Scavenger Life Episode 337: If You Build It, You Will Have Storage

[Ryanne]

 Our long awaited storage building arrived and was built this week. Guess we’re never going back to being non-ebay sellers. Check out the photos bel
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 337: If You Build It, You Will Have Storage]

[simplicio]

Good morning! I am feeling good today, it was a good week!

Sales: CAD$1,716, 6 items, $286/item average
COGS: $337
Expenses: $406
Net profit: $726
Listed: 8 items
Hours: 6, $121/hr
Notable sales: Lot of 4 barcode scanners $215  $1260.
Scavenge of the week: got some good medical stuff this week including an EKG machine and a pipette beveler. Cost was $125 for these two but I’m expecting about $1200 out of them.

My costs are quite high this week also because I bought a whole bunch of packing supplies.

I ALMOST bid on a huge 1500lb X-ray machine, but thought better of it when I changed my mind on the expected sale price. It did impress upon me though the need to get my garage heated so I could actually store such a thing if a good opportunity should come along.

Now to go listen to the podcast…. it’s become a Monday morning ritual. 🙂

[Steven S]

Great looking building. Those double doors are good for options down the road if you get into dismantling cars or appliances.

Nov 26 – Dec 2 2017

• Total Items in Store: 842
• Items Sold: 28 (27 ebay / 1 Bonanza)
• International 2 GSP
• Total Sales $1761 (1736 ebay / 25 Bonanza)
• Highest Price $190 Polaroid camera
• Average Price Sold: $63
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $307
• Cost of items purchased this week $246

Made an out of town trip with the dogs to look at a lamp and visit some small town antique/thrift stores.
Wasn’t impressed with the floor lamp but I liked the 2 tier shade, they let me buy it separately which was preferable as I would not enjoy trying to ship a tall floor lamp.
Was able to get a tension pole lamp for $3 from a thrift and in the next town a pair of Doc Martens for $3 and a pair of Lucchese for $10.
Had a guy call me to come look at some power amps he was selling, I got all 5 B&K amps for $40 each.

[Mark S]

11/26/17-12/2/17

Total items: 2965
Itens sold: 23
Total sales: $762
Avg sale: $33.13
Highest price: $125 for Strat/o-Matic Baseball game
Items lusted: 36

Good week. December has started out with a bang so let’s hope that continues.

Mark

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Now you are ready for tall shelving, numbered bins and a numbered inventory system. Great space and good luck.

Have you decided on a heat / cooling system yet?

You guys are going to own so much land and property up there that you will need a big sign out at the entry road that say’s something Like “Scavenger Life Valley .. Gateway to the Unique” just like the “Ponderosa” on Bonanza. LOL-LOL 🙂

Here’s an idea for another income stream.. take some of your land [out back], mark it off in small rectangles, cut a dirt road to it and rent out the spaces to campers. A niche would be to rent to all “Airstream” owners. Wouldn’t it be cool to see a dozen Airstream trailers all lined up side by side. Just thinking outside the box.

mike in Atlanta

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by MDC Galleries & Fine Art.

[Jay]

We’re going to see if we can get away with having no HVAC unit. I know you would suggest not to do this, but we’re only keeping hard goods in this building. And since we have a vapor barrier + thin insulation, I think we’ll avoid any perspiration on the metal.

We’re not working in there. Just storage. Our hard goods have been kept in much less luxurious conditions up till now without any issue.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Total Items in Store: 891
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $91
Total Sales: $594.50
Profit: $503.50
Highest Price Sold: $100 Pair of Dr Comfort Shoes
Average Price Sold: $29.73
Average Profit: $25.17

Decent week – no listing happening still.

I gotta get my heater mounted in the garage this week because winter is finally coming. Getting the garage set up has hit that nitty gritty point where progress is grinding to a halt. I have sold off a few arcade machines that weren’t making the move to the gameroom and will have cleared all the games from the garage by the end of the week. That is a huge progress, but I feel like I’m way behind. I think I’m underestimating how much work is truly involved in undoing 10 years of accumulated junk. I still haven’t set up my photo and shipping stations, and have not started the overhead storage. Truth be told, I’m still on the fence as to my vision for the ebay garage setup. I hate that I’m missing out on listing toys for the holiday season but I need to finish this project or I never will.

I’m bogging myself down in the details

[Jay]

So whats the biggest impediment to getting this done? Simply getting rid of old junk?

[Retro Treasures WV]

Time. I’ve been busy all week since I went back to work on Wednesday. I got a TON of work done over the holidays because I had large blocks of time. Now I’m back to an hour here, 30 minutes there. It’s hard to turn the “drive” on and off like that. When I just have short bursts I have to give myself a very specific task, otherwise I end up just standing there and visualizing what I need to be doing. Paralysis by analysis if you will.

Once I’m in the zone I prefer to stay there until the job is done. Hard to do with 5 other people in the house that rely on me. I also need to spend quality time with my family on the weekend too.

[Jay]

Understood. Just another advantage of doing eBay full-time. You can focus on your business for a long stretch and get a lot done. And since you can work at your own pace, you can take breaks when needed. Eat when you want. Do what feels natural. I’m about to go do a bunch of job related errands, then come home and take photos/list. No stress.

I’m always amazed at people who can work a full day at a job, then come home and work for another 2-3 hours on eBay. That takes real commitment.

[ChristineR]

• Total Items in Store: 364
• Items Sold: 16
• Total Sales $528
• Highest Price $100 (Paid $1 Giant Vintage Santa Litho
• Average Price Sold: $528
• Cost of Items Sold: $107 + $33 free shipping
• Cost of items purchased this week: Maybe $100 online RA
• Number of items listed: 8

Congrats on the new building getting up. I’m sure it will feel pretty amazing to rework your inventory organization and move to a system. I’m really curious to hear later about how many listings have dropped off and how you choose to organize. I’ve sold enough this season to see some empty spots in my storage areas. My father-in-law gave me some matching bins and has more so I’ll be doing a mini-version of your process in the new year. I’m the kind of nerd who enjoys organizing.

Glad you are considering longer sourcing trips to the cities. Maybe get a locking camper shell? I don’t know anything about auctions and – to clarify a fine point – I wasn’t suggesting you go looking for very expensive and antiqueish items. I think you will find that you can hit moving, garage, estate sales and thrifts like you do in your area, just with faster moving and more in demand product coming into your pipeline. I was thinking more middle ground stuff that you have the eye and brand knowledge for but is sourced higher than a buck or two.

Computer is fixed but crazy again and no time for new listings. Have a great week.

[Jay]

Understood. I guess my translation of your advice is urban auctions since this is where we’d get the best stuff in bulk. But I guess there could be a future where we live in an urban area for a month and just troll the yard sales. I just find that yard sales and thrift stores have less expensive stuff. You really have to hit a lot of them.

