Scavenger Life Episode 416: People, Process and Product

Hi, It was a little hard to figure out who you were talking about at the beginning of the episode. Was it “The Profit” with Marcus Lemonis? Or “The Partner”? And where did you find his show? Thanks!

Cool! Thanks guys. I’ll check it out tonight.

Still don’t know how I could use someone else’s labour. I don’t think the parts of my business that are outsourceable are really worth outsourcing. I don’t spend much time listing and packing.

This was a really dead week on eBay for whatever reason. Until Friday I had zero sales. My major cash infusion came from some Herman Miller chairs I put on consignment at a local vintage shop a while back. All 10 of them sold and I received a payment of $860 last week. I’m including that as a “sale” in my numbers.

Sales: CAD$1777, 5 items, COGS: $420 –> Item profit: $1197
Expenditures: $702 –> Cashflow: $915
Hours: 11, $84/hr
Listed: $810, 22 items
Apart from my consignment payout, I got another $600 in microscope sales from my haul a couple weeks ago. That has been going well although I did have to partially refund one of them for a faulty mechanism.
Got some cool random stuff and auctions too.
One $300 item I sold to a Chinese buyer in December finally came back to me. I had the insurance payout for this already and the buyer was made whole. Hoping I can re-sell it to the same buyer again.

Next week I am planning to take possession of another 25’x10′ storage unit to supplement the 30’x10′ I already have. Now I’ll be up to about $350 in storage costs per month. Hoping this can last at least a year. Presumably at some point my inventory grows to the point where the volume leaving is equal to the volume I can scavenge (?). But I think that happens at about the fifth storage locker. :/

I haven’t listened yet…but the 3 P’s??
I come here to get away from corporate speak! Lol!

I kid, I kid! The 3 P’s is actually a good concept to keep projects and/or meetings flowing smoothly and on message.

I’m really glad that I sold those 1930s Iranian photos I had listed a few months back. Even then, I was told by someone here that they could have been pulled. They were on for several months though. I guess if I came across something like that again, I would just find a facebook group that might be interested.

Week June 16 – 22, 2019

Items in store: 4044 Listings for 6070 Items
Items Sold: 70 Transactions for 82 Items
Gross Sales: $4176.69
Highest Price Sold: $397.55… Two sport coats to the same buyer.
Lowest Price Sold: $10.99… 1920s photograph.
Average Price Sold: $50.94
Cost of Goods Sold $312, Plus consignment
Number of new items listed this week: 91 items
$$ spent on new inventory this week $80
Repeat Customers: 6

Incredibly non-productive week due to a few technical issues. When I used my iPhone to open a numbers file this week, I unknowingly saved a few of my consignors sales records to a newer version. Of course, the new version of numbers wouldn’t work with my preferred older OS. So I had accidentally forced myself into updating to Mojave, which had some negative effects on my main MacBook, the worse….causing me not to be able to use it to shoot photos from my usual tethered setup. I think I can do a memory stick upgrade on this one still and make it work better, but that’s a project for another week.

After a day fooling with the update, and getting my backup MacBook up to speed with the photo hookup….my camera lens began to malfunction and needed servicing. I was able to do it myself, but it was more time spent than I like.

After I finally got moving with photos, I found that the Mojave upgrade also played havoc with GarageSale compatibility, so it’s been slow going as I find work-arounds for simple tasks that are currently glitching. Good news: The next GS version is in beta right now, so the fix will be around the corner soon. Bad News: It comes with a hefty price increase. What was $69 one time license, with $20 occasional upgrade fees (only 1 or 2 in the last 5 or 6 years) will now become $15/month, every month. Sigh….Everyone wants a piece.

Meanwhile back at the ranch. My wife discovered a yellow jacket nest in one of our large patio planters, where we eat all our meals. She is allergic, so I was automatically selected to battle the swarm. That battle still goes on. I’ve been shopvac-ing them up in sessions. I plan to excavate tonight after dark. Wish me luck!

Needless to say, I didn’t get much accomplished this week. Didn’t get any listings up until Friday/Saturday….but we did get out on the lake for a few hours of kayaking.

