondary source of income, but I don’t think this type of situation will happen often.
      
      My friend had some good stuff to sell. Her higher end stuff brought in bidders for the lower end stuff. She didn’t want MaxSold to run the auction because she would have had to get everything ready all at once. Her and her husband work full time, and they kept going through their stuff finding more. In addition, MaxSold leaves everything in place, but I boxed each lot up and moved it out of their way.
      
      Of course, if MaxSold did the sale, they wouldn’t have been as meticulous as I was, and they wouldn’t have brought in as much money (I think). But, they would have charged her $795 plus 30%. For the seller run auction, they only charged the 30%. However, my friend is splitting her proceeds with me 50/50.
      
      If I run an auction like this again, I would want to have the same situation where they are willing to go 50/50 or something close to that.
      
      I actually do have an opportunity again. Friends of my parents are putting their NJ townhouse on the market soon, but they live about an hour from me. I don’t want to do that drive. They may only have a few weeks to sell everything if their buyer wants to close quickly. However, I will recommend them to MaxSold (when they are ready), and I will get a small commission for the referral.
      
      So, it depends on the situation. I will run a more organized auction, I can be more meticulous in the listings, I can box everything and get it out of the way, etc. But, I’ll want more than the $795 that MaxSold charges.
      
      I’m not going to go out of my way to make this a stream of income, but, if something comes my way, I’d certainly offer my services.
      
      Another possibility is trying to get a job with MaxSold. I understand that the hours are very flexible (but I’m sure the pay is not that high). Possibly, I’ll think about doing that when my daughter goes off to college. It might be fun.
      - 11/05/2018 at 4:05 pm #51238
        
        totommyto
        Participant
        
        Location: Naples, Fl
        @totommyto
        
        Sharyn,
        All so interesting, my apologies for pounding you with questions yet another time on the forums! I had a similar thing happen to me cleaning out a house for a neighbor on Craig’s List, led to another clean out, and I put my foot down and said no when the third one came up! I’d rather be listing, well, unless I was full time and then… However, the cash money was nice. I appreciate the view into this sort of thing. Very healthy profit, a stack of cash you could really do something with! Congrats on the great success and on your terms!
        
        11/05/2018 at 4:07 pm #51241
        
        Sharyn
        Participant
        
        Location: Central NJ
        @sharyn
        
        No problem with the questions! I like talking about these things on the forum!
- 11/05/2018 at 10:47 am #51203
  antarestar
  Participant
  Location: Maine
  @antarestar
  This weekend, I had someone make an offer, I countered, they countered back, I accepted, they immediately canceled.
  I didn’t bother to ask why they canceled, just accepted it and had it relist. Who knows.
- 11/05/2018 at 10:52 am #51206
  antarestar
  Participant
  Location: Maine
  @antarestar
  @Julie B – I have calculated shipping on pretty much everything, plus best offer. In my mind, having the buyer see who much they are paying for shipping lessens the likelihood of wanting to return something. I think it’s the psychological pain of knowing how much money they threw away on shipping if they returned the item.
  Technically, if you are selling with free shipping, you are including the cost of shipping in the original price. But, without seeing it, it’s easy to forget and really think that free shipping is free.
  That’s how my brain works, so I assume other people feel the same way.
  - 11/05/2018 at 1:27 pm #51222
    totommyto
    Participant
    
    Location: Naples, Fl
    @totommyto
    Antarestar,
    Here is an offer/counter offer scenario for me that occurs more than a few times.
    Buyer makes offer, I counter offer, buyer counter offers asking for free shipping, I counter offer in a way that works out better for the buyer by about $1 and I state, “I do not free ship”.
    only one time this did not produce a sale. I sell one offs, vintage, and weird old stuff mostly.
    - 11/05/2018 at 1:31 pm #51223
      totommyto
      Participant
      
      Location: Naples, Fl
      @totommyto
      
      Better for the buyer by $1 than if I simply counter offered figuring in the ‘free’ shipping, if you follow. I may have explained that poorly…
      - 11/05/2018 at 1:43 pm #51225
        
        antarestar
        Participant
        
        Location: Maine
        @antarestar
        
        I was picking up what you were putting down.
    - 11/05/2018 at 2:19 pm #51228
      Retro Treasures WV
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @retro-treasures-wv
      
      Ugh… I hate it when I am negotiating and the buyer throws in free shipping after a couple offers, which makes it a WORSE offer than previous offers. I don’t think they intend to insult me – I think in these cases they are just that bad at math.
      - 11/05/2018 at 2:43 pm #51232
        
        Sharyn
        Participant
        
        Location: Central NJ
        @sharyn
        
        When I get a request for free shipping, I’ll ask for their zip code (or I don’t have to bother if it is first class or flat rate). I’ll calculate shipping and subtract it from their offer (or from the amount I’m willing to take) and say “This amount plus shipping will come to the $xx you offered”.
        
        It takes a while to do, but I often get a sale that way.
- 11/05/2018 at 10:54 am #51207
  totommyto
  Participant
  Location: Naples, Fl
  @totommyto
  One of the great Podcasts, thank you again!
  Shipping more annoying than usual! A much better week compared to last. On eBay, a decent amount of bread & butter old toys sales, along with some longer listed more expensive things selling. On Esty, more pipeline type things selling along with newer and older listed.
  
