Scavenger Life

Our big sale this week was a commercial dishwasher. We purchased it used, had it in our cafe the last two years, and then sold it for a profit after the cafe needed an upgrade. Nice! Otherwise, we still had some nice steady sales.

Curious see if Fall and holiday season bring more sales this year.

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Our Store Week September 3-9, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9528
Items Sold: 18
Gross Sales: $2,723.94 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $2,212.14 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $613
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $1800 (commercial dishwasher)
Average Price Sold: $122.89
Returns: 1
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)

It happened about 6pm.
“Uh oh, ” I said “We just sold a $1500 purse.”

This should be great news. Why shouldn’t we be over the moon to sell a vintage Chanel purse? Because if you’ve sold on eBay long enough, you know that large purchases are fraught with “problems”. The buyer had sent an offer, we accepted, and they even immediately paid.

So we waited to see if we’d hear from the buyer. An hour later, we get the first message.
Buyer: “I am so sorry but I messed up when I put in my offer. I meant put offer 1050 not 1500. Is there anyway you could cancel this offer?”
What do we do? We’re very hungry for this sale.
Us: Hi, thanks for messaging me. I could refund you $200 if that would help. Let me know, thanks.”
Buyer: “I’ll have to end up returning it anyway if it’s sent to me. It’ll be a hassle to have to go through that for the both of us. Please understand.”

At this point, the buyer is already discussing returning the item. We just canceled the sale. Easy come, easy go. These are the ups and downs of being an eBay seller.

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Our Store Week August 27-September 2, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9541
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $669.30 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $488.60 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $47
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $180 (wool rug)
Average Price Sold: $40.71
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)

An incredibly slow week for us on eBay. Our favorite sale was a washing machine part that Ryanne pulled out of a broken washer. Otherwise, mainly low dollar items and clothes. Good news is this inventory cost us almost nothing.

Running a brick and mortar is different than eBay in many ways…but we do get feedback/ratings like eBay through Google Reviews. Like eBay, we get the rare grumpy customer who gives low stars with weird reasoning. But unlike eBay, some reviews are from local people we actually know. One local woman who comes in often gave us three stars (average rating) and complained about having to clean off her own table since we’re self-service. What do we do? It’s a strange situation seeing her each week enjoying our cafe whole knowing she publicly blasted us. Why didn’t she just give us direct feedback? Who knows. We smile and do the best we can.

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

Our Store Week August 20-26, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9498
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $618.76 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $491.64 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $33
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $65 (washing machine part)
Average Price Sold: $28.92
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Did you know that Costco branded clothes is popular among the youth? I guess you’d call it normcore? We found a pair of Costco sweatpants that we sold for over $55. I can’t remember something we’ve scavenged that has surprised us like this. We do like the $1.50 hotdog drink combo.

Otherwise we’re cranking along. Working on another big project that maybe will be done by the end of the year.

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

Our Store Week August 13-19, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9495
Items Sold: 29
Gross Sales: $1,106.35 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $876.37 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $102
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $55 (costco sweatpants)
Average Price Sold: $30.21
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)

Our highest sold item was a sink faucet we recently scavenged for free. A woman posted locally about needing to do a clean out and willing to give away stuff if we picked it up. We arrived in our truck and loaded furniture, home goods, ladder tools, etc. We’ve sold almost $1000 of items in the first couple weeks. Some stuff sold on Facebook Marketplace and some stuff on eBay.

We really don’t like to pay for inventory. The sales are even sweeter when we know we scavenged the items for free.

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

Our Store Week August 6-12, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9469
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $871.01 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $690.89 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $43
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $200 (sink faucet)
Average Price Sold: $34.54
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30
Number of items listed this week: 30
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Our big sale experiment is over. With a 50% sale, we doubled our normal transactions for one week…but then quickly came back down to earth this week.

What did we take from the experiment?
–In a 10,000 item store, some items are price sensitive.
–Running a deep sale is like doing steroids. The juicing gives quick results but also disappears once the juicing stops. I imagine that it’d take more and more juicing to get the same results week after week.
–We still think our time is better spent scavenging items we enjoy finding, and being patient on sales.
–Our way of selling still works for us. The main goal is to continue listing.
–Whatever works for you is whatever works for you!

Hope you guys had a good week!

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

Our Store Week July 30 – August 5, 2023

Total Items in Store: 9337
Items Sold: 25
Gross Sales: $1,057.08 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $814.32 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $66
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $220 (vintage lamp shades)
Average Price Sold: $32.57
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)