Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › 2018 Year End Numbers
- This topic has 61 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 7 months ago by
Brian Treasures from Grandmas.
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
01/01/2019 at 10:47 am #54289
2018 Full Year Numbers for Troy and Veronica
Product Sales (no shipping) – $105,167
COGS – $20,940
Fees – $20,593
Labor – $7,646
Gross Profit – $55,987Total # of Sales – 3,790
Jan 1 # of Listings – 1,770
Dec 31 # of Listings – 2,676
New Listing in 2018 – 4,8472018 STR – 14.21%
2018 ASP – $27.75
Avg sales/wk – 73
Avg listings/wk – 93Sidenote: Breakdown of Sales by Platform
eBay – $99,466
Etsy – $3,408
Poshmark – $1,158
Bonanza – $613
TrueGether – $507
Amazon – $15 -
01/01/2019 at 12:11 pm #54308
Side notE to the above numbers since I have them. This is full year 2018 except for Poshmark (started in Mid October)
Ebay – 14% STR, $27.20 ASP
Etsy – 5% STR, $38.59 ASP
Poshmark – 8% STR, $68.20 ASP -
01/01/2019 at 12:16 pm #54310
Thanks Troy. The labour cost is for employees, or for you guys at some nominal rate?
2018 sales (no shipping): CAD$60,577
COGS: $11,713
Fees: $9,659
Gross profit: $39,256Total Expenditures: $21,751 (includes supplies, COGS, COGUS, rent on storage)
Net cashflow after tax: $19,010
Total # of sales: 336 ($180 avg)
Listings: 724 made in 2018 ($94,969 est), now at 654 listings. Not sure how many I had at the start of the year.
Estimated inventory value: $27,781 start of year, $58,018 now
STR: 19% (sum of monthly STRs). If I calculate from a base of Jan 2018 inventory this number looks stupid huge, because I’ve been growing a lot.
Hours: 474 (9 hrs/week)
Hourly rate: $40.11 (calc’d from after-tax cashflow)Looks like I have a $10,000 ebay tax liability this year. “Luckily” I took a big loss on the sale of an old rental property so the capital loss will cover these gains. Have made arrangements at work for them to suck out even more payroll taxes to cover next year’s liability so I don’t end up with a huge bill for 2019’s ebaying.
I am pretty happy with 2018. I almost doubled my cashflow from 2017 with a comparable amount of hours. I found auctions which mean I have plentiful opportunities for good inventory if I have the cashflow for them. I think I should have spent more on inventory this year, however. A few missed opportunities.
I’m starting to be constrained by storage space again. Will probably need to acquire another storage unit this year. Also plan to husband my money for large auction buys and not nickel & dime myself to death with single items.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
simplicio.
-
01/01/2019 at 2:13 pm #54324
Simplico: Our labor cost is just for outside labor (photographer).
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
-
01/01/2019 at 12:34 pm #54313
Those are impressive numbers Troy and Simplicio!
Here are our numbers for 2018 all via ETSY
UK seller (converted to US dollars)Sales: $15,918 (Excludes postage)
Number of items sold: 505Listings on Jan 1 2018: 400
Listings on Dec 31 2018: 1086
New listings in 2018: 1191COG: $2,640
(we produce our accounts on a cash basis, so this figure is $ spent on new inventory in 2018)Labour: We don’t track this at all! Very part time.
Expenses: $2,686 (Etsy Fees)
$538 (Travel)
Plus a guesstimate of $1,500 on other stuff
(a shed, shelving, packaging, lighting, cleaning materials)So, we are probably looking at a pre-tax profit of around $8,554 (54%)
Pleased with the totals and profit overall, although we are improving our ASP every month and want to continue with that process.
Happy New Year Scavengers!
Lesley at DigVintageStuff-
01/01/2019 at 1:04 pm #54319
1191 new listings, holy moly!
