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In true scavenger style, Eric from Ottawa Canada, is making ends meet by sourcing all his inventory for free, parting it out and then making money scr
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 309: Scrapping and Parting – Interview w/ Eric in Ottawa Canada] -
April 30th – May 6, 2016
Total items in store 1320
Sold 70
COGS 96.50
Total Sales 2,083.30
Sold 48 tunics (1,474.52)
Other Sales (608.78 good sales for my store)
Highest price sold. Had 2 high sales 59.99 each, Italian Shoes and a Pendleton Sports Coat
Average price per sale 29.75
Intl –
Returns 2
Spent on new merchandise 245.00
New listings 30Tunic sales continue to be strong. Looks like I have enough tunics on hand for another strong week of sales. The tunics have been a great source of income it’s also a lot of WORK. To be successful in this business you gotta work at it.
Columbia had over 150 garage sales during the past week. Pick of the week is 2 pair of Birkenstocks I paid 9.00 each. I can sell them for $80.00. I also stumbled upon a heap of vintage new in the package men’s clothing. Hope all of you are out there working the garage sales. I find some of the best stuff at cheap prices at garage sales. By Saturday morning I am physically tired from hustling Thursday & Friday garage sales but I make myself go anyway because I know the deals are out there just waiting for someone.
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4/30 – 5/6
Total Items in store: 368
Items sold: 8
Cost of items sold: approx. $10
Total Sales: $140
Highest price sold: $49 vintage brass compass
Average price sold: $17
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 – 15 sales – $2,187, COGS – $1095, fees – $251, profit – $842
Saturday I started a 35% off sale on all my inventory, immediate boost in sales
Paid $900 for a lot of Scuba equipment and industrial stock. Lots of switches and rollers in the industrial stock.-
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3 bouyancy? vests – 1 dacor, 1 mares, 1 oceanic
3 wetsuits men’s large – 1 seaquest, 1 sea hunt (I am unable to find info on), 1 wetz suits
2 breathing aparatus?
1 – Dacor XP 360 with dacor gauges (mechanical), dacor octopus
1 Conshelf 20 Supreme Aqua Lung w/ US divers Octopus, with sherwood gauges (mechanical)Assortment of fins, boots, gloves, lights, hoods
I paid $250 for all of it. I can probably double my money. Honestly I was probably not going to buy it, but he called the next day and said his work was throwing a bunch of stuff away, and he would bring it home. I ended up buying about $6k worth of new stock parts – bearing, rollers, switches and such for $500. That kind of stuff is easy to sell and ship
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Our numbers
Week 1 (30-06)
Number of Active Listings: 420
Items In Store: 663
Items Sold: 11
Avg Selling Price: $15.29
Cost of Goods Sold :$0.00
Total Sales: $168.25
Returns/Refunds: $0.00
Unpaid Items: $0.00We had an ok amount of sales but unfortunately they were all low dollar items this week. Starting to get a bit scary but we’re using the motivation to list like crazy, we were happy to reach as high as 420 listings by the weeks end.
Nothing too interesting while scavenging this week, just stocked up on lots of jeans, jackets and tops. Coolest thing I found was probably a white leather marble jacket from a brand called D’Revi, made in Mexico. I went all out and spent $7 on it, just coz I thought it looked cool.
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Week April 30th-May 6th, 2017
Total Items in Store: 861
Items Sold: 22 (5 Amazon)
Total Sales: $1,091.42
Cost of Items Sold: $139 (12.7% of sales)
Highest Price Sold: $400 (1960s The Beatles 12″ Record Case)
Average Price Sold: $49.61
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $80
Number of items listed this week: 25
Promoted listings test: 7 sales, $359.98 (33% of total sales), $20.55 fees (5.7% of sales)Another really great week for me. Would have still been good without the big sale, but that certainly helped.
I got the Beatles record case from a guy that sources & picks himself, but hates eBay. He usually just sets up on his stoop and sells on nice days. Since I bought from him a couple times, he told me that he’d call me first when he gets something good. He told me about this Beatles record tote – I’ve seen them at the 45rpm/7″ size, but never large. Even on eBay only one had sold in the past year. I paid $40 for it, expecting about $150 until I did my research. Listed high at $500 since it was the only full sized version listed(thanks Ryanne!) and jumped at the $400 offer.
Other big sales that fueled the week included a 48 Star Flag and several nice LP sales.
