Wow, a Man from U.N.C.L.E. costume that sold for $$$, that’s a unique sale!
Scavenger Life Episode 289: Our Free Shipping Experiment
Last week we had a discussion on the forum about how free shipping might be a accelerator for sales. We’ve always been clear that we find the concept of free shipping to be a bait and switch since sellers always raise the price of the item when adding free shipping. I guess it’s just a psychological advantage? Who knows.
But in the interest of Scavenger science, we started an experiment. We now have 1300 items with free shipping now. Mainly anything under a pound that can be shipped cheaply like ties, scarves, shirts, and hats. We raised the price of these items by 10% to cover the extra cost. The result? Over the past week, we have sold no more of these items than we normally would have. So far, free shipping hasn’t attracted more buyers than usual. We’re going to let the experiment keep running it’s course. You can also follow along with ShortandStout who is also running a free shipping experiment that’s even more scientific than ours. Only real data will answer this debate once and for all.
In other news, we’ve had a long week of scavenging expensive doors and furniture from the city for our new rental. We got some solid wood doors and kitchen island, saving hundreds of dollars. We plan to buy as much as we can on Craigslist. West Elm and Restoration Hardware are our current favorite keywords to follow.
We had another good week on eBay. We hope holiday sales continue to into January. Hope things went well for you too.
Join the conversation on the forum>>
Our Store Week Dec 11-17, 2016
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 5186
- Items Sold: 52
- Cost of Items Sold: $115
- Total Sales: $1,936.94
- Highest Price Sold: $190 (Quimper jar)
- Average Price Sold: $37.24
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30
- Number of items listed this week: 161
- ———-Bonanza:
- Sold 0 items for $0
- ———-
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 991
- Items Sold: 8
- Cost of Items Sold: $15
- Total Sales: $461.11
- Highest Price Sold: $250 (Vintage firewood holder)
- Average Price Sold: $57.63
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 0
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What Sells On eBay: Bandolier, Lufkin ruler, rotary phone, Betty Crocker Cookbook and the North Pole.
Love, love, love selling vintage cookbooks. They are fun to find and certainly fun when they sell, especially during the holidays!
Scavenger Life Episode 288: The War Of Attrition Will Not Grind Us Down
Interesting conversation on the forum about the glut of clothing sellers on eBay (and elsewhere) and the reasons why. This speaks to the broader question of ‘is there too much online selling competition to make a living’ now that there are weigh-n-pays and smartphones everywhere. We think it’s just a matter of time before the peak hits and the hobby sellers burn out. We’re still making a living and having fun. We hope the same goes for you too.
Another great topic on the forums was Free Shipping, especially now that the holidays are fully upon us. Do you offer free shipping? Why/why not? This is a topic we always go back and forth on.
Hope you’re having a great, busy, annoying shipping (that means you made money!) week.
Join the conversation in the forum>>
Our Store Week Dec 4-10, 2016
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 5065
- Items Sold: 54
- Cost of Items Sold: $103
- Total Sales: $2,103.99
- Highest Price Sold: $135 (Vintage shaving kit)
- Average Price Sold: $38.96
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
- Number of items listed this week: 203
- ———-Trugether:
- Sold 1 items for $112
- ———-
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 998
- Items Sold: 10
- Cost of Items Sold: $35
- Total Sales: $504.45
- Highest Price Sold: $115 (Vintage Butcher Paper Holder)
- Average Price Sold: $50.44
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 0
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What Sells On eBay: Travel bar, Tube stereo, Charlie Brown, Slot car set
We too have found those vintage Travel Bar Sets and people sure do love them!
Join the conversation and post your own What Sold video here>>
Scavenger Life Episode 287: How Is the Holiday Selling Season for You?
We’ve had a steady stream of sales on eBay since the summer, but we certainly haven’t seen crazy holiday sales that we all love. Are people buying less this Xmas? Are we not selling the right stuff? Who knows! All we do is list. Stuff is selling; we’re making money; all is well.
Ryanne found this cool story of a young man who is creating a vintage world at home. This is our customer for all that weird vintage stuff we all sell.
The new forum has been a fun place to talk during the week.
Here are improvements we’ve made this week.
Nancy talks about using worthless sewing patterns as wrapping tissue paper.
Retro Treasures WV started a thread many of us experience when working a job, but really wanting to be doing eBay fulltime.
Mike from Atlanta reminded us about some of eBay’s new shipping policies. It includes being able to offer Freight to ship furniture.
We started an area where sellers can offer their services to list for you, or you can offer jobs. Eli in Portland was the first to offer his services.
Jump into the forum and let us know what’s happening with your scavenger life. Hope you had a good week.
Our Store Week Nov 27-Dec 3, 2016
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 4862
- Items Sold: 52
- Cost of Items Sold: $140
- Total Sales: $1,436.07
- Highest Price Sold: $120 (Vintage civil rights buttons)
- Average Price Sold: $27.61
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $15
- Number of items listed this week: 281
- ———-Bonanza:
- Sold 0 items for $0
- ———-
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 1002
- Items Sold: 5
- Cost of Items Sold: $15
- Total Sales: $176.56
- Highest Price Sold: $50 (Denim purse)
- Average Price Sold: $35.31
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 0
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What Sells On eBay: Inaugural invite, trigger finger mittens, back saw, expanding file
A very timely sale of a vintage 1980s Inaugural Invite from the Reagan Era. What a cool find!
