- This topic has 133 replies, 54 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Several pieces of big news in Scavenger Life Land. The photo above shows the almost 1000 square foot concrete slab we had poured this week. That’s the
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 282: Always Evolving] -
-
-
Good week of sales here. Without posting my actual numbers (haven’t crunched them this week), I had an item sell for $250 (a replica wrestling title belt I’ve had for the last 20 years or so in a box in my basement), and steady sales all week.
It was nice to use the ebay money this week for a little fun, as my wife and I paid off a new sofa, and bought tickets to a show this week with it. My ebay mentality is that the money stays in the account until after taxes are paid (because we don’t need that ebay income, and I have invested so much of it back into inventory, I need to make sure that our taxes are properly paid when they’re due), so it was nice to cut loose from that a little bit and buy a couple things early.
Had a good listing week as well, I hit 1342 items in the store at the high point (Saturday), but 10 items sold on Sunday. I’d like to hit 1500 before black Friday, but that feels a little too optimistic at this point.
-
Congrats on the new page and the beginning of that building! Looks massive!
Week Oct 23-29, 2016
Total Items in Store: 750
Items Sold: 18 (3 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $136.44
Total Sales: $588.84
Highest Price Sold: $85 (1975 Visconti Sforza Tarocchi Deck)
Average Price Sold: $32.71
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 16Solid week, keeps me on track. Like R&J mentioned on the podcast, a lot of $20-$30 items “bread & butter”. My big sale of the week was a tarot card deck. A lot of talk on the blog (when it was a blog) about tarot cards – I had never had/posted any, but found a lot at an auction that included some deck plus books about tarot cards. I paid up for the lot at about $80 total, but my quick on site research showed the lot was worth it. Sold this deck for $85, have another listed at $225, another at $30, and then the lot of books for $125. We’ll see what happens.
-
The updated site looks great! My blog/forums are built on WordPress as well, and I love the platform.
Our Store Week October 24–30, 2016
Total Items in Store: 233
Items Sold: 5
Cost of Items Sold: $3.00
Total Sales: $140.35
Highest Price Sold: $49.05 (Lego Set)
Average Price Sold: $28.07
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30.00
Number of items listed this week: 26Sales Review: One of my slowest weeks ever, with the lowest average price that I can remember. Moved some super old inventory though that I was happy to see leave storage.
Customer Issues: None.
Scavenging: Took a break from scavenging this week and concentrated on listing. I was able to put up 26 new listings (many for multiple quantity items) this weekend. Spent some time refining my workflow, and organizing my inventory.
-
Hey R&J,
Congrats on all of the new projects – including the evolution of this one! I’m a long-time anonymous poster, but thought I should get in on the ground floor of all this forum-y goodness. Look forward to chatting with everyone who stops by. Here’s to peace and prosperity for us all.
Cheers
-
Ugh. Coming off of two or three REALLY slow weeks for me. I think this weekend ebay finally “found me” again, as I had a few decent sales come through.
October 24-30, 2016
Total Items in Store #1: 755
Total Items in Store #2: 28
Items Sold: 9 (7 on store #1, 2 on store #2)
Cost of Items Sold: $30.04
Total Sales: $536.89
Highest Price Sold: $135 (vintage swiss back pack)
Average Price Sold: $76.70
Returns: 0My wife and I recently opened a second account, primarily for selling untracked items like patches, postcards, slides, etc. That way we can still sell them, without impacting the shipping/handling metrics on our primary account. We’re testing it as “her” store, letting her do everything from start to finish, from listing to shipping, so that she’ll have a good grasp on everything if I take ill, get hit by a bus, etc.
As mentioned above, we’ve had a REALLY slow last two or three weeks, going from one or two sales a day, to one or two sales a week. This is the first time we’ve experienced slowness like this since we really started getting serious about listing back in May or June. Pretty humbling, but we just kept listing, and waiting for it to come back. Fingers crossed it stays through the holiday season now…
-
On the topic of access to Ebay data. Unsure but a thought what may influence that. I think Ebay owns TerraPeak which you get a full years worth of archival data BUT it is subscription based. Then they also make data available to WorthPoint which is from a year back to about 5 years or more. So think Ryanne may be correct. They “sell” the older data to outside sources and even to a company of their own. So if the “old” data is a revenue stream for them, you would think they would be reluctant to just give it away. But no facts to back this up. Mike in Atlanta
-
I wish I could just get access to my old sales. On a semi-regular basis I find the same item a second time and it would be a lot easier to do a sell-similar from my own old listing.
I’d love to get another 3 months of sales history for everything. I wonder whether the reasoning for keeping it limited is really so that they can sell it or whether, historically, it was just expensive to keep so much data online. Disk space is so much cheaper than it was 10 years ago.
-
-
Love the new forum! Thank you for providing it.
I was posting as flippin’awesome for the SL comments, but I’ve registered under my real name for this forum.
My week:
10/23-10/29/2016
Approximate # of Items in Store: 280
# of Items Sold: 16
Average Cost of Items Sold: $8.37
Total Sales: $1,464.24
Highest Price Sold: $375 – Women’s Coat
Average Price Sold: $91.52
Returns: 1 – $112.50
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 22Had a slow start to the week, but had a couple of $$$ sales on Friday and Saturday. Keeping my fingers crossed that the buyers will keep them. We shall see.
-
-
Wow! That was fast – congratulations! I was trying to figure out how to do something this morning and did a key word google search limited to scavengerlife.com for some information on a topic from a previous discussion. The keywords brought up the link on Google but when I went there, the discussion was gone. Am I missing some link to get to the discussions or are they gone forever?
