Scavenger Life Episode 460: 2020 Plan

04/19/20 – 04/25/20

Total Items In Store: 3441
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $ 850
Total Sales: $ 884.54
Highest Price Sold: $ 72 (DVD\VCR Combo)
Average Price Sold: $ 35.38
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 0
Number of items listed: 130

Gut Sales Report for the week: Again, it felt like the busy season. I was still selling a lot of Inline skates (4 this week) but other things as well.

Challenge of the week: Still trying to take pictures of about 10 items everyday Mon-Sat.

Scavenge of the week: Nothing.

Trends of the week:

1. This is probably the most items listed in a week for my store.

2. I am going to Fedex a lot more. They lowered their prices for larger heavier items and that
helps a lot. In some cases I make more sales. In other cases (the buyer doesn’t select
Fedex), I make more money on the shipping.

3. Golf clubs are starting to sell.

4 Stereo equipment, DVD’s, VCR’s are starting to sell.

Mark S

My eBay Sales (No Store) Week April 19-25, 2020

Total Items For Sale (No Store): 31
Items Sold: 2
Gross Sales: $24.55
Cost of Items Sold: $0
Highest Price Sold: $14.95 (Shoe Insoles)
Average Price Sold: $12.28
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number Of Items Listed This Week: 7

Total Items in Store: 321 Ebay, 60 Mercari
Items Sold: 20 Ebay, 3 Mercari
Gross Sales: $501 Ebay, $24 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $101 + a few items ours
Highest Price Sold: $79 (One yard of French fabric, paid $5 at garage sale)
Average Price Sold: $25 Ebay, $11 Mercari
Returns: 1 – Sold a damaged item (as described), allowed buyer to keep instead of return ($14)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $35 online RA
Number of items listed this week: 27

I listened to the podcast while cleaning the house today. Not as much fun as sitting by the fire. I liked the discussion about how an item has to have a hook even if it’s not your taste. There does still certainly seem to be a lot of uncertainty about what to expect through the end of the year. Not sure what my younger teen will do during summer. She’s thinking about helping me photograph for Ebay but wants a lot of $. If she’s bored enough she might come around.

It was a busy week for me on Ebay while Mercari was quiet. I sold a lot of fabric. There is a big box of vintage fabric in my garage that I need to dig up. I’m hoping to get more listed this coming week from the piles.

This week for fun I’ve been working on making a what sold video to share with you trash elves on Steve’s Wednesday forum post. My first time on IMovie, so bear with me friends.

I think that is why they are doing that now, not showing names. I do remember blocking people who lowballed me before and now I cannot. Why do I block them, because usually your lowballers are the ones who will either try to scam or give a bad feedback. Not always but it does happen to me.

Sun – Sat, April 19 – 25
Total Items in Stores: 319
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $234.10
Cost of Items Sold: $88.00 (not including family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $50.00 (military challenge coin on consignment)
Average Price Sold: $18.00
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 57

COGS relative to gross was uncharacteristically high for me due to one item I took a loss on. I had paid close to $70 for it on an eBay auction snipe in a listing with bad pictures. I thought it was good for an easy sale at $120 but it was in much worse condition than could be discerned in the fuzzy pictures. I should have just made a fuss and returned it but the listing was no returns, condition “used” with no further explanation so I really felt it was just my fault for paying too much. It sold for $40 plus shipping with full disclosure of condition.

Lots of family castoffs are getting dumped on me as the kids are cleaning out their rooms between online classes and we continue to purge for the upcoming move. Many are low dollar items – I’m going through a box of about 150 DVDs, for example. I hate to just donate that stuff so I’ll list it but it does cut into the average price sold. Although I don’t include the family items in item costs above I do take the original cost into account for tax purposes, but never for more than net selling price.

I’ve already sold 5 items today so knock on wood it will be a decent week for me.

