Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay?

[Ryanne]

With a mild level of panic among sellers because eBay is removing items older than one year, we have to ask ourselves: what’s our back up plan is eBay
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay?]

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

I have a feeling this week’s topic is going to have quite a forum thread. With so many different models for our business and so many different situations we live in, the convo is going to be great.

Week May 28-June 3, 2017

Total Items in Store: 924
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $132 (15.9% of sales)
Total Sales: $830.02
Highest Price Sold: $100 (Pittsburgh Penguins signed photo)
Average Price Sold: $41.50
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 18 new, 8 relisted old listings
Promoted listings test: 5 sales, $254.84 (30.7% of total sales), $15.10 fees (5.9% of sales)

I did not think the week was this good until I tallied things up. Really happy with a total & avg price like this. The past couple weeks had been a lot of lower dollar items, but this week it seemed like every sale was $30-$40 and then a few high dollar items mixed in.

[Jay]

Wow. Your sales continue to improve. Very awesome for just something you do outside a full-time job! That’s real money.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Yeah, things are really coming along, but I by no means expect this to be a normal week (although I would love it to be). The strategy of finding quality over quantity is slowly paying off. Also interesting that the promoted listings continue to provide sales – although I haven’t cracked the nut on whether they are actually driving incremental sales that would have gone elsewhere or if I’m simply paying fees for sales that I would have gotten anyway. That’s my next challenge in the process.

[Rydell Relics]

RR Store Week May 28-June 3, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1,240
Items Sold: 26
Cost of Items Sold: $30.47
Total Sales: $612.19
Highest Price Sold: $70 (1940s women’s shorts)
Average Price Sold: $23.55
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 2

I spent most of the week icing my back and watching “Star Trek”, so aside from the auctions and the Sell Similars, almost no listing got done. But after a quick trip to the Chiropractor, I do feel a bit better. I hit my first estate sale in almost two weeks, and I’m very motivated to list, especially after looking at my weekly total. Goal missed.

The auctions are helping me burn off old inventory, but prices have been low. Still, glad to see clothes I took pictures of on the floor with a flash(!) finally finding new homes. It also gives me a chance to reflect on past purchases, and to compile a mental list of NON-BOLOs. If I never see another ugly Christmas sweater again, it’ll be too soon.

The shoebox full of vintage unused Sanrio items has been a cash cow. One buyer paid $78 bucks for a mini clipboard and nail clippers, plus another $40 to ship them to Japan! Those Hello Kitty collectors are fanatical about their hobby. Luckily, I have a few more items from that box to list. As soon as I saw it at the estate sale, I just knew it was a box full of $20 dollar bills.

*Paul*

[Julie B]

The months of April and May were my most profitable months in over 3 years selling on eBay (profit $1,799 and $1909, respectively). Considering my store has been largely on autopilot during those 2 months due to outside work with lots of overtime, I’m pretty thrilled. My sales can be attributed to a cache of brand new with tag mid-range to high price swimsuits I found a few months back for $5 a piece. I probably bought around 200 and am kicking myself that I didn’t buy more at the time. They have been selling for me really well (i’m down to just 47 left) and they have helped stave off the summer sales slump. I got tons of women’s Speedo brand, Kenneth Cole, Kenneth Cole Reaction, Maaji, La Blanca, Seafolly, Trina Turk, Gottex Profile, Norma Kamali (which retails for $350 & I have listed for $149!), etc. My highest priced suit to sell so far was a teeny tiny panther bikini for $99.99.

I’ve definitely learned a lot about swimsuits. The great thing about selling them is they are super easy to store, pack and ship. The bad thing is LOTS of returns! As I quickly learned, most high end swimsuits are sized one size smaller than regular women’s apparel. So if you wear a Kenneth Cole size 8 dress, you’d have to buy a size 10 Kenneth Cole swimsuit. No one knows that and no one reads descriptions so I’ve gotten lots of returns. But I just relist. Fingers crossed that I run across a cache like that again, but it might be a once in a lifetime score.

[Jay]

Congrats on the swimsuits. You found a valuable cache!

[Mark S]

I have been thinking about this a lot lately – a backup plan to ebay. Let’s face it, we are only several vero’s away from getting kicked off or what if ebay starts doing “dumb” things we can’t live with? I don’t want to be an alarmist, but ebay doesn’t feel fully stable to me. I feel like all my “eggs” are in one basket with ebay. Logic would say that I need to deversify some.

So far, I have my items listed on Bonanaza and TrueGether. I have been on Bonanaza about 1 year and my sales there are about 2% of what they are on ebay. I have been on TrueGether about 3 months and no sales there yet. Amazon is not appealing to me right now. My plan is to get on esty because I have about 600 vintage items I could sell there. Also, in the future, I would like to look into setting up my own web site for my store.

Does anyone else have ideas about how to venture out and not be so dependent on ebay?

Mark

[Jay]

It was important for us to find a backup plan that had nothing to do with online selling. Some other business that suits your interests or personality. Rentals woks for us.

I think we’ll always be able to sell stuff online whether it be eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Cl, or the manny future sites that pop up.

[Idahoarder]

Store Week 5/28/17 – 6/3/17

Total items in store: 1352
Items sold: 22
Cost of items sold: $25.76
Total sales: $1000.77
Highest price sold: $250.00 (Vintage Levi’s hat)
Average price sold: $45.49
International Sales: 3
Returns: 2 (1 for size, 1 for a hole that I missed …darn!)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $23.00

I went to as estate sale on Friday and loaded up on trucker hats. I was digging through several boxes of them, finding some pretty cool ones, when I spotted the Levi’s hat, and my heart skipped a beat! I listed it for $250 as soon as I got home (a bit higher than any had sold for), and it sold within 5 minutes for full price. Wahoo! Do you think I underpriced it? Now I’m on a hat kick, listing a bunch. I love hats!

