Scavenger Life Episode 352: Scavenging is The Alternative Early Retirement

I do monthly numbers for my own tracking, so here is what an average week looked like for me in Febrary. It felt really slow and there were a lot of returns, but a few high dollar items helped save the day to make $900 profit for the month (not including taxes). My current goal is to consistently make at least $1000 profit each month, but higher than that on average.

Total Items in Store: 370
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $33
Total Sales: $382
Highest Price Sold: $200 Scalamandre fabric
Average Price Sold: $54
Returns: 4
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $90 for 15 items
Number of items listed this week: 20

Did a lot of listing in Feb due to many days in a row with no sales. March is turning out to be great so far, already more than $1000 profit (before taxes) and there are still almost 2 weeks to go!

Thanks for turning me on to fabric, J&R!

My sales have been pretty slow, but I believe it always is in March, and if any of you see my sales videos, I am extremely part time and small time, so slow usually means like four sales. One sale I had was one of my lowest of all time, a Starbucks Bearista Bear from 2006 with tags. I watch tons of reselling videos because of the downtime at my full time job and when I’m listing and I saw these as a BOLO somewhere a while back. Yeah, not so much, paid $1, someone got it with free shipping for less than $7, so when it’s all said and done, I made like, a dollar profit, lolol. Oh, and I had it for probably a year. I take BOLOs with a grain of salt now, due to this and other mistakes I’ve made.

When I heard the person talking about moving, I immediately thought about a reselling YouTuber named Margaret (Texas Gal Treasures). Her and her family are moving from Houston to Austin and she is running deep sales on her larger stuff and just stuff she doesn’t feel like moving with her. Her jewelry is coming with her and I guess anything that doesn’t sell while she is getting ready to move. She has some recent vids out about it. I think this is what I would do, sell as much stuff as I could for cheap and bring the rest. Maybe it depends on how much you spent on those items.

Total Items in Store: 244
Items Sold: 1
Cost of Items Sold: $.50
Total Sales: $8.99
Highest Price Sold: $8.99 Curlers and Pins
Average Price Sold: $8.99
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: 0
Yes, that week-one sale. Last week I had 10 sales for $440. I could see this coming. My mom had a heart attack 2 weeks ago, and has been in and out of the hospital. When one of my family needs me, Ebay goes out the door. I did better listing in Feb, so that helped with the previous sales.
One fun thing with the curlers. I had a working Remington pageant style set. But the top was nasty translucent instead of clear plastic. Instead of trying to sell it for $10 maybe $15, I parted it into 2 lots of replacement curlers and pins. The first one sold for $9 in a few weeks. I’m sure the 2nd will go too.

Total Items in Store: 240
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $59.18
Total Sales: $490.43
Highest Price Sold: $76.95 (TLS 35mm SLR Camera)
Average Price Sold: $27.25
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150
Number of items listed this week: 65

Best week yet!

Have come to the conclusion that making it to 500 items in the store this month is probably not going to happen, but I’m going to keep pressing and try to get as close as I can.

I have a question for the board though, in your opinion is it better to list a large amount of items in one day or schedule them out so an even amount of items are listed each and every day? I ask because my system has been to work all of my inventory in batches and then go a two day listing binge where I will put up 40 or so listings in couple of days. Each time I do so I see an increase in sales, but it’s generally older inventory that starts selling faster, not just the new mass of inventory that I have added to the store. I know that correlation doesn’t prove causality, but it seems odd that it keeps happening this way. Just wondering what everybody else has noticed.

Morning all. Decent week for me, but I’ve not been scavenging or listing much! I hope to do better this week.

Sales: CAD$1035, 5 items, COGs=$36 –> item profit $825
Expenditures: $138 (includes returns)
After tax cashflow: $542
Hours: 8.5, $64/hr
Listed: 3 items, ~$920

Had one refund, which was a high end perfumed body wash new in box, that had exploded inside the box, I guess due to age. Ended up refunding the buyer everything. Kind of annoying, but it’s from a lot that has profited me quite a bit so… meh.
Notable sales: microscope power supply $21–>$275, Dallmeyer camera lens $0–>$500 (from a lot that’s already made me about $1500).
Scavenge of the week: medical height measuring rulers, 8 for $5 each. The nominal price on these on med supply websites is $400 each… I think that may be inflated but I suspect this will be a good buy. Expecting them to move SLOWLY though based on past experience.

I found some MCM furniture! 4 chairs designed by on Walter Nugent, apparently a semi-famous Canadian MCM designer. They are pretty beat up but they have cool lines, I’ll see what I can milk them for. They cost me $4 so I overcame my general reluctance to sell furniture. Wouldn’t have bought them if I hadn’t got me a good storage unit.

