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When we hit 4000 items, our inventory system has not been able to keep up. Items are spread out on two different properties, in about 4 different buil
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 296: Are You Keeping Up With Your Inventory System?] -
Pricing is interesting, I am trying to advise a friend who is getting started about pricing–her natural tendency is to price cheaply. My take is somewhat different than yours, I go by my gut, I look up sold prices, but as Jay found out, many ebay sellers are willing to give away their stuff very cheaply (so much so that someone could buy most of their merchandise on ebay to resell on ebay and elsewhere.) At any rate, I just price in a way that I am comfortable with and can make a profit on–especially since I have a fraction of the inventory that you and many others have, I need to keep my income moving. Even so, my per unit average is decent, around $40. Here are my stats this week:
Total Items in Store: 215–>ebay, 413–>etsy
Items Sold: 18 (11 on etsy, 7 on ebay)
Total Sales: $917.63 ($340 on ebay, $576 on etsy)
Highest Price Sold: $145 (mink coat on etsy)
Average Price Sold: $50.97
Returns: 0I got close to a $1000 week, but “no cigar” as they say.
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I’m really glad to see your Etsy experiment now becoming the main part of your business. I know it took time, but its paid off.
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yes, Etsy has taken over–I like listing there so much better–fees are a little less, but for vintage I am more of a big fish in a small pond, that said, I would never give up ebay because plenty of times when etsy is slow, ebay sales pick up. I think that sellers really need to diversify to make a good income in this business.
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Store Week 1/29/17 – 2/4//17
Total items in store: 973
Items sold: 18
Cost of items sold: $22.05
Total sales: $707.50
Highest price sold: $115.00 (Lot of Barney videos)
Average price sold: $39.31
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $0.94Barney videos …who knew?! They sold overnight, so that was pretty cool. I also sold one other Barney video on its own for $25. This was a pretty awesome week for me, so I’m hoping it keeps up!
Today I’m working on sorting slides. I got a bunch from the 1950s and 60s, including quite a few from the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. Very cool. If anyone has any tips on photographing or listing them, they would be appreciated. I might have to listen to the old podcast about slides again now that I have some!
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Golden Finger Picker did a youtube video on selling slides that you might find interesting: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjuoNSLpP_RAhXGjVQKHZqQC5oQtwIIGjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBiUmhK9UMuc&usg=AFQjCNGQaSfa_zGj-tJgYTWy-Y17YrNuTQ&sig2=cbRV3YSmp_07AnIEUIa0Hw&bvm=bv.146094739,d.cGw
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Hello everyone, I thought it was overdue time to post my numbers:
January 29-February 4, 2017
Total Items in Store: 716
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $18.82
Total Sales: $349.09
Highest Price Sold: $61.41 (Pair of Polo Ralph Lauren Shoes)
Average Price Sold: $23.27
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $481.83
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Bonanza: 0Trying to clear out older low priced items and get rid of death piles of clothes… Hoping to do that soon so I can start focusing on better inventory. It’s going to take a while though. My consistent profit winners are name brand shoes. They are bread and butter items that consistently bring good profits for me.
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RR Store Week January 29-February 4, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1141
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $39.99
Total Sales: $619.81
Highest Price Sold: $89.99 (Kliban cats bookends)
Average Price Sold: $28.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10 new/95 sell similarFunny, I just bought another shelving unit for my office. I was almost out of storage space. It’s a pretty small room, and my inventory was slowly creeping in on me. Feels good to see more carpet. I also utilize the walls; instead of decorating, I hang up as much as I can on hooks. And not just artwork. Anything with a peghole, loop, or hook is up there.
I’m finally over the bulk of my gluten detox/withdrawal, so now I can get back to listing actual new items, not just sell similar-ing old inventory. But it really does help to dig into your stale listings and update them, especially since postal rates have gone up again. I sold a shirt yesterday that’s been in my store for at least three years within two days of relisting it at a lightly lower price. Move that old stuff OUT.
Another tip: that B. Kliban cat stuff really sells well. I inherited a small collection, and its been flying out the door at top prices. I grab anything with those cats whenever I see it.
*Paul*
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Yes! I sold a set of B. Kliban cat sheets a while back for I think $100. It was just used pillowcases and a flat sheet, not even a complete set.
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Love it. The first thing I sold was an old dishtowel. It was kinda dingy, dull. I almost tossed it, but decided to give it a shot. $20 bucks, I believe, withing a few days. Those fans are rabid!
*Paul*
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I went through the gluten withdrawal in 2015 after finding out I had Celiac’s. It was like I was hit by a semi that backed up over me over and over again. Feeling much better now. The best part was I could throttle back on the ebay as I needed and no boss was yelling at me. Take care, hope you are well.
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Thanks Beverly. I think I’m over the hump, but there still a few lingering symptoms here and there. Nothing like last week, though. I almost went to Urgent Care before I figured out what was happening.
*Paul*
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Paul … do you also have Celiacs? If so I recommend you join celiac.com and celiac.org to get regular emails and information. It’s a long learning curve and lots of other things pop up from the nutritional deficiencies caused by it.
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Total Items in Store: 345
Items Sold: 33
Cost of Items Sold: $53.00
Total Sales: $471.10
Highest Price Sold: $69.99 (brass and glass miniature curio cabinet)
Returns: 0 (I had one started late last week, and got it closed the week)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $50
Number of items listed this week: I lost countI have had a lot of sales lately, and I have lost track of how many listings I did, or even how many items are in my store on a given day. I seem to hover around 350. I inch closer to 400, and then a bunch of things sell, and I’m back down to 350. It’s a good problem to have. 🙂
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I feel bad for you Jay. Drafts are so much slower and more tedious than just sell similar. With drafts you have to create each one from scratch and fill in all of the fields and even if you use a template, you have to keep going back out to get it again. Whereas sell similar it carries over all of your info and you can just delete out the pics and change the title and some specifics and everything else stays the same which makes life so much easier. You’re getting shafted Jay lol or just paying your listing dues after Ryannes had to do it all of these years.
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hey, instead of being snarky, why not help explain your system with how we’re trying to do it. sell similar works great when you have a folder of items saved (on computer or photos on phone) and you can go into your inventory and just sell similar. though, the mobile app only lets you see 600 of your active items. how would we find the other 4500 items to ‘sell similar’ as through the phone? what we’re trying to do is not have folders of saved info and instead use the phone to take photos through the ebay app, eliminating the need to save/archive photos and listing info. if jay is doing a batch of say books, he can pre-fill some of the item specifics and the categories when he bulk creates the drafts. that’s what my helper does and it works great.
