The Numbers: December 11-17, 2022

This topic has 40 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 11 months ago by Jay.

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- 12/19/2022 at 2:30 pm #98714
  Jay
  Keymaster
  Location: Virginia
  @jay
  Quieter week of sales. From our history, holiday sales have never been meteoric for us since we sell such weird stuff. I think sellers who do well dur
  [See the full post at: The Numbers: December 11-17, 2022]
- 12/19/2022 at 4:14 pm #98717
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  12/11/22 – 12/17/22
  
  Total Items In ebay Store: 4691
  
  Total Items In Etsy Store: 246
  
  ebay Items Sold: 24 items for $ 1,288.09 / Net $1033.05
  Etsy Items Sold: 11 items for $ 643.54 / Net $ 469.90
  
  Total Gross Sales: 1931.63 (including eBay\etsy fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Net Sales: $ 1502.95 (minus shipping, and taxes)
  Items Sold: 35 items
  Highest Price Sold: $ 100 (Coat)
  Average Price Sold: $ 42.94
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 68.66
  
  Number of items listed: 5 ebay, 25 Etsy
  
  Gut Sales Report for the week: This has been my best week in a long time. Etsy really also helped a lot.
  
  Focus for the week : Still trying to get all my 1800 vintage listings on Etsy. I have only 246 listed on Etsy so far.
  
  Scavenge of the week: Found a Talbots 100% Camel Hair Jacket for $5.
  
  Thoughts for the week: After some more research and seeing Etsy outperform ebay, I have made some discoveries.
  
  Here are my thoughts on what the landscape of online market places might look like 10 years from now:
  
  1. I believe Facebook Marketplace has the ability to become the #1 Platform.
  
  They have 1 billion users. Let’s see if they can get that to convert into sales. See the two links below:
  
  https://www.engadget.com/facebook-q-1-2021-earnings-marketplace-1-billion-232537001.html
  
  https://webtribunal.net/blog/facebook-marketplace-statistics/#gref
  
  2. I think Etsy will remain the best niche online marketplace. Etsy is killing it lately. See the links below:
  
  https://www.similarweb.com/blog/ecommerce/retail-insights/niche-marketplaces/
  
  Since 2020, Etsy has seen huge growth. They consistently have YOY growth. But ebay keeps losing revenue,users,and negative YOY growth.
  
  Etsy Revenue and Usage Statistics (2024)
  
  3. ebay will stay around, but they will keep losing market share. They are destined to be a mediocre marketplace unless they make some changes. See the link below:
  
  https://www.businessofapps.com/data/ebay-statistics/
  
  4. There will be a dominant niche online marketplace for clothes and fashion. Poshmark seems to be on their way there, but the 20% fee may not sit well with everyone.
  
  5. Etsy and Facebook Marketplace have the lowest fee (6.5% for Etsy, and 5% for Facebook Marketplace). That, combined with their strength of users should catapolt them in the next 10 years.
  
  I think Etsy and Facebook Marketplace are a good place for me to start with cross listing. Etsy has already confirmed that. Can’t wait to see what happens when I get all 1800 items listed on Etsy and a presence on Facebook Marketplace.
  
  I have also spent some time mapping out my road map for getting cross listed on 3 other marketplace sites for next year. So, Etsy first, Facebook Marketplace second, and then these other 3.
  
  Mercari is not one of these other 3 platforms. What I read about Mercari is scaring me off. Can someone with experience on Mercari tell me what they think and have experienced there?
  
  Mark
  - 12/20/2022 at 3:33 pm #98736
    Lukastreasure
    Participant
    
    Location: Chevy Chase, MD
    @lukastreasuretrove
    @Mark-S – I wonder about Facebook Marketplace. They have the largest potential customer base, but their interface is horrible for comparison shopping and it is feature poor. And the worst thing is the scammers. It almost never fails that I get at least two inquiries from scammers for each listing I post. I can’t imagine having to weed through the scammers on all of my listings. Not to mention the “Is this still available?” queries and percentage of low-ball offers. Considering the cash that FB has, you’d think they would take some lessons from their main competitors and refine their system.
    