  10/28 – 11/03/18
  
  eBay store totommyto
  
  Total store items: 655
  Number of items sold: 19 (1 international)
  Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $953.28
  Cost of items sold: $75.50
  Consignment payouts $108
  Highest price sold: $250.00 – 1983 Sarsaparilla Deco lamp (paid $5 at the flea, and passed it up for WEEKS!)
  Average price sold: $50.17
  Returns: 0
  Money spent on new inventory: $3
  Number of items listed this week: 5
  Sell through rate for the week: 2.8
  
  Etsy store Oldfleatoymarket
  
  Total store items: 650
  Number of items sold: 12 (0 international)
  Total Etsy sales ( not counting s/h): $240.80
  Cost of items sold: $12.50
  Consignment payouts: 0
  Highest price sold: $27 – Walco 70’s Christmas ornament kit, also 3 lots old Barbie clothes/accessories to one buyer for $55
  Average price sold: $20.00
  Returns: 0
  Money spent on new inventory: 0
  Number of items listed this week: 9
  Sell through rate for the week: 1.8
  
  Below is the highest and most interesting sale. A certain Flea Vendor has become a fixture at the market I frequent. He is one of those older fellows with a rent ‘arrangement’, kind of spread all over an aisle, plays vinyl, jokes with buyers, a real character, that sort of thing. I poke through a mostly forgotten back shelving area now and then. I saw this lamp in there and it did not fit in, kind of off my radar, like it is either not good, or too good so too much. This vendor is hard to figure on pricing sometimes. One day, after seeing it multiple times, I actually dusted the thing off, found the glass top, and realized, this really is something. I asked for a price after buying some bulk novelties, he said $5, and sold!
  
  https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Sarsaparilla-BEAR-Lamp-1983-Art-Deco-bronze-brass-heavy-stone-art-glass-/372363479352?hash=item56b297c938%3Ag%3AchsAAOSwc~NbQ3pM&nma=true&si=5PYuQn2TMqoCMv%252BXG1aXUNDvwrg%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
- 11/05/2018 at 11:26 am #51208
  ChristineR
  Participant
  Location: Southern California
  @christiner
  Total Items in Store: Ebay 331, Mercari about 35
  Items Sold: 9 Ebay, 1 Mercari
  Gross Sales: $275 Ebay, $51 Mercari
  Cost of Items Sold: $92 + $10 shipping included
  Highest Price Sold: $51 Patagonia Vest on Mercari (Thrifted for $25 and my daughter wouldn’t wear)
  Average Price Sold: $30 Ebay
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 0
  
  I’m very grateful for these sales. I haven’t listed for weeks really on either platform. I have been dropping prices on items in carts on Ebay and promoting to likers and delisting old stuff on Mercari. Taking offers on used stuff I paid little for. Fundraiser is midweek, then I hope to get back to it. Calendar looks pretty clear until the holiday! Whew.
  
  I went to Palm Springs Friday for another 50th birthday party. I had some free time and hit the true thrifts (not consignment or estate liquidators). It was quite fruitless. Everyone knows the value of the good stuff out there. Left in the thrift stores was one decade – 1980s pastel home decor and dishes. LOL. Makes me appreciate my home turf and I came home with all of my cash.
- 11/05/2018 at 1:04 pm #51220
  Nick
  Participant
  Location: GA
  @nick
  Total Items in Store: 683
  Items Sold: 14
  Gross Sales: $214.04
  Cost of Items Sold: $2.68
  Highest Price Sold: $50.96 (New Flexon glasses frames)
  Average Price Sold: $15.29
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 2
  
  A lot of other stuff this past week kept me from doing much with my eBay store, but sales were steady throughout the week. This week my goal is to post at least 35 items (5 items per day average). I also want to do some cleaning and organizing around my apartment. I just upgraded from a 5X5 storage unit to a 10X10, so there’s a ton of things I’ve already posted to eBay I want to move out of my home.
- 11/05/2018 at 1:06 pm #51221
  Marshal_G
  Participant
  Location: Bellingham, WA
  @marshal_g
  I wonder if people are checking stolen pre-paid debit cards by buying something on eBay just to see how much is on the card. I mean if there’s less than $20 than maybe it’s not worth the risk to them. But if they can prove there’s hundreds, it starts to look interesting.
  - 11/05/2018 at 4:10 pm #51242
    Inglewood
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @inglewood
    Interesting theory – when I’ve had my credit card numbers stolen in the past, they ramp up their purchases – usually starts with a parking meter for a couple dollars, then moves up to a fast food place, then a mass retailer (Walmart/Target), then they go nuts with gift cards and other large value items.
    
    However, I’m not sure that they would ask for a refund when they could use it in a vending machine or something else to prove it is active at first.
    - 11/05/2018 at 5:45 pm #51252
      Jay
      Keymaster
      
      Location: Virginia
      @jay
      
      It’s an interesting hypothesis. I’d be surprised if they wanted the CC associated with their eBay account though. Even if they cancel, I’m assuming the CC hits the network for tracing.
- 11/05/2018 at 2:41 pm #51231
  Steve List
  Participant
  Location: Richmond, Calif.
  @steve-list
  Numbers for October, 2018
  Total Listings: 941
  Had 55 Sales for a total of $1148.69
  Cost of Items Sold: $131.28
  Highest Price Sold: $90 – Tiffany Quartz Desk Clock (cost $5)
  Average Price Sold: $20.88 – Average Cost: $2.39
  Spent on new inventory: $110
  Number of items listed: 33
  2 GSP, 1 non GSP
  
  My best scavenge of the month was on the 4th day of a local estate sale where everything was free – I wish that would happen more often. I picked up lots of hp48 calculator manuals along with a bunch of old Texas Instrument and MS-DOS software and manuals (1990s) that should sell well. I also picked up a few needlepoint kits and lots of old B&W Photos and a few ond train publications that everybody else either missed or didn’t see any value in.
  
  I only listed 33 items in October, I guess i need to get more motivated on that end of things. Even though with over 900 listings, the pipelines keeps pumping out profits.
  
  Just a quick note on the scooters you saw in S.F. There is now also a gig economy of people that go around to gather up the scooters each night to charge them. From what I understand, they make from $2 – $5 per scooter. Possibly the photos they have you take are also to help the scooter chargers find them.
- 11/05/2018 at 2:47 pm #51233
  simplicio
  Participant
  Location:
  @simplicio
  Another story from this week. My wife got a new iphone and I decided to sell her old one on ebay. It was damaged, with a volume bug and a cracked screen – both disclosed of course. I sold it for parts, got CAD$200.
  
