Felt like a solid week of sales. We sold a vintage Vera Bradley jacket to the a Vera Bradley designer. It’s not the first time a corporation has purchased their own vintage merchandise for either historical value or inspiration for new designs. Or maybe another reason?

We did sell an older coffee roaster for $4000 on eBay. When local pickup works, it works well. Our partners in Broad Porch Coffee were surprised a used piece of equipment would sell, but it’s great because we can now put this money towards in a new oven in our bakery. Always scavengers. Plugging away.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week April 10-16, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8382
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $1345.14 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1015.6 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $166
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $100 (vintage Vera Bradley jacket)
Average Price Sold: $58.48
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $35
Number of items listed this week: 30
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Posting this late since we just got back from a ten day trip to NYC and Boston. We had a great time at the Specialty Coffee Expo where we and our partners got to see all the new equipment, techniques, and rub shoulders with fellow coffee shop owners. People from all over the US/World dedicated to making a quality cup of coffee. It was the first time all the owners have been gone, and our staff ran the cafe alone. No emergencies happened so our systems are working. Big success!

Before we left, we put our eBay store on “Time Away” which is eBay’s new-ish way to put our store on vacation. Theoretically it’s a smart way to let customers continue to purchase but be reminded that shipping will be delayed until we return. Unfortunately we probably had our worst week of sales since we started recording our numbers publicly. Very few sales and mostly very low dollar. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it felt like eBay pushed our listings down in search once we used “Time Away”. This makes us want to use our eBay hack of just changing out handling time when we travel.

We did sell a big piece of coffee equipment that we no longer use for several thousand dollars today. Not including this sale since it was for the coffee biz.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week April 3-9, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8382
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $601.51 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $498.16 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $22
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $68 (jacket)
Average Price Sold: $33.21
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 50
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

What we sold this week sold for good prices. Problem is we only sold 12 items, which is half of last week. It was slowwww for us. One reason may be that we put our store in “away” mode since we left for NYC on Thursday. It’s impossible to see a pattern after just a week. Sold two things today.

We’re in NYC for the week before going to Boston for the Coffee Expo. Of course we’re scavenging on the streets, having already sent home one box. It’s nuts and so much fun to take long walks and just pick stuff up that’s valuable.

How are your sales? Find anything cool?

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week March 27-April 2, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8336
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $713.17 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $517.28 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $44
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $200 (vintage lamp)
Average Price Sold: $43.10
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Ah, the unglamorous life of selling random items on the internet week after week. If you’re reading this, you’re probably like us: you’ve built a pile of items you’ve scavenged, setting aside some time each day/week to list them on eBay, shipping to people who are happy to buy what you’re selling, and creating a pipeline of cash …while likely few people you know really understand this part of your life. It’s okay. No one needs to understand 🙂

Had a solid week of steady sales. Best sale was an Insane Clown Posse hat that we purchased four years ago. We were at an auction standing around a cold warehouse with a bunch of farmers and rednecks. The auctioneer starting selling an old cardboard box full of ICP hats. Just me and one other guy knew what they were. I got the box for $50. The farmers thought I was nuts. Felt a little bad because I could tell the other guy was a probably a Juggalo in his younger years. This box is when we started talking about finding “caches” of items and “going all in” and  “building a pipeline”. We’ve probably made $4000 off that box over the past four years. Still have several hats left. I miss in-person auctions.

We just had the busiest and most profitable day at our Luray cafe. Our staff did A+. I was washing dishes all morning while talking to all the people coming in to drink coffee and eat. Lots of local people I knew. Lots of travelers coming to hike for the day. I had the time of my life!

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week March 20-26, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8312
Items Sold: 24
Gross Sales: $1,144.18 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $881.93 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $99
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $110 (insane clown posse cap)
Average Price Sold: $36.74
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Without doing anything different, we had a great week of sales. Just happened to attract sellers who were buying $100+ weird vintage gew gaws, doo dads, and tchotchkes. If you list it, they will buy.

Ryanne also went on a daylong shopping spree for the first time in a long long time. She brought home a carload of very cool treasures to list.

On the coffee front, Broad Porch just released a coffee in a can.
Unfortunately not available to sell online online, but a very cool project to get it from our roaster into a can. It’s legit!

How was your week?

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week March 13-19, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8248
Items Sold: 26
Gross Sales: $2,003.20 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,478.84 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $144
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $210 (antique belt buckle)
Average Price Sold: $56.87
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $75
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Below are our sales for the week even with the ongoing Russian war + rising inflation. People seem to always still want to buy our weird stuff. This week our highest item sold was a vintage homemade t-shirt that said “alligator team”. Who knows!

