The Numbers: Week of January 7-13, 2024

Items in Store: 2974
Items Sold: 33
Total Sales: $1,364.00
COGS: $180.00
Total Profit: $1,184.00
Average profit: $35.88
Average sales price: $41.33
New Listings: 35
Items scavenged: 40
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 38

I didn’t do much this week ebay wise. My day job has been quite stressful as we’re having trouble with the foundry. I think I about have the issues figured out, but it has taken some time and we’ve lost alot of production time. When things don’t go as expected when melting steel at 2900F – no matter how minor – it is a bit alarming.

This weekend I was pretty much out of commission due to neck pain issues. I must have slept funny as I had headaches and couldn’t move my neck hardly all weekend. I’m better now thankfully.

Amid all that, I still got my shipping done and got some listings out. Now we have crap weather this week. I’ll keep on swimming and someday I’ll have all my mess cleaned up.

So my plan this week: List in place. I don’t really want to spend much time in my inventory shed due to the weather. I’m gonna get all my listed inventory currently in the garage office out to the shed whether it is in labeled bins or not. Then I’m going to shuffle around and list stuff inside my garage and keep it in the garage. My hope is to convert two carts of death pile stuff into 2 racks of listed stuff. Then that stuff can sell and I can keep feeding those two racks with more stuff from the garage. I gotta start somewhere!

In the meantime I’m going to adjust my scavenging to homeruns only. High STR AND $75+ items only.

Premium Hoarder update:

Sold 6 items for $520. Unfortunately I think a $175 shirt is coming back. The buyer wrote me and said they loved it but it was too big. We’ll see if they actually return it.

Jan 7 -Jan 13, 2024
Total Items in Store: 3782 listings for 5434 items
Items Sold: 48
Gross Sales: $3819.56 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $2925.63
Cost of Items Sold: $444 ($189 mine / $255 consignors)
Highest Price Sold: $510 Canali Suit
Average Price Sold: $79.57
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $856
Number of items listed this week: 117

I mentioned a couple months ago that I agreed to sell a large Iranian/Persian rug for someone who sold their house in the fall. She originally purchased it in the 1960s.

I was unable to sell it on eBay or Esty because those sites don’t allow anything from Iran no matter whether it is affected by the embargo or not. Something from the 1960s is fine to sell legally, but I suppose those sites don’t want to have to be responsible if someone sells something from 2015 or later.

I sent photos and a description to Christies, but they were not interested. I started looking at other sites where I might be OK to list. I landed on Ruby Lane, but, in order to list it there, I had to become a seller. I had to start with at least 10 items, and I will need to list 15 a month in order for the store fees to be waived. Otherwise, their fees are similar to eBay.

I’ve been working on it little by little, and I finally pulled the trigger last week. It took them a several days to review my listings and get the store in their system. It went live on the 15th.

I will count the listings for next week’s numbers, but you can check out my store here:

https://www.rubylane.com/shop/upsmart-llc

I haven’t had any nibbles yet, but I don’t expect stuff to go flying off the shelves. At least I can tell my consignor that her rug is now listed and available for purchase.

Last week’s numbers were average.

Week of Jan 7 – 13
Total Items in Store: 1700 eBay, 35 Etsy
Items Sold: 9 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $1.00 + $50 Commission
Total Sales: $189.72 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $60 for 1992 Book Facing New York by Bruce Gilden Signed by Author
Average price: $21
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 3

Total Items in Store: 1179
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $858  (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $544  (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $162
Highest Price Sold: $130 (2 New pillow shams, paid $50ish in Fall)
Average Price Sold: $43
Returns:  1 $20 item smashed to smitherines by USPS, buyer was super cool, great photos
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $90
Number of items listed this week: 12

Sales were good through Monday, unusual for a holiday weekend but I guess the weather helped.  I sold a few predictable RA items, but also a really random collection of vintage and used stuff on Monday.  I ran a 25% off sale all last week on some older pics and listings I’m not excited about in my store, about 200ish items and did not have good success with that unfortunately.   Contemplating trying again a little deeper.