You prob know this, but make sure you track those $1500 of random expenses for shed, shelving etc. They’re good tax deductions. One good reason to invest in your business infrastructure: you get a discount equal to your marginal tax rate percentage.
-
01/01/2019 at 1:27 pm #54321
Yes, I’m just avoiding opening the drawer of doom that contains the receipts!
In the UK our tax returns for April 2017 to April 2018 are due on 31st Jan, so I’ll be getting on with it in the next week or so.
And I’m an ex accountant, so I should be doing it as I go along, but I’m not that organised or efficient!
-
-
-
01/01/2019 at 2:19 pm #54325
Troy.. Your Last line.. what a hoot!!! Amazon $15. LOL 🙂 At least I didn’t have a mouthful of coffee and spit it all over my keyboard.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
-
01/01/2019 at 2:27 pm #54327
Here are the very basics of my numbers. I had to list all of my individual stores because my spreadsheets for COGS for Ebay now include both Ebay stores, Etsy AND poshmark. If I said COGS for Ebay, I meant COGS for all. The 2nd store had some personal items sell, which brought up the COGS to more than they would be normally. COGS for all the venues below were: COGS: $2,824.72.
Surprisingly, I DID get a poshmark sale yesterday, so that goes into the mix. Still keeping up my strategy of absolutely no sharing, liking, advertising, etc,. I’m a grinch! I hope to get something new listed on Thursday or Friday.
Numbers here sometimes include shipping, sometimes don’t. It depends. I can’t display shipping fees here because it includes shipping for Amazon.
I think I added 2,000-4,000 new listings in the main ebay store this year? I don’t know. The 2nd ebay store was only at 75 listings at the beginning of the year, so that’s a few hundred there. Etsy and Poshmark didn’t exist last year, so those numbers are all new. It is funny I listed as much as I did this year, because I slacked a whole bunch.
COGS are super low, so even items with shipping included had low cost shipping ($2.66-$3 shipping for the most part for most items).
Fees last year were around $8.5k, so I assume they are around $9-10k this year for all venues.
Main Ebay Store:
Current Listings Active: 10,100
Transactions: 1,852
Sales: $28,221.76
ASP: $15.242nd Ebay Store:
Current Listings Active: 194
Transactions: 122
Sales: $3,424.40
ASP: $28.07Etsy:
Current Listings Active: 24
Transactions: 11
Sales: $234.75
ASP: $21.34Poshmark:
Current Listings Active: 1
Transactions: 1
Sales: $22
ASP: $22COGS: $2,824.72
-
01/02/2019 at 4:21 am #54351
2018 Gross Yearly Revenue: $19510.40
Number of items sold in the year: 596
Number of listings on Jan 1 2018: ~950
Number of listings on Dec 31 2018: 1077
Number of new listings made in 2018: 7572018 COGS: $1335.30
Ebay Listing Fees: $1651.03
Shipping Fees: $3759.19
Paypal Fees: $737.35
eBay Subscription Fees: $719.40
Other eBay Fees: $380.50
Misc. Business Expenses: $514.30
Mileage: TBD (kept horrible records last year, will have to figure this out – just signed up for MileIQ for 2019, thank you everybody for your advice.)
Labor: $0 – It’s just me, and I average about 10 hours a week on eBay activities. (not including my time on Scavenger Life, which is recreational 🙂Total 2018 Profits after expenses: $10,413.33
-
01/02/2019 at 11:57 am #54371
Doublythumbs’ End of Year Numbers 2018:
Total Sales (no shipping): $46,868
COGS: $3,988
Fees (eBay + Paypal): $8447
Labor: $0
Returns: $2,193 (31 items)
Gross Profit: $32,240Total Number of Items Sold: 1206
Jan 1 # of Listings: 1093
Dec 1 # of Listings: 2002
# of New Listing in 2018: 2115 (Wow! Did I calculate that right?)Average Sale Price: $38
Milage: 2,750 miles ( $1499 expense)
Supplies (packing material, photo equipment, cleaning supplies, etc.): $2,236Shipping Income: $8,773
Shipping Expense: $8,301
Shipping Profit: +$472 (hehe)Okay, all of you number gurus… how do I calculate my STR using the information above?
