Scavenger Life Episode 381: All Caught Up

This topic has 94 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 6 months ago by Inglewood.

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- 10/15/2018 at 8:01 am #50135
  Ryanne
  Keymaster
  Location: Virginia
  @ryanne
  We’re all caught up, no death piles to list. Looks like we need to get scavenging again once we get home from our video work trip. Ebay is again all
  [See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 381: All Caught Up]
- 10/15/2018 at 8:30 am #50137
  Marie in Florida
  Participant
  Location:
  @marie-in-florida
  Early bird for once. Oops, that means I can’t cut and paste someone else’s info.
  Total Listings 420-MOST ever listed
  Total Sales 3
  Total Gross $79
  I’m totally not thrilled about this 4th quarter week
  Highest item St John’s pants for $38. Little on the low side for these, but I’ve had them up for 3 years and yes I needed that sale
  Returns 1 started with INAD because they thought the bill of the cap wasn’t wide enough. For what? I think it’s buyer’s remorse. They haven’t sent it back yet and I will be calling as soon as their return time is up
  Listing Challenge ALL your death piles? Amazing and jealous. My death piles are still brimming. And full of stupid $10 $15 maybe $20 items. My challenge is to stay interested. I’m throwing anything that’s at all questionable. Bundling anything that works together. What else can I do to list this stuff quickly.
- 10/15/2018 at 8:39 am #50138
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  Items in Store 2467
  Items Sold 23
  Total Sales $848
  Hightest Price: $1000 Vintage WWII uniform)
  COGS $80
  Average sales price $36.87
  Items listed: 34
  
  Like Michigan football, I had all cylinders firing this week. Good sales, good listing, and some of the best picks I have ever had!
  
  I went to a family estate sale and picked up 11 items that were antique sports items from the 1930’s – 1950’s. Absolutely amazing items that I will list for an average of $225 each. That is one way to get those $100+ items. I don’t think I have been this excited about items i have bought as I am with these. I will post more later.
  
  From Thursday – Saturday I bought nearly $4000 worth of inventory for about $425. Just amazing items.
  
  Mark S
- 10/15/2018 at 8:40 am #50139
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  My mistake, that should hsve been $100 for the WWII uniform.
  
  Mark S
  - 10/15/2018 at 10:16 am #50152
    MDC Galleries & Fine Art
    Participant
    
    Location: Atlanta
    @huncrelan
    I was just typing a reply.. Congratulations on the Uniform and going to inform you that 2+2=4 not 5 LOL.. :-). Have you had your coffee this morning? 🙂
    
    Great grab on those higher end items. we went to an huge estate sale yesterday. It was last day and there were hundreds of cars. we had to walk blocks to just get to the front door. Lines of people filing in and lines waiting at 4 cashiers to check out. Uniformed police officers on each of the 3 floors and atleast a dozen or more of floor walkers. No bags, purses allowed inside, had to be checked. all items had to be hand carried out and placed on holding shelves. Everything was priced sky high. So even at 50% off and no extra negotiations by the way, the half off price was almost the retail selling price. Very unusal and nice eclectic items but a small folded Fenton vase that sells all day long for the $40 range was priced at $95. Most items, and there were thousands all over the place, and for being the third day, we think they were bringing in items to re-stock each day, were in the hundreds of dollars each.
    
    Susan had a few small items, but after what I was telling her what we would have to list them for, she just got frustrated and put her box down and said let’s go.
    
    We then hit one more sale down the road and it was the same thing. A whole house full to the brim on 3 floors. The lady said she owned the house. But I think what we have figured out, is some of these people actually buy these high end homes, them “BUY” a lot of the merchandise or import some, then use the actual house they pay a mortgage on as their showroom and run perma-estate sales out of them.
    
    There was no way the lady in the last home was living there. All of the bedrooms were full, the bed and floors covered and all the walls, even up to the ceiling and everything had a price tag on it.
    
    So, we never thought of this, but maybe rents in the strip malls or commercial rents anywhere are super high and some require a 5 year lease, that maybe buying a home, or renting a home for 6 months, then just move in stuff, set it up as a display space, and run estate sales out of it. Then go rent another home, and move the sale there for another six months.
    
    We don’t know, but something, we think is fishy is going on. There is a law now about a company having a prepetual ‘going out of business” sale running, but maybe this is a way to get around that, and just have a perpetual “Estate Sale” running. Maybe they then buy complete estate sales else where and just keep loading it into the owned home or rented home until, slap full, then run a sale followed by an auction, then close up and move on.
    
    Any thoughts from others on this experience?
    
    Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
    - 10/16/2018 at 8:42 am #50235
      Doublythumbs
      Participant
      
      Location: Hopedale, OH
      @doublythumbs
      
      Hey Mike. I think I recall someone else on the forum many months ago come to the same conclusion. This might be a trend that we’ll start seeing with estate sales. I haven’t encountered anything like that yet, but it helps to learn the signs right off the bat so we don’t waste our time. Maybe remember the faces of the people running it. Or the advertising they use.
      But I know how annoying it is to go to a sale where everything is priced outrageously. Just two weeks ago, I went to an estate sale ran by a woman whose father passed away. She literally looked up everything and priced according to how it was priced on eBay. I tried to buy a chess set that wasn’t marked hoping to snag it for less than $5. She said $100 but I can do $75. NAH.
- 10/15/2018 at 9:12 am #50140
  simplicio
  Participant
  Location:
  @simplicio
  Solid week! Seems like holiday sales regime is in effect now.
  
  Sales: CAD$2245, 11 items. COGS: $283 –> Item profit: $1609
  Expenditures: $105 (rent on storage unit only, no scavenging) –> Cashflow after-tax: $1368
  Hours: 9, $153/hr
  Listed: $1065, 24 items
  Notable sales: pipette beveller $110–>$1115, lab data collector $5–>$350. Several low-dollar but big items that I’m thrilled to get rid of. Couple of international sales this week, to China and Taiwan.
  I only have about 3 listings left to do from my big auction haul. Then, I’ll be looking for stuff again.
  
  Re cancellations. I believe based on what people say that 90% of my cancellations come when a buyer buys based on the sticker price, then is surprised how high calculated shipping is. Theoretically they should notice this before finalizing the purchase, but I think they must assume the real shipping cost is just a placeholder until ebay auto-invoices them.
  
  On high dollar items. One further note I would put on this discussion is that going for high dollar stuff changes where your time gets spent. Your time shifts from listing and shipping towards scavenging. Since I enjoy scavenging much more than the other stuff, I kind of like this ratio. I like to spend about 3 hours scavenging for every hour listing & shipping.
  - 10/15/2018 at 9:18 am #50141
    simplicio
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @simplicio
    The app updated again, and is even more of a ridiculous chimera than before. It’s cycling through 3 different “looks” on the listing page semi-randomly. Sometimes I can see drafts, usually not.
    
    I’ve developed a process where I start the listing and insert the photos on mobile, then complete on my laptop. It works kinda sorta ok, but man…
    - 10/15/2018 at 9:53 am #50147
      totommyto
      Participant
      
      Location: Naples, Fl
      @totommyto
      
      Simplicio,
      My process as well, couple of new speed bumps, honestly it just causes me to pay more attention while listing, not really a slow down
      - 10/15/2018 at 10:02 am #50149
        
        simplicio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @simplicio
        
        To me the biggest impact is I can no longer do an entire listing on the app. Because I have a fair amount of downtime with my phone, it was nice to be able to churn through a listing or two on a lunch hour or whatever. Now, it’s very difficult to do that.
        
        Not the end of the world but it’d be nice to fix it.
        