    I’ll be watching your journey closely. I hope it works out as well as your Etsy experiment.
    - 12/20/2022 at 7:56 pm #98739
      Mark S
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @mark-s
      
      Lukastreasure,
      
      Thanks for the Facebook Marketplace. I hadn’t seen that in my research, so I started looking for it. I found this video that appears to be fairly good.
      
      It sounds like Facebook Marketplace is like the Wild West. You have to take some chances because you only pay 5% and in return you get little service from Facebook Marketplace. So, I will have to think about this one. Facebook Marketplace appears to need to put policies in place to protect both the buyer and seller. I will have to see if I will delay going there right now.
      
      Mark
      - 12/24/2022 at 4:15 pm #98751
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Facebook Marketplace appears to need to put policies in place to protect both the buyer and seller.
        
        But once Facebook has to hire staff to monitor disputes and scam protection, their cut will no longer just be 5%.
        
        12/26/2022 at 3:03 am #98772
        
        Antique Frog
        Participant
        
        Location: Leicester
        @antique-frog
        
        If Facebook Marketplace has one billion users they’re going to need a lot of staff. That’s one in eight of the world’s population. At least the staff won’t need to learn Chinese or Russian, since Facebook’s banned in both countries.
    - 12/21/2022 at 4:02 pm #98742
      craig rex
      Participant
      
      Location: south jersey
      @craig-rex
      
      @Mark-s
      
      Appreciate the thoughts on different marketplaces. I always love your posts. However, I have a much stronger belief in eBay’s staying power than I think you might. eBay offers a lot of benefits and features that other platforms don’t, with two of the biggest being auctions and the money-back guarantee. I also think it means something that the platform’s been around as something of an online flea market since the nineties. There’s a pre-existing user base that is still going to be working (and buying things) for another few decades at least, and eBay is likely to be the platform for those users to find their weird one-off items or their hobby/collectible items.
      
      I agree with @lukastreasuretrove about the weaknesses of Facebook marketplace particularly the scammers. My personal experience has also been that most people my age (I’m 36) and younger don’t use Facebook much if at all, and I don’t expect that to change considering all of the issues Facebook has had with selling people’s personal information.
      
      I am excited to see your Etsy sales trend over the next few months. I think there is always a sales boost when you list a lot of new items to a platform as you did with Etsy this past week. But how does that maintain over a few months? That’s what will be interesting to learn.
      - 12/21/2022 at 8:15 pm #98743
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Craig,
        
        Glad you like the posts. I really feel like my business is on the move. I do like ebay and it will be around for a long time. However, my issue is that I keep listing more every year, but I never make more money. Like 1000 more items YOY and it makes no diffetence. After looking at those charts in my first post above, now I understand why. Ebay keeps losing users, revenue, and martket share. Etsy has opened my eyes to how sales can be. Maybe it is just what I am selling, but I have a very broad range of all items and most are fairly desirable. But, sales still lag. Maybe I am just more suited for Etsy. I think I will find out as I branch out to more sites. I am working on automating that, so it may come sooner than I think.
        
        Mark
        
        mark
      - 12/24/2022 at 4:20 pm #98752
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        I’m very interested to see Mark’s Etsy experiment as he puts the work into listing 1800 items. Maybe Etsy has gotten a lot more users and sales will be good. It’s been a long time (5+ years) that we’ve tried listing there and sales were always mediocre.
        
        It made more sense to put all our time into listing more on eBay than splitting our time listing on Etsy. But these crossposting tools make the experiment more sensible.
        
        12/24/2022 at 9:17 pm #98756
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Jay,
        
        If you look at the Etsy statistics I included in my post above, you can see that Etsy has changed signficantly in the last 5 years.
        
        In 2017, Etsy only had 33.3 million users. In 2022, they have 93.9 users
        
        In 2017, Etsy only had 3.25 nnual gross merchandize sales. In 2022, they have 13.4.
        