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Bah, I finished a nice long post and there was an error and I lost it. Forgot most of what I wrote, so here are just my numbers again:
Store Week 1/29/17 – 2/4//17
Total items in store: 741
Items sold: 13
Cost of items sold: $120.11
Total sales: $884
Highest price sold: $500 (lot of phonograph discs)
Average price sold: $68
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0 (although 2 non paying bidders)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $96-
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It was this sale from last Sunday: http://www.ebay.com/itm/192090827002
I talked about it on last week’s Sunday post (http://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/scavenger-life-episode-295-the-challenges-of-changing-your-strategy#post-11402) and also the Wednesday What Sold (http://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/what-sells-on-ebay-stetson-fedora-leather-messenger-bag-doc-marten-mary-janes-bentwood-box#post-11602) post because I was so jazzed about it, but technically it didn’t hit until this week’s sales. It was part of the long winded post that I lost today 🙂
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Week January 29-, Feb 42017
Total Items in Store: ~125
Items Sold: 6
Cost of Items Sold: $34.16
Total Sales: $302.17
Total Net Profit (after shipping and COGs) :$172.50
Highest Price Sold: $49.54 Stonehenge Midwinter Sun Dinner Plates
Average Price Sold: $32
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $17
Number of items listed this week: 8Best week so far, both in total items sold and revenue. After costumer bought Midwinter Sun Dinner plates, I sent them a message that I had the coordinating bowls and could combine shipping and he thanked me for the info and bought those as well! First time I have sold multiple items to the same buyer.
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Week of Jan 29 – Feb 4
* Total Items in Store: 632
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $30.14 + $51.70 Commission
* Total Sales: $367.37
* Highest Price Sold: $80 Vintage hand carved wooden chess set
* Average Price Sold: $28.20
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 30Very happy with my average price sold this week – for me, this is quite high. I noticed that three items that sold this week were from an online auction in September. That auction had great, quality stuff, which is definitely a “pipeline” for me.
I ended up not buying anything this week, which is good because I have much to list from a live auction purchase from last week. I was going to bid on an online auction, but there was some exceptional stuff there which drove up prices on the just good stuff. I passed, but some other good auctions are ending this week.
The wood chess set was something I bought at an estate sale for $20 and it sold for $80 a day after I listed it. Very happy with the profit and quick turn around.
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I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I just wanted to pipe up that I’ve officially hired someone to come in and help me dig out from years of disorganization and help create a real, functional eBay space and inventory system (as well as do some much-needed work in other spaces around the house.) She’s here today and is already making huge progress. It’s incredible.
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Store Week Jan 29 – Feb 4
Total Items in Store: 441
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $45
Total Sales: $717
Highest Price Sold: $128 sealed vintage mermaid doll
Average Price Sold: $42
Returns: 0
International Sales via GSP: 4
Money Spent on New Inventory: $55Good, solid week. Reached my goal of $100 per day, and pleased that happened with odd mid-priced items, rather than the rare for me $200+ high priced item. The sealed mermaid doll was found with a bunch of other vintage doll items at Savers. I never look at dollish things, but the sealed vintage packages drew me like a magnet and I’ve made a few hundred off of the lot. Definitely pays to scavenge outside your comfort zone.
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Total Items in Store: 604
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $38.55
Total Sales: $392
Profit: $353.45
Highest Price Sold: $50 (Transformers Hoodie)
Average Price Sold: $26.13
Average Profit: $23.56
FBA items sold: 4
Total FBA sales: $90.85
FBA COGS: $22
FBA Fees: $35.22
FBA Profit: $33.63
FBA Average profit: $8.41And thus ends my January no scavenge, no list month. It is good to know that I can take a whole month off and still make about $400 a week. I was able to take all that saved time and invest it into myself. I am much healthier and I’m also down a shocking 34lb when I weighed in this morning. I am not dieting or doing anything other than eating well, eating enough (not starving myself) , walking a lot, and getting adequate sleep.
I finally shopped for the first time this weekend at the local Goodwill. I was definitely a shop-addict. I will be thrifting much less from here on out until I start listing more regularly.As for Amazon FBA, I went through and competitively priced every item I had. Items have started selling slowly but surely. I’m just trying to sell off as much as I can before the LTSF this month. I will pull any item I have priced at $9.99 or less on the 14th.
A while back I had mentioned that we converted our dining room into our homeschool room, and the old school room/den was going to become the dedicated place for ebay listing. Well I experimented with listing yesterday. Wow, the lighting is very, very bad out there! I tried daylight shooting with natural light, daytime room only lighting (there are 6 60w led bulbs in the room), and night time room only lighting. I either had harsh highlights from the window or harsh shadows from the light placement or both! My phone (iphone 7) does not take sharp enough photos due to the inadequate light density at my table.
I’m either going to get a light box with some softbox lighting, or switch to using my DSLR to photograph.
Have a great week everyone!
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Retro, do you have a fireplace in the room? I take most of my photos on a small table in the fireplace, using a sort of utility light to illuminate the objects. You get a nice wood ground and a deep black background. It’s not the all-white, of course, but it’s a decent look, easily achieved.
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Retro T – If you’re looking for a lightbox, check out the StudioPro Lightbox on ebay. It’s an all-in-one system with LED lighting embedded in the roof of the box. I’ve found it much much less hassle that the kind with multiple lights on the stands on the outside:
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I put in an offer for $80 that went through for review. 24″ should do pretty much everything I need.
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Yay, got it for $80. Once I get it and spend some time with it, I’ll post a review in the photography section.
It sucks to have to get one of these, but it was either this or I had to invest in some studio lighting. Hopefully the sharpness of all my photos improves.
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I hope so too for you Retro TWV. But many times blurriness and seemingly slightly out of focus comes from slight movement of the lens. And this in turn usually comes from a slower shutter speed or wider aperture opening or both, trying to let in more light due to low light or under lighted conditions. The slower shutter speed is trying to let in more light by staying open longer and the aperture setting is allowing the shutter to open up wider. Even automatic point and shoot cameras and phones need light and in turn will automatically compensate by slowing the shutter speed down, so it stays open longer to let that needed light in and also pulls the shutter open as far as it can go. A bad side effect of this compensating slowness an opening size is just the slightest movement of your hand, body or even pressure pushing the release button or your breathing can cause a little movement and that in turn creates some blurriness as well as can cause a depth of field issue which may focus on far objects and not closer up details.