As for an eBay backup plan, I really hope I don’t need one because this is a pretty sweet gig. I still work a few hours per week at my old job, so I could no doubt step back in there, but I REALLY don’t want to. I’d probably give Etsy or Amazon a go.

[Simon]

That’s a great tip on the Levi’s hat. I’ve sold a few but only more-recent Levis hats that sell at the same rate and price of other baseball hats. I’ll keep my eye out for the old Levis hats. (There’s an ugly bucket levis hat that also sells for a high price).

[Sharyn]

Week of May 28 – June 3
* Total Items in Store: 762
* Items Sold: 7
* Cost of Items Sold: $7.10 + $5 Commission
* Total Sales: $124.75
* Highest Price Sold: $36 Vintage Variable Resistor
* Average Price Sold: $17.82
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: approx. $156
* Number of items listed this week: 30

Pretty crappy week where I spent more in inventory than what I made! This is the first week that I’ve been hit with the summer slowdown, so I’m not complaining. I did not sell any of the items I put on auction, so I think it is time for me to cut my losses there.

I did a live auction and an online auction this past week, and I have a live auction tomorrow. After that, I have to catch up and stop buying for awhile. I’ve got a vacation coming up, so I really need to be backing off anyway.

[Steven S]

May 28 – June 3 2017

• Total Items in Store: 778
• Items Sold: 21
• International 2 GSP, 4 to an overseas buying company
• Total Sales $1370
• Highest Price $200 phono cartridge
• Average Price Sold: $65
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $50
• Cost of items purchased this week $140

Bought a junk drawer full of odd vintage audio bits at auction for $37, so far three items have sold for $410.

I don’t have a back up plan, I think it would take away my focus on the eBay job at hand.
If I can accumulate enough investment money I will follow R&J’s lead and get into rental property as a somewhat passive income but not really as a backup, more like a way to slow down as I get older.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Not really on topic, but just saw this in the advertising trades:

AdAge: eBay Paints Itself as Colorful Contrast to Amazon

In the new campaign, eBay is highlighting the items listed as unique & colorful and make your life better while Amazon is more of a machine that you get the same old same old everyday. Ebay is investing in advertising to draw in more potential buyers – they spent twice as much on advertising last year as the year before, and with a campaign of this size that debuted in the NBA Finals last night, chances are their expenditure will be high again this year.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Total Items in Store: 700
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $50
Total Sales: $301
Profit: $251
Highest Price Sold: $89 mp3 player
Average Price Sold: $33.44
Average Profit: $27.85

Not much listing happening lately. Been super busy! I had a great scavenge this weekend. I bought out a guy’s Nike shoe collection – 26 pair for $450. It is MUCH more than I typically pay for shoes, but this was a great collection. Most were only worn once or twice. The worst pair I’ll list for $50. I expect my average sales price to be around $70, so after fees and cost I’ll make over $1k.
So naturally, I wonder how someone has this many nice shoes and why are they selling. We talked for a while and he alluded to the fact these had been in storage because he had “went away” for a while. After I got home I googled his name. Sure enough, he had been busted for selling heroin to an undercover task force agent and spent about 2-3 years in jail going by the dates. He’s trying to get back on his feet doing things the honest way and I wish him the best. It’s a sad epidemic that has a stranglehold on the area I live.

[LeeinTN]

5/28 – 6/3

Total Items in store: 348
Items sold: 9
Cost of items sold: approx. $47
Total Sales: $195 (30% off sale)
Highest price sold: $45 NASCAR pit jacket
Average price sold: $21.77
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:1 (smashed coffe mug)
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $0

Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????

Ebay to Amazon – 18 sales – $1,711; COGS – $652; fees – $232; profit – $827
Something different on Amazon I discovered this week: I have an item I have bought on ebay and sold on Amazon a couple of times. I can usually buy them for $100 – $125, and sell for $200 – $225. This week on amazon, the lowest price was $49.99. Amazon was the seller, but the odd thing was the lead time was 4 to 6 weeks. It seems like Amazon is drop shipping. Seems contradictory to the Amazon model.

[Jay]

Huh, Ive heard other Amazon sellers complain that Amazon moves in our any popular item they find. I wonder if Amazon just expects to sell everything themselves eventually.

[Steve List]

eBay Store numbers for month of May

Total Listings: 804
Items Sold: 52
Cost of Items Sold: $142
Total Sales: $1354.59
Highest Price Sold: $300 USS Enterprise Cruise Book – cost $10
Average Price Sold: $26.04
International Sales: 1 GSP Canada
Spent on new inventory: $86
Number of items listed: 79
Refunds: 1 (item not received)

And just for the fun of it:
Items sold in May listed over a year ago: 17 for $454
Items sold in May listed in last year: 35 for $900

$40 of the new inventory was actually a donation to an animal shelter. An estate sale I went to (late in the day) had everything for free/donation. I filled up my van (many new in box kitchen appliances), 3 big bins of cassette tapes (many still sealed in original packaging), a working 16mm projector and lots of other great items. I just wonder what I would of got if I had gone earlier in the day.

On a different note J&R, if you are still interested in punk music, there is a new film that a friend of mine, Corbett Redford just directed and it is narrated by Iggy Pop, it is called Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk. It will be in about 440 theaters around the country soon. Full discloser, I have no financial interest in this film, although I am in it for a few seconds and from my collection provided some of the fliers and photos used.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

[Jay]

Cool! I hope they stream it online. There’s also a documentary about the hardcore punk scene in DC coming out: http://www.dcpunkrockdoc.info/

[Marjean28]

I felt the need to delve into a point brought up in the podcast referred to as tending the garden. Jay, I think you eschewed it as not a preferred method for you and Rhyanne. However, I took a crack at it because I’m slowly going through my inventory to catalog the storage location of each item. I found that there were significant numbers I thought were listed that were no longer posted. I am likely to blame for this, mishandling reposted listing before I started using the list it and forget it methodology. But it did call attention to the fact that if you don’t check on something, at least annually, then you can’t be entirely assured everything is up to snuff. I also think there is a middle ground for reworking inventory. Maybe just changing shipping options or altering the price. After all the market price may have shifted since the item was originally posted and now an increase is warranted. Remember your initial position on gallery photos? This concept of tending the garden may well be tantamount to that.

