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We had a busy week of listing, packing and getting ready to travel for 18 days for some video jobs. Luckily our helper will continue to photo and sche
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 307: Getting Ready to Sell While Traveling] -
Nice 🙂 Just getting ready to start my night of listing will be good to listen to motive mate as I go along.
Anyway time for my week.
Week 4 17-23
Number of Active Listings: 264
Items In Store: 476
Items Sold: 8
Avg Selling Price: $43.39
Cost of Goods Sold: $0.00
Total Sales: $347.14
Returns/Refunds: -$5.98
Unpaid Items: $0.00Highest item: Had 2 collector’s bullion coins sell for $95 each. Return was just a case of damage in the mail, easy refund, customer was so happy they left glowing feedback so that was nice.
Overall had a really good week, our best so far and the first time we’ve officially made enough in 1 week to cover the mortgage for the week, so that’s worth celebrating. Now time to keep it consistent and continue the growth.
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Congrats on making enough for the mortgage! Small achievable goals like this will keep you moving forward! What’s your next goal: electric bill? grocery bill?
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Thanks! I would say my next goal is to just have a period where we can maintain that so that we can be sure we’re stable. So maybe once we’ve covered the mortgage 6 weeks in a row or something 🙂
Otherwise I’d say the next step is water bill, a week above $500 would be a major milestone for us, we already installed solar panels so our electricity is super low already. We also run LPG bottles for our gas and we seem to use barely any so that’s nice. We’ll be saving up for some rainwater tanks though that’s for sure 😉
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I’ve been on a hiatus as we wrapped up the house projects (not that the project ever really ends) and getting moved in. I need to clean out the garage apartment that we had been living in and get my office set up. I’ll try to stitch together a short video now that we have 99% of the house done.
I picked up a saddle at an auction about a month ago for $25 and I need to get it cleaned up before I list it. Again, thanks to Jay and Ryanne for talking about these as I don’t think I would have known to look for them.
Sales are still trickling in. T-shirts are doing better and I’m getting a few sales each week between the two stores. My goal is to have the office set up and back to listing by the weekend. I have a lot of cool stuff to list and increasing my sales will be nice again.
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Week of Apr 16 – 22
* Total Items in Store: 753
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $7.95 + $33.95 Commission
* Total Sales: $225 ish
* Highest Price Sold: $40 Nikken Magnetic Massager
* Average Price Sold: $17.30
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: about $20
* Number of items listed this week: 4I had a pretty decent week of sales, but this weekend really slowed down. I had no sales Friday or Sunday. I also had a $100 offer on a leather bag Thursday, and the buyer did not pay. When I contacted him yesterday, he replied that he made a mistake, so I cancelled the sale.
I have not been listing much because of my vacation two weeks ago, and I was playing catch up this past week. I’m now ready to get back to listing, listing, listing!!
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I too have noticed in Q2 after taxes, some “newbs” to eBay come out of the woodwork. While most of them are perfect and pay, there does seem to be a bit of a learning curve especially if they make an offer. I’ve had a few this month make an offer, I accept, and then they say the found it for cheaper or they inspected again and don’t think it’s worth it. I think someone talked about it in the past, but I think if someone makes an offer that there should be some seller protection that they have held money on a CC or PayPal (via temporary authorization) – they do it for sellers that have a case opened, so it’s possible.
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April 16 – 22
Total items in store 1302
Sold 52
GOGS 60.00
Total Sales 1,449.05
Highest price sold Nikes 40.00
Average price per sale 27.86
INTL – 1 GSP
Returns 1
Spent on new merchandise 227.50
New listings 11
Tunic Sales 29
Other Sales 23Pick of the week. I paid 5.00 for 2 large boxes of vintage automobile repair manuals. Found some asian influence stonewear dishes, some new sealed cassette tapes. I worked garage sales Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Garage sale season is here hope all of you find some deals.
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lizlangsteiner, I always grab old Chilton’s and Clymer manuals. They’re usually covered in grease and cobwebs (ICK!), but I can get them for less than $1 each and sell them for $15 – $30. Easy pictures and listing, easy sales.
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4/16 – 4/22
Total Items in store: 381
Items sold: 2
Cost of items sold: approx. $40
Total Sales: $68
Highest price sold: $34 Retail Arbitrage Socket sets
Average price sold: $34
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $0Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 12 sales – $1600, COGS – $754, fees – $234, profit – $612
I’ve had fun the past couple of weeks spending ebay bucks on fun stuff for me and the family. I had over $400 so I could splurge. I bought some jeans and some retro T-shirts. It is fun shopping on ebay! Next Friday I signed up for a “thrifting” class with Jason Smith in Atlanta. It should be fun and informative, plus it will be nice to meet other people who sell on ebay.-
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LeeinTN: I’m somewhat new to the forums, so I have a question. When you say “Ebay to Amazon”, what does that mean? Is that items you purchased on eBay and sold on Amazon?
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T-satt, yes it was an experiment I started about a year and a half ago. I purchase items on ebay and send them to Amazon FBA. Mostly new, mostly electronics. Doing research on an item I had purchased at a yard sale, I noticed a wide discrepancy between how much it sold for on ebay and amazon. I sent it in to Amazon and it sold quickly. Then I realized if they were selling for $80 on Amazon and $30 on ebay, I could actually purchase them on ebay, have them shipped to my house, then resend them to Amazon for a profit. I started with $200 and have re-invested my profits.