My point is, I checked out the light box listing. No where does it state the output of the LED lights in Wattage or Kelvin readings anywhere. So depending on that factor you could possibly end up with the same issue. That is why I would recommend a translucent light box with the LED lights, but you can also ADD extra lighting if you need it by shining some extra light from your current bulbs to bump up the light factor so your camera will open and close the shutter faster and also not open it as wide.
One way to help this is to use a tri-pod and a shutter release cable which will eliminate most of your movement but I find that cumbersome and slows us down. So more light and brighter lite is required. We use 4 – 500 watt out put range flourescent bulbs, two per stand. But I find this is not enough for our satisfaction.
I like the model you are buying because of the size. 24″ x 24″ x 24″is a great size. We have one we never use due to the size limitations.
Also we still use our DSL camera in manual mode instead of automatic mode because I can change the shutter speed and aperture setting on each shot I take and can do it on the fly with my right little finger as I point and shoot. BUT with any camera if you are shooting below 1/80th of a second you will be prone to movement thus blur without a tripod. Actually 1/125th of a second is best to have real sharp pictures. BUT in order to get this speed you must have brighter lighting surrounding your object so your camera or phone does not slow the shutter speed down to compensate for lack of light.
Lighter backdrops help because they bounce more light back at the lens and the lens adjust for that and while open and close faster. Darker colors like browns [wood floors], dark blues, and black absorb light and thus less light is reflected back and again the lens opens wider and slows down. But we do use these colors on occasion to showcase crystal / glass objects better, the facets and etchings in glass show better when they pick up some dark color close to them, but we have to make compensating factors in our lighting and camera settings.
Now this is not intended to be a “lesson” on advanced photography, nor is it all inclusive and comprehensive, but hopefully sheds some “light” 🙂 LOL on helping to improve ones product shots.
Interested in your follow-up feedback on how well this new light box does for you.
respectfully Submitted,
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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My numbers for the week of 1/29/17:
Total Items in Store: 90
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $67
Total Sales: $596 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $129.99 (Baby Alive)
Average Price Sold: $42.57
Returns: 0This was a really good week for me, and I sold another 5 items on SuperBowl Sunday so a good start to the new week, too. Feels like my increase in listing is finally starting to pay off.
I am so excited because I finally replaced my camera that was long overdue for retirement. (And I got exactly what I wanted, scavenger style). I know it’s faster to take photos in the app directly from your phone but I just was having so many issues with it. I find it awkward to hold such a small device, and always seem to move a little when snapping the photo. And then in the app, my photos would sporadically be rotated when I went to finish up the listing on my pc. The eBay pictures were loaded but “invisible” so adjusting brightness or cropping was impossible. Tried an ipad, and the photos looked great on the ipad screen, but barely useable when uploaded to eBay. Maybe there was a setting I was missing, but I just could not get it right.
So anyways, I got a Sony Cybershot RX100 which blows any camera I’ve ever used before out of the water. And I paid less than half of retail ($199) by calling around and finding a new, open box one at Best Buy. The only issue was the charger was missing, but the camera I replaced was a Cybershot so I already had a charger that fit! Love it!
I picked up a cache over the weekend on a local selling site…a 17 pound collection of Matchbooks! It’s not something I would normally mess with, but got them for free, so I thought “its time to learn about matchbooks!” Any experts out there? I could just split it into 2-3 huge lots but I think I might take the time to sort through and lot by interest (tobacco, gasoline, girly, by state, etc.) I haven’t looked it up yet, but anyone know if there’s any restrictions on shipping matches? Hoping I can ship them 1st Class.-
I had to look up a similar regulation for some cap gun caps. Here is the link:
http://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52apxc_015.htm
I think they want it to go ground mail. I never listed the caps because I don’t know just what is in them. I know a few others have actually shipped matches before so they could share how they did it. If I do list the caps, I will only offer ground shipping.
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Thanks for the link. Well, that settles it…they will have to go in lots if I have to ship ground/surface. I find it really aggravating when the majority of sellers don’t follow the shipping regulations. They are obviously selling single and small lots via 1st class to save on shipping…which makes it hard to compete when you follow the rules. I found the same to be true of perfume sellers.
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Matchbooks for Tiki/Polynesian themed restaurants seem to do well, if I recall correctly.
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I used to sell matchbooks years ago. Now, I just sell matchcovers sometimes. It really depends on the age and topics in terms of listing them individually, in smaller lots, or in very large lots. Depending on how old they are, you should at the very least separate out the girlie matchbooks and then list the others in 2 large lots.
If you could start a topic (maybe in the Identification forum?) with pictures of the matchbooks, including close-ups on what appear to be older(?) or more visually interesting appearing ones, if any, that you have, I could try to help identify time frames. Depending on how old they are, some of them might be worth listing individually, even the non-tiki ones. Some might do better in smaller lots, like you originally thought, like gas stations, or advertisements.
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1/29 – 2/4
Total Items in store: 408
Items sold: 8
Cost of items sold: approx. $39
Total Sales: $546
Highest price sold: $ $420 HVAC components
Average price sold: $18 – without components
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $748Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 8 sales – $864, COGS – $402, fees – $108, profit – $354
My ebay week was an anomaly, but a welcome one. I have been averaging about $100 per week over the last few months, but haven’t listed more than 10 or 15 items in a month for over a year.Little girl #2 came along Dec. 27th. Her and momma are happy and healthy. It has been nice to slow down for a while, but now it is time to crank it back up. I have started pushing stuff back into Amazon. There seem to be more limitations, but it still seems to be a good opportunity. I also purchased a house to flip, so that is going to be my main goal for the next few weeks – to get that ready to list. Once that is done I should be able to start listing on ebay again. My wife dropped to about 8 hours per week at her office, so she is going to start processing amazon stuff for me during the day. I am teaching her now.
I haven’t listened to the podcast, but I use a numbered tote system for ebay inventory, then add the tote # to custom sku field
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The week was not too bad, a few days with no sales, put perked up a bit. The Catholic book on St Therese was a great sale I have sold this book twice for $75.00 each time and pick it up for a $1.00. I have a good eye for vintage catholic books because I read a lot of those kinds of books.
Items in store: 644
Items sold: 11
Cost of items sold: $10.00
Highest item sold: Photo album of St Therese $75.00
Average price of items sold: $21.63
Money spent on new inventory:$10.00
New items listed:12 -
Here are my numbers for this week:
S.L Weekly Post
Total Items in Store: 1498
Items Sold: 17
Total Sales: $507.75
Cost of Items Sold: $90.75
Average Price Sold: $29.87
Average Cost of Item: $5.34
Highest Price Item Sold: $149.95 Set of Snap On Ball Peen Dead Blow Hammers (bought at auction for $60)
Number of items listed this week: 53
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 204
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 116
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 50
Sell-through rate: 1.13%
# of Hats Sold: 9 (52% of sales)I enjoyed the show this week. You guys were very chatty and obviously having a good weekend. Lots of interesting stories and comments.
