- This topic has 117 replies, 49 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Congrats to everyone on our 300th episode! We posted our first podcast in March of 2013. Four years ago! We say congrats to you guys because we wouldn
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 300: Our 300th Episode!! Now let’s talk taxes…] -
-
-
Store Week 2/26/17 – 3/4/17
Total items in store: 1153
Items sold: 12
Cost of items sold: $27.45
Total sales: $306.71
Highest price sold: $99.99 (NIB Delta faucet)
Average price sold: $25.56
International Sales: 0
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $10.40This was a pretty slow week. Most of my sales ($190 worth) were the same day. The rest of the week was mostly just low offers. But today has been great so far, so that’s encouraging!
I’m wondering if anyone here has much experience with promoted listings. Do you use them? Do you think they’re worth the fees? I guess it is normally just for items that you have multiple quantities of, but I got added to the beta test group for one-of-a -kind items, so I’m giving it a try in a few categories. It seems like a pretty good deal since you only pay the fee if your item sells through a click on the ad, but I’m a cheapskate, so it’s hard for me to pay extra fees. And you set your own ad rate, so I’m trying to decide how low is too low! It’s been a couple days, and I’ve sold one promoted item so far. It will cost me at extra 4% in fees.
Okay, back to work. Thanks for putting up the new podcast to entertain me while I work!-
I just started using promoted listings a few days ago on some items that I have multiples of. Within a couple of days I sold two items, things that I’ve had listed for a while with no previous buys. It cost me less than $2 so far in fees.
I’ve also just started using google ads on etsy. that hasn’t paid off yet and you are charged if someone just clicks on your item.
-
-
-
Slow week here too–only 2 sales on ebay for $170 and 7 for $247 on Etsy. Ebay is frustratingly slow and yes, horrible, insulting lowball offers aplenty. I am a little burnt out truth be told…
-
-
Congrats on 300!!! I started listening on like episode 4 or 5 when you were still “eBay Scavengers”. Time flies!!
Store Week 2/26/17 – 3/4/17
Total items in store: 867
Items sold: 12 (2 Bonanza)
Cost of items sold: $43
Total sales: $388.47
Highest price sold: $75 (estate tobacco pipe)
Average price sold: $32.37
International Sales: 2
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $325
New listings: 75Had a ridiculous days sourcing on Saturday. I found a guy on CL trying to sell his own personal record collection. He had 100+ listed and it was all great stuff. I emailed him and asked if I could come over and cherry pick through the collection. He allowed me to and I was the first one in and got 73 records from him – Beatles, Stones, Dead, The Who, and so much more. I usually only like to pay a buck or two max for records, but this was a cache to good to pass up – paid $325 for the 73 albums ($4.45 each) but already listed them all today for a bit aggressive total $2300. I’ll probably take 25% off offers as they come in which would still give me over $1700.
Other big news is that I finally took a little video of our new master suite/bathroom. The work was done the second week of January, but there were some problems and we were in a fight with our contractor. One of the problems was that the cold water was hot and the hot water was cold. Our contractor stopped answering our calls and everything, so we ended up just watching a Youtube video of it and it was quite easy to fix. Anyway, enjoy!
-
Brian, that remodel looks amazing!!! Sorry to hear about your added frustration with the contractor at the end.
-
Thanks! As you can see, his work is so good and we’ve used him in the past and reco’d him to at least 6 people in the area. Just a shame for whatever reason he flaked on the end of this project. We have a second bathroom we were going to do later this year that he lost out on – all over a project that took us a half hour to do after watching a YT video. He could have done it in 5 minutes and had more jobs waiting for him.
-
-
Looks like a really fancy hotel! It’s not good the contractor bailed on you, but this seems to be the norm.
I like how you put this video under ‘comedy” on youtube.
-
Ha! This is only like the 3rd video I’ve ever posted on YT (the other 2 were for listings) and didn’t even know where all the settings were. Changed to “education”.
Anyway, yeah, we’re super pleased with the way it turned out, just still can’t believe the contractor situation.
Anyone need to flip a shower cartridge?!?!? I’m now an expert!
-
-
Beautiful bathroom, Brian (enjoy that alliteration?).
We had our master bath partially redone a couple of years ago and chose the same exact faucets that you did!
-
-
-
My numbers for February 26-March 4, 2017:
Total Items in Store: 810
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $41.81
Total Sales: $349.90
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Coogi Button Down Men’s Shirt) & $55.97 (Vintage 80’s Esprit Book Bag)
Average Price Sold: $19.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $96.29This week was better than the last two – I made an effort to forgo the free shipping on new first class listings and instead charge a simple $3.75 for light weight items. This didn’t seem to stop any sales from coming in. I also complained earlier about the low ball best offers dragging me down. So this week, I took off all best offers across the board and set up daily 24 hour sales in different categories for different amounts. It worked great! It did spark some sales and it was refreshing to have some better items go for 25% – 30% off instead of a 50% off best offer!
Hope everyone had a good sales week!
-
CONGRATS ON THE BIG 300! Let’s see 1000 🙂
Time to post my sales. Did not post in January and February because had a few crazy months. Very busy with the selling business, also did a job hunt to switch job s and did about 25 interviews (over the phone and in person).
Finally found a job I think I will enjoy a lot more than the previous job.Anyway, back to the numbers:
January
Items sold: 225 (91 Ebay, 134 Amazon)
Cost of items sold: $2,776.52 ($1049.88 Ebay, $1,726.64 Amazon)
Total sales: $15,594.4 ($4,058.82 Ebay, $11,535.58 Amazon)
Average price sold: $69.31 ($44.60 Ebay, $80.08 Amazon)February
Items sold: 237 (111 Ebay, 126 Amazon)
Cost of items sold: $2,561.24 ($972.94 Ebay, $1,588.30 Amazon)
Total sales: $15,796.78 ($4,939.03 Ebay, $10,857.75 Amazon)
Average price sold: $66.65 ($44.50 Ebay, $86.17 Amazon)We have a target to reach $50k sales for the year at the end of March, it’s going to be challenging but we’ll see.
