No Podcast? Hey We Had To See An Eclipse in 100% Totality!

[Ryanne]

A fellow eBay scavenger and podcast listener offered up some space to stay and see the full solar eclipse in the 100% totality zone, so we took her up
[See the full post at: No Podcast? Hey We Had To See An Eclipse in 100% Totality!]

[Rydell Relics]

RR Store Week August 13-19, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1,322
Items Sold: 29
Cost of Items Sold: $32.56
Total Sales: $938.24
Highest Price Sold: $250 (junked Mercedes Benz [not on eBay])
Average Price Sold: $32.35
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $160
Number of items listed this week: 20

Now we’re talking! Finally hit my short term weekly goal this week. I’ve been dying to get rid of that Mercedes Benz; it had a blown head gasket, so it was a two ton paperweight. After a return visit to the DMV to fix an error on their part, I got a junkyard to haul it away and got $250 bucks. RIP Benzo. I also took a Best Offer of $200 bucks for a vintage Bionic Woman raincoat on Saturday, but I’m still waiting for payment. I have my bionic fingers crossed. Even without that sale, it was a MUCH better week than the last few.

I caught a quick glimpse of the eclipse this morning in the backyard. We only had a 62% coverage here in SoCal, so I wasn’t quite as excited. My favorite part was the strange silvery light it gave. Very dreamy.

I had to give up a few days of listing this week, but one in particular was well worth it. I made a special dinner for my girlfriend and I to celebrate our fourth anniversary. Cocktails, then Hatch green chile enchiladas, made from scratch. I hope everyone has access to those wonderful chiles. They are a treasure.

OK, back to listing! Enjoy your days off, Jay & Ryanne!

*Paul*

[T-Satt]

Hatch Green Chile is the only way to fly! I grew up in New Mexico, so I love them. I have a good source here in Broomfield that brings them up and roasts them. When he says Medium, Hot, or Extra Hot, he is accurate! We are in the time of the year that I start to make Green Chile stew, my favorite time of year!

[Rydell Relics]

T-Satt, I’ve been to Albuquerque twice over the years, and the food was FANTASTIC. I had to learn the “red or green” conundrum first hand, but once I got the hang of it, it was all so delicious! I’d never made enchilada sauce with green chiles, so I didn’t know what to expect. They were insanely good, if I do say so myself! And very easy to make. Nothing beats the smell of roasting Hatch chiles. My girlfriend was beyond impressed. Now I need to learn how to make sopapillas.

omfug, that’s one of the many reasons I could never move away from Southern California. With all its faults, I still love it, and the food is top notch. Only one Mexican joint in your area?! I’d make friends with them quick, fast, and in a hurry!

*Paul*

[T-Satt]

If you ever go go back, and want to sound like a local, ask for “Christmas”. That means half green and half red. Taste is wonderful!

[omfug]

We get the Hatch Chilies in Western WA Paul–delicious, great for salsa Verde. In the almost 30 years I’ve lived here the ONLY thing I miss about So Cal is Mexican-American food–there is exactly ONE place for miles around that knows how to make the legit stuff, LOL.

[Doublythumbs]

That’s awesome! I got to see the partial eclipse in West Virginia which was pretty cool. On a similar note, has anyone seen some of the prices of sold solar eclipse glasses on eBay? The next one is in 2024…BOLO! 🙂

[Doublythumbs]

July 9-15
Total Items in Store: 543
Items Sold: 5
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $112
Highest Price: $50 (Antique Vintage Nautical Buoy Fishing Net Float Galvanized Metal Marker)
Average Price: $22
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $2.00
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $250

I’m back in business. It took almost a month, but I was finally able to put my store back online last Wednesday. `I was afraid I did something wrong but i started making sales the following day. It was a big relief to be selling again.

I spent a while doing inventory and checking to see what made it and what didn’t. I crunched the numbers and here’s how I did…
Total items before flood – 1938 (combined listed and unlisted), 955 (Listed only)
Total items after flood – 1111 (combined), 521 (listed)
Items destroyed – 827
43% of my inventory was lost. That was a lower number than I originally predicted, so that’s nice.