For example, due to an error on my part I am banned from selling these, so here is a tip if you want to try. Brainetics Deluxe set. They are available brand new and sealed on ebay for $50 and sell for $125 on Amazon. Just don’t buy the “complete set” and label it the “Deluxe set” (that is why I am banned).
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Thanks for the tip. I will have to do some research on this. We stopped FBA last year because the fees were too high and the inventory fees were not making it profitable for the time and capital investment. But this gives me some thinking for boosting sales on another platform. Thanks!
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Enjoy the trip! Hopefully you get some free time to scavenge or at least enjoy the new surroundings in between video jobs!
Week April 16-22
Items In Store: 863
Items Sold: 26 (17 Amazon)
Total Sales: $673.78 ($382.80 Amazon)
Avg Selling Price: $25.91 ($22.52 Amazon, $32.33 eBay)
Highest Price sold: $75 (Mario Lemieux autographed hockey puck)
Cost of Goods Sold: $164 (24% of my total sales)
Promoted Listings Experiment: 1 sale (11% of my eBay sales) for $30, $1.50 fees (5% of sales)
Money spent on new inventory: $413
New Listings: 36Back on the horse and it felt so good. Hadn’t listed anything and had the store pretty much on auto pilot for about 3-4 weeks with Passover with my wife’s family, Easter with my family, and other “life” things going on. Worked for a good 10 hours over the weekend taking photos, researching, listing, and organizing a stack of items that had started piling up.
This week marks a first for me – more Amazon sales (17) than eBay sales (9). I don’t have much on Amazon, but do have some retail arbitrage items that were discontinued and I bought a closeout lot. Those have been selling well.
COGs are a bit high for me, like to be under 20% at the worst and actually closer to 10%, but fell at 24% this week for a few reasons: 1) the RA items I bought in bulk for $5 each and they sell for $20 each (25% COGs), 2) sold a couple of “mistakes” (including a collectible Barbie I bought for $25 but could only sell for $20).
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I have a question about Dymo Labels… not sure if this is the right spot to ask? We just got a Dymo 4XL and love it; I’d like to order replacement labels from eBay but it seems that everything is “Dymo compatible.” I’m wondering what your experience is with the compatible labels. I know using them voids the Dymo warranty and since it’s a new machine, I wasn’t sure. Thanks in advance!!
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Ive ran thousands of generic labels through our 4XL and 450 Turbo without problems. You should be safe.
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Good luck getting ready for your trip, and I hope you have a good time as well. I’m looking forward to listening to the podcast this evening as I list up a new pile of items I picked up at auction.
Total Items in Store: 551
Items Sold: 13
Cost of Items Sold: $2.50
Total Sales: $340.85
Highest Price Sold: $28.00 1978 Mego Superman Doll with a broken leg
Average Price Sold: $26.22
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $33.40
Number of items listed this week: 52This week certainly slowed from the past two. With everyone discussing the summer slowdown on the forums here I have been on the lookout for it. That said, still a good week for me numbers wise.
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April 16-22 2017
• Total Items in Store: 725
• Items Sold: 17
• International 3 / 2GSP
• Total Sales $1748
• Highest Price $1200 JBL speakers
• Average Price Sold: $103
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $350
• Cost of items purchased this week $200Yard sale season has begun here in South Dakota, 3 big neighborhood sales last week and the biggest one of the year this week. Add in an estate sale last Friday that I spent $102 at and I have a lot of new exciting items to list.
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Our Store Week April 16– 23, 2017
Total Items in Store: 268
Items Sold: 9 (eBay)
Cost of Items Sold: $277.00
Total Sales: $2,010.95 ($1,785.95 eBay, $225 Amazon)
Highest Price Sold: $540.00 (Vintage film camera)
Average Price Sold: $198.44 (eBay)
International Sales: 2
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0.00
Number of items listed this week: ~5Sales Review: Really nice sales this week. Sold everything from an old industrial cart to NIB electronics.
Customer Issues: None.
Scavenging: Sadly, I’ve been too busy with another business that I’m starting up to concentrate on eBay/Amazon. Having said that, I couldn’t have done it without eBay, and even with the minimal effort that I’ve been putting in, the pipelines still flow…
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Hope your trip works out well and sales continue to come in nicely for you.
Here are my numbers:
Total Items in Store: 1645
Items Sold: 34
Total Sales: $621
Cost of Items Sold: $58.58
Average Price Sold: $18.27
Average Cost of Item: $1.72
Highest Price Item Sold: $25.46 Harley Davidson Hat
Number of items listed this week: 49
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 228
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 140
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 99
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.07%
# of Hats Sold: 29 (85% of sales)Sales appear to be back to a normal level. I had bumper sales leading up to Easter and then Easter week was dead. This week I ran a hat sale for a couple of days and sales picked up quite a lot for those days. My average sale was pretty low as a result and I had no big ticket items sell.
I went to a small flea market yesterday and saw all the categories of seller that Jay mentioned last week. I’m really only ever interested in the junkers or people selling their own stuff. I have no interest in new junk from China or people selling at retail prices.
