Scavenger Life Episode 396: Guaranteed Delivery? How is that working?

Haven’t listened yet, but plan to in a few hours when I’m out dropping off shipments and doing some sourcing.

January 20-26, 2019

Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,580
Items Sold: 35
Gross Sales: $999.53
Cost of Items Sold: $86.80
Highest Price Sold: $120.00 (wool sweater)
Average Price Sold: $28.56
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $334.44
Number of items listed this week: 56

Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 703
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $156.63
Cost of Items Sold: $11.50
Highest Price Sold: $16.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $12.05
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 49

Amazon.ca sales: $812.00 (CAD) (Approx $203.00 net profit)
Amazon.com sales: $1,586.00 (Approx $396.50 net profit)

Good week all around. Been doing a bunch of listing, and the numbers show it. We were SO close to cracking $1000.00 for the week in our main store. Lots of bread and butter sales with some higher dollar and older sales mixed in. Amazon is still pulling it’s weight, and is fattening our bottom line.

For those interested, I posted an update in our “Journey to freedom” thread earlier this morning.

2019-01-20 – 2019-01-26

Total Items In Store: 2,667
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $50
Total Sales: $556
Highest Price Sold: $105 (Allen Edmund Shoes)
Average Price Sold: $37.06
# Items Listed:
Money Spent on New Inventory: $200

Gut Sales Report for the week: It was a painfully slow week until the Government shutdown was over; then sales picked right back up to where they normally are.

Challenge of the week: I got my new clothes racks setup. But guess what? Three double racks are not enough! I keep saying I am getting out of clothes (well, cheap ones anyway, just going for the good stuff).

Scavenge of the week: I struck it rich at two 50% off high end sales. I got $1500 worth of items for $200. The average selling price is $55.73. Among the items were a Burberry Trench Coat, a Hartmann Briefcase, a Pendleton Sports Jacket, a nice Stetson Cowboy Hat, a Tux, and an LL Bean Duffle bag with leather trim. These are the types of sales that I am looking for. Spend a little more money and get these high end items with a high average selling price. Now if I can only find more of these types of sales along with nice vintage sales, then I am all set for the year.

Guaranteed Delivery: I think I was selected by ebay to do guaranteed delivery, but no one has even asked me about this.

Mark S

Total Items in Store: 340 Ebay, 45 Mercari
Items Sold: 2 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $20 Ebay, $29 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $2 + $6 free shipping + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $19 Mercari (New Hallmark Dr. Seuss piggy bank (ours))
Average Price Sold: $10
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4
Number of items listed this week: 6 Ebay, 2 Mercari

Weeeelll, worst week ever on Ebay. I was out of town and deactivated Mercari (there is not handling time adjustment available). No sales on Ebay while handling time adjusted Thursday – Sunday. Oh well, moving on. It’s a fresh week. 🙂

I have a few searches out on both sites and I’ve seen some sweet deals come up on Mercari for home items. There are many amateur sellers cleaning out, so that’s ripe for picking. There are some better brand things on Mercari that go lightening fast, so I know there are other pickers working it plus it’s app based and you always have your phone. Glad Ryanne you found some Ikea on there.

When my mom died I got rid of two closets full of vintage fabric – European, midcentury, high quality. She was all about buying and not much on production. Vintage perfumes, all kinds of good stuff. But, I’m getting cool stuff from panning the stream, so that’s ok.

Will Listen after posting!

1/20/19 – 1/26/19 (note – I do not cross list across platforms, items are unique)

eBay store totommyto

Total store items: 599
Number of items sold: 11
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $676.00
Cost of items sold: $70.00
Consignment payouts $33 (One consignment acct gone, 2nd gone next month, working on 3rd!)
Highest price sold: $200 (paid $35) – large lot of vintage built up model planes to a prop company (Showtime series)
Average price sold: $61.45
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $0
Number of items listed this week: 18
Sell through rate for the week: 1.8

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 627
Number of items sold: 4
Total Etsy sales ( not counting s/h): $110
Cost of items sold: $3
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $50 (cost nothing, bonus sale) – 5 pairs of 1960’s Barbie Shoes
Average price sold: $27.50
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 12
Sell through rate for the week: 0.6

Fair to middling week for sales. Got some good stuff though, I think.

