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We love the new Scavenger Life forums because of the ideas/claims that other sellers have about their eBay business. But many times sellers don’t have
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 290: Experimenting with your eBay Store] -
Dec 18 – 24
Items in store 1095
Sold 18
COGS 62.83
Sales 684.78
Highest Price Sold 2 Items 74.99 each.Dr Martens Boots 74.99 & 1 Yard of Waverly Fabric for 74.99
Average Price Per Sale 38.04
Intl –
Returns –
$ spent On New Merch –
Listed New 11 ItemsThis was another good week for MY Store. Want to say Thank You to Jay & Ryanne and all of you who contribute to our community.
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Week Dec 18-25, 2015
Total Items in Store: 13,234
Items Sold: 122
Cost of Items Sold: $42.65
Total Sales: $1,235.34
Highest Price Sold: $175 signed concert poster Sabrina Carpenter (Disney star)
Average Price Sold: $10.13
Returns/Lost in the mail cards: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $165 box of 1000+ postcards
Number of items listed this week: 0New experimental store (an old ID I’ve resurrected)
Total Items in Store: 5
Items Sold: 1
Cost of Items Sold: $1.49
Total Sales: $30
Highest Price Sold: $30 (1969 Pride Creations Sailor Bank)
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $62
New Items Listed: 5For the week in my postcard store my top 3 money earners were all non-postcard items. The Sabrina Carpenter poster was part of a meet and greet package for a concert I took my daughter to. I sold a lot of My Little Ponies for $75 and a Pampered Chef loaf pan for $75 both picked at Goodwill for a few bucks. Top postcard was a view of the “new” Traffic Control Tower at Newark Airport from the 1950’s which sold for $41.
Talking about experiments: I resurrected an old user ID and will be listing my non-postcard items under it. I’ll also relist the non-postcard items (except books) from my main store to the new one after they end.
I’ll have 50 listings a month to play with and I’ll see how that goes, and how badly time spent in that store cuts into my postcard store. But at this point I can let my postcard store ride for a few
months and still bring in $2-$3,000 a month. I hate the thought of taking 12 pics of an item, storing bigger items and spending time packing, but I hate the thought of leaving $50 bills sitting
on a shelf for someone else to find even more. -
Hey guys! Thank you so much for your response in regards to my David Yurman bracelet. Much appreciated!
Ryanne, I think thats a great idea to only deal with an auction house for really high end stuff. I learned the hard way.
A few things I didn’t mention in regards to this buyer. She had her own ebay store where she was selling all high end, highly counterfeited items, including David Yurman bracelets. She also vacated ebay and closed her ebay store after ebay gave her my money, literally the very hour she received my money. And this is why I was so surprised that ebay would side with her, when it was so obvious that she was scamming.
Another thing that I noticed about her is that she had perfect feedback of 2000 transactions, which I realized can be bought on ebay for a penny in these ebay listings that offer a silly photo via email in exchange for a penny and obviously good feedback. You cant really make good informed choices on ebay just based on feedback, and it sucks because it’s all we have.
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I have an expensive piece of jewelry that I’ve thought about listing as well. I’m worried about what happened to you happening to me. What if I were to have it authenticated before I sent it and then if it were returned and it wasn’t the same have it authenticated by the same jeweler. I wonder if that would hold any water. I know people buy pens that leave invisible marks to identify items.
I’ve also been considering contacting jewelry stores and seeing if they sell used jewelry on consignment. Has anyone tried that?
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hey we just got a caller call in (and will play it next week), but they said they had a similar problem with someone returning something damaged and the person opened a case on ebay and paypal against her as the seller (maybe an INAD case?). she said ebay didn’t help her, but paypal fully refunded her and gave her money to dry clean and have the item fixed. so you might want to call paypal and see if you can open a case there. god knows buyers go to paypal if they can’t get what they want from ebay, why shouldn’t you.
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I just got around to listening the pod cast about the returned counterfeit bracelet. If it ever happens again or to anybody else, first file a fraud case with your local postmaster and police. They will not do anything, but when you contact eBay and PayPal, give them the case numbers. I had a friend that had this problem and they said with the case numbers the eBay rep closed the case in their favor.
-Steve
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Dec 18-24 2016
• Total Items in Store: 722
• Items Sold: 17 eBay
• International 0
• Total Sales $851
• Highest Price $180 turntable
• Average Price Sold: $50
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $32
• Cost of items purchased this week $500Last summer I bought a couple stereo components at a yard sale, the guy said he had a number of turntables buried away in a closet. Due to his ill health he wasn’t willing to show me then so I left my name and number with him.
Months passed with no call. Then, a couple weeks ago I happen to see a neighborhood ad for vintage furnishings and recognized his name so I gave him a call and set up a meeting.
He and his wife both have cancer and can’t get around very well, their house is basically a hoarders paradise, cluttered to the ceiling with odd weird stuff.
I was finally able to convince him to let me go upstairs and rummage through his closet of treasures and found 11 turntables, most covered in a thick layer of dust, some were very high end. After a close examination I determined them to be easily fixed if not already working.
I wanted the lot but it took some kid glove handling as he was somewhat reluctant and seemed to have a story behind each one. He wouldn’t give me a price point to start with so I offered him $500 thinking I can’t do too badly at less than fifty apiece for them, also knowing there was a Pioneer among them that was worth that much.
He took a day to decide but now my kitchen table and chairs are covered with turntables, the pioneer is listed and I’m slowly cleaning up the others.