-
Incredible sales, especially with a “real” job. I do eBay/Bonanza/Amazon on the side of my “real” job and couldn’t imagine doing this volume. Do you have someone helping? What kinds of things are you selling (I assume easy to pack with this volume)?
-
-
-
Congratulations on the big three oh oh! I (and everyone else around here) truly appreciate the sound, pragmatic advice you share every week, not to mention the amazing community you’ve fostered here. Cheers, and here’s to many more.
RR Store Week February 26 – March 4, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1210
Items Sold: 26
Cost of Items Sold: $21.97
Total Sales: $561.51
Highest Price Sold: $79.99 (70s bell bottoms)
Average Price Sold: $21.83
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $101.79
Number of items listed this week: 27It was Rydell Relics’ Bargain Basement sale this week. I had a 15% off sale, and lots of low dollar items sold. Which is good, as they all add up. But I sure was jonesing for a big sale. The bell bottoms were a nice cha-ching, and validated the slow, boring process that is listing pants.
I rarely have customer issues, but this week I got a doozy. A lady returned some shoes because they didn’t fit; too small. Fair enough. But she included the nastiest handwritten note I’ve ever received. She called me chickens**t, then said that I knew the shoes were smaller than the size they were stamped, and that’s why I sold them on eBay. She then threatened to sue me if she didn’t get a refund. These were $20 shoes. I really wanted to write her back and explain that I’m a man with a size 12 foot, and that I couldn’t possibly know if they ran small. I also wanted to tell her that I would be lucky to resell them because now they smell like cigarettes and cheap perfume. But instead, I thought about the lessons we’ve learned here on Scavenger Life. I took the high road, refunding her money and even waiving the restocking fee. I almost let it ruin my day, but them I remembered all the awesome customers I’ve had and all the great feedback I’ve earned (still 100%!).
Four estate sales and a huge yard sale yielded a whole back seat worth of goodies. Between yesterday and today, I’ve already listed 75% of it. My scavenger half was super happy. My collector half was also happy, as I found some records, a Disneyland pin, and a tiki!
*Paul*
-
Paul, check out the cache of records I just picked up this weekend from a private collector… the 73 most recently listed were all from the same guy on Saturday.
-
-
Jay, Ryanne: Congratulations on your 300th podcast episode. That’s quite an achievement as I still look forward to Mondays so I can listed to your podcast.
In terms of the Spring seller update and the discount qualification going from 90% to 95% and the reimbursement goiong from 20% to 10%, I assumed when Ebay provided the coupon for shipping supplies every quarter that something like this would happen. I think they gave us the coupons to ease us into the reduction in the rebate. Cynical, yes, but it makes sense to me now.
-
Congrats on 300! Thank you both for all the great conversations and information you have provided over the years!
Total for stores (Only listing main store as there were no sales or additions in the t-shirt or postcard stores)
Items in store: 163
Items sold: 4
Total Sales (not including shipping): $87.97
COGS: $17.20
Highest sold: $39.99 Timberland Waterproof Shoes
Net profit: $61.28
New inventory purchased: $19
New listings: 0This is going to sound odd, but I was happy for a slower week since my biggest focus right now is wrapping up the house project. We are shooting for occupancy permit on Friday. I spent most of Saturday putting up tile in the second bathroom and getting a few other smaller projects done. We are so ready for this to be finished since it is eating up all our free time. We have one more shower to tile and then a few small projects to knock out for the final bank inspection.
-
Maybe you can post a short video walk trough when you’re done. We’d love to see your work.
-
-
-
Congrats on 300!! Sales were good again, but where do I go to cry about the taxes??? LOL!
Have a great week!
-
Let’s cry about taxes here: http://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/cry-about-tax-season-here
-
We had good luck with taxes this year – our accountant just did them over the weekend. Basically, my expenses zeroed out all of my eBay sales so there was a net zero effect on our taxes, which is awesome. Since I don’t do this full time, I just list the sales as 1099 income and use GoDaddy Bookkeeping Schedule C to track expenses, attaching to mine & my wife’s joint tax submission. If one day it becomes a burden on our joint return, I’ll detach it but I think we’re some time away from that.
-
Hey Brian – How did your expenses zero out all your sales? Are you saying you made no profit for 2016?
-
In the eyes of the government, I made no money on eBay/online sales last year.
Here’s how I did it:
Sales (as reported on my 1099 from PayPal) – COGS – eBay/other site fees – 25% of my mortgage (my eBay room + storage is approximately 25% of my sq footage) – monthly car payment (couldn’t source without the car) – mileage – gas & tolls – internet service – cell phone plan – office supplies like boxes/mailers/tape/bubble/peanuts.For me, that all equaled out to zero profit. Technically, I did make profit since things like my mortgage, car payment, internet, phone would all be something that I had anyway – but this way I can expense it.
It’s the same exact thing that our large corporations do in America, albeit on a much smaller scale.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Week of Feb 26 – Mar 4
* Total Items in Store: 679
* Items Sold: 16
* Cost of Items Sold: $11.27 + $6.85 Commission
* Total Sales: $166.56
* Highest Price Sold: $25 for 2 Dinner Plates
* Average Price Sold: $10.41
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $75.46
* Number of items listed this week: 5I found scavengerlife.com in January last year, so I’ve been listening just over a year. You’ve really helped me make a business for myself, and I’m very grateful. This podcast is now part of my life – something I really look forward to. Congratulations on 300, and I hope for many, many more!
The theme this week was selling low price items, but there were a good number of them. I happy for what I can get, and this new week started out with a bang! So, I’m good. The bang will have to be discussed next week.
In other themes, I’ve noticed this past week that many of my sales have been between breakfast and lunch and in the evening. I’ve not woken up in the morning and seen sales that happened while I was sleeping. In the past, I’ve had weeks where most of my sales were made while I slept. I have no idea why, and it doesn’t make a difference one way or the other, but I noticed the trend.