        10/15/2018 at 10:27 am #50154
        
        totommyto
        Participant
        
        Location: Naples, Fl
        @totommyto
        
        Ah, yes, that would be an adjustment. I never ran an entire listing through phone only, just once to see if I could.
  - 10/15/2018 at 11:58 am #50167
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    I know you buy and sell a lot of industrial equipment. If the items are used, how do you test to make sure it all works? I assume that people paying $1000 for scientific equipment would have a pretty high standard for its condition.
    - 10/15/2018 at 2:53 pm #50191
      simplicio
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @simplicio
      
      Jay, re: testing. Good question. I have a whole sorta philosophy of testing.
      
      First, I always do my best to test without spending any money. E.g., I have a multimeter, and a DC power supply. That often suffices to check basic stuff. At a minimum you can plug it in and see what happens. Some stuff has a self-test that will identify problems merely from plugging in.
      
      Often, I cannot fully test equipment, however. Then, what I do depends on a few factors:
      
      -In the context I bought it, would I expect it to be OK? E.g., if it was out on the floor of a business, chances are it was being used. Typically the auction houses identify stuff that the consignee knows is broken.
      
      -Is it light & cheap to ship, or heavy & expensive?
      
      -How much extra am I gaining in $ by selling “used” vs “for parts”?
      
      Basically it’s a cost benefit from that info. If I am making $500 more used vs for parts, and it costs $50 to ship to USA/CAN, and I think it probably works, I’ll roll the dice. If typical shipping to CAN/USA is $200, and I’m not sure, I’ll probably list for parts.
      
      However, and this is crucial I think – when you list “used” something not fully tested, you’ve got to identify that in condition notes. I write something like “unable to fully test, but full refund if not working.” In case the buyer’s purpose for it is time-sensitive and a refund doesn’t really make them whole.
      
      This way of doing things is somewhat risky, which affects how much I’ll pay for stuff that’s iffy. Generally want to be into it for 10x plus. Usually that means even a “for parts” listing makes an OK profit.
      
      I get burned pretty rarely. It’s definitely worth it.
      
      This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by simplicio.
      - 10/16/2018 at 8:06 am #50232
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Makes sense being willing to take the refund if it doesnt function properly. Seems like a good bet.
        
        Has anyone bought $1000 industrial item that then didnt work as expected and needed to get a refund?
        
        10/16/2018 at 9:39 am #50239
        
        simplicio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @simplicio
        
        Yes, the worst case was actually a few weeks ago with a commercial ice-cream maker I sold for $1800.
        
        I didn’t follow my own advice as it was heavy to ship and I paid too much in COGS… net loss to me is about $400 therefore.
        
        That’s the only major loss I’ve ever taken using this strategy, though.
- 10/15/2018 at 9:19 am #50142
  totommyto
  Participant
  Location: Naples, Fl
  @totommyto
  Listening…
  
  10/7 – 10/13/18
  
  eBay store totommyto
  
  Total store items: 672
  Number of items sold: 11 (2 International)
  eBay sales (not counting s/h): $546
  Cost of items sold: $21.50
  Consignment payouts: $49.63
  Highest Price sold: $150 – rare knock off action figure
  Average price sold: $60.70
  Returns: 0
  Money spent on new inventory: 0
  Number of items listed this week: 50
  STR for the week: 1.7
  
  Etsy store oldfleatoymarket
  
  Total store items: 628
  Number of items sold: 2
  Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $32
  Cost of items sold: $3
  Consignment payouts: 0
  Highest price sold: $20 – vintage toy cap rifle
  Average price sold: $16
  Returns: 0
  Number of items listed this week: 18
  STR for the week: 0.3
  
  Below is a cool sale of a made for dollar stores 1980’s action figure knock off. An awesome surprise among the boxes of long defunct 1980’s toy & novelty shop partial buyout I did a couple of weeks back. This toy is so cheap, cheesy, and out of proportion that it is highly sought after. There is a community of action figure collectors that collect and pay well for these ripoffs. I call these ugly guys the ‘punk rockers’ of action figures. Took best offer of $150, which is really were these freaks top out at. I love this kind of stuff. Three more sold last night to one buyer, thankful.
  
  https://www.ebay.com/itm/Underworld-Warriors-Goblin-orange-monster-Original-1986-Rare-Vintage-6-034-figure-/372460389379?hash=item56b85e8403%3Ag%3AkwQAAOSwWudbuBeJ&nma=true&si=zma6LRwxhOGXK8t1uGmztdJFrvs%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
  - 10/15/2018 at 9:57 am #50148
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    Whoah! So surely you must have had prior knowledge of that toy in order to know it was worthwhile?
    
    I wouldn’t have given that a second look.
    - 10/15/2018 at 10:10 am #50151
      totommyto
      Participant
      
      Location: Naples, Fl
      @totommyto
      
      Good Morning Retro,
      While i was pawing around on the blacktop, squatting on my knee replacements in the HOT Florida sun, I simply jammed anything interesting into moldy boxes, giving toys top preference. I may have missed them if they were simply tossed in a typical packed flea market toy bin. But yes, I knew they were unicorns, I just did not know exactly what they were.
- 10/15/2018 at 9:37 am #50144
  T-Satt
  Participant
  Location:
  @t-satt
  Week of 10/7-10/13
  Total Items in Store: 2,748 (Up 58% YOY)
  Number of Items Listed: 110
  Number of Items Sold: 111 (Up 34% YOY)
  (Includes 1 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 1 Poshmark)
  Weekly STR: 17% (Down 2% YOY)
  
  Total Product Sales: $3,548 (Up 45% YOY) – RECORD SALES WEEK
  Cost of Items Sold: $797
  Highest Item Sold: $140 – Hart Schaffner Marx Gold Trumpeter Navy Blue Pinstripe Suit
  Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 24-17
  
  Clothing
  # Listed: 1,705
  # Sold: 71
  STR: 18%
  ASP: $27.38
  
  Shoes
  # Listed: 425
  # Sold: 18
  STR: 18%
  ASP: $50.26
  
  Hard Goods
  # Listed: 618
  # Sold: 21
  STR: 14%
  ASP: $31.79
  
  Etsy
  # Listed: 172
  # Sold: 1
  STR: 3%
  ASP: $18.89
  
  Poshmark
  # Listed: 45
  # Sold: 1
  STR: 10%
  ASP: $100
  
  Business Improvement for the Week – Start new purchasing streams. First sale on the items in the new purchasing stream. Looks good, and looking to make another purchase this week.
  
  Business Improvement for the Week – Cross-posting to Poshmark. Had our first sale, and should receive the cash early this week. Gotta get used to the Poshmark way. Listing is easy, but had a “bundle” of just one item sent to us, and then a message that just said “trade?”. No. Plus, a LOT of lowball offers that I just counter on. Looks like this is going to be better for women’s than men’s, but since Veronica has a good amount of women’s shoes and jeans, I may start to throw those out there. Not doing much on the social side, only doing shares a little right now.
  
  So, if I could ask the Scavenger Life community for a favor, I need lots of prayers this week. The $5,000 Dicken’s Village that we sold last year was picked up for transport this week. Need lots of prayers for a safe delivery this week! This has been a total saga, almost done. Hope it is over soon!
  
  If anyone wants to hear the CRAZY week on this Dicken’s Village, let me know and I’ll put it on a separate thread…
  - 10/15/2018 at 9:40 am #50145
    simplicio
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @simplicio
    I’d be curious to hear about this Dickens village, for sure.
  - 10/15/2018 at 10:04 am #50150
    totommyto
    Participant
    
    Location: Naples, Fl
    @totommyto
    Congrats on those sales!
    Yes, lets get the dickens off that delivery!
    I picked up a bunch of those little wintry houses once, got cold feet, fast flipped them at a shop.
    I tip my hat, sir.
    I vote for tell the story.
  - 10/15/2018 at 11:02 am #50156
    Mark S
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @mark-s
    T-Satt,
    
    I just bought a Trumpeter suit that sounds identical to mine. Was there anything special about yours or are they really eorth $140? I was going to list it for $100.
    