On the one-day handling thing, it’s really hard to find the ebay page which has the specific mention of getting a shippers scan in a particular time frame. I’ve looked for it in the past because I read conflicting info from time to time. I think eBay shortened the estimated delivery times so that may be the reason why R&J have been getting defects. You only get a shipping defect if it doesn’t get scanned in time and also doesn’t arrive on time. If you get it scanned in time OR it gets delivered on time there is no defect.
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Total Items in Store: 125
Items Sold: 8
Cost of Items Sold: $48
Total Sales(net): $209.93
Highest Price Sold: $90 (4 compartment apartment mailbox)
Average Price Sold: $26.24
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
Number of items listed this week: 11I had a pretty decent week this week. 3 sales within the same 5 minutes last night so that was nice. Bidding on a box lot of items that will hopefully put a lot of goodies in my store. We will see how that goes! Great podcast! very relevant to a few questions I’ve had this week.
I also just started printing my own shipping labels and am mad that I didn’t do this sooner. It is a dream come true. It saves so much time!
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Week of 4/16-4/22
Total Items in Store: 1,448
Items Sold: 86
Number of Items Listed This Week: 96
Total Sales: $2,184.03
Cost of Items Sold: $445.71
Highest Item Sold: $49.83 – Hiltl Corduroy Pants (Troy wins this week, but Veronica still leads for the year 8-7)We had a bit of a rebound in sales, back over the $2k line. I know that some people are talking about a slowdown in sales, but we have not seen that yet. Typically this time of year begins a retail slowdown, so the worries start online, but this happens every year, so we don’t sweat it. It hasn’t really hit us yet, but it may be some of our business changes that are avoiding it so far (increased listing activity, more aggressive pricing, moving out old and stale inventory).
Regarding the late shipment issue, I can provide a little more information that may help why just printing the label on time, but not getting a scan, does not generate a “late shipment”. I talked with eBay earlier this year when I had “late” shipments that when I looked at the report, I could show that I printed the label on time.
The basic formula is that there are two deadlines that must be missed for a shipment to be “late” and the seller gets dinged. The first is printing the label AND getting the acceptance scan from the carrier within your handling time. If you print the label, but the first scan is AFTER your handling time (say from the USPS distribution center, or from the receiving post office), the shipment is “potentially late”. Then, if the package arrives within eBay’s “Estimated Delivery Date”, the shipment is NOT late. Only if that package arrives after the “Estimated Delivery Date”, then you get a Late Shipment ding.
Many people (Jay & Ryanne, I would guess that includes you) can have a process that prints the label within your handling, NOT get the scan within the handling time, but it ARRIVES within eBay’s Estimated Delivery Time, and you DO NOT get dinged with late delivery. This was happening to us for a very long time, so we have never worried about it.
But with Guaranteed Delivery, getting that scan is becoming more important, now that money is on the line…
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RR Store Week April 16-22, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,251
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $22.98
Total Sales: $440.30
Highest Price Sold: $54.99 (Maui Jim sunglasses)
Average Price Sold: $22.02
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $61
Number of items listed this week: 29I had a really rough week personally, so I wasn’t able to list much. My totals show this very clearly. But tragedy was averted, and things are much better now. And strangely, I’ve made more in sales the last day and a half than I did all last week!
Three items I listed yesterday sold within minutes of listing them. I know vintage Levi’s can be daunting, but they’re so worth the effort. I listed three pairs of 501’s from the early/mid 1970’s. Within a minute, I had a half price offer on the first pair, listed at $79.99. I countered at $70, telling the guy that they hadn’t even been up for two minutes. I got three additional offers, then the first guy accepted my $70 counteroffer. I listed the other two pairs without Best Offer. One sold in about three minutes, and the last sold within the hour. Of course, in hindsight, I’m thinking that I should have priced them higher. But I’m happy with $210 in an hour. Google “how to date Levi’s” or “how to date red line Levi’s”. Just a bit of knowledge could fetch you some big bucks. And don’t shy away from distressed jeans; two of the three I sold had big holes in the crotch area.
I finally found a laser printer at an estate sale! I spend so much money on ink; my Epson is a thirsty girl. I’m still going to keep it around for color printing, but for the packing slips and labels, my Brother HL-2240 is my newest employee. Best part: $5 bucks. Still has paper inside too!
Alright, back to work. I have a lot of listing to make up from last week.
*Paul*
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Yes! I’ve sold a few pair of Levi’s for good prices. Some weren’t even really “old” but were USA made and sold for around $50. I always buy them now if they are cheap and USA made. Keep an eye out for Silvertabs too. They can go for quite a bit!
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Silver tabs…will do. Also, keep your eyes peeled for orange tabs. I recently sold a pair of orange tab bell bottoms for $80 bucks. And if you find any Levi’s with an upper case E on the tab (known as “Big E’s”), those do VERY well, especially the 501’s.
*Paul*
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Seems like I was affected by the PayPal bug mentioned in the podcast. I just opened my Discover Card bill, and PayPal charged shipping to the card from April 4 – 18. I had plenty of money in my PayPal funds during that time. For some reason, it switched back to PayPal funds after April 18. What a pain.
Jay and Ryanne: Totally different subject – During last week’s podcast, you guys were talking about driving several hours to pick up some hardwood flooring found through Craigslist. I was just wondering how that went. Was it good? Did you end up buying it?