-
-
Total Items in Store: 677
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $150
Total Sales: $549.85
Highest Price Sold: $59 (Pair of Alden loafers, not best condition)
Average Price Sold: $39.27This week was one of my slowest in two years, the prior week was one of the best. I totally get why there are conspiracy theory’s…I really want to come up with one right now…but I am going to keep plugging away and things will sell…
-
Jay and Ryanne, congrats on the building and employee! You guys have been working hard (as usual).
FBA changes – my take. First I went to “inventory”, then “inventory dashboard”, then “inventory age” . That will give you an estimate of Long Term Storge Fees broken down per item. Much different than $.30 per item. I sorted by Est LTSF.
I left everything that was toy or game related that I thought might sell well for Christmas. I pulled all the items that I sent in thinking they would sell eventually for less than $20. Examples of items I pulled – vacuum bags, light bulbs, older computer items, cassette tapes, long tail books, dog leashes. All these items I only had a few of each, I bought them only because they were new, and I sent them to Amazon only because they might sell eventually and I would not get charged a storage fee.
In the past I would scan anything that was new while sourcing. I would buy it as long as I could make $5, after all fees, I didn’t pay much attention to ranking. In the future I will pay closer attention to ranking
In the ebay to amazon experiment, the FBA rule changes don’t really affect me. I was already fairly picky when it came to what I was sending in. I did have a few items that the market changed drastically that I was sitting on, so I dropped the prices to current market instead of waiting for the pricing to come back up.
-
Total Items in Store: 525
Items Sold: 10
Cost of Items Sold: $35
Total Sales: $702
Total Profit: $667
Average Price Sold: $70.20
Average Profit: $66.70
Highest Price Sold: $200 Marantz Professional Audio Recorder. Sold BIN full price.First off, my art buyer last week paid! Yay! This week I had some awesome high dollar sales. I look forward to sharing them on Wednesday.
About that Marantz Audio recorder – I got it at Goodwill on one of my “I only have 5 minutes” trips. I saw this gallon size ziplock bag full of junk along with a weird pedal assembly sitting on the junk shelf at Goodwill. Misc electronics always catch my eye. After digging through the bag and doing some basic research, I realized I had hit the motherload! There were TWO of the audio recorders with AC adapters, two external microphones, and the pedal is a dictation pedal as used by court recorders. All told, my list prices were almost $600. My cost – $4 for the whole bag.
I’m getting back on the wagon with listing. This weekend my wife recommended that she start driving when we go places and I can list while she drives. It worked out really well – once we got to our destination I felt more relaxed because I accomplished some work, and she realized that driving helped reduce her anxiety by getting her mind off things and away from her phone. From here on out I’ll be giving the term “mobile listing” a whole new meaning.
Have a great week everyone!
-
Hi, First time to post here.
New employee…. Beware of payroll tax laws!
For example… Illinois Unemployment Auditor told us to put the kid who mows the business lots to start paying him though the payroll system. Because he did not have an established lawn mowing business, we could not pay him as Contract labor.Just FYI.
-
Regarding the lawnmower boy – you are responsible for issuing him a 1099 form. It’s not your responsibility to insure he has a established business. He is not an employee and doesn’t belong on your payroll. The only liability you should have is if he gets injured on your property (another BIGGER reason to bite the bullet and pay an established grounds company).
Here is an interesting article on the subject that will point you in the right direction to determine the rules: http://markjkohler.com/1099-rules-for-business-owners/ -
-
Yay! So excited to have the new forums. I can see myself spending a lot more time here now. Here are my numbers for the week. A good solid week. My goal right now is $100/day so I’m fairly close this week.
Total Items in Store: 1174
Items Sold: 26
Total Sales: $657.57
Cost of Items Sold: $53.5
Average Price Sold: $25.29
Average Cost of Item: $2.06
Highest Price Item Sold: $64.95 Francisccan October Pattern Set of 4 Dinner Plates
Number of items listed this week: 37
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 194
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 86
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 44
Sell-through rate: 2.21%
# of Hats Sold: 16I had an interesting find over the weekend thanks to the SL podcast. I went to an estate sale and, after combing the house a couple of times, I looked up on a wall inside an office and noticed a giant 4ft slide rule. I had remembered reading here that slide rules could be collectable and I’d never seen one so big. It was the last day of a 3 day estate sale and everything was half price so I paid $10 and took it home with me. It turns out that these giant Pickett slide rules were used as teaching aids in classrooms. There’s even a 7ft version. The 4ft version sells between $250 and $350.
-
-
-
-
Good mornig Ryanne: Just having coffee and your post here made me think of something. Google will crawl Forums and pick up pages to index. [see this short tid-bit link: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/271467/how-search-engine-bots-crawl-forums%5D
If you guys get the internal pages set-up and link them up correctly, then the new pages to a thread will get crawled and indexed.
What is my point. Then if we all sign up using our domain or store names as our handle, each time we post and also include our store names in some threads about our new inventory purchases, then Google and other search engines will pick those up and help drive organic traffic to our stores. I think this is a good reason to maybe not use the Anon #1, Anon #2 if you have a store / business / or your own domain store.
So, with that being said, I know that our handles here can’t be changed. Then can we just stop using the handle we signed up with like “Huncrelan” amd re-register with a different name like our web sight domain name?
…. Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc., MDC Galleries and SmartParts Equipment-
i’m working on getting fields for you to fill in your ebay store links and location if you want, those will be optional to fill in. however the way the plugin works it shows Location: Store Link: and then your info, even if it’s blank. so that’s annoying. i want it to show the info if you filled it in, and not show anything if it’s blank. so i’m trying to find a good plugin for that.
