Scavenger Life Episode 338: Rich Scavenger, Poor Scavenger

[Ryanne]

 We play Vegas style bingo in a local fire hall. We meal prep for the week. Jay hoards SmartWool socks from a discounter online. Check out the new Th
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 338: Rich Scavenger, Poor Scavenger]

[Mark S]

12/3/17 – 12/9/17

Total items in store: 2084
Total sales: 701
# items sold: 22
Average: $31.86
Returns: 0
# items listed: 35

Good week. Busy on the weekends and slow during the middle of the week.

Mark

[T-Satt]

Week of 12/03-12/09
Total Items in Store: 1,675
Number of Items Listed: 93
Number of Items Sold: 78
(Includes 6 Etsy, 3 Bonanza 1 TruGether)
Weekly STR: 20%

Total Product Sales: $2,020
Cost of Items Sold: $388
Gross Profit for Week: $1,540
Highest Item Sold: $149 – Members Only Genuine Leather Jacket
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 27-21.

eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,009
# Sold: 42
STR: 18%
ASP: $27.61

eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 675
# Sold: 30
STR: 19%
ASP: $19.66

Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 125
# Sold: 6
STR: 21%
ASP: $45.05

Regarding Etsy, I will say that if you are not cross-posting, it is a push vs listing on eBay. You can seem to get some higher prices, but the STR may be longer (though this week, Etsy had the highest STR). That is why we wanted to get our process solid with eBay, and then use SixBit to expand into Etsy without losing productivity. Our business model is to keep growing the eBay business, then bolt on other businesses without sacrificing the ones that are working.

Thanks and a huge shoutout to the caller on the digital lockbox for packages! When we move to a more rural area, that process will be huge for us to avoid having to travel into town to ship every day. Thanks!

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by T-Satt.

[Ryanne]

simplicio wrote:

I had a decent week on eBay even without counting my biggest sale ever. I am pretty elated.

Sales: CAD$4,180, 11 items, avg $380/item
COGS: $665
Expenses: $332
Net profit: $2,557
Hours: 11, hourly rate $232/hr
Listed: 13 items

So on Tuesday I finally met up with a guy on kijiji selling 25 beat up old barcode scanners (for warehouses etc.), after trying to arrange a meetup for a few weeks. Eventually I had to just duck out of work for an extra hour on my lunch break.

Guy’s basically an older picker who used to sell locally, now he has storage lockers full of stuff that he’s trying to unload. We settled on $560 for what turned out to be 39 scanners (plus some other odds and sods like chargers) after a bit of testing and tire kicking. I put up a listing for 2 of them to test the waters and got a message from a buyer who refurbishes these scanners. After a bit of back and forth we settled on $3,000 for all 39 scanners. So my profit comes to $2,000 after fees. Could have got more by selling them in smaller lots, but honestly I wanted to get some cashflow this week. Still have 44 batteries and some chargers to sell, should bring a few hundred more.

I am still in contact with the guy I bought from, so I may buy up more stuff from him if it looks good. He has more big lockers full of stuff and seems motivated. Also moved a couple toner cartridges for $460, they cost me $40. And some old odds and ends that I am pleased to have off my shelf.

It has not escaped my notice though, that that single sale accounts for 1/7 of this year’s profits and it only ate about 6 hours of my time (total hours clocked year to date: 363!). If that isn’t motivation to try to move up a weight class, dunno what would be. If only I could find these things every day.

I have decided to try a new SOP. Because storage is getting to be a critical problem (I’m now taking over a guest bedroom in addition to my basement storage room), I am going to set a goal of purging one item per month. At the end of each month I will choose a bulky item that needs to go, and give myself the next month to dispose of it by any means necessary – slashing the price & selling, or failing that donating/throwing away. Obviously I wouldn’t do this for items I know have great resale value, more the “for parts” listings etc. This month I am getting rid of a broken IBM Selectric.

Oh, and I learned one thing recently that doubtless all of you guys know, but maybe there’s somebody else out there mixed up like me. I do calculated shipping on everything, but I was always confused about what to do when a buyer asks for local pickup, as that’s not an option in the listing unless you do flat shipping. I now know that it’s as simple as invoicing the buyer and changing the shipping method to “local pickup”.

[Ryanne]

sorry, not sure why when you edit, the forum eats your posts! i need to troubleshoot that.

[T-Satt]

For your troubleshooting, I did a big edit on mine, but it was fine and the edits went through. That was the first time it worked…but it worked! Happy bug hunting!

[Ryanne]

that’s good to know, thank you. weird!!

[simplicio]

Weird problems with posting this… hopefully doesn’t get duplicated.
______________________________________
I had a decent week on eBay even without counting my biggest sale ever. I am pretty elated.

Sales: CAD$4,180, 11 items, avg $380/item
COGS: $665
Expenses: $332
Net profit: $2,557
Hours: 11, hourly rate $232/hr
Listed: 13 items

So on Tuesday I finally met up with a guy on kijiji selling 25 beat up old barcode scanners (for warehouses etc.), after trying to arrange a meetup for a few weeks. Eventually I had to just duck out of work for an extra hour on my lunch break.

Guy’s basically an older picker who used to sell locally, now he has storage lockers full of stuff that he’s trying to unload. We settled on $560 for what turned out to be 39 scanners (plus some other odds and sods like chargers) after a bit of testing and tire kicking. I put up a listing for 2 of them to test the waters and got a message from a buyer who refurbishes these scanners. After a bit of back and forth we settled on $3,000 for all 39 scanners. So my profit comes to $2,000 after fees. Could have got more by selling them in smaller lots, but honestly I wanted to get some cashflow this week. Still have 44 batteries and some chargers to sell, should bring a few hundred more.