[Jay]

Fair enough. We do some gardening of our listings, but it’s sporadic and seasonal (like real gardening!).

I guess I was talking about how some sellers check/update listings each week/month. It’s more like running a real retail business. We’re more casual so we have time for other projects we enjoy. So far eBay still allows for our way of selling.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I can’t wait to hear the podcast once J&R start going through inventory and assigning bin #’s. The pile of no longer listed items should be epic.

When I did mine, I ended up with two overflowing tubs of items that somehow were no longer listed. I have NO IDEA why not for many of them. A few I traced back to an unpaid item or a return, but that was less than 10%.

[simplicio]

Looking back, a week of few sales, but all good ones. On the previous week I only sold $150 though, and “forgot” to post.

Sales: $1011, 3 items
Notable sales: Filter Queen vacuum $508, cell harvester $294, cordovan shoes $208
COGS: $131
Profit: $721
Hours: 6.5 (hourly rate $111)
Items listed: 6 (total 140)
Expenses incl. sourcing: $26

I think I undersold the shoes… got carried away in negotiating with a best offer buyer. Ah well, first pair I’ve ever sold.

[Jay]

Dont fel bad. $208 for cordovan shoes is still a great profit. Not every pair is worth $500+. It depends on the brand and condition as well.

[Castle Rock Emporium]

I have just a small store – Stats not worth wasting Faithful Readers time!
Good thing I went in and checked my listings- I found some with “Ship for Christmas” notes! However couldn’t find a way to do “Mobil Checker” in bulk. Anyone know how? Thanks!
-CastleRockEmporium

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 328
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $24 thrifted + $87 new RA
Total Sales: $295
Highest Price Sold: $56 (Catherineholm pan – paid $15 last month)
Average Price Sold: $33
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30 (Three vintage LLB plaid wool bedspreads)
Number of items listed this week: 4

I’m surprised at the numbers because it felt even slower. Very busy at my other job and with end of the school year stuff. Enjoyed the podcast, as always. I hope to continue with Ebay into retirement or earlier parent care phase when I can give it more time. I’m planning to do a bit more gardening in my listings and list things seasonally. I pulled all of the Easter stuff that didn’t sell. I’m also thinking the cons outweigh the pros for putting in the upc, so I’m going to pick does not apply and put the number in the item description in case they start enforcing that.

Ebay sent an offer to upgrade my store to premium, but I’m going to go for a balanced approach of list it and leave it vs. keeping it fresh. I’m not ready to upgrade the store just yet for $30 more a month, and hope they come up with a level soon between 250 and 1000. Have a great week.

[mickdog]

ChristineR – I found a Catherineholm plate a few weeks back, listed it and it sold immediately for $39. Maybe should’ve put more on it. But I wish could find a whole set of them!

I also got that offer to upgrade my store as well. I’m new to the store game so it wouldn’t work for me as I’ve only got 200-250 listed and not enough inventory to get up to 1000 any time soon. 400 or 500 would be a perfect size store category, I wish they would add that choice.

[SilvanaS]

Week May 28 – June 3, 2017
Total Items in Store: 937
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $ 36.33
Total Sales: $ 355.62
Highest Price Sold: $ 84 (set of 27 slides)
Average Price Sold: $ 19.75
International Sales: 3 (GSP 3, 2 to Germany)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 40
Number of items listed this week: 55
Last year on the same day I came across 2 guys who sold me boxes of diapositive slides. Collections from the 50s of fire trucks, military equipment, house fires, ships, German places, Native American art and African art. I paid $36 for all of them and I just got around to list the slides. I list the more interesting individually and the more casual ones as lots. So far I have made more than $200 and I still have more to list. A bunch of them got shipped to Germany, of course.

[sonia]

Since I’m often quick to complain and worry about slow periods, I thought I would take a moment to say “Yay!” about the huge number of sales I’ve had in the past 7 days. With a store of only about 240 items, and not having a listed a lot in the last couple of weeks, I still sold 19 items, which is a sell through rate of about 8% – I think that’s my highest ever. Hurray! I try to keep my store at 250 items, but I haven’t been able to keep up with listing b/c I’ve been doing so much packing 🙂

total revenue $674
asp $35

I hope that typing out this post will help me remember good times like these during the inevitable slow periods.

[Jay]

Congrats on the great week! It is good to be mindful of the weeks of strong sales even when we aren’t listing as much. I know Ryanne and I can forget that we’re always making money on eBay no matter may be happening. Pretty amazing!

[retiredtreasures719]

Somehow your weekly topics seem to be dead on with my situation at any given time! I’m currently using Ebay as an income supplement to my retirement, so while I’d have to give up a few things if I couldn’t do this, I could still survive.

Just a thought on the estate sale conversation (since I’m up to my eyeballs in stuff planning one!) I wish I had the luxury of taking all dad’s stuff and selling it on Ebay at my leisure. However, because this was a move into assisted living as opposed to a death, I don’t have the luxury of time. We have blown through dad’s savings getting him moved into his new apartment between deposits, moving expenses, replacing things that either didn’t fit into an apartment or didn’t work- it’s expensive! Assisted living itself is expensive. We need to get the house on the market ASAP which means getting all of the stuff out of his house ASAP. I’m trying my darnedest to get top dollar for his things, but I just don’t have the luxury of list it and forget it. I consulted with a company whose sales I frequent and they suggested I do the sale myself and put the really nice stuff aside to list as I have time. I wish you all were close enough to come to the sale, because there will be really nice things at really fair prices. I’m aiming for father’s day weekend. anyone interested in a mink neckpiece complete with heads and feet made in Japan?