    Mark S
    - 10/15/2018 at 11:29 am #50161
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Just had to wait on this one. I have sold 3 of these, from $90 to $140. Just all depends on the buyer…
  - 10/15/2018 at 12:06 pm #50168
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    –Congrats on such a good week. Its incredible how many suits and clothes you sell.
    –Just curious if you’d give a hint to these new purchasing streams? Is it wholesale items or lots of retail returns?
    –Love to hear about the Dickens Village sale. Wondering what your cut of the sale is and curious why the owner didnt just sell direct instead of through you.
    - 10/15/2018 at 12:15 pm #50173
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Thanks Jay.
      
      Right now, it is bundles of retail returns. First purchase was good, so I need to see if a second is solid before it becomes a decent source of supplementation to our normal yard sale/thrift store sourcing. But I would like to move up at some point to buying overstocks/wholesale as a new stream of income, especially if I can do it from just about anywhere and have it delivered.
      
      Our piece of the consignment was 15% after fees. Seller just didn’t know where to go to get rid of this. Parting out would have only been about $1000. That was in our minds at one point, to try and buy him out and we sell ourselves, and that was about all we could do and still make it worth our time. He also didn’t want to sell this a piece at a time, so hard to find a market for an ENTIRE collection.
      - 10/15/2018 at 12:24 pm #50176
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        –Are the retail returns multiples of the same item that can be listed once? If so, are they all in the same condition? or are you having to list each item separately?
        
        –I think everyone should try consignment at least once. It sounds like easy money, but we found it to be very time consuming. And felt like we were working for someone else.
        
        10/15/2018 at 12:27 pm #50177
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        This supplier was all singles, but variations on a theme, so I could do listing 1, copy it, make a couple of tweaks, and do listing 2, so it went quick. We have done some multiple quantity buys from ANOTHER source, but that is drying up as we now see the Dropshippers are playing in that sandbox. Easy to see when their eBay photo (only 3) are the EXACT same as the original web site…
        
        We haven’t done consignment in a LONG time, and after the saga I posted on the other thread shows, I would hesitate to do this again. Good money, but a LOT of stress on this one…
        
        10/15/2018 at 12:48 pm #50179
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Will look forward to your report on selling retail returns. From what Ive seen and experienced, its usually all open box items in different states or wear so each item must be listed separately. Smart to use the same template. Just time.
        
        What do you hope your average profit is on each item?
        
        10/15/2018 at 12:55 pm #50180
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Should be a 3x-5x return on a $13/item purchase of 25 items.
  - 10/15/2018 at 1:32 pm #50185
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    I have trouble getting motivated to list blazers, but I just found my first Burberry blazer. I want to get that bad boy listed Stat! I also got a NWT Crittenden Seersucker blazer.
    - 10/15/2018 at 1:39 pm #50187
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      There is money there, but know going in that suits and blazers are a long tail item, so make sure that you can store well. We are in a dry climate, so mold isn’t an issue for us. I fold (I have a particular folding method for Sport Coats that I 100000% recommend you learn), put in a clear polybag with the SKU tag attached, then put in plasic bins with lids. No dust, moisture, or anything else on the item.
      
      Fall is the season for these things, so get them on now!
  - 10/16/2018 at 11:19 am #50253
    Mark S
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @mark-s
    T-Satt,
    
    I said a prayer for you.
    
    Mark S
    - 10/16/2018 at 3:03 pm #50264
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Thanks Mark!
- 10/15/2018 at 10:20 am #50153
  Brian Treasures from Grandmas
  Participant
  Location: Hoboken, NJ
  @brian-treasures-from-grandmas
  Listening now. Congrats on catching up! We have had some guests last week so I’ll be playing catch up this coming weekend. Below are my numbers for the past two weeks.
  
  Week Sept 30 – Oct 13 2018
  
  Total Items in Store: 975
  Items Sold: 38 (1 Amazon, 1 Bonanza)
  Cost of Items Sold: $224.50 (17.4% of sales)
  Total Sales: $1,293.89
  Highest Price Sold: $143 (NIB Apple AirPods)
  Average Price Sold: $34.05
  Returns: 0 (1 NPB though)
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 0
  Promoted listings test: 18 sales, $359.01 (27.7% of total sales), $18 fees (5.0% of sales)
  
  Above average couple of weeks, volume increasing hopefully signalling the signs of holiday shopping beginning. The high sale of the week was a new in box Apple AirPods I got from work, so $0 COGS! Woo. Other great sales included Hayclon Days enamel box (sold for $85 best offer https://www.ebay.com/itm/202295687914), Two John Derian decorative trays (sold for $130 each best offer to the same buyer, https://www.ebay.com/itm/192096427298, https://www.ebay.com/itm/201567985283).
  
  My wife will be away in DC this weekend on a friend’s bachelorette party, so I plan on focusing all weekend on catching up on listing those backed up piles. Should be able to get 30+ listings ups.
  - 10/15/2018 at 12:11 pm #50170
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Great sales. Amazing what businesses just through out. Where is the next vacation that you’re saving up for?
    - 10/15/2018 at 1:21 pm #50181
      Brian Treasures from Grandmas
      Participant
      
      Location: Hoboken, NJ
      @brian-treasures-from-grandmas
      
      TBD – we haven’t officially planned anything. I still have the Nordics near the top of my list (especially during Northern Lights season), or going back Italy, neither of us have been to Eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand) so that’s always a possibility too.
- 10/15/2018 at 11:15 am #50157
  Idahoarder
  Participant
  Location:
  @idahoarder
  Store Week 10/7/18 – 10/13/18
  
  Total items in store: 1840
  Items sold: 24
  Cost of items sold: $66.60
  Total sales: $970.58
  Highest price sold: $240.00 (Pendleton blanket)
  Average price sold: $40.44
  Returns: 2 for a total of $170.00. Ouch! Another $50 return on the way, but they were all just the wrong size.
  Money spent on new inventory this week: $5.00
  
  This was the second week in a row that a Pendleton blanket was my top seller. I guess I should get to listing the beauty that I still have in the basement!
  
  I mentioned a long time ago that a family member recruited me to help her clear out her grandfather’s estate. Well, it’s been a long time trying to get everything with the estate settled before we could even go through the stuff (and still might be a couple of weeks). But I finally got to go up and take a look at the outside stuff this week. WHOA! This is the estate of an amazing guy who could do just about anything. There is a lot of very valuable stuff, but unfortunately most of it is stuff we don’t know much about. What I’ve seen so far is tons of American Pickers type stuff …rusty gold! Antique (and other) cars, old tools, tons of antique car parts (Model T, etc.), and similar items. A lot of it is under overgrown blackberry bushes and in scary lofts that look like they could come crashing down. Looks super fun, but VERY overwhelming! We’re thinking some eBay and probably a few estate sales will be necessary, but we are worried about to many people knowing what’s on the property since it’s very valuable and not locked up. We’re hoping to clear space by selling some cars first (there are probably around 15-20 cars/car bodies) that don’t run, so we’re not sure how to sell them without bringing a bunch of people on the property. Sorry, I know this isn’t really too eBay related, but any suggestions would be welcomed!
  - 10/15/2018 at 11:52 am #50164
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    Truck, trailer, Harbor freight manual trailer winch. Get to moving those cars!
  - 10/15/2018 at 12:12 pm #50171
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    What’s ypur cut of selling off the family member’s stuff? or are you doing it as a favor? That’s quite a job and might be better left to an estate sale company.
    - 10/15/2018 at 12:31 pm #50178
      Idahoarder
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @idahoarder
      
      We’re still in negotiations for my cut. Not sure yet if it will be a % of sales (for the eBay part) or an hourly rate. But I also WANT to help out because it’s family and because that kind of stuff is fun for me. They already had one auction for certain types of items (I wasn’t involved with that), and got burned by the auction company. Stuff went way cheap and it was just really poorly executed, so they’re nervous about hiring out again. But we definitely might have to do something like that for a lot of this though.
      - 10/15/2018 at 1:22 pm #50182
        
        Retro Treasures WV
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @retro-treasures-wv
        
        I strongly discourage you from doing hourly rate. Honestly, I discourage you from participating at all. These kinds of things tend to turn into a total cluster…
        
        If I were you, I’d let it be known that once everyone is done I would come in and remove the “junk”. This way you are free and clear and can get the great stuff that everyone else thinks is trash.
        
