Scavenger Life Episode 431: Top 10+ Scavenger Life Lessons

2019-09-29 – 2019-10-05

Total Items In Store: 3278
Items Sold: 19 (18 Ebay, 1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $ 60
Total Sales: $ 694.28
Highest Price Sold: $ 100 (DVD Player Combo)
Average Price Sold: $ 36.54
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 257.6
Number of items listed: 17

Gut Sales Report for the week: Good week. Doesn’t entirely feel like the 4th quarter yet.

Challenge of the week: I have a lot of items I need to process and list.

Scavenge of the week: While I was traveling last week, I picked up this cool scrapbook at the Meadowlands in NJ: https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/help-selling-a-1940s-scrapbook/

I wasn’t able to meet up with Brian, but maybe next time.

Mark S

Great podcast – you said it, that’s a lot of philosophy summed up in a few minutes.

My own minor contribution is: be content with Good Enough when it comes to listing quality, photo quality, customer service etc. It’s important to take good photos, but going from good to great doesn’t move the needle that much & if it takes you a lot more time, it’s not worth it.

This week I am reporting numbers slightly differently. Trying to get more lined up with how my numbers are reported at tax time.

Gross sales c/w shipping income: CAD$2019, 8 items
COGS: $81, Shipping: $190, Fees: $277 –> Gross profit: $1662
Expenditures: $441 –> Cashflow: $1301
Listed: $200, 3 items
Hours: 9
Notable sales: more Panasonic battery packs for $1200. This may be my best buy this year, I’ve already made $2400 off of ~1/5th my stock of these things.

I forgot to mention that I now get to send offers to interested buyers. This started 2 weeks ago or so, and ONLY exists in the mobile app for me.

That being said – not a single thing has sold by this route, to my knowledge.

I got a business bank account over the weekend and I’m completing the process of separating my business and personal bank accounts. The LLC is registered. There are some more housekeeping things to do – for one thing, I have to work out a system for tracking GST paid and received (super annoying). But then, the GST thing should have been done even before I incorporated, I was just lazy.

Here are my numbers for the month of September:

Amount of items sold: 43
Gross Sales: 1132.61
Cost of goods sold: 112.10
Total net profit: 873.25
Average profit per item: 20.31
New items listed: 68

You can see all the items I sold and the individual numbers for each item here.

Great podcast as usual, thanks for keeping it real!

Disheartening week for me, sales were down 52% and asp was down 20%..I had slacked the prior 2 weeks before and taken some personal time and was not listing, and was also experimenting by turning promoted listings off..turned them back on and am back on track with listing..hope to have a stronger week next time..

My Store Week September 29 – October 5, 2019

Total Items in Store: 588
Items Sold: 14
Gross Sales: $939.00
Cost of Items Sold: $87.50
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $120.00 (pair of Men’s Chippewa boots)
Average Price Sold: $67.07
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $142.00
Number of items listed this week: 37

I totally agree with Jay about custom tailoring a model that conforms to your lifestyle..Know your numbers..Know how much you need to make each month to cover your bills, and live frugally! Screw the BMW! I own my 2009 Scion, cook at home, thrift my furniture, clothing, footwear, etc..Minimalism rocks!

Thanks for another great listen… Highest gross sales ever this week. New listings were down due to my full-time job getting in the way. A very encouraging week overall.

Sept 29-Oct 5
Items in Store: 609
Items sold 34
Gross Sales $699
COGS $103
Highest Price Sold $58
Average Price Sold $20.57
New Inventory Costs $153

Week of Sept 29 – Oct 5
* Total Items in Store: 1485 eBay, 3 Etsy
* Items Sold: 19
* Cost of Items Sold: $15.65 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $357.33
* Highest Price Sold: $59.50 Martha Stewart Comforter Set
* Average Price Sold: $18.80
* Returns: 2 (-$65 if returned)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $21.50
* Number of items listed this week: 44

Not a bad week, but it will suck if those two returns actually happen. Also, I went to get an item out of storage this morning, and it was broken. So, just having some bad luck.