It felt so good to get organized with my shipping supplies and storage.  I posted on another thread that I have many boxes of unlisted inventory left.  I hope to get a lot of that listed in 2024.  I will continue to enjoy the flea market and try to limit myself to one other sourcing trip per week as a treat.  I will continue to avoid larger items, estate sales, and garage sales because I don’t want that kind of volume right now.

I still need to contact Ebay to see if I can get that one bad feedback removed. Buyer never returned the “fake” item.  I also remembered what else went wrong last week.  I made a big boo boo by changing a business policy in the listing where the person wanted local pick up.  It erased the weight and dimensions of 96 other listings.  I have auto-offers out, so it took all week but I’m happy to report I’ve cleaned up all of my shipping policies!  I had to reenter the weight and dimensions for those listings and a couple did sell right after that so huh.

Have some competing goals but I really should address my old boring stale listings and look up current comps since the % off sale didn’t work.

This week I’m going to focus on getting my bin of wool blankets listed, and hopefully also get into a few family jackets we have to list.  I’m getting really good at getting out stains and have lots and lots of linens to list.

Hang in there R&J!  I’m so excited for you. Hats off as always for parting stuff out.  I definitely don’t have the skill set or patience for that.  I miss your fireside cozy winter podcasts with the cats.  🙂

Week Ending 1/13/24
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $1,000.68
Net Sales: $568.12 (all Ebay)
Total Items Sold: 23 (eBay)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1089 Etsy: 509
Cost of Items Sold: $47.70
Highest Price Sold: $299.95 Typewriter
Average Price Sold: $43.51
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $290.95
Sold via promoted listings: 14

Average Days Listed: 500
Longest Listed: 1985
New items listed: 0
New Listings Value $0.00

Busier this week as I ran a big sale and pushed out a 15% off watched item coupon. Sent out coupons to about 1400 watchers. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a 15% off coupon had as much affect as it did. I usually send targeted offers on items at 30% and rarely get any takers, but I’ve always been fairly selective. After a weaker than anticipated Christmas season I was feeling a bit desperate so went large. Sales continued strongly through the weekend and I had the most packages ever to ship after a long weekend – I think 21 packages. It was a lot of old inventory selling cheap. If not for my big typewriter sale my average sale price was $20. I didn’t think through the push completely and didn’t realize my 15% off would be combined with a 30% off sale I was running on Christmas items, so sold a lot of items for close to 40% off.

I am really nervous about the typewriter I shipped as it was a beast, weighing 35 lbs. Big industrial, military-type from the 50’s. I checked tracking this morning and something is wrong as the package has been going back and forth between two Fedex centers and the notes indicate “Shipment exception” several times. I did insure it, so we’ll see what happens.

Won a bunch of drums (~20) at an auction this past week. Crazy online auction that had lots closing every 6 seconds with 90 lots all closing within 20 minutes. I would have bid on more but didn’t have enough time to place bids on all the lots and keep up with the ones I’d already bid on. I’m sure that’s the reason I got the lots as cheap as I did. Most are high end specialty drums and many of them will sell for more than I paid for the whole lot. Only challenge is that several of them are large. Going to list on Facebook in hopes I can avoid shipping.

Good luck with the final store prep. I’m sure it will be spectacular.

I have slacked on posting my numbers the last few weeks, and no better time to get back in the habit than a Philly snow day. Only a couple inches, but I’ll take it after two years of no snow. Nothing better than walking to the post office in the snow carrying a bin full of packages.

The consignment site I use to sell most of my sports and non-sports cards has been running a promotion, send any item to auction for $0.75 and those items get listed at a 7 day auction with a $0.99 opening bid. I’ve focused a lot of my time on turning over that inventory because…well, no shipping, no extra work, just click a button and a few weeks later, I get paid. Can’t beat it.

