Home › Forums › Random Thoughts › Numbers Don't Lie: Listed Sales Price Bracket Breakdown
Tagged: ASP
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T-Satt.
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11/21/2018 at 9:42 am #52098
After packing another $12 item, I needed to have a conversation with myself about ROI. I have gotten into some sloppy sourcing. These little sales aren’t auto-pilot items or replenishables. They are single listing quirky things. So, I ran some numbers and I am frankly not really where I want this business to be to meet my goals.
1082 items, current listed prices, average str: 10%
$1- $50
85% of items
$50-$100
12% of items
$100+
3% of itemsi really like to be in the $50-100 category. As you can see, I am far from it.
It’s never to late to change the direction of your ship!
New strategy moving ahead:
If it’s under $25 sale it needs to be easy, breezy, NWT, DVD/Media/Scannable, or replenishable. No One-Hit Wonders, impulsive pick ups.MORE BUNDLES and LOTS – experiment with bundles / lots / groupings. I have started it w/ mens’ Hawaiian and vacation shirts, it’s going great.
Back to OLD SCHOOL researching on my iphone before buying. I have gotten cocky and made too many “guesses” that have eeked out $5 profits.
I have a lot more listed, but I am interested to see if anyone checks on this breakdown of their store as well.
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11/21/2018 at 9:57 am #52099
So I understand, 85% of your listed items are over $50? That’s over 900 items. That’s incredible. What kind of items are these?
Only 10% of your items are under $50? Thats’ just 108 items. I;d say you have a great filter on already to not buy cheap junk.
Hw long have you been scavenging and selling? Though we still scavenge and sell items worth $15, it’s not a surprise to us. It’s just too tempting to pass up inventory thats interesting, costs nothing, and still make us $15. We try not to do it often, but the temptation is real.
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11/21/2018 at 10:01 am #52100
Hi Jay! No, my STR is 10%. š
$1- $50
85% of items
$50-$100
12% of items
$100+
3% of items-
11/21/2018 at 10:03 am #52101
Sorry, I misread. Do you know what percent of your 1000 item store is inventory $20 or less? Are you mainly focused on clothes?
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11/21/2018 at 10:08 am #52102
$1-$20
30% of storeI have been selling for 2.5 years. I started with clothes and shoes. and now my mix is clothes, some collectible decor/hard goods, and linens (sheets/towels/etc).
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11/21/2018 at 10:17 am #52103
We’ve been selling for 10 years and still struggle with scavenging items that we’ll sell for under $20. I just picked up a bagful of vintage t-shirts yesterday that will sell slow and low š But they are cool to me and almost free.
We’ve talked in the form recently about having more discipline when scavenging. It means going to five thrift stores and only coming home with less than 10 things worth $50+. Normally scavengers would have cartloads of stuff.
It’d be a good experiment to try. Not sure if I can do it.
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11/21/2018 at 2:24 pm #52115
I was able to be disciplined last weekend. I spent a few hours at 2 thrift shops, and only bought 1 item from each. Each should sell for at least $45. There were 4 other things I was thinking of buying, but I was able to get myself to put them back, which I am very proud of. One was a pair of keen leather loafers for $8, which is usually a no-brainer buy, but the profit on this particular style would have only been $20 or less. The other items were in my usual weak spot – not-very-well-known high end brands. For example, $10 for a sweater that retails for $400-500, but the ebay solds are almost all less than $30!! The 1-2 solds in the $100 range usually lure me in – NOT THIS TIME.
Of course, since ebay is not my only source of income, it is okay for me to spend a few hours on 2 items, b/c I really enjoy the time spent hunting, which means I’m maximizing fun (lots of hunting with less of the not-fun activity of photographing/listing/packing low profit items).