        10/15/2018 at 3:14 pm #50196
        
        Idahoarder
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @idahoarder
        
        Yeah, it might be best to stay away! I will help, but maybe I’ll try not to get in it too deep, especially considering that it could really cut into my eBay time.
      - 10/15/2018 at 3:37 pm #50197
        
        Temudgin
        Participant
        
        Location: Jacksonville FL
        @temudgin
        
        Too bad the one auction experience was bad, it’s unfortunately not that uncommon. A larger auction house active in the collector car market is still probably the best way to sell a larger stash of old cars, tools, and parts like it sounds you’ve got. You could review the Collector Car category on Proxibid for likely reputable auctions houses attracting national interest or google it. Car people love barn finds and cutting down trees that have grown through a car in order to pull it out of the spot where it has sat for decades.
- 10/15/2018 at 11:48 am #50163
  Geoff
  Participant
  Location:
  @norfolkgoldandsilver
  Starting to feel like winter here in the North East! Business process improvement of the week: Taking on the leaves with a different approach this year — blowing and cleanup in small chunks every weekend.
  
  10/7/18-10/13/18
  Total items in store (beginning of week): 384
  Items sold: 9
  30 day sell through (rate): 10.04%
  Total Sales: (no shipping): $225.21
  Average price: $25.02
  Cost of items sold: $27.13
  Average cost per item: $3.01
  Gross profit: $198.08
  Highest item sold / best sale: Original MMC5 MMC 5 CARTRIDGE sold $54.95 cost $0.00
  New items listed: 23 items
- 10/15/2018 at 11:57 am #50166
  Retro Treasures WV
  Participant
  Location:
  @retro-treasures-wv
  Items in Store 1090
  Items Sold 14
  Total Sales $506.75
  COGS $44.10
  Total Profit $462.65
  Average profit $33.05
  Average sales price $36.20
  
  I typed out a long post and hit send, but it is nowhere to be found and I appeared to be logged out once the page reloaded. This happened last week too. Grr….
  
  I guess I’m going to have to start writing in Word and copying/pasting.
  
  Anyways, ebay is on the back-burner. I only shipped this week. $500 for 2.5 hours of work is good stuff! That’s the beauty of this business: I can front load all the work when I have time. Then when a week like this comes up I can do minimal work and still reap the rewards. Ebay will stay on the backburner until I finish up a few house projects.
- 10/15/2018 at 12:13 pm #50172
  almasty
  Participant
  Location:
  @alamasty
  Great podcast! Just some quick observations:
  
  Do your local auction houses have a place where they post sales results? If so, I would study all of the expensive items that have sold in the previous few months and compare the ending results to how much they would go for online. From the podcast, it sounded like Ryanne was already worried about higher priced items: “hey, doesn’t that Tiffany piece already go for that price?” Just an idea.
  
  Congrats on getting rid of your death piles (again)! I personally can’t imagine that ever happening for me. I’ve gotten in nearly 3,000 vintage paper items this week alone to sort through. I’m about to bid on an online auction (hah). Estate sales are plentiful this time of year, and I’m having to skip some of the ones I would normally go to in order to take a day off and get some free time. This part of the year is so exciting. 😀
  
  I’ve only sold a few items on Etsy so far, but I just pack everything as I normally would for Ebay or Amazon. I have also used both Ebay and Amazon shipping supplies to send items in to people. What I do find interesting is how it seems (at least for me) you have to communicate with buyers. You can’t really do it in as a professional manner as you would for Ebay or Amazon (at least for me, maybe different for others). I have to use a lot of casual language and happy emoticons in order to carry conversations along. Also, when you do have a conversation with someone, it shows your picture as well as theirs. It makes it feel more casual and personal than a transaction on Ebay or Amazon, which is overall very cold and impersonal. I sell books and collectibles on there that are sort of skewed younger (20s-40s) than my usual ebay items that are more for everyone, so that might be part of it. I am also tying it together with instagram, which might also be skewing it young. I don’t know.
  - 10/15/2018 at 12:22 pm #50175
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Thats a great suggestion to troll the higher end “solds” at auction houses to learn prices. My gut tells me its mainly a matter of jumping in and starting.
    
    Im impressed by how much you purchase. You seem to have an unlimited appetite for more inventory. We’ve learned for our sanity that we really try to buy the best of the best as much as we can. Even when we buy table lots at auctions, we make sure at least 60% are homerun sales.
- 10/15/2018 at 12:18 pm #50174
  T-Satt
  Participant
  Location:
  @t-satt
  PS – I want to say I loved the part of the Podcast where you talk about the auction world, the bulk sourcing, the retail game in general. The time vs capital. That WHOLE conversation should be listened to a few times. You guys hit a lot of great pearls of wisdom there regarding the business side of this game…
- 10/15/2018 at 1:23 pm #50183
  ebaymom
  Participant
  Location: Ohio
  @ebaymom
  My Store Week Oct 7-13, 2018
  
  Total Items in Store: 1141
  Items Sold: 8
  Gross Sales: $191.81
  Cost of Items Sold: $13.97
  Highest Price Sold: $40 (Tie: Military Camo Army Jacket / Wood Cut Out of French Cathedral)
  ASP: $23.98
  STR: 3%
  Returns: 1 Initiated but not shipped
  International: 0 (but one low ball offer)
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $29
  Number of items listed this week: 12
  
  Wanted to post numbers before digging into listening while doing my packing! Glad you are all “caught up!” I am beginning to get “behind” – the garage sales have been too tempting to stop by on my way home – so I am getting a bit of a backlog. Low dollar sales, and slow sales this week – not sure what is up with the mostly low dollar sales only. And, I love sourcing shoes, I am finding most of my good “shoe spots” are jacking up their prices and getting very greedy. Seems like shoe-resellers are every where I look… the competition is getting tougher in this market so maybe it is time to diversify.
- 10/15/2018 at 3:43 pm #50198
  Temudgin
  Participant
  Location: Jacksonville FL
  @temudgin
  I enjoy your auctions discussions; always one of my favorite subjects.
  
  Jay, you mentioned the second part of the auction where the expensive stuff sells and speculated about the strategies of the bidders there. At the auctions I would go to regularly in the pre-eBay days I would sometimes see newcomers who would buy an expensive item with a simple strategy of outbidding everyone else, assuming there was still profit to be made. That was a good way to get burned. There could be a collector bidding against them, in which case the collector might be willing to go up to a retail price or higher. Then there were some antique shop and coop booth owners who would bid high. They were really collectors or just hobbyists, not in it as a business. They’d buy something worth $250 for $300 because they liked it, only to put it in their shop or booth for $350 and let it sit for all to admire. Now there are the eBay sellers thrown into the mix, who may or may not know what they’re doing.
  
  In any event, I try never to take another bidder’s willingness to bid as an indicator of value. Besides the above, they might be drunk or in love.
  - 10/16/2018 at 7:54 am #50231
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Agreed. We wouldnt bid completely ignorantly. But that part of the auction is a mystery that would be fun to uncover. My hypothesis about buying higher end items to sell for for could be completely wrong. Only one way to find out.
    
    I do know that if you research “solds” on eBay for different kinds of art and collectibles, there is a level of buyers who pay thousands for items. There is a market.
    - 10/16/2018 at 10:24 am #50248
      T-Satt
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @t-satt
      
      Jay: I always seem to feel that scavenging has levels like all other areas of life. I always see this as mountains that we climb. We start at the bottom, and then we work and learn and then we move up a level to better items. And we work and we learn and move up again. Then we are doing antiques, then furniture, then cars.
      