03/11/18 – 03/17/18

Items In Store: 2,258
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $60 (around)
Total Sales: $648
HIghest Price Sold: $75 (Large Fork and Spoon)

Average Price Sold: $36
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 150 (or there about)
Number of Items listed this week: 24

The sales felt slow again, but at the end of the week it was a good week. Like I say, Anytime i am close to $700 with my store at this point is a good week.

I am still doing well trying to get higher priced items. Just have to stay disciplined to ignore the under $30 items.

Had an amazing story about an item sold. Will share below.

Mark

Hey, thanks for the mention on the podcast. Just wanted to clarify why I let my 6 year old cut my hair: My daughter was born with strong opinions and a strong will and she is very persistent and independent, which I consider to be all good things. She started cutting her Barbie dolls’ hair as soon as she got them; she even had that giant Barbie head and cut it and then asked how long it would take for it to grow back. She would not stop asking and begging me to let her cut my hair starting when she was 4 so after a few years, I finally gave in. It was more about showing her that I trusted her than about frugality. Saving money was a bonus. Also, I have pretty straight forward hair – it is just long and gets trimmed at the ends, so it is basically just cutting a straight line.

P.S. She is 14 now and started her own Poshmark store recently.

This is the ultimatee “selling a memory story”. I bought 3 Michigan license plates all together right here in Michigan just recently. They were a 1957, 1959, and 1970. I chose to list them all together. Below is the edited (for grammar) message we got from the buyer after he received them.

“I am the original owner. That’s right I found the 1959 plate in a creek in ’71 near my grandmas house. The ’57 &’70 plates were my uncles and he gave them to me in ’71 I was in 6th grade. My older brother borrowed them in ’81 then sold them.

I haven’t seen these plate since 1981 – 36 years ago. I happen to recognize the ’70 numbers all of sudden it clicked. I could’nt believe it. It was like hitting the super lotto. These plates mean nothing to anyone except me.”

Mark

Week February 11-17, 2018

Total Items in Store: 932
Items Sold: 13
Cost of Items Sold: $127.30 (20.5% of sales)
Total Sales: $621.93
Highest Price Sold: $150 (Fred frameless glasses https://www.ebay.com/itm/202206091042)
Average Price Sold: $47.84
Returns: 0 (2 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $120
Number of items listed this week: 36
Promoted listings test: 7 sales, $284.96 (45.8% of total sales), $18.12 fees (6.4% of sales)

A week that “felt slow” only was because of the volume I was selling. Ended up within the range I shoot for each week in terms of dollars, so all good.

Re: R&J talking about best offers not getting paid for. That’s what’s on my 2 NPBs above, accepted offers not paid. And it should be an easy fix, it’s the way many of the app based selling resources do – I know Poshmark does it, they authorize your cc if you make and offer and then the money is charged only if the offer is accepted. There are so many genius programmers, someone has to be able to figure it out.

Another weekend of not going out to source, and got another 36 items listed. Next weekend we’ll be away, and then it’s Easter, but that following weekend excited to get back out there. Pending weather, could even be yard sales!

Total Items in Store: 439
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $69 + $10 free shipping
Total Sales: $415
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Needlepoint kit – paid $10 estate sale https://www.ebay.com/itm/332552008375)
Average Price Sold: $47
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $28 (a couple of thrift stops)
Number of items listed this week: 10

Ran a couple of auctions on things that didn’t sell for .99 cents last week. Just had one other item sell after they ended. Got another items in cart message for 5 used items, but unlike last week none of them sold this time after I reduced the price by 5%. 🙁 It felt very crikety this week so I’m glad I did my numbers – only half of the days had sales, they were grouped.

I finally finished listing the box that has been upstairs for a month. My daughter had her surgery so hopefully this week will be better for listing. Have a few new purchases to not add to the piles. Have a great week.

Hi all,
I’m still extremely small but growing rapidly. My store has 219 items in it as of right now. I made 19 sales last week and did 39 listings.
I think selling on eBay is much better than the usual early retirement plan most people go with!

Good Morning all, and great Podcast as usual humble hosts! After last weeks podcast, I finally get it! It is good to examine myself, be accountable somewhere, and post numbers since I do toss in my two cents now & then, and call in occasionally. It has been awhile since I’ve done either, but ALWAYS listening and enjoying. I’m seller totommyto on eBay & Oldfleatoymarket on Etsy.

eBay store:

Total items in store: 529
Number of items sold: 20
eBay sales (not including s/h): $1,430
Cost of items sold: $53
Consignment payouts: $434
Highest price sold (tie betw 2): $250 ‘Man from Uncle’ Action Figure
$250 1/18 scale diecast car
Average price sold: $72
Returns: 1
$ spent new inventory this week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0

Etsy store:

Total items in store: 432
Number of items sold: 8
Etsy sales (not including s/h): $200
Cost of items sold: $19
Highest price sold: $75 distressed aluminum toolbox
Average price sold: $25
Returns: 0
$ spent new inventory this week: 0
Number of items listed this week: 0

I have not scavenged at all really, at least I have not purchased anything this week. I am still processing through a mother lode of old toys purchased from a thrift shop early February. Although I have plenty to list, a real scavenge fix is itching, maybe tomorrow!

