Scavenger Life Episode 340: We Reconnect with Cyndi from Amazing Taste

[Ryanne]

 Many of you remember and continue to rave about one of our earliest interviews with Cyndi of Amazing Taste Store and rightfully so. Since we last ta
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 340: We Reconnect with Cyndi from Amazing Taste]

[Steven S]

Thanks for another interesting interview Cyndi and Jay.
I completely agree, you must continue to learn about different items that you can buy low and sell high.
If that isn’t fun for you this whole eBay selling thing isn’t going to work.

[Utahbill]

Week of December 17-23

Total items in store: 250
Total sales: $599.96 (does not include shipping)
# items sold: 5
Weekly Sell Through Rate: 2.0%
Average Sales Price: $119.99
Returns: 0
# items listed: 5

This was a great week for me. It started out with a few sales and then completely died until Saturday, when I sold two books, one for $200 and the other for $150. That made my week and pushed my average sales price way up.

My listing production for the week was dismal. With all the holiday activity and guests coming to stay I just didn’t get it done. I could have, and should have done better. I have to push harder to make it to 500 listings (2018 Goal).

Next weeks total items in store goal: 260

Happy Holidays to all you Scavengers!

[T-Satt]

Going to listen to the podcast later this Christmas. Want to get my numbers up before we shut down for the holiday…

Week of 12/17-12/23
Total Items in Store: 1,670
Number of Items Listed: 72
Number of Items Sold: 75
(Includes 2 Etsy, 3 Bonanza, 2 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 19%

Total Product Sales: $2,036
Cost of Items Sold: $359
Gross Profit for Week: $1,486.81
Highest Item Sold: $150 – VTG Sears Western Shearling Suede Leather Coat
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 27-23.

eBay Clothing
# Listed: 871
# Sold: 41
STR: 20%
ASP: $29.87

eBay Shoes
# Listed: 81
# Sold: 4
STR: 21%
ASP: $27.47

eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 718
# Sold: 28
STR: 17%
ASP: $22.39

Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 114
# Sold: 2
STR: 8%
ASP: $37.42

We are looking to grow more into shoes, so I decided to start breaking those out in our numbers. I am interested to see what the STR is on our shoes.

We started using Shippo late this week to handle our shipping. So far, love it! This is a free partnership though eBay (Google “eBay Shipping Partner Platform”) so it doesn’t cost anything. We can print labels at any time, and then put them on the SCAN sheet for the post office later, which speeds up our process. We can have our Etsy orders pull directly to Shippo, and I can manually add the Bonanza and TrueGether sales to Shippo as well, which puts them all on the same SCAN sheet. The best parts for me are that we can pay for the shipping on our PayPal debit card, so 1% cash back. Also, Shippo has the Commercial Plus Pricing (like eBay, but better than PayPal and Etsy), so those shipments will be cheaper going forward. And they don’t bill your shipping until you reach $100 ($25 on your first orders). Only downside is having to put in the dimensions on EVERYTHING, and the dimensions don’t pull over from eBay, but we can work around that.

Had a funny story this week. On Thursday, we noticed at 6:30 that our packages had not been picked up. I went to check the mail to see if they had come around and sure enough, they had. I grabbed our bin of packages and drove to the post office. They close at 6:00, but I just drove to the back to see if I could get someone to pick up our packages. A man was walking out and I explained what I was doing, and he had me pull around to another door to drop off the packages. When I told him that they missed our pickup, he asked what our address was. After I told him, his face fell and he said “That was me that missed it”. He said he saw our note in our mailbox (permanently affixed to the inside door) to check the porch for packages, but he didn’t see any. I told him you have to walk up as we keep them hidden from the street view. He apologized but I told him no worries, I’m just glad that they are getting shipped.

What are the odds that HE would be the one that I would run into to get these dropped off? A Christmas Miracle!