Just don’t come across a deal like this very often. -
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My numbers for the week of 12/18/16:
Total Items in Store: 56
Items Sold: 10 (1 Auction, 9 BIN)
Cost of Items Sold: $41
Total Sales: $312
Highest Price Sold: $100 – Vintage Suitcase
Average Price Sold: $31.20 + shiping
Returns: 0As I suspected, there has been a drop off in sales this week. I didn’t list a single new item and won’t be listing this week either. It will be back to work once the kids are back in school. I haven’t listened to the Podcast yet but I do have a few theories I have tested on my own that I’d like to share.
One is whether or not having watchers bumps your item up in search results. There are FB groups that have “Watch My Item” posts. You provide a link to one of your active listings and the next people to comment go to it and add it to their watched list (you do the same for the posts above yours). I have a hat that I can’t sell. It was buried deep in search results, several pages in to a basic search. I posted it to the Watch My Item thread, got about 7 watchers on it, and then went back to search for it again later that day. It was on page 1 of search results. The bump was temporary, and I still never sold the hat, but I have tried this on multiple occasions with multiple items and the result is the same. The item that gets watcher traffic absolutely gets a temporary boost in search results. I don’t do this as a regular thing though…I don’t really think it’s worth my time in the long run.
The second theory I have is something that I cannot prove with statistics. It would take alot of effort to track and “prove” but it seems to hold true for me. I have a suspicion that a sale of an item bumps up your other items in search results within that same category. I rarely have multiples of new items. But sometimes I do. And when one sells, quite frequently I get a second sale within a 24 hr period. I had 2 pair of snowpants for sale, similar but not identical so they were listed at the same time. They’ve been listed for weeks and neither pair got much traffic. One pair finally sold and the second pair sold within hours of the first. This would be easy to shrug off as my example is a seasonal item. But it happens often enough that it seems like something more than coincidence. I believe it is why sales seem to beget more sales and why people with “niches” may have more success in a certain category than a more miscellaneous seller. I’d say my main category is toys, and I often sell the same toy other sellers have for more $ than what they were asking. But I have one bottle of vintage perfume (a category I don’t sell in often) that sits there unpurchased while those around it go for more $ than I’m asking. I can’t prove any of this because I am not willing to devote myself full time to collecting data that supports my theories. But no one would be able to talk me out of believing it.-
Is it possible that items you list at the same time return to the top of the list, so to speak, at the same time, so they sell around the same time? It seems like every month items revolve through the top of your listings end date. I hope that is making sense; I don’t know how else to explain it.
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Like I said in the podcast, a lot of these tricks make us feel better as sellers because they give us the illusion of control. I think this is valuable to feel that by doing something it might help the store. The real decision is if you think these little actions are worth your time.
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Steven, that is pretty great that you managed to get in contact with that guy and work out a deal. I run into similar situations with old video game collections all the time where the person either says they have a bunch of stuff but won’t show it to me or isn’t willing to negotiate on a price right then. I always leave my name and number but never ever get a call back. I often wonder what happens to all that dusty treasure, do people decide to sell it through other channels but just don’t bother to call me or do they just throw it back in the closet and forget about it.
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Total Items in Store: 270
Items Sold: 21
Total Sales: $914.66
Cost of Items Sold: $19.00
Highest Price Sold: $209.87 Vintage Gitzo Camera Tripod
Average Price Sold: $43.56
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 24Wow, pretty good week for my little store. I’m really thrilled with that tripod sale. I picked it up for $4 at a garage sale while on vacation in Tennessee and held out for a nice price. I had offers as low as $45 on it but I held firm and somebody finally gave me a nice solid offer on it. I also sold a decent number of video game systems including a Sega Saturn for $85 and Sega 32x for $78. It was a good week for used shoes too with a pair of womens Naot flats going for $60 and some mens Marrell hiking shoes for $57.
In regards to the pay more/sell higher experiment J&R are doing I’m tempted to try one of my own. Since I primarily source at yard sales my COGS are super low but unlike this week my average sale price is too. I sell a ton of $15-$25 items and it really gets depressing when you sell 10 items but only make $150. January isn’t good for garage sales typically so perhaps I’ll hit some estate sales and local auctions, pay up a bit for items and see how I do.
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RR Store Week Dec 18-24, 2016
Total Items in Store: 1,012
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $9.00
Total Sales: $697.32
Highest Price Sold: $90 (70’s M.C. Escher glass print)
Average Price Sold: $41.02
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $21.92
Number of items listed this week: 45Slowly building back up to where I was before moving. I can’t remember the last time my average price was this high! It feels so good to be back on track.
Very random stuff sold, and for great prices. While I am very excited about the Escher print sale, I was just as excited that I sold a 1980s Apple Macintosh coffee mug for $79.99. I paid a buck at an estate sale. And my price of goods is not a mistake…$9 bucks! A good chunk I got for free. I sold a sealed Jamiroquai record for $79.99 within half a day; it was in my personal record collection, but I figured that if I’ve had it since it was released in 2005 and never opened it, I probably never will. I’m almost positive it was a promo item I got for free while working at the record store.
My eBay experiment began shorty after discovering this podcast. But it wasn’t about free shipping or buy:sell ratios; it was about diversification. My store started out 98% vintage clothing. It almost seemed silly to sell anything else, since that was my field of expertise. And what would buyers think if they visited my store and saw items other than vintage clothing? All that went out the window after listening to a few episodes. My first experiment had begun: expand beyond clothing. Once I did, I started seeing real progress, progress that culminated in going full time. I’m very excited to hear how Jay & Ryanne’s three experiments turn out. I too need cold hard facts, not supposition.
*Paul*
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Listening to this weeks podcast. My store paralleled yours, it seems. I had phenomenal sales the past three weeks, but this week it dropped WAY off, I assume because people stopped Christmas shopping.