There’s still a lot more work to do though. We had some damage to our foundation so we’re still getting water in the basement when it rains. Finally got the yard leveled out with a tractor so now we’ll lay down some grass seed. We’ll still need a new furnace, but the good news is that we’ll finally get central air installed since we’ll get the bundle price.

I wanted to thank everyone here for all of your support. It really helped to hear from everyone who commented, and it was therapeutic to talk about it with people who understand what selling on eBay is about. I made an album of the flood if anyone is interested in checking it out. http://imgur.com/a/j41gu I’ve shared these with coworkers and family who don’t know I sell on eBay so just know everything on those shelves are items intended to sell.

We had a good scavenging haul on Saturday. We got a tip that a guy was trying to clean out his parents’ house who passed away years ago. We went there and there was stuff everywhere. They must have been hoarders. We filled our car up for $150. I got a lot of cool vintage electronics and books and just random stuff. There was so much that we couldn’t get to, so we made a second trip on Sunday and spent another $150 for another car load. Though that sounds like a lot, I know I got some really nice items. We’ll probably make a couple grand at least.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

So crazy what a mess that is. After being faced with that, I too would assume a total loss. At least you took inventory, managed your listings, and are back up & running. I’m sure that $112 isn’t what you dreamed to make this week, but it has to be a blessing that at least a little income is starting to come in again. I assume you took the pictures/created the album to share with insurance? Did you have your inventory covered?

[Doublythumbs]

Yeah, $112 is definitely a lot lower than what I was used to making. But it’s understandable given that it’s the slow season and my store was essentially cut in half. That first cha-ching was like music to my ears!

I do have a complete inventory of what I lost, but unfortunately I’m not covered in terms of insurance. I’m going to schedule an appointment with a tax person to see if I can at least write anything off as a loss.

[T-Satt]

I’m not a tax expert, but I would be surprised if you can’t write off the destroyed inventory as a business expense. Your tax guy should be able to make sure your supporting documentation is solid, but it should still be a business expense.

[T-Satt]

Glad you are back up and running. You are an inspiration on how you leaned into a bad situation and came out on the other side.

[Doublythumbs]

Thank you! That means a lot. I would love nothing more than to just put all this behind me. I feel like once I get the ball really rolling, it’ll just be a distant bad memory.

[T-Satt]

And good lessons learned…

[Beverly – Far Out and Fabulous]

Doublythumbs: I’m so glad to hear you are recovering somewhat from your ordeal. It was horrible to imagine the reality of it from your description, but seeing these pictures really shows how powerful that water was and how devastating. That water was almost up to the main floor!!! I cannot imagine what it was like to peer down into your basement and see that.

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. You must be like Hercules by now.

[Doublythumbs]

Beverly, it was very surreal. I must have been in a legit state of shock because I still can’t remember a lot of that night. But I’ll never forget the feeling of sitting on that top step looking down at a swimming pool of a basement and feeling completely hopeless.
I don’t know if I feel like Hercules quite yet (although I should look like it with all the shoveling I’ve had to do), but in due time I’ll be back on my A-game and making sales like crazy.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

AMAZING!!! I saw it briefly from up here in NYC, but was stuck in the office for most of it. I love the shot of Jay that looks like he’s getting a suntan!

Week August 13-19, 2017

Total Items in Store: 977
Items Sold: 23 (4 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $193 (20.0% of sales)
Total Sales: $964.48
Highest Price Sold: $300 (Lalique Cat on pedestal with box)
Average Price Sold: $41.93
Returns: 0 (1 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $170
Number of items listed this week: 80
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $466.97 (48.4% of total sales), $31.69 fees (6.8% of sales)

Another really good week for me, so I continue count my blessings. COGS were higher than I like, but a bunch of the sales we part of my effort to get higher quality items – the Lalique cat cost me $100 (sold for $300), a set of Pinocchio lobby cards I paid $15 for (sold for $70), I paid an average of $15 each for some of those Beatles records (sold for $40-$100 each). My average price sold reflects these higher quality items, but so does my COGS.