This was a fun bit of information gathering. Very informative! I think now I’ll create another sheet in my spreadsheet for tracking more detailed data every week.
-
01/02/2019 at 1:27 pm #54383
Cool, Doubly!
The yearly STR based on these numbers would be (#sales 2018)/(#listings Jan 2018) = 1206/1093 = 110%
In my opinion this yearly STR stat is not all that informative or interesting for a fast-growing store such as yours. STR is the percentage of your store that sells every year, but your store doubled in size over the same year. It’s like trying to weigh a running horse.
However if you do the same for month periods it starts to make a little more sense. Another option would be to calculate STR based on pre-2018 listings sold in 2018 but that may take a bit of spreadsheet magic. (Using mainly the sumifs command).
-
01/02/2019 at 2:07 pm #54389
Awesome, thank you Simplicio! With that info, I whipped up a nice little sheet to help me keep better track of my numbers going forth.
-
-
-
01/02/2019 at 1:36 pm #54384
Troy, regarding your STR. After talking to Doubly below I tried calculating it based on your numbers and it’s not working out to 14%. First of all I guess you’re normalizing it to a 1-month period. But is it just the sum of monthly STRs or are you doing something more complicated here?
-
01/02/2019 at 2:51 pm #54390
Doubly and Simplico:
To get the “right” number for Doubly:
From a yearly standpoint, it would be 78% for the year. To get there:
Average Inventory for Year: 1548 (1093+2002)/2
Total Sales for the Year: 1206
1206/1548 = 78%
Your monthly rate for the year is 6.49% (so you sold 6.49% of your inventory each month). You can get there a couple of ways, the easiest is 78%/12, or the long way is 1206/12/1548.
-
01/02/2019 at 2:55 pm #54391
PS – That is why mine is 14% as well.
The true calculation of STR should take the average inventory over the time frame of sales. So weekly, you would want to get the average inventory from Sunday-Saturday, not just one spot. That is too short of a timeframe to really move the needle, so I never do that.
But over a year, yeah, you can’t just choose the Jan 1 or the Dec 31 numbers, especially if you are growing your inventory.
The right way is to always use the average inventory, but sometimes accuracy isn’t worth the extra effort in calculation…
-
01/02/2019 at 3:02 pm #54394
That makes sense. I got thrown off by all the definitions I found googling which say it’s supposed to be based on starting inventory. Probably works for Walmart but not for us!
-
01/02/2019 at 3:59 pm #54404
Thanks, Troy! That makes a lot of sense. I’ve adjusted my spreadsheet to give me the average total listings per week to give me a more accurate percentage. I also make a little table which will give me my monthly STR. Excel is fun!
-
-
-
01/02/2019 at 3:10 pm #54395
Going by starting can work, as long as you don’t add any new inventory in the process (only sales going through). It is the adding of inventory that messes things up…
-
01/02/2019 at 9:24 pm #54421
This was a really good exercise for me. I’ve always liked numbers and exercises where you crunch down like this to the details, but I’m not naturally good at it. I think I captured it here:
Total Sales – $48,778.31
COGS – $2,186.38+
Selling Costs (fees & shipping) – $13,954.34
Gross Profit – $32,637.59Total # of Sales – 894
Jan 1 # of Listings – ~700
Dec 31 # of Listings – 966
New Listings in 2018 – 11922018 STR – 2.2% weekly average
2018 ASP – $34.31 weekly average
Avg sales/wk – 19
Avg listings/wk – 26 -
01/03/2019 at 1:34 am #54427
I used ebaymom’s post as a template as our numbers and size of store is similar.