        You should really try it again. I think it is a whole lot different than when you tried it 5+ years ago.
        
        Also, I think I may have had enough of the grind of cross-listing. Plus, it will take me forever to cross -list a significant amount of listings, even at 1-2 min. each. Since I am a programmer by trade, I have started to work on my own to automate the cross-listing. I estimate that if I can programmatically copy my near 5000 listings from ebay across all major platforms, I could generate another 17,000 listings. At a 1.5% STR per month for 17,000 listings, that would generate 255 additional sold items. Multiple 255 by $40 ASP, that is an additional $10,200 per month. 1.5% STR per month is about what I am doing on ebay. So, that number could be higher or lower elsewhere. It has been much higher, at least initally on Etsy.
        
        My theory is that ebay didn’t have much competion in the early days. That is why you could list nearly anything and have a high str. Now, the ebay competion is stealing the sales from ebay and it is getting harder to sell on ebay. So, just list on the sites that have taken market share from ebay.
        
        Mark
        
        12/25/2022 at 9:26 am #98757
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        The numbers sounds very exciting. I bet we’re all interested to see how your store plays out as you get your items on multiple platforms.
        
        How heavy is then left to program your own tool to crosslist? Did List Perfectly not do what you needed it to do?
        
        12/25/2022 at 1:04 pm #98766
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Jay,
        
        List Perfectly does get the job done. The issue is that it is not done in the most efficient way for me. Everything is done manually. You can select multiple items to cross-list, but then you have to look at each and every listing and fill in fields that were not done automatically for you. Not much to do in Etsy, it is like 6 fields using the Pro version. But, if I want to do this for 17,000 listings or so, this is not very practical.
        
        Also, there are things that you have to manually enter. Like cogs. You have to enter them 1 listing at a time. Not practical for nearly 5,000 listings that I have. I have my cogs in a database table and can get them into a spreadsheet, but there is no import option available.
        
        Let me do an analogy. Can you get around in a horse and buggy? Yes, you can and it does work. If you just travel short distances, it works fine. But say you have to drive to Florida from Michigan, how will that work? Not very well. That is where I am at.
        
        Remember when you copied your ebay items over to Bonanza? It was quick and easy, maybe several hours. That is because they were using the api (application program interface). Everything is done behind the scenes. That is what I want to do here. Copy all my data from ebay and then copy over to the other platforms that I want. It will take some coding time, but will probably be around 50 hours or so. If I had to do this manually, it would probably take 500 hours.
        
        Then, the big thing for me is that if something is not working or not efficient, I can change it to work. But, when you use a 3rd party tool, you have to wait for them to take action – that can sometimes take years or maybe never get done. It just seems like pieces of data that you need are always missing.
        
        Mark
        
        12/27/2022 at 12:00 pm #98787
        
        Lukastreasure
        Participant
        
        Location: Chevy Chase, MD
        @lukastreasuretrove
        
        @Jay – Are you guys still using Sixbit? If so, you are already over halfway to posting your items on Etsy. Since you’re familiar with the interface the learning curve should be pretty mild. The most confusing part is understanding the allocation settings and categories. I started with my most expensive items and worked my way down therefore maximizing effort. Always happy to answer questions if you start down that route.
        
        12/27/2022 at 6:09 pm #98790
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        We never got into Sixbit or the other listing platforms. We still list right on eBay. Old school.
        
        I’ve seen that xmas sales seem good on Etsy but how is the rest of the year? Do Mark’s projected sell through rates makes sense to you for Etsy?
        
        IS it as easy as crossposting thousands of eBay listings and making 30% extra sales?
        
        12/27/2022 at 8:12 pm #98791
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Jay,
        
        Let’s let Lukatreasure and Mike and others doing Etsy weigh in, but I believe that your time is better spent listing on Etsy. I believe it is way more profitable. Here is why.
        
