Scavenger Life Episode 470: How Would You Start Your Business Today?

Thank you for saying it took you two years to get to the point where you could cover your monthly bills. I have been struggling with getting to the point where I can even make a profit and I’ve been at this for a year, part-time. Lots to learn, appreciate all you share.

Items in Store 1368
Items Sold 42
Total Sales $1,671.00
COGS $252.00
Total Profit $1,419.00
Average profit $33.79
Average sales price $39.79
New Listings 3

Due to lack of listing I’ve dropped below 1400 listings yet I had a huge week. This must be the “2nd wave” Corona boost. Nothing major went on this week ebay wise. I’m still having trouble fitting listing into my busy schedule.
I hope everyone has a great week and stays safe.

Fun little comparison:

This week’s numbers – W/E 6/28 to 7/4

Items in Store: 2194
Items Sold: 52
Total Sales $1,823.04
COGS $124.88
Total Profit $1,137.19
Average profit $24.27
New Listings: 96

Numbers from one Year ago this week 6/30/19 to 7/6/19

Items in Store: 1140
Items Sold: 15
Total Sales $351.48
COGS $47.42
Total Profit $189.45
Average profit $15.79
New Listings: 33

One year ago I had one of my worst weeks ever. Last week was my best. While I have learned a lot in the past year about what to list (and more importantly what not to list) – the great sales number from last week have to be some sort of COVID boost. Shouldn’t the dead of summer be the slowest time of the year?

For me, the July 4 week is usually a bit better than the rest of July. This week did not disappoint. I’m sure that the combined holiday and quarantine helped.

I’ll be packing up my weekend sold items and listening to the podcast now.

Week of June 28 – July 4
* Total Items in Store: 1257 eBay, 32 Etsy
* Items Sold: 16 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $23.20 + $21.40 Commission
* Total Sales: $420.38 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $64 Antique French vermeil mortar or cup with handles
* Average price: $26.27
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 10

Wonderful podcast! Even after I have been selling for several years, I still need to hear what you are saying. Your podcast/forum has always been my go-to for down to earth and reasonable guide to ebay and scavenging. I have several family members asking about ebay recently and I just told them to start selling stuff in their house first, just to see if it is something they will actually keep doing.
Our ebay sales have been pretty average for ebay for the last couple weeks, admittedly we have essentially taken a month off due to a death in the family and helping several family members move. Our print on demand is still going well, because of the current pandemic our shipping time from suppliers has been ghastly, but people have been understanding and they keep buying. We have also been selling a ton of stuff on Facebook marketplace. My mom is downsizing from their 5000 sq ft house to a 1800 sq ft house, so I have been busy putting their stuff on. So far it has been a great marketplace.

Box hoarder!! I have been dubbed that by friends and co-workers. Lol.

* Total Items in Store: 355 eBay, 114 Mercari
* Items Sold: 18 Ebay, 5 Mercari
* Cost of Items Sold: $207 + some items ours
* Total Sales: $760 Ebay, $92 Mercari
* Highest Price Sold: $160 (6 vintage drawer pulls, paid $2.50)
* Average price: $42 Ebay, $18 Mercari
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 24

Great podcast this week. I’m the one who was asking for opinions about short listing titles since I noticed in Terapeak some short ones had sold highest. I was contemplating balancing the search hits vs. an algorithm boost one might get from a better conversion rate. Of course, we’ll never know about Cassini. I start with a readable string of the most basic and important key words first and then add a bunch of relevant descriptive words and fill up the space. However, I was thinking of dropping some of the latter possibly, especially things like color that would be covered in the item specifics. In theory, I’d get fewer, better hits and improve my conversion rate.

Regarding Poshmark, as a buyer I resent paying over $6 shipping on very lightweight first class items. It’s great for listing but makes me lowball over there. And yes, they might have to change it up like Mercari did if their hard goods business does well or they have other changes.

Good week of sales for me. Lots of distractions from listing last week. I hope to get more listings up this week. I’ve got a lot of piles but I’m a few boxes in now and it feels good. My daughter cleaned out her closet and it’s a lot of stuff. Most not very saleable, but we’ll see if she wants to put some work in.