Sales: CAD$701, 5 items, COGS: $131 –> Item profit: $459
Expenditures: $193 –> Cashflow: $397
Listed: $3240, 28 items
Hours: 12.5, $19/hr after tax
Notable sales: combustible gas detector $200 from an old lot buy, insulated lineman gloves $142, 2 boxes of specialty 3M tape $140.
Bought: a whole bunch of stereotaxic instruments (basically lab instruments for holding rats while you dissect them). Got them all for about $40, hoping for around $500.

Items in Store 1095
Items Sold 28
Total Sales $3,416.15
COGS $252.00
Total Profit $3,164.15
Average profit $113.01
Average sales price $122.01
New Listings 23

My sales are heavily skewed due to the sale of two arcade games. One I sold for $2500 and the other I sold for $350. I paid $50 for the first one many years ago, and $125 for the second one. The second one was non-working and I didn’t want to work on it anymore, so I sold it non-working. Working I could have gotten $800+. Oh well – I wanted it gone.

Take those two items away and I had just over $500 for the week.

Man, I NEEDED that huge sale. FU money feels goooooood.

Have a great week everyone.

Not sure how much it would cost, but Patagonia will supposedly repair anything that gets worn out.

https://www.patagonia.com/returns.html

Really cold up here in the North East. Family has recovered from the flu like thing we all had and just cruising into 2019 routine. My oldest son is the ‘star of the week’ in preschool this week so i am excited to go to that tomorrow.

Still a long ways to go in New England before yard sale and flea markets pick back up. I am really looking forward to the spring all ready and only just recently got a first snow storms… heard there may be more this week.

As always looking forward to listening to the podcast — will plug it on this AM while i crank out my shipments / look at my “real job” for a while.

1/13/19-1/19/19
Total items in store (beginning of week): 408
Items sold: 16
30 day sell through (rate): 17.32%
Gross Sales: $1,400.47
Cost Paid for Items sold: $388.72
Shipping Cost: $360.53
Ebay Fee’s: $102.04
Paypal Fees: $36.53
Total Costs: $887.82
Net Profit: $512.65
Profit % Rev: 37%

Hi guys, interesting podcast as usual. Just some random new year updates; I’m actually having a hard time finding items in my local thrifts that are reasonably priced and I know will sell well. Although I’ve been to several thrifts lately (mostly the one I call the worst Goodwill ever- CONSTANTLY picked through since it’s in a central location to everything) I haven’t been picking much. I can’t wait until garage sales start up, that’s when I can get the most value and the more interesting items. Only thing is, you gotta go out there early and find them, which is the biggest obstacle.

When you talked about sellers being impatient, I thought about how my 67 year old father has gotten into selling on ebay again, and even though he’s sold in the past to make extra money for vacations and extras, I’m pretty shocked at the stuff he doesn’t know. I had to teach him to print shipping online, how to look items up using a smartphone, he’s picking up low dollar items, and everything is free shipping “because that’s the only way people will buy.” He’s also making very low margins on everything and gets impatient when something sits for only a few weeks. I keep trying to tell him that I’ve now had stuff that hasn’t sold after years. Anyway, I try to let him make his own mistakes, but it’s hard to not be frustrated for him.

Excited to listen this evening on my Monday drive, here are the numbers, which are motivating me to do better this week!
Jan 20 -Jan 26, 2019

Total Items in Store: 3515
Items Sold: 66
Gross Sales: $1083.65
Consignor Commission (COGS): $327.86 (30.2%)
Highest Price Sold: $81 (Stained Glass Kaleidiscope)
Average Price Sold: $16.41
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 69 (38 personally)

Another slow week, although our average sold price is slowly climbing
I did not spend enough time listing this week, so not suprised sales were
a little low.

Thanks for the interesting show. You covered a lot of topics today.

My numbers for the week:

Total Items in Store: 2648
Items Sold: 42
Total Sales: $829
Cost of Items Sold: $93
Average Price Sold: $19.75
Average Cost of Item: $2.23
Highest Price Item Sold: Two items at $49.95 each i) Zenit Night Vision Scope Monocular ii) Garmin GPS 12 for Parts
Number of items listed this week: 69
YTD Sales: $3255
YTD sales compared to this time last year: -14%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 369
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 269
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 165
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.59%

To be clear about guaranteed delivery: If the item arrives late and the buyer contacts ebay about the late delivery, ebay can give them a free return label. eg: if the item was needed by a specific date. It’s not supposed to be for general return reasons but I suppose a buyer could use it that way. I’d guess that the claims against guaranteed delivery are minuscule. I’ve never had anyone use it (that I know of).