        If you have to list on ebay, I believe each listing takes about 20 min. of time. Here is that breakdown:
        
        1. Find and buy the item – average time about 5 min per item
        
        2. Research, title, price, Do dimensions and weight, tag, put in lot – average time about 5 min
        
        3. Take pictures, adjust if necessary, upload if necessary, etc – average time about 5 min
        
        4. List the item. Put it into inventory. – average time about 5 min
        
        So, I am saying that a new item listed on ebay is going to take about 20 minutes of your time, give or take a few minutes.
        
        But, with cross-listing, you have already put in the 20 minutes of time. Now you just have to copy and fill in a few details for a specific site such as Etsy.
        
        This cross-listing, even with tags on Etsy, should take 2 min. or less. That is 1\10th of the time to list a new item on ebay.
        
        So, let’s say you have an ebay STR of 1.5% per month and an ASP of $40. But, for new listings, the STR is probably higher, let’s say 3% per month.
        
        You list 100 new items on ebay for the month. At a 3% STR, you should sell 3 of the items for an ASP of $40 each. You make $120 Gross.
        
        Now, for the amount of time it took to list 100 new items on ebay, you could have cross listed 1000 items on Etsy.
        
        Let’s go with an Etsy STR of 60% of your ebay STR (which is what I projected and what Lukatreasure and Mike seem to concur with).
        
        With 1000 items listed on Etsy, a STR of 1.5% would sell 15 items and we are stating 60% of that for Etsy, so 9 items would sell. 9 items at $40 is $360 Gross.
        
        So, $120 Gross for your time to list new items on ebay versus $360 Gross for the same time to cross-list to Etsy. That is 3X more profit for your time spent. Plus, you don’t have to spend time and money on new items to sell. And, you may see better results on Etsy as I have seen, that would be a bonus.
        
        Of course, after you have all your vintage items listed on Etsy, that advantage will be gone, but then you can look to another platform to cross-list to if you want.
        
        Mark
        
        12/27/2022 at 8:16 pm #98792
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Understood. So in your mind, when do you list new inventory? Or do you spend the next year just crossposting the 4000 items you already have?
        
        It’ll be interesting to see your experiment unfold since you seem committed.
        
        12/27/2022 at 8:52 pm #98793
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        Jay,
        
        I still list new inventory on ebay because ebay requires that to keep your STR going on ebay. I just don’t list nearly as much right now on ebay.
        
        Mark
        
        12/28/2022 at 11:57 am #98799
        
        Lukastreasure
        Participant
        
        Location: Chevy Chase, MD
        @lukastreasuretrove
        
        @Jay – I confused Sixbit with Inkfrog. Were you not using Inkfrog for listing? Just for backup purposes?
        
        Etsy has accounted for 17% of my sales this year. That is on about 1/4 of the inventory that I have on eBay. As it has been a bad year overall, I am happy that I put the effort in. Not sure I’d focus solely on Etsy though. eBay continues to be more consistent in sales and allows a wider variety of items.
        
        Hard to compare apples to oranges, as I have been selective what has gone on Etsy. I posted only my higher dollar items and the inventory there is less long tail. Getting started is a serious investment of time, but once up and running the effort for the additional exposure has been minimal. Buyers seem to be a bit less cost conscious. Etsy doesn’t have a make offer option, so don’t have to deal with lowballers. I have had a handful of buyers reach out to negotiate lower prices, but not the norm.
        
        I may take a look at List Perfectly as I’m not happy about the cost of Sixbit. Though I am not eager to put the time into learning a new platform again.
        
        12/28/2022 at 12:06 pm #98800
        
        Mark S
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @mark-s
        
        I can help with List Perfe tly.
        
        12/29/2022 at 9:12 am #98802
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        You are correct. We use inkfrog to backup our eBay store….and originally used it to combine two eBay stores. eBay doesnt have an option to merge stores.
        
        But we find that listing on eBay to be the easiest for our weird unique items. I know other sellers enjoy using 3rd party listing tools, especially if the can use spreadsheets (?).
        