I am still in contact with the guy I bought from, so I may buy up more stuff from him if it looks good. He has more big lockers full of stuff and seems motivated. Also moved a couple toner cartridges for $460, they cost me $40. And some old odds and ends that I am pleased to have off my shelf.

It has not escaped my notice though, that that single sale accounts for 1/7 of this year’s profits and it only ate about 6 hours of my time (total hours clocked year to date: 363!). If that isn’t motivation to try to move up a weight class, dunno what would be. If only I could find these things every day.

I have decided to try a new SOP. Because storage is getting to be a critical problem (I’m now taking over a guest bedroom in addition to my basement storage room), I am going to set a goal of purging one item per month. At the end of each month I will choose a bulky item that needs to go, and give myself the next month to dispose of it by any means necessary – slashing the price & selling, or failing that donating/throwing away. Obviously I wouldn’t do this for items I know have great resale value, more the “for parts” listings etc. This month I am getting rid of a broken IBM Selectric.

Oh, and I learned one thing recently that doubtless all of you guys know, but maybe there’s somebody else out there mixed up like me. I do calculated shipping on everything, but I was always confused about what to do when a buyer asks for local pickup, as that’s not an option in the listing unless you do flat shipping. I now know that it’s as simple as invoicing the buyer and changing the shipping method to “local pickup”.

[Doublythumbs]

Dec. 3 – 9
Total Items in Store: 940
Items Sold: 13
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $505
Highest Price: $95 (Arai Signet/e Red and White Motorcycle Helmet)
Average Price: $39
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $87
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $215

This can be such a funny business. The week before last was one of my best weeks ever. This last week felt like the water faucet was turned off. It seemed to me that I wasn’t making any sales at all. It felt really dreary, perhaps because I was sick all last week. But after doing my numbers just now, I can’t believe I made over $500. I thought for sure I didn’t even make half of that. Still lower than I would like, but it brightened my morning nevertheless.

You’ve inspired me to make a bit of a gamble on Saturday. I went to an auction a ways away that had in their pictures a vintage aluminum Christmas tree. I knew that they could be highly sought after and can be worth quite a bit. So, to make a long story short, I got it for a little over $200. Way more than I wanted to spend, but it was in very nice condition with the original box and even came with a motorized musical rotating base. I brought it home and put everything on hold while I assembled it, tested everything and took pictures. I listed it for close to $1K with best offer. I might have gone a little crazy with the price, but the way I see it there’s no dire need to sell it quickly and I can just sit on it until someone decides to drop some cash. At the very least, I’m confident that I can make my money back easily enough. Here’s the listing if anyone wanted to check it out… Vintage Aluminum Christmas Tree

[amazingtaste]

Good morning! Another great podcast! I love the conversation about adding in Etsy and/or other platforms. We are loving etsy. It allows us to have a list it and forget it store and a quick flip store. We tried to do the list and forget it on Ebay and it just didn’t work. I love that this business allows us all to build a business that works for us!

[T-Satt]

We are loving the Etsy side as well. Are you using Etsy through SixBit?

[amazingtaste]

I haven’t gone to Etsy through Sixbit yet. I am so cheap!

[T-Satt]

Just remember our talk about you time to list…what is your time worth? It got Veronica down to 2 minutes per listing to cross list to Etsy.

[amazingtaste]

I’m not cross listing to Etsy right now. My etsy inventory is totally seperate. I am planning on integrating Etsy Sixbit in 2018. 🙂

[T-Satt]

It works really well. We had our first Etsy bug this weekend (SixBit missed some orders on Etsy, but I entered them manually and sent the support team a message).

Other than that, love it! We went from 0-100+ listings very quickly. There is still some manual work for the Etsy listing, but still a time savings from scratch.

[Utahbill]

I just checked and it looks like the Enterprise version of Sixbit is $69.99 per month. That’s double my current rate for Small Business version. I am going to wait until I have at least 500 items listed that would be good for Etsy.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Total Items in Store: 885
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $40
Total Sales: $382.50
Profit: $342.50
Highest Price Sold: $67 Timberland Boots
Average Price Sold: $27.32
Average Profit: $24.46

So it’s been in the low 30’s for a high temperature the last 4 days here in WV. With my insulation and new heater, my garage ebay space stays a nice 63 degrees 24 hours a day. That is plenty warm enough for me to stay out there for hours in shorts/tshirt and slippers. Love it!

What I don’t love is that the space is still not set up. I’m still moving larger stuff out and organizing, but other commitments have kept me busy. This week I’m commiting myself to at least get my photo area set up so I can get back to listing.

My scavenging is cut back to two Goodwills on Sunday with the family and a single weekday trip to my local Goodwill. The tag sales have gotten AWESOME at the two Sunday Goodwills. I think they’ve been pretty successful in driving away customers with their over the top prices. Their individually priced “specialty” clothes ($10-25 per item) are almost all consistently making it to 99 cent tag week. I show up first thing on Sunday and easily fill a cart. They’ve also been slipping up and missing things. I got two pair of Big Star jeans that they put on the normal rack. They typically catch these and price them at $30.