Last week was very kind to me. I added Best Offer to several higher dollar items, and quickly sold some long-held commission items, including the top earner, a banjo. Also, after not having returns turned on for nearly all items, I added Returns to shoes, hoping to increase those slow sales as well.

01/20/18 – 01/26/18
Total Items In Store: 1015
Items Sold: 26
Net Sales (Total Sales – Selling Costs – commission sales): $1431.07
Highest Price Sold: $450 – banjo, on commission
Average Price Sold: $55.04
Cost of Items Sold: $67.50
Returns/Refunds: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $54.00
Number of Items listed this week: ~40

J&R, did I miss any further talk on what your new project is set to be? Aside from the rental apartment – and will that be Airbnb as well?

Finally got out to some estate sales on Friday, and am looking again at online auctions, after a sourcing hiatus. Being picky about what’s purchased, and trying to keep in mind my shrinking storage space and the desire to mix in more short tail sales. Still working through the muddy minutae of a few opportunity piles (last night I was researching thimbles, today lotting up some crochet hooks, sigh) – I’d like the visual real estate of my office floor back, at least!

Just wanted to say Thanks for talking about looking into that late shipping defect on the seller page more closely. I had one one there and was able to call and have it removed. The post office didn’t scan it on time but it was delivered before the max date so they removed it. It was from back in Nov.

Thanks 🙂
Jen
The Vintage Tiara Boutique

After not even reaching $300 by Thursday morning I sold some very high priced items.
Ended up with 22 sales for $2641.00

I noticed a difference in postage cost vs postage paid buy customers this morning on sales from late Saturday, must be due to the overall USPS increase. I should’ve realized it and printed out labels late on Saturday, and someone who purchased something on Friday didn’t pay until this morning so he got socked for more postage for taking his time.

PS – is anyone else experiencing a glitch when listing where when they make a Draft, a copy is also made? I’m having to manually delete drafts with every new one made…

Jan 20 – 26
Total Items in Store: 2054
Items Sold: 38
Total Sales : $1,550
* above yearly average of $914
* above 2018 total week sales of $953
Highest Price: $300 (Chimayo Santa Fe Saltillo Serape Wool Saddle Blanket)
Average Price: $41
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $126
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 56

It was a very good week this time around. I keep hitting my 1K+ goal and I LOVE IT! Which is a good thing too because I feel like I’m hanging on by a thread at my day job. The work is getting harder and I just don’t feel like I’m getting the compensation I deserve. If I’d had known that this place doesn’t give raises, I would have negotiated for a better salary when I started four years ago. There’s no use asking for a raise now though since the university is in a financial catastrophe. So it might be sooner rather than later that I present my 2 weeks notice. The instability of this place is causing too much anxiety.

No auctions or scavenging this week. The auctions in my area are few and far between at this time of year. But that’s okay because I have a nice sized Opportunity Pile to work on in these winter months. I still have a crapload of slides that I’m slowly working through and selling. And one day here soon I’m going to learn all about marbles. I’ve got HUNDREDS of marbles of all styles and ages, and I know there’s a few gems in there.

Your caller today about listing a tabloid for really high just because he didn’t want to part with it yet reminds me about a rug I have for sale. I bought this beautiful wool Persian rug at an auction for $50. When we moved into our new house, I decided instead of having it rolled up in storage, it would be nice to display while it was for sale. And it really ties the room together! So while I still want to sell it eventually, I set the price to $1500… basically a price I can’t refuse.

I haven’t listened yet but I wanted to mention I had someone open a guaranteed delivery claim on me. The item had shipped friday? and the guy opened a request on tuesday which was the guaranteed delivery date. Thing is I don’t know why the system let him do it since the tracking showed the item as delivered that day. I had to upload tracking and the case was closed. Not sure what he was thinking though.. oh well.

