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Since we got our new storage building, we’ve been on a quest to de-clutter our house. So far we sold our big 11 ft long Ikea sectional couch that we
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 344: Decluttering and Auction Cravings] -
Had a challenging week. I had been using a third part software to assist listing, but mainly to enable me to automatically lower pricing on certain listings following unsold months. Long story short, I undercovered a ‘bug.’ My listings stopped automatically riposting – so had to relist a few hundred listing and go through inventory to TRY to make sure i do not have dups.
Back to vanilla Ebay for me. The silver lining in all of this is i took away that i was over complicating my processes. I worked Sunday and found myself listing a lot faster with just ebay Ebay by also cutting out other stuff i was doing that was not altogether necessary to list (like tracking in a spreadsheet what i listed.) Sales slowed down for me — having a portion of my store down likely played a role. Despite the weird week my total inventory per dollars went up as i continued to post some higher dollar auction buys.
1/14/18- 1/20/18
Total Listing in store (beginning of week): 968
Total items (including multiple item listings): 1083
Value of inventory listed beginning of week: $33,417.51
Value if inventory listed end of week: $37,635.55
Items sold: 15
Weekly sell through (based on number of listings): % 1.55
Total Sales: $ $604.77 (shipping backed out)
Average price: $40.32
Cost of items sold: $122.24
average cost of item sold (pre fees): $8.15
Gross profit: $482.53
Highest item sold: Vintage Receiver (sale $300, cost $29.50)
New items listed: -58
Asking price of new items listed: $4,218.04
Cost of new items listed: $1,553.25
average ask of newly list:
average cost of newly list: -
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Total Items in Store: 465
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $366 + free shipping $68
Total Sales: $1,253 (Less $40, buyer not likely to pay)
Highest Price Sold: $381 (New Duvet and two shams, paid $110 about 9 months ago)
Average Price Sold: $73
Returns: None, but two no/slow pays so far – ouch.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: Maybe $20
Number of items listed this week: 45Yeah! Someone turned my store back on this week. 🙂 I sold a beautiful Hudson Stripe vintage new old stock blanket for BO $200 and the buyer hasn’t paid for a few days. Also had another $40 sale and that payment is not coming I can probably safely say.
I’m working the backlog, just went thrifting once at my favorite place. Worked on a box of Dasnk dishes and tableware this week, plus a bin of vintage bedding that I really did not enjoy listing and found a bunch of light stains on half of it. I’m going to reward myself by switching to ephemera, which I do like listing and find really interesting. One good thing about a backlog is that you can sort and switch types when you get tired of dealing with something.
Headed to LA for girls’ weekend and slammed at my other job, so probably will be light progress this week. Looking forward to listening to the podcast. Have a great week everyone.
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Week January 14-20, 2018
Total Items in Store: 839
Items Sold: 11 (2 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $89 (17.6% of sales)
Total Sales: $505.94
Highest Price Sold: $200 (1962 Barbie)
Average Price Sold: $45.99
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $231.93 (37% of total sales), $11.52 fees (4.9% of sales)Only 11 sales when I’ve been averaging 18-24 per week for the past few months, but I’m really pleased at the average price sold, remaining high for the third straight week. Outside of another Barbie selling, also had higher dollar sales including a 1983 1st Gen Voltron for parts.
Hit up 4 estate sales this weekend, spending nearly $1500. Three were standard bread & butter type stuff, but I went to the last day of an uber high end sale – got a pair of vintage Cartier sunglasses, Valentino sunglasses, vintage Chanel/Valentino/+5 eye glasses, 2 pairs of Valentino wedges, a pair of Chanel ballet shoes, 2 pairs of Karl Lagerfeld earrings, and more. I didn’t include these items in my purchases as I’m doing extensive research to ensure my listings are accurate and then likely list this coming Saturday (will provide links in next weeks’ posting).
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Store #1
Total Items in Store: 1103
Items Sold: 19
Cost of Items Sold: $21.75
Total Sales: $616.83
Highest Price Sold: $61.99
Average Price Sold: $32.46
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $41.20
Number of items listed this week: 38Store #2
Total Items in Store: 240
Items Sold: 3
Cost of Items Sold: $0.60
Total Sales: $29.58
Highest Price Sold: $12.79
Average Price Sold: $9.86
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 2Interesting sales included parts of our old kitchen blender that we started parting out. The motor died, so we listed the glass jug, blades, lid, cap, etc. We’ve made $37 off of the parts so far, and I think we only paid $25 for the whole thing originally (like ten years ago).
Had two sales to the set designers of True Detective season 3 (thanks for solving the mystery, Ryanne). Both were 60’s/70’s office type items.
Also noteworthy, 10/19 of the sales in our main store were hats (five went to one buyer for a total of $166).
Been trying to get our total listings to 1400 this month (between both stores), but stuff is selling too quickly to get it there with only the evenings/weekends available for listing. Good problem to have I suppose.
We’re currently at the highest 60-day sales total we’ve ever had ($4,107). One of my goals for 2018 is to get that above the $4,500 mark (average of $75/day). Getting close, just have to keep pushing…
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By the way — totally hilarious you guys found a box if ICP hats. Jay please let me know how they end up playing out, i hope you get a couple of big hits out of it if for no other reason than it will keep you using their lingo in the pod casts a little longer. Too funny.
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I too have caught auction fever… I blew almost 2 grand this week on auctions and there’s still one more… trying to buy more industrial type stuff. The main things I got were a commercial espresso machine, commercial food processor (robot coupe), and a metallurgical cutoff saw. Hopefully these were not mistakes because I sure shelled out for them!
