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We last interviewed Maria and Ryan from passportvintage.com in 2015. Living in Chicago, they were the first sellers we met who made a living almos
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 355: We Catch Up w/ Maria & Ryan from Passport Vintage Austin, TX] -
04/08/18 – 04/14/18
Total Items In Store: 2,337
Items Sold: 19
Cost of Items Sold: $80 (around)
Total Sales: $838
Highest Price Sold: $100 (White Castle Hat \ Promo Car)
Average Price Sold: $44.11
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 354 (Final found some great sales this week)
Number of Items listed this week: 67Great week this week. I wish they could all be similar to this week.
First, I had a great laugh when the White Castle Hat sold for $100. My wife thought I was crazy for listing it for so much, but then it sold.
Found some great sales on Saturday. The first one was an ephemera picker’s dream. I got a play script from 1881 and two Victorian Valentine cards for $5 total. The Victorian Valentine cards were nearly pristine and had great detail. My daughter asked if she could keep them, so of course I said yes to her. I think at least one of them would fetch well over $100. Also got several books from the 1880’s.
The second sale practically gave me a bunch of great clothes for $37.50, probably worth about $600.
The third sale was actually closed, but they let me pick through what was left. I figured it would be cheap, so I picked anything with value. I ended up getting about $445 worth of items for $4. I literally picked a vest out of the trash. I think I can get close to $40 for that.
Mark
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RR Store Week April 8-14, 2018
Total Items in Store: 1565
Items Sold: 31
Cost of Items Sold: $47.47
Total Sales: $922.77
Highest Price Sold: $89.99 (1970’s tennis shoe roller skates)
Average Price Sold: $29.77
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 50Can’t wait to hear the interview tomorrow! I remember the first one well. I’m amazed that Esty could provide a living. I’m still hesitant to get back on the platform, but I have considered listing some of the stuff I’ve had on eBay for a few years, using it almost like a clearance rack.
Much better week this time around. It started out slow, and I was stressing out because my rent AND my eBay fees are due on the same day. But the last three days have been great.
Had my first return in a long time this week. A buyer bought a record, then complained about the condition. The record has some scratches and scuffs, so I graded it as Very Good, which is actually on the lower end of the grading spectrum. He opened an Item Not As Described case; his message made it clear that he did not know the grading system and took Very Good at face value. But rather than escalate, I just approved it. I didn’t want to go to war with a guy over $6.34 worth of postage. Immediately relisted it. It’s the only copy on eBay, and it already has a bunch of watchers and views. It’ll sell again.
Have a great week, everyone!
Paul
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I hear ya on the record grading systems. On one side you have audiophiles that nit pick at the minutia of your system vs their system and then you have the new collectors that think that the “very good” grading means it will be new out of the package.
Before you got back into the record game, you noted that this is some of the most frustrating… but with profit margins so high, it’s too good to pass up! I’ll take 1 out of 20 returns/complaints for 10-20x my money.
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Exactly. I try to grade my stuff very conservatively, in case I get one of the aforementioned audiophiles, but it’s really the amateur collectors who complain about condition. But as you said, the margins are usually amazing. And yes, I did say that I was afraid this would happen, but this is literally my first record return, and I’ve sold dozens. I’ll continue taking these odds. I’m still kicking myself for not doing it sooner!
Paul
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Check out what I found at an estate sale this weekend!!!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/202288898616-
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Awesome find! I had that one vinyl & yes, 8 Track! Saw the boys in 77′ in New Haven when I was a wee 16 year old. Van Halen opened, quite a rocker night, you could feel the heat blaze big time back then, seared your eyebrows like Elmer Fudd, but enough of my bragging about how old I am.
Here’s a cool piece, my first sale a couple month’s back from a large buyout. Thank you KISS!https://www.ebay.com/itm/372222260162
Best of luck with that vinyl relic! Waaaaay too awesome dude!
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Morning all! Haven’t listened to the pod yet, I’ll hear it on the way to work.
Fair to middling week for both sales and scavenging.
Sales: CAD$1,044, 2 items, COGS $846 –> item profit $52
Expenditures: $11 –> After-tax cashflow $875
Listed: $200, 1 itemBasically I divested myself of an item (robot coupe mixer) for which I paid way too much… ultimately almost broke even. Doesn’t make me feel too clever but I’m glad to get my money out of it.
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Jay & Ryanne – There is no link to the forum on the podcast website. It says “Join the conversation in the forum>>”, but you can’t click on it.