Listening to the show right now. Had a hectic last weekend so I didn’t post, so here are my numbers for the past 2 weeks.

Week January 13-26, 2019

Total Items in Store: 993
Items Sold: 34
Cost of Items Sold: $224.33 (22.8% of sales)
Total Sales: $983.12
Highest Price Sold: $149.99 (lot of 1930-40s drafting pencils)
Average Price Sold: $28.92
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $285
Number of items listed this week: 44
Promoted listings test: 13 sales, 355.96 (36.2% of total sales), $17.10 fees (4.8% of sales)

After a fire start to the year in the first two weeks of January, the past two weeks have been much slower in comparison; although these have been more average weeks, not really “bad”. What I’ve seen is a lot of low dollar items selling quickly – went from $35-$45 average sell price down to under $30 now. Take out that big drafting pencil sale and my average price would be $25.

Got out to a pretty good estate sale this week… Saturday was the first day and I knew it would be crowded, so I got there an hour early to get a number/on the list – even an hour early, I was #31 and waited out in the cold for about 45 mins before making it in. VERY high end place, lots of amazing artwork, instruments, etc. I of course gravitated to smalls that I could flip for a profit like an amazing hand carved German chess set, ski/snowboard goggles, Cross gold pen/pencil set, Tumi luggage tag, and much much more. All of these things I have had before and should sell quickly.

On the topic of late shipping, I recently looked at my late shipment report. I have 4 items listed as late. They are all from the same day last February. I remember the day. I brought the items to the post office just as a snowstorm was moving in. Snow is pretty rare here, so when it happens the whole city shuts down and most people stay home from work. Including post office personnel apparently, since my items did not get scanned. (I take my packages to the post office a few blocks from my house, but they don’t get scanned until they reach the main post office downtown.) Anyway, just wanted to say that winter weather can also be a factor in late shipping. Does anyone know when these “dings” will drop off my record? I’m hoping at the one year point, but don’t really know.

Good show today! About Craigslist being local, I have had people who are not local purchase things from me to be shipped and they actually were not scammers. To find national posts, use advanced search in Google for your desired keywords and only site craigslist.org. It’s not perfect, especially since Craigslist sellers are not good with titles, but it’s pretty good. I don’t know if this would work for Facebook groups.

I am constantly fiddling with the shipping on my heavier items to try and find the best shipping to show as default! It is maddening. It does change all the time, and USPS Priority is much cheaper to closer destinations than the “economy” methods. At the moment, for the bigger/heavier items I have found FedEx Ground / Home to always be at least a dollar or two cheaper than Smartpost, and FedEx Ground / Home will give you a Guaranteed Delivery date (more on that above).

I do what your caller said regarding offers in order to force immediate payment. Most of my items are not Best Offer so I’ll just get an email, so I’ll lower the price and reply like the caller said. If they are best offer, I just decline the offer, as you said. It’s a little more work but I sometimes travel and lengthen handling times so I cannot have an offer hanging out there with a one-day handling and then have them pull the trigger while I’m away (because you cannot change anything in a listing with an open offer).

One more thing I forgot to mention, I also make it a condition for the buyer to do feedback if they want to do Local Pickup (which is only by special request).

Sure in theory they could still screw you but I think it’s a deterrent. The main reason I do it though is to have them check the box that it arrived on time so it does not screw up my shipping and delivery time service metrics since I’m TRS.

So, I’ve got an answer from Anchor Support on the Guaranteed Delivery.

It seem’s my hunch was correct, Guaranteed Delivery is only activated when the buyer makes immediate payment for a Buy it Now purchase. Listings with a best offer option still qualify and populate in the search results when sorted by guaranteed delivery, but if the buyer chooses to make an offer, the purchase no longer qualifies for guaranteed delivery. This is all ok with me, as the program doesn’t really benefit the seller, as long as my listings populate in the guaranteed delivery search results, I’m happy.

Unfortunately, the “customer facing” information on Guaranteed Delivery doesn’t mention this requirement anymore, but according to the Anchor Rep it did at one time when the program first was rolled out, and that must be where I picked up on it. If you remember one of the requirements to be in the program was to add “require immediate payment” to all the listings.