[Linda Shields]

Your story is so weird because the same thing happened to me this week. I was coming home in my car and saw the mail truck leaving my house. When I looked at the porch I saw all my packages still on the porch—they are in clear view! And I have a sign inside the mailbox to check porch for packages. So I turned around and chased him down around the corner. He apologized and said he saw my sign but didn’t see the pkgs on the porch! He came and picked them up. I have no idea why he couldn’t see them! I was glad I caught him in time.

[Steven S]

Dec 17 -23 2017

• Total Items in Store: 827
• Items Sold: 18 (15 ebay / 1 Bonanza / 2 Truegether)
• International 1 GSP
• Total Sales $1237 ($1054 ebay / $20 Bonanza / $163 Truegether)
• Highest Price $140 Heathkit power supply
• Average Price Sold: $69
• Returns: 0
• Cost of Items Sold: $265
• Cost of items purchased this week $20

Seemed like an awfully slow week, but for one day of no sales it was steady and quite a few items sold within hours of listing.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by Steven S.

[T-Satt]

That is an amazing ASP!

[Doublythumbs]

Dec. 17-23
Total Items in Store: 1056
Items Sold: 33
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $1262
Highest Price: $105 (Large Blue Wheel Thrown Stoneware Pottery Art Vase by Rick Morgan “Waterfall”)
Average Price: $38
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $80
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $111

What a great interview with Cyndi! It was quite informative and I really enjoyed it.

I had an amazing week of sales! The faucet just kicked on full power and my phone just kept cha-chinging all throughout the week! I’ll have to check my history, but I think this is a record. Both in gross income and total items sold. It really helped that I hunkered down and listed like crazy. I had bought a whole bunch of watch and clock repair parts at an auction last summer and those things can be very pricy! I just wish I knew then what I know now because I would have gone all in and bought everything. But now I have the knowledge and like it was mentioned in the interview, it’s like giving myself a raise.

I wanted to share a successful experiment that I tried last week. Several podcasts ago, it was mentioned about people who sell currency with unique serial numbers. Well that intrigued my curiosity, so I did some research and looked through all my bills until I found a $20 with an interesting serial. It was a star note, started with a couple zeros and had a repeating 42. So I thought I’d try listing it for a couple months. If it didn’t sell, I wasn’t out anything. Well it only took a couple weeks and it sold for $40. Doubled my money (well before shipping and fees anyways). After the sale I was worried about the buyer being a scammer, but there was no problems at all and he gave me great feedback. Here’s the listing if anyone wanted to see.
$20 Star Note

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

[Ryanne]

that is awesome!!
how did you ship it? with tracking or just a stamp?

[Doublythumbs]

I shipped it first class with tracking. I put it in a plastic sleeve, taped that to a piece of cardboard and sandwiched it between more cardboard, put that in a small polymailer and put that in a padded envelope. I didn’t want them to have any reason to complain. lol.

[Liz]

I peeked at your sold listings, Doublythumbs, and saw that you’ve sold vintage spray paint before. Can you talk a little about that? Are your buyers more interested in the cans or do they want the contents, too? If they want the contents, how do you ensure the paint cans don’t open during shipment? Do you test the paints first, to make sure they will still spray?

I have to admit, I’ve never looked much at the contents of garages at estate sales. Maybe I need to look more closely.

[Doublythumbs]

Hi Liz. Spray paint cans are a great example as to why we should do at least the minimum research before throwing away the “junk” from box lots. One person’s junk could be other people’s collectable. I had no idea until I looked at some sold listings for vintage spray paint cans. A quick look just now showed one recently sold for $800. I remember seeing one sell for over a thousand once. A lot has to do with the condition and age obviously but also the brand and the color. Some colors are much more rare than others. I really don’t think it matters if the cans are full or not. Most people are after the cans with nice labels for collecting (though I think it’s considered a nice selling bonus if they’re at least partially full).

I don’t have a lot of advise as to what to look for except to learn to look for the vintage cans. Vintage cans will tend to have paper labels, but not always. Sometimes they’ll be dated or have a date code that you can research. Some of the more popular brands will have different styled labels than whats out today. I’d say if they’re cheap enough, get ’em and research afterwards. Just make sure they’re not all rusted out. Some people don’t keep their garage stuff in ideal conditions.