If I started my business today, I would trust my instincts but search solds more often at the buying end and try to stay above $30 net unless it’s multiples. In my area there is no shortage of inventory so I really blew it in a way picking up some of the stuff I’m now dealing with years later. Also, I would pay more attention to the weight, since postal rates just keep marching up.

For the lady moving to Norway, I have one suggestion. I was in Norway in the later 1990s for work. Due to an air traffic controller’s strike, I was not able to get on my original flight back home. I changed it to Copenhagen and took a small overnight cruise from Oslo to Copenhagen. I intentionally arranged for my flight to leave in the evening, so I was able to walk around Copenhagen for a good part of the day. I stopped in the Royal Copenhagen outlet store and purchased porcelain and other stuff for my family.

They had lots of discontinued stuff, seconds, and other discounts. Of course, it has been a few decades and things might be different, but what better excuse for a fun business trip? Some retail arbitrage might be in your future!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by Sharyn.

My Sales Week Ending 7/4/20

Tall truck hit overhead internet cable. Comcast took 4 days.

Total Items For Sale: 68

Profit: $22
Items Sold: 1
Items Listed: 4
Average Profit: $22
Highest Profit: $22 Golf Sandals
Cost of Items Sold: $0
Returns: 0
$ Spent Sourcing: $0

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by old_man_marty.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by old_man_marty.

June 28 – July 4
Total Items in Store: 3,975
Items Sold: 40
Total Sales : $919
* BELOW yearly average of $963
Highest Price: $90 (Teclock Dial Test Indicator Set)
Average Price: $23
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $20
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 38

Another pretty good week for me. Higher than normal quantity sold, lower than normal average price. Can’t complain though, especially at this time of year.

This is the first week in two months that I haven’t gotten a return. In the past, it was uncommon to get any returns, but for some reason there have just been a slew of them. All for various reasons too.

Not much in the way of scavenging last week, but I do plan on going to a couple of auctions this week. They’re outdoor, and I’m definitely going to adhere to the mask and distance rules. It’ll be interesting to see what other people do, or even how many people show up.

Total Items in Store: 642
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $299
Highest Price: $48 – Jogger stroller wheel
Average Price: $25
Cost of Goods Sold: $25
Returns: 0
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $25
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 47

Jay and Ryanne, thanks for another excellent and entertaining podcast. Congrats on your $2K in sales. Really impressive.

I’ve been selling online three years. My advice to someone starting now is to keep it simple for the first six months to a year. Focus on selling small items that can ship USPS First Class, which is up to one pound. In the beginning stages you’re getting the hang of EBay processes, such as handling returns etc. If you ramp up too fast the stress level can go off the charts. When I started I sold on eBay and Amazon. Way too complicated. Several times I’d sell an item on Amazon and forget to take it off eBay. So I quickly dropped Amazon and haven’t regretted it.

My sales this week were meh. I’m glad to see others had great weeks. Went to two garage sales and picked up a couple of things — basket of remote controls for $10 and a diver first-aid kit for $15. I wore a mask but 70% of people weren’t. I was content with the two yard sales. Didn’t feel like spending hours driving around the Cincy metro area to dispersed sales.

Total items in store 2426
Total listings 1151
Items sold 31
Net sales $840.65
Gross sales $565.28
Highest price sold $50 times 4 new fountain pens. Still have one left
COGS $75

I’m down about 30% but that’s ok. I’m grateful for eBay these days.

What I would do differently? I’d take more risks.

I remember my first 4th quarter…I was worried items wouldn’t sell so I’d accept lower offers. Now I’m ok with waiting it out.

I found those fountain pens at a local store and asked if they could go lower on the price and I got them for $10 each. I took that risk asking about a price reduction and buying them but they’ve been selling quick!

I wouldn’t go looking for clothes and shoes to sell unless they are brand new and dirt cheap! I scored about 100 pairs of jeans for $2 a pair. Been slowly selling them off a few pairs a week for 3 months now. But I’ve got older used stuff that’s been sitting for over a year!