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Sales this week about $550-600, but I have been focusing on buying.
I have really been in picking heaven lately. Since April 1st I have spent around $1200 for $21,000 worth of merchandise. The rummage sales this time of year have really fueled this. And of course the $8500+ of make up that I bought helped out.
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Dang, Mark… that’s an incredible amount of inventory in one-ish month (and great markup too)!
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Brian – Yes, I think it is due to my new strategy that I explain below to Manateejaq about getting the “jump” on the sales. I would have to say the quality and quantity of my items has dramatically improved by doing this. You may see different results, depending on what you are looking for and where you live, how much you are willing to pay, etc. But for me, this is a big difference.
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Definitely. I like to balance being in line at the best sales on the first day with being there later in the day on the big/hoarder sales. Gives me a good balance of quality & quantity. If I worked from home, I’d probably do the same as you on the early weekdays. Currently, I’m held to Saturday & Sundays only for the most part.
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Brian – What you are doing is working well because you find some pretty amazing items. My items tend to be more quality bread & butter items with a sprinkling of amazing items. Like you say, it is also great to go on the last day, last hour of an estate sale and clean them out for next to nothing. I really like the rummage sale because I find a lot of “old” items people are too afraid to put in a garage sale cause they look so junky, but in fact they are usually the item that is really amazing.
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Made a decision this week to invest in more boxes. I am finding that I can make more money if I have the right box for first class and FedEx post. I find that if I don’t have the right box hand, I am Leaving money on the table. Also, I have a lot of stress finding a good box for larger and longer items. I know I Won’t want to make a custom box for so many items. So,I found a local company that sells boxes at good rates. That was important because they have free local delivery or you can pick it up at the warehouse. Similar prices to Uline, but after you pay for the postage, you are usually paying 1.75 times the price of the box.
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Hi Ryanne, it looks like my post is lost this week again after I edited. If you can recover it, great. I see it has a record of my posting in this forum but I don’t see the entry. Thanks!
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not sure where it went, but i did see this in my email—
ChristineR wrote:
Total Items in store: 334
Items sold: 10
Cost of items sold: approx. $88 (new) + $5 (used)
Total Sales: $434
Highest price sold: $118 (two Vintage Lilly Pulitzer neckties (paid $4) went to preppy D.C. retail store)
Average price sold: $43
Number of items listed this week: 15
Spent this week: About $30A good week with mostly new items selling, though I have been listing my vintage backlog. With this small store, it really seems like I need to drop some coins in and pull the handle to get some payout. If I don’t list it is pretty quiet. Worked on napkin rings this week and other assorted items. I think I’m switching to linens perhaps this week. The nice thing about piles is variety but sorted types of items to list.
I did go to a very fancy rummage sale but it was kind of disappointing this year, which is good I guess since I am working the backlog. I should have taken photos to share here. The former estate where it’s held is gorgeous and in Oprah’s neck of the woods. They have it set up by category in different buildings on the grounds and some areas have lines. I definitely should do it in a different order and go earlier next year. Also I prefer more modern, clean lines and there was a lot of very fancy antiques, silver, etc. No Vera Neumann linens this year sadly.
My son has a new school dress code next year and is recently into a men’s large, so it’s like shooting fish in a barrel to find great used stuff for him. Normally I’m not a fan of looking through clothes. We only have one Goodwill downtown. Their inventory is very fluid and in a good location for donors.
Have a great week trash elves and Happy Mother’s Day to the hardworking moms, especially you homeschoolers. Love my kiddos, but I don’t know how you do it!
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Week of Apr 30 – May 6
* Total Items in Store: 778
* Items Sold: 16
* Cost of Items Sold: $13.33 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $321
* Highest Price Sold: $40 Harmony Kingdom Collectable Box
* Average Price Sold: $20.06
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $3
* Number of items listed this week: about 40Another decent week for me! I did go to some garage sales & flea markets on Saturday, but really didn’t find much. Maybe my area isn’t as good for garage sales or maybe I’m just getting more picky. I’m taking the time now to get through my unlisted items and death piles.
I had a neighbor ask me to sell some Zumba brand clothing on consignment, which I agreed to do at 50% commission. I decided the time was right for me to put together a consignment agreement. I don’t need to have a fancy document with all the legalize; just something that explains terms. Perhaps I will post it here when it is completed.
I was going to go to a flea market and sell my slow selling, low value eBay items, but the weather was overcast with slight showers in the afternoon. I’ve decided to sell at a different one scheduled for May 20.