Heres an ebay Youtube video about that from back when it started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcuCT5E2XA

I am awaiting an email from Hunter at Anchor support with the verbiage from the “Customer Service Facing” description of the program. Will post here when I if/when I receive it.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by The_SEAM_Store.

Here is the email from Hunter. I sort-of wanted to see the words he was seeing, but I guess this is fine.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by The_SEAM_Store.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by The_SEAM_Store.

Week Jan 20-26, 2019

Total Items in Store: 3523 listings for 5444 total items
Items Sold: 69
Gross Sales: $5974.36
Cost of Items Sold: $445 + $660 consignment payout
Highest Price Sold: $738.81 (LVC Leather Jacket thrifted the week before)
Lowest Price Sold: $4.99 (Pair of Shoe laces)
Average Price Sold: $86.58
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $1456
Number of items listed this week: 43 Listings for 106 Items

Amazon Experiment
Amazon Products – 45
Items Sold – 5
Gross Sales – $129
Average Price Sold – $25.60
Cost of Goods Sold – $10

Scavenge of the week, Vintage Schott Western Fringe Coat

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by The_SEAM_Store.

Week of 1/20-01/26
Total Items in Store: 2,415 (Up 38% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 53
Number of Items Sold: 76 (Up 46% YOY)
(Includes 2 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 6 Poshmark, 0 Mercari)
Weekly STR: 13% (Even YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,092 (Up 63%)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: $593
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Down $214
Cost of Items Sold: $471
Cost of Labor: $129
Highest Item Sold: $150 – Chippewa General Utility Copper Caprice Bridgeman Boots
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week (edged me out by $20 late in the week!!! 2 Weeks in a row she has done this!!!) and Veronica leads for the year 4-0.

Clothing
# Listed: 1,520
# Sold: 47
STR: 13%
ASP: $26.04

Shoes
# Listed: 434
# Sold: 12
STR: 12%
ASP: $40.21

Hard Goods
# Listed: 461
# Sold: 15
STR: 13%
ASP: $22.65

Etsy
# Listed: 180
# Sold: 2
STR: 5%
ASP: $29.81

Poshmark
# Listed: 360
# Sold: 6
STR: 8%
ASP: $45.65

Mercari
# Listed: 88
# Sold: 0
STR: 0%
ASP: $0
 
Poshmark is continuing to show more sales. As I type this, we had two more sales today. The time spent crossposting is proving to be valuable. Seems like sales are now more consistent now that we made Posh Ambassador status as well…

Going to listen to the ‘Cast tomorrow while listing….But congrats on the $1000 picture sale! I saw that on the podcast details. Well done!

Ryanne – You mentioned in the podcast that you can’t find good tuna in your area. Do you have an Aldi? Their parent company also owns Trader Joes. I buy a frozen sushi grade Ahi tuna from them all the time. It is pricey, but very good.
https://www.aldi.us/en/grocery-goods/quality-brands/specially-selected/frozen-foods/frozen-detail/ps/p/specially-selected-ahi-tuna-steaks/

Week of Jan 20 – 26
* Total Items in Store: 1325 eBay, 10 Mercari
* Items Sold: 11 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $46.57 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $342.21
* Highest Price Sold: $130 Vintage Man Jong set
* Average Price Sold: $31.11
* Returns: 1
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 19

Things to do list: I listed five office type electric typewriters and a necklace from my death piles.

God almighty, what a slow week. Daily listings hopefully will prove fruitful in Feb. Jan SUCKED.

Jan 21-28
Store: 1100
SOLD: 16 Items
Sales: $359.78

I am so demotivated based on this week, but still maintaining my $500 / per day listing goals.

What Ryanne said about not getting things piled up, that is my inventory (listed) right now. I really dislike my inventory set-up although it does work. So I just avoid properly filing things away. I need to change my intake process to the following:

1. Clean/ Photo/measure. Log these on paper. Drafts on phone have become impossible to deal with almost! So many problems.
2. Item goes into inventory space and is logged onto ^ paper.
3. Head to laptop to finish.

