Scavenger Life Episode 477: Goodbye Summer

Hello, just finished up this weeks podcast while listing, great conversation as always. Ive been away from the board for a few weeks, I hadn’t heard of the conversation regarding selling high priced items on Ebay. Ryanne, your advice is spot on. I always add insurance and signature confirmation on expensive orders and just eat the cost, it’s not much. And I know it’s been a few weeks since discussed, but we absolutely always double box any high value or fragile order.

Speaking of, we’re sending out a high priced item tomorrow and will be doing exactly as you said, adding insurance and sig. confirmation. And even though they are paper items, we will be double boxing them. I just don’t see why anyone would take the risk and not do as much as they can to protect a package.

So a story about the high value item..

Last week I saw several lots of old Dog n Suds store promotional posters at an online auction. Each lot had 4 posters. I always start off by just posting my highest bid at the beginning of every auction, because I’ll completely space and forget to check the auction again on closing day. So I go and put a $25 dollar bid on the 8 lots. I end up forgetting about it and the week goes by and I get my invoice showing which items I’ve won. I had won 6 out of the 8 lots, paid $20-25 per lot. Knowing what I know now, I’m really kicking myself I didn’t pick up the other lots. (screenshot of auction listings https://imgur.com/XLdd2G7)

I’ve read and heard the opinion that worthpoint is useless because anyone can go back a year on terapeak or check google, but with old paper and advertising, sometimes worthpoint is the only place you can find any info on them. I checked worthpoint before bidding and saw that the last time these posters showed up was 2013-2014. No info on google. Image search just referenced back to worthpoint links.

The ones in 2013/14 sold for $20-30 each, with one going for around $60.

So I knew they were rare. The people I was bidding against either didn’t have worthpoint or did and judged their value at the price sold 7 years ago. I priced them high and sold 14 of them to a buyer who used to own a Dog n Suds in Ohio for $1425+shipping. We still have 10 more to sell, so just super happy with that purchase.

Past few weeks have been slow, $1,500-1,800 gross range. This week would have been about the same, but those posters more than made up for it. Half of our entire weeks sales came from Friday alone.

Aug 16-22

Current total of individual listing – 15,238

Gross sales (before fees/taxes/shipping) $4,162.96

Cost of items sold – estimate around $100-110, 14 posters was the bulk of it. A lot of sales from those magazines still. A lot of records, photos, postcards, and pins sold that have a COG under $1. I finally sold an amp that’s been sitting for years that I paid $7 for, took an offer of $150 + Shipping. I sold a 1st edition copy of the Vegetable for $125 that I got by mistake because the auctioneer gave my lot another buyer on accident. The lot of books I was supposed to get I only paid $2.50 for and I kept 4 books and tossed the rest.

# of orders – 109. Sold many combined items, haven’t added them up yet, probably an additional 10-15 items.

Money spent on Inventory this week – $244. From the auction I bought the dog n suds at, I got some other magazine and paper items.

Total Items in Store: 25,548
Items sold: 136
Gross Sales: $1,499.03
Highest Price Sold: several postcards for $30 each
COGS: $13.60
Average Price Sold: $11.02
No Returns *
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of items listed this week: 538+/-

I got the specialization down pat, just not the $1,000 an item.   Specialization does help me tremendously when I’m buying postcards at antique malls, auctions, etc.   I can even do very well when I buy from other postcard dealers at shows.   These postcard experts only specialize in selling at postcard shows, they don’t sell on any Ecom sites, so they don’t know what the current trends are or current prices realized for certain topics, towns, etc.  Since I specialize in selling postcard on ebay,  I can cherry pick their cards for ones I know will sell well online.    I recently bought a card from a dealer for $.25 of one of the confederate monuments that was removed and I resold it today for $60.

*No returns but I had an impatient buyer open an item not received case.   I see his point that in the “good ol days”  it did not take 10 days to travel the 80 miles from Baltimore to Harrisburg.   I’ll wait until the last moment to issue a refund, hoping that it shows up.   I’m only out $7 if it doesn’t show.   Cost of doing business.   But, I’m wondering how bad it’s going  to get for me since 82% of my cards are mailed with a forever stamp and no USPS tracking.