-
I also wanted to mention that my low listing number is because I’ve been getting ready for doing my taxes. I did not do a good job last year with keeping my expenses recorded, so now I have to go back and put them in. Not fun. I did get some picture taking done, so I will be listing much more this week.
-
-
Thank you R&J for 300 episodes. It’s truly amazing that you have been so consistent. I appreciate your frank and analytical approach. I can really identify with wanting quality for cheap and I’m pleased to see your hard work continue to pay off.
It was a pretty poor week for me on Ebay with two sales for about $100. No listing this week because we made our annual winter trip to Disneyland, my son’s getting braces, high school admissions meetings, teacher conference, even more medical appointments, yada yada yada. We are done traveling though and I expect to squeeze in some Ebay time this week.
I’m continuing my no scavenge challenge. At first I really missed my quick stops at the thrifts, but I’m pretty used to going without now. It was while I was driving to work and afternoons mostly so it doesn’t really add up to time I can use to list unfortunately. At Disneyland I told my husband my reseller senses were tingling in Tomorrowland at the Shag Star Wars Cantina print and souvenirs display. I settled on only two oversized postcards for ten bucks which would be great framed by a bar. Checked at home and that stuff is selling strong on Ebay. My dad came and added to my piles, including some antique German dolls of my great grandmothers – totally not in my wheelhouse. D’oh! Will I ever dig out???
Have a great week. Nice bathroom up there – marble up the walls is very luxurious. We did our bathrooms but have the kitchen left. I can’t bear to tackle it even though we have a reliable contractor.
Finally, thanks to those who answered my questions in the Etsy forum page. I think a lot of my (especially lower dollar) backlog is suitable for Etsy and my Ebay store is a hybrid with new items already so I’m going to try to get in there by summer, which is slower at my office job.
-
Just listening to the new episode now. 300! Holy crap! I’ve listened through all of them a number of times (3+ now I think). As always, a huge thank you is owed…
Thought I would weigh in on your Canada conversation. I was selling using only Canada Post for the first little while, and their rates are substantially higher than USPS, their delivery times are slower, and their cheapest shipping options offer no tracking. I suspect this is largely due to the size of our country, and the lower population density. More empty miles, etc…
About a year ago, I found a cross-border shipper that gives me access to using USPS/UPS/FedEx and shipping my packages from a US address. It seems these have popped up in many major centers across the country that are within a few hours of a border crossing (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, etc). My buyers see my shipping address as being in the US, though my user ID shows I’m located in Canada.
Where I’m located, my shipper crosses the border three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday), and drops off my packages. It costs anywhere from $1-$8 (CDN) for them to take my packages across, depending on weight.
Obvious benefits are faster shipping (even with a one-day delay to get my packages into the US), full tracking, and lower/more competitive shipping prices.
Drawbacks are having no option for having packages picked up from my home, a one day delay minimum from the time I package an item, until it is scanned into tracking, and a painful return process. The costs/hassles in bringing a returned item back into Canada often makes me issue a full refund and tell the buyer to donate/keep the item.
I am considering taking my own packages across the border in a few years time when I hope to go full-time, and plan to move closer to the border to make the process easier/faster, but would love to hear from anyone that is currently taking their own packages across. As I understand, it’s not a painful process, but there is some minor paperwork involved.
-
2/26 – 3/4
Total Items in store: 398
Items sold: 4
Cost of items sold: approx. $1.75
Total Sales: $40
Highest price sold: $13
Average price sold: $10
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $770Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 16 sales – $2615, COGS – $1030, fees – $283, profit – $1302
Had a great week on amazon, 2 items were about half of my sales. Both of the high dollar items I bought on ebay in February, so they were quick sellers. Having an outstanding week is the best motivation for me. Most of these items I bought in one evening on ebay. It makes me realize where I could be if I was 100% focused on re-selling. I also sold a couple hundred dollars worth of retail arbitrage. I don’t do RA a lot, but if I am already in Walmart or Lowes, I will look at the clearance section. I will finish up my house flip tonight (just have a final sweep and mop of the floors), so hopefully I can get it on the market by the end of the week. Once that is done, I will probably concentrate on amazon for a few nights, then move on to the “T” word.Congratulations and Thank You for the 300 episodes!
-
Those of use that can continue to attain TRS/TRS+ will have less competition due to attrition. If there is a great or a greatish falling off of TRS, that may balance out the potential loss of profit equation for those who maintain. There certainly are buyers who choose sellers based on feedback and ranking over other sellers. That’s a fact. I’m in the habit of Inflated TRS practices now, some of those habits practiced from the very start. God willing, I’ll continue with the status. Not all of us will. Kind of sucky, but better you than me bud! It’s a $jungle$ out there!
Best of luck and good health to all.-
Top rated seller has other benefits besides the discount and does not require next day shipping.
Even if I change my handling time, I still think it’s worthwhile to maintain my TRS status.
-
-
-
2/27-3/6
Total items in store:992
Cost of items sold:$16.00
Total sales:$142.90
Highest price sold:$60.50 Czech polka 6 video tape lot
Average price sold:$15.87
International sales:1
Money spent on new inventory:$20.00 aprox
Number items listed:20
Still slow, but listed a lot more then we have in a long time. Congratulations on show 300 -
Sending my gratitude and congratulations on Episode 300!
2/26 – 3/4/17
Approximate # of Items in Store: 200
# of Items Sold: 14
Average Cost of Items Sold: $5.58
Total Sales: $783.20
Highest Price Sold: $175 – Suit
Average Price Sold: $55.94
Returns: 1 – $67.49 Shoes
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0Made a couple of deals this week to clear out some things that have been hanging around at no longer attainable, pie-in-the-sky prices, for too long. Helped the bottom line and still made a great ROI for both.
Haven’t done anything Ebay-related for the past few weeks except for keeping up with relists and shipping. My big accomplishment for the week was dropping all my figures and paperwork off at the accountant’s office on Saturday.
-
- Location:
Funny someone had a question about global ship in podcast, as I had a customer from France ask me about shipping to them a few weeks ago.