We can tell COVID is fading from people’s top list of concerns as our coffee shop fills up. We’re even taking a trip to a big coffee expo next month which we’re all excited about. It’ll be one of our first travels in the past several years.

What’s the favorite thing you sold this week?

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week March 6-12, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8209
Items Sold: 22
Gross Sales: $1,133.47 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $869.06 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $108
Cost of helpers: $40
Highest Price Sold: $80 (vintage t-shirt)
Average Price Sold: $39.50
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

We had our first 70 degree weekend in Virginia and it feels like Spring. We also had our best weekend at Broad Porch Coffee in Luray. We were swarmed with both locals and tourists. Very busy but also fulfilling. It’s fun to create a “cool space”. Our staff is now experienced which makes the day go much better. I wash dishes, clean, say hi to the locals, and solve problems.

We surprisingly had a much better week on eBay. About half of the items we sold were clothes. Ryanne is really the one keeping on top of new listings, packing, and managing our helper who takes photos.

Both of us really enjoy reading how your week has been. Everyone here is so smart with what they’re doing.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week February 27-March 5, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8127
Items Sold: 29
Gross Sales: $1,672.77 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,324.30 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $97
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $200 (leather jump suits)
Average Price Sold: $45.65
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5
Number of items listed this week: 30
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

We had a decent week of sales on eBay, though no big home runs. Our helper is working her way through photographing what seems like an endless death pile. Even just casual scavenging seems to land us boxes of stuff to sell. The fact that we spend so little on inventory is what makes this business work for us.

As far as Broad Porch Coffee, our Luray location has almost been open for a year. Starting tomorrow, we’re going to seven days a week since we now have an experienced staff (and tourist season begins). Running a brick & mortar business has a lot of challenges but so far it’s a lot of fun (and making money:) There’s nothing that makes me feel more proud than building full of people enjoy our coffee/food and lots of conversations.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week February 20-26, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8122
Items Sold: 33
Gross Sales: $1,108.37 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $823.87 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $102
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $50 (vintage cigar box)
Average Price Sold: $24.96
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 30
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

We had a much lighter week with several days of only one sale. Most satisfying sale was a pair of boots that Ryanne lightly wore for a couple years…and then sold for $200 after she got tired of them.

But we had a frustrating week with a buyer purchasing a $750 coffee machine that was listed local pickup, but the seller swore we said Free Shipping. Cancel. We accepted several other offers but the buyers never paid. Cancel. An overseas buyer was angry that an item had damage that the listing clearly showed in photos and words. He said we edited the listing after the sale (not possible). He’s welcome to ail back for a refund. All communication was short and professional. All you can do.

We’ve had several warmish days sneak in which excites everyone in our town. Feels like Spring is around the corner. Very good news for our coffee shop because it means tourists are coming.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week February 13-19, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8152
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $1,105.67 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $813.66 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $55
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $200 (pair of boots)
Average Price Sold: $35.37
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

The Winter Seller Update is now live so we can discuss. For anyone new, eBay has two or three updates that change how the site operates. Sometimes it’s small changes that affects very few sellers, and sometimes it’s huge changes that forces every seller to change how they do business on eBay.

As much as we hate to change how we do things and sometimes grumble, we recognize that eBay must evolve as more online selling sites appear. These past several years have seen quite a few positive changes. Overall, eBay is still the best place for us to sell the kind of items we do. We have yet to try another platform that connects us to enough buyers to sell weird, vintage consistently.

So what’s new in this update? This is what jumps out at us as we read over the list.

Good:

• Amazingly, eBay has heard us about unpaid items from Best Offers. Now when buyers submit an offer, they commit to paying. Once the seller accepts, the sale is processed. Good!
• Looks like a buyer can’t leave negative feedback without first messaging the seller, giving the seller a chance to make the customer happy. This is great because most of our negative feedback is from buyers who don’t ask for a refund or return.
• Sometimes a buyer ask us to cancel a purchase. It’s annoying, but more annoying because eBay keeps the final value fee even though we’re making the buyer whole. eBay says they will now fully refund the seller for any cancelled item or partial refund to buyers.

Not Great:

• eBay is raising the Final Value Fee by about .3% across all categories. So we’re getting close to 13+% fees on many of the categories we sell in.
• Promoted Listing Fee is now applied to the total sale price INCLUDING shipping. We dabble a little in promoted listings and can’t blame eBay for maximizing profit. but see it as another weird way for eBay to make even more money per sale. It’s totally voluntary to promote or not.

Did I miss anything?

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week February 6-12, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8126
Items Sold: 36
Gross Sales: $1,440.21 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,076.33 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $78
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $75 (raw honey from our hive)
Average Price Sold: $29.89
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)