Jay and Ryanne, make friends with your new mail carrier. Like I said the last time I posted, having a bunch of subs that didn’t know how to scan packages cost me my top seller rating. I will post a picture of the stole.

[Jay]

If you dont mind sharing, where will your sale be? There might be some friendly scavengers here who might attend.

[retiredtreasures719]

Mink stole

https://imgur.com/gallery/nqrdM?s=sms

[T-Satt]

Week of 5/28-6/03
Total Items in Store: 1,531
Items Sold: 84
Number of Items Listed This Week: 100
Total Sales: $2,251.24
Cost of Items Sold: $389.52
Highest Item Sold: $85 – Brunello Cucinelli Italian Corduroy Pants
Competition: Highest Priced Items: Troy wins (finally!), while Veronica leads for the year 13-8.
Competition: Highest Total Sales: Troy leads the year $18.0k to $13.6k

May 2017
Items Listed: 319
Items Sold: 295
Total Sales: $8,238.63, up 27% Year over Year, 5th Highest Month ever
Sell Thru Rate: 20%

Sales were up again this week, while our listing activity is back at goal level. Getting challenging to keep up at least 100 listings this week, with me having some contract accounting work again for a couple of days, and getting ready for our own yard sale on Saturday. Looking to move some of our larger eBay items at the yard sale, especially ones that have been around for a while. Taking Ryanne’s advice…”Get this off my shelf…”

More challenges on the eBay SCAN sheet. Three times in the past week, we have had issues. The last two is that the Bulk Shipping Tool skips over our Priority packages. So, anyone that uses a third party shipping platform that produces the SCAN sheet, I would love to hear your advice.

Regarding your Back-Up plan discussion, our plans are like yours, moving to rental property. But I constantly think about that type of stuff even at the smaller level. I constantly think about how to put ourselves out of business. What if we can’t find product at yard sales? What if thrift stores get too pricey? What if eBay blows up if they pass Internet Sales Tax legislation? I always try to think of Plan B, Plan C, Plan D. That way when you are in a situation, you have thought about some plans already. Even better if you pivot before the crises.

[Jay]

If its any consolation….since we started selling in 2008, I’ve been worried that this “eBay fad” was going to end at any time. I have also been worried that all our favorite thrift stores would get smart and start selling online. I also assumed people would stop buying so much stuff and not give away valuable items now thats its so easy to sell online with the phone.

Almost ten years later and none of my fears have come true. But back up plans always make me feel better.

[T-Satt]

Back up plans are always in order. As the rule goes…”two is one, and one is none”.

And I agree, things have only improved, I just always like to think about what could change and then what I would do to adjust. What are the risks to our business, and how should we manage those risks? Optimist in Thought…Pessimist in Planning.

The good news is that we are in the arbitrage business. And there will ALWAYS be arbitrage. Whether it is flipping shoes, collectibles, houses, or stocks, the game is the same. How can you find value where others don’t, and is there a business there? Scavenging is the same…you see what others don’t. I love that I have learned to identify more edible plants in the wild. They see weeds, I see salad. Locally, some see a waste for $40 per year for a community garden plot, I see $200+ of vegetables for a year at 80% off (and the water is free!).

The key is in the seeing…

[Mark S]

T-Satt – How are you getting a Sell Thru Rate of 20%? Did you say that it is mostly Retail Arbitrige?
What type of items are you selling?

Mark

[T-Satt]

We don’t do much Retail Arbitrage, unless you want to consider Thrift Stores as Retail. 100% of our items are from Yard Sales and Thrift Stores. Although we are starting to look more into Online Arbitrage (eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, Offer Up, etc.).

My wife and I run different types of items. She is mainly collectibles, and I am men’s clothing. She has started to do Jeans (men’s and women’s), and that has been a nice pick up for us. Clothing has a higher Sell Thru, but also a tougher market and less margin (we average more of a 4x on Clothing). On our volume, about 65% is clothing, the rest is collectibles.

[TiffyKaye]

Week of 5/28-6/03
Total Items in Store: 143
Items Sold: 14
Number of Items Listed This Week: 5
Total Sales: $832
Cost of Items Sold: $127
Highest Item Sold: $500 (stamp collection I found hidden in an autograph collection)
My Cost of Shipping: $105.46
New Inventory Purchased: $14

Right now Ebay is my way of paying healthcare premiums and bills for myself and my three children, which often is almost as much as our monthly mortgage. The sky high deductibles of Obamacare make it currently very difficult to budget for unplanned healthcare expenses, so I am realizing that I do in fact need a back up plan. I have it in my mind that I will return to work at PayPal if completely necessary, but I honestly feel pretty overwhelmed with the demands of parenting three strong willed children while my spouse runs a marketing business he co-founded. On my worst days I feel like I am being irresponsible with my future, as I am educated and could be putting the kids in daycare and earning additional income. But in broadening my perspective, I take into consideration how physically active I get to be with sourcing, shipping, dressing my mannequin, and organizing my inventory, and how this all makes me feel very good. At least until my kids get older, I am going to ride this train as far as it will take me.

[Jay]

Good news is that the Affordable Care Act will most likely be replaced or repealed so supposedly deductibles will be down according to current law makers;) I’m very curious to see if healthcare actually gets cheaper.

I hear from a lot of full time sellers that they enjoy having the time to be with their kids much more than if they worked a 9-5. Can’t get that time back.

[Doublythumbs]

May 28 – June 3
Total Items in Store: 862
Items Sold: 18
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $504
Highest Price: $60 (NOS Vintage Wondercale by Springmaid Percale Cotton Blend 4-Piece Full Size Bed Set)
Average Price: $28
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $94
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $294

Another pretty average week in sales. So far I’m doing as well as I was in Jan and Feb according to GoDaddy.

