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In our New Years Goals for 2017, a big one is to start scavenging higher dollar items. But this is easier said than done. We went to a fancy auction t
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 295: The Challenges of Changing Your Strategy] -
I would be very interested in a way to export listings. I do the “SD Card/Folder” method of listing at the moment. I would love to let go of the archives but I just can’t pull the trigger. It has saved my butt on a few occasions. For instance, I have meant to hit sell similar on one of my listings to list another like it, but hit revise without knowing it and changed the entire listing. I didn’t realize until after I published it. It was a quick fix because I already had all the other photos and info from the original listing on my hard drives. I can’t help feeling that if eBay glitched or deleted hundreds of listings for some reason it would be a real nightmare…
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Hey Ryanne and Jay…JUST A THOUGHT…
I’ve been using my iPhone for eBay photos (and sometimes listings) for almost 2 years. First I was uploading them to Webshots then deleting them later to save my free space. (Never paid for that either.)
But now… I discovered that all of my photos automatically are saved on my MacBook Air so I’ve not had to upload any photos anymore. Yay!
When you are in your adding photos,scroll down to the bottom inside your computer under ‘photos’ and they’re all there. I sometimes add a little editing with my phone’s camera settings or use the great editing features within the eBay photo editor.
Also, please note…if you shoot your photos using the phone sideways, your photos will go into their space right-side-up. Before I was having to flip them.
I’ve enjoyed listing to your ideas and comments/radio show for quite some time…probably 2 or more years.
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Question: how many of your sales were clothing? Looking at your store it seems like you have quite a bit of clothing. I am still resisting getting back into clothing even though it sells.
my stats:
Total Items in Store: 428, etsy, 229 ebay
Items Sold: 14–7 on ebay, 7 on etsy
Total Sales: $504 ($167 on etsy, $337 on ebay.)
Highest Price Sold: $75 (vintage sweater, ebay)
Average Price Sold: $34
Returns: 1 -
Can’t wait to listen to the podcast on my way home – I was totally jonesing this morning on my way to work!
Week January 22-28, 2017
Total Items in Store: 741
Items Sold: 16 (3 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $116
Total Sales: $581.30
Highest Price Sold: $130 (John Derian Tray)
Average Price Sold: $36.33
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $85
Number of items listed this week: 22Pretty good week, although I’m nervous because the buyer has not yet paid for that tray. Buyer is in Canada. Today I believe is the day to open a non-paying bidder case, so we’ll see. I sold this tray once in like September, but that buyer didn’t pay either.
Big news of the weekend was a sale of something I picked up on Saturday. I hadn’t been out to an estate sale since the first week of December, so that immediately felt good to get back on the horse. One of the sales I went to was purely because I was so close. Didn’t feel like going because it was the third day and I knew everything would be super picked over. That was absolutely the case, however I spotted a box of what I thought were 45rpms records. When I pulled one out, to my surprise they were one sided gramophone records from c1900. I asked how much they wanted and they said $25 for the box, ended up paying $20. When I got home my research showed most sold for $5-$8 each, unless there was something crazy rare (like pre-war Jewish recordings, certain foreign language recordings, etc that were probably destroyed in the war). I didn’t seem to have any of these and I didn’t feel like listing individually for the slow play – put them up high (thanks, Ryanne!) at $500 for the lot OBO. THEY SOLD WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF LISTING FOR FULL PRICE. These will be part of my what sold on Wednesday and since they sold on Sunday will hit next week’s numbers. Here’s a preview: http://www.ebay.com/itm/192090827002
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Records went to Washington state, looks like just outside of Seattle. Immediately after the buyer paid, he sent me a message on how to pack them – make stacks of 10ish and wrap those in bubble wrap tightly, then pad the interior of the box. I also filled the oversized box with a generous amount of peanuts, probably a layer of 5 inches on the bottom and another layer on the top & sides. The box weighed over 18lbs, so I shipped media mail for about $11 and then another $7 for insurance. #ShippingNerds
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Congrats on the big score, Brian! I’m with Ryanne; first thing I thought of was packing and shipping. That’s awesome that the buyer helped out with some instructions. I’m way too afraid of packing the old shellac…I’ll stick to vinyl!
*Paul*
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J&R my basic story on eBay is having about as much luck as your 2nd store. I have 250 to 300 listings at any given time. Right after Christmas, I did many sales. A few up to 50% off. I moved some dead wood. I’m letting some things drop off and out of my store. Will donate. I am going to actively use the 250 free auctions. I know they are less effective than Buy it Now. Yet it expands my chances of making a sale. A few items, I did better than if I would have listed it as Buy it Now. I just don’t see in my case the advantage of going to the next rung in eBay stores.
I have been watching a few clothing sellers blogs/videos. I just don’t have the energy to list thousands of items with low profit margins. Also, I don’t have the space for it. Its just not for me. Yet I do feel like I a missing the boat. Or doing everything wrong. Mainly because I am not making a living at this.
My strategy is to not spend over $1 on clothing & shoes and to buy only something I think has a quicker chance of being sold. I think I have a good grasp on what type of coats will sell. I will spend more for the right one. On all other items, I’m sticking to more useful, vintage and antique items. Strategy is continually changing.
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Karen,
What is your overarching strategy and/or goal? Looks like you’re talking about the tactics you use that would ladder up to a strategy. You mention that you’re not making a living at this, but do you want to? Either yes or no is totally fine, but that answer determines if you’re missing the boat or not.
