Scavenger Life Episode 405: This Ain’t No Cruise Ship

2019-03-24 – 2019-03-30

Total Items In Store: 2841
Items Sold: 17 (15 ebay, 2 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $ 70
Total Sales: $ 715.69
Highest Price Sold: $ 150 (Antique Stereoview cards)
Average Price Sold: $ 42.10
# Items Listed: 5
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 178

Gut Sales Report for the week: Felt slow again. The Antique Stereoview cards sold on the 30th, so that really helped. Turned out to be a decent week. Bonanza surprised me with 2 sales each over $40.

Challenge of the week: My goal was to finish my taxes and I did it! This should be easier next year now that I have the custom label populated for all of my listed items. Now it will be a simple lookup. I would like to keep up with the taxes during the year so that it doesn’t get out of control. That is my new challenge.

Scavenge of the week: I bought a THOMASON MEDALLIC BIBLE produced by the Franklin Mint in 1970 and only 1000 copies were made. It is the complete bible on medallions with engraved photo on front and scripture on the back. I buy old Bibles and this is by far the most unique one I have found. I knew I had to buy it when I saw it. I paid $60 and it should sell for about $225 or more.

I went to the first Rummage sale of the year in my area. I got 21 pairs of shoes for $32. It was $8\bag and I stuffed 21 pairs of shoes into 4 paper grocery bags. For you numbers guys, that is about $1.52 per pair of shoes.

News of the week: I am now the proud dad of a Michigan State Champion of the Gymnastics Balance Beam! Isabelle, my daughter, won this on Friday for her skill level\age. She also took 3rd place all-around, so we are off to the Regional Championship in Kentucky in early May. Wish her luck! She may go to the National Championship in Misouri in June.

Mark S

March 24-30, 2019

Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,663
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $364.85
Cost of Items Sold: $41.50
Highest Price Sold: $52.99
Average Price Sold: $24.32
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $124.21
Number of items listed this week: 43

Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 882
Items Sold: 22
Gross Sales: $474.78
Cost of Items Sold: $29.00
Highest Price Sold: $57.50 (vintage postcard)
Average Price Sold: $21.58
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 41

Amazon.ca sales: $407.52 (CAD) (Approx $122.27 net profit)
Amazon.com sales: $1,016.22 (Approx $304.87 net profit)

Sales felt terribly “soft” this week. Numbers reflect it pretty much across the board. THe exception being our second store. Had a few really strong sales there that pulled our numbers up. Across the two stores and the two Amazon platforms, my income for the week was on par with most other recent weeks, so I guess the diversification is helping to level things out from week to week.

Spent a lot of time last week ramping up my Amazon inventory, and restocking heavily on a number of skus. I’ve also just about closed a deal to bring a new-to-Canada product to Amazon.ca. It’s already established on Amazon.com, and is selling well, plus I’ve got an exclusivity agreement with the manufacturer, so if I can get it moving in Canada, it should add some decent value to my bottom line.

Week of Mar 24 – 30
* Total Items in Store: 1370 eBay, 3 Etsy
* Items Sold: 20 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $28.92 + $14 Commission
* Total Sales: $541.02
* Highest Price Sold: $220 Antique 1940s Frigidaire refrigerator Nonworking
* Average Price Sold: $27.05
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $51
* Number of items listed this week: 12

Yup, I sold the refrigerator that my grandma bought when my dad was just a kid. She gave it to my parents when she upgraded, and it was in our basement when I was growing up. My husband and I had grand plans of getting it refurbished and then using it as a second refrigerator. That never happened, so I put it up for sale … talk about inventory taking up space. The buyer is going to pick it up at the beginning of May sometime. I actually wrote up a pretty long description with its history if anyone is interested:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/183287823290

My sourcing this week was the first two rummage sales of the year and the library’s book & media sale at the local mall.