2018 Gross Yearly Revenue: $19115
Number of items sold in the year: 586
Number of items listed on Jan 1 2018: ~350
Number of items listed on Dec 31 2018: 8002018 COGS: $2185
Shipping Fees: $4005
eBay/PayPal Fees: $2294
Other Expenses (incl mileage): $1721
Labor: $0 – It’s just me, and I average 10-12 hours a week on eBay activities.Total 2018 Profits after expenses: $9067 (47% of gross sales)
I’d like that a bit higher (over 50%) but it was my first full year of this part-time endeavor and I did buy some equipment and other supplies that probably upped that a bit. But overall I’m happy with my growth in 2018. I hope 2019 is even better for me and all trash elves!
-
01/03/2019 at 2:20 pm #54456
Mickdog: I wouldn’t knock that Net Profit % at all. You are a 10X seller (paid $2k, sold for $20K), and your other costs that you can control are relatively small.
Getting and staying over 50% net isn’t easy, especially the larger that you get.
-
-
01/03/2019 at 3:02 pm #54466
@T-Satt – thanks! You’ll see COGS has a little + sign at the end….I wasn’t tracking my #s the same in January, so it’s likely a bit more. I did do well this year with freebies, dead inventory from a former business, and sold off more of my own items that had been used. So, there were some sunk costs not accounted for. But. We’ll see how well I can keep it up as I try to scale things up just a scootch more in 2019 – ie, 1500 items in store. That should max out my space unless I move to just selling ephemera!
-
01/03/2019 at 3:31 pm #54469
SilverFoxFinds: Just something to chew on…
If you sold items that you had for your own personal use…you need to add the cost you paid for them into your COGS for tax purposes. And if you have other items that you don’t have the exact cost on them, put a reasonable COGS for them as well.
Again, I’m not a tax attorney, I just play one on the internet…but you don’t want to pay more in taxes than you should. You can ask someone Like Mr Tew for exact guidance, but you still paid money for those items, so reduce your profit for taxes. Worth the time to check into!
-
01/03/2019 at 4:20 pm #54472
But the COGS for personal items you sold cannot be greater than the amount you sold them for – you can’t take a loss on these items. You can only deduct up to the amount they sold for.
-
01/03/2019 at 4:37 pm #54474
Sonia: You actually could take that loss (there is nothing that says that you can’t), but the stickler is that you have to be able to prove what you paid for the item (like the original receipt).
Mr. Tew would be able to provide a much better answer than I, but if I am in that situation, I look at what a reasonable cost would be if I purchased that item used at a thrift store.
My main driver is…don’t put $0 COGS for any personal items sold. Make sure you put a reasonable cost for that item and be able to defend that in case of an audit.
-
01/03/2019 at 10:03 pm #54485
T-Satt,
Everything I’ve read over the years says that you can’t take a loss on items you originally bought for personal use. IRS topic 409 explicitly says this:
“Losses from the sale of personal-use property, such as your home or car, aren’t tax deductible.”
-
01/04/2019 at 9:39 am #54497
Sonia: Yeah, I could agree with that. I can see the IRS frowning upon trying to take a loss on those sales (especially items that would have a significant loss like that). Small personal items they wouldn’t care about, but you wouldn’t want to have that showing up in your records if they were looking.
I can see the argument for $0 net profit on the sale, since the item wasn’t initially purchased for resale, and is selling for a lower price. For us, when I have sold items like clothing that was mine, I put a thrift store purchase price. So I’m showing a normal profit and paying tax on that, but too small to worry about and it keeps our books clean.
-
-
-
-
-
01/03/2019 at 5:58 pm #54476
Got it. Thank you!
-
01/03/2019 at 6:20 pm #54479
No problem!
In my own research, you probably have two options:
A) Put a reasonable cost on the item that you would pay at a thrift store. Especially if you have sold similar items in the past, you can get this number and defend it. You show a profit on these, and pay taxes accordingly, and it is a reasonable method that is defendable.