Take care, tom

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by totommyto.

Items in Store 955
Items Sold 19
Total Sales $497.00
COGS $62.00
Total Profit $435.00
Average profit $22.89
Average sales price $26.16

Week felt a lot crappier than it really was. If you told me I sold 19 things for $500 I would call you a liar if I didn’t do my weekly numbers to see it for myself.

Scavenging this week I went to a Goodwill that is a few miles down from the one I frequent. They dedicated two walls to selling “purchased goods” New in box shoes. The goodwills in this area buy pallets and then sell it in-store with high prices – typically 50% of retail. The don’t discriminate either – no checking items to see if they work, etc. They call these items “Purchased Goods” items and they do not ever discount them.

Anyways, I bought two pair of Timberland Pro boots For about $50 each that I should sell for $130-150 each. Items like this is why you can’t limit yourself to sticking to some 10x profit investment system. I paid $100 for two items which is a lot, BUT they should sell within a month and I’ll net $160+. I’ll get them listed this week and if they sell quick might buy a lot more to sell.

Week of Mar 11 – 17
* Total Items in Store: 1185
* Items Sold: 21
* Cost of Items Sold: $16.20 + $28.60 Commission
* Total Sales: $388.00
* Highest Price Sold: $35.80 Set of 8 cups & saucers Dansk Ivy Pattern
* Average Price Sold: $18.48
* Returns: 0 (1 cancel)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8
* Number of items listed this week: 24

OK week. No high value items sold.

Weird thing on the one cancellation – it was the same pair of shoes and reason as last week, but different user. The reason was that the wrong size was purchased. I checked my listing, and there is no confusion as to the size of the shoes. I wonder if it is the same person is trying to see if I will reduce the price when they don’t pay right away or if I might ship it out accidentally.

I’m still listening to the show as I post my numbers. Here they are:

Total Items in Store: 2215
Items Sold: 44
Total Sales: $867
Cost of Items Sold: $91
Average Price Sold: $19.7
Average Cost of Item: $2.09
Highest Price Item Sold: $29.95 Herzog Zwei : Sega Genesis game
Number of items listed this week: 69
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 309
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 198
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 68
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.99%
# of Hats Sold: 30 (68% of sales)

I dont have a lot of high $ items listed at the moment and everything I sold this week was fairly cheap but the volume made up for it. I’m happy with these numbers.

I have a plan to retire (from full-time work) in just over 2 years. I have a count down on my computer. When I start my browser at work it tells me how many days I have left till my target retirement date (mid 2020). I’ll be retiring at 55 if actually retire on that date. I’ve logged into the SSA website to check my retirement benefits. I’m not really clear if I would get those same benefits if I stop working early or whether they are assuming that I will continue working at my current salary up to my retirement date. (I dont actually plan to draw social security benefits till I’m in my 60s).

March 11-17
Total Items in Store: 1435
Items Sold: 26
Total Sales : $1,178
above yearly average of $662
above 2017 total week sales of $918
Highest Price: $140 (Heavy Duty Hollands 13 1/2 H 33lb Iron Bench Vise)
Average Price: $45
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $178
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 52

It’s been a great week of sales here on my end! Nothing crazy high dollar, but I kept selling above average priced items, and they add up quick. I tell you, I’ve been feeling pretty glum these past few weeks with the amount I was able to sell. eBay even sent me a survey and one of the questions was why do you think you’re not selling as much as you did last year? I don’t know, eBay, you tell me! But I’m glad that the bigger picture shows a more positive outlook. It’s easy to look at our weekly numbers and feel the roughness of “soft” weeks. My monthly numbers are always more to my liking.

I had a comment about a question your caller asked about a package being returned undelivered with no contact from the buyer. The same thing happened to me back in January. While I was tempted to pretend like nothing happened and relist the item, I eventually sent the buyer a friendly message asking what the deal was. He was very nice about it, telling me he forgot to update his new address on eBay and just forgot that he ordered the mugs. So I created a new custom listing for him for the amount that it would cost to ship and he paid to have them reshipped. While I probably could have just had him send me the money through PayPal only, I wasn’t sure if that would violate some rule on eBay. So while I lost a few cents from eBay fees, at least I felt better knowing I left a trail and he won’t do a charge back for items not received.

I got my first neutral feedback this week. While I know it doesn’t matter much because it doesn’t affect my feedback score, it still bugs me because what the lady said was totally false. She said I should have shown picture of the inside of this cake pan. But I clearly had four different pictures of the inside. Is it worth trying to get a neutral removed? Here’s the item in question: https://www.ebay.com/itm/302441950218

Unfortunately I’m in the same boat with an unpaid best offer. I listed a vintage jacket and I got an offer overnight for $450 from what appears to be a well-known designer/vintage collector. It’s unpaid! I’ve filed a NPB and it’s still unpaid, so my guess is that this person isn’t going to pay. S/he has over 6000 feedbacks too. Figures.