  Well, sure enough, the buyer contacted me to let me know the home button didn’t work, hence INAD. (It worked when I sent it.) I smelt a rat, so I told him “Sorry for the trouble, please return.”
  Replies: “Oh, I can get the home button fixed for $50 – just refund me that much.”
  “No thanks, please just return for refund.”
  
  Well, that was on Tuesday and I haven’t heard a peep yet.
  
  I will always be professional with buyers but I’m not paying the Danegeld either.
  - 11/05/2018 at 4:06 pm #51239
    Inglewood
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @inglewood
    Thought it was interesting that there is no instant transfer/payment system in the U.S. for paying individuals or buyers. In Canada, we have a system called Interac that all the major banks founded/own that I’ve been using almost weekly for payments or receiving payments – it’s great!
    
    Interac is the debit system that every store uses in Canada, but they now have a email system where I can log into my bank’s website, send money from a selected account to someone else’s email address, and they can either have it instantly deposited in their account or select where it goes. This system is completely free for individuals. I’ve had Canadians on eBay pay this way recently – they ask for it. The only issue is I’m not sure how protected it is if you get ripped off as a buyer with a bad seller, as the payment is instant and not tied through eBay and is instantly moved.
    
    It would be interesting if a similar system (free for both sides) would be possible on eBay – however, I’m not sure how Interac or a similar free system would make money beyond a service you pay for with bank fees elsewhere.
    - 11/05/2018 at 5:43 pm #51251
      Jay
      Keymaster
      
      Location: Virginia
      @jay
      
      The US banking system is pretty archaic. Surprised it hasnt been changed yet:
      https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/01/10/576879734/episode-489-the-invisible-plumbing-of-our-economy
      - 11/06/2018 at 10:00 am #51283
        
        Inglewood
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @inglewood
        
        It use to be a nightmare when I would go to the U.S. – I remember up to a few years ago, I would have to either use cash or a major credit card (Visa/MC/Amex) to make a purchase. If I wanted to use debit in New York, I had to sign up at my bank for a NYCE card that was only good in parts of the Northeast – if I travelled elsewhere, they had weird local networks that only were accepted at some stores. Visa Debit has been working for me occasionally, but it’s strange how fragmented the system is in the U.S. I guess every bank wants there piece of the pie and they want you to use credit. I also find it weird that checks are still accepted as payment in the U.S. – it fascinates me that in today’s age you can still buy groceries with a check.
        
        It’s also scary how many foreign banks have been buying up U.S. banks since 2008. The big Canadian banks are everywhere now in the U.S. TD Bank/Ameritrade (Toronto-Dominion); CIBC Mellon (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), BMO Harris (Bank of Montreal), RBC Bank (Royal Bank of Canada) are buying up U.S. banks like crazy. The foreign ownership of U.S. banks is something Americans should be worried about.
  - 11/05/2018 at 5:43 pm #51249
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Accepting a return is the most powerful tool a seller has. I know it can sound counter-intuitive, but as you showed, most buyers want the item and use “returns” as a weapon.
- 11/05/2018 at 5:36 pm #51248
  BethGreen
  Participant
  Location: Ohio
  @bethgreen
  My numbers for the week of 10/28/18:
  Total Items in Store: 173
  Items Sold: 18
  Cost of Items Sold: $70
  Total Sales: $881 + shipping
  Highest Price Sold: $158 (vintage LL Bean Jacket)
  Average Price Sold: $48.94
  Returns: 0
  
  I can really feel the fourth quarter sales picking up. Another great week.
  Regarding the very beginning subject of the podcast, with multiple quantity listings having incorrect item quantities, I have a quirk to share. On multiple quantity listings with Variations here is something that gets people into trouble: Cut and pasted from eBay Help Pages:
  
  (https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/creating-listings-variations?id=4150)
  
  “If you relist your listing, any variations that are at a zero quantity will be relisted with the original quantity. You’ll need to review and update your quantities to match your current inventory. If you plan on relisting regularly, we recommend listing with Good ‘Til Cancelled.
  
  So for example, I had a robe listed in sizes S, M, and L. 5 of each size. I sell out of small. When I relist (RELIST, not sell similar) sizes M & L are the correct quantities, but the sold out size small goes back to a quantity of 5!!! Jay and Ryanne I know this doesn’t apply to you because you do GTC and rarely have multiples, but just wanted to let people know. It got me once but I’ll never make that mistake again.
- 11/05/2018 at 7:58 pm #51254
  retiredtreasures719
  Participant
  Location: Troy, Ohio
  @retiredtreasures719
  I’m behind on everything but I at least wanted to get my numbers posted! I seem to be in a good week-bad week pattern. Last week was saved by a couple of higher priced items, but I actually went 3 days with no sales! Thank goodness I was busy with other things or I would probably have been freaking out. Yesterday was great, but there’s a lot of week left….
  
  I’m working at the polls tomorrow. I don’t care who you vote for, just keep your local poll workers busy by going to vote!
  
  eBay Oct 28-Nov 3
  Total sales. $156.35
  # sold. 12
  Avg. sale. $13.03
  # listed. 18
  # in store. 1,112
  Returns. 0
  COGS. $8.03
  $ spent on new. $46.90
  Highest sale-$50 Vtg Magazine Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Times 1959 This was one of my parents items, so no cost involved.
- 11/05/2018 at 9:26 pm #51257
  Doublythumbs
  Participant
  Location: Hopedale, OH
  @doublythumbs
  Oct 28 – Nov 3
  Total Items in Store: 1902
  Items Sold: 18
  Total Sales : $1081
  * above yearly average of $817
  * below 2017 total week sales of $623
  Highest Price: $430 (Drake Ham Radio Receiver)
  Average Price: $60
  Returns: 0
  Cost of Goods Sold: $119
  Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $10
  Number of New Items Listed this Week: 36
  
  I’ve have a great week! I made a few really good sales which brought my numbers way up. I didn’t do as much listing or scavenging as I should have, but it was a busy week both at home and work. But what I did list was all of my Christmas inventory. And it’s already been flying off the shelves for good prices too. I have a few more items that I want to put up right after Thanksgiving when people officially go into Christmas season mode.
  