Last week I was off from work for vacation. I used my time to photograph and list over 130 vehicle and heavy equipment service and operator manuals. My goal was to have it all done from start to finish in 2 days. It took 3 days, but oh well. I’m really glad it’s done. And I’ve been selling them already. I foresee this as a nice steady source of sales in the next few months.

On Saturday, I went to an amazing auction out in the middle of nowhere. An estate auction of a fellow who spent his life collecting whisky decanters. I didn’t have a whole lot of interest in those, but it just blew my mind, especially since they were all full and unopened. I filled my car up nevertheless with all sorts of goodies that I got for a bargain.

Right now, eBay is sort of my backup plan. I’m pretty cozy at my full time job, but I know one day I’m going to move on, and I hope eBay will prove to be reliable as a good source of income. I’ve found that I have a real knack for finding items to sell, and I’m having fun doing it. All I need to do is to get my inventory up and get my average income higher than what I’m making now at my main job. My goal is to move out of the Ohio Valley by next summer.

[Jay]

Where do you want to move to?

[Retro Treasures WV]

I agree – ebay IS the backup plan!
If my current job goes south, I’ll switch to full time ebay. Hopefully I can get to the point I make $2k a week like J&R does.
For now my weekly profit is just icing on the cake that I mainly roll back into the business. To date I’ve purchased a large storage shed, a large 14′ trailer, boat loads of plastic tubs, computer, printer, misc packing/shipping tools, etc, etc. Not to mention the very large backlog of inventory I have. I currently have everything I need to go full time and list list list without buying anything for a couple months.

The plan is if I lose my job, I’ll put all scavenging on hold and strictly list existing inventory every hour of the day. That way all sales go directly to profit and I can ramp my store up to over 2000 items very quickly.

With severance package and unemployment, I’ll have at least 7-8 months to make a serious go at seeing if I can be full time ebay.

[Doublythumbs]

Good question. We don’t have a planned destination yet. We’re going down to Savannah in the fall to visit some friends and we’ll scope it out while we’re there. Seattle was another option where we have some friends currently living. I’m not looking forward to the move, but I know we’ve got to get away from where we’re at now. The heroin epidemic is hitting this area pretty hard and I’m afraid its just going to get worse.

[retiredtreasures719]

The sale will be in Troy, Ohio. I will post complete times and address closer to the sale. Like I said, I’m aiming for Father’s Day weekend, but at the rate it’s going, it may get pushed back a week.

[Jay]

That’s only a 7 hour drive. I’ve driven longer on scavenger trips.

[tpkrause86]

I have been working towards a backup plan for the last 2 years. My first move was that I purchased a duplex that I live in with a renter that covers almost all of the mortgage. I then several months ago used a paypal loan to purchase a foreclosure that is now paid off and fully remodeled with close to 70K worth of equity that will be rented soon and rents for 800 a month. I worked with a guy flipping homes for about five years so im able to do all the work myself which saves me a ton of money. My next move is to look for a four plex or triplex that I can pay cash for. I really need ebay to hold out for another year or 2 and I can be almost completely out from underneath it. I really dont see ebay going anywhere but thats my plan.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by tpkrause86.

[T-Satt]

Love those plans! I love the concept of house hacking like you have with the duplex!

Veronica and I are looking forward to getting in the game. We have about 1 year left with our youngest in high school, and then we plan to move to another area where we can take the equity in our current house, purchase our new house outright, with enough land to have a large garden, some animals, and plenty of storage for eBay inventory, studio, etc. Some of the places we have looked at would give is excess equity to start in 2-3 rentals. We have even started exploring Laundromats, storage buildings, and some RV parks for other sources of income.

The future will be exciting!

[tpkrause86]

Yeah I really love the buy and hold strategy on homes because you can collect rent for 20 or 30 years and still have the power to sell. Theres a guy that lives in my town that owns a couple laundromats that also have tanning beds in them and I think he does pretty well with them.

[T-Satt]

That is our plan, buy and hold. But I’m such a planner and accountant, that I am preparing my calculations now on how much each month to save in different buckets for maintenance (small stuff), capital maintenance (big stuff like roofs, water heaters, furnace, etc.) and vacancy (so I have a piggy bank if it is vacant for a few months). And if we grow enough fruit (profit) with each, we can continue to refinance to plant new trees (new houses). I see lots of parallels with business and farming…if done right, you constantly grow new centers of production….

Laundromats are intriguing, as a less labor intensive way to grow income. But lots to learn, and the range for purchasing them is wide. I have seen in one area from $50k to $750k…

[Marie in Florida]

I was out of state for a few weeks seeing my son graduate, travelling, and taking care of my mom.
It is so incredibly fun to continue to hear the Cha-ching even when I had 15 day shipping. My best sale over vacation was a Granny Square Afghan for $60

Items Sold: 6
Total Sales: $127
Highest Price Sold: $37 NAOT Sandals
Lowest Price Sold: $5.99 BIKE brand rain jacket that I originally started at 39.99 years ago. The buyer first messaged me offering(it wasn’t on BO) $4. I ignored or declined and she bought it anyway
Average Price Sold: $21

[Castle Rock Emporium]

Off topic but so passionate about the ACA – I would love to get eBay to a point where it will pay my Health Insurance also! Self-Employed for 40 years in my other job, Insurance premiums have gone up every single year, for each of those 40, always more than our mortgage! Deductibles started for us before Affordable Care Act. Not everyone realizes how much their employers actually pay. Good things about ACA: my 6 month old granddaughter can’t be turned down for insurance since she was born with a heart murmur, and my yearly check-ups, PAP and Brest exams cannot be charged to my deductible, have to be covered by insurance.

[T-Satt]

Our saving grace on the increased premiums was moving to Samaritan Ministries. It is not true health insurance, it is health care sharing, but it qualifies for the ACA law. And our premiums dropped from $900/mo to $500/mo.