Regarding the lady who called who sold the necklace and had a fake returned, it makes me wonder if putting a unique mark on the item would help. If it was something difficult to counterfeit, even though it might lower the value slightly (like a scratch in a particular spot and shape), maybe that could be used to “prove” your item is not the same? On the flip side, her story IS the reason I tend to shy away from scavenging and selling items that are commonly counterfeited.
Great podcast as always. One of these weeks I’ll start posting my sales numbers.
Tim
Ebay: Yooper14 -
Can’t wait to listen to the show – I’m a day behind because of the holiday. All of these experiments have been fascinating to hear how others are tweaking and sharing results!
Week Dec 18-24, 2016
Total Items in Store: 731
Items Sold: 10
Cost of Items Sold: $33
Total Sales: $248.48
Highest Price Sold: $42 (vintage beaver leather hat)
Average Price Sold: $24.85
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0Another week of having the store on auto pilot during construction, so anything I made was a welcome extra. Like you guys, it was a much slower week than the previous three.
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Store Numbers for the week:
(Main/T-Shirt)
Total items: 171/83
Total sold: 3/1 (1/1 free shipping – Both T-shirts)
COGS: $11.50/$1.99
Total Sales (less customer paid shipping): $141.98/$17.99
Customer Paid shipping: $20.16/$0
Highest Item Sold: $85.00 Redwing Boots / $17.99 Ryman Auditorium T-Shirt
Avg sale: $47.33/$17.99
Net Profit: $119.70/$10.96 ($130.66 total)
International: 0/0
Returns: 0/0 (Still haven’t heard back from buyer who bought a watch a few weeks ago)
New items Listed: 0/4
Money spent on new inventory: $0Great conversation on the experiments. My second store was more or less an experiment even though my main store is still small. It is starting to pick up as I slowly add to the listings. I am almost through my t-shirt unlisted inventory so I will likely start sourcing a few shirts soon (I picked up 4 today for $2.50) just to keep things active. I wanted to see if I could get the volume up quickly and I can when I have time to spend on it. My goal behind the whole thing is to average a net profit of $10 with a 1-2% sales rate per week. The first month or two were slow (as was my main store), but even 1 shirt a week right now is meeting my goals and my net profits have been on target as well. It helps that I can get most shirts for $.49 at my local Goodwill on their sales day.
Pencil free shipping experiment update: No sales this week. Total views are still higher on the lower cost + shipping listing, but they are getting closer to even. No watchers on either listing.
I also set up a third account to sell postcards. Right now I’m working under the 50 free listings and will be listing a few postcards each week on auction to start. I will see how things go before I expand to a store. I set up the new account because I won’t be using tracking and I would like to keep my top rated seller rating in my main store.
As much as I don’t need more inventory that will sit and wait for listing, I am watching a local online auction for a warehouse clear-out that ends tomorrow night. They have 50+ pairs of shoes in one lot WITH a metal shelving unit (Nothing top end that I can see in the photos) and there are currently ZERO bids. Bidding starts at a penny. I’m going to have to keep an eye on it closer to when it is closing to see what happens. I don’t need the inventory and I won’t be able to go to the preview, but it will be hard to let those get by me for less than $5.
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Total Items in Store: 348
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $9 (used) + $70 (new RA)
Total Sales: $222
Highest Price Sold: $55 (2 Corgi Dog Mugs)
Average Price Sold: $32
Returns & Int’l Sales: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $225 After Xmas Clearance Sale
Number of items listed this week: 0Dead until after Xmas eve. Last year I had fairly good sales between now and the second week of January, with people buying my new items for themselves. Hoping to repeat that and get to some listing while I’m off with my kids this week. The last few weeks were insanity and I’ve really been struggling to fit Ebay in.
Re this week’s topic, I like the idea of trash elves reporting experiments and results. But, I don’t mind hearing speculation because Ebay doesn’t come out and tell you how their search engine works and gets tweaked. We keep having to throw around this one Australian guy video from a few years ago since that seems to be the only comprehensive public break down. Plus, Ebay loves to give sellers self-serving advice that might help move items but not get sellers the best price. So, I love to have an independent place where people can gather to share their thoughts, even without proof and you can make your own choices with that information.
Re Pinterest, I hope buyable pins are coming soon for Ebay sellers. In the meantime, I have more and more buyers with zero feedback, so I’m suspecting that the pinned items are getting hits on Google while the Ebay listings are not. I’m tempted to ask more of them.
I ran into a downsizing sale at an Eastside estate on my way to work. Bought some midcentury pottery, canoe muffin flatware, Ken Edwards mexican pottery, and more. Ugh – shopping estate sales is so fun but dangerous because of the quantity – at this rate it would take two weeks to process what I bought and I’ve added to my backlog. The new stuff sells quickly so I feel ok about that.
Have fun R&J on the rest of your trip. Glad you thrifted some great items. Happy New Year to everyone!
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Dec 18 to 24, 2016
Total sales: $1,352.72
Total # of sales: 50
Avg sale price: $27.05 (record high)Great beginning of the week and holiday inspired crash on Wed with only 80 something in sales. Recovered the week by running 30% off (regularly do 25-27%). If sales aren’t going your way, slash prices. This strategy has worked well for me. Keep in mind all your inventory is worthless until it sells so don’t feel bad about losing some margin with a sale. (Also keep in mind I price everything high relative to what sold, if you price in the middle then a more conservative sale would be appropriate).
I’ve not listed over the holidays but instead I’ve been working on an Excel spreadsheet that would work in place of spending money on Quickbooks, GoDaddy, and TurboTax. Once it is fully bug free and all tax formulas are working I’ll make a post about it and make it available. In the mean time, if anyone has something similar I’d like to share ideas.
