Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter?

11/18/18 – 11/24/18

Items In Store: 2,553
Items Sold: 26 – eBay 25 + 1 on Bonanza
Cost of Items Sold: $150
Total Sales: $1068
HIghest Price Sold: $200 (Vintage WWII Holtster)
Average price $41.09
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $30
Items listed: 30

Sales ReportGood week of selling, slow week for buying. Didn’t do much because of Thanksgiving week – had 13 people total at my house for Thanksgiving.

Challenge of the week
Still working on my basement. I was able to clear space for about 500 more items.

Mark

Interesting that you guys are considering a brick & mortar business! I think it’s really cool, especially for your community, although I am personally not interested… Seems like ebay is a sweet spot of flexibility and low risk and I’d like to keep exploring its possibilities for a while yet.

Sales: CAD$1157, 11 items, COGS: $306 –> Item profit: $655
Expenditures: $357 (incl. $220 return on wife’s old iPhone) –> After-tax cashflow: $434
Hours: 7.5, $58/hr after tax
Listed: $200, 5 items
Notable sales: 3 phase motor $200, shower rough in valve $185, constant pressure pump $175.

Yeah, good week, but Black Friday etc. was a big nothingburger for me.

So this happens to me occasionally. I list an item in multiple quantity. It doesn’t sell at all, or sells very sporadically, and then all of a sudden I sell it to 2 people in a single day. On Sunday I sold 2 of a long tail item I haven’t sold in months, to 2 different people, on amazon and ebay, within the same hour. *shrug* Somebody mentioned it on a forum or something?

Haven’t actually spent the money yet but I’ve gone all in on an out of town auction. Mostly various tools & equipment. Total autobids are about $1000 but I’m anticipating around $500 spend.

That hydronic valve is the kind of stuff I like to sell to a T. It’s a long tail business & industrial item!

Mike in Atlanta,

Any update on how the Wonder Lister eBay to Etsy interface is going or will be released?

I think this will be a big positive impact on my business and can’t wait till it is done.

Mark

Just started listening to the show, but I don’t think that BF, SBS, or CM matter to sellers like us of quirky collectibles or vintage items. However, for retailers, it absolutely still matters – I work on the marketing team for a Fortune 100 brand & top 5 ad spender in the country, and BF-CM is STILL the #1 micro period of sales, revenue, and website traffic for the year. BY FAR. To me, it really doesn’t make much sense considering the “sales” are just marginally better than any other time during the year, but it’s an embedded behavior for consumers that this is when you shop and buy things for yourself & others.

Taking it down to someone who may be closer/similar to us as a seller, my brother does mostly RA on Amazon full time – I’ve mentioned him once or twice in the forum. He’s a one man show (sometimes his wife helps out) so he’s by no means an enterprise seller – and he historically has $100k+ in gross sales BF-NYE. This year, he had 58 sales TDay into BF so he had to leave our family gathering earlier than anticipated to go home to pack & ship.

Week Nov 18-24, 2018

Total Items in Store: 965
Items Sold: 18 (2 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $110 (19.3% of sales)
Total Sales: $569.92
Highest Price Sold: $49.99 (2) (George Michael Faith LP https://www.ebay.com/itm/192659909627 & The Police Synchronicity LP https://www.ebay.com/itm/202324645516)
Average Price Sold: $31.66
Returns: 0 (1 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $260
Number of items listed this week: 32
Promoted listings test: 9 sales, $238.97 (41.9% of total sales), $11.95 fees (5.0% of sales)

About average week for me for the year. Nothing crazy or super high dollar sold, but at the same time nothing low dollar sold either. More than half of my sales were over $30, but nothing was higher than $50. Assuming a lot of gift purchases since there were a lot of 0 feedback guest buyers were around and everything hovered around the same price.

With Weds before TDay off from the office job, plus Saturday without much to do, got a good bit listed. Most listings were for bread & butter items $20-$30 and quite a few records, but highlights include this sealed 1969 Rolling Stones Let it Bleed LP (https://www.ebay.com/itm/192735927210).

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by Brian Treasures from Grandmas.