My Store Week March 24-30, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1044
Items Sold: 11
Gross Sales: $341.24
Cost of Items Sold: $27.11
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Greek Vase)
Average Price Sold: $31.02
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $35.23
Number of items listed this week: 12

Great podcast this week… always enjoy your discussions! This week felt really slow.. I also had a rash of “best offers” from experienced buyers who immediately “cancel” because the shipping is “too high” (a little frustrating, but what can you do?). I am also getting a lot of women’s clothing returns for shirts (in process so didn’t count them all yet.) It is true these all come in waves. This past weekend I was able to travel out to my old rural neighborhood in the country and I stopped in my old goodwill for just 5 minutes… wow… it was jam packed with name brand shoes, nice (cheap) men’s clothing and really great gew-gaws, art and other stuff… what a world of difference to my over-shopped and cherry picked suburban goodwill! This rural location either doesn’t realize what they have, or just doesn’t care and truly want to offer people a good deal, unlike my local one now which has a paltry selection, overprices, and seems antagonistic whenever a scavenger finds something really good. It really made me miss my old home so I may be looking for an excuse to make the 1 hour drive back regularly just to hit up my old watering hole… it was actually FUN going to this Goodwill! 🙂 Didn’t get much listing done due to kids being on Spring Break, but minimally trying to at least replace what I sell. My “survival goal” on ebay is to make $250 in profit per week (that is after all ebay fees and COGS, etc.) – so if I’m under my goal, I’ll start aggressively taking best offers and/or running more sales. I keep a running total on a spreadsheet so I always know where I’m at for the month.

My Store Week March 24-30, 2019

Total Items in Store: 1566
Items Sold: 51
Gross Sales: $1472.12
Profit: $1299.12
Cost of Items Sold: $173
Highest Price Sold: $220 (Xbox one console, bought for $150)
Average Price Sold: $28.86
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: ~$300
Number of items listed this week: ~100

Washing machine parts have been insane for me lately! I can’t seem to get past 500 parts listings though..
They are selling as quick as I can list them. I’ve been trying to teach myself electronics repair so I
can repair washing machine pcb’s. working pcb’s usually sell quickes

Totals for the MONTH of March 2019. I am mainly a mens clothes seller, free shipping, free returns, 1% promoted listings, no best offer, good till cancelled.

Listings/items at end of month = 3589 / 4089 Total listed value $85,781
Items sold = 254 up 63% YOY
$ sold = $7508 up 84% YOY
ASP = $29.56 up 13% YOY
Monthly sell through rate 6.7% (wow that is REALLY low …….)

Expenses
Postage = $1410 (18.8% of gross)
Ebay fees = $995.77 (13.3% of gross) (includes Promoted listing fees of 64 sales totaling $1604 ($16.03-8.33 credit = $7.70) 25.2% of items sold/ 21.4% of $ sold) and return labels
COGS = $758.51 (10.1% of gross)
Returns = $259.87 (3.6% of gross)
PP Fees = 296.99 (4.0% of gross)
Total operating expenses = $3721.14 (49.6% of gross)
Total operating profit (my name for it – does not include expenses such as mileage, shipping supplies, depreciation, etc …) $3786.86

Notable sales:
Lot of 5 Rubbermaid TC 401804A Polished Chrome Auto Flush Clamp Urinal fits Zurn & Sloan purchased for $42.40, sold 424.95 (listed individually but one buyer bought them all)
Schott Men’s New York City Black Leather Jacket Motorcycle Bomber Studded 6XL purchased for $12.50 (1/2 price day) sold $342.94
Harley Davidson Womens Leather Jacket Black Large Red Heart Embroidery Tribal purchased for $ 14.00 sold for $174.99

Sales breakdown by price range:
$100+ =4
80-100 = 3
60-80 = 5
40-60 = 10
30-40 = 22
20-30 = 85
10-20 = 125

YTD Items Sold = 793 (+43% YOY
YTD Gross = $22410 (+48% YOY)
YTD Net = $11,205

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by Kelly1mm.