Week of April 8-14
* Total Items in Store: 1135
* Items Sold: 11
* Cost of Items Sold: $10.10 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $295.91
* Highest Price Sold: $100 lot of vintage lamp parts (porcelain & brass)
* Average Price Sold: $26.90
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $49.55
* Number of items listed this week: 12I sold half the number of items and about $8 less average price compared to last week. So, pretty crappy. However, I did finally start to list again. I’m pretty busy this week, and much of my stuff left to list needs testing or cleaning, so I won’t be listing in high numbers.
I also spent a significant amount of time cleaning and prepping clothes to send into a thrift shop, but then I found that they aren’t taking new boxes right now. I guess I have to keep checking until they open back up. I could sell the stuff myself, but sending it in is a way for me to reduce my death piles without having to do the lengthy work to photograph and list. I’ve got over 70 items of clothing. They are all nice and in great condition, but most aren’t real high value. I did save one marino wool sweater to list myself.
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You were sending clothes to a thrift store so they would sell it? I assume you meant a consignment shop?
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Yes, exactly, a consignment shop. Once I send the clothes in, I’ll report on my experience.
I actually started out my initial “ecommerce” business two years ago using their company, but stopped when their commissions became much higher. Plus, I learned how to list on eBay myself. However, I really don’t have the time to list all this clothing and am willing to accept the higher cost. I’ll just have to wait and leave the box sitting in my family room until they will accept it.
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Ah, we just returned from a fabulous Austin week of vacation. Wish we heard this before, will have to check out Maria & Ryan’s place next time. Austin so so great, love the phrase there ‘Keep Austin Weird’. Since our airline was so crazy stingy on luggage now we didn’t hit any thrift stores unfortunately. Fun to hear about Etsy and brick & mortar, good luck on your business and growth!
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Week of 4/8 – 4/14/18
Total items in store: Beginning of week: 177 and end of week: 179 for eBay, + around 100 listings on etsy.
Cost of items sold: $38.08 (approximately)
# of items sold: 18 eBay & 4 etsy
Total sales: $216.21 eBay & $59.00 etsy (shipping paid by buyers excluded on etsy): $275.21 in total
Highest price sold: $24.95 1885 Amber Buffalo Ball Quart Jar Reproduction – Limited Edition from 1976 for sale for a long time on eBay without selling, moved it to etsy and sold it 🙂
Average price sold: $12.51 🙁 Low priced sewing patterns hurting average price sold again
Returns: 0
# of new listings: 24 (was traveling for a couple of days so wasn’t listing for 2 days)
$ spent on new inventory: $16.00I won my return case for INAD on eBay this morning. It was ruled buyer’s remorse by eBay. This was the return where the buyer saw a photo of the front and the back of the item combined in one photo and expected to receive quantity 2 although he didn’t change the quantity to 2. (I had 2 identical items for sale on 1 listing with the quantity box at the top where the default is 1 but it shows how many you have for sale.) I can only guess that he didn’t read the listing and got so excited to get 2 vintage NIP items for such a crazy low price he overlooked the quantity box also. Anyway, I refunded the purchase price but the buyer paid the shipping both ways. The customer service (in India?) was excellent! And literally no wait time on the phone, I called within the first hour that they opened.
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This was a great listen and glad to hear brick and mortar shops are coming back. I sell in the summer at a group shop and merely pay my monthly rent. I go every week to bring new items and freshen up the booth spaces. I love selling at a group shop because you have a little community to chat with when other sellers are also taking care of their spaces. I wish the owner of the shop paid more attention to the shop itself and fixed some things, but it is only open for 5 months of the summer and he is absent 90% of the time.
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Week of 4/08-4/14
Total Items in Store: 1,955 (Up 36% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 116
Number of Items Sold: 62 (Down 3% YOY)
(Includes 2 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 1 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 14% (Down 6% YOY)Total Product Sales: $1,474 (Up 3% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $294
Highest Item Sold: $76 – Majestic Cooperstown Collection Tony Gwynn #19 Baseball Jersey
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Troy leads the year at 10-5.eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,199
# Sold: 41
STR: 15%
ASP: $23.09eBay Shoes
# Listed: 134
# Sold: 2
STR: 6%
ASP: $52.42eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 622
# Sold: 17
STR: 12%
ASP: $22.27Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 158
# Sold: 2
STR: 5%
ASP: $35.00Slowest week in a long time for us this week, and to add to the roller coaster, we are starting to spend more $$$ on higher end items from a couple of new sourcing outlets, so cash flow is very tight. Some weeks in this business can be a sphincter shrinker…
Had an interesting experience this week. We sold a heavy item through Global Shipping (16 lbs), but for some reason we only received $4 for the shipping (our flat rate cost for First Class). We checked the listing and for some reason, the $4 First Class Business Policy was on the ended listing. I double checked SixBit and every time it was listed, it was listed as Calc Parcel. I called eBay, they saw that it was a mistake somehow, and gave us a $16 credit on the spot to cover the shipping (our cost to ship to Kentucky was $20). Great experience…
As an update on our (my) future, I have decided to postpone my thru-hike of the Colorado Trail one year. We are just now starting to hit on all cylinders with our new photographer, and we are planning some growth for this year, so I don’t want to bail on Veronica and force her to deal with that while I’m prancing around the woods. So we will spend the next year getting our processes down and employees in place so that it is much easier for me to be gone for 5 weeks.