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Total Items in Store: 1,400
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $62
Total Sales: $747.86
Highest Price Sold: $83 (Aldo Boots, cost $2)
Average Price Sold: $33.99
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $35
Number of items listed this week: 61Stomach flu prevented more listing and scavenging than I would have liked.
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Store Week 4/30/17 – 5/6/17
Total items in store: 1316
Items sold: 16
Cost of items sold: $8.75
Total sales: $529.64
Highest price sold: $210.00 (Vintage Letterman Sweater)
Average price sold: $33.10
International Sales: 1
Returns: 1 (2 more on the way. Oy!)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $59.00Thank goodness for one good sale! Actually, I had two other pretty good sales too, and both were unpaid. So frustrating! I’m also having a lot of returns all of a sudden. It’s so strange how this stuff always comes in waves.
I made a great find at a sale this week. I got two gorgeous Pendleton blankets for $3 each. I listed each for $300 OBO. I’ve already had someone very interested in one, but he wants me to dry clean it and everything before sending. I think I’ll just hold out because I know they will sell. Got some other good stuff too, but those were definitely the highlight for me. I kind of want to keep one, but I think I want the money more.
Interview sounds interesting …I’ll listen tonight!
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I suspect the reason he wants it dry cleaned first is that Pendleton stuff is like crack for moths and often the holes are held together with moth spit and don’t reveal themselves until after an item is cleaned.
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Really? I checked it for holes and found some thin spots but no real holes. Hopefully they don’t show up later! I considered cleaning them before listing, but it’s a bit spendy and I’m pretty sure they will sell anyway.
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I once bought a wool Ralph Lauren duffel coat to sell. I noticed a couple small moth nibbles, but figured it was worth picking it up anyway. After cleaning, about 15 additional damaged spots showed up. Personally, I never sell a wool blanket without cleaning it first even though it generally costs $15-$20 to have one cleaned where I live. I only buy blankets that I think will sell for $100 or more, so it’s still worth the investment for me.
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Week of 4/30-5/7
Total Items in Store: 1,481
Items Sold: 86
Number of Items Listed This Week: 50
Total Sales: $2,378.95
Cost of Items Sold: $505.92
Highest Item Sold: $100 – Vintage Pyrex Pink Gooseberry Refrigerator Dish Set (Veronica wins this week expanding her lead for the year 10-7).Sales increased over last week, but we are seeing a much rockier ride, with larger swings day to day.
We also had another situation today like last week with the bulk shipping, with eBay timing out when generating the labels. 8 of the 14 labels were eventually sent to eBay/PayPal, no SCAN sheet. So again, manually reprinting the labels and had to take them to our FedEx office (our office will take USPS, and we already had 4 FedEx packages, so one trip only). eBay said they would have a technical person get with us in the next few days. REALLY hoping that we get this corrected…
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April 30-May 6
Total items in store: Etsy 307 // Ebay 253
Items Sold: Etsy 4 // Ebay 10
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $9.59 // Ebay $66.80
Total Sales: Etsy $58.40 // Ebay $229.90
Highest Price Sold: Suede jacket $40
Average Price Sold: $20.59
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 43 (Listed at $671)I haven’t posted my numbers for a couple weeks. I went out to California for a week for my sister’s wedding, so I have been out of the loop for a bit. Getting back into the routine again! I went to a 100-mile garage sale this past weekend in the southeastern Minnesota area. I went out on Friday and Saturday and was kind of disappointed with the results. I went to a LOT of garage sales, and was out for a good seven hours on Saturday. I just did not have much luck. Maybe it was because it was late in the game and things were picked over. I did notice that I was going to a lot of the same houses that I had been to before in the same 100-mile sale last year. Maybe I already bought the things that were ‘good’ for me last year? At the end of the day on Saturday I hit up a Salvation army and within an hour found just as many good things that took me seven hours to find earlier that day. (For about the same price.) I went out on Saturday because that was when I could find a babysitter. My two-year old would not be happy going to garage sales for seven hours straight. 🙂
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Manateejaq – I have found similar results when I started going to sales on the weekend, all the “best” items were gone. Could I still find items? Yes, but not as good of quality. That was my tale last year. This year, I am getting the “jump” on the sales. I’m starting on Monday- Thursday. I don’t have to be the first one there, just show up the first day by noon. This has only been possible this year because I work from home Wed- Fri for my full time job and I go out at lunch time and after work. I start work at home at 7AM, so I get done early. You can see the results from my post above – since April 1st I have spent around $1200 for $21,000 worth of merchandise. And awesome finds for nearly all of them. For example, there was this rummage sale that went 9AM – 6pm on the “wealthy” side of town (actually I did a study from data I found and this was in (or very near) the highest household income zip code for the state – yes, that data is out there on the internet). Even at this late hour, I found the following shoes laying on a table: 5 pairs of Asics running shoes, 2 pairs of Born shoes, 3 pair of Dansko shoes, and a pair of Ecco – all for $1 each! My selling price will be $37 on average for these shoes.
