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It’s been a very busy October for us. Leaf season is in full effect in our area so city people are coming out to enjoy hiking in the gorgeous weather.
[See the full post at: The Numbers: October 23-29, 2022] -
Much better week for me, selling 18 items vs 8 the previous week. Things really picked up during the weekend. Like most things eBay, I have no explanations.
The new listing tool is OK, but the biggest thing it is lacking is the pre-inserted item specifics. I think that they are working on it because every once in a while I see something already there.
Week of Oct 23 – 29
Total Items in Store: 1785 eBay, 32 Etsy
Items Sold: 18 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $8 + $112 Commission
Total Sales: $406.46 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $54 Spanx Nude Slim Cognito Bodysuit
Average price: $22.58
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 33-
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Thanks! Much better after several weeks of lackluster sales. Nice to take 11 packages to the post office and one to FedEx today.
Seems like FedEx lost a relatively large box weighing 34 pounds that I shipped on Oct 14. It was an electric typewriter. I had a pretty nice buyer who gave me about a week to submit a claim and check up on it before opening a return on eBay. Who loses a 34 pound box? I’m thinking someone screwed up and damaged it somehow, and they just waited until someone made a stink.
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I’m feeling optimistic about my eBay business this week. I’ve been aggressive in the last few weeks about repricing older items which has led to a nice number of sales of previously stale items. I’ve also seen a lot of evidence in the last few months that I’m getting a better sense for listing new items which sell quickly. It’s hard to believe we’re down to the last two months of 2022 but my confidence is growing for next year and beyond.
One of the best things about selling online is coming up with ideas for improvements or changes, executing them on the fly and seeing results. Most people’s lives and workdays are bogged down by inertia. But with eBay, you can experiment and try new ways to sell or engage with prospective buyers and see results very quickly.
10/23/2022 – 10/29/2022
Total items in store: 1157 (down from 1142 last week)
Items sold: 38 (1 via best offer, 5 via seller initiated offer, 15 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $2287.69 (down 27% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1554.89 (down 30% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $60.20 (up 38% from one year ago)
Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 20 hours (up from 18 hours last week)
Highest price sold (net): $111.28 — Devin Vassell 2020 Panini Prizm Draft black gold prizm rookie card #1/5 PSA 10
I was happy with this sale, but here’s an interesting insight into the modern card market: if this card were the same player (Devin Vassell)’s rookie year (2020 season) parallel (black gold prizm individual serial number #/5) but from the Panini Prizm regular set (with players in pro uniforms) instead of the Draft (college set), it would be worth thousands. Regardless of grade or if it was graded at all. There are two Terapeak sales of Vassell’s black gold prizm from the regular Prizm set in the last year, one for $1875 in a PSA 8 and one ungraded for $4000. But the draft cards are worth much less. This will change in the future depending on how Vassell’s career pans out and, to an extent, how the card market shifts and changes.
These distinctions sometimes seem very silly and arbitrary, even to me. But then I think about how the card market has worked for years, and it all makes sense again.
Lowest price sold (net): $13.75— Roger Federer 2007 Ace authentic jersey
Purchased about 20 copies of this card about three months ago for $6-$7 each from a seller who posts auctions with large lots of the same card from specific sets most weeks. Even sold a lot of 10 for $87.32 last night. Not sure if they are a wholesaler or work for the manufacturer or why they have so many copies of this (and other similar) cards.
Whatever the seller’s deal is, they are leaving money on the table by selling ten copies (or more) of the same card in one auction because one individual card is an easy sell for $15 to $20, often within 24 hours of posting the listing. Best tennis player of this generation (if not all time) and there are not a lot of tennis sets, let alone ones with pieces of jersey in them.
Every time I sell of these cards, I use that as a reason to scan front and back photos of the next crop of cards I will list, including another copy of the Federer card. It will be a sad day when I’m down to my last Federer card since these cards have provided a lot of structure to my weeks over the last few months.
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Are your sales down from last year because you’ve moved so much inventory that consignment company? Or just lower sales. Curious if the card market is feeling any pressure from a slowing economy.
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Are your sales down from last year because you’ve moved so much inventory that consignment company? Or just lower sales. Curious if the card market is feeling any pressure from a slowing economy.
My inventory is 1/3 of the size it was a year ago, so it’s amazing my sales aren’t down a lot more! But it’s not (only) luck or the types of items I sell, it’s some process changes as well. I’ve gotten a lot better about listing things which I think will sell quickly (<30 days) and for a decent price. In the last month or two, I’ve also gotten much more aggressive about selling by sending 20% or 25% offers to watchers, or repricing listings $10 or $20 lower. Never any regret in selling now vs waiting longer, especially when I’m still making a profit.
On the one card message board I use, there is a new thread almost every week about how the market is tanking and the end is near. While prices are down for many types of cards (like graded ultra-modern base rookie cards of average players), the card world has more buyers and sellers than ever thanks to online breaking and how easy it is to flip cards whether it’s through eBay, a social media platform or a consignor. It has been interesting to see the growth the last couple years, particularly in more niche sports like wrestling, soccer and women’s basketball. Five years ago those sports might get one or two new sets a year. Now, these sports have many different types of sets from expensive to inexpensive.
So many card consignors rely on $0.99 auctions to move this week’s cards in advance of next week’s new sets, and as long as that’s the case, there will be plenty of great buying opportunities. I have been accumulating other stuff to sell here and there. It never hurts to diversify or at least keep an open mind to it.
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Makes sense. We’ve always continued to sell when others have said the sky was falling. Our store has evolved into complete diversity since we never know what people will buy. It’s always scared me to be too dependent on any one category.
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Our store has evolved into complete diversity since we never know what people will buy. It’s always scared me to be too dependent on any one category.