        I’m really enjoying this conversation around crosslisting. It’s always about what the best use of our time. Listing new items on eBay? Or crossposting the same items to other platforms. Since eBay isn’t our fulltime job anymore, we have to be mindful of the risk/reward.
        
        You know us: we do evolve but I need to ask A LOT of questions before I get there.
- 12/19/2022 at 4:32 pm #98718
  Borderrooster
  Participant
  Location: Fort Myers, FLA
  @borderrooster
  eBay Store Sales Week of December 11 through 17, 2022
  Total Items in Store: 1144
  Items Sold: 10
  Gross Sales: $256.66 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Net Sales: $145.53 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Cost of Goods Sold: $15.00
  Highest Price Sold: $19.95 (Rodgers and Hammerstein Anthology for Easy Piano Songbook)
  Average Price Sold: $25.67
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $36.00
  Number of items listed this week: 28
  
  Although I’ve been a Forum member 3 plus years, and have been listening to Ryanne & Jay for awhile, including relistening to older podcasts now, last week was my first posting of my weekly numbers. I guess it helped motivate me to get some listing done. I’ve been powering through my death pile and have already made a few sales from my newly listed items. Funny how that works.
  
  Merry Christmas to all!
  - 12/20/2022 at 3:35 pm #98737
    Lukastreasure
    Participant
    
    Location: Chevy Chase, MD
    @lukastreasuretrove
    @borderrooster – Always happy to have more input on the board. You have a decent size store, what is your focus? Vintage, clothes, electronics…
- 12/19/2022 at 9:15 pm #98720
  Sharyn
  Participant
  Location: Central NJ
  @sharyn
  I started listing clothing with a slight bit different process than before. After photos, I took measurements and weighed the item, writing everything down. Then I started listing. I had to check a minor detail here and there, but most were listed right off my notes. It didn’t make anything more enjoyable, but it was a better process.
  
  For hard goods, I usually create the listing ahead of photos, but it wasn’t working as well with clothing.
  
  My foray into clothing has just started. I must have several hundred things to list, both vintage and modern. I don’t really enjoy listing clothing, so I have to figure out how to keep myself motivated. Thankfully, the shipping part is pretty easy.
  
  I agree with the slower week. I did have a few really good weeks in 4th quarter, but, in reality, 1st quarter can be interesting as people use their holiday checks or eBay gift cards. Hopefully, a few will be looking for vintage clothing.
  
  Week of Dec 11 – 17
  Total Items in Store: 1801 eBay, 30 Etsy
  Items Sold: 16 eBay, 0 Etsy
  Cost of Items Sold: $9 + $100 Commission
  Total Sales: $361.38 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
  Highest Price Sold: eBay $55 Set 9 depression era glass dishes with red trim
  Average price: $25.59
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 24
  - 12/20/2022 at 10:55 am #98728
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    I do my clothing drafts first.
    
    1. Research and use sell similar if possible
    
    2. Fill in item specifics, shipping, and description – include major flaws in description.
    
    3. Copy/paste my premade templates for measurements depending on item
    
    4. Take measurements and put right into draft description.
    
    Then I can photo at my leisure. I always have “See photos for details & condition” in all of my listings. If I see any minor flaws while photographing under the high intensity lighting I take a closeup photo.
    
    To make taking photos easier, I used dailyrefinements method of using a large piece of foam board on an angle with felt on it.
    
    https://www.dailyrefinement.com/blog/ebaysetup
    
    Regular felt works just fine at holding the clothes in place. My board is modular – I just it on my photo table and put a quick clamp at the front of the table to keep the board from slipping off.
    - 12/20/2022 at 11:21 am #98730
      Sharyn
      Participant
      
      Location: Central NJ
      @sharyn
      
      @retro-treasures-wv
      
      I hear what you are saying. This is my normal method, but I’m finding that it just wasn’t working for me this way. It might just be a mental thing because I’m not really crazy about clothes.
      
