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This week saw us seriously scavenging high end furniture on Craigslist for our new rental. It took a lot of driving, but we think it’s worth it. Also,
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal] -
Total Items in Store: 336
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $10 used + $47 new RA
Total Sales: $193
Highest Price Sold: $30 new brass owl hook
Average Price Sold: $21
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: maybe $5
Number of items listed this week: 7Getting excited to see photos of the new rental. It would be fun to hear how much total you estimate you spent furnishing it. Great that you’ve been collecting items over time. I think the email alerts and some time are all you need to get great stuff if there’s a city nearby. We’re pretty picky and busy so it took some dedication to source for our own house. Husband is also not terribly keen on haggling or dealing with people. During reno, we didn’t get much notice from the contractor so we just paid up for some things. Have a search out for a backyard tiki. Thanks Paul for the recommendations last week. Unless I go see my friend in Palm Springs this fall, then I’ll check out Oceanic Arts. We should make a special trip, because we never find time when we are passing through that area.
Really tough schedule for Ebay again between pre-vacation work and the kids’ sports and camps. I did get a few things listed yesterday afternoon. Also the retailer I source RA from has made their sales less attractive, with shallower discounts. The new items are my better movers and keep my store active so kind of a bummer. I found some similar items missing and have no idea when they were removed – not in ended. Hm.
Went to the local college rummage sale but I bought items for us, except a couple of costumes for resale. Great to pick up matching Tupperware, post its, etc. Someone had been through the snapbacks, knives, and other good stuff before I got there. I tried to make a beeline for the perfume but couldn’t find any. Scores were ugg boots and Patagonia jackets for my kids. College students are so lazy. They just get it dirty and donate it in great shape rather than clean it. That’s ok, I’ll happily do it. The prices are amazing – the event is really all about recycling.
Have a great week.
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Total Items in Store: 1,578
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $20.75
Total Sales: $686.21
Highest Price Sold: $82.20 (Big Smith vtg Jean jacket)
Average Price Sold: $31.19
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $35
Number of items listed this week: 22 (spent the week on vacation in Smoky Mountains)First time we have vacationed since starting this eBay store full time. Out handling time at 5 days. Got back Thursday and listed some and sent out the items that sold while we were gone. Noticed no decline in sales!
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I’m currently listening, but just wanted to share something random. I stopped by Walgreens this morning and they just happened to have smart phone tripods near the counter on clearance for $6. I have been needing one for so long and just haven’t bit the bullet on it. I think it’ll make things a little easier, especially when needing both hands. I use an iphone 5s. Do you guys use a phone tripod as well?
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I think you guys have talked before about how sometimes you’ll have a week that feels lousy but by the numbers, it was pretty good… this was one of those weeks.
Sales: CAD$606, 5 items
COGS: $142
Profit: $364
Hours: 9 (hourly rate: $40)
Items listed: 13 (but one listing quantity 21)
Expenses incl. sourcing: $350 <–mostly due to buying a pallet of under-desk CPU holders
Cashflow: $256Took on some work on commission Saturday that, upon getting home, I reevaluate as not very profitable. So, kind of bummed out by that. But I did get a good item at a garage sale! Dressmaker’s mannequin NIB. Had to “text” with my “mom” a little before pretending to buy it for her. Should bring at least $125, cost $20.
My notable sales: medical power quality analyzer $34 –> $260 profit $188, mid-century teak room divider $93 –> $180 profit $56. The latter was cool but I thought I could get more for it when I bought… oh well, glad to see it go! But I have to pack this monstrosity tonight… :S
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Total Items in Store: 738
Items Sold: 18 (2 Facebook, 16 ebay)
Cost of Items Sold: $85.20
Total Sales: $434.19
Profit: $348.99
Highest Price Sold: $70 Pair of Nike Volleyball sneakers
Average Price Sold: $24.12
Average Profit: $19.39I always like being surprised by my numbers. Definitely a much better week than it felt like.