B) You claim that these are very one off type items, that you sold on eBay in a manner consistent with a garage sale. If you know that you paid much more than what you sold them for, you MIGHT be able to argue that you should not have any profit on these sales (similar to garage sale revenue…you are selling for less than you paid, so you don’t have to report the profits). You mark the COGS the same as the selling price. This is more aggressive, and I would get tax advice on if you go down this path for documentation and coverage.
Most likely, you are too small for them to worry about and won’t have to prove any of this. But like insurance…you sleep good at night knowing you have this covered and documented well.
-
01/03/2019 at 9:58 pm #54483
Finishing up my final reporting, how do you earmark cost of goods UNsold aka inventory in my basement? Do you factor into your annual numbers? For taxes, I know its all about them COGS but for business reporting…….?
-
01/04/2019 at 9:35 am #54496
Your COGS Unsold is just Inventory. Inventory is all goods you have purchased for resale, listed or unlisted, at the end of the year.
Your Tax COGS will be calculated by taking Beginning Inventory + Inventory Purchases – Ending Inventory. It should be the same as your reported COGS on the P&L.
-
01/04/2019 at 1:24 pm #54505
Yes, I call this COGUS and it’s baked into “Expenditures”. It doesn’t affect gross profit but does affect net cashflow, which is the number I pay the most attention to. Personally I think it’s a critical number to track.
-
-
01/03/2019 at 10:06 pm #54486
2018 Full Year Numbers for Mark S
Product Sales (no shipping) – $35,627.82
COGS – $3500 (A guess a this point, but 10% is always close)
Fees – $6382.49
Labor – 2865
Gross Profit – $22,880.33Total # of Sales – 937
Jan 1 # of Listings – 2069
Dec 31 # of Listings – 2597
New Listing in 2018 – 12682018 STR – 3.9% (2403 average during the year)
2018 ASP – $38.02
Avg sales/wk – 18.01
Avg listings/wk – 24.38Sidenote: Breakdown of Sales by Platform
eBay – $34,711.26
Bonanza – $578.64
TrueGether – $337.92Mark S
-
01/03/2019 at 10:11 pm #54487
Oh, that was no shipping included and I had about $2000 in returns.
Mark S
-
01/04/2019 at 12:58 pm #54504
This is an interesting thread. I’m still pulling my numbers together so I’ll post when I have those but I wanted to throw a question out.
It looks like my sales increased by about 19% from 2017 to 2018. I mentioned this to my wife and she asked a simple question that I didn’t have a good answer to – “What caused the increase?”
There are so many potential answers : we had more stuff in the store, maybe we had better stuff, maybe ebay sent us more customers, maybe sales and promotions helped etc. Despite all the numbers that I keep, I’m not sure I can answer my wife’s simple question.
What about your store? Did sales increase or decrease in 2018 and do you know why?
-
01/05/2019 at 8:18 am #54570
Simon: Regarding your question of “did your store increase and if so why?” One important item to discuss here. This is a bit accounting geeky, but when you get it, it helps answer this question.
When looking at a variance of any kind (actual vs forecast, actual vs prior period, etc.), there is a simple mathematical formula that will tell you how much of the variance is due to increased sales (Volume Variance) and how much was due to higher pricing (Price Variance).
If you have your sales volume and your Average Selling Price for each (in this case, total sales for 2018, ASP for 2018, total sales for 2017, and ASP for 2017), then you can calculate the Volume Variance vs the Price Variance by doing the following:
Volume Variance = Change in Volume x Prior Year Price
Price Variance = Change in Price x Current Year VolumeI will use our numbers to illustrate (my numbers here are slightly off from the above numbers, as these are from SixBit (accrual) vs Quicken (Cash):
2017 Sales – 3,511
2017 ASP – $22.66
2017 Product Revenue – $79,5512018 Sales – 3,872
2018 ASP – $27.09
2018 Product Revenue – $104,958Volume Variance = (3874-3511) * $22.66 = $8,179
Price Variance = ($27.09-$22.66) * 3511 = $17,227Double Check = $8,179 + $17,227 = $25,406
$104,958 – $79,551 = $25,406So for us, we were up Year Over Year, driven a little by volume, but mostly due to selling higher priced items. If you set this up in a spreadsheet, it can do the math for you automagically all the time.