[ChristineR]

In our area there are a handful of monster rummage and charity sales. If I had a partner I would like those even more. Perhaps if they coincide with estate/yard sale season in good weather, that would be a strategy for an experiment.

Re the threat of porch piracy for the moving caller, I asked our postman about a box. He found it ludacruis that I would expect them to maintain keys. You can protect incoming small to maybe medium size packages with an Elephantrunk. Elephantrunk

[Sharyn]

Comments on the podcast:

Awesome building! We don’t have land anywhere near what you guys have, but it is 0.57 acre. We’re thinking about a large storage shed in the back.

I recently listed a Copco casserole with a stand, and I have it at a much lower price than your pan. Is there something special about a paella pan, or do I have mine listed too low? It does have some loss of enamel on the lid:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182937663938

As far as the Kewpie doll goes, I posted in the What Sold section two weeks ago that I found an article about weird things people collect. One was haunted dolls, and a related category of scary dolls. Using “zombie” in the listing probably helped sell it. Here is the broken down scary doll that I sold for $19 in three days and received positive feedback:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182902713043

I did have a customer pay by echeck once. She informed me that she was paying that way, and I think the ebay notice email said something to effect that I should wait until the echeck posted before shipping. Perhaps the caller didn’t read the email carefully, or there was a glitch in the system.

Anyway, here are my numbers:

Week of Nov 26 – Dec 2
* Total Items in Store: 1200
* Items Sold: 22
* Cost of Items Sold: $27.30 + $13.27 Commission
* Total Sales: $371.12
* Highest Price Sold: $49 Set of 5 vintage Fire King blue (delphite) dinner plates
* Average Price Sold: $16.87
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30
* Number of items listed this week: 29

I had one funny issue where I thought I had a non-paying customer. However, she responded saying that she couldn’t pay and she was getting a message to contact the seller about shipping. Long story short, she is in Georgia and accidentally selected Georgia as the country. When I went to invoice her, I was only given international shipping options. I didn’t think anything about “Georgia” being listed twice. Took a few days to work it out!

[Jay]

Just research Copco that sells. “Paella” is just a fancier piece I guess? Plus your dish has pretty significant damage that collectors would probably avid. The pieces we have are pristine (which is why I paid $100 for a set)

[Sharyn]

Yes, I didn’t see other casseroles going for higher prices, and, yes, it does have some damage. It does have the stand and burner, which appears to be a bit unique. Your paella pan definitely looks nicer than what I have.

[Geoff]

Wow – that storage building is totally awesome. I am playing a maneuvering game in our garage and am totally dealing with major storage issues. Really great to see what you guys are doing!

Bigger developments for me — the wife is expressing interest in getting involved with the business – which is great. Looking at selling my old Sonata and buying a pick up truck. Looking for storage options. Accumulating a network of impromptu movers available to help me move bigger items all over Massachusetts and RI and transport them to (hopefully a storage facility).

Sales picked up some this week. More sales and some bigger ticket stuff — over the last few weeks i have been going after bigger ticket items and some have moved already — which is really nice. Hopefully with the wife helping more it will help me get back to my listing goal of 100 items per week. My main struggle has been getting everything i want to get done complete as a one man show. I have showed her the pod cast a few times hoping she catches the bug.

11/26/17 – 12/3/17

Total items in store (beginning of week): 867
Items sold: 22
Weekly sell through: % 2.54
Total Sales: $1101.24 (no shipping)
Average price: $50.06
Cost of items sold: $188.08
Gross profit: $913.16
Highest item sold: tsa 88 irongrip strength weight rack with dumbbell set 5 to 50 LBS – $225 (cost 60.00)
New items listed: 25
Asking price of new items listed: $1924.43
Cost of new items listed: $183.49

[T-Satt]

Love your ASP Geoff! I think if you can keep that up and keep up your listing numbers, you will be where you want to be. Your STR is still lower than what you want, but as long as you can get the storage solution, you won’t care because you will be making a solid profit off of less listings.

It would be great if your wife starts to enjoy it too. I love that I get to do this with Veronica and we get to spend time together. We have separate parts of the business, but it is great that we get to spend a lot of time together too.

[Geoff]

Yea it would be great if the ASP could stay high. This has been my best week for sure – but i will keep the focus on the sourcing end and hopefully the trend will be where i want it over time. On a week by week basis the average is more like 34. But this week certainly counters the lower weeks.

[T-Satt]

And it may be that the items you sell are always longer tail too. I would check your category and see, by comparing the number Sold with the number listed. That should give an estimate.

[Vintage Classics]

Congrats on the storage shed. Looks great! Cant wait to see the process of adding the shelves. Also will be interested in hearing your inventory tracking system.

[T-Satt]

I had to do another Bandit run on Sunday (16.5 hours straight on the road), so I’ll have our numbers tomorrow. Listened to the podcast while on the road to my consulting gig, and had some thoughts.

Completely agree with getting the house as a place to LIVE, not just having stuff everywhere. Veronica especially is like this, where we make sure that rooms have a definite use, either WORK or LIVE. Our kitchen, living room, and bedroom are all living only, no work stuff!

You touched on a great subject, which is to cash flow your growth. You didn’t start with all the light kits, storage building, bins, shelves, etc. You did that a piece at a time. Sometimes those of us that do this full time and have this down forget that. But I would also tell others that are starting that they don’t need to spend a ton of money to have the same studio/shipping/storage solutions that many of us that do this full time do. Expand a little at a time, and use some of your profits to fund new storage, or better lights, etc.

I am also very interested in how to have a rural storage solution for Postal Pickup. Our future move to a rural location is potentially impacted by this fact. Any one that has postal pickup and is in a rural area (especially where all the mailboxes are at one junction (not at the house), I would LOVE to hear what they have worked out.

For the lady that called about having her sales stall out. I completely agree that the first step is to start tracking numbers each week (I would start with # of items in Inventory, # of items sold, Sell Thru Rate, and weekly $ of Sales. That will give you hard numbers to compare to.

After that, I would ask how many new listings have been put up this week? Last week? I see so much of our sales are affected by whether we are having consistent new listings. Then, for many items, I would look at what the estimated Selling Time will be. Are these long tail items? Are they seasonal? What is the estimated STR based on past listings (I look at the # of items in inventory and compare to the # of sold items (which is 90 days) to get an idea of how fast these items sell). Are prices still competitive? Are the keywords accurate? Lots of items to look at that may be either tasks that can help get the items sold, or that can show that she just needs to wait for the right buyer or right season to sell.

[omfug]

I haven’t been running my numbers lately, but sales have been quite good averaging 500-700$ per week between my 2 stores, I will sure miss the steady sales come next summer, LOL. I need to really consider what I want to do in my ebay store which has been sluggish for some time, my fancy things do well on Etsy, but maybe I need to concentrate on more practical stuff on ebay, got to look at what I have been selling since Fall and come to a decision on the issue.

