Jay, Author at Scavenger Life

Q&A: Mid Week Open Thread

So the Wednesday podcast is going to be late since work has taken hold. As you see in the photos, Ryanne is the master of her digital domain while I’m something else entirely. This is us doing our “real job”.

This is a good example for those of you who are thinking of quitting your full time jobs. It’s not an all or nothing proposition. Many companies will still work with you as a consultant, or you may find that your skills allow you to work as a “hired gun” for short contract jobs. We love to work, but we also love to choose when we work. It’s our eBay business that gives us stability. Thank you old dirty shoes.

I hear that eBay is down? I did have problems sending a message earlier, but we also sold two items and received several offers. Who knows. We just control what we can control.

Ryan Grant (our interview with him) over at Online Selling Experiment has posted his August numbers. I love how he shares his financial info about his Amazon business. I haven’t taken a deep look yet, but it helps me some see how someone who sells on FBA buys and sells. It’s the truth.

Okay, this is an open thread. Perfect for your burning desires.

Some simple rules-

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

Q&A: Open Thread

So it’s Friday. Does it even matter for those of us who sell on eBay? Every day is holiday, and every day is a workday.

I was researching some items for listing and noticed that eBay items weren’t showing up on the first page of Google. Not good. This isn’t new news, but it’s starting to make sense now why things have been slow all summer. I hope eBay starts upping their game vs just pushing sellers to up theirs. Unless eBay is suicidal, I bet they have teams of folks working on how to play nice with Google.

Anyway, this is an open thread. You learn anything new this week?

Some simple rules-

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to
the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a
precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

Q&A: Open Thread

Okay, we’re working. We’re scavenging. We’re multi-tasking. And we’re running experiments. That’s a real key to how we’ve run our eBay store. If we don’t know if something will work, we try it and see if we make money. That’s the answer we have for most questions sent to us. Will something sell? I don’t know, try it. If it sells, keep selling it. If it doesn’t sell, don’t sell it. Should I do this? I don’t know. Try it.

Chris the Coin Guy pointed us to the recent video that Danni Ackerman posted about eBay’s new Defect Rating which is in full effect. If you’re new to eBay, welcome to online selling. I feel that every platform keeps ratcheting up expectations, but eBay certainly has their own style with their yearly “Seller Updates”.

This is an open thread so what’s on your mind?

Some simple rules-

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to
the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a
precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

Scavenger Life Episode 140: Interview with Andrew from “Picking Profits”

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If you’ve spent any time on YouTube searching for eBay related info, you’ve probably come across Andrew at Picking Profits. There’s a ton of overly exuberant people who talk about their eBay and Amazon lives, but Andrew is a good, stable figure in that scene who maintains a measured sense of his progress. We like this.

I love his methodical and detailed discussions of how he approaches his store. He works hard but is always thinking of the future. Plus it’s exciting to see someone young (28) skip the grinding life working for someone else and jump right into building his own business.

After emailing back and forth, we decided to record a conversation about our different philosophies and processes when scavenging and selling online. He shares how he currently makes most of his income selling books on Amazon (over 10,000 books in his Amazon FBA store), but how he really loves selling the one-of-kind items on eBay.

WARNING: I’m sorry guys. You must forgive me. You know we like to keep it short and sweet, but it wasn’t my fault. Somehow this interview turned into an hour and twenty minute marathon (even with editing). I was interested the entire time talking with Andrew so hopefully you’ll find it informative as well. Now go get a lot of packing done while listening.

Andrew will be answering any questions you have in the comments below. You can find him at these fine establishments:
Like Him On Facebook ► http://on.fb.me/1mipHap
Follow Him On Twitter ►
Check Out His Website ►

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Mid-Week Q&A: Open Thread

Several listeners have pointed out a mistake I’ve made over the past year. I have stated many times that I assume that eBay/Paypal fees are about 17% of our profit. But as Mike points out, I’ve been way off base:

I understand for Paypal, it’s 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you receive.

eBay is up to 8% (minus 20% for Top Rated Sellers) of final value plus maybe $.20 listing fee if that applies and an average of $.22 an item sold for the monthly store fee.

So eBay/Payal fees are in reality closer to 11% of the profit we make. In my defense, I came up with that number is our early selling days as a quick way to estimate our expenses. I was probably including all our costs such as taxes, storage, etc. But it’s good to be clear on the numbers. Thanks to everyone who pointed out my error.

This is an open thread. A perfect place to sort out your own errors…so have at it. We hope you guys are having a good week.

Some simple rules-

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to
the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a
precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

Scavenger Life Episode 138: How To Make Money Selling Items On eBay That You Bought On eBay

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Last week we had a mystery commenter make a very bold claim: he bought items on eBay and sold the exact same items on eBay with a 50% markup. He said it did it every week consistently, making about $5k+ every month. He was a part-time seller for a long time until he was recently laid off from his job.

As you know, we love numbers and facts so I began speaking to him through email. This is how I got to know Chris the Coin Guy. I couldn’t believe that the same exact item could be sold twice on eBay (sometimes in the same week) for that big of a profit. It’s like a snake eating its tail. He agreed to do an interview and explain his process buying and selling coins if he could remain anonymous. I’ve seen his eBay store and can verify that all his claims are true.

What’s interesting to me is that Chris says that he capitalizes on the inefficiency of eBay auctions. Yes, sellers think the market will set the best price…but as Chris points out, most buyers don’t obsessively follow every auction. He wins about 25% of the auctions he bids on for way under what a coin is worth. Then he puts it back on eBay at Fixed Price for the price it should sell for. It’s unbelievable he can do this regularly.