And I’d let more people know what I do. I get crazy deals cause I’m the local eBay lady.

Concerning other ‘New’ platforms and making it easy for sellers.
I’ve been experimenting with buying items off of Mercari.
A very disappointing experience, most sellers are complete amateurs, bad photos, little to no descriptions, poor communications, terrible shipping practices.

Although I’ve been able to procure a few items and make money reselling on eBay I can’t see how this company will survive.
I’ve purchased items only to have them canceled as no longer available, last week I bought an 8-Track Car player as not working with no guarantee for $12 plus another $13 for shipping, I wrote the seller to encourage proper packaging as I’ve had items purchased on Mercari just stuffed into a box with no packing materials, the seller wrote back no problem, a day later he cancelled the sale and disappeared off the site, the player was worth perhaps $300-$400 once refurbished.

Although Mercari is good about reimbursement I have not had a good buying experience.
eBay kind of weeds out the amateurs with their requirements to sell so it makes it a better platform for both buyers and sellers.

Today, July 6, it’s been 15 years since I listed my first item on eBay. I’d have to look back at my taxes, but I’m pretty sure It was 2 or 3 years before I made any money.

6/27/20-7/3/20
Total Items In Store: 1976
Items Sold: 33
Gross Sales: $960
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Hall-Toledo Valve Seat Grinder)
Average Price Sold: $29.10
Returns: 0 $0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $140
Number of items listed: 1

• Had a decent week of sales, but slowed down near the end of the week.
• Auctions have been great for sourcing this week. Spent $140 at 3 different auctions and filled the truck at a couple of them. All of them have been outdoor in my area, but there are several indoor ones scheduled in the coming weeks. You generally see a lot of older folks at auctions in my area (a lot of farmers). I am amazed that not many of them are wearing masks.
• Had a grinding tool that’s been sitting around for a number of years sell this week for $200. That was a good boost for my numbers this week.
• Interesting conversation about letting people know you sell on Ebay. I’ve always tried to keep it under wraps. Although, I’m sure regulars at auctions have figured it out. I always show up at least an hour early with a notebook and jot down info on items I want to research before the auction starts.

Jay…The majority of what I got came from 2 estate auctions. This particular auctioneer does hay racks first with the higher end items, then does furniture and finishes with rows of household/outdoor items in box lots. By the time they get to the box lots many people have left. Both days it was also over 90 degrees out which thinned the crowd even more.

They will generally sell multiple boxes at once to get through them quickly. I picked up multiple lots of boxes for $1-$3 per lot. At one auction they just wanted to end it, so they put several items together with about 10 box lots of kitchen items. I got it all for $30 and it included a home milk pasteurizer worth about $200 and lots of items worth $20-$50 each.

I had to laugh at Ryanne’s comment about taking good photos. I have seen so many listings with awful photos. Today, I was looking for some used t-shirts and I swear, this one listing had only 2 photos, both taken in a very cluttered room, and one had someone’s hind end in the photo. Lol!

@Meg: Talk about a cheeky listing!

Some great food for thought on this week’s show. Best advice I could give to me if I was starting off again is to focus on what you love to list and keep an eye on the online auctions. I know others get a lot from thrifts and yard sales, but I feel I do best with the lots I get from online sales. I set my limit to 10 – 20% of what I can sell something for, and usually get the items for much less. And, as Jay and Ryanne have said many times, your death piles will stay smaller if you enjoy listing the items you’re buying. I lose a lot, but still win enough to keep us in listings.

A milestone for us this month. We surpassed $100,000 in total eBay sales since we started in February 2016. I was surprised when I saw that statistic at the bottom of the Seller Level report page. Each year we sell a little more than the last and get better at picking. This year is shaping up to be the best yet.