Items in Store 1207
Items Sold 44
Total Sales $1,350.50
COGS $128.50
Total Profit $1,222.00
Average profit $27.77
Average sales price $30.69
New Listings 48

Summer goal
Week Goal Actual Difference
6/10/2019 875.00 411.00 -464.00
6/17/2019 875.00 577.00 -298.00
6/24/2019 875.00 1,350.50 +475.50

BELOW target by -286.50

Now that’s more like it! Good to see my hard work is paying off. I had two big sales, $175 and $153 and minus those I still had a $1k week with bread n butter items. This is the most items I’ve ever sold in a week as well. I greatly outperformed my summer goal and made up some ground from my slow start. Hopefully that trend can continue.

This week I listed a bunch of higher dollar items. Hopefully they start selling.

My listing numbers would have been higher, but I had some housekeeping work to do on ebay. I had to get a bunch of listed items in inventory. On saturday I rebuilt the first wood shelf I ever built in my ebay shed. When I built the first three shelves I had NO idea how quickly my inventory would expand. I did not build the shelf long enough to fit 3 totes side by side – I also built them free-standing instead of anchoring the shelves to the wall. With a little work and expansion I can now fit 3 wide on the shelf, which gives me space to put in 12 more totes.
I still have two more of these shelves to rebuild, and I’m going to need them at the rate I am listing.

Scavenging at yard sales this weekend was pretty good. One sale I went to had a TON of mens Ralph Lauren clothes. I’m not big on buying clothes right now, but when an opportunity presents itself…
The lady had signs up that said “Ralph Lauren is $5 each FIRM”. So I looked through it all and approached her and said “How much if I take ALL the Ralph Lauren?” I got her down to $3 and item and she ended up throwing in a couple for free, so less than $3 an item. All were like new.

This week I’m going to use my new helper – aka my daughter – to blow through listing them all as fast as possible.

The other things of note were a Bose iphone dock radio and a Yamaha Drum Sampler machine. Both of those will pull close to $100 and will be quick sales.

Have a great week everyone!

Week June 16-22, 2019

Total Items in Store: 1019
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $109.50 (22% of sales)
Total Sales: $498.70
Highest Price Sold: $79 (Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Master Recording)
Average Price Sold: $35.62
Returns: 1
Number of items listed this week: 27
Promoted listings test: 7 sales, $287.98 (57.7% of total sales), $14.40 fees (5% of sales)

Slightly below average week for me, although last posting was so good that I’m still above average for the last 2 weeks. Not a huge dollar sale, but one of those neat sales was a handful of muscle car photos – was at the last day of an estate sale a few months back and they were at the point of “fill up a bag” so only paid pennies for them. Another decent sale were this gold fill Cross pen/pencil set, probably paid $5 for them.

Went to one sale this weekend and really cleaned up on some stuff I priced high because of rarity/not many other listings: 1949 Yankees photo pack, 1950 Yankees yearbook, c1980 ceramic Wayne Gretzky mold (also got Ron Duguay from the Rangers). That painted mold I paid $5 for both Gretzky & Duguay. I looked them up and there are some for $20-$30, but they’re generic without team or player identity. There are some with team jerseys in the $60-$75 range, so I put these players up higher to see what happens – Duguay for $100, Gretzky for $150 – and will happily take offers.

Good Morning, great podcast.

6/16– 6/22/19 (no cross listing is done between platforms)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 666
Number of items sold: 13
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $386
Cost of items sold: $54
Highest price sold: $50 – lot of old glass door knobs, paid $15
Average price sold: $29.69
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $17
Number of new items listed this week: 24
Sell through rate for the week: 2.0
Number International sales: 1

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 645
Number of items sold: 8
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $175
Cost of items sold: $23
Highest price sold: $40 – Samsonite train case w/ key, paid up $10 for a flip
Average price sold: $22
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $17
Number of new items listed this week: 9
Sell through rate for the week: 1.2
# International sales: 0

Week of Jun 16 – 22
* Total Items in Store: 1363, eBay, 3 Etsy
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $16 + $7.50 Commission
* Total Sales: $293.64
* Highest Price Sold: $89 – 1975 Oil painting racing horse, damaged
* Average Price Sold: $22.58
* Returns: 1 + 1 immediate cancel
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 3

My daughter graduated high school, and we had visitors from out of town. eBay is somewhat on the back-burner. My parents did bring me free stuff from their friends for me to sell. I will get more when I’m at their home in a few weeks.