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Christine thanks for tip I will look for the cluster of thrift stores near Rosecrantz and Pont Loma area.
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Week: 12/18/16 – 12/24/16
Total Items in Store: 131
Items Sold: 5
Cost of Items Sold: $15.35
Total Sales: $36.45
Weekly Profit: $21.10 (Goal achieved)
Highest Price Sold: $8.00
Average Price Sold: $5.09
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $168.18 (Loaded up on 8 Wii U Fight Pads, and some Star Wars Hot Wheels)
Number of items listed this week: 20 -
Here’s a question. Is it better to buy something for a dollar and resell it for $20 or to buy something for $25 and resell it for $100? what is your opinion?
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I think it comes down to this…are you able to source and list more of the $1 items in the same amount of time than you can list the $25 item? Net profit on the $1 item is approximately $16 while the $25 item will net you approximately $63. You need to find and list 4 $1 items in the same amount of time to equal the profit of the $25 item. It is better to buy 5 $1 items you can list faster than 1 $25 item.
I don’t think it is always possible to source the $25 items that will sell for $100+, but we shouldn’t pass on the opportunity to buy it when it happens. The only other factor to consider is risk in tying up the money in the item. You have less available cash if you have a shed full of 100 $25 items rather than 500 $1 items.
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There is a lot more that goes into that equation. How big is the item? How much time spent cleaning/testing? How difficult is it to pack and ship? How long do I think it will take to sell? What is the risk of a return?
More expensive items are a no-brainer if they are easy to pack and I know they will sell quickly. I’ve paid $15-20 for shoes at a goodwill if I know they’ll sell very quick and for $50+.
Size is also a controlling factor. Walmart has started their clearance sales. They had a stack of Pioneer car radio kits for $60 each. They sell for $100-120 on ebay, but I passed. That’s a lot of money to tie up into inventory that takes up a lot of space for less than 100% profit. The time it takes to sell is also questionable. The market might get flooded soon.
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The experiment that paid off for me was keeping up the Christmas items. Who buys a Grinch tie late on Christmas Eve? My kids think the purchaser was drunk, but they haven’t contacted me and it heads out today.
I’ve limited myself to 1 reselling purchase in 6 trips to thrift stores. Death piles are still too big.
Highest sale- leather Dooney & Burke bag for $63 -
Shortandstout, I think you have the right idea. I’ll gladly list video games that only sell for $15-$25 because they are stupid simple to photograph, store and ship. On the flip side I hate when I pickup a piece of stereo equipment that is only worth $30 because they are a pain to test, store and ship.
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It’s the item equation – difficulty to find in your area, difficulty to pack and ship, estimated holding time, price, storage space of that available, difficulty to locate or stack in storage, return risk, uniqueness, time to clean, test, mend, steam/iron, or repair (credit: Retro T), etc.
Lately I’ve been editing too based on whether I find it personally interesting and compelling. I love Beth? Waller’s videos though. Of all the sellers who make videos, she seems the least attached and disinterested in her items. 🙂
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• Total Items in Store: 477
• Items Sold: 7
• Cost of Items Sold: $154
• Total Sales: $2,616.06
• Highest Price Sold: $ 2500 (vintage unsmoked Dunhill pipe- paid $150)
• Returns: 0
• Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
• Number of items listed this week: 0I have been terrible about listing (and really anything Ebay) for several months now. After many slow weeks of sales, you can imagine my surprise at selling the highest priced item I have ever sold. Super fun and exciting! Just what I needed to get that Ebay lovin’ feelin’ back. Happy New Year fellow Trash Elves!
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I get the whole buy more expensive things make more money….. it’s easily said but finding them is something different.. you can’t beat good ole ” Bread and Butter”. It’s not like I’m not going to pick up something expensive but if I have taken the time to go to a place to scavenge and I see a 20 dollar bill or 40 dollars laying there in an item I’m going to snatch it up. That’s kinda how I have set my mind on scavenging. If I see something that’s worth 20-30 dollars and I can get it for 2 I ask myself… would I take that 20 dollar bill if it were on the shelf if it was only going to cost me 2. For me the answer is yes. I’m already there I might as well. So if I find 5 items like that I just look at it like I got 100 dollars for 10 bucks. It’s the bread and butter to the occasional Steak you find. Without it it’s not a complete meal and nutritionaly balanced… hahaha.
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Our Store Week December 19– 25, 2016
Total Items in Store: 234
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $349.00
Total Sales: $1,467.35
Highest Price Sold: $620.00 (Vintage Train Part)
Average Price Sold: $244.56
International Sales: 0
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $29.00
Number of items listed this week: 0Sales Review: Not a bad week. High COGS due to the train part acquisition cost, otherwise I was happy with my numbers. Sold a bunch of NOS electrical parts, vintage industrial stool, vintage Crewel piece, Nintendo DS game…
Customer Issues: None.
Scavenging: I didn’t do much sourcing this week. Hit one estate sale and found some great little items. I spent more time and quite a bit of money investing back into the business to prepare for 2017. Picked up some additional industrial shelving units for my storage area. I now have eight 77”w x 78” h x 24” d shelving units which have worked wonders for getting my inventory organized. Also picked up a 2nd thermal printer, dedicated laptop, Bluetooth scanner, barcode scanner, loads of bubble wrap, etc etc and I’m in the process of completely rebuilding my photography setup. It should be fairly insane when it’s done.
I’ve never regretted a second of time or a single dollar spent improving my equipment, systems, or processes. I just sent my first FBA order in so that’s a whole new animal to learn, but at least I have the infrastructure set up for it.