      What I am listing now are all vintage, and I sorted out anything not worth selling. I do not have to do the initial research to see if they are worth listing. If I find defects during photography and change my mind, I never spent the time to create the draft.
      
      I tried a quick and dirty version of dailyrefinements’ method, and I suppose I could make it work; however, I don’t know where I would store the board when I’m not using it. My basement is packed, and I use our living space to do all my photos and prep.
      
      I have two torso mannequins that I use for most clothing. When I have to list a set with pants, I just put a large piece of felt on the floor and use it that way.
      
      One mannequin is a female for up to medium/large clothing. I purchased it off Amazon recently for about $70 including shipping. The other is a male for men’s clothing but also used for women’s XL and up. I just don’t worry about it not having “boobs”.
    - 12/24/2022 at 4:24 pm #98753
      Jay
      Keymaster
      
      Location: Virginia
      @jay
      
      Reading over that guy’s workflow and process is insane. He either hires a lot of people to do his work or he is just grinding. It’s incredible all the volume he plows through.
- 12/19/2022 at 9:37 pm #98721
  ChristineR
  Participant
  Location: Southern California
  @christiner
  Total Items in Store: 594
  Items Sold: 22
  Gross Sales: $874.26 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Net Sales: $465.89 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Cost of Items Sold: $153
  Highest Price Sold: $83 (Vintage owl art on wood, paid $5)
  Average Price Sold: $39.74
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150
  Number of items listed this week: 11
  
  Happy with the sales this week. I am seeing over 30% final value fees (not counting promotions). This seems so much higher than I remember them being a couple of years ago. Wondering what others are seeing and recall? Total fees are pretty high (I’m promoting at 4%) so I guess it’s good I’m selling more used items now that I can source at a lower COGS.
  
  I did do a little RA this week and a little bit of thrifting here and there. Sales have been aggressive at my favorite retailer so I figure it will be slim pickings by the day after Christmas when I traditionally go. Didn’t get a lot listed last week unfortunately. Should be flipping that equation this week but will have more family time. I also need to do some organizing of inventory.
  
  Hope all are having a good holiday season!
  - 12/20/2022 at 9:19 am #98727
    Sharyn
    Participant
    
    Location: Central NJ
    @sharyn
    Remember that final value fees are based on the price of the item plus the shipping plus the tax. If you have heavier items that aren’t expensive, you could potentially double the FVF.
    
    Are you actually looking at the FVF? eBay shows you the expenses versus your earnings. Those expenses include the shipping and the fees.
  - 12/20/2022 at 12:51 pm #98733
    ChristineR
    Participant
    
    Location: Southern California
    @christiner
    Oh duh I guess I was looking at the screen that says the percentage of costs that was FVFs. I needed to pull up a statement and that looks lower. Shipping definitely takes a bite from gross as I sell a lot of breakables.
- 12/20/2022 at 8:41 am #98725
  Temudgin
  Participant
  Location: Jacksonville FL
  @temudgin
  “I am seeing over 30% final value fees.”
  
  @ChristineR: Where are you getting that number? FVFs depend on the category but I’d guess the average is about 12%.
  
  Week of 12/11 – 12/17:
  Total items in Store: 316
  Items Sold: 9
  Gross Sales: $306.93 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Net Sales: $178.39 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Cost of Items Sold: $71 (including consignment commissions)
  Highest Price Sold: $49 plus shipping (USN Command Master Chief’s personal challenge coin)
  Average Price Sold: $34.10
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $12.08
  Number of new items listed: 3
  
  As for number of new items listed above, it was pretty poor at 3 but emphasis on those 3 were “new”. In addition, I also ended and sold similar 75 of the oldest items in my store. Of those, for 6 new listings I used a different main photo (or used the same one but significantly edited it), moved words around in the title, and changed the price (anywhere from 10 cents to up to $10; the latter based on checking Terapeak to determine if I was way out of line on pricing). It seemed to increase interest in everything but mainly in the 6 heavily edited items and I did sell one of them almost immediately. For all the other ended listings, the only edit was changing the price by 10 cents and I waited one day to list them in the hopes that it would make it more likely that the nightly eBay to Google Shopping listing upload would hopefully show them as new. The result on those was lackluster. I’m not sure that the bulk end-and-sell-similar trick works so well unless each item is more heavily edited.
  