So while I have actually cut way back on how much I shop, I’m bringing home even more inventory for even less money. My wife is also starting to take an interest in scavenging the women’s clothes. She is finding stuff I would have never seen. She shops a lot for herself, so she has that interest needed to get good at scavenging there.

[Simon]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the show!

Here are my numbers for the week:
Items Sold: 46
Total Sales: $975
Cost of Items Sold: $82
Average Price Sold: $21.19
Average Cost of Item: $1.8
Highest Price Item Sold: $44.95 1976 California High School Yearbook
Number of items listed this week: 46
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 291
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 153
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 103
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.21%
# of Hats Sold: 31 (67% of sales)

I had a good week. I’m very happy with this result. I’m pleasantly surprised how many people are buying used hats at this time of year.

I saw something interesting happen yesterday on eBay. I had a sale for a item where I’d specified FedEx home delivery. The item was worth $30. I never specify “signature required”. When I went to print the shipping label, eBay had added signature confirmation with a little note on the Print Shipping Label page saying that they (eBay) had added it for me to ensure that the buyer received the item. There was no way for me to unselect it. I changed the shipping method to Priority Mail (which was cheaper for me anyway) and that got rid of the signature-required option. Weird.

In regard to negative feedback. I can tell you that when a return case closes, negative feedback might disappear. I had a nasty buyer that gave me negative feedback and opened a return case. He never returned the item. (He said he was “teaching me a lesson”). When the return case closed after 30 days, his negative feedback disappeared automatically. It might be a trick that sellers could use to get rid of negative feedback eg: “open a return case and I’ll refund your money, no need to send the item back”.

Hope you get paid for your santa!

[ChristineR]

Simon, do you see any patterns or draw any conclusions from your stats aging inventory? Congrats on your sales. Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at, even in the Bay Area.

[Simon]

Thanks ChristineR!

The forum ate my response so I’ll try again….

I’m not sure if this is what you were asking but take a look at this sales graph that shows what percentage of hats have sold over time using a bunch of specific data points from the last 2-3 years. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the sales are in the first 6 months / 200 days and there’s a definite plateau around 550 days. (The wobbly bit in the middle probably reflects the specific type of hats that I was listing at that time.). This graph definitely highlights the long-tail nature of selling hats. They are not a quick flip.

[ChristineR]

Interesting. Thanks.

[Geoff]

12/3/17 – 12/10/17

Total items in store (beginning of week): 869
Items sold: 28
Weekly sell through: % 3.22
Total Sales: $1224.40 (no shipping)
Average price: $43.73
Cost of items sold: $253.57
Gross profit: $970.83
Highest item sold: Apple Macintosh 512k enhanced M0001 E & Image Writer II, 800K External, USA ($504.63 cost $59)
New items listed: 57
Asking price of new items listed: $2553.24
Cost of new items listed: $ 538.3

[T-Satt]

Solid ASP Geoff! Nicely done!

[Geoff]

thanks — a big sale or two really makes a week better!

[TreasureFinder]

Just signed up for Ting with your referral link. Says I will get a $25 bill credit also – hope it works. Getting it for my son’s phone. Thank you for the info on their services!

[Jay]

The big reason why we like Ting is their customer service. Either chat or on the phone, they are super responsive and empowered. I will hate the day they get bought out by a big company.

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 406
Cost of Items Sold: $149
Total Sales: $681
Highest Price Sold: $75 (Limoges Plate – $1.99 at GW)
Average Price Sold: $32
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 37 (mostly multiples)

A good week. Super funky and distracting because of the nearby fires. School is cancelled so could either be a good or bad week for listing depending on the power and internet reliability and kid factor. I will make very little money at my other job this month, so that’s a bummer. Ebay will help a little. Have a great week everyone! Fingers crossed for me for good weather conditions here.

[Simon]

Hope you guys stay out of the fires path ChristineR. After the recent fires in our area, I can certainly empathize with what Southern California is going through.

[ChristineR]

PS. Our poor postal workers are working in serious ash with masks. Amazing.

[LiveLikeNoOneElse]

Ryanne, regarding a buyer not being able to leave bad feedback after you’ve resolved and refunded money didn’t work for me. I had a client request a return, which we issued and also let them keep the item and they were still able to leave us a negative. I called about it and the CS reps said they still can. They said they couldn’t help me remove the feedback because it was the customer’s opinion and it did not violate any policies. I was so upset. The received a full refund and didn’t have to return the item, yet were still able to leave a negative. Grr.

Now is asking for a return that same as opening a case?

[Ryanne]

yes asking for a return is opening a case. that sucks! i didn’t know that was possible. hmmm

[Blackcat]

You’re completely wrong about Merch by Amazon. If you sell a shirt for 20 dollars you make 7 dollar profit not 2. But starting in January fees are going up by almost 2 dollars so a 20 dollar shirt will now only give you a 5 dollar profit. This is a total bummer as most of my shirts i sell at 18 and will now only make 3 dollars which isn’t worth it. And while you can edit your shirt and change the price, you risk buyers still not paying that much and your shirt that had sales goes thru the approval process all over again and if it doesn’t sell in 90 days, it gets unlisted. That’s if it got re-approved in the first place. It may think your shirt is the copy cat shirt of someone else’s and deny you for it.

The other horrible merch issue happening right now during the worst possible time is Amazon has announced they are going to throttle merch sellers in order to keep up with demand. It started with not letting new sellers in and limiting how many shirts you can upload per day depending on your tier status. I could upload 10, then 5, then 2, then 1, now none. No merch seller now matter how big they are can upload a single new shirt until further notice. Their supposed to give us an update on when this might change today sometime.