I’m personally not making a living off of eBay/reselling and I probably won’t for a very long time if ever. I do it for the knowledge and for some extra spending cash, so that plays into my strategies of when to go sourcing and where to go sourcing and how much time I spend on it. If I was full time at this, my strategy would very very different and I would be spending a lot more time on things – including being the first one in line at an estate sale, or at the Goodwill clothing bins as soon as they bring new stuff out, etc.
The beauty of this is that you make it whatever you what. If you don’t want to list clothes, all good – don’t buy clothes. If you don’t have a lot of storage space (like me), all good – don’t buy big bulky things like furniture. The list goes on and on and it’s all about what works for YOU! 🙂
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Hi Brian!
I very much want to be able to make a living at this. Problem is I have health issues. The same ones that keep me from working a regular job. Being first at an Estate Sale and waiting an hour in line is just not possible for me. I shop Fleas and yard sales. I do very well taking my time and methodically going through everything carefully. Sometimes going over the field or yard sale a few times. I have gotten amazing finds right under other peoples noses. There is a rush to get a deal then run off to the next place. I can’t handle the feeding frenzy of dealers that show up at a Fleas. Where all the buyers swarm. Then again, I go off to the other part of the field and find some truly great stuff. My biggest issue is listing. I have major brain fog. Takes me double the time as anyone else.
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Your health puts you in a really difficult spot, although it sounds like you understand your limitations and are doing what you can. With that being said, do you think there’s anything else you can do to improve sales and still not over do it for yourself? Perhaps do you know someone else in your community that is in a similar situation? If there’s someone else that shares a health issue and cannot work full time, maybe you team up and trade off. You guys go out sourcing together, you list for an hour and then they list for an hour and so on. It’s probably won’t be easy to find someone like that, but it could help.
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Store Week 1/22/17 – 1/28/17
Total items in store: 930
Items sold: 16 (14 transactions)
Cost of items sold: $43.42
Total sales: $587.88
Highest price sold: $150.00 (Another Pearl Jam poster)
Average price sold: $36.74 per item (41.99 per transaction)
International Sales: 2
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $25.72Well, this is it. Saturday was my last day in my full time supervisory position at work. I stepped down, so now I am OFFICIALLY a scavenger by trade! I’ll still work there once a week or so, but eBay is pretty much it, so the pressure’s on. Here we goooooo!
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Total items in store: 960
Total items sold:8
Total sales:170.95
Highest priced item sold: Fujinon binoculars $75.00
Average price sold:$21.00
Money spent on new inventory: $50.00
New listings: 10Super slow Ebay has been in a funk for me for over a year. We just purged over 200 items that we have had for a few years and even with extreme mark down seemed like they were going nowhere. Here is a link to my listings,http://stores.ebay.com/gr8picksfinds I am open for ideas.
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Good looking store, jinedo58! Here’s a touch of constructive criticism on ways you might be able to improve:
– Change your “Featured Items” at the top of your store. I saw them and thought your whole store was filled with trucker caps. I sorted your items and found you have some really cool high end books, hats, housewares, etc. I like to use my featured items for either the most expensive or the coolest items in my store that is my first impression to someone that finds themselves there. See: http://stores.ebay.com/treasuresfromgrandmas
– For your unique and/or higher dollar items, perhaps include a much more robust description. For example, why are your St. Francis Xavier books so rare? Were there very few printed? Are they for Seminary classes only? Are they special editions? For the 5 extra minutes it takes to Google or Wiki something, it could be the difference in making a sale. See this listing as an example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191930182382Hope this helps! Good luck!
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hi jinedo58 – your older items are more than likely way, way down search. so even with the boost for markdown, they are too old. if you are really looking to weed out those old items i would recommend 2 things. first i would use the sell similar to create a whole new listing with new item number. this will get your items back towards the top; change up the title and even up the price. the second thing i would do is when relisting, put the item into a new store category titled anything you wish related to New Markdowns. you can then run markdown sales on just that store category – so it is super easy to keep track of how you are selling down in that category and you can add to it whenever you want to get rid of something through mark down. hope these ideas may help you 🙂 good luck!
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Total Items in Store: 614
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $63
Total Sales: $480
Profit: $417
Highest Price Sold: $77 Vintage Perry Ellis Windbreaker (on bonanza)
Average Price Sold: $30
Average Profit: $26
FBA items sold: 1
Total FBA sales: $19.99
FBA COGS: $1
FBA Fees: $7.49
FBA Profit: $11.50
FBA Average profit: $11.50No listing and no buying again this week. I did run a weekend sale through Saturday and it appeared to spur quite a bit of activity. I think I’ll restart the sale to see what happens.
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Total Items in Store: 353
Items Sold: 8
Cost of Items Sold: $90 (new RA) + $18 (used – a rare antique mall purchase)
Total Sales: $252
Highest Price Sold: $60 (2 Anthropologie Euro Shams)
Average Price Sold: $32
Returns: 0; Int’l Sales: 1 GSP to Japan last week ($72 Anthro measuring cups & spoons likely via Pinterest/Google)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0! Week 5 of the No Scavenge Challenge
Number of items listed this week: 0 VacationCongratulations on the good sales to R&J. Fingers crossed for continued good cash flow while you complete reno. I was on vacation and sold items every day without listing. I did have two buyers cancel and one was a great sale. I had some sticker shock on shipping this morning and one item that was pretty off on the weight. I feel like my backlog just lost more value because of the higher shipping prices. Some of the things I would no longer buy may not make much sense for Ebay and I’ll definitely be looking to squeeze boxes into PFR envelopes. I never use non-padded flat rate envelopes and I wonder “Is this a great thing I’ve been missing out on?” I sell a lot of fragile items 1-2 pounds.