Total Items in Store: 707
Items Sold: 8
Gross Sales: $169.16
Cost of Items Sold: $0.91
Highest Price Sold: $58.46 (Ferragamo brown knee high boots)
Average Price Sold: $21.15
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 20

This past week was the slowest I’ve had in a long time. The week started off strong, but then quickly tapered out to around one low dollar sale per day. Either way, I’m trying to steadily post items to keep my inventory numbers climbing. The goal is to have 1,000 listings by the end of first quarter next year. I did get a $250 offer on a pair of Pioneer speakers this morning that I bought for $2.35 through a MaxSold auction. I smashed that accept offer button as fast as I could. Even better, the buyer paid a couple minutes later. What a nice start to the week! Now I’m off to watch YouTube videos on how to pack seriously large items.

Thanks for answering my question re stolen goods. I guess selling vintage stuff does probably protect you somewhat. I’m not an iPhone seller but I like selling construction equipment and when I see it for sale locally I often wonder if it “walked off” a construction site.

If my spend is not too high on tonight’s auction I may buy some survey equipment locally. The guy has already agreed to $1800 for an item that, working, should bring about $5000. Again, makes me wonder. I’m covering myself partially by going to his house and taking screenshots of our text convos, his address & phone, etc. Hopefully that covers my bases enough.

Items in Store 1072
Items Sold 20
Total Sales $759.50
COGS $57.00
Total Profit $702.50
Average profit $35.13
Average sales price $37.98
New Listings 8

Had a fun thanksgiving break with the family. For the most part I’ve lost interest in my arcade/pinball collecting hobby – mainly because the prices have increased exponentially.

Last week, I just happened to check facebook marketplace to see a local pinball ad for what appeared to be a very nice machine for a too good to be true price. I messaged the person expecting the machine to be long gone. I sent the usual message stating I have cash and can pick up ASAP. I was surprised to get a response with a phone number. I took a long lunch, picked up cash, and made the 45 minute drive to go get it. Definitely glad I had a truck for a day like this.

It was in even better shape than I hoped. All I had to do was adjust two switches and replace a few light bulbs. I already have it up on ebay for the holiday season:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264059926471
The kids are not happy that I have it listed so fast, but I did only buy it to resell. Lol! They get to play as much as they want till it sells.

In other news, my 11 year old daughter wants to start her own store with her own paypal account.
These are her actual words during the discussion “I need to start making money now to get a head start on ife so I’m not a bum when I grow up”. Lol! She bought her first couple pieces of inventory yesterday with her own money.

I’m going to teach her to use Excel to track her inventory as well.

I’m thinking about setting her up on poshmark or mercari instead of ebay though so we can both learn something new. Thoughts?

Week of 11/18-11/24
Total Items in Store: 2,714 (Up 60% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 60
Number of Items Sold: 83 (Up 30% YOY)
(Includes 4 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 2 Poshmark)
Weekly STR: 13% (Down 3% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,265 (Up 31% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $591
Cost of Labor: $98
Highest Item Sold: $125 – Chippewa General Utility Copper Caprice Bridgeman Boots
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 28-19

Clothing
# Listed: 1,673
# Sold: 54
STR: 14%
ASP: $22.56

Shoes
# Listed: 429
# Sold: 17
STR: 17%
ASP: $40.29

Hard Goods
# Listed: 612
# Sold: 8
STR: 6%
ASP: $30.13

Etsy
# Listed: 171
# Sold: 4
STR: 10%
ASP: $36.13

Poshmark
# Listed: 98
# Sold: 2
STR: 10%
ASP: $57.50

Loved this podcast! You are getting into my wheelhouse with this new business venture. If you ever want to bounce numbers, forecasts, or ideas about where you are going, hit me up!

Love your conversation on clothes filling the gap (and the dovetail on growing from 0). Start small, get the process down, cash flow your way up. This is also why we still do clothing, though we are looking to move out of the lower end during 2019, but until we have a solid source of cash generating inventory that can replace it, we stay there. Low dollar, but easy to list and yep, it fills the gaps.

Week of Nov 18 – 24
* Total Items in Store: 1265 eBay, 11 Mercari
* Items Sold: 24 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $28.22 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $575.07 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $47 Olivia Riegel Grapes Bottle Stopper; $102 for four listings of Gorham silver plate flatware to the same buyer
* Average Price Sold: $23.96
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $17.25
* Number of items listed this week: 23

Finally, a reasonable week of sales! I recently listed a pattern of early 1900s Gorham silver plate flatware called Stanhope. I sold four listings for $102, then two listings for $35, and three listings for $68 all this week! It must be a popular pattern. I only have three listings left. I paid $11.50 for a box of it and a set from Mappin & Webb, which hasn’t sold yet.

