Scavenger Life Episode 386: Is it Buying Season Yet?

November 11-17, 2018
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,466
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $548.84
Cost of Items Sold: $138.25
Highest Price Sold: $104.99 (men’s watch)
Average Price Sold: $32.28
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $117.84
Number of items listed this week: 55

Store 2
Total Items in Store: 541
Items Sold: 5
Gross Sales: $61.56
Cost of Items Sold: $3.12
Highest Price Sold: $26.39 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $12.31
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $681.00
Number of items listed this week: 17

Amazon.ca sales: $255.20 (Approx $63.80 net profit)
Amazon.com sale: $459.00 (Approx $114.75 net profit)

Pretty average week for us, maybe slightly above average. Listing pretty hard on the weekends, and a few things each weekday evening.

Bought a BIG collection of vintage patches this week, so those will sustain our second store for quite some time.

Been buying lots of bread and butter items for the main store recently, with a few great items mixed in. Starting to slowly list some of the inventory from our antique selling side business. As we get closer to moving in the new year, I’m wanting to move those items out. Many of them are higher dollar, so may not sell quickly, but they’ll go eventually.

Decent week on Amazon in both Canada and the US. Retail arbitrage toys/etc are starting to fly, and the replenishable items keep chugging along.

2018-11-11 – 2018-11-17

Total Items In Store: 2545
Items Sold: 21
Cost of Items Sold: $60.00
Total Sales: $599.26
Highest Price Sold: $99.99 (Vintage Matchbox)
Average Price Sold: $28.54
$ Listed $103.97
# Items Listed: 3
ASP $ Listed $34.66
Money Spent on New Inventory: $50

Didn’t have much time to list. My mom is having health issues and that took up a lot of time this week. Also, went hunting this past weekend. I did manage to pick up 1 nice item while hunting up North Michigan.

Gut Sales Report for the week: Started out slow, but ended strong. Feels like the busy season is starting.

Challenge of the week: Still trying to get my basement cleaned up and organized the way I want it to be.

Scavenge of the week: Union Made in USA Burberrys’ Mens Suit

Game of the week\season: Michigan – Go Blue! Expecting a victory down in Columbus this coming weekend.

Mark S

My Store Week Nov 11-17, 2018

Total Items in Store: 1106
Items Sold: 16
Gross Sales: $358.03
Cost of Items Sold: $32
Highest Price Sold: $44.95 (Allen Edmonds Shoes – sold cheap b/c they needed a heel repair)
ASP: $22.38
STR: 6.2%
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5
Number of items listed this week: 6

Well, it has been a pretty average week with lots of lower dollar sales items. I will be listing less going into Christmas as we are very busy at home and I have decided I want to sell off some of my older less desirable inventory (will probably throw up a low priced daily auction) to boost my STR and next year will focus on better quality over quantity. I am still recovering from the “early days” when I first discovered the Goodwill Outlet Bins and I would literally be throwing anything and everything into my cart in order to hit the “35 lb. limit” when our price drops from $.79 cents to $.59 cents a pound. A lot of that stuff is pure junk… and has been sitting in my inventory since 2015 (yet STILL sells.. everything sells!). I am MUCH MUCH more selective now and don’t mind stopping into a thrift store on my way running errands and only walking out of the store with one $50-$100 item or even nothing if there is nothing good to be found.

I sold 2 items from the “send best offer to watchers” this past week and they both paid!

I had one “issue” an antique geological booklet simply went missing.. I dropped it off at the post office in the big package delivery drop (Get to skip the line this way.) Well, 15 days later no scan and no trace of that package. It is the ONE and ONLY label that I had printed off with the new eBay shipping label page… so hmmmm … hopefully that has nothing to do with this. I’m going to have to refund my buyer.

Great news is that after all this time with limited or no GSP sales, I had 4 International Sales this week, through GSP, so something has “kicked in” for me. Glad that is picking up.