Week Sept 29 – Oct 5, 2019

Items in store: 4418 Listings for 6294 Items
Items Sold: 97 transactions for 110 Items
Gross Sales: $7350.65
Highest Price Sold: $550 …. LVC Leather jacket, only have one left from the 14 found in January. Sad to see them run out.
Lowest Price Sold: $13.50….Pocket Square
Average Sale Price: $66.82
Cost of Goods Sold $451, Plus consignment payout, roughly $1130
Number of new items listed this week: 92 items
$$ spent on new inventory this week $500.62
Repeat Customers: 15
International: 36%

Scavenge of the week.
VTG Burberry Reversible Balmacaan Coat, Khaki and Tweed.

Picked up another consignor this week. His first box should be arriving today.

Thanks for the podcast! I enjoyed the intro. That was a good summary for new folk in particular. The line in your manifesto about building a 500-item store was one of the biggest revelations I ever got from your shows. Up to that point I assumed that people would only ever post a handful of items at a time. Doing eBay at scale was an entirely new concept for me.

Here are my numbers for the week:

Total Items in Store: 3276
Items Sold: 44
Total Sales: $1069.67
Cost of Items Sold: $153
Average Price Sold: $24.31
Average Cost of Item: $3.5
Highest Price Item Sold: $195.95 Horikawa SPACE ATTACKER 9.5″ ROBOT Space Toy 1969
Number of items listed this week: 45
YTD Sales: $38718
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +8%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 413
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 259
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 227
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.34%
Hats sold this week: 30 (68% of sales) worth $531.98 (49% of sales $)

My big sale of the week was a lucky purchase at a garage sale ($25). It went to Europe (direct, not GSP) so fingers-crossed that it arrives successfully.

I’d be interested to hear more about how it goes having someone doing your shipping for you. You mentioned it in passing. Maybe that would be a good topic for next week. Also, I bet a bunch of us would be interested in a brief update on your storefront building.

Hope everyone sells lots of trash this week.

Sept. 29 – Oct 5
Total Items in Store: 2526
Items Sold: 26
Total Sales : $701
* Below yearly average of $944
Highest Price: $116 (Vintage Pilot Map Briefcase Attache Bag)
Average Price: $27
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $88
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $18
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 42

I had a decent week of sales. It felt slow so I was pleasantly surprised when I did my numbers for the week. There’s not a lot to report… just finishing up on listing my huge flatware buyout. It’s funny, last week I mentioned that my flatware just hasn’t been selling like it used to and suddenly I get four or five sales for pieces that I’ve listed months ago.

We hit up a few yard sales this weekend. I’m amazed that they’re still going on in this area. My buy of the week came from a little garage sale of just absolute junk. I spent maybe 30 seconds looking around before heading back to the car. But then I spotted a mid century slat top teak coffee table that the owners had placed stuff for sale on top. It was obviously not meant for sale, but I inquired anyway and the lady thought about it and said $5. Heck yeah!

Hello all, and what an excellent podcast restating the eBay Scavenger basics! I could relate just about every point to specific sales last week, and many of these sales would not have been so sweet, or have even existed without the lessons learned from this podcast. Thank you.
To sum that up in a live data sort of way, and stressing the all caps words:

1. Three different PIPELINE sales from the patches, pins, and sticker categories. These items would have been long gone as large lots sold for way less money in the past. The COGS is mostly zero these days, long ago paid for.
2. A $65 BEST OFFER accepted for designer earrings that I PRICED HIGH and was more than happy to receive $65 for. Found for $5.
3. An crusty 30 Foot long fish net rope with floats sold for a best offer of $180, BIG & BULKY to be sure. Found for $20.
4. $30 for a vintage camera flash, since I decided to learn something about OTHER BRANDS like old camera stuff. Found for $1.
5. ODDBALL item sells for $25, a pair of felt letterman jacket letters, learned they were from the 1940’s with a little RESEARCH. Found for $1.
6. A so PRECIOUS to me lot of 3 old collage yearbooks sold for $50 best offer. Too bad! Found in the trash!
7. A LIST AND FORGET decanter that I hated looking at finally sold for $30 after 3 years. About $5 in it and glad to see it gone.

