The Numbers: April 30 - May 6, 2023

This topic has 23 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 4 months, 2 weeks ago by craig rex.

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- 05/08/2023 at 11:46 am #99978
  Jay
  Keymaster
  Location: Virginia
  @jay
  Sold the fewest items during a week in a long time. BUT the items we did sell were for over $50 so our average profit was about the same as most weeks
  [See the full post at: The Numbers: April 30 – May 6, 2023]
- 05/08/2023 at 11:53 am #99981
  Sharyn
  Participant
  Location: Central NJ
  @sharyn
  Ooo, unless someone sneaks in here while I’m typing, I get to be first!!
  
  I also had a slow week, but my day job was a bit busy, so no big deal. I sold lower priced items, so my average sale is down a bit as well.
  
  Week of Apr 30 – May 6
  Total Items in Store: 1714 eBay, 30 Etsy
  Items Sold: 12 eBay, 0 Etsy
  Cost of Items Sold: $0 + $64 Commission
  Total Sales: $227.02 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
  Highest Price Sold: eBay $29 Flag blanket
  Average price: $18.90
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 7
- 05/08/2023 at 12:21 pm #99983
  Lukastreasure
  Participant
  Location: Chevy Chase, MD
  @lukastreasuretrove
  I don’t know how you guys still find time to scavenge when you have so much going on. Hope you found some good stuff.
  
  Had a below average week of sales, but got a lot accomplished and posted some great items. A lot of the items I posted this week came from a “junk drawer” lot I purchased at auction for $22. I managed to squeak $580 worth of listings out of that drawer. Something new I found that is worth picking up is old glass thermometers. The person had saved the box and paperwork for them and I listed one for $75. Biggest sales of the week were 2 books from my $2 book lot from a few weeks back – one for $110 and the other for $90.
  
  Week Ending 5/6/23
  Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $412.69
  Net Sales: $324.91
  Total Items Sold: 12 (ebay 11 / etsy 1)
  Total Items in eBay Store: 1213 / Etsy Store: 552
  
  Cost of Items Sold: $6.39
  COGS Percent 1.97%
  Highest Price Sold: $110.00 Book
  Average Price Sold: $34.39
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
  
  Average Days Listed: 926
  Longest Listed: 2502
  New items listed: 31
  New Listings Value $1,388.00
  - 05/09/2023 at 7:46 am #99993
    junque redux
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @junque-redux
    Are there special regulations for shipping mercury?
    - 05/09/2023 at 8:19 am #99994
      Lukastreasure
      Participant
      
      Location: Chevy Chase, MD
      @lukastreasuretrove
      
      This previous thread on SL discusses shipping thermometers. https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/can-you-ship-a-vintage-thermometer-with-small-amount-of-mercury/
      - 05/09/2023 at 8:32 am #99995
        
        Sharyn
        Participant
        
        Location: Central NJ
        @sharyn
        
        I came here to say that mercury in thermometers are fine, but forgot about my older post. Thanks @LukasTreasure!
        
        I recall that I sold all of those thermometers relatively quickly!
  - 05/09/2023 at 8:53 am #99996
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    We still treat scavenging like a treasure hunt. The goal is to find cool stuff while we’re out doing our daily lives. Especially now with selling online being mainstream, we try to scavenge in unconventional places and willing to sell things we might not otherwise have thought of.
- 05/08/2023 at 5:33 pm #99987
  ChristineR
  Participant
  Location: Southern California
  @christiner
  Total Items in Store: 608
  Items Sold: 11
  Gross Sales: $865.77 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Net Sales: $524.48 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Cost of Items Sold: $100
  Highest Price Sold: $250 (Set of 6 new dinner plates)
  Average Price Sold: $78.71
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $85
  Number of items listed this week: 6
  
  I forgot it was a good week because all of these sales were from last Sunday and Monday. The boom and bust continues.
  
  Had the garage sale and made about $250. Got my money back on some items I didn’t really want to keep and list, others were donated, a few put back into the piles. The clothing was remarkably hot – there seem to be a lot of clothing sellers doing garage sales. Many items still left in the piles, but I continue to slim down the backlog. I find that I don’t really like listing fabric items and prefer hard goods. However, it’s hard to pass up good textiles so I will take turns listing both types of items. Shipping is obviously easier with the textiles as well.
- 05/08/2023 at 7:45 pm #99992
  Robb_
  Participant
  Location:
  @robb_
  I posted something on the inform consumers act that takes effect on eBay June 27th over on random thoughts – what did you learn about your business this year section and I wanted to make sure folks see it , here is link to the forum https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/what-did-you-learn-about-your-business-this-year/
  - 05/09/2023 at 8:54 am #99997
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Thanks for posting this. Assume they’re trying to combat the burglary/shoplifting rings where people are selling stolen items online.
  - 05/09/2023 at 9:28 am #99999
    Sharyn
    Participant
    
    Location: Central NJ
    @sharyn
    Robb – I read the information at your link. I believe I exceed the $20k limit if they count the money received for shipping. I am relieved that an exception applies if you use your home as your address. In that case, they will only report your town and state. This information is already listed under item location, so it isn’t a big deal. I don’t think this law will apply to many people here at Scavenger Life.
    