Finally getting a chance to listen… and do some listing… here are my numbers for last week:

My Store Week Jan 20-26, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1072
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $252.64
Cost of Items Sold: $27.40
Highest Price Sold: $42.49 (MCM Pottery Vase)
Average Price Sold: $21.05
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $64.33
Number of items listed this week: 11

Just listened to the ‘cast, and a couple of things I loved from my business perspective:

Mostly, the talk about Tony’s lessons learned. How he paid off his debt, now he makes sure his purchases will sell (gotta think about your purchases as INVESTMENTS!), and most importantly…KNOW YOUR NUMBERS! I know it can be boring and dull for those that don’t come to this naturally, but understanding how the dollars flow, what your business does…that is so important.

Somewhat related, I liked the part about how Jay and Ryanne use clothes as a supplement to their hard goods. Whether it is clothes or something else that sells quicker and can provide small cashflow, having different items that sell at different rates can really help your business.

Haven’t had a chance to listen to the podcast yet, but on GD: Sellers are nearly immune from any negative consequences from late GD delivery, and I think eBay has now rolled it out pretty much to all listings that qualify. As far as I know Seller Hub provides us with no data on GD. No way yo know how many items sell with it and how many don’t. No real way to know whether it has increased my sales velocity or not. I figured for our type of stuff it might be more important during the Holidays, but I think the better half said she noticed That some of our listings, which has been qualifying for 3 day GD before the Holidays, turned into 4 day during the Holiday Season. If so, that makes some sense, ebay probably factoring in potential delays, but also reduces its value for us. So not sure how big a difference it made.

I suspect the program over all is working OK for eBay generally. eBay may have internal data that shows increased sales velocity due to GD. I also suspect the amount they actually have to pay out for late delivery is very small.

its impact on my business: It might be hurting or helping. No way to know.

On the late delivery issue, I don’t know if any of you remember late last winter and early spring when I lost my top rated status because I had the mailman from hell. He was replaced a little over six months ago and I am finally back to my top rated status. It’s taken a long time to get there and even though my new carrier picks up stuff faithfully, I still see the occasional late delivery regardless of me shipping on time and the carrier doing his part. I have just come to accept that it’s going to happen periodically and to do my best to dispute them with eBay.

Is anyone else really annoyed with eBay now popping in the item title, condition and shipping status in the description? It’s been doing it for me for a couple of weeks now and they can stop anytime. Just one more step to take it out so I can put my description in place. Good news, bad news….. I am coming to the end of my stash of stuff to be listed. The weather has been so crappy-tomorrow’s high here is supposed to be 0-that sales have been few and far in between. I’m starting to eye things around my house as potential listings. The stuff I have left to list isn’t all that exciting, so it’s been a bit of drudgery to make myself sit and list them.

eBay Jan 20-26

Total sales. $143.51
Avg. sale. $10.61
# sold. 14
# listed. 21
# in store. 1,114
Rest/unpaid. 0
COGS. $19.33
$ spent on new. $7.15
Highest sale. $21 on vintage wooden cheese and quackers duck bowl

Jay and Ryanne, thanks for the shout out! very hard lessons for us for sure. It’s really good to be back. I hope our initial failure helps steer someone away from doing the same things we did the first time around. It seemed like such a good idea at the time but boy were we wrong. Run your business like a business, not always fun but necessary for success.

1/20 – 1/26

Total Items in Store: 2720
Items Sold: 47
Cost of Items Sold: $45
Total Sales: $1570
Highest Price Sold: $172 (Vietnam era Army winter coat)
Average Price Sold: $33.40
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $162
Number of items listed this week: 52

We sell a lot of clothes, but niche clothes. Vintage workwear, streetwear, rockabilly etc. But also a little bit of normal Polo no and then if we find it for low prices…not a lot of this. Also sell the normal estate sale household items. I can’t list items I’m not interested in. I’m interested in vintage clothes and retro household items. So I list and sell that.

I called in several months back with the same suggestion about lowering the price on an item with an offer to get immediate payments, except what I said is I put the item on a 24 hour sale instead of lowering the price. IMO, putting it on sale makes it even more urgent for the buyer to follow through because then its also only a limited time sale price, but same concept about creating urgency because the offer is open to everyone

Since that time, I haven’t done this as much and I’m undecided as to what I feel is the best way to go about offers.

Aside from not receiving payments, my big annoyance with offers is that when people don’t buy, I then have to relist it and I often lose all the watchers I had built over the months of having it listed and they often never come back to the item. Not that watchers are buyers, but still…