Scavenger Life Episode 511: Our Coffee Shop Is Open!!!

Ryanne and Jay,

Congrats on opening the coffee shop.  We, my wife and two kids are in the planning stages of a trip across the US (From Gilbert, Arizona) and would like to stop in for a coffee.  Can you share the address?

Thanks

pk

Congratulations! A visit to the Coffee Shop is on my Bucket List!

Items in Store 1509
Items Sold 28
Total Sales $1,295.00
COGS $82.00
Total Profit $1,213.00
Average profit $43.32
Average sales price $46.25
New Listings 9
Items scavenged 10
Sourcing Allotment 2

I had some great sales this week – six $100+ sales! Also of note, my local Goodwill opened back up after being closed for a couple months. They expanded into the two empty storefronts adjacent to them in the strip mall they are in. The new store is HUGE!!!

Not alot of listing this week – family time, car troubles, home improvements, and busy day job stuff took up my time. That’s the beauty of this business though – I can take a week off and still make a bunch of money because the work is already done!

Congratulations on opening the shop! I raise my fresh cup of Broadporch Cameroon coffee to your success. Cheers!

Congratulations on opening your shop, that’s awesome! I hope at some point I am able to see it.

Had a good week on ebay.

Sales: CAD$4183, 16 sales, COGS: $578, Fees: ~$584, Postage: $684 –> Gross profit: $2337

Expenses: $0, New inventory: $2 –> Cashflow: $2913

Anybody have any tips for moving an item that is valuable enough to care about, but keeps getting VERO’d on ebay? It’s a brand new dental tool that, I guess the brand name in question is very aggressive about. I doubt it will sell locally…

YAY!!! YOU DID IT!!! Congrats, Jay & Ryanne!

For me…

Total Items For Sale: 73

Items Sold: 1

Items Listed: 4 (Goal Achieved!)

Profit: $61.44 (Chanel Women’s Sunglasses, Vintage, Used)

Goal This Week: 4

April 18 – 24

• Total Items in Store: 4,170
• Items Sold: 43
• Total Sales:  $1,334
• * ABOVE yearly average of $1,091
• Highest Price:  $125 ( Four-Layer Oak Baroque Gesso Gilt Picture Frame Mirror 27×31)
• Average Price:  $31
• Returns: 2
• Cost of Goods Sold:  $51
• Costs of Goods Purchased this Week:  $51
• Number of New Items Listed this Week: 30

Congratulations on the grand opening! I’m so excited for both of you! Steph and I might think about taking a little road trip this summer to check the shop out. It’s only about a 5 hour drive so it’d be a nice day trip, or maybe even a one-nighter.

My sales last week were a lot better than the previous few weeks. I sold several $100+ items which really helped my numbers. That mirror that I mentioned above took way too long to pack. Good thing I got a decent price for it. I got a couple hard-hitting returns though. A pair of designer sunglasses for $50 and one of those rare cassette tapes for $70. The cassette buyer waited until almost 30 days to open a return, so I’m kinda suspicious of something shady. But I  really didn’t have a choice since he claimed it was damaged and sent photos. I didn’t think to purchase insurance either so I’ll just have to eat it. I’m making him send it back though just in case he’s trying to con me.

I didn’t get a whole lot done last week. We got our second COVID vaccine shot and were totally out for the count for two days straight. This week I want to try to get as much listing done as possible because when the warm weather starts back up I won’t want to be stuck inside.

Items in Store 276
Items Sold 6
Total Sales $171.85
Total Profit $115.92
Average sales price $28.60

Congrats on the store opening!

Sales are not great right now I think in part because I changed my ebay seller id to reflect my new business name. I’ve changed before and it seems to tank sales for a week or so.  Also I really need to start aggressively listing but I keep getting derailed by life, plus I’m anticipating my second covid shot this week and I know its going to make me sick for a few days.  I don’t really source much anymore because I got a huge archive of letterpress paper ephemera for free from a friend who was moving out of state and didn’t want to lug it with her.  Plus I was lucky enough pickup four boxes of uncatalogued books from a dealer who is retiring.  Book dealers don’t have death piles, they have ‘uncatalogued material’  lol

Speaking of profits, I just looked at your AirBnB’s as we’re looking to do a different type of vacation in May. Holy schnikes, how long have you been getting those kind of prices? Is this a temporary bump due to the current travel surge? Ya’ll are making BANK!