    For some reason, I will not able to post this on Robb’s original post.
    - 05/09/2023 at 11:01 am #100004
      Temudgin
      Participant
      
      Location: Jacksonville FL
      @temudgin
      
      The other big exception is when your items are returned to a different address, then that return address will be displayed. I’ve been using a nearby private mailbox service for my main address for a while as a return on outgoing labels as well as for item returns so that’ll work for me.
- 05/09/2023 at 9:06 am #99998
  BrianB
  Participant
  Location:
  @brianb
  I am now learning the hard way that either eBay or the USPS don’t consider Reader’s Digest magazines to be eligible for Media Mail postage. I am selling several old copies of Reader’s Digest magazines. eBay refuses to allow these magazines to be shipped using USPS media mail. I called eBay and asked them why. They gave me a convoluted response as to why they don’t qualify for Media Mail so I end up shipping them using Parcel Select.
  - 05/09/2023 at 9:30 am #100000
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Here’s the qualifications for media mail: https://about.usps.com/notices/not121/not121_tech.htm
    
    It’s meant for education media and “Media Mail packages may not contain advertising” which I believe Reader’s Digest has plenty of.
    
    Many sellers abuse media mail so it sounds like you were just caught.
  - 05/09/2023 at 9:35 am #100001
    Sharyn
    Participant
    
    Location: Central NJ
    @sharyn
    Magazines (in general) cannot be sent via media mail because they contain advertisements. I have been shipping magazines in the flat rate padded envelope but adding in a piece of cardboard and a “do not bend” sticker. For anything less than a pound, they can be sent via first class. If you have a stack thicker than can fit in a padded envelope, then parcel is best (but check against FedEx/UPS).
    
    Note that there are a few magazines that don’t have advertisements except for a subscription form or for notices of their other services. I’m not 100% sure, but I have shipped Consumer Reports with media mail. I am sure about a few kids magazines like Ranger Rick and Boy’s Life that don’t have ads.
  - 05/09/2023 at 9:40 am #100002
    Sharyn
    Participant
    
    Location: Central NJ
    @sharyn
    One more thing; if you have a book that is in an eBay category that doesn’t allow media mail, you can pull the listing into Pirate Ship and buy the label there.
    
    For example, let’s say you have a book about the history of a sports team (and it doesn’t have ads), and you list it in the category for that team’s merchandise. eBay will probably not allow you to buy a media mail label because it isn’t in a book category. So, you just import it into Pirate Ship.
    
    Hope this helps.
- 05/09/2023 at 10:56 am #100003
  Temudgin
  Participant
  Location: Jacksonville FL
  @temudgin
  Week of 4/30 – 5/6
  Total items in Store: 302
  Items Sold: 6
  Gross Sales: $116.35 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
  Cost of Items Sold: $34.00 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
  Highest Price Sold: $44.89 plus shipping (Commander Military Sealift Command 2 Star Admiral Challenge Coin)
  Average Sales Price: $19.39 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
  Number of new items listed: 0
  
  Still neglecting my store but doubled my gross from last week, to look at the bright side. Good tip from Sharyn regarding going to PirateShip for qualifying media mail items in non-book categories; I do that as well.
- 05/09/2023 at 2:26 pm #100005
  Retro Treasures WV
  Participant
  Location:
  @retro-treasures-wv
  Items in Store 2032
  Items Sold 13
  Total Sales $476.00
  COGS $104.00
  Total Profit $372.00
  Average profit $28.62
  Average sales price $36.62
  New Listings 0
  Items scavenged 6
  Listing 2023 weekly Avg 19
  
  I had two $100+ sales this week, so yay! Only a couple more weeks of baseball season and then I’m gonna hit ebay like a mad man. I’m so busy I can’t even really do yard sales right now which really sucks!
  
  My goal is to list 1000 items this summer from June 1 to August 31st. That’s 77 items a week which is very achievable for me. I’m such an excel nerd that I’ve already modified my weekly numbers spreadsheet to track my summer weeks and auto update the number of listings & the weekly average needed to meet the goal as I input each week.
  
  I plan to take a week of vacation each in September and October, and I will again stop listing for year Thanksgiving week like I’ve done the last 2 years. That leaves 9 working weeks for ebay this year in the fall. I will need to average 50 listings a week in those 9 weeks to hit 1800 new listings, which is just shy of the 1858 new listings I did last year.
  