Loved the call in guest and agree with the idea of specialization v generalization. I posted the comment below on 474 – probably too late for anyone to actually read it.  Since the topic came up again this week, re-posting.  Would love to hear what others have done in the quest to sell higher priced items.  : )

Selling More Expensive Things – What I’ve learned over the last few Years

You’re not alone in the desire to sell better things. You guys have mentioned this on a few podcasts recently. This has been a goal for me over the last couple of years.  I work full time, eBay is my side hustle / hobby. My store has fluctuated between 300 – 500 items.  In 2017 I tore my ACL and had a lot of time off my feet and away from eBay. I took a really long break, and when I came back, I decided to change what I sell.  Since real numbers help, I included my rough numbers for the last 4 years.  2016 I was selling the basic scavenger stuff – clothes, yard sale items, whatever I could scavenge. The last two years I’ve been making a serious effort to learn and sell better and more expensive antiques & artwork.  I think I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m having fun and learning a lot along the way.  I by no means think I’ve got this all figured out, but I thought it might be an interesting forum discussion to share some of what I’m learning and hear from the community on the subject.  Below are my numbers and reflections.

Many thanks to Jay and Ryanne,  this community and the podcast has been inspirational, encouraging and motivating.

Cheers – Kyle

The Numbers

<u>2019</u>

• Revenue: $26,527 (not including shipping fees)
• COGS $9,104
• Average Price of COG = $36.27
• Profit $13,237 – After cogs, fees, and all expenses
• Profit per Item: $52.53 (252 sales)
• Sales resulting in over $100 profit: 44

<u>2018</u>

• Revenue: $30,648 (not including shipping fees)
• COGS $10,318
• Average COGS = $28.50
• Profit $15,513 – After cogs, fees, and all expenses
• Profit per Item: $47.50 (362 sales)
• Sales over $100 profit: 53

<u>2017</u> * Tore my ACL this year – majorly disrupted eBay

• Revenue: $8,278 (not including shipping fees)
• COGS $2,165
• Average COGS = $13.12
• Profit $4,921 – After cogs, fees, and all expenses
• Profit per Item: $30.00 (165 sales)
• Sales over $100 profit: 10

<u> </u>

<u>2016</u>

• Revenue: $20,000 (not including shipping fees)
• COGS $3,647
• Average COGS = $6.04
• Profit $15,063 – After cogs, fees, and all expenses
• Profit per Item: $24.95 (603 sales)
• Sales over $100 profit: 14

Reflections on the Numbers / Things I’ve Been Learning

#1 – My profits have not skyrocketed, but I’m handling less items: My final profit hasn’t dramatically jumped. The final number between 2016 and the last two years is about the same – BUT – I’m making the same amount selling about half as many items.  I’ll note this as well – I’m a collector, some of the best stuff stays in the house, If I liquidated all the “good stuff” I’ve picked up over the last couple of years, I think my profits could as much as double each year.  Selling fewer better things does mean less shipping, fewer items.

#2 – My average profit per item is rising. Happy with this. Hoping to continue this trend. Since I’m a hobby seller, this is a big metric for me. I like my career, don’t intend to leave – so it’s a win if I can use my limited time to make more per listing.

#3 – My Cost of Goods is also rising.  This is unavoidable. To sell better stuff you’ve got to spend more money.  Every once and a while you find a $600 item at goodwill for a couple bucks, but its far more likely that you’re spending $300 for a $600 sale.

#3a – I Have a Lot More Money Tied Up In Inventory. If  you’re just getting started – stick to the thrifted items. The difference in my COGS between 2016 and now is 10k.

#3b – Insurance. Chances are your basic renters or home owners insurance does not cover artwork and collectable. I know have a separate insurance policy to cover my inventory and collection.  This may be worth considering if you start spending more on your inventory.