I’ve only sold a couple so far. Both times I didn’t really do much different in terms of packing. I just wrapped them up really well with bubble wrap with lots of paper padding in the box. Both had their plastic tops so I wasn’t worried about accidental spraying during shipping. I didn’t test the cans out first, though I probably should have. A quick spray out on some white paper would make for a great listing picture. Just shake them up really well first to get an accurate color.

[Linda Shields]

I hope you ship the cans Ground? Great week for you—congratulations!

[almasty]

Vintage spray cans are definitely big now for collectors of street art:

http://www.rogergastman.com/art-in-the-streets/

so pretty:

https://www.manmadediy.com/users/chris/posts/1379-amazing-collection-of-vintage-spray-paint-cans

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by almasty.

[amazingtaste]

Loved being able to catch up with you guys! Thank you for allowing me the opportunity!

Merry Christmas to all the Trash Elves!

[Habnab]

I love your interviews with Cyndi. I would absolutely love to have even a quarter of her drive and/or her head for numbers and business! It’s just fascinating to hear how she approaches things.

My sales, as usual, slowed to a trickle this month. I really wind down in December, always, so I can focus on getting Christmas together for the family. They’re all playing with new toys right now so I snuck upstairs for some quiet time on SL. Although my sales were slow, my average selling price was right around $80 per item, with an average scavenge price of about $4, so I can’t complain at all. Since picking up that 30-hour-a-week job, I’ve definitely been able to still find good quality pieces. I’ve increased my average selling price (I’ve decreased my volume slightly, although not a ton) and have maintained good numbers on eBay. So far, I feel like it’s working.

On a recent thrift stop (I didn’t have time at all, but really needed a break from work and Christmas so just “stopped in for a second” at my favorite local thrift when I was supposed to be grocery shopping) I picked up a really exciting vase. I’m sort of beside myself about it, to be honest. It’s by Brother Thomas Bezanson, who you can read about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bezanson

Anyway, Seasons’ Greetings and Happy New Year to all my fellow Trash Elves!

[Jay]

That’s an awesome find. I’m always in awe at how good you are at researching.

[ChristineR]

Happy Christmas Kate. I’m doing the same while family is enjoying new goodies. That’s a great find! I love picking up pottery, which is totally overlooked around here yet abundant. One of the best estate sales I ever went to was when I stopped down the street on my way to the grocery store. This woman’s home was like a time warp to the late 1950s to early 1960s. She had all of these cool items in the old fashioned pink gift boxes from long gone main street stores. Someone had already hit the kitchen but I picked up some really good items and it took a long time that day to bring back the groceries. 🙂

[Sharyn]

Great interview, and a good one to save for the holidays.

Week of Dec 17-23
* Total Items in Store: 1180
* Items Sold: 12
* Cost of Items Sold: $16.66 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $191.00
* Highest Price Sold: $35 Vintage keyboard
* Average Price Sold: $15.92
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 0

Pretty slow week, and a sharp contrast with the previous few weeks. I stopped listing about a week and a half ago as I needed time for a different project and for organizing my office.

I did do some prep work to start listing quickly starting the 2nd; however, I have several distractions that first week of the year. I will probably be a full throttle starting the week of the 8th.

[Steve List]

I haven’t listed to the Podcast yet, but hope to do so late tonight after dinner with family. I just wanted to remind everybody that has an eBay store to use your quarterly shipping supplies coupon before it expires in less than a week. This link should take you to it: http://sd.ebay.com/subscriberdiscounts.