One of the best tips I got when I first started eBay was to set up a good inventory system. I’ve used a spreadsheet since I started. By being very very careful about copying the descriptions of listed items into the spreadsheet and putting everything into numbered tubs and putting the tub# into my spreadsheet, I can find items very quickly. I have over 900 hats on ebay now which are stored in lots of tubs so I couldn’t operate without some quick way to find a specific hat.
Great to hear that Jay is experiencing what it’s like to do the full listing experience. I think it makes a lot of sense to have those skills. Will we hear that Jay has been doing all the shipping next week? 🙂
I’ve received packages where the seller has underpaid shipping. It annoys me much more than it should.
Thanks for the podcast!
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Week January 29-, Feb 42017
Total Items in Store: 299
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales: $541.51
Average Price Sold: $17.47
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $224.53
Number of items listed this week: 53Last week a thrift store had a sale, $1 jeans and half off winter coats. This is a big but picky thrift store that inspects clothes for stains and missing buttons and sends the junk to the Goodwill. I bought 75 or 80 pair of jeans and a bunch of winter coats. I focused on good brand names, like 7 or Guess but also picked up a bunch of Levi’s that seem to sell well.
This week I need to finish listing that stuff and organize my storage. I can fit 300 items on the 4 steel racks I have but they’ve become disorganized.
I also moved up in store. My monthly ebay bill went from $200 to $450 due to increased sales. I switched to a premium store at $75 per month.
I’m inspired by the Patriots comeback win last night so I’m going to use that energy to list and organize this week.-
I’m wondering why you decided to go to a premium store with only 300 listings? At $450 in fees, if this past week was an average week of sales for you, you’re fees are more than 20% of sales! That is awfully high.
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Beth, I might be wrong. I spoke with one of the agents at Ebay but I couldn’t understand what she was trying to explain so I called back. The second Ebay rep said I needed to upgrade stores to save some money so I did. The way I understand it is that the new store gives me 1,000 fixed prices per month. I already have 300 and I add about 200 per month, for a total of 500 ebay listings per month. The smaller store only covered 250 of those listings. I’ll call back and see if that is right.
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Ebay has a fee illustrator I like to play around with to decide where I need to be before I jump into the next level of store. I have a basic store now and I think I need nearly 450 with about 50+ sales a month before the move makes sense. Could be a good place to keep track of where you are: http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feeillustrator#
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I would use the fee illustrator that shortandstout made a link to. Do the numbers yourself and make sure it makes sense for you to upgrade. There is no reason to open a store based on your “projected” sales & inventory. Don’t upgrade until you have actually achieved those numbers and would be paying less with the bigger store. 20% is outrageous…
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Totally agree. Signing up for a store subscription won’t increase (or decrease!) sales.
A store subscription simply helps you control the listing costs of items.
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I guess what I’m thinking in my case, is my long tail item choices are duds. For me relying on those, has brought my selling levels down. Trust me I am looking for those home run items. You know. You pay a dollar to $20 or more and you turn it over for $40 to $200 profit. That is the difference from when I was just using my 50 free listings as opposed to having a basic store.
And as been mentioned, eBay pushes relists further down on the visibility of items that are not selling and are getting relisted. That’s why I it feels to me like a pyramid scheme. Your not being directly told this by eBay. Yes there is a mention of how you get visibility. I need a smack you in the face plan of action that says this is why you are failing at this.
Still learning
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karen, it sounds like you need to go back to the way of listing that you enjoyed. End the store and just use the free listings that eBay hands out.
We’ve sold five items today for $200. Every single one of those items was at least 6 months old. Most were over a year. All were Good Till Cancelled Items. If eBay is pushing down our listings, we don’t notice it. Cha ching.
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Was it on your second store? I ask because I kind of feel like I am following your second store model.
I am going to stick to the basic store because if you keep it for the 12 months, its $20 a month and I do feel like I at least sell one item a month to make up for that $20 fee. I was going to go to the next level on my year anniversary, which would be March, Yet I don’t think I would make up the difference of $75 (don’t know what the year discount is).
Anyways thanks for all your help. Love listening every week to your pod cast.
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No, the sales are on our main store. We only make a living on eBay because we have a huge inventory.
As I said in an earlier message, the second store is an autopilot experiment. We would not expect to make a living from that store. If we did, we’d be listing on it every single day.
If your store only has 300 items, it’s tough to have multiple daily sales unless you’re dealing in high demand items, or special expensive items.
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Wow, 8 lbs on a 1st class label!I hope they get this guy if this is his regular practice. On the other end of the spectrum, I made a 1 ounce mistake and received a bill from the destination post office.
It was a first class item, Ebay charged 6.95 for 16 ounces. The po letter states it was 1lb 1oz and I should have paid 10.44 for a rounded up 2 pound item through Ebay. However, deficiencies are always paid at retail rate and that would have been 12.40. So, I owe the post office the difference of the retail rate, which is 5.45.
I am fortunate that they did go ahead and deliver the item and they did not charge the customer. I’m not sure how it happened and will need to tare my scale more often. Usually I am careful and will do things like cutting down the inside flaps of a box if its that close.
I’m not upset, I made a mistake, will pay and move on. From listening to the podcast, I have adopted the viewpoint that the post office is my partner, and truly, where would I be without them? I have had very few problems with them and many, many successes.Thanks for the podcast, as always it is much appreciated!
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Total Items in Store: 330
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $112 (RA clearance) + 12 (used) + 0 (my kids’ spongebob dvds)
Total Sales: $363
Highest Price Sold: $56 Peet’s coffee mug
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns & Int’l Sales: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $40 Rummage sale – a brief reprieve from the 6 week no scavenge challenge.
Number of items listed this week: 2Grateful for the sales since the work week after vacation was busy and then we hosted a Superbowl party yesterday. Also cheated and went to a rummage sale early Sat. am. I’m looking forward to reworking how I do things and getting my old purchases out. I posted some vintage items on the forums that I’ve sold and realized how dated some of my listings are – some even recited incorrectly that I don’t do international shipping (from my newbie days when I was using someone else’s copy and afraid to do GSP.) Then I ended some Christmas Papyrus wrap listings because they went into the attic and realized I didn’t have Christmas in the title! I also have tax prep work to do. BUT hanging in there with this. I really, really enjoy selling on Ebay and participating here and I have the hunger *favorite episode*. Going to keep doing my best to squeeze it into my life.