We have and you did post that link but it is a great article on them, though it only talks about one legend of how they started. I talked about my experience with them before here:

What Sells On eBay: Lava lite, Headshell and Cartridge, Wax cat, MED Massager, Z-Coil shoes, Brunswick crank phonograph

And here:

Scavenger Life Episode 440: Online Scavenging

It’s still a very active collecting field. Personally I have zero interest in them other than the ones I earned during my initial voluntary servitude in the ‘80s but happy to help my friend sell off his large collection and they’re so easy to list and ship. It doesn’t hurt to have a military background to maximize returns with key words and descriptions and also for pricing.

04/19/20 – 04/25/20

Total Items In Store: 14,959
Total # of orders – 150
Total # of items sold – 165
Cost of Items Sold: ~$42
Total Sales: $ 3,310.22
Highest Price Sold: Potbelly Antique Chestnut Coal Stove – $225 – $50 partial refund = $175
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 0

Busy week again, not a day under $300 gross sales, which is great. I had an issue with the customer who bought the cast iron stove. He claimed the “back” damper was missing, the damper on that item is on the top, not the back, so he was either fishing for a partial refund or didn’t know what he was talking about. At the end of the day, I just provided him a $50 credit an he kept the item. It would of cost me nearly $60 to send it back, so it was the most sensible option. I paid $30 for it 2 years ago and it was a pain to pack, so I’m just glad it’s gone and I made a profit.

Best of luck with the 2020 plan you guys have started!

Listening to the podcast: Just wanted to say, if you have Concierge Support, that is operating now….the agents are working from home. The guy I spoke with the other night had his 7 year old dropping in while he was helping me LOL

The new mailer is basically what is usually called a photo mailer….it’s a stiff cardboard that is thin but very stiff…

Just a short note on block buyers sending emails. On the eBay “Buyer Requirements” page: https://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences&BuyerBlockPreferences= near the bottom there is a check box to “Don’t allow blocked buyers to contact me.” So if you have a blocked buyer but haven’t check the box they may still be able to contact you.

Items in Store 1578
Items Sold 61
Total Sales $2,625.00
COGS $193.00
Total Profit $2,432.00
Average profit $39.87
Average sales price $43.03
New Listings 95

Wow what a week! I had several big ticket sales that boosted my numbers. If only every week could be like this week…that would be awesome. I’m gonna keep riding this wave as long as it lasts. I slowed down a bit this weekend because I got hit with whopper of an allergy attack. I’ve been freaking out thinking I have the coronavirus. Not fun at all.

A quick tip – Paypal currently has no fees on instant transfers. Take advantage of that while you can! It’s nice to instantly have new money in my checking account instantly.

Hello all, chugging along at around 2%-5% better sales week to week than this time last year.
A WWII Supply SGT’s scrap/photo book finally sold for $231.50. I paid a lot for it at $100 but could not resist the possibility of finding a Holy Grail document or photo in it, not so, but a good book regardless. I enjoyed owning it for awhile and almost gifted it to my Father.
My wife and I have decided to move again forward with the selling of our home. Planning for anything right now is at the very least a good antidote to sitting around paralyzed with uncertainty. I like the taking action option better.

04/19 – 04/25/20 (no cross listing is done between platforms)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 787
Number of items sold: 8
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $397.50
Cost of items sold: $117 (Way more than my usual this week!)
Highest price sold: $231.50 WWII scrap/photo book, paid $100 knowing I could at least double that.
Average price sold: $50
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 14
Sell through rate for the week: 1.0
Number International sales: 0

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 634
Number of items sold: 6
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $119.50
Cost of items sold: $5
Highest price sold: $27.50 Shabby old lot of fishing net rope strands and an old buoy, paid $3.
Average price sold: $20
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 9
Sell through rate for the week: 1.0
Number International sales: 0

I have a question about the coupon for shipping supplies you mentioned. I’ve had a store for a couple of months now and haven’t seen the coupon. It’s just a starter store, though, so maybe it’s not eligible. Do you need a higher level store? Or is the coupon somewhere I’m just not seeing?