But the worst throttling is they have told us that they will make your shirt not visible to buyers at certain times or they will limit the sizes or colors available. I have watched my sales plummet when they started this. I would type in one of my most popular shirts and see nothing over large available or nothing available in mens or womens. Or worse, my most popular shirt won’t be on amazon at all. If your shirt isn’t visible, it can’t be bought. Q4 is the worst time for them to do this and i still can’t understand how a powerhouse like Amazon can’t keep up with demand.

I will still continue with Amazon as it is passive income after you put up the design which by the way i mostly just do simple text designs. I don’t advertise or promote my shirts so i rely solely on organic traffic. I still make a few hundred dollars a month at my current level. I have a few shirts that sell a few every single week. People who advertise or have their shirts go viral probably sell hundreds of their shirt design each week. I’m a small fish in the water but it’s okay with me.

You don’t have to be a designer though to make shirts. There are tons of free fonts and images you can use on your shirt and a lot of websites that you use to check competition, trademarks, and ideas. I usually don’t care about my competition at all. I only check to make sure someone else hasn’t used the image im using or design because amazon won’t let you upload yours if it’s a copy of someone else’s.

Okay, that’s enough rambling about merch. If you’re even slightly interested I would go ahead and apply to get in as some people wait for a long time to get approved. Months or even a year.

[Jay]

You’re right about the current royalty profit….but thats going down by $2 in 2018.

I see this page:
https://merch.amazon.com/resource/201858580

As of January 15, 2018
List price $15.99 $17.99 $19.99 $21.99 $23.99 $25.99
Royalty $2.36 $3.87 $5.38 $6.89 $8.40 $9.92

Glad its working for you.
Just seems like small time money for the hassle.

[Blackcat]

Yeah I mentioned that in my comment. It’s definitely unfortunate. But they did just introduce long sleeve shirts and we’re hoping for other products. It’s a low profit margin but it has the ability to keep selling. It’s like your nail polish listing. You made 1 listing and now they just keep selling. I have friends who bring thousands doing it. You have to work your way up. But it’s free upfront to do which is the best part. And no inventory to deal with.

[MoCoyotes]

Total Items in Store: 2025
Items Sold: 46
Cost of Items Sold: $68
Total Sales: $1739
Highest Price Sold: $105.76 (Redwing Boots)
Average Price Sold: $37.80
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8
Number of items listed this week: 47

Very good and consistent week. Strong sales.

Congrats Ryanne and Jay on selling that Santa!!

[Blackcat]

I also wanted to talk about Bingo. We used to play years ago and it was more like your newest bingo place. And the older women in there took it seriously. But it was back when you could smoke in restaurants and you would walk in and the smoke would be so thick it looked like fog. You’d come out of there reeking like cigg smoke. I always wondered what it was like now that they can’t smoke in there anymore but we haven’t been back. It is fun but can be very expensive. We also tried a sweepstakes gaming place recently just for fun. We went during the day when it was empty inside and played a fish game. You can use more skill to play that one. We came out with money but we were okay with losing it in the first place. We just spent 20. But players in there at night are usually desperate for money. They are trying to pay bills and its sad because their probably going to lose.

[Steven S]

Dec 3 – 9 2017

• Total Items in Store: 848
• Items Sold: 15 (13 ebay / 1 Bonanza / 1 FB marketplace)
• International 2 GSP
• Total Sales $782 ($702 ebay / $60 Bonanza / $20 FB)
• Highest Price $200 Knight ham radio
• Average Price Sold: $52
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $218
• Cost of items purchased this week $0

Slow week especially this time of year.

[Ryanne]

another lost post!–

sigal wrote:

While I was listening to the podcast you will be happy to know I was meal prepping. We eat 99% at home. Cabbage (both green and purple), is totally scavenger food. Cheap, filling, super low carb (We do low carb), and high in nutrients. I make a huge salad (with my super cool 4.00 garage sale spiralizer) which does not wilt and I make my own dressing. And we shop locally grown at the farmer’s market because it’s VERY high quality food for which you would pay much more at Whole Foods, saves on doctor bills and helps local farmers at the same time — totally scavenger!

Christine R, we are in Sylmar and had to evacuate for the fires last week. Are you in the SF Valley? Just curious. It was crazy here for several days but we managed to get things shipped.

We sold a pair of vintage windows this week for $90.00 that we got for free on Craig’s list. The buyer is picking them up tomorrow. I picked up four more free vintage windows last night, we’ll see how they do.

And this weekend I picked up a cast iron boot scraper cat for $3.00. I could not find anything I wanted but in the garden was this rusty cat so I asked it was for sale. Guys says, “sure why not, 3.00.” I get home and it turns out to be an antique worth about $300.00. I listed it right away. Now we will see how that goes.

Thanks for your podcast and your amazing help.

Good health to all of you,

Sigal

[ChristineR]

Sorry that you had to evacuate. It’s so disruptive and can be expensive too. We are up in Santa Barbara. Were feeling good until the night before last when the fire ran 6 miles West overnight. Then last night, not much movement thank goodness. I’m thrilled the power is still on.

[Sigilini]

Christine, glad you are safe! We saw super huge smoke plumes yesterday when we were out on the 118 FWY, and it was hard to tell where from, perhaps the Ventura/Ojai area. About an hour later they were gone! I am so grateful for our amazing firefighters and police. True heroes!

