The Numbers: April 2-8, 2023

It’s currently a stressful time at Scavenger HQ. We have a lot of pokers in the fire which is exciting and overwhelming. When do you know when it’s too much?

I guess you really don’t know. We just try to have as much fun as we can while doing projects. If it’s not fun, we don’t do it. Stress isn’t the worst. It’s hating our lives while working on something that’s the killer.

It’s just like listing on eBay. Sure, this pile of men’s ties might make us money, but we hate photographing and listing ties. It makes our life miserable because ties are boring, so we just re-donate. Researching and listing random antique porcelain plates can be overwhelming but is also fun for us. We like to be excited about what we’re doing.

We had a good week of sales on eBay. Sold a lot of fun weird items. Our pipeline of items to list seems never ending. There’s just so much good stuff out there.

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Our Store Week April 2-8, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9348
Items Sold: 21
Gross Sales: $1,323.23 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,079.54 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $81
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $200 (vintage necklace)
Average Price Sold: $51.40
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 20
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

This topic has 12 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by Steven S.

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- 04/10/2023 at 10:42 am #99743
  Jay
  Keymaster
  Location: Virginia
  @jay
  It’s currently a stressful time at Scavenger HQ. We have a lot of pokers in the fire which is exciting and overwhelming. When do you know when it’s to
  [See the full post at: The Numbers: April 2-8, 2023]
- 04/10/2023 at 2:01 pm #99749
  Retro Treasures WV
  Participant
  Location:
  @retro-treasures-wv
  Items in Store 2037
  Items Sold 10
  Total Sales $497.00
  COGS $38.00
  Total Profit $459.00
  Average profit $45.90
  Average sales price $49.70
  New Listings 0
  Items scavenged 0
  Listing 2023 weekly Avg 21
  
  A $300 saved my week. Another week of doing the bare minimum. I’m going to have to start getting some listings in even if it is just 5-10 a week.
  
  In other news I’m down 20 lbs, feeling better, and a bit more energy. I’m going to start exercising this week and can hopefully leave all my health issues in the rearview mirror.
- 04/10/2023 at 3:54 pm #99753
  Lukastreasure
  Participant
  Location: Chevy Chase, MD
  @lukastreasuretrove
  Week Ending 4/8/23
  Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $1,128.90
  Net Sales: $1,079.79
  Total Items Sold: 7 (1 via Facebook Group)
  Total Items in eBay Store: 1191
  Items Sold eBay: 7
  Total Items in Etsy Store: 517
  Items Sold Etsy: 0
  
  Cost of Items Sold: $105.05
  Highest Price Sold: $900.00 c. 1920 Cast Iron Car
  Average Price Sold: $161.27
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
  
  Average Days Listed: 594
  Longest Listed: 1590
  New items listed: 0
  New Listings Value $0.00
  
  I was traveling this week taking my daughter on college tours up in Massachusetts and Connecticut so had my store on vacation mode most of the week. Still, better sales than last week. Sales would have been much worse except I pulled one out in the end selling a cast iron car via a Facebook collector’s group.
  
  I acquired the car in a lot of old toys from an auction last month. Funny thing is that I bought the lot for another item, this car being hidden in the back of the pictures and undistinquishable. Turned out to be an extremely rare toy, c. 1920 Hubley Packard Straight-8 Sedan, unfortunately also in extremely poor condition with damage, rust and poor repaint. Even in that condition I managed to get $900 for it from a guy who restores them. When he’s finished it will be worth several thousand. One in good original condition just sold at a toy auction two weeks ago for $9000.
  
  I’m becoming concerned that the tide has turned, at least temporarily, on online sales. As I saw my sales slowing down earlier this year I got busy listing trying to get new and better inventory. That’s always been the solution to slow sales, but after several months of buying and listing, things are still not selling well. I’ve listed more in the first three months of the year that I ever have.
  - 04/10/2023 at 4:07 pm #99755
    Retro Treasures WV
    Participant
    
    Location:
    @retro-treasures-wv
    I think the same thing about listing more/better when I see Jay’s numbers. They’re almost at 10k listings and making equal to or less than when they had 7500-8000 items.
    
    COGS are higher, shipping is higher, fees are higher, sales prices are lower on most commodity items such as shoes/clothes.
    
    While that sells doom & gloom, it may push out low quality sellers and those with tighter margins, and/or higher overhead. There will still be a market for individual sellers with high quality listings, items, and service.
    
    Adapt, improvise, improve. Keep on listing.
  - 04/11/2023 at 9:08 am #99775
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    Yeah, it’s a slow time. Our large inventory is the only thing saving us right now. I cant remember the last week we made over $2000.
    
    But we’ve seen these periods before in past years. Are it too many people selling? Are we in the middle of a recession (just unannounced)? Are we personally just selling too much weird stuff that no one wants? Is eBay crumbling because people are buying on other platforms?
    
    I agree with Retro that these tough times are likely felt by all sellers. Maybe it’ll clear out sellers that can’t stomach a slow period. Maybe it’ll slow people from driving prices so high at auctions. All we can do is muscle through and adapt as we can.
    