Happy holidays

[ChristineR]

• Total Items in Store: 436
• Items Sold: 11
• Total Sales $411
• Highest Price $68 Sheet Set (A rare early RA misstep, paid about $40 two years ago)
• Average Price Sold: $37
• Cost of Items Sold: $151 + $9 free shipping
• Cost of items purchased this week $0
• Listed: added 4 multiples

A quieter week for sure while I was away on vacation, but I sold a few items while people were likely traveling with their phones during the last couple of days. I had a good January last year, so I am hoping for the same in 2018. Thinking about some price reductions on older items. Happy to sell the sheet set, as it was an early RA experiment that I did not repeat. Print duvets do much better than solid sheets for me.

Thank you to Cindi and Jay for the interview. I so admire the drive and work ethic of you all. Looking forward, I’m excited about the new year on Ebay even though I still have death piles and organizing ahead of me. I have learned so much in a couple of years. 2019 will be really fun when I am making fresh buys with a better approach, projected higher ASP, and lower COGS. Alas, I have put off my bookkeeping for COGS though I did remember to download each month into the Easy Auctions Tracker.

[Rydell Relics]

RR Store Week Dec 17-23, 2017

Total Items in Store: 1382
Items Sold: 34
Cost of Items Sold: $49.87
Total Sales: $778.22
Highest Price Sold: $95 (vintage skydiving jumpsuit)
Average Price Sold: $22.89
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 21

Not too shabby, especially for a holiday week. I can see the bottom of my death pile, and no estate sales this week, so I wasn’t able to list much. Thankfully, there are two sales coming up this week, so that should help beef up my inventory.

Can’t wait to listen to the podcast after the Christmas festivities are over. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Paul

[So Cal Joe]

Hi Paul,

Have you ever gone to that Bi-Monthly auction in Upland? I’m trying to decide if it’s worth the trip.

Thanks

[Rydell Relics]

Hey Joe,

I still haven’t gone to check it out. I keep thinking it’s going to be an all-day commitment, and trying to sell my girlfriend on the idea of spending the whole day at a warehouse will be a tall order (she’s currently the driver, as my car is out of commission). I’m thinking about just going on my own to get the feel and timing of it. Like when do they do the large furniture pieces versus the box lots? I’m dying to check it out. I always look at the photos on estatesales.net. And I’m only about 2 1/2 miles away!

Just looked, and the next one is on the 7th. I think I’m gonna give it a go. I’ll give you a full report if I do.

Paul

[So Cal Joe]

I just found out the place in Norwalk, I’ve been to several times has shut down (For now they say). Bummer.. I should have gone there more and bought more stuff. I’m still digging through books I bought there months ago.

In Norwalk, the Auction would start at 10:00 AM and the box lots would be done before 1:00 PM. By then I’d usually check out, because the car would already be full and I wanted to beat the rush.

I’ve been to the place in Santa Ana, once and wasn’t really impressed. There’s a ton of stuff, but it looks like most of it is large.

For the right auction, I’m willing to hook my trailer up to my car and go far if need be.

I’m curious to see what you find out. Just remember, if it’s that good, you can rent a pickup from U-Haul pretty cheap for local stuff…

JOE

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by So Cal Joe.

[MyCottage]

Great interview! Cyndi has inspired me to make 2018 the year I expand from an almost exclusively ebay operation to more venues. And I am going to look into some of her other ideas as well: wholesale sourcing and sourcing from ebay itself (as well as other online venues). I’ve done a little of this in the past, with some success, but never a real experiment. But I do like her “hour a day” experimenting….will try that. So much good stuff in this interview! Thanks for posting it!

[Geoff]

I will just echo that was a great interview – thanks to all involved. Sell through rate continues to be better which is good – average sale price was down. Continue to focus on increasing my efficiency listing.

Hope everyone is having a blessed Holiday Season.
Geoff

12/17/17 – 12/24/17

Total items in store (beginning of week): 897
Items sold: 21
Weekly sell through: % 2.34
Total Sales: $504.60 (no shipping)
Average price: $25.23
Cost of items sold: $107.56
Gross profit: $397.40
Highest item sold: Djembe Remo signature series Paulo Mattioli Hand Drum 14″ x 25″ (170.52, cost 60)
New items listed: 34
Asking price of new items listed: 1323.25
Cost of new items listed: $ 283.51

[newvintageny]

Awesome interview! Cyndi is about her business!