[Steve List]

I am reposting this, the first time I posted it it disappeared after I did an edit.

Great looking storage building R&J. It is always entertaining and educational to hear what is happening in rural America.

I finally broke the 900 listed items barrier, now on to 1000 listings.

Numbers for month of November
Total Listings: 905
Sold 53 Items for $1,258
Cost of Items Sold: $109
Highest Price Sold: Tie: $80 Computer Card / $80 1st Calvary History Book
Average Price Sold: $23.73
Spent on new inventory: $370 ($144 for a large lot of Hallmark ornaments)
Number of items listed: 100
GSP: 2 including my first one to Russia (Moscow).

I visited a consignment store last month that I very seldom go to. Somebody had just that day left off a large lot of the Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments. Somebody had beat me to all of the Disney ones already, but I bought all of the Classic American Cars and all of the All American-Trucks ones. I purchased a total of 40 for $143.99 (including tax). Since there are so many of each already listed, I focused on better photos and item specifics with free shipping. So far I have sold 11 of them for a total of $161.15. Not a high profit item but this time of year they seem to be a steady seller.

[ThriftShift]

Store listings: 824
Items sold: 24
COGS: $95
Sales: $555
Highest: $160 for Galco hunting speed-loader bag; was $38 from the “glass case” at Salvation Army.
New listings: 48

Went to an auction this past Saturday in Charleston with my 3 1/2 year old daughter who lasted well for three hours coloring and talking. We bought two Sikes office “banker lawyer” chairs and an antique wooden “sea chest” for $65. I haven’t bought Furniture before but am willing after hearing about U-Ship.

Warning because here is a kid story: I bid on some antique dollhouse furniture but stopped at $50; one older lady was buying all the doll stuff. Well my toddler had promised not to cry but she did when we didn’t get the Furniture, then said
“I’m sorry, I promised my momma” to the auctioneer. A vintage baby kewpie doll was next and a lady bought it for $5 and gave it to my daughter, who promptly stopped crying and walked it around the area showing everyone. I apologized for bringing her but hey, sometimes you have to scavenge when you can. I hadn’t planned to even go since my husband is in the USVI doing engineering work but I had a couple Xmas blowmolds to sell to a woman near the auction house, so I stopped in. Sold the blowmolds for $100 and got the chairs and chest for $65.

[retiredtreasures719]

I am having a crappy Monday. Your podcast is the light in the darkness today. My sales have been soooo slow the last 3 weeks I have been scratching my head and driving myself crazy trying to figure out what the heck is going on with my store. It was good to be reminded that there are just going to be slow times and it is the nature of the beast. I went three days last week with no sales which hasn’t happened to me in over a year. I just got off the phone with Ebay going round and round about my late shipping rate. Somehow I manage to upload tracking info at a 99.45% positive rate, but still manage to have a 4.76% late delivery rate. Their answer to getting that late delivery rate down is to sell more stuff. SMH. I know, I should switch to UPS as opposed to using USPS, but I don’t hear good things about them either. Saturday I had 5 things to ship and I scheduled a pick up. The carrier took three of the five. See what I’m dealing with? Oh well. Thanks for letting me vent. Here are my numbers from last week, which are (sadly) an improvement over the last two.

Ebay week of Nov. 26-Dec. 2

Total Sales $159.40
Items in Store 924
# of items sold 16
Average sale $9.96
COGS $16.04
Returns 0 Unpaid 1
$ spent on new $6.00
# of new items listed 25
Highest sale $29.99 Vintage oval framed needlepoint of roses (cost $2)

[Jay]

I encourage you to call you local Postmaster. They are required to pick up and scan all packages that you request. If the Post Master ignores you, you can go higher up from there. I know its a pain, but this is their job and you have a business to run. You deserve to be treated correctly according to their own rules.

[T-Satt]

100% agree. We are very reliant on USPS doing their job to help us serve our customers. I would go up the chain, higher and higher until the solution is fixed.

[poppintagzz]

It is sort of weird this week, last week we sold over 300.00 every day, so far this week, 142 yesterday, 0 today.

[T-Satt]

Wild. You are mostly pre-owned men’s clothing, right?

[poppintagzz]

Yes, last week was incredible.

[T-Satt]

Are you still listing consistently?

My sales on clothes have stayed consistent week to week. Though I know Cindy has said that her sales drop around now.

Do you have winter type clothing as well? Sweaters, jackets, suits, and Sport Coats?

[Lisa T.]

Congrats on your new building! You never said how much it cost. Also, I know you have talked about this, but doesn’t it bother you that the first $60 of sales on your little store go to the premium store fee?

[Jay]

On the podcast, we said it cost $20k for the building.
–$6k excavation and leveling of the ground
–$4k concrete pad
–$10k building and installation

We’ve consistently made $1000+ per month on our Premium store.
$60 for the store fee is nothing.

I think too many new sellers get caught up with listing fees, instead of focusing on bulking up their inventory.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Listening to the show right now… congrats on moving forward with the storage building! Now you’re TrashElves4Life!

Week November 26 – December 2, 2017

Total Items in Store: 874
Items Sold: 30 (1 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $124 (12.4% of sales)
Total Sales: $998.78
Highest Price Sold: $110 (300+ pre-1950 Stamps from Around the World)
Average Price Sold: $33.29
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 18 sales, $599.32 (60% of total sales), $35.81 fees (6.0% of sales)

Another fine week for me, 2 weeks in a row of 30 sales for the first time ever as far as I can recall.

[DigVintageStuff]

I have storage envy! That’s a fabulous building. I have half a UK garage (that’s a small thing), some bookshelves and ‘vintage displays’ all over the house!

First time posting my numbers (converted to US dollars at 1.35 from GBP)
Sales: Etsy $705 / Ebay $8
Number of items sold: 22 (15 UK, 5 USA, 2 Italy)
Total items listed: Etsy 645 Ebay 85
Cost of Goods Sold: $40
Highest price sold: $229 Art Deco Mirror (shipped to Italy)
Average price sold: $32.40
New listings: 20

We’re hitting our limits on storage space, so we’ve hatched a plan to turn our bedroom into a storage room, convert the living room to our bedroom and reconfigure our (relatively big) kitchen to include the living room function.

We’ll also free up the other half of my garage over the holiday period as we plan to install the pink art deco bathroom suite (Ebay purchase $135) we have stored in there. Work should start on that project mid December.

Sales are definitely ramping up for us – we sell lots of stuff suitable for gifts (if your friends/family like vintage) books, ceramics, kitchenalia, vintage home décor, toys etc. I know it will slow down soon. I’d like to have around 1,000 total listings and, like most of us, I’m working on upping that average selling price.

[omfug]

Sounds like Etsy is your main platform? It totally took over as mine–I honestly think that collectibles do great on etsy, and practical stuff better on ebay.