That means that we ARE going to eBay Open in Vegas, so if anyone else is going, let’s plan a meetup at some point.
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Total Items in Store: 425
* Items Sold: 9
* Cost of Items Sold: $112 + $21 free shipping or upgrade shipping to get ins.
* Total Sales: $493
* Highest Price Sold: $115 two RA plates paid $20 clearance – running out of these! :-
* Average Price Sold: $55
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $15
* Number of items listed this week: 14Happily the Ebay gods were smiling on me. All profits went to 2018 quarterly taxes so it was a timely sales bump. Sales continue to be dead or clustered. End of work week seems better.
Still need to listen to the interview and looking forward to hearing from you J&R. Retail seems to be heading toward a hybrid of ecommerce and smaller presence brick and mortar. It totally makes sense that smaller retail shops with unique items would be supported in progressive cities. Kudos to these youngins. Have a great week.
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Total Items in Store: 2034
Items Sold: 52 (1 Bonanza)
Total Sales: $956.81
Highest Price Sold: $81 (Leather Purse we put on Auction, picked it up for $1 )
Average Price Sold: $18.40
Returns: 1 (Sweater for fit)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $385I enjoyed the podcast, hearing a different side of the business is enlightening. Finding out how they keep track of it all was interesting. For me selling on etsy and ebay is a lot to track. I opened a poshmark store and have listed a couple things but I am finding it difficult to keep up with them all.
We had a good week, sold a lot but our average price sold has really dropped. That is directly related to us buying more clothing.
We have struggled to find hardwoods in our area, we used to get car loads of stuff from the auctions but unfortunately they are few and far between anymore. Seems they have all gone online. I don’t mind clothes, they are pretty easy to list and easy to ship.
Our goal is to get our average price back up to 35-50. Our plan is to be very picky on what we buy.We are running out of room for sure, we are going to start looking for another place that offer more room for growth. My husband has thought about renting a small business warehouse but for me I would rather not pay someone else’s rent. Hopefully we can find the home of our dreams soon! Ha.
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My first Numbers Report here, is a sad one.
Items in Store: 486 Ebay
Sold: 3 (1 of them on Etsy)
Revenue: CAD 115
Average Sales Price: CAD38
COG: CAD18
Profit after Fees and COGS: CAD84I haven’t listed to the podcast yet, but do remember the first interview with the guys from passport Vintage and I really enjoyed it. So I am very excited to hear the follow up.
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Date: April 8-14
Numbers:
Total Items in Store: 939
Cost of Items Sold: $105
Amount of Items Sold: 28
Total Sales: $828
Highest Price Sold: $89.95
Average Price Sold: $29.57
Returns: 2 $65 total
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of items listed this week: 38 on eBay, 1 on EtsyWe met with the accountant on Friday. I’ve kept records, but could be more detailed and careful about being sure that everything gets recorded. So I spent time going back and making sure that all my mileage, bridge tolls, and cash receipts were recorded and up to date.
Had to send a check and file an extension nonetheless.
She stressed doing inventory at the end of the year to come up with cost of goods sold. I just multiply the amount of listed inventory by $5 which is my average cost of goods. I suppose I could be more exact, but I don’t want to! Blah.Working on listing this week. Started listing some vintage stuff on Etsy. (2 active listings right now).
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April 8-14
Total items in store: 828
Items sold: 30
Total sales: $829.64
COGs: $78.25Great week! Had some higher dollar sales and low COGs. A lot of my items that sold came from “lots” when I make a pile at a store or yard sale and make an offer. It won’t work at GW, but it does at our local Franciscan thrift store, run by awesome nuns. Make a giant pile of hard goods, and they say $5. Love those ladies. They get their money from the clothes in their shop, which range from $3 to $10.
