Scavenger Life Episode 505: Best Laid Plans

Any chance you will actually announce your cafe opening? We are within driving distance and would love to support you guys!

Items in Shop: 800! Woot!

Items sold: 7 (5 on Ebay, 2 on FBM)

Sales: $150

COGS: $5

Net Sales, after FVF: $132

Everything that sold this week on Ebay were sub $20 items. Gross. However, they were all paper ephemera so I maybe spent 30 minutes this whole week packing, so that’s cool. I don’t mind having sheet music and bumper stickers and stuff in the $15-$19 dollar range because they are easy to ship, but I’d like it if they sold in addition to the more expensive stuff.

Overall feeling? Meh.

Morning all! Yes I know what you mean about the absentee/spreadsheet mentality for selling and especially for rentals. There are a lot of imponderables that are really hard to communicate about what is actually required to run such a business and what totally unpredictable demands it may make on you.

I had a good week on ebay.

Sales: CAD$2476, 14 sales, COGS: $378, Fees: ~$332, Postage: $185 –> Gross profit: $1581

Expenses: $0, New inventory: $0 –> Cashflow: $1959

Big auction coming up this week, although I don’t think it’s going to be the kind of bonanza the last one was.

Items in Store 1464
Items Sold 15
Total Sales $596.00
COGS $39.00
Total Profit $557.00
Average profit $37.13
Average sales price $39.73
New Listings 7
Items scavenged 20
Sourcing Allotment 2

It was SLOW and I felt it. March is always the pits though.

First two weeks of March 2019: 40 sales for  $1050

First two weeks of March 2020: 27 sales for $691

First two weeks of March 2021: 43 sales for $1504

So keeping things in the proper perspective, I’m actually having a RECORD historical month!

Covid checks start going out this month, so hopefully sales see a bump. The last check didn’t really seem to bump things, probably because most people are no longer under lockdown.

I was able to get my ebay PC fixed so I am back in business. I had over 200 listings that needed the item specifics updated…groan…

This week I gotta tackle the beast that is taxes. I’ve been putting it off long enough – gotta tackle the mess that is godaddy.

I started to get back on the listing train this week.  I got some ebay room cleaning and organizing done. A BIG task I accomplished was cleaning out my car. To say that was needed is an understatement. It is ebay related too since my car was full of unlisted inventory.

Week of March 7 – 14
Total Items in Store: 1383 eBay, 43 Etsy
Items Sold: 11 eBay 2 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $2 + $14.90 Commission
Total Sales: $230.97 eBay $50.90 Etsy
Highest Price Sold: $60 for 2 whiskey pitchers shipped direct to Italy (eBay)
Average price: $21.68
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 5

Slow week for me, but I’ve been very busy at my day job.

From an online auction lot of Sports Illustrated magazines, I sold a set of four on Sunday that featured Marvin Hagler & Sugar Ray Leonard from 1986/87. This morning, I read an article that Marvin Hagler passed away over the weekend. So, that explains that sale :).

March 7 – 13

• Total Items in Store: 4,082
• Items Sold: 50
• Total Sales:  $1,325
  • * ABOVE yearly average of $1,082
• Highest Price:  $100 (30″ Wood and Painted Ceramic Crucifix Cross Wall Decor)
• Average Price:  $26
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Goods Sold:  $37
• Costs of Goods Purchased this Week:  $0
• Number of New Items Listed this Week: 30

I was glad to see business picking up again last week. It was mostly a lot of lower value items, but that’s okay by me. I’ve been sort of sluggish in my listing goals lately. I think the sudden warm weather from a couple weeks ago to getting cold again really zapped my energy. But I’ve got a lot of good and easy stuff to list this week so hopefully my numbers will reflect that next time.

It’s very true about what you mentioned on the podcast, about not quitting your day job right off  the bat. I would have never survived if I decided to immediately switch from working a desk job to the eBay biz. I started selling in the spring 2016 while working full time at the university. I didn’t feel confident enough to quit until winter of 2019. It took me almost three years of hard work to build up my eBay business to a point where I was making enough to support myself with that income alone.

Total items For Sale: 63 eBay (+1 on The Real Real)

Profit: $66.23

Items Sold: 4

Items Listed: 7 (Goal Achieved!)

Average Profit: $16.56

Highest Profit: $22.41 (Reyn Spooner Hawaiian Shirt)

Goal This Week: 4 Listings

Thanks for the podcast.