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Hey guys! Good week here after a lot of listing. I have set the goal of 1000 completely brand new listings in the month of February. I’m not sure we will get it done but we are certainly going to try. The hardest part is finding 1000 items to list. Sometimes I wish I had death piles.
Anyhow I use Sixbit and absolutely love it. You can do inventory management from it although like I am sure you guys know the idea of going through old inventory and assigning it an inventory number seems like a huge job and we only have 1500 items! So, I am still doing inventory the way I always have. The benefit for me with Sixbit is speed of listing. There is no spinning blue circle, no issues with Ebay being down, it also has one of the best photo editors around. You can also access old listings that have already sold, so say you found those same knives a year from now you could grab your old listing and just relist it. There is a definite learning curve to it though and I don’t know if it is available for Mac. If you guys have any questions feel free to send me an email and I can show you screenshots of my process.
Hope you guys have a great week!
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Hi AT. As u are probably aware I am a WonderLister guy after having dumped TurboLister years ago. But I am currently using SixBit on it’s trial term. It is very similar to WonderLister so I was up and going in a day but was tweaking it for the next two.
BTW… WL & SB both are two guys who both used to work together for Ebay as developed the Blackthorn program for Ebay. Once Blackthorn went the way that TurboLister is going and Ebay started improving their own listing module the Blackthorn guys were out on their own. One group headed by John Slocum founded SixBit in 2005 and Chavi Rastogi started WonderLister.
I am just trying to figure out if SixBit brings enough to the table in the form of “Total Incentory” management than WonderLister to warrant the extra $10 per month in cost.
I agree, great photo editor built right in. I love the automatic SKU number creation and it also automatically creates a bar code for each listing. This can be used for item labeling or for pick sheets for sold items. Not that we need all of that for our 765 items and your 1500 items. But we do as you stated, I create a lot of listings by just doing a keyword search for an item, convert it to a template with one click, change a few specs to match the new item and send to “waiting to upload” folder. I usually send all of my created listings during the day to the Waiting to List folder, then at the end of the day, just click “Submit” and leave the office. In your case, all of the tons of listings you create will upload while you are aslepp and when you wake up they are all done. Guess we should mention their is no charge for bulk scheduled uploads.
I have even worked out a system 9on paper as of yet), where I can pre-determine which storage bin an item is going to go in without even having to take it out to the storage area. This way every item will have the storage bin no. on it prior to taking to storage then all we have to do is take the item to that bin and place it in. [Hint-it is based on scale weight and percentage of bin fullness by cubic capacity and total maximum cut off weight. But as stated, I haven’t got all the bugs worked out but may see if I can interest both WonderLister and SixBit in it for them to add to their program offerings.
Oh and I have heard from inside tech developement that SixBit is just about to release a new version that will also synch with Etsy. The big question is it going to cost extra or not??? In any case Wonderlister is $25 per month and SixBit is $34.95 per month. If J&R were to get a handle on this type of workFlow system, then 6-8,000 listings would be handle much quicker and the time saved could be used for other things.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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listing 1000 items in 30 days is quite a challenge. Let us know how it goes.
Sixbit is unfortunately PC only. Sounds useful in your system.
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Jay.. Didn’t you get your Mac as a scavenger bargain? If so and you have used it for years it has used up the depreciation on it. Just dump it and get a suped up PC for $400 brand new and write it off again. Small investment for the productivity gained. If I was making what we want to be in our store, I would just buy you one and give it to you as an early Christmas present. :-). Fully people will buy a $700 phone, a $300 DSLR but not a new or used PCI. For the cost of a label printer you could have half the cost of a PC. And you noticed nobody took up my challenge a week ago to explain to me why a MAC out performs a PC to the extent that a MAC is worth paying 3 times the cost of a PC. I still think most MAC users just don’t know. BUt that’s an opinion guys.. don’t bombard me with why do I dislike MAC statements. I don’t, I just can’t see the benchmark results of how the MAC Chip set and motherboard out performs Intel nest Quad Core processors. The other items like keyboard, cooling fans, power supllies, bus slots, cards, periphs are all just about the same only the cost more.
Let me ask it this way, is buying and owning a MAC like buying a Coach purse? Is it just a status thing or does the Coach purse really outlast, outperform, is heavier material, thicker leather, thicker thread that is used to sew with, heavier metals used than say another “good brand purse”? [not a fake brand mind you]. Is it not just a status thing?
I don’t know, but this PC has run like a champ for 6 or 7 years and if anything goes wrong with it, I just pop off the cover, pull the part and replace. Most expensive thing may be the mother board or say the SSHD drive for about $80 bucks.Clue me in please from a technical side. I am probably just wasting time here but temptation to throw in the probe was worth a shot.
If I get beat up.. I will give before the fight starts.
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If we felt like we really needed Sixbit, we would buy a PC. When we wanted to try to use a Zebra Printer, we bought a cheap laptop…but it turned out the Zebra printer was not useful to us.
I don’t care about mac vs PC. I’ve used a mac since the 90’s. It’s a system that I know with a good interface.
Apple computers are popular now. It’s strange someone would make software for only PC’s.
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Yep, people either love it or hate it. We bought a PC laptop because there was no free software that worked with a mac.
But them we found out we needed to pay for some third party software to some kind of labels we needed. I forgot the whole scenario. There was some weird nonsense that was annoying. We just sold the printer and sent the laptop back.
Instead we bought the Dymo 450 and it was plug and play with our mac.
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Jay
I thought it might be PC only. You guys could create some basic templates directly within Ebay. That could help some but I don’t think that works with the app. So the way you are currently doing it is probably the fastest. With 3 of you listing though how much more would you want to list in a day? I bet you guys hit 1000 items in a month long before I do!
Mike –
Thanks for the tip! I’ll watch out for that.
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Oh AT.. Want to mention to you. So far I found an interesting glitch in SixBit and it may be the killer for me right now. Be very careful that you don’t “force end” a listing while an item is on sale then “re-list it. [those of you that do the kill relist for all the reasons we have discussed here on SLF and won’t get back into] The reason is that SixBit will Relist the item at the discounted price and not revert back to your original price. I discovered this happening on WonderLister about 6 months ago and worked with their tech team and WL got it worked out. So I called into SB tech. support, they are aware of it but have not figured out how to get SB to stop doing it. They said that Mark Down Manager is real funcky and creates the proble. Also stated that Ebay is coming out with a new developer interface and API’s for developers very soon and they are hoping that the new internal upgrades will allow SixBit as a developer to fix the relist back at your original price.