Guess what? France is NOT in global shipping and LOTS of other countries too!
That day I added intl ship as another option besides ebay’s NOT global ship, got a intl sale and offers from apparently LOTS of countries NOT in global ship: china, etc.
-
bifflowman … I’ve sold a few things in the last months to France and I do see it in the GSP countries … Also China is in there. Maybe it was an item restricted to France? Not sure, but must be some other reason.
-
France and China are definitely in the GSP program:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html#countriesAs we mentioned in the podcast, random items get kicked out of GSP because they must fall under some rule that is unclear.
-
-
-
Congratulations and a huge THANK YOU for 300 episodes. You’ve helped so many people with your shows.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1578
Items Sold: 25
Total Sales: $622.95
Cost of Items Sold: $110.7
Average Price Sold: $24.92
Average Cost of Item: $4.43
Highest Price Item Sold: $134.95 Kenwood TS-120S 80-10 Meter SSB/CW Radio Transceiver – Not working. Bought at an online auction.
Number of items listed this week: 66
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 179
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 97
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 54
Sell-through rate: 1.58%
# of Hats Sold: 17 (68% of sales)I’ve been plugging through my own taxes this week. Except for one year when I used an accountant, I’ve done my own taxes for the last 30 years. I’m good with details and finance so I don’t mind doing it myself. I use increased tax withholding at work to cover my taxes but I didn’t really have any idea if I was paying enough. As of last night it looks like a couple of credits (for having 2 kids in college) will mean I’m getting a refund. (This year I did tax returns for both my college-aged kids too.)
Jay was remarkable calm about the cut in the FVF discount considering it’s going to cost you thousands over a year. I can’t get over the fact that it seems to be an unduly large burden on TRS who are, presumably, eBay’s best sellers.
-
-
-
Feb. 26 – Mar. 04
Total Items in Store: 565
Items Sold: 8
Total Sales: $316
Highest Price: $85 (Sony Walkman Radio Cassette Model WM-SR10)
Average Price: $40
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $31
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0Not as great of a week as the previous couple of weeks, but still not bad for just small time. I’ve been focusing on listing some higher priced items this week and I’ve still got a lot more to go. I’ve made a goal to have listed all of my backlog of items by May, just in time for yard sale and auction season.
Regarding taxes, this is the first year that I’m taking it serious and I’m going to try and get some expert help. I have an accountant friend who knows a thing or two about running his own business and I’m hoping he’ll at least point me in the right direction. Luckily I’m a spreadsheet data nerd and love keeping track of cogs and sales and mileage and all that. My biggest concern is how much it costs to hire a CPA if I go that route?
Oh, and congrats on 300 episodes!
-
Our accountant charges by the hour. We paid about $800 to do both our personal and business taxes. Not cheap, but we are confident our taxes are done well and he saved us money by finding deductions we wouldn’t have known about. That also includes anytime access to his advice when we have tax questions throughout the year.
-
-
I received an email with subject “ORDER” and this message: “Hello I never received my order. I wanted to know what is going on or if I will be issued a refund. this is the receipt number 3101746774914162”
The 16 digit number is not a paypal trans id, not an ebay listing #, not a tracking # … anything else this could be or is it just phishing?
-
Did the buyer email you through eBay messages or direct? If they mailed direct, you can search your sales by email address and see if they bought anything from you. If they messaged through eBay, should be pretty easy to look up with their user name.
-
Thanks, I searched all my saved emails but nothing turned up. I did find the transaction by searching for the email id on my sold listing page and found they purchased a book, which shows “Delivered Left With Individual” Feb 8th. Thanks, didn’t think about using my sold page which does have the buyers email id on it. :o)
-
-
-
-
Thank You R&J and Congratulations on episode 300. You both are an inspiration and have been a huge help to me personally and to the online selling community as a whole.
Heres are my numbers for the whole month of February
Total Listings: 722 (701 last month)
Items Sold: 56 (47 last month)
Total Sales: $1,112 ($895 last month)
Cost of Items Sold: $102 ($135 last month)
Highest Price Sold: $250 (Lyman tang sight for a Salvage rifle)
Average Price Sold: $19.85 ($19.04 last month)
International Sales: 1 GSP to Canada
Number of items listed: 71 (61 last month)
Spent on new inventory: $2.00 ($329.70 last month)
Returns: Refunded $6.95 for 1 itemThe Lyman sight was a nice surprise. It was mixed in with a lot I purchased for $25 and I didn’t even notice it until I got home.
I plan to start a second eBay account soon. It will be for low cost items (under $10-$12) that I can ship with a 1st class stamp such as postcards and beer patches. The amount I save on the final value fee for just the shipping cost alone should make up for the loss of TSR discounts.
-Steve
-
Total Items in Store: 598
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Total Sales: $227
Profit: $197
Highest Price Sold: $40 womens shoes. Nothing special.
Average Price Sold: $25.22
Average Profit: $21.87
FBA items sold: 14
Total FBA sales: $419.74
FBA COGS: $160
FBA Fees: $192.59
FBA Profit: $67.15
FBA Average profit: $4.80Nothing special here. Still not listing, and still having $200 weeks. I’m still slowly plugging along on reorganzizing my storage with a well defined system. It is such a burden lifted off of me to get this done!
I included my FBA numbers just for giggles. I finally lowered my price on a “cache” of kids toys I have purchased 15 of. I sold all 14 within a week of lowering my price for an alleged “profit” of just over $4 per toy. I paid just under $10 each, but it took 3 boxes to ship them. Add to that packing materials and I was in at $13 per item. Now here’s the real catch – I doubt I made anything in reality. I sent these in October. I was hoping the price would get jacked up for holiday season. In stead the price tanked and it just now recovered to a profitable level. The reason I doubt I made anything is due to the bloated storage fees ebay charged in October-December. Amazon is so convoluted I’m not even sure how to see these fee charges. And frankly, I’m tire of trying to understand FBA.
