The Numbers: May 27 – June 3, 2023

Items in Store 2081
Items Sold 26
Total Sales $1,371.00
COGS $100.00
Total Profit $1,271.00
Average profit $48.88
Average sales price $52.73
New Listings 103
Items scavenged YES
Listing 2023 weekly Avg 20

Well this was a busy week! I kicked off my summer listing spree, helped my older kids launch their summer ebay selling gig, and STILL had a full slate of baseball playoff games. I leveraged every spare minute I had during my day job work day to make it happen – breaks, lunch, a bit before leaving for work if I was up early.

I was able to get some great items at yard sales Friday and Saturday. I even scored some high dollar items at Goodwill. My numbers were heavily skewed with one big $800 sale, but my items sold was way up. Hopefully that trend continues this summer.

Last summer I listed 620 items and sold 342 items for $10343.  I had roughly the same size store then.

The summer of 2020 (which is an anomaly year), I listed 191 items,  and sold 370 items for $13533

With a goal of 77 new listings a week and a good portion of them being higher dollar, I hope to crush both of those sets of numbers by the end of summer. Let’s gooooo!

2 Broke Homeschoolers weekly numbers:

Items Purchased 16
Items Listed 16
Items Sold 3
Gross sales $54.39
COGS $24.82
Shipping Labels $17.73
Fees $7.61
PROFIT $4.23
Withdrawals $0.00
Available balance $24.23

My kids started with a $20 bill found in a parking lot. Their first 16 items have a listed value of $266.84 – more than a 10x potential return on investment! They are already in the profit with just 3 sales. That’s a pretty darn good 1st week considering their first listings didn’t go live until Wednesday evening! I have them focused on low ($1-2) COGS in-season items priced competitively depending on sell thru rate.
Instead of reporting weekly numbers I’ll just post the cumulative summary numbers table above each week so you can see how their store grows and performs. They can only buy new inventory with their available balance. The available balance is their profit + the initial $20, which they have already earned back in sales. Withdrawals will be for purchasing inventory only. We decided that they can’t pull any money out for themselves until the end of summer. I hope I can hand them quite a bit of cold hard cash at the end of August!

My kids started with a $20 bill found in a parking lot. Their first 16 items have a listed value of $266.84 – more than a 10x potential return on investment! They are already in the profit with just 3 sales. That’s a pretty darn good 1^st week considering their first listings didn’t go live until Wednesday evening! I have them focused on low ($1-2) COGS in-season items priced competitively depending on sell thru rate.

Instead of reporting weekly numbers I’ll just post the cumulative summary numbers table above each week so you can see how their store grows and performs. They can only buy new inventory with their available balance. The available balance is their profit + the initial $20, which they have already earned back in sales. Withdrawals will be for purchasing inventory only. We decided that they can’t pull any money out for themselves until the end of summer. I hope I can hand them quite a bit of cold hard cash at the end of August!

Week Ending 6/3/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $268.72 (ebay $248/Etsy $19.95)
Net Sales: $219.54
Total Items Sold: 8 (ebay 7 /etsy 1)
Total Items eBay Store: 1234 / Etsy Store: 555
Cost of Items Sold: $23.18
Highest Price Sold: $59.00 Christmas Ornament
Average Price Sold: $33.59
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00

Average Days Listed: 237
Longest Listed: 1530
New items listed: 5
New Listings Value $539.75

Slow week of sales. Slow week of listing.  Between the holiday, family appointments and a few items that took a bit more research, just didn’t get that much done.  I feel very lame after reading Retro’s post above.

Three of my sales were items that I just posted within the week.  My favorite was a CD of Persian music that sold within 24 hours of posting.

I started running my annual summer sale this week.  I put everything that has been in my store longer than 2 years on sale for 30% off.  I rarely see much uptick in sales from running these types of promotions, but I figure it is worth a go.  Looking at traffic it does seem to have increased my page views since the sale started and I sold 1 item that had been in my store for 1530 days.  The longest tail item for the week.

I noticed that I am selling fewer items via promoted listings now that in the past.  When I started promoting items, I was getting about 60% of my sales via promoted listings.  Last year that percentage fell to 43% and so far this year the average is at 38%.  I usually promote at 5% across the board, but I’ve noticed lately that the suggested rate is climbing and is usually 9-12% in the categories I usually post in.  Something to ponder…

05/28/23 – 06/03/23

Total Items In ebay Store: 4636

Total Items In Etsy Store: 723

Total Items listed: 5359

ebay Items Sold: 15 items for $ 876.18 Net $ 587.09
Etsy Items Sold: 0 items for $0 Net $0

Total Gross Sales: $ 876.18 (last week: $794.54 / including eBay\etsy fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $ 587.09 (last week: $537.84 / minus shipping, and taxes)
Items Sold: 15 items
Highest Price Sold: $ 70 (Vintage Game)
Average Price Sold: $ 39.14
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 67.23

Gut Sales Report for the week: Good Sales for this time of year.

Scavenge of the week: Picked up some Red Wing Irish Setter and New LL Bean Boots for $10 and $8 Respectively.