So, what I’m trying to say is, try to get the “jump” on the sales if you can. Check out the sales for Monday – Thursday by where you work. Go early and go often. You can still find items no matter when you go, I’m just saying that if you want the best items quickly, get the “jump” on them!
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RR Store Week April 30 – May 6, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1.272
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $9.28
Total Sales: $516.92
Highest Price Sold: $79.99 (70s bell bottoms)
Average Price Sold: $25.83
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $56.25
Number of items listed this week: 33So crazy. This is half of what I made last week. Hopefully this week will be better. I’m in the final stages of De-Death-Pile-ification, so that should free me up to do more sourcing, which has been minimal lately. One of the dreaded items in the death pile was a Super Nintendo console and 24 games.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how I use eBay as a resource as well as a selling platform. The Super Nintendo is a perfect example. First, I didn’t have a cord to connect it to my TV. $4.35 and three days later, I had a cord. Then I tested the games. Half of them didn’t work, so I Googled up ways to fix them. Very simple: open the cartridge, clean the chip with an eraser, close it up, good as new. But I needed a special screwdriver to open the games. $5.85 and three days later, I’m cleaning cartridges. All the games that didn’t work are playing perfectly, and the bundle is listed at a very high price. Fingers crossed it sells soon.
*Paul*
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Always love hearing about other home schoolers doing ebay. Fellow homeschooler here.
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Another homeschooler or unschooler as I like to say here. I only have one kid left to teach, the other 3 are done thankfully. My two eldest have gone on to college/post grad but my third child has been bit by the ebay/amazon bug and has no desire to further his education. It’s my own fault for teaching him a side hustle.
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Apr. 30 – May 6
Total Items in Store: 706
Items Sold: 10
Total Sales: $330
Highest Price: $70 (Unused Kodak Darkroom Outfit Photo Developing Kit from 1943)
Average Price: $33
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $38
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $135Kinda a blah week. I know I should be thankful for sales regardless of how few, but I want more! I went to an auction that was promised to be really amazing but ended up such a let down. It was an estate auction of a couple who passed away. They were hoarders for sure. Boxes upon boxes of worthless junk. I got a car load regardless, but damn if it didn’t take a lot of time and effort.
I enjoyed the podcast this week. Eric, you seem to have a really good thing going. Do you bother parting out really old appliances, like for example a stove from the 1960s? Or perhaps those might be harder to come by and therefore worth more? I would love to get into the parting-out business if I had the time and the space. I have a fascination with how things work and taking things apart.
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Total Items in Store: 687
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Total Sales: $218
Profit: $188
Highest Price Sold: $60 Vintage Wolverine boots made in Japan
Average Price Sold: $31.14
Average Profit: $26.86
I’m fully back on the listing train. Woot! Woot! Unfortunately, my sales apparently got left at the station. Half of my store is shoes now so I am grossly out of balance.
I’ve been cranking along getting bins of shoes listed. I’ve went back to exclusively listing on the phone. This means I cannot add sales tax to the listing but I’ve cut out a step or two.I’ve done more organizing and I’m getting overwhelmed with how much unlisted inventory I have. I can’t quit buying either dag gone it. Every time I say I will stop I end up finding a cache of awesome merch that I simply cannot pass up. It is SO HARD to resist.
If I keep listing 50+ items a week then my sales should pick up. I’m on a mission to get up to my store max of 1000 items.
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Good for you! Attack that backlog. I wish I could get used to just using the phone. I feel like I am slower than average at listing. I have a lot of unlisted left too. I’m nibbling at the shopping but my ratio of out vs. in is much, much improved and it is fun to rediscover picked items one category at a time.