And last but not least, I sold my shell cordovans that I bought last week last night so a good start for this week for sure. All of my Alden Shoes (Smaller Sizes 8 and 8.5) have been getting many offers and bids all from Japanese buyers – so maybe it makes sense to end auctions for Asian time Sunday night whenever that may be. It has definitely been a trend for me for this brand so just thought I would mention it.

Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Feels like there may be room for a subforum about the running-a-business part of this. I would probably post there some. The real ebay inside baseball doesn’t interest me that much but I always like to talk about numbers, cashflow, financing etc.

I had a slow week too apart from one great sale. It really doesn’t feel like the holidays are going to be a big deal for me… kind of expected that because my stuff’s not too seasonal. Oh well, slow and steady.

Sales: CAD$1030, 7 items (avg $147/item), COGS: $151 –> Item profit: $722
Expenditures: $147 –> Cashflow after taxes: $538
Listed: $215, 2 items
Hours: 3, $180/hr
Notable sales: last week I bought a box of 7 toners for $10. I’ve now sold 6 of them for a total of $662. I like this sale for being a good flip in both % and $ terms.
Scavenging: bought a constant pressure pump for $50 on Wednesday at auction, sold for $175 today (so not included in totals above). Also bought a big lot of flame resistant PPE thingies for $100 + shipping, waiting to have it delivered to me by the auction house. I think I figured it to be worth $2000 on paper. It’ll be a “pipeline” as you guys say.

I am trying an experiment to try to move more stuff. I relisted my entire store, and I dropped all prices by 20% with a $30 floor. So, we’ll see what comes of it. So far, not a whole lot.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by simplicio.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by simplicio.

Week of 11/11-11/17
Total Items in Store: 2,747 (Up 62% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 99
Number of Items Sold: 101 (Down 16% YOY)
(Includes 4 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 1 TrueGether, 0 Poshmark)
Weekly STR: 16% (Down 14% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,969 (Down 14% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $600
Highest Item Sold: $100 – Corral Vintage Lizard Brown Inlay Cowboy Boots
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 27-19 (that officially means she won for the year…again…  )

Clothing
# Listed: 1,692
# Sold: 61
STR: 15%
ASP: $27.18

Shoes
# Listed: 442
# Sold: 17
STR: 16%
ASP: $37.16

Hard Goods
# Listed: 613
# Sold: 19
STR: 13%
ASP: $29.57

Etsy
# Listed: 172
# Sold: 4
STR: 10%
ASP: $38.63

Poshmark
# Listed: 89
# Sold: 0
STR: 0%
ASP: $0

Much calmer week, Veronica back at home and mostly back to health. Surgery date set for December 11…

Solid week (though interestingly DOWN from last year), and seeing Etsy sales get stronger. First week we haven’t made a sale on Poshmark, but Bonanza and TrueGether show up. Gotta love retail…

Gonna grind out some listings this week before Turkey Day. Our oldest son is home from college and brought his girlfriend (Love Her!), though his Jeep didn’t make it. Alternator conked out about 2 hours from here on Friday night, so we will plan to pick it up on Saturday when he goes back.

Nov 11-19
Total Items in Store: 1956
Items Sold: 23
Total Sales : $1132
* above yearly average of $830
* above 2017 total week sales of $620
Highest Price: $230 (Drake Ham Radio Power Supply and Speaker Combo)
Average Price: $49
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $75
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 68

Good numbers again this week. And I’m finally feeling better after this two week long cold that’s been plaguing my life. Nothing worse than sickness. I went on a crazy listing spree on Saturday since I didn’t have any plans or chores for the first time in a long while.

I’ve been wanting to build an elevated packing peanut dispenser too! My basement ceiling might not be tall enough though, but I’ve seen YouTube videos of how they’re made.

No scavenging this week. We had a chance to go to a couple auctions, but the weather has been so miserable that we decided to just stay home.

Fun quick podcast today, welcome back! Can’t wait to hear next week if sales have picked up for more people. I’ve have back to back above average weeks, but nothing has gone crazy yet.