Had a decent week on eBay but hard to get cashflow positive when I’m spending so much.
Sales: CAD$662, 4 items, COGS=$31
Expenditures: $2238 (aieeeee)
Cashflow after tax: -$1794
Notable sales: $340 for 12 pieces of sterling flatware. I bought this whole lot for $100 last year and it’s already made me $800, with still about 1/3 left to sell.In other highly irritating news, amazon shut down my store TWICE because they wanted me to verify my identity with national ID and a bank statement. No problem, except the way they tell you is a little flag in seller central, no e-mail or anything. All your items look active, but if you look them up as a buyer they’re gone. The only other way to check is to go to settings/account info and look at “listings status” on the top left.
I think it was down 1 month before I noticed this. Hard to say what it cost me but at least a couple hundred.
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Week of 1/14-1/20
Total Items in Store: 1,700
Number of Items Listed: 91
Number of Items Sold: 80
(Includes 1 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 20%Total Product Sales: $2,256
Cost of Items Sold: $395
Highest Item Sold: $275 – Vtg Tiffany Style Stained Glass Hanging Lamp
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Troy leads the year 2-1.eBay Clothing
# Listed: 995
# Sold: 46
STR: 20%
ASP: $25.07eBay Shoes
# Listed: 94
# Sold: 8
STR: 36%
ASP: $26.82eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 705
# Sold: 25
STR: 15%
ASP: $34.15Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 115
# Sold: 1
STR: 4%
ASP: $19.84We completely agree with decluttering the house from eBay. Now that we have the outside storage unit, we have made the living area of the house 100% LIVING AREA. All eBay items are either in the basement or in our offices (we have 2 offices and a studio). Make the house feel like a HOUSE.
We don’t do calculated shipping on clothing, as we have seen the First Class prices vary too much. Clothing is more price competitive, so we watch the prices closer. When we did calculated shipping, we have seen calculated FC shipping for a 12oz item be from $4-$6 when the buyer pays, when it would always be less than $4 for our cost. So we flat rate to keep the price down to the customer. We currently do $4 for all FC items, $6.99 for all Padded Flat Rate, and $9.99 for all Regional A. And thanks to SixBit, I changed our pricing for all our inventory in 2 minutes.
Regarding the call regarding the effect of YouTube on the environment, I feel that you can’t stop the change and the information. Is more information out there? Yep. Has it brought more competition, reduced the availability of products, and lowered selling prices? Yep. Can I change it? Nope. So we change. We expand into other areas, drop certain brands or types of items. The best attitude to develop is that of an arbitrageur: Look for value, buy low, sell high. You know…basic scavenging…
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Jan 14-20 2018
• Total Items in Store: 811
• Items Sold: 18 all ebay
• International 2 GSP
• Total Sales $2143
• Highest Price $1200 Sansui Receiver Amplifier
• Average Price Sold: $119
• Returns: 1 scarf, didn’t like it
• Cost of Items Sold: $230
• Cost of items purchased this week $500The Sansui amp took less than a week, I priced it at $1500 but took a $1200 offer, usually I hold out for much longer but went for a quick sale due to last weeks low sales total.
I drove 3 1/2 hours through Iowa hitting small town thrifts on Saturday and came upon this tulip table and chair set, I’ve up graded by about a decade.
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I don’t post very often but I thought I’d chime in this week because this topic has been on my mind very much lately.
Total items sold: 19
Total: $ 399.25 (it was actually $800 but a lot of my sales were liquidated items that are left over from an experiment. Didn’t like that very much.)Average: $21
COGS:$43
Returns 0
Total items in store: 692The most notable sale was a book from my first trip to the thrift store approximately 1 year ago. Bought for .99 and sold for about 11 bucks. Not my highest but definitely my favorite.
Food prep: Frozen chicken breast in the electric pressure cooker. A little bit of water, a bag of frozen chicken breasts. 12 minutes on high pressure. Glaze with butter and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper. Broil on high for 4-5 minutes. Yum. Chicken all week.
The timing of this podcast is uncanny. I’ve had auctions on the brain for weeks. I’ve been to a few local auctions which are pretty junky. I’ve been searching auctionzip to find something in the neighboring large town that might have less junk. I have a question if anyone knows the answer and wouldn’t mind sharing. Are “boxed/table lots” assumed? Every auction I see on there shows only furniture and other high profile items. Can I assume that if I show up there will be tables/lots or other items? I’m not really into furniture. Thanks for all the help and information.
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Bugman, regarding your question about box lots… You can’t really know if an auction will have box lots (assuming it’s not mentioned) until you know the auctioneer. Different auctioneers will have different methods of listing what’s for sale. For example, I go to one particular auction when it occurs about once every other month. They are meticulous to list every little item with no surprises on Auctionzip. On the other spectrum, there’s an auction house near where I live that never ever mentions box lots, yet every single time the entire second half of the auction is nothing but lots. My best advise is to start going to each auctioneers’ auctions and taking mental notes on how each one does things. Or if you want a quick answer, give them a call. They won’t mind answering that question.
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Items in Store 990
Items Sold 18
Total Sales $580.00
COGS $51.10
Total Profit $528.90
Average profit $29.38
Average sales price $32.22Bad weather and sick people in the house stalled out most of my week again. Weather is better this week, and I’m tackling listing “pain in the butt” items in coats and suits. I’m feeling very overwhelmed with how much backlog of unlisted inventory I have. I think I could live with it better if things were more organized. I’ll try to get back on organizing my ebay garage space this week to ease my mind.
Have a great week everyone.
