The Numbers: Week November 3-9, 2024

I had a slow week on eBay, but I had one really big sale, so that saved my numbers!

Week of Nov 3 – 9
Total Items in Store: 1836 eBay, 42 Etsy
Items Sold: 5 eBay, 1 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $11 + $10 Commission
Total Sales: $470.53 eBay, $88.95 Etsy, total = $559.48
Highest Price Sold: eBay $399 for Alexander Calder Jewelry Softcover Book
Average price: $93
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 8

Total Items in Store: 1150 +/-
Items Sold:  15
Gross Sales: $996 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $687 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $101
Highest Price Sold: $160 Vintage eagle bookends
Average Price Sold: $66
Returns/Partial:   1 item broke in storage, was fixed, buyer and I agreed to refund half.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week:  $25 Thrift xmas throw up + $75 RA clearance
Number of items listed on Ebay this week:  18ish (a bit hard to keep track bc a few things sold right away and I did a whole store reset.

1 small sale on Mercari, 1 small sale on Niknax.net, 0 Facebook

A good week on Ebay for sales.  I was allowed to make a ton of offers after doing a sell similar post-election reset.  I am concerned about the potential for poor 2025-26 sales (people feel poor, credit card debt is high, and we will have quick and possibly major changes by Republicans before the Midterms).  So for that reason I am running a sale plus making lower offers (especially on seasonal or really stale items).  The retailers keep running clearance sales so I am picking up a few new items to flip but being pretty picky.  The thrift store Christmas throw up is trickling out from the back rooms and I have been very selective. I have about 25 Christmas theme items left to list, which I hope to finish this week.

I just discounted all of my gravy boats, not wanting to hold on to those for another year.  I also have been cross posting a few Christmas items here and there on District.net (in Niknax and VAMP).  On Mercari this week I removed everything that is more than $15-20 and will probably keep rolling out drafts on really stale and low dollar items I pulled into drafts there from Ebay.  Reviewing these old Ebay items before launching on Mercari, I am kind of wincing and realizing a lot of it I would not buy and list now.  Considering a 50% off sale maybe on the 26th.

I’m glad you are able to run on autopilot R&J while you are busy with other things.  Everyone in my family has a Kerig machine but I just finally got around to ordering a cup insert to save $ so plan to order some coffee again. Thanks as always for keeping the forum alive.

On a personal note, we lost our doggie this week and had a couple of sad, unproductive evening.  She was great company to me working at home and we hope to rescue again soon, maybe around Christmas.  Hug your pet kiddos for me. They make life so much better!

@christiner Condolences on your loss. A friend lost her miniature Schnauzer three years back. He used to punch me in the stomach to get me to take him for a walk.

I suspect next year’s selling buzz might be nostalgia. The Germans had Ostalgia for the old Communist times- “Ostalgia is […] an integration strategy used by East Germans who wanted to retain their own original experiences, memories and values incompatible with those of the West German majority” (Wiki article)

Items in Store: 3068
Items Sold: 40
Total Sales: $1,430.00
COGS: $203.00
Total Profit: $1,227.00
Average profit: $30.68
Average sales price: $35.75
New Listings: 8
Items scavenged: 0
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 37
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,603.16
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 35
2024 ASP $46.10
2024 projected total sales $83,254.09

It was a short week for me. I traveled for my day job Tuesday through Friday to Louisville KY. I always bring my family on business trips and it was …interesting to use the big new van in a bigger city downtown.  I had time away turned on from Monday afternoon to Thursday afternoon and still had a tremendous amount of sales!

Well I didn’t expect ebay to take a backburner in Q4 but here we are. I’ve barely listed anything since the end of September. I have been away from home for 14 total days in Q4 so far and I may travel more at the holidays. That time away takes away all that listing time but it also effectively kills several more days of productivity catching up on shipping. And now we’re in the dreaded time change era so my sleep schedule and productivity is all messed up.

So that $90k goal – yeah that’s pretty much dead. $80k is still well within my grasp. If I end up at $81-82k in sales that is still $10k higher than last year which was a major step change in performance! As of this week I’ve already exceeded last years sales so I’m in the gravy no matter what!