Week November 11-17, 2018

Total Items in Store: 950
Items Sold: 20 (3 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $160 (20% of sales)
Total Sales: $778.99
Highest Price Sold: $90 (1965 Midge Barbie https://www.ebay.com/itm/202075710702)
Average Price Sold: $38.95
Returns: 0 (1 item not received that I’m dealing with)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $287.83 (36.9% of total sales), $15.83 fees (5.5% of sales)

Above average sales volume, average price, appropriate COGS range and Sunday also kicked off next week’s numbers with a solid 5 sales. Similar to you, I sometimes wonder how I can do this and why someone is paying me $40 for a lock (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202070590253), $20 for golf balls I paid $1 for at a yard sale (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202349188516), but get excited when I find NIB Legos (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202028252495). And then I look at my Paypal account and don’t care why they’re buying as long as they keep doing it.

Office job is closed on Wednesday, so hope to get a handful of things listed before headed to visit for the holiday. I’m sure I’ll be running around doing laundry, packing, etc, but need to find time – I have about 10 things to list that I want to be up in preparation for the buying weekend.

Total Items in Store: 349, About 25 Mercari
Items Sold: 8 Ebay, 3 Mercari, 2 Facebook
Gross Sales: $586 Ebay, $93 Mercari, $40 Facebook
Cost of Items Sold: $236 + $44 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: Ebay, $355 (New bedding set, paid $150 summer clearance)
Average Price Sold: $73 Ebay, $31 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150 (RA, 3 item set) + about $80 at indy thrift xmas boutique
Number of items listed this week: 18 Ebay, 4 Mercari

Felt busier on Ebay this week. Mostly some of my remaining RA items selling this week so kind of a high COGS and shipping. I’m still loving Mercari. I haven’t gotten to listing vintage there, but will try. It’s so fast and simple to list or cross post and I encourage others to give it a spin for bread and butter items. I don’t think it would take enough time to significantly limit your activity on other sites. Plus there is no social media sharing required and the promotion feature and Google treatment is great.

I haven’t been shopping lately, but indulged a bit this week. My favorite indy thrift has a special Christmas sale. They hold back new in box items, toys, and holiday items all year. It’s always fun and prices are higher than their regular prices, but I find gifts and a few nice things to resell.

Got to pay free shipping & return this week for the first time. Buyer mistakenly thought they would get $200 extra worth of item included. What? So, that didn’t feel really great to pay shipping both ways on a PFRE. But at least she didn’t lie about the reason and blame me.

I only have 5 items stuck in the make offers to buyers. I can’t seem to get any new ones. None of them sold. I’m still lowering prices on items in carts only. That’s produced spotty results.

Also a quick warning to my friends with the 1% promoted test and others. If you revise the item, Ebay sticks in a high percentage – above trending! – and you have to manually lower it again.

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hi everyone! I didn’t get a chance to post my numbers last week so I’m going to post this week and last below.

This week:
Total Items in Store: 696
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $243.63
Cost of Items Sold: $9.75
Highest Price Sold: $59.99 (Pair of used Nike Air Force Ones I bought at Goodwill for $6.41)
Average Price Sold: $18.74
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 19

Last week
Total Items in Store: 689
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $318.15
Cost of Items Sold: $10.28
Highest Price Sold: $49.99 (Tie between two items: Vintage Soundesign cabinet speakers and a Brother sewing machine with carrying case)
Average Price Sold: $21.21
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $34.29
Number of items listed this week: 20

I was pretty worried about sales this past week. I did not get a single sale on Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday more than made up for it. Right now I’m working on getting all of my death piles cleared out and posted. The goal is to have everything up before Christmas. Even if nothing sells, it will be posted and in the pipeline for the future.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Nick.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Nick.

