Scavenger Life Episode 488: Remember When Life Was Boring?

Items in Store    1499

Items Sold           34

Total Sales          $1,354.00

COGS    $139.00

Total Profit         $1,215.00

Average profit   $35.74

Average sales price          $39.82

New Listings       39

Last weekend, I was dangerously out of space in my inventory building. I took an hour and reorganized and magically I had plenty of space. Yesterday I was dangerously out of space in the garage/office. I spent an hour or two cleaning and organizing and magically I have a TON of space.

The lesson learned: STAY ORGANIZED!!!!

Sales were excellent this week – no slowdown here. I do have one sale that is concerning. I have a large paper shredder that is listed pickup only, with a description that says customer can arrange their own shipping. After I accepted their offer I messaged them to arrange shipping – no response. Then yesterday they paid. I messaged again, still no response. I’m hoping it is just a weekend thing and that they will contact me today once they are “back in the office”.  I REALLY want that thing gone – I took a significantly lower offer than list price.

I’m having trouble finding time to work on listing since the time change. Typically on the weekend I wake up at around 6-6:30 and my family doesn’t wake up until around 9. This is the bulk of my listing time each week. Since the time change, I have been sleeping in until 8 on weekends and most of the family is awake BEFORE me! So instead of working for a few hours I’m rolling right into cooking breakfast. We’ll get this thing sorted out eventually.

Next week I’m off from work, but we decided not to book another vacation due to the uncertainty of increased virus going on. At any time states are gonna start locking back down. around here we joke that they’ll wait to lock down until High School football season is over. We’d love to go to columbus to see the Zoo lights, but that will have to be a last minute decision.

Either way, I’ll have plenty of time to get some serious listing done.

Good week on ebay, and I got some good stuff at auction, though not as much as I had hoped.

Sales: CAD$3201, 14 sales, COGS: $599, Fees: ~$456, Postage: $272 –> Gross profit: $1875

Expenses: $413, New inventory: $673 –> Cashflow: $1388

Decided to forgo ebay scavenging this weekend and went out grouse hunting in the mountains with some friends. Hopefully this week won’t be too crazy and I’ll have some time in the evenings to find new inventory.

Notes: Applying for less money / less stress job at company. Would be more time w/ family. Cut a lot of expenses. Maybe more time w/ eBay and other money-making opportunities.

Total Items For Sale: 52

Profit: $37.71

Items Sold: 2

Items Listed: 1

Average Profit: $18.86

Highest Profit: Ralph Lauren Vintage Men’s Corduroy Pants: $21.03

Cost of Items Sold: $0

Returns: 0

$ Spent Sourcing: $0

Nov 8 – 14

• Total Items in Store: 4,043
• Items Sold: 30
• Total Sales :  $1,308
  • * ABOVE yearly average of $1,026
• Highest Price:  $280 (New Fluke 179 Digital Multimeter)
• Average Price:  $44
• Returns:  0
• Cost of Goods Sold:  $57
• Costs of Goods Purchased this Week:  $60
• Number of New Items Listed this Week: 56

Another decent week of sales here on my end. I’ve been selling a lot of somewhat higher dollar items lately. And bulkier sized ones too! I’ve been utilizing FedEx a lot more recently. The price difference for large boxes is insane compared to USPS. Up until recently, we’ve had to take our FedEx packages over to the next town over 15 minutes away, but about a month ago our in-town Dollar General started accepting drop-offs which is a huge time saver. Unfortunately, the lady working there is always so grumpy when we drop off packages. But oh well.

I tried a govdeals auction last week. Ended up with a bunch of Sony transcription machines that were all non-working when I got them home. I was really bummed out about that, but at least I only paid about $25 for them all. I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to fix them. I’ll at least be able to make a little profit if I sell them for parts.

This week I don’t plan on getting too much eBay listing done. I’ve made myself a list of choirs including finishing the winterizing of my house. Plus I plan on trying to refinance our home to take advantage of these low interest rates. And we’re going to shop around for a new CPA. So lots to do!

11/7/20-11/13/20

Total Items In Store: 2096
Items Sold: 43
Gross Sales: $1885
Highest Price Sold: $400 (Harrison’s Columbia Ink Bottle)
Average Price Sold: $43.84

Returns:  1 $20
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of items listed: 53

• Had an awesome week of sales. Easily made up for my last two slow weeks.  Highlighted by the sale of a bottle from the late 1800’s for $400.  I listed it for quite a bit higher than others I had seen sold and it was purchased for full asking price within a couple hours of listing it.
• I have another bottle from the 1800’s I am listing. I am going to experiment with putting it up for auction with a high starting price.  It’s pretty rare, so I am going to see if there is any interest in bidding it up.  If it doesn’t sell, I will list it next week with BIN/BO.
• The bottles came with a box lot of glass items I picked up at a local auction for $2.50 – My scavenge of the week!
• I got my book on Saturday from Annaesthetic23. I’d love to say that I’ve finished it already, but I keep stopping to digest the info and reflect on my own business and path to where eBay has taken me.  The book is extremely well written and with a quirky style that is very engaging.  Great job Anna..must feel great to be a published author!