The eBay forums are full of people who hypothesize how eBay works. Great to hear from sellers who lay out their process and share their numbers. No mystery involved. No one can argue with a seller who can pay their bills at the end of the month.

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Mid-Week Q&A: Open Thread

If you’re like us, you are swamped with inventory from the summer yard sales and flea markets. Some of it we store away in plastic bins for the winter months, but the rest we are focused on getting up now. Today for instance, we’re photographing men’s winter coats. There’s a whole pile of them and we want to list them by September. This is the unglamorous part of being a Scavenger- after the treasure hunting is done, putting your head down and doing the work.

Anyway, this is an open thread so you know what to do.

Some simple rules-

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to
the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a
precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

Scavenger Life Episode 132: What’s Happening In Your eBay Store This Week?

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Vintage 1800s Russell Morgan Congress gold edged playing cards deck- purchased for less than 25 cents, sold for $600, a rare but exciting sale!

This week we sold a deck of playing cards for $600. What?! It’s one of those rare, surprising sales that happens when you scavenge (and do your research). Most of our sales this week were the $30-$50 range as always. The unglamorous (but profitable) bread and butter.

We’re starting to get people buying clothes and shoes. Remember, it’s “back to school” already. The retail world makes sure that these slow buying periods are extremely short.

We spent $50 on a bunch of Barbies new in the box. These dolls have never been exciting for us (I’m falling asleep just writing this), but we wanted to experiment with them. We’ll always try an experiment since it challenges us to learn about something we don’t know yet.

Danni Ackerman posted a smart, sober letter to the president of eBay explaining why the new Defect Rating for sellers is overly tough and confusing. But as we always say, just keep listing. If eBay gets too nutty, there’ll be a better place to sell. We don’t stress over this stuff since buyer’s don’t care. (p.s. this is Danni’s follow up, after she actually spoke to some eBay higher ups. Thanks Kim for pointing to it!).

The mayor of NYC, Bill De Blasio, is moving from Park Slope to the mayor’s mansion on the Upper East Side. Here’s a funny story about how people realized he was leaving junk outside his old home for anyone to pick up. Scavengers!

The Weekly Scavenger Numbers

Our Store Week July 6-12, 2014

Total Items in Store: 3483
Items Sold: 42
Cost of Items Sold: $279
Total Sales: $2,489.50
Highest Price Sold: $599.99 (Vintage playing cards)
Average Price Sold: $59.26
International Sales: 9 (5 GSP)
Returns: 0
Positive Feedback: 33
Neutral Feedback: 0
Negative Feedback: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $260

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Mid-Week Q&A: Saving money by “digitally scavenging”

It’s been two billing cycles since I switched my cell phone service from AT&T to Ting. You can read why we made this decision here. I’ve gone from paying $100/month to about $30/month for the same exact service and usage. The difference is that I’m now being charged for what I use versus paying for a fixed amount whether I used it or not. As a Scavenger, I love being able to cut down on bills by being frugal. Digital scavenging!

The genius of Ting is that most of the time I’m using my phone at home where we have Wifi, so I’m paying for no phone data. When I make calls from home, I just call for free on my computer using Google Voice so not paying for any cell phone minutes. When Ryanne and I text each other, we use the free service WhatsApp (uses wifi) so no charge for texts.

When we traveled for three weeks in June I used my phone much more, but my bill was only an extra $5 since Ting charges a minimal amount for extra usage. I would have to be on my phone all day and all night to be charged the $100/month that AT&T used to bill me. I was just blindly paying those bills not thinking there was a cheaper option.

Since our testing went so well, Ryanne switched over so we could be on the same account. She had to buy a Sprint phone to use their network, but she’s selling her old phone to cover the cost (she might even make a profit). Instead of paying $200/month for our cell phones, we’ll now see about a $65 bill TOTAL. Also, if we don’t use our phones for a month, like when we travel
overseas, it only costs us $6 per phone to keep them activated. We pay
nothing extra if we use no data or minutes.

Other people have suggested cutting down on phone bills through Republic Wireless, TracFone Wireless, MetroPCS, Cricket, Simple Mobile, etc. We like Ting because it has a great interface/community and is easy to get a customer rep on the phone for questions. Ultimately, if you’re paying more than $40 for your cell phone, it’s time to do some digital scavenging.

This is an open thread, so talk about whatever you want. Have you found ways to cut down on any of your regular bills?

Some simple rules-

We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment.
Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to
the dark depths of the eBay forums where your hate can be polished like a
precious jewel.
Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.

Scavenger Life Episode 131: Interview with Martin from GarbageFinds.com

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We love the name of Martin’s blog: “Things I Find in the Garbage“. Why sugarcoat it?

Martin is 27, lives in Montreal, and roams the neighborhoods for the treasures that people throw out into their garbage. As you see can see in the photos he’s posts each week, he’s finding gorgeous vintage, one-of-a-kind items. IN THE TRASH. This is true scavenger style.

Starting out casually, he was selling at yard sales and Craigslist for extra cash. But recently, he’s been selling more and more on eBay. Check out his store to see the prices he’s getting. No one is laughing at this kid. Why hustle to get a 9-5 job he hates if he could keep growing this business?

In this interview, Martin walks us through his process and his constant evolving as an eBay seller.
He mentions a cool resource at Reddit’s “What is this thing?” that he uses to identity mysteries in the garbage.

If you have any questions for Martin about digging in the garbage, just leave them in the comments and he’ll be glad to answer them.