  I also went on Google Shopping and did a sample of my store by searching for 10 different random items, using specific search terms. Out of the 10, only one of them showed in Google Shopping so I guess I’m not cracking that code yet.
- 12/20/2022 at 11:59 am #98732
  Retro Treasures WV
  Participant
  Location:
  @retro-treasures-wv
  Items in Store 2017
  Items Sold 21
  Total Sales $867.00
  COGS $81.00
  Total Profit $786.00
  Average profit $37.43
  Average sales price $41.29
  New Listings 33
  Items scavenged 7
  Listing 2022 weekly Avg 36
  
  I finished up the listings of a bunch of high dollar items this week and immediately sold 4 of them for $350. That made a huge difference in my week!
  
  I’m thinking of my goals for next year. Goal #1 has to be improving my organization. I was on the path of being organized and clearing/condensing out storage in the summer. Everything fell apart due to neverending health issues and illnesses for me and my family from September through November.
  
  Now it is cold and gets dark early. I tend to do the minimum in the deep parts of winter and then go on a big cleaning organizing kick in the spring. I need to reverse that trend this year and target small improvements each week.
  
  Goal #2 is to keep focusing on listing my high dollar items. One of the people I watch on youtube is a game seller called “Chase after the right price”. He bought several giant inventory buyouts and has a series of videos where he takes 30 minutes to go through his death pile storage unit and pull out 10-20 items worth $100+ that will sell quick and generate cash flow.
  
  I kind of did the same thing and pulled $100 items when organizing back in August. I’m reaping the rewards right now of doing that and want to keep going. So each week I’ll take 30 minutes and try to find 5 high dollar quick sale items I can list. I’ll target $50+ as long as it will be a quick sale.
  
  This may tie into goal #2, but goal #3 is to focus on listing larger items so that I can start clearing space. They can’t sell if they aren’t listed, so I need to list at least 10 large items a week. My larger items tend to be higher dollar items but they aren’t always quick sales.
  
  This year I focused on listing alot of items. That’s good and all but to hit my listing goals I listed alot of small, low dollar items. That doesn’t result in alot of cubic footage of inventory moving out the door.
  
  Goal #4 is going to be the hardest. I’ve set similar goals MANY times and always fail at it. I have to STOP buying bread n butter items. I’m thinking I can only source items that are $50+ and/or a super quick seller until yard sale season comes back in April. The only exceptions I can make to the $50 rule is if the item has a greater than 100% 90 day STR in ebay solds. A $50-$100 item needs to have a 50% or greater 90 day STR.
  
  So that’s my rough draft my business objectives this year. Thoughts?
  - 12/21/2022 at 3:47 pm #98741
    craig rex
    Participant
    
    Location: south jersey
    @craig-rex
    @retro-treasures-wv
    
    I love your goals 2, 3 and 4. These must be common problems since I’m dealing with all of them too. I wonder if we can keep each other accountable with our goals. There’s always the numbers thread but maybe some kind of weekly check-in / goals discussion thread? Might get some scavengers who are reading but not posting to join us as well…
    - 12/21/2022 at 9:19 pm #98744
      Sharyn
      Participant
      
      Location: Central NJ
      @sharyn
      
      @craig-rex – What you are asking about already exists!! Come join us in the Listing Challenge thread. The most current forum post is linked below. Amatino leads the group, and she will start a new post at the beginning of the year.
      
      Every week we say how many listings we created, and Amatino keeps track and creates challenges each month. Right now we are talking about our goals for next year.
      
      You will need to scroll to the bottom to see the most recent posts:
      
      Listing Challenge 2022 Thread #3
  - 12/25/2022 at 9:28 am #98758
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    There’s no downside to anything you’ve done so far. But as you’ve mentioned in past years, it’s easy to source but more difficult to keep up with the listing.
    