Total Items in Store: 146

Items Sold: 2

Total Sales: $16.00

Highest Price Sold: VHS Carnosaur

Quiet sales week, but I hadn’t listed anything in 2 weeks so I am not surprised. Only oddity was an auction listing that sold before the auction period was over. I don’t remember putting a buy it now on that one, but I guess I must have. Just weird that it didn’t say bin in the order details. Three items from last week have bids, most have multiple bids so hope to have a better report next week.

Yard sales are picking up around here, I hit 4 last weekend. I do tend to go later to avoid the crazy times but still found nice items to sell. Hope antique shows will start up again soon, I do so enjoy browsing and seeing stuff in person. I also watch buyers to see what they are picking up and talk to other sellers for tips. Congrats on opening the shop – hope to make it out your way some day and visit!

Congrats on finally opening the coffee shop. I hope it turns out to be everything that you dreamed it might be.

Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 4522
Items Sold: 76
Total Sales: $1589.1
Cost of Items Sold: $272
Average Price Sold: $20.91
Average Cost of Item: $3.58
Highest Price Item Sold: $106.21 Bolex Paillard D8L 8MM Movie Camera With 3 Lenses, Case, Manual Vintage
Number of items listed this week: 92 worth approx. $-740
YTD Sales: $22500
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +25%

I had a decent week this week with a pretty high volume of low-priced items and I’m still tracking at 25% higher sales year-over-year which is surprising give that last year was a really good year with all the at-home-coronavirus-bored-shopping.

Comment on the podcast. For buyers to combine multiple orders and request/get an invoice, you actually need to switch off “require immediate payment”.  Given that change could greatly increase non-payers, it doesn’t seem like something I’d do.

I hope every has a good week and that lots of coffee gets consumed in Luray this week.

4-19-21 to 4-25-21
Total Items in Store: 1378
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: 304.62
Net Sales: 210.35
Cost of Items Sold: $ 14
Highest Price Sold: $ 79.99 Sony Cassette Transcriber/Recorder
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 25

Congrats on the grand opening. Mom and I drove by on Saturday and the joint was jumping. Even the back porch was full. So great to see in downtown after the past 13+ months.

Slow week so I’m just listing and doing my thing.

So excited to hear that your coffee shop has opened! I hope to visit sometime this summer.

Not so excited about the past week’s sales, but my parents are visiting and there will be a family event next weekend. I’m glad for the reduced amount of work.

Week of April 18 – 24
Total Items in Store: 1327 eBay, 44 Etsy
Items Sold: 7 eBay
Cost of Items Sold: $4 + $0 Commission
Total Sales: $165.64
Highest Price Sold: $46.71 for 1953 Howard Sams TV & Radio manuals
Average price: $23.66
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 6

Congrats Jay and Ryanne on the grand opening of the coffee shop!

4/17/21-4/23/21

Total Items In Store: 2199
Items Sold: 36
Gross Sales: $1088.25
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Twemco Flip Clock)
Average Price Sold: $30.23

Returns:  0 $0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $141
Number of items listed: 41

• Had a few high dollar sales this week that helped me get back over the $1K mark.
• Auctions and yard sales are both picking up in our area. I was able to pick up some great items at both this week.
• I’ve had the same experiences with online auctions. It’s rare that I do well with the online ones.  The prices just seem to go way to high.  Luckily, in my area there have still been some in person estate auctions.  Many of the local auctioneers in my area also hate doing online auctions.  Some have tried working as best as they could through the pandemic, but some still are waiting to open back up again.
• The new expanded character ability on feedback is crazy. Someone just wrote me a book for feedback.  It’s not going to be good when I get a negative with a diatribe.
• Congrats on the coffee shop opening. It looks like you have put a lot of effort into the details…nice job!

