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We take a moment this week to feel good about long term work that has paid off. It’s easy to just keep going and never stopping to acknowledge that,
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 348: Acknowledge When Hard Work Pays Off] -
02/11/18 – 02/17/18
Total Items In Store: 2,239
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $85 (around)
Total Sales: $909
Highest Price Sold: $115 (Radoff City Painting)
Average Price Sold: $ 41.32
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 76
Number of Items listed this week: 60The word this week is “Grandville” as in Grandville Michigan. Never been there, never heard of it, but I did this weekend.
This weekend we were at my daughter’s Gymnastics competition in Holland Michigan. While there, I found 2 estate sales to go to. One was in Grandville (right near Grand Rapids) and it had a bunch of Mid-Century items, so of course I went there. It wasn’t just a bunch, this was a 10,000 square foot place full of Mid-Century Modern furtiure and other vintage items! But just like any other estate sale, the prices were a bit too high for resale. But of course I did find some under priced items. The lamp and clock collection was amazing. There were about 25+ lamps and maybe 15 clocks. I was pretty sure J&R would dig this place. I was wondering how he found this much Mid-Century items. But I guess if I had
a warehouse to put furniture in, I could probably fill it up too. The address was “2900 Wilson Ave SW Grandville Mi” and phone number (616) 915-2255 in case anyone is interested. The guy said that he has an estate sale about once a month or so. He also has “by appointment” at other times.Then, I sold something the same day and the person was from Grandville Michigan.
Another new thing for this past week. I was on my way to a very promising estate sale about 10 miles away with less than 1 hour left in the sale. I was less than 1 mile away and then someone rear ended my car at about 45MPH. Needless to say my car is totaled, but still drivable. No injuries.
I am still on my listing spree to get to 3000 items by about June.
Mark
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thanks for sharing the warehouse details. sounds amazing. sorry to hear about your car, that stinks! glad you’re ok!
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Timely explanation on the return as item not as described in the podcast. My largest sale of the week, the Boston Chandler desk legs, a buyer puts a return request for a broken leg and says cannot figure out how to attach a photo. I cut and past my item description and attached a photo from my listing asking, do you mean the broken leg i site in the item condition and the photo i took of the leg reattached here?
Who knows – i guess if he does not respond i will have to accept and challenge the case. Good to know i won’t be billed without having the chance to appeal for the shipping at least. Helpful as always.
2/10/18 – 2/17/18
Total Listing in store (beginning of week): 1164
Total items (including multiple item listings): 1246
Value of inventory listed beginning of week: $39,338.91
Value if inventory listed end of week: $39,828.42
Items sold: 24 (one cash sale)
Weekly sell through (based on number of listings): 2.06%
Total Sales: $570.97 (shipping backed out)
Average price: $23.79
Cost of items sold: $277.79
average cost of item sold (pre fees): $11.57
Gross profit: $293.18
Highest item sold: Boston Chandler Desk Legs 120.00, cost 70
New items listed: 62
Asking price of new items listed: $1,015.48 -
Feb 11-17
Total Items in Store: 1352
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales : $694
Highest Price: $80 (Antique German Clear Sulphide Cat 1 1/2″ Shooter Marble)
Average Price: $29
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $69
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0I love the way you’re utilizing space on your shelves for mugs! That’s so smart!
It was a pretty average week for me. I sold a lot of lower priced items as well with a few mid-priced ones here and there to bring up my totals a bit. I’ve been working all week on listing death pile items. Stuff that I literally have zero interest in and just did not look forward to dealing with. I listed a LOT of it but had to stop because it was putting me in a crappy mood. Lol.
I wanted to share a mistake I made and a lesson learned. And I totally blame it on working on ebay before drinking any coffee. I woke up to a request for a price change on a $19.95 item. Apparently, I set the weight to 2 lbs when it was really only less than 16 oz. It would have cost the buyer over $10 for shipping to Seattle. He suggested $22 including shipping. I thought that was reasonable given that it would only realistically cost me around $4 to ship. Well in my half-sleep stupor, I changed the item to include free shipping and sent him a $22 offer thinking that would take care of everything. Well later in the day, I hear the cha-ching on my phone thinking cool, he paid. But he only paid $19.95 total. That’s when I realized my mistake: The item was still set to $19.95 but now with free shipping. Of course he bought it at that price! I don’t know if eBay presented him with the cheaper amount or if the buyer was smart enough to realize I made a mistake. So the lesson here is… don’t send a higher priced offer to include shipping costs while simultaneously applying free shipping to the item. And don’t eBay when you’re still asleep. Luckily, It was a cheap lesson to learn this time.
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Great podcast. You guys were cracking me up with Jay’s interrogation of Ryanne’s high prices.
I also notice that I am starting to acquire Jay’s habit of saying “it’s” as a hesitation word, where people usually say “uh” or “um”… is that a regional thing or just a personal quirk?
Sorry to hear you had a slow week. For myself it was quite a good week, but last week was awful.
Sales: CAD$1977, 6 items, COGS $221 –> item profit $1447
Expenses: $7
Net cashflow after tax: $1343
Notable sales:
-9 fluorescent lightbulbs $18 –> $543
-Lot of microscope objectives etc. $59 –> $659 (this is from a table lot I got for $100, it’s now paid off and I’ve still got $1500 or so left to sell from it)
-8 beaten up old radio headsets $40 –> $410
Listed: 14 items
Hours: 8, wage $168/hrI am also happy because I have only one item in my death pile (it’ll have to wait till spring because it needs to be tested outside). Same time, feeling grumpy that I have nothing to list at the moment.
I really blew my whole sourcing budget at the auctions in January. Can’t wait to get new inventory but it’s going to have to be cheap for now.
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Hey – I called Ebay about my return – 5 minutes later i have a reference number and a rep telling me no worries the buyer is wrong. Don’t do anything just call us back if the buyer escalates.
Too often in life myself included we propagate the negative. While there are problems here any there, Ebay has over and over backed me up. Pretty cool!
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Enjoy the Merry-go-round which I’m sure at this point you’ve rode out. Ebay will tell the buyer you were 100% wrong and contradict everything you said. Then they’ll reverse to the buyer on appeal. You’ll call back in and they’ll reverse back to you again, while telling you the buyer was definitely wrong and NOT to communicate with the buyer in any way. Then they’ll do a final reversal to the buyer and try to tell you that you can’t appeal again. You’ll call back in and they’ll reimburse you fully as well.
This is the strangest customer service method I’ve ever encountered, but it is seeming like a rite of passage for all scavengers here. I’m glad we have a positive, solution oriented environment here that helps us make it through these weird ebay quirks with our sanity.
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Total Items in Store: 449
Items Sold: 8
Cost of Items Sold: $58 + $12 free shipping
Total Sales: $228
Highest Price Sold: two @ $43 (tie – Folkmanis puppet (paid $8) and used Anthropologie dinner plate (paid $2))
Average Price Sold: $28
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40 (some multiples)
Listing sessions: 3You should reflect on your achievements for sure and they are impressive. But what I’m really excited about with is that you are so consistently working hard and making good choices. It’s a million times you make yourself do something you don’t really want to do and many good decisions big and small. Eating healthier is another example of this. Your self discipline is really remarkable and this is an area of personal growth that I am working on.
I was somewhat surprised to get my first $23k gross Paypal 1099-K. I paid taxes on my hobby Ebay income in the past but it didn’t amount to too much and I have a lot of $200 sales weeks. I still need to do the COGS bookkeeping to determine my profit and finish our taxes. Looks so far like we didn’t pay enough quarterlies last year for the first time. I’ve got a lot of incentive to resist buying and work the piles! Even though I’m working on my time management, I am proud that I have worked Ebay into my life and made some extra money for the household even though it is taxed on top of our other income. Plus, I just really enjoy doing it.
This week was complete crickets until yesterday. I listed in the morning and got 5 sales within 12 hours. That used to happen a lot but the last few months I wasn’t seeing that result. It is a holiday weekend so there’s that in the mix.
Quick question for Ryanne on the descriptions. You said you used to add something quick like the “piece of history” toolbox comment but now you usually stick to bare bones. I assume that anyone who clicks through to view your item is also attracted to it. Do you think they need that little comment as confirmation of why its cool and why they should pay that high price? Or do you think it is just better to be focused on throwing up more and more stuff as quickly as possible? Does it depend on the price point to you more recently?
Have a great week.