I officially emptied out my amazon FBA store this week.
Did some yard sales on Saturday. The Scavenge of the week was a Bose surround sound system that will sell for $400-500. I paid $10. Woot!!! -
Total Facebook Marketplace sales: $760 for 28 items
Total items on eBay: 448
Total ebay items sold: 40
Total ebay sales: $1284
Total of ebay + FB sales: $2044
Cost of items sold on eBay + FB: $478I went big at a church sale which started at 10 am on Jun 15, Thursday; I took vacation time to attend it from work! I bought 103 bottles of cologne and perfume testers, unused, for $930. A department store had donated Chanel, Gucci, Versace, Prada, and Armani fragrances. The church was selling them for $10 each and then cut me a deal for 10 free. I listed them on eBay and FB on Jun 19. I sold 28 bottles locally on FB this past week for and 17 on eBay. I’ve already made back my money on the perfume purchase and still have 58 bottles left. FB was exhausting though so I deleted that post and am now selling the rest on eBay. I was glad I went big! I thought the church ladies would be upset with me but they were awesome and brought out more boxes for me to go through. Highest selling was Chanel Coco Noir for $92 and lowest is Versace Eros at $21.50.
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Week June 18-24, 2017
Total Items in Store: 947
Items Sold: 28 (7 Amazon, 2 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $190 (16.0% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,119.83
Highest Price Sold: $176 (1977 Star Wars Imperial Troop Transporter)
Average Price Sold: $39.99
Returns: 0 (1 damaged item in mail though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $170
Number of items listed this week: 43
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $345.94 (30.9% of total sales), $11.52 fees (5.2% of sales)Another tremendous week. Counting my blessings that sales keep coming in and things are going well. I know that this pace can’t last, but I’ll take it.
Three bigger sales including the Star Wars toy mentioned above, and then the two Bonanza sales I mentioned in What Sold. Otherwise, everything else was bread & butter – 10 records for about $267, a pipe for $35, a vintage lock for $30, a set of cufflinks for $25 (plus $51 Priority shipping to London), and a few other odds & ends. It all adds up.
Picks were decent as well – nothing earth shattering, but a lot of bread & butter records, vintage toys, and other smalls. I didn’t go to as many sales as I usually do because I was starting to develop a death pile. Focused a lot more time this weekend to listing and got more than double my usual listing volume up.
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6/18 – 6/24
Total Items in store: 339
Items sold:2
Cost of items sold: approx. $4
Total Sales: $45
Highest price sold: $25 Aladin blue thermos 1 Qt
Average price sold: $22.50
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $3,207Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 17 sales – $2,661; COGS – $891; fees – $329; profit – $1,441
2 negative feedbacks on amazon have put my account “at risk”. 1 item was a used calculator I bought at a yard sale and sold for $30. I thought I tested it thoroughly, but apparently not. The second was a $40 new in package item that did not work. Package was unopened and brand new. They obviously received a full refund. Over the past 90 days on amazon, I have sold over 200 items. I have received exactly 5 feedback. 3 negative and 2 positive. 1 negative was removed because it was a delivery issue.I bought an item on ebay, new in package. It was shipped in a plastic bag. It was destroyed by the time I got it, so I returned it. No problem there, it happens. The guy has been messaging for 2 weeks about giving him positive feedback. I don’t want to be that guy on Amazon, but does anyone have experience with boosting quantity of feedback on Amazon? Also, anyone with any experience getting someone helpful on Amazon for seller support.
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On our Amazon account, we received a single negative feedback and also were put on notice for being at risk. Amazon now holds our money for four weeks before dispersing it to us.
I’d love to hear how Amazon sellers deal with bad feedback.
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My first FBA feedback was a negative. That sucked. I ended up getting it removed. To date I think I have 9 or 10 feedback. Most of them have nothing to do with me as a seller. It’s even more of a joke than the ebay feedback system.