Thanks for all the kindness last week everyone!
This week was better…still not great (still very low prices), but much much better.

Total Items in Store: 661
Items Sold: 29
Cost of Items Sold: $17.75
Total Sales: $356.60
Highest Price Sold: $44.80 (lot of cloth diapers)
Average Price Sold: $12.30 (ugh!!!)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 60

It’s such a balancing act…so tempting to take these rock bottom offers when times are so “soft”. Lol.
Hubby keeps reminding me that if I get something for 10 cents and sell it for 10 dollars it’s nothing to be ashamed of…

Store Week 3/11/18 – 3/17/18

Total items in store: 1604
Items sold: 16
Cost of items sold: $38.69
Total sales: $620.90
Highest price sold: $210.00 (Vintage Letterman Sweater)
Average price sold: $38.81
Returns: 1
Money spent on new inventory this week: 0

This was a pretty slow week, but thankfully one big sale made quite a difference. I had another $100 sale that was cancelled due to the price of international shipping, but I have a feeling I can sell the shoes for even more, so no biggie.

We are leaving for Disneyland on Saturday (hooray!), so I’m expecting to spend a ton with not a lot of opportunities to get “deals” other than bringing our own food. I’m excited, but it’s kind of stressing this scavenger out! Haha! I’m hoping for some great sales while I’m away. I’m gonna need it!

Mar 11-17 2018

• Total Items in Store: 814
• Items Sold: 18 (17 ebay 1 Bonanza)
• International 3 GSP
• Total Sales $1496
• Highest Price $800 Speakers
• Average Price Sold: $83
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $210
• Cost of items purchased this week $65

I’m someone who feels like I’ve retired early. Some friends have told me they would like to do what I do in their retired years.
I usually work for 3-4 hours in the morning and take it easy the rest of the day. Although I’m always staying alert looking for home run deals via CL & FB, ready to go anytime I need to.
I try not to beat myself up over how much or little I’ve listed or how slow sales are at the moment, kinda takes the fun out of this unique venture.
Find cool weird stuff cheap and average over $50 a sale, all is well.

Average week, I suppose – definitely lower #s than last week’s with that crazy pur$e!

03/11/18 – 03/17/18
Total Items In Store: 805
Items Sold: 23
Total Sales: $765.84
Cost of Items Sold: $39.13
Highest Price Sold: $100 – 10 Pack TDK SA C90 Cassette Tapes (going to Germany)
Average Price Sold: $33.29
Returns/Refunds: 1 pending return – a guy claims a Moleskine I sold him is not authentic, and wants a return with refund including shipping. I sent him the link to the item in the Moleskine store, and need to call eBay for help on the shipping side of things.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $54.13
Number of Items listed this week: 48

Scavenge of the week? Meh. I got some blank Maxell cassette tapes, but I’m really interested in what a vintage letterman-style cardigan might do. Whenever I get it listed…. I’m taking some (relative) breaks from active scavenging, to death with my death pile aka office floor.

My numbers for the week of 3/11/18:
Total Items in Store: 143
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $43
Total Sales: $521 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $148.50 (vintage softball mitt)
Average Price Sold: $30.64
Returns: 0

Ebay recently (as in the past week or two) has been updating their Help Pages. I think it’s a good idea for everyone to read through them. There are some tweaks that it’s our job as sellers to be aware of.
1. I’m glad the error regarding refunding Original Shipping on remorse returns was corrected quickly. I’m still pretty dissatisfied that paragraph 2 & 3 remain. Help & Contact (Return an item for a refund>You changed your mind about an item>Here’s how the seller may respond) now states:

Issue a full refund and let you keep the item – This typically happens with low-cost items where the return shipping would cost more than the item.
Offer you a partial refund and let you keep the item – This can be a good compromise when the seller doesn’t accept returns, but wants to offer you a gesture of goodwill – say if you ordered the wrong thing by accident.

While absolutely true that a seller may offer this resolution, I don’t at all like that it is stated in the policy. It sets an expectation. Kind of a “you teach people how to treat you” thing. I don’t think it should be stated that this is a reasonable outcome…for a buyer to keep the item and get $ back. It should be the sole discretion of the seller to do so.

2. Also worth noting, I have heard debates in the past about an changing address at buyer’s request. As long as the postage is the same, I do it without incident. Some are adamant that you shouldn’t for fear of losing Seller Protections. The eBay Help Pages now state: Make sure your shipping address is correct – If the shipping address you provided to the seller is incorrect, select Contact the seller and ask them to send the item to your new address. If they haven’t shipped your item already, they’ll be able to send it to the correct address.