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Yes Jay, I remember laughter. I’m not glad to hear you are getting lowball offers, but it made me feel better to hear it because I was beginning to think it was just me. I actually got a 99 cent offer while listening to this weeks podcast. I had a decent week, but I also had almost a two day period without a cha-ching. Also glad to hear that i’m Not the only one who freaks out about that a little bit. My scavenge of the week happened last Friday when I went to pick up some things I had purchased through an online auction. I had purchased two pair of rubber boots, intending to keep one and sell the other. One of the girls that work there asked me about them and I ended up selling her one of the pairs for cash before I ever got it out the door. Paid for all my items and my gas for the trip!
My numbers February 11-17
Total sales. $177.87
Items in store. 986
#of items sold. 17
Average sale. $10.46
COGS. $11.43
Returns. 0
$ spent on new. $10.46
# of new items listed. 23
Highest sale-Philadelphia Eagles Starter jacket $49.99 (paid $1) -
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Hey Jay, look online for a kimchi fried rice recipe. Kimchi is one of my favorite foods and that’s my favorite way to eat it.
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Long slow week here but it’s already looking up this week. So that’s awesome.
Week of 2/11-2/17
Total items in store:612
Items sold: 12
Cost of items sold: $18
Total sales: $220.50
Highest price sold: $50 pair of boots
Average price: $18.38 (ugh!!!)
Spent on new inventory ($100 on thousands of slides)
Items listed: 45
Goal sales amount: $469
Short of by goal by: $248.50On to better weeks!!
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so, i was gonna recommend kimchi fried rice but i know you two go for lower carb options, so that might not be the best option. kimchi stew is my go to low carb option. main ingredients are kimchi and chunks of pork belly. get some honey in there, with green onions and bang! delicious town. also, i only cook with kimchi that’s been sitting for a while and has pickled itself into kind of a mush with all the deliciousness at the bottom of the jar. fresher kimchi doesn’t provide as much flavor when cooked, imo. but honestly, well made kimchi is bomb with everything. it’s good grilled too.
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How long do you let it sit in the fridge? I read that some people let it sit for several years?!
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My numbers for the week of 2/11/18:
Total Items in Store: 131
Items Sold: 13
Cost of Items Sold: $61
Total Sales: $584 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $150 (Star Wars Tank)
Average Price Sold: $44.92
Returns: 0Nice to have a week where some higher priced items sold. Still averaging a 10% weekly sell through rate.
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Here is a picture of the boots. I think they are pretty cool.
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RR Store Week Feb 11-17, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1515
Items Sold: 27
Cost of Items Sold: $35.64
Total Sales: $852.47
Highest Price Sold: $161.99 (East Side Story Vol. 1 LP)
Average Price Sold: $31.57
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $52.16
Number of items listed this week: 36Records for the win this week! That East Side Story is a compilation of lowrider oldies, very particular to Southern California. A dealer at a record expo gave me the tip, and I promptly went home and pulled all three of the volumes I own. I hate to let them go, but I’d rather have the original 45 singles than a compilation…and the money. And after last week’s terrible numbers, I needed some higher ticket pieces to move. Out of the 27 items I sold last week, 8 were records.
Speaking of my awful numbers last week, thank you to everyone who gave me suggestions. I plan to follow through with them and continue to grow. I hate the idea of selling off hours of my time, and I’ll do whatever it takes to remain independent.
I’d like to get on the kimchee bandwagon, but I was traumatized as a kid! My biological father used to work for a gourmet food company, and they had kimchee in their line of products. He used to eat it straight out of the jar, then breathe that vinegary funk right in my face. He thought it was the funniest thing, but I was so grossed out. I’m sure my palette has matured and I’d probably enjoy it, but I still make a face when I see it at the grocery store.
Paul
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I have been keeping track of my number of listings and sales for about 6 months but I haven’t gone to this level of detail yet, so here’s my first go at tracking my numbers:
02/11/18 – 02/17/18
Total Items In Stores: 2,621
Items Sold: 44
Cost of Items Sold: not sure, my guess is that I average $2.00 per item but there is some variation
Total Sales: $703
Highest Price Sold: $125 James Dean Leather Bomber Jacket vintage / worn
Average Price Sold: $15.97
Returns: nothing outstanding, I probably had one but I don’t remember
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: I didn’t keep track but I’ll guess $75
Number of Items listed this week: 94Goals & Habits:
I try to list 100 items a week, I keep a notebook of my listings so I can see my progress.
I’m trying to buy most of my ordinary clothing at the outlet and the higher end stuff from the thrift stores. I go shopping at the outlet one weekday morning for about 2 hours from 7:30 am – 9:30. I also go shopping at a thrift store from 5:30 – 7:30 on Wednesday nights while my son is at an activity. I want to go to more auctions – I’ve been a few times but haven’t purchased much. I also try to go to estate sales on Friday mornings from 9-11 am but I haven’t made it to any in a while. This past week I also spent lots of time clearing out clutter in my own house and brought maybe 6 garbage bags full of stuff to Goodwill. I also ended a bunch of lower end listings on ebay and need to gather that stuff together and bring it to Goodwill. This coming weekend my neighborhood is having a community yard sale, I’ll probably go as a buyer and not put anything out myself. I also have a bunch of stuff – hardgoods rather than clothing – which are maybe becoming death piles that need to get listed, so I’d like to start doing more listing of that sort of stuff. Also, I have one photographer that does the photos for about 20 listings per week for me. I’d like to get another photographer so that I’d have more help with taking pictures of clothing. Hiring photographers has been a process and I’m not where I’d like to be with that yet. -
Week of Feb 11-17
* Total Items in Store: 1134
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $27.50 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $332.10
* Highest Price Sold: $80 Vintage metal milk can
* Average Price Sold: $25.55
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $77.55
* Number of items listed this week: 15I’m just listening now because my family was home yesterday due to President’s Day. My week was slow, and I see Jay & Ryanne’s numbers are a bit low as well.
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Feb 11-17 2018
• Total Items in Store: 840
• Items Sold: 12 (11 ebay / 1 Bonanza)
• International 3 GSP
• Total Sales $495
• Highest Price $100 pair of Bose speakers
• Average Price Sold: $41
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $70
• Cost of items purchased this week $0The up one week and down the next trend is continuing, I had thought about a Nebraska road/scavenging trip last week but low sales kept me home listing. Plus it’s snowing every other day here, woke up this morning to another shovable covering of snow. Glad I bought a snowblower in the summer for a $100, would be $500 in the winter.
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Feb 11-17, 2018
Store #1
Total Items in Store: 1230
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $17.20
Total Sales: $345.95
Highest Price Sold: $119.99 (men’s merino sweater)
Average Price Sold: $57.65
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $19.15
Number of items listed this week: 11
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Store #2
Total Items in Store: 271
Items Sold: 5
Cost of Items Sold: $1.00
Total Sales: $35.98
Highest Price Sold: $9.51 (vintage embroidered patch)
Average Price Sold: $7.19
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 17Sales wise, it was a pretty slow week. Fortunately, the items that did sell were higher dollar, so my average came up to compensate for lack of sales. Was a pretty busy week, so didn’t get much listed. Going to have to put a drive on in the next week or two to hit my listing goals before month end.
Interestingly enough, once the calendar rolled over into Sunday, things started selling like mad. 12 Sales just over Sunday and Monday.
We went to an auction on Saturday, and came away pretty content. We ended up spending about $500, but the majority of the items will end up in our antique mall booth. I did spend $150 on two items, that I immediately listed Sunday morning for $349.99 and $1,999.99. Turned down an offer of $435 on the higher priced one within two hours of listing. Crossing fingers for a better offer in the near future. If the buyer would’ve come up to $600-700, I probably would have sold it in the interest of a quick turn around.
Un-related to ebay, the sales in our antique booth have been slow for January/February. I suspect it’s mostly due to holiday bills coming due, and the cold weather. Also un-related, I continue to slowly ramp up my Amazon FBA inventory. It’s not exciting, and I don’t see it ever becoming a cornerstone of my income, but it’s currently pushing out about $200/mo and rising, based only on RA items I grab on the rare occasion I venture into Walmart/etc and the odd books/games/etc I grab at thrift stores to send in. It’s not something I’m willing/wanting to devote much time to, but if I can spend 2-3hrs a month on it, and have it flow $2-300/mo, I’ll keep doing it. That’s a car payment.
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Just trying to understand something that confuses me.
The one number that is posted in some of your weekly numbers that confuses me is “Total Items In Store”.
The statistic/number doesn’t confuse me, but the goal to increase that number does that some of you are trying to achieve.
Does eBay offer discounts/etc. if you have more items in your store? I’m just confused because my goal would be to sell through my items and have a goal of close to zero items sitting in my store inventory.
