The Numbers: Week April 21-27, 2024

Don’t know who the eBay gods are, but I just learnt the patron saint of scavenging is Sr. Paula Gonzalez.

Items in Store: 2867
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales: $1,455.00
COGS: $155.00
Total Profit: $1,300.00
Average profit: $40.63
Average sales price: $45.47
New Listings: 0
Items scavenged: 55
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 28
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,538.24
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 34
2024 ASP $44.62
2024 projected total sales $79,988.24

Another stressful week in the books. Two of our kids ended up with bad coaches in baseball this year to the point safety was a concern. Normally I coach and decided to sit out this year, which I thought would lessen stress. NOPE! I’m not gonna blame kids for issues when there are adults not keeping things in order.  One of the teams I was asked to step in and help coach. The other the head coach basically said “Meh, whatever”. So….I’m simplifying my schedule and pulling those two kids out of baseball this spring and will put them in fall ball in another local league. Problem solved! Note if you want to coach little kids in sports – Yes, it is basically babysitting moreso than actually coaching a sport. If you don’t understand that, then DON’T coach!!!

Anyways, onto more fun stuff! Still no new listings but I’m over 100 drafts ready for photos. This Saturday was the first real yard sale day of the year. The weather was great and we were able to hit up plenty of sales. I got some REALLY cool stuff! The highlight was a bunch of vintage photography equipment. There were a bunch of prime lenses, of which there are some highly valuable ones. I’ve been researching/creating the listings and I have multiple lenses priced between $150-500. This was an estate sale and I left behind some of the bigger stuff. The lenses were where the big bucks that take up minimal space resided. Once I get the items cleaned and photographed I’ll share some links. Thankfully I already had a good working knowledge of cameras. My wife and I got into DSLR camera stuff when our oldest kids were little. Now cell phones can take photos nearly as good as a DSLR so we let that little hobby die off.

One thing that kind of bugs me about my sales is that new listings aren’t selling. I have 8 bins of listings that I have not moved into inventory so they don’t have custom SKU’s. I strangely have not been selling many items the last month where I’ve had to dig into these non-inventoried bins to pull sales. Why am I not selling the newer stuff? Is it that they aren’t cataloged on google yet? Is it because they aren’t promoted?

At some point I’m going to have to get back to work and get all this stuff in inventory. I may not be making new listings but I’ve at least created plenty of inventory space with sales.

Premium Hoarder update:

Sold 10 items for $595.

I sold alot of the Ralph Lauren shirts this week. They sell for $45-75. Just great bread n butter items.

The best sold item was a pair of Burberry lounge pants for $150. Why someone would pay that much for a pair of pajama pants – beats me! I’m happy to sell them though.

Total Items Listings in Store: 942
Items Sold:  12
Gross Sales: $627 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $414 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $63
Highest Price Sold: $175 (Set of 6 etched shot glasses in open box)
Average Price Sold: $52
Returns: 1 (fit)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $75+/-
Number of items listed this week:  11 plus refreshed some listings with sell similar

I was on vacation mode for a few days but happy with the sales.  It definitely helps to list.  I’m trying to see what’s ending and sell similar. Dropping prices if it’s really old or unexciting and making a couple other changes.  I only get to that every 3-4 days though.  Our toddler family guests just left so I need to get back to listing.

My son will be back from his exchange program on the 11th unless he stops at another city on the way back from Europe.  If he does I might go to the live market for Mother’s Day weekend soft open.  It looks like it picked up a bit last weekend.  Not as glamorous as the LA monthlies, but you have to start somewhere.  https://www.instagram.com/p/C07YbPhPf9w/

Total Ebay items: 349

Ebay items sold: 9

Gross sales: $349.39

Net sales minus fees and shipping: $232.26

Ebay COGs: $10

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FBM items: 73

FBM Sold: 10

FBM Gross and Net: $485

FBM COGs: $22

On ebay my best sale was a vintage Sears Merry Mushroom letter holder; the kind you found in a 70s kitchen.  I took it off the wall of the Easter day house cleanout I went to.  It has the same mushroom pattern as the pottery canisters.  It sold for $153.  Yay for the “completionists” who must have the complete Merry Mushroom kitchen!

The free items I sold locally on FBM was a painted rattan dresser for $90, a cornhole game for $50, a pile of used perfumes for $75, a mini “boho egg chair” cat bed for $25, three sections of a pet Trex fence for $20, a vintage metal trashcan for $10, a concrete pelican birdbath for $50, a pile of costume jewelry for $40, and an antique cabinet project piece for $40.

I also sold 12 vintage glass Xmas ornaments for $100, that had cost me $20 at an estate sale.

I answered a FBM ad for the dresser, that said “Free” and “Adam, I deleted your message, sorry, please contact me to get the dresser”-I told her I lived ten minutes away and had a truck and could come get it if Adam didn’t answer.  She said yes.  Sold the dresser a week later.

I got the pelican birdbath, cabinet project piece, vintage metal trashcan, and cornhole game from the side of the road on trash day in neighborhoods; the birdbath and cornhole game sold within a day.  The cat bed, the pet fence, perfumes, and jewelry – all came from apartment complex trash areas.

I did not get to scavenge last week for trash days or this week too, so that’s a bummer.  I visited my mother who had rotator cuff surgery.  She told me to visit this new antique mall store, which I normally don’t do, because prices are high.  Well, I went this past Saturday and picked up five Crissy 70s dolls, with growing hair, for $1 each.  The prices there were cheap!  They will be in numbers for this week since they sold on Sunday, three African-American Crissy dolls for $159 each.

My focus this week is preparing a team for a sand sculpture competition.   That is a hobby of mine, but my three team-mates have never done it.  We are doing a dinosaur excavation site for our entry, so I am spending hours making the plan, teaching the skills, and will spend about 12 hours with them on the beach in preparation.  It’s on June 1.

eBay is still slow for me, and it continues to be slow.

My news, though, is with Ruby Lane. I started there at the beginning of the year because I needed to sell a 1960s Persian rug that eBay didn’t allow even though it isn’t affected by the embargo. I’ve been listing all my higher priced items there, but I’ve sold only three so far, and no one has left me feedback.

I list 15 items a month so that they will refund the $24 store fee. I received an email yesterday saying that the monthly fee will increase to $45/month, and there will no longer be a way to get that fee refunded. So, over the next few weeks, I will need to move all my stuff over to eBay and close it up. I’ll have to find another place to sell the rug. Easy come, easy go.

Week of Apr 21 – 27
Total Items in Store: 1628 eBay, 27 Etsy, 61 Ruby Lane
Items Sold: 8 eBay, 0 Etsy, 0 Ruby Lane
Cost of Items Sold: $0 + $38 Commission
Total Sales: $178.80 eBay
Highest Price Sold: eBay $67 for Nikken Magnetic Necklace
Average price: $22
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 11

@sharyn Check out Hamedan or Hamadan rugs on US Ebay. Seems like Persian can still be used as a description on UK eBay.

Yes, that’s probably the best course of action. I got shouted at for five minutes straight last week for ‘skirting the rules’ and I still haven’t recovered.