[Utahbill]

I finally had a chance to listen to the podcast.

Thanks for the great interview!

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store 923
Items Sold 12
Total Sales $383.50
COGS $58.00
Total Profit $325.50
Average profit $27.13
Average sales price $31.96

After Wednesday (last shipping day for Christmas delivery), my store died.
I had a great sale cancelled after buyer claimed it was a fraudulent purchase. Sure it was…
I also got an unopened pair of shoes back marked return to sender. That one turned into a frustrating debacle that I called in to the podcast for. Note: I was done with my call – just didn’t get a chance to say thanks and bye. Lol! Anyways, I knew what to expect with that issue after hearing everyone else’s experience with the deeply flawed claim/appeals system but I was still very frustrated by the whole ordeal.

I’ve been doing much better with listing. This week I’d like to take a crack at hitting 1000 items finally. Going to be a freezing cold week. Everyone stay warm and keep listing!

[resellermary]

Loved listening to this interview! Cyndi, how would I go about contacting you directly for help?

[Ryanne]

we do link to Cyndi’s store in the blog post, you can probably message her there through ebay.

[amazingtaste]

Please don’t message me through Ebay as I can’t give out any information as it would be seen as an off-site transaction. You can email me directly at levelupreselling@gmail.com or send me a direct message on Instagram (amazingtastestore). I would love to connect with a fellow Trash Elf!

[ritabrad]

Hi Everyone and Happy Holidays! Thanks Jay and Ryanne for another inspiring video.

I’ve decided to start posting my numbers even though they are not high at all. It’s all about improving my life and it will be great to look back later and see how far I’ve come. Quick bio:
I’m a dog walker and sitter in Southern California. I’ve been self employed for at least a decade. I’m a beginner to ebay (after dabbling a few years ago) and still trying to figure out my strategy. I’m taking into account my time/energy/space restraints. I’m leaning toward rare/beautiful/weird/high priced items I find at thrifts/yardsales/estate sales and wherever else I can find them.

I would eventually like to make reselling my full time gig because I like the mobility it allows.

Here goes nothing.

December 17-23

Total items in store at present: 77
Items sold: 4
Sell through: .051% (hope I did that right)
Total Sales: $200 (doesn’t include shipping)
Average price: $50
Cost of items sold: $49
Gross Profit: $131.50
Highest item sold: Ikea Mysa Stra Comforter King Size for $50
New items listed: 3 (I think)
Asking price of new items listed: $298
Cost of new items listed: $23

[T-Satt]

Welcome and glad you are posting your numbers.

For your STR, if you want to calculate your week, it was 5.19% (4/77). That means that you sold 5.19% of your inventory that week.

If you want to see what that would be for the month (I always use monthly numbers, so that monthly STR and weekly STR are on the same basis), your week was 22.26% (((4/7)*30)/77).

[ritabrad]

Thanks so much for your help. I knew it looked off but honestly was being a little lazy because I already don’t like writing my numbers down!

[T-Satt]

Totally understand.

If you want to track them, then I would set up a spreadsheet so that you only have to enter the Inventory Quantity and the Number of Sales each week. STR will then calculate for you. And you can pick if you want to report a Weekly STR or a Monthly STR.

[ritabrad]

I may not bother tracking them. Like someone else mentioned, I know a lot of what I need to know already. (always open to new learning though, of course!)

[Retro Treasures WV]

I loved hearing a followup with Amazing Taste!

AmazingTaste,
Would you mind giving a general “day in the life” synopsis? I’d love to get a feel for what it is like doing the volume you do with a family. You’re story is one I tell to my wife often and you all are living my dream.