Just curious if there is benefits to having high inventory numbers that I’m not aware of, as I try to sell my items as quickly as possible (take the quick nickel vs. the slow dime) and try to keep my inventory moving; and what I’m missing out on by keeping my numbers down instead of trying to grow them.
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+1 on that thought.
Though just having items isn’t enough. We always have to do analysis of dead stock. Sometimes stores grow because people don’t want what is in them. At that point, Invested Capital is an issue. You have invested money and time into the listing. If it isn’t paying a return, time to remove the dead stock and put in new items that customers want.
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You can list up to 10,000 items with an anchor store. Might as well list as much as you can if it’s “free.”
I personally would like to get up to 10,000 items listed. Currently a little over 9,000, and I have thousands of unlisted items to catch up on.
While I have this large amount of stock, I do try hard to sell items as quickly as possible and price them reasonably. Still, they are all pretty much long-tail, so there is an element of patience required as well. Items pile up due to their uniqueness. You have to wait for the right customer to come along for many of them.
Also, I sometimes get too busy to list in the store for weeks at a time. When this happens, sales continue in the store due to the sie of it. Yay.
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Makes sense if you have free listings to list as much as you can and gamble on items that may sit for awhile. In my position with only 100 free listings a month, having an item sit awhile is costing good money at 35 cents/month per listing over 100. eBay doesn’t give me the incentive to go over 100 items unless I know they will sell quickly. When I have gone over my free listings, the 35 cents/item starts to really add up over a month.
The stretch between 100 and the various store subscriptions wasn’t worthwhile for a part-time seller like myself. I can now understand how it makes sense as a full-time seller to use up every “free” slot you have, even on slow or very slow items.
I assume that at larger numbers, you are just playing the same game as I am – trying to find the best items to fit in free listings allotment you have.
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So, if my math is correct (always a question) once you have 157 items, you’re at the break-even point for the cost of a basic store subscription (vs. paying .35/month per item), which allows you 250 free listings. It’s food for thought.
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@Habnab – that is the exact number I have for a store (annual) subscription…it’s one of those decisions to make if I get my volume back up to that level. I’ve been up to almost 400 active items as recently as September, and now I’m below 100 (and falling as sales are outpacing what I am scavenging lately)
That number looks like my number – eBay doesn’t charge the same fees to everyone, and offers promos here and there to us all. For example, for me to subscribe to a basic store, my final value fees will not change based on my seller level – so only the insertion fees would be saved once I cross over from 157 to 158 items a month consistently.
I can also go for the month by month subscription, where the crossover is 171-172 items. I’ll probably go that route when I have the urge to list a lot of items like I did last fall and cancel when the listings sell off and I don’t keep up.
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Habnab: You are dead on with your math (assuming the Yearly subscription price and only using Fixed Price listings)
To move from non-store to store: Breakeven is 157 listings/month – 157-100*.35=$19.95
To move from Basic to Premium: BE is 450 Listings – $19.95+(450-250)*.20=$59.95
To move from Premium to Anchor: BE is 3400 Listings – $59.95+(3400-1000)*.10=$299.95 -
Actually there is a problem with your math. It doesn’t take into consideration the fact that store owners get a discount on final value fees. Non store owners are charged a flat 10%, while store owners get a discount variable across certain categories ranging from 4-9.15%. That extra percentage can quickly add up to cover the cost of a store with much less than 157 listings, depending on your average selling price and what categories you sell in.
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Agree on that point. I was only discussing listing fees. Final value fee difference would be almost impossible to calculate.
As we ramped up our business, we always used 15% of the anticipated selling price as our estimate of fees.
Our even simpler method is to ensure at least a 4x return on our money, and at a minimum a $15 Profit. That will cover all fees and make sure it is worth our time.
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In a perfect world, every item we list would sell in 5 minutes. In a perfect world, we would have 100% sales and 0 inventory.
But that’s not how things work. Walmart has millions of items on their shelves waiting to be bought. If you dont have an inventory, then you dont have items to find.
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Inglewood, I completely agree with you on the “goal” of a high inventory to be backwards. It seems to be a quirk of eBay sellers to focus their goals on the number of active listings…which is really no indicator of success at all. Having come from a purchasing background before doing eBay, I would have been fired for having a goal of growing inventory (ie tying up revenue). Increasing inventory turns was the measure of success.
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Fair enough. As a scavenger, how do you run your store to have the lowest inventory and maximum profit? Serious question.
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I think the math is very simple here. If I have 1,000 items and have a monthly sell through rate of 4%, then I am selling 40 items a month. If I have 10,000 items and have a monthly sell through rate of 4%, then I am selling 400 items a month. If the average sell price is the same, I am making 10 times as much with 10,000 items. Yes, at some point your sell through rate may go down a little as you grow, but for me, it has stayed fairly constant over the years.
I am not sure why this is not obvious here that the larger your store, the more you will sell (assuming you have mostly good items). Take it to the extreme, if every Walmart store had only 10 items in it, they could only sell 10 items a day or the next time they re-stock. If each Walmart store has 10 million items, they have the ability to sell up to 10 million items in a day. Of course they are only going to sell a % of that, but you get the idea.
Sales is a numbers game, all sales people know this. For example, statistics show that you will get about 3% (may have changed, but good for this example) rate of sales from cold calling people. So, if you call 100 people, you will get 3 sales. You call 1000 people you get 30 sales.
To me, this is simple. If you follow the advise here (good listings, good items, etc) the more items you have, the more sales you make, period!
Mark
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Mark S: I can agree with you on the basics of your thinking, but the 2 difficult parts are in the extrapolation of the math and in your biggest assumption: Good Inventory.
Many times you can grow inventory because items you thought were good are still there a year later. Maybe it is a unique item and you can wait for that right buyer and it make take a year (or 2, or 3) to sell. But if it is more of a commodity item and it hasn’t sold yet, either it wasn’t as good as you thought, or the pics are bad, or the pricing is wrong…etc. And if it is something you “just know is worth a lot”, it may take even longer to realize there is an issue with the listing. Just having the item listed isn’t going to guarantee a sale. Sometimes, it is just taking up space and you are losing money (in the purchase price, the relisting fees, and the warehouse space). I think this is a reason that ASP drops when inventories get large…most people aren’t culling out the bad buys when they get larger.
That leads to the extrapolation issue. Keeping the ASP on 10 times as much inventory gets much harder, because now every task is 10 times larger and requires more efficient processes to maintain. At 2,000 items in inventory, shipping 1% Daily ASP (20 items) is manageable each day (I know some people with this size store with that ASP). At 20,000, that 1% Daily ASP (200) is much more difficult. You can cover by hiring, but then that brings on new tasks (HR, Payroll, time scheduling, covering downtime when they are gone/sick, etc.). Plus, now it is harder to maintain that store size as well. If you are selling 200 per day, you have to replenish 200 per day. So the extrapolation gets tough. Even extrapolating a low ASP store is tough, because that large store now requires warehouse costs, efficient shipping procedures, possibly more varied shipping supplies, etc.
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T-Satt,
I see what you are saying. I think it all depends on what your constraints are and what you are trying to accomplish.
For J&R, they have nearly unlimited storage and the resources to pack and ship whatever sells. If they have a few bad items, no big deal, they will still make close to their $2000\week. They can go away for weeks at a time and still make what they need.
But if you have someone like Brian who has very limited space, he is trying to only buy things that he can mostly fit into a small closet. He is taking less space, but it probably takes him more time to find those certain items.
Then there is Steve. He doesn’t have that many items compared to J&R, but he probably spends a lot more time per item than them. He still makes good money.
For me, I have the time and room for about 6000 items. The closer I get to 6000 items, the more money I am going to make. If I find I have some bad items or listings, I can always fix them or have a fire sale. Time is what I am short on. So, I don’t spend too much time on any 1 item (though I do sometimes if I have to do additional research). I buy a wide range of great items that don’t require a whole lot of time and that is working for me. This also makes it much easier for me to scale the operation. If I went full time and moved into a building and scaled things up, I could ramp up to 10,000 – 20,000 items fairly easily. I really wouldn’t have to change a whole lot. Maybe hire another person or so. Scale ability is also big for me.
So, I think we all have to pick what we value to focus on: time, inventory space, fast selling items, total sales, researching, scaling, etc. We all find our niche and then we flourish. If you don’t make as much money as you want or need, you have to figure out how to get there. Usually the fastest way there is to have more good items to sell.
Mark
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Mark: Completely agree. There are nuances to the basic question that have to be answered. Sometimes the right answer for someone to make more money is to “shut up and list”…cause they just don’t have enough inventory. And even at that basic level, I would caveat “shut up and list GOOD STUFF THAT PEOPLE WANT.”
