Increasing the number of items you have for sale.

[AfcThunder]

Hi guys @scavengerlife

This is my first post! I’m craig, a 24 year old from London U.K, I run a small online business amongst other enterprises (if you can call them that) and i have some info to share & hopefully you guys can also share some great insight. This one is what helps me when cash-flow is tight and i don’t want ice cube sandwiches for dinner anymore.

-Ways to increase number of listings

Now of course there are differences between the U.S and the U.K in terms of scavenging, online businesses, buying and selling etc. But many of the principles are the same.
What i and many others would love to know more about is simply where to get items to list?

My experience;
In the past 8 months my profit has come largely from Consignment.
CONSIGNMENT; where the owner of the item gives it to me to sell and take an agreed amount, usually between 20 & 60%, this is great because it eliminates much of the risk of buying an item and having it not sell.

CHARITY SHOPS; AKA good will stores? Firstly if you don’t know your stuff it can be very hard to buy an item and trust that it can sell for more, haggling with a charity shop is a no no of course and they often know the worth of many of their items.. fair enough. personally I’ve found this a slow method and not sustainable.

WHOLESALE; i have little experience with wholesale, again there is risk in buying bulk and then not being able to sell it, but we knew that already. Storage is another factor, finding the right supplier. many variables, seems to be a little off putting for a solo trader like me, but an area i’d love to know more on.

SELF-CREATED; Seems to be a great idea if you can produce a desirable item for a low cost and there is demand, big fan of this and currently working with someone to give this a whirl.

BOOT SALES; Garage sales, never really tried but it seems there is plenty of bargains to be had but locally there is high demand, the best items are gone by the early A.M. somewhat sustainable nonetheless as boot sales are always on.

The usual factors on choosing these methods includes; the upfront cost/risk, cash flow and money available, storage, sustainability, time consumption, expertise.

I don’t want to bore you and write a book here but anyone’s ideas, experience, theories or other information would be greatly appreciated! The goal here is growth and different methods work for different people so looking forward to hearing your stories!

Best

[Jay]

Welcome AfcThunder.

These is a good rundown of the different ways to scavenge. What works best will depend on your location. In the US, we can also add:
–Estate sales (when a home is sold, often everything is sold off inside over a weekend)
–Auctions (just another way to sell off a household of stuff)
–Yard sales (I believe this is uncommon in other countries, but its very common for people to sell items in their front yard on a weekend)

Consignment has a lot of prickly issues if you dont set the time correctly with the item owner. It can very quickly become a boss/employee relationship.

It’s a fun idea to make items to sell online, but I’ve never seen someone be able to scale up homemade goods that generate consistent profit. Up front costs can be high and profit margin slim.

How long have you been selling on eBay? What is your eBay store like?

[AfcThunder]

Hiya Jay

Thankyou for writing,
Great idea, I will look into estate sales and see if there is any local potential, its not something i truly considered before, i would guess that we do something similar over here anyway!

The link here with looking from charity shops to auctions, to anywhere you buy something in general, is you need the knowledge of knowing what sells and spotting the profit.
This will come with time and experience one would assume, but consignment was a way where i could do this without risk – (if their item sells there is profit, if it doesn’t i’m able to give it back)
However as you say there are complications with this, just because it has made most of my profit so far it certainly hasn’t made me enough money either!

I will get back to you on our trial of bespoke, self made items! I wouldn’t start this without the necessary or desired expertise on hand, but profitable or not i always give everything a shot at least once!

I’ve been selling on eBay (and 3 other sites) in total now for 12 months, the majority of my profit has come from furniture, I’ve sold some really expensive Bo Concept furniture in which i was lucky to get for free, some was consigned to me, some was invested in.
I have a fair bit of knowledge with furniture and have had to restore plenty in this time. Though it was profitable it was time consuming; 2 man lifts, large transport costs, my courier service broke a leg once! in the process of a claim now.. storage. etc.

I also saw on your podcast the latest sale was a wooden boat steering wheel if i’m correct? i can never see this selling where i am! Not to be the pessimist its certainly not an item i could buy upfront hoping to sell on! well done on that one.

i would love to hear your view on how you took your business to the next level, obviously you weren’t alone but i think you’ve done well enough to justify !
I guess much comes down to commitment of chasing items to sell, taking some risks, learning more with trial and error, and putting money into potential, rather than here and now.