I had never really planned to focus only on one category, as long as I sold on eBay I have always dabbled in selling weird books and music because I love that stuff. But the sports card bubble from early in the pandemic really helped focus me in on the one niche and it just kept growing from there. Partially because of rising prices across the board and also the market fluctuations created many more buying opportunities.
The big challenge is that there’s a huge investment of both time and money in buying in large quantities. I reinvested a huge amount of my profit from the last couple years because I wanted to get to the point where I am now with a huge inventory between eBay and consignment. This gives me a lot more options and flexibility for how to spend my time in the next few years. But there was also risk involved. It’s worked out well so far, but there’s always that question lingering of what if the sports card market or the economy crashes. So I’ve been getting much more aggressive about selling lately. Probably much harder for a collector to do than a scavenger.
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Monthly numbers: 10/1 – 10/31
Active listings: 1460
Items sold: 47
Sales: $983.72 (not counting profit/loss from shipping)
Highest price sold: $135 – Griswold #8 Cast Iron Long Griddle
Average price sold: $20.93
Cost of items sold: $83.48 / average cost: each $1.78
Spent on new inventory: $347.00
Number of items listed: 68
For October, my favorite sales were to 2 different buyers for vintage Tang Jars at $28.50 each, I had purchased 3 of them at a neighborhood sale for a grand total of $1. I researched old advertisements to determine that they dated between 1959 when Tang was first available to the public and 1963 when the back of the label was changed. Interesting fact, the creator of Tang, William Mitchell, also invented Pop Rocks and Cool Whip.
Now back to listing and research.
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Week of 10/23 – 29:
Total items in Store: 320
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $1,418.72 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,029.70 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $323.70 (including consignment commissions)
Highest Price Sold: $226.40 (1950s US Navy Master at Arms (military police) badge from the USS Albany)
Average Price Sold: $70.94
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 23I think selling 20 items in a week is a record for me, since I started on eBay in 1997. And over 20 items listed; that’s also probably a record for me, too.
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Congrats on the great week of sales! When I looked for your USS Albany badge in Terapeak, I also found this sale from August of a beat-up employee badge for $7 plus shipping. Good deal? Huge steal? Or too beat up to be worth much?
It’s pretty amazing to see the details in yours versus the other beat-up one.
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Items in Store 2060
Items Sold 19
Total Sales $667.00
COGS $78.00
Total Profit $589.00
Average profit $31.00
Average sales price $35.11
New Listings 4
Items scavenged 0
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 40Better sales but still pretty crappy. Last year I had $1300 in sales the same week. Eh, I can’t complain too much since I haven’t actively listed for 2 months.
No scavenging, just doing the bare minimum shipping. Last week I could have listed. I had the time…I just didn’t want to. I just wanted to rest/relax while finishing up recovering from a nasty viral bug I got at the beginning of October.
Now in the middle of that R&R, my whole family started to get sick…again. That’s why my numbers are so late this week. This has been an even worse non-covid bug for my family. My youngest 3 are fighting with a bad fever for the last few days. I’m full blown sick again as well – before I even fully regained my voice from the last one!
This sucks. Plain and simple. I’m quite seriously considering relocating to a better climate as I don’t know if I can take the crazy swings in temperature anymore in this area. This winter is gonna be rough.
There are some crazy viral bugs circulating right now folks – protect yourselves. Pretty much every virus that went dormant during Covid is back with a vengeance and all at the same time.
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There are some crazy viral bugs circulating right now folks – protect yourselves. Pretty much every virus that went dormant during Covid is back with a vengeance and all at the same time.
Um, yep. We are here in sunny California and just had the worst non-Covid virus. It was much like getting Covid 5 except the fatigue wasn’t there along with the long list of symptoms so you can just lie awake for all of it. My daughter tested negative for flu, so what’s up? Hope everyone else manages to avoid getting this stuff. Personally, I’m going back to mask wearing, though this one came from the high school.
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Total Items in Store: 467
Items Sold: 8
Gross Sales: $313.35 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $207.14 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $39
Highest Price Sold: $79 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/234725782577Faux fur hood – get this: bought for my daughter at a Downtown Disney cart years ago and was very surprised at the resale value as some kind of rave item or something idk).
Average Price Sold: $39.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: ? not manyAs mentioned we were really ill last week. Finally feeling better today. Everyone consider getting your flu shot at least. Monday my dad came over and picked up my weekend packages because I wasn’t really even feeling well enough to drive. I only made offers on soft easy to pack stuff. Today I shipped out a bunch of larger items. Hope to get a lot of listing done next week.
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Thanks y’all!
@Craig-Rex regarding the shipyard employee badge, I think it’s apples and oranges with the MA badge. I’m no expert on employee badges but from what I’ve seen, generally the most valuable are the older photo badges, then below that are the older non-photo stamped-steel badges, and then the lowest in value are the late ’40’s and up printed shell pinback style like the one you linked. The USS Albany connection is interesting but would not be the key driver of value for those collectors. And there would be few militaria collectors excited about its link to a post-war heavy cruiser like Albany that had a relatively boring service career and they wouldn’t care so much about a yard employee badge anyway. I’d say the low sold price is a function of it being at the margins of collector interest in either collecting niche, its condition, and a low starting bid at auction. I would have listed it at say $15 – $25 BIN range and it would be long tail.My MA badge is in a strong militaria sub-niche coupled with law enforcement interest. I was definitely pushing the envelope on price since Albany was not that interesting (though it did help in dating it). I had to wait for the right buyer to come along.
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Great info, thanks for sharing your knowledge. It is so interesting how what looks “similar” using Terapeak or other research is often quite different. Small nuances in items are such a huge determinant of value. Of course, we as sellers always have choices to make, and as you said low starting bids often lead to low sold prices. But I think some casual sellers are just happy to get their $8.
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