1/7/2023 to 1/13/2023

Listings: 345

Items sold: 26 (17 via best offer, 2 via seller initiated offer, 20 via promoted listings)

Gross sales: $1069.56 (down 45% from one year ago)

Net sales: $714.77 (down 50% from one year ago)

Average sales price: $41.14 (down 39% from one year ago)

Highest price sold (net): $90.07 — CJ Stroud 2023 TruCreator 1/1 black cracked ice

CJ Stroud is the hot rookie quarterback this season and has led his team on a surprising playoff run while turning in one of the best young quarterback seasons ever. I have a few of his autographs in my eBay inventory, each purchased for $100 to $150. I have the best one priced at a silly number and will be curious to see if any of them sell after the games this weekend.

I pay a little more attention to the sports news now than I did a year or two ago, and that time has been worth it. I have learned what is worth listing on eBay and how to price cards so they sell quickly, if that’s what I want. It is amazing to think that I started doing this full-time before I had really developed that skill. My eBay lifestyle is a lot more sustainable long-term now.

Lowest price sold (net): $7.84 — Charlotte Hornets 10 card lot

I sold 417 of these lots last year, and almost 200 of them in the last quarter of the year. When I’m home on Friday and Saturday nights, I have a nice routine where I spend a few hours sorting and scanning a big batch of these lots. It feels like I’m really doing the work (unlike the rest of the week which barely feels like work) and while each individual sale isn’t hugely profitable, in total I grossed $4,000 on these lots last year. Maybe about $2,000 profit? But I think those numbers will double this year, and I’m constantly coming up with new ways to keep the quality of the lots high but shave my COGS numbers a little further.

I wonder what happened with the apartment above the cafe? I came to visit and found 3 rentals, a magic partnership but I got lost about the apartment.

Did you guys decide for a new Abnb space there, or it became something else?

Cheers

Catching up on the numbers post:

My Store Week January 7-13, 2024

Total Items in Store: 761
Items Sold: 21
Gross Sales: $637.90 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $310.76 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $66.11
Highest Price Sold: $100 (Vintage Leather Jeans)
Average Price Sold: $31.90
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $14.84
Number of items listed this week: 22

$ Amount Listed this week: $512.24

Ebay Store items: 319

Ebay items sold: 4 for $199; COGs had been $153.

Ebay profit: $46.  It was so low because the most expensive ebay item I sold was a $150 kitesurfing kite we used for two years, then sold.   It sold for the purchase price we paid though, so good deal.

Facebook Marketplace items:  55 (I cleaned out some junk and donated)

Facebook Marketplace items sold:  5 for $290. COGs were $0.

I left SC on Jan 12 for Idaho and was there until the 18th.   I sold a snowboard the morning of Jan 12 for $170.  I had found it two months earlier (for free) at the apartment complex dumpster next to the storage unit I keep stuff in.  It tickled me to sell that board for $170 right next to where I found it.  It was a Miller Lite promotional snowboard.   I then sold a dresser for $80, a patio set again for $60, a garden bench for $30, and antique wedding cake topper figures for $50.  These were all “found items”.

People bought these and paid by Venmo on Friday the 12th and Saturday while I was traveling in Idaho, and then picked up when I got back.  Sometimes I don’t sell stuff on FBM for a week, and then sometimes it floods in.  I have reviews on FBM so people don’t mind sending me the entire amount as they can see I’m not a scammer.   Some refuse and that’s fine, they can wait to see if still available.

It was too ambitious for me to think I could clean my late MIL home in Idaho and turn it into a ready AirBnB in three days.  A snowstorm started when I got there and dumped 6 inches.  I was making dump and donation runs going 20 mph or less on country roads with my 9 yo daughter shrieking a bit in the side seat and navigating.  We did sled and play in the snow, but mostly cleaned up a former cat hoarder’s home and got rid of stuff.  It is clean and ready for me to come back in March and outfit it.   I did FBM-source several MCM chairs, a Chromecraft table and chairs, and a King sleep-number bed while there, mostly from Boise and Twin Falls.

It’s tiny Castleford, Idaho, but near several hot springs locations, Balanced Rock, and 90 minutes from Soldier Mountain for ski adventures.  I did find a handyman and several cleaning ladies to interview, so not a wasted trip.  Boise is where we landed and is a super cool town.   I did get to thrift for 15 minutes in a small town thrift store in Buhl, Idaho where I entered just before closing and piled up on vintage 70s clothes to bring back to SC.