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Sales week of April 16-22
Total items in store. 802
Total sales. $324.23
# of items sold. 19
Average sale. $17.06
COGS. $18.07
Returns. 0
$ spent on new inventory $22.33
Highest sale $100 3 canisters of Kodak Pan Tech film (cost 54 cents)I really thought I would be talking about a slow week, but Saturday saved the week! Probably did 2/3 of my sales that day and two of them were things I had just listed that day. My scavenge of the week was also my highest sale, the Kodak film. The boxes and canisters are in rough shape, so I didn’t hold out for a higher price, but I paid a total of $1.28 for 8 canisters, so $100 for three of them worked for me! I also got a Felix the cat cup & saucer for $4 that I sold same day for $50. All in all, I was pleased and my percentages are up over last month and last year.
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Ebay
Total Items in Store: 9338
Items Sold: 108
Cost of Items Sold: $153
Total Sales: $2183
Highest Price Sold: $165 (My Scene Dolls)
Average Price Sold: $20.21
Returns: 5 (Clothing, DVD, Books)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $146
Number of items listed this week: 89Another good week on ebay, haven’t experienced a slow down yet. Actually clothing, shoes and hats have picked up. Top sellers this week 6 NIB Myscene dolls for $165, 17 NIB Little Pet Shops for $127 and Inuyasha Manga book set for $102. Not counted above but on amazon we sold a surgical text book for $210, Works of Benjamin Walters 7 vol set for $170 and a John Wayne GI Joe for $175.
Was lining up to be a huge yard sale weekend, then it rained three days straight.
I do not use any additional services for ebay but for amazon I use several. Amazon is a different beast than ebay and the services are needed for faster listing, automatic pricing adjustments and cross platform listing. I tried a few shipping services for ebay and honestly there is nothing easier than just doing it straight from ebay.
Has Jay never shipped an item?
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Week April 17-23
Items in store: 222
Sales: 3
COGS: $6
Sales: $53
Average: $17
Highest: $20 Fat Chef clock
Returns: 1
This is going to bite, it’s a pair of Tory Burch wedge pumps for $80. Buyer is claiming INAD because the color is more orange than expected, but the color on the photos is pretty accurate. However, I now have to pay shipping both ways.
Inventory: $30
Listings: 42Yes, I bought more inventory when I’m supposed to be on the Death Pile Challenge (DPC), but I couldn’t resist. It was a lot of 16 men’s ties, and I do love listing ties. I can fold a tie, put it on the mannequin and snap a photo in under 10 seconds. Then it comes off the mannequin and I take front, pattern, back, point, and label photos, measure length and width, jot down the SKU, and wrap it up. Listed the whole batch the same day and sold one of them a couple days later. I’m claiming that they’re all listed already so doesn’t count towards the DPC. LOL
My goal of listing 10 items per day actually worked for the week. Unfortunately, I lost both Friday and yesterday to being away dealing with the rental make-ready, so I didn’t hit my 50 for last week and already know I won’t this week because I have some investigation and purchases to do for the property and will be driving down again on Friday. Should be my last weekend, though, so hopefully I get to my goal of 50 per week next month.
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I agree. Color is not a valid reason. And just for your information… Women and men see color differently. [I have posted a longer post here before about how the brain and eyes see and translate color you can research if interested]. But suffice it to see that the color gene is recessive in women and only about .4% will be color deficient and then only in the yellow / blue spectrum. Men have the dominant gene and about 8% to 10% will be dieficeint and then in the red/green range. So with just this info alone you have a good argument as to why someone saying that the color is slightly off shade or not as they see it on their monitor is reason enough for them to side with you.
Then lastly when was the last time the customer had their monitor offcially color calibrated by a color technician using the proper instruments. And who is to say that the customer or thier kids have not played with the color adjutments under the lip edge of the monitor.
so I think you are well in the clear as far as fearing any negative feedback or problems about color being an issue. 🙂
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Apr. 16 – 22
Total Items in Store: 674
Items Sold: 12
Total Sales: $458
Highest Price: $120 (Five Vintage Masonic Collars)
Average Price: $38
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $111
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $264I had a better week of sales this time! I actually took the whole week off for vacation. I got so much done around the house and for eBay. Finished a round of photos, restored some old tools and cast iron, went to an auction and drove two hours one-way to pick up an online auction buy that I’ll talk about below. It felt amazing! Then I came back to work yesterday and was overcome with that dreadful feeling that I’m wasting my time. I know I’m working this full-time job to pay the bills, but I can’t help but feel like I could be doing so much better working for myself. My girlfriend and I have made a goal to quit our jobs and move somewhere that’s not the Ohio Valley by next summer. So that gives me a whole year to get my store quantity up and my weekly numbers up to a livable rate.
So I tried another online auction. This time it was for a pallet of vehicle service manuals. All I had was one photo to go on, but I price checked the few manuals that I could make out and they were going for $60-90 each. I took a chance and won the auction for $173. The next day I drove about two hours to this little town to pick them up. When they brought them down on a forklift, I was surprised to see over 100 of these service manuals for all kinds of stuff. Mostly heavy construction machinery such as Caterpillar and Case backhoes and Heavy Duty trucks of different makes. To make a long story short, I got them home, cleaned them up, inventoried and price checked most of them. I’m going ot make a few thousand bucks from this deal!