My $17.25 on new inventory was spent at the same auction where I paid the same amount in October and filled my minivan. Did the same this week. One lot was several wood and metal barrels, and some are filled partially with nails. One has the antique type square heads that Jay & Ryanne sold a few years back. From my initial research, they don’t sell for much, so I’ll lot up enough to make it worth a listing.

I’m interested in what this commercial building will end up as. I’ve been assuming that you would target a certain type of business and then lease it. If you decide to make it your own business, I assume you will need to hire a manager (or at least assistant manager) and sales people to a point where it runs mostly on its own. Or, at least, that is how I see it. I’ll be following your progress.

Hi Ryanne & Jay. Thanks for the podcast!

Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2620
Items Sold: 48
Total Sales: $1258
Cost of Items Sold: $150
Average Price Sold: $26.21
Average Cost of Item: $3.15
Highest Price Item Sold: $100 Franklin Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Dictionary (old device, new old stock)
Number of items listed this week: 76
YTD Sales: $42373
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +20%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 343
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 143
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 51
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.83%

I had a pretty good week sales-wise but, like you guys, no noticeable bump over Black Friday. I had a week off work and spent most of the week doing eBay so I got a lot of random stuff listed.

My interesting purchase of the week was a box of new, old-stock TV parts for 1940s TVs. Fortunately they were all clearly marked so I’ve been able to list and sell several Horizontal Output Transformers and Deflection Yokes this week despite having no idea what a Deflection Yoke actually does.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks again for a great episode.
I heard a report this morning on Bloomberg basically saying that 1% of products on sale amount for over 50% of purchases over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend. They were talking about how a retailer is in better shape if they have a large volume of a given hot toy like Hatchimals, than if they have a broad selection of toys that aren’t the hot item per se.

Here is a link
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-26/cyber-monday-success-for-retailers-rests-on-the-1

I think that says quite a bit about what these events mean for small vintage online sellers such as ourselves.

Total Items in Store: 361, 40 Mercari
Items Sold: 7 Ebay, 2 Mercari, 1 Facebook
Gross Sales: $166 Ebay, $108 Mercari, $15 Facebook
Cost of Items Sold: $22 + $18 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $100 (my son’s outgrown North Face coat on Mercari)
Average Price Sold: $23 Ebay, $54 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8 one thrift stop, 4 items
Number of items listed this week: 18 Ebay, 6 Mercari

Still need to listen but caught the beginning. R & J Good luck with your business plans. I have a guess what it might be and maybe you can figure out if it makes sense (both financially and for your lifestyle) being open limited hours or even days. I hope you continue to enjoy selling on Ebay and podcasting. It’s been fun to listen to your journey and I wish you all the best.

Terrible time of year but I’ve been taking time to consolidate all of my inventory in half full boxes. I just emotionally need to do some physical work and create order in my environment at this time in my life. Patchy work schedule and I hope to list as well this week. I have a bit of Christmas stuff I really want to move out.

Nov 18 – 24
Total Items in Store: 1944
Items Sold: 30
Total Sales : $1628
* WAY above yearly average of $849
* WAY WAY above 2017 total week sales of $270
Highest Price: $720 (Vintage 7” Aluminum Christmas Tree with Musical Rotating Stand and Color Wheel)
Average Price: $65
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $265
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 23

Another +1K week of sales! That’s 4 weeks in a row! I hope this trend will continue for months to come. Though almost half of that number came from one big sale. I paid big money as an experiment around this time last year for a gorgeous 7” tall aluminum Christmas tree… a little over $200. But I knew it would sell for at least twice as much. For the heck of it, I put a $800 price on it. And it sat… and sat for a while. But then I got a nice little message from a family who seemed really interested and we settled on the price of $720 with free shipping. It cost about $53 to ship, but I got a good price for it so I couldn’t complain. And it freed up a lot of space in my storage!

I almost had a $200 sale for a tripod. The guy wanted it shipped overnight, and I said sure. I’ll get the price for shipping and send you an invoice (he best offered so I couldn’t edit the listing). Well shipping overnight would have cost $196! I sent the invoice not expecting him to pay, and lo and behold…he didn’t pay. I just opened a non payment case so we’ll see what happens.

About little junky things that you wouldn’t expect anyone would want but actually sells. I too find it awesome when things like that actually finds a buyer who’s interested. For example, I just sold a bunch of old car window decal stickers of some aerospace program for $20. Or back a few months ago I sold a VIN plate off of an old dump truck for $25. I always try to picture the people who buy these weird little obscure things.