Beyond that, the only good answer is “it depends”. Lots of factors with constraints and goals will lead to the “right” answer…but everyone has a different “right” answer”.
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I think there are variations to “good stuff that people want,” and the price points people want them at. People want unique items at various points – from $5 to thousands of dollars. If you have a large amount of inventory with unique items at various price points, those items will sell to the people willing to buy them at those price points that are determined to fit for the customer.
Having a store with a variety of items at various price points that are not commodity items requires a large inventory. Some items take less than an hour to sell. Some take 10+ years. It really depends on the item and the customer. In order to have a long-tail, unique vintage store, you need to maintain a large inventory. You can of course do it with a small inventory too, but you’ll make much less money per month. If this is your full-time income and you have the space, having a large inventory makes a lot of sense in order to pull in a full-time income based on that store.
It really comes down to the sort of business you want to run. If you want to have fast-selling items and an inventory of less than 100 or 200 items, that is just like having a job. You need to be out sourcing several hours a day, every single day per week to maintain those sorts of numbers. I know people who do this and it is a complete grind. It looks like the least fun way to spend your life as possible. You live to work, and you work to live.
If you want to make this more of a lifestyle and focus on what you are interested in, it is completely different than having a fast-moving, commodity based store. Your interests revolve around what you like, not necessarily what the average person likes. You will eventually find that there are people out there that share the same odd tastes as you, and you will see the results in your sales.
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Almasty,
Great post, I agree.
I love this kind of conversation. It really makes you think about your strategy – that is what I love to do. I also love to discuss it, and everyone here makes great points and are successful sellers.
I think we all learn a lot from these awesome discussions.
Keep the thoughts coming!
Mark
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T-Satt, I very much agree with you on your “good inventory” comment. While the concept of “everything sells eventually” still felt true 3-5 years ago, I definitly do not feel it is true today. The idea that a large inventory is some sole inidcator of success, and as a focal goal as a seller, does not make sense to me.
To my way of thinking, I want cash flow. If I am making a profit of 10x what I buy something for, and only selling 10% of my items…I’m just spinning my wheels dumping everything I make back into a large inventory. That equals no real cash. I guess it’s the same as Growth vs Income in investing, but there should be some balance. I understand Growth, but a bigger number of active listings could easily be just a lot of bad bying choices that pile up.
I’m not claiming my way to be right and others are wrong. It’s just a different view. I absolutely realize I am in the minority. -
Beth: I don’t know if you are in the minority. I will say that the questions you raise are ones to consider. You touch on the problem of growth that every small business deals with (and has to solve at some point).
Your 10x return but 10% STR is a perfect example. Let’s assume that a new seller starts with a 10x returns model (buy $1, sell $10). They list 50 items the first month, and get a 10% monthly STR. They spent $50 in Month 1 (50*$1), and Revenue was $50 (5*$10). They break even on cost, but overall they lost money, as they still have fees, supplies, etc. in the model.
Month 2, they list another 50, and get another 10% STR. Money out = $50 (50*$1). Revenue= $90 (9*$10). Now they are making money, but they had to survive the first month of no money. This is where inventory growth is key to making meaningful money quick (“shut up and list”). It is also a good model (10X) in that profits from that work are returned quickly (and the 10% STR is pretty solid for that ROI as well).
We average a 4x-5x, so let’s use 4x for conservative numbers. If we buy at $5 (our average), sell at $20, and list 400 per month (our goal), and use a 15% STR (conservative). Month 1, we spend $2,000 (400*5), Revenue is $1,200 ((400*15%=60)*$20). We had NEGATIVE cash flow before fees. Month 2, we spend $2,000 again, and with 15% STR, Revenue is $2,220 ((340+400)*15%*$20). We probably break even overall, but still negative cash flow YTD. Month 3 we get over the hump, and start generating money.
This happens any time a company goes through a growth stage. They have to front load the cost of the growth with more inventory spending (and other possible costs like more labor, supplies, warehouse space, etc.) before the revenue generated by that growth comes in. And remember, even the 4X we are talking is GREAT for retail. Most retail are at a 2X on COGS, and a Net Profit of 5% or LOWER. Wal-Mart has a net profit margin of 3%. Imagine how tough it is to fund growth netting 3 cents on every dollar of revenue. Most eBay sellers are netting closer to 50%.
This is all to help illustrate your point (and others points). Growing your inventory is ONE of the factors to making money on eBay. But doing it in a capital efficient manner, and within constraints that each seller has (time, money, space, etc.) and getting solid returns (high ROI, high STR) are all factors. Growing inventory of items with low ROI takes longer for the “pipeline” (as Jay calls it) to generate profit. Low STR makes the payoff farther in the future as well. If you have a monthly STR of 5%, you are constantly plugging money into growing your inventory, and the returns are farther off. Not that it is a bad model, but you have to know and understand that. Jay & Ryanne have the low STR / high ROI model that constantly throws off a solid monthly return. And it took them years to get to that point. Growth takes time
It is like investing. Put your money down on solid inventory with solid returns.
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Remembering, though, that the Sell through rate tends to have a downward trajectory as inventory grows. The 10% in your example most likely won’t stay steady at 10% as the months go on. And inventory grows with a mix of long tail items that need the right buyer combined with items that just won’t sell, or won’t sell at your price point. I am a firm believer that the eBay algorithm ranks your store as a whole to a certain extent (basically all the data in our traffic reports…listing impressions, click through, sales conversions) and that it is a factor our position in search results. To this way of thinking, sales beget sales. And unsold inventory tends to drag down a store’s numbers, and future sales. We’ve heard eBay call them stagnant listings.
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“sales beget sales” — +1
I can’t tell you how many times I have seen “Surf Sales”, meaning one item sells, then a similar, then another, then another…like a wave is building and we get to surf it.
Haven’t sold an Orvis item in weeks…Yesterday had a sweater, then a shirt, then another… Happens with Dress Shirts, Pants, Jeans, etc…
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Now I understand the confusion. Having a large inventory isn’t a goal; it’s a strategy.
–Strategy: Buy items super cheap. List items for super cheap. Store items for super cheap. We never know what will sell on any particular day, but we know something will sell.
–Goal: Make at least $1000/week. The upfront risk is super low so we sleep very well at night. I don’t think we’ve ever lost money on an item. We can also not touch eBay for three months at a time (except to ship items) and still have a fairly reliable income because we have such a deep inventory. This lets us enjoy other aspects of our lives. Again, low stress is the name of the game.
For the past ten years, this strategy has helped us reach our goals. When a new person asks us how to start on eBay, we say “list 500 items”. You’re correct that listing 500 items isn’t the end game, but it’s just the easier way to get people started since so much will be learned in the process of listing 500 items. They’ll quickly learn to avoid the low dollar junk. They’ll learn what items they enjoy scavenging. They’ll learn what level of shipping they want to take on.
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Jay, the only good answer is…it depends. For you guys, you are willing to invest your capital and sit on that inventory for years if needed to get a sale. And by focusing on keeping your purchasing cost low, and you don’t have extra costs for inventory storage (though you did invest in a new building, but that can be viewed as a capital asset later that can be sold, so I’m ignoring that side), your model is to “set it and forget it”, not worry about the cash and time invested in your old listings, and wait for years for a sale.
I can’t speak for Beth (though I know where she comes from since I was in charge of purchasing in my past life), but I am more on her style of thinking: Constant management of resources. For example, in our plants, a critical component was a bodymaker ram. If you lose one, you lose production volume…not good. But they are also expensive. Default thinking is to have one in each plant to avoid downtime and lost production. But resource management would say that for plants that are within 4 hours drive, have one that covers both plants (as the chances of both plants needing one was very low). That is a better use of resources.
Side note: The other side of that equation was our customers. We made a product that our customers used JIT (Just In Time). They needed our product 24/7/365, and if we didn’t have what they needed when they needed it, they would shut down (again…not good). They managed a resource that they could NOT live without…and they never had it for longer than a few hours before it was used. Resource management.
For us, we don’t have unlimited space for inventory. We have recently had to rent an outside storage unit, so we have a cost to cover each month. Our inventory level can afford it, and we have little unlisted inventory. But before we grow into a second unit, I would be looking at the old items that I still have (as they are taking up space and requiring a second unit to grow) and asking if it is worth keeping the listing. Maybe it is better to call it a bad buy, and either blow out on a clearance sale or pull and donate. Wal-Mart does the same thing. They have lots of inventory, but they also blow out old inventory and donate to local charities (I have seen their stuff at our local thrift store).