-
What about the “Handle” question. Since we can’t change our handle name, can we un-register and stop using that registration and name. Then re-register with a new name and it be our store name. Like get rid of Huncrelan [which you laughed at a few years back any way LOL :-)] and then my handle be MDC Galleries? mike in Atl.
-
-
-
you can edit your user name here
http://www.scavengerlife.com/wp-admin/profile.php -
-
-
That did it and it changed it universally also. Cool. Now to work on my “Gravatar” image. And yep.. the replies are flushing right and extending down. See that you have that on the list to fix. Boy, you guys sure are gluten’s for extra work loads. But you are young and just think, when you are in your late 40’s or 50’s you may be fully retired and just laying back. mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
-
Also notice that with each reply, the replies get Indented over to the right. If you have a long thread back and forth, is it going to just keep going to the right or will it “wrap” back to flush left and start again. My reply above is only about a inch or two wide and if it was long as I am prone, it would be a mile long. mc in atl.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Week: 10/23-10/29
Total Items in Store:814
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: 56.40
Total Sales: 557.29
Highest Price Sold: 275.00 Sansui Turntable
Avg Price Sold: 61.92
Returns: 0
Money spent on new Inventory: 21.00
Number of items listed: 46New site design is great! This is my first post. I have been following the podcasts for about a year, always learn something new. I really appreciate everyone’s openness and willing to share! The Sansui turntable had a couple of small issues, otherwise it would have sold for more. Fortunately, the buyer was local, so I didn’t have to pack it!
-
-
Total items in store: 291
Items sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $98 thrift + $27 retail + $100 consignment
Total Sales: $717.40
Avg. price: $42.20
Highest price item: $149.99 Burton Jacket and Pants
International sales: 1
Unpaid items: 2
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed: 21My best week ever!
-
Oct 23-29
Total Items in Store: 225
Items Sold: 8
Total Sales: $368
COGS: $61
Highest Price Sold: $129 Ralph Lauren King Comforter ($30 thrift store)
Average Price Sold: $46
Returns: 1 (for size, buyer pays shipping)
GSP: 1 to Canada
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5 for a vtg camel hair robe
Number of items listed this week: 8First sale over $100! I think it may also be my highest ASP ever. Also my first sale of a wall decor item – vtg finished crewel embroidery.
Definitely a decent week, though it’s definitely slowed down from the previous weeks in terms of sales volume.
I love the new forum!! Thanks J&R!
-
-
Total Items in Store: 374 etsy
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $53
Total Sales: $323
Highest Price Sold: $75 (prom dress)
Average Price Sold: $35
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 25ebay is not listed because I sold zero on there–thank goodness for etsy (btw, 5 of the items sold on etsy were also cross posted on ebay, so it is not as if I keep my best stuff for etsy.)
-
Hey Omfug.. Mike in Atlanta here. Using an old handle as Huncrelan.
Wife and I discussing Etsy this whole weekend. Did some Google research. They seem to make it sound fairly simple. Are we correct, that we could actually post all of the items in the Etsy store if they are vintage [20 + years] and who knows how to dead on verify that? We are also assuming from what we are seeing that we could get all of our Ebay items synched or transferred over [by some method] without having to recreate those listings. And lastly, we think we understand it to be saying nothing to pay at all except when an item sells, or is it $.20 ea. to list and then the extra fees if it sells.
Don’t want to burden you down with a bunch of stuff. If you think a call to an Etsy rep will get most of these answered let me know what you think.
Maybe Jay would ponder an Area-Section-Category specific to Etsy.
Thanks… Mike-
Hi Mike. First there is no program available to transfer ebay listings to etsy, so it has to be done manually unfortunately. Costs include .20 per item and the listing is good for 4 months, there is a “sold” fee of (I think) 4.5% and a transfer fee (similar to ebay’s) for using their payment system which is called “direct check-out” the customer can pay with any card including paypal, but standalone paypal is no longer offered to new sellers–payments transfer to your bank account on Monday (and you can get the money earlier by request after you are on etsy for a few weeks.) Etsy offers discounted shipping labels which is good. Yes, any item 20 or more years is “vintage” there–which makes sense since their buyers seem younger than ebay’s. Anyway, after you get the hang of etsy I find it more enjoyable than selling on ebay.
-
Thanks Omfug.. So we have 676 current listings that would be $135 / 4 mo. = approx. $34 per month. At 1,500 items it would be $75 mo. [which is what our Premium Ebay store is]. So cheaper until we max out at 1500. Fees are about equal. Not bad.
Can we use cut and paste from Ebay Descriptions to at least speed that process up? Then of course without a synch, if we sell on one platform, then we have to manually end the listing n the other platform. At our sales levels, that would not be much more admin. work at all. Shipping we will figure that out I am sure without much problem.Thanks for the feedback … mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
Thanks Omfug. Interesting. Your info and Mike’s calculations seem to indicate etsy has very similar fees to ebay/paypal in the end. I always heard it was much cheaper. I guess it might come down to what one’s ebay store fees are.
The ebay vs. etsy pro and con discussion is probably worth having. If I remember correctly, Omfug has had the experience of multiple sales on etsy vs. a few to none on ebay more than once. That definitely makes me think about diversifying (again). Some of those sales were cross-listed, so that is food for thought too.