Put my head down and listed a ton over the weekend. A big stack of records I had been putting off, a death box of odds & ends collected from the bottom of box lots, and a couple NIB items that my wife got as gifts from work.

No picks this weekend as I focused on listing (the dollar “spent” is the cost of the items I did list). I will be away for the next two weekends, so I wanted to get enough listed so I could set it and forget it for a bit.

[Sharyn]

I really appreciate the effort you guys put into the podcast every week. I missed listening to it today, but you certainly deserve a break.

I never bought the eclipse glasses, so I put together a “projector” using a box. I thought it was pretty cool, and the kids were interested. The shade pattern of the leaves on the sidewall was also kind of neat – there were little crescent shapes of light between the leaves.

Week of Aug 13-19
* Total Items in Store: 990
* Items Sold: 16
* Cost of Items Sold: $35.74 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $256.30
* Highest Price Sold: $47 Bordallo Pinheiro Cabbage Platter
* Average Price Sold: $16.02
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $17.50
* Number of items listed this week: about 5

This was the first week after my son’s summer camp ended, and I didn’t have the time to list as much. I realize that I will not be able to do much until the kids get back to school. I’m finding lots of good deals right now, so I won’t stop buying. However, I already have piles of stuff to list, and the piles will get bigger before they start to get smaller.

[simplicio]

Terrible week for sales! I only really had two sales; luckily one buyer bought multiples. Didn’t do much scavenging either.

Sales: CAD$231, 4 items
COGS: $31
Gross profit: $161
Notable sales: 3 used medical “lead” vests for $50 each to same buyer, bought for $5 each.
Expenditures (incl. COGU): $134
Net profit: $27
Cashflow: +$58
Hourly rate: $5/hr, 5 hrs
Listed: 10 items, ~$1010, total 223 items/~$9600.
Notable buys: a whole lot of fluorescent and low pressure sodium lightbulbs. The price was right and the sale prices are good… hopefully they sell in some remotely reasonable timeframe.

Storage is quickly becoming a problem for me, as the niche I have done best in (basically, lab & medical stuff) tends to be big, clunky things. I am at about 75% of my storage capacity with 223 items but to get where I want to be for sales numbers, I’d probably need double this inventory. That being said, a lot of my old inventory is junk I wouldn’t buy again. I am really getting motivated to just turf it to make room.

[omfug]

The eclipse here in Western WA was 92%, as it happened I was at the Vet’s and there were people in the parking lot who shared their glasses, it was freaking amazing even without hitting 100%, when the skies darkened (only dimming to “dusk”) it still felt wonderfully strange. If I hadn’t had to take the dog for some routine stuff I wouldn’t have bothered to look (didn’t buy glasses) now I am so happy that I did–it is easy to forgot how incredible our universe is.

Sales are dead and I am taking some time off from listing so nothing interesting to report on that front…

[Manateejaq]

Glad to hear you both had a fun time viewing the eclipse. 🙂 It was cloudy and rained in Iowa… so, no viewing here unfortunately.

August 13- 19 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 503 // Ebay 412 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 18 // Ebay 16
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $34.11 // Ebay $88.81
Total Sales: Etsy $332.30 // Ebay $315.44
Highest Price Sold: Hordak action figure Masters of the Universe $50
Average Price Sold: $19.05
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 1 (Listed at $10)

This week I had a ton of new inventory from purchases made last week, so I spent most of the time prepping these items (cleaning, photographing, researching, measuring). This week will be spend listing them! 🙂 Hopefully it should go fast. Still haven’t opened the stamp collection box though. Haha. Meet my newest death pile addition.