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11/21/2018 at 11:43 am #52111
I’ve been down this path as well, though I’m punishing myself by making myself list most of my death piles rather than donating. Anything new I buy is either over $25 or super easy to list and ship with no research or difficult packing (certain craft kits, unopened paper goods). Through experience you learn to evaluate based on a number of factors, not just the $ amount. Plus, you know what is available in your area and what has done well for you in the past. I also use my phone for things that before I would have taken more chances at thrift prices. Many times I end up putting things back.
I have a new wrinkle that I might try lots or less expensive items on Mercari because it lends itself to faster movement, lower prices, lots, and in some cases, lower shipping. Though I have a suspicion that Mercari is mostly young shoppers who are somewhat likely to do price comparisons and have no hesitation to make offers. Also, most buyers know junk when they see it.
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11/21/2018 at 2:33 pm #52116
My store has way too many items in the under $40 range as well. I used $40 as a cutoff b/c I’m happy selling items in the $40-$50 range.
$1-20 22%
$21-40 38%
$41-100 33%
$100+ 7% -
11/21/2018 at 3:20 pm #52118
Interesting! Here’s how my listings break down:
Under $25: 33%
$25-$50: 49%
$50-$100: 14%
$100-$375: 4%Then I went a step further and looked at my sales for the last 90 days:
Sales under $25: 31%
$25-$50: 45%
$50-$100: 21%
$100-$375: 3%I guess it’s nice that 21% of my sales are in the $50-$100 range, even though only 14% of my listings are.
As of last month, I have a new rule that I don’t buy anything that I don’t think I can price at $50+. I’m leaving behind a lot of cool pottery, knickknacks, and books that I would always scoop up in the past, but I know won’t sell for much. My previous low price was $25, but honestly, that turns into $15 and even $10 once I start taking low offers on stale listings. I can’t justify spending my limited time on those kinds of sales. I’m hoping if I set the floor at $50, my actual lowest price will be more like $30, which I’m happier with.
My average sale price per item has been about $35 for years and years – whether I look at this month’s data, the whole year, or all my cumulative sales data ever. I would love to move that up closer to $50. Would anyone want to do some kind of “Raise Your Average Sales Price 2019” challenge here? Could be a fun way to keep ourselves accountable.
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11/21/2018 at 3:30 pm #52119
I’ve currently got 8,700 items listed worth under $20, and 1,300 items worth over $20. What I find interesting is that looking at last year’s numbers, my sales and sales $s are actually UP, even though I have greatly increased the number of items I have listed under $20.
I think there are a LOT of people out there willing to purchase an item for $10 without a second thought. For $20 and up, it might conflict with another item they were considering purchasing, or just might not be worth bothering with if it’s not essential.
Cheap items add up. My sales $s for today so far: $8.50, $8.50, $8.70, $35, $14, $17, $12. If I had just stayed with an arbitrary “high dollar” value of $20+ per item listed, I would have only grossed $35 today. Since I added in the cheap stuff, I have already grossed over $100 today, and it’s still early.
I think it’s also different when you’re selling online f/t vs. doing this p/t. Someone might not need that additional $75 gross with additional packages to go out, but if you’re going to the post-office every single day anyway AND are making a profit on an item, even a very cheap one, it’s still worth it.
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11/21/2018 at 7:04 pm #52130
@almasty I like your blog entry and point about people blowing $20 and under casually online. Being very part-time and in a rich sourcing area, I think I’m ultimately going to fall between you and HistoryNerd. I’d like to get the ASP up, but it would be good to take more than 1-3 packages to the post office since I stop at the bin most mornings.
I’m glad I’ve been doing it long enough to consider all of the non-cash costs of taking in an item to my house and dealing with it. If I’m on the fence, I always ask myself if it’s worth dealing with it and think about what I already have at home.
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11/21/2018 at 7:49 pm #52133
Almaty, you make some really good points. If I were doing this full-time with fewer time constraints, Iād probably be thinking about all this a bit differently.
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11/21/2018 at 5:54 pm #52125
Is there an easy way to filter your listings for price? I can sort lowest to highest, but getting any kind of statistics would be counting by brute force. I know how to get a report on sold items, but not on current listings.