      I think you will be leveling up soon…
- 10/15/2018 at 4:13 pm #50199
  antarestar
  Participant
  Location: Maine
  @antarestar
  App Notifications – you can customize the push notifications you receive from the Ebay app. I got irritated about the same messages so I went in to Setting and then Notifications. Go through all of the options so that you can turn off anything you don’t want.
  
  Now if I could just get Poshmark to stop sending notifications for all the stages of item delivery. Sadly, I don’t think you can turn those off.
- 10/15/2018 at 5:21 pm #50205
  darwinman1
  Participant
  Location: Seattle, WA
  @darwinman1
  My Store Week Oct 7-13, 2018
  
  Total Items in Store: 1141
  Items Sold: 8
  Gross Sales: $883.45
  Cost of Items Sold: $100.00 approx (again, most bought in lots so hard to determine exact COG)
  Highest Price Sold: $135.00 Vintage Sani-Craft Laundry Hamper – Vinyl and Wicker. Jennie thought I was crazy listing this one so high. It took a couple months but it sold full price!
  ASP: $31.55
  STR: 3.7%
  Returns: 2 Initiated but not shipped
  International: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4.01 at the goodwill bins!
  Number of items listed this week: None, but started listings for about 60 items. Travelling to Chicago next week so picture time when we get back!
- 10/15/2018 at 10:02 pm #50214
  ChristineR
  Participant
  Location: Southern California
  @christiner
  Total Items in Store: 359 Ebay, 56 Mercari
  Items Sold: 2 Ebay, 2 Mercari
  Gross Sales: $50 Ebay, $21 Mercari
  Cost of Items Sold: $3 (most items ours)
  Highest Price Sold: $30 best offer, Our PBK party games
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 0
  
  Crappy week on Ebay even though I didn’t turn my store off during vacation. I enjoyed the Podcast, especially the analysis of live and online auctions. The scavenging is not at all the problem for me in this location, but still interesting. Hope to list away on the piles soon. It is super crazy outside Ebay these days so that’s hard during 4th quarter. Have a great trip to SF. Hope you have an extra day or two up there to enjoy the City.
- 10/15/2018 at 10:05 pm #50215
  Doublythumbs
  Participant
  Location: Hopedale, OH
  @doublythumbs
  Oct 7 – 13
  Total Items in Store: 1811
  Items Sold: 26
  Total Sales : $810
  * almost equal yearly average of $813
  * above 2017 total week sales of $412
  Highest Price: $216 (Combined price of two lots of gold filled watch bands to a buyer in Taiwan)
  Average Price: $31
  Returns: 0
  Cost of Goods Sold: $26
  Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $20
  Number of New Items Listed this Week: 56
  
  Welp, Friday was suppose to be the day I put my two week notice in to quit my job… but I got cold feet. I had set that date months ago, but as I got closer to the day I was making myself sick with worry. My heart was telling me that it would be so fantastic to be free of the corporate desk job finally. But my rational brain turned up and said look dummy, you might not totally enjoy working in an office all day, but it’s allowing you to save up for better things. I thought about all of the discussions I’ve had with my fellow SLers here on the forums. I really do think I’m at the point where I could make it going full time, but I’m right on that line. I want to be beyond that line. I’ve got a good amount saved up, but a major home catastrophe could wipe all that out in an instant. Plus, I worry about all of the unknowns with this new house. How much will it cost to heat in the winter? How much to replace the boards on the back porch? Will we need to get the roof replaced soon? (that’s a yes, BTW).
  
  So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to continue to build up my store. I’m gonna continue to drop every penny I make on eBay into my savings. And when the time comes, I’ll just know it. I’ll know it either when Steph and I are consistently making $1K+ a week with our combined eBay sales. Or when I get too fed up with the BS at work and decide I have enough FU Money to rage quit.
  
  Anyways, I’m rambling. I had a much better week than the previous week. I sold over twice as many items for better prices. Those gold-filled watch bands were a great sale! I took a best offer, but I priced them super high in the first place so I won’t complain. We did some scavenging on Saturday on our way to a festival. We found a rummage sale that was packed with awesome stuff, and just as many people. But following the advice I learned on this forum, I made a pile next to the cashier and kept going back for more. When I was done, rather than tally up the little price stickers, we just agreed on $15. Hell Yeah! My best buy there was a small Casio keyboard that could fetch me around $160.
  - 10/15/2018 at 10:36 pm #50219
    Mark S
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @mark-s
    Doubly,
    
    I think it is a good thing that you are staying at your 9-5 job. You just didn’t have a peace about quitting, so I think you did the right thing. I think you would want to feel good about the move and if that isn’t there, then it wouldn’t feel right. There is something telling you to stay at your job and you listened to that.
    
    I think you will know when it is time and then it will be a moment that you can celebrate.
    
    Mark
    - 10/16/2018 at 9:15 am #50236
      Doublythumbs
      Participant
      
      Location: Hopedale, OH
      @doublythumbs
      
      Thanks, Mark. Yes, my gut instincts have always been reliable in the past. I felt miserable about the decision at first, but after I slept on it I felt great. And it’s totally changed my outlook at my job as well. It’s kind of exhilarating to not care about office politics or drama or whose shoes I might step on anymore. Having a working backup plan has relieved me of a lot of stress here.
    - 10/16/2018 at 9:54 am #50244
      Inglewood
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @inglewood
      
      @Doublythumbs – no shame in taking the safe road! Better to have peace of mind – especially when you know you have an exit plan. I’m still at a dying office job, but I’m so relaxed because I know it will end and don’t care what my future holds as I have a plan.
      
      I’ve spent several years planning my exit – you really need to have everything figured out – turn over every stone (you mention a roof, but think about absolutely everything that may need to be replaced in the short term and longer term). It’s a lot of work to do, but once you know the numbers, and how much work you need to do to meet those numbers, you will reach a state of zen.
      
      Good luck!
  - 10/16/2018 at 8:11 am #50233
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Yeah, there’s no stress on quitting. Just keep working and saving. You’ll know the right time. In the best world, you’ll just have a sense of calm come over you as you realize that its time to change your life:
    - 10/16/2018 at 9:16 am #50237
      Doublythumbs
      Participant
      
      Location: Hopedale, OH
      @doublythumbs
      
      Thanks, Jay. Yes I can totally relate to Peter. He gets it. I love that movie!
  - 10/16/2018 at 9:59 am #50245
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    Doubly: No worries at all. When you know, you know. I had the luck to have my wife help me confirm when I knew (and she pushed me out of the nest a bit too). For me, I can deal with a great deal of pain and stress. Now, this can be a good thing in many situations. However, it can also mean that I stay too long in a bad situation rather than change it (cause I can just deal with the crap). Veronica helps me see the times when it is time to make the change rather than just deal with the pain.
    
    Now that I contract back to my old place, it is nice that the roles are reversed. The “normal” job is the side hustle, cause eBay is the main gig. Since you are almost there, maybe try to keep that mindset when your job is getting to you. Tell yourself “Hey, this is all just a side gig anyway. No need to get worked up.”
    
    Looked at from that perspective, you have one HELL of a great side gig!
    - 10/16/2018 at 10:37 am #50249
      Doublythumbs
      Participant
      
      Location: Hopedale, OH
      @doublythumbs
      
      Troy, I can relate too well. I also tend to stay at crummy jobs long after their prime. I love the way you suggest perceiving my day job now as the side gig. That perfectly puts into words how I’ve been feeling lately! Thanks!
- 10/15/2018 at 10:30 pm #50218
  Winchester38
  Participant
  Location:
  @winchester38
  Great episode, as per usual. Thanks for the shout out! My wife was pretty excited to be famous for fifteen seconds! Haha
  
  We too, are about 99% caught up on our listing piles, and for the time being, are listing everything as it comes in. We can always find more to list (personal stuff, or items from our antique inventory), but everything we’ve bought expressly for eBay is listed at this point.
  