Items In Store: 444
Items Sold: 5
Total Sales: $160 ($85)
Highest Price Sold: $75 Lucchese Boots He just started a return because of fit Next highest was a Land’s End jacket for $30
Average price $32 ($17)
Returns: 2 The boots I understand. My other return just makes me ache. The buyer of the goose down duvet insert started messaging me all kinds of questions AFTER the sale. She was saying that it wasn’t worth the price. I could just tell that she wanted to back out. I was fine with that. Wrote her at night that I would normally have boxed and labelled the duvet, but I was trying to give her time because she sounded hesitant on multiple emails. She decided to go for it and I shipped it. 24 hours after delivery she’s claiming that it is way too small To prove to me that it was wrong she sent me a pic of her duvet cover tag??? I know it fits the PB king size duvet cover that I took it out of. Kinda think it fit hers too. If she wins on INAD it will make my last week’s profit a negative number
Lowest Price Sold: McDonald’s Toy Furbys So glad to see them finally gone
I’m not surprised as slow Thanksgiving Weekend sales. For me that’s always been slow. But November is usually my best month overall. This year definitely underwhelming. Lower than past years.

My husband and I were trying to figure out the reason for the underwhelming numbers. I wonder what you think? 1) In a good economy are people moving away from buying used clothing, mugs, shoes… 2) Is Poshmark starting to take a nibble out of Ebay?

Halfway through the Podcast. Wondering what you 2 are up to in the Brick and Mortar.

There’s a business that has become pretty popular in the Mr. Money Mustache community. It’s called Pop Up Business School. Basically, it’s a business that helps people start their business. If you were to commit to starting the brick and mortar store, you might get some good ideas from them. I haven’t personally used them and don’t know how much they charge for their services though. Here’s the link if you want to check them out.

My Store Week Nov 18-24, 2018

Total Items in Store: 1121
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $584.48
Cost of Items Sold: $41.49
Highest Price Sold: $152.50 (Alden Shell Cordovans, paid $5)
ASP: $48.71
STR: 4.6%
Returns: 2
International: 1 Sale
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $42
Number of items listed this week: 3

I had two sales over $150 this week which boosts the numbers a lot. Also most everyone has been paying full price and buying immediately, which I am really loving. I feel as if the Holiday shopping frenzy may be starting…

Week of Nov 20-26:
Sales ebay: 25, $750
PoshmarK after fees: 4, $70
Depop: 1 $45
Mercari: 1, $13
Highest sale: Pottery Barn Bedding $79
Running a 30% OFF store wide Cyber Monday sale Sun PM – Tues Morning. So far so good – lots of lift on OLD items which is great.

Listed 20 items on Mercari, continued to cross to Poshmark, and a few more on Depop as well. Going to see how Q4 goes on these alt. platforms.

I think my store fell into an ebay black hole for a day and then came out again.

Retro, that’s a great start for your daughter. I might go with Poshmark. I think it’s aimed at a younger crowd
Oh and I forgot to give the price of my lowest item $14 for a big bag of Furby’s. They are typical of the things that I won’t buy anymore. It Takes too long to list for too little. However, the house is full of low value items that have already been purchased. The only cost now is time to list.

Late to post, life happenings! Etsy listed first since it outperformed eBay for the second time since keeping numbers like this. Have not listened yet, which is unusual for me! Combined total $477.35, not so hot, Cost of items sold nice and low however, and no consignment payouts.

11/18 – 11/24/18

Etsy store Oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 637
Number of items sold: 11 (2 international)
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $246
Cost of items sold: $9
Consignment payouts 0
Highest price sold: $27 – vintage Tammy doll fashion
Average price sold: $22.36
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $0
Number of items listed this week: 4
Sell through rate for the week: 1.7

eBay store totommyto

Total store items: 649
Number of items sold: 7 (0 international)
Total eBay sales ( not counting s/h): $231.35
Cost of items sold: $12.50
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $100 – French packaging 6 Million Dollar Man action figure uniform, New in package
Average price sold: $33.05
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 10
Sell through rate for the week: 1.1

Weekly numbers 18-24 November. I’ve converted from GBP to USD.
 