I went to one Goodwill in Honolulu and it was quite disappointing because I don’t sell clothes. But, that’s good because I’m on the no scavenge challenge. This week I’ll be working on listing more backlog – some more of the larger items like train cases and desk lamps is my plan. Have a great week everyone!
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Lovejam here again. I’ve encountered a shipping challenge that I’m hoping the community can help me out with…I sell a larger item, that an international buyer wants to purchase 5 of. I am used to shipping just 1 of this item and so I am unsure of how to go about shipping when it means I will have to use 2-3 boxes to fulfill this order…the items are just to large to shove into one single box. So how do you let eBay know you will be shipping with multiple boxes and thus also will need multiple shipping labels I suppose?
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Yup, it’s pretty easy. Buy one label as normal and then go back to your item sold and in the dropdown menu you’ll see that you can print another label. If you print two (or three or four), all tracking numbers can be found under that item. Good luck!
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Store info (main/t-shirt/postcard)
Items listed: 172/112/10
Sales: 1 (not including pending sale)/0/0
COGS: $1.50
Sales price + shipping: $23.07
Net Profit: $11.69
Returns: 0
International: 1 Pending
New listings: 7/7/0
Spent on new inventory: $23.00 – 2 thrift stops and a small bulk lot at the University Surplus store.I have a pending sale through GSP for a high end watch I took an offer on. Buyer messaged shortly after I accepted the offer and asked to pay on the 1st so I’m waiting to see what comes of it. They seem to buy watches often and has good feedback and since it is a $500 sale, I am going to be patient on this one.
I had to chuckle at the discussion about the reno work and how you guys had differing opinions on what phase you guys are in at hanging drywall. We are almost done with floors and there is so much more than just lightbulbs after for us, but such is the case with new construction. It should move much faster for you guys!
Despite having enough inventory for now, I made some thrift store stops out of town since I was in the area for some house stuff. I found some good deals and it was nice to get a few things. Hopefully they translate into some good sales.
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Pending sale update: The buyer paid! $500 Invicta watch heading to Italy through GSP. I’ll add this sale to this week’s report next Monday so net profit to come! This was part of my “pay more for higher sales” experiment, but I think I’m done buying high end watches for a while. Just not my thing and I didn’t like having the money tied up. I have one more left from the 3 I got, but this one was the most expensive.
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As far as postage stamps go, Costco also sells them at a discount. They must buy them “in bulk” from the post office and then resell them. Perhaps that is the same thing that the eBay seller is doing. By the way, the forever stamp actually went back up to 49 cents about a week or two ago.
I am also trying to increase my average sale price. On Sunday, I sold a vintage wood carved chess set for $80 that I listed on the Friday before. I paid $20 for it. It isn’t reflected in my numbers shown below because the date range stops on Saturday. The buyer sells chess sets on eBay. I think that he is going to repair some of the issues with the board, and then resell it for a lot more. More power to him! I’m going to follow him and see whether it shows up and for how much.
Week of Jan 22 – 28
* Total Items in Store: 615
* Items Sold: 19
* Cost of Items Sold: $9.30 + $48.70 Commission
* Total Sales: $406.60
* Highest Price Sold: $89 JBK Necklace; honorable mention: $95 total for two sets of vintage software manuals to the same person via GSP
* Average Price Sold: $21.40
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $37ish
* Number of items listed this week: 30The $89 necklace is a consignment, so my COGS will be higher for that item. The two sets of software manuals were for Autocad from the late 80’s. I got those for free at a free-cycle event in town. The guy gave me a best offer for both that were only $4-5 less that what I was asking. I couldn’t accept fast enough! The manuals have made it past our Kentucky buddies and are on their way to Canada.
Overall, I had a very good week.
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Week of Jan 22 – 28
* Total Items in Store: 375
* Items Sold: 24
* Cost of Items Sold: $25.50
* Total Sales: $309.14
* Highest Price Sold: $44.95 (brass candlesticks)
* Returns: 1, maybe? I sold a book to a lady, but it’s not the version she wants. She said she would be glad to keep it if I gave her a 70% discount (off a $25 book). HA! No. I approved the return, but she has yet to put it in the mail, despite me sending her a label (at her request).
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $2.50
* Number of items listed this week: I lost count. About 60?I have been listing, listing, listing. I did a total re-org of my storage room, and have all my death piles in bins, stacked up. I’m glad I did it, because it’s really motivated me to get this stuff photographed and listed, which is generating a lot of sales. I had almost $200 in sales yesterday! Woohoo!
I’ve given myself a deadline of February 25 (next auction date) to have all my death piles photographed and listed, (or at least put in draft format).
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remember, if it’s been 5 business days, call ebay and get that return case closed.
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Once I have ebay close the return out, can the buyer then open a case for INAD? Just curious. The buyer is grumpy, and I have a feeling they will pitch a fit once the return is closed.
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Did that yesterday. So that is the end of my three customer issues. Two unauthorized closed in my favor. Never rec’d. I called yesterday and closed it out in my favor. Thanks Ryanne for the heads up on the 5 day deal.
