The Numbers: Week July 30 – August 5, 2023

Items in Store: 2501
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales: $1,872.00
COGS: $163.00
Total Profit: $1,709.00
Average profit: $55.13
Average sales price: $60.39
New Listings: 111
Items scavenged: 12
Listing 2023 weekly Avg: 38
Sourcing Allotment: 35

Had a HUGE weekend to close out the week – $1200 in sales over the weekend. I made great strides in getting my ebay garage office cleaned up and organized. It is NOT easy to process 100+listings each week in a disorganized space.

I have 154 listings to go to hit my 1000 listings summer goal. I’ll finish that up in the next 2 weeks. The processes I’ve set up to maximize my listings this summer will really help me have a successful fall and Q4 as well.

Yard sales were absolutely dead this week again. That’s just how August sales go around here every year it seems. The sales that were out were all full of overpriced junk. I bought one single thing in 2 hours of hunting – a Lego friends boxed set. To be fair, there were things I could have bought and just didn’t. I had no interest in buying sub $50 items so I passed on several pair of shoes.

Premium hoarder numbers for the week:

Shoes – 4 pair for $400.

Clothes – 5 items for $360

I haven’t posted my kid’s ebay numbers in a while. Why? Because they did what teens do: lost interest.

Oh well, at least they are doing work for me. In total my daughter cleaned and/or photographed 100 items. I pay a flat rate for cleaning and photographing. It works out to $15/hr if they actually work.

Before we go on vacation I’ll buy out their listings and unlisted items and cash them out. Good thing I didn’t waste my time setting up their own store!

This week already has a great start – sold two pair of hoarder shoes this morning for $575 total.

Retro, I am really enjoying reading about your successes this summer – you’re working your butt off and doing an incredible job!

Week of 7/30 – 8/05
Total items in Store: 379
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $271.45 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $115.31 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: Tie at $87 plus shipping (each a challenge coin; one from the 2010 launching of a FDNY fireboat and the other from the Commanding Officer of the US Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit, Ballston Spa NY)
Average Sales Price: $45.24 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $23
Number of new items listed: 28

Sales are improving as I’m listing. I only have two or three items promoted but I am sending offers and putting some older items on a 30%-off sale.

There was a period there that a couple items sent USPS Ground Advantage had no in-transit scans at all after the pick-up scan but did eventually show up at the buyer’s with a delivery scan so I assume USPS was working out some kinks in the new service. Things seem to be back to normal now but some items are still spending more time in transit than they used to with First Class Mail Package.

Is the eBay Global Shipping program dead? This makes it looks like it still exists:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/global-shipping-program?id=4646

I have been reviewing my Shipping Policies, but can’t see how to add the Ebay Glbal Shipping program as a shipping option. Do any of you have the EGS program in your shipping policies?

It is now called eBay International Shipping, and I believe it is automatic. As long as an item is not in a prohibited category, it is eligible for the program.

Whoops, I see I never posted my numbers. Nothing exciting.

Week of Jul 30 – Aug 5
Total Items in Store: 1715 eBay, 30 Etsy
Items Sold: 9 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $9 + $64 Commission
Total Sales: $238.58 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $90 Lenox Adorn Crystal Large Vase
Average price: $26.50
Returns: 1 (plate arrived damaged)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 14

My numbers this week are what sales look like with my store on time away and with half my tiny store inventory sent to auctions which didn’t end until August 7th. Next week’s numbers will be much, much better thanks to the auctions and a nice haul which I will post about shortly.

I’m planning to run two batches of auctions this month — one 7 day auction starting next Monday and one 10 day auction on the 31st ending on 9/10. I always start the opening bid at the absolute lowest I’ll take for the item (for me it’s usually 50% of my BIN) since auction results can be very random, but I like playing around with other variables. I have had a surprising amount of success selling books through auction in the last few months, and I’m curious if that will continue.

Likely this is my version of what Jay referred to as juicing in his post, we’ll see if the juice is worth the squeeze.

PS @Jay next time you two are in a mood to experiment, curious what end and sell similar on old listings would do for a 10,000 item store. Not sure if you did end and sell similar before your 50% sale or not. I’d recommend just on my experience sending unsold auctions back into my store inventory. Always get a few extra sales in that process. For reference, last night around 8 PM I sent about 200 unsold auctions back into my store as BIN/BO. I had two listings sell within in an hour, two more overnight and one more as I was writing this post, even though the same listings had all gone unsold (at a lower or similar opening bid price) a few days earlier. It’s nothing crazy, maybe $100 total, but that can often make the difference between a “good” week and a “bad” week. I think the explanation is fairly simple: different eyes on eBay at different times. Considering how eBay is your third (?) priority and how it takes mere seconds to end 200 items at a time, I’m confident this would juice your sales a bit here and there. Especially as we enter Q4 and people start really hunting for those weird, one-off items as holiday gifts or gifts for themselves. I’m sure there is a point of diminishing returns with this “trick” though I hesitate to call it a trick, I think it’s just adapting to eBay’s current algorithm. But with a store as large as yours, you could end and sell similar on your oldest 600 items every month and still not get every listing refreshed over the course of a year.

7/30/2023 to 8/5/2023

Items sold: 15 (6 via best offer, 7 via seller initiated offer, 13 via promoted listings)

Gross sales: $671.45 (down 67% from one year ago)

Net sales: $327.94 (down 80% from one year ago)

Average sales price: $44.76 (down 17% from one year ago)

Highest price sold (net): $126.16 — Najee Harris (Pittsburgh Steelers running back) autographed patch booklet rookie card #/49

I sold this for a 30% offer sent to watchers while my store was on time away. A little lower discount than I’d usually send out, but I wanted to make some sales while I was gone. I only paid about $30 for this card. I don’t remember all the specifics of the original listing but there was a pretty major error — wrong title or wrong picture or something. But it was from one of the big consignment sellers I buy from every week. They have so many listings that it’s more efficient and cost-effective to pick and ship the mistakes than to figure out what went wrong, how to fix the listing, notify the buyer, cancel the item, relist, etc.

Lowest price sold (net): $11.16 — Chase Vallot autographed game-used batting gloves

This player never made the pros, so this sale gives you a good idea what the floor is for an autographed memorabilia item without much significance. $10 or so. I paid about $5 for this a year or two ago, but I wouldn’t pay more than about $2 for an item like this now.

I decided to leave my store off while I went on vacation.

R&J enjoyed seeing the before and after pics of your new rental.  I’m always super curious about the art you select for the walls and impressed with how it all comes together each time.  It’s fun to see modern and used blending so well.  Like the others I love the coffee table and the great room woodwork is gorgeous!  Hope you’ve been having a good Airbnb season overall.