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Store Week 1/14/18 – 1/20/18
Total items in store: 1560
Items sold: 29
Cost of items sold: $68.78
Total sales: $942.68
Highest price sold: $149.99 (Rural road mailbox)
Average price sold: $32.51
Returns: 1 (wrong size)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $16.72Great week for me! It seems like I’ve been selling a lot of large sized items lately, so shipping has been interesting. Great to move some big things and make room for more as yard sale season approaches. I’ve been desperate for yard sales lately, and on Saturday I stumbled across an unadvertised estate sale and loaded up. So glad to have something other than death piles to list!
The mailbox that I sold went to a photo stylist in New York, who has all the big magazines, etc. as clients. She needed it shipped next day and just had me charge the shipping to her FedEx account. The shipping was $308. So funny to me that she ended up paying $450 for an item that is all over my area.
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Jan 14-20
Total Items in Store: 1206
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales : $897
Highest Price: $200 (Leader Semiconductor Curve Tracer Model LTC-905)
Average Price: $37
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $71
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0Not a bad week. Sales dipped a little bit, especially toward the end of the week. I’m thankful for a couple high sales, otherwise my numbers would be looking a little more bleak.
So the first week of my ephemera experiment has been a minor success. I acquired a big box full of vintage advertising from a paper product distribution company. There were ads and brochures and samples for things like Dixie cups and wrapping paper and even the sheets of cardboard that are placed between glass for shipping. All from the 1950s and in more or less great condition. While I was photographing all this stuff, I wondered who the hell is going to want any of this? I guess there are literally buyers for everything. I sold six if the items (out of a total of 134 sellable pieces) for a profit of $105.
This week I’m trying an experiment with old 1940s and 50s Valentine and birthday cards. I put about 40 up for auction with the starting prices at what I was reasonably going to list them at anyways. I’ll let the market decide if they’re worth more than I expect. I’m also going to try some antique photographs. All this stuff is from that same estate sale that I paid almost nothing for.
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Week of Jan 14 – 20
* Total Items in Store: 1192
* Items Sold: 18
* Cost of Items Sold: $12.36 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $269.20
* Highest Price Sold: $59 for 52 untested 8-track tapes
* Average Price Sold: $14.96
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $172.50
* Number of items listed this week: 28I sold mostly low value items, but Saturday I got the full price sale of $59 for untested 8-track tapes through GSP to Italy!
Auctions: Yes, I love them! The majority of my inventory is from auctions. I went to an auction last Tuesday that sells overstock, cancelled merchandise, etc. I bought about 280 pairs of new women’s silk & linen blend pants in two colors and various sizes. If I make only $10 off each and sell about 70% of them, I’ll make around $2000. It will be a single listing that will sell a few a month for several years. They are very nice pants, but the inseam is a bit long. I’ll keep two for myself, but I’ll have to hem them as I am rather short.
I did get overbid at an online auction last week, but I’ve got a few coming up later this week. I do feel that the online auctions in the last few months at the end and beginning of the year are better attended.
Costco: A few years ago, my husband needed new eye glasses. We looked at Consumer Reports (which I’ve subscribed to since 1993), and Costco was highly rated for good service and value. We’ve bought our glasses there ever since as well as many food and household items. They sell a whole bean, ethically sourced, Arabica dark roast coffee at $11 on sale for 2 pounds. It’s as good as any we’ve found elsewhere and cheaper. COFFEE!!
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We have found that Costco’s Kirkland brand of ANYTHING is the best quality and price ANYWHERE. My husband used to spend $400/month at Starbucks. Now he Likes Kirkland Keurig cups, at around 35 cents each, better!
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Jan 14-20
Total Items in Store: +/- 180
Items Sold: 10
Total Sales : $1449
Highest Price: $650/painting
Average Price: $145
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $480.25 (sort of)I had two consignment-type sales which I split 50-50, driving my cost of goods sold up way higher than normal this week. That said, I’m happy to split a $650 sale. Sales were decent, although my numbers as reported by the app and within eBay are over-inflated because eBay’s reporting things as though I received full price for all the items I took best offer on. I also find that canceled sales are not deducted from the income eBay tracks on the app, again creating over-inflated numbers (I’m not relying on the app’s information for any actual business purposes, of course.)
We have a big barn which I’ve been talking about improving to use for eBay for quite a while, but things keep coming up and devouring the money that we’d need to make it happen. I find it really hard to set goals and map out the necessary steps, especially when the tide of life keeps washing over us!
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This was a HUGE week for me, but not in sales. I finally paid off my business credit card which I had ran up during my foray into the world of wholesale buying and reselling. Finally, my profits will be my own again.
Week of January 14-20
Total items in store start of week: 240
Total items in store end of week: 250
Total sales: $216.99 (does not include shipping)
# items sold: 4
Weekly Sell Through Rate: 1.7%
Average Sales Price: $52.25
Returns: 0
# items listed: 10Sales were slow for me last week, but my ASP was high. Of course that doesn’t mean a lot on such a small number of sales.
I did manage to get some listing done, and managed to hit my weeks goal of increasing my total number to 250. I am shaking off my listing funk and getting motivated again.
Next weeks total items in store goal: 260
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Now this was my best week ever!
Jan 15-21
Items in store: 696
Listed this week: 22
Sales: $1,127.51
Items sold: 37
COGS: $109
Highest price: $110 Woolrich Coat (paid $10 at thrift); $80 Tommy Bahama Original scent (paid $1 at Estate sale)Whoa! Prices ranged from $9-$110. Most were in the $20-30 range.
Sometimes I’m surprised at what I listed prices at! I don’t remember listing a Pendleton shirt at $39 or 1980s shoes for $25. But I am happy I did.