So, I’m gonna get done what I can the rest of the year and not sweat things. If I can, I’ll get my two oldest kids listing clothes for me as that is time neutral for me. They are capable of doing 100% complete listings I just review and make live. I will be taking some time off from my day job around the holidays and I’d like to start organizing and prepping for a more ORGANIZED 2025. I don’t have any plans to bring in much new inventory – I’m far more interested in listing death piles and moving stuff out the door. I need to desperately contract my storage space to gain more functional space. Once I start to dread photographing, listing, or shipping because I’m tripping over things it’s time to clean and organize.

Premium Hoarder update:

Sold 4 items for $426.

I cancelled a pair of Gucci sandals I sold. When I listed them I thought to myself “these are rough but someone will want them. ” They sold for $100. Then when I pulled them to ship I thought ” eesh, no way am I shipping these out for $100. ” I didn’t think my photos well represented the actual condition. and  I was concerned the footbed was dry rotted. The buyer was understanding and was fine with the cancel. I may wear them myself until they fall apart – rock me some Gucci baby!

Last night, I finally cracked the 400 listing mark in my eBay store. It’s become a nice mix of items. 130 listings in trading card singles. 158 in trading card lots. I do the card listings mostly on Fridays and Saturdays. After years of having a very specific listing process, I’ve streamlined the process as much as possible. Change the title, change the pictures, on to the next one.

The rest of my week is buying and selling for my card business. I have a dedicated shelf for cards I’m shipping to consignment now instead of boxes on the floor. It makes a big difference. Almost everything I purchase on a weekly basis gets sorted within a day or two of receiving it. Then I have some bins and shelves for the random other things I come across in my search for card inventory. These items have become a larger chunk of my eBay business, with over 100 listings (and counting) in random categories. 64 certified autographs, everything from photographs to photocopied old military documents to sketches. Plenty of different sports memorabilia, from full sized bats to signed jerseys to game used pucks. Various types of music memorabilia and old tickets. Some older sports books and media guide booklets.

It is definitely a good idea to run an end and sell similar on your store this week or next, with Black Friday sales coming up. Maybe start a nice markdown sale at 25% or even higher. Even if you don’t sell the types of items people typically buy on Black Friday, give your listings their best opportunity to get in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

I have some fun stuff to get listed this week. A few autographed shoes. Some old sports toys. A few random collectible statues and bobbleheads. And who knows what I’ll find in my search for my card consignment inventory. I’ve seen a lot of card sellers, even big eBay consignment sellers, come and go over the last few years. Not sure if it’s burnout, the card market changing, maybe they move on to other things, or they were never making a lot of money at all. I get it. It’s hard to make a consistent living doing eBay.

It’s exciting to see my eBay business growing and changing. So much has changed with eBay over the years, and every week I’m surprised at something that sells or how much it sells for. $20 to $40 items still the sweet spot of my eBay store. Now it’s time to put in the work over the next few weeks to get to 500 eBay listings. Not sure how much room I have to grow my eBay store, on top of the card consignment business which is where I make most of the profit for my business. But putting in a little extra time and effort to list things will give me more options for when the consignment sales slow down. It’s nice to see things coming together as we approach the end of 2024.

11/3/2024 to 11/9/2024

Total listings: 412

New listings this week: 32

Items sold: 29 — 15 via best offer, 7 via seller initiated offer, 16 via advertising

Gross sales: $1085.28 (down 44% from one year ago)

Net sales: $665.77 (down 45% from one year ago)

Average sales price: $37.42 (up 4% from one year ago)

High sale of the week: $45.94 net 1952 Lancaster Red Roses baseball signed yearbook — bought online a couple months ago for about $11

As of today, I’ve sold 4 vintage clothing items from our Luray trip for a total of $590, found in Mt. Jackson and Woodstock.

Also passed last years sales earlier this week! Plus my consignment sales are significantly down this year, so that means I made more this year selling my own finds.

Nov 3-9, 2024
Total items in store: 4464 listings for 6852 items.
Items sold: 38
Gross Sales: $4188.93
Net sales: $3172.21
Cost of items sold $934 ($198 mine / $736 consignment)
Highest Sold Item: $808 Zegna Cashmere Trench Coat
Average Price Sold $110.24
Money Spent on new inventory: $422.
Number of items listed this week. 104