Best

[Amatino]

AfcThunder – look at Facebook sales groups in your area. There is usually a buy/sell page in every city. There can be good stuff to find, but the prices are usually high. Folks selling individual items want top dollar – don’t go down that rabbit hole! But what you want to watch for are the “moving sale” or “estate sale” or “everything must go” posts. That’s where you really clean up.

Also, if you have the cojones, when you see SOLD on a for sale sign at a house, you can stop by and let the owner know that you’re willing to clean out anything they want to get rid of. Let them know up front that you’re paying rock bottom prices, but a lot of folks don’t want to move stuff, they’d rather just get rid of it. Especially in the more upmarket naighbourhoods. You do have to have rhino hide for this one, though. Some days the language is quite… colourful! 😀

[AfcThunder]

Thanks for your response Amatino

It seems obvious but i hadn’t considered these things in the past so thank you for that. I’m not so active on Facebook but i will try it if i can remember my password!

As well as trying what you said about “for sale” or “sold” signs, i was thinking something similar knocking door to door to offer my selling services to others to then take a percentage. I’m not much of a salesman but the fact is I’m able to sell items quicker and for more money than the average Joe perhaps, and can also deliver as i work with a courier. Its just another branch of consignment i suppose but i haven’t tried that yet, of course you’re right it takes guts but anything to make a living, i don’t really care! I’m currently writing down all the different methods and trying them all. The goal really is consistency and sustainability in where you get your items, automation would be great that’s another level of business for now!

Is “Scavenging” what you do for your main source of income? i’d love to know your story, things sound simple on paper but take dedication to turn them into profit and really follow the vision you had when you started. – Craig 3 16 😉

Best

[Amatino]

I gave up on consignment. To do consignment, I have all the hassle of listing, storing, packing, shipping, only get part of the payment, and if there’s a return or the item is broken, who’s responsible? Only took me a couple sales to work out that owning the item outright meant that all the money, as well as all the responsibility, belongs to me. Now I regularly refuse consignment requests.

Facebook nailed me in the beginning, buying items that weren’t such a good find (the rabbit hole I mentioned) but I’ve netted some really great deals since I started being more careful about the posts I check out. Offering to sell to folks who are moving has gotten me some fantastic specials, as well as some inventive swear words! LOL. I also made friends with the guy at our local dump, who calls me if there’s something really good dropped off, and spread the word in my local retirement community that I’ll take ANYTHING if they want to give it away for free.

Scavenging is one of my businesses: I also teach belly dance, do the bookkeeping for a bunch of rental properties, and take care of my husband’s business.

[Sharyn]

This is a low profit way to sell, but I can add in selling stuff around your house that would normally go into the trash or recycling. For instance, you can save all of your cardboard rolls from toilet paper or paper towels and sell them when you accumulate enough to make it worthwhile. People use them for crafts.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-20-Empty-Paper-Towel-Rolls-Cardboard-Tubes-For-Craft-Projects-Brown/153250114318?hash=item23ae6b2b0e:g:4~EAAOSwjdhbaeHO

When I had started selling, a friend gave me hundreds of used tennis balls. I sold them in groups of 25 or 50. I think I sold the 25 count for $17.50 including shipping. In the worst case scenario, I had to ship it in a medium flat rate box, and I only made a little over $5. In the best case, I made around $10-11. I made more for the 50 count, although I charged less. People used them to play with dogs, put them on the bottom of table legs or walkers so that they wouldn’t scrape, and used them to test conveyor belts at a warehouse (for one of my local pickups). I also sold the empty plastic tennis cans. So, if you knew someone who worked at a tennis club, this could be a constant source of income. You only have to take photos once.

I think this could also work for golf balls, soda bottle caps (I think you can charge more if you sort by color or if you drink some esoteric brand), empty tins, cans, jars, bottles and so on. If you asked a restaurant that was interested in reducing the amount of stuff they threw out, they might be willing to save stuff for you.

I don’t do this on a regular basis, but I have some tins I’ve been saving up. I was thinking of empty spice jars, but it might take me years to gather a decent enough quantity.

[Author]

Posts