So it all is different to everyone. I think what Beth is saying is that Inventory Growth just for growth sake is not a measure of success. That growth has to be done in a smart fashion, at the right time of the selling season, and with the right inventory.
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“As a scavenger, how do you run your store to have the lowest inventory and maximum profit?” That is the golden question.
Personally, since starting on eBay, I have always done a decent amount of pre-research. I continue to try to educate myself on what items (within the categories that are easy to find in my area) have high sell through. Finding items that sell quickly AND at the top price point means they don’t hang around for long, building up an inventory. This only works for me because of the items I choose to sell. I’m not an “antiques” type of person and only a handful of things I sell need to wait for that right buyer. With a full house over here (family of 5), I really don’t have room to store thousands of items. But even if I did I wouldn’t want to. I see every one of those active listings as time invested in listing it, money invested in COGS, so each one that sits there is negatively impacting my cash flow. Not to mention the costs and risks associated with storage (whole bunch of people are flooding right now). Jay and Ryanne, you guys are obviously successful and on a different level than my little part-time business. But I do see many sellers in the 400-1000 listing range who seem to be focused on getting to a certain number of active listings, while their actual sales are pretty close to mine, and cash flow wise, I wonder how they are making that work at all.
OK…if I’m being honest, I have had my eye on one of those little sheds to put in the back yard! Like you’ve said in the past, we all have to find what works for our situation.-
“Finding items that sell quickly AND at the top price point means they don’t hang around for long, building up an inventory. This only works for me because of the items I choose to sell. ”
BethGreen,
Are you achieving your weekly 10% sell-through with high price point and low storage needs *without* having to regularly cull low-performing items from your store? If so, that is really awesome! -
Sonia, I’m not sure I classify as high price point. Looking at my PayPal reports, my average selling price for 2017 was $40 and so far for 2018 is $42, so pretty consistant. Looking at completed listings, my pricing is definitly within the top 20%, I’m not pricing lower than most. I don’t cull. In 8 years of selling, I have given up on I think 4 things that I have re-donated. I concentrate on buying items with a strong sell through rate. Of course occasionally adding in some longer tail items that will get higher prices. The takeaway is that I do believe my standard faster moving inventory helps those longer tail items get better visibility and sell faster, too.
My strategy definitly takes more time upfront, in the sourcing/research stage. But that is the part I enjoy most…so it works for me. -
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That’s true in a conventional retail setting where you have lots of money tied up in inventory. Scavenged inventory is so cheap that it’s not a lot of money tied up on the shelf.
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Utahbill, it’s an awful lot of time put in to listing those items. So even if the cost to buy is minimal, those items on the shelf do represent an awful lot of $$$ in the respect that time is money. And even at $1 per item, 5k items is $5K dollars. Not an amount small enough to discount its importance.
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i think you said it yourself when you mentioned you were “quick nickel vs. the slow dime”. quick = sell for lower prices and faster with a smaller inventory (a bookshelf or a few bins) vs slow = sell for higher, takes longer with a larger inventory (a storage building). you do whatever works for you.
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Here are my numbers for the last week (since February 13th):
Total Items in Store: 89
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $14.10
Total Sales: $356.96
Highest Price Sold: $56.93 (BCBG Dress NWT)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5.00
Number of items listed this week: 5One of my better sales weeks this year. Challenged to find new inventory this week (only went to two thrift stores). Will be spending the day Saturday scavenging in a new city and hope it will be better then the local pickings this week.
Electronics, especially video games (PS1/PS2) are very slow lately for me.
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Week of 2/11-2/17
Total Items in Store: 1,843 (Up 32% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 86
Number of Items Sold: 66 (Down 10% YOY)
(Includes 1 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 2 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 15% (Down 7% YOY)Total Product Sales: $1,542 (Up 24% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $327
Highest Item Sold: $65 – Columbia Padded Shoulder Shooting Jacket
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and leads the year at 5-2. (the Xbox sale last week for Veronica fell through, and Troy had the next highest sale.)eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,088
# Sold: 55
STR: 22%
ASP: $23.69eBay Shoes
# Listed: 116
# Sold: 1
STR: 4%
ASP: $25.00eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 639
# Sold: 9
STR: 6%
ASP: $22.32Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 155
# Sold: 1
STR: 3%
ASP: $12.90On the business front, overall sales have picked up a bit from the past week, and so far this week has been good as well. But while our STR is down 7% YOY, our ASP is up 37% YOY which accounts for the overall growth in revenue. Hard goods continue to struggle, which I still hold is related to the FedEx SNAFU. The drop from 17%-20% range down to 8%-9% is the same week as the SNAFU. Just too coincidental. We rarely sell anything now unless it has flat rate shipping.
On the personal front, listings are a little down as I continue to prep for the Colorado Trail. I did a day hike to shake down my pack, 8 miles in 3 hours with a pack weight of 47 lbs with 4 days of food. Did a reassessment of gear and pack is now down to 40 lbs, and will probably shed 4-5lbs more with new sleeping bag and tent before the trek starts. Practiced some hiking hacks and I have been making one-pot meals with the stove and cook kit to make sure practice is there, and I’ve started sleeping on the basement floor to test out sleep systems (pads & bags). Now, if the snow would stop and the weather get warm again to get more miles it would help! Good news is that with this job, I can hit trails during the week when the weather is good to avoid crowds, and hunker down and list when it is cold.
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486 miles. The harder part will be (not only that this is my first thru hike) is that most of the trail is above 10,000 feet. A large part of the trail is also part of the CDT, one of the Triple Crown trails (Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail).
Great timing to get into this at age 46…
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You will be fine on the hike I did a 90 miler a couple of years ago at 55 years old, and I was out of shape and overweight. I could happily have resupplied and headed out again when we were done. The first few days are the toughest, especially at elevation. I think a lot of it is getting acclimatized to the elevation.
One of my life goals is to hike the AT.
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Sounds like an awesome trip, and well thought out preps. I did one of the shorter (62-ish miles) treks at BSA’s Philmont Scout Ranch in the Sangre de Cristo range (northern NM) last July at age 60. I’m no novice under a rucksack but it’s been 30 years since I’ve been in terrain like that. We prepared well for it but the one surprise for me was the toll that keeping up with our crew of teenagers on one lengthy downhill day took on my knees. So I got up to 1600 mg of Motrin every 4 hours to get me through to the end of the trek but it took another 6 months to get back full range of movement in my knees. I did distance rucking (I only had access to flat terrain), treadmill interval training (doing this made the uphills easy), and stairways under full weight to prepare, but in retrospect I did not do near enough stairway work.
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Philmount is in my old stomping grounds. Born and raised in NM, and went to college at NM Highlands in Las Vegas NM. Never made it to Philmont, but I have heard lots of great things about it.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been doing a lot of work under weight at this point. Walking the dogs with the pack. Hiking with the pack. I have even started wearing a 10lb weighted vest everyday (all day) just to add weight to the body.
Good to know about the stair work as well. There is a steep winding trail by the house I call Lombard Trail that I should practice just up and down over and over again. The 10,000 feet elevation is the only other concern. I’m at almost 6,000 feet now, but I know when I go hunting at 9,000 what the difference is like.
My biggest fear…being ready gear-wise and mentally…and by body fails.
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Yup, that’s it. Mental (and the Motrin) got me through but it was close on the body side.
As you say you feel it going higher, but at least you’re adding only 4,000 ft, which I think will help you a lot. We were living at sea level in Florida at the time and we did it just fine though I have to admit the night we spent at the highest point in our trek of only 8,900 I just wanted to be put out of my misery. I was fine by morning.
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Week of February 11-17
Total items in store start of week: 264
Total items in store end of week: 264
Total sales: $119.97 (does not include shipping)
# items sold: 5
Weekly Sell Through Rate: 1.89%
Average Sales Price: $23.99
Returns: 0
Unpaid Items: 1 for $50
# items listed: 5Last week seemed slow, but it was really an average week. Since, I started posting my numbers I have noticed that my sell through and average price are quite similar from week to week, unless I have a high priced item sell, which skews the numbers. This tells me all I have to do to increase my income is increase my total number of listings. Easier said than done for me. Last week I took a 4 day trip to Monument Valley with my daughter, and this week I have to go out of town to a four day conference for my day job. This all cuts into my listing time. The trip with my daughter was well worth it. The day job conference, not so much.
Next weeks total items in store goal: 270
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No “Scavenge of the Week” this week?
Or was it there on the podcast and I missed it?My scavenge of the week is a pair of hand/bench-made Bally wingtips in a light burgundy color. With the handwritten size and other numbers inside the shoe and everything. Unfortunately in a very small size, though – 6! Paid less than $10, but haven’t yet done the research to see how much of a return I can expect.