The typical solution for FBA sellers is to pay a 3rd party app to badger your customers relentlessly into leaving feedback. Ever buy something off FBA and get several emails? Yep, that’s the solution.
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@Lee, similarly I can’t get Amazon feedback. 81 sales this year and 3 [all positive] feedback (3.7% of transactions). In the last 6 months on eBay, I have 375 sales and 221 feedback (59% of transactions).
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Regarding the perfume haul:
1. I have sold out of the “high end” Chanel and “low end” Versace. Now I have 58 bottles of middle road “Prada” and “Gucci” to sell from $29 to $79. I expect to definitely make another $2000. I will be setting aside about 5 bottles for our YMCA silent auction fundraiser.
2. Facebook: it was the constant messages and meeting up that sucked time Up. My husband and toddler were gone this week for work and grandma time, so I was a single person who could meet in evenings and at lunch, but it was a lot of work. Also, I must have had 20 people engage me in conversation and barter, but only four closed the deal. Those four bought 28 bottles between them, but it was a lot of work and I can’t do it with family back in the house now. And I had one real creep basically yelling at me for cheap prices. The fact they can see my Facebook profile or such just made me decide to delete it. I live in a small town and I didn’t want the drama!
3. I normally sell long tail vintage items and collectibles from estate sales, so this perfume was a new thing for me. I would do it again – there is a fall church fundraiser so we will see if they have any more. I’ve learned a lot from research of perfumes and now know to grab it when I see it for the right price. Though I did have a bit of a heart attack when I went to the ATM three times to get the money!
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http://stores.ebay.com/lowcountryfashionfinds
You can see my sold and current perfume listings to view the range I bought; I am offering free shipping on some of them.
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ThriftShift: Nice find on those perfumes! I’m always on the lookout but have never ever come across a bunch of them like that!
I see your listings all have expedited shipping, which I assume you mean USPS Priority, which would go by air. Please check out the USPS rule for shipping perfume and other flammable items, which need to go ground and be marked with “ORM-D Parcel Post.”
Here’s a good post on stamps.com, but the same info is also available somewhere in usps.com, just harder to find:
http://blog.stamps.com/2011/04/04/tips-to-ship-fragrances-through-usps/
Good luck on selling the rest, nice!
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Printing while on the road
Friends, it seems we did not have a closure on this topic last week.
There are some options for portable printing, one of them is using BlueTooth printers, there are many many many options from $45 new (Epson Expression) to $500 new. Some thermal label printers for $200 new from Zebra.
You can also use Internet printing, many, if not most, modern printers have the option to be made available through the web. In a nutshell, after you set up your printer in your hotspot as its home network connecting to the Internet, you send anything from your phone to the Internet printer. Then you connect your printer to the hotspot and any pending job you be printed upon connection.
The only tip is making a handful of printings first to get used to configurations and other things that can mean hassle to avoid loosing jobs.
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Regarding Garage Sale Receipts
Often I am going to planned sales but sometimes there are surprise sales such as a garage sale or flea market. To start with, I do is print out my route map and date it. That goes with me on the day worth of scavenging. Any receipts I get, when I get home, are stapled to the route map. Any extra purchases such as unexpected garage sale stops where I do not get a receipt are written down on the route map with a note “No Receipt”. Total of all expenditures and mileage/tolls for the day are written down. On the back, I do more detailed break out of the expenditures by my key inventory groupings – quantity and $$ spent. The backside needs to tie out to the front side.
Once all done, it goes into the receipt box for ultimate posting. This system helps me keep track of all purchases plus mileage and other expenses such as tolls.