There is a no SWEAT SHOP feel for me since most of what I sell is older and interesting. It has been great to simply change HANDLING TIME when away. The family and I sure enjoyed a long weekend in Orlando while most of last weeks sales happened! DEATH PILES have sort life spans in my process now thanks to SL focusing on the idle energy sucking ugliness of them. The work in progress is to build that GIANT INVENTORY. If I had not gotten my store up to where it at least is now, I shudder to think of how low my prices would need to be to make any money at all. I can see where my store needs to be many times larger to get good and consistent returns week after week.

9/29 – 10/05/19 (no cross listing is done between platforms)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 865
Number of items sold: 10
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $452.42
Cost of items sold: $15
Highest price sold: $180 – old 30 foot long rope of fish floats, also another $140 s/h profit ($70 kicked back to the buyer). Found for $20.
Average price sold: $45.24
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $141.00
Number of new items listed this week: 36
Sell through rate for the week: 1.2
Number International sales: 0

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 663
Number of items sold: 7
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $118.44
Cost of items sold: $8
Highest price sold: $25.00 – Terra Sancta Guild 1960’s bookends $25, paid $3
Average price sold: $16.92
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $28
Number of new items listed this week: 6
Sell through rate for the week: 1.1
Number International sales: 0

I had my 50th Etsy sale this week! Yay! Overall, I’ve had 4 Etsy sales this past week, 2 on the same day. I’ve been adding new listings to the store everyday for the past 2 days, so I’m now up to 120 items. I’ll continue to dribble out listings when I have time and find appropriate stock for the venue.

Otherwise, I’ve been focusing on my main Ebay store. I’ve always brushed off the Q4 expectations of “omg, sales will come in right away right on October 1st because it’s Q4” other resellers have because it has NEVER been like that for my store. Well, this year has been an exception. Q4 is here EARLY this year for me, and even though I have been stocking the store since early July for it, I still don’t feel like I prepared enough. I am continuing to list as much as I can to get in as many sales as possible over the next few months.

It’s great to contribute to the podcast conversation again!

After the summer slump, my sales were pretty good for about 6 weeks. But they’ve gone down again the past couple weeks. 3 weeks ago I has several really good sales that skew my average numbers a bit. But here’s my last three week’s numbers (gross, not including what buyers paid for shipping). It’s hard to judge the cost of a lot of the items, as they are from buys and finds that have long since paid for themselves:

Current number of eBay listings: 584

The past 7 days:
(Ebay): Sold $179 ; 15 sales ; COGS $20 or less
(Facebook / Craigslist): Sold $45 ; 2 sales ; COGS $0.00

2 weeks ago:
(Ebay): $533 ; 24 sales ; COGS $50 or less
(Facebook): $35 ; 1 sale ; COGS $0.00

3 weeks ago:
(Ebay): $1,089 ; 23 sales ; COGS $50 or less

Really, really great podcast this week! I have a feeling I’ll listen to it several times. Love that it gives a rundown of the Scavenger Life high points.

I would love to chat more about “stuff that you won’t sell” in either personal specifics or generalities. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m currently dealing with a few auction lots that are completely random. Among the the items are a very old book in German with possible Nazi themes, a figurine that is reminiscent of Aunt Jemima, and some sports paraphernalia that is disrespectful of Native Americans. Heck, I’m a little worried about even researching the German book, even though it may turn out to be benign.

In the past, I’ve had a friend who had friend that collected and cataloged some of the the African American Americana items. (She is black.) And I actually like the idea of passing the articles to people that would do something useful and not against my values. I do hate the idea of trashing items that might have a use or purpose. At the same time, I realize that I can’t tell if a notebook I sold will be used to write an uplifting self-help book or to plan a bank heist. But I feel less complicit with generic items.

Is this a challenge for anyone else?

Getting back from my Ebay hiatus. I still have a couple of extra distractions but getting a break from work with a bad cold so started listing again. I had one $19 sale on an expired best offer last week – ugh.

I really like the Terapeak 12 month history. I was able to find out the brand of vintage item by seeing one new in package that had sold. I wish you could view the whole listing older than 3 months, but I’m liking it for research on the pricing.