I have a feeling buyers (and it seems sellers as well) get comfortable with one e-commerce site and stick with it for the most part. Aside from having to sign-up and give your credit card and other info, maybe people don’t want to have to get used to another environment, and then there is the fact that there are only so many hours in a day…
-
-
Thanks AmazingTaste .. Wife and I are definitely going to do so. She has already switched over to using “props” and taking great photos with added embellished items to help curate the item’s image. That way we can still use the photos for both venues. We include a fine print line in the description area that says the props are for demo.-photography purposes only and are not included.
We have also now got our own domain name and are going to build our own website that will not rely on Ebay or any other venue. We will then build and drive traffic directly to it by way of organic traffic, links, SEO and a couple of other connections. I did this for our home remodeling and insulation business and it worked, so why not for our vintage store. mike @ MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
-
-
-
-
Hey Ryanne and Jay. Mobile phone user. Just a few things I’ve noticed so far since you asked for our opinion. It took me forever to find the register option. Someone else mentioned this too. When you hit the menu button it doesn’t show and you have to find the arrow and its hidden under there. Secondly, if I’m being honest, I don’t think most non core group people are going to register just to make a comment and since you have YouTube comments disabled, you will probably get far less people commenting. And some people don’t even watch if they know its a hassle to comment. And comments show up badly for me as a phone user. They are vertically long and in a line on the right. It makes reading them hard when there’s two words on a sentence. I’ve seen this on other sites as well. It may jusr be a style choice. And where did the mp3 downloadable option go? That’s usually how I listen so I can still use my phone. Having a video not linked to the forum is tricky too since you have to remember the title to match it up. Once there though , do you want people to break their comments up into sections or just keep their general post together as an overall weekly update the way they have been doing it? I just want to know how you want us to do things. Ok so that’s all the things I see for now that can be improved on. I think many nice things about your site too but those won’t help you as much right now to work out the kinks. Good luck with all your endeavors.
-
Oh and one last thing. You may want to remind ppl you reply to peoples posts by the button above the post, not below it as the old site was.
-
Oh…Thanks for pointing that out. Had no idea. Just replying to your post to see how a reply is formatted. Yes, this is a very simple forum program. It may be a little tricky to navigate and organize. Unfortunately, as I said way back when I was just an anon, it seems to be hard to get good free (or almost free) forum software for some reason. I’m sure we’ll make it work though.
-
-
-
thanks for the feedback. comments on youtube are no longer disabled (turned them on several months ago), so comment there if you wish. yes we have having issues with mobile, hoping to sort those out and several formatting issues as well. bbPress is “free” meaning you can install it with WordPress, so yeah it is limited in some ways, in others, it has a lot of options and ability to be customized, you just have to know CSS and php (i know a little, but not enough for everything.) we’re working on it all, trust me.
-
Hi Ryanne,
I played w/ the CSS and have some recommendations, or at least pointers to where you might change things. I’ll email you the nerd codes.
Before:
http://i.imgur.com/h8WT4vE.jpg
After:
-
Yep… That is exactly what I was talking about as I saw the replies getting narrower as more replies came in. Think it is due to the CSS not being what is called “Responsive”, but seems like you know and have the code. Good call and hopefully Ryann and her tech guy can get the code in place. mike in Atlanta
-
-
-
I am on my phone as well,and noticed the same issue. If you turn your phone long ways, like holding a tablet the formatting issue is fixed.
Nice site, Jay and Ryanne. I am behind on listening to podcasts. We had an issue with the storage locker we were using and am in the process of moving everything, not a fun task. Enjoyed the show, as always.
-
-
-
Thanks for all the great work and new blog!
I’ve never posted my numbers before, but, since I started with GoDaddy last week, I’m now able to get that information much easier. So, here goes:
* Total Items in Store: 455
* Items Sold: 23
* Cost of Items Sold: $54.37 = 24.42 + $29.95 for my son’s old suit
* Total Sales: $363.53
* Highest Price Sold: $29.95 (for my son’s old suit)
* Average Price Sold: $15.80
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 0Mostly, I’ve sold low dollar value items this past week, but probably more items than normal.
My kids had half days due to parent teacher conferences, so I didn’t list anything. I took photos and started some drafts, so I should get moving this week.
-
Store Week 10/23-10/29
Total items in store: 839
Items sold: 10
Cost of items sold: $8.80
Total sales: $288.96
Highest price sold: $54.99 (Men’s Born shoes)
Average price sold: $28.90
International Sales: 0
Returns: 1 ( Shoes that apparently didn’t have the correct insoles and then fell apart the first time worn. Ugh! They looked a little rough, but I definitely wouldn’t have listed if I’d thought they were that bad! I just took her word for it and refunded the whole thing and let her keep them. Bummer!)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $23.00Hello! Sarah here! Decided to use my store name for the new forum (which is great, by the way).
I didn’t include it in my numbers, but I also sold a fire helmet last week for $100 that unfortunately hasn’t been paid for. It’s been 3 days with no word so I just opened a case. But the good news is that I found a GREAT estate sale this weekend and bought tons of stuff. The lady was an eBay seller/collector/maybe hoarder and her family was liquidating everything for way cheap. Lots of good stuff. They apparently had several buildings to sort through, so they haven’t touched a lot of it. Looking forward to part two in the spring!
-
Love the new website! I will start sharing and commenting since its so easy now. 🙂
Average sales this week. I need to work harder to get my total items in store up. As soon as I break 1600 I drop back down due to sales, not a bad problem to have but still frustrating. Also wanted to mention I’m in the beta program for “not as described” returns. Its amazing!! I am loving it!! I hope they plan to roll this out for everyone soon. I’ve always fought and won cases for item not as described so having these new return options available has really reduced my stress.Week Oct 23-29, 2016
Total Items in Store: 1620
Items Sold: 68
Cost of Items Sold: $204.00
Total Sales: $1703.01
Highest Price Sold: $79 Petunia pickle bottom diaper bag
Average Price Sold: $24
Returns: 3
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $180
Number of items listed this week: 60 -
Hey guys, per Ryanne’s request here is my latest what sold video. Enjoy!