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Jan 22-28
Items/listings in store 1495/1320
Sold 8
COGS $16.40 for items, $37.44 free shipping = $53.84 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $133.81
Highest Price Sold: $30.00 shipped pair of FootJoy size 14 golf shoes
Lowest Price Sold $12.00 (4 pack of Airwick Scented oils – cogs 1.06 cents, shipping 3.65, packaging .25, fees $1.51 = $6.47, profit = 5.53)
Average price Per Sale $16.72
Intl – 0
Returns –0
$ spent On New Merch –$110
Listed New 24 Items
Return rate 1.20% overall / 1.92 clothingTerrible week for sales. Worst non vacation week since may 2015. Not only were there hardly any sales the sale I did have were LOW – the FootJoj shoes being the only one over $20. Sold the last of my Airwick scented oils RA/Gas Points stock. Glad to be rid of it really. Going to concentrate on getting my clothing all listed. It is the busy time of the year in my real job so in addition to Ebay I am working 55-60 hours a week. Luckily it is from home.
Hope for things to pick up (not so far this week) but I will just keep listing. These are the weeks that scare me about going ‘full time’ but when we do we will be early retired and have much smaller monthly base expenses. As of now it is set for June 2020 but what happens with ACA is going to be a significant factor as we will have 10-13 years before Medicare kicks in.
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RR Store Week January 22-28, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1152
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $36.77
Total Sales: $1663.88 ($463.88 eBay/$1200 private sale)
Highest Price Sold: $79.99 (vintage Budweiser “BUD MAN” stein)
Average Price Sold: $33.13
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
Number of items listed this week: 15 new/104 sell similarDespite the large private sale (a lot of silver coins), it was a rough week.
Through no fault of my own, I lost my Top Rated Seller status. Since I moved to the new pad last summer, I’ve been scheduling package pickups. The carriers have forgotten or skipped my packages about a dozen times so far. I have a different carrier every day, so its been near impossible for me to remedy the situation. After discovering I lost TRS, I called the national help line and filed a formal complaint. My local post office called me back the next day, and I was assured the problem would be addressed. I know I’ll get the status back soon enough, but it sucks knowing that I’m doing all the right things and getting dinged for someone else’s mistake.
In the last week, I thought I was getting sick. Very sick. But it turns out that I’m having gluten withdrawals. Who knew it was such a drug?! I’ve had heavy flu-like symptoms for days, and that is all but killing my productivity. Instead of listing new items, I’ve been freshening up and relisting stale listings with the Sell Similar feature, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much of it is selling. I just don’t have the energy to process my new acquisitions yet. I’m told that I will come out at the other end of this feeling golden, so fingers crossed.
*Paul*
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glad you are not sick. sounds similar to symptoms of carb withdrawal. we started a low carb high fat (LCHF) ketogenic diet in august. we’ll probably eventually talk more about it on the podcast maybe (we stopped eating grains and sugar, sad i know). BUT one of the side effects is that your body flushes salt/electrolytes way more than when you ate grains/carbs. and that makes you feel horrible. they even call it Keto-Flu. symptoms can include headaches, nausea, fatigue, diarrhea (sorry, it’s true!). and the cure is to drink salt water or hot broth. it helps me every time i feel bad. it works within about 20 minutes too. we also take a potassium (99mg) and magnesium (250mg) supplement every morning.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/side-effects-
Very similar to Keto_flu, for sure. It’s been pretty intense; gluten stimulates the opioid receptors in your brain and makes you feel good, calm. So removing that stimulation is like a heroin addict kicking the habit. Not quite that severe, but it’s still pretty bad. I used to eat a TON of food that had gluten, like every meal. And as a vegetarian, I ate a bunch of fake meat…number one ingredient is wheat gluten. So it’s going to take a while to get it all out of my system. In addition to the physical symptoms like headaches, nausea, gas (gross but true!), dizziness, fatigue, etc., there are also mental symptoms, like anxiety, mood swings, and brain fog. Rough stuff, but each day is a little bit better. And it’ll be worth it.
I’d definitely like to hear about your switch to LCHF. Last Saturday, I ran into a couple I hadn’t seen for years. They adopted that diet, and I was shocked at how much weight they lost. They look amazing, and 10 years younger! It’s so so true: you are what you eat.
*Paul*
P.S. I just got off the phone with eBay. They closed a return in my favor after a buyer didn’t send the item back in time. Boom! Thanks for the tip!
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I’ve been doing low-carb (on and off) for years. It’s the only diet that is effective for me, and I suspect many other people. How many carbs are you eating? I’m having a generous 100 net carbs per day and it still works (and without keto flu).
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we try to keep it at 20 max ideally. i’m sure we go over sometimes, but like you say, it can still work at up to 100. crazy to think how many carbs are in some of the stuff we were eating before. i was really a carb monster, i just love pasta and bread (too much).
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Baking my own gluten free bread is definitely in my future, but for now, I’m just trying to master the basics. I will pick up some vegetable bullion cubes tonight and give your suggestion a shot. But I must say, I’m feeling SO much better than I was even yesterday. Hopefully the end is in sight. And gluten free pasta ain’t so bad! The bread is another story…
*Paul*
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Paul, see if your grocery store has products made by Gluten Free Nation. Mine has them in the frozen section. They make these carrot cake cupcakes that are stupidly good!
I also like Udi’s pizzas. The unbaked crust was kind of bleh, but the pre-made, frozen pizzas are decent.
I do NOT recommend Schar products, however. They changed the recipe, and now the bread tastes weird. The last time I ate it, I got very sick. :p
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SMMTA, thanks for the tips. I haven’t tried any of the UDI’S stuff yet, but it’s plentiful…they even stock it at my local Target! I had a Daiya frozen pizza and it was pretty awful. I’m trying to focus on actually cooking things rather than simply reheating, but it is nice to have a convenient option on a lazy night, like a decent frozen pizza.