It’s also interesting how the app has changed. I do have a delay after creating on the desktop and then trying to add pics on the app, but the photos are loading faster.

I’m sure I missed a lot this summer but I’m grateful for the podcast for keeping me somewhat in the loop on the changes with Ebay. Looks like I have an email about the new home and garden item specifics being added so will need to update listings.

Thanks Jay. oops scrolled down the message and see that the new item specifics are to be added 10/15. Confusing because it says revise now at the top.

BTW, can anyone confirm that there is NOT a way to search for your active listings that are missing item specifics? I googled and searched the forum briefly but didn’t see anything on point.

I need a cross stitch in my etsy room that says, “IF YOU ARE NOT LISTING, THEN YOU ARE JUST HOARDING”

I’ve heard jay in my head these last couple days repeating that sentence. And I start listing!!!! lol

Week of 09/29-10/05
Total Items in Store: 3,312 (Up 24% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 91
Number of Items Sold: 104 (Up 5% YOY)
(Includes 2 Etsy, 15 Poshmark, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 13% (Down 2% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,974 (Up 3% YOY)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: Up $146
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Down $58
Cost of Items Sold: $576
Cost of Labor: $229
Highest Item Sold: $70 – Vintage Polish Doll
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 23-18.

Clothing
# Listed: 1,853
# Sold: 72
STR: 16%
ASP: $26.55

Shoes
# Listed: 876
# Sold: 22
STR: 11%
ASP: $30.70

Hard Goods
# Listed: 583
# Sold: 10
STR: 7%
ASP: $38.80

EBay
# Listed: 3,312
# Sold: 87
STR: 11%
ASP: $26.79

Etsy
# Listed: 212
# Sold: 2
STR: 4%
ASP: $44.36

Poshmark
# Listed: 915
# Sold: 15
STR: 7%
ASP: $37.00

Going to be some changes in our lives. I picked up a new accounting gig late last week, and it looks like it may become full time. Going to have to change our ebay business around to accommodate. Lots of changes in our world these days…

Great episode! I listened it to it more than once.

My line in the sand is I won’t sell fur. But I’ll sell leather. I don’t know why one seems so much worse to me than the other.

One of my scavenging rules is Always Be Scavenging (Hoarders should ignore this advice). Anytime I’m in a store I always check the clearance section for items to flip. I’ve sold stuff that I found washed up on the beach. I’ve dug brand new pepsi lapel pins out of the trash after my boss threw them away. I just sold a PBS television lapel pin that was being handed out free at the State Fair this summer. Even my husband who doesn’t resell brought me a Louis Vuitton luggage tag that he found on the ground in a parking lot. I sold it for $25. I was so proud of him.

Great podcast. You both have a way of making me laugh. It’s great. So I have never posted numbers in part because I’m still figuring things out myself. I do numbers, but just in a different way, not weekly. My numbers are monthly, so I’ll post something here:

Store size: about 2 months ago I went from a basic store which is 250 fixed price listings per month to a premium store, which is 1000 fixed price listings per month. I’m still working my way up to 1000 listings, right now I have around 460 or so things listed at all times. I’m trying to get to 500, but I’ll hopefully soon be closer to 750 or so.

Monthly sales: My month is based on when the store subscription goes in, so starts on the 15th and ends on the 14th of the next month.

From 8/15 to 9/14 I made $1380 in sales after fees and shipping. Gross sales including fees and shipping was $2100.

Total items sold: 71 things

Average price per item: 19.50

I sold several things over 100 this month, which is rare but good when it happens. Sold an IU football to a guy who played in the game for $75, a cracker barrel IU rocker for $100, a dynamometer which was at a thrift store for $5 for $125, and a set of Ping Zing blonde woods that I bought at the salvation army for $10 and sold for $125. Other things were just the random collection of dolls, game consoles, china, and art, all around $20-30 each. The X-box went for $60, but maybe that was last month. All in all a fun month, nothing horrible to pack.

I love the list it and forget it idea. It was something I was doing, but it’s great to hear how well it works, and I’m constantly reminded of it, as this month I sold a lot of things that I listed over a year ago and totally forgot I even had. Most of the list it and forget it things that sell are items that go full price randomly during the middle of the night, around 2-3 am (hmm, after bar time, wonder what that means).