Also of note, I’m on the cusp of hitting 50 lbs on my weight loss and lifestyle change journey! No dieting, no pills, no special workout regimens. Just good old fashioned eating real, fresh foods, making sure I eat plenty (average 2100-2300 calories a day), and moving a lot. I walk a lot and do basic calisthenics (pushups, crunches, yoga, stretching). The only things I drink are water and hot green tea. I eat a lot of lean protein and only whole wheat breads. Now that I am no longer addicted to processed sugars and grains, I find myself naturally gravitating away from breads and such. I just don’t want them. It has to be a DARN good bread for me to eat it. Why waste the calories on worthless crap like chips or snack cakes? I know that what I am doing is easily sustainable, and I can trust myself to make good choices on a regular basis.
-
Yes, processed carbs and sugar are what are killing people. It’s not the fat.
-
I’ve read about keto and paleo, but I don’t follow any plan. I just pay attention to how my body reacts to various foods and weigh the pros/cons of the nutritional content. One thing they both have absolutely right is that natural fat is definitely not your enemy.
Oh and I can also say that my blood pressure is normal again. I am able to get a reading at rest of 120/80. I wish I would have taken my blood pressure at my bloated worst. If I had to take a blind guess, I’d go with 180/110.
-
-
-
-
A while back you all mentioned a CPA that was once interviewed. Do you know the episode number or month that this interview was done? I am looking for a CPA. Has anyone used this person before that can vouche for him? I’m thinking his name was Eric, but could be wrong.
-
His name is Mark and he can be found at notyourdadscpa.com not sure the episode number though.
-
-
Here’s the interview: http://www.scavengerlife.com/2016/02/scavenger-life-episode-245-talking.html
-
-
-
-
http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/3/1488599144.html
Article regarding the push back on the fee increase and EBay’s rewording of the reasoning. Also, some information not mentioned in the podcast, like this:
“Promoted Listings from eBay sellers will replace the PLA ads, and eBay threw Top Rated Sellers a bone, promising what amounts to a $10/month credit if they choose to advertise on its site. (Only Store subscribers and Top Rated Sellers will be able to buy Promoted Listing ads.)”
Maybe they will slow down on the fee increases in the Fall and Spring.
-
-
Congrats on hitting your 300th podcast R&J! I discovered you about a year ago and Ryanne was super helpful in responding to an email asking for advice about my store. In that time I’ve gone from just over 100 listings to over 700! I learn something new every week from the podcast you have inspired me more than once when I was feeling discouraged about doing this work. Thanks for the inspiration and I look forward to hearing the next 300!
Bit of a slow week, but I’d had some great sales the previous two weeks, so I sort of expected it. There was a fabulous estate sale this weekend and I treated myself to a day of thrifting on Friday.
My store week of 2/26-3-4
Total items in store. 712
Items sold. 13
Total sales. $115.40
Average price. $8.87
COGS. $9.64
Returns. 0
Money spent on new inv. $54.93
# of items listed. 31
Highest sale-Crate & Barrel I don’t carrot all plate. Cost me 89 cents, sold for $14.99Did have one weird thing happen last week. Had a package returned with the message that the person was no longer at the address. I sent them an email, but haven’t heard back. How long should I give it before I relist the item?
My husband just gave me a heads up on what we owe on our taxes. I think I’m going to be doing a lot of listing! Also, some of crappy buy it now offers are going to become much more attractive the closer we get to April 15!
-
Week February 6 – March 4, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1025
Items Sold: 30
Cost of Items Sold: $18
Total Sales: $473.77
Highest Price Sold: $55.99 (OG-107 Heavy Military Coat)
Average Price Sold: $15.79
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 88Another great week here. I finally got past the 1000 item mark! I had a lot of low dollar sales this week as I ran a sale though the end of the month to clear out items under 12.99, so on the 28th I sold about 5 items for less than $10 each but a sale is a sale and its space cleared for more inventory.
One return this week, buyer said a belt was not the size that I measured it to be so I just approved him to return the item, I’m worried because this buyer has left a decent amount of negative feedback in the past, I’m interested to see if I did measure the belt wrong or if the buyer will even ship it back (approved it Friday 5 mins after he requested the return and have not heard anything).
Taxes! Oh I can not wait… I am in the market for a tax person atm. I got kinda screwed at my current job in that department. I was sold on being a subcontractor because I would make more money but I did not understand the tax part, I have always just had a W2 every year and handed it to H&R block and got a refund check so I’m gonna be honest when I say I have not filed taxes since 2015… This is gonna be a hard truth for me as I go into eBay full time but I am going to find a tax person who will do their best to limit the damage I am going to be taking from the IRS.
I’m interested in that one tax guy that yall interviewed a while ago, I think you mentioned him on your last podcast and said all he does is taxes for people selling online. I do see the benefit of having someone local tho since you can just go meet with them, sign off on stuff and they can answer questions throughout the year and not just at tax time.
-
That was Not Your Dad’s CPA
-
-
One other benefit to the spring update, Anchor store sellers will get a $ 150 coupon for supplies each quarter instead of the $ 75.00.
Troy
-
Anchor store sellers will get hit the hardest by the TRS + change. Consider an anchor store seller with an average sales price of $30 (plus an average $7 shipping for full fee) and sales of 300 items a month.
9% fee on $37 is $3.33
The old TRS+ discount would have been $.67. Times that by 300 and the discount was $201 a month.
Now that discount will only be $100 a month for a loss of $100!A bigger coupon is nice, but if most of what you ship is already USPS boxes and envelopes then what exactly will you get with that $150?
-
-
Many congrats on completing your 300th episode! That is an amazing feat! Thanks for inspiring me to become a full-time reseller. 🙂
Here are my numbers for the week:
Feb 26-Mar 4 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 284 // Ebay 207
Items Sold: Etsy 7 // Ebay 11
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $6.11 // Ebay $28.81
Total Sales: Etsy $93.95 // Ebay $231.91
Highest Price Sold: Vintage Betty Rose Pea Coat $45
Average Price Sold: $18.10
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 32 (Listed at $550)Last week was great! It didn’t feel that way, but looking back, these are good numbers for me and I am happy with them.