[Linda Shields]

T-Satt, isn’t it interesting that it takes Christians to figure out the best way to provide health insurance? My friends little 6 yr old grandson passed away last year due to cancer. Horrible. But at least his self-employed parents had that kind of insurance, so he got all the best care paid for.

However, I must observe that when you expect people to be as responsible as you are, well you are really pushing the limits. Why wouldn’t they want people like you to carry their weight–it works! Did you notice that in the 18 Alabama counties where they began requiring recipients to do some work in exchange for their food stamps, enrollment went down already by 85%. LOL. I guess they didn’t need it that badly.

My Vietnamese manicurist just told me he has a brain tumor. He won’t be able to work any more because now his vision is going bad. He is only 33 yrs old with a family to take care of including his parents, a 5 yr old and a new baby. He barely speaks English, but we can commnicate if we try. Fortunately he and his wife who also works there both are legal citizens, so they will be covered insurance-wise one way or the other. He will call me after he sees the doctor today to learn what the treatment will be. His name is “Tim”. (His English nickname.) they just got their newborn out of the neonatal ICU; he was a preemie. Just an FYI for those who pray. They are such a precious couple. He told me, “I don’t care about money, or anything right now–I would give everything to get my health back.” It’s so true!

[Habnab]

Linda,

I don’t know if you saw the recent article about faith-based health care sharing ministries on Buzzfeed; it’s an interesting read for sure. https://www.buzzfeed.com/lauraturner/christian-health-care?utm_term=.jxMNJj63P#.obmKAPM0E It really gets into the ins and outs, the pros and cons. It seems to work for some, but I don’t think I’d call it “the best way to provide health insurance,” not least because its members have to find alternative routes (often government programs like Medicaid) to coverage for excluded conditions (up to and including all medical care for adopted children.) (Side note: mutual aid socities have existed for hundreds of years, and Roman soldiers even pooled their money to pay for burial of the fallen. So the overall idea is neither new nor a solution.)

Speaking of Christianity, it’s been many years since this atheist has been to church, but gloating over thosands of people losing food aid doesn’t seem in line with any Christian teaching I ever heard. I’ve looked into the Alabama situation, and there isn’t even clear evidence that there are sufficient jobs to employ all the people kicked off the rolls. It’s not that 85% of the people refused to work, it’s that they became ineligible under the new law and haven’t found employment yet. That’s thousands of hungry people and it’s tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars no longer going into the economies of those counties. In the long run, it’s going to do more harm than good.

Matthew 25:35-40New International Version (NIV)

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

And as for the ACA, the Republicans have had YEARS to come up with at least the broad outlines of an alternative to Obamacare. YEARS. So what’s their big, beautiful idea? “Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.” Jesus wept. (John 11:35.)

[Jay]

Yeah, elections have consequences so we’ll see how our new leaders imagine healthcare should work. I think a lot of people forget how problematic and expensive healthcare insurance was before the ACA.

For people who talk about bringing free market to healthcare, we need to agree that if you come to the hospital and can’t pay up front, you will be locked outside. No healthcare freeloading for you. We don’t care if your baby is dying or you’re bleeding out. No money, no healing. No more of this medical bankruptcy that puts the burden on honest tax payers.

Obviously I’m joking. But that’s the key point. Taking care of people is expensive. Someone always pays for those who can’t whether it’s through taxes, more expensive premiums, higher co=pays, etc.

No one wants to pay for medical insurance until they need it. The ACA was just honest about everyone needing to pay their share.

[T-Satt]

Your last statement was the truest statement…many don’t want to pay for it until they need it. Many people seem to forget that insurance isn’t free. Someone has to pay for it when you have a catastrophic medical cost. If people were doing what they should, they should be paying for insurance every day when they are young, so that they have paid for premiums when they don’t need the money, so that the insurance companies have the money to pay the costs when you DO need the money. Most people don’t look at insurance as a savings account…put money in early and consistently, so that it is there when you need it. I do this on our own finances. Every month, like it or not, I put money away in to multiple accounts for future expenses. Christmas account, auto repair, home repair, auto insurance, property taxes, homeowners insurance, business taxes, medical costs (for out of pocket). No kidding, I have like 15 bank accounts, and each is for a separate future cost that I know I will have at some point. When the car needs a repair? I have put money aside for that. When the house needs repair? I have money put aside for that. When we have to pay for a doctor visit? I have money put aside for that. These things are predictable, so I plan for them.

Medical insurance should be treated the same way. But many don’t see it that way. They see “I have costs for medical expenses, I have never had insurance, and now that I need it, the insurance company must give me what I want, and I want low premiums.”

I have always marveled that medical costs are the only ones in this society that everyone says that everyone else should pay for. When I want a new car, I can’t demand that someone else pay for it. When I need a new house, I can’t demand someone else pay for it. When I need food, I can’t demand that someone else pay for it. But if I have medical costs, I can demand someone else pay for it. Somehow, people see the economics on health care as different than the economics for everything else. It is like not having homeowners insurance, and then demanding that the company cover you with low premiums when your house is on fire. “I know that it is on fire, and that I haven’t paid any premiums, but you have to cover me NOW!”

Strange….

The biggest problem is with pre-existing conditions. Either A) let the actuaries figure out how much a person with pre-existing conditions will cost (since they are coming onto the insurance coverage with a higher risk and a higher cost to the pool than others) and charge a market rate (so that someone with pre-existing conditions can shop different companies and get a market rate) or B) mandate everyone to have insurance with very high premiums to cover those costs and for those that don’t pay for insurance, they are either in jail or pay a $100,000 penalty. You have to go to that extreme to make everyone comply. Just like driving…if you want people to drive safer…put a knife at their throat while they drive…then they will drive safer. 80% of the people drive safe anyway, but the 20% that cause the problem, they need that high of an incentive to get in line.

Anyway…rant over. I know I may see this differently, but I see medical expenses as no different economically than any other industry…but society views it differently.