Hey Jay & Ryanne –

Just an idea on the mugs for your coffee shop. As scavengers, you come across mugs all the time for very little money. Some thrift stores give them away because no one will buy them. Why don’t you just collect & wash them, and then just highlight that as part of your store’s “sustainability initiative”. People can leave them, or take them, and you can have a sign asking for more donations. Just a suggestion.

For offer history, I am just as confused about that page, but I have noticed that they moved the most recent offer down to the bottom. So, first they list all the expired offers, then the ones still open on the bottom. Really stupid way to organize the page, but that is the way it is.

For the caller (Patty) asking about how to select shipping when sending an invoice. So, sometimes you strike a deal that includes shipping, and you want to make sure that it is the cheapest available. What you do is delete all the other options and only leave one. Keep in mind that the fist option cannot be deleted, so you have to change it to what you want. If you have Priority first and FedEx second, you have to delete FedEx and then change the main one from Priority to FedEx. Then the buyer cannot select a premium shipping service. Perhaps this answers her question?

Week of April 19 – 25
* Total Items in Store: 1403 eBay, 34 Etsy
* Items Sold: 29 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $36.96 + $83.96 Commission
* Total Sales: $579.97 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $40 Vintage 1970s Miller High Life lighted bar sign
* Returns: 1 (not shipped yet)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 5

Still having very robust sales, but many are inexpensive items under $10. I sometimes take photos before researching, so I end up with cheap stuff that I list because I already did the work. Still quite happy with the results. I sold eight items on commission, so that number is high.

I started this new week with a $124 sale, so we’re off to a good start.

I’ve noticed many more counteroffers lately after sending offers to buyers. Buyers seem to be smart about it because they make a reasonable offer just below what I was interested in giving, but then I want the sale so I accept 🙂

One last thing – I just noticed this morning an extra heading on Seller Hub called Payments. I clicked it, it is about managed payments. Since I’m not there yet, it is just informational, but, in the future, I guess it will probably have information on the money available for disbursement and other such things.

Total Items For Sale: 203
Items Sold: 14
Gross Sales: $357.21
Cost of Items Sold: $30?
Highest Price Sold: $58.00 a lot of vintage t-shirts, also a pair of Matsuda Sunglasses
Average Price Sold: $25.21
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number Of Items Listed This Week: 6

Put a junk drawer lot up for auction, sold for $3.25. Realized a day before auction ended that I spelled titled “Jumk Drawer lot.” No sure if misspelling affected search results.

Sold a Nike Jordan T-Shirt for $60 but havent been paid yet, not sure if I will so didnt count that in total.

Also a few of my sales were some albums I have taken out of my small personal collection as well as a cast iron skillet that I havent used in a couple years.

Hi Ryanne & Jay,
Thanks for the podcast.

Here are my numbers for the week:

Total Items in Store: 3858
Items Sold: 81
Total Sales: $1599.39
Cost of Items Sold: $152
Average Price Sold: $19.75
Average Cost of Item: $1.88
Highest Price Item Sold: $125 Parker Vacumatic Golden Brown Fountain Pen & Pen Dual Tone Nib 1930s
Number of items listed this week: 104 worth approx. $1814
YTD Sales: $17960
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +20%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 456
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 287
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 179
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.1%
Hats sold this week: 59 (72% of sales) worth $968 (60% of sales $)

I had a great week. In fact I had the best week I’ve ever had (in the last 5 years). I’ve never had more orders in a week and my $ sold was also the highest ever. In addition I had 2 days where I sold more in a single day than ever before. (I sold 22 items on two different days). I also sold something that had been listed for 1389 days which is the oldest listing I’ve ever sold.