Over the years, I’ve learned about Cutco knives from this podcast. A few weekends ago, I purchased a large lot of kitchen stuff. It included a Cutco knife that had nicks in the blade and wasn’t sharp. I went to the Cutco website and arranged to ship the knife to their NY facility. On Friday, I received back a brandy new replacement knife worth $76 per their catalog! This will be our second Cutco utility knife that I have bought thrifting. I won’t be selling it, even though we have very nice Henkel knives from our wedding. Selling could possibly result in a VERO anyway.

Week of Nov 1 – 7
Total Items in Store: 1385 eBay, 31 Etsy
Items Sold: 20 eBay
Cost of Items Sold: $23 + $20.50 Commission
Total Sales: $369.31 eBay
Highest Price Sold: $59 book Newton’s Laws are full of Flaws (international sale)
Average price: $18.47
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $104.23
Number of items listed this week: 26

I thought I had a slow week, but I sold a decent number of items. Most were low dollar, so the sales were just OK. As discussed in this week’s podcast, I’m sure that the political climate and possible future lockdowns are part of the cause.

While the sales have been slow, I’ve found more opportunities for sourcing compared to this time in previous years. I’m way overstocked with unlisted inventory (so much crap in the garage to go through), but I’ve got to take advantage while the opportunities are there.

Greetings from Idaho! My first post although I’ve been listening for a couple of years. Some info on this week’s podcast that may be helpful…

1) For those in managed payments: until an item is paid for there are no final value fees charged, so there would be no fee credit for unpaid items.

2) UPS is now integrated with Ebay labels for most sellers (better option for dimensional rates and I have not had any of the issues with UPS that FedEx has had with overcharging) and there was a banner on Ebay site offering 20% credit for final value fees if you use UPS or FedEx for shipping until 12/10. Credit doesn’t appear for 4 weeks. Not sure if this is offered to all sellers or by invitation.

3) USPS padded flat rate was $7.54, now $7.91 with Ebay labels reflecting price increase.

Hope that is helpful. Don’t have it all together to post numbers yet. Thanks for the podcast!

Items for sale: 125

Items sold: 4

Total sales: $120.50

Highest sale: Hallmark Beatles ornament $65

Sales are WAY down for me the last few weeks. The only reason I have had half my sales were accepting offers. Still sticking to my goal of listing 10 items/week. Just keep listing!

I have noticed my auction style sales don’t relist for as long as they used to. It seemed erratic to me, but they usually relisted at least a few times, lately it seems they don’t relist at all. I like the auction style format to start because I can evaluate my price before setting at a fixed price. Now I have to keep track each week of what to relist and for how much. Trials and tribulations…

Off to ship my 2 whole sales for the day. Might stop at a thrift store to scratch the itch since there have been no yard or estate sales to speak of for at least a month (mostly due to weather).

Total Items In Store: 194
Items Sold: 9
Gross Sales: $196.60

Cost of Items Sold: $68
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Lot of Garfield Books)
Average Price Sold: $21.84

Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of items listed: 28

Another decent week.  I’ve been listing patches and costume jewelry that I bought in lots.  I sold enough already to cover the cost of the lots but it’s going to be a long time before enough sell to really make it profitable.  The lots of smalls are definitely a long tail game, but they don’t take up a lot of storage space so that’s nice.

Hi R&J – Thanks for the pod (cast).

Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 4265
Items Sold: 47
Total Sales: $1284.87
Cost of Items Sold: $282
Average Price Sold: $27.34
Average Cost of Item: $6.01
Highest Price Item Sold: $160.5 Lot of 28 Vintage Hats w/ Patches
Number of items listed this week: 97
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +20%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 480
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 278
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 43

My ebay sales week was pretty slow for much of the week but it turned out pretty well overall.  I’m still waiting to see the much-discussed early holiday sales. I’m not seeing it yet.

On the weekend I had a nice score in the form of a pile of old (pre-NFL) football programs from the 1940s that I picked up at a garage sale.  Based on sales comps I should do very well with them.

Regarding the discussion about shipping rate tables,  you can set them up here: https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf     This YouTube video explains how to use them:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWOjMAmi_10     Most people dont need them.

Hope everyone has a good week.

You guys may have already covered this, but I went out of town for a few days and changed handling time (not time away/vacation mode) and there is still the option for 30 day handling time.

