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Hi,
I found the Scavenger Life podcast in the beginning of January. Somewhere around episode 350, they say “If you want to know how we did it back then, go back and listen,” so I did, and here I am at episode 110. A couple questions have come up that haven’t been answered yet, so I thought I’d ask them here, rather than on years old blog posts. If the answer is coming up in a future-to-me podcast, feel free to tell me to just wait.
1) For people who sold on multiple platforms (I know Ryanne and Jay don’t), about how many items did it become impractical? My original plan was to sell on Poshmark, Depop, Mercari, and eBay to get more eyes on things and hopefully sell a bit faster, to get little bank roll going before summer garage sales come, and then I was going to slowly reduce the number of platforms. I’m second guessing it now though, because Poshmark has brought me the most sales, but it’s also the biggest time suck and is limited on items. Depop I’m confident in dropping. Mercari I haven’t decided my opinion.
2) How much time do you guys spend researching? I COULD research all day. Or until the turned off my electricity, because I didn’t sell anything to pay my bill, but more than once I’ve done a bit of research, purchased the item, then more in depth for pricing, only to discover the item wasn’t as great as I thought. About how much research makes you feel confident in your purchase/price without going down the rabbit hole?
3) Lastly, how do you usually decide you’ve overvalued something? Generally, I look at very specific sold listings sorted both ways, then pick a price on the high end. I’m not sure if I’m over pricing or just have less common taste in items.
If you read the whole thing, then thank you so much! Yes, I do talk just like this in real life too. I’m super happy to be here. This forum is very positive and informative, so thanks again. Love it!
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1. Unsure on impracticality, I just keep listing on each (400 on posh, 1200 on ebay, 100 on Mercari & Depop). 20% my sales come from off ebay right now. I would like to sell on ebay only and not cross list, but that’s not going to happen right now.
2. I research often too long but investing in Worthpoint has cut down time. At some point, just put best offer on there and move on.
3. Don’t just look at SOLDS when you list it – check throughout the year if yours has not sold. -
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All good questions.
–As you’ve heard us mention, we sell just on eBay. We’ve experimented selling on other platforms but we find that either we don’t make much elsewhere, or it takes up too much time so we make less on eBay. This is what I’ve seen from other sellers. Once they put time into another platform and make money, their eBay sales go down so it all evens out. TSATT and his wife seem to be able to sell on eBay + Poshmark and make money on both, but they’re also machines. You could spend 18 hours a day listing on multiple platforms, but the better question may be which platform do you enjoy the most?
–How much do we research? In the early days, we didnt research enough and sold stuff too cheap. But then we learned that a little research could make us a lot more money. Over time we’ve gained an enormous knowledge base on the weirdest items…and we still see things all the time we know nothing about. 99% of items dont need more than 5 minutes of research. Check eBay solds and price accordingly. How long are you researching each item?
–We definitely price on the high end for our rare/weird/vintage items because the pool of items in smaller and collectors will pay up for something special. If we have a commodity item, we price in the middle. If we have an item we want to sell fast, we price low.
You said you’ve been listening since January, but how long have you been selling?
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Jay – to clarify:
I said 20% my sales come from off ebay right now. I should have said 20% my sales come from non- ebay right now.
80 on ebay/ 20 off of ebay-
That makes more sense and in line with what most sellers report. eBay is their main source os sales with the other sites making up a much smaller percentage.
But if you make $200/week on Poshmark and other places, that’s good money. How much time do you put into sites other than eBay?
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I suppose I meant impractical in the sense of if you sell one thing a day, deleting it off the other platforms isn’t a big deal, but selling ten things a day, you have to delete 30 listings before other work. I currently cross post everything because I’m getting going slowly. When I hear about 20 listings per day, if that’s across all platforms that’s 80 listings per day. Too much imo, but I don’t have 80 listings, so…not a problem yet.
Jay, if I understand your question correctly, I started listing and selling the same day at the beginning of the year (but started sourcing in Nov, haha). May have undervalued those first Bonobos shirts, but it’s whatever now. Since Jan 1 I’ve sold 4 items on eBay, 6 on Poshmark, 2 on Depop, and 1 on Mercari. Still reorganizing my official numbers into a spreadsheet.
Posh currently does the best, but I hate the sharing and following and the forums are terrible. Mostly, though it’s clothes only, and ultimately I’d like clothes to be 50% or less of my listings.
I research each item quite a bit, and then some items a lot. I’ve probably research fire king mugs a total of 8 hours after I heard about them on the podcast, and I don’t even have one! If I do find one I don’t know if I’ll be able to sell. There so cool. I would say average right now is 20min per item total, but I do still check at the store for a lot of things.
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Yeah, the more you cross-list the same items to multiple sites then the more juggling of listing you must do. More experienced sellers pay for programs like Sixbit that manage all that.
Welcome to online selling. Those are great sales in just a handful of weeks. Now its all about creating sustainable processes where you can scavenge cool items and then sell them easily…without burning out. That’s the key.
When we were new, we’d spend more time researching too because we didn’t know anything. That changes quickly. If you spent eight hours researching FireKing mugs, I assume you’ll never need to spend more than 5 minutes researching those again. That knowledge is now in your brain. When you see one in the wild, you probably already know the rough value. The more you research and sell, the faster you can price.
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Jay wrote “That knowledge is now in your brain.”
S. Holmes, who was a late 19th century writer on such topics as “Upon the distinction between the ashes of the various tobaccos”, had a theory that the brain had a finite capacity for facts, and he avoided learning ones that had no bearing on his work (something to do with someone called Murray Arty) ‘cos they would push something relevant out of his brain.
Did you know that the most valuable type of Fairbairn-Sykes Commando dagger is the first type, with the Wilkinson Sword logo and “Fairbairn-Sykes” on the ricassos. If there’s no hyphen between Fairbairn and Sykes, it’s a fake made in the 1980s.
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