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I have always done well with repair manuals, even the generic Haynes or Chilton manuals. As long as I can get them for $1 or under I always pick them up. Even better are motorcycle repair manuals. Those are hard to come by though.
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They’re quickly becoming one of my favorite selling items. There were a bunch of Motor brand manuals that don’t always gather high amounts, but a majority of them were factory service manuals straight from the companies. The high dollar ones were the Volvo and the Case manuals.
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I almost forgot to talk about an interesting estate sale experience we had on Saturday. The ad was in the paper saying Moving Sale Everything Must Go! So naturally, I was intrigued. I get there and there’s a line of people waiting outside for the doors to open. When we were finally let in, the place was atrocious! Garbage everywhere! Dust and dirt. Oh god the smells! But I braved it and actually found enough to load my car up. The story was, this guy came upon some money late in life and didn’t know how to spend it properly. He bought tools, lost said tools in the piles of garbage, then bought more tools to replace the tools that were lost. Then he met a girl from the Philippines online and decided to sell everything he owned so he could move there. I have a feeling I know how this story will play out, but that’s none of my concern. I filled the trunk of my car with unbuilt ship and military models. I bought a brand new, never been opened Dremel 3000 for a few bucks. Gobs of vintage enamelware. A computerized Janome sewing machine! All for almost nothing. Though I’m going to need to thoroughly clean and disinfect everything.
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I’m just coming back from 4-5 days travelling out of state. Had one good sale, but oh so few.
Items In Store: 284
Items Sold: 2
Avg Selling Price: $45.50
Cost of Goods Sold: $7
Total Sales: $10
1
Returns/Refunds: 0
Unpaid Items: $0.00
Highest Price: $89.99 Allen Edmonds Wingtips
Lowest Price: $11 BO for Atlanta Olympics hatNo middle price cuz just two sales. We got back from the airport at 2 am. Shaking the zzzzz out of my eyes and listing more. Thought of Steve as we enjoyed spring in Iowa/Mn/SD.
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Store Week 4/16/17 – 4/22/17
Total items in store: 1251
Items sold: 17
Cost of items sold: $11.40
Total sales: $420.37
Highest price sold: $39.99 (KEEN flats)
Average price sold: $24.73
International Sales: 0
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $35.33This was a very slow week with mainly just small sales. I barely listed since I was busy with other stuff, but I listed a bunch yesterday and I’m planning to do a lot the next few days, so hopefully it will pick up. Have a great trip and enjoy your time in the beautiful northwest!
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Doublythumbs: That’s quite find, the moving sale. Maybe the place being a mess would clear out some of the crowd that wouldn’t want to filter through all that mess.
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Well count me out on the dath pile challenge. (I did just clear out a big backlog of antique photos–painful process since they sell for so little per item, but have been selling nicely.) Also most of the things laying around. But I just got home from a rummage sale with my car loaded to the max with all sorts of fresh produce, including a nice wooden wall clock and you name it. No idea where it will all go–yikes! Must stay home for the next year.
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As much as I am trying to work through the death piles here, I know I will fall off the wagon this weekend-two big neighborhood garage sales plus a church rummage sale I have traditionally done very well with items. I have found that I’m being much pickier such the death piles are always in the back of my mind!
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Steven S and MDC Galleries: thank you. I didn’t know color was not an INAD and I accepted the return, with preprinted label, so I’m in for it. I will know for future.
davidbloop: thanks for the positive encouragement. I’m planning to hit 3,000 items in my store by year end. I had 20 per day in my original goals from J&L posts, but have discovered that I cannot make those numbers (one man operation) but that 10 a day is my golden number. So set myself to 50 per week, in the hopes that I can make up for shortfalls over a weekend if necessary. Doesn’t work when I’m in another city, though! LOL. Oddly enough, posting my numbers here on the forum is a huge motivation. I don’t want to “fail” in front of the Elves! Ha!
Oh, and I’m joining the headstones on the side of the Death Pile Oregon Trail. I live in a small community that likes the idea of “helping out” and have been receiving so much stuff just lately. My Subaru Forester is packed to the hilt with my latest haul, which includes 15 pairs of shoes, a framed Doctor Who poster, a large box of barbie toys including a Britney Spears model and a bath, complete with faucets, clothes, computer games, porcelain-face dolls, plush, and a host of other items that I didn’t get to look at because the lady was cramming it all into boxes. Tomorrow I’m going to pick up another load of clothes, shoes, and shelves from a lady in the neighborhood, and I have an invitation to another widow’s house to collect a bunch of art, a full-length leather coat, and some CDs. They feel good about helping me with my business, and are thrilled to have their spring clearout done so easily. I don’t want to turn off the tap (free inventory) but am a little overwhelmed at the ever increasing size of my stash. My husband is going to have a shit fit when he gets back! I’ve got two weeks to make it disappear. Yikes!
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I think 20 a day is a large ask when you’re working by yourself, although not impossible I know I’d feel the burn out pretty quickly at that pace. That said it does depend on the items.
I work at this currently full time with my partner helping me and we aren’t even matching 20 a day at the moment, we have some days where we smash it and go way higher and others where we can only get 5-10 done for whatever reason, life can get in the way. We make sure we don’t beat ourselves up on the days where we don’t get much listing done, we just make sure that any time we do get the opportunity to list, we make the most of it.