-
-
Total Items in Store: 353
Items Sold: 16
Total Sales: $607
Highest Price Sold: $170 (Saffire Pro Recording equipment)
COGS: ?
Returns: 0This week’s sales were saved by DH giving me some of his used audio recording gear to sell. I have no idea what COGS is this week, because he doesn’t remember what he paid for the gear. If I didn’t have those sales, plus selling an old Coach purse of mine, I would have made about $250 this week. :/
Spent a lot of time this week pruning trees. We had a few nights of below freezing weather in January, and it did a number on my citrus trees. 🙁 I lost about 1/3 of the branches from my grapefruit tree, half the branches on my orange tree, and almost 75% of the branches from the pink grapefruit, (which is the one the chickens depend on for shade in the summer). The trees are putting out new leaves now, but I’ll need to come up with another shade solution for the birds this summer. :/
We also sold 3 dozen eggs from our chickens for $9 total. 🙂 I’m kicking around the idea of getting more birds to sell more eggs. I have 3 birds now, and they only cost me about $5 a month to keep them. We get 4-5 dozen eggs a month from them. There really isn’t any real profit to be made by it; it’s more of an ethical issue for me. I like knowing they are well cared for, and are living happy, healthy lives. I am also considering raising birds for meat, but I really need to think on that one. I know *how* to, ahem, dispatch a chicken quickly and humanely. I could do it if I had to, (like if one of my birds was fatally injured, and I needed to end her suffering). I’m not sure I want to do it regularly, though.
Hello, Stream of Consciousness!
-
It would be so fun to have chickens! (Against our subdivision indentures.) We have 3 friends who have chickens and ducks, so have no shortage of free range eggs here. I couldn’t stand to put a chicken down–they become like personal pets. Even after they stop laying our friends let them live for that reason. Old Chickens Assisted Living Home.
-
Linda, we keep ours until they go to the Big Hen House in the Sky, too. When we bought our house, it actually came with 2 chickens! They were older hens, and only laid for about a year after we bought the house. I became really attached to one of them. She seemed to seek out human company from time to time, and would let my son hand feed her berries from the garden. She’d follow me around, and would let me handle her without any fussing. Sometimes she’d come up to the back door and peck on it, waiting for someone to come out and visit with her! I was really sad when she died. She wasn’t acting right one night, and I decided I’d take her to the vet first thing in the morning. When I checked her the next morning, she had already died. I felt awful. 🙁 She had a sister that died a few months before her, too. Her sister was pretty sassy, and didn’t care for people much, however!
Pythonesk, yeah, we basically break even on the birds each month. We were able to scavenge a lot of stuff for their house, and their feed doesn’t cost much. They get a lot of leftovers from us. The cost sort of doesn’t matter at this point. It’s become really important to me that the animals we depend on for food are treated well. It impacts the quality of our food, and it weighs heavily on my conscience if the animals are not treated well. I wish I could find a local dairy that sells pasteurized milk. Everyone around here sells unpasteurized, and while I respect their choice to do so, it’s not for me.
-
@Stuff – Our chickens love leftovers too. Nothing goes to waste around here with a dog and 17 chickens. You could always pasteurize the milk yourself. (We love it raw though. Been drinking raw milk for 10+ years and only have good things to say.) I think you’d only have to heat it to 165 F.
-
-
-
We’ve had chickens for 12 years and sometimes raise a bunch of meat birds. Selling eggs is a money-losing proposition when you consider all of the housing, fencing and feeding costs but we do it anyway. Periodically we’ll raise 25 meat birds and kill them all in one weekend and fill the freezer. It’s a crap ton of work. We built our own Whizbang chicken plucker (just google it) and mobile sink/table on wheels. Such fun!
-
-
-
Congratulations on the 300th episode! You guys are inspiring.
I had a really miserable week last week.
Feb 26-Mar 4 2017
Total items in store: +/1 150
Items Sold: 4
Cost of items Sold: $11
Total Sales: $66.50
Highest Price Sold: Shirt, $25
Average Price Sold: $16
Returns: 0So, I’m not even sure what to say about this past week, except that I did get a bunch of things listed, and re-activated some old listings, so as of this morning I’m back over 200 items with an eye toward at least 225 by the end of the week… and had one decent sale yesterday so at least I’m ahead of last week already. But, really, just a painful week.
My sourcing has been curtailed a bit by the kids getting sick, one after the other.
There’s an auction Thursday and a decent-looking estate sale on Friday, so I’m hoping everyone’s well by then and I’m able to find some good inventory. Onward!
-
you have really beautiful and interesting things in your store–people on ebay have no taste, LOL. ebay is really slow for me too and I have way more time than you to work on it. to be honest, right now I am really disenchanted with ebay and its cranky customers.
-
Thanks, Sue! I love your inventory, also. 🙂
I’ve been listing all morning (found some unlisted pieces I’d forgotten about, plus got some more slides up) — hoping the new items stimulate sales, and looking forward to sourcing at the end of the week once the family shakes this cold!
-
You both have great taste and tfs. I’m trying to get a feel for what does better on Etsy vs. Ebay because I don’t want to cross post. There are only a few Youtubers I know of who compare but I don’t do clothes, eyeglasses, and jewelry (yet), which are some of their recommended Etsy items. I think a lot of my vintage backlog would do better on Etsy. I just wish there were more shoppers on there. Apparently they are spending quite a bit on advertising, so we’ll see. “) Anyway, hang in there and try pinning if you are not already.
-
Hi Christine: ..