-
-
01/04/2019 at 3:24 pm #54517
Simon,
I use T-Satt’s method. I use the ASP and STR from the previous year and do a forecast for the current year. If your forecast is more than you expected, then see if your ASP or STR (or both) are higher than last year.
This will telling you if you are selling at a better price on average (Higher ASP) or at a faster rate (higher STR). But, given that is the situation, why is that happening? Well, for that, you will have to dig deeper to find the reason.
Also, you could have a much lower ASP but a higher STR. Or, you could have a lower STR, but a higher ASP.
Hope that helps Simon.
Mark
-
01/05/2019 at 8:20 am #54571
Completely agree Mark! This year I’m going to do a “true” budget (our goal) for the year, and lock those numbers in here in the next week. Then I can always report the actuals against the yearly goal.
-
-
01/04/2019 at 10:22 pm #54548
Thanks for the response Mark. Here are my numbers for 2018. (I’ve got some 2017 / 2018 comparisons at the end).
Total Sales – $47,0404 (not including shipping)
COGS – $6,189
Shipping Charged – $7,995 Actual Shipping: $8,834
Fees (eBay / Paypal) – $9,872
Gross Profit – $36,328 (sales + shipping charged) – (shipping actual + fees)Total # of Sales – 1,995
Jan 1 # of Listings – 2,065
Dec 31 # of Listings – 2,568
New Listings in 2018 – 2,7712018 STR – 1.6% weekly average
2018 ASP – $23.58
Avg sales/wk – 38
Avg listings/wk – 53======= Highest sales for 2018
1. Orbi Netgear RBK53 AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System Router – $369.95 (paid $20)
2. Rollei 35 S Compact Camera w/ Sonnar 40mm f/2.8 Lens – $298.95 (paid $33)
3. RARE POQET PC “CLASSIC” MODEL PQ-0164 Portable Handheld Computer w/ case- $279.96 (paid $5)
4. APOGEE MQ-100 Quantum Meter with Integrated Original Sensor – $249.95 (paid $30)
5. ORIGINAL 1962 NEW YORK METS BASEBALL OFFICIAL YEARBOOK Inaugural First Season – $209.95 (paid $1)======= Compared to 2017 =====
ASP: 2017- $22.64 – 2018 – $23.27
Avg. Weekly Sales: 2017 – 34, 2018 – 38
Avg. Weekly 2017 STR: 1.9%, 2018 – 1.6%
Listed: 2017 – 2,568, 2018 – 2,771So my average weekly sales were higher and the ASP was also slightly higher but my STR has dropped. I listed more items in 2018 than 2017.
-
01/05/2019 at 8:27 am #54572
Simon: that was an issue for us as well. Our STR dropped from 19% to 14% this year. Something that I am hoping to correct with better purchasing and checking our pricing. It may also just be what it is, and I have to accept the fact that we will need more inventory space.
But I really want to fight against a lowering STR right now…
-
-
01/06/2019 at 8:19 am #54594
I added a screenshot below of my yearly totals from my running spreadsheet. I went full time in July, was sick all of October (sourced very little, but listed when I felt like it). I purchased a large collection of sports cards at the end of November which propelled me to my best single month of sales in December (previously set by August). I still have a lot from that collection to list and have already made my money back. It’s a bit overwhelming at times, but I took it on for a winter project and constantly have to remind myself that it doesn’t have to be all done within a week.