Week of 06/16-06/22
Total Items in Store: 3,185 (Up 39% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 80
Number of Items Sold: 96 (Up 55% YOY)
(Includes 0 Etsy, 6 Poshmark, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 13% (Up 1% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,631 (Up 65% YOY)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: Up $877
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Up $156
Cost of Items Sold: $505
Cost of Labor: $120
Highest Item Sold: $135 – Corral Boots
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 14-12.

Clothing
# Listed: 1,879
# Sold: 70
STR: 16%
ASP: $24.22

Shoes
# Listed: 725
# Sold: 19
STR: 11%
ASP: $38.11

Hard Goods
# Listed: 581
# Sold: 7
STR: 5%
ASP: $30.33

EBay
# Listed: 3,185
# Sold: 90
STR: 12%
ASP: $26.45

Etsy
# Listed: 222
# Sold: 0
STR: 0%
ASP: $0

Poshmark
# Listed: 772
# Sold: 6
STR: 3%
ASP: $41.83

So, the store bounced back. After two slower weeks where we had sales in the 70s, now we are back in the 90s. So…were the lower sales because we had 5 day handling when we came to Montana, driving down our momentum? Or are the higher sales because we ended almost all of our listings and resubmitted them this week? Or did none of that matter? Let the speculation begin… 🙂

Going to put the store back on long handling this week, as Veronica is driving up here to Montana on Tuesday. We are going to help my mom get ready for the Bitterroot 50 Mile Yard Sale, a two day event similar to the Nebraska Junk Jaunt. We will probably get some shopping in as well if we can.

Going to be nice to see her too! I kinda miss her!

June 16 – 22
Total Items in Store: 2351
Items Sold: 27
Total Sales : $1297
* ABOVE yearly average of $913
Highest Price: $320 (Two Sub Zero Refrigerator Glass Shelves)
Average Price: $48
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $90
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $68
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 50

Another good week of sales. You’re absolutely right about an eBay business having its up and down times. It wasn’t too long ago that I was really bumming about my sales. Now I’m back to making cushy profits. Next week I may only make enough to survive. After a certain point, there really is no control. You’ve just got to keep at it and stay focused on the bigger picture.

I had a good weekend of scavenging. At a yard sale there was a bicycle leaning against a truck with nothing indicating a price or that it was even for sale. So I inquired about it and the guy there said yeah, I’m asking $40. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. It was a mid ‘80s Trek street bike in near pristine condition. I could easily make $400 or more on it. I also found a rare Chicago Bears pennant flag behind a shelf at an estate sale for a dollar that has sold in the past for around $150. After several bad scavenging weeks in a row, it was really nice to actually find some great items.

This week will be more of the same… list list list. The sink that I was planning to install became too much of an issue and is beyond my capability, so I decided to hire a plumber to install it. Sometimes it’s good to bring in the pros to get something done right the first time, even if it costs more to do it. The aggravation that I was bringing down on myself wasn’t worth the couple hundred bucks I would save by doing it myself.

I would love to hire someone. I guess my hold up is the insurance. I looked at it once. It was so expensive to carry workers comp insurance. I’m just afraid of getting sued, you just don’t know what your gonna get. Anyone have a company they recommend?

June 16 – 22
Total Items in Store: 1374
Items Sold: 13
Total Sales : $385
Highest Price: $45 (Green/White Handmade Beaded Belt)
Average Price: $30
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $18
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $50
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 20

Hello all,

Like Doubly mentioned we had better luck with yard sales this week. My only beef was that when people list ‘community sales’ in areas it’s frustrating to end up only going to 3-4 houses when it should way more than that…

I ended up finding some nice video games for a quarter a piece! I scooped up all the good ones. Good thing I grabbed the ones I wanted cause some little old lady hurried up and bought the few I left behind lol. Found some shoes, couple Dooney & Bourke purses, a few hats and some Lionel trains.

The moving sale was interesting that we went to. I kept contemplating offering money on a box of comics but we left and I forgot. We ended up going back around when she closed up and knocked on her door. Thankfully we went back because I got them cheap plus a Pepsi jacket I wanted, for lower than what she originally asked.

Also over the weekend we got to pet some adorable dogs. My favorite was a pair of Great Danes, so sweet!

We also rescued a little painted turtle that was on the road after we went to weak community sale. Named him Raphael and released him in proper land. Hopefully he’s adventuring and training in the way of the ninja, haha

Have a good week all!