I think I’m very focused on lower priced items.
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11/21/2018 at 8:12 pm #52134
Hi all- thanks for the feedback and sharing your numbers! HistoryNerd – good idea, I will run my SOLD prices last 90 Days. I think this explains so much.
SOLDS:
Under $25: 44%
$25-50: 44%
$50-$100: 8%
$100-$200+: 4%
$200+: 0 -
11/21/2018 at 8:14 pm #52135
Sharyn: This is how I did first time for ACTIVE Listings but I would do Excel if you can:
Go to ACTIVE listings
Search Drop Down (auto populates to item title, scroll to Current Price) and play from there.
OR, download your active listings and play with it in Excel if you prefer. -
11/21/2018 at 8:20 pm #52139
ALL: To Download your ACTIVE Listings:
here is the path, it is off he beaten ebay path:My eBay > File Exchange > Create a Download Request
They email it to you. Because… it’s ebay. š
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11/21/2018 at 8:21 pm #52140
I was able to order by price (I did that by just clicking on the column header for Current Price). I have over 1200 items in my store. Since each page shows 200 (default) at at time, I could sort of count until I got to a certain price. However, I screwed up and didn’t want to recount.
I’ve downloaded orders before. How do I do it for current listings?
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11/21/2018 at 8:23 pm #52141
HistoryNerd: I like the idea of a challenge for Raising Average Sales Price, whatever a person’s goal is relevant to their biz. Can we be the R.A.S.P.-utins? Hahahaha.
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11/21/2018 at 8:25 pm #52143
Sharyn – don’t count, it will (or should) tell you the total number at the top of your listings but below the search tool. š
I just posted the file path to download your current listings above.
My eBay > File Exchange > Create a Download Request -
11/21/2018 at 9:36 pm #52151
OK, I’ve used that function for downloading sales reports. I just didn’t remember.
For my active listings:
67.3% for items less than $20
23.5% for items $20 to less than $40
4.6% for items $40 to less than $60
4.5% for items $60 and higher -
11/22/2018 at 7:46 pm #52185
For my active listings I’m at:
<$25 = 66%
25-50 = 22%
50-100 = 10%
>$100 = 2%I’m still in my first year of reselling full time so it will be interesting to see how these numbers change as I find my grove in how I want to run my business.
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11/23/2018 at 7:39 am #52186
My breakdown of active listings:
$1 -$20 – 550/44%
$21 – $50 – 535/43%
$51 – $100 – 111/9%
>$100 – 51/4%My philosophy is this: I work basically on a 10x model, meaning on average I will gross 10 times what I pay for something. My average sale price for the year is $37.95 and my avg cost of goods is $4.08. Net before taxes, my average ROI is 494%, meaning for every dollar I spend I get back $4.94. I look at it as if I saw free money laying on the ground and would I pick it up. In this case, I would pick up a $10 bill if it only cost me a $1 to do so. These are the types of sales that fill in the gaps between the big sales. Bread and butter if you will. Obviously, time and effort come into play on whether I buy an item. Clothing I am much more cautious of because I am not a fan of photographing them and they tend to be longer tail items. I don’t intend to purchase items that sell for less than $10, but sometimes it happens. I list and move on. The home runs tend to make the numbers pop while the bread and butter keep the lights on and inventory moving.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
BourbonTrailBazaar.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
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11/23/2018 at 8:46 am #52190
Cradle to grave, on average, I believe a single one-of item usually takes 30 minutes of time to find, process, list, store, pick, pack, and provide customer service on.
(If it sells at all.)
Assume a 10x COGS model and run some basic numbers, you find the following:
A $10 item nets you $14/hr before tax
$20 item –> $28/hr
$40 item –> $56/hr
$100 item –> $140/hr
$200 item –> $280/hrOne may object 10x COGS is unrealistic for $200 items. Very well, go to as high as a 3x model and buy a $200 item for $70, you’re still making $187 an hour on that item.