In regard to offer history, I mentioned in the forum that you can always use this link to see offer history. (eBay only provides the link when there is an open offer): replace the 99999999999999 bit at the end with the item number of your listing https://ofr.ebay.com/offerapp/bo/showOffers/99999999999999
I’ve been using this link a bit because people have been letting offers expire and then contact me to ask if I’ll resend it. Even though the username is scrambled the feedback number is correct for the user so I can match that up.

My 1000 hats / $1000 purchase seems to be coming to a satisfactory conclusion. The seller is sending another 150 hats and gave me a refund of some of my purchase cost to make up for grossly underestimating the number of hats.

Hope everyone has a great week this week. Stay healthy, sell trash!

Hi all, I just used eBay Chat to resolve two returns in about 8 minutes. So much better than calling! I took photos of the page where the rep said “no defects” when I asked the question at the end of our session; I am supposed to get a transcript emailed as well. I saw the option on eBay’s “contacting customer service” page.

https://www.ebay.com/help/account/default/contacting-ebay-customer-service?id=4379

Scroll all the way to the bottom and look for dark blue print “other options” with a click down arrow; that is where I found “chat with us”

Shipped out 187 orders last week. With multi-quantity orders, I think it was roughly 195 items to go out? 53 orders going out today. I estimate we’re at 20-30 so far for tomorrow. Mainly selling the usual items, but I did sell a Christmas ornament on my 2nd Ebay store. Christmas ephemera has also been selling on my main Ebay store – I think people are finding the idea of a future Christmas to be comforting, so they’re stocking up on related items to be as cheerful and optimistic as possible. Disney related item sales have also picked up. I would recommend listing both types of items if they’re the sort of items in your backlog and you’re wondering what to list next?

I ventured out of the house today for the first time in nearly a month. Very bleak. 90% of people outside had face masks and looked miserable. I walked in the street multiple times to avoid people. With the gray skies and drizzle, it just felt wrong outside. When things start to “get back to normal” here, I honestly don’t know how it’s going to work. It barely worked today with only essential businesses open and few people walking or driving. I don’t know how an increase in people will work with the small footprint the stores in NYC have – as it is now, you can sometimes be the only person in a store for up to 5 minutes. When more people are encouraged to walk around and go shopping, our stores won’t be able to handle it. With more cars on the streets, it will be difficult to walk in the road when it’s full of cars again. The sidewalks won’t magically get larger to accommodate the 6 ft social distancing mandates. This goes for all the major cities in the US with tiny stores. It’s not going to work. At least in rural or suburban areas with large stores, most people can keep to themselves in their cars or in their Super Walmart sized stores or even thrift stores. We don’t have that option here. Our corner stores are tiny. Our thrift stores are tiny.

This was going to be the first year I completely cut out online sourcing for the majority of the year and just focused on buying locally. Oh well. I’ve gone back to buying a lot online and continue to work through the backlog. I feel that to an extent things may go “back to normal,” i.e. the “new normal” for the majority of the country, but not for where I am. Just gotta get used to it. During Cuomo’s press briefing today, he said the shutdown will be extended for downstate NY and just had a bunch of ? question marks ? about when we would even begin to reopen.

I’m seeing it in both my Starter store and my Basic store.

Thanks for another great podcast, Jay and Ryanne. I like your attitude of gratitude in these cray days. Like being thankful for being able to walk outside. Hard to realize there are many who can’t even enjoy that simple pleasure.

April 19 – 25
Total Items in Store: 534
Items Sold: 18
Total Gross Sales includes s/h: $578
Highest Price: $104 (Saris Bones 2 Bike Rack)
Lowest Price: $11.99 (Toshiba TV/VCR Remote)
Average Price: $32
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $15
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 1

Gut reaction: Another solid solid week of sales. Stuff that I’d even forgotten about after months of sitting on the shelf are flying out the door. My death pile is gone though, so active listings are falling fast.