Thoughts for the week: Been busy the last couple of months. Glad to be back on the forum. Will be watching Retro’s kids sales this Summer.

Total Items in Store: 642
Items Sold:  6
Gross Sales: $338.01 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $199.60 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $70
Highest Price Sold: $89 (set of four new plates)
Average Price Sold: $56.34
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $9
Number of items listed this week: 47

It felt slower than this.   At least half the days without sales.  A bit concerning that several of the items were from my now scarce RA inventory.  I got back in the Ebay saddle with listing and it used to be a couple of years ago that would result in good sales a day or two later.  Not so much lately.  Should have good listing time the next couple of days.  I’m also not shopping and really getting into the randomness of my piles.  It’s nice to have a variety of items to choose to list.  I’m embarrassed to say that I listed things this week with stickers from 2014!  I’m moving items from one side of the garage wall to the listed side gradually.  We are having an extended period of heavy marine layer without afternoon clearing that is making it difficult to take well lighted photos.

I have become more friendly with an old time picker.  We were talking at Goodwill and he invited me to run over to the newly wheeled out cart with him lol.   He is irked by difficult customers and likes to share briefly.  He always reminds me that there is so much here, though I have found thrift store pickings to be pretty thin lately.  He says the estate sales are generally overpriced in our area and he sticks to the thrifts and garage sales.   It’s always interesting to talk to local resellers. I told him some of my piles are $15 items I wouldn’t buy now and he said “you are better than that”.

Have a great week!

Total Items in Store: 917
Items Sold: 62
Gross Sales: $1,352.07 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $765.23 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $97
Cost of helpers: $125.00
Highest Price Sold: $47 (4 HO Train Cars)
Average Price Sold: $21.81
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $628.41
Number of items listed this week: 70

Overall sales continue to be sluggish. I’m taking lots of low offers and mostly selling cheap $10 train cars so even though sales volume has been about normal the total dollar amount is down. I’ve been told this is normal for this time of year for the model trains business so crossing fingers that things pick up toward the end of the summer. The good news is that my IT business has been growing and I’ve been very busy on that side of things.

As for Facebook Marketplace I don’t even bother. Both on the buyer and seller side of things people love to waste your time. I think the platform has real potential but needs to mature a lot. The biggest issue is that most transactions are too informal with no commitment to purchase until you meet face-to-face. This gives people lots of opportunity to flake out and bail on the sale at the last minute. This also invites a criminal element. We’ve had people mugged and even killed in my area over transactions that were organized on FB marketplace.

I ran my monthly auctions this past week, and I’ll give a full rundown in next week’s numbers thread, but these numbers are pretty good considering 2/3 of my inventory was listed at auction all week. I’ve really improved in the last few months at consistently listing good quality items which sell quickly. I find it really gratifying to post something new and watch it sell within a few days or a week, especially when it’s a very unique item.

5/28/2023 to 6/3/2023

Items sold: 23 (11 via best offer, 9 via seller initiated offer, 20 via promoted listings)

Gross sales: $1028.25 (down 57% from one year ago)

Net sales: $506.90 (down 70% from one year ago)

Average sales price: $44.71 (down 27% from one year ago)

Highest price sold (net): $60.05 — Flat rate box of magnetic trading card holders

Really nice on a slow week that my highest price sale is true scavenging. I remove all the cards I buy from their cases before I sort them into new sleeves and whichever inventory box they belong, and as long as the cases are in decent condition, I pile them into a flat rate box and list it when it’s full. A few extra bucks in my pocket, buyer gets a good deal compared to the price of new supplies and there’s a little less trash in the world. The circle of eBay.

Lowest price sold (net): $7.72— The Writings of Nichiren Daishonen Volume 1 book

I could have increased my profit by shipping this any other way besides priority mail, but I had a regional A box (RIP) handy and the buyer purchased this while I was packaging up my other sold items that day. I only pay a buck or two for most of my media items since I buy them from thrift stores and library sales, so I don’t care much at all about maximizing my profit down to the last dollar. I’m sure I would if books were my main niche, but that seems like a slog. There are a lot of weird items that go unnoticed out in the wild though. Like a lot of the books I sell, this one didn’t have a barcode. But it wasn’t completely rare. There were a handful of other copies listed in the $20 and up range, with solds in the $20 range, but I figured if I priced it at $20 I would get an offer in the $15 range pretty quickly, and it was nice to see that hunch pay off.

Jay, as to your Facebook Marketplace sales. It so true about the flakey buyers and sellers, but like eBay there is a learning curve as to the ins and outs of selling on that platform. Like getting the “Is it still available” message within minutes of posting your listing. It’s actually quite easy to weed out the scammers as they are usually brand new (hacked) profiles with no information, also asking for or giving you a number to call them, big scam alert there. I have been selling a lot lot lately on FB and its all cash, no fees.

Just catching up with my sales numbers while I was on vacation.

Week of May 28 – Jun 3
Total Items in Store: 1700 ish eBay, 30 Etsy
Items Sold: 4 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $15.25 + $6.50 Commission
Total Sales: $92.66 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $62 Jewish Batik 3 Piece Art
Average price: $23.16
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0