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Week June 18-24, 2017
Total Items in Store: 411
Items Sold: 7 ebay, 1 Bonanza, 1 facebook
Cost of Items Sold: about $45
Total Sales: $871.95
Highest Price Sold: $750 Meissen porcelain figurineThe Meissen figurine came out of a box lot I bought for $22.50. There was another Meissen piece in the box that I sold last week for $250, and some Victorian era candlesticks that I still need to list, (I will probably list them for about $100). I’m cautiously excited about the $750 sale. The buyer has received it and has been silent, so hopefully that means they want to keep it. Their feedback left for sellers isn’t the greatest, so I agreed to the sale with the expectation they’d want to return it. Hopefully it’s true love and they are happy with the piece. 🙂
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@Liz, amazing sale on that figurine! Any chance you’d link to it? Anything that made it special (rarity, subtle variation, etc)? I don’t know anything about Meissen figurines personally.
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RE: the caller asking about vacation mode. I recently went camping for three days. I decided to put store on vacation mode AND changed the handling time to 3 days. I know that Ryanne says she messages buyers to make sure they realize that shipping will be delayed, but I didn’t have phone reception, so I think having the vacation mode banner on my listings saved me that step. I did think it might discourage sales, but when I got home I had 5 items to ship. Small store, only about 215 items, so that was a normal number of sales – actually maybe above normal for summer.
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Brian, sure thing! I listed this one for $1000, and accepted a $750 offer. This one has some damage on it, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. $750 Meissen Figurine
Here is the other, smaller figurine. I listed it for $300, and accepted a $250 offer. $250 Meissen Figurine
As for what to look for, they are marked with blue crossed swords in the underglaze. Meissen has small variations in the mark to signify year, so you can look up how old each piece is. Mine were from roughly the 1920s to 1940s. They are hand painted, and generally have very nice detail with the painting. It’s high quality stuff. The only reason I know about them is from watching Antiques Roadshow! 😉
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Week of 6/18-6/24
Total Items in Store: 1,565
Items Sold: 55
Number of Items Listed This Week: 77
Total Sales: $1,500.57
Cost of Items Sold: $328.15
Highest Item Sold: $50 – Robert Graham Flip Cuff Casual Shirt
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week, Veronica leads for the year 14-10.
Competition: Highest Total Sales: Troy leads the year $20.2k to $15.0kA little bit of a bounce in sales this week, and Sunday and Monday have looked good so far as well. Just gotta keep surfing the waves and focus on listing!
Missed our goal of 100 listings per week this week, but it was intentional. We took all of Wednesday off to celebrate our youngest son’s birthday. Gotta enjoy the perks of this business!!! Still have the consulting gig cutting into the listing time for me, 2 days last week, 2 days this week, 2 days next week. Helps offset the slow sales though!
Did really well sourcing this week. We ended up sourcing separately (which was weird!), as I had to do the consulting on Friday, so Veronica hit the yard sales and thrift stores on Friday. She found some shoes she liked that were going to be 50% off on Saturday, so she hit that part of town and I hit another part of town. Got lots of goodies, but I missed my partner!
PS – Jay, to answer your question from last week…we spent $767 in new merchandise this week. So yeah, we have some high weeks sometimes!
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I love that you & Veronica have these little competitions, keeps it interesting! Are you willing to calculate profit margin for a competition? Personally, I think it’s easy to find something that will sell for a a lot, but it’s tough to find it for cheap enough to make a profit.
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We definitely have those competitions as well. Since I have all of the data in Excel, I can get profit in whole dollars as well as average profit per item. I’m ahead in whole dollars, and at least for now, we are neck and neck for average. That will change I’m sure during Holiday season…but I’m trying to keep the lead!
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There you go T-Satt!!!!!!!!!!!!
Having those two views gives a lot of flexibility for pricing strategy, campaigns, to accept offers, among many other things.
The average profit is the main qualifier I use to move old items or those items with any type of uncertainity!!!!!!!!! -
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June 18-24 2017
• Total Items in Store: 780
• Items Sold: 16
• International 1 GSP
• Total Sales $2041
• Highest Price $1400 speakers
• Average Price Sold: $128
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $200
• Cost of items purchased this week $54Someone turn ebay back on, I haven’t had a sale since Thursday.