Today, I tried Mission gluten free tortillas for the first time. Pretty good! I had the Trader Joe’s brown rice tortillas, and it was like a paper plate. The Sprouts one was a bit better, but the Mission ones get the closest in texture. Another Target find.
*Paul*
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Alright you two you aren’t going to like what I have to say, but friends tell u the truth. Disregard if I sound like a crotchety hag
You are talking about spending more to make more. On its face, this makes sense. I urge extreme caution. You two are already stretched pretty thin. Piling it on higher is a great way to start really dreading and or hating what you do for a living.
First, you don’t have to spend more to make more. I have spent $10 and made $1700 off one item (my video on the antique pufu robe, for example ) and it’s not an outlier. Plenty of other ways to buy besides auctions, as you know.
What you need to do is develop Only a few areas of expertise at a time. Mine among others, but closer to my heart, (and everybody here should learn it) is antique Chinese Textiles and porcelains
For example, the problem is if you spend more but don’t know the niche well enough, serious trouble can occur. For example if the auction house does not guarantee the authenticity of Tiffany items then it’s vital to intimately understand the nuances of age vs real. Tiffany was heavily replicated from the day it started, right down to signatures being etched on Steuben etc. I wouldn’t attempt it without knowing Tiffany at Auction by Alastair Duncan,inside and out. You can refer to tiffanyfakes.com to skim the surface of what a pain this can be.
Moreover Steuben, Loetz and Lindbergh are often mistaken as Tiffany. It’s hard to tell unless u know them very well.
My point is, pick an area you already know fairly well, then grow from there. It would seem Antique and collectible books, ephemera, Quimper (French pottery) mid century and rugs are a good place to start.
I was very fortunate to be able to “Apprentice” with the real Indiana Jones of Antique Chinese and Southeast Asian works. If u know an expert u can follow around for a few days at a time, nothing beats hands on learning in any of these fields. One time I worked my butt off for three days at a Manhattan antique show, but the experience taught me a great deal about some of the inner workings and I made a lot of contacts I sell to often, to this day.
As for the arch nemesis rug dude, go make friends. He or she already has a sense of how far you will bid and probably has deeper pockets. The best you can do is go say Hi, explain your love of rugs, especially those rugs, and try to work together. Eventually they will cut you some breaks, some won’t at all, but others are pragmatic. I think u have done this before, but after the auction see if there are any lots of rugs he doesn’t care for as much or are getting left behind. Always try to befriend your rivals. Many times it’s cheaper.
Anyway, the best deals both ways take place before and after auctions and shows, it’s good to learn and sell thru networking as this eliminates some uncertainty on paying the bills.
I don’t mean to sound pompous, I’m in the middle of a sticky business divorce and it’s rough. Just don’t over extend yourselves and be cautious.
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Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1462
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales: $615.50
Cost of Items Sold: $77.70
Average Price Sold: $19.23
Average Cost of Item: $2.43
Highest Price Item Sold: $39.95 Borland Kylix Software (purchased from a thrift shop for $5)
Number of items listed this week: 50
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 198
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 132
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 61
Sell-through rate: 2.19%
# of Hats Sold: 19 (59% of sales)Another consistent week for me. Can’t complain about this at all.
I’ve had the goal of increase my average sale value for a while but I’m actually much more comfortable with lots of small purchases that give a good return than fewer more expensive items. I paid up for some items at an auction recently (spending a total of about $600) and with the way it’s going like I’m going to be fortunate to get my money back on those when I eventually sell those items and it feels like a much bigger deal to have a $100 item sitting around than it is to have 100 $1 items.
In regard to auctions, the two auctions near me have both now added online bidding which adds a whole extra level of competition. Estate sales are still my favorite but even a few of those are adopting the auction model. Interesting times.
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I want to second what Eve has to say. Spending five dollars on an item that is only worth two bucks is a mistake, but it’s not a costly mistake. For most of us, spending five hundred dollars on an item that turns out to be worth only two hundred bucks IS a pretty costly mistake.
I’ve only listened to part of the podcast, but a couple things concerned me. Jay’s statement about getting to the auction an hour ahead of time and researching via smartphone while drinking coffee. IF you are researching something you already are very familiar with, that’s fine. But if not, a smartphone is NOT a substitute for years of experience. I think it can give a false sense of confidence on many things.
Also, you guys mentioned that the auction house draws mostly dealers, and that, so far, you’ve mostly confined yourself to box lots. OK. But once you start moving into the better stuff, you WILL be noticed. And there ARE dealers who will deliberately bid things past their value in the hopes that you’ll win…and get hung with an item you paid too much for.
And , depending on the auction house, if you take Eve’s advice and befriend the regulars, you may find yourself invited into “the pool”. That raises an ethical question for one thing. And the other thing it raises is, how prepared are you for another level of competition?
I’m not trying to discourage you from moving into higher end items. But recognize that the learning curve can be pretty stiff….and can be costly. If money is fairly tight right now, with the renovations, this might be the time to study some niches rather than spend a lot. Those with a nice financial cushion can afford to make more mistakes than those without.
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Jan 22 – 28
Total items in store 1069
Sold 8
GOGS 10.00
Total Sales 222.92
Highest price sold 34.99 vintage Eddie Bauer bed skirt and pillow cases
Ave price 27.86
Intl –
Returns –
Spent on new merch 00
New listings 7Still in CA with Mom enjoying grandkids and warmer weather. We arrived in San Diego on Jan 3rd so far I have sold 40 items from my store. I started out with 30 business day handling now I am down to 10 business day handling. Going to leave it at 10 days until I get home. Extremely pleased with my sales for Jan. In all my working years I have never made money while on vacation. Making money while chillin in San Diego has been amazing. I am ready to take my store to the next level (1500 listings). My longterm goal is generating an extra $4,000.00 per month. Wonder how many listings that will take? I just keep on truckin.