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How much you can list per day is the biggest question when making this a business. My wife and I have a current goal of 100 per week, with that to eventually move to 150.
I focus on men’s clothes, and have had many days with 20 per day. I looked at my process over the weekend and was able to speed that up to increase my efficiency, so that I feel I could reach 100 per week on my own. We will see.
Veronica lists collectibles, and just started on jeans, so we think she can do 50 per week.
It can be a grind if you let it, so you have to look at what you want out of this business, what work you are willing to put in, and then focus on your process to make sure it is efficient.
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Yep you’re exactly right. We’ve realised that one of our bottlenecks is our work space. We don’t yet have a dedicated office/shipping/photo area and are running everything out of our living room right now, except our inventory. So currently we set our listing goals to match our current situation.
Coming soon though will be our desks and furniture to get our office space up and running, which should make the entire process soooooo much more efficient. Currently just a pair of jeans has so many roadblocks in the way because of our space. For example, to get a measurement I have to lay the jeans on the floor and take the measurements from ground level. Just having to get down and back up again not only wastes time, but results in a lot of wasted energy so I run out of steam quicker.
I think it’s important to set realistic goals based on your current situation and work on executing those goals. Then start looking at how you could realistically push those goals further and further and what you’d need to do to make that happen.
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100% agree. Process matters.
My old process was established to allow the photo process to be done by me, and the listing process by someone else (Veronica liked doing some listing only, I wanted a setup for a potential employee, and to be able to list on the road).
I created a new process where I can list while doing photos (drafts), then finish the listing after I photo edit. Between listening to how Ryanne uses drafts, and 10k on the Bay can get a listing in 6-10 minutes, I tried a new process.
Yesterday I did 20 items in 5 hours, while Veronica did 11 of her items. New process is starting to work, and will get tweaked further.
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Yeh using drafts is an invaluable tool for quick listing, one that I admittedly under-utilise. I herald from a background way back in graphic design and have become so accustom to editing my photos in photoshop that every time I use the ebay sliders I get frustrated. I know it’s a psychological thing…. but I guess I hold myself to certain (unrealistic) standards with my photos and most of the time the ebay inbuilt editor can’t match up to that for me. Not only that but for some reason the listing page on ebay is one that I can’t get past. It’s perfectly easy and quick to use, don’t get me wrong, I understand it and know what I’m doing but for some reason it still takes me forever. I think I’m just too meticulous and end up re-checking every field like 20 times, which just wastes time.
It’s for that reason I abandoned listing and focus on photos. I have a similar setup to what you described, I do photos and shipping, partner does listing and book keeping. We both kinda do customer service, whoever has ebay the most handy at the time. I do still take 95% of my photos on my DSLR and then edit the photos in photoshop, which I save to Google Drive folders along with a document containing item details. I know it isn’t the most efficient way, but I have also become pretty quick with using photoshop, so most photos take a max of 20 seconds to edit, save, sort and upload for me.
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And remember that consistency is good, but we’re not robots. Ryanne and I will get into a listing frenzy for a couple weeks, and then slow down for a coupe weeks while we have doing another part of our business.
20 items a day is more aspirational…and really only important in the early days of building up your inventory.
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I agree on the photos. I use an outside editor as well, so that I can make sure the colors and lighting are correct on the clothes before I list. I could decrease my listing time if I didn’t edit so much, but I know the sales would take a hit. And at the end of the day, our job is to SELL inventory, not just grow it…
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T-sat ca you explain your process? Do you use your phone? I keep trying to just list with my phone but it is so much slower because I make a lot of mistakes and have to correct them on the computer. Biggest problem: I can’t seem to change the arrangement of the photos I took using my phone when I use the computer. Some fields seem to be missing on my phone. And some I just miss because on my phone they don’t show up unless I scroll down, etc., so I forget they are there. Then after the listing is done I have to go back and delete the pics on my phone one by one. Iknow I must be doing this all wrong. But I’d love to master it because I’d much rather list by sitting on the porch swing or sofa than by grinding it out at the office desk. Any suggestions? I wish I could watch someone do it on a video. I’m a visual learner.
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Linda: We have three different processes.
Veronica does the listing for non-clothing items. She will take a batch of items into the photo studio (extra bedroom) and photo 8-15 items, depending on how many are in the bin. Photos are taken on her phone. She will then take the bin to her computer, load the photos to her computer, do the photo editing using PhotoScape, and then list the items in the batch, taking any measurements or weights while she is listing. She will get about 10-15 items done each day with this process. I think it is the slowest because every item is unique, taking more time to select the right category, research, and fill in the item specifics.
For clothing, we have two processes. The first process is for us to list while on the road or at a later time. This is more time consuming (24 minutes per listing), but has more flexibility for employees. I take a batch of items to the studio, photo an item, and then fill out a written form I created that has all the information for the listing. Measurements, weight, color, item specifics, etc. The form has the unique inventory number (we keep this on Google Docs to access from anywhere), and when the photo editing is done, each photo for that item has the same number. Then anyone can get the sheets and the photo files and list from anywhere. Photos are done on the phone, downloaded to my computer, and I edit on PhotoScape. I usually do 8-16 listings in a batch.