I’ve had some luck this month with offers. I’ve been more aggressive with them, using the offer button both on the website and through the app. I’ve had people counter my offers, and sometimes I take them, sometimes I counter back, and in many cases it works and the thing sells.

I’m constantly amazed that people pay me to clean my basement. I love it.

So I’ve noticed going from 250 items to 1000 (450 now) items my revenue has gone up, as one would expect. I’m guessing as I get closer to my limit that things will continue to improve.
For me, this has been a big experiment to determine if I can retire early. And by retiring I mean quit my day job and do eBay full time. I still have my day job, and do eBay on the side, so it’s slow expanding, but it does happen. Right now I’m not sourcing too much, and when I do it’s amazingly cheap as I’m going to local garage sales, finding things for $1 or less and selling them for $20-30, sometimes more.

One thing I’ve learned from all the podcasts, if you don’t want to sell it whole, take it apart and sell piece by piece. You’ll almost always make more money, and it’s much easier to ship. It sounds scary to take a working thing apart, but really, in the end it’s much easier to deal with, and it will lead to greater profit. Having a bigger store gives me that luxury.

Thanks again for everything. Love the podcast and the community. It’s lots of fun. Take care all.

Hi,

I really enjoyed this “summary” podcast! good stuff!

I like the whole list apart from the “silent method” which I don’t agree with. You have explained it multiple times and I understand why you do it but I think customer service simply is part of running a store. If you have a brick and mortar store you also can have difficult clients and you also have to talk to them. The fact that Ebay based on facts will support your method does not make it a good customer friendly method in my opinion. I also think that you run a higher risk on getting bad or neutral feedback which you could prevent by giving customer service. Don’t get me wrong I get my fair share of crazy customers and there is a line after which I don’t communicate but I think that not answering a customer which sends a long message or is really annoying is a good practice. I truly believe in the phrase “customer is king”.

Wondering what other listeners think about the “silent method” and if the use.

Best regards,
Alex
Netherlands

Extra good podcast this week! I have learned a lot from you guys and continue to learn and refine my methods! Last week I went to a sale and was poking around in a cabinet and found an 8mm porn stash. We will sell anything, so I picked 4 reels that either had naked folks on the front of the box or on a sleeve inside. I arranged them so that the unmarked ones were on the top in order to avoid embarrassment at check out. Well that did not work at all. I brought up my pile and was holding up each item so the cashier could tally them, held up the reels and all of a sudden they want to take a closer look :/ Called a fellow worker over so they could both take a much closer look… They had a good laugh, told me “don’t be embarrassed” and then probably upped the price because naked people.

I probably paid too much at 5 each but I blame the embarrassment. Looks like I should be able to get 40 or 50 for the lot if I am patient.

Items in Store 1239
Items Sold 24
Total Sales $690.00
COGS $65.00
Total Profit $625.00
Average profit $26.04
Average sales price $28.75
New Listings 4

Just got back in town from a day job business trip this week. I scheduled some training in a city we normally go to for weekend getaways and ebay sourcing trips, so it was a multi-faceted trip. We also homeschool, so my wife and children came along (as well as grandma to watch kids for date night). It is so much fun to be able to bring my family on work trips.

Had a great time. Took my wife to an authentic hot pot restaurant and milk tea shop for the first time (my wife is obsessed with asian tv shows on Netflix).

I did some sourcing too – the highlight was a brooks brothers fur lined trench coat.

Still sold plenty of stuff with extended handling time. Now I’m looking forward to getting back to listing

Really want to echo Ryanne comments about how “checking the solds” is what allows her to build a business. And, it ties right to the “you are not your customer.”

When we are dealing with all this random stuff, how else would I know what a book autographed by Bob Dole would be worth versus a book autographed by Jimmy Carter. Or which LEGO sets are more sought after.

Looking at my last 31 days of sales on Ebay, there are probably 3-5 items that I would have known how to price. One item was new, so I based my prices off of retail. Those “sold” listings give me that confidence to go with a price and not fret too much about loosing out on decent profits.