[omfug]

The ACA saved my life and I had cancer so will be uninsurable if it is repealed and replaced by Trumpcare which is essentially a return to the “good old bad days.”

[Linda Shields]

Omfug, I understand your fears, but I am sure that is not the objective–otherwise Trump would have just repealed it. Instead now the various GOP factions are arguing about the best way to fix it while the Dems are standing by enjoying the fight instead of helping to resolve the problems. They don’t seem to understand that the ACA is collapsing as everyone opposes each others’ plans. It needs to be fixed before every insurance company pulls out, fairly to all the people who actually pay taxes and premiums, but quickly.

[Ryanne]

just to be clear, Trump can’t and couldn’t just repeal it. he needs congress to do so. that’s how the government works.

[Linda Shields]

Yes, I learned that in 8th grade civics. But repeal without replacement is obviously not the objective. The GOP could easily do the “nuclear option” to repeal it the same way the ACA was created.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Linda Shields.

[Ben]

Quick update on taking pictures on the ebay mobile app. It seems that in order to be able to change between veritcal and horizontal modes that you have to be taking pictures of something head on directly in front of you. As soon as you tilt the camera forward it cancels out this feature. So for instance I can take pictures of a piece of clothing hanging on the wall and use this feature without a problem, but if I were to put it on the floor and stand over it, I am unable to toggle back and forth and it stays locked in horizontal mode. Hope this clears up any confusion!!!

[Andrew]

Yes this has been my experience as well. If I hold the camera pointing at a 90 degree angle from the floor then it orients correctly. There is a point which I can tip the camera forward where eventually it will stop orienting correctly and then require you to rotate the picture afterward.

It took me awhile to figure that out and it was only the discussion last week that got me testing it.

[newvintageny]

I have a multi layered back up plan!

My main plan being I can always find a steady job in my field of finance where I work full time now. Although I hope that becomes my last resort one day.

Ebay is my back up plan with a little over 10K listings along with my comc store with 13k listings and amazon with around 1k listings. I make enough to pay all my bills and not touch my regular paycheck.

My back up plan to my back up plan is using some of the money I am making on ebay to develop a product I think will be useful to collector’s and hobbyist. All in all I am going to end up investing around $60K into it which is a lot of money but I think it will pay off and if it does that will become my main source of income. I would like to discuss it further but can’t really until I get the patent finalized.

Lastly if there are any trash elves that know how to make steel molds hit me up because those things are expensive! The steel mold in the context of being used for plastic injection to make a product.

[Linda Shields]

Have you tried a tool and die company?

[newvintageny]

Good idea Linda! I have reached out to one in my area a few weeks ago because the quotes I’m getting to make a mold is like $60k it’s crazy! I understand there is work involved in making this but it seems extremely expensive for a piece of steel that is 12x18in.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Custom permanent molds are unfortunately that expensive. There is a lot of engineering that goes into the design to insure it works and will hold up long term. In the work I do historically permanent patterns were made out of wood to create sand molds for castings. Very rarely does anyone want a wooden pattern anymore. They are crazy expensive – $50k+ for one pattern. We’re going away from wooden patterns and moving to all 3D models and direct sand printing.

So on that note, There are also now direct print METAL printers as well. If you can develop your 3D model you can get a company to print your injection mold. Here in WV we have two facilities called the Robert C Byrd Institute. They have all the state of the art machining and 3D printing equipment in house. Their purpose is to support small businesses. For a per hour fee they will help you design your part, train you to run the machine to make it, and then you can rent time on the machine in the future to come make more. Maybe there are some facilities like that where you live.

http://www.rcbi.org/

[newvintageny]

Thanks retro! I have quickly learned that molds are big money and there is not really a “cheap” way to do it if you want to produce a large volume of items.

My plans is to get the 3D modeling and design complete and patented. After that I will do a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the cost of the mold to start production.

The Kickstarter will also allow me to gauge the market to see how much interest there is. If it doesn’t work out it will be much cheaper to walk away from instead of going all in with production.

[Linda Shields]

Speaking of back up plans, a friend ran into a guy at the GW who is an attorney yet he has 3 Ebay stores with 2 employees, and his profit is 75K/year. Sounds like a good plan.

[Linda Shields]

PS. My back up plan is to retire. 😊

[retiredtreasures719]

Ebay spring cleaning

Just in case you missed it, Ebay is addressing the removed listings.

[Andrew]

May 28 – June 3

Total Items in Store: 761
Items Sold: 19
Cost of Items Sold: $26.50
Total Sales: $531.86
Highest Price Sold: 160.00 for one of my own paintings
Average Price Sold: $28.00
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $120.00 (super week at the auction)
Number of items listed this week: 47

I haven’t been able to post my numbers recently because I have been quite busy the past few weeks. A lot of family / work stuff, but also my store has really started to take off and I have had my 3 best weeks in a row.
So obviously very happy about that.

The backup plan is a great topic and one I think about quite a bit. Since I am really still less than a year into doing eBay I am trying to build in the backup plan from the get go.

I see eBay as just one part of a kind of patchwork approach to earning an income. I am focusing a lot of energy right now into ramping eBay up. At the same time I am continuing to work on building my art career, and I am planning on getting back to teaching drawing and painting next year. I have a number of other things in the works as well in terms of selling online and using both that and my art to springboard into other things. It gets complicated and I have a notebook devoted to it, but the key is that I want to have a lot of components in the patchwork.

For me that provides a kind of safety/backup plan as well as preventing me from getting bored or burnt out with one thing.

[Meg]

I have always believed in back up plans. My husband and I are retired and live frugally so we don’t have to “work”. We tried rental houses years ago, not the airbnb model, just buying, fixing up, and renting. Being a landlord is a lot of work. We then moved on to buying and flipping. You risk capital that way but it’s less hands on once the deal is done. We have managed to buy houses for our two eldest children this way. I have tried etsy but as the stuff I sell isn’t vintage, it’s not a good fit for me. I did sell 2 things on poshmark recently so that’s something I am doing more research on. Amazon keeps chugging away for me.