Here is what can happen. You start an item that is listed at $20. Then put it on Sale for a week at 20% off. Then during this week, you see it is a candidate to force end the listing and re-list, when you do this, the item will be re-listed at $16 instead of the $20. Then if you just happen to not catch it and do this process again in a month or two, then it will be re-listed at $12.80. Again not back at the original $20. I discovered this in WonderLister, immediately brought it to their teams attention and we worked it out through a series of me creating and ending false sales until they got the coding right. Took about two weeks. BUT I found that SixBit has the same problem for the same reasons and they are aware of it but are going to wait. What this menas for the user is if you don’t catch this, like us, and do this numerous times, you will be selling items way less than you thought you had it listed at. I had to go back and re-list about 150 listings manually after I caught it in WL.
So just a heads up until they get this fixed in SB. They didn’t say exactly when Ebay was going to release the new codes for the developers.
Life just stays interesting doesn’t it.
Mike in Atlanta
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I am in the camp that ending and relisting sell similar is a waste of time. In my experience Using markdown manager to put your items on short sales repeatedly is far more effective then doing the sell similar thing. It also won’t jack up your long term listing history (start date, google search results, etc.
If you have months and months of sales data with ending/sell similar, do an experiment and leave everything GTC and just do 3-4 day sales constantly to see how your metrics compare. I bet you will be quite similar and sell just as many older listings.
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Thanks Retro WV: I usually do sales using MDM starting on Tues-Wed and end them on late Sunday night. You are correct the Sales do move items.
And since we worked through the end and relist and get the correct price back into the listing it really no bother to end or relist using WL or SB. Literally can be done in 20 secs. Drag a highlight over them, click end, then immediately hit relist. BUT you bring up a very good point and that is that mother Google does like things to be araound for awhile. The longer the better. It takes 2 or 3 months for her spiders and bots just to find and crawl stuff. Then the longer it sits they get to see it several times. BUT mother Google likes to see “fresh content” also. So to have Google pay attention and not abandon you, would one not need to go back to listings and write, new fresh copy, alter descriptions and titles to satisfy mother Google and have her not abandon crawling your site-listing? It also is a very grey cloud about how Google along with it’s Panda and Penguin algorythms are treating Ebay listings. That is a whole story about Ebay and Google which we will leave alone. But still with our stores hidden down line under Ebays main URL, is Google really paying any attention anyway.
I did an experiment about 6-8 months ago. I put a very crazy spelled word into the lower corner of a lot of listings just to see if it would be found by Google. It did for a few listings then after a while they started to drop and eventually sank into oblivion on Google. I can still find them but I know the word to type into the Google search bar.
But back to your point. Even though it is easy to relist, if it is just a waste, then why waste the time. Do as you say, just keep on doing the short sales and leave the rest alone. That way I won’t have any issues with WL or SB not relisting at the incorrect price.
Hey buddy, where were you 4 months ago. Maybe just going in this direction woulkd have saved me all that time screwing around with those software techie guys. LOL :-).
Anyway.. I am going to probably just drop the end / relist thing for now.Thanks ……
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta-
I’m not too concerned with google eventually dropping my listings. I have very few listings over a year old. If they get over a year old I can drop the price further to encourage a sale. I have 604 active listings and only 43 listings older than a year. They’re not still around due to google, it’s due to my non-competitive price and a general lack of demand for the item. Many items just need the right buyer to finally come along.
Having said that, I’m going to go ahead and put those listings on a 30% clearance sale to see how many I can sell through this weekend. I’ll report back the results in a dedicated thread next week. If they start selling then that should show that customers can definitely find and buy stale listings, and that price is the governing factor more-so than any listing trick.
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Jan 29-Feb 4
Items/listings in store 1482/1348
Sold 12
COGS $14.57 for items, $55.88 free shipping = $70.45 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $251.71
Highest Price Sold: $32.49 shipped pair of Womens Carhartt lumberjack pants- cogs 2.50.
Lowest Price Sold $12.85 (3 pack of Chi-Chi’s Salsa– cogs 0, shipping 6.30, packaging .25, fees $1.60 = $8.15, profit = 4.70)
Average price Per Sale $20.96
Intl – 0
Returns –0
$ spent On New Merch –$0
Listed New 41 Items
Return rate 1.20% overall / 1.92 clothingBetter week than last but still only about 50% of average. The lowest price sale of the salsa was another of my ‘They pay me to take them out of the store after coupons and gas points’ deals with the salsa. They actually cost -40 cents per jar. I usually sell a bunch at a yard sale ($1 per jar or 6 for $5) but that is not for a few months still. happy to get them out of here!
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So, I had a return opened last week, and then got it closed, because the buyer never uploaded tracking to show they shipped it back, even after I sent her a label, (the one she snottily requested).
Guess what shows up in the mail today? Yeah. The returned item. She never printed my label, and she never bothered to print one through the ebay return system. She paid at the post office counter for a new one. Never uploaded any tracking to ebay or Paypal, never contacted me via ebay or email to say “I sent this back”.
What the heck?
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Jan 29-Feb 4 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 322 // Ebay 113
Items Sold: Etsy 5 // Ebay 3
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $15.74 // Ebay $11.14
Total Sales: Etsy $81.25 // Ebay $77.97
Highest Price Sold: Dr. Martens Boots $34.99
Average Price Sold: $19.90
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 48Ryanne, I hope the post office you called squashes that person’s postage scam. O_O
I have an inventory system in place now, and it is work to keep it up, but I have found that despite this upkeep work it makes my life less stressful. I just fill up a box as I list things, give the box a number then put it on a shelf. I have also have an inventory spreadsheet with the name of each item and the number of the box it is in. I also have a few shelves just for larger bulky items or things I don’t want to stack on top of eachother. For these I just give the shelf itself a number.