Scavenge of the week: Started scouring FB the other night and hit paydirt fast: 220 TV/DVD/CD remotes for $40. The only catch is I have to drive 3 hours to pick them up. The seller was willing to ship but that’s almost 60 pounds of remotes. I’m a little queasy about the length of the trip, but I will only stop for gas (with hand cleaning etc. after touching gas pump), pick up from porch and then back home. I’m hopeful I can eat off this buy for weeks.

Hi guys, good to hear from you as usual.

Another good sales week on ebay… unfortunately still dismal scavenging.

Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3,449, 21 sales, COGS: $257, Fees: ~$481, Postage: $735, –> Gross profit: $1,975
Expenditures: $195 –> Cashflow: $2,233
Biggest sale was the last 11 of my medical wall panel things… had a good run with them, I think I originally bought like 50 of them for $5 each and over 1.5 years, sold them all for around $70 average.

Built a square foot garden on the south side of our garage (16’x2’x20″) this weekend.

4/18/20-4/24/20
Total Items In Store: 2103
Items Sold: 53
Gross Sales: $1570
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Electric Water Feeder Pump)
Average Price Sold: $29.63
Returns: 0 $0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of items listed: 0

• Another great week in gross sales.
• Still working on projects around the house to stay busy.
• Our governor extended the lockdown until the end of May and our city cancelled this year’s town wide garage sale days. Sourcing new items to list has been an issue and local online auctions prices are running very high.
• Once restrictions are lifted, I would imagine there will be some great buying opportunities with the market getting flooded with inventory that people have not been able to get rid of.

April 19 – 25
Total Items in Store: 3,948
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales : $788
* Below yearly average of $983
Highest Price: $60 (Glass Ceiling Lamp Globe Shade with Brass Finial)
Average Price: $25
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $71
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 48

Things kinda slowed down for me this week. Not terrible, but not amazing either. Still made plenty to keep me comfortable though. I kinda struggled with listing again. Some days I just didn’t have it in me to get started. But that’s not to say I wasn’t productive. I Got some yard and house work done instead.

I started making bread too! I looked up a no-knead recipe on your recommendation and gave it a try. It turned out wonderful! So good in fact that I ended up making a second loaf the following day. I threw in some garlic and onion powder in the second batch and it’s so good.

Regarding the shift of people working remotely, I really hope it starts to happen. I love living in our rural area but the only drawback is the lack of little businesses and people our age. If more people from the Pittsburgh area could start spreading out to little towns an hour away from the city, it would help the little communities around us so much.

Another nice podcast, it’s nice to have some semi scheduled things to listen to every week for a bit of normalcy!
Sold 2 costume jewelry items on ebay, stuff listed long and and forgotten about $100
A few sales in the past few days on mercadolibre, air rifle pellets for $30 and a silly cars kids inflatable punching bag for $25, and a shot winch cable for $35 bucks.
Still listing stuff from a big lot we bought, doing 10 listings a day to keep busy and also leave ourselves something to do everyday to get some routine going in our lives.
Jay/Ryanne, when the coffee roaster gets up and going will it be the supply for the coffee shop only or also for online sales? Any issues getting the health certs for the product?
I really like your plan with the building. I’ve got a few similar ones to get going here, real estate buy and holds with a moneymaker to keep it going for the hold period.
Best of luck and happy hunting to everyone!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by scott2.

Thanks for the podcast. Coffee roasting sounds fun. I really love coffee and I think it would be fascinating to learn how to create your own personal roast. Looking forward to tasting the Scavenger blend.

Bouncing up and down from week to week. Back up above our average sales rate this week. Quarantine boredom seems to be the driving force with lots of collectors and hobbyists as our main buyers. I checked my three month sales this morning and we’re running 87% higher this year than last.