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January 22-28
Total Items in Store – 99
Sold – 1 – Amazon Merchant Fulfilled
COGS – 50 cents
Total Sales – 60.95
International – 0
Returns – 0
Money spent on new inventory – 6.90
New Listings – 8One sale, but it was a good one – a histology textbook I bought for 50 cents at the Library. Although an earlier edition, it was in very good condition, and was selling for about $50 when I bought it. It took a year, but it sold. I had recently raised the price when I realized I was the cheapest on Amazon by about $15. I was about to give up on looking for books to sell on Amazon, but after this, I think I’ll keep checking them. You never know what you may find.
We’re leaving tomorrow for a short camping get-away, then it’s back to listing, listing, listing!
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1/22 – 1/28/17
Approximate # of Items in Store: 240
# of Items Sold: 11
Average Cost of Items Sold: $5.67
Total Sales: $532.84
Highest Price Sold: $150 – Leather Tote
Average Price Sold: $48.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $16.42
Number of items listed this week: 7Was a slacker last week. Need to get listing again, but I’m in the winter Ebay doldrums.
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Store Week Jan 22-28
Total Items in Store: 445
Items Sold: 13
Cost of Items Sold: $15
Total Sales: $560
Highest Price Sold: $145 Vintage TI calculator
Average Price Sold: $43
Returns: 0
International Sales via GSP: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory: $170
Number of items listed this week: 20Solid week. Best sale was $145 for a vintage Texas Instrument calculator I paid a dollar for at an estate sale. I assumed the sale would be picked over by the time I got there, but I managed to scavenge a pile of stuff. Calculators are often overlooked, and some are worth $$, so I always look them up on ebay. Also found an Italian copper coffee pot that sold right after listing for $60. Plus, the house overlooked the ocean, so I enjoyed a walk by the sea after finding my treasures. Damn, I love this job.
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I just logged in to say that not only people in Texas knew/know about Gilley’s! I was born and raised in South Carolina and I may or may not have owned (and wore) a crop top Gilley’s t-shirt when I was a kid (and I’m a boy…ahh,the 80’s). Yeah, nothing weird at all about dressing your son in skimpy clothes advertising a honky tonk. =D
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Jan 22-28 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 305 // Ebay 101
Items Sold: Etsy 7 // Ebay 3
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $8.22 // Ebay $12.58
Total Sales: Etsy $58.95 // Ebay $47.97
Highest Price Sold: $19.99 (tie between a Cashmere turtleneck and a Dungeons & Dragons book/manual)
Average Price Sold: $10.70
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 47We had a major snow day here = no daycare & little work done. Our well pump also stopped working, which meant no water for two days while it was being fixed. Yeah!
Pretty low average price sold this week. I need to work on listing higher dollar items.
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Numbers for end of January
Total Items in Store: 701 (688 last month)
Items Sold: 47 (53 last month)
Total Sales: $895 ($1,603 last month)
Cost of Items Sold: $135 ($163 last month)
Highest Price Sold: Dial Telephone $39.45 / 5 PBR Beer Patches $44.75
Average Price Sold: $19.04 ($30.24 last month)
International Sales: 2 GSP
Number of items listed: 61 (49 last month)
Spent on new inventory: $329.70 ($0 last month)
Returns: 1 (low value, just refunded and let them keep it)I had one lost “in inventory” item in January. I found an eBay seller with the same item that was willing to drop ship it to my customer. Hopefully this will keep me from receiving a defect.
I spent a lot on new inventory. $160 was at a family run estate sale, prices were either too high or under priced. I have already sold two of the $1 items for $45.
I spent about $140 at the annual Oakland Museum White Elephant preview sale. Way too much stuff to pick through, but I did get a large lot of topo maps for 25¢ each. Here is a link to some of the photos of the sale: Imgur Link.
For anybody near the S.F. Bay Area, the regular sale is in March, but if you donate something in February you will receive a pass that will let you in to buy stuff on certain days before the big sale in March, kind of like a mini preview sale. I think they said Wednesday through Saturday, 10am-3pm or something along those lines.
-Steve
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My numbers for the week of 1/22/17:
Total Items in Store: 93
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $34
Total Sales: $371
Highest Price Sold: $89 – Beloved Perfume
Average Price Sold: $33.72 + shipping
Returns: 0I missed a couple of weeks of reporting my numbers because I have been really working on my new year’s goals…which include a weekly listing goal and spending less time in facebook groups/blogs. I have been breaking down the weekly goal (20 listings) into daily quotas which really helps me achieve the goal. If it’s “to list 5 things today”, I try to do it very first thing before anything else. It is a small goal by comparison to many of you, but if I succeed through 2017, it will be double what I’ve done in the past. Cutting Facebook time has been easier than I imagined. I used to get caught up in conversations with people and after a while it just seemed like we were all just trying to avoid actually working. Didn’t do anything positive for me, and surprisingly, I don’t even miss it.