[Steven S]

Aug 13-20 2017 $1433

• Total Items in Store: 853
• Items Sold: 22 eBay 1 Facebook Marketplace (Jarts)
• International 3 / 2 via GSP
• Total Sales $1392 $1332 eBay / $60 FB Marketplace
• Highest Price $400 Fender amplifier (again)
• Average Price Sold: $60
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $360
• Cost of items purchased this week $50

Drove over 200 miles to observe the eclipse yesterday, totally worth it.
There’s sunlight, moonlight, twilight and dusk but nothing can describe corona light, it has to be experienced.
I’ve witnessed a couple partial eclipses but there is no comparison to being under the umbra, so cool.

[Ryanne]

i have to agree, nothing can prepare you for 100% totality. it’s truly glorious and i wish it lasted a little longer than 2.5 minutes.

[Eve Everett]

I was bummed I couldn’t find a way to make a quick trip but we did see about 80% of it here. Not the same though.

Looks like it was amazing there.

[Doublythumbs]

When you say Jarts, do you mean the lawn dart game? I’ve been stockholding those for no other reason other than they’re sometime included in my box lots. I know you can’t really sell them on eBay. How much did you get for them?

[Steven S]

I forgot to put the Jarts in the video.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Steven S.

[Steven S]

The set I sold were Regent Slider Jarts, sort of a later version, a couple fins were cracked but I still had so many people contacting me about them. They sold the same day, $60 on Facebook marketplace.

[Doublythumbs]

I’ll have to try a different selling outlet then. It is kind of cool to own something that has been sort of outlawed, but I’m sitting on four sets now and they’re taking up room. I might keep the nicest one as a token of olden days of fewer safety restrictions. 🙂

[Retro Treasures WV]

Total Items in Store: 890
Items Sold: 21
Cost of Items Sold: $120
Total Sales: $636
Profit: $516
Highest Price Sold: $90 Nike Lebron shoes
Average Price Sold: $30.29
Average Profit: $24.55

Had a solid week and then the weekend was dead. My wife is really taking to photographing listings. We’ll be at 1000 listings by the end of the month I think. I have almost 50 listings waiting on pics in the ebay room already.

At work we had a cookout and watched the eclipse. I was able to take some pretty decent photos of the eclipse by laying the glasses over the lens of my phone. We had 90% coverage here. I’m happy for you guys that you took a weekend off to go do something cool like this. That’s what the Scavengerlife is all about after all.

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 349
Items Sold: 8
Cost of Items Sold: $9 used + 79 new
Total Sales: $228
Highest Price Sold: $43 (Set of two new decorative hooks – paid $16 early summer)
Average Price Sold: $29
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 3 RA listings – added multiples

Eclipse was partial and foggy here on the West coastline, so I have to admit I wasn’t really feelin’ it. Your photos and some on Facebook make it look much more interesting.

I’m scraping along here with some ok sales considering I’m still finishing out the crazy busy summer and back to school business. I did list a few multiples for new items. I’ve also been trying to at least clean out my listing recommendations daily since I discovered the option to put them off for 30 days. I have to say that so far I do think adding free shipping to some first class items has made a difference. I think I might be a convert. I watched a video on youtube and it made me realize that I had written off “sell one like this” in favor of using my own listings to start with because I had some boilerplate I liked at the bottom. Now I’m using almost no boilerplate (just encourage buyers to use the shopping cart and visit my store) and there are many more item specifics Ebay has added since then. So I plan to revisit sell one like this. Looking forward to seeing the new rental photos. Have a great week.

[Simon]

Glad you guys got to see a total eclipse. I believe it’s 7 years till the next one in the US. Time for the rest of us to plan to see it.

Numbers for this week:
Total Items in Store: 1958
Items Sold: 30
Total Sales: $775
Cost of Items Sold: $71.5
Average Price Sold: $25.85
Average Cost of Item: $2.38
Highest Price Item Sold: $144.95 Sony 300-CD CD player (paid $10)
Number of items listed this week: 53
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 258
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 128
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 56
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.53%

I’ve started to max out the storage space that I want to devote to my eBay biz so I’m starting to remove listings when they hit the 2-year mark. Fortunately most things do sell so it’s just a handful of items that I’m de-listing.

Have a great week everyone.