[T-Satt]

We list our vintage collectibles on both Etsy and EBay since November 1. Etsy has taken off for us. I need to start tracking EBay hard goods separate from clothing so that I can get an STR for each. Then I compare to Etsy STR. I think the Average Selling Price in Etsy is better, but a slower STR, but I need to prove that out.

[Julie B]

My 9-year old self really, really hopes you went roller skating in that storage building before you started filling it.

[The Thrift Raider]

That’s really funny that someone called in about their sales being slower on ebay after the summer because that’s the exact same thing that happened to me. I was blaming it on the hurricanes at first but I never really picked up to before the summer. I keep a little over 100 items in my store and last year I had 70 something but made twice as much last year in November according to my sales history. I knew it was worse. In my case, I think that it’s a couple of reasons: 1. I think I just happened to find better stuff last year. I found great stuff this year too, but I found some insane finds in 2016. 2. I haven’t been able to keep up with listing for various reasons. Plus I’m working 12 hour overnight shifts at the moment and by the time I wake up to try to list, the sun is going down and I have very little natural light to work with. I try sometimes with Daylight bulbs but I hate how it looks. I don’t really have space for a light box.

Etsy has been picking up the slack for some of it though which is awesome. I’m so glad I started crosslisting, some of my vintage 80s-90s stuff sells there for more than it would on ebay and quicker.

[DigVintageStuff]

Omfug T-Satt, Etsy is working well for the kind of stuff I enjoy buying/researching/listing, although to be honest, I don’t think I’ve given Ebay a fair chance yet! Etsy rules say vintage is 20 years old. Nonsense of course, but I’ll roll with it. So, newer stuff goes on Ebay. I also use it for rare(ish) collectables. So recently sold a 1936 Gold Monopoly on Ebay. But that kind of item is difficult to find. I also have some vintage china/ceramics which I hope will sell to customers looking to replace broken/missing items in their sets. We’ll see how that goes.
The problem for me with Ebay is that I come to list an item and just know it will sell for more money on Etsy, so it ends up there. Fees are lower and customers are delightful.
Maybe I’d sell stuff quicker on Ebay, but I don’t think I’d make as much money per item or as an hourly rate equivalent.
I’d be very interested to see figures from sellers who have similar volumes/types of stock on both platforms.

[T-Satt]

I will look to start breaking down our Etsy numbers, and splitting out our EBay Hard Goods from Clothing. That way I can show how the STR for EBay compares to Etsy.

[Jay]

I’d also like to know that as people spend time listing and making money on Etsy, are they listing less and making less money on eBay.

When I see Omfug’s numbers over the past year, she now makes all her money on Etsy and little on eBay. But she’s still making the same net amount of profit.

So is it just a matter of selling in a different place vs making more money overall?

[T-Satt]

Good question. I would think that if they are not crosslisting, that yes, they are making more on one and less on the other. You only have so much time in the day.

However, by crosslisting efficiently, you should be expanding your reach and increasing sales overall. This is why I wanted to use SixBit to efficiently crosslist. Expand our overall sales with a minimal amount of time spent.

[Jay]

True. But even manually cross-listing takes some amount of time, so it’ll be cool tosee your numbers.

Can you keep up your current eBay profits and build another reliable stream of profit on Etsy (and not kill yourself timewise). That’s the question we all want to know!

[T-Satt]

And that is the $64,000 question.

And that is the overall plan. We have eBay down pretty solid now, with our processes down to a pretty efficient level (though I still want higher output…never satisfied). For now, eBay is 90% about execution for us.

With our FOCUS method (Follow One Course Until Successful), now we feel that we can expand out into Etsy efficiently and make that a priority for growth for 2018. I’m also looking to keep our efficiency up on listing to allow time for us to create another income stream in 2018, either real estate or some other side gigs I am interested in.

[T-Satt]

So, here is the first breakdown I have for the store. I lumped the Bonanza & TruGether sales into the eBay numbers since they are autolisted from eBay.

eBay Clothing
# Listed: 998
# Sold: 61
STR: 26%
ASP: $28.88

eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 712
# Sold: 28
STR: 17%
ASP: $20.95

Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 112
# Sold: 3
STR: 11%
ASP: $29.88

[Jay]

Since you are so good with archiving and projecting your numbers, I’m really looking forward to seeing how things play out for you in 2018.

I just have seen (and experienced) the hard ceiling when it comes to how efficient you can make an eBay store. At some point, you just enjoy the profit you make…or decide to grow by hiring workers. But then you deal with more management and expenses.

For us, we decided to find the amount of eBay work we enjoy and accept our eBay profit ceiling. Then take our profit and invest in another business that is less hands on.

For a guy like you, I think you’d do good buying a coin operated laundrymat! We’d buy one if they were more popular in our area.

[T-Satt]

Funny you mention that. Laundromats are on my list of future ventures!

[amazingtaste]

Good morning! Congrats on the storage building! I am interested to hear when you do a complete inventory how many items you have that were once listed but now no longer are listed. I have always wondered if this plagues GTC sellers as much as it does relist sellers. Wishing we were closer so we could come and help you set up an inventory system! That sounds like a fun day to me. 🙂

[Jay]

Organizing is something I love too.

[Bryan 2.0]

We’re actually doing a first time full inventory after years of selling, and it’s pretty shocking how many items were taking up space and were not even listed. Not finished yet, but it’s looking like we have at least 100 items that were not up. Must be a combination of things like forgetting to relist a return, accidentally revising a listing instead of sell similar when listing, etc.

[Alan Wilkes]

That’s a great looking building. I have the Home Depot shelves that you’re talking about. We have them where I work and I liked them so much that I bought them for our home business. On a separate note have you ever tried Google photos I hope that my iPhone and it uploads all my photos to the cloud it’s free of charge and can hold millions of photos I have a years worth of photos stored in the cloud in Google Photos has some of the coolest search and editing features I have ever seen and best of all like I said it is 100% free.
Thank you for all you both do and here’s to another great year.
Alan Wilkes

[Jay]

Yeah Google Photos is amazing: “Google Photos gives users free, unlimited storage for photos up to 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p resolution.”

But for our eBay workflow, it’s just so much easier to take photos with our photos using the eBay app o photos are directly stored on eBay. Cuts out the middleman.

[T-Satt]

Week of 11/26-12/02
Total Items in Store: 1,700
Number of Items Listed: 97
Number of Items Sold: 92
(Includes 3 Etsy, 2 Bonanza 1 TruGether)
Weekly STR: 23%

Total Product Sales: $2,411
Cost of Items Sold: $421
Gross Profit for Week: $1,704
Highest Item Sold: $125 – Wilsons Leather Brown Suede Shearling Overcoat
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 27-20.