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Store Week 2/11/18 – 2/17/18
Total items in store: 1602
Items sold: 18
Cost of items sold: $13.00
Total sales: $364.42
Highest price sold: $40.00 (Golf grips)
Average price sold: $20.25
Returns: 1 (wrong size)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $210.25The week was super slow for me too. I’m selling, but it’s mostly the super cheap stuff. I’m accepting some pretty lowball offers, just to keep things moving. Today I went through and slashed the prices on some really old stuff that isn’t worth much anyway, to try and make some space in my storage room. And since I did that, I’ve actually sold several really old cheap items, but not the things I marked down. Think it’s related? Who knows. I’m just happy to be rid of them!
I had two days in a row of great scavenging this weekend with an out of town estate sale on Friday and a huge community yard sale on Saturday. I got great stuff at both, and I’m working away to get it all listed. At the estate sale, they had food items for free, so I grabbed a few that had a cool vintage look. I already sold a can of malted milk for $30 and have multiple watchers on the others already. Can’t wait till the expensive stuff starts selling!
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For many sellers, inventory is very cheap and plentiful, in some cases to the point of being nearly free (I think this describes J&R, especially a few years ago, maybe not so much now). Under these conditions, “shut up and list” is a sensible strategy because listing is the bottleneck in the process and it boils down to a numbers game. If your model is to sell that kind of stuff (low capital requirements, high time requirements), it makes sense.
Personally, finding good inventory is the bottleneck, and that’s where I’m laser focused. My death pile has one item in it.
Anyway, the point is “shut up and list” is good advice for a certain style of seller, even though without the necessary caveats it sounds nuts.
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Simplicio,
That is an interesting environment you are in. Are you in California or the West Coast? I have heard it is really difficult there.
I am in the Mid West and inventory is very cheap and plentiful. Are you going to Estate Sales, Garage Sales, and Auctions?
Mark
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Hey Mark, I’m in Alberta. I’d say it’s a corner I’ve painted myself into, rather than a feature of the landscape here. I am just super jealous of my time (having a day job & 2 young kids) so more & more I try to stick to high-dollar items. That makes sourcing the bottleneck because those things are harder to find (for the right price anyway).
If I wanted to, I could do a more standard scavenging strategy in thrifts etc. and have tons to list.
Part of the reason I think it’s good to get pickier is that the money you make growing by listing scales arithmetically. Double the listings, double the income (after some lag). Whereas if you put your effort into finding higher-dollar items, there is basically no limit. I’ll never forget the first time I sold an item for over $1000. My other sales that week were basically rounding errors inside of that.
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simplicio,
Ok, now I remember how you do it. You find that high dollar industrial type items.
I am with you on the time factor, I work a day job and have 2 kids also, so time is at a premium.
I am trying my best to be pickier and get those higher priced items also. You have been successful at that, so that is a good thing. Where do you usually find those high dollar industrial type items? I would like to try that.
Mark
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This is officially our 5th week as eBayers. We had a good week, although not our highest week. We met our sales goal, which increased our confidence considering this is my husband’s last week at his full-time job. Our numbers for this week:
Week of Feb 12 – Feb 18
Total items in store at end of week:448
Items sold: 15
Cost of items sold: $28.50
Total sales: $559.44
Highest price sold: $200 for an Edgefield Pottery Jug I paid $20 for
Average price: $.37.30
Spent on new inventory $427.50 (including $100 for 106 pairs of shoes!)
Items listed: 147
Goal gross sales amount: $400
Met our goal!Customer issues:
– 2 UPIs (not included in total), 1 for $150 and one for $22
– 1 Return for a porcelain music box that had a previous repair we didn’t notice.Scavenge of the week:
We had an amazing sourcing weekend and found so many great things, I can’t even decide what our scavenge of the week is. Some highlights.
– The shoes (We’ve already sold 4 pair)
– We found a framed Bev Doolittle print, paid $5 and it’s listed for $194.50. (Will sell for sure)
– We bought 7 tubs of all kinds of fabric remnants for $5 each… We haven’t even started listing those yet as I wanted to get through the shoes (yes, finished listing them last night!)
– We bought a set of flatware that I thought was unique looking for $2.00, sold yesterday for $55.The most surprising sale(s)
– We bought this (God-awful) vintage faux fur coat at a yard sale for $1 (great condition). Sold through the Global Shipping Program for $35. I didn’t think we’d ever sell that thing…As a side note, we are LOVING the Global Shipping Program so far. We’ve sold 5 things through it in the last 5 weeks. Amazing!
Thanks again for the pod cast and the reminder about hard work paying off. I also enjoyed the dialogue around pricing. I was cracking up. 🙂 Bob and I are always reminding ourselves that we are not buying things for ourselves, so don’t base the decision to purchase on whether or not WE think it is attractive or cool or whatever. It is always surprising to me to see what people actually buy.
This week is already starting off great. It’s Wednesday and we’ve already sold 9 things for $314 (so far only one item not paid for, but just bought last night.) Can’t wait to see the numbers for this week!
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Wow, that is an extraordinarily good week for only 5 weeks in! Have you been buying/selling in some other capacity before?
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Hi Simplicio, sorry for the late reply, I just saw your question. So, this is our first time “officially” buying and selling on eBay. I’ve been an eBay member since 2001 and have bought and sold lots of things, but just VERY casually.
I think our success can be attributed to a few things…
1. Binge listening to 1 year (or more?) worth of Scavenger Life
2. I’ve been a Realtor for 15 years, so some a good understanding of the importance of taking good pictures and how to market your items
3. Finding some great stuff to sell! (I know every week won’t be like this).
4. Doing other research on how to sell on eBay and being kind of a geek so understanding how search terms in your title and description can help you get found.Hopefully we will continue to see some success since my husband is now doing this full time!
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After lurking in the background, so to speak, for much of last year, I feel like I’m clearing my throat in a room of people I’ve been sitting with for some time….Hello!
Kicking things into a higher gear this year, as I go full-time and want to better track profits.
02/11/18 – 02/17/18
Total Items In Store: 750
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $101.50
Total Sales: $885.76 (incl shipping + the commission noted below, but doesn’t cover some mid-priced sales that must have not cleared between eBay and PayPal? They were showing as $0…)
Highest Price Sold: $300 (Seiko SRP777 Prospex Automatic Diver Mens Watch) – commission sale; personal highest sale: $100 (Patagonia Men’s Quarter Zip Cashmere Sweater; paid $6 at a Goodwill)
Average Price Sold: $35.43
Returns/Refunds: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $124.05 (mostly estate sales, one thrift)
Number of Items listed this week: 30Moved to my town last July, and haven’t found any good auctions yet nearby, so have been leaning on estate sales and online auctions – the former sometimes with prices higher than I’d like to be spending on inventory, but it’s been hard to say no when it’s still a “good deal.” Trying to break away from personal good deal, to business good deal – a focus for 2018 for sure. Another goal – due to my space constraints – is to move towards fewer items at higher price points, so joining the group there. My ceilings aren’t tall enough to accommodate all the bankers boxes and metro shelving I could put to use.
Scavenge of the week was a Snap On Wrench set for $12. Dirty, but hoping to get over $200 for it.
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My sales numbers for this week are grabbing some of the numbers from last week so that I can align with the group. I was counting my weeks as beginning on a Monday, which isn’t practical. So, for the Week of February 11 to 17, my numbers are as follows:
Total Items In Store: 668 (this is today’s number, I didn’t keep track of the number as of Saturday)
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $3.18
Total Sales: $123.60
Highest Price Sold: 22.99 Vintage GE Digital Alarm Clock Radio Model No. 7-4612A
Average Price Sold: 13.06
Returns/Refunds: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: under $50
Number of Items listed this week: 99Despite the low overall net sales dollars, I have a positive take-away from this past week. First, daily listings, generally, translated into daily sales. Second, my number of sales remained relatively constant. My sell-through rate was 1.62%, and that’s ok with me. Third, it tells me that all I need to do to increase my net funds is increase the value of items listed. Sure, it’s very tempting to pick up books on dogs and lot them together for COGs of 50 cents and sell for $10, but it’s not going to get me where I need to be. As a result, I have recently spent just under $400 in inventory of higher ticket items. It’s a bit of a gamble for sure, and I can tell that I have already made some poor buys, but I’m doing what Jay recommends. Jay always says (can’t you hear him saying: “we always say”) when you find something good, go all in. Well, I went all in. I bought $73 of vintage stemware and $250 of costume jewelry. Fingers crossed!