Ebay Sales Update #28 October 01-15, 2016 -
I just figured out the tiny right hand reading issue. When I turn my phone horizontal it looks normal. But I can’t comment that way because the keyboard pops up and I can’t see anything. If I flip my phone back vertical it starts the comments at the top again. I think I’ll keep listening to the podcasts but my commenting days may be over. Overly complicated for me. I miss the old blog. Sorry . But I hope others are having better luck with it.
-
-
Oh MY…I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Forum before! You will be my learn “something new this week”. Wondered why I didn’t see Sunday evening post come into my inbox. Thanks for always evolving and keeping us on our toes. Going to listen to you in the morning while I knuckle down and do some serious listing. I have to clear my dining room fast of death piles…Thanksgiving is at our house this year!!!
-
RR Store Week Oct 23-29, 2016
Total Items in Store: 998
Items Sold: 8
Cost of Items Sold: $4.25
Total Sales: $114.94
Highest Price Sold: $29.99 (WWII Navy Dance Program)
Average Price Sold: $14.36
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 23 new/96 Sell SimilarHappy Halloween everyone! It’s my favorite day of the year!
Feel so good to get back to regular listing. Once I got caught up on all my stale old listings, I started cracking into the piles of stuff I brought over from the old house. I listed some records, and two of them sold in less than an hour. Weird, as there are multiple copies for sale, some much cheaper than mine. Woke up yesterday to another record sale, plus a cool shirt.
My one return last week wasn’t even a true return. For the first time ever, I couldn’t find an item that sold. It was a pair of postcards from The Beverly Hillbillies, sold for $28.99. They weren’t with the rest of the postcards, so I tore up my entire office looking for them to no avail. I messaged the guy with my apologies, then gave him a full refund. He was super cool about it; I told him that if I find them, I’ll sell them to him at a significant discount.
I’m digging the new look and the forum! The new avatars will take some getting used to, but that’s no bid deal. Already seeing some familiar faces!
*Paul*
-
-
Hi J&R
I haven’t posted in a while because I wasn’t able to reply (possibly issues on both ends).
Well, Just wanted to share some advice on the concrete slab just poured.
Depending on the type of concrete, it can take up to 6 months to properly cure (harden).
If you have a choice, don’t be so quick to start framing or blocking. Give the concrete time to cure before putting a load on it. When builders continue building on the slab quickly, small cracks appear often times. The builder’s call this “settling”. One of the main reasons for the cracks (beside premature loads) is the chemical reaction. If you put your hand on a concrete slab curing, you will notice it’s warm to the touch. This chemical reaction dissipates the water (moisture) in the concrete. When the water is gone and the chemical reaction is still continuing, then cracks start to form. I could not see the prepping of the pad, but if done correctly it should have been bug sprayed then a visqueen membrane that seals the soil from the bottom of the concrete pad. This will also prohibit the concrete pad from getting needed moisture from the soil during the chemical reaction time. So, a good idea is to lightly mist a water hose (not a heavy stream–don’t want to create voids in the finish surface) over the pad daily (hove much depends on the outside temperature). Just a little advice. Also, check the contract because most concrete slab contracts have a clause that allows them to be off level 1/4″. This doesn’t seem much, but wait until you’re installing the flooring.-
we’re installing a metal prefab building that will have no flooring (thanks to the slab itself) and will just be bolted to the concrete.
-
Ryanne something for you and Jay to research. It will make a world of difference. Look into having the complete inside of that metal building spray foamed with “Closed Cell Foam”. Foam is 94% efficient as compared to only 32% efficient for fiberglass. Don’t worry about the “R-Factor”. Foam out performs fiberglass by 3 to 400 percent.
I had a spray foam business here in Atlanta right before retiring and going full time Ebay. We sprayed many metal buildings here in Atlanta. You guys will be way cooler and warmer during the seasons and your utility bills will be way less. If you are going to heat with wood or some alternative fuel, your work will be way less also. Yes , it costs more than fiberglass but the pay back is super fast and your comfort level will be so much better.
Just something to think about … mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
-
-
Hey Lee.. Down in the Atlanta area we got about $2.80 per square foot of roof line area [not SF of building floor area] for 2″ of “CLOSED CELL” foam. That was about 4 years ago. This may be different now due to the increase in construction. Many new homes are being built here around Atlanta using foam. Open Cell foam for residential, wood construction and Closed Cell for Metal. Residential I was doing about $1.75 per SQ foot for 5-1/2″ of Open Cell. It expands higher due to the porosity of the foam. Closed cell is like a styro-foam cooler-harder. Open is like a foam pillow, softer and squishy.
The further north you go, the thicker it has to be applied in various climes. It is priced by the board foot. 12″ x 12″ x1″ thick. So if you need 2-1/2″ inches it will be more per SF.J&R will probably have to get an estimate from someone out from the DC area. Not just anybody can spray foam. Very expensive rigs [trucks or large Trailers]. Our rig cost us $150,000. You need to be certified to spray foam. But what great stuff. On HGTV Mike Holmes on Holmes on Homes.. loves foam for almost every remodel he does. Especially underneath over the garage bonus rooms. It makes the room livable.