May I ask why you would not cross list on Etsy? We cross list on Bonanza and was just getting ready to do the same on Etsy. We monitor our account almost 24/7, so if something sells on Ebay then we would just delete it within minutes from Etsy and vice versa. The chances of something selling at the same day, time and minute on both is non-existent, so why not have all of your Ebay items on Etsy since Etsy now allows anything vintage over 20 years of age?To further explore this will re-post over at the Selling on Etsy Topic area.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
-
-
-
-
Feb 26-March 4 2017
• Total Items in Store: 721
• Items Sold: 15 eBay 1 TrueGether ($280)
• International 1 GSP
• Total Sales $1583
• Highest Price $400 Kenwood amp
• Average Price Sold: $99
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $170
• Cost of items purchased this week $50I so like having a big space for shipping. To be able to walk around the table you have your package on and to have an open space on the floor for big stuff makes things so easy. Shipping isn’t so time consuming or dreaded anymore.
-
On the subject of taxes. We have been taking our taxes to an accountant the last three years. We are retired and have a store (less than $20,000 a year). The accountant last year took three weeks to complete. We have changed accountants,he has had them for two weeks and says they have been “assigned” and should be done in a week. We have very thorough records that should be easy to process. My question to you all is what is the average time does it take your accountants to complete your taxes. I think three weeks is a long time. We did have an interview with one of the accountants to explain where we are at and what we are doing.
-
Our accountant took 3 days from the time we gave all of our paperwork until he filed. We anticipate our refund to come in within 10 days. Our accountant is actually a longtime family friend/accountant of my wife’s parents. Not sure if that gets us priority access, but your experience does seem like a long delay.
-
-
-
Congratulations Jay and Ryanne on 300 fabulous episodes of Scavenger Life! What a testament of your dedication and discipline that is, as well as kindhearted sharing. No wonder you are so successful in all you do. You are a great team!
We got to bed at 3:30 am yesterday after a long trip from Coronado, California for my husband’s business meeting. (I just relaxed and enjoyed not scavenging; I had no expenses worth deducting with free air miles and a free room. Only visited the thrifts on the island but just picked up a few things.) I got up to pack my 20 sales only to find that our computer had died (for real this time.) fortunately my husband was home and somehow we managed to get the labels printed out but it literally took all day with all the glitches. I ran it all down to the Post Office before they closed.
However it was nice to come home to over $550 in sales while I was away. And last night my husband ran to the Microsoft store and bought me a new basic “Surface Studio” for my office–the only one they had left in stock. I’m feeling ready to get back to some serious Ebay work as soon as I finish the laundry, ironing and unpacking today. But I’m missing that gorgeous Coronado weather–especially after having to sit in the basement til midnight last night due to tornadic weather blowing through.
-
Oh my gosh, I love Coronado too! Have you been to the movie theater there?
-
-
Linda, tge theater on Coronado island is an amazing work of art. It’s a tiny theater but has the coolest skyline in lights on the walls. It’s the 2 views from the island if I remember correctly. A must see
-
-
-
-
-
Congrats on your 300th podcast!
Sold my first Tam O’ Shanter. Thanks to listening to your podcasts. I’m sure I wouldn’t have picked one up if I hadn’t been listening.
-
-
Hi there,
First time poster. I also wanted to send a little message to the man moving to Canada. I would say that if you’re selling higher $ value items you’ll be fine shipping to the states. Yes Canada post is more expensive than USPS for basically everything but for items that can be sent Tracked Packet – USA it’s not that bad, there is no media mail and no flat rate envelopes for sending smalls for dirt cheap. I’d expect you’ll see a jump in sales to Canadians when you move, especially if you were using GSP when you were in the states. Ordering high value items from Canadians is much more desirable because the duties start after $20 Canadian so if you order something that costs $100 from the states your rolling the dice on weather the border will hit you with additional duty fees.I’m in Kamloops but make the trip to Vancouver occasionally. I can assure you Vancouver is plenty wasteful, there is a Goodwill bins location (I haven’t gone) and the Value Villages I can absolutely confirm have treasures, kijiji is much more active here than craigslist if you source there.
Oh also if you use a DYMO label printer, it probably won’t work or will be a nightmare to set up for Canada Post through ebay/paypal shipping, they just won’t add that functionality because they (Pitney Bowes in this instance) are monsters.
Best of luck!
-
-
Hi! I was listening to the podcast and I noticed that you mentioned that you “call” eBay when you want to get them to close a case if it has been more than 5 days on a return. I couldn’t tell if you meant that you physically call them, but on the resolution center on ebay, you can go back into the case and if it has been five days, then it will say something to the order of “You can close this case and request the fee credit now” and you can just click it there.
Just thought it might save you time instead of having to call ebay.
Yay on the big 300 😀 Thanks for taking the time to keep sharing with us.
-
-
I have some input about that call where someone was wanting to buy their ebay store..
Not that it’s a scam in her case.. but it’s definitely a thing.
I met some scammers when I was freelancing on upwork.com. They were “hiring” only people with 100% ebay feedback. I did some research and apparently what they do is sell very popular items at great prices.. then never deliver, or deliver fakes, then take the money and run. They can’t create new ebay accounts for that purpose, due to selling limits.
If you do it, just be sure your PayPal account and all personal info is totally removed, in case it comes back on you.
-
Thanks for another podcast, hope you have 300 more. It has been rebuilding mode for me lately, trying to focus on higher end stuff now that I have enough volume to coast a little on listing. Sells seem to be slowly improving after a slow 4th and early 1st quarter. Unfortunately, I did a rough estimate of the taxes I am looking at and at 15% of net profit it is going to be a huge buzz kill. I don’t know if I will be able to pay up on time, but I am going to get busy selling everything in sight and finding every possibly deduction. I have never paid any SE taxes and now I know I need to pay up for 1st quarter this year as well. Makes one think about going stealth / underground to try to avoid the blood suckers er I mean IRS.
-
Week of Feb 26 – March 4th
* Total Items Currently in Store: 530
* Items Sold: 46
* Cost of Items Sold: approximately $155
* Total Sales: $1436.10
* Highest Price Sold: $295 Chuggington Roundhouse Double Decker Wooden Railway w/ Turntable Clock Tower (Paid $4 at yard sale. I saw NIB solds were around $100, so I was hoping I’d get $50 or so used. Got home and did my research and found I had one made in 2011, before Tomy bought out the original manufacturer. Mine had some features that were apparently preferable to the newer model. Priced it at $275, and sold for full price plus shipping after a couple of days.