Numbers for March, 2019

Total Listings: 989
Had 75 Sales for a total of $1,458.30
Cost of Items Sold: $314.02
Highest Price Sold: $126 after 50% refund (lot of Anastasia Toy Trains)
Average Price Sold: $19.44 – Average Cost: $4.19
Spent on new inventory: $244.50
Number of items listed: 44
Longest Listed Item Sold: Book, listed December 2015
GSP: 2 Canada and 1 Japan

I ended up giving the buyer of the Toy Trains a 50% refund. He claimed most of the engines had cracks on the bottom by the hold down screw and many also had corrosion in the battery compartment (they were all sealed in the original box but over 20 years old). I should of known there would be a problem as he sent several emails with questions, and then after the sale called me a few times with more questions. We agreed to the partial refund as I didn’t want to eat the original $91 shipping fee or the return shipping. As soon as I made the refund, he called again and said that he changed his mind and wanted a full refund, he also wanted to keep the trains, I refused and stated he would have to ship them all back to me first. I haven’t heard from him since so hopefully I’m done with him. I still came out ahead by about $40 from the sale and shipping.

My new inventory cost would of only been $44.50, but today I went to the 13th anniversary of a Tiki bar and bought an expensive limited release mug for $140. If the sales from last years mug is any indication I should be able to make at least $50 and probably more like $100 on it. After the Tiki bar, I went to a punk show to see the band Gorilla Biscuits. I spent $60 on their 30 year anniversary box set, after seeing the solds on eBay and what people are asking for the new unsold listings I should of bought more of them: Gorilla Biscuits 1988-2018

Now to go list and listen to the show…

Items in Store 1045
Items Sold 13
Total Sales $286.50
COGS $35.00
Total Profit $251.50
Average profit $19.35
Average sales price $22.04
New Listings 31

Ugh… major stink face at my numbers this week.
March 2019: 76 Sales for $1983.79 gross
March 2018: 78 Sales for $2641.39 gross

In March 2018 I had a $200 and a $250 sale
This past month I had a $100 sale and a $65 sale. Everything else was low dollar less than $50. So removing outliers I had a pretty similar month to last year.

March is typically my slowest month. The weather is usually inconsistent. My ebay space is a mess from winter months avoiding lots of travel to/from my ebay shed in my back yard. I traditionally don’t list alot in January/February. Did I mention that I HATE winter?

I was able to find some time to photograph items this week and got my listing numbers up. It did not have much affect on my sales.

The crappiest thing about this low sales month is that I have to now pay my car payment and house payment from my normal checking account. Booo!!!

April is going to be an interesting month. I’m going to cut out scavenging completely and ramp up my listing to maximize my cash reserves. We have a baby coming sometime this month – so exciting!

Week of 03/24-03/30
Total Items in Store: 2,989 (Up 59% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 135
Number of Items Sold: 102 (Up 48% YOY)
(Includes 3 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 5 Poshmark)
Weekly STR: 15% (Down 1% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,877 (Up 62% YOY)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: Up $850
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Down $249
Cost of Items Sold: $583
Cost of Labor: $264
Highest Item Sold: $110 – New Spyder Legend Stryke Jacket
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 8-5.

Clothing
# Listed: 1,791
# Sold: 79
STR: 19%
ASP: $26.24

Shoes
# Listed: 630
# Sold: 16
STR: 11%
ASP: $37.78

Hard Goods
# Listed: 568
# Sold: 7
STR: 5%
ASP: $28.62

EBay
# Listed: 2,989
# Sold: 94
STR: 14%
ASP: $25.67

Etsy
# Listed: 226
# Sold: 3
STR: 6%
ASP: $32.54

Poshmark
# Listed: 642
# Sold: 5
STR: 3%
ASP: $73.40

Loved the part of the talk about watching your items. Veronica said she remembers when she used to do that. But that was back when we had less than 1,000 items listed.

Knocking on the door of 3,000 active listings. Strong sales week, in fact, most ever clothing items sold in a week. Gotta crank hard early this week, as we are visiting our son at York this weekend.

Total Items in Store: 1921
Items Sold: 40 (27 Ebay, 13 Poshmark)
Gross Sales: $795.75
Highest Price Sold: $51 (Disney Movie)
Average Price Sold: $19.89
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $380 (Auction and Yard Sales)

Felt like a slow week this week, sold a lot of lower priced items. We put a sale on our store with 25% off, trying to get rid of some of our old clothing items that we have had listed for a while. Unfortunately we do not have an unlimited amount of storage space. We are hoping to build our store with higher priced items, just need to find out where they are. HA.