  I got a very strange (and some might call it offensive) message from a buyer on Saturday. The messaged me through one of my Korean war slides asking me if I had any Jewish tattooed skin lampshades. WTF? He went on to say that they’re very collectable and would be very interested if I had any. I didn’t quite know how to respond to that, so I didn’t. I looked it up and it appears to have been a myth perpetuated by a German nazi woman who had them made from goat skin. Regardless, I think it would be against eBay policy to sell murdered people’s skin in any way, shape or form.
  - 11/05/2018 at 10:13 pm #51259
    Sharyn
    Participant
    
    Location: Central NJ
    @sharyn
    I think that eBay doesn’t allow Nazi items to be sold in general. At least items with the Swastika.
    
    About two years ago, I had a number of US military uniforms listed, and someone contacted me saying that they were interested in Nazi uniforms. He gave an email and told me to contact him outside of eBay if I had any. I didn’t contact him.
    
    But your story is creepy.
- 11/05/2018 at 9:51 pm #51258
  Doublythumbs
  Participant
  Location: Hopedale, OH
  @doublythumbs
  I had another thing happened that I wanted to share, and it actually covers a couple topics from this week’s podcast. I, too, had a buyer almost immediately cancel a purchase. No big deal since it was only a $10 item, but when I went to relist it, I noticed that my inventory list shows that I had none left. It was an item that I listed previously with multiple quantity, but for whatever reason it messed up after I did a “sell similar” relisting spree a few months back as an experiment. So if that buyer hadn’t of canceled, I would’ve had to of canceled the sale anyways. He saved me a ding on my record. lol
- 11/05/2018 at 10:24 pm #51260
  bcfol440
  Participant
  Location:
  @bcfol440
  Halloween Week was Meh!
  in ebay store: 950
  Items sold:24 ebay, 4 posh = 29
  Sales: $683 ebay, Posh $150 after fees – $833
  RETURNS: 2! In One Week. UGH. Fit issue and a FAlse INAD. I am very lucky usually.
  
  Buyer side – I purchased a flawed item from one of the big fashion clearance sellers. Well, it arrived with a piece missing. They used a stock photo of complete item and kind of used a real photo but didn’t disclose the flaw just “our items may have damage” which they said covered themselves….
  They have free returns. I contacted them and we agreed on a partial refund. They have totally ghosted me. I have sent 4 messages! Is this their strategy? I am going to send one more message and then leave a neutral. Maybe that will get their attention, I hate doing that but YEESH. This is the second bad experience I have had with these super large sellers lately, no wonder ebay is making some of these changes.
- 11/05/2018 at 10:46 pm #51261
  MissMaggie
  Participant
  Location: Ohio
  @missmaggie
  Good stuff on this episode regarding magazines. I have had success selling “specialty” magazines. The older cooking magazines like the defunct “Gourmet” sell very well for me.
  
  Jay I think when I posted my introduction to the group that I over emphasized the fact that I had employee troubles at my brick-and-mortar store. Yes, it was a problem but the ultimate reason that I got out of retail bricks-and-mortar was that I felt tied-down. What I meant to say was to “anyone who dreams of running a store” you might want to reconsider and certainly don’t abandon Ebay (or any e-commerce for that matter) to open a traditional retail store until you test the waters.
  
  I follow a few bloggers who sell on Etsy/Poshmark etc and it seems they dream/fantasize about having a traditional store. My experience was that I felt restricted & confined to being there during open hours 6 days a week. I discovered it wasn’t the lifestyle for me.
  
  Ebay = freedom…IMHO ! 🙂
  - 11/06/2018 at 6:46 am #51270
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    My mistake on why you closed your Brick and Mortar store. Totally agree that a store with business hours seems like death to us. I think people romanticize the idea of a curated space and meeting fun people. The reality is that it’s somewhere you have to be all the time…or pay someone to be there for you.
    
    I guess some people just need to try it to see if it fits tehir lifestyle.
    - 11/06/2018 at 8:32 am #51275
      Retro Treasures WV
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @retro-treasures-wv
      
      Some people like being at their small business all day long. I’ve met people like this.
      Some people like being in an office environment all day long. I work with people like this.
      
      I am NEITHER of those kind of people.
      
      My wife all the time talks about how we should open a thrift store. NO WAY! She romanticizes it. I see it for what it really is – a trap and a slow death of my eternal soul.
      - 11/06/2018 at 10:08 am #51284
        
        Inglewood
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @inglewood
        
        The best part of operating online vs. brick and mortar stores for me is that I don’t have to deal with people in person.
        
        90% of the people you deal with in person are fine – it’s the 10% of weirdos that would drive me crazy!
        
        I’ve also come to accept I’m not a team player – I’m much better off operating alone or with a small group of people at arms length that I can respect and count on.
        