As for the eBay app photo issue, I have an android and it does the same thing. I usually take the photos and store in my gallery and then upload when I make the listing. Every time I have to rotate the photo. It’s annoying. I just updated the app yesterday so maybe hopefully it’s fixed.

[T-Satt]

Alert to all…

We had an issue with one day’s worth of packages not being scanned by our carrier (a newbie), and while working that issue, we looked at the other “defects” that we were getting on our “Tracking Uploaded & Validated on Time” metric. To keep Top Rated Seller Status, you have to stay above 95%. We were suddenly at 96%!

We downloaded the report of all defects and researched them and found a problem. There are defects that shouldn’t be defects. We had about 10 items that were shipped on time and scanned on the same day, but the eBay report was showing the “First Scan Date” as “not available”. I talked for QUITE a while with the eBay rep and he admitted that there was a previous bug that caused this, but that the defects currently CANNOT BE REMOVED and are still impacting the metric. He said that all he can do right now is to make a note on the file and that if we get any more defects that affects our Top Rated Seller status, we can call and ask that we keep our Top Rated Seller Status. So, their strategy is for us to HOPE we don’t get any more issues and if we do, we BEG them to keep us at Top Rated. Not encouraging…

If you have not already, I would check your Seller Rating and download this report and contact eBay if you have any concerns.

[jamie]

First off I like to thank Jay and Ryanne for putting out this podcast every week. You guys were one of the first ebayers on youtube I found that help me figure out this whole resale thing.

Last week was the best week I’ve had selling on ebay in my 2 1/2 years on ebay.

I’ve been selling a lot of plus size bras that I’ve been able to purchase wholesale and they are selling quickly and for a decent price.

I am how ever having a issue with the variation listings. About a month ago I had a bra sell that I was out of stock of in that size. So I thought ok I must have made a mistake and I canceled the sale and took the defect. No big deal since it was my only defect. I then went back through all my inventory and double check it against what was showing available on ebay. No issues. Then today I was packaging up my sales for the day and I couldn’t find a size bra that had sold. Went through the inventory twice nothing. So I looked up the purchase history and that size had sold already and shouldn’t have been able to be purchased again. I called ebay and spoke with customer service and they said as a 1 time courtesy they will let me cancel without a defect. I just finished going through the inventory again and found two more bras showing as available when they should be showing out of stock. Is anyone else having similar issues when using the variations in their listings? I would hate for this to happen again, and I don’t want to have separate listing for each size since I have so many. I guess the only other thing I can do is check the listing after one sells to make sure that it took one away from the listing.

[Sharyn]

I don’t think that many folks on the forum, including myself, have much experience with variations. I do have listings with multiples of an item, but that isn’t the same. You should definitely call eBay and ask about whether they are aware of a bug affecting variations. I guess that you could make a listing for every size of bra, but I think that is something eBay doesn’t want you to do.

[T-Satt]

And to continue the frustration with Shipping on eBay…

4th day in a row where when using the Bulk Shipping Tool, the Priority items are kicked out and will not print.

We get phantom defects because of an eBay bug…then we can’t use their tools to ship.

Ok, frustration over.

I would love to hear if anyone uses a third party shipping tool and if they have recommendations.

Thanks!

[Manateejaq]

Just dropping in to post my numbers for the week.

May 28-June 3 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 393 // Ebay 392 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 14 // Ebay 10
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $13.23 // Ebay $37.94
Total Sales: Etsy $75.05 // Ebay $150.90
Highest Price Sold: Dr. Martens for $30
Average Price Sold: $9.41 (running a clearance sale – clearing out old things for cheap)
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 44 (Listed at $535)

[Marjean28]

second week of posting my numbers…woo hoo (that’s the big accomplishment) week 5/28/17 to 6/3/17
items in store apx 650
items sold 16 (hey, that’s a 2.46% STR, more than I imagined)
total sales (this includes shipping costs) $392.96
net sales (net COGS & shipping & returns) $268.59
return 1 – deck of vintage cards for 11.91 + 2.77 shipping
average gross sale $24.56
average net sale $16.79
highest sale – vintage Maid of Honor turquois mid-century electric ice cream maker $65.09

the return was from some yahoo said I didn’t include all 52 cards, never mind that the photo shows I have all of them. I have an auto return set up for anything less than $20 cuz I don’t do well with actually dealing with these guys and get myself in trouble. better to just give them the money and ignore the situation entirely.

the highest sale item was a pick for 31 cents from the goodwill bins.

Extrapolated out (for S&Gs) if I had 4000 items in my store, and all things held true from this week, then that would be a net sales week of $1645.42. Boy that puts it in perspective. Its a lot of hard manual work for that number (this is assuming I were doing this full time).

Happy Hunting!

[Jay]

Great week. Anyone who says this is a easy is spinning tales.

[T-Satt]

Absolutely!

[retiredtreasures719]

Pictures from the estate sale in case any of you are interested. Happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

Estate Sale pics

[Ryanne]

http://imgur.com/a/Lnyhs

[CherylB]

For Julie B

Suzanne Wells has a FB Group called eBay Overstock and Liquidation Buy / Sell Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/226788811059233/). There is a woman on there liquidating her inventory due to illness. She has at least 5 posts for swimwear). here is the listing for one of her swimwear lots (https://www.facebook.com/groups/226788811059233/). You can find the rest under items for sale after you join the group>

[monacoll]

The listings being removed are 16 months old. I have found a easy way to check for them. They are highlighted in yellow all the way across the page. Each evening I go in doing 200 at a time, hold the left mouse down on the scroll bar and quickly scroll threw my listings. I see a yellow one I end it and relist using sell similar. Takes me about 10 mins to scan my listings, end and relist each day. Hope this helps
monacoll

[Author]

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