4 months, 2 days to retirement from day job.
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Just an FYI… we use Shippo for our shipping service, and we are currently getting much better rates than on eBay for our USPS shipping since Saturday. Regional A rates, we are $2 cheaper per item. Even Padded Flat Rate we are saving about $0.50 per item.
Free to sign up though your eBay partnership.
Hoping that it isn’t a glitch, but we are happy while it continues…
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T-Satt,
How did you sign up for Shippo? I checked the “applications” tab in My Account and subscriber discounts, and I don’t see it.
I assume you set up your listings like everyone else, but use Shippo when you’ve sold something and are ready to print out a label? Can you walk us through how you would do that? Do you have to do extra steps compared to just buying directly though Ebay?
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Try this link:
http://pages.ebay.com/shipping/labelpartners/index.html
Yes, you can list as normal, and you just use Shippo to print your labels. After you sign up and link your account, you will see your orders in Shippo. It is pretty easy to set up and do, but let me know if you sign up and have some specific questions.
Basically, you log into Shippo, your orders are on the screen, and you print the labels from there. It automatically passes the information to eBay so your items show as shipped on eBay immediately.
FYI, Shippo does not do Media Mail, and you don’t get the eBay discount on FedEx on Shippo (you have to have your own FedEx account and you can use that, but you may not have the same discounts). So when we have a FedEx or a Media Mail order, we ship through eBay as normal. Also, Shippo requires measurements on each package (annoying), but it is quick to add (and they don’t have to be dead on…our First Class I always put 12x9x3…close enough)
PS – Looks like ALL the Priority rates are cheaper on Shippo. I checked some other listings, and when I compare the eBay Priority rate to the Shippo Priority Rate, Shippo is much cheaper. With the added bonus of getting our shipping on our PayPal card (so 1% back), we can print labels throughout the day and then create the SCAN sheet later, and we can add our Etsy (autolink), Bonanaza, and TrueGether orders (manual), it is working out pretty well.
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T-Satt:
I assume that Ebay still gets their share of the shipping after it is reported by Shippo BUT would not Ebay’s share now be lower since it is a percentage of shipping costs? If so then not only would we save by using Shippo to lower our actual package ship costs but also save a small amount by way of Ebay getting less.
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Mike: Not really. eBay gets their Final Value Fees on the total price (including shipping). So whatever the buyer pays for shipping, eBay gets the cut of that. What we actually pay does not come into play.
However…if Shippo stays lower on the Priority side, and you use flat rate shipping and factor those savings into your eBay listing, then yes, you save on fees.
For example, we charged $6.50 for PFR (Padded Flat Rate) last year, and the actual cost was $6.30. We increased our PFR rate this year to $6.99. expecting the rate to be $6.90 (which is what I saw on the eBay label today). If the Shippo rate stays at $5.83 to $5.91 (I have seen those today on Shippo), I could change our flat rate to $5.99, which would give us an advantage.
I was hoping the Regional A rate would stay below $10, but I have seen the eBay rate over $10 to the east coast today, but it was $8 on Shippo…
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Yeah that’s right. Didn’t think that through enough.
Also I see on the Shippo page that they are only accepting “a few” applicants at this point. Wonder if this is in Beta Testing and once it is offered to everybody then this will be a subscription service. Also I didn’t get the service level difference between the ShipRush and the Shippo except that the ShipRush links with a much larger selection of accounts than the Shippo version. On the Shippo page it shows it links with only 3 or 4 and the Etsy logo is “greyed out”. Just really wonder if this will be a subscription service somewhere down the road.
Also we have a SL member who has a web site we have mention several times here at SL and that’s “FlipperTools” and “FitShipper”. He has a very similar program whereby we are supposed to sign up and he says we would then get a discounted rate off of the USPS Commercial rates.
Here is his link: https://www.fitshipper.com/ Check this out and see how it compares. Who knows, maybe his rates are even lower by more.
Wonder why Ebay is letting this go to sub-contract / 3rd party type of services instead of keeping there fingers in it. Maybe now they make their extra money off the total shipping costs they don’t care if we can get discounts elsewhere. Wonder if Ebay Labels could have offered us even lower costs all along and they just decided to keep that extra for themselves. As big as they are I would assume they could drive the USPS down about as low as it could go. Hhhmm.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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Mike: Just for added info, Shippo does Etsy. It automatically links up.
I think eBay knows that many sellers are going multiplatform, so they are allowing that. I’m sure they will always allow for labels to be printed through eBay, but are allowing Shippo and ShipRush to automatically link in with eBay.
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>Interesting on FitShipper. I checked out their pricing, but they are a bit misleading. They show that the eBay TRS rate for PFR is $7.10, but I saw it today at $6.90, which is the same as their rates.
T-Satt – it shows eBay TRS rates in the table related to cubic pricing. The next table, “Priority Flat Rate Box Prices” only shows commercial base pricing for “eBay | Etsy | Stamps.com”. I’ll update that to make it more clear. Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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Mike, I’m Josh from FlipperTools.com and FitShipper Labels (FitShipper.com). Thanks for the mention!
FYI, some of the differences between FitShipper and Shippo:
-Per Label Fee: FitShipper – 1 cent, Shippo – 5 cents
-Both offer commercial plus pricing on regular and flat rate Priority
-Both offer cubic Priority rate but Shippo marks up their cubic prices a few percent
-FitShipper has a monthly subscription starting at $5, Shippo does not charge for a subscription
-FitShipper requires you to fund a shipping account with at least $20 to start, and $20 minimum “top-up” when depleted. No big deal if you at least ship a few packages a week but I know cash-flow is tight for a lot of sellers. Shippo is pay-as-you-go as far as I know.