In a metal building also, the corrugation adds to the material consumption somewhat. If you also want to do the walls, you need to add that SF into the total. So say a 1,000 SF slab building with a slight 3/12 pitched roof might have about 1,200 SF of Roofline and 4 walls of 10 high x 33= 330 SF per wall x 4 walls = 1,320 SF of wall coverage for a grand total of 2,820 SF over all x $2.80 per SF = approx. $7,896 +/- todays prices, material & labor changes in your area, etc. You would defiantely need to get an estimate from a local installer. But man oh man what a difference.
My old web site is still up, but not for long at http://www.sprayfoamandmore.com Go there and read all about foam, pay backs, technical stuff and many FAQ’s. Not a fancy site but contains years of data on the subject.
Good luck and stay warm … mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.
P.S. by the way, I love Vintage reselling way more than I did the remodeling and insulation business. But I did love the art and printing business for 35 years. 🙂
-
-
-
-
-
-
My first time posting on the site.
Jay and Ryanne, I really appreciate the work you two have put into your blog. It has been a tremendous help. According to my dashboard I am up 138.6% over a year ago, and a big part of that is all that I’ve learned here.So here’s what I’ve sold recently:
Week Oct 23-29, 2016Total Items in Store: 388
Items Sold: 27
Cost of Items Sold: $50.75
Total Sales: $705.52
Highest Price Sold: $80 (1930s portable coffee maker)
Average Price Sold: $26.13
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $19
Number of items listed this week: 21I’m trying to get more items in my store but I haven’t been listing like I should. It seems like the week days have been fairly slow but then sales start popping on the weekends. My favorite item sold was also my highest, a 1930s Gibizita alcohol fueled portable expresso maker bought at an estate sale for around $3.00. I thought it was a portable stove at first until one of the helpers opened it up and showed me the coffee strainer and the directions, which were written in Italian. In my research I only found two that had been sold previously, one for $31 and another for $55. I listed it for $85 BO and took an offer of $80.
-
-
Happy Halloween!
I am so excited about your new blog page. I can finally post without having to be post as “anonymous”.
My eBay page had a glitch all weekend, so I missed all the potential weekend sales and lost some momentum. Most of it is fixed now besides the “Stats”. Those are still missing. The eBay reps said sales should start happening again within 72 hours. Glad I got four sales today. I was really starting to sweat it, so I opened an Etsy Store.
I will add to the Amazon thread about what I am doing there, in response to your question regarding whether to bring the items back or leave them.
Debbie
-
-
Congratulations on the new website, Jay and Ryanne! Sadly, It feels so foreign to me; not sure I can adjust. But what a week of huge changes you two have had; wow! New employee. Beginning to build the storage building (will it be climate controlled?) and so many other things going on. Best wishes.
-
The forum is really just a big blog. We’re all getting used to it. Something we need to improve. It’ll take a couple weeks. But we’re all here!
-
-
-
Total Items in Store: 321
Items Sold: 16 (15 ebay, 1 truegether)
Cost of Items Sold: about $40
Total Sales: $410
Highest Price Sold: $103 (Sterling napkin ring from Westpoint Military Academy)
Average Price Sold: $25.31
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $50
Number of items listed this week: 36I set up an account on Truegether and Bonanza. I sold some things on Bonanza last year, but it fell off my radar after I went on vacation last fall. I never put the store back to active when I returned. *shrug* Oh well. At most I only sold one item per month there.
I never know if I should include in COGS when I sell personal items, (things I did not source with the intention of selling). I sold off some of our old homeschool curriculum, and broke even on it. If I include it, then COGS is more like $80. But we would have bought the curriculum regardless of ebay.
-
When you sell off your personal things at a loss, you can claim up to the selling price on COGS. For instance, you paid $100 for a book and sold it for $50. You can claim COGS of $50 to effectively wipe out the sale.
As always, confirm with an accountant or tax expert but that is how I understand it.
-
Hey Retro.. I have asked this before but what about selling personal items you have had for years and have no idea what you originally paid for it and certainly don’t have a receipt for after 20 years. So taking your example of the $50 book sale, what would the COGS be?
My accountant didn’t seem to have a good, clear answer. I have researched and also nothing clear. Even called IRS and they couldn’t answer. I have several thousands of dollars of old personal items sold this year, so what about a COGS?
One source said to show the exact amount of the Sale, that way you don’t owe any tax and the IRS doesn’t owe you anything. An even wipe so to speak. Another source said to only take 50% of the Sale Price as a COGS sold. That way the IRS gets some tax and you get some deduction benefit. mike in Atl.
-
-
-
-
• Ebay
• Total Items in Store: 5,816
• Items Sold: 108
• Cost of Items Sold: $145
• Total Sales: $2,058
• Highest Price Sold: $60 (Size 58L Blazer)
• Average Price Sold: $19.05
• Returns: 4 (clothing)
• Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $50
• Number of items listed this week: 85Last few days before we take off on our cruise, due to the election, the kids can travel over a week and only have two days absent from school. Still nervous about leaving ebay running while i’m gone but it will be a good test to see how things will run with me gone. Not going to leave amazon running (sans FBA), I can do without ebay but not amazon.
Great looking pad site, you guys will love having all of your inventory in one place. Interested to see what you guys do revamping your storage system. Good luck with the employee, I hope she works out. If she works out and turns into a competent helper she will take a huge load of work of you guys so you can focus on something else.
Like the new forum, all of the avatars look like rorschach blots. Will have to find a good picture.
Sold this book on Amazon, had it in inventory for a little over a year. Section Quizzes, Chapter Tests, and Authenitic Assessment $423. No idea why it sold so high, will probably get it back as a refund.