    Have you ever considered hiring someone to help you photograph and fill in drafts. You do the final pricing and listing? That’s been a game changer for us.
    - 12/25/2022 at 8:22 pm #98769
      Retro Treasures WV
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @retro-treasures-wv
      
      I have paid my oldest child
      
      to do photography, and occasionally pick items from inventory for shipping.
      
      she is great at photography and cleaning items, but she is slow and loses interest quickly. She’s good for an hour at a time at most.
- 12/20/2022 at 12:53 pm #98734
  ChristineR
  Participant
  Location: Southern California
  @christiner
  @Retro these sound like great goals and I should also adopt them, though I don’t have a lot of $50-100 items lying around. I have some larger items I should 100% prioritize listing to cut down the space needed for storage. I also should mark down the pillows in inventory as they take up a lot of space and tend to sell slowly but are still profitable.
- 12/20/2022 at 3:26 pm #98735
  Lukastreasure
  Participant
  Location: Chevy Chase, MD
  @lukastreasuretrove
  It didn’t feel like it, but I guess it wasn’t a bad week of sales. Above this years average and just about equal to this week last year. But then I look at two years ago where did $2100 and I get a bit deflated. (Reminds himself to ignore pandemic numbers again
  
  My favorite sale of the week was my largest, a vintage Swatch watch that sold for $124.95. I bought a lot of watches from an auction that included an original 1984 Swatch. The band was deteriorating but I popped in a new battery and it worked fine, so I purchased a replacement band and listed it. It came with its original package which allowed me to ask more. Took a few weeks to sell. With the new band I had about $20 in it.
  
  Two other cool sales were a vintage Blenko water pitcher that sold for $90 about an hour after I listed it. Even better that there was an almost exact match listed for $20 less. Always wonder what factors lead to mine selling first when I ask more. And then I sold a Tiki mug for $49.95 that I had paid $3.49 at the local thrift store. Ugliest mug ever:
  
  Vintage Trader Vic’s Waikiki Hawaii Ugly Tiki Mug Polynesian Pottery | eBay
  
  Week Ending 12/10/22
  Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $677.35
  Net Sales: $548.96
  Total Items Sold 16
  Total Items in eBay Store: 1094 Items Sold: 14
  Total Items in Etsy Store: 345 Items Sold: 2
  Cost of Items Sold: $70.96
  COGS Percent 12.93%
  Highest Price Sold: $124.95
  Average Price Sold: $42.33
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
  Average Days Listed: 410
  Longest Listed: 1752
  New items listed: 6
  - 12/20/2022 at 4:42 pm #98738
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    I pass Blenko glass every day on my way to my day job. They are somehow still in business.
    
    When I go to estate sales, blenko glass is what everybody kills each other over while I’m chilling in the closet looking at old shoes.
  - 12/21/2022 at 11:33 am #98740
    Steve List
    Participant
    
    Location: Richmond, Calif.
    @steve-list
    @lukastreasuretrove I have a very similar Tiki Mug as your Trader Vic mug, except mine is marked “Aloha 78” on the back and has many chips on the top and bottom. At least I now know where it may of come from.
- 12/22/2022 at 3:08 pm #98745
  Lukastreasure
  Participant
  Location: Chevy Chase, MD
  @lukastreasuretrove
  @Steve-list – I almost passed it up because it was so ugly and looked like it was made by some child in craft shop. Something made me use image search on it and when it came up with matches, I realized I should pick it up. Apparently, there were a few versions with another version being rarer and selling for more. I always look at Tiki mugs, which I’m sure anyone else who follows the Thrifting Board on Facebook does as well.
- 12/23/2022 at 12:44 pm #98747
  Robb_
  Participant
  Location:
  @robb_
  Finally getting close to 2000 listings, December sales picked up for me, very thankful for that. Hopefully will have a good January.
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