[MoCoyotes]

About the 3 day guaranteed shipping…

Ours is showing as 4 days as well. I think if we changed to same day handling instead of 1 day handling, we would show up as guaranteed 3 day delivery.

eBay sent us an email that sort of said this. The email was sent after we called to close a case:

“Thanks for speaking with me. As we discussed, you have the opportunity to increase the visibility your listings get with eBay Guaranteed Delivery by offering same-day handling.”

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by MoCoyotes.

[Jay]

Huh, they dont say you need to only do one-day handling:
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/guaranteed-delivery.html

“Set same- or one-day handling time
Offer returns
Use eBay labels**
Upload tracking
Sell eligible items with immediate payment
State eligible carriers and services in listings
Add postal code to listing location”

I wonder if they’re being overly cautious because of holiday shopping.
If so, they need to tell sellers they MUST do same day shipping to qualify.
Currently, if I act like a buyer in my own town, eBay still says they cant guarantee three day delivery when we have one day handling.

And will they allow one-day handling after the holidays?

[MoCoyotes]

Here’s the 2nd part of the email which I think clarifies:

“Increase your holiday visibility.
During the busiest sales time of the year, buyers are filtering for eBay Guaranteed Delivery. When you offer same-day handling, the delivery promise to buyers becomes shorter, and your listings are more likely to show up when they click the “Guaranteed 3 day delivery” toggle. For step-by-step guidance on how to update your handling time, watch our video.”

[MoCoyotes]

Follow up:

Rita just told me that eBay actually CALLED her and wanted to talk about helping with sales or something. She said she couldn’t talk and the rep asked if she could email us. That’s when we got the email above.

Kind of weird that eBay called us.

[Julie B]

I get calls from eBay every time they push out a new service. Most recent call was Monday but I didn’t answer it this time. The calls always come from Midvale, Utah. It’s nice that they take the time to make a personal call to a little ebay seller like me. It does make me feel like a valued seller. But after the 3rd call telling me about the same service I start letting the calls go unanswered.

[Sharyn]

Week of Dec 3 – 9
* Total Items in Store: 1206
* Items Sold: 30
* Cost of Items Sold: $49.74 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $827.12
* Highest Price Sold: $159 Vintage Meissen bowl
* Average Price Sold: $27.57
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 36

Great podcast! I look forward to hearing about what happens with the Santa sale. I hope that the buyer pays up.

I had a very good week with a record number of sales. Most were not that high, but the quantity helped.

I had an issue with an ebay FedEx glitch. I had a buyer with an address in Brookhaven, GA, and FedEx was giving me the error “buyer mismatch city-postal” or something along those lines. I tried to change the city to Atlanta, but ebay’s software wouldn’t let me. After calling support a few times and waiting two days for a fix, I spent about $6 more to ship it Parcel. Annoying to say the least.

I believe that I made a mistake with my highest sale. I did do my homework, but not well enough. I got an offer, then someone paid full price, and then the original person who made the offer said they would give me $200. Looking back at solds again, I think I could have sold it closer to $250. Oh well. It wasn’t that big of a difference. I was happy for the quick sale plus I didn’t pay anything for it.

[omfug]

I had 11 packages go out this morning, only 2 were ebay sales, so yes, I list more on Etsy because I get more sales there–I do some cross posting, but not all.

Amazing about your Italian music box, these are really common, I sell them frequently–the highest I have asked and sold one for is $50–I don’t know, I move mine along fairly quickly, so is it better to wait a long time or, if the item is relatively plentiful, price lower and sell quicker?

Sales have been good, around $700 for the week between ebay and etsy.

[Utahbill]

Here’s my first attempt at posting my weekly numbers:

Week of December 3-9

Total items in store: 250
Total sales: $295.00 (does not include shipping)
# items sold: 6
Weekly Sell Through Rate: 2.4%
Average: $49.16
Returns: 0
# items listed: 9

My average sales price is skewed by a jacket I sold for $120. Unfortunately, I don’t think the buyer is going to pay. 🙁

Next weeks total items in store goal: 260

My goal is to increase the total number of items I have listed by 10 each week regardless of how many items sell.

[DigVintageStuff]

This week’s numbers, 4th December to 10th December (converted to US dollars at 1.35 from GBP)
Total Sales: $927 (Etsy $811 / Ebay $116)
Number of items sold: 18 (Etsy 15 / Ebay 3) 13UK, 4 USA, 1 Finland
Total items listed: Etsy 654 / Ebay 82
Cost of Goods Sold: $49
Highest price sold: $242 Vintage spinning wheel
Average price sold: $51.5
New listings: 23

Another great week for us on Etsy. It’s definitely the seasonal gift buying effect and it will certainly drop off as we approach the holidays. We had three higher dollar items sell – another Art Deco mirror ($175), a typewriter ($168) and a vintage spinning wheel ($242). Packaging fun time!
I won’t be listing much now till after the holidays. This week is the print deadline for our magazine business – so I’ll be full on with graphic design and proofreading. Then on the 15th our rental tenants move out, so we’ll be deep cleaning, doing minor repairs and getting it ready for new tenants. We’ll also start our own bathroom renovations – ripping out our shower and installing a new one.

Etsy is definitely more fun for us. Buyers are friendly, polite and willing to pay a premium for vintage stuff.

I hope the furry canoe santa buyer pays, but if they don’t you could list him on Etsy. He’s vintage, handmade and expensive. Perfect for Etsy!