  This week was semi-slow for us:
  
  October 7-13, 2018
  
  Store 1:
  Items in store: 1,358
  Items sold: 10
  Gross sales: $542.92
  Highest sale: $300 (vintage Bakelite piece)
  Average: $54.29
  Returns: 0
  Spent on inventory: $77.25
  Items listed: 42
  
  Store 2:
  Items in store: 511
  Items sold: 7
  Gross sales: $61.54
  Highest sale: $22.39
  Average: $8.79
  Returns: 0
  Spent on inventory: $0
  Items listed: 18
  
  The numbers for our second store are generally pretty low, but are very high profit, very low risk items (embroidered patches, ephemera, etc). Stuff we can pick up for $0.25, sell for $10, and throw in a envelope with a stamp. Initially we set it up as a back-up account, should something go wrong with the main account, but it’s grown legs and spits out a few hundred dollars a month with very little effort/risk.
- 10/15/2018 at 10:36 pm #50220
  Winchester38
  Participant
  Location:
  @winchester38
  I feel your anxiety about leaving the full time job, doublythumbs. I’m targeting January 31st myself. I’m not where I need to be, but I’m close. We’re debt free, minus a house (that is being rented and covers its own costs), and one vehicle loan. We’ve got some money saved, and a line of credit plus credit cards, should we need instant access to funds.
  
  It’s daunting, but we’ll make it work. I wish you all the best in your journey!
  - 10/16/2018 at 9:23 am #50238
    Doublythumbs
    Participant
    
    Location: Hopedale, OH
    @doublythumbs
    Thanks Winchester! I hope it works out for you too! I’m the same way with my debt. I paid everything off before buying our house. We could rent out a room if we really needed to. Our house used to be a bed and breakfast after all. But we enjoy our privacy too much at the moment.
- 10/16/2018 at 3:45 am #50223
  Antique Frog
  Participant
  Location: Leicester
  @antique-frog
  Idahoarder: check out barnfinds, which hopefully should give you some ideas re selling the cars. Also (judging from recurring comments on that site) make sure your tetanus shots are up to date!
  - 10/16/2018 at 11:03 am #50252
    Idahoarder
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @idahoarder
    That looks promising. Thanks!
- 10/16/2018 at 7:32 am #50227
  Lavenderclothesline
  Participant
  Location: Pennsylvania
  @lavenderclothesline
  10/7 – 10/13
  Total Items in Store: 2939
  Items Sold: 69
  Gross Sales: $2075.93
  Cost of helpers: 100.00
  Highest Price Sold:115.00 – Vintage cat sweater ( can be seen on my Instagram – same name)
  Average Price Sold: 30.08
  Returns: 0
  I havent added my receipts from the week yet.. I usually spend about $150.00 average per week.
  My average buying price is right around $5.00 an item, I very rarely go over $10.00
  I always charge the buyer for shipping.
  My store has definitely picked up from the slow months of July and Aug (thank goodness lol)
  - 10/16/2018 at 10:19 am #50247
    T-Satt
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @t-satt
    Lavenderclothesline: Very solid sales and Inventory numbers!
    
    -How long have you been selling on eBay?
    -Always just clothes?
    -Do you crosspost to any other platforms?
- 10/16/2018 at 7:42 am #50228
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  I didn’t have time to post this earlier, so here it is.
  
  Gut Sales Report for the week: Just like Michigan Football, I feel like my business is now firing on all cylinders – buying, selling, and listing all going well. I needed the sales to pay for what I bought.
  
  My process improvement for the week: I ordered my new photography equipment so that I can take pictures of larger items with a white background.
  
  Scavenge of the week: From Thursday – Saturday of this past week I bought nearly $4000 worth of inventory items. Without a doubt they are some of the best items I have ever picked. I am very excited about these items because they are a piece of sports History from the 1930’s – 1950’s. The majority of these items came from one private estate sale which was a mega pick – 11 items that were $100 items or more. The 11 items have an average sell price of $225. Average buy price was about $27 for each of 11 items, but 1 item inflated that number. And it is not just about the money. Most of the 11 items were antique sports equipment from the 1930’s – 1950’s which I really love.
  
  Challenge of the week: Still to make space in basement and garage. Also, I am working on getting all items in a “To be listed” state instead of “death piles”. I have been good at avoiding death piles in general, but the clothes that need to be hung up have been the exception. My lister is going to be doing most of the hanging clothing, but she hasn’t listed in a while so I haven’t had much motivation to get that done. She is suppose to start back this week.
  
  What I learned: Two things. 1. I love being a generalist and buying anything that makes sense. I went to an estate sale that advertized a ton of vintage and antique. When I got there, those items were mostly gone. Instead, I found a mega pick of Vintage clothes in the bedrooms for next to nothing. 2. Don’t be afraid to go all in. One of the 11 items I bought above, one was marked $150 and that was at the start of the sale. I picked it up and didn’t want to spend $150, but I just had to have it. I asked the guy if he would take $110 and he said $125 was the least he would take. I also had $40 of antique sports equipment and he agreed to $150 for all of it. Below is a picture of that item.
  
  Mark
  - 10/16/2018 at 10:58 am #50251
    Inglewood
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @inglewood
    Mark S – I like your format, so I’m going to copy it since it’s easier than pulling my numbers…
    
    Gut Sales Report For The Week – great week – had some very expensive vintage Sony Walkmans sell this week, netted me almost $400 on two alone. Rest of the sales were average, but the Walkman sales really put me over the top.
    
    My process improvement for the week – I ordered one of those Chinese LED 9″ x 9″ light boxes about a month ago that finally arrived. Trying to figure out the best way to use it for listings next weekend and what settings on my camera work best.
    
    Scavenge of the week – this week wasn’t that exciting for me. Lots of $30 to $50 items found for $5 or less, but nothing that got my heart going. Best items were 2 pairs of new insulated rubber workboots for $5 each, listed for $125 (Retail is $200-$250).
    
    Challenge of the week – I have a routine – I work full-time M-F, scavenge on Saturday, photo and list on Sunday. I recently bought a second house to move into once I lose my job, and with the various family commitments, I may need to slow down the odd weekend in November/December. Trying to figure out how to keep the same scavenging and sales pace with additional commitments. Also, as a huge F1/CFL/NFL fan, all my sports are converging on weekends – gives me something to listen to when listing though.
    
    What I Learned – I’m not that much of a clothing guy except for sports jerseys, however, I’ve noticed that NWT pants are easy to spot at thrift stores. Found a vintage 1970’s pair of Sears jeans, and some vintage 1970’s Woman’s Polyester pants NWT for $3 each I’m giving a shot to see how they do.
- 10/16/2018 at 7:46 am #50229
  Mark S
  Participant
  Location:
  @mark-s
  This is a 1930’s Ford Backetball Shirt.
  
  https://imgur.com/a/OH7sjjM
  
  Mark S
- 10/16/2018 at 3:51 pm #50268
  antarestar
  Participant
  Location: Maine
  @antarestar
  You know what was amazing? When I quit my horrible office job, I stopped getting daily migraines. Who knew that no more stressful job would mean no more pain so bad it would sometimes make me vomit?
  
  I knew it was time to quit when I was given an impossible task to do, on top of my regular job, and was not given any assistance. And when I say impossible task, there is a whole industry of contractors devoted to doing the impossible task or, if a company decided not to hire out the task, there would be a large team consisting mostly of senior management who was put in charge. This was not a task for one person in middle management who had no authority to make changes and already had a full workload. I decided that I could either make myself miserable trying, and probably failing, to do the task or I could tell my boss that I was done.
  