-FitShipper was created by an eBay seller for other eBay sellers. The eBay integration is tighter/better in most ways than any other label service that I’m aware of.
-FitShipper Labels borrows heavily from the original “FitShipper” shipping calculators that are available for free on FlipperTools.com. The ability to quickly and easily compare shipping rates to find the cheapest way to ship an item is miles better than Shippo (probably better than any other shipping label service).
-FitShipper currently only integrates with eBay; Shippo has eBay and a few others.
-FitShipper can print pretty much any type of USPS postage including media mail, First Class Letter, First Class Large Envelope/Flats. I’m pretty sure (not positive) that Shippo can’t do those.
-FitShipper allows you to copy and paste in an entire address (useful for non-eBay shipments) whereas Shippo requires you to copy and paste each part of the address individually.
If anyone has questions about FitShipper, the 2018 USPS changes, or shipping in general feel free to ask me here or contact me anytime.
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T-Satt, the USPS pricing API (which where eBay gets its rates, I’m assuming) updated to the new 2018 pricing on Friday, a few days before the rates actually went into effect. This would explain the drastic price difference you saw over the weekend.
Shippo offers commercial plus rates where available, but there’s no plus pricing on regional rate, so Shippo and eBay (and all online postage vendors) should have identical prices for Regional rate.
Regular and Flat rate prices should be about 3% lower (commercial plus vs commercial base) on Shippo unless you are a TRS in which case eBay labels also offers commercial plus. Shippo also offers cubic rate pricing (marked up a bit) which can be discounted quite a lot compared to regular priority, base or plus.
cheers
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imjosh: The thing is, eBay and Shippo were in sync with pricing before, but while eBay went up, Shippo went DOWN. When both had a PFR for $6.30, eBay now has the PFR at $6.90 (which I expected based on the rate change), but Shippo is $5.83.
Plus, on Regional A rates they are not the same. eBay went up, Shippo went down.
On some other items we were shipping, I checked and the Priority rates were always showing lower on Shippo by about $2 per item.
So either Shippo has better pricing, or a bug. Either way, Shippo is currently cheaper on Priority right now. First Class is the same.
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Hey T-Satt,
>The thing is, eBay and Shippo were in sync with pricing before, but while eBay went up, Shippo went DOWN.
Not sure how Shippo went down; very few if any USPS prices went down.
> When both had a PFR for $6.30, eBay now has the PFR at $6.90 (which I expected based on the rate change), but Shippo is $5.83.
PFR = Padded Flat Rate (envelope)?
I just checked this and, strange…
Commercial plus (should match eBay TRS) – $6.90
Commercial base (should match eBay non-TRS) – $7.10
Shippo – $7.06?I checked and rechecked, created a new order and checked again. Not sure what’s going TBH. Maybe we’ll have to wait a couple days for everyone to shake the bugs out from this update?
I also checked Shippo’s price on Regional A to zone 8. It was $10.80 which should be the same everywhere.
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iamjosh (and others interested): When I look at Shippo this morning on our eBay orders, if I select Priority Padded Flat Rate (PFR), the cost on Shippo is $5.83. However, if I create a new order manually on Shippo, the PFR rate is $6.90. So it looks like the better Priority Rate is being applied to the eBay orders on Shippo, but not on manual orders.
Also, I have a 12oz shirt to ship right now. On both Shippo and eBay, the First Class rate is $3.82. But the Priority Rate is different. For that 12oz item, the eBay Priority Rate is $7.13, while on Shippo it is $6.03.
Really hoping that this discounted Priority Rate on Shippo holds…
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My favorite part of the podcast was when Jay said “There are no ghosts”, the same line I always give. I love getting in debates with believers.
I’ve never seen that recorder out in the wild. But I always buy similar ones whenever I see them since they are usually cheap ($2-$4) and sell from $25 and up and don’t take up any space.As for the overall theme of declutter. Anyone who has sold for while and works from home knows how overwhelming it can be if your ebay inventory starts living alongside your personal stuff and life. It is important for those starting out or growing to a full time operation to make sure you find separate space if possible for the business which will allow you to work efficient and help keep you motivated as a cluttered/unorganized space definitely makes it hard to get stuff done and time is everything in this world. This is a constant battle for me and I’m sure most of you. I usually have between 1000-1500 itmes up at a time.
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RR Store Week Jan 14-20, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1431
Items Sold: 34
Cost of Items Sold: $41.92
Total Sales: $721.49
Highest Price Sold: $80.99 (Orvis women’s coat)
Average Price Sold: $21.22
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $700
Number of items listed this week: 52I love to declutter. You wouldn’t know it by looking at my place, but I do. In fact, today I took a bunch of donations to the thrift store, then hit my storage unit to drop off some Christmas stuff. I have no garage, so unfortunately I need the unit for what would normally go into a garage. But now that I’m mobile again, I’m going to make the unit work for me; I can use it to store large, bulky items that I have been passing on.
Craigslist Hunter did a whole video about the company Orvis, extolling the virtues of the brand. Now that I have that info in my head, I’m starting to see it all over. In the last month I’ve sold Orvis jeans, a button down shirt, and now this coat for $80.99. Paid a buck.
Other gems I was hipped to this week are a mid century modern line of wooden toys called Zoo Line. They’re basically a knock off of animal toys designed by Kay Bojensen, but are still highly collectible. They are usually articulated teak wood, the most famous being the monkeys. I found a cache of them at the thrift store last week, 8 in total. Cost me about $12 for all of them. Sold one on Thursday for $72, and another yesterday for $45. Lots of views and watchers.