November 2017
Number of Items Listed: 373 (Forecast: 400)
Number of Items Sold: 357 (Forecast: 312)

November Sales Breakdown:
eBay – 339
Etsy – 17
Bonanza – 8
TruGether – 3
Amazon – 1

Monthly STR: 21% (Forecast: 19%)
Total Product Sales: $9,655 (Forecast: $7,565) – Increase of 54% YOY
Cost of Items Sold: $1,931 (Forecast: $1,891)
Gross Profit $6,327 (Forecast: $4,375)

Cracked $12k in Total Revenue (Product + Shipping) for the first time in November. We came in just under our listing goal for the month. Not bad considering some of the outside challenges that we had this month. Etsy is continuing to be a nice sales platform for us, and we have decided to keep Etsy going via SixBit for 2018.

[Ryanne]

i just listed something on Etsy to try it again. and i had to download my photos from ebay and reupload to Etsy, it was quite time consuming. but i’m not against trying it for cool unique vintage items. we’ve just not had very many sales over there because we don’t list in volume. maybe i’ll put my higher priced furniture over there? not sure.

[T-Satt]

For us on Etsy, the key is scale. We went from 0-100 in about 2 days via SixBit.

For Veronica to manually list on Etsy took at best 6 minutes, mostly spent on waiting for the photos to upload. Through SixBit, it takes her 2 minutes. She copies the Item Description over, tweaks the price, and spends the most time on Categories, Tags, & Attributes. Then she can submit the listings to Etsy and walk away. The photos will upload while she is away from the computer.

We figured that for that 4 minutes saved per listing, she has time to do other tasks. From a total business perspective: At an average of 15 minutes per eBay listing, the time saved for every 4 listings on Etsy is time that can be used to do another eBay listing.

For us, the expansion into Etsy isn’t as much about a new income stream, but more about expanding our reach and increasing velocity on the inventory we have. So similar to Bonanza & TruGether. Takes a little more work and costs a little more, but so far, the net is profitable.

[Manateejaq]

Congrats on the new storage space! 🙂 Very exciting.

November 26 – December 2 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 444 // Ebay 606 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 32 // Ebay 18
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $33.02 // Ebay $55.77
Total Sales: Etsy $341.78 // Ebay $332.83 ((Total = $674.61))
Highest Price Sold: $49 Christmas Stocking Cross Stitch Kit
Average Price Sold: $13.49
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 23 (listed at $620)

I hit $3000 (Gross earnings) for the Month of November which I feel amazing about. 🙂 That is the most I have ever made in a month! I have been part time since 2011, and I started being full time Jan of this year.

[T-Satt]

Manateejaq: Very awesome on your $3k milestone!

I’m about to post our breakout of eBay vs Etsy numbers, and I can see you are doing well on Etsy. Did you see a linear growth on your Etsy sales as you increased your store? Or did you see some dropoff as you have grown?

[Doublythumbs]

Nov. 26 – Dec. 2
Total Items in Store: 928
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $1003
Highest Price: $90 (Antique Six Drawer Wood Machinist Storage Cabinet Tool Box)
Average Price: $31
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $119
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $60

Great week on eBay! My sales doubled from the prior week. Mostly bread and butter items, but it seemed that my phone just wouldn’t stop cha-chinging.

I love the new storage building! It’s been my dream for the past year to have a massive storage building like that. We’ve almost reached our max capacity in this old house.

I want to mention about my scavenge of the week. I was perusing LetGo on my lunch break when I saw a new listing for a taxidermied bear. This guy listed it as free. I thought it was a mistake, so I messaged him and sure enough he just wanted it out of his house. After work, I drove to his place and sure enough there was a stuffed bear waiting for me. He said he shot it in Maine in 2009. It was just a little bear, probably the size of a really large dog. It should be interesting to ship once she sells.

[Jay]

Any idea what you can get for the stuffed bear?

[Doublythumbs]

I did a search for bear mount and saw that they can bring in some really good money. Here’s one that sold for over $400 for just the head.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BEAR-HEAD-MOUNT-/222679155811?hash=item33d8b64463%3Ag%3AmksAAOSw-EJZ44E5&nma=true&si=0OYDIVFOavdSSyerBJ6QBx8KhQA%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I’ll need to do some research to make sure there aren’t any laws about selling this sort of thing. One listing said they wouldn’t ship to California.

[Doublythumbs]

https://imgur.com/5dA0cTy

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

See if this has any interest for you.

https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=taxidermy+bear&currencyCode=USD&channels=%7B%7D&max=20&sort=Price&absoluteMax=22451&layout=grid&saleLocation=US&searchForm=search&_searchByTitle=&_img=&img=on&restrictTo=worldwide

mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta

[Marie in Florida]

• Total Items in Store: 323
• Items Sold: 4
• International 1
• Total Sales $113
• Highest Price $54 Sakura Cherry tree bark vintage boxes
Lowest Price $11 Ann Taylor shirt No more unless it’s new or group of items
• Average Price Sold: $28
• Returns: 0
• Cost of items purchased this week $0 Listing the death rooms

Love the building. Ryanne/Jay, please take pics and videos as you organize it? I would be intimidated by that much room
Slow week BUT I just had a $150 sale for full price with a BO. Looking up

[Jay]

As we build our system, we’ll take photos.We’ll have no problems filling it.

[Rhianna]

Awesome storage building! It will be great once you have all your stuff in one place. Such a time saver.

Total Items in Store: 1,463
Items Sold: 47 (2 Etsy, 2 Bonanza)
Total Sales: $1318
Highest Price Sold: $185 (New Puzzle)
Average Price Sold: $28.04
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $78

We had a great week. Went away for four days and came back with 27 items to ship. What a back breaker! I was joking with my husband that the Cassini Gods were smiling down on us. Seemed like the store was turned on full blast.

[Rydell Relics]

RR Store Week Nov 26-Dec 2, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1,380
Items Sold: 40
Cost of Items Sold: $48.98
Total Sales: $1,080.45
Highest Price Sold: $159.99 (1930’s fraternity book)
Average Price Sold: $27.01
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $46.99
Number of items listed this week: 47

Congrats on the Scavenger Shack, J&R! Can’t wait to see how you fill and organize it. I’m more than a little jealous of all that space; I have almost my entire operation in one room. It works for now, but I’m looking forward to having more room to house larger items.

Great week for me. My highest sale was a 1939 book of photos of Sigma Chi fraternity houses from all around the country. My second highest was a pledge guide from the same fraternity, dated 1959. That one went for $119.99; both sold to the same buyer for full asking price after being listed for about four hours. Paid less than a dollar each at an estate sale. At the same sale, I also picked up a bunch of higher end men’s clothing, some new with tag. I’m trying to get better at identifying contemporary brands. So far, so good.

Back to listing!