Highest sale was $120 original painting of a Gullah African shopping scene, bought with another print for $25 at Habitat (Buy One, get one free day for art). I sold the other print for $79. I sold another piece of art (random San Diego paper collage art) for $79 that was $1 lot from online auction; a 1980s denim jumpsuit for $79 that was $2 from hospice thrift; and some funky brass jewelry for $50 from a local artist’s estate sale (was $10). I just realized I list a lot of things at $79!
Also went to my church’s annual clothing sale on Friday where they give you a cardboard box about 36″ x 24″ with a string on it, and you drag it around like a sled, filling it up. I skipped the Ann Taylor and focused on higher end Brooks Brothers, NWT items, and good looking shoes. I like to look at “amazingtaste”‘s sold items and sort by highest price to look at the brands they find. I did find a St. John tank top that sold for $42 in 24 hours, so I was happy to discover that brand.
I thought I had calculated shipping costs well for two paintings but I ended up short about $20 on each. So I plan to add a handling charge now on all larger items; it seems the boxes I create out of other boxes are always heavier than I think. That or add an extra lb even when I think I have estimated it correctly.
I have a regular job, but I retire in 2 months, 3 weeks, 5 days – Friday, July 13. I’ll get to do this full-time, while also helping with my husband’s independent consulting business, and caring/home-schooling our 4 year old. I can’t wait to own my days!
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Loved this episode with Maria & Ryan! I loved that they are following their dreams, playing up each others strengths, and expanding not only their business but also their network and the community.
Week April 1-14, 2018 (two weeks of updates since I couldn’t post last week)
Total Items in Store: 953
Items Sold: 50 (8 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $271 (17.7% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,527.11
Highest Price Sold: $75 (individually) (48 star flag https://www.ebay.com/itm/191718803093); $275 (as a lot) (8x Beatles Yellow Submarine prints to a buyer in Japan https://ebay.to/2qAXunf)
Average Price Sold: $30.54
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $520
Number of items listed: 103
Promoted listings test: 23 sales, $583.41 (38.2% of total sales), $31.76 fees (5.4% of sales)Nice couple of weeks, this past one being much better than two weeks ago. High dollar sales really didn’t occur (only one sale above $50), but several $30-$40 sales kept the weeks worthwhile.
The “big” sale was the 8x Beatles prints to a collector in Japan. I got these prints after meeting a guy selling records – turns out back in the day, he was an advertising guy (like me) and had a lot of these printer type contacts. The story I got (and put in the listing) is that these prints were from a run that NEMS (Brian Epstein’s company that handled promo for the Beatles) authorized – local printers around the country printed these for distribution to local records stores promoting the album. These were saved as souvenirs by a local printer, stored in acid free papers, never seeing the light of day until a I got them so they were still perfectly bright white. Since I had bought a bunch of other things from the same guy multiple times, he let me have them for $20 total – was asking $320 for the lot, settled on $275 to the same buyer. I sold them within a day, so one of those cases where I wonder if I could have priced higher – but 1200%+ ROI is good for me and hopefully it makes the collector happy (package is currently in Tokyo).
Got a ton of stuff listed over the past few weeks and my inventory has never been higher. Also got a chance to go out to estate sales as well for the first time in nearly 2 months. Weather was gorgeous on Saturday, so took advantage of it and hit estate sales as scheduled and then yard sales as I passed through.
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Thanks much for another great podcast. I love hearing other people’s stories and insights. I enjoyed the question about the nearest taco truck, lol….wish that was a relevant question to where I live now…
Had a more normal sales week, down from last week’s high. No estate sales to speak of this past weekend, and I skipped even looking at what yard sales were going on, so I could focus on listing what’s already been purchased, and working on the yard and house.
04/08/18 – 04/14/18
Total Items In Store: 894
Items Sold: 19
Total Sales: $609.83 (shipping not incl)
Cost of Items Sold: $48.09
Highest Price Sold: $99 for a vintage metal cylinder accent light with marble base
Average Price Sold: $32.10
Returns/Refunds: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $38.74
Number of Items listed this week: 53Scavenge of the week? Nothing too exciting, perhaps a tie between a NOS/NIP Irish linen tablecloth, and 2 belts – Leather Man Co and Zep-Pro brands, which are nice quality and can sell well.
Enjoy your weeks, everyone!