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(Re)Thinking my eBay business – long term plan
Hello friends, hearing the Podcast yesterday, it was a great incentive to think about a few aspects that have been bugging me and I’ve been procrastinating on.
Several different topics but in a couple of them the theme planning, long term goals, and similar came to the mike, for example commenting about another colleague who mentioned she left the job and want full eBay ride.
Just as summary intro for those who don’t remember, my eBay store is owned by a Corporation that has other somewhat relate lines of business. So for the sake of this brainstorming, I will nit differentiate revenue from sales and for costs I will only consider the 2 out of the 11 lines of COGS I have, only those that are eBay related. You will understand my pain and where I have to focus.
Unfortunately in december the Auction House I went weekly shut down their doors, it hurt a lot since for those 2 years or so I made friends and had a lot of fun getting great products for low.
My Net Sales is 76% of my Gross Sales, which is not bad, however things get blurry when I go to calculating Profit margins (here strictly Net Sales = Gross Sales minus allowances, refunds which include the shipping).
Considering only those two lines of COGS I mention, the cost of “raw material” (how much I spend on auctions, garage sales, etc) is 46% of Gross Sales and the Shipping and Delivery piece is 26% of Gross Sales. The putting 10 of the 11 COGS lines that are exclusively related to eBay, Etsy, Bonanza, my actual COGS is 92% of Gross Sales.
My Gross Profit SUCKS, imagine the net income and other performance numbers.
Looking at the report generated for my accountant, comparatively I put too much money and have not so much sales. For the long run I would be OK if I continue in the same sales rhythm, but clearly I must change my procurement strategy.
One step is related to pricing. I do not think I price bad, but there is about 20-30% of what I sell that can be sold for several times more.
The other step is try to reduce the cost of “raw material”. I thing I buy too many things with high price.
Two examples, there was a lady selling her collection of Salvattore Ferragamo flat shoes. Each was wore once if that much. So they sell well. However I paid between $40-$60 each and I cannot make more than $100 or so on each one.
On the other hand there was a collection of Penn license plates from 1965-1975 and other states. I got the whole Penn lot for $60. They are selling crazy between $40-$50 each. This is what I need to do more.Unfortunately part 2 is that I could not find a replacement for my Auction house: relatively close, I can bid in person or on line, people had little idea of the goodies they sold.
South Florida (I live across the street from the School, 2 boys recently graduated there, the twins still go, if the school open again 🙁 ) is not a good source of Thrifts, they are eBay level overpriced, and it is difficult to go more than 50 miles radius and not even finding good surcing.
This is my top priority now.
To finish, my kids are ok, one of the twins is extremely traumatized. He cannot even sleep alone these days, he freaks out with any unrecognized noise (for example, Monday my wife was just opening the door and he freaked out).
Life goes on.
Cheers, love everything this community has offered me for the last 2 years.
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Paulo:
For some comparison purposes, for our business in 2017, COGS was 23% of Net Sales, Shipping was 22% of Net Sales, and Fees (PayPal and eBay) were 10%. These are by far our largest costs, and the others are minimal. Your shipping looks about right, but your Raw Material is double what ours is. (Side Note – What other costs are you putting in COGS?)
Being double what we are isn’t necessarily bad, but it depends on the dollars you are generating. We all have the 3 T’s of constraint (Time, Talent, Treasure). If you don’t have the capital to invest in 2x model (like you are now at a 46% COGS), then yes, your strategy of lowering your COGS is the first place to start.
However, if Time was your constraint, and you wanted to make more money per hour worked, then you can afford to be at a 2x model, as long as the Average Profit per Item (API) is where you want to be (and you have a ready supply). This is also assuming that STR is a push, so not a “long tail” vs “quick flip” scenario as well.
For example: We have one source of product that is at 4X to 6x return, but yields an API of $10-$12. We have another source that is a 2X return but yields a $25-$50 API. Listing time is about the same, STR is a little longer on the second. If Time is my constraint, I go hard on item 2, but if capital is my constraint, I go hard on item 1 (assuming a similar STR).
I had mentioned this before, but when we source, we have two guides: 1) At least $12-$15 profit but the cost has to be less than $5. So if it is $1 and we can get $15 and the STR seems high, we can do it. If it is $20 and sells for $35 we won’t. 2) We look for at least a 4x return, but we will go lower if the API is high (like item 2 noted above). But that doesn’t mean we will spend $100 for a profit of $125, or even $150. Cost of entry is too high, and too much capital at risk on one sale.
Good luck in your tweaking. Always remember…you buy your profit.
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Thank you so much T-Satt, these thoughts, feedback, considerations and advice is what I am looking for, big thank you.
For COGS, in summary: COGS is any direct cost related to the production of goods that are sold or the cost of inventory you acquire to sell. It does not include overhead expenses related to the general operation of the business, such as rent.
For our (my) case as an eBay seller: How to calculate COGS on Inventory.
Costs related to retail or wholesale inventory include:
Inventory purchases, including any discounts and allowances, Freight, Repackaging expenses, the several fees from eBay and PPal.Inventory can be calculated using different formulas.
I use the common (standard?):
COGS = Beginning Inventory + Purchases Made During the Reporting Period – Ending InventoryLet’s apply it to an example. Say you operate a department store and had a beginning inventory of $350,000 last month and purchased another $750,000 in inventory. Last month was a good month, and your remaining inventory at the end of the month was $125,000. What was the cost of goods sold for the month?
Since COGS = Beginning Inventory + Purchases Made During the Reporting Period – Ending Inventory. we have:
COGS = $350,000 + $750,000 – $125,000, therefore, COGS = $975,000.-
Thanks Paulo. Good to know that my advice is what you are looking for.
Relating to COGS, I understand all of what you described. I was a CPA and Controller in a Cost Accounting environment for over 20 years. I get those definitions.
I was more asking about what other items you are putting in COGS in your financials. For me, COGS is only the cost of the inventory. That is it. You can (correctly) argue that the poly mailers, bubble wrap, boxes that we pay for is COGS as well, as it is part of the finished product that is sold, so it is ODM (Other Direct Materials). I just don’t because I don’t care (and I don’t have to strictly follow GAAP for a non-material cost, follow SEC reporting rules any more, and I’m not audited by a Big 6 Accounting Firm anymore so…my rules, I make them up!)
So I was referring to your statement “putting 10 of the 11 COGS lines that are exclusively related to eBay, Etsy, Bonanza, my actual COGS is 92% of Gross Sales.” I was wondering what the other 10 or 11 COGS items you are referring to.
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LOL!
I can relate, due to my prior work. But I also notice that now that the books are the lesser part of the business (important, but lesser), I’m more for simple and as fast as possible. I love my numbers and analysis, but now I want them quick.
It is nice to be the Owner analyzing the numbers, not just the geek generating them…
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Items in Store 1001
Items Sold 15
Total Sales $482.69
COGS $61.00
Total Profit $421.69
Average profit $28.11
Average sales price $32.18Really late to post my numbers this week because we’ve had a stomach bug working its way through the house since last Friday. With 2 adults and 4 kids, we ran the gauntlet of bodily fluid horrors this week! We also had two water main breaks in our neighborhood during this stretch that shut our water down for hours along with a 24hr boil water advisory each time…ugh!!!
Having said all that, I did get some extra time to list. Occasionally I will do a trial run to benchmark my listing times. I timed myself listing a tub of clothing – a mix of jeans and shirts. This time includes everything except photos. I inspect, measure, weigh, research price, and fully complete the draft listing except for the photos. My average time over an hour of listing was 3.5 minutes per item. I was not able to benchmark my photo taking because the ebay app was bugging out pretty bad this week. Last time I benchmarked photos I was at 2-3 minutes from start to submitted listing, so I am right at 6 minutes per completed clothing listing.
I am part time with way too many responsibilities between work and family, so maximizing and optimizing my time spent on ebay is crucial. I try to group tasks together as much as possible so I can be efficient. I have 3 business day handling, so typically I’ll only ship every 2-3 days. This lets me make a single trip to storage (less time per item for picking from stock), and I can really get into a groove on packing and shipping to reduce my time per item (I’ve packed and shipped 15 pieces of clothes/shoes in 20 minutes before – the only thing that slowed me down was the ebay loading time after clicking “purchase label”).
I’m one of those folks who is balls to the wall, or flailing pointlessly – very hard for me to have a speed in the middle. I CANNOT listen to the podcast while listening and I definitely can’t watch TV.
Hope everyone is having a great week.
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Your listing time seems right in line with ours. When we are doing shirts and jeans, we are 3-4 minutes per listing. Photo and shipping prep (we fold each item and put in a clear poly with the SKU on it for easier storage and quick shipping) is about 4-5 (mostly due to the shipping prep time). Photo edit and submitting the listing is about 1 minute.