Had an average week of sales.  A little low on the item count, but had several $100+ sales that boosted things.  Would have been better, but as I was packing items this morning, I knocked the Kachina doll I sold for $150 off onto the floor and it broke into 3 pieces.  That was a big ouch to cancel.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve broken anything.  On the bright side, I liked it a lot and had it on display in my house, so now I can keep it once the glue dries.

Bought several lots from an online auction this past week.  Prices are still going high.  Best purchase was a lot of Railroad lanterns.  Took a bit of a gamble as the pictures were really bad and it was tough to see exactly what we were getting.

3/13/21
Total Items in Store: 1151
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $850.80
Net Sales (After fees): $702.98
Cost of Items Sold: $63.18
COGS Percent 8.99%
Net Profit Margin: 75.20%
Highest Price Sold: $200.00 Pre-Columbian Pottery
Average Price Sold: $50.05
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $231.61
Sold via promoted listings: 10
Promoted Percentage: 58.82%
Average Days Listed: 244
Longest Listed: 1096
New items listed: 21

Total Items in Store: 165

Items Sold: 6

Total Sales: $94.00

Highest Price Sold: $26.50 VHS Night of the Creeps

Having a cranky week – meh sales, THREE unpaid items and fell prey to the glitch where eBay defaulted to a higher cost shipping method than the buyer paid for. Hrmph, every other internet site on the planet requires payment at purchase, why is it taking so long for eBay to implement a standard business practice? Now I have 3 items basically in limbo waiting to close the case and relist. I cancelled the higher priced shipping and reprinted the appropriate shipping, but have to wait for that refund as well, and I suspect there will be a cost in fees on both shipping or something. Grump.

On the bright side I did work my tail off listing and relisting to get my numbers up, so that should pay off down the line. Spring is coming so yard and estate sales should pick up. It is getting lighter longer and slightly better weather so that helps me feel better. I am slowly getting paperwork organized and filed. Shot my first YouTube video in forever and got it uploaded, so hope to get that going again. Gotta look on the bright side, it is too easy to find the negative and dwell on it.

Items in Store 2470
Items Sold 54
Gross Sales $2103
Net Sales $1284
Local Sales: ~$4500

Almost nothing spent on inventory over the last 6 weeks, but sales remain especially strong locally.  Starting to get some of the buried items listed and it is flying out.  It’s nice to see the sales continue, sad to see the inventory dip, but signing a new lease for April 1st.  Focus has been on reducing the amount of large items before moving day and to that end, it’s been successful.

I know a lot of people who use property managers like to have 2 companies in case this exact thing happens.  Perhaps you could find a different person to clean the coffee shop who would be available for emergencies with the airbnb?  Hiring can be challenging, that is for sure.

Total Items in Store: 387
Items Sold:  8
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $365.08
Net Sales (After fees): $254.41
Cost of Items Sold: $101
Highest Price Sold: $88 (New pillowcases)
Average Price Sold: $35
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: +/-$125 RA Clearance

Listed 10 items

Kind of a slower, lower dollar week. Did my COGS for taxes so happy to be done with that.  Still need to finish the podcast but happy that virus numbers are down since you have your coffee shop opening up.  Very busy at work and expecting more college answers this week so very distracted from Ebay.

3/6/21-3/12/21

Total Items In Store: 2201
Items Sold: 21
Gross Sales: $1109.83

Net Sales:  $696.15
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Apple Ipad)
Average Price Sold: $46.16

Returns:  0 $0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $119
Number of items listed: 2

• Sales were still a little light this week. I bought my wife a new iPad for Christmas, so I listed her old one last week and it sold fairly quickly for $200.  I had a nice $300 sale on Friday, but it wasn’t paid for until Saturday so it will fall on next week’s numbers.  Still not bad since I was out of town for a few days.
• We just got back from a 4 day trip to Louisville KY. We did quite a bit of thrifting while we were there and got some great deals at an estate sale we went to.
• Scavenger Tip: If you like bourbon and are ever thinking of going to Maker’s Mark in KY, sign up online to become a MM Ambassador.  It’s free to sign up and they send you little Christmas gifts every year.  Best part, you get to do the tour and tasting for free…normally costs $25 per person.
• I learned a lot about Kentucky Derby mint julip glasses while we were there. I see these fairly often at thrift stores and yard sales but never paid much attention to them.  Some of the older ones are worth hundreds of dollars each.  The thrift stores in that area know the value of them, but I see them for next to nothing in other parts of the country.