ETSY
Total items in store: 1090
Total sales $784
Total sold: 15 (10 UK, 2 USA, 3 Europe)
Highest price sold: $216 Art Deco Mirror (cost $6)
Average selling price: $52
Cost of items sold: $53
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $0
New items listed: 28

A good week for us, with our average selling price pushed up again with sales of a mirror and a typewriter.
We downloaded all of our listings from Etsy (prompted by the ‘Numbers don’t lie’ thread) and were disappointed that 753 of our 1090 items are in the less than $25 range. We really need to focus on improving the averages!
Interesting podcast! I really love thinking and talking about business. My partner and I run a local magazine, which makes money by selling advertising space to local businesses, so we get to talk to a lot of the owners. Walk-in shop front businesses are facing a real and growing challenge – burnout and boredom can be equally devastating. Over the last ten years we’ve published lots of content in our magazines encouraging readers to spend their money with local independent businesses. There’s an awful lot of affection for the high street expressed, but in reality people choose to spend their money online and in out of town shopping centres.
I’m sure you’ll come up with a good business plan. Your business skills and expertise are transferable. Do the numbers, talk to your neighbours/the community/other business owners running the same kind of business (market research) and think long and hard about the reality of how much time and energy you are willing to put in.

Jay and Ryanne:
Here is what I think is one of the greatest free site and organization for the small business start up. I used them decades ago and their site has a ton of free information. Also if you put in your zip code you may even find that one of their 500+ locations is close enough to you so you can visit them. They have tons of seminars, all free [in most cases] on start-up financing, writing business planes, free guidance and advice on how to do almost anything you want in a business. It is staffed by over 10,000 retired exceutives and cover all aspects and fields of how to start a business. Lawyers, accountants, operations, administrative, wholesaling, retailing, storage, you name it they cover it in some form or another.

Hope this link is of some help to you.

https://www.score.org/

mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art

Great episode! I can not wait to see what comes of your adventure with your building. I hope you will continue to share in the future. We have enjoyed watching our downtown area bring in new business, it is coming to life.

Total Items in Store: 1930
Items Sold: 34 (3 Etsy)
Total Sales: $1197
Returns: 1 (Also had one item lost by USPS)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $118

I have done very little in the way of listing, just letting the store be on autopilot.
We have been trying to get things around the house put on Craigslist, at least the bigger items. We sold my beautiful cherry wood desk for $700. It was big and bulky and we needed something else. I found a nice adjustable table that I love!

The Canadian government just passed a law forcing the postal workers to go back to work and they can no longer take job action/strike. Soon as they announced the law, my sales that I felt I was missing the last few weeks all came in quickly. Could be the post office being reliable again, could be Black Friday/Cyber Monday, or just good luck, but I was getting frustrated with people asking if I could ship items another way (for the same price of course…). My sales were way down until the last 3 days.

Hoping the next few weeks go well and as expected now I can rely on the post office to be open and working as usual…

I sensed a slow week, and that crystal ball prediction turned out to be true, boo. Still selling some older items here and there, along with the new ones, so grateful for that.

Excited for the start of a new business for you, R&J! I love a small town brick and mortar business (no matter where it’s located), and like your utilitarian thinking around something that would suit both locals and travelers. I had a small business when I lived in Louisville, KY, growing from a pop up shop of sorts. I didn’t have the needed social capital when I got it up and running there, nor the willingness to go further into debt in a newly-commercialized strip I was helping to pioneer, amongst a few other semi-related considerations, so I closed up shop, but it was geared towards locals and travelers alike, and there’s nothing like a relevant and fun small business to make a place feel cozy and community-oriented. Can’t wait to hear more.

11/18/18 – 11/24/18
Total Items In Store: 988
Items Sold: 19
Sales: $633.88
Highest Price Sold: $160 Mens Rainforest Brown Leather Coat
Average Price Sold: $33.36
Cost of Items Sold: $74.60
Returns/Refunds: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of Items listed this week: 58

November 18-24, 2018

Total Items in Store: 3,333
Items Sold: 97
Gross Sales: $1,644.72
Cost of Items Sold: 0
Consignor Commission: $547.04
Highest Price Sold: $169 (copper sheeting)
Average Price Sold: $16.96
Returns: 1 ($14)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 98

One customer issue, she had not received a package containing 2 items and the post office
said they tried to deliver, however they said they don’t have it when she tried to pick it up. Low dollar items, but frustrating.

I am working toward liquidating some of our lower priced inventory, and
increasing the average price of item sold.