        Retro – I agree – owning a retail store would be a trap and a VERY slow death to me as well.
- 11/06/2018 at 7:43 am #51273
  MissMaggie
  Participant
  Location: Ohio
  @missmaggie
  Two attempts and 18 paragraphs later you nailed what I was trying to say in one paragraph–lol! Thanks, Jay! 🙂
- 11/06/2018 at 8:23 am #51274
  Steven S
  Participant
  Location: South Dakota
  @steven-s
  October 2018 $5416
  Items listed in store 940
  Sold items 100 (eBay 97 Truegether 2 FB Marketplace 1)
  Gross sales total $5416 (eBay $4976 Truegether $410 and FB $30)
  Returns 2 (jacket for size and an amplifier part)
  Highest sale $300 Elgin Starburst clock
  Average $53.86
  
  The FB marketplace sale was an industrial clothes rack on wheels, I found it next to a huge dumpster with more racks inside that I couldn’t reach, easy sale.
  Big increase in my numbers as the summer weather draws to a close. Hopefully it keeps up this way and more high priced inventory is discovered.
  With colder weather coming in garage sales are getting scarce so auctions and estate sales are my go to resources as well as the occasional antique mall visit and the daily perusing of CL and FB.
- 11/06/2018 at 9:03 am #51281
  Brian Treasures from Grandmas
  Participant
  Location: Hoboken, NJ
  @brian-treasures-from-grandmas
  I consider it a blessing when I have too many things to pack! Also, about packages going top weird places in route to their destination – I just had a package going from my place here to a buyer in Ft. Lauderdale, FL end up in San Francisco for sorting. :/ Not a reused box, a new box that they just put in the wrong bin.
  
  Week October 28-November 3, 2018
  
  Total Items in Store: 966
  Items Sold: 13 (1 Amazon)
  Cost of Items Sold: $198 (24.9% of sales)
  Total Sales: $794.96
  Highest Price Sold: $415 (225+ Gas & Oil Maps https://www.ebay.com/itm/192328131031)
  Average Price Sold: $61.15
  Returns: 1 (yet to send)
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 0
  Promoted listings test: 13 sales, $209.98 (26.4% of total sales), $10.50 fees (5% of sales)
  
  Low volume, but high quality sales throughout the week. About half came from the map lot, but also loved this sale (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202349168479) – in my “picking career” this is the fourth Godfather first edition I’ve found and they are always good & fast sellers; paid $1 sold for $60 best offer (best I ever got was about $250 for an earlier printing).
  
  This week is off to a terrific start, over $300 in sales in the first 2 days.
- 11/06/2018 at 11:48 am #51292
  bcfol440
  Participant
  Location:
  @bcfol440
  Steven S – your numbers just WOW me. I think I need to catch up on your WHAT SOLD videos. 🙂
- 11/06/2018 at 5:22 pm #51314
  Simon
  Participant
  Location: San Francisco Bay Area
  @simon
  Hi R & J,
  
  Congrats on a great week of sales! 88 sales is certainly a lot of shipping to do in one week.
  
  Here I my numbers for the week:
  Total Items in Store: 2586
  Items Sold: 41
  Total Sales: $1077
  Cost of Items Sold: $147
  Average Price Sold: $26.28
  Average Cost of Item: $3.59
  Highest Price Item Sold: $84.95 Macintosh Mac Apple Performa 575 – For parts
  Number of items listed this week: 27
  YTD Sales: $39834
  YTD sales compared to this time last year: +20%
  Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 332
  Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 197
  Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 86
  Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.59%
  
  Another solid week for me. Not as great as the week before but it was higher than the same week last year.
  
  Have a great week everyone!
- 11/08/2018 at 1:27 am #51395
  Kelly1mm
  Participant
  Location: Maryland
  @kelly1mm
  Sorry I have not posted any numbers in like 10 months but I have been listing a ton of backstock (over 2000 items from my death pile – about 1/3 of the way through)
  
  Here are my numbers for October
  Number sold = 453 – 15 returns
  Total Sales = $11,478 (after refunds)
  Total listed at end of month 3676 listings $87,570 ‘listed value’
  YTD = $65,402 / 2544 orders
  Highest October sale Polo Ralph Lauren Leather Car Coat $142 Free Shipping, sourced for $6.
  
  If you don’t remember I am mainly a used mens clothing seller (over 2750 listings) and all the numbers above include free shipping, 30 day free returns, promoted listing rate at 1%, no best offer.
  - This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Kelly1mm. Reason: typo
  - 11/08/2018 at 1:28 pm #51425
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    So do you feel the 1% promoted helps you?
    I changed my promoted listings to 1% on Oct 31. Since then my impressions and clicks have taken a nose dive. I’ve only sold 2 promoted listings since then.
    
    So it does appear to me that higher percentages does get your items in front of more buyers eyes so far.
    I’m going to leave my listings that way for the whole month to have some good data.
    - 11/08/2018 at 7:56 pm #51444
      Kelly1mm
      Participant
      
      Location: Maryland
      @kelly1mm
      
      I do think they helped. Of my 453 sold, 123 were via promoted listing for $3390 in sales (so about 30% of total sales were promoted). there were over 7000 views ……
      
      LDK
    - 11/12/2018 at 10:10 am #51511
      MDC Galleries & Fine Art
      Participant
      
      Location: Atlanta
      @huncrelan
      
      RTWV: We too use promoted listings and a fairly good amount of our sales come from “Promoted Listings”.
      So here is a part of a thought process. We usually have enough margins built into our prices to allow for us to be comfortable with having periodic sales of 10%-20% +/- [we alternate] and also take offers on anything over about $30-$35 on top of that. So, we use the 5% to 6% Promoted Listings selection, then what we do to offset that is to just only run 10% to 15% Sales and also not take anything much less than another 10% or so on offers below the Sales price [when we are running a Sale].
      
      So in other words we always have about 30% to 40% built into our pricing over and above what our market research shows as the higher “SOLD” prices we find on Ebay Solds, PicClick Solds, and WorthPoint Solds. That EXTRA Margin gives us room to play with Promoted listings, running Sales off and taking Offers all combined.
      
      Example if we are not running a Sale, do not have promoted listings on then sure we may contemplate a 35% to 40% low offer and still be good to go. But if we have a 6% promoted listings turned on, have a 15% Sale running, then we would only accept an offer on items of no more than about 15% +/- below that.
      
      Just like FREE SHIPPING. There is no such thing, just build it into your pricing structure.
      
      Interesting thing is that when we cross list on Etsy, all this extra is built in and things are starting to sell and at the listed prices, so all that extra fluff goes into our coffers.
      