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Slides Scanner
Friends,
For those curious about the definition of the low cost slide scanners available though Amazon for example, below is a listing I made a few weeks back.
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BIG BIG BIG THANK YOU LeeinTN, really appreciate it! Great catch.
Another listing of slides I used the same cheap device to scan.
This is a collection set of early 60s Vatican Slides, it helps to have a better sense of the quality of the scans since the image is not that abstract, I have 10 different scans from a total of 59 slides.
Yesterday night I was scanning a large collection of over 200 slides from a family trip to Europe in the early 70’s, very difficult to decide how to list, there are some easy bets for example a subset has the couple visiting the sites of the 1972 Munchen Olympic games, another set has medieval Bavarian castles, however there is a very large set of November 1972 of a Paris visit, from one side to have subsets of 12 would help since there are amazing local pictures but also amazing pictures of the couple, on the other side to break up the collection breaks my heart
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Wire Transfers outside the US
Friends,
In many countries of Europe, Latin America, Middle East, among others, Banks function like PayPal, they are transaction brokers.
For example, in Brazil, you dont pay accounts directly to the Power or credit card company. Rather, you receive a type of invoice with a type of barcode. You pay to your Internet Banking (this is all electronic, just using these examples to make it easier to understand).
As such, besides the payments (please notice you cannot make payment directly, very rare, since you cannot bypass the payment document generated by the bank), there are basically 4 types of money transfers:
Transfer to another account in the same bank: real time, it is available immediately upon hitting enter
Transfer to an account in another bank (this is the Wire Transfer): same day, funds are available next day but with the date you hit enter.
Electronics Funds Transfer: this is similar to the transfer in the same bank, but for different banks. For amounts higher than US$1.5k, you can use this option, it is available in under a minute after hitting enter
And finally International Wire Transfer, or SWIFT: it is available by end of day if you transfer early morning or net day if afternoonThere is usually no fee. For International transfer the fee is about US$6 (six dollars)
In Brazil the reason there is no fee is competition
It works more or less the same in the places I mentioned with small variations in the fee schedule
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Some examples of my standard store
Friends,
Been talking about my store main them decided to share a few items from this week:
Wedgwood Etruria plates
Besides Jasperware, Wedgewood has other lines, some of them are good for bread and butter, others great collectibles. This series depicts US Christian Temples from the 18th Century. Usually people that collect local architectural, historical buildings and similar collections. Bought a lot of 7 plates of this collection for $40:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wedgwood-Etruria-England-Hist-Building-Protestant-Dutch-Church-Albany-1713-/172698704142?rd=1Kosta Boda Egg cups
Well, I think it sells for the name. Even more vintage and from a famous collection of a famous artist. There were two items, the other the bids went above my limits but I regretted tremendously. This one I paid $20 and sold same day I listed even before I had collected from the auction house
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Kosta-Boda-Egg-Cups-by-Ulrica-Hydman-Vallien-SIGNED-Birdy-Series-/172742500140?rd=1Royal Crown Cola advertisement
I purchased this 2 pieces separately for $16 total and bundled them, one from ’37 and the other from’55. The issue is the major water stain on both. So I priced it low, very low, sold same day I listed too …
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Royal-Crown-Cola-Advertisement-Posters-2Pc-1937-amp-1955-/172742494901?rd=1Army Tactical Vest
I have good amount of army apparel. These vests I found a whole bunch of them for $3, selling each for $19.95
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SDS-Zippered-FLC-Tactical-Vest-style-4117-/172709735697?rd=1 -
Beverly – I saw that ebay forum posting on shipping fragrances too. But I went and asked my postmaster on how to ship it. She stated as long as I am shipping individual bottles of 3.2 oz or less (like the airlines require), that I am OK to use Priority Mail (air-mail). I do have to mark “perfume 3.2 oz liquid oz” on the outside of the box. I like the 7 x 7 x 6 size boxes, so I am using Priority Mail!
