The Numbers: Week August 20-26, 2023

She didn’t like having to clean up after herself? She probably would hate having to pay more if you were full service. Yeh, some people are happy only when they’re not happy. I’ve been to your place that one time, and it is top notch.

Anywho, I had a good week for me. I’ve had a rash of low bids for a few lower priced items, and most have not worked out. I have a Lenox bud vase for $13 that has been in my “send offers eligible” list three times. I’m assuming it is the same person. The first two times went the same. They offered $5, I countered back with $9, they countered with $6, and I declined. The third time I saw it there, I turned off the “allow counter-offer” setting and sent a $10 offer. I hope that’s the last of it.

Week of Aug 20 – 26
Total Items in Store: 1698 eBay, 30 Etsy
Items Sold: 11 eBay, 1 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $57.65 + $150 Commission
Total Sales: $400 eBay, $135.5 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $106 Fringed Wool Area Rug AMC Surya Carpet; $135.5 Antique Square Oyster Plate Note: Three Chips
Average price: $58.38
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $9
Number of items listed this week: 4

As the dude says: “well that’s like, her opinion man!”

I don’t think that one is even worth responding to.

you could always do a thoughtful owner response acting as if maybe there was a misunderstanding. Recently I had a crappy buyer on eBay leave me a poor feedback because I wouldn’t give her a 75% discount and let her keep the item. eBay wouldn’t remove it so I replied to the feedback. I got several glowing positive feedbacks over the next few days that definitely felt like they read that feedback and were clapping back at her feedback.

another thing you could do is introduce yourself and simply offer to clean up for her if you are there when she is. She may go back and revise it.

Items in Store: 2574
Items Sold: 30
Total Sales: $937.00
COGS: $128.00
Total Profit: $809.00
Average profit: $26.97
Average sales price: $31.23
New Listings: 65
Items scavenged: 14
Listing 2023 weekly Avg: 40

Had a wonderful vacation. It was nice to disconnect and have a good time! I kept my store on time away with extended handling time. We got back home on Friday and I was able to finish up the listings I drafted as well as create a few new ones. I had to do some inventory management and then start the process of shipping a TON of items from the extended time away.

Here was my post where I set out my summer listing plan:

https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/the-numbers-april-30-may-6-2023/#post-100005

I officially COMPLETED my 1000 item summer listing goal! WOOT!!! My final tally was 1019.

Last summer I listed 620 items and sold 342 items for $10343.

The summer of 2020 (which is an anomaly year), I listed 191 items,  and sold 370 items for $13533

This summer my final numbers were 1019 listings, 404 sales for $17833.

I said at the beginning of summer I wanted to crush 2020 and I did!

Now for the rest of the year I think my plans have shifted. The September/October vacay plans are caput as I’ve already taken vacation and I don’t have enough days left to take an October one due to some unplanned sick days. With my listing at work strategy I think I can list 50 items a week pretty easily the rest of the year. Instead of not listing after Thanksgiving I think I’ll just keep my listing to only at work on my breaks/lunch and have my kids do photographs at home. At 50 items a week the rest of the year I would hit 2287 new listings. Eh, I can do better than that! I’m setting the goal post at 2500 new listings in 2023. That’s an average of 62 over 18 weeks – 1113 new listings.

I may flame out in the winter once the time changes but at least I’ll have ran hard by the time that point comes. I’m hoping by front loading in Sept & October I can coast to success in the last 6 weeks.

Premium hoarder update:

Sold 7 items for $201. No homeruns this week just the bread n butter. I started a spreadsheet to track my profit on this sale. My investment so far is $6400. I set up the spreadsheet to deduct Final value fees from my total to get a closer idea of when I hit my break even point. To date I am at $5353.34 total sales MINUS FVF’s. So $1000 more in sales and I’ll be in the green. Sneak Preview – I’ve had a great start to this week. I’m at 8 hoarder items for $800 after 3 days so I’m hoping to officially be in the black by the next time you hear from me.

Total Items in Store: 876
Items Sold:  13
Gross Sales: $557.52 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $364.46 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $58 + a few items ours
Highest Price Sold: $81 (Used Orla Kiely bag)
Average Price Sold: $42.89
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150 +/- (One labor day sale online RA + thrift)
Number of items listed this week:  2

Sorry about your customer. I bet it’s weird to see her and try not to think about the review.  I think most city visitors at least would expect self service at your style of coffee shop, so I wouldn’t sweat it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my Ebay business lately.  I’m slowly growing my listed inventory, working toward 1000.  Having a little bit more trouble finding a good size recycled shipping box – hardly anyone is using priority – and slightly more time locating items, though it’s pretty organized and labeled by type. I would like to spend a little time next week grouping similar boxes of items together, which won’t take long.

I have been shopping some and my goal of clearing the garage floor is not moving forward right now.  There are about 6 bankers boxes of linens mostly that need to be cleared there.  I keep finding and buying great linens and pillows, which for some reason I don’t really enjoy listing and take up a good amount of space.  I have to conclude that there are not a lot of other resellers looking for them locally.

Going on another short trip to LA to visit college friends this weekend, then it’s pretty nose to the grindstone listing-wise.  Last week I had trouble kicking things into gear but this week I’ve been better.   I hope to find more quality Halloween decor because my bin is almost empty.  I don’t want to get into costumes, etc. since I have so many piles.  Was considering good wigs because I know from experience those are very expensive new.  One of the things I’ve been thinking about is straying from my home decor based store with these other random items.  I bought a Grand Ol Opry sealed DVD set and it will make about $40+ but do I get excited about selling that kind of stuff?

Week of 8/20 – 8/26
Total items in Store: 381
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $255.26 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $69.87 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $85 plus shipping (Australian Embassy 60 Years of Prayers Bottle Opener Challenge Coin)
Average Sales Price: $36.47 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 8

The Australian challenge coin that was my highest sale was issued to commemorate 60 years of invitational happy hours at their embassy in DC for local military and politicos, which they call “prayers”.  And it’s in the shape of a bottle opener, natch.

@Retro – WOW. Congratulations. What a killer summer!  In the words of the immortals Wayne and Garth, “I’m not worthy”.  You’re obviously on a whole other level.  How you can do this with a house full of kids and a full time job is beyond me.   You should teach a course. 🙂

@Jay – Like with eBay, those random poor reviews fall away into the background noise when compared to all your 5 star reviews.  She probably had a bad day and you were the cat she kicked.

Late to the party again.

Week Ending 8/26/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $501.68  (eBay $484 / Etsy $18)
Net Sales: $379.86
Total Items Sold: 10   (eBay 9 / Etsy 1)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1180
Total Items in Etsy Store: 501
Cost of Items Sold: $87.70
Highest Price Sold: $199.95 (Typewriter)
Average Price Sold: $50.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $253.92

Average Days Listed: 542
Longest Listed: 2506
New items listed: 2
New Listings Value $550.00

Good thing I listed two items this week, my big sale of the week was a typewriter I listed on the Friday that also sold on Friday.  I thought I was shooting high on the price for it, but I guess I wasn’t.

My new inventory came from an online auction and was mostly books.