#3c ­– The “Dry Tinder” Principle.  When you go camping you always want to have a little dry tinder on hand so you can quickly start a fire when needed.  To be effective picking and buying better and more expensive items you need to have a decent amount of cash on hand. If you get a chance to buy a whole collection or a whole estate of good items, you don’t want to miss out. This year my goal was always to have at least 10k available to pounce. I know antique dealers that keep 50 or 100.

#4 – It’s more interesting / more fun.  Is it worth it?  For me it has been. I got really tired of selling blue jeans and t-shirts. I feel like I’m learning a lot more, developing expertise in a few areas, and creating future earning potential every year. The knowledge is an asset that feels like a growing investment. The inventory is also a semi-liquid investment, hopefully growing in value over time.

#4b – It better be interesting. You can’t spend time, energy and money on things you don’t care about.  Pick something that can hold your interest.

#5- Educate yourself – Read and Research. My interest really started with one category that really struck my interest.  Early on I went to the library and checked out every book on that category I could find. An old antique dealer I know said that if you read a book on one category you likely know more than 99% of the population on that item. If you want to sell expensive stuff, do you know about expensive stuff?  Follow the expensive auctions, join facebook or reddit groups of dealers and collectors, ask questions, identify some sellers who are dealing in the kind of stuff you want to sell – observe their store. Learn one niche market – then learn another one!  Every year I try to push into some new areas, it makes me a more effective picker.

#5b – Educate yourself on substiles. In high end stuff subtle differences can mean huge differences in value. Size, condition, color, age, so many things can change value. Collectors absolutely know the difference, you need to know it too, or you’re sunk.  Worthpoint has been really helpful to me in learning.

#5c – There is a cost to education. Leveling up for me has meant being willing to take risks. I’ve had risks that have paid off, and I’ve had pieces I’ve lost money or broke even after selling.  That’s the cost of education. I make less mistakes now than I did before, but it’s a part of the game.

#6 – My picking has changed. New locations and tactics.  I still pick thrifts and yard sales, and love doing it – BUT I’ve also added picking antique stores (yes there are absolute deals to be had in antique stores, not every dealer can know every item) buying direct from collectors, and buying estates or partial estates. For me I had to start trying new things to find different kinds of stuff.  I imagine that would be true for most people. If you could buy dozens of amazing items at your current locations you’d already be doing it.

#6b – My Picking has changed: Leaving some things behind. I have to be willing to leave some things behind that I used to pick.  If I blow my buying funds and then listing and research time on low dollar stuff, then I don’t have the funds or time to invest in the stuff I want to be dealing in. Over Covid I found a couple boxes of 2015 / 2016 thrifted clothes – I pulled one good jacket and donated the rest back.

#7 Patience: This is nothing new here – List it and leave it. Some sell fast, but sometimes the big sales take a couple years.  The scavenger life pipeline hasn’t changed – but there is more cash tied up in the pipeline.

#8 – Trust / Community: Reputation in the collecting community has become important the more I’ve gotten into some niches. In many categories a lot of the collectors and dealers know one another. If you can develop trust you can get better prices, and more access to better inventory. More of my sales ( a few a month at least) have moved off of eBay, direct to collectors I’ve connected to or repeat customers.

I’d love to hear from you. What lessons have you been learning? What has helped you level up into better stuff? Many Thanks – Kyle : )

Items in Store    1336

Items Sold           24

Total Sales          $642.00

COGS    $96.00

Total Profit         $546.00

Average profit   $22.75

Average sales price          $26.75

New Listings       74

Man it felt good to get back into listing items! My daughter did pretty good this week cleaning shoes and taking photos – she processed 60 items. Hopefully when I hand her that wad of cash tonight for last week that will spur her on to do even more this week.

Yard sale season is pretty much over in this area. The volume and quality of sales drops off quick after the first Saturday in August. There’s still a few gems, but almost not worth the time. I did pretty good this summer and got plenty of good stuff. I think I’m going to take a break from Scavenging for September.

As for your helper and the folks that messaged you about him, it is pretty lame to look at a single case and declare an entire generation is worthless. Every generation fits a bell curve for work ethic – to think that any previous generation is superior is just dumb. I’ve had the pleasure to work with many amazing “millenial” interns and Co-Ops at my dayjob over the years.