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12/18-12/24/2016
Approximate # of Items in Store: 270
# of Items Sold: 19
Average Cost of Items Sold: $7.74
Total Sales: $957.40
Highest Price Sold: $125 Scarf
Average Price Sold: $50.39
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $62.26
Number of items listed this week: 6Was in the Chicago area for Christmas visiting family from the 22nd until today. Didn’t put my store on vacation, just changed handling time to three days. Sold nine things while I was away. Early flight, so I was home by 11:00 this morning and had all nine sales packed and to the Post Office before their first load went out at 2:00 p.m. Need to get back into the swing of things and get some new stuff listed before the week is over or I’m sure sales will come to a screeching halt.
Haven’t had a chance to listen to this week’s podcast yet, but I did listen to the last two while I was flying. Actually, the plane was flying. I happened to be sitting inside.
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Terry, what kind of scarf sold for $125? Glad younwere inside the plane when you were flying, but otherwise would have been a pretty interesting story!
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Linda, if I posted the brand, it’d be pretty easy to find it by searching sold listings and I’m always intentionally vague because I’m not comfortable with the hundreds or thousands of lurkers here knowing my Ebay ID. I’m happy to share a link to the sold scarf listing with you or any interested participating member but I don’t know how to contact you.
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Oh, sorry about that. I feel the same way. There are some weirdos out there–regular SL’ers excluded of course! My friend once picked up a white scarf at an estte sale for a couple of dollars that turned out to be an Hermes. Sold it for $400! I known so little about upscale brands I’m always curious. I am a lifelong Missourian; we are Practical above all. By the way, you can alwys leave me an email on my blog comments–I haven’t written on it for months, but I can receive emails on it and they won’t show up on the blog if I don’t publish them.
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- My Store – Week of December 16– 23, 2016
Total Items in Store: 286
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales: $772.66
Highest Price Sold: $68.00 – Leather Principles of Midwifery Book, 1810
Average Price Sold: ~$25.00
International Sales: 0
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0 -
• Ebay
• Total Items in Store: 8,205
• Items Sold: 122
• Total Sales $1845
• Highest Price $85 Captain America Jacket
• Average Price Sold: $15.12
• Returns: 3 (Clothes and one appliance part)
• Cost of Items Sold: $89
• Cost of items purchased this week $75Decent week, top sellers Captain America Leather Jacket $85, Brass Sword $45 and a Babylon 5 spaceship model $39.
Went on Christmas break early Thursday and didn’t get back until Monday so was a lot to pack when I got back. Only thing I purchased last week was a cart of Dvd’s for $75 from a local charity. I lot these up, or sell them penny book style on Amazon. The really slow moving ones I throw into our antique booth for $1.
We started our free shipping experiment about six month after we started selling clothing. We were selling some clothing but it was a low conversion rate when I compared it to Amazingtaste store (at the time she was doing free shipping). We switched to free shipping on light clothing, adjusted prices so we could still accept offers and items started moving at a faster rate. It’s been a year now at free shipping, items are moving at profitable prices and it works for us. Mileage may vary for each seller.
If I could walk into a store and buy 100 things at $25 that would sell for over $100 I would do it all day, as long as they sell. But, it’s hardly that easy. I would rather take that $75 and buy 35-40 items and increase my coverage then wait for three things to sell for higher amounts. But, I am in the minority that is happy with a $12-15 item average. Interesting to see how the experiment plays out.
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Michael D, your system is obviously working well for you. Personally I work alone plus have no desire to list more than 40-50 items per week timewise. So I need to search out higher priced items if I want to increase my bottom line. But right now I’m listing the backlogs that I’ve avoided for a long time. So I am going to be listing groups or lots of lower priced items rather than individually like I used to do. That’s how I ended up with backlogs in the first place.
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Hey Linda or other members:
As we have been going through all the inventory we pulled out of our former antique booths we have been setting off to the side all mold made glass. We kept the crystal, Waterford, Tiffany and all high end glass for our listings. But now with a table full of just plain glass items any suggestions on getting those moved out of inventory?
I know that a yard sale this spring is an option or donation back to whence they came is the final thing we could do, but any better ideas from you guys? Does big lots of multiple pieces of glass together work? Or maybe all of it, but what a wrapping and shipping issue that would be and also maybe just a big waste of time.
We have sugar-creamers, mint-candy dishes, ashtrays, compotes, relish trays, cake plates, deviled egg trays, trinket boxes. Just way too much “plain old molded no name” glass stuff. Uggh, my wife and I just roll our eyes every time we open a new plastic tub of our old antique booths and uncover all of this glass stuff.
Just thought we would ask to see if anyone had any good suggestions other than the obvious.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Uggh is right! I hate dealing with glass. I know you have tons more experience than I, but could you lot it out on Craigslist? State in the title that it’s for resellers. When you meet, put the stuff in an open Costco-like box for the buyer to look at with just paper separating items. No wrapping, no shipping, all or nothing lot for the buyer. Taking them to the auction house is another option. Other than that, maybe just donate and cut your losses. Good luck! Your advice on this forum has been very helpful to me, thanks for the time you share.
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Hey Mike,
I know a gal who did a Shabby Chic style wedding and purchased a lot of mismatched tea cusps and plates instead of renting. You might try to market on Craigslist or Facebook in lots if you have enough similar items for that to make sense. Good luck.
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Well, you could wait until it comes back in style–if you live long enough. I would donate it. Take photos and makea list of x amount of glass bowls. Figurines, etc. for your tax records. Take it to the thrift, get your receipt NOW before the end of the year. Problem solved. You will probably get more back in tac returns than you originally paid for it. What could be better than that? A win:win for you and the thrift store.