Hello all,

Great podcast! It had that nice and easy Coffee House discussion appeal. It was great to hear you present again how you do things on eBay, what has been working for you, how you stay sane!

3/24 – 3/30/19 (Items listed are unique to each platform, no cross listing is done)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 588
Number of items sold: 10
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $360.00
Cost of items sold: $31
Consignment payouts $0
Highest price sold: $240 total old tractor license plates one buyer (4 X $50, 1 X $40)
Average price sold: $36
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 4
Sell through rate for the week: 1.7

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 615
Number of items sold: 3
Total Etsy sales ( not counting s/h): $58
Cost of items sold: $2
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $25 – vintage Tandy wallet kit, constructed
Average price sold: $19
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $0
Number of new items listed this week: 4
Sell through rate for the week: 0.5

Mar 24 – 30
Total Items in Store: 2136
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $1142
* ABOVE yearly average of $895
* ABOVE 2018 total week sales of $817
Highest Price: $245 (Michael Frances Higgins Studio Art Glass Wall Plaque Yellow Sun)
Average Price: $37
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $70
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 51

Great podcast this week! And not just because I was mentioned. 🙂 I’m really glad we had that discussion about goals in the forums. It really put my mind at ease and I’ve been relatively stress-free all last week. I think what really sent me spiraling into concern was the fact that my sales just happened to drop the moment I left my job. Obviously it makes no sense that those two things could be related, but you can see how it would mess with my head. But now I realize that my $1K+ weeks that I was getting used to were really above the norm for the level of my store. And once I really figured my weekly and monthly survival goal, it really put into perspective just how well I was doing even after sales have dropped.

Speaking of $1K+ weeks… This has been my 3rd best weeks of sales this year. The piece of art I sold really helped out, but it still would have been a great week without it. I sold a lot of random stuff and a lot of flatware. And I’ve been getting into my groove with listing. I’m making it a soft goal to list 50 items each week. I initially was going to go for 75, but I don’t want to turn this into a sweatshop.

Total Items in Store: 271 Ebay, 60 Mercari
Items Sold: 5 Ebay, 0 Mercari
Gross Sales: $110
Cost of Items Sold: $33
Highest Price Sold: $34 (New mug)
Average Price Sold: $22
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 13 Ebay, 14 Mercari

Well this week I tried to revive my little store with some CPR – ran a sale, started a few cheap auctions on old low dollar items, listed over a couple of days. Did not really seem to help the weekend sales (had none).

I listed on both Ebay and Mercari, though I’m concerned about Mercari going on life support with the cuts, Google drop, and shipping increases they had to make this year. A shame because I hate the new zoom thing on the Ebay app – had to crop out my toes or get to close. I really wish it even close to as fast and easy to list on the Ebay app as it is on the Mercari app. For example, I type a few words into the title and the app brings up buttons to tap on with the brand, category, and other items specifics so far less clicking and typing required. I did scan a book my dad gave me to sell on the Ebay app, so that was pretty cool but still had to clean up on the desktop, especially the promoted listings entry because I believe you have to agree to trending rates (no thank you!).

I don’t really have time to watch items so forget it but I’m over my 250 and not break even for the next level, so every now and then I’m culling a few losers that are under $10. More often I’m making price cuts. I never stop listing though at 250. Make an offer to buyers seemed to disappear for me and it’s not working as well lately on Mercari.

Have a good week!

Posting for MARCH (monthly) totals:
Store; 1300
Items sold: 131
Sales: $4,425.72 – $50 returns
Poshmark:$504, 16 items
Mercari: 1 item, $18
Depop: 1 item, $18

Sales: $4918 March total

Overall a good month, lots of mixed inventory sales from different categories. I am increasing my clothing purchases again, so that has helped a lot.

Mercari – I am now only posting certain things on there b/c the return on my time has been so-so. Mostly smalls (purse dustbag, lipsticks, candles that sort of stuff).

Poshmark continues to be about 10% of my ebay sales. I basically look at is as a cherry on top at this point.

re: lowering prices to move stuff. My new philosophy/ theory is that you do not need to be lowest listed b/c ebay’s algorithm shows the potential buyer different items based on their search terms, region of buyer and seller, etc. That’s not a conspiracy, that is real. eBay wants best buyer experience. So, if Jay has shoes for $20 and I have them for $10, a person in Virginia may only see Jay’s at $20 since he’s closer and I am far.