      Just a single viewpoint..that and my morning cup ‘o java. Now on to building my roject Management Spread sheets for the new houses 🙂
      
      Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine art.
  - 11/12/2018 at 6:29 pm #51584
    MDC Galleries & Fine Art
    Participant
    
    Location: Atlanta
    @huncrelan
    Now this is the way I like to see the numbers. As an agrregate or atleast a cumulative of several months at a time. Watching numbers weekly is like watching the stock market swings hour by the hour. But this type of [posting tells a whole different story.
    
    jay… How about a thread with a challenge. A thread that will hold anyones whole year end numbers for 2018? What you listed for the year, total sales for the year, total costs paid for the items for the year. Your top 10 yearly solds, the bottom 10 lowest price solds, the years top 10 biggest blunders, the years top successes, the years worst customer nightmare, how many positive reviews, how many returns.
    
    Data like this can be analyzed, torn into, exstrapolated, interpolated, charted, graphed and any thing else you want to do with it. [hear that T-Satt?].. I will post my year end numbers if you create the thread, I challenge others to post and follow suit. Include what you know and are going to report on your taxes, leave out what you don’t know. One large, long thread for all 4,000 SL members numbers in one great big year end lump sum. Then it ends but there for posterity. Then when newbies come on board and ask, can I make a living on Ebay, should I quit my job, how much can I make, what should I buy, what should I sell, what is a good niche, then it is there for all to see.
    
    Make this an annual Big event.
    - 11/12/2018 at 6:45 pm #51585
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      I love that concept.
      
      Even better, show each month for the year to have a total so the seasonality can be shown.
      
      Let me see if I can create a Google Sheet that I can share to everyone with a Template to fill in. Then we can graph and extrapolate everyone’s data to see trends…
      - 11/13/2018 at 8:24 am #51618
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        I think Troy would be best suited to start this thread and provide a template of what information to include. Wonder if those of us who dont keep spreadsheets of our past performance will have access to the info needed?
        
        11/13/2018 at 11:31 am #51633
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        I got this on my list. I’ll get to it this week (crazy week around here!) and start a thread with a template file. People can report what they have and we can see what kind of data we get. Once I have that, I can do “Fun with Numbers” and see what kind of info and trends we see…
        
        11/13/2018 at 11:43 am #51634
        
        simplicio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @simplicio
        
        Here’s my dashboard report since I started keeping track. I’d be curious if TSatt has something similar and what it looks like.
        
        11/13/2018 at 2:38 pm #51640
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Simplico: I have a LOT of tabs in my main file. Two that are similar to you are below:
        
        Weekly
        
        Monthly
        
        11/13/2018 at 2:40 pm #51641
        
        almasty
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @alamasty
        
        I would love to post numbers like this, but 95% of the shipping I purchase comes out of the same shipping service I use for Amazon and other sites. I do have my ebay cogs separate, but it’s 2 separate ebay stores. Would partial stats be ok?
        
        11/13/2018 at 2:43 pm #51642
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Sure! Best data that you can provide.
        
        I think this would be beneficial to everyone, not only to be able to see similar trends across stores (or even better, when someone goes against the trend), but also to see real numbers for those that want to go full time. Getting that realistic look at what kind of cash is required to purchase and list full time (especially in the early growth stages) and what kind of cash a business model will throw off in the first 3/6/12 months to pay for personal expenses.
        
        11/14/2018 at 10:39 am #51675
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Jay.. a simple way to get your annual numbers would be to just go back and look at the first post of each pod cast you guys have created. You should see 52 weeks of your nmbers that contains the data you post each week. several years ago, I tracked you guys numbers for a whole year and ran a spread sheet on them watching your higest items sold, your monthly sales and then an year end look at your numbers. Back then you guys were more like 3-4k items, but gave me a good picture of what it would take for us to pull out of the booths and go full time online.
        
        You wouldn’t have some of the detail T-Sat has captured, but the year long numbers are there. Then maybe some numbers from any hard copies or digital Ebay invoices you may have saved.
        
        Just a thought.
        
        mike at mdc galleries and fine art
        
        11/14/2018 at 11:40 am #51677
        
        Sharyn
        Participant
        
        Location: Central NJ
        @sharyn
        
        Mike – There should be an easy way to get this information off GoDaddy Bookkeeping. I signed up with them two years ago, and I know that I can get monthly sales reports (I just normally use it for the weekly numbers). Anyway, when T-Satt sets up a forum post for numbers, I’ll figure out how to do it with GoDaddy.
        
        11/14/2018 at 12:33 pm #51681
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Oh of course. I use Quicken for Business and all these types of reports are readily available to us also, which we do use on a monthly basis along with the company balance sheet and P&L statement. I was just replying to Jay who said he did not have numbers any further back than 90 days in Ebay and I was telling him the long way would be to just copy his SL posting numbers. But he and Ryann also us GDBK and probably have the numbers there as well.
        
        This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
        
        11/14/2018 at 4:13 pm #51698
        
        Sharyn
        Participant
        
        Location: Central NJ
        @sharyn
        
        Hum, well, looking back at Jay’s comment, I think he was talking about other people on the forum who haven’t bought into a third party software or haven’t been tracking sales with a spreadsheet. Unless they report their numbers here, they won’t have details. I think that eBay will provide high level number on sales. I haven’t really checked, but I know that they compare how you are doing this year vs last year in Seller Hub.
- 11/09/2018 at 8:56 am #51450
  ThriftShift
  Participant
  Location: Charleston, SC
  @thriftshift
  My Store Week Oct 28-Nov 3, 2018
  Total Items in ebay Store: 710
  Items Sold: 17
  Gross Sales: $698
  Cost of Items Sold: $29.10
  Highest Sale: $200 for lot of ribbon and medal racks from my 20 years of service
  
  I cross-list my clothing onto Poshmark too and am beginning to list everything onto Mercari too.
  Of the 17 items sold this week, three were sold on Poshmark ($108) and 3 on Mercari ($60).
  I do like those platforms because after three days of receipt, no complaints allowed. But ebay has a much wider audience of course for weird vintage stuff.
  