Morning all!

A good week on ebay again. I spent most of my profits on inventory, but that’s OK.

Sales: CAD$3286, 12 sales, COGS: $141, Fees: ~$441, Postage: $268 –> Gross profit: $2436

Expenses: $160, New inventory: $1376 –> Cashflow: $1042

Sold 2 electrical starters for $600 each, still have 10 of these left I think.

Bought a huge lot of brand new video-enabled VoIP office phones (220 phones total) for $1100 on ebay. The brand is a little obscure but being into them for a few bucks each, I am sure I can make money. Have them listed for $150 each now…. if that gets no bites I will keep dropping till some units move. I have 55 big boxes of them so I can’t afford for them to sit in storage forever… also listed locally.

I am still picking them up from the seller… it will take about 5 trips in my Honda Fit pickup truck.

Total Items in Store: 347
Items Sold: 8
Gross Sales: $308
Cost of Items Sold: $75
Highest Price Sold: $69 new sham, paid $36 July summer clearance)
Average Price Sold: $39
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0

New listings:  4

Still need to listen to the podcast.  Busy with day job and my poor son on his college apps.  He will apply broadly due to all of the uncertainty and has to do a lot of essays.  I’m desperately trying to keep him motivated.  No listing time and energy last week.  Sales were actually better than I thought but came in spurts.

I don’t have a lot of holiday items to list but our family have started to look forward to Halloween and decorating.  I’m wondering if people will buy holiday decor, but fewer presents.  More presents online I suppose.  Perhaps people will buy more unique gifts since they have more browsing time – EBAY listen up and advertise.  I was going to do a little Fall retail arbitrage at Target after my successful experiment but everything is sold out in the local stores and online in the brand I like.  So much for that.  No time for a thrift run this week but I’m backed up even on summer clearance that arrived.

We have put my old minivan up for sale and are hunting for a newer car. We always buy a lease return with all of the extras on it that someone else paid for.  I hope someday when I’m scavenging I don’t miss the huge van. I can’t see ever doing furniture and larger items. I think my husband would object in a major way.

Have a great week everyone!

I specialize in fine jewelry. It’s 80% of my shop. I wouldn’t recommend selling jewelry on eBay, because I’ve had bad experiences with returns. I sell on Etsy, which is much more favorable towards sellers as far as customer service issues go.

It was a very steep learning curve to get to where I am today. You have to learn how to test metals and gemstones. You have to get accurate measuring equipment and show photos of your measurements. This is the only way to ensure that what you send out is what the buyer ordered, and to ensure that what they return is the exact same item. (On Etsy, anyway. On eBay, I don’t think you have any protection.) For the past 3 years, I have been grossing in the six figures, and I’m well on track to do so again this year. So for me, it is worth it.

Over the past two years, I have sold two cars on eBay, and I may start selling some furniture for local pick-up, because Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist haven’t been working very well for those items. Etsy doesn’t offer an option for local pick-up.

Good podcast this week.  Lots of nuggets to pan for.

I really connected with the comments from Neil regarding selling more expensive stuff.  Without a doubt, the single most important thing that has increased my sales with more expensive items is knowledge.  Most of the knowledge has come from random accumulation as I research items that have fallen into my hands over the years.  A few of those random items have prompted me to buy books to help me understand the market better.  As the adage goes, read a book on a topic and you’ll know more than 95% (possibly more) of the people out there.  I know this applies to me now on certain types of vintage glass, vintage tin robots, cameras, certain audio equipment, vintage coin banks, etc…

Regarding posting increasing sales, even though sales have been better this summer than last (up 10% YOY over the last 3 months), I know they would have been much better if I didn’t have the whole family here at the house all the time due to quarantine.  I haven’t been able to post near the volume I’m used to due to constant interruptions.  Glad school is at least restarting next week so that there is something for the kids to focus on during the day.