  I’ll close with a quote from my Toddlers favorite movie, Storks:
  
  <b>Make a plan, stick to the plan, always deliver!</b>
- 05/09/2023 at 8:43 pm #100011
  JasonK
  Participant
  Location: Florida
  @jasonk
  I’m going to try posting more regularly, we will see how far I get.
  
  Total Items in Store: 883
  Items Sold: 52
  Gross Sales: $1,825.71 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Net Sales: $1,130.21 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Cost of Items Sold: $120
  Cost of helpers: $125
  Highest Price Sold: $250 (n scale passenger car set)
  Average Price Sold: $35.11
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $22
  Number of items listed this week: 70
  
  May and June are supposed to be slow months for the model train business because winter is over and everybody is starting to think about doing things outdoors and not hiding in their basements building trains but I got a very nice life-line in the form of a massive collection purchase that should hold me over for the entire summer. I spent $1,550 on what has to be the biggest single buy I’ve ever done for ebay. Around 50 bankers boxes full of model trains, the entire contents of a train club that went bust, are now taking up a good portion of the front room of my office. The good news is there is probably several thousand items worth around $20K so I’m very happy. I managed to get a box of some of the nicer items listed and sold in short order and turned around what would have been a slow week. The icing on the cake, I did a private sale to a local collector today that I met in a model train Facebook group. I thought it was going to be a waste of time. I figured he would dig through my office, make a mess of the piles of boxes and then buy a few things. Turns out I was dead wrong, he bought $1,600 worth of trains in one swoop so now everything else I sell from that collection is profit!
  - 05/10/2023 at 8:41 am #100012
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    That is exciting when you find a good deal and then go all in. Bet on yourself!
    
    Are you finding that there are younger train collectors buying for their own collections (under 50?) Or is is still an older person’s game?
    - 05/10/2023 at 1:49 pm #100013
      JasonK
      Participant
      
      Location: Florida
      @jasonk
      
      There are some younger guys in the hobby but the majority are retired. The person who bought $1,600 worth of stuff yesterday was in his 40’s but I get the distinct impression he is semi-retired and has money in real estate. I know the prevailing theory is that model trains is a dying hobby because it’s only old guys who do it but the reality is that time, not nostalgia, is the major reason most people in the hobby are older. The boomer generation is mostly retired and Gen-X is heading there too and a lot of those guys are picking up the hobby once they retire because they have the time. I see them posting in the facebook groups every day saying they just started their model train layout. Maybe in another 20 years things will be different, once it’s millenials who are retiring who were never exposed to the hobby but overall I don’t think model trains are going away anytime soon you just have to understand who your customers are.
      - 05/10/2023 at 1:54 pm #100014
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        That’s good news is a new generation is still interested. This makes it even smarter to start buying up big collections now when it’s still undervalued.
  - 05/12/2023 at 4:39 pm #100016
    craig rex
    Participant
    
    Location: south jersey
    @craig-rex
    @JasonK
    
    Incredible score!!! I’d love to see pictures of some of the stuff you bought. Congrats on having the confidence to make such a big purchase. It’s really exciting to break even so quickly, too.
    
    It sounds like there are a lot of similarities between the hobbies of model trains and trading cards. Cards basically shifted from a perspective of collecting a set or a specific player to a hobby where card values fluctuate based on timing, quality and rarity of the card and player because kids who grew up in the 1990s (when “insert” cards became a key aspect of the hobby) are now adults with disposable income. So the demand for boxes and cards that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars is there.
- 05/12/2023 at 4:32 pm #100015
  craig rex
  Participant
  Location: south jersey
  @craig-rex
  This is the first week I can remember where my high and low sales were in different categories besides sports memorabilia, collectibles or trading cards. Instead, it was two library sale items — an anime set which was my scavenge of the week a few weeks back, and a vintage book. Who needs a handheld scanner when you’ve got knowledge and time?
  
  Is this the start of a new trend in my store? Not really, trading cards are still the bulk of my sales on eBay and I basically equal my weekly ebay sales through my trading card consignment port. But I’m mixing in new items like the DVDs and books, and my process for selling cards has changed a lot in the last few months. It’s keeping things fresh, and I’m excited for how my store will continue to transform.
  
  4/30/2023 to 5/6/2023
  
  Items sold: 27 (22 via best offer, 19 via seller initiated offer, 3 via promoted listings)
  
  Gross sales: $1405.68 (down 49% from one year ago)
  
  Net sales: $769.04 (down 60% from one year ago)
  
  Average sales price: $52.06 (down 23% from one year ago)
  
  Highest price sold (net): $115.11— Berserk Box of War DVD set
  
  Lowest price sold (net): $8.07— Progress and Poverty by Henry George
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