Week of 3/11-3/17
Total Items in Store: 1,920 (Up 33% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 27
Number of Items Sold: 61 (Down 19% YOY)
(Includes 4 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 1 Amazon)
Weekly STR: 14% (Down 9% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $1,773 (Up 24% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $363
Highest Item Sold: $150 – Original Microsoft XBox Console Lot
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Troy leads the year at 6-5.

eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,173
# Sold: 36
STR: 13%
ASP: $21.64

eBay Shoes
# Listed: 120
# Sold: 5
STR: 18%
ASP: $31.96

eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 627
# Sold: 16
STR: 11%
ASP: $39.17

Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 149
# Sold: 4
STR: 12%
ASP: $51.89

Focus for last week (and early this week) has been on getting our first employee hired. We had a great phone interview on Friday, but he decided on another path last night before we could meet in person. Had one phone interview this morning, and hope to have another later tonight.

Week of 3/11-3/17
Total Items in Store: 703
Number of Items Listed: 28
Number of Items Sold: 26 (25 ebay, 1 FBM)
Total Product Sales:$559.85
Cost of Items Sold: $76
Highest Item Sold: $78 vintage Pierre Cardin suede trench with LOTS of stains, going to Italy. Bought for $6 at Florida thrift store.

What an apt podcast! I am sitting in a “retirement seminar” this week, 5 days of required attendance from 8 am to 5 pm. I am due to retire from the DoD this July. Tonight my homework is to do a comparison of my current job skills to future jobs in the civilian sector. I am an attorney now – I want to sell on ebay in my pajamas. That didn’t go well, and apparently to be given my class completion certificate, I have to write in a “real job” according to the instructor (who is all of 28 bless her heart). So I will do “retail sales”; they don’t have any options for online sales. It’s very antiquated. Interestingly enough my personality test said I should be a facial reconstruction surgeon or an acupuncturist. So I am all over the place. I like ebay – I can have lots of interest and have adventures, be it sticking needles in people or sitting in pajamas and listing old shoes. BTW, I have no medical education! I guess I can have that luxury of choosing to be my own boss because we have lived frugally for so long and KNOW our budget and plans. So my retirement pay + expected ebay income will be nearly the same as my current paycheck. One of my other homework assignments this week to create a 5 year budget so I will have real numbers on that prediction of a similar income. It’s kind of a pain in the ass, but I do appreciate the DoD making its service-members do this before they get out. We mostly get everything handed to us during active service – housing, food allowance, and steady paychecks. Many of the folks never learn to manage their own lives’ logistics. However, in exchange for this you can lose your life of course…

It was a “down” week for me. I had 2 unpaid items, but anytime I am $500 or over, I’m happy. So looking forward to retirement!

My favorite Podcast ever! I love to do several different businesses as well. I have a small cleaning business, sell on Ebay, my store hovers around 1000 listings, work at a job I love 12 hours 3 days per week. Work schedule is Tues, Sat and Sunday 10:30 am-10:30 pm work 36 hours get paid for 40. Its not for everyone but with 4 days off per week I have more than enough time to enjoy life and pursue all my ideas. My mother in law and I want to buy a food truck or cart within the next 3 years and set up at our huge flea market and sell Mexican food, tacos, gorditas, etc. If that day happens I will be sure to let Jay know. My husband and I also are looking into buying a lake house to run as an AirBNB. Life is full and there are more fun ideas to pursue than we can manage. Its a good problem.

Week of 3/12/18 – 3/18/18
Total Items in Stores: 861 + 502 + 220 + 1057 = 2,640
Items Sold: 21 + 14 + 4 + 3 = 42
Total Sales: $488 + 247 + 54 + 76 = $865
Highest Sold: $44 Lilly Pulitzer skirt
Average Price $20.60
Money Spent $60
Listed 24 items

This week felt slow to me. It also felt discouraging since I had what felt like a million, but turned out to be 5 or 6 return cases including a couple where the buyer said item was not as described when the items were as described – like they said this is not a skirt, when it was actually a skirt. Bleh. I didn’t get a lot listed because I’m working on getting our house ready to sell and am moving lots of stuff around. I’m going to take a few weeks off from buying since I have discovered lots of things around the house to sell and also have some death piles to work on. Feeling kind of worried about the free returns thing, I think people who sell clothing are going to find this to be super hard; and while I’m trying to get away from clothing, it is still a majority of what I sell right now. I’m going to try to get lots listed this week and maybe things will look better next week.