11/11 – 11/17/18

eBay store totommyto

Total store items: 650
Number of items sold: 13 (0 international)
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $501.25
Cost of items sold: $20
Consignment payouts $15
Highest price sold: $72.50 – 24″ Baby Crissy vintage Doll
Average price sold: $38.55
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $0
Number of items listed this week: 15
Sell through rate for the week: 2

Etsy store Oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 646
Number of items sold: 5 (0 international)
Total Etsy sales ( not counting s/h): $73.50
Cost of items sold: $6.50
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: Two items sold at $20 each – old stapler & tourist ash tray
Average price sold: $14.70
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 2
Sell through rate for the week: 0.8

Here’s a healthy sale price on a double handful of cheap (but cool) plastic hair barrettes from the mid 1980’s:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Barrettes-Lot-Girls-Hair-Clips-TRUE-1980s-plastic-animals-shapes-colors/253970069642?hash=item3b21cbb88a:g:6SgAAOSwm3lb4z~A

Items in Store 1069
Items Sold 14
Total Sales $718.75
COGS $51.25
Total Profit $667.50
Average profit $47.68
Average sales price $51.34
New Listings 29

My week was boosted by 3 big ticket sales over $100. I can’t recall ever selling 3 big ticket items in one week. I can see why J&R really love having multiple big ticket sales every week. I could get used to that!

I got plenty of listing done.
One item I was working on yesterday was another copy of a HeroQuest board game. I sold one 99% complete a few months ago for $160. This one is mostly complete as well, but the part missing is a large cardboard piece that goes in the box – the armory store. That bugged me, so instead I decided to part the game out. I was thinking off the top of my head $250 or so in profit parting out. Then I started meandering aimlessly on ebay checking random prices of parts to gauge my decision, trying to decide how far to break down the game in lots.

It became apparent I was being very inefficient with my time, so I made a plan. I created a spreadsheet and listed all the individual lots I planned on selling. This gave me a clear path to execute my task. I used the spreadsheet to set my lots, set my price, set whether I’d use free or calculated shipping, and noted if I had created a draft or not with sell similar as I went.

This made the work SOOOO much easier and quicker having a plan like that – it stopped my paralysis by analysis dead in its tracks.

In the end I have 28 individual listings, for a total listed price of right at $500! My final profit should be over $300, taking into consideration the free shipping on many of the listings. Parts for this game tend to turn over fairly quick, so I should be able to sell a few lots a week. I think it will all be gone within 6 months.

Total Items In Store: 446
Items Sold: 2
Total Sales: $145

Highest Price Sold: $120 Pottery Barn Down Duvet Insert I thought I had bought a comforter. When I finally dug it out of the death pile it turned out to be duvet+duvet cover Listed both of them. I think I could have eventually got the full 150, but the week was so slow. Cash in AND space in the closet is a good thing
Average Price Sold: $75

Coolest sale: A handful of misc mid century tourist brochures and maps from Seville, Spain for $25. Paid $1 for a box of ephemera and am slowly selling a bunch of weird stuff. I think the picture sold this. The map would look great framed for decoration
# Items Listed: 11
Money Spent on New Inventory: $25

Challenge of the week: Getting rid of the listed and unlisted junk stuff. Have way too much Chico’s Ann Taylor, mugs, ties, caps…. Probably will try $4.99 or $2.99 Auctions I want my closets/rooms back

Scavenge of the week: Browning Dirty Bird Wicked Wing Jacket with a rip for $5

Game of the week\season: UCF heading for a record breaking 2 unbeaten seasons

Did you catch the numbers? I did not included the cancellation and the slow hasn’t-cleared Paypal echeck items in my sales list. 2 items sold! Previous years at this time I was averaging at least 1 item a day in November. In previous years I only had 2/3 or 1/2 the listings that I have now. And my listings are better stuff now than the 3 year old stuff. Thankful for the duvet sale, but a little nervous

Week of Nov 11 – 17
* Total Items in Store: 1258 eBay, 11 Mercari
* Items Sold: 13 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $14.32 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $263.07 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $34 Book on US patents from 1857
* Average Price Sold: $20.24
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5.75
* Number of items listed this week: 42

I still feel that sales are slow. One of the topics in the forums is about promoted listings and how more sellers are using them now that they show up on your active listings page. I’m thinking to add PL to my older stuff to see if that spurs sales or not.