I’m presently dealing with an unpleasant situation where I purchased a large lot of Forever First Class stamps on eBay that turned out to be counterfeit. I do know better than to buy the heavily discounted rolls of Forever flag stamps from new, low-feedback sellers but this long-time, TRS seller seemed legit and the type of stamp wasn’t one that I recognized as counterfeited. Once I examined them in person and realized they were counterfeit I called eBay. I was disappointed to find out that they had no interest in the issue and told me to do an INAD return, which I did. Now I’m getting multiple emails from the seller who says to send them back but is going on about how they are from a trusted friend who bought them at the PO and how do I know they are counterfeit? I took a closer look at his store and his range of products does suggest a China connection. He probably wants to pass on tips to his supplier on how to make the stamps more convincing but I have not engaged. It burns me to have to send them back to the seller. I’d better get all my money back, is all I can say (he has free returns so he could short me if he wanted to).

11/08/20 – 11/14/20
Total Active Items (3 different IDs): 356
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales not incl shipping: $512.37
Highest Price Sold: $85 not incl shipping – ‘70’s East German rifle bayonet (paid $21).
Returns:  0 (but I did have a $10 INR case I had to pay)
New Listings: 22
$ Spent on New Inventory: $11

Solid numbers this week, for me; way above my usual weekly average gross. I too am still feeling jet-lag/hangover from the time change but at least I listed more than I sold.

Hey Guys – Shipping Nerd Note:

Pirate Ship (Cubic) is for SMALL packages!, that are heavy and when going a long distance.

For Example: I just today shipped a 46oz. item that fit in the 8x6x4 eBay box. going from NC to CA. Cheapest option on eBay was Fed Ex @ $12.06, Cubic was $9.96 and is Priority Mail with all the tracking and everything.

End Shipping Nerd Alert – You may resume your normal Scavenger Life programming

PirateShip has a specific form tree for cubic rate. You select bagged and it only allows you to enter length and width. So as long as your big box fits in 18×16 poly, you simply enter 18 and 16 and it figures out the rest.  It looks like this:

https://imgur.com/v8X4lMq

I have never bothered to tape down the loose ends so I don’t know about whether that’s an issue, but it seems to me it would not make any difference. The bag is just a different way of measuring the same cubic space by wrapping two finite two-dimensional planes around something. Obviously you cannot stretch or modify them.  It’s pretty ingenious, actually, and would be quite valuable for high volume shippers with different sized boxes if they all fit in a certain size poly mailer. You’d never have to measure the box for a given shipment since the measurements are always the same.

I did witness an issue with cubic-priced packages once at a very small post office where the clueless postal clerk thought it was some kind of scam. The clerk had never seen it before.

Thanks for the show.  It has felt slow here too, but I went into the sales reports on eBay and ran a report for the first 15 days from last November and I’m up about 35% from what I did then.  I guess it just feels slow for me because we had some exceptional summer months.

Here are my sales from last week.  My big sale was another pre-Columbian vase.  The same buyer who bought two last week bought another just after the first packages arrived.  He also made me an offer on a 4th, but it was much lower than I was ready for.

Week Ending 11/7/20
Total Items in Store: 1248
Items Sold: 24
Gross Sales: $1,133.68
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $803.30
Cost of Items Sold: $50.80
COGS Percent 6.32%
Highest Price Sold: $170.00 Pre-Columbian Pottery
Average Price Sold: $33.47
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 13
Promoted Percentage: 54.17%
Average Days Listed: 494
Longest Listed: 1600
New items listed: 25

Wow, I am super late to the game this week! Speaking of remembering when life was boring — I’m just now catching my breath for the week!

It’s been VERY busy – I took a trip to Southern California at the end of last week/beginning of this week, and I’m happy to report that Time Away was mostly awesome! I had about three things oddly becoming overdue for shipping in spite of Time Away, but I’m going to call eBay about it tomorrow, as they weren’t things that had outstanding offers etc… I think it’s genuinely just a glitch. In any case, I have been busting it to “catch up” after being gone for almost a week (self imposed goals/deadlines and all that!) starting with over 50 things to ship out when I returned from my actual trip and from Time Away (yesterday). I didn’t have the heart to schedule a pickup for all 50+ packages, so I took some to the post office and scheduled a pickup for the others.

Mostly I’ve been working on getting organized in my new storage unit and thankfully, my main helper has been working away on photographing and drafting items in them meantime! I’ve put up 4 steel shelving units and continued to cull the storage unit contents for the last two days. I’m aiming to go into that whole section of inventory with my own personal best processes/inventory management (probably adopting a bin-number based filing system for listed stuff)… we shall see how it shakes out! It’s been a really fun, if not really tiring experiment so far.

I’m not going to add my numbers here because I’m still kind of behind on my documentation since my travels, but I’ll have them again next week for sure! Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!