Our scavenge of the week is a mid-century tin robot from Japan. We purchased it in a lot of toys in an online auction. It is the Masudaya Sonic Robot and appears to be pretty rare. In great shape they sell upwards of $3000. Ours is a little beat up and no longer runs, but should still bring in $1000 if we hold out. Nice thing is that we got the whole lot for $30, and three other items in the lot should sell for $100+. Also picked up a few other nice lots that should sell well.

Sales continue to be up and down but still much higher than last year this time.

Week Ending 07/04/2020
Total Items in Store: 1170
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $671.48
Gross wo Shipping $516.47
Cost of Items Sold: $54.44
COGS Percent 10.54%
Highest Price Sold: $100.00 Vintage HP Printer
Average Price Sold: $34.43
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $268.26
Sold via promoted listings: 8
Promoted Percentage: 53.33%
Average Days Listed: 265.93
Longest Listed: 871
New items listed: 0

I’m a little late to the party but….

Thanks for the podcast. It was interesting hearing you talk about things from a beginners perspective. I was giving some eBay tips to an elderly friend of my wife’s family on the weekend. She’s been talking about selling on ebay for at least 2 years and has never gotten around to it. She ordered a scale on the weekend while I was talking to her. I secretly hope she doesn’t attempt to sell. I don’t think I could keep my patience if I start getting a steady stream of phone calls from her with eBay questions.

Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 3999
Items Sold: 61
Total Sales: $1334.94
Cost of Items Sold: $163
Average Price Sold: $21.88
Average Cost of Item: $2.68
Highest Price Item Sold: $144.95 – Radio Shack Pro 162 Scanner
Number of items listed this week: 66 worth approx. $1543
YTD Sales: $29670
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +13%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 446
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 342
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 206.5

The week started off slow but definitely got better. Sales were better than the last few weeks but that was partially as a result of finally having new, more valuable items to list.

I hope everyone has a great week. Sell trash. Be free!

Total Items: 70 eBay, 45 TheRealReal, 2 Etsy
* Items Sold: 4 eBay, 1 TheRealReal
* Total Sales: $80 eBay (gross), $11 TRR (net)
* Highest Sold: $25 (tied for two items, linen pants & organic cotton dress)
* New Inventory: $4
* Items Listed: 2

This is my first time documenting my progress. I have a goal to get 100 total items listed by the end of the month, and also hit 3k Fixed Price gross inventory total. I would like to list another $500 worth before October.

June has been crawling for me on eBay, but surprisingly my best or second best month with TheRealReal. For some reason all my kids clothes are flying off the racks there (although yes I only sold 1 this week).

I feel like this is a relatable episode because this is my first year selling on eBay. So I am
I was chuckling at Ryanne talking about selling junk around the house to buy a trailer because that’s more or less what we did this summer! Sold enough through Facebook marketplace to get one.

Numbers for June 2020. eBay store: steve-list

Total Listings: 1131
Items sold: 56
Gross Sales: $1,115.55
Cost of Items sold: $81.10
Highest Price Sold: $90 – AD&D Spelljammer Game – PirateShip to England
Average Price Sold: $19.92 – Average Cost: $1.45
Spent on new inventory: $104
Number of items listed: 61

Quite a few by appointment only estate sales are happening in my area now. The one I went to, mask and gloves required, I was able to get an appointment the morning of the first day of the sale. As far as I can tell, very few people are attending due to the Covid-19.

Two issues from June, items shipped on June 15 and 19th via media mail getting stuck someplace in L.A. with no scanning updates since June 21st and 26th respectively – just notices saying that they are in transit.

One issue from July, somebody had copied one of my listings and used my photos and exact description text in the body of the listing. I didn’t find out until after I sold the item and after giving the buyer feedback, I saw an add at the bottom of the page for the exact same art piece, dented frame and all. I spent over an hour going through eBay links, calling eBay twice and not getting anyplace. The only thing I could do was to email eBay support. It is only a $12 dried leaf wall art piece. The lister has 0 feedback and is selling the item via auction with local pickup only. It appears they listed the item a day or so before I sold the piece and they are located quite a distance from the actual buyer.