With the holidays around the corner, the bidding at auctions is much more competitive. This will go on through February or so based on my experience from last year. I was at an auction on Thursday. All the stuff I was interested in was selling too high. I bought one box lot of books for $5. We had an early snow storm that day which ended up being worse than they predicted. After looking out the window a few times, I decided to leave with only the one box.

Once I got home (and it did take about two times longer than normal), I looked through the box in more detail. At the bottom were two Sears catalogs from 1970 and 1973. The one from 1973 is in very good condition and, OMG, the fashion! The bell bottoms! I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to list it this week, but we will see.

I don’t think that the 1970 catalog had quite the fashion as 1973, but I didn’t get as good of a look at it. Someone had pressed fern leaves every few pages, which warped the book somewhat. I’m not sure if I should sell it with the fern leaves or not. My mother says yes, I’m thinking no.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Sharyn.

27 eBay packages mailed this week
48 local sales via Facebook Market Place (it’s been HOT the last two weeks)
4 local sales via OfferUp
4 mailed items via Facebook Market Place

Scavenge of the week: I found a shoulder mount 10 point deer in a trash container and sold it locally for $120. Can’t believe someone threw it away, it was well made and a very stately looking buck.
Also got a Big Leboowski sweater at an auction for $7. Second one I’ve score this year at this auction. I think the others don’t really understand the value.

Nov 11-17

Items in Ebay Store: 691
Sold items: 27
Sales: $748.76
COGs: $37.50
Consignment payout: $78.15

Mercari items: 550
Sold: 2
Sales: $45 (lot of Little People 70s vehicles and a musical Nightmare before Xmas Jack Skellington doll)
COGs: $1

Poshmark items: 270
Sold: 2
Sales: $117.60 (VS vintage 80s negligee set and a pair of Tod’s loafers)
COGs: $7

My highest sales were on ebay: vintage wool toggle coat for men of the English brand “Gloverall” for $125, that was $1 at a Florida estate sale; a USMC dress blue jacket for $99, that I paid $3 for at a charity thrift; a vintage Belgian wool blanket (full) for $78.61; and 6 dishes for $100.10. The dinner plates were from the vintage “Atomic Starburst” collection by Franciscan.

It does take time to “share” on Poshmark and to list items on Mercari. I do those things at the gym usually when sitting on the bike for 30 minutes. If I had the space for a treadmill-desk in my house to walk and have a computer, that’d be awesome.

T-Satt, I had the same operation in June as your wife is scheduled, and my advice is to listen to the advice to rest. She can sit and copy listings from ebay to Mercari/Posh all on her phone and still be working, and don’t let her lift heavy things!

Mercari is pretty basic, but that basic-ness drives me a bit batty honestly. I haven’t found a way to easily locate items and “deactivate” them when I have sold the same item on Posh or Ebay; on Mercari I scroll through my items on my phone or do the “find” feature on the desktop of 50 items a page. There isn’t a “search your listings” feature. That’s my only complaint and hopefully I can find the answer soon.

Just an FYI – Canada is not accepting parcels from the U.S. or other countries at this time via Canada Post (through USPS). Canada Post employees are on rotating strikes (and have been for weeks) and the backlog has reached the point where they have trailers taking up parking lots waiting to be sorted.

eBay has even written the Prime Minister to force employees back to work, which I expect may happen through legislation this week as many retailers are complaining about shipping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as the holiday season.

eBay is fully aware of the situation, and is working with sellers who have parcels stuck in the system (either in Canada or the originating country) to prevent any items not received issues or to reverse negative feedbacks related to the strike.

What situations do others not use “Immediate Payment Required” when selling Buy It Now items?