  I kept one ribbon/medal rack from my USMC service and put the rest of the ribbons/medals in a big lot and sold for $200. Going to Virginia to a store that creates custom orders for racks.
  
  Had a GREAT sourcing week! I went to our Catholic thrift store on Wed and found two Kawano Kaoru woodblock prints from the 70s for $5 each. Solds range from $150 to $350 about. Also got 6 Starbucks mugs for 25 cents, which I normally don’t buy anymore, but for that cheap, I’ll sell them for $20 or so each.
  
  Then on Thursday at 11 am I went to another favorite charity thrift store; they had changed their winter hours to noon opening! But the manager saw my 4 year old and me outside, so she let me in and locked the doors behind us; we are regulars there. I shopped the fresh stock for an hour alone! I picked up 5 USMC Dress Blue jackets and several green Alpha jackets and uniform pants for 1 to $3 each, total $33. I gave them an even $40 since it was nice to let us in early! Dress Blue coats can sell for $80 – $200 on ebay depending how good shape they are in…and how eager the Marine is to buy it for an event coming up.
  
  I also did an online auction this week too, picking up on Saturday. I purchased 70 reel-to-reel tapes, Akai, etc. for $68 total. I hope to sell them in lots for $10-20 each based off Steve’s videos. I also bought two record boxes of 45s with jazz records in it that should sell for $10-20 each; I spent $23 for 100+ of those 45s in the boxes. So I went out of my traditional items this week on records, but it seemed a worthwhile bet.
- 11/11/2018 at 5:39 pm #51498
  mickdog
  Participant
  Location: Portland, OR
  @mickdog
  Super late to posting my October numbers but I’d figured I’d get it in before the next podcast drops. I think I was avoiding it a bit so I didn’t have to rehash the month.
  
  Highlights (really lowlights). A complete average month in sales, but after 3 months with ~$400/month higher sales it was sad to crash down to normality. Also had customer issues continue. See below.
  
  44 sales (15 less than September)
  $ sold (minus shipping): $1159 (doesn’t count refunds, see below and $350 less than last month)
  Per sale average: $25.19 (goal over $25)
  cost per item average: $2.85 (new lowest for the year)
  
  Items in store peak for month: 790 (still trying to get to 800)
  
  Returns/Refunds : 2. Ebay screwed a customer over (by giving me incorrect info on the phone) and I had such an irate customer I just refunded fully and took a small hit. I didn’t have to but since I was the messenger with the wrong info, I felt good doing it. The whole thing was stressful to deal with (not even going to bore you with the details). The other was a person who bought something and thought it was white not beige like I clearly stated in the title and description. They have until Tuesday to return it or I’ll call and get it closed. Fingers crossed.
  
  Customer issue: Got my 2nd negative in 1 1/2 years, on an item that the person thought I misdescribed and for which I promptly honored the return. Instead of freaking out, I did all the steps I’ve come to learn on this forum. Long story short, I got the customer to reverse their feedback! I was very pleased and will write a separate post on how I did it.
  
  Sourcing: Found a few high value things which I listed immediately including one in the $300+ range. I was sad to hear a go-to local auction was switching to online only and had their first auction on Nov 1. I probably won’t get the bargains and finds I once did, I won nothing in the new format and prices were generally higher. Also no real box lots which are my bread and butter.
  
  On a good note, I did find a new weekly auction that is pretty trashy (went last night) but I spent hardly anything ($30) and probably got $400 worth of stuff, including a 1930 Moby Dick book for $2 that should sell in the $80-120 range!
  
  So far, November is going well, maybe the holidays have started finally for me. This weekend has been especially nice, with a sale every few hours which is fun! Mostly small stuff, but happy to ship it out. Lots of Thanksgiving cookery/kitchenware/parts for blenders and processors.
- 11/11/2018 at 8:46 pm #51501
  MDC Galleries & Fine Art
  Participant
  Location: Atlanta
  @huncrelan
  Hey guys.. Might not have much time going forward, but wanted to update.
  
  One of my former businesses was home remodeling but 2008 took the winds out of our sails big time.
  
  But my old partenr called me back up and long story short, we bought 4 building lots in a small town in North Ga. and will be starting the first of 4 new homes we are going to build as spec. homes for first time home buyers.
  
  This project along with trying to keep the Ebay and Etsy stores going will take up most of my time going forward. Unsure if I will be able to read all of the SL posts and do much replying but will if I can.
  
  The SL community has grown so much through the years and so has the amount of the posts, inquiries and it will be hard to keep up.
  
  Jay I don’t know how you do it buddy. I am 70 years old, but couldn’t pass up this opportunity to give it a try again. Entreprenuership is a cruel, but creative mistress at times.
  
  You know the drill because as you said long ago, with a good, strong membership base on SL it can be more self susstaining as more members participate. I can see that happening through the years.
  
  But now I am going to also be focused elsewhere and will see what time I have. But I woke up this morning to being 69 posts behind on SL and spent the last ten hours working up a sequence of events and costing spread sheet for the new construction company that I probably won’t be able to keep up, especially once I start co-ordinating all the subs. Again, you lknow the drill.
  
  I will particpate when I can.
  