RR Store Week March 11-17, 2018

Total Items in Store: 1507
Items Sold: 32
Cost of Items Sold: $28.33
Total Sales: $456.02
Highest Price Sold: $40 (vintage Hang Ten shirt)
Average Price Sold: $14.25
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30
Number of items listed this week: 52

Rough week. In addition to very soft, downright fluffy sales, I made a total rookie move at an estate sale. Among other things, I bought a stack of about twenty 45 records. While loading my haul into my car, I put the records on the roof. I finished loading and drove off…with the records still on the roof. I didn’t realize what I’d done until I was about a mile away. I went back for them, but someone must have scooped them up in the THREE minutes I was gone. I was furious with myself. There were some great records in there, some potentially worth quite a few bucks. Sucks big time, but there’s one thing I can take away from the experience: I will NEVER make that mistake again. First and last time.

Paul

I forgot to include my own scavenge of the week:
6 very full garbage bags of packing peanuts – FREE!
As a bonus, these seem to be the eco-friendly decomposable kind! Which unfortunately means they’re not as sturdy as the traditional styrofoam peanuts, but that is an okay tradeoff for me.

Found those on facebook marketplace. May turn into a regular deal. yay!

Well, I had a hard week…that is opposite of soft! I had great sales for me. I have been steadily listing and it’s paying off. My initial goal was 1 sale a day and to grow it from there. This week, I sold 22 items. That is an average of just over 3 items per day! Wooot! Woot! I’m super excited by this. One of the changes that I made, based on some of the advice from this forum, was from the other MN seller, I can’t recall his name, but they are in southern MN. I ran 24-hour sales ranging from 15 – 20% off. My sale tagline is something like “get it now before it’s gone” or some such urgent non-sense! I also removed the “up to” since I included every item in the inventory in the sale. I also added promoted listings with a high budget. I only had 2 of the sales actually come from the promoted listings aspect, though I have no idea how that actually works. Here are my numbers for the week of 3/10-3/17:

number of items in my store (oops, that’s as of this moment, not Saturday night): 972
number of items listed: 107 (about 1/3 were from death piles)
amount of dollar value listed: $3268
total number of sales: 22
Total Net Sales after eBay Final Value Fees & Marketing Fees: $575.23 (no marketing fees this week)
Average Sale price: $31.11
Total COG: $27.14
Highest Priced Item Sold: $192 for my personal Fordam jeweler’s rotary tool (I paid about $100 more than that to purchase it), $80 King Kong VHS – this one I’m kind of proud of picking and pricing because I got it at the goodwill bins and then priced really high, it all paid off: https://www.ebay.com/itm/273099774735
I have been adding a few things to esty, and I am not sure I even bothered adding the sales from that endeavor here in my numbers. Oops! I did have a set of books sell from Etsy about 2 weeks ago. I sold an encyclopedia set for $155. It had 2 views and one sale. I only have about 22 items on Etsy, but I’ve sold like 4 things. I love that there is no haggling over price too. In fact, I took the best offer feature off of my listings under $50. I find it irritating. Besides, I’m running those sales anyway. Overall, really felt like a great week for me.

Week of 4/11/18 – 4/17/18

Total items in store: 125(ish)
Items sold: 19
Cost of items sold: $23.04(ish)
Total Sales: $253.55 🙁
Highest price sold: Tie – $40.00 for 2 buttons: sold 2 sets of 2 buttons to the same buyer for $84.00 with shipping.
Average price sold: $13.34 🙁
Returns: 1 request for Item not as described, which I got the buyer to close after several messages back and forth. Item was new in package, a sewing machine part. Buyer received it, then looked at the same part on eBay for a completely different machine model and thought I was trying to pull a fast one apparently. Sigh.
$ Spent on new inventory: $36.00
# of items listed this week: 30(ish)

Sales are soft for me now after over 30 days of sales every single day. Sales every day was amazing for me with my super small store. Interestingly, sales died when I had multiple messages from the buyers of the items I mixed up and sent to the wrong customers. They were just many messages like “Thank you” which required no reply on my part. But maybe there is something to that “eBay wants you to reply to buyer messages quickly” as it seemed really odd that my sales died at the exact same time I had unanswered multiple messages after more than 30 days of sales everyday. Or maybe I’ve just boarded the Conspiracy Theory Train – LOL!

Jay, to your earlier question about COG for my tool, I don’t ever count a cost for my personal items I donate. I say that because in the past, I would have either donated them to a thrift shop or given the item away to someone I know. So, to me, I’m donating to my own self now. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s how I view it, plus I bought the tool about 3 years ago now (even though I barely used it).

I believe you said you listed that annoying chalkware because you feel you must sell every last thing… and you don’t like to donate or throw away things you have bought for resale.

Do you worry that that you aren’t using your time efficiently when you list low-value, high-hassle items, even if you already own them as part of a box lot. That maybe you could make more profit if you spent that time listing higher-value items, and just donating the low-value stuff?

Sometime it might be interesting to hear you discuss:
1. What are your rules and guidelines for what you won’t buy?
2. What are the guidelines for deciding if an item isn’t worth listing, even if you already own it from a box lot.