3/7/21 – 3/13/21
Total Active Items (2 different IDs): 352
Items Sold: 14
Gross Sales: $181
Highest Price Sold: $ 29 – US consigned US Navy NAVSEA Commander Challenge Coin.
Returns:  0 COGS: $21 (including commissions but not including cost of any family castoffs sold) but also spent $30 in free shipping 🙁
New Listings: 9
$ Spent on New Inventory: $57

All low dollar sales this week. Most of them were sealed DVDs from the 2000s from a small hoard that was left behind in the house we bought here so at least I had nothing in them. Mainly mainstream movies – nothing exciting – but selling well.

My wife and son were off visiting colleges in Texas all week during his spring break for his final decision while I held down the fort. (Looks like he’ll be a Longhorn and not an Aggie. So some of my wife’s family will be happy and some will be disappointed. 🙂 ) I took the no-distractions opportunity to put some solid work into household and yard maintenance that I have been neglecting. Neglecting your yard in FL is bad news unless you like the overgrown jungle look.

Thanks for the Maker’s Mark tip, Gargolfer. I joined the George Dickel Water Conservation Society many years ago but I don’t recall ever getting anything for it.

I scored a mega clothing haul over the weekend that I’m chomping at the bit to get listed but my husband herniated a disc so I’m spending a lot of time driving him to doctor appointments out of town.  By the time I get home, I have enough time to ship and maybe get just a few items listed. I’ve probably listed about 1% of the haul so far and after zero sales over 24 hours I was almost panicked.  But then the chi-chings started.  Sold a belt for $100 and 4 pairs of jeans for $120, $60, $50 and $50.  I paid $4.64 for the belt and $6.18 each for the jeans.

Since my clothing haul is so massive, I invested in a listing tool, List Perfectly.  I post to one platform and then List Perfectly will cross post to up to 10 other platforms.  For now I’m only having it cross post from eBay to Poshmark.  It’s $29.99/month for the plan I chose.  That gives me unlimited crosspostings.  It doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as other cross posting systems but it’s simple, which is the most important thing for me.  And there isn’t a contract so once I get these clothing items listed, I can cancel it.

3/7/21 – 3/13/21

Total items in store: 2330

Items sold: 65

Gross sales: $3751.23 (up 98.5% from last week & 122.7% from this week last year)

Net sales: $2713.97 (up 112.6% from last week & 140.8% from this week last year)

Highest price sold: $222.49 (A copper rookie card numbered to 49 from the popular Panini Select set of Tennessee Titans star running back Derrick Henry)

Lowest price sold: $9.88 (two different authenticated autographs of old-time Dodgers and Giants ballplayers from back in the 50s and 60s — both to the same buyer)

I have been doing eBay off and on (but mostly on) for close to ten years now and full-time (in hours if not income) for close to four years. I have had occasional weeks with sales numbers like this (and a few higher due to one-off very expensive items) but this week was consistent in a way that felt unusual. Every day had sales over $100 and three days (Sunday, Tuesday & Saturday) were over $500.

I feel like 65 to 75 sales in a week is probably the upper limit as far as a “reasonable” workload for a one-person, or two-person, business. But maybe it’s higher. I have a lot of inefficiencies that could improve my process, like getting a label printer instead of hand cutting each label one by one. (I know, I know…just get a Dymo already…but I hate buying things at full price!)

I had 10 sales this week of $100+ and 10 sales in the $75-$100 range. I have been working hard over the last year to spend more on high quality inventory since it takes the same amount of time to list an item for $20 as it does for $100 or more. Fortunately, with modern sports cards there are tens of thousands of auction listings every night, so it’s a matter of finding the right stuff and then winning the auctions. Of course, both these things are easier said than done!

I noticed this week that a lot of the items sold, especially the higher dollar sales, fall into one of two categories.

1. Cards that were purchased individually at auction anywhere from a month to a year (or more) ago and the “value” of the card has increased or decreased since.

For example, I sold an autographed rookie card of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who was in the news this week because the team signed him to a massive contract. I originally purchased the card this past fall, around the time Prescott had an unfortunate injury which caused him to miss the remainder of the Cowboys season. The team played terribly without him, and predictably his (and most players on the team) prices went down. Then interest in Prescott cards went back up this week upon news of the massive contract.