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Weekly Numbers:
Total Items in Store: 637
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $46
Total Sales: $513
Profit: $467
Highest Price Sold: $80 pair of Puma high top shoes
Average Price Sold: $42.75
Average Profit: $38.90
FBA items sold: 10
Total FBA sales: $254.51
FBA COGS: $61
FBA Fees: $84.52
FBA Profit: $108.99
FBA Average profit: $10.90Considering that sales died for several days of the week, I’m pretty happy. I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. I’m still trying to get some listing done every week, but I’m not sticking to my inventory system. I list and then…just throw it somewhere until that gets in the way and I move it elsewhere. It’s a horrible habbit, but I’m just plain exhausted. The cold weather and the fact it is dark by the time I get home from my day job just compound the issue. I’m still buying, and that is also making things worse. Death piles just keep growing… We’re going to be working on making some changes to our general family daily processes to hopefully add some more structure and organization to our home. Wish me luck!
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Here is a copy and pasted link from our saved SL Episodes from way back in May 2015.
It came up when I did a search of our SL folders for Ebay Ripoffs. Thought it may be interesting reading for those that have dealt with rip offs in the past and it’s Ebay History.” this came from a Dusty Miller a year and a half ago I think: Some very iteresting info on how ebay sellers are getting ripped-off and how the ripp-offs learn to ripp-off.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Internet-sites-tell-buyers-how-to-rip-off-sellers-/10000000176961781/g.html” ….mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Testing the Free Shipping hypothesis
(or any hypothesis leveraging the scientific method)Just a quick comment on the on going experiment. To support your conclusion either way, you would need a bit more data and observations.
In a nutshell, the scientific method requires a controlled environment, known constants and well defined variables.
For the 1300-1400 items put on Free Shipping, not sure whether or not 2 weeks is enough to say it works or does not.
You would need to have a fixed timeframe and same quantity of similar products for sale Free Shipping to compare with same test subjects with regular shipping.Even though I never do free shipping, based what we do and talk here, I am not sure if your 2 weeks would be enough to tell you the right story without having the proper comparative ground.
Just my $0.02
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Good observation Paulo. I tend to agree. I don’t think it’s possible to create a controlled environment unless you do something like the pencil seller. Identical product over time. But in that case you aren’t then testing the theory that having free shipping increases overall exposure of ones store.
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You caught us. We aren’t real scientists.
Its true that we arent doing real A/B testing to get true results we would need.But with any of these experiments, it’s just a matter of seeing what works for us.
In the two weeks trial of free shipping, we definitely see that free shipping isn’t some instant switch to sales. So the next person who tells us free shipping is important, I can confidently say it hasn’t been a game changer for us.
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About making more money with higher grade/higher cost products
Nov/Dec will yield me $1000/month compared to the $2000/month I had on Aug/Sep/Oct.
I have 600 items in store today compared to the 350 I had in october.
Main difference is that I had more $100 ticket items compared to my $25 ticket items I have today.
I stopped selling clothes and my $200 shoes and $75 Coach purses halted coming since I got cold feet because of Coach’s strategy changes that most certainly is impacting their police methods on eBay and others.Since I do not have Ryanne’s skills to find good cost products and sell them high, with this change – that I plan to review urgently – impacted directly my revenue stream.
I really wanted to go up in my inventory, however the mistake was to change my portfolio inventory. My space is scarce to that level of inventory and what I know how to sell is not there either.
A lot different than 5000 items store, but for me this is crucial. Also, these items take long to sell. It is not a matter of a month or two, it is on the 6 month and over to sell those Bally, Armani Ferragamo shoes that were making my average revenue decent for my store size.
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Selling Gold and Gems on eBay
I personally prefer to sell gold and silver to local buyers and get fair market value.
For jewelry (usually doubles for brand and craft) it is necessary to appraise and certify to sell. This cost must be added to the sale price, otherwise eBay is too risky and the friend who shared her experience is one of the risky scenarios. -
Odd Customer Issue
I had a very similar customer issue as the one presented by Ray, but on the Flip side.
I had this pair of Giorgio Armani velvet suede shoes I purchased over 15 years ago, been for sale since I opened the store.
Was purchased and returned twice (Italian numbers don’t always translate well when purchased overseas, have same problem with other shoes that belonged to me and to my wife).
Anyway, this person made a good offer, I accepted, the customer said:
“Have the shoes and left you a feedback, Be advised I am not happy with the shoes since they did not fit at all. Had to give them as Xmas gift”
Feedback was A+++ with comment “If there is a feeling like happy and satisfied, this is what I am feeling now, great product”
:=)
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Listened to the podcast last night. A couple of thoughts.
As Paulo said this week more eloquently than I did last week, as far as I can tell, there’s no way for any of us who have a variety of items in our store to come up with meaningful data to support any selling strategy.
Like Christine, I like hearing people’s opinions on what they think works or doesn’t work for them even if they can’t provide proof. Perhaps, as J & R suggest, the tinkering is all about making people feel like they have, if not control exactly, at least something else to try when they’re in a sales slump.
As far as spending more to make more, I’m definitely willing to do it when it makes sense, but as others have mentioned, there are so many variables.
What I don’t understand is people who have a multiplier goal rather than a dollar profit goal. Someone in a Facebook group was sharing that he’d bought something for $200 and sold it the next day for $500. Another person commented that, while that was a quick turnaround and decent profit, he doesn’t buy anything unless he thinks he can sell it for 10x what he pays for it. So, I guess he’d rather pay $1.00 for something and sell if for $10, than turn $200 into $500. WTH?
What I consider to be bread and butter has increased over the years as I get better at this whole thing. I’m a slow lister because I’m anal about preparation and presentation. Because of that, I decided a few years ago that, in order for this whole Ebay thing to make any sense, I needed to up my game and shoot for an ASP of $50. My average cost of inventory is fairly consistent at $7-$9. As others have said, though, if I run across something that’ll sell for $30 but will be a breeze to list, I’ll definitely pick it up.