I guess this topic interests me because I have a lot of death piles! And there is only me to work on them. I have to be ruthless.

I finally listened to the podcast, and I really enjoyed your conversation about how everyone’s path and priorities are so different. A family friend of ours a few years back quit his job, cashed out his retirement, and sold his house. He spent his winters in Mexico just living life and his summers going to concerts and doing basically whatever he wanted while working just enough for another few months in Mexico. Two months ago he died in Mexico, quite unexpectedly from a heart attack the day after his 53rd birthday. Many people thought he was crazy to just give it all up and leave the country, but as it turns out, it was the exact right decision for him because (although he didn’t know it) his time was limited. He was an amazing person who lived his life on his own terms, and his death has already changes the lives/life decisions of many around him. It definitely made me even more appreciative of the freedom that I’ve found with eBay. Life is too short to work every day at a job that’s bringing you down.

Thank you for sharing this story!

Ryanne, was it this podcast that you mentioned the vacuum cleaner? (I was listening to old podcasts and lost track of which one you mentioned the vacuum) I would love to know what you got. Vacuuming with a crappy vacuum is the WORST! I always dream of having the perfect vacuum.

We’ve had a couple Dyson vacuums – the good thing is that when they start to wear out or you just want a new model, you can sell the parts off the old one and make more money then the new one costs. If you buy one with a big accessory package, you can sell the accessories you don’t want and people will pay good money for new/unused parts.

We’re on our third that we’ve had for a couple years now…debating parting it out now for the newest version…maybe one with a bunch of attachments we don’t need that can sell…

Thanks Ryanne! And Inglewood, that’s brilliant! Now I have to sell my husband on this new vacuum idea… (c:

Has anyone replaced the battery on their cordless Dyson? I found our cordless Dyson sitting on top of a dumpster at move out time at the local college a few years ago. The battery has worked great all along, but now it only holds a charge for about 3 minutes. When I looked at replacing it, Dyson doesn’t sell the batteries directly. The website says you have to go to some sort of official installer, which I’m sure isn’t cheap. The alternative (buying off of Ebay or Amazon) scares my hubby because it’s lithium ion and he doesn’t want a possibly sketchy battery. Just wondering if anyone has found a safe, inexpensive replacement battery…

The OEM batteries require use of an official installer from what the website is telling me. I’m going to try to find one on Ebay again. The last time, my husband objected to all of the ones I found on safety concerns (coming from overseas, the type of battery, etc.)

We bought a Dyson many years ago at Bed Bath and Beyond. Over the years, the vacuum stopped working about 2-3 times. Each time my wife just took it back to Bed Bath and Beyond and they gave her a new one, no questions asked! Not sure how they even knew that we bought the Dyson at there store.

Mark

I too do not splurge on myself but like the two of you I bought an iRobot vacuum last year. I simply love it. Like you said I actually vacuum more often now then I did before. It was the best $300 I’ve spent. Thanks for all of the great advice. Dave from Phx.

@Ryanne – I was surprised to hear that ebay hasn’t been sending you confirmation emails when you list. Except for a couple days about 2 years ago I always get an email. Why, oh why, is ebay so glitchy?

Sales have been softly slow here too. Good thing we don’t depend on ebay alone. We both work full time. I don’t absolutely hate my job since I enjoy the actual work, but there are always one or two people that I don’t have good chemistry with. I just love how the money appears in our checking account so it would be hard to give that up! The house is paid for so every month we can add a big chunk to savings. Our big project this year is fixing up that old Airstream and getting it up on Airbnb. Once that takes off (IF it takes off) I’ll probably have to quit my job. We are planning on spending a lot of money to get it going though…. to make it a nice vacation spot. There is a nice view already, so we will have to invest in a driveway, slab/patio, septic system, covered picnic table area (metal), outdoor shower, fire ring, etc…

We’ve been playing with the ssn.gov estimated retirement $ calculator for quite a while. I think the older you get the more you play with it. 🙂 Ha, not a double entendre.

Now here’s an interesting guy—he seems to do most of his scavenging ON ebay, but he would fit right in on Scavenger Life:

https://gizmodo.com/the-man-who-built-his-house-out-of-stuff-he-bought-on-e-1823833307

I have a lot of hair, curly, and I cut it myself. My husband has almost no hair and I cut his. I have not spent money on hair cuts for a very very very long time. Not since, like Ryanne, I had someone totally botch my hair.

Hey all, been lurking here and have learned a lot from both the podcasts and forums and appreciate what you guys share.

Started flipping in early December and thought I would share my numbers:

My numbers for the week of 3/11/18:
Total Items in Store: 267
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $132.78
Total Sales: $843.70
Highest Price Sold: $109.29 (allen edmonds shoes)
Average Price Sold: $42.19
Returns: 1 ($27 router)

Sold about $350 dollars of stuff on amazon + offerup as well, but haven’t broken out the costs on those.