Concerning Amazon FBA, don’t get too excited about 4th quarter. If you sell toys, electronics, DVD sets or other “gift” type stuff it will move. I think you will be fine leaving books, cds or dvds in over the 4th quarter and if you have to bite the cost of returning it later then it’s worth the risk. If you have more of the bathroom hardware, odd ball electronics, or other large items then I would take the free return or .50 return. I ended up returning or destroying around 3k items.
Amazon will always offer a deal when they make a change, so these free return deals or due to the increased storage change starting the 1st of November and the earlier change was in regards to the long term storage fee change. Also, i’m betting the next change will be an increase in the return cost. They are losing a lot of money sending items back for .50 a pop.
-
-
Numbers for end of October
Total Items in Store: 670 (646 last month)
Items Sold: 38 (50 last month)
Total Sales: $662 ($1030 last month)
Cost of Items Sold: $113 ($143 last month)
Highest Price Sold: $42.95 Alaskan Star Oil Rig Paper Weight
Average Price Sold: $17.39 ($20.60 last month)
International Sales: 4 gsp / 1 non gsp
Number of items listed: 50 (29 last month)
Spent on new inventory: $84 ($76 last month)
Returns: 1 (box of Upholstery Nails (wrong color)Some recent sales.
The Paper weight I had purchase recently at an antique store in Kalama, Washington for $4, it sold GSP to Canada: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191991835971.
I sold a mixed lot of beads that I almost donated, but they went for $20: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191865901821.
An African Woven Sisal Kiondo Basket Purse I got for free from a pile of leftovers at a flea market went for $28.95 (free shipping): http://www.ebay.com/itm/201651544343.
And a Missouri Pacific Lines Railroad Plate I had sold for $34.95. These normally go for a lot more, but this one had areas of surface loss, but it still sold pretty fast, so my price might of been low: http://www.ebay.com/itm/201693150940.
-Steve in Richmond, Calif.
-
-
Congrats on the new blog. Just a couple of things I noticed on the new blog. I wasn’t able to register on my Android..had to do it on the pc. Also, the posts offer a download of the podcast on the PC, but that option doesn’t show up on the mobile. I actually download the mp3 to listen on my ipod if I’m traveling as to not use up the data on my phone and I wasn’t able to do that on the mobile site.
Congrats on the new storage area. You guys just gave me a good idea!
Margaret
-
i just turned on the setting to show an mp3 download like 5 minutes ago, so you can check the download link on your Android now. it wasnt there until now.
-
-
-
-
Hello everyone.
I just registered and wanted to know if there is a way to make the font bolder so I can read the other posts. The background is very bright and the font now looks thin and patchy.
-
Not sure if it’s because you’re the latest posts or if you formatted it that way, but your text is bolder than everyone else’s.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Another forum feedback point: When I finish typing a reply to a reply that is far down the list of replies, it always brings me back up to the top of page to the original post, instead of leaving me where I was.
-
Yep, I just experienced that also. Would be nice if there was a work around for that.
-
-
-
Store Week Oct 23 -Oct 29
Total Items in Store: 375
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Total Sales: $621
Highest Price Sold: $150 Hudson bay blanket & $120 vintage box kites
Average Price Sold: $37
Returns: 0
International Sales via GSP: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $164
Number of items listed this week: 44One of my best weeks ever because I put my head down and listed. It’s good to see the results of focused work, especially when “work” means hanging out listening to music and researching weird stuff.
I was super psyched by the box kites — I found two curious items made of sticks and paper and in the back of a closet at an estate sale still in shrink wrap but with no labels attached. I didn’t know what they were and neither did the guy running the sale, but since I paid practically nothing for them I took a chance. The only visible writing on the paper was ‘flie’ and Decateur, so I googled those words and discovered I had two Hi-Flier Box Kites made in Decatur, IL probably in the 1960s. The last one on ebay sold for $40, but I listed mine at $60 each. Received low offers and then one guy bought them both for full price. Sweet!
Ryanne and Jay, you two are such an inspiration. Thank you so much for all the work you do for this community you’ve created. Good luck with all your new adventures!
-
This is Kate — changed my name with the switchover.
I love that there’s a forum! So psyched! Thanks!
The interface isn’t easy for me, but I expect I’ll get used to it over time. I’m on another forum which uses phbb, but I don’t know if phbb plays with WordPress or if it’s its own thing.
Q4 is when stuff on the home front starts ramping up (holidays, sick kids, etc.) and I always need to pull back from sourcing/listing/selling a bit. Just have to remember that’s why I’m doing this — for the flexibility.
-
-
I’m really interested to see how your experiment with hiring an assistant turns out! Love the new blog.
-
-
I’m catching up on podcasts. I think you’re going to love your new building. We call them “shops” in Oklahoma. 🙂 We bought our dream home about 18 months ago. Enough room for all 6 of us and 3 acres for our future milk cow and zip line. 🙂 But the dreamiest part was the 30×40 insulated shop out back! My husband gets a small shed for his lawn mower and tools but the shop is mine! It has a regular door and a big overhead door so I can drive in and unload treasures. It also already had a sink (running water) and electric. Last summer my husband surprised me with having his friend put heat and air in it! You don’t have to tell me, I know it’s an eBayer dream come true!!! I love my shop. And it allows me to be so much more productive and completely separate my business from our home.