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It is slower due to the load times. I preferred creating drafts on the PC and taking photos on the phone but there is this weird bug where when I switch between phone and pc, all my settings such as returns, BIN, Paypal, handling time, etc would randomly change!
In the end I was creating drafts on PC, then uploading pictures on phone, then going back to PC to bulk edit all finished drafts to correct all the issues.Now that I’m back to exclusively phone the only thing I am missing is being able to add sales tax. Now that I decided to do returns with restocking fee I’ll also not have the restocking fee option either.
My fix will be to once a week go on and bulk edit everything I listed for the week to add that back in.
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My buying spree continues. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better. I just went to a church rummage sale in an “old wealth” neighborhood that was mega sized. Even I was over welled. They had a room for every category: Mens clothing, Womens clothing, jewelry, toys, linens, Holiday, Sports, electronics, books, etc. Never seen anything like this. But here was the catch: 30% mark up tonight, regular price tomorrow, and 1/2 off tomorrow night and a bag sale. I found two, 1960’s Harris Tweed jackets, 4 pair of Womens Ferragamo’s just sitting on a table, ecco shoes, Merrell shoes, etc. In sporting goods, I found O’Neil wet suits and vintage wool ski pants (I love those) and many other items. The rummage sale season is almost at the end, but I am loving it while it lasts.
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Where are you located that rummage sale season would be over so soon, Arizona?
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Steve – I am in the Detroit Area in Michigan. They are two basic seasons for Rummage Sales here: April – Mid May and Mid September – October. Yes, there are Rummage Sales outside these time frames, but these two time frames have the majority of the Rummage sales. I’m near the end of the April – Mid May season which is what I was referring to.
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Thanks very much Jay (and Eric) for the interview. I really enjoyed hearing about another niche area. I’ve parted out small appliances over the last couple of years. Food processors, juicers and grills have done well for me. I doubt many people have the setup that could allow them to part out large appliances like Eric so it seems like a good business model.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1710
Items Sold: 38
Total Sales: $752
Cost of Items Sold: $73.74
Average Price Sold: $19.79
Average Cost of Item: $1.94
Highest Price Item Sold: $34.95 – Realistic Pro 2022 VHF/UHF 200 channel
Number of items listed this week: 73
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 230
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 136
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 97
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.22%
# of Hats Sold: 25 (65% of sales)Typical week for me. The sales come in very unpredictable patterns. One week Monday is super busy. The next week Monday is dead and Thursday is busy. I wonder what causes those kinds of waves of activity.
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If you read the eBay Seller Update then you may have seen their information concerning imbedded videos. Here is the link to their acceptable format:
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/bestpractices.html#InlineVideoBestPractice
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April 30 – May 6 2017
• Total Items in Store: 751
• Items Sold: 12 eBay 3 Bonanza
• International 3 GSP
• Total Sales $690
• Highest Price $130 Panasonic Boombox
• Average Price Sold: $80
• Returns: 1 shoes. INAD Said they were marked wrong. Still haven’t returned them, tomorrow I call eBay.
• Cost of Items Sold: $20
• Cost of items purchased this week $25 -
My numbers for the week of 4/30/17:
Total Items in Store: 104
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $46
Total Sales: $544 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $84 (FurReal Dog, NIB)
Average Price Sold: $32
Returns: 0The first quarter of 2017 has been really good for me, hardly slowing down from the holiday season. And the first week of May continues the streak. Now that we’re into the second week, I’m feeling a sudden slow down. Really happy to have made such progress on my goal of listing my stockpile down and getting everything listed that was purchased pre-2017 (not including some seasonal things). I have only a few boxes left and really want to get it all done by the time the kids are out for summer break. I have less than 3 weeks left! Wish me luck.
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My numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 601
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $8.50
Total Sales: $325.02
Highest Price Sold: 29.00 2 boxes of 1981 Phillies Cards
Average Price Sold: $21.66
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $43.10
Number of items listed this week: 44Very strange week with a lot of slow days and then doing half of my sales on Wednesday.
I had planned to hit a few yard sales on Saturday, but it mostly rained or threatened to rain so lots of folks had called them off, or just weren’t out. So, I hit the auction on Saturday and came out with a few neat things.
I got a huge box load of ceramic figurines made in occupied Japan at the auction for a buck. I have already been selling quite a few of them, and it looks like it may be a nice steady stream for at least a while.
I’m hoping to get to more yard sales in the coming weeks though as I have seen quite a few signs popping up around us.
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