Bingo is big in northern England. Lots of older women, big marker pens, junk food and serious ‘eyes down’ concentration.

[The Thrift Raider]

Interesting that some of you are saying that Etsy is doing better for you because it is for me. Unfortunately a sweatshirt that I featured in my last sales video that sold on Etsy has not gotten to it’s destination in Venice Beach, California. Wonder what could be going on because I don’t think the fires are affecting the LA area. I sent it out Nov. 30th and it says it’s still in transit. It stopped moving on the 3rd. Now I have to ask the PO if they know what might have happened. I’ve only ever had this happen a couple times before.

[Idahoarder]

Store Week 12/3/17 – 12/9//17

Total items in store: 1618
Items sold: 36
Cost of items sold: $42.13
Total sales: $1455.80
Highest price sold: $250.00 (Vintage Commodore 64 Computer)
Average price sold: $40.44
International Sales: 2
Returns: 0 (1 damaged item that I will replace and claim through USPS)
Money spent on new inventory this week: 0

This was a great week! My record keeping is not the best, but I’m pretty sure this is my best week ever. I had quite a few $30-$50 sales and the one big one, which was great. This week has started out with some nice sales too. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the podcast yet, but hopefully tonight!

[Julie B]

Bitcoin!!!
I moonlight as an anti-money laundering consultant. For awhile some of my clients were cryptocurrency exchanges that due to the services they were offering, required them to comply with certain anti-money laundering regulations. In order to try to grasp the concept of cryptocurrency and the blockchain (the “blockchain” is really where the usefulness of the currency lies for transacting on the internet) I purchased 1 bitcoin for $112 a few years ago. I never put in more than I was willing to lose. Over time I bought and sold up to 4 bitcoins. Never paid more than $112 for one. I expect it might be too late for any new investors to make money off of it at this point. At this very moment the current price of 1 coin is $17,099. Of course, I have no idea, no one really does. It’s fluctuated by as much as $5,000 over a 2 day period recently.
While mostly used as an investment in the U.S., cryptocurrencies are most useful in certain third world countries were local currency is quite volatile and barriers to international trade are great. Infrastructure in many of those countries is such that most people skipped landlines entirely and went straight to cellphones, where cryptocurrencies can be stored. Cryptocurrency use in those countries has made global transactions (and local) easier, quicker and less expensive. An interesting documentary that you can find online: Life on Bitcoin. It was filmed a few years ago. It’s about a couple who attempted to live an entire year using only Bitcoin as their currency. Ryanne & Jay – take your broken computer in and see if they can salvage anything off of your hard drive. I wouldn’t tell them that you saved your bitcoin info there though.

[T-Satt]

Thanks for the info. The concept of Blockchain is very intriguing, and it’s uses going forward in currency, smart contracts, etc. could become mainstream in a decade or so.

Veronica and I watched a documentary on Bitcoin on Netflix (Banking on Bitcoin I think) that was interesting. The more I read and see, the more it starts to make sense how the reliability will be gained by users. That is the key.

Whether Bitcoin makes it or not, it is the underlying theory and execution that I want to learn more about.

[tpkrause86]

Just chiming in on using etsy. It used to be a nice extra platform but about a year ago they started distributing sales by rotating your listings out of view after a sale until other people without sales sold items. After they did this my sales on the site dropped off the face of the earth. IMO its a waist of time unless you use a site like Instagram and have a huge following to drive in buyers. DONT DO IT! lol

Want to make more money, Diversify with cryptocurrencies.

Long time eBayer, my stores are:
Krauseinhiemer
thevintageengineer1

Love the podcast

[Jay]

I also wonder if Etsy is great during Xmas, but slows down considerably after that. For those who are starting up Etsy, I’d love to keep hearing about your numbers as 2018 comes on.

[T-Satt]

It will be part of my numbers every week.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Week December 3-9, 2017

Total Items in Store: 862
Items Sold: 17 (1 Amazon, 1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $90 (11.4% of sales)
Total Sales: $788.40
Highest Price Sold: $200 (1955 Philibert Erotic Le Florentin Playing Cards)
Average Price Sold: $46.38
Returns: 0 (2 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 7 sales, $281.90 (35.8% of total sales), $27.12 fees (9.6% of sales)

Not a bad week at all considering I was away for 3 day with extended handling time. I though that was going to be a killer during the holidays, but of the 9 sales while I was away no one had a problem with it. Much like you, R&J, my high sale of the week is currently a non payer thusfar… he is in France and has very choppy English so I’m hoping the delay is just a language barrier and not a sign of not paying.

[Ryanne]

update on Santa payment, buyer messaged us (after unpaid item claim opened and personal appeal email sent) saying he would pay today. as of 1pm no payment, but i’m hoping that changes!

[Rydell Relics]

RR Store Week Dec 3-9, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1386
Items Sold: 38
Cost of Items Sold: $45.77
Total Sales: $687.04
Highest Price Sold: $107.99 (vintage Donna Summer iron-on t-shirt)
Average Price Sold: $18.08
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $9
Number of items listed this week: 47

Jay, it’s been just over two years since I left my record store job to do this full time, and I still give you and Ryanne all the credit for inspiring me to do so. Before I found your show, my store was stagnant, I sold 95% vintage clothing, and I was struggling for guidance. I got so much bad advice from so many awful websites. One even said that the only way to really make money on eBay was retail arbitrage, which I tried and hated. So thankful that I found Scavenger Life. Your no b.s. approach was exactly what I needed…and still need. So, thanks for helping me shed a dead end job and a mind numbing commute.