[amazingtaste]

Hmmm. Every day is a little different so I will give you today. 🙂

3:30 wake up
3:30 -4 check emails and social media messages
4-5 Merch by Amazon normally today I worked Etsy due to Merch freeze
5-6 Poshmark
530 Take a break to do daily morning Instagram story (kind of daily synopsis of what is going on with us and what the day will look like)
6 Matt wakes up and we have coffee (I’m usually on my 3rd cup by then 🙂 )
7-730 Pull inventory to ship
730-830 ship
830-930 Messed around on the internet LOL
930 Left to go sourcing and out to lunch
130 Home
2 -330 Starbucks and the bookstore with our daughter
It is almost 4 now and I may or may not list a few more tonight and then make dinner
In bed by 8!

The days vary if I have coaching calls or if it is an all day listing marathon, or if one of the kids wants to hangout. We drop everything then!

Pretty boring but we love it!

[simplicio]

Happy Christmas & New Year all!

Last week was steady…

Sales: CAD$752, 6 items, avg $125/item
COGS: $124
Expenditures: $218 (includes returns)
Net profit: $286
Hours: 3 (hourly rate $95/hr)
Notable sales: $21–> $215 for a server extender thingy, $4–>$110 for a 1990s vintage Hitachi magic wand, lol
Returns: $112 for some lightbulbs that broke in shipping 🙁
Notable buys: thermal conductivity meter for $21, if it works should be $1500 (but I can’t test so I’m risking a return).

Oh, I also got Scotty peelers on a whim. I heard about them long ago but figured they were unnecessary… nope. Guys, if you spend ANY time peeling sticky tags off of your merch, BUY THESE THINGS NOW.

[Doublythumbs]

You know, I’ll run across Hitachi’s every now and then at old lady yardsales and such. I always pass them up because, well, you know… But maybe I should rethink my strategy. I just looked up used sold prices and they’re not bad.

[simplicio]

TBF, this one was essentially new, and had the original box & manual. Dunno that I would’ve bought a heavily used one without box.

[simplicio]

Funny thing happened yesterday… my mother in law’s Ukrainian, she used to do a sort of reselling business when they lived in Cuba, buying goods at a USSR-citizens “exclusive” store and arbitraging it by selling it to normal Cubans. Stuff like lingerie, etc. So she groks the idea of reselling. Occasionally she brings me something to sell, which is usually pretty low dollar. But this time, her and her husband found a GPS unit worth $100 or so, and a NIB Rosetta Stone language course worth $300 or so, for a few bucks at thrift stores. I told her they have a good eye and they should start selling themselves. 🙂

[Jay]

That’s awesome. Sounds like she does have a good eye. The big question is whether or not she wants to learn to do all the other stuff it takes to sell. Be careful about opening the door to being her lister/shipper!

[Gompers]

A quick reply on Rosetta Stone software. You can not list/sell Rosetta Stone software on ebay, they will give you a “vero violation” I tried to sell Rosetta stone in the past, that’s how I know.

Rosetta Stone software can only be installed once on one computer. The software requires activation. IF you resell it to someone else they will not be able to install it. They will be given a phone number to call and will be asked to buy the software again. (at full price)

IF you can verify the software hasn’t been installed before, perhaps try selling it on a another venue. Very old versions of Rosetta Stone DO NOT have activation, I think you can tell by the release number on the box.

Stay away from Rosetta Stone, even if you get one for free.

[simplicio]

Oh, for sure, they outright gave me these two items. I actually know for sure my mother in law will not sell on ebay, she just doesn’t have time, but her husband potentially could, he’s actually out of work at the moment.

[wendalina22]

Anyone know which article of research the last caller was referring to? The one about a seller can make 60k by himself? Would love to read it. Thanks!

[lauralux]

HI. I finally set up a Bonanza Account. I was about to activate. are they charging now? It says $25 a month. I thought it was free..

Laura

[Jay]

Its hidden. Scroll down to the bottom of this page:
https://www.bonanza.com/memberships

“Membership not for you?
Try our advertising in shopping channels. Select your own commission level and pay nothing up front.”

We’re not members, but just advertise on Bonanza and pay a fee per sale.

[Author]

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