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Terri, I don’t get it when some folks seem to primarily have just a multiplier goal, either. For the reason you describe. To me, the only way multiplier makes sense is in combination with a dollar profit goal, like this:
Since there is a fixed cost (of time and effort) to list an item, you want to have a minimum dollar amount you make on it, say $25. So it doesn’t matter if make a 100x profit on an item you got for 10 cents by selling it for $10, it’s still not worth it since you didn’t make at least $25. But, if you’re buying an item for a large amount, say $100, making $25 on it may not be enough given the much bigger risk you are taking on it with the $100 sunk cost. So maybe then you need to make a minimum profit of 2x or more. So basically, the equation is that you need to make a profit that is at least the larger of the dollar profit minimum and the multiplier minimum, and everyone picks their own values for each one.
That’s how I think of it anyway. Maybe there are other ways…
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That is termed “return on investment” or ROI. It makes a lot of sense. If you spend $1 to make $20 that is a much better ROI than spending $25 to make $100. (A return of 20 x your investment vs 4 x your investment.) Here is a little primer:
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Sonia, I definitely agree about a minimum profit expectation when your upfront investment is higher. Not only is more money tied up in the inventory, but you’re paying Ebay and PayPal fees on the entire selling price, not just the profit.
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The problem with using a multiplier of just item cost as the ROI calculation is
that it doesn’t take into account the investment of the reseller’s time.
When corporations talk about ROI of, say, producing a particular product,
they take into account the entire investment, including the cost of paying
the people to produce and sell the product. Reselling a 1 cent item for 10 cents is not a positive 10x ROI, it’s actually a negative ROI unless
you have zero-cost slave labor doing all the work. The Investopedia definition of ROI doesn’t need to include the cost of labor, b/c the cost of investing in a particular stock or bond or fund is just the market price of the stock/bond/fund.Also, there’s no way a big corporation is going to spend time on even a 10000x ROI project if the absolute dollar amount of the return isn’t above a minimum set amount. Hence the usefulness of having both a multiplier minimum and a set dollar minimum.
That’s how I see it anyway. As J&R say, everyone should do whatever works for them.
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I feel like my entire EBay experience has been one big experiment to see what works and what doesn’t! The sale that amazed me the most last week were some NFL m&ms I had bought on clearance at the grocery. Under $1 each bag. I listed them for $20 each and sold two bags! I love listening to the podcast and the ‘What Sells’ segment because it inspires me to broaden my scavenging! Thanks!
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Little late getting these numbers up. Nice week for our stores. Kept getting low offers on the USA Made LL Bean Winter Boots. As soon as our counter expired, we raised the price and they sold that day. You never know…..
December 18-24
Store #1
Total Items in Store: 590
Items Sold: 27
Cost of Items Sold: $54
Total Sales: $634.00
Highest Price Sold: $66.60 (Waechtersbach Christmas Tree Bowls from an estate sale in the summer)
Average Price Sold: $23.48
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0 no scavenging until we go through our piles
Number of items listed this week: 10Store #2
Total Items in Store: 60
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $39.00
Total Sales: $274.75
Highest Price Sold: $125.00 (Vintage USA LL Bean Winter Boots)
Average Price Sold: $45.79
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 2 -
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Weekly Numbers:
Total Items in Store: 281
Items Sold: 22
Total Sales: $395.64
Highest Price Sold: $156.45 – White Zombie Numero Box Set
Average Price Sold: $17.98This is my first time posting my numbers. I have been lazy keeping track of my COGS but I sell a lot of music (CDs, tapes, records, etc) that I buy in bulk for cheap so I lost track overall. Actually quite a few things I sold this week were just items I no longer use and wanted out of the house.
The White Zombie box set was sitting on my shelf for months and I’ve never listened to it. It was one of 250 “Toxic Waste Green” colored vinyl, ha. I basically broke even after shipping and fees but in my mind I’ll use the money to buy more inventory instead of having some box set sitting on my shelf. As I type this I realize most of you probably think it’s crazy that I paid $130 for a vinyl box set but welcome to life of a record collector. It’s not always pretty.
RE buying up – I sell a lot of vintage audio gear so I’m used to paying $40+ for say, a Pioneer receiver or turntable but I sell a lot of those pieces direct to friends in Nashville or even through facebook/instagram posts where there aren’t any fees. I’ve even started having people ask me to find them gear which is the best kind of transaction cause I can find cheap, clean up and already know I have a buyer! I am salivating over the turntable find posted by another person here. What a score.
Speaking of experiments…When I return from NYE vacation I’m excited to test a recent purchase of mine which was buying a Bose acoustic wave player with a 5 cd changer off a kid on offer up for $60. Turns out they regularly retail $400-600 on ebay. That will be a great way to start 2017!
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I’m late to this episode’s discussion, but wanted to chime in. I adopted the free shipping early on, because I understand the preference to buying something with free shipping instead of feeling like you’re paying for add-ons to the final price. Like how your cable bill has fees and taxes on top of the monthly price in your head. That being said, after several years of offering free shipping and adding shipping into the price of the item, I’ve evolved into a hybrid model.
Now I offer free shipping on any item I can ship 1st Class or Media Mail. If shipping is going to be a flat $4 no matter where it’s going, why not just add that into the price? But for Priority shipping, I charge for that now. I do fixed price buy it now for all my items, so free shipping makes it difficult to manage offers. I live in AZ, so many of my customers seem to be on the east coast, where a 1.1 lb item shipping Priority can be $12.40 to ship. I may accept a $30 offer with free shipping going to CA, but a customer in NY where shipping is $12 makes $30 less desirable. So now I charge for Priority shipping, and do calculated cost.