    One note: we’ve been doing a clean out of a building. Ryanne has been selling large items on Facebook Marketplace. While there are definitely people buying, its a cesspool of scammers. If we weren’t selling items for dirt cheap, it’d be a useless platform IMHO.
    - 04/11/2023 at 9:17 am #99776
      Retro Treasures WV
      Participant
      
      Location:
      @retro-treasures-wv
      
      Cleanout of a building huh? Perhaps a building you bought?
      - 04/11/2023 at 9:38 am #99778
        
        Jay
        Keymaster
        
        Location: Virginia
        @jay
        
        maybe
    - 04/11/2023 at 9:26 am #99777
      Lukastreasure
      Participant
      
      Location: Chevy Chase, MD
      @lukastreasuretrove
      
      I totally agree about FBMP. It appears to only be a good place to sell stuff you are giving away cheap, it is rare that I don’t get multiple scam messages for each new listing.
      
      On the other hand, Facebook selling groups may be something to investigate. Some are better than others, but for instance, the Cast Iron Toys group seems to have an active community and at least as long as prices are reasonable, items posted seem to sell quickly. Only problem is determining reasonable prices. I usually only go to a group when I can’t find an item for comparison, so going to one of the groups doesn’t necessarily get you the best price.
    - 04/13/2023 at 1:38 pm #99797
      Steven S
      Participant
      
      Location: South Dakota
      @steven-s
      
      I’ve found that joining as many FB garage, yard, rummage sale, guy stuff, antiques sales groups in your area and including them when listing get your item on other members home page instead of hoping they’ll find it through search. I belong to about 25.
      
      I’ve been having great success with FBM as you may have seen in the What sold videos.
- 04/10/2023 at 4:04 pm #99754
  ChristineR
  Participant
  Location: Southern California
  @christiner
  Total Items in Store: 566 Correct?
  Items Sold: 12
  Gross Sales: $328.40 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Net Sales: $195.72 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
  Cost of Items Sold: $75
  Highest Price Sold: $86 (New Williams Sonoma towels x 4)
  Average Price Sold: $27.37
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 8
  
  My dashboard listed # items seems to be jumping around each week. I’ve also been having some glitchy problems saving draft listings and then losing some changes from sell similar. Not a great sales week, but I didn’t get a lot of listing done. Have a stressful situation going on that is a drag on Ebay in general this year.
  
  Couple of Ebay regrets this week. I sold an item this week that was fun but the condition (described and pictured) was not great. I wouldn’t list those today with that much wear. I hope the buyer is ok with them. I also got positive feedback that mentioned I left the thrift store price tag on the bottom so she’s not sure why she had to pay so much on Ebay for them. (Smacks head.) Not sure how I managed to to that since I have a process but oh well.
  
  I hope you are finding joy in your current projects R & J, or at least do at the end of them.
- 04/10/2023 at 6:14 pm #99760
  Sharyn
  Participant
  Location: Central NJ
  @sharyn
  I’m always interested in Jay & Ryanne’s new projects, but we always have to wait to find out what they are. I’m on the edge of my seat!!
  
  My highest sale this week was a NOS Passover Seder plate purchased on the second night of Passover. The traditional Seder (service and dinner) at Passover happens the first two nights, so the plate isn’t needed after that. I came up with this story: The buyer broke the host’s Lenox Seder plate at the first night, so they bought the exact same one to replace it the next day.
  
  Week of Apr 2 – 8
  Total Items in Store: 1744 eBay, 30 Etsy
  Items Sold: 18 eBay, 0 Etsy
  Cost of Items Sold: $31 + $42 Commission
  Total Sales: $430.78 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
  Highest Price Sold: eBay $99 Lenox Passover Seder plate
  Average price: $23.93
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
  Number of items listed this week: 13
- 04/12/2023 at 5:19 pm #99792
  Temudgin
  Participant
  Location: Jacksonville FL
  @temudgin
  Week of 4/2 – 4/8
  Total items in Store: 314
  Items Sold: 10
  Gross Sales: $271.92 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
  Cost of Items Sold: $83.49 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
  Highest Price Sold: $95.00 plus shipping (US Navy 2 Star Admiral’s Expeditionary Combat Command Challenge Coin; numbered, and a SEAL related command)
  Average Sales Price: $27.19 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
  Returns: 0
  Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
  Number of new items listed: 0
  
  Not a bad week for no new listings in the last 30 days, but I did try to take a few minutes to send out offers when I could. A very busy time of the year for me off eBay but I’m hoping to resume some serious listing soon.
  
  This time of year was very dead for me in 2022. I think it will come back, as it always has.
  - 04/12/2023 at 8:51 pm #99794
    Jay
    Keymaster
    
    Location: Virginia
    @jay
    I think it will come back, as it always has.
    
    For those of us who have been selling for a long time, there are definitely ups and downs. The death of eBay has been predicted many many times.
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