-
-
Total Items in Store: 319
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $10 (used) + $69 (new RA)
Total Sales: $225
Highest Price Sold: $68 (Set of new cocktail napkins and plates – paid $36 in summer)
Average Price Sold: $32
Money Spent on New Inventory: $15
Number of items listed this week: 1Hectic life outside of Ebay this week and a pretty quiet week on Ebay. I’d just love a full day to peacefully list on my own. My inventory overflowith a bit into laundry space. We are also having random internet connectivity issues – so frustrating because it’s some devices and not others. Started about the time of the DDOS attack, but as far as I know most other users are ok. Burned a few hours at Apple, calling the cable company, and buying a new router, yada yada.
Thanks for your work on the blog! Have a great week.
-
R&J you may have had notice that I was locked out as a spammer. When I turned off the bold that went away. FYI
-
-
-
*edit* reply was meant for Jay but when I hit reply it moves it to the bottom of the post.
*2nd edit* How do I change the my grape ape face/ galaxia fighter/ fat guy dancing in a tu-tu avatar? No options in my profile.
Amazon sales for October beat last years by a little under 3k, and we sold 363 unit less than last year. So selling less but making more at the moment. I haven’t seen a dip in sales since the announcement or much in terms of price changes. However, we price aggressively and run a program that keeps us in the top page of results, typically we aim for the four or fifth price position.
-
you should be able to change it here
https://en.gravatar.com/
which is where wordpress gets their user images.
-
-
Hi guys, can someone tell me…if I offer free shipping on something, someone places an order, and then they ask about getting it there in an expedited fashion and I have it set for FedEx Smartpost…can I offer them to pay for expedited shipping? Is there a way for them to send me additional funds for shipping after the sale has already been made?
-
-
I agree with Ryanne and imjosh but also check this first. This depends on your seller status, but with TRS plus our discount is so much that in almost every case we ship, our cost for USPS 2 Day Priority is less than regular Parcel Post or any Flat rates. So, depending on the size and weight, use one of the “Shipping Calculators” and see what your cost would be first. And also if Priority is just chump change more, just do it any way and eat the few cents. .. Mike @ MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
-
I think the best way to do that would be to cancel the sale and then re-list the item w/ the requested shipping service. The other way you could do it is simply have the buyer send the extra money via PayPal but that’s risky and against eBay rules.
It’d be better to offer free, economy shipping as the default option for your listing and a secondary option of calculated, expedited shipping when you list
-
-
Hello. Junk Picker here.Been following you guys a long time. Amazed at what you are doing!
You have youth on your side which is a good thing. keep going! I unfortunately have a 20 year old mind/brain with a 70 year old body. I know now what that saying the mind is willing but the flesh is weak is all about! Ha! Been doing ebay awhile but only as a one man op. maybe i’ll post some of my selling info in the future. regards. -
-
Another solid week. We are running between 4500-5500 in any given 7 day period. So excited to see you guys growing and building! The site looks great and I am loving posting from my phone. Hopefully I can be more active now that I can post from mobile.
-
-
Averaging $5k a week? Whoah! You guys are such an inspiration. I’ve shared your story multiple times with my wife. You guys are living my dream!
-
Still mostly clothing, but just like you guys always evolving. We bought an entire Disney collection from a guy a few weeks back and have been selling it off. I am not a Disney fan (sorry Disney lovers), but it has been a fun experiment into a new category. Still figuring out the new site so I hope I am replying in the correct spot.
-
-
-
-
Oct 23 – Oct 29
Items in store – 672
Items sold – 29
Cost of items sold – $ 73.10
Total sales – $ 1212.74
Highest price sold – $ 199.99 Dulcimer
Average price sold – $41.81
Returns – 1
Money spent on new inventory this week – $139.62
Number of Items listed this week – 32Best week yet… Some high price items definitely helped–a $200 dulcimer ($4 at Goodwill) and a $125 vintage Tommy Hilfiger jacket ($8 at a thrift shop).
Love the new forum!
-
Week of: 10/23-10/29
Total Items in Store: 465 (approx)
Items Sold: 7
Total Sales: 290.96
Highest price: 69.99 (Vintage Green Day Shirt)
Average Price Sold: $41.56
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $27
Money spent on new inventory this week: 0Week of: 10/16 -10/22
Total Items in Store: 380 (approx)
Items Sold: 5
Total Sales: 80.98
Highest price: $28.00 ($28.00Mens Tommy Bahama shirt)
Average Price Sold: 16.19
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $16
Money spent on new inventory this week: 0Hi all! Congrats on the new site & new building project. Lookin good! I haven’t gotten to listen to the podcast yet as I am on vacation. Two weeks of numbers above. The first was an abysmal week of slow sales. However, that week was not lost as I was getting ready for a trip and bulked up my store with new and relists. Second week is vacation numbers. This is the first time I’ve left my store open while on vacation & changed the handling time. Thanks for the tip Ryanne & Jay! It’s really working out. To think of all the money I’ve left on the table while I’ve taken trips…ack! Sure is nice to hear a cha-ching while on vacation! This week is looking good too. Another week of vacation and then home to mail out.
-
Hi everyone!
I think I am putting this under the correct episode.
Ryanne was talking about getting 1 years of all sales history from eBay when you do a sold search. I personally do not enjoy having subscription fees for anything. I am not a fan of monthly bills for tools so I have looked for other solutions. I found an iPhone app called “Completely”. I found it when it was free but I think they have an under $10.00 one time purchase fee now. I get 1 year of sales history for my eBay searches and it will also take me to the original eBay listing so you can get the details complete with pictures of the original postings.
-
Here it is, the Completely Pro for eBay on iTunes. Says it’s $3.99. Wish they had something like this for Android. Thanks Squirrel!
Does anyone know if I can run iTunes apps on my MS PC?
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.