The quicker process (that I just started to speed things up that will be listed immediately) is to take a batch of items to the studio, photo an item, and then create a draft listing for the item using the laptop in the studio. I enter all the information for the listing right there, only the photos and the pricing is left blank. Then I edit the photos from my computer in my office, add them to the listing, add the pricing, and list. This moves the listing time down to 10-15 minutes per listing (shirts are much quicker than suits). I do about 8-12 listings in a batch this way.
I track my time on each aspect of listing (Sourcing, Prep, Photo, Photo Edit, Listing, and Shipping) so that I can see how much time I spend on each part of the process. By doing this, I can analyze where my time is spent and how to make it more efficient. Photo, Photo Edit, and Listing are the biggest bottleneck, so I want to always look for ways to make it go faster, while keeping the quality needed to get the sales to come in quick with good pricing. I change the number of photos per item, amount of detail in the Item Description, etc. to see how it affects time as well as sell thru rate.
Let me know if you need any more info!
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Man this is errie: This is the exact process we use, even the small paper tag that we hand write and attache to each item. We log in each new purchase and create the SKU nmber and fill in on a basic grid view the title, price paid, date paid, scale weight and my est. box size and save as a draft. Then after photo., we open the draft by matching the sku number to the item and complete the listing and save to bulk upload. Then when finished with about a doz. or so we bulk-batch upload.
One thing we discovered that we think will save us some time as you mentioned you are looking for. One is we use a 35mm DSLR camera and know how to use it due to all the photography courses I had in Art School. So I use the manual setting and can use one finger and change the apperature, shutter speed and sensitivity of the shot in a split second. We don’t shoot on a pre-programmed setting or an automatic setting like most cell phone cameras are. We shoot each product just as a wedding photographer shoots, adjusting each shot as we see it through the lens. So photos are shot at the photo table in such a way we don’t have to edit anything. The next step in speeding us up is going to be a Wireless ScanDisk card so as we shoot what we think is an acceptable photo right on the product table those photos are sent wirelessly to the folder we create to hold each months shot. That is going to be a real time saver right there because there is no downloading of photos and they are ready to attach to the draft we created weeks earlier when we first bought the item and brought it home. But our process is almost word for word as yours.
Then the sku number we used on the tags [BTW our tags are pre-printed as is the unique SKU number. We have a secret code utilized in our skus that contains the item number, date purchased, price we paid and where it is located in the storage bins we finally will store it in] is the number that is used to track our item all the way through our process right on out into the garage storage bins.
But reading your post really caught my eye.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Interesting, but maybe not, that our processes are so similar. We all are always researching and looking for ways to be more efficient, so we probably see and read the same things.
Interesting on the camera side. That is one area I would like to upgrade at some point. The cell phones are great, but I know that certain shirt colors are going to be rough (pinks, light blues, light greens). PhotoScape will get them right (or pretty close), but I hate spending that time. I spend 3-5 minutes per item on the photo editing now, so if that could be less than one minute (just a check and quick crop) that would be nice.
Do you have a camera that you recommend that would be easy to learn to use? I’m trained as an accountant, so… 🙂
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Had a much better week than I realized:
April 16-22
Active Listings: 1223
Items Sold: 55
Sales: $974.39
Avg Price Sold: $17.72
Sold Item Cost: $46Best Sale: Two Lid & Lash prescription medications for $100 each. I always look out for skin care and meds at thrift store – usually only priced a dollar or two because they’re not hot items amongst the boring law-abiding public.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Avenova-Daily-Lid-and-Lash-Hygiene-w-Neutrox-40-ml-Bottle/282424460593
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My post to this thread is not showing up. Recap: A good week for me selling all new items, including mostly RA bedding. I did well on the challenge listing 25 items! I also encouraged others to become patrons so we can at least cover the forum costs for R & J. Have a great week everyone.
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Anyone else having problems with their shipping coupon? I got mine in the first week of April but didn’t try to order anything until this week. Now, when I go to the discount page, it says “Currently Not Available. Please Try Again Later”. It’s been like that for a week, so I called eBay and the rep said, “this is strange”.
Wondering if it’s only me or a large segment of store owners.
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The page comes up for me.
http://www.sd.ebay.com/subscriberdiscounts/viewOffer/Q2Premium2017I redeemed the Q2 one in early April. No problems.
You can also add this link to your Shortcuts on Seller Hub.
http://www.sd.ebay.com/subscriberdiscounts-
Yeah, that page is live for me, but when I click on “See Details” do get the code is where there’s an error.
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Quick update on this – after a few calls to eBay, they couldn’t figure out why there was no code for me, so they manually sent me one at the end of last week for $50 and I ordered my supplies. They arrived yesterday. Also arriving today was a NEW $50 supplies code… will be ordering more supplies this evening!
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Late posting numbers, because I was out of town over the weekend. I got in on Monday, only to get a nasty case of food poisoning, (thanks a lot, Whataburger). COGS is higher this week than usual. I spent $65 on the Dutch oven at an estate sale, but made almost $100 off it. I was a little surprised that I had as good a week as I did, since I was gone for 3 days of it. The current week hasn’t been so great, but maybe that is for the best, since we’re all still feeling a little green after the Whataburger incident. *shudder*
Store Week 4/16/17 – 4/22/17
Total items in store: 415
Items sold: 16
Cost of items sold: $104.74
Total sales: $450.86
Highest price sold: $154.99 (Le Creuset Cast Iron Dutch Oven)
Money spent on new inventory this week: 0 -
http://ebay.yourbrandlive.com/c/spring-seller-update
This will tell you about the shipping . APPROX. 27 MIN. INTO IT.