My biggest sale this past week was a rare for me consignment piece.  Reminds me why I turn down consignments.  I took a set of 6 vintage Arabia mugs from a friend.  These were from the 50’s and much different from the trendy ones you often see now.  Thought they’d sell quickly, but they took 932 days.  In that time took two sets of pictures and changed the listing from selling individually to as a lot.  All for 30% of the profit.  Interesting though, the mugs were sold back to someone in Finland.

In a milestone passing this week, I sold the last of the confederate/civil war era currency that I found at the bottom of a trunk last summer. Had an envelope with 21 notes of various denominations.  Total sales of the lot was $1609.  Quite a nice pipeline.  Another treasure from the box with the historical documents I sold.

Week Ending 8/22/20
Total Items in Store: 1130
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $827.21
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $560.59
Cost of Items Sold: $60.76
COGS Percent 10.84%
Highest Price Sold: $150.00 Arabia Mugs (consignment)
Average Price Sold: $46.72
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 10
Promoted Percentage: 83.33%
Average Days Listed: 378
Longest Listed: 1210
New items listed: 30

Congrats on on your first batch on the new-old roaster! I can tell you’re both excited about this new venture. I’m going over to Broad Porch today to order new coffee. Also nice to hear your new helper looks promising.

On specialization as a path to higher earnings, that makes all the sense in the world. But it feels like a higher-level calling than the ethos of ‘sell trash, be free’. Don’t get me wrong – if that’s where your interest takes you (specialization), then that’s great. My point is that if you’re new to flipping, there’s a heck of a lot of learning that has to occur before you can up your game to specialization. Things like learning how to ship, how to handle inventory, customer relations, and on and on and on. After three years of doing this part time, I have a profund respect for those who do this full time. Especially if you’re doing this alone.

Listings in Store: 677
Items Sold: 19 (18 eBay, 1 FBM)
Gross Sales (includes shipping): $544 ($499 eBay, $45 FBM)
Highest Price: $75 – Vintage sign
Average Price: $29
Cost of Goods Sold: $50
Returns: 2
Cost of Goods Purchased this Week: $140
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 26

Gut reaction to week: Nice, middle-of-the-road sales week. The challenge since covid arrived is finding interesting, saleable items. I keep trying the online auctions but just have not seen interesting lots. Yard sales season is nearly over, which is no big deal since they’ve been mostly crappy. I’ve spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing my work/storage/shipping areas. I’m packing items so much faster because I’m not hunting around for my tape gun, box sizer, etc.

8/15/20-8/21/20

Total Items In Store: 2023
Items Sold: 27
Gross Sales: $625
Highest Price Sold: $140 (Forever Krystle – Discontinued Perfume)
Average Price Sold: $23.18

Returns:  0 $0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $12.50
Number of items listed: 47

• Had a pretty slow week in sales this week. It’s been kind of a roller coaster ride lately with good and bad weeks.  On Sunday I only had one sale for a package of seeds for $4.99.
• Spent some quality time listing this week and got my store back up over 2000 listings.
• Won 1 item at an online auction this week. Every other item I wanted went for way over what I was willing to spend.  Luckily the auction house is only about 20 miles away.
• I loved the thoughts from your caller on specialization. Very interesting topic!

Total Items in Store: 271
Items sold: Ebay: 8, FB Marketplace: 2, Paypal FB Shipped:1
Gross Sales: 291.83
Highest Price Sold: 67.49 (Set of 3 aluminum pots)
COGS: 5.45
Average Price Sold:  26.53
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory:  130
Number of items listed this week: 40

Had a few fun sales this week. Sold a lot of dead pens associated with a specific town for $25 with the buyer’s shipping address being the same town. Also sold some sea shells that I considered dead stock for $40 on FBM. I had 4 lots for $15 each that haven’t gotten any hits for months, someone asked me for group pricing for all of them and I said $40 and she took it in a heartbeat. I’m mostly just glad to sell them locally and not ship them.  Also sold the stamps that I posted about earlier this week for $25 incl. $3.21 shipping. Going to a collector who’s very excited to put them in her album. Learned how to invoice on paypal for that one.