Best sale of the week was a vintage Rolleiflex camera for $499.95. After turning down lots of offers over the last few months someone finally bought it for full price. My COGS are up this week as I paid more for this camera than I normally would. I misidentified it as a more expensive model at the estate sale I purchased it from. I bought the camera and a lot of accessories for $400. All the accessories should bring about as much as the camera itself. Already sold some of the accessories, so this sale finally pulls me firmly into profit. One of the reasons Estate Sales aren’t my favorite venue, I frequently feel the need to make a quick decision on a purchase before fully researching. As this turned out to be short tail, only 2 months in inventory, I guess it’s not so bad.

Week Ending 04/25/2020
Total Items in Store: 1146
Items Sold: 18
Gross Sales: $1,308.38
Gross wo Shipping $1,135.49
Cost of Items Sold: $241.98
COGS Percent 21.31%
Highest Price Sold: $499.95 Rolleiflex Camera
Average Price Sold: $63.08
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 11
Promoted Percentage: 61.11%
Average Days Listed: 196.17
Longest Listed: 832
New items listed: 31

I can see the chat option, and I don’t have a store subscription. Thanks for that link.

I recently went back to selling on ebay. I only have 50 items listed but am averaging 2-3 sales a day. Small potatoes to the rest of you but I am relieved to see that ebaying still works.

I like how Jay and Ryanne figured out how much they have to sell to cover their expenses. My expenses are lower, and I figured I need to sell at least 5 items a day to pay the bills. So I am aiming for that.

Honestly my state (FL) hasn’t really locked down like other states. The roads are still packed, you can get takeout anywhere, most stores seem to be open. Some people are still having yard and estate sales on the weekends which I’d think is against the rules but Florida is gonna be Florida I guess. We are staying in because we’d prefer to have a vetted therapeutic available at least before we start venturing out. I have plenty of Ebay deathpiles to keep me busy lol. Sales have been surprisingly good for me in the past month but I wonder if that will hold.

I think my state may be opening up hotels and vacation rentals to outside tourists soon, so maybe yours will too? It will be interesting to see how the Georgia experiment pans out in a few weeks. Maybe if it’s not a terrible uptick in numbers other states will start loosening up.

One thing that I’ve found interesting in all of this is that we don’t hate homeschooling. My oldest will start high school in the fall and as long as it’s done safely (ie everyone wearing masks at all times) I think she’ll be good to go. My grade schooler is doing just fine homeschooling and I think I’m going to homeschool her next year using our state’s virtual school curriculum. Not going to lie here…I’m rather enjoying not dashing back and forth to drop offs and pickups and lessons all day long. I also don’t trust that littler kids can be made to wear masks and social distance all day long. Until this thing is over, I think I’m an accidental homeschooler…and I don’t hate it.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by ChristineK.

Sun – Sat, April 19 – 25
Total Items in Stores: 807
Items Sold: 9
Gross Sales: $320.02
Cost of Items Sold: $8.00
Highest Price Sold: $67 (Rosenthal sculpture – bust of the composer Wagner)
Average Price Sold: $35.56
Returns: 0, but a tiki mug broke in transit. USPS already approved my claim
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $22
Number of items listed this week: 24

Scavenge of the week: I got 3 band tour shirts (Radiohead and Styx and REO Speedwagon) for $16 total shipped via my new fun place to source – Facebook live auctions. I’ve scored a few great deals and it’s pretty entertaining to see what people have and what people will pay for things (often higher than eBay prices). I keep it on the background while working or cooking and if something piques my interest, I bid. The two groups I like are: Richmond Online Auctions, LLC (they are local to me but also ship) and Bid to Win Live (there’s an auction almost every hour of the day). Richmond Online Auctions is even going into local antique stores and doing buy it now sales to help the shop owners during these crazy times. I’m considering trying out my own auction soon. We’ll see!

I’m also participating in a Richmond local maker/vendor virtual sale the next three days on Instagram (@rvamakersmarket, I am @heygoodeye). I don’t have details on how they’ll do the event yet but it should be fun to get my stuff out there.

Oh! And I got the Southern Split coffee from Broad Porch. YUM! It was strong too. Got me through the day.