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I’m starting to ramp my listing back up since finishing the house. My sales have started picking back up and I’m working to list the piles I accumulated over the last few months.
(Main/T-shirt)
Items in stores: 155/160
Items Sold: 9/1
Total Sales: $320.94/$18.99
Highest item: $129.99 Pair of Allen Edmonds Wingtips paid $11.05 at the local Goodwill.
COGS: $51.05
Net: $329.89
New listings: 6Shoes have been doing really well for me and about 50% of my sales. I recently got a lot of golf shoes from and auction and also from Goodwill. All new. Picked up a mini cache of golf gloves, replacement spikes, and other gear at a store closing auction. Made a quick flip of a leather golf bag a week after the auction when the person bidding against me contacted the auction company and said he was still interested in the bag. Made $100 on it and didn’t have to worry about fees or shipping!
This week is starting off well with 4 sales so far today. All smaller sales, but they add up. I’d like to get both stores up to 200 listings each this week. A lofty goal for a part-timer, but I may take Friday off so I can get a bit done.
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Store Week 6/18/17 – 6/24/17
Total items in store: 1378
Items sold: 17
Cost of items sold: $18.00
Total sales: $528.90
Highest price sold: $55.00 (Book of Little League pins that I got for free)
Average price sold: $31.11
International Sales: 0
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: $111.90I’ve been listing quite a bit this week, trying to get back on track and in the groove. Sales picked up once I got listing. I also put some old stuff on sale for 50% off, and have sold a couple of those things, so I suppose it’s working!
The highlight of my week, was one great find. I got an antique Coleman lantern that is about 100 years old. It’s the most I’ve ever paid for a single resale item ($80), but I’m hoping it will also be my biggest sale ever. I’ve seen two that sold, and there are none listed. One went for about $600 and one for just under $1000. I haven’t listed it yet because I want to do it right and I know nothing about this stuff. If there are any Coleman experts out there, give me a shout!
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Swinging in to post my numbers for last week. 🙂
June 18- June 24 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 438 // Ebay 426 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 9 // Ebay 15
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $23.16 // Ebay $60.97
Total Sales: Etsy $128.65 // Ebay $273.86
Highest Price Sold: Drakengard Playstation 2 Game $45
Average Price Sold: $16.77
Returns: 0 But one person filed a ‘item not received.’ Tracking stated that the item was delivered, and my post master was even kind enough to check the GPS coordinates at the package’s last scan – it was scanned inside her apartment building. :/ Hopefully a neighbor didn’t just take it. I have not heard back from this person for a few days though so I’m not sure what has happened on her end.
Number of items listed this week: 56 (Listed at $704)I mailed an item to a New York tv studio this week. I was pretty excited about that. 🙂
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RR Store Week June 18-24, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,282
Items Sold: 30
Cost of Items Sold: $39.95
Total Sales: $734.22
Highest Price Sold: $161.99 (vintage curtain panels)
Average Price Sold: $24.47
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $48.93
Number of items listed this week: 28Scary week. The beginning of the week was crickets. Tuesday I sold nothing. Then Thursday hit and I sold 11 items…all under $20. I was starting to panic, then Saturday exploded with $337 in sales. Summer has definitely caught up with my store, so I’m throwing everything I have at it; brand new listings, Sell Similar listings, auctions, and a 10% sale on most of my store. The power went out in my neighborhood for most of the day, so I spent a lazy afternoon with my girl and her new puppy. But as soon as it came back on, I was jamming. I got some bags of junk from my mom as she cleans out her closets, so plenty of FREE stuff to list.