Agree on the batching to be efficient. That is our process now.
Oy…the days when I started…doing one item cradle to grave…took forever!
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So I know that we do the numbers counts on Sunday on this forum, but on my ebay calendar at my office where my store room is, I usually do the numbers on Friday. Last year I was doing about $700 a week pretty consistently. But the first part of this year I’ve only been doing about $500 a week. This past week was my best so far in 2018 at $1,411. Yay!
I feel like I’m going to learn so much here on the forums, and that I’m already learning so much more than just listening to the podcast and watching other random you tube videos. Thank you!
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Hi Katie,
I saw that you are from St. Petersburg. I don’t live there, but I vacation near there most every year. There are a few “thrift” places that I have been to in that area: The Wagon Wheel in Pinellas Park. It is a little junky, but sometimes you find something good. Keswick in Seminole – found some clothes there. Church by the Sea Thrift store in Madeira Beach – a little on the expensive side, but good items. Have you been to any of these? I also like to go to garage sales by the Gulf, I have found nice items there also. Any places you would recommend for my next trip?
My favorite pizza place there is Bones Pizza Shack in St. Petersburg with Cuban pizza. Not sure why I love it so much, but I do. Have you been there? It is basically a hole in the wall at 6708 Gulf Blvd. The sit down is a picnic table outside.
Mark
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Hey Mark!
Let me know next time you are in town & we’ll go thrifting together.
I have been to the Keswick Thrift in Seminole but haven’t gotten anything there. There is another place near there across the street that seems like a Jay and Ryan kind of place, it is chock full and completely disorganized. I’m sure there are lots of finds in there but the place makes me too claustrophobic and I feel like it probably full of black widow spiders.
I like the Kennedy Brothers estate sales. I also like the Goodwill Outlet early in the morning on weekdays. Sunshine Thrift is one of my favorite places to buy clothes and they have 1/2 off sales a couple times a month, they also have Tampa and Bradenton Stores. There’s a new place called Out of the Closet in South St. Pete where I’ve found tons of St. John clothing, like practically every time I go – I think they get shipments from Miami and California – I have no idea why – but they had a bunch of Burberry shirts last time I was in so they get a lot of high end stuff – the Burberry was priced up so I didn’t get it, but is worth a look. My aunt likes Bartholomew’s Church also in St. Pete on Friday Mornings which is their half off day. St. Vincents has $1 Wednesdays and I used to love it there but they reorganized the store and I just don’t like it anymore. I also go to several of the Goodwills, the stuff is priced up but I like shopping there and I find high end clothes. Salvation Army is half off on Wednesdays but I find less and less there, it seems like it used to be good but now not so much – or maybe I’ve just gotten pickier, I’m not sure.
I’m going to try the auction near Bay Pines that has an auction the first Friday night of each month, there’s an antique mall and that was super interesting to just walk through – I got a chance to get in there last week – and it felt educational, like “oh I didn’t know that was a thing people wanted” etc.
We live a few minutes from St. Pete Beach but I haven’t been to that restaurant, on the beach we get pizza from Michael & Vitos. Mmmmm, that’s making me hungry.
Other restaurants I love in St. Pete:
Alesia’s on Central Avenue – Vietnamese Food – it is amazing! My current favorite restaurant. $$
The Reading Room – also on Central – it is pricey but its farm to table and super delicious. $$$$
Neptune’s – in Gulfport – Greek Food – reasonable prices – so yummy. $
Pom Poms – on Central Ave – reasonable prices – sandwiches and soups with an asian flair -so yummy. $
Taco Sun – on 22nd Ave North near Home Depot – best tacos in St. Pete. $
Moon Under Water – downtown British Pub with lots of great curry dishes. $$
Red Mesa – higher end Mexican – and they have a super hot habenero sauce I love. $$$Now I’m really hungry.
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Katie,
Thanks for your response. I am hungry now too, but luckily my wife and I were already planning to go out to eat while the kids are at a sleep over.
My family is always looking for good places to eat down there, but it is hard to know since we are only there for about a week. We will have to try some of those restaurants. Do you know any good restaurants closer to Madeira Beach?
I will take you up on going thrifting together, it should be fun. We will be down there at the end of June \ 1st week of July. I can give you more specifics as it gets closer. Would be good to know the inside scoop on the area.
Mark S
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Mark – near Madiera Beach – Middlegrounds and Salt Rock. Both are date night restaurants that are on the pricier side of things.
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Katie,
I have been to Salt Rock and it is awesome. We watched the guys as they cooked the steak and they told us the whole process. They are serious about their steaks! They have an aging process (and I think a room for it) and they are very skilled at knowing exactly how long the meat needs to cook based on how you want it cooked. And of course the steak does taste amazing. It is pricey, but I think they earn it with their proven process and people.
I haven’t heard about Middlegrounds. I just looked it up, but I can’t tell what their specialty is. They have a fish on the building, so I assume seafood.
Mark S
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Yes – Middlegrounds is seafood. Our former receptionist’s family owns it. Our family friend, Mark Renda, did all the metal art in it – he scavenges old metal – like old ice makers or whatever – and then blow torches them into shapes of metal art. We have several of his pieces and he has done many restaurants around here. He even did some work for Disney. Here’s a link to his website: http://rendaart.com/Slide_Show.php
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I am catching up on my scavenger life podcast so I am a bit late tot he conversation. I laughed when Jay and Ryanne were discussing turning the store on and off, my husband and I joke about that all the time. If only there was a way to get in ebays good graces all the time! But as Ryanne and Jay say… just keep listing. Also, I hope you guys have fun in Nashville, we were there a few months ago for the WordPress conference. We tried to find some places to go thrifting but didn’t find much within the area were were staying. We did make it to the Antique Archeology store, it is Mike’s from American Pickers store. You should check it out.
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Week of February 12-18
Total items in store start of week: 264
Total items in store end of week: 260
Total sales: $105.95 (does not include shipping)
# items sold: 6
Weekly Sell Through Rate: 2.31%
Average Sales Price: $17.66
Returns: 0
Unpaid Items: 0
# items listed: 2This weeks totals were about average for me.I was a little disappointed in my ASP, but that happens from time to time. I was out of town for most of the week for my day job. This impacted my new listing goal. I will do better this week.
Next weeks total items in store goal: 270
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I’ve done a search here in the forum, and I don’t think this has been mentioned yet anywhere (and I know I’m a bit late to the game, but I’m a week behind on podcasts). But to the woman who mentioned she was having issues with people unable to buy multiple quantities of her items: the problem “could” be that it is Mary Kay.
Mary Kay regularly sues sellers on ebay for trademark infringement and unlawful selling of their products. It’s a bit like speeding: the odds of being caught unlikely, but it may not be worth the risk. Mary Kay is notorious about shutting down online sellers of their products (even consultants). It could be a coincidence, but I would not touch Mary Kay with a ten foot poll. Just be careful!
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Huh, why would Mary Kay care if you sell their products door to door or online?
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Their contracts with sales consultants prevent them from selling online. I think they believe that it will cheapen the brand. Therefore, they troll trying to intimidate online sellers that are NOT consultants that they can’t sell Mary Kay on eBay. They can’t back it up, but they try…
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In regards to Jay & Ryanne’s upcoming trip to Nashville, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack is not to be missed if you like fried chicken. Just be aware that it is no joke when they call it hot, the medium is pretty intense for those unaccustomed to spicy food. I can eat the hot, but it’s a challenge. I won’t even consider the extra hot. Just be aware that there can be a wait and it’s in what is considered the “bad” part of town. Though in the dozens of 2am trips I made there in my time living down there I never encountered any issues.
I consider it to be the best fried chicken on earth, and I think of myself as somewhat of an expert.
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T: It’s easily in my top 5 restaurants. I hate the term “foodie”, but there’s no doubt it describes me. Gracias Madre in San Francisco is number 1, it’s a vegan Mexican restaurant that makes the most unbelievable food I’ve ever had.
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I was just in Chicago and had Gino’s East Deep Dish Pizza.
That has to be on my top 5 or 10 list.
Mark
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Thanks y’all! I’m glad I’m consulting today and NOWHERE NEAR MY KITCHEN! Drooling for some Mexican now…Chuy’s here in Denver is our current favorite. We used to be big about 3 Margaritas, but they are getting pricey.
And growing up in New Mexico, I’m a Mexican Food Snob. It has to be a dish I can’t make myself, or if I can, it BETTER be better than mine (or Veronica’s)!
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