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April 8 – 14
Total Items in Store: 1546
Items Sold: 42
Total Sales : $1409
* above yearly average of $705
* WAY above 2017 total week sales of $307
Highest Price: $184 (8 Place Setting Set of Towle Stainless Steel Beacon Hill Flatware)
Average Price: $34
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $83
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $148
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 59Wow, it’s been one of my busiest weeks yet. I didn’t quite break my person record for Total Sales, but I smashed it with Total Items Sold. I was in the zone all week too with listing and packing everyday after work. Unfortunately, I’ve been neglecting my chores around the house so I think this week I’ll slow down on the eBay side and focus on life.
I made my last car payment last week. I just decided to go for it and pay the last 4K off in one lump payment. And I could do that thanks to the extra income I’ve made off of eBay. So for the first time in over a decade, I’m debt free! Now on to buy a house…
Went to an auction on Saturday near my place and got a carload. Nothing too crazy, but I did manage to score a couple 14K gold pens buried in the bottom of a box lot that will pay for the whole bill. And a few Pyrex Flameware coffee pots too.
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4/8/18 – 4/14/18
eBay Store totommyto
Total Store items: 564
Number items sold: 8
eBay sales (not count s/h): $440
Cost of items sold: $16.50
Consignment payouts: $107
Highest price sold: $175 1:18 scale diecast car
Average price sold: $55
Returns: $30 partial for a $100 cassette tape set, faulty tape
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 24Etsy Store Oldfleatoymarket
Total store items: 477
Number items sold: 4
Etsy sales ( not count s/h): $75.50
Cost of items sold: $4.50
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $25 vintage doll
Average price sold: $19
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 13Listed more on eBay last week which was good, gaining lots of watchers on some scarce toys and such, decided to have storewide sales on both eBay & Etsy, being careful not to hurt myself with the markdowns. We will see how this week goes.
Great podcast, good news that at least one city is moving towards or keeping Bohemia alive.
I have been having an interesting conversation with a UK buyer who purchased 2 large typesetter cases from me on etsy way back on Feb 16, $329.55 shipped.
I actually told the story but believe a quick Edit after posting tossed my entire post into the nothingness web. So maybe I’ll call it in, have not done that in many moons.
Take care,
Thanks again,
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Items in Store 953
Items Sold 13
Total Sales $339.25
COGS $51.00
Total Profit $288.25
Average profit $22.17
Average sales price $26.10I got some listing done early in the week. Good thing too, because this weekend was all taxes and baseball. Every year TurboTax does a nice discount the last month of tax season, so I like to wait and get a good deal. This season they didn’t do a deal. Boo on them!
Saturday it was 87 degrees and between 3 kids I was coaching or watching baseball from 9am to 5:30 pm. What a beautiful perfect day it was! Today it is snowing…. Season changes are rough around these parts.
Anyways, sales stunk this week. I have taxes behind me and hopefully good weather approaching. Time to hit listing hard.
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We get turbotax at costco. I think it’s a fairly good price.
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They had discs at Costco this year? I was under the impression that turbotax was exclusively online download this year. No retailers in my area had the disc this year – not even Walmart.
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Loved the interview! One thing about B&M that hasn’t changed: location, location, location. Very smart that they recognized their niche was better suited to Austin than Chicago. And interesting that they are considering getting into manufacturing as well. Hope to re-listen and take some notes this time. It’s people like Maria and Ryan who keep the spirit of enterprise alive!
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04/08/18 – 04/14/18
Total Items In Stores: 2,795 = (945 + 544 + 251 + 1055)
Items Sold: 69 = (43 + 11 + 13 + 2)
Total Sales: $1,188 = ($696 + $228 + $243 + $21)
Highest Price Sold: $75 Mother Jeans; $43 Madewll Dress; $38 quilt; $35 Bryn Walker top, $41 Sadek mugs
Average Price Sold: $17.21
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 200
Number of Items listed this week: 156My 14 year old daughter has been great at helping me get pictures taken and it is working out well; she wants to earn extra money so this week she kind of pushed me to list more.
I’ve been bingeing on the Dave Ramsey podcast, and while I don’t agree with him on a lot of things, the thing about getting debt paid off quickly is hitting home for me. I’ve paid off our credit cards and have been putting a lot of money towards a 2nd mortgage and an office credit line. My husband is freaking out a little because the checking and savings accounts are down because of the payment towards debt. So this week I’m focusing on making money at work and with ebay. We still haven’t put our house for sale because I don’t think we have a good plan for after we sell it and I think it is going to sell quickly, so we’re discussing what is next.