Back to work!
Paul
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Can’t find the edit button! Money spent on new inventory should be $59. I’m not on Jay & Ryanne’s level just yet.
Paul
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Regarding the golf club caller:
I don’t often shop on Ebay, except for shipping supplies. I had virtually no sales the first two weeks of January, then a huge week this week. I compared the bumps in sales vs. purchase dates. It’s not a direct correlation to all of my purchase dates but the holiday weekend I sold most of the items and also bought several items. Inconclusive, but interesting and maybe I’ll just experiment with sprinkling my purchases as I build my daughter’s wardrobe in this size to see what happens.-
I’m a skeptic to any theories like this. EBay cares about the buying experience, I highly doubt they have spent a lot of resources incorporating some sort of metric in their algorithms that rewards sellers if they buy something on Ebay. It just does not seem to make sense if you try to imagine what their goals would be in their search engine.
I think it is normal to try to associated some cause in our minds for an event – for example sales dried up for me at the end of last week and over the weekend – and it seemed like some of the sellers i stalk also slowed down. Was it that the animal spirit took a dive with the govt shut down? I have no way of knowing but my mind naturally looks for a reason so i can put together a story. The sample size i have access to for my example is way to small to draw any sort of real opinion though.
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My numbers for the week of 1/14/18:
Total Items in Store: 121
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $65
Total Sales: $472 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $75 (Motorcycle Helmet)
Average Price Sold: $27.76
Returns: 0I have been keeping my listing goals for 2018. So far it’s going well.
Something to keep your eye on: I noticed my shipping metric for “Uploaded on time but no carrier scan” took a hit. But when I looked at the Tracking# it shows full tracking with pickup through delivery scans. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the phone yesterday trying to get it corrected. This morning it is still not fixed.
Jay & Ryanne, I was wondering if you had decided to do a physical inventory as you fill up your new storage facility? I know you had talked about it. I did one myself (my store is tiny so it took minutes to do as my daughter read off the item list while I confirmed it was on the shelves). I didn’t have any “missing” listings but I list 30 day duration. Anyone I’ve heard have a problem with missing listings seems they use GTC. I would be interested in knowing if your inventory and # of listings are in sync or it they are off by a decent %. -
I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed a dramatic jump in the cost of shipping Smartpost (FedEx) in the last few days? I know that Ryanne has said several times that she uses Smartpost for her shipping needs quite a bit…I sell some larger items and what typically might cost me $12 to ship, has now jumped nearly 3X to $34!! Anyone else experiencing this hike in Smartpost costs or know what this is all about? I was hoping it was some sort of glitch yesterday but today when I logged back in I’m still seeing these crazy high costs to ship via Smartpost.
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we’re talking about that over here–
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@LoveJame – FedEx Smartpost just changed such that dimensional weight now applies. There’s a calculation that converts the volume (LxWxH) into a dimensional weight in pounds. The rate you pay is based on the greater of the actual scale weight and dimensional weight (the larger value is considered the billing weight).
You can play around w/ some dimensions to see how they effect dim weight w/ this calculator:
https://www.fitshipper.com/freeTools/dimensional-weight-calculator.html
I need to check a few prices to make sure it’s still accurate as of this month, but it should give you a good ballpark of how the box size is going to effect the price either way.
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imjosh: Isn’t the sweet spot at about 1,728 cubic inches. That is what I has used for years. As long as the dim. weight threshold has not changed then one can try to stay under that sizing. We always try to be careful of the 1728 cubic inches when we buy at our sources. That is why I carry a tape measure with me.
A long skinny pkg. at 48″ long but only 6″ x 6″ square is 1,728 cu. inches. Then a 12″x12″x12″ cube box is also 1,728. So we try to only buy what fits into that approx. area-size and we know we are always safe.
We sort of figured that is why the USPS stopped making the 15x12x12 “C” size boxes and also Ebay stopped there 18″x?x?.And yes, love the fitshipper tool. Used it for a long time and have played “what if” many times. Saved our butts a few times also.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atl.
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@Mike, 1,278 cu in = 1 cu ft threshold for dim weight only applies to USPS.
Dim weight applies to FedEx Ground starting at the dim factor (which they change from time-to-time – it’s been getting lower and lower over the years). UPS ground has something a little more complicated I can’t remember at the moment.
Current dim factor for Fedex Ground is 139 which means 139 cu in = 1 lb. starting at 139 cu in.
E.g., a 6 x 5 x 5 box is 150 cu in. -> 2 lb dim weight.
I’m still doing some research on how dim weight for Smart Post works now.
>We sort of figured that is why the USPS stopped making the 15x12x12 “C”
I think you are exactly right about the formerly regional C box (and So Cal Joe probably isn’t wrong either). You’ll notice that there are no priority branded boxes over 1 cu ft now.
>And yes, love the fitshipper tool. Used it for a long time and have played “what if” many times.
Awesome, glad people are using the calculators.
Ah, and to clarify because I have a real problem naming different things “FitShipper” – do you mean you’ve been using the dimensional weight calculator on FitShipper.com (linked in previous comment), or are you talking about what I now have to call “the original FitShipper shipping calculator” on FlipperTools.com?
Currently, the “original” FitShipper and “FitShipper for Listing” reside on FlipperTools.com
And, there are some different kinds of calculators (dim. weight, postal zone, and cubic resizing) at FitShipper.com/freeTools/
cheers
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1/14/2018 – 1/20/2018
Items in store: 211
Items sold: 4
CGS: $11
Total sales: $62.78
Highest price: $30 (sterling overlay cocktail pitcher)
Avg price: $15.70
Returns: 0
New inventory $: 0
# of items listed: 34For me that “feeling” that it’s been a slow week was actually more than a feeling. (Now that song is in my head.) The bright side might be that it was easy to meet my goal for the week of passing the 200 mark for active listings.