  Guess what they did after I quit? Hired a contractor to do the impossible task and created a team of senior management to work with the contractor.
- 10/16/2018 at 7:30 pm #50279
  Sharyn
  Participant
  Location: Central NJ
  @sharyn
  In regards to the online auction company MaxSold, there are a variety of situations for the auctions they hold. Yes, some are run by auction houses or professionals that are selling for a profit. Some are run by people hired by estates or home owners to get rid of stuff. However, many are individual home owners who hire directly with MaxSold. I don’t consider those to be as professionally run as an auction house. The MaxSold employee skill seems to vary in quality, so treasures can be found if you look closely.
  
  Anyway, I am finished with cataloging my friend’s stuff for her online auction (through MaxSold), but I have to review and adjust the listings as needed, set up the auction, and then help during pickup. In the situations above, you can consider me as someone hired to get rid of stuff, and I will get a cut of the proceeds.
  
  Here are my numbers for last week. Sales are slowly climbing back up:
  
  Week of Oct 7 – 13
  * Total Items in Store: 1166 eBay, 13 Mercari
  * Items Sold: 10
  * Cost of Items Sold: $11.85 + $6.86 Commission
  * Total Sales: $230.31
  * Highest Price Sold: $53 Men’s wool suit made in Canada
  * Average Price Sold: $23.03
  * Returns: 0
  * Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  * Number of items listed this week: 28
- 10/16/2018 at 7:57 pm #50282
  bcfol440
  Participant
  Location:
  @bcfol440
  I am determined to learn Christmas collectible and desired holiday items. Been spending lots of time scrolling solds/watching youtubes/blogs. I will win Christmas this year!
  I sold two champagne buckets within 20 min of each other this week – at first, I thought it was same buyer! Nope. Just Cassini being Cassini.
  
  Week of 10/7-10/14
  Store: 950, 300 posh (cross posted from ebay, same inventory)
  Sold: 29 ebay, 3 Poshmark
  Sales: $1070, $150 Posh after fees = $1220
  COGS for both: $120
  A Very happy week in my world.
  Highest sale: Swedish wooden decorative box – loved this piece. $125
- 10/16/2018 at 8:04 pm #50283
  bcfol440
  Participant
  Location:
  @bcfol440
  Re: Estate sales being in “houses.” I 100% have noticed this. Went to a “interior designer” estate sale this summer. It was a HOUSE turned showroom – nobody lived there it was clear.
  Another one was a massive “collectibles” house – merchandised like you wouldn’t believe. Clearly a retail space in a cul de sac suburban home. Weird!
  I have been to some estate sales in dying strip malls – pop-up sales style. I like these – but prices tend to be higher.
  
  Re: online auctions – even you don’t want to scavenge for inventory, they always have great shelving/racks/tables etc. I got a great rolling retail table with folding ends, cubbies, etc from a liquidator for $30. Wee!
  
  Re: Auction talk. Love it! Also, I kind of want to run an auction concession business. I can do way better coffee and treats and lunches. I’m sure it’s not super lucrative, but seems like a fun adventure. 🙂
  - 10/17/2018 at 11:19 am #50304
    MDC Galleries & Fine Art
    Participant
    
    Location: Atlanta
    @huncrelan
    Re: bcfol440 … Well what do you know. The last sale we went two was a residential house, located at the end of a cul-de-sac street, way up on a hill. I grabbed one of her business cards then looked up her LLC on the Sec. of State site and she is listed as the owner of that house. Her listed business and location states, Reselling Service Industry with the business location stating as a non-commercial residential area. So Bingo.
    
    Wonder if you are located in the greater Atlanta Metro area and we ended up going to the same lady’s residential showroom?
    
    Her business card also says she does house staging for real estate agents. These perminent items in her showroom could easily be loaded on a truck and taken to stage a home. She may have a bunch already staged around the area and she uses this high end home as her storage unit for her inventory and periodically opens it up for an estate sale to either thin out her inventory or to sell it at such high prices that if you are one of the “sucker” customers she makes extra income. She had items marked at over $700 and $800 dollars that should be about $125 to $175 which we would like to get in the $25 range.
    
    Same concept we figured was going on at the first sale. Hundreds of people buying a few items at a time but yet no one empty space out of thousands of items.
    
    I overheard one of the floor walkers asking an antendee was going to the “Auction” next week. They said no, but where was it going to be held. The floor walker said some address where it was going to be and also said, it was a rented commercial space for the “supposedly large collection” that did not sell at the estate sale this week. So, a slam full estate house after thousands of buyers and not one empty space inside and a rented commercial space for an auction.
    
    Yes, there are professional estate sales companies, buying items, merchandising houses and or locations and calling them “estate sales”. I am just guessing but maybe the use of the term “estate” is from either the items came from real estates all around the country then trucked into these big city location, or it is bought merchandise, and the fact it is being sold in a home they can legally call it an “estate sale” or even stretch it to the point that if you buy this item it can be displayed in your current “estate” [i.e. own home].
    
    I asked a few questions to dig deeper and didn’t get any answers. i asked who the former owners were, did one spouse pass and the remaining person was down sizing, did anyone go into a nursing home, if they were collected it seemed that they collected everything and had no focus, etc., etc. but no valid response. Just generic answers, like they traveled and bout stuff.
    
    So if you are in Atlanta these two were Mary Monroe LLC and Peachtree Battle LLC. [but the pEachtree Battle was a dba of another corp. name I saw on some collateral material up on the check out desk.
    
    Just some tips for those who are hitting the highly advertised estate sales in this area.
    
    Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta.
    
    This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
- 10/17/2018 at 11:32 am #50307
  simplicio
  Participant
  Location:
  @simplicio
  J&R – just curious how your storage is holding up. How many years do you think you can source and sell at business-as-usual rates, keeping your helpers busy, before the warehouse is full?
  
  I know my airport storage, that looked huge half a year ago, is starting to feel cramped. Though I mainly need to get more shelving.
  - 10/17/2018 at 11:51 am #50316
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    We have a 26′ x 40′ building. Our current 8000 items take up half the space. We could probably fit up to 10k items in the current half of the building.
    
    The other half of the building stores furniture and supplies we use at our rentals. Its also where we unload auction buys.
    
    Never say never, but I cant see us growing to more than 10k items. I’d actually love a bigger building, but it’s more to have space for other things than eBay storage.
    - 10/17/2018 at 12:14 pm #50318
      simplicio
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @simplicio
      
      Heh, goes to show, it’s all about what you sell. My spaces are about 8’x8′ at home and 20’x20′ at the airport, so about half of yours, and I’m starting to feel the pinch a little with only 600 listings. A lot of my stuff is big and heavy.
      
      I think I can probably get to 1200 before I’m really and truly full. That’s on the horizon, but not SO far off that I can’t see it coming.
      - 10/17/2018 at 12:19 pm #50320
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        You sell big pieces of industrial equipment. That takes up a lot of space. The 20 pieces pf furniture we have for sale takes up almost as much room as 4000 small items neatly stacked in bins.
        
        Do you also have a plane or just rent a hangar? We have a small local airport where they rent big hangars for cheap (subsidized by the county) I feel our airport would not allow us to rent the hangar without a plane.
        
        10/17/2018 at 12:29 pm #50322
        
        simplicio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @simplicio
        
        It’s still 99% shippable stuff! But yes, a typical item is 1-2 ft in at least one dimension, and it adds up.
        
        I don’t have a plane, but I still managed to rent this 400 sq ft “office space” from the hangar owner. He was happy for the income as I don’t think things are very busy the past few years.
    - 10/17/2018 at 12:20 pm #50321
      MDC Galleries & Fine Art
      Participant
      
      Location: Atlanta
      @huncrelan
      
      Wow! .. That’s a whole lot in that space. Essentially a 20’x26’=520 sq. feet holding 8,000 items. But then I assume you go fairly high up to acquire cubic sq. feet.
      