Just heard the podcast this morning.

My thoughts on labor is that it can be a blessing and a curse, depending on how people are used. If you are hitting a wall on throughput (time is the constraint) then labor can level you up. But you MUST make sure that the labor will increase your average Revenue and Profit per week/month. If not, it is a luxury and has to be seen as such. It will reduce your margins, so make sure you know if you are doing this for more revenue/profit or for luxury.

Even when done for more revenue, you will have a cash flow hole when you bring on more people. Based on your STR, this will be short or long. When we brought on our photographer, I did the forecasting and knew that we would have a 4-5 months cash flow hole, while we were paying him NOW but the extra listings would bring more sales LATER.

I can’t stress enough that if you are bringing on people, make sure you do your own forecasting and know what that will do to your numbers short term (down) and long term (up).

Hello all – just wanted to check in. I have continued to enjoy listening to the podcast, but have not posted in a few months. I was traveling for 5 of the last 8 weeks and not doing much eBaying. This past weekend, I dove in with both feet and finally sorted and listed 52 pairs of suspenders that I picked up at an estate sale. It took all weekend, but I got 44 pairs listed, trashed 6 pairs (lost their elastic) and donated 2 pairs (unacceptable condition – pulled threads etc.). This morning as I was finishing the last seven listings, I sold one pair of suspenders for $54 that paid for the entire lot (I paid $50). It feels good to be back on top of my store. Also I finally broke through to 500 items in my store!!!

Best wishes to all, Daniel.

Regarding slow sales, STR, ROI, etc. both on the podcast and on the other thread, I think it comes down to the type of retail you are selling.

There are the Wal-Mart/Target type stores, that have both long and short term items that sell, but they are a higher volume, higher STR type stores as a whole. Then there are the antique stores, that have a much lower STR, but have a higher average ROI per item.

In my experience, most antique stores are never really crowded. Totally anecdotal, but I never seem to see many people there. But, they seem to stay in business.

Jay and Ryanne, you guys are much closer to an antique store model. Low STR, High Inventory, and willing to wait for the right buyer.

Most Amazon resellers are 3x models (pay $5 – sell at $15, $5 in fees, $5 in returned capital, $5 in profit) with high STR.

I think that Veronica and I are more in the middle at a 5X+ model, but willing to wait on some items, willing to quick turn on others.

All can work if you know how to run your business in the lane you are looking for.

Diversifying Payment Types

Friends, always keeping in mind I have a small thousand-item store, almost every add on or alternative option I can offer to potential buyers help me on incremental sales.

For example, I have incremental sales from Bonanza, eCrater and TrueGether, for most of you would represent nothing, for me one sales each per month is great.

Second I added the WebInterpret on eBay, I was already offering regular shipping worlwide as alternative to Global Shipping.

Now I have added Stripe and Amazon pay to those platforms (on eBay I can only do PayPal and Money Order). Amazon Pay has been a super nice surprise.

What makes this scenario interesting is that what sells on those alternate platforms are those items that never sell on eBay, things I have in store for 3-4 years.

PH

items sold: 29
sales: $856.26 (i don’t include shipping revenue)
average selling price: $29.52
cost of goods: $111.36
returns: 0
purchases: $208.78
store listings: 995
inventory $ risk: $3,820 (what i paid for all existing inventory)
listed this week: 50
ebay hours: 17

what’s on my mind: ok week of ebay. focus elsewhere.

Great show, as always! I have so much going on that I rarely get to actually sit down and work it out the numbers. I had a few slow weeks, but have been working on increasing my active listings (as well as doing a lot less auctions, per Jay & Ryanne’s advice). Been squeezing in between about 20 and 40 new listings a week for the past couple months now (ABL!). Not gotten a huge amount up and it’s been slow overall, but I’m still increasing my number of actives and working on raising the average value of my listings.

So I’ll try this numbers thing:

June 23rd – 29th

* Sales: 20
* Gross (not including shipping): $283.75
* COGS: $27 max (tough call; mostly from lots that have long since paid for themselves)
* Average sale price: $14.19
* Highest sold price: $50 (record album)
* Lowest sold price: $4.25 (N64 game)
* New listings: Approx 22
* Current number of listings: 348
* Spent on new inventory: $40
* Death piles: Yes, some. But I actually do work through them.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Steves Stuff. Reason: Correction