I too have been sitting on a pile of really cool individual slides that I need to list. I have a vintage slide sorter; backlit rows for about 40 slides at a time with an attached magnifying glass. That helped me sort out the cool ones and set them aside. I then sold the not-so-cool ones in bulk. Last week, I scored a vintage Diastar 200 slide viewer; kinda looks like a small TV. Now I can show the individual slides without having to zoom way in on the slide sorter, which looked awful in the listing. With the sorter and the viewer, I’m very confident in my future slide sales. And I always keep the Disneyland ones.
*Paul*
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It’s not a scanner, but rather a stand alone viewer. Here are some Completed Listings of the unit I found at the thrift store. The image won’t be as crisp as a scanned image, but it’s much better than the extreme close up on my old slide sorter. Plus, it was only $10, so I’m getting the job done scavenger style. I’m still cleaning up those dusty slides, but I’ll share some images one I get them done.
*Paul*
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ah, i see you said that and i missed it. very cool, that’s much better than a scanner, because you can use your phone to photograph the image. i love slides!
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I have a slide “viewer” also. Will be using it on 4 boxes of slides that I will be getting to after vacation. It holds a stack of 50 slides in a small stack on the right side. Press a button and it slides the bottom slide over under a magnified viewing area which is back lighted and you view it in the middle section screen. I plan to then photograph that image and hopefully use it. Press the button again and it pushes that slide over to the left and that viewed slide goes into the finished [viewed stack] and a new slide is pulled from the right side stack, then rinse and repeat for all 50 slides.
Tip. Make sure you use some dust off and blow all dust and lint out of the viewer and also use a wet wpe to clean all plastic or glass areas very well. Then it is best to also use a liquid slide cleaner [just wet a lint free wipe and rub between your thumb and finger to get both sides of the slide at the same time=I use my camera lens cleaner] and wipe each side of the slides for the best quality image.
I will see how this goes for us mid July.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Total Items in Store: 450
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $88
Total Sales: $564
Highest Price Sold: $236 (Engineering Calculator HP-48GX)
Average Price Sold: $35.25I have been a fan of the podcast and forum for a while now but this is my first time posting numbers. I have been committed to doing eBay for about 3 months and I am having a great time. I am a stay at home dad with 4 kids so I have to be creative in how I use my time. I would like to make this good second income for our family and the blog and podcast have helped tremendously.
I paid $50 for the calculator in box lot at an online auction and that was the most money I had spent on one item. I was going to price it on the low side because I thought it would sell faster. I decided to price it on the high side after seeing the some of the prices everyone here gets for their items. It still sold in a week. I think it takes a little confidence to price items high. Have a great week everyone.
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June 18-24
Total Items in Store: 893
Items Sold: 22
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $675
Net Profit: $462
Highest Price: $100 (1985 Detroit Diesel Engines Allison 8.2 Liter Repair Service Manual)
Average Price: $31
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $900 (yikes!)Not a bad week again. For me, any week with over $600 in sales is great. Obviously, I hope to get that number way higher in the future, but for now with this being like a part time job, that ain’t bad!
I don’t have much to talk about this week except that I got my shelves built in my garage. It made a huge difference in my work area! I don’t have to high step around all of my wares just to gather what sold every night. They were really simple to build too. Just some 2x4s and some sheets of plywood and about 6 hours of work. Total cost was around $200. But now I’ve got an extra 4 levels of 16 ft long storage space to put whatever I want, as long as they’re not susceptible to outdoor conditions.
I went to a big auction on Saturday. I spent WAY too much money! I don’t know what happened. I think the auctions in my area lately have been too few and far between, and all the dealers are all getting antsy and gathering to the ones that I’ve been going to and causing the prices to go up. I got some good stuff, but when I saw my bill for $900, I about shit. I told myself that I’m done buying for a long while. Too much backlog and not enough time spent listing.