If anybody is interested:

Link to my sold item

Link to the copycat item

June 28 – July 4, 2020
Total Items For Sale: 312 Unique = 479 Total (Plus FB Marketplace)
Items Sold: 67 (18% Sell Through Rate for Week, FB Marketplace and Multi Quantity Listings make this look higher than it should be)
Gross Sales: $1998 (Includes Shipping)
Weekly Profit: $789, $112.71/Day (after shipping, fees, COGs)
Cost of Items Sold: $459
Highest Price Sold: $213 (Vintage Sports Sweatshirts Lot)
Average Price Sold: $29.82
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $496
Number Of Items Listed This Week:59 ($2127 gross) Includes some multi-quantity
Weekly ROI:2.26x June ROI: 2.72x 2020 ROI: 2.53x

Impression for the week. Lots of low cost items sold but they added up to a good profit. Very busy this week, with family in town.

@Lukastreasuretrove What are your favorite online auction sites? And do you use those close enough to drive to for pick up, or do you have your wins shipped to you?

Jay, I will let you and the other scavengers in on a little secret; the majority of my success on TRR comes from children’s clothes. So far this year I have had no returns on them, and they go much faster than my womenswear. The trick is to look at their accepted brands list (it’s pretty short) and figure out what you can get locally. Although most of it is very high end and out of reach for us plebes, there is a short list of accessible streetwear brands they are accepting. I am able to source certain items from these brands for about $2 a piece, and then flip it for about $10. Not huge profit but a little bread and butter trickle where I do nothing other than look it over and send it in. No listing, no photographing, no shipping, no dealing with customers. They store and handle everything. For me, that is worth my time.

They look over and decide what they want to keep. Most of my stuff has been accepted, but I am picky about what I send in. Items should be basically in NWOT condition. I make about 40% consignment. There is the ability to make up to 60% consignment once you hit a certain number in gross sales. So on an item where I make $11, someone else was willing to pay closer to $30. TRR has the kind of audience that is willing to spend that kind of money, and faster than eBay.

They also accept very high end furniture and home goods, although I’m not sure how that process works.

ETA: No, I do not find my items in thrift stores.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by Pikapop.

For the Norway caller: my sister lives in Belgium; she has an eBay store but also says “Vinted” is similar in the Europe area. She finds a ton of unique items in the thrift stores such as vintage wool blankets for one euro and sells for $200 or so to US clients. She uses free shipping. She finds awesome MCM curtains and furniture too. She is researching now how to ship MCM coffee tables over here because they are so cheap there. She would probably be happy to message with you about selling on eBay in Europe and shipping to US. Her store name is “belgiumyankee”, check our her for sale and “solds” for what she finds.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by ThriftShift.

Jay, I have sold a few items on The Real Real website since Covid. Pikapop has a great strategy. My approach is different. Here is what I did.

I’ve listed four items from a high-end brand on TRR. Three are sold with the fourth still in process. We’re talking $780 with about 50% of that as my commission.

Now, to be honest, this is an experiment I cannot easily reproduce. The items were gifts to me and were basically sold as NWOT and NWT. I will not disclose too many specifics about the brand but, in my mind, TRR is great for any brand that eBay scammers target and where eBay does not provide any authentication – depending on how much “meat is on the bone” since you do share about half the profits with them.

I almost lost $200 on eBay on a sale of the same brand I mentioned above. The item got returned by the buyer for not being authentic, although it was. eBay decided to pay the $200 with the disclaimer, “since this is the first time this every happened to you.” Vowing never to repeat this, I finally decided to try The Real Real after hearing about it from one of your older podcasts.

I simply went to their site and looked for the link to start consigning. I set up a username and received an email with a simple form to submit my items. I emailed it back and was sent a shipping label and then shipped the items. Once received, my items were put in queue, reviewed for authenticity and quality, and then listed. They were sold in about 10 days. A month after the buyer paid, I got my money. I just had to set up a payment method for them to pay me.

Due to Covid, the whole process took about twice the time as usual from what I can tell. So, instead of 6 weeks, it took about three months from the time I shipped the items to the time I received my money. They do all the work. I did not have to photograph anything or write any lengthy descriptions.