This is also why I search Google shopping for my comps not just internally in ebay. Google will pull more listings/ different listings that what ebay will show you. Same for Poshmark.
The other day I saved about $30 going through the Google shopping portal as it showed me cheaper/ different results (all active listings, by the way).

Morning all!

I have to disagree with the advice for a new seller to immediately get a store subscription. I get that it eliminates the psychological problem of people freaking out over listing fees (dime holding up a dollar!) but in sheer money terms it’s not worth it till you hit a certain level of sales/listings. I only got a store when I was up to about 500 items. There used to be a calculator that you could use to figure out which store (if any) made sense based on # listings and sales/month. Super annoying that it seems to be gone now. But you can calculate yourself based on:

https://www.ebay.ca/pages/help/sell/storefees.html

IMO it’s good to only get the store that makes sense dollars-wise… gotta stay scrappy. That anchor store is a big expense!

Anyway, good week for sales.

Sales: CAD$1271, 8 items, COGS: $60 –> Item profit: $984
Expenditures: $539 –> Cashflow: $505
Listed: $190, 10 items
Notable sales: endothermic mat $300 (bonus item from an ancient auction)
Hours: 22.5, $7/hr after tax
I spent so much because I moved all the inventory from my old storage unit to my new one, which necessitated a U-Haul rental ($180), and a new shelving unit ($230) among other things. MAN was this a lot of work. 5 hours Friday night loading the U-Haul, then 12 hours Saturday unloading into the new unit and getting the other two loads.

I purged quite a few things. I want the new unit to have room for expansion and I was depressed looking at these old old HUGE items that have seen no sales. So, I’ll take them to the dump next Saturday.

Feels good not to have paid a dime to the new owners of my old storage unit.

I do free shipping on 90% of my items so the numbers don’t reflect that cost.

Total Items in Store: 689
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $812
Highest Price Sold: $125 – Babe’s Musical Bat – collectible from 1927 World Series
Average Price Sold: $35
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30

Between the 2 young kids, full-time job, and dealing with a squirrel in my attic, I ended up taking about 10 days off from listing and sourcing. I’ve been non-stop since I started doing this six months ago so it was a needed break. I ramped back up this last week and got over 120 items listed. One thing I noticed was that towards the end of my 10-day break, sales really dropped off. I even had my first day in months where nothing sold. It’s possible it was just a coincidence although it’s also possible that the eBay algorithm rewards a more active account. In fact, this new week started off great as I sold 12 things yesterday and a few more today.

A couple of highlights from the week:
– A tiny bat-shaped harmonica from the 1927 World Series sold for $125. I probably could’ve held out for more but it was a quick sale and easy to ship.
– Picked up a sealed PC game – Silent Hill 4 – at estate sale for $2 and sold within a week for $100
– Same estate sale I grabbed a New in box Sony CD Walkman for $2 and sold for $70. It was the fastest sale I’ve ever had. I was writing the very next listing and it sold in the process. Maybe 2 minutes tops. That always makes me worried that I priced too low but the comps were right in that range.

Sourcing has been a bit slower lately too – my weekly auction had an off week and my schedule didn’t allowed me to get there the week before that.
Estate sales have been OK, but one I went to had me laughing. Lots of collectibles and nice stuff but they had everything, and I mean everything fully researched. Some of the tags even listed the recent eBay prices…which is what they were trying to sell it for. So I grabbed a card from the company running the sale so I can avoid their sales in the future.

Was listening to the Snap Judgment podcast the other day and one of their break sponsors was Mercari, so they got a pitch. The spot emphasized how easy it is to list items you’re no longer using and then easily get cash for them. Just FYI.