This strategy requires more capital and is obviously easier for folks with a full time job or established business. But if your time is valuable to you you want to be moving this direction whenever possible, away from the $10-30 grind.
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11/23/2018 at 8:54 am #52191
This is a perfect breakdown of the cost/reward of different levels of items. We are always struggling over “bread and butter” items. I get the logic of “why would you pass over a ten dollar bill on the ground”, but we know that each item we scavenge will take 30 minutes of our life as Simplicio writes. A big bag of items is a lot of time out of our lives.
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11/23/2018 at 9:24 am #52192
There is the additional question of, where do you want to spend your time?
Personally, I’m in this for the love of the hunt. Not for the love of listing and shipping.
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11/23/2018 at 9:27 am #52193
Yep, if you scavenge for a living, trying to perfect the equation of cost of goods/labor VS time invested VS net profit is an infinite challenge. Each of us have to make that equation work for our own lives.
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11/23/2018 at 3:04 pm #52202
When you do this for a living, you are not looking necessarily at each item representing a final result of x on a per-item basis. You are more looking at a group of items all purchased the same day, representing a final result of x, and within those items taking into the consideration of time, price, listings, shipping, etc,. A lot of f/t sellers are more likely to buy out large collections of items for lower prices because they have the time to deal with them, be it from auctions or the bins, or any number of sources. Thrift shopping or shopping for 1 item is still doable, but is not largely a means of purchasing as it is when doing this p/t. When you’re f/t, you most likely need to get bigger in order to absorb a combination of purchasing new items, having money tied up in existing stock, and the cash flow generated from items that are selling.
It is a good mental exercise to go out and attempt to look for $50, or $100, or $200 items. It is good to sometimes limit yourself to purchasing just those sort of items, if you have a large backlog, are doing this just p/t, and don’t have that much money to spend on sourcing.
When you do this f/t, there are a myriad of other factors to consider. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in buying junk just to justify going out for the day. For example, on Tuesday, I sourced at 3 thrift stores and only purchased 4 items over the course of an hour and a half. BUT, when doing this f/t, there are a number of ever-changing variables to consider that seem seriously seem to change on almost a daily basis. What works 1 day doesn’t work the next. A month later, it suddenly works again. What to do in the meantime? What type and price level of items to sell when no one’s buying $50+ items? Buy nothing? Buy more of the same and wait it out? Buy items you wouldn’t normally consider, but can still make a profit on, to tide you through until people are more spendy again? There’s just so much to be constantly thinking about it in order to maintain just your normal level of sales, let alone expand.
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11/23/2018 at 12:39 pm #52196
Love this conversation.
Out of curiosity, I just checked my listings:
1,477 listings
< $50 – 91.8%
$50-100 – 6.1%
$100+ – 2.1%Generally speaking, most of my lower dollar items are fast/easy to find, list, store, and ship. Hats, t shirts, mugs, etc. I’d say all in, a t shirt takes me 10 minutes (finding, listing, packing/shipping) on average. Hats, more like 5 minutes. Mugs, maybe 10 minutes. Profit margins are good (buy for $2-3, sell for $15-25).
If something was going to take me 30 minutes, and was going to be listed at $20 or less, I’d be inclined to throw it in my donation pile.
I always try and focus on items in the $50-100 range, but list a lot of quick list/flip items between these.
On the flip side, we’ve built a second store, entirely around items that are low dollar value ($6-20). Mostly vintage patches, and ephemera. They are super cheap to buy ($0.25-$1.00) I can list 15-25 an hour with relative ease, and shipping is as easy as a stamp and an envelope. No tracking concerns, as their value is generally not significant enough to warrant it. We’ve got about 550 items like this listed, and make $200-400 per month on them.
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11/23/2018 at 3:08 pm #52203
“I can list 15-25 an hour with relative ease, and shipping is as easy as a stamp and an envelope.”