I am realizing how slow it is to list things I am unfamiliar with. With vintage toys (my Etsy shop) listing things is a breeze. I am working on specizlizing in shoes for my eBay shop, but I am feeling the learning curve. Picking out key words, figuring out what the sizes are (Is it stamped in UK/US/EU, all, one or none of those), and figuring out what flaws or issues need to be highlighted. The learning process is fun though. 🙂
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Trying this for the third time since my post from home seems to be vanishing.
main/t-shirt/postcard
Items in store: 170/113/10
Items Sold: 4/1/0
Total Sales: $530.49/$20/$0
COGS: $258.27/$0
High items: $500 Invicta watch/$20 vtg. 1990 Rickey Henderson Oakland A’s t-shirt
Total Profit: $163.16/$14.55
International: 1- Watch to Italy
Returns:0
New listings: 4/2/0
Spent on new stuffs: $14.49Watch was sold last week on Best Offer, but customer asked to hold off payment until this week and did so promptly when he said he would. COGs is high on that and my net profit on this spend more for nicer things experiment is about $150. I’m in no rush to repeat this level of paying up as it was more stress than necessary and I am happy to focus on finding the $50 items that are just a few $$’s.
The house project is moving along and we are trying to get the occupancy permit by March 1st. Part of the post move-in project list is my eBay storage area in the basement. I have my shelving area designed and will get a space for shipping. I’ll be using storage bins labeled to track the inventory against a spreadsheet.
Made a bet on the “sportsball” game and picked up an Atlanta Falcon’s Reebok Polo shirt from Goodwill on Sunday for $4.49. Got it listed during the game when they were far ahead. I went to bed, woke up to see the Patriots had won the game. Oh, well, it is a nice shirt and will sell. Maybe they will make another run next year!
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Jan 29-Feb 4 2017
• Total Items in Store: 703
• Items Sold: 13 eBay 1 Truegether
• International 0
• Total Sales $740
• Highest Price $190 Turntable
• Average Price Sold: $53
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $35
• Cost of items purchased this week $145Thankful for slow sales as I’m getting organized after the move. It’s a challenge to find things right now but I want to do it right the first time. Right now I’m listing big items or parts off of big items to get hem out of the way.
Now that all my unlisted stuff is in the same room, it really keeps me from scavenging more but old habits are are hard to break. I saw a rare Technics Quadraphonic 8-track recorder on CL and stopped into my favorite pawn shop and picked up a Dual turntable for $20.
My new mailman is great, he picks up about 1:00 and is more than happy to take my packages, no scheduling necessary.
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Been a while since I’ve been on, missed you guys! I was working on a kids book for my dad that he wrote so he could see it before he passes…..finally published it! Any who…..
My first year doing taxes and I think I will be okay, still trying to figure out how to do COGS. I did it but I am not happy with how I do it since it interferes with my listing process. do I keep track of each indiviual item I bring ins cost or do I just do what is spent minus what I sold
for shipping with a full time job, I ship with 1 business day so I don’t ship on weekends. I schedule pick ups every Monday Wed and Fri and I package every Tuesday Thursday and Sunday night. so if a person orders on Monday I package and print on Tuesday which is within the 1 business day and then it goes out Wednesday morning. If someone orders something on friday I will ship that night and have a pick up on saturday …if I can. If not as long as it goes out on Monday then I am still within the shipping time…all this and I am a top rated seller now.
I found a company that tracks my sales tax and pays it for me to the state quarterly or annually so now thats one less thing on my plate. I also filled out and paid my It-204-ll fees.
I also made a business decision that my book inspired me to do. My book royalties in honor of my dad, %10 goes to the MS Society. For ebay I decided that %10 of ALL my sales will be going to St Judes. Whats nice is that Ebay lets you bake it into the listing. I have noticed since doing it that people are willing to pay a little more on an item,plus Ebay discounts my fees. It is kind of a win win
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In regard to COGS, the for completing your tax return IRS only wants to have a single number – the COGS for everything that was sold during the year so… you can take the value of all your inventory at the beginning of the year, add the cost of all your purchases during the year, and subtract the value of the inventory you have left at the end, and the difference is your COGS.
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Hi Simon: This has been stated several times on SL both in the old blog and new forum. By me, my accountant and other members.BUT get ready, there are a couple of members who have a strong financial background who oppose this method and have good reasons why, and offered them in rebutal to this seemingly simple method.
I have provided these numbers for my CPA for many years and he is good with it but just so have a heads up, be prepared for the rebuttals that will be forth coming, just like I had.
If you are interested, this new Forum format is “searchable” and I invite you to search for Cost of Goods, COGS and the like and you will see many opinions and comments on this topic mostly in the “Doing Taxes” Topic that Jay set up just for these discussions. Take a look, a lot of comments there.
Good Luck…
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta-
There is an eBay reseller on youtube called “Ema justanotherseller” who says she is a CPA who is now a reseller. She has one video on eBay and taxes where she says she is going to take questions and produce more videos answering those questions. I can’t vouch for her or anything but I’m interested to see what she has to say in her upcoming videos.
Here is a link to the video
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Here’s a horrible story of a woman who who died who was apparently robbing a clothing donation box at 2:00am.
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brooklyn_procurement,
Would you be willing to share the name of the company you found to help with sales tax?
thanks
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taxjar.com…found it by accident when looking up a blog article…its a bit pricey but worth not having to think about it. I do the smallest plan right now and they charge you for each time they pay for you as well.
What I like also is it tallies up how much you did in each state so you can see where your selling the most to. Mine last year was overseas
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I signed up for a Paypal Business account thinking the rates would be better, but the info I’m seeing on Google says it used to be cheaper is not anymore. The rates are the same as a Personal account. The only difference is you can accept credit cards directly. If I’m wrong, somebody please tell me.
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January 29 – February 4, 2017
Items listed – about 100
Items sold – 2
COGS – 20 cents
Total Sales – 17.94
Highest – 15.95 (Book of drawings of Grand Prix and Sports Cars)
Returns – 0
International Sales – 1 (GSP)
Money spent on new inventory – 0
New items listed – 4I hit my goal of having 100 items listed by end of January, then a couple of things sold, so I got a couple more listed. The international sale was my first one (yay!), and it was an auction. One bid at my starting price for a refrigerator magnet. Buyer paid about $20 for shipping, customs, etc. so I hope he likes it!
Went camping for a couple of days, and it gave me a chance to think about what I want to do in February. Will still be sourcing and listing, but want to also focus on ending items that I’ve had listed for nearly a year, and list again with sell similar, reworking the titles, descriptions and prices as needed. Also need to double-check shipping on things I listed before I got a scale to weigh them. I also want to try listing a few things on Etsy and maybe Instagram, just to see if some things might do better there.
And need to work on inventory storage. It is under control right now, but I want to get a better system in place so I don’t get overwhelmed or lose items.
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I have what I think is an almost fail-proof inventory system. I have almost all my listed items in numbered totes,(larger items are on shelves) with the item name and tote # on a word program, and every couple of weeks I email the list to myself in case of computer failure or accidental deletion. I also put the tote # in the custom sku area of the listing.