Didn’t quite hit my goal, but still did ok. That Donna Summer photo shirt had been in my closet since the early 90’s. Sad to see it go, but it was time for someone else to enjoy it. Estate sales were slim pickings over the weekend, and my death pile is almost gone, so listing was spotty and mostly low dollar items. Trying to avoid the sweatshop business model, but when I can pick up a box full of $5 to $10 dollar items for a buck, it’s hard to resist.

*Paul*

[Jay]

It’s been two years! Congrats in making it work. I know it isnt always easy to run your own business, but it sounds like you’ve been able to build a life to deal with things at your own pace. You did it. All we do is cheerlead.

[Rydell Relics]

Thanks man! Yeah, two years and three months. The record store seems like a whole other life, like an alternate timeline. It certainly has been challenging; moving, health issues, etc. But I dig my new pad, health issues are being addressed, and business is slowly getting where I need it to be. And I couldn’t ask for two better cheerleaders.

Paul

[Manateejaq]

December 3 – December 9 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 458 // Ebay 609 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 14 // Ebay 11
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $28.76 // Ebay $94.21
Total Sales: Etsy $180.90 // Ebay $286.64 ((Total = $467.54))
Highest Price Sold: $120 Lucchese Ostrich cowboy boots
Average Price Sold: $18.70
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 33 (listed at $506)

Sounds like there is a lot of interest in Etsy all of a sudden. Wishing everyone success in their new ventures! I have sold on Etsy since 2011 and from my experience Q4 has the highest sales that tapers off in the following Q1 with a noticeable slow down in late spring / early summer. I sell toys and kids books so this doesn’t really surprise me and it seems like a common trend for retail. I had one year that didn’t follow that trend, but I started a new job in the middle so I neglected my shop for the rest of the year.

[Temudgin]

Re Signature Confirmation you have to look at the insurance terms, and eBay and Paypal policies. As far as the USPS is concerned, the Signature Confirmation service is strictly for the peace of mind of the shipper or recipient and has nothing to do with insurance coverage. The shipper does not need to request Signature Confirmation service to be covered by USPS insurance. If insurance is purchased for a value of over $500 (with a $5,000 limit), the USPS will obtain a recipient signature automatically. The shipper need not request Signature Confirmation service. This is all for straight Priority. The rules may differ for other postage classes.

I have a Shipsaver account that requires Signature Confirmation in some cases. It adds insurance automatically for the item sale price and postage (and includes First Class Package Service) and I have it set for a $50 floor but in some ways it’s not as good as USPS insurance. For coverage, Shipsaver has a $2,500 limit ($999.99 for First Class Package) and requires Signature Confirmation for jewelry (includes necklaces, earrings, watches, rings, bracelets, broaches, etc) with a value of $500.00 or more. All Laptop computers (including tablets, iPads, and similar); and all mobile phones (cell phones, smart phones, etc) not only require Signature Confirmation but they must be sent by Priority Mail Express for coverage. Both USPS and Shipsaver won’t insure certain things at all, but Shipsaver’s uninsurables list is longer. Also Shipsaver has a list of destination countries it won’t insure at all.

In the Global Shipping Program, eBay says it requires signature confirmation on items selling for over $750 “to help protect you from eBay Money Back Guarantee cases”. It “recommends” delivery confirmation for lesser valued items. For domestic and non-GSP international shipments, eBay vaguely says only that “confirmation” is required that “the buyer received the item” if the item sold for over $750 and seller wants to appeal an INR case. Taken to the logical extreme, that could mean Signature Confirmation Restricted Delivery or other carrier equivalent where only the recipient can sign for the package. As we all know, generally eBay only requires a delivered scan to let us off the hook for INR.

Paypal requires signature confirmation to dispute an INR claim for transactions that total $750 or more (that’s the item sale price plus shipping etc.).

Those are the rules. What happens in real life may differ.

[StainedGlassKarin]

Dec 3-9
Total Listings in ebay Store: 720 listings (many have multiple quantity)
Items Sold: 62 (25 wholesale 37 thrifted)
Total Sales: $2,240
Highest Price Sold: $111 Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Kit New

Total Listings in etsy Store: 425 (vintage is cross posted)
Items Sold: 23
Total Sales: $258
Highest Price Sold: $48 toilet seat & lid mold set

Bonanza sales: $52
Items: 2

1) We love etsy. We cut & paste the description and can upload photos from phone to etsy draft in the app. We cross post vintage items. Wholesale items, we have a quantity of say 10, 8 will go on ebay and 2 on etsy. We use the note feature on ebay to leave a reminder that double-listed items are on etsy.

2) Regarding the caller mentioning that the photos are not deleting in the iPhone app. He said the app asks if he wants to delete the photos from the sell similar listing page. He says Yes and photos are still there. Actually, the sell similar on the iPhone app is asking “Include Photos Would you like to include the photos from this listing?” The correct option is No. That is why his photos do not disappear!

[T-Satt]

What types of items do you get wholesale, and how did you get started? That is an area I’m interested in.

Thanks!

[Jay]

Yes, more info on the wholesale side of the business.
–Can you give us an example of profit margin?
–How much does an item sell for? What is your profit?

Your sales of $2,240 on just 720 listings is incredible.
But curious what the net profit was after paying for inventory.