This was a busier week for us. Shipping was challenging due to volume and the size of some items.
We cleared out another area of attic for inventory! I like to call it our new “wing”!
Lots of death piles, but we are not taking any new consignments until the new year.
Have had a lot of consignors requests for us to consign, but we are at max.

11/18 – 11/24

Ebay sales: $571.35
Ebay COGs: $74.10
Items sold: 23
Highest priced: (1) USMC Dress Blue coat at $100 and (1) USMC Alphas coat at $68. I paid $3 each at a local charity thrift.

Poshmark sales: $340.00
Poshmark COGs: $16.25
Items sold: 6
Highest priced: “Joseph Hanna” leather duffel bag for $200 and Frye leather booties for $70. I paid $3 for the bag and $5 for the booties at a local church thrift.

Mercari: $25 for a J.Crew leather belt, was $1.50 at Salvation Army.

Total Sales: $936.30
Total COGs: $91.85
Total items sold: 30

It was a good week. I am decreasing my inventory but still making sales. Clothes were the big winners. I had some offers on vintage bookends, a vintage robot toy, and woodblock prints, but I countered and they did not buy. Those things are worth holding onto for the right buyer. I have no problem letting the lower priced clothes go though. I met my only consignment client again this past week too and she gave me jewelry to sell. I am examining the markings and testing the metal; some of it was her grandmother’s, so it’s worth the research. She brought them to the local jewelry store who said the turn in value was minimal, so it’s more about finding the right person who wants that vintage look. I will get those up this week.

Today I went into the Salvation Army at 2 pm with my 4 year old, and sitting right up front by the doors was a black leather chair and ottoman, mid century lounger. Gorgeous and priced at $39.99, so we applied our military discount and got the set for $36.00. The vintage label said “Westnofa Norway”. They sell for $400 – $900 on ebay with local pickup. I put it on Facebook already tonight for $850 and will list on ebay tonight. I will probably do local pickup there too and refer folks to UShip. I definitely don’t mind holding onto THAT Piece of furniture until it sells. It’s heaven to sit in.

I worked in my family’s business for 6 years, 13-19. We had a home heating oil business/gas station/deli/convenience store in Pottstown, PA. You definitely get to know the locals when you work in the service industry. I worked the deli and register. We had a lot of male Amish customers because of the construction jobs they worked, so they’d get transported in vans to work-sites, and they’d get our breakfast sandwiches. Reputation was key. There were lots of gas stations, but my Dad was friendly, employed local teens, and had little festivals in the lot next door with hot dogs and giveaways on holiday travel days. It was hard keeping older mature employees though in a service industry though; that’s one thing to think about. Management skills are important, and understanding you will likely have younger employees who are dolts, as I was. Truly, teenagers can be clueless, bless their hearts.

Jay, with regard to your comment about how you wonder why nobody just buys new clothes and throws them out instead of washing them…that definitely does happen! I dumpster dive the off-campus apartments around the university near me every Sunday morning. I’m mainly looking for packing materials, but I grab anything I can sell or donate while I’m at it. I have absolutely found bags upon bags of clothes that have clearly only been worn once and then tossed. It’s always men’s clothes, and it generally seems to be a certain type of very rich foreign student who employs this method of dressing themselves lol. I surmise this from the other stuff that is tossed at the same time (often the shipping materials I’m after).

Sometimes I Ebay the stuff or bring it to Plato’s, but there is generally so much of it that a lot of the time I just drive it over to the thrift store on my way home. It’s mostly mall-brand stuff like Hollister, American Eagle, etc. I’m sure that it’s cheap enough that it makes sense to them to treat it as disposable 🙁

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by ChristineK.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by ChristineK.

Chris was the one with the dreadlocks. I’m so ashamed that I know that.

Just catching up on last week’s episode, sorry for the late reply. Your idea of a brick and mortar establishment prompted me to share my experience. 15 years ago, my wife-to-be and I started an art gallery. We operated it for 5 years. Not a huge money maker, but we never lost anything either. We closed it when we started a family and she couldn’t commit to being there full time (I was working full time elsewhere). I seriously started selling on ebay as soon as we closed the gallery to make up the lost income. If I knew then what I know now, I would have kept the gallery open and run my ebay business out of the basement there for as long as I could. There wasn’t a terrible amount of foot traffic through the store each day, and some months only a few sales would be enough to sustain us. A perfect companion business for ebay!