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Week June 18 – 24, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1055
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $ 13.33
Total Sales: $ 204.65
Highest Price Sold: $ 60 (designer sneakers)
Average Price Sold: $ 17.04
International Sales: 0 (GSP 0)
Returns: 1 (started)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 40
Money spent on photographer: $0
Number of items listed this week: 52Kind of slow for the number of items I have. But I have many postcards and slides and I am still working on the deadpile with low priced items. I take any offer just to get things out.
I have listed and sold some slides over the last 2 months, I still have more to go but I had a guy from Germany who bought 27 military slides from me. We chatted a little and he mentioned he had a military website for a hobby and he buys slides because he does not need to pay copyright for the pictures.
I have a photographer who helps me and he photographed the slides. The way he did them was clipping the mount of the slide with a clothes clipper (like the ones I use to air dry the clothes on the rack) and sticking the other end of clipper in a play-dough so the slide is positioned and his hands are free. He used his lights for a background light but you can place the slide by the window and just use the natural light. Then you can get as close shot you want to.
I am also curious about how to remove negative feedback on Amazon. I have an account for years just to sell my college textbooks when I was done with them and had a few positive feedback. Recently a lady did not like a kitchen oven thermometer she bought (FBA sent) and she left a negative. In the comment she left she stated the thermometer is as broken as her oven which I understand her oven might be broken too. I tried to remove the feedback 3 times and nothing. I even requested for the thermometer to be returned to me and I tested it at home. I heated my oven to 400F and placed it there and then took pictures. They still did not remove it.
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I believe there is a 90 day time limit on which you can request negative feedback to be removed on Amazon. I have had negative feedback removed on Amazon myself. What you do is high light the feed back then send in a request via Amazon’s system. They do not make it easy, so on the right side where it says “help” type in “how to request feedback removal” and you should get a step by step.
Generally, Amazon will remove feedback if the item was shipped late or damaged if FBA. Amazon will also remove feedback that is really a product review and not a shopping experience review. For example, buyer buys music CD but says he doesn’t like the music and gives one star. That is removable.
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Week of June 18 – 24
* Total Items in Store: 838
* Items Sold: 9
* Cost of Items Sold: about $7 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $164.28
* Highest Price Sold: $30.56 Set of 6 beaded placemats
* Average Price Sold: $18.25
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: about 15Lousy week, but I’m on vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC with my family so who cares? I don’t have everything with me, so I estimated a few numbers.
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I’ve been using an ION Omni Scan to take close-ups of slides with for listing on ebay, and then taking 1 or 2 separate shots of the slides as a whole for each listing. I almost think you’re better off taking photos for Ebay the way you are, because it makes it really difficult for someone that is just going after the image to just take it and not buy the slide. I’ve been thinking of photographing in a similar manner, or using one of those slide viewers that looks like a tv for extra kitsch value and to make it more difficult to just take the image.
I’m currently sitting on 2 bankers boxes of slides to photograph, meh. It’s fun, but it is a lot of work.
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I actually found some slides of a volcano lava flow in Hawaii from the 1980’s. Printed on the outer edge of the slides are USGS which I would imagine gives them some legitimacy. I have no idea how to photograph these to put up for sale on ebay.
I also have no idea how slides from Hawaii ended up at a church rummage sale in CT.
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Sorry if this was already discussed but in regards to your helper finding a full time job I wanted to discuss.
The person that was originally doing my pictures could not continue from my original interview with J&R. There was a 4 month stretch where my wife and I did the pictures ourselves. I eventually found a replacement and they have been great.
She is a stay at home mom that does it for side income and pictures/lists around 250-300 items a week for me. Once you hire a helper it’s very hard to go back.
Yes you can do it yourself but when you experience that extra time of not grinding it out taking pictures of low dollar items it’s very hard to go back.
Obviously you need to do what works best for your style but the sooner you find a replacement the better because it’s hard to go back grinding it out when you have had the luxury of having someone else do it.
Find a stay at home parent. They are smart and they choose to stay home but if they can make some extra money they will do it at a high level.
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