I would recommend this for any item you know you cannot send to eBay for fear of VeROs or scammers. It just has to be good enough quality to be worth your while so you make a decent commission. It seems that 40-50% commission is the starting percentage but it is according to category and how much you sell with them. More sales earn a higher percentage.

Yes, Jay, I agree. If I am not sure if something will receive scammers or not, I list it high and see what response I get. If I get offers with emails with poor spelling, phrases like, “hey, dude,” etc., then I pull it off eBay ASAP and never list that brand there again.

Hi all, another OK week on the bay.

Sales c/w shipping: CAD$1656, 13 sales, COGS: $156, Fees: ~$190, Postage: $330 –> Gross profit: $981
Expenditures: $2691 –> Cashflow: -$1553

Bought a lot of good stuff at 2 local auctions.

Oh, and I’m back in the office now. Which, paradoxically, makes me more motivated to do ebay than before – to recover the wuflu good times of staying at home.

This is a little late, as I just listened to the podcast from 2 weeks ago when you were mentioning store levels. I figured I would share this. There is probably a better version of this online, but I put together this spreadsheet to figure out when it makes sense to bump up to the next store level. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TmpYb3cUXgQ13vUSiNe5PIPFoBNqcVGeRvW7WNbMye0/edit
I didn’t factor in “free” shipping supplies.
There are 2 payment types, monthly or annually so depending on how you pay would affect this.

From Free to Starter, 70 listings
From Starter to Basic, 157 listings (annually) or 167 listings (monthly)
From Basic to Premium, 400 (annually), 425 (monthly)
From Premium to Anchor, 3,700 (monthly), 3,900 (annually)
Anchor to Enterprise, 62,000 (monthly), 64,000 (annually)

I am sure there are flaws in my work, but it was fun for my nerd brain to work through this.

To get back to Simon’s comment from yesterday about The Real Real 50% commission. Yes – for me I am not selling anything on The Real Real unless I know I will encounter a scammer. I would much rather sell on eBay. I currently have 66 items for sale on eBay and 1 item on The Real Real.

No, I don’t get a lot of scammers. All I know is I had four pieces of clothing worth about $750 total and I was hesitant to sell them after I sold the first one on eBay, had a scammer request a refund for “inauthenticity,” and had him send me back a ripped Nirvana concert shirt and pair of old short pants. He did this just to send something in that box to get his refund. That’s what they do. I was lucky because eBay paid me my $200 that time with the politely worded warning not to let it happen again. So I’m not selling that brand on eBay anymore. I checked to see if eBay covered that brand under its authentication program but it did not. So, when I heard about The Real Real, it seemed like a good choice. They authenticate their products so they do not easily give refunds to buyers who claim something is inauthentic. So, I could have either wasted my time on eBay and been scammed again on that hot brand (I received dozens of emails on that first test within hours – all of them with weirdly worded offers) or I could sell it on The Real Real and make half their value. Something is better than nothing.

If you have an alternative with a higher commission on the consignment, let me know please.

Again – I personally am only recommending this if you are, say, at an estate sale, staring at a high end item that you know eBay does not authenticate, and it is in almost perfect condition. Does that make sense?

Hi, just listened now – so funny that you mentioned me.

There is definitely a lot of scavenging to be done in all of Scandinavia. Awesome Mid-Century Modern stuff there and a culture of no waste so things aren’t discarded to landfills – people tend to buy and sell second hand a lot, I feel. Lots of charity shops, online auction platforms that work really well, flea markets, etc etc

That being said, you have to be willing to spend money to make money though. Most people won’t give away their goodies for a dime… unless it’s really for charities to make money out of it.

It is definitely possible to sell on ebay.com while based in Europe. I do, but I prefer ETSY (buyers pay a premium and fees are lower).

I think there is scavenging to be done anywhere on Earth especially if you have access to a global market. It all boils down to knowledge and information – being smart enough to know where there are arbitrage margins – whether big or small – to be made.