For myself, the only times I don’t use the immediate payment required is on related items where I think someone will want to buy multiple items, and the shipping would be combined (and therefore need to be adjusted). Examples I recently had that are like this are related magazines (where a collector may want to pick and choose which ones they want) and a bunch of vintage tennis racquets where buyers wanted to choose several for one shipping cost. Both these situations had multiple buyers buy multiple items and they paid almost immediately after getting updated invoices.

Just curious if other situations beyond those forced by eBay where someone wouldn’t use immediate payment when selling BIN?

I convinced my very mild mannered parents to watch that movie a few years ago. They thought it was hilarious and giggled the whole way through. My brother was shocked and horrified, as if I had sullied them or something. Not sure what his problem was.

Store Week: November 11-17, 2018

Total items in store: 1825
Items sold: 33
Cost of items sold: $39.14
Total sales: $1043.54
Highest price sold: $180.00 (16 vintage drawer pulls)
Average price sold: $31.62
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: 0

It was another pretty strong week for me. The first part of the week was amazing, and I’m sure the long weekend probably helped.

Like you said, I don’t think Black Friday is any big deal on eBay, but it’s definitely a good time to get some deals in the stores. This year a lot of the prices are good ahead of time, which I love because I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving, making people work the holiday so people can save a few bucks. As a LONG time retail worker, please don’t shop on Thanksgiving, folks! (Unless it’s on eBay, of course!)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

eBay (and Amazon) released digital toy catalogs to drum of interest in the holiday season. While I don’t think it will really impact individual sellers, I think it is cool because it reminds of the the Sears Wish Book from when I was a kid.
Here is the link:
https://static.ebayinc.com/assets/Uploads/Ad-Scans/Toybook-2018.pdf

Thanks Ryanne! Appreciate it.
Caren

Just about to listen to the podcast. Pretty excited for Thanksgiving — easily my favorite holiday. P

11/11/18-11/17/18
Total items in store (beginning of week): 491
Items sold: 5
30 day sell through (rate): 4.34%
Total Sales: (no shipping): 147.99
Average price: $29.60
Cost of items sold: $11.69
Average cost per item: $2.34
Gross profit: $136.30
Highest item sold / best sale: Chrome Mid Century Modern Table Legs – sold $69.00, paid 0
New items listed: 12

Nov 11-18
Store: 1000
Sales: 25, $627
Facebook Local: $50 wall art
COGS: $80
Highest sale: Sundance Catalog sweater $45

STRATEGY: Back to my daily listing goals. I need to stay on track or I fall off track. Killing the death piles – I only have about 25 items always on deck. Donated / threw away damaged items from Bins I got.

I have been accepting offers like crazy. I want to move this old clothing to make room for better buys.

Is Mercury in retrograde? I had problems this week:
1. pulled a damaged item, partial refund to buyer in advance.
2. first NEUTRAL feedback ever
3. Item Missing – cancelation (my fault). Unresponsive buyer.
4. 2 “fit” issues returns.

November 11-17, 2018

Total Items in Store: 3,332
Items Sold: 103
Gross Sales: $1,075.09
Cost of Items Sold: ($49.67)
Consignor Commission: $391.13
Highest Price Sold: $39.91 (evening gown)
Average Price Sold: $10.43
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5
Number of items listed this week: 150

I am working toward liquidating some of our lower priced inventory, and
increasing the average price of item sold.
The challenge is that we do consignment, and don’t always have a say
over what is coming into inventory.
This was a fairly average week for us, nothing extraordinary to report.
Lots of death piles, but we are not taking any new consignments until the new year.

Had some high dollar sales, but things are slow. Definitely selling fewer items per week/per day.

Trying to list the last of the Christmas items I have, and they are time consuming. This morning I put together a vintage tinsel tree, and am hoping I’m not too late (and with too much competition) to get a solid sale from it! Almost through all the glass ornaments I have, them back to listing non seasonal stuffs.