*Paul*

[Julie B]

Total Items in Store: 937
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $125.02
Total Sales: $752.38 *
Highest Price Sold: $118 (Kate Spade Flamingo Bag)
Average Price Sold: $30.10 *
Number of items listed this week: Not enough
Had a number of older inventory move out this week – always a great feeling!
*caveat – I do free shipping so prices are bumped up to cover postage)

I did a lot of online retail arbitrage during Thanksgiving week and now all of those items are arriving daily in the mail. One expensive retailer is killing itself with how inefficiently it is shipping its items to me. I bought literally 100s of items and I’ve gotten maybe a few boxes that contained 10 to 12 items each, and then everything else has been arriving as items shipped individually or in small groups of two or three. Most of the items seem to have been mailed from the same place on same day so who knows what’s going on in that warehouse. I paid so little for the stuff that sometimes the retailer lost money from postage alone. But it works for me because FREE PACKING MATERIALS! Also, it’s kind of like my own Christmas; lots of randomly sized packages to open and only a vague idea of what might be inside.

[Bryan 2.0]

That’s awesome! Can’t wait till we can afford to buy some land and build on it. My ultimate dream for eBay would be to have everything in one giant building and on a single floor. It get’s tiring lugging up hundreds of items up and down the stairs.

[Vintage Classics]

Rydell Relics – Great numbers! Do you have a premium store or anchor store? I have 1,1000 items listed on Ebay and thinking about taking the plunge to a anchor store soon.

[Simon]

I’m at 2000 listings now. I really hate paying $100/month in insertion fees and I wish they would create another store level. With the current model they are really just encouraging people to open multiple stores to save money which is inefficient for everyone.

[Rydell Relics]

Thanks Vintage Classics! I’m currently at a Premium level store. No plans to upgrade just yet. I’d like to be at around 3500 to 4000 items before I make that move, and that’s gonna take a while. But I sure wish I had that Anchor support. Sounds nifty.

*Paul*

[So Cal Joe]

Usually you want to have around 3500 items before upgrading to an anchor store.

[BrianB]

I think this was mentioned previously and it was announced in early October, but USPS postage is going up slightly on January 21, 2018. https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2017/pr17_062.htm

[Simon]

Better late than never….

Total Items in Store: 2082
Items Sold: 41
Total Sales: $914
Cost of Items Sold: $193
Average Price Sold: $22.3
Average Cost of Item: $4.73
Highest Price Item Sold: $65.95 Pink Polaroid Camera
Number of items listed this week: 49
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 289
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 158
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 80
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.97%
# of Hats Sold: 28 (68% of sales)

Pretty good week. As usual, sales were inconsistent throughout the week. If I wasn’t good about tracking my numbers I would never have guessed that I exceeded $900 in sales. Wish I could find more pink polaroids. That was a quick sale.

90% of my listed inventory fits into one bedroom in my house. (The beauty of dealing mailing in hats). I have overflow, unlisted inventory and packing supplies in my garage. My garage is a mess. Having a dedicated shed sounds great.

Jay I’d be interested in hearing a year end summary from you guys regarding your numbers. Whatever you feel comfortable sharing. eg: number of orders for the year, cost of goods sold %-wize, biggest selling category, most orders in a day. Whatever numbers you can figure out relatively easily.

[ChristineR]

Simon, do you see any patterns or draw any conclusions from your stats aging inventory? My garage probably looks like your garage. My husband does not love the recycled packing material. Thanks.

[ChristineK]

Relating to the package theft call on the podcast, I had packages stolen for the first time a couple of months ago. Our neighbor had the person on his security camera stealing the packages. The police couldn’t do anything though, as the packages were by the mailbox, so technically on the “right of way”. At this point, my only solution is a daily trip to the post office. It really stinks, but it’s the only way to ensure that the packages aren’t stolen. I don’t live in a busy urban area. The person who stole my packages was a vagrant on a bike. Prior to this, I’d leave piles of packages right by my mailbox for my mail carrier and I’d never had an issue.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by ChristineK.

[Manateejaq]

T-Satt: My Etsy store hasn’t grown much this year in size much (around 300 items grown to 500 items). My focus has been on starting eBay this year (0 listings to 600). For Etsy though, the number of items in my store has increased this year, but there have been ups and downs. Same story with my sales, a general upward trend across the year, but ups and downs. I plotted “total items in Etsy store” and “total etsy sales” on a bar graph with my weekly data. Both increase with a similar slope. This slope however is a better fit for the “Total items” than “Sales”. (R2 value of 0.69 vs 0.46, which neither is great, so a line probably isn’t even the best fit for either.

Exponential trend lines show similar fit. Neither is great.

Maybe I just haven’t hit any plateau points, or I need more than one year’s worth of data. I have sales data for the last 6 years, but I have only been keeping track of # of items in my store this year.

I also plotted weekly ‘Sales’ vs ‘# Items in store’ in a scatter plot. No relationship.

Finally I plotted weekly ‘Sales’ vs ‘New Items Listed’ in a scatter plot. No relationship there either.

I am guessing that the increase in sales over the course of this year is just a function of increased overall shopping in Q4. (Especially since I sell almost exclusively vintage toys and kids books in my Etsy shop).

[T-Satt]

Thanks for the analysis. Good to know as we grow the Etsy side!

[BrianB]

Steve Schultz mentioned in his video this week that some of his long-tail items have been selling. I thought the same thing. Maybe it’s just due to the holiday shopping and more people looking at stuff online.

[Sigilini]

I live in Los Angeles, I either leave a note for my mail carrier to ring bell for packages or I look out for him at about 12:30. Our carriers are very accommodating. I never leave things outside even though we are in a relatively safe location. Still, I would prefer to go to the post office than loose a package. Our post office has a drop off location inside and I just go there to drop things off.

Would anyone be able to send me a link to the ebay photo app. I was not able to find it. Will keep looking in the meantime.

Regarding changing the wording on unsold listing titles, absolutely!!!! I did it several times on items that were not even looked at and as soon as I made a couple of changes, boom! Sold. We are new so sometimes I just did not have the right words and that made all the difference. Just the word “lid” on the butter dish changed it from dead to sold.

[Jay]

Uh, you mean this?
http://anywhere.ebay.com/mobile/iphone/ebay/
Its the first thing that pops up in a google search for eBay app.

[Sigilini]

Thank you Jay. We don’t have an Iphone, that is probably why I was confused.

[JFH]

I like the new storage building. I am fortunate to have access to my uncle’s steel frame shop building, granted he only lets me use the back part and the attic (He is now retired but very particular). I have been selling as usual on eBay, etsy, and FBA. I am focusing on shoes and clothes on eBay, and sales have been steady but there is always room for improvement. I use my etsy income to trade cryptos on Binance. My favorite crypto is Iota coin, which has made me some decent gains. I think cryptos will be the new money in the future once regulation gets sorted out and of course the feds want a cashless society on a block chain so they can monitor everything. I look for some scrap gold jewelry now too, I hear it is very undervalued. Have a good week!

[T-Satt]

Crypto is an area I am interested in, but need much more knowledge of first. How have you studied crypto? And are you trading short term and churning or longer holds?