* Average Price Sold: $31.22
* Returns: 6 (unusually high number of returns for me. Several clothing items due to fit, even though I provided all measurements. Also sold a SAS Tripad diabetic SINGLE SHOE!!! for the 2nd time to another buyer who didn’t read the title, item condition, OR listing description, all 3 of which said Right Shoe Only Diabetic Amputee. Yeeeesh. Maybe third time’s a charm.) -
-
Congrats on the 300th episode Ryanne and Jay! Your podcast has been an incredible resource for me. So much good info, so much helpful advice. All the best for 300 more.
As for my week.
Feb 26- March 4
Total Items in Store: 350
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $8.00
Total Sales: $305.33
Highest Price Sold: $48 Fugazi 7″ Record
Average Price Sold: $20.35
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5.20
Number of items listed this week: 30Things got off to a bang for me in the beginning of the week, and then slowly calmed down. I had 7 sales on Monday which had me wondering if there was some kind of holiday or something. But that was the week before, right?
Nothing spectacular this week, just a nice swath of mid-priced sales.
-
fugazi sale! nice (my favorite band of all time). i sold all my fugazi records back in 2005 when we moved from nyc to sf. they were beauties. i think dischord still sells vinyl though which is awesome.
-
I’ve been parting with a lot of my vinyl as part of a march towards financial independence. A little sad at times, but most of it has just been keeping my closet company for years.
This was particularly tough since Fugazi is also my favorite all time band. It was a really unique Fugazi bootleg too. A ‘Live in Rome’ bootleg 7 inch on Violet Vinyl.-
-
Oh Ryanne, These are awesome! My wife and I just watched ‘The Punk Singer’ documentary about Kathleen Hanna, so I got really excited and have been watching all these great shows. We are supposed to get a big snow storm here this week, so now I have something I can watch while I am at home working on my ebay Store. Cheers!
-
-
-
-
-
My numbers for the week of 2/26/17:
Total Items in Store: 102
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $52
Total Sales: $415 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $65 Nerf Vulcan
Average Price Sold: $25.93
Returns: 1Really far behind this week. I have not been able to listen to the podcast yet but Congratulations on episode 300!
I have been dealing with some personal tragedies so haven’t listed this week.
Top it off with more customer issues in 1 week than I have had in the past few years combined! Included in my numbers was a second $65 sale that ended up as an unpaid item (second time this particular item has sold and not been paid for). Had a return request but the customer was on the west coast so shipping back and forth was worse than offering her a partial refund (which she accepted, and resulted in me just barely breaking even, actually loosing a couple bucks after fees but I guess you just have to swallow it sometimes). AND I had a GSP customer contact me that they were being asked to pay extra customs for delivery of their item. They sent me a photo of the document from Royal Mail citing customs charge due. I went through HOURS on the phone with eBay. There is no direct contact to GSP “Specialists”, eBay is the middleman. I was told I would have an answer within 72 hours, nothing. Called and talked to an eBay supervisor who promised me I would have an answer by the end of the day, nothing. While requesting help from a good FB group I am in, asking if anyone had a direct contact to anyone at GSP, one guy said “GSP doesn’t use Royal Mail, they have direct carriers. I bet that isn’t your package.” He was right! I couldn’t read it on my laptop but when I super-zoomed in on my phone, the photo of the notice the customer sent me was dated 20 days before my item even sold! MY package was still in transit, actually delivered today. Also today, I finally received a response from the GSP dept…thanks for nothing. I already figured it out.
I probably sound negative but this has honestly been a hellacious week. I feel like just jumping right to next Monday and starting fresh. -
JR,
Just listened to last week’s episode and want to add a few comments (better late than never).
Taxes – I’ve been following your podcast over the pass and taking in your comments as to your expenditures with a new rental and warehouse and although you fully don’t disclosure everything in detail, being a seasoned finance professional, I’m able to pick up little hints here and there piece a person’s picture together I was surprised, as you are, as having to pay more taxes than expected.Then you mentioned in the podcast that you couldn’t expense those outlay and spread those out over many years (27.5 years in fact). Although this is somewhat true, small business with capital expenditures (less than $500K) can deduct the full depreciation in the first year by using Section 179 deduction.
So my question is, did you take a Section 179 deduction? Thanks for sharing.
-
-
-
a quick google search yielded this (that section 179 is for equipment, not buildings or building renovations)–
http://www.section179.org/property_that_qualifies_for_section_179.html
Material goods that generally qualify for the Section 179 Deduction
Please keep in mind that to qualify for the Section 179 Deduction, the equipment listed below must be purchased and put into use between January 1 and December 31 of the tax year you are claiming.
Equipment (machines, etc) purchased for business use
Tangible personal property used in business
Business Vehicles with a gross vehicle weight in excess of 6,000 lbs (Section 179 Vehicle Deductions)
Computers
Computer “Off-the-Shelf” Software
Office Furniture
Office Equipment
Property attached to your building that is not a structural component of the building (i.e.: a printing press, large manufacturing tools and equipment)
Partial Business Use (equipment that is purchased for business use and personal use: generally, your deduction will be based on the percentage of time you use the equipment for business purposes).
-
-
Congratulations on your 300th episode! And I’ve listened to ALL of them! Through your podcasts, my learning curve has not been as steep as it would have been if you guys weren’t there. From shipping to customer issues to pricing…you guys ROCK! I have just completed my first full year selling on eBay and you have made it so much more of a pleasant experience than I’ve heard from those who began years and years ago when there weren’t smartphones and forums. Thanks for all you do for us!
-
JFH when you are looking for deductions, make sure you log your mileage…mileage to and from the Post Office, stores when you are purchasing tape and mailing envelopes, thrifting, etc. You would be surprised how quickly that all adds up (in addition to the regular things you buy for your business!)
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.