Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Scavenge/Sale of the Week › Sale of the week May 11-17, 2025
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Retro Treasures WV.
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05/20/2025 at 5:35 pm #105655
If the eBay elves are still reading this forum (and let’s face it…truly anything is possible with eBay!), then I owe them an apology. In last week’s post, I wrote that things were slow for almost everyone in eBay-land, including myself since I sold only 13 items.
I think I played myself because now I truly have learned what slow means. I sold just 8 items last week, perhaps my slowest non-vacation week even going back years to when I was doing this part-time on top of one (or more) dead-end jobs. I like to move and I like to hustle. But no one was buying last week. Potential buyers were not even really responding to 20% offers, or 25% offers, or anything at all. $409 gross, $286 net, maybe enough for a nice dinner for two at a decent restaurant if and only if we don’t order the most expensive things on the menu. Fortunately, I’m a scavenger and a hell of a cook, so we will still all be eating good this week!
Also, no doubt related to eBay being slow, almost all of my reselling energy is going towards my card consignment right now. I’ve been creating around 20 listings a week on eBay, and most of those are my 10 card team lots which net in the $25 range after fees and $15ish after COGS. Two weeks ago, I listed just 8 new items for the whole week. Coincidence that my sales have trending down, down, down? Of course not.
Just for fun, let’s go through my week anyway. I sold this autograph of the late NFL player & wrestler Steve McMichael for a net of $50, the first sold item from my December authentication submission which I just received a few weeks ago. I made about a $25 net profit on that auto. Not my best card from the sub, but I knew it would pass and I knew it would sell after “Mongo” passed away, which he did recently. RIP to one of the greats. I also sold this Prizm Draft autograph rookie /8 of Memphis Grizzlies Desmond Bane for $60 net, purchased in February for $25. That is it for individual cards. I sold 6 of my team lots: 2 basketball, 2 football, 1 baseball, 1 hockey. And I sold nothing else. That was the whole week!
While eBay has been abysmal, my consignment sales this month have been trending upwards. I’ve already sold more this month than all of last May, and I’m on pace to have my second-best month of the year. I’m turning over inventory very quickly because I price my BIN/offer consignment listings very competitively, so a lot of times other flippers buy up my cards. I also send a lot of inventory to live auctions, which have been hot for a few months and as far as I can tell, that trend should continue. Maybe not for every type of live auction on every platform, but the company I use has really improved their streams in the last few months (more hosts, more consistency etc) and it is leading to a pretty loyal community and some strong hammer prices.
So reselling is not completely broken right now. There is no need to panic! But this post should be another reminder: eBay gives back what you put into it, and don’t just automatically gloom and doom because there are ways to get sales. They just might not be the same ways as you used last year. Don’t always follow a new trend, but don’t be afraid of trying something new, either. This is so different from how I was selling two years ago, or five years ago, but I love how it’s going right now, even with my dismal eBay numbers and my general unease about auctions. Auctions, as a whole, are unpredictable and irrational. But when you’re running thousands of auctions every week (as my consignment company and all the big card consignors do), there are patterns and trends if you study things carefully enough. I’ve been trying to do that, and I’m going to keep working hard on that and do what I can, in the time I have, to squeeze out some sales on eBay, too. And hopefully this post appeases the eBay elves for now! I’ve seen the light, eBay elves. I’ll never call my week slow again! Now how about we get some sales this week?!?
What did you sell this week?
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05/21/2025 at 9:46 am #105657
Your ebay store has been overperforming for a while. You sold 8 items on an inventory of less than 300 – all of which are in a very specific niche? CONGRATULATIONS! That’s a resounding success! A store that size (unless you are selling underpriced hot cakes) I would expect to generate less than 10 sales a week.
My store has about a 1% STR every week when I’m actively listing. Back in March I had a week of 10 sales for $286. That really was a doomsday feeling week. Since then I’ve listed almost 500 new items.
Keep your head up and keep plugging. If ebay no longer works for you, feel free to pivot to wherever the iron is hot. That’s why so many youtube resellers have left ebay and went all in on live selling. You can always come back to ebay if you need to.
Live selling is eventually going to get oversaturated and then hit a decline. The growth it is currently experiencing is not sustainable. Will it be as epic of a collapse as the metaverse? I doubt it. It’s here to stay in some form or another. Just another tool in the tool belt.
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05/22/2025 at 8:58 pm #105671
Can you explain how to calculate my store STR? Would it be (# of items sold) / (# of items in store)?
The past 30 days, I’ve sold 210 items. I had an average of 1450 items in my store. If my formula above is correct, that would be a STR of 14.8% for the month.
Using the same formula for the last 7 days, my STR is about 3.3%.
Am I doing this right, or am I missing something?
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05/23/2025 at 10:27 pm #105673
Yes that is correct. Depending on what you are wanting to track, you can select different time frames.
weekly STR for my style inventory is about 1%, so if I want to sell 45 items a week on average then I need about 4500 listings.
I also log quarterly STR so I can get a feel for how my sales will vary throughout the year. It keeps me from panicking when sales are slow. I know when
45 sales with a $45 average sales price is my long term goal as that is a $100k annual sales store. 4500 items is about as much as I can efficiently store as well.
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05/21/2025 at 11:53 am #105658
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266917451649
REEBOK Men Rapid Response Composite Toe Tactical Boots Size 14 M Black RB8874
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267200757780
Nike Zoom Hyperdunk 2011 Blake Griffin BG 32 Shoes Mens Size 14 469776-006
Two good examples of why shoes have to be researched a bit at time of purchase. These catch my eye, but until you research the model you don’t know if you have undesirable (but nice) shoes or something special. I’ve put back really awesome shoes because there was no market, and I’ve been shocked by some that were interesting enough to at least research. For sure though – I don’t leave a thrift shop until I’ve researched every item in my cart and applied my sourcing standards. Both of these pair sold for full price and I paid $5-8 each.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267201711839
Porsche Design Sunglasses P’8613 64 mm White Aviator P8613-C-6414-135
Another hoarder item. I’ve been slow walking these Porsche glasses to ebay. This is the second pair I’ve listed and sold. I’ll put up another pair soon. Sold from sent offer for $135. My cost was $10.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267217421397
Gucci Supreme GG Canvas Bloom Print Green Flower Slip On Sneakers Men’s Size 10
Sold on offer for $300 since I was hungry for sales while on vacation. I had high hopes for this pair since they had a receipt and even a hand written thank you from the salesperson. Eh, can’t be greedy – time to move this stuff at the near 2 year mark from when I got my first load of stuff.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267243304670
Cooper XL7 Hockey Helmet White Size Small Vintage
Pulled this off of a death shelf while reorganizing. It’s another one of those “why didn’t I list this thing when I bought it!” items. Sold for full price within a week. Paid $3 at Goodwill from the olden days when they didn’t put a barcode on every item.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266925679430
PetSafe Large Freedom Alum Pet Door 10 1/8 X 15 3/4 Magnetic Flap HPA11-11600
Sold on sent offer for $60. I got lucky with a buyer in Virginia so my shipping was less than $7. I rarely use free shipping but on some items it can be strategic when comparing to the market. When the buyer is local it’s just a bonus.
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05/22/2025 at 10:26 am #105662
Sales have been poor. I’ve been on vacation mode twice and haven’t listed for 6 weeks. I have the store back on and running a sale so things are picking up. Should be able to list by this weekend.
I’ve been thinking a lot on the amount of stuff management I’m doing and the old low end stuff I have around. The live sales create their own clutter. May do a little more Facebook Marketplace and move some things out.
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