The Numbers: Week September 1-7, 2024

Glad to hear that eBay was strong for your last week! I’m still trudging along.

Week of Sept 1 – 7
Total Items in Store: 1778 eBay, 37 Etsy
Items Sold: 10 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $14 + $40 Commission
Total Sales: $205.73 eBay
Highest Price Sold: eBay $49 for Vtg Pendleton Womens Button Up Shirt
Average price: $20.57
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 25

Items in Store: 3168
Items Sold: 54
Total Sales: $2,165.00
COGS: $292.00
Total Profit: $1,873.00
Average profit: $34.69
Average sales price: $40.09
New Listings: 41
Items scavenged: 14
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 40
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,620.67
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 34
2024 ASP $47.13
2024 projected total sales $84,274.67

Another week with a bunch of sales! I’ve had to start shipping in the mornings to get myself caught up which takes away time from photographing. On Monday morning I had almost 40 items in my shipping queue! I wanted to get some done on the weekend, but I got busy….I also took an extended nap both days.

My daughter is getting very good at creating draft listings, but her speed is still low. Things are falling apart when it comes to them getting the photos taken and uploaded. I’ve given them some tips/tools to speed things up and stay more organized, but I think I’m losing them. I even created some measurement papers they can tape to items so they can bulk measure items before creating the listings.

This all is quite easy and fun for me, and it is even MORE fun to get better/faster with increased efficiency. I don’t even consider most I do with ebay to be work. It is becoming quite obvious now that I’m teaching someone else that what I do is really NOT that easy. I timed myself on some shoe photography last week to show my kids what is possible. I can do shoes in about 90 seconds a pair, which included tying laces and putting in inserts if needed. They’re at 5 minutes+ just for photos. I bet this is what a gymnast would feel like if they tried to teach me to do a basic cartwheel. LOL!

We’ll see how this week goes. If they can’t get to the finish line on the first bin then I’ll just have my daughter create listings and I’ll do the photos and uploading. Clothing is much less photos than shoes (3-4 vs 9), so knocking out 10 clothing items a day for photos is nothing. It’s the listing that is a pain. I’ve been timing myself at lunch time listing this week and I average 3 minutes to research, list, and measure clothing items. So photos and all I can do about 12-15 clothing items an hour all in.

The coat wardrobe they listed is doing great. 9 items have sold so far for $280. I keep a running log of these sales as I’m paying them an extra 10% of sales since they got it all listed in the time frame I wanted. So already another $28 on top of the $2 per item I paid up front – they are being well compensated for that work!

This weekend our new Ford Transit passenger van was delivered. I really need ebay to keep accelerating with sales as ebay will be footing the bill for this giant beast! It is surprisingly EASY to drive though, so I’m hoping with some experience my wife will embrace it so I can get rid of one of our minivans. That will be a HUGE chunk of cash I get back if it works out. No pressure on her – I’m prepared to keep paying to maintain 3 vehicles. My van is paid off. I can sell it for $38k currently, which is more than I paid for it brand new! The retained value on used cars right now is BONKERS! That’s actually why I ended up buying a new Transit, as many dealers are charging ABOVE original MSRP for USED vans several years old. We got really lucky with the one we got – brand new with almost all the bells/whistles I wanted. I didn’t get adaptive cruise, but it does have the eagle eye camera setup which makes parking/maneuvering a breeze.

So where am I at on expected sales goals this year? There are 16 weeks left in the year. I need to average $2000 in sales a week to hit $90k in gross sales, or $2600 per week to hit $100k sales. I REALLY want that $100k goal. To get there I have to get sell 60+ items a week and I’d need a couple BIG home run sales to push up my ASP. We’ll see where I stand at the end of this month. I’m getting some lookers on that crazy $6k Versace leather vest. If that one sold I’d cut the $100k goal in half!

Premium Hoarder update:

Sold 5 items for $805.

One big pair of shoes for $480 I talked about last week. Sold a pair of camo ralph lauren pants for $140. Then some other sub $100 items. I have a bunch of hoarder clothing items drafted and will get photos done this week.

Total Listings in Store:  858
Items Sold:  9
Gross Sales: $577 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $353 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $141
Highest Price Sold: $90 Two new pillow shams from summer Anthro clearance
Average Price Sold: $64
Returns: 1 (Buyer said arrived chipped.  I’m pretty certain this new item was not chipped in an obvious place when purchased but I used a stock photo 🙁  They did not report an INAD at least.)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150+
Number of items listed this week: 0

Glad your store and coffee business is going so great!  I have just had a lot of life interruptions going on and have been sourcing too much in between and having trouble just sitting and listing.  I’ve been spending a lot of time with family and friends, which is nice, and taking care of a lot of health maintenance check ups.  This weekend I’m going dancing for the first time in forever to a great local 70s funk band with we old Gen Xers.  I just realized how little time I have the last week and a half in September. Two college friends are meeting here for a couple days, I’m seeing the comedian Alli Wong with my baby group friends, then going to the Bay Area to help babysit for a single mom friend who adopted a special needs kid.  Whew.  All in all, fun but I do need to list in earnest this week and could use the cash!

I have two markets coming up the next two Saturdays and I’m going to shift to a smaller footprint of 6×6 and focus on art and very small items.  The heat wave is over and I need to get my butt in the seat and list. I have a lot of great items to put up!

I have been making some local dealer connections both ways – buying from older sellers and upselling to higher end sellers. I had an awkward exchange this afternoon where a dealer offered me a bunch of art for sale.  It’s really ugly and she was very enthusiastic about it.  She said she has other art, I think my excuse will be I am only picking up very small art.  :/   Meanwhile from her neighbor at the flea market I got two listed artist paintings for $25.  I love one off guys selling their mom’s stuff.

Hope everyone has a great week on Ebay.