I established an LLC earlier this summer and have been feeling the growing pains since. Right now the LLC is just covering Ebay, Amazon, FBM, etc, so I didn’t necessarily need to start an LLC, but it was easier to file now while I’m just starting versus transitioning later. I’m looking into getting into expanding in the next few years, so I’d rather do it now than when I get bigger. Turns out, it’s really easy to issue the state of illinois $150 and they’ll call you a business, but theres a lot more paperwork that the bank wants and the IRS wants to open accounts, so that’s what I’ve been working on this week.

Getting less hours at my boring retail job, which worries me. However, if I turn my attention back to books on Amazon, I can make up what I’m missing with the time I’m missing. Amazon doesn’t have nearly as much ROI as ebay does, but it’s like a money printer for me. Put books in, money comes out. I know I’m privileged to not live in an area with any other scanners, so it’s becoming a priority again. I like sending in 140 books a month, and this month I’ve sent in about 60. Theres another 40 in my car which will get sent in by the end of the month, so it’s not my ideal numbers, but I’m okay with them.

Had my first return this week. It was my fault, and I shouldn’t have sent out the item in the first place. It was for a food processor bowl and I noticed the lid was kind of off looking but couldn’t figure out why- turns out it was missing a locking mechanism. Accept and refund. The mechanism is on the lid so I’m going to try to list the bowl again and recoup some $ now that I know what it should look like. I’m not on managed payments yet so I leave $100 in my paypal for returns, so it didn’t really cause any problems.

Numbers are still climbing, I have until October 6th until I’m out of loan money and need to be fully funding the business with it’s own income. If I can just make another $100 a week I’ll be golden. With some effort on Amazon matched with ebay, I should get there.

TLDR: Money’s coming in, things are going okay, and I have another month to make it work. Time to get going!

retrotreasures, I have always loved Halloween. As such, I look at Halloween all year long. I don’t see a “cutoff” date. Also, I specialize in selling Halloween/Day of the Dead fabrics on etsy-so there’s that.  I was really happy to see that all of retail jumped onboard early this year to merchandise Halloween! August, if you think about it, is not too early. I’m hoping since trick-or-treating will be limited this year (or at least I suspect), that folks will do up more than usual. There are some “usual suspects” in my neighborhood who go all out decorating their front lawns (very limited space in my neighborhood) creatively. I always look forward to that.

Jay and Ryanne, always look forward to the podcasts!  I’m always so sad when they are in the 40 minute range. You should have seen my face when you said “This podcast is ending in 3,2,1..” I was caught off guard!

Anyhow, I’m not a coffee drinker anymore, but I kinda wish I was. I always do like the smell of coffee though. If you two ever come back to Chicago, you will have to try the place in my neighborhood. Supposedly it’s a world class coffee roaster/house, thingy. I can’t vouch for it, haven’t tried it.  They roast the coffee in another location, a block away.

8/16/20-8/22/20

Total Items Listed (3 different IDs): 251
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales (not incl shipping): $63
Highest Price Sold: $20 – Navy challenge coin on consignment
Returns: 0
New Items Listed: 4
$ Spent on New Inventory: $8 (eBay snipe)

Although I’m not full time, I’m going to try to be better about posting my numbers so as to embarrass myself into putting some more work into eBay as moving-in taskers, kids-at-home distractions, box unpacking, etc. slow down now into the fall. (Also, I cherry pick items from back over a longer period of time for my infrequent posts in What Sold! so those posts are not at all indicative of my average week.) Last week was slower than usual and all low-dollar sales. It shows what happens when you’ve got mid-200s in listed items and don’t do anything, unlike some other forum participants who inspire us with what can be done with a smaller inventory and hard work.

Being a student of this podcast & forum, I am just as diversified as anyone else here. However, I do look for certain category of items for various reasons; I find they sell well, I am particularly interested, or I have some deeper knowledge. They really have very little in common: alcohol advertising, Judaica, vintage electronics (working or not), and vintage hardware/tools. I suppose I could specialize in one or several of those categories and do better price-wise; however, I buy housewares for so cheap that I can’t help but be loaded with those items. That ends up bringing my average sale price down.