Very soft week – second in a row for me. Anyone know how getting charged for #s over your store limit works now that everything is GTD? Perhaps they still have an internal 30 day calendar for those items? I’m well over my 1,000 limit, and get charged when I hit over 1,000 listings in a month (so usually towards the end of the month I start to see that I’m charged 10 cents per new listing). Before, wasn’t that 10 cents charged monthly if that item didn’t sell? Curious, but not overly concerned. Just looking to make more sales – look at that sad # below! If I had sold twice that many, normal in previous months, my sales figure would have been in the acceptable range. But I did look back at last year this time, and March kinda stunk. Fingers crossed for April, which is traditionally in the top 2 months of the year for sales for me.

03/24/19 – 03/30/19
Total Items In Store: 1066
Items Sold: 14
Net Sales (Total Sales – Selling Costs): $453.86
Highest Price Sold: $170 NIP West Elm Curtains
Average Price Sold: $32.42
Cost of Items Sold: $74.25
Returns/Refunds: $0
Money Spent on New Inventory Last Week: $0
Number of Items listed this week: ~10

@Winchester: Solid ROI.

These will all sell through FBA, correct?

Since you asked.
The end of the week picked up and I sold 12 items for about $475 plus 3 items on FB marketplace for $480 so it turned out to be a good week.
I need about $500-$600 a week to cover my bills now, although I’m rethinking my need for the new vehicle lease I get every three years, I’ve only put 11k miles on this 2017 Outlander in 28 months, my old Caravan keeps plugging along and I use it for any short trips like scavenging and hauling the dogs, every year I think it will die. After this lease is up I may just buy another cheap caravan and be rid of a $200 a month payment.

Total Items in Store: 511
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $249.59
Cost of Items Sold: $19.06
Highest Price Sold: $99 lamp
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0

It’s been a long time since I listed some numbers.

@Jay, but it’s not that EVERY listing over 1,000 gets a 10 cent charge; it’s every listing over 1,000 for that month. This was explained, but not thoroughly, during a call to eBay a while back.

When I had GTD listings turning over and restarting on their 30 day mark, that would count as a listing. When that (+ any new listings) crested 1,000 within a given month, then you get charged. I have ~1070 listings right now, and added more new listings today at no extra charge. Haven’t hit the monthly quota; this tends to happen at the end of the month.

Just curious if that 10 cent fee is a one-time fee at the time of listing, or a recurring fee every 30 days if/when it doesn’t sell.

It’s definitely negligible, which is why I keep listing. Just curious how things are changing, or staying the same – and whether I, and anyone else, was understanding what eBay was doing in the first place. 🙂

Total Items in Store: 464
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $216.24
Highest Price Sold: $79.99 Birkenstock Men’s Leather Lace Up Shoes
Average Price Sold: $36
Most Fun: Bausch Lomb $25 Safety glasses Heard the ca-ching 50 minutes later Fastest sale for me
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $10
Number of items listed this week: 11

This week felt solid, not awesome, not slow The last few weeks have been so much better than January and February.

GOALS 1) Continue looking up each item, one at a time and seeing that I can find it in less than 3-5 minutes. Removing it if I can’t find it-which brings my listed item number down. Later, when I find an item, often in an unexpected place, I simply relist it. This is making me more confident that I know exactly where things are.
2) Working on listing 6 days a week, even if it’s just a couple of items. To the lister last week who felt bad for only listing a few a day, you probably have me beat. 15-25 items every week will slowly increase. Unless you have an amazing sales week!

Congrats Mark S! Go MSU, you’re still in it. Which is more than I can say for my final 4

I haven’t had a chance to listened to the show yet but here are my numbers:

Total Items in Store: 2822
Items Sold: 39
Total Sales: $1003
Cost of Items Sold: $105
Average Price Sold: $25.72
Average Cost of Item: $2.71
Highest Price Item Sold: $99.95 Go Video Recorder Burner DVD VCR MP3 Combo Player
Number of items listed this week: 63
YTD Sales: $11291
YTD sales compared to this time last year: -6%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 376
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 210
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 117
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.38%
Hats sold this week: 28 (71% of sales) worth $491.75 (49% of sales $)

Sales were pretty good for me. As usual it was busy early in the week and got quiet on the weekend.

My sales for the month of March were just ahead of this time last year which was good since I was below in February.