However, when I have a sold item that’s listed in tote 11 on the inventory sheet and on the custom sku area and it’s not there (Hello, tote 13), hours of looking ensue. And there have been items that I’ve forgotten to account for anywhere. My husband suggested I go through every tote and list each item on a notepad. Old School to the umpth degree.
But I decided to do it, and he has lugged, so far, 34 totes into our living room, and I’ve taken them apart item by item listing them on a .25 Walmart notebook. (we buy a case when the school supplies come out in August)
Not only will I have a 3rd backup inventory, but it’s been fun seeing what stuff I’d forgotten about that have been listed for months, years, and what stuff I don’t even remember when/how/why I bought. I’ve even started putting an asterisk next to NWT items that would be suitable as gifts for our grandkids.
I now only have to go through maybe 12 boxes, and then he’ll help me clean up/out the purple ebay room-it has personal stuff in there too that we are going to move into a different room.
The only items I have ever done similar/like to a tote or box have been cups or hats. For fun I counted how many items are in one particularly full tote, and there are 37. I have totes and totes of eclectic items living together.
And that’s how I do it! (Oh crap, I just remembered I have a china closet and a bookcase full of items to re-inventory too)
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For keeping up with inventory, you might find want to consider Google Forms, especially if you are familiar with Google products.
I have created a very quick and easy demo form that can be accessed through the link below. I promise you the form does not collect any important data. It is strictly an interactive demonstration.
I use Google Forms extensively at my 9-5 job to collect registration information for events and other processes. This past summer, I created a form for my husband to use when he worked for tips as a pedicab driver in downtown St. Louis. He bookmarked the form on his phone to log income, number of riders, payment method (cash or square), and any comments to note about the ride.
It’s fun and easy to use, give it a try!
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Hey, another St. Louisan here. I knew another pedicam driver dowwntown–an author who I once invited to speak at my book club. We should organize a meet-up sometime. There are so many STL sellers!
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Yes, Ive seen a lot of non-profits use it to take polls from people.
So how would it be used for tracking inventory?-
Multiple listers can access the form through a link and enter items simultaneously, including title, category, description, dimensions, weight, special notes, etc. The owners of the form (and spreadsheet) can copy (possibly import) the data into a listing. It may sound like an added step, but all of the data will be saved with a date/time stamp. Depending on the kind of Google account a user has, you can even attach files (photos) to a form.
Jay and Ryan, you have a trusted assistant who has access to your eBay accounts because you are always signed in. What happens when you sign out? What if she goes out of town and can’t list from you computer, but could list from her phone through the form?
Another seller interviewed on your podcast hires out the listing at $.50 to $.75 per item. If he shares a link to his form with ten different people, and requires them to sign in to use the form with their own Google user names, he would have all of his listings in one place, and he could sort them by date, category, lister, etc.
Enter your cost of goods and the location when you are picking up inventory at a thrift store or auction. Or enter it later from your receipts.
I am a spreadsheet nerd. I realize not everyone loves spreadsheets as much as I do. Once you start organizing your life with spreadsheets, you will wonder how you ever managed before.
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Hi you two! I almost feel like I know you as I have listened to a lot of your podcasts. I am a seller out of Wyoming of all places and consistently sell at least 10k per month. You guys are as close to my business perspective as I have seen. Not into the quick flip and understand business in general. I remember seeing the Mr. in ugly Christmas sweaters before I knew you had a u-tube channel. I come from a strictly antique and collectible background have moved into retail. Would love to chat sometime and give back a little. As far as my inventory is concerned I have over 4000k items and 3200 listings.
Tav
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At least -=- I have done up to 20k+. But it’s a lot of work. My last 3 months are around 14k average I don’t have that slow of period as you list what is selling. I am not listing sweaters during the summer I list camping gear and swimsuits. I started selling antiques in college. I then did 10 years of corporate servitude. I have a few areas I would consider myself an expert, but always trying to learn more. I source a lot of my antique inventory from on-line. A lot of my vintage stuff comes from gsales and antique stores, Auction houses, estate blowouts, thrift stores, etc etc. In other words I have been around the block a couple times.
Tav
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Generally my cogs are around 20% if that. It really depends on the item. I try and at least 10x my money but as you know that isn’t always possible. I would say I average 10x my money, some way more, some way less.
Tav
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Are you working alone? To gross $14k means you’;re either selling an tremendous number of items, or selling items for $300+.
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I sell a tremendous number of items. They key is figuring out how to quickly list those items. Full time for the past 6 years. In the past year my store has went from 1300 items to 3200+. Like I said – just trying to pay it forward. I have 2 employees, one of which is due to your encouragement and the other I have had for the past 3 years. I sell plenty of items in the 500-1000 range, but the bread and butter is what counts I am pretty sure I can give you a few tips and tricks .. retired from corporate finance – and loving every minute 🙂
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Why do you not mention your helper by name ?
I think (although I’m not 100% sure) you mentioned her name when you first talked about giving her a trial.
You are always saying.. your helper did this, your helper did that.
What happens, in say a couple of years time when you have 5 or 6 employees .. Will it be a case of ‘helper one’ did some photography, ‘helper two’ did the titles, ‘helper three’ did the listings, ‘helper four’ packed the boxes .. etc etc.
OK, she might not want her name to be used, then just give her a nickname. How about Brianna (number 20 is the current top USA baby girl names)
Regards from the UK
Brian
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We’re pretty open about many things in our life, but as you said she has a right to her privacy.
We have no intention of getting 5 or 6 employees, but if we do we’ll start giving them names. Right now, we have one helper. So her name will be “helper”
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Better late than never.
1/29–2/4/17
Approximate # of Items in Store: 240
# of Items Sold: 12
Average Cost of Items Sold: $5.63
Total Sales: $619.72
Highest Price Sold: $200 – Guitar Neck
Average Price Sold: $51.64
Returns: 1 – $250 Coat (OUCH!)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $19.89
Number of items listed this week: 6 -
Hi @brooklyn_procurement I was looking into taxjar tonite since I’ve had some questions about paying sales tax for this year. Just wondering if in your eBay store, is it set up to automatically charge sales tax for buyers within your state? or if not, is taxjar figuring out what to pull out of your in-state sales to accurately pay what should be paid for your sales tax?
Currently i’m not charging sales tax in my ebay store, so am wondering how I’m going to figure it out correctly at the end of the year. Any feedback you may have would be much appreciated, thank you!
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