  Go SL and all that it stands for…
  
  Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine art
  and Capitol Atlantic Properties, LLC.
  - 11/11/2018 at 10:24 pm #51504
    Sharyn
    Participant
    
    Location: Central NJ
    @sharyn
    Mike – I was thinking that I hadn’t seen a post from you for a while. That’s a crazy thing for someone to do at 70. You must have more energy than 99% of people in your age group.
    - 11/12/2018 at 7:09 am #51507
      MDC Galleries & Fine Art
      Participant
      
      Location: Atlanta
      @huncrelan
      
      Sharyn: Well that is sort of crazy. But most of it will be supervising. No self performance or putting on a tool belt anymore. Maybe a little spraying foam around windows and sealing cracks, sweeping up and then doing all the admin. work, phone work, ordering, scheduling and meeting the subs and inspectors on the job site and co-ordinating things. So more like admin. office type work and being on the road a few days a week.
      But this will pay much better than the Ebay-Etsy gig, but Susan and I, and our helpers will still keep that up.
      
      mike at MDC Galleries
  - 11/12/2018 at 9:23 am #51508
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Building four houses from scratch is a crazy huge job. I guess the economy is on the upswing and spec development has begun again 🙂
    
    You helped create this community we have here so hope you can visit from time to time.
    
    Can you sketch out the economics of building four houses?
    –how much does each house cost to build including the land?
    –Who puts up all that money?
    –What return do you and your partner expect to net profit?
    - 11/12/2018 at 10:48 am #51517
      MDC Galleries & Fine Art
      Participant
      
      Location: Atlanta
      @huncrelan
      
      Sure thing.. Land in Atlanta isn’t cheap. Inside the I_285 is crazy and, it is hard to find in most places. What land is available will usually have ledge [rock] buried underneath or have other issues.
      Most small .25 to .33 lots run $38k to $65 k per lot. WAY TOO high for a start-up or a first time home buyer. Builders all around here want to build $350k to $600k homes.
      So we finally found 4 lots 25 miles up I-85 north in a small bedroom community right outside of a small downtown street like where your store front is located. 5 minutes into the town.
      We got the lots at $11k each=$44k total plus some small over due taxes, etc. for about $45k total.
      Having my friend as a partner who is a Georgia licensed General Contractor, we will be pulling all our own permits and supervising everything myself. So the GC profits and the Superintendants cost is all going to profit.
      These homes will be starter homes for first time buyers. About 1,800 to 1,995 SF each, with some stone work, fireplace, screened back porch, hardy plank siding, tile, granite counters but everything contractor grade.
      We have all of the subs we used to use, actually 2 or 3 for most of the trades and still have good credit standings with them.
      Of course at this stage, this is very broad brush, but…We are targeting to list the two ranch styles which will be on slab grade for about $175k to about $180k. Then the last wto will be ranch style but have walk out basements [unfinished of course] and will list at about $195k-$199k.
      We are very confident we can build at approx. $50 per SF and think we can squeeze out at $40 to $45 per SF cost to build. So about $90K to build plus $11k for lan = $100k gross total and trying to Target about $100k gross per house, then of course will come some “soft costs” out of that and what we have to “throw in” to close, like some commissions, perks, etc.
      We can build a house from scratch in 4 months +/- weather, rain or cold depending. We are going to do the first two slab ranchs fairly clsoe together, then the 2 walk outs late next year.
      We are hoping to get as close to approx. $350k to $375K as possible in about 14 months or less +/-.
      
      The money comes from several sources. A small investor friend who has kicked in enough for the land and we will re-pay out of first house, the we will self fund the 2nd house, using personal resources. Then use the roll-back retained earnings for the last two. Projects like this you can’t dig into the income up front and run willy nilly with your profits. You have to be willing to plow back most into the company, but still keep a small revenue stream coming.
      And we could of course go to the bank and do a construction loan of but prefer not to go that route if we can help it.
      
      I can do some periodic posts if anybody is interested as we go, but know SL isn’t a place for real estate transactions.
      
      Mike at MDC Galleries
      
      This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
      - 11/12/2018 at 1:46 pm #51538
        
        Steven S
        Participant
        
        Location: South Dakota
        @steven-s
        
        Good luck with your venture Mike.
        That’s a great area, when I drove truck I delivered to quite a few small towns up I-85 and 985, I used to do some hiking around there as well, some amazing nature areas.
      - 11/12/2018 at 3:14 pm #51553
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        If you;re willing to share, I started a new thread where you can keep up updated.
        
        Mike's Real Estate adventure.
        
        Those not interested can ignore.
        
        11/12/2018 at 4:44 pm #51579
        
        MDC Galleries & Fine Art
        Participant
        
        Location: Atlanta
        @huncrelan
        
        Cool..Thanks. Will try to posts short progress type reports / updates as we progress.
- 11/12/2018 at 10:12 am #51512
  T-Satt
  Participant
  Location:
  @t-satt
  Week of 10/28-11/03
  Total Items in Store: 2,801 (Up 68% YOY)
  Number of Items Listed: 102
  Number of Items Sold: 85 (Up 60% YOY)
  (Includes 1 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 3 Poshmark)
  Weekly STR: 15% (Down 2% YOY)
  
  Total Product Sales: $2,584 (Up 120% YOY)
  Cost of Items Sold: $501
  Highest Item Sold: $125 – VTG USMC Marine Corps Embossed Bomber Jacket
  Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 26-18
  
  Clothing
  # Listed: 1,758
  # Sold: 61
  STR: 15%
  ASP: $28.92
  
  Shoes
  # Listed: 440
  # Sold: 10
  STR: 10%
  ASP: $38.30
  
  Hard Goods
  # Listed: 603
  # Sold: 13
  STR: 9%
  ASP: $31.17
  
  Etsy
  # Listed: 170
  # Sold: 1
  STR: 3%
  ASP: $98.82
  
  Poshmark
  # Listed: 80
  # Sold: 3
  STR: 16%
  ASP: $53.33
  
  Sorry so late. I was out of town hunting, and had a scary weekend. Will discuss later…
  - 11/12/2018 at 11:21 am #51521
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Yikes. Hope everything turned out okay.
    - 11/12/2018 at 12:02 pm #51526
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Jay: Yes, so far, but not out of the woods. Got some stuff to deal with soon.
- 11/12/2018 at 11:58 am #51523
  T-Satt
  Participant
  Location:
  @t-satt
  Mike: I would love to hear more on this topic. Absolutely!
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