Early in the week, I saw an online auction that seemed to have less interest with lower bids, but good stuff for resale. I was ready to bid, but never did because I had an unexpected trip and ended up not being in town during the pick up date. I would have done really well, and I wonder why that particular auction was so uncompetitive. I don’t think it was location, but maybe timing (people are finally taking vacations) and a lower number of listings. However, I checked a different auction that is ending tonight, and the prices are outrageously high. I wish I knew the formula.

I did have a better week than the last few:

Week of Aug 16 – 22
Total Items in Store: 1260 eBay, 36 Etsy
Items Sold: 17 eBay
Cost of Items Sold: $3.70 + $18.50 Commission
Total Sales: $471.67 eBay
Highest Price Sold: $100 Set 4 chairs
Average price: $27.75
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 9

As far as Halloween too early…..I think we’re looking at an unpredictable Q4, but one thing I will predict is: more people buying earlier in the season, and more people asking us to ship directly to a giftee. And maybe asking us to wrap gifts as well. I suggested to ebay that they make it easier for buyers to designate a giftee shipping address and also that they add an indicator on the search results pages to indicate sellers who are willing to gift wrap. I doubt ebay will actually DO this stuff, but I think it would be helpful if they did. But who knows? Maybe it will be part of the Fall Seller Update (coming in early Sept., or so we’ve been told)

Covid, the economy, the election, natural disasters and the USPS mess all concern me, but I do think there’s a chance this could be a great Q4. Unfortunately, I also think it’s possible that it will be terrible. Only time will tell.

Aug 9 – 15

• Total Items in Store: 3,941
• Items Sold: 30
• Total Sales :  $1,047
  • * ABOVE yearly average of $1,016
• Highest Price:  $180 (1980 Zippo Lighter Pittsburgh Steelers Superbowl XIV Champions)
• Average Price:  $35
• Returns:  0
• Cost of Goods Sold:  $25
• Costs of Goods Purchased this Week:  $118
• Number of New Items Listed this Week: 30

Not too bad of a week considering I did very little with my storefront. I went on a camping trip at Deep Creek, Maryland with some friends over a long weekend. Every time my phone went cha-ching, they were enthusiastic about what I sold.

My return fiasco from last week went smoothly. To recap, I had a buyer return an item that was purchased prior to having my Managed Payments activated which caused some issues. I called eBay and the Rep said it was simply because there was no money in my PayPal account in which to refund. I sent the buyer a nice message explaining the issue and thanking them for their patience in the 3-4 days it would take to pull money into my PP account. Thankfully they were understanding. When the funds finally posted, I clicked refund and it worked instantly.

I’m a part-time UK Etsy seller, I’ve converted my numbers from GBP to USD.

Total items in store: 1633
Total sold: 19 (9 UK, 6 USA, 2 Europe, 2 Australia)
Total sales: $649
Average selling price: $45
Money spent on new inventory: $34

Good week for August! We are trying to grow our Etsy shop. We sell general vintage homewares, mirrors and books.

Higher price sales is difficult. We have increased out average selling price, but it’s hard to not buy something for £1 if you know you can sell it for £10-£15 ($13-$20). We have to force ourselves to walk away from those things. We do still go for them if they are easy/quick to list/store etc.

We’ve also put our other business (community magazine) up for sale. If it sells, we’ll be full time on Etsy.

eBay has now slipped into the #3 spot of the largest online retailers in the U.S.

Amazon:38.7%

Wal Mart: 5.3%

eBay: 4.7%

eBay is still growing in sales, but competitors are chipping away at it’s growth. Certainly, there is Etsy and other similar sites, but Shopify’s growth over the past 10 years has been huge for small store front retailers.

Wal mart, not the retailer you normally think of when it comes to online sales is still the largest retailer in the U.S. by far will soon compete in a more head-to-head fashion with Amazon with walmart+. It should be interesting.

I have a friend who works for Walmart in the online sales area, from what he says, they are definitely trying to compete with Amazon for online sales head to head.  Interestingly, he is pretty sure Walmart will ultimately lose and basically stick to brick and mortar. Supposedly the back end of things is a total mess and they are way behind Amazon in tech. I wonder if that is where eBay will come back.