11/11/18 – 11/17/18
Total Items In Store: 950
Items Sold: 14
Sales: $802.38
Highest Price Sold: $175 – c1890s Seth Thomas Oak Schoolhouse Regulator Wall Clock 12″
Average Price Sold: $57.31
Cost of Items Sold: $101.50
Returns/Refunds: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $43
Number of Items listed this week: ~25

Hi Jay, I am not sure if I am replying to your question correctly, but . . .

What are your rules for taking consignment? We basically consign items that have resale value. Clothing furniture and home goods.
Across the board, we earn 60% of sales price (consignors get 40%), the consignment period is 60 days, after that items become our inventory (with a few exceptions).

–Minimum selling price? Generally items should have an over $19 resale value. Sometimes we take lower end if it is small, and easy to ship. We have charity accounts so we tend to be more flexible with these and the split for charity is 50/50.

These are the basics, and we are always refining . . .it is our goal to sell within 60 days for the consignor, but after that unsold items can become longtail for us. We did start with a brick and mortar and we are all online now.

Oh these are good questions! I started as a consignment store (mostly because I didn’t have to put any $ up for inventory), so I just continued on that way because the business was already in place. I do scavenge a bit, but I am not really into sourcing, much better for items to come to me, but that is a personal choice!
Items become our property after 60 days, so if they sell after consignment period we receive 100% .Most of our consignors have been with us for years. Our niche is we provide a service for people who do not want to sell online, and just want to hand it off and trust that we will inspect, sort, price, photo, and do our best to sell their items.
It is a hard business. It is hard to deal with consignors, we are selective about who we will consign for because trust goes both ways. I don’t know that I would do consignment if I hadn’t started in a brick and mortar that way. It has some interesting challenges.

I haven’t been able to get the link to work for the make offers to buyers, I have tried a few different ways and times, anyone else not able to see or use it? Thanks!

The link didn’t work for me either at first, but it worked after refreshing the page a few times. It seems like a very glitchy system.

I sent out over 100 offers to buyers today. Let’s see what happens!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! It’s been a crazy busy couple of weeks, but I have managed to squeeze in eBay here and there. My office is back to looking like a bad episode of hoarders. Two of my daughters dumped stuff on me to sell (one just bought her first house) and I went overboard at an online auction. It’s going to be a quiet Thanksgiving so I am hoping to have a listing marathon this weekend. The first week of November went great and I thought here we go….but then things slowed down again. That being said, I can handle slow, as long as things keep going out the door! Here are my numbers for the good week and the slow week. Jury is still out on this week!

Nov. 4-11
Total sales. $269.33
# sold. 22
Avg. sold. $12.24
# listed. 23
# in store. 1102
Returns. 0
COGS. $13.31
$ spent on new. $22.76
Highest sales $49.99 Vtg Hakata Urasaki Washable Doll, $39.99 book Beethoven Klaviersonaten Band I

Nov. 12-17
Total sales. $108.20 (1 Bonanza)
# sold 9
Avg. sale. $12.02
# listed. 20
# in store. 1106
Returns. 0
COGS. $5
$ spent on new. $25.00
Highest sale. $26.00 Waterman fountain pen

So my numbers are slightly inflated this week as i realize as i write this that my cast iron legs had ‘free shipping’ in them — so my actual numbers have a 20 something shipping cost… Lately i have been trending towards the “free shipping” — the goal being to actually sell for a higher price. Anyway, i should change the way i report my numbers to myself and the forum to make sure i do not have inflated dollar amounts

Hit some nice sales this week and did a good job listing. Have some more nice ticket items to post this week as well. Nice podcast this week — i think starting out as an internet business as a base and then going to retail potentially as it makes sense is the new normal. If you do go ahead with it i am looking forward to following your venture.

11/18/18-11/24/18
Total items in store (beginning of week): 505
Items sold: 6
30 day sell through (rate): 5.25%
Total Sales: (no shipping): 419.94
Average price: $69.99
Cost of items sold: $62.67
Average cost per item: $10.45
Gross profit: $357.27
Highest item sold / best sale: Cast Iron Industrial Table Legs – sold 195 paid 20.00
New items listed: 42