I’m still in the “race to 500” phase of my store, so I understand that the size of my store & the long tail nature of a lot of my items might add up to some slow weeks. So, I’m forging ahead & next week I’m shooting for over 230 listings. And my sales are already trending up from last week. (Whew!)
I’m definitely on the decluttering bandwagon right now, but until I make headway on the front, I’m doing my best to avoid catching auction fever.
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Not sure if everyone is talking about the international first class shipping issue but I wanted to stop off and give my run down as I just got off the phone with eBay. As usual, it is important to know the rules before calling because it is a role of the dice as to who you are going to get on the other end. I was calling to make sure I didn’t have a shipping discount and the rep told me that I was supposed to ship through other programs in order to get the item out on time. This was the opposite of the seller team announcement which I was some how able to find again while on the phone. Here is the link if anyone else needs this in order to make a dispute: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/UPDATED-Issues-with-Domestic-and-International-First-Class-Label/ba-p/28023207#M4329 Anyhow, all is well and very important to know that we as sellers know more then the reps most of the time but you need to be able to produce where the info came from. Side note: my dog spilled my coffee all over me and the couch while on the call which was more upsetting then the lack of communication between departments concerning this issue.
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GHOSTHUNTER RECORDER – I am intrigued and will start looking for these when I source! I looked up solds on ebay for “ghosthunter recorder” and “ghosthunter camcorder” and see just a few. Should I be looking up any voice recorder (digital or tape) I find in the thrift stores? I also see night vision goggles being sold under “ghost hunter,” so I will be on the lookout for those.
Anything else I should look for in the electronics bin that ghost hunters would buy?
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Finally have a chance to listen to the podcast, yay.
Moose Lodge items are what I consider “fast-moving” ephemera items. If priced right and interesting enough, they can sell in under 24 hours. That has at least been my experience. They will of course take longer to sell if priced higher, but they should still sell based on location/graphics/etc,. The last one I listed a month ago sold within 24 hours for $10, for example.
I listed a piece of ICP ephemera over a month ago that I thought would’ve sold by now. It’s priced fairly, but no bites yet. Might have to wait for the Gathering of the Juggalos, heh.
It was mixed in one of my old paper boxes, so I have no idea where it came from. You find the strangest stuff sometimes…
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I am a part-time eBay seller and have an annual Basic store subscription. Today, I received an offer from eBay to upgrade to a Premium store and pay only $30/month for 1 year (half price of the Premium store). I currently pay $20/month for a Basic store with an annual subscription.
I believe you have to be invited (maybe everyone gets invited, I don’t know) to make use of this offer so don’t rush into it. Maybe call eBay if you’re interested and didn’t get the invitation.
https://mesg.ebay.com/mesgweb/ViewMessageDetail/0/All/94720627068
I realize they are trying to get more people to upgrade store subscriptions. The offer permits sellers with a Premium store to upgrade to an anchor store for $150/month for a year, which is also a half price offer.
I will upgrade to the Premium store as I have been over the 250 listings per month for several months now. I am not over the limit by much, but when you include items that sell (not just currently in the store) a quick look at a spreadsheet shows that it’s a no brainer to upgrade. I need to remember to cancel my store subscription a year from now and re-up with a basic store if my listing count doesn’t increase between now and that date. Otherwise, I’ll have to pay the going rate for a premium store.
I’ll also get a bigger quarterly coupon. On a subconscious level it will be nice to lose the angst when I list another item over my free-listing limit.
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BrianB, I also got this offer and my reading of the “fine print” is that the discounted promotional rate is only good for the first month. If you don’t cancel within that period, you continued to be charged for a year at the regular monthly rate (and if you cancel sometime within that year, early withdrawal penalties apply). So all you really save is $29.95 for one month.
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Junque Redux: I read that in the fine print too. I am confused. At first, I read that the same way you did. I read it some more and thought it was a reduction per month for a year. I am going to call eBay for clarification. Not saying you’re wrong. Saying I am confused. Thanks.
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Yeah, the cynic in me says that it is intentionally confusing. Good idea about calling for clarification…I’d be glad to be wrong because then it would be a good deal.
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@T-Satt and/or @imjosh what are the benefits/advantages to using a third party like fitshipper or shippo versus just using ebay’s shipping labels service? is the advantage only if you are selling on multiple platforms and want to pull all your shipping into one single platform? and while I’m at it…can either of you explain regional zone shipping, I think through USPS? is this something I should be considering? I have one eBay store where I daily sell “replenishables” or wholesale items and so its a lot of shipping the same type of things day after day…mostly larger boxes, along the lines of 28x12x6 and 5 lbs lets say…for over a year I offered free shipping and unless it was local (West Coast) I used FedEx Smartpost for shipping, which made it economically feasible for me to offer my buyers free shipping…however, with FedEx slapping the dimensional weight component onto Smartpost on the 22nd, my days of offering free shipping are done and i’m now going through the painful process of changing the price and shipping options on most of my listings on this 2nd store of mine. Any advice, ideas, or best practices for shipping larger items on eBay would be much appreciated. -Matt aka LoveJam
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LoveJam: For us, there are multiple advantages to using Shippo. First, we use Parcel Pickup with USPS, where they pick up our packages at the door. We need the SCAN sheet on these packages so that we get the USPS acceptance immediately and we comply with the needs for Ebay Guaranteed Delivery. With Shippo, we can print our labels at any time during the day, and then at 2pm (our Same Day Delivery cutoff time), we print the SCAN sheet and put the packages on the porch for pickup.