My personal experiences with Walmart online have been less than impressive. I can’t imagine I’m the only one.

I once ordered 10 yds of fabric. Received 10 yards-of the wrong fabric. Two days later, received another 10 yards. Of the wrong fabric. Called Walmart. Was told to keep it. Okay…a week later received the correct  fabric. The next day another shipment of the correct fabric. All told, I received 40 yards for the price of 10. Fast forward, June 25, 2020 I placed an order on Walmart.com. Canceled it within 24 hours online. A day later I chatted with Walmart, just wanting to make sure the order was canceled, as I had a bad feeling. I was assured it was canceled.   Still did not have a good feeling. Chatted another 2-3 days later, just to make sure. Was again assured it was definitely canceled. Still not convinced, I called Walmart about 2-3 days again. The agent stated that she would call the shipper to have them hold the package. All told, I received the package. sigh.

I won’t even get into receiving my refund, but it was worse than trying to get the order canceled. The only reason I finally received the refund when I did, was because I had to threaten to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s consumer fraud department. The money was in my account 3 days later (August 21-2 months later), 1 day ahead of my threatened “If I don’t have my money in my account by…” date.  I digress.

Daysi:

I don’t dispute your Wal Mart on-line experience, but when you described it, it reminded me of Amazon from around the year 2000. There were similar stories where Amazon would go overboard trying to make the customer happy. Then, at some point later, they must have burned through their cash, they had to tighten up their delivery processes, lay off some people and become a more business like entitiy.

I realize Wal mart has been in business for a long time, but maybe they’re going through growing pains with their on-line sales.

Wal mart is now competing with Microsoft to buy Tik-Tok assets. Should be interesting.

Daysi:

I don’t dispute your Wal Mart on-line experience, but when you described it, it reminded me of Amazon from around the year 2000. There were similar stories where Amazon would go overboard trying to make the customer happy. Then, at some point later, they must have burned through their cash, they had to tighten up their delivery processes, lay off some people and become a more business like entity.

I realize Wal mart has been in business for a long time, but maybe they’re going through growing pains with their on-line sales.

Wal mart is now competing with Microsoft to buy Tik-Tok assets. Should be interesting.

My return fiasco from last week went smoothly. To recap, I had a buyer return an item that was purchased prior to having my Managed Payments activated which caused some issues. I called eBay and the Rep said it was simply because there was no money in my PayPal account in which to refund. I sent the buyer a nice message explaining the issue and thanking them for their patience in the 3-4 days it would take to pull money into my PP account. Thankfully they were understanding. When the funds finally posted, I clicked refund and it worked instantly.

Thanks! Good reminder to keep a bit of a balance in PP when go to Managed Payments

My Sales Week Ending 8/22/20

Notes: Just getting to my stats. What the…? Wish I had time to do more than glance at all your interesting posts. Very busy between distance learning 8 year old, yard, and research. Using Terapeak this month to focus on more profitable items and donating a larger percentage of death piles. Seems many of us are asking if we want to spend time on the smaller fish. For instance, Ralph Lauren – YES. Dockers – NO. 🙂

Total Items For Sale: 61

Profit: $187.39

Items Sold: 8

Items Listed: 5

Average Profit: $23.42

Highest Profit: $134.75 Shirt Sold On The Real Real

Cost Of Items Sold: $0

Returns: 0

$ Spent Sourcing: $20

Does anyone else have trouble accessing the ebay site?  I keep getting a DNS error. This is at 7:15 AM CDT.

It’s working fine for me.

I should have said that Firefox is working fine. I just tried to open my store that I keep on Chrome and it’s showing the DNS error.

And… eBay from Firefox is now down. It appears fully functioning on my iphone but only on mobile data, not wifi.

The eBay site is working for me again. I am using Chrome. Earlier, it was failing for me with Chrome and Firefox.

Just curious, can anyone tell me where the customers purchasing via global shipping are located. I used to be able to see the address on the invoice.

Thanks