[Jay]

Until crypto currencies are actually useful currency for buying/selling things, it’s really just Beanie Babies for computer geeks. The current price is all just based on speculation. Sell Sell Sell!

And on the topic of a cashless society, we’re already there. I cant remember the last time I had cash in my wallet. We put old shoes into the machine and get a number bump on our paypal account that gets accepted everywhere.

[T-Satt]

Crypto can be seen as any other currency play. I can buy Chinese Yen, or British Pounds, or Canadian Dollars now, and if they grow in value vs the US Dollar, I make money. Same as Gold, Silver, Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate…or old shoes.

Always about finding value from a willing seller and a willing buyer.

And I have cash 100% of the time. Many times I have needed it when digital wasn’t available. Always in my Get Home Bag too…

[Jay]

Hey, let’s see what happens with these cryptocurrencies. A little too volatile for my taste. Not clear what the value is except speculation.

If you think the zombie apocalypse is coming, cash wont matter anyway. But I hear you, probably a good idea to have some cash these days just in case of emergencies (like power going out). But my point is that when society is working well, you can live without cash. It is a cashless society now.

[T-Satt]

Agree that there is a lot of speculation, but I don’t know for sure. I think the concept is intriguing, and there may be value there. And there is money to be made in a crash as well. You can make money on either side of the play.

Yes, always have cash. Sometimes a yard sale pops up, need cash. Sometimes in the mountains, power is down at Store. When getting campsites, need cash.

Cashless society, yes. But a dollar and a Bitcoin are essentially the same. Cash is an idea. The idea that a piece of paper, or a hunk of gold rock, or a seashell…or digital bytes…represent value. End of the day, it works if you and I agree that it holds the same value. And that value is the work you put in to create it.

We used to skip the middleman and just barter. Your milk for my eggs. You plow my field and I fix your barn. Currency just made it easy to transfer the value…and they have evolved from gold to paper to digital bytes. Could Bitcoin be the next evolution if people trust it’s value? Intriguing. We are seeing a future of Artificial Intelligence, self-driving electric cars, and a colony on Mars. May we live in interesting times…

Zombie Apocalypse? I have other items in the Get Home Bag for that…

Funny part is, how often I use items in the Get Home Bag each week. Water, snacks, jacket, earphones, backup battery. Always prepared…

[almasty]

I guess cryptocurrencies are the same if you’re comparing them on the basis of the backing fiat dollars, which is nothing other than reputation for the most part. Bitcoin is favorably viewed by people for now only because it is going up, up, up. They don’t know the history of it, why it exists, what it’s future is, what the original purpose of it is, what it is intended for. They just see profits.

I am still wary of bitcoin due to all the hacks and the general paranoid attitude you have to have in order to maintain them. Malware will become more sophisticated in order to steal bitcoins from unsuspecting people who just leave them exposed in online wallets, or barely secure on their computers. Normal people who have heavily invested in the past month will lose their butts if they don’t know how to properly hold onto what they bought. I don’t think it is currently a good alternative to what we’ve got for the average person in terms of normal, everyday currency.

[T-Satt]

“I don’t think it is currently a good alternative to what we’ve got for the average person in terms of normal, everyday currency.”

Agree with you. It isn’t there yet. But I find it intriguing on the philosophy side, and is it the next step. Like you said at the start, we value our fiat currency because we trust that they are a store of value. But, if we don’t trust the value behind them (Germany in 1923, Zimbabwae in 2000s), there is a collapse of that currency and something will fill it’s place.

Will we value Bitcoin more than dollars? Maybe, maybe not. If we move to valuing our lives in self-driving cars, is it not easy to see us valuing our “money” in Bitcoin?

We already have our trust that the digital bytes in our PayPal account, or Bank Account, will purchase our goods. Is swapping dollars for Bitcoin in that platform really that different?

I am still wary as well, and haven’t invested anything yet. But the study is interesting, and the upside of being on the front end is huge. And especially if you protect your downside on the way up.

I think Bitcoin is up primarily because it is the most well known (and from what little I know, the most secure). But there are thousands of other cryptocurrencies, all with their ups and downs. And totally agree that keeping it secure is HUGE. Which is why when we backed the US Dollar with gold, Fort Knox was so important. I always say that if I can’t keep it safe, I don’t want it to begin with.

The concept is intriguing…

[So Cal Joe]

I don’t believe the US dollar has been backed by gold in quite a while.

I think a stable economy and government has more to do with the trust in the dollar than anything else. Also it doesn’t hurt that we have an incredible amount of natural resources.

[almasty]

I would seriously not suggest buying any in the next few weeks. There is a lot of truth to this article:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/08/cramer-bets-against-bitcoin-will-crush-it-once-futures-begin-trading.html

I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes back down to 5k or lower within a month from now. That *might* be a good time to invest, but who knows what it will actually end up stabilizing at.

My favorite bitcoin alternative was coinye that appeared in 2014, but Kanye West sued it out of existence. 🙁

https://www.coindesk.com/kanye-west-sues-coinye-altcoin-oblivion/

[T-Satt]

Cramer is wrong a lot too, but as I was saying, maybe time to short as well. Always ways to make money…

Will I do it? Nope. I don’t know enough about it. But is there money to be made there? Yes…if I have the knowledge. I just need to keep going down that rabbit hole and see if it is an area I can learn, trust, and have a competitive advantage somehow.

Just like selling shoes on the internet, or winning at the poker table…If I have the advantage, I can win.

[JFH]

Yes, they are speculation, but I do see adoption incoming. Craigslist now allows sellers to accept bitcoin. Agreed about us already being basically cashless. I have spent the last couple months learning all I can about trading and investing in them and I am very careful to never take a position that I can not afford to lose. So far I have made out very well, but with cryptos you must watch the charts constantly so you can sell if things change on a dime. Using them and trading the are 2 different things, and for now I agree there are many more stable investments. When eBay begins to allow payment in btc, I will be on board.

[Jay]

Big things would have to change for mainstream adoption.
In fact, companies are ceasing to accept bitcoin because its so volatile:
https://gizmodo.com/valve-your-bitcoin-isnt-any-good-on-steam-anymore-1821069532

Cryptocurrency is like a bad currency from a developing nation where the value of your “dollar” changes too much from day to day. Too difficult to run a business this way.

[Jay]

Craigslist now lets you take Bitcoin as currency:
https://gizmodo.com/you-can-now-click-cryptocurrency-ok-on-craigslist-be-1821164380

But here are some good points:

One issue here, though, is that while people are pretty desperate to get their hands on some crypto, those who already have some tend to hoard it. So you can tell Craigslist you’ll happily take some bitcoins or ether for your old couch, but whether or not someone will actually take you up on it is another story.

+

“It doesn’t work as a currency; the “value” fluctuates too much in comparison to any other currency and even though traditional fiat currencies aren’t tied to any one thing they at least have a national economy underpinning the confidence in it.