It’s really cool to see how everyone else is running their business and how people can end up with similar results as far as money with very different strategies.

Mine seems to diverge in several ways from many on here. Notably, the overwhelming majority of my inventory is thrifted (often from the much maligned Goodwill retail stores), I rarely enable ‘best offer’, I do free shipping on everything that goes first class or flat rate, and my store size seems much smaller than most of you, but with a much higher COGs, sell through rate, and ASP.

The last point is by necessity as I live in a 1 bedroom apartment in a high COL area. I’m very jealous of you guys who have seemingly unlimited space to just list and forget.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by mdm123.

Personally, I have a Shark Vacuum…and I’d never go back to anything else. Love it.

The mention of a Roomba reminds me of a story that had me laughing till I cried. I’ll see if I can find it. Yep, here it is. I never actually read the whole thing…I can’t get past “the horror…”

https://www.facebook.com/jsichavez5/posts/10209685269029470

Life has been crazy busy so I didn’t post my numbers last week, but figured I’d get them done this week. (I track obsessively, but just didn’t take the time to post…) Anyway, here it goes.’

For week 11
– Total Items in Store at beginning of week: 697
– Total Items listed: 72 (slow week – our goal is 100)
– Total Items Sold: 34 (best week ever)
– Average Sales Price: $35.47
– Sales $1,205.84 (this includes 2 oxygen concentrators sold on a local classifieds site)
– Total COGS: $148.25 (12.20% – our goal is to stay under 15%)
No Returns (yay!)
1 UPI
We sold some really fun items this week.
– A Flowbee for $59.95 (picked up for 2.00)
– A Jimmy Buffett book (A Pirate Looks at 50) signed by Bill Hackett and Jimmy himself. Sold for $55, bought for $1.00.
– Some Goodwill RedWings sold for $51
– My husband parted out a dryer he found on the side of the road and sold the Control Board for $50.
– 2 oxygen concentrators (One sold for $300 and one for $175, bought for $15 each at an estate sale)

Because we are new, I’ve had our listings run for just 30 days. Then, when they expire I go take a look at them to do a little grooming on pictures, keywords, descriptions, etc. We are definitely better at listing now and it has helped to re-evaluate them as they expire. I think we will go through that cycle for another month and then, as they expire, relist them as Good Till Canceled.

All in all, I feel good about how things are going for just being a couple of months into it and this podcast, YouTube and this forum have been so helpful in setting us up for success! Thank you!

Malinda

bit late to the conversation, but…

i really can’t imagine my life if i had had a job in it for the past several years. i believe the creative output i would have done would have been much less, and of much lower quality if i had squeezed it in on weekends, or hours before and after work. plus, i also had my salary capped in the low 30s and realistically would never have gone too much higher over the course of my working career. it was pretty much a “well, there’s nothing left to lose” feeling about quitting a realistically crappy job. i could’ve gotten my job back if i wanted to, even, so it really wasn’t that much of a risk to just quit. maybe if i had had a really good salary, i would have stayed. but, as it was, i was paying my bills and buying clothes to work at my job, and not really saving anything or feeling like i was accomplishing much.

i absolutely hated working a desk job. i hated the fluorescent lights hanging overhead, and the accounting for every single minute you were away from your desk. i find those environments so unhealthy – even though i had a gym membership as part of the job, i still gained weight no matter how often i went there. it took a few years to shed the office weight gain. ugh. i couldn’t ride my bike to work because it was in some far-off office park outside of the city. when i did ride my bike, i had to take a bus, and i would get anxiety over the bus rack filling up with too many racks. this happened sometimes, and i got stuck waiting for a bus home sometimes up to 2 hours after getting off work. all this so i could feel healthy and get some fresh air outside of that environment.

at least with selling online, you can work when you want. you are your own boss, so your time away from your desk is only accountable to you. you can lift objects and feel the physicality of them, not just sit at a desk and look at some abstract numbers that don’t amount to anything outside of the company you work for.

it might also be a millennial thing. it’s sort of horrific to think of sitting at the same job for 30+ years to just get to the point of doing exactly what i am doing now. there’s no job security anywhere. companies just let people go for no reason, and it’s just what is expected now. my feelings would also be different if i was in a f/t job only a few years away from retirement, or had kids and a mortgage and other responsibilities. i totally get why people do what they do. i just don’t.

I think the only time companies have ever been loyal to employees is that small time frame right after WWII when there was a huge demand for manufactured goods and a relatively small labor force. Companies were loyal because it was prudent to be so – laws of supply and demand.
Now, and before, there were more people than work. Companies don’t have to be loyal since there is always another person to take that spot. Unless… you have a very highly in demand skill – there are few people with that skill and so supply/demand works in their favor. Those people are treated very well and given all the perks.
I think we fool ourselves in thinking company loyalty was the norm rather than an anomaly.