      A regular 2 car garage which we are in is usually about 22×24 sq. ft. so not much smaller in flat sq. footage than the area u have allocated to Ebay inventory. We have about 1,200 items in there and on4 7 foot high shelves x 14 feet deep.
      
      We are quickly running out of room but do have some spaces on the shelves left and can do some condensing. It does help if like you, to have some items like patches, trivets, shirts, caps, etc. or smaller flatter like items, We have a lot of 12x12x12 in type of stuff, dish sets, water pitchers, bread box sized items. Don’t think we could squeeze 4,000 items in [half of your inventory] in the same 4,000 sq. feet UNLESS we start to use smaller than and flatter than a certain number as a metric and criteria for future buying.
      
      And we do have 3 isles for walking in between our rows of shelves which also takes up some sq. footage.
      
      Luckily, we have a storage center right up and around the corner from us, about 3 minutes driving if we don’t hit the two lights. So that is our back up plan when we outgrow the garage and some attic space we haven’t used yet.
      - 10/17/2018 at 12:40 pm #50324
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        I should back up a little bit. We do have a climate controlled clothes storage building that is separate. We’ve had this storage since we built our house. It holds clothes, shoes, and hats. Probably 1500 items.
        
        So let’s say we actually only have 6500 hard goods in our new storage building. We have five rows of shelving. Our ceilings are 10′ so we can stack up to 8′ using a step ladder. Most of our hard goods are knick knack size that can be stored in bins.
        
        After selling online for nine years with our inventory spread out across small buildings on different properties, this is now total luxury. Plus we have the best redneck security system with three older neighbors with eyes on our building. All these guys are well-armed They know all the cars who should be in our little area 🙂
        
        10/17/2018 at 1:03 pm #50331
        
        simplicio
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @simplicio
        
        Ah, gotcha. You’ve got the vertical dimension working for you too, which is nice. I only have 7″ ceilings.
        
        Still, seems like your items are much smaller on average which is the main factor.
        
        10/17/2018 at 2:22 pm #50350
        
        Inglewood
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @inglewood
        
        Thanks for sharing this guys – my new property has a 16′ x 40′ “garage” that really is an insulated out building with a garage door; and a pair each of 10′ x 10′ and 10′ x 12′ bedrooms and an unfinished basement (which I need to plan for adding new utilities) – probably an easy 30′ x 25′ I could use for eBay. We’re debating what to do with each area for each business we plan to have – however, I’m leaning to the basement for eBay work (would like to have a photo “studio” permanently setup to make that part easier, and I’m not sure how to heat the garage efficiently and it may have rodent access at the moment…).
        
        Right now, I tend to fit about 500-600 items easily on two 4′ shelves that have 5 tiers, each tier with two bins totaling about 7-8′ in height. I tend to stay small at my current home because of space constraints, but you numbers give me a good idea of the space I need if going for larger items, and a larger inventory.
        
        Very helpful for my situation. This would be a good chapter for a scavenger textbook – “How Much Space Do I Need For Storage”…
        
        10/17/2018 at 3:01 pm #50355
        
        T-Satt
        Participant
        
        Location:
        @t-satt
        
        Inglewood: “Very helpful for my situation. This would be a good chapter for a scavenger textbook – “How Much Space Do I Need For Storage”…”
        
        Short answer is you never feel like you have enough, yet always seem to make do with what you have… 🙂
        
        10/17/2018 at 3:10 pm #50359
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Our preference is to keep our work space totally separate from our storage space. In this way, storage space can be absolutely maximized.
        
        When our work space and storage space was combined, storage become very space inefficient.
        
        10/17/2018 at 2:56 pm #50354
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        Absolutely small items are the key.
        Currently we have:
        –14 shelving units (https://is.gd/ggmBxk)
        –each shelving unit has 4 shelves
        –each shelf hold 4 large plastic bins
        –We can fit 50+ smallish items in a plastic bin.
        
        That’s 11,200 items if it was all small stuff. But we also shelves with blenders, luggage, wooden boxes, etc.
- 10/17/2018 at 12:18 pm #50319
  SilverFoxFinds
  Participant
  Location: Virginia Beach
  @silverfoxfinds
  @bcfol440 – I hear you on the concessions! I often have similar thoughts, when hungry at a “bad food” auction, ugh.
  
  Sales are up; sold over 11 items Sat-Sun alone, making for a busy Monday morning. Is it the store sale + eBay marketing of sale items to interested buyers? Most items I put on sale had plenty of watchers. Or just going further into 4Q? I’m just happy things picked up; I needed the boost in more ways than one.
  
  Picked up some part time work with a professional organizing company, and worked my first shift this week. It’s the physical work that I like, and the people are nice. Should be really interesting to see over time how they process stuff. They do senior moves, organizing of various spaces, etc, etc. This week we packed boxes of stuff for an estate sale company to pick up, made a few bags for donation, and too many bags of trash. One of the reasons I really enjoy selling on eBay – even if just psychologically more than anything else – is keeping perfectly good stuff in rotation of use, rather than sending it to the landfill. I’ve always gotten angry when I see perfectly good furniture, etc set out with the trash, and it’s rained on. Just have a thrift store pick it up! We tossed plenty of not-high-end-estate-sale items into the trash, though I tried to divert as much as I could into the donation bags… Seems like it could potentially be a good/green business marketing niche, saving things from the landfill. Back when I worked in catering, I remember this guy in Chicago pushing his catering company to be a waste-free company, something you can certainly do with food if you plan ahead and stick to processes.
  
  Stuff, man.
  
  10/07/18 – 10/13/18
  Total Items In Store: 934
  Items Sold: 24
  Total Sales: $902.65
  Highest Price Sold: $150 Antique c1880s Improved Swedish Brass Sleigh Bells
  Average Price Sold: $37.61
  Cost of Items Sold: $65.83
  Returns/Refunds: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $226.50
  Number of Items listed this week: ~20
- 10/17/2018 at 12:52 pm #50325
  antarestar
  Participant
  Location: Maine
  @antarestar
  @SilverFoxFinds – that’s an interesting idea. Working with the local estate sale companies to take all their low end donations rather than having them thrown in the landfill. It could save them the landfill fees and the seller would get free or very inexpensive inventory. Hmmm… I like that.
- 10/17/2018 at 7:12 pm #50368
  bcfol440
  Participant
  Location:
  @bcfol440
  Mike at MDC: No, I am in Missouri! However, I wonder if this trend of houses aka showrooms and aka on occasion a sales floor will continue. Speaking of Atlanta and houses – Designing Women ladies worked out of their home. Where was the storage? 🙂 Hmmm. Love that show!
  - This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by bcfol440.
- 10/17/2018 at 7:16 pm #50370
  bcfol440
  Participant
  Location:
  @bcfol440
  Re: Storage, I have thought about my ideal off-site set up lately as I am reaching 1,000 items and brainstorming the future at some point.
  
  My dream needs (outside of storage of course) would to also have an office space (fast wifi), photo area, close to my house, packing station, “prep area” with high counters, washer dryer, and huge dumpster available to me in some way! What other goodies would be nice in your dream space for functionality and peace?
- 10/18/2018 at 9:23 am #50382
  Inglewood
  Participant
  Location:
  @inglewood
  My dream space wish list – For me, I fix a lot of electronics and clean them. Right now I use our household Dyson, but would like a special vac that I could just reach for and the hose would retract when cleaning out dust from electronics. Also, when I dismantle some very dirty equipment or equipment that was from a smoker, I usually wash the parts in the sink or dishwasher – would be nice to have a sink nearby and drying area for my parts.
  
  The cool new tech I would like is what some of the larger post offices in my area have – they have a machine that you put your parcel in, it weighs, measures, reads the address, and prints the shipping label you want for you in seconds. Would be cool to have something similar that integrates with the buyers address in eBay.
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