+

It also doesn’t work as a commodity; Gold, Platinum, and other precious metals traditionally used as safe-keeps during times of instability are physical goods you can keep secure easily. Instead bitcoin is increasingly being shown to not be that secure because of its online nature.”

[T-Satt]

JFH: Where are your most reliable sources to research and learn about cryptos? Who and What do you trust for accurate info?

[T-Satt]

Today, yes cryptocurrency is not there. But could it be there in the future? Possibly.

At some point in our past, we went from Barter to Gold. We accepted that Gold was a medium of exchange of value. Then we went to paper currency. We are now in a digital world. Once (or if) society agrees that block chain is a more reliable store of value, we will move there.

Will it happen tomorrow? Nope. In 10 years, maybe. In 50 years, maybe.

I do know that the world 10 years from now will be different than it is today, and definitely 50 years from now. And I love to watch and see where we may be going. Just that block chain is here and the world is moving there is amazing. Will it continue? Probably. Or it may pivot out to something that we don’t have now.

The iPhone is only 10 years old…

[Jay]

You’re absolutely correct. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in ten years. Robots, AI, self-driving cars, mainstream renewable energy. Space?!

[T-Satt]

Yep. We should time capsule our forecasts for what life will be like in 10 years.

Robots: Nope, but AI intelligence in our phones and homes via voice control? That is my bet.

Self Driving Cars: In some major cities, yes. Rural, no, and probably never will be. We don’t have rail systems in Podunk Nebraska either for the same economic reason.

Renewables: Good question. Economics still have to come down for the generation and storage of energy from Wind and Solar. Still the reason that it has stalled. Nuclear? I would love to see that expanded here in the US. Bad press keeps it out, yet they have moved forward in Europe & Asia. We are way behind…

Space: Probably. Musk is shooting for Mars first mission in 2022, so I would add a few years to that (he is always late). Colony on Mars in 50 years? Just might. What we need is a Terraforming project for Mars. THAT gets really interesting for me. In 100 years? Possibly. 100 years ago, we just started having commercial air travel…

[almasty]

I am REALLY looking forward to self-driving cars. As someone that does this without a car (I’ve never learned how to drive), it would solve soooo many problems for me. I live in an urban area with a driveway, so I would even have a place to park it! Considering the amount of uber rides I take each month now as it is, leasing a self-driving car would probably end up working out to a cheaper cost! Hah!

[So Cal Joe]

Uber is already using self driving cars as we speak. I really don’t think they’re that faraway. I don’t think where you live is really going to matter, although I have to wonder how well they’ll deal with snow etc.

I also think electric cars could be mainstream today, if there wasn’t so much resistance. Battery technology is getting better every day. All you have to do is remember how well the cell phone batteries were 15 years ago. There would also need to be a way to get them charged away from home. If it were a priority, it would be done.

Think about all the sci-fi movies and predictions you’ve ever seen. They predicted flying cars and instant food (microwave?) and of course the video telephone system. Did any of them predict the smart phone.. or even just the cell phone. I am amazed at how quickly this product was developed and improved. It is a complete game changer in society, probably as big as the original telephone was 100 years ago.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Sometimes I look at the iphone I’m holding and marvel at how outrageously awesome of a device it is. People take it for granted, but that little screened device is WAY cooler and more advanced than the majority of stuff the Sci Fi movies and books predicted.

It is a portable wireless super computer that connects me to the ENTIRE WORLD, along with all of the cumulative knowledge and history of humanity – all with the press of a button. Anything I desire this little device can either give me, lead me to, or pay someone to bring me. Instantly. While sitting on the toilet even… Wow! Lol!

[T-Satt]

The largest hurdle for electric cars is the recharge issue. I have driven to Montana and back twice in the last few weeks. I can be in and out in under 10 minutes, with only 5 of that being the fill up of gas (the other 5 is the potty break!). Before they get too far…that is the issue.

Plus, the power consumption of all electric cars. We would need a MUCH larger electric generation process to handle that. Right now, a lot of electric cars are powered by coal…since that is how the electricity is generated in that area.

And self driving cars will have the same issue with refills. Short trips in town, sure. Longer hauls…not so much.

Concept is good, but 100% participation…those logistics are much harder…

[Jay]

US electric generation is actually less and less coal. Now its only at 30%.
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3
Natural gas is much cheaper and cleaner…plus renewables at now at 14%.

But yeah, hurdles for sure. Changing power generation is slow…but its happening.

[T-Satt]

Yep, and especially here in Colorado. Here, natural gas is cheap. It is mainly a by-product when drilling for oil.

More drilling and fraking will have to take place to support the demand.

[Jay]

Whats becoming profitable for power companies is to invest in wind and solar. They realize that its a one time up front cost that produces power for years. Natural gas is a big piece of it, but it is amazing how far we’ve come since 2008. Just ten years!

[So Cal Joe]

The recharge issue could be handled if an effort was made. It’s not rocket science. There could be quick charge stations, battery swaps and of course roof integrated solar panels on the body. It wouldn’t have to be a 100% solution in the beginning.

It’s a matter of the right people making the correct decisions. The problem is that progress rarely happens unless it is profitable.

I was a truck driver for years. My truck, like many had a sleeper. In order to keep yourself warm or cool. depending on the weather, you often had to run your truck while parked. An idling truck burns about 1 gallon of fuel and hour. You can imagine the air pollution and noise in the truck stops with all the trucks running. It’s also a quick way to wear out an expensive engine.

There were some feeble attempts made to solve this problem. In fact in many places it it illegal to idle your truck when parked. The reality is, if they wanted to solve it, they would have. The solution is fairly simple. It’s just not a priority and worth the effort to them.

I think the same can be said of the electric car.

[T-Satt]

“The problem is that progress rarely happens unless it is profitable.”

That is how you solve it. Make it profitable. Simply that. When that happens, the rest will follow.

People, companies, and governments all act in their own self interest.

[So Cal Joe]

Government regulations, laws and subsidies have a lot to do with what’s profitable.

It wasn’t very profitable for the car manufacturers to start putting Smog equipment on their cars 50 years ago, but I think we’ve all benefited as a result.

[T-Satt]

Yep, and when those regulations forced car manufacturers to put those on cars, we paid for it with higher car prices. The cost was passed right along to us. We got the benefit, and we paid for it.

Safety wasn’t always the highest priority in cars either, but now all car makers fight to show who is safest. They are giving the public what they ask for.

Laws can be passed to force what isn’t currently economically a competitive advantage, and companies will pass increased costs on to consumers.

We can get there the economic way, or we can all pay for it when it isn’t.

I’m of the philosophy that self interest will drive innovation faster than being forced. The company that cracks cheap renewable energy, and the one that cracks quick recharge stations will tske over the market and be paid for its innovation.

[Author]

Posts