Yes, another advantage is that we have our Etsy and our Ebay orders automatically pulled into Shippo, and we can also manually enter our Bonanza and TrueGether orders into Shippo as well. This gets us the same if not better rates that what we saw using PayPal shipping, and all the packages are on the SCAN sheet.
We also get the benefit if paying for our shipping on our 1% cash back credit card. That small amount is a nice little return on one of our largest business expenses.
Last, we have notice this week that using Shippo, we are getting even better Priority and Priority Express rates than through eBay. I have shown a lot during the earlier posts that our rates are $1-$2 cheaper on Shippo for Priority Shipping (First Class and Parcel is the same).
Regarding the Regional shipping, I don’t think you have any relief there for the size boxes you are using. We use a lot of Regional A boxes, but they are not the size you need. You can see the size of the Regional A & B boxes on USPS.com (that is the only place you can order them as well), and I think imjosh has the rates for you. The concept is that the you can fill the box (up to 70lbs I believe), and the cost is based on how many “regions” away it has to travel. So you will pay a lot more to go to New York than to Texas.
As to advice on those larger boxes, I really don’t have any. I know that there is a disconnect between the the cost being sent to the buyer on FedEx SmartPost vs. the cost we are seeing when we print the label. My gut tells me (and my hope) is that the calculated cost to US is incorrect, and that the we will see the costs we saw in the past return. I keep seeing that the SmartPost cost is MORE than Home Delivery. That happens sometimes, but not EVERY time. I would have thought that if the cost to use SmartPost was going to be that dramatic, eBay would have warned us. This seems like a glitch to me. If not, then eBay did a HORRIBLE job notifying us that the SmartPost rate was going that high. Right now, we are riding this out, but I may use SixBit to change all of our FedEx options to just USPS today…
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Thanks T-Satt for the reply and good info…I don’t know that things are going to change with FedEx Smartpost, everything I am seeing states that on Jan.22nd FedEx instituted a dimensional weight charge on SP shipping, so large boxes like the ones I send took a Huge hit. As for the lower rates you are seeing through Shippo, I would assume that at some point in the near future they will get their rates to catch up with the increases USPS put in place and that you are seeing on eBay/Paypal. Not sure how a small 3rd party company could offer lower rates than eBay? Until then though that’s great that you are getting to take advantage of those savings. Thanks again for all the help on shipping information. – Matt
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This is how I see sharing info on what sold and BOLOs. If you list your item for $15 and mine is at $45, they will buy yours. But when you discover that the item is actually more valuable, you raise your price and i have LESS competition. Our prices are closer. So besides sharing knowledge because we are generous human beings, it actually might help us. But I agree, keep quiet in your local area.
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Regarding what sold and haul videos. I like to use this analogy:
If you have a day at the lake to fish, you can catch all the small bream you want with worms in the shallow water. You can chase a monster catfish in the deep and you might catch one IF you’re lucky. I like to fish in between those areas for the most part.Point is, people that want to chase the small/easy/common items will miss a lot of opportunity because they don’t test other areas. I like to find items that I think are cool and go from there, if I come across common items, so be it, I’ll sell them.
Example, one of the groups I used to be in, a guy posted two brass duckheads and said he’d had them forever (like a month), and they wouldn’t sell so he reduced the price to almost nothing. I had sold the exact ones for triple his price earlier in the year. I had sat on them for six months.
I don’t think the videos will ruin eBay just yet. Just my two cents.
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1. Scavenger Math: Starting in 1982 when I was 12 years old and lived in Bangor, Maine, I earned money babysitting then future musician Howie Day (link to his song Collide: https://youtu.be/ca9ub9rpNK4 ) and other neighborhood kids at $2.00 per hour and saved $1200 to buy my first car when I turned 15. Drove the car for a few years and sold it for $1,200. Bought my second car, a VW, for $400, drove that for a couple years and then sold it for $400. That’s right, all of the money I spent on my first two cars I totally got back. Sadly, I haven’t been able to duplicate that since. Currently, I drive a minivan that is as old as my daughter and when she gets her license in a year or so, we just might give it to her.
2. Vintage Postcards: So before I was an ebay seller, I did scrapbooking and family history and sometimes I would buy old postcards to use in my scrapbooks. Once a way long time ago, I bought a postcard of where I live now in St. Petersburg, Florida because it was sent by someone from my childhood hometown, South Dartmouth, Mass. Later I showed my aunt who recognized the person who sent the postcard as the doctor who delivered her!
3. Insane Clown Posse: First I’m glad you found the hats and are selling them. But, Ok, so clown thing sort of makes me sad because I can’t hear about that group, ICP, without thinking about this tragic case in Tampa that happened about 20 years ago involving Valessa Robinson in which the bad stuff I think happened to the soundtrack of that group. So sad. And on top of that, my husband’s nephew who is about 20 years old now has become a hobo clown, which is sort of like a crustee or like this Portlandia Gutter Punk thing (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYIqBG1v8BY ) but now he has become a full on traveling hobo clown complete with tattooed clown makeup all over his beautiful, young face. I watch him on instagram and just hope that he is ok.
4. Meal Prepping: We use mason jars for salads – just google or search you tube for “mason jar salad” and you will find tons of ideas.
5. Cheap Cheese: We think Trader Joes has good prices on cheese – do you think so too?
6. Ghosts: Are real. 😉
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