I purchased approximately 2535 items to list for a cost of $9956.72 for the year. I currently have 1519 listings with an asking price of $69,381. My listing total is up about 60% since going full time, though a lot of that is being buoyed by the sportscards.
-
01/06/2019 at 11:59 pm #54656
The numbers aren’t quite finalized with a few loose receipts left to input, but they wont change much at this point, so here are the rough numbers. We will be polishing them up the week as we get ready for next weeks Q4 tax estimated payment deadline.
Was a rough start, with both my wife and I having back issues this year, but we muscled through and really finished strong in the fourth quarter to get the year back on track.
Product Sales (no shipping) – $168,459
COGS – $21,692
Fees – $30,412
Payout to Consignors – $17,178
Returns – $10,977, yikes but hey, its all part of the clothing game.
Gross Profit – $88,200
Already Reinvested into wholesale inventory not yet sold – $21,495Total # of Sales – 3,825
Jan 1 # of Listings – 1,568
Dec 31 # of Listings – 3,605
New Listing in 2018 – 5,7102018 ASP – $44.04 (no Shipping)
Avg sales/wk – 73
Avg listings/wk – 110-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
The_SEAM_Store.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
-
01/07/2019 at 12:05 am #54658
I always forget if you figure in returns for gross profit, or if subtract it later for the net.
-
01/07/2019 at 9:17 am #54671
I always put returns as part of the Gross Profit. So for us, returns are taken out of Product Sales, so it reduces everything from the start.
-
-
01/07/2019 at 9:21 am #54674
Seam Store: Are you still doing consignment? If so, is this with individuals or with companies?
-
01/08/2019 at 1:02 am #54747
Yes, I have a nice small group of regular consignors, mostly thrifters, in various cities.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
The_SEAM_Store.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by
-
-
01/11/2019 at 2:37 pm #54931
I don’t post weekly numbers as usually don’t have time but here are the yearly numbers. I am part time ebay but this year was a lot better than previous years. My last years profit was 6K and this year was over 20K I don’t calculate hourly rate as this is meant to be for the most part fun and I can make more per hour at my real job but not nearly as enjoyable. I believe that I spend around 20-40 hrs per month on the store but not really sure. I guess I should track it.
Store at end of year has 1432 items up from a little over 850 at end of 2017
Total nuber of sales 1309
SALES without shipping 32332.41
Paypal Fees 1522.56
Ebay Fees 3666.49
Supplies 473.81 ( labels, shipping supplies, storage racks, ink, etc)
Merchandise 4328.23 ( this is just money spend on inventory for the year)
Refunds 485.25PROFIT 21,856.07
Thanks TSATT for all the advice on numbers. I really should look at these closer but just a hobby for the time being.
Cheers.
-
01/11/2019 at 5:01 pm #54950
So, I’m really a numbers person. And I do love Excel. Even though selling online is a very part time activity for me, I’ve been tracking all my numbers since day 1, so I thought I’d share them with you guys as they were already crunched:
Product Sales (including shipping) $23,115
COGS $12,458
Fees + Shipping $4,305
Labor (outsourced) $-
Gross Profit $6,352
Total # of Sales 152
Jan 1 # of Listings 19
Dec 31 # of Listings 67
New Listing in 2018 200
2018 STR 29%
2018 ASP $179
Avg sales/wk 2.9
Avg listings/wk 3.8Sidenote: Breakdown of Sales by Platform
eBay $7,879
Etsy $13,425
Others (Facebook, Direct selling to people I know, local website similar to Craigslist) $1,811Quick recap: I’m a very part time seller (full time demanding corporate job, married w/ a kid,…), based in Lisbon, Portugal, and I sell mostly mid-century modern/ Scandinavian design items that I love and source online from other more affluent countries in Europe. I began on Etsy in late 2017 and in 2018 I started selling a bit on Ebay too, inspired by you guys here at Scavenger Life.