My question has always been, why are sellers so reluctant to do free shipping, even on fixed price shipping like I’m doing? Does it make us feel better to sell an item for $16 + $4 shipping, vs $20 shipped? It feels like we’re not paying for shipping out of our profits? It’s all the same. That perception you’re feeling, that shipping is coming out of your pocket is having the opposite effect on your customers. Even if it doesn’t increase sales at all, what’s the harm? One of the main reasons I like it is that I get automatic 5 stars for shipping costs. A customer cannot rate me on shipping costs if I offer free shipping. I can see a customer dinging a seller with 1 star for shipping because they were charged $4 and they felt like shipping should be free. I think free shipping is a customer delighter, and I’m all about making happy customers.
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Welcome to the forum, Rob.
You answered your question in the first part of your post.Sure, if you only sell items that fit in flat rate envelopes, then you have a fixed shipping cost which can be added to the price. But this really limits your inventory if you only scavenge items that small.
I know a majority of our items won’t fit in a flat rate envelope. So shipping to CA is much different than shipping to NYC. If we offered free shipping on those items, we would need to significantly raise our prices to cover shipping to the farthest buyer, which I would make us less competitive.
I get that Amazon has gotten people addicted to free shipping. It’s great. I love it. But it really is a bait and switch. We cancelled our Amazon Prime membership last month because we realized we were paying a hefty premium to get those items with “free shipping”. I would rather find a seller who ships themselves and ships cheaper, even if I have to wait a little longer.
So as a business owner, I guess we all must ask ourselves: are the customers addicted to Free Shipping the majority of buyers out there? From our experience, the people who buy our weird, vintage, long-tail items don’t mind paying shipping. Since 2008, we’ve had no issues making a living selling items without free shipping.
And three weeks into our Free Shipping experiment has shown that we aren’t selling any more than we used to. The numbers don’t bear out the hypothesis that free shipping sells more items in our kind of store.
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Sometimes Amazon Prime is cheaper. For instance, just before Thanksgiving the bottom element in our Oven went out. I had to get a replacement and fast. I look on Amazon and I also check a few more websites. Other websites were going to be $30-40 shipped. I was able to get an element on amazon for $14 shipped prime! I don’t know why it was so cheap – there were tons of 5 star reviews.
Everything I buy on Prime I price check elsewhere. Also, sometimes that fast prime shipping is a lifesaver as well.
One more thing, Amazon Prime is faaarrr more than just free shipping. We use Prime video regularly – Man in the High Castle is worth the price itself. They have some very high quality exclusive kids shows on there as well. Prime music is even better than Prime Video. I stream music all the time in my car. There music catalog is quite impressive. Now there is Prime reading – free kindle books and you do not need a kindle device. The kindle app on your phone or tablet works.
You can also download the video and music for offline use. Shoot they even let you burn cd’s of prime music for free.
Amazon Prime is the ultimate one-stop shop Scavenger media outlet.
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Retro, we love Amazon Prime for all the reasons you mention. I tnink inthe future we will all buy everything online, sad as that sounds. You save time, gas, and searching from store to store. There is scarcely anything you can’t find on Amazon. We get boxes delivered from there several times a week. (They are great for ebay.) when I’m in a store and can’t find what I want I pull out my phone, find it on Amazon, and order it right there. It arrives the next day. Odd sized battery or light bulb burns out–order it on Amazon. Want to watch a movie at home for free–watch it on Amazon. I don’t even want to go to theatres anymore. Why put up with the hassle of driving there, putting up with inconsiderate strangers all over the place while at home we are totally comfortable, safe, unhassled, and the popcorn is free. We have friends over for dinner and a movie cheaper rhan if the two of us went to the movie alone. As soon as they get the technology perfected so that you can accurately measure yourself from home there will be no need to try on clothes or shoes at the store. And I agree, most items are cheaper with Amazon Prime than anywhere else–it’s volume selling that makes it work.
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Cool. We never used Amazon video or music. Maybe we should have. (We like Netflix)
I don’t find Amazon Prime prices cheaper on most items. Are you finding these cheaper prices on all items? I find that Prime sellers know you’re filtering out Merchant-Fulfilled sellers so they can raise their price for the convenience.
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Jay I have Amazon Prime and got it initially for the movies and tv shows. Now that they have Amazon Original Series its even better. I don’t have cable so I watch everything via Amazon and Netflix. I have Roku on my tv. Most of the time I watch my shows on my computer.
I buy quite a bit and don’t filter out Merchant full- filled. Most of the time the prime price and the lowest merchant fulfilled are the same. I never pay more to get two day shipping because I don’t care about it usually. Sometimes if I am out of a supply I like it.
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Yes, a lot of times I find items with Prime cheaper than elsewhere. I just bought 5 wall cabinet kits with Prime last night at $54 each for our homeschool room. The same thing at Lowes was gonna be $89 each.
I buy a lot on Amazon and I always price check.Oh and one last Prime benefit – the A-Z returns policy may suck as a seller, but it is the absolute BEST as a buyer. I’ll buy the Prime option over the merchant fulfilled any day of the week as long as they are in the same ballpark price-wise. There are some real scumbag merchant fulfilled vendors on amazon.
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For me it is too complicated to pre-estmate how much to add on for “free” shipping. If it is able to go first class Or can go flat rate that can work. But even adding calculated shipping is risky unless you actually stop to pack the item before listing. For now I just make everything first class or Economy Shipping and charge a ballpark mid range shpg cost. If the cost is less than I charged it goes fedex smartpost instead of usps prority.
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