Label must be uploaded in the number of days you have down for handling.
I have 1 day so I must print out label within that 1 day.
The post office just has to scan it any time . I have seen my postman scan and it didn’t show up for days. I know how you like proof so here it is. I don’t think they are really doing it but, that is what they said. I hope that helps everyone. I looked for days for this so I could show proof Jay:) -
My numbers for the week of 4/8/17:
Total Items in Store: 108
Items Sold: 10
Cost of Items Sold: $18
Total Sales: $200 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $35 (Ortholite Sandals)
Average Price Sold: $20
Returns: 0I missed a couple of weeks of checking in and reporting my numbers. Busy with family stuff and I can’t believe how fast the weeks are going. My kids only have 4 weeks of school left! Yay but yikes! Average selling price was lower than usual as I wade through the bottom of my death pile. I have just a few boxes left of stuff I purchased more than a year ago. Almost done and then I will be listing all the fresh new stuff sourced in the current year at least! Gearing up for warmer weather, and the garage sales have already started. I like to look at my eBay business in terms of Seasons. Buying season is just beginning and I stock up like a squirrel storing nuts for winter. I list as much as I can but no way to keep up with the new inventory. Then come September, when the kids go back to school and the sourcing winds down, it’s listing season. I hunker down for the winter with plenty to list and no real reason to leave the house. It works out well to think of it in cycles like this, seems like a natural flow. And I find myself looking forward to each “season”, the new focus helps me not get bored.
I have to share about an awesome find I had yesterday! Picked up a Herman Miller fiberglass shell chair for $20 off of a local facebook group. Hoping to get $650 for it. My best find so far…ever!
Have a great trip Jay and Ryanne! -
Hello, and a big Thank You to Ryanne and Jay for your work sharing your journey. How fun?!
So, I’ve been selling off and on eBay for over 10 years, now. I’ve always been able to hunt through eBay and find their Customer Service phone number to call. Recently, I’ve been unable to do that. I’ve been down so many rabbit holes to no avail. It’s frustrating.
I’ve had a customer threaten me with unfavorable feedback, if I don’t give them a partial refund for an item that I refused best offer on, twice. So, I submitted a Report Buyer form, while trying to find the phone number for eBay. But, that is separate of getting eBay to remove the feedback, or is it?Does anyone have any experience with the Report Buyer experience? And, what is the secret to getting eBay’s phone number?
Thank you,
Jillie
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First I typed into my Google search box .. “What is Ebay’s Customer Service Number” and it brought back a doazen replies of which all of the top one’s show a number. Unsure if it is still an active one or not.
Secondly, make sure you are signed in and click on the “My Ebay” tab. This takes you to your Account DashBoard”. Then click on Seller Center from the left side bar selection short cuts, scroll to the bottom and on the very last line, in small text [of course] on the far right says Help & Contact Us.
Thirdly, if this link works, this link will take you directly to the Seller Center and again scroll down to the last line, far right.
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/index.html
When you click at the bottom on Help & Contact, it takes you to the Ask Us Contact page and scroll down and there is the Contact us “tab”. Click on this and at this point Ebay makes you give a reason for your call, select best you can and ususally they will give you a one time code to use to call them.
Others here may have a direct number or maybe those Google result numbers are still active. And surely Ryanne can give you a number but R&J are Anchor Store owners and have a special number just for them and that may not be available to you.
So, this should give you several choices and good luck.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Thanks, MDC, we’ve done all of those. Yes, one of those eBay rabbit holes, usually, takes you to a phone number, when they run out of FAQ options. But, we’re not getting that. I just went to their Facebook Page, where they’ve a phone number……?! How bizarre….eBay can publish a phone number on Facebook, but, not on or anywhere near the Seller Dashboard.
Okay, so, come Monday we will attempt a call on that number and see, how far we get.
Thank you, again, for your efforts and input.
Jillie
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findsandfurnishings,
I went through the same thing not too long ago. The report buyer does nothing for feedback extortion if they leave negative feedback. Once we were threatened I quit responding. They left negative feedback and I called and got it removed
The report buyer function will cause an internal investigation and eBay will not let you know what, if anything, they do to the buyer. I was told that sometimes cumulative complaints will get them tossed though.
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UPDATE*** I was able to get directly through to eBay on the Facebook page phone number.
The outcome was disheartening, as they said, since no foul language or religious content was used, there was no cause to remove the feedback… I guess threatening a seller with negative feedback, unless they issue a partial refund is okay. The buyer even stated that they made two separate offers for a lower price that we declined leading her to buy the product and get a reduced price that way. Shame on eBay……
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I would call back and try again. I think you got a bad rep. If you show that they were threatening negative feedback to get a partial refund, that is feedback extortion.
PS – Always offer to provide a full refund if they return in your messaging. That always helps in dealing with eBay, as they see you are willing to accept a return, and the buyer is threatening negative feedback to get a reduced price.
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