I agree with some of the comments above about the dangers of higher priced items when you don’t have the knowledge behind it. When people are spending hundreds or thousands on a purchase, it better be just what they wanted. Repros, outright fakes, condition expertise are all things that come into play and can definitely not be learned over coffee in an hour. The big difference is that you are used to buying first, researching second. And over time you have gained knowledge so you KNOW when you see certain items while sourcing that they are money. Your new strategy would have to be the reverse. The reason you feel uncomfortable is because you “know you don’t know”. And taking a guess is a big old risk. If you are serious about this new strategy, you are going to have to attain the knowledge first, and buy second… -
Ebay #1
Total Items in Store: 8450
Items Sold: 116
Cost of Items Sold: $85
Total Sales: $1769.28
Highest Price Sold: $120 (Merkle Motor Part)
Average Price Sold: $15.25
Returns:4 (clothes and DVD)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $2269
Number of items listed this week: 35Decent week, since I haven’t listed much since middle of December. Really illustrates that a strong pipeline can self sustain for awhile. Still not sending any books into FBA, numbers are still holding on Amazon. Lower than what I would get through FBA, but will see what happens when fees change. The process is taking up all of my listing time for ebay.
Top sellers this week was a Merkle motor appliance part for $120, Pimsleur French language set $75 and a Firefighter pair of pants for $60.
Bought a massive amount of books at two library sales, they were expensive but worth it.
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Total Items in Store: 633
Items Sold: 49
Cost of Items Sold: $147
Total Sales: $1,229.47
Average Price Sold: $25.08Went to the bins (Goodwill Outlet) for the first time this week. It is making me rethink some things. It was a very different experience. But I think it is a powerful resource if you can process items quicker and can do bulk. At retail Goodwills you might get stuff for $3.50 and resell it at $25, or 7X your money. At Goodwill outlets you can source something for $0.50 and sell it for $15 or a 30X your money. This is why I am focusing on the problem at hand, efficiency. I will make a post in the proper sub-section of this site’s forum about that. I am curious if anyone here does clothing and lists items in the 4-6 minutes per item range. I am listing in the 11 minute range.
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You are looking at the wrong metric here. You are thinking profit margin when you should be looking at profit/time. If both items take you 10 minutes to list and both will sell in roughly the same 6 month time frame, then item #1 makes you $129 per hour of time invested (6 items an hour at $21.5 profit per item). Item #2 makes you $87 per hour.
This is exactly why I say COGS does not matter. As long as it is a well researched item, it will sell. A well researched price controls when it will sell. The one constant in your equation is your time. Every piece of clothing takes a certain amount of time to list, so get the most for each item.
I have no problem paying $3.50 for the shirt at a regular goodwill. It is cleaner and the junk is already weeded out.
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Hi Ryanne & Jay,
Scarcity versus abundance.
A few months ago my sister and I were in a Goodwill Outlet store with giant bins upon bins overflowing with an infinite supply of clothing, books, shoes, etc. Whilst excavating through a massive pile an unknown shopper started her own dig in the next bin. Without any provocation, she bleated out “Save some for the rest of us!” I smiled at my sister and we all went about our business peaceably.
We each have our own eBay stores and we often scavenge together. If my sister finds a prized item, or vice versa, I (she) love(s) to invoke the priceless, ironic battle-cry “Save some for the rest of us!”
As writer P.J. O’Rourke summed it up nicely:
“Wealth is not a pizza where, if I have too many slices, you have to eat the Dominos box. No, we order another pizza. My wealth does not create your poverty. Your wealth does not create my poverty.”
Your podcasts are the best thing that ever happened to eBay. Thanks so much for being so generous with your wealth of information. And thanks to your listeners who, likewise, share their invaluable knowledge.
Best,
Elizabeth -
I am also trying to upgrade the items I list, but I agree it can be a bit of a risk. I get really nervous spending more than a few bucks on items that are outside my comfort zone (which are books, sewing & crafting items and vintage linens). If I can, I try and search for an item on my smartphone, but it’s not always easy to really drill down on the value of quickly. Of course, I think we all have a bit of gambler in us or we wouldn’t be doing this EBay thing, lol!
My goal for 2017 is to be pickier about what I scavenge, look for quality sales and be open to paying higher prices, but always being on the lookout for the plastic camel bank for $1 that ends up selling for $50!
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My wife and I have had the same conversations about buying higher dollar items. Which we always look for but at the same time I refuse to not buy an item I know I can make easy money on. So we are trying to buy higher dollar items but I am still buying bread and butter items. I want the best of both worlds! While at the same time not stressing my partner in crime out too much 😉
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The buttons you got ay the auction sound wonderful. You said maybe they were once on the collector’s clothing. That is quite likely. Back in the day before cheap clothes were available and there were no tax deductions for donating to a goodwill, thrift was a normal way of life; women would use up clothing until there was nothing wasted. You wore a garment until it had a hole. You repaired the hole and wore it until it was too worn out to repair. Then you cut out the good parts of the fabric and put it in your quilting pile. I was taught to also rip out the zippers and trims for reuse when making something else. And every button went into a jar for reuse. I have 4 ball jars full of different colored buttons collected like that over the years. Some of the white ones are old “underwear buttons” from the late 1800’s-early 1900’s that were handed down to me. All those collected bits of fabric, etc., carry deep memories. I love looking At an old “charm” quilt I made (meaning no piece of fabric was used more than once) decades ago and I can still remember where I got almost every piece of fabbric. Buttons were collected for the same reasons.
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Jay and Ryanne, the reason your store #1 is selling so well is because you are listing so much. Three of you are listing now. That is what makes you rise in the cassini search. Look at your dismal sales in store #2 comparatively by size. I tried having 2 stores for a while a few years ago and I could tell that I was only hurtung my sales by splitting my time between 2 stores. When you are listing in one sales are dropping off in the other.