[T-Satt]

Simon: Do you like seeing your STR for just the week?

I track my weekly STR on a monthly calendarized basis, so I would track your STR as 6.57% (30/7*30/1958) Meaning – 30 Sales in week / 7 Days to get average per day * 30 to get a calendarized month / current inventory.

It helps me see how the weekly STR relates to my monthly STR (since I calculate them both).

Just curious if you like seeing just the week by itself.

[T-Satt]

Week of 8/13-8/19
Total Items in Store: 1,616
Number of Items Listed This Week: 100
Items Sold: 85
Weekly STR: 23%
Total Sales: $2,432.67
Cost of Items Sold: $471.70
Highest Item Sold: $125 – 78 Pc Lot of Oneida Oneidacraft Deluxe Nordic Crown Silverware Set
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 19-13.
Competition: Highest Total Sales: Troy leads the year $24.9k to $20.0k

We just did make our current weekly listing goal (100), but lost some time getting my new studio lights put together and installed. LOVE THEM THOUGH! If you need studio lighting, I highly recommend using 3 softboxes that have 4 5500k bulbs each (two from the sides and a boom light from above). So much clearer and cleaner, and now I’m thinking that if I get a better camera (one that I can set the lighting on the camera to 5500k), then I won’t have to edit the photos at all, saving time (1-2 minutes per listing). I will have to run the ROI on that to see what the payoff is… 🙂

Much stronger sales this week, almost double what we had for last week’s sales. We almost sold as many items that we listed this week, so we will have to crank up our listings (though we lost some time with the eclipse…very cool!). Really hoping that we are seeing the end of summer. Our overall profit is a little lower, as we have some items on 75% off to get them out of inventory (bad purchases that we just want out of our hair), but it feels good to see these mistakes get sold to make way for better items. Always know when to fold a bad hand!!!

[pythonesk]

We sold a vintage astronomy book on the day of the eclipse. No surprise there. Here in TN we had about 98% of totality.

[T-Satt]

Jay & Ryanne, I thought you would like to see the Instagram Love you received recently…

Instagram Shout Out

[Amatino]

#Items in store: 372
Items sold: 4
Total sales: $390
Highest price sold:$225 Canon Lens
Average price sold: $97
Returns: 0
#Listed this week: 26

Horrible week of sales. The only reason my numbers are so high is because I sold two vintage Canon lenses for $225 and $125 respectively. And they’re on consignment, so it’s not even full profit.

Listing also took a major downturn as I handled a bunch of non-eBay related issues. I’ll have to list 78 items this week to get back on target. That’s a scary number for me, but I may just have a chance, as the hubs is going to be away for 3 days, so I can focus entirely on listing and not worry about anything else, as long as nothing happens on the ranch that requires my immediate attention.

ETA: Woohoo! Listed like crazy yesterday and hit 400 items. Now just have to list the 50 items for my goal this week and I’m back on track!

[T-Satt]

Nice!

[tam from Tam’s Vintage & More]

Due to a regime change at work I can’t listen to you and have fallen behind. 😒 We drove from Chicago to Carbondale for the eclipse. So AMAZING! The ride home took us 11 1/2 hours instead of 6… needless to say I am caught up and you have a new fan in my partner. He learned a lot and was entertained during a truly bizarre drive. Thanks!

[Ryanne]

we got down to SC for the eclipse in good time. driving home however was an extra 2-3 hours!! the traffic was pretty bad. it was totally worth it though. amazing.

[Matt]

We took the family down to southern KY to see it. And WOW…there are no words to describe it. What a day!

Thought of you two as I packed a large heavy item this morning. It was a hassle…but that means I sold it!

[Sharyn]

Jay & Ryanne,

I didn’t receive the forum firehose email yesterday (the 24th) or today. Is there a bug or is there a problem with my subscription? There is nothing in my spam folder. I tried to re-subscribe, but I got a message that I was already subscribed.

I am getting updates when there are new submissions to a topic that I am subscribed to.

Thanks!

[Author]

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