Does this include taking the photos?
I think Simplicio was just making the point that after photographing, listing, storing, packing, 30 minutes of our lives seems a reasonable amount of time any item will take.
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11/26/2018 at 3:22 pm #52302
Just for fun:
These are not based on “solds”, but are the ranges in the store currently. Out of 1,117 we have:
< $24.99 = 356 – approx. 32% of our items
$25 – $49.99 = 438 – approx. 39% or our items Cumulative = 71% +/- are under $49.99
$50 – $99.99 = 241 – approx. 22% … cum. = 93% of inventory’s selling price is under $99.99
$100 ++ = 51 items = approx. 4.5% +/-If everything sold tomorrow, all at the same time, for the current listing price [no sale or offers], the sale would be approx. $61,000. Boy don’t I wish.
Getting ready to start the houses on the lots we purchased a few weeks back. Been waiting on all the financials to square up. The decision now is to do one at a time or stretch it and try to do 2 or all 4 at the same time. I will report in the Topic area Jay created for this after a few more decisions are made and I actually pull the permit[s depending]
TTFN..
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
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11/23/2018 at 12:58 pm #52198
I checked my spreadsheet not ebay listings, both for estimated future sale price and actual sales. The future sale prices are pretty pessimistic – if I think I’ll sell for $100 I usually value it at $50.
Under $50: 369 items listed, 188 sold
$50-100: 90 items listed, 142 sold
$100-200: 49 items listed, 110 sold
$200-500: 31 items listed, 57 sold
$500+: 15 items listed, 21 soldThis is over 2 years roughly.
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11/23/2018 at 4:01 pm #52205
Hey Jay,
It does include photos. It’s on the slower end of that scale if they’re something interesting and warrant any sort of research, but for the most part, we’ve gotten pretty good as pricing/listing based on “cool” factor. Generally four quick pictures of each (front/back/length measurement/width measurement).
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11/23/2018 at 4:59 pm #52206
Wow. you can photo and list 15-20 items in an hour! That’s only 3-4 minutes an item. Impressive!
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11/25/2018 at 5:33 pm #52237
Under $30 – 59%
$30-50 – 28%
$50-$100 – 9%
$100 + – 4%
Interesting that many of our percentages are ballpark close. Ugh I have lots of death pile items under $30. Otherwise, I’d be interested in a challenge. -
11/26/2018 at 11:20 am #52276
Love this conversation, so sorry I’m late to the party.
First, the data from our store. Sales in the last 30 days:
Total Sold – 389, Total $ – 11,118
< $25 – 231 (59%), $4,203 (38%)
$25-$50 – 125 (32%), 4,533 (41%)
$50-$100 – 30 (8%), $2,021 (18%)
>$100 – 3 (1%), $360 (3%)Obviously $50 and below is our cash cow, and lots of profit in the $25 and up ranks. I would love to eliminate the sub $25 level, but when full time, hard to pass up this money. We look for the big hitters, and pick up the singles along the way.
Time is definitely a factor. When we do a listing all in, we are 15-20 minutes tops. So a $10 net profit on a 20 minute listing is $30/hour. That is a solid base to work from. Going forward, THIS is where we want to improve. Not just listing more, but netting more per hour (so higher dollar items or faster process).
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11/26/2018 at 8:41 pm #52323
The need for speed! I agree, T-Statt. I think I am more like 45 minutes from cradle to grave on average. This could be a whole different conversation about where I lose time: In fact, I will start one!
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11/27/2018 at 2:06 pm #52359
Yep, time is the biggest factor in the low dollar items. I’m pretty fast at the listing side of clothing (5 minutes), and if I have to do the photos / photo editing, another 5. Sourcing is 5 minutes, and shipping is usually about 1 minute (since the packing was done during photo editing, all we have to do is find and put in a bag/box).
So if I’m out in the wild, looking for big returns, but see items that are low returns, I still pick them up if I know the listing is quick.
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