7/18/21 – 4/24/21
Total Active Items (2 different IDs): 326
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $383.49
Highest Price Sold: $152.52
Returns:  0
COGS: $94.47 (including commissions but not including cost of any family castoffs sold)
New Listings: 0
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0

Regarding combined shipping, I have always simply asked the multiple item buyer to buy it all and I would refund, but I found that since Managed Payments I cannot enter the one tracking number I used on to the other items, so I get a no-carrier-validation ding on my metrics. I like to maintain TRS so it matters to me.

Yeah I would miss live auctions. So many small live auctions are such form of entertainment for the locals that I think when this craziness is over that I think those in that category will go back. I hope so.

I recently received a positive feedback from someone who used every available digit. It was all “A”s and “+” as in AAAAAA++++++AAA+++AAA+++…. ad nauseam.

Congratulations on your grand opening.  Nice to see all your hard work paying off (again).  Definitely see a road trip in our future to come visit.  Took at look at your AirBNB places to see what openings there might be this summer.  WOW.  You guys are booked almost solid.  Must feel good after last year.  Looks like there are still some openings at the Hawksbill, so you might see us soon.

Both our children are finally back in school part time this week, so looking forward to having a little more time to focus on getting things posted.  Strangely quiet after more than a year.

Best week of sales we’ve have since in 2 months with 4 sales over $100.  My biggest sale ($200) was a large Amethyst geode that a friend gave me when they moved.  It had been knocked over and broken into large pieces, but could still be put together like a puzzle.  Would have been worth a lot if it was still in tact.  Also had a nice sale of a vintage Akai reel-to-reel tape recorder for $172.  This one has been sitting in my death pile for about 2 years because it had some problems and I kept thinking I’d find the time to troubleshoot.  Finally posted it as needing repair and it sold in two days.

Sales Report for: 4/24/21
Total Items in Store: 1131
Items Sold: 25
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $1,052.80
Net Sales (After fees): $879.11
Cost of Items Sold: $104.29
COGS Percent 11.86%
Net Profit Margin: 73.60%
Highest Price Sold: $200.00 Large broken Amethyst Geode
Average Price Sold: $42.11
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $8.05
Sold via promoted listings: 13
Promoted Percentage: 52.00%
Average Days Listed: 366.24
Longest Listed: 1369
New items listed: 10

Thanks for the show.

I’m up to my ears in life outside Ebay but wanted to stop in and say Congrats!  It looks like the opening was a great success and I’m so happy your community is responding well to the new venture.  Place and social media photos looking great.

4/18/21 – 4/24/21

Total items in store: 2261

Items sold: 63

Gross sales: $2390.16 (up 16.2% from one year ago)

Net sales: $1604.69 (up 9.7% from one year ago)

Highest price sold (net): $112.68 — a black parallel rookie card from the flagship Topps set of Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani (whose nickname is the “Japanese Babe Ruth” since he is the rare combination of both pitcher and outfielder) graded 9 mint

Lowest price sold (net): $7.61 — an authenticated autograph of longtime Dodgers pitching coach Joe Becker

I’m not sure if this is unique to my niche or just an odd week, but it’s felt like the buyers with the deep pockets were out playing in the nice weather and getting vaccinated. I’m fortunate to have had a high quantity of sales this week, but I’m thinking that eBay might see a significant summer slowdown this year as people gravitate back to outdoor activities and small to mid sized gatherings. I hope to get the inventory level up over 3000 listings by the end of the summer so that my sales level remains somewhat stable, but that will be challenging if I keep selling 60 items a week!

Regardless of how eBay goes this summer, I’m sure business at the new Broad Porch Coffee will be booming! Exciting times, and I’m really looking forward to “coffee talk” over the next few months.

Congrats on the store opening.

I greatly enjoyed my croissant and cup of coffee before my shift.  It looks amazing and such an addition to the town.

You guys should be very proud.