2. Cards that were purchased as a part of a lot, or poorly listed/titled in some way.

For example, the Derrick Henry card (my highest $$ sale above) was purchased at auction on a very small, niche collectors site that only has a few hundred auctions running total at any given time. I’m not sure why anyone lists an auction outside of eBay when the pool of buyers is exponentially bigger on eBay, but a lot of card sellers and collectors only use Facebook Marketplace or collector’s message boards or Instagram and harbor a hatred towards feeBay because of the one time where they had a case decided against them or a Paypal hold against them or something. I’m sure you know the type. I like eBay, so I use eBay.

But different platforms draw different types of collectors and if you’re a smart buyer (or seller), you can use those discrepancies to your favor. In the case of the Derrick Henry card, the seller’s title (when I originally bought it) didn’t include a lot of information that modern card buyers value: primarily the set name (Panini Select), the ‘features’ of the card (a copper prizm rookie card, or RC) and its serial numbering (which is basically how companies have “created” scarcity and perceived value in pieces of cardboard). I can still remember first seeing the auction listing for the card and realizing I might get it for a great price. And I did!

Now a few months later, my eBay buyer purchased the card for around the same price as other completed sales (maybe even a bit lower!). They could have found the same card (or a similar one) like I did if they spent a long time hunting for an auction that’s poorly titled, or trawling through every weird site, but sometimes as a buyer you want something right now and you don’t want to go through all those hoops. That’s where I like to think I ‘add value’ as a seller. That and my meticulous packaging!

I hope the buyer makes a lot of money on the card next season (and they might, if the value of Henry’s cards increase like they have during his last 2 excellent seasons), but I’m always happy to sell now and move on to the next purchase. The only way that all of this is sustainable is by putting in the work week in and week out.

I recently was added to eBay Managed Payments. Today, I sold an item to someone in Brazil and I am located in the U.S. I thought I specified the Global Shipping Program for international buyers, but I shipped it using USPS Priority Mail International. This printed shipping labels with customs documents and required 2 pages instead of 1/2 page shipping label.

Are we able to use the eBay GSP now with Managed Payments? I found out when I printed the item that there was something like, “eBay International Standard Delivery”, which was much cheaper, but I wasn’t aware that was an option until I got to the page to print the label. The buyer paid for priority delivery so that’s what I provided.

@ craig rex- very cool post, thanks!

…and get the label printer, it will be a game changer for you and your meticulously packed cards will look even more spectacular. I can’t imagine life without it. Don’t cheat yourself, treat yourself….

sally

Thanks for the podcast R&J.

I’ve been a bit lax about posting my numbers for no particular reason but here are my numbers for the most recent week:
Total Items in Store: 4485
Items Sold: 64
Total Sales: $1517.3
Cost of Items Sold: $207
Average Price Sold: $23.71
Average Cost of Item: $3.25
Highest Price Item Sold: $139.95 Samsung SCL906 8mm Camcorder
Number of items listed this week: 74 worth approx. $1677

Sales have stayed pretty consistent for me.  Camera’s have started to be good flips for me so I’ve been buying as many as I can find at garage sales & estate sales. I haven’t yet made the leap into buying lots online.

Regarding Jay’s mention of the eBay’s sales limit issue.  It’s true.  It’s based on $ value. The limit for your account is currently $1400 per week.  Prove me wrong. 🙂 lol.

I hope everyone has a good week!

What I wrote was kind of stupid. 🙂 eBay supported me in listing some more high dollar items by increasing my dollar limit. The quantity of items were not more than the normal limit for a non-store holder, I suppose, so they just increased the amount I could list per month. Makes sense.

@martyholthaus – I was making a joke. In this week’s show Jay mentioned the conspiracy theory that ebay throttles accounts. I was observing that R&J’s sales have been consistently around $1400/wk so eBay must be throttling them at that level.

Ohhhhhhh… that went over my head. LOL. But, yes, that is, of course, an absurd conspiracy theory. Ha. Ha. 🙂

3-8-21 to 3-14-21
Total Items in Store: 1161
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $282.69
Net Sales: $213.34
Cost of Items Sold: $4
Highest Price Sold: $169.99 Framed Watercolor
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 47

Slow week with 2 days of no sales but a big sale saved it average wise. I didn’t mind since I set up Time Away and enjoyed a trip out of town for a 3 day weekend.

I focused on listing and made good progress. This current week has been a mix of the new listings and older items. Always happy to see that.