[NiNjA BoB]

So a few things happened this week, I sold my highest price item (Rauschenberg Print $2422), finally went past 10k in 30 days, and am officially SICK of shipping. Such a silly thing to complain about but I need a break (I say this as I am sitting on the couch and not at a job, but hey, I think we adjust our expectations and frustrations with how our life is). I am really looking forward to the week of Christmas and a little less sales to find and get out. Part of this is not the shipping but we have workers in the house painting and remodeling my sons bathroom since the water intake flooded the bathroom down to the kitchen. But thats life and I am thankful to have the funds to pay for it. Thanks you two and eBay!

[whiskey]

Total Items in Both Stores: 1266
Items Sold: 72
Cost of Items Sold: $1073
Total Sales: $6958
Highest Price Sold: $5000 (lot of the last of the computer mainframe parts)
Average Price Sold: $96.64
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 42

I haven’t done this in a while but it was a huge week for us and when I was breaking out the numbers I got really excited.

I talked about the mainframe parts/components that we won at auction a while back. At that time we got 24 at a little under $50 a unit— I had no clue what they were but I knew that they retailed somewhere between 2 and 3k. It took a couple of months but we found someone that ended up buying them in 3 different purchases over a month and a half. It ended up that he needed 10 more so I found the person that had bought a previous lot on the same site and still had 27 in a rambling listing. I was able to negotiate a local pickup at 50/unit and grabbed all of them. I left 10 in the truck, slapped the UPS labels on them and immediately dropped them off at UPS that day. Those 34 were awesome in terms of margins/profit.

I’ve had the remaining lot just sitting there for a couple of months and ended up selling them in one lot to a buyer and they have shipped and been received but no feedback yet. Our cost on the final lot was 850 but they take work to ship. Not as well as the first 34, but we will certainly take it.

[Jay]

Wow. $5k in computer parts. What kind of mainframe was it?

[whiskey]

It wasn’t the actual mainframe– it was part of the temperature control and power distribution system of a mainframe? That’s about all that I know. The first buyer bought them for something he was putting together for bitcoin mining or something. I know just enough about all of it to print the labels and carry the boxes to the truck. Then they go to people smarter than me.

Each one was boxed– they weighed 33 pounds and were 85 inches long.

[Ryanne]

85 inches long?? that’s a heck of a thing to pack and ship. i just did an item that ended up being 45″ long and i was like, wow this thing is huge!

[whiskey]

They were pre-boxed– I just had to add some tape to some that had been opened.

45″– so I’m guessing he finally paid and the Wilderness Santa is finally flying to his new home?

[Ryanne]

yes Santa is on his way to his new home. guy waited 5 days to pay! then he said he would pay and about 12 hours later paid. it was little nutty, but he did pay and i packed the heck out of Santa, and he’s on his way.

[whiskey]

That is so awesome. It was one of those finds that has a coolness factor x 10. Congratulations.

[T-Satt]

Well done!

[Anonymous]

Jay – DELL accepts BitCoin since 2015

http://www.businessinsider.com/dell-becomes-biggest-company-to-accept-bitcoin-internationally-2015-2

and Amazon (kind of)

2.3 Billion People Can Now Use Bitcoin on Amazon

[Marjean28]

I haven’t had time to read this week’s entire blog response posts to this podcast, but I wanted to respond to something I read that Simplicio touched on. I just listed a bunch yesterday, calculated shipping on all the posts. I found I was able to add local pick up to those listings. So, then I went in and added local pick up to all my listings. You have to make sure that you don’t just override the existing shipping method when you do that, which is what I mistakenly did. It was a quick fix because it’s a second store with less than 500 listings and was easy to fix with the bulk editor. It was not easily achievable, at least at first blush, on my store that uses business rules though. I’ll have to figure out how to edit those rules as opposed to using the bulk editor on those stores. The point of the whole thing is that you don’t have to be limited to using flat rate shipping charges when you want to also add local pick up to the mix. Someone may have already commented on this, in which case, I’m sorry for any duplication of information. Happy Scavenging fellow trash elves!

[Marjean28]

Christine R. I Have a question for you on your Haviland. Was it a Haviland Limoges plate, as in a French plate? Or was it a German or other Haviland? Just curious. thanks!

[jumbleandclutter]

Curious if anyone is noticing a surge of new buyers with weird, seemingly auto-generated, user names (on eBay)? These new buyers have less than 20 feedback and many have 0 feedback. Mostly they seem oblivious to the basic workings of the site, refuse to communicate and so far, don’t leave feedback. Good news is, they ARE buying stuff…but I had an issue with one of them when I accidentally damaged the wallet as I was packing it…it was minor, but I wanted to be totally up front about the issue. I contacted the buyer…with zero feedback and weird name…via eBay messages several times saying I would deduct money from the purchase price and ship for free if she still wanted it with the flaw. No response. I have messaged her, emailed her multiple times at her PayPal email and still nothing. I finally printed out my emails to her, mailed the items and deducted the offered refunds from her PayPal. I also noticed when I look at their PayPal accounts, that they are listed as unverified. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Thanks! Jena

[Ryanne]

ebay allows people to sign in as guests. so they can make a quick purchase without a full account. that’s what those accounts are.

i have had a few people make multiple purchases from me, one from their guest accounts, the rest from their established accounts (i could tell because of the same shipping address and name). for that case, she might have forgotten her account info and just wanted to buy quickly. but her other purchases were from an established account that was several years old.

i think they’re just trying to make it as easy as possible for people to buy with no hassles and no long sign up process.

[Author]

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