Nothing very interesting to report this week other than I reinstalled the Android ebay app and got a different version to the one I had previously. Apparently I agree to be a beta tester at some point and I think I was seeing a new version of the photos management/uploading functionality. It was much faster but it was a little buggy. I think I have the regular version of the app again now.

Week March 17-30, 2019 (2 weeks)

Total Items in Store: 996
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $153 (20.8% of sales)
Total Sales: $735.35
Highest Price Sold: $125 (Queen Greatest Hits LP Sealed)
Average Price Sold: $29.41
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $198.72 (27% of total sales), $8.65 fees (4.4% of sales)

The past 2 weeks have felt slow and these are the numbers to prove it out. Usually I’d have close to these numbers weekly. I’m going to chalk it up to not listing for the past 3 weekends – one at a wedding, one away for a quick excursion for my wife’s birthday, and then this past weekend enjoying our one day of spring outside. Gotta get back on the listing horse this weekend.

March 25th-31st
Total Items in Store: 305
Items Sold: 3
Gross Sales: $322.94
Cost of Items Sold: $7.49
Highest Price Sold: $300.00 (Disney Polynesian Village Monorail Set)
Avg Price Sold: $108.00
Money Spent on Inventory: $34.38
Number of Items Listed This Week: 49

This was a super slow week for me. If it wasn’t for the sale of the Disney Monorail set yesterday, the weekly totals would have been almost non-existent. Thankfully, the buyer made an acceptable offer for the monorail set and my week turned out to be pretty good.

I have reached my March goal of 300 listings, and on moving forward to my new goal of 500 listings by the end of April. Listing using sell similar is a big help in reaching listing goals.

Presently, I don’t have a specific weekly number (regarding sales) that I need to reach to make the monthly bills as my we are both still working and we use the eBay money for simple and SMALL projects around the house. Initially, I wanted to replace his income by retirement in 3 to 6 years, depending on who you ask. That might be a bit extreme. I think a happy medium between my current income and his may be more achievable. I will ponder that for a while.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Here are my numbers for the week 🙂
Mar 24-30 2019
Total items in store: Etsy 403 // Ebay 801 (unique items, not crossposted)
Items Sold: Etsy 10 // Ebay 23
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $39.82 // Ebay $75.81
Total Sales: Etsy $141.50 // Ebay $509.77 ((Total = $651.27))
Highest Price Sold: $150 Robert Graham Shirt – Flip cuffs w/ geek print (aliens, computers, Godzilla etc)
Average Price Sold: $19.74
Returns: 0 – Still waiting on one to be mailed back from last week, can probably call and close it!
Number of items listed this week: 24 (at $949.38)

I listed a high dollar item this week ($500) that I have been holding on to for quite awhile. I have been afraid to list it honestly. I feel nervous about listing anything over $200. :/

Great podcast! I love the cruise ship comparison, I never really thought of that. I did feel (and still do, especially this month) that opening my store and quitting my corporate job 7 years ago was like jumping off a cliff without a safety net. The scariest part for me is having kids to support and provide for, and employees (I cut that back when I closed my storefront and went all online) depending on me to succeed.
I agree a survival goal and a comfort goal are important to know. I actually redid my numbers in January and have a survival goal of $1250 per week and comfort goal of $2500 per week. Looking at all of this weekly is definitely changing the way I look at my day, and what is most lucrative.

Mar 24- Mar 30 2019

Total Items in Store: 3608
Items Sold: 65
Gross Sales: $974.72
Consignor Commission (COGS): $303.21 (31.11%)
Highest Price Sold: $75 (area rug-local pickup)
Average Price Sold: $15
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 87 (44 personally)

We really had a slow week, and I can usually point to a reason, I can’t this week.
When this has happened in the past, I enter panic mode and start losing focus, but
last time this happened I realized I should have had my head down listing to get ready
for when it picks back up.
Reopened my Poshmark store and posted about 15 items, missed an offer I would have taken.
Lesson learned . . .wondering if Posh will be worth the time for higher end clothing, the same as many of you, so thanks for sharing!

Libby (and others who do some consignment):
I’m wondering what others charge for commissions on consignments.
Mine are:
50/50 -$2.00 per item form Up to – $499
65/35 for items $500 and up (I get the $35%)

Are we in the same ballpark? My husband tells me I should be getting 50/50 no matter what.