I just got back from a 10 day trip to Hong Kong to visit family. I just changed my shipping date to ten business days and sent a reminder to buyers when an item sold, as you have taught us to do. Everyone who bothered to reply just said, “No problem. Have a great trip!” We got home late at night after traveling all day and I was wide awake at 4:30 the next morning. I got all 32 items packed and out the door that morning. Great feeling. Sales were small dollar items and not a lot of sales due to me not working on listing while I was gone, but well worth it. I also put my whole store on 10% off while I was gone. I find that really does stimulate sales–especially on old inventory that I am thrilled to make go away.
By the way I had little time and less luck finding anything to resell in HK. As I suspected you could either buy high priced retail at all the big stores we have here or you could buy cheap, cheesey junk at the street markets (which were great fun just the same.) The one day we made it to the “Antique District” was disappointing. I know zero about Asian antiques, but it seemed to me that all/most of their “antiques” were chinese knock-offs. I tried to take spinachetr’s advice and buy old postcards, but was only able to find a few. I do look forward to researching them and learning more about postcards in the process. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like I will be able to justify writing off my travel expenses for such puny results==not sure what the rules are on that.
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Jan 22-28 2017
• Total Items in Store: 710
• Items Sold: 20 eBay
• International 2 GSP
• Total Sales $837
• Highest Price $180 Amp and receiver
• Average Price Sold: $42
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $30
• Cost of items purchased this week $0I accidentally put a hole in the paper cone of a speaker that sold while moving, only $20 but still a dumb mistake.
I haven’t listed this week as I’m still organizing after an exhaustive move, only across town but with 700+ listed items and thousands of unlisted treasures I would not trust with the movers it took all week.
It sure is nice to have separated the home from the business.-
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Amazing! Steven, you and I are cut from the same cloth. My living room also has a tension pole lamp, globe on a stand, and a two tiered fiberglass lamp shade, my latest acquisition. I need a cool coffee table to complete the room. However, I’m currently working on a tiki dining room, so that’s getting all my free resources.
*Paul*
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I’m trying hard to keep tabs on my numbers and using this forum to keep me accountable. I don’t know why, but I have some aversion to this. Maybe I think tracking the numbers will take the fun out of it and make it seem like work.
Jan 22-28 2017
Total Items in Store: 523
• Items Sold: 25 eBay Domestic
• International 2 GSP
• Total Sales $576.44
• Highest Price $59.99 for lot of 17 Anne Rice paperback books with free shipping
• Average Price Sold: $21.33
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $60 ?? -
Just getting back into to eBay on a bigger scale. Like you, I would like to shift to high priced merchandise. While discussing this with someone at a local auction, she mentioned that she was leaving selling on eBay to sell on Ruby Lane. Have you heard any feedback about this sight? Right now, I don’t have enough items, let alone higher priced items, to sell there. It does appear to be a nice option once I get my numbers higher, but I am clueless as to how to research other websites for the amount of traffic they receive or how quickly inventory turns over. Any comments or suggestions (from anyone)?
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Hi Ryanne!
I’ve just listened to your episode about selling higher value items for 2017.
My plan is to try and make more money.I’ve been selling on Trade Me in New Zealand for 7 years now- full time.
My strategy has always been aiming for higher value items.
( I just have trouble asking top dollar- which is something that I need to work on- since I don’t have a partner it’s kind of hard))But- I think TRUST is something very important in this equation.
The higher value items require more trust on the buyers behalf.That is why I think specialising- which is something you always adviced against- is important.
I started with just leather bags and shoes and became known as the baglady.
I got pretty good at doing my niche.
And gained knowledge that I could use in my description to help me sell a bag or shoes so much better.
People still call me the bag lady now and I have no trouble selling bags for good prices.
I have a lot of repeat customers-because of TRUST>
I know exactly which brand of bag is save to auction at $1 reserve to achieve the highest price.New Zealand is too small to have your Ebay strategy I think.
You better be nice to everyone in a small country like this cause you might end up living next door to them or becoming their mother in law in 10 years time.
( which is why kiwis have a reputation for being super friendly)Now I have moved onto vintage jewellery and am getting pretty knowledgeable with this too.
The more history and provenance you can give – the higher the price you can achieve- I believe.
On Ebay buyers will trust you because of your feedback but can they trust that you are knowledgeable about say a certain collectable item?
Selling a whole collection of one type of thing has taught me that you don’t know if this collectible is the best of it’s kind or the worst- until you can compare it with similar items.
I sell a lot of stuff by saying it’s the largest or the softest or the rarest or the best condition- I have come across.
AND- the more you know in a particular field the more of that kind you’ll find- I believe.I have only about 200 items in my shop and will only list them for 5 weeks.
My sell through rate is around 30%I am by no means saying that this is the way to go- just my thoughts.
In fact- I am really considering trying your method on Ebay with things that fit in envelopes.I am even thinking of just doing your method on Trade Me.
I just think things go stale here quicker as Trade Me is a much smaller site.Sorry for the long winded post.
Cheers
Gina-
Oops- was just going to add that you guys are super nice- of course.
Refering to my paragraph about NZ being a small country.
That paragraph sounded weird.
My point was- repeat customers are soo important for my business.
I’ve had one lady spent $5000 with me last year.
A large parcel every month.
I’ve started noticing same business addresses with different recipients lately- most likely the collegue has been recommending my shop.
I think a lot of these people come back because I will have more of what they bought before.
Like bags or shoes or jewellery.
I have to make sure that everything is top notch in my sales funnel to keep them coming back.Anywho- Loooove you guys- thanks to you I am all motivated again- beyond trying to survive.
Cheers
Gina
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