Join the conversation and post your own video in the forum>>
Scavenger Life Episode 286: Black Friday, Just Another Day on eBay
This week, we had a steady flow of sales which felt great! In fact we sold about sixty items which is a big volume for us. That’s almost ten items a day ๐ Unfortunately they were all mostly low dollar items ๐ Our average selling price was less than 30 dollars. It was a good example of grinding out a profit one item at a time. This is how bills get paid, so nothing to complain about. The pipeline is flowing.
But it also shows that we’ve been spending much less scavenging this year because we’ve been busy either traveling or working on our rental business. You really do have to put in the hours looking for the items that will sell for $50, $100, $500. Any good scavenger knows that the items that bring a high price takes sometimes hours going from thrift store to thrift store, yard sale to yard sale, auction to auction. For the last six months, we’ve only been scavenging one night a week which is where we get most of our inventory.ย We’re good at what we do and find items that sell, but our numbers show that we’re simply finding bread and butter items. After we finally renovate our second rental, we plan to get back to scavenging much more and raise the quality of our items…which will raise the profit we make each week. And it’s not just the money, we love to scavenge!
Hope you guys had a good Thanksgiving.
Join the conversation in the forum>>
Our Store Week Nov 20-26, 2016
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 4623
- Items Sold: 54
- Cost of Items Sold: $125
- Total Sales: $1,614.03
- Highest Price Sold: $130 (Urinal)
- Average Price Sold: $29.88
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $40
- Number of items listed this week: 126
- ———-Bonanza:
- Sold 0 items for $0
- ———-
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 1009
- Items Sold: 11
- Cost of Items Sold: $25
- Total Sales: $360.03
- Highest Price Sold: $80 (Lands End bag)
- Average Price Sold: $32.73
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 0
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What Sells On eBay: Akai reel tape deck, raw speakers, Z-Coil shoes, wool rug, record stand
Steve’s sales look like ours- a bunch of random, miscellaneous, bread and buttah items. My favorite was the colorful, round Gardenia wool rug.
Scavenger Life Episode 285: Ready for Anything
This is our first podcast after the election that has made Donald Trump the President of the United States. We clearly remember what it was like during the eight years of George W Bush: the expensive, devastating war that we’re still fighting and one of of the worst economic crashes this country has ever seen that we’re also still getting out of. Mismanagement, corruption and incompetence were the trademarks of the Bush administration. The most recent evidence doesn’t make us feel any better about a Trump administration and a deeply Republican Congress who claim to hate government but now own it. The new enthusiasm around White nationalism is a scary and real thing. The screwy logic of dismantling the progress we’ve made on renewable energy and pollution reduction is difficult to understand. But here we are. Hello.
Who knows will will happen over the next four years. The Affordable Healthcare Act will most likely be dismantled so we’ll need to figure out how to get healthcare again. There’s a clear sense that everyone is waiting to see what happens with the economy. We’re hoping for the best and planning for the worst. We hope our fellow Americans remember that we are at our best morally and economically when we are fully inclusive. The US is at its greatest when we govern from a belief that we live in abundance that we can all share in, and not scarcity that we must fight over. Instead of our leaders forcing us to choose who among us we must hate and feel superior over, we each must personally decide to embrace and help each other. We’re all in this together.
After the shock and disbelief wore off, we talked about it and agreed that we must be ready for anything. What else can we do as Scavengers? We started our eBay store almost exactly eight years ago when banks were failing and we were surrounded by evidence of impending doom. Selling online was a way for us to seek some amount of safety and control. Rather than put our fate in the hands of an employer, we felt better waking up each day and working for ourselves. We moved to a more affordable part of the country and cut out any unnecessary expenses. We carry no debt (except our mortgage), and keep a little cash nest egg if we need it. The idea that there’s a safety net in the US is an illusion, so we live each day as if there is not one. Let the adventure continue!
eBay was steady for us this week. Lots of low dollar sales which we were happy to have. We’ve been putting all our energy into filling up our store with new items.
You can see photos of the renovation we’ve been doing on our second rental on our other podcast Shampoo and Booze. Also, remember that the holidays and new year are the best time to cut down your bills. We love TING phone service for doing just that. And if you want to give us a little holiday tip, use our links here.
And if you haven’t already, we invite you to our new forum where we can now better share and archive our knowledge. See you there!
Join the conversation in the forum>>
Our Store Week Nov 13-19, 2016
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 4538
- Items Sold: 37
- Cost of Items Sold: $40
- Total Sales: $1,200.77
- Highest Price Sold: $100 (vintage sweater)
- Average Price Sold: $29.78
- Returns: 1
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $39
- Number of items listed this week: 200?
———-
Bonanza:
- Sold 2 items for $50
———-
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 1019
- Items Sold: 6
- Cost of Items Sold: $25
- Total Sales: $246.46
- Highest Price Sold: $40 (Vintage glass drink mixer)
- Average Price Sold: $41.07
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 0
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