Also curious about how others typically do consignment earnings… The few times I’ve done consignment with others, it’s been using the old eBay valet chart of percentages, where the consignee would earn:

25% for items sold under $25
40% for items $25-49
50% for items $50-99
60% for items 100-249
70% for items 250-499
80% for items sold over $500

Most of the items I sold fell into the middle, so averaging 50% to me. For higher dollar items, I did the same amount of work as for lower dollar sales, so earning a smaller percentage (but still somewhat large dollar amount) was fine for me.

After some experience, I won’t take items that will sell for less than $30, ideally more, as it’s a waste of my time (I don’t even like selling items for myself for less than $30, unless it’s environmentally motivated to keep usable things from the waste stream). This does depend to some extent on the item – salability, storage needs, etc.

March 24 – 30, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1256
Items Sold: 12
Total Sales : $520
Highest Price: $150 (Cooper A-2 Brown Flight US Air Force Goatskin Leather Jacket)
Honorable Mention: I sold a 1967 Feeley Meeley Game for $48 which I found the name hilarious.
Average Price: $44
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $47
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 20

Hello all!

I haven’t made a post since about a year and a half ago and have been meaning to finally start posting. But Doublythumbs, my partner, has been active and keeping up to date with things at least, lol.
I wanted to make a quick post about sales and wish everyone well!
It’s been interesting working eBay full-time since mid-November. Not having to stay up late taking photos and listing frantically after work. Now that Doublythumbs is full-time we are a lot less stressed at home (most of which was due to work).
I just finished taking photos of around 45 article of clothing and 27 framed artwork, my listings have been slow this week (I also want to make a goal of 50 listings a week) but I had my photo station made up to take clothing pictures easier so I knocked out all of my clothes! And I wanted all of my framed artwork photographed. I set up another station to complete those.
I also got my health insurance figured out and finally completed my taxes… fun, fun, lol.

I hope everyone is doing well! Stay warm, it’s a Sunny 48 degrees in Eastern Ohio 🙂

Haha. Yeah what Doublythumbs said! 🙂

March 24 – 30

Total Items In Store: 6411
Items Sold: 112
Total Sales: $ 1738.95
Highest Price Sold: $ 311 (Multi-Order of 4 Stamp Albums)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Minkus-Supreme-Global-Stamp-Album-Complete-3-Volume-I-II-III-1966/283421108932
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Regent-World-Stamp-Album/283421210328
Average Price Sold: $ 15.53
Cost of Items Sold: Too many orders to calculate. Around $100.

I’ve been away from the forum for a while, but have been eagerly keeping up with the podcast. 26 year old guy with a growing store in North Jersey. Expanding like crazy, many thanks to the program and listener suggestions.

This is my first post. Just started selling in December 2018. My name is Eric and I am from Michigan near Grand Rapids. I have a full time job where I work in radiology at a hospital. X-ray and CT scan.

I do a lot of scavenging at thrift stores and goodwill outlet. Also I buy some things on facebook marketplace from time to time although I don’t like it much, but if I see something good I’ll grab it.

Not to get too long winded here is a recap of March.

Items sold: 32 (6 were items I already have and not bought to make profit)

Cost of goods: $ 87.01

Total Sales: $ 838.52

Average Item Sold: $26.19 per item

Items in store: 245

I started sell when I saw a post by https://millionairedojo.com/selling-on-ebay/

Jan sold $376 on 23 items

Feb sold $310 on 18 items.

Hopefully March wasn’t a fluke but I have increased my items in store by about 75+ each month!

Thanks!

Thanks Jay. I don’t plan on quitting my job but I wouldn’t mind going part time in a few years. I just like finding old stuff and making money. Plan on getting higher quality items to sell on ebay and will try to get my average profit up.

The job can pay well. I worked at a hospital in a very rural area and the pay was 16$ an hour 10 years ago. Now I am near a more populated area and making 30$ an hour. One of the highest paying associates degrees out there. I work nights and have freedom so I actually like it. Helps with ebay because I deal with some difficult people here so ebay is a walk in the park dealing with customers.