I’ve learned many things on this forum and I love to hear from people that sell online, as I don’t know anyone in real life that also does it.
-
01/11/2019 at 5:25 pm #54951
Your Etsy cumbers are amazing. Do you buy used Scandinavian items from other European countries to sell? Or are you buy new items in bulk to resell?
-
-
01/11/2019 at 7:05 pm #54957
Yes, I do buy used Scandinavian items from other European countries to sell. Although items are vintage, I focus on items in perfect condition. If I find an item isn’t in perfect condition upon arrival (I buy online, so surprises do happen), I’ll sell it quickly by setting a price that just about covers my costs.
I don’t buy in bulk, but I do buy new old stock in original boxes whenever I find it (multiples available in bulk are unicorns in my niche).
I am always on the look out for items I’ve sold before and that done well – it helps to have very similar listings already written. However, I always photograph all the items even if they are similar to ones I sold before, so that I can say that photos depict the actual item being sold. I also measure, weight, include many photographs and describe thoroughly the items.
-
01/11/2019 at 7:28 pm #54959
–You dont have to divulge any secrets, but where generally do you find these items online where people ship the to you?
–Does the shipping become expensive to buy the items?
-
-
01/11/2019 at 7:54 pm #54960
I use mostly tradera (sweden), dba (denmark), huuto (finland), ebay.de (germany).
You do have to be very thorough and skim through a lot of listings on your searches, as most people do know the value of things and they bothered to write listings, take photos, etcShipping from these countries is very expensive, but it costs almost the same to ship one or several items, so I usualy buy several items from the same seller to dilute shipping costs. Most people don’t accept paypal and you have to trust that you’ll make a hefty bank transfer and you’ll get your stuff afterwards. Should you be scammed, all you would be able to do would be to leave negative feed back on the selling platform. That being said, I do trust people and I haven’t had any bad experience yet
-
01/11/2019 at 9:44 pm #54962
It is amazing how most people are good natured and honest. Those are cool sites.
-
-
01/12/2019 at 8:49 am #54970
I did not even pay for an eBay subscription at the start of 2018. I had been toying with eBay in 2016 and 2017, then decided an eBay experiment was in order for 2018 since I was retiring.
1/1/18 eBay listings: ~100 (not certain)
12/31/18 eBay listings: 410
Transactions – 613
ASP – $30.47
Product Sales (no shipping) – $18,680
COGS – I am still trying to marry two spreadsheets together but at least a couple $1000s
Fees – $4,036
Labor – nope
Gross Profit – $12,644I spent $1,705 on supplies: $650 on a camera lens + lights, $300 on a rack and bins system and another $290 on photographic archival materials as well as $120 on Adobe Lightroom. These are long term investments that have been super helpful to me. I know the camera and lens (Canon 6D and Canon 100mm L Macro) are way overkill for standard eBay listings, but it allows me to take high quality images of photographic negatives (sold 28 last year for $2,198) and slides (sold 92 last year for $1,511).
-
01/15/2019 at 12:10 pm #55184
Throwing my hat into the ring for
End of Year Numbers 2018:Total Sales (not including consignment or shipping): $33,862.90
COGS: $9,276.88 (including anything I bought but ended up donating/not listing for whatever reason)
Fees (eBay, Bonanza, Amazon, Paypal): $4,952.90
Labor: $0
Gross Profit: $19,633.12Total Number of Items Sold: 880
Jan 1 # of Listings: 1093
Dec 1 # of Listings: 2002
# of New Listing in 2018 (estimated): 2115Average Sale Price: $38.48
Mileage: 3,615 miles ($1,970.18 expense)
Office Expenses: (packing materials, cleaning supplies, GoDaddy subscription, etc.): $2,111Shipping Income: $5,461.01
Shipping Expense: $4,998.06
Shipping Profit: +$562.95-
This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by
Brian Treasures from Grandmas.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by
-
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.