A week or so ago I went over to Orlando with my sister and got about an hour to check out the Goodwill bins over there, they are different than the St. Pete bins. They have the blue table-ish carts, while St. Pete either has racks or the dreaded gaylord bins. It was just as aggressive. The bins aren’t my favorite place to source, but for bread and butter stuff like Tablots, Ann Taylor and Chicos, the bins are my jam.
It felt like a slow week but it was actually pretty good for me.
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I cant listen to Dave, but his money ideas are basic and sound.
–Pay off all your debt and make a budget.
–start with the smallest debt first so you can get little victories quickly.
–Keep enough in your bank account that will pay off six months of expenses in case of an emergency. -
The Orlando bins are crazy lol. It’s always the same crew in there, and I swear that they would elbow their own child in the face to get a pair of Nikes out of the bins. My friend and I go for the entertainment occasionally. We live on the east coast, so those are the closest decent bins anyways.
Dave Ramsey can be entertaining, and he’s toned down the religious stuff tremendously (I assume to appeal more to the mainstream?). In the past I couldn’t stomach him as he came off as really preachy, but now some of his stuff is pretty entertaining and he does seem to get through to a lot of people. I’m still partial to Suze Orman though…she’s my girl!
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First time posting my numbers:
Total items in store: 2,287
Sold: 25
Total Sales: 455.35
Highest price sold: 39.95 for four sets of Cambria finials NIP
Ave. price per item: 18.21
Cost of goods sold: ~50
Returns: 0
New listings: 48
Spent on new inventory: 36My husband gave me two pairs of his Dickies work pants to list and those sold for $35, so that was basically a freebie. Have sold a bunch of his old, holey, stained Carhartts too:)
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04/08/18 – 04/14/18
Total Items In Store: 1100 (apx)
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: 12.45
Total Sales: 438.36
Net: 425.91
Highest Price Sold: $105 My 50 Years in Rodeo Living With Cowboys Horses & Danger Fog Horn Clancy Vintage HC Book (found at the Goodwill bins)
Average Price Sold: $21.92
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: 102
Number of Items listed this week: 77I had a threatened return this week. The customer started and INAD claim because the duvet cover and pillow sham set were too faded in her opinion. To me, that is an issue of color saturation, which is essentially color. I responded to her claim stating that I would gladly accept the return but that she would have to pay for the shipping. I waived 20% restocking fee. She declined the offer with no further explanation. I called eBay, they advised me to wait until the last day I could respond to her denial and that the claim would be closed in my favor on that day. That didn’t happen. I was advised by a supervisor on that day to agree to pay for return shipping because the buyer indicated INAD and they are not able to change that except upon appeal. I finally capitulated and in the end, she didn’t even return it in the end. The whole system is flawed. The fact that a consumer has the ability to select INAD as a reason when it is for color, a covered remorse reason, and that the customer service reps can’t correct that. It can only be corrected by the appeals team. What a lot of monkeying around. It would probably be cheaper to just get rid of the appeals department and give both parties their way. The cost of having all those he said/she said situations investigated, can’t hardly be worth the cost.
On another note, I went out in a blizzard to source! https://imgur.com/o15V2BW This is the scene of what it looked like when i finally emerged from the goodwill outlet! ABS…Always Be Scavenging!
Marjean28-
Wow, where was that blizzard in April?
I think that these big sites (eBay, Amazon, etc) are competing for customers so will keep allowing buyers to return for no reason. Without buyers, they’d be nothing. They probably think they’ll always be sellers.
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Call it my OCD nature, but shouldn’t this be episode 356? 355 was “We Catch Up w/ Mark Tew, Not Your Dad’s CPA”.
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Just wanted to chime in before the next podcast on this week’s topic. I have had a brick and mortar store and now have my eBay store. I’ll take the eBay store hands down. I did a knitting shop for 4 years while I was still working full time. It was my dream shop, but it about put me in the ground! You have to sell A LOT of yarn to pay the expenses like rent, salaries (remember I was working) ultilies, taxes, etc. Broke my heart to let it go (at the time) but it wasn’t profiting and my parents and my spouses health started declining, so I just didn’t have the time or energy to do it anymore. Online shopping was just starting to take off, and that would probably have saved the day if I had known how to set it up at the time. Honestly, I was so burnt out by the end that I have barely touched a pair of knitting needles since (8 years).
I love the freedom I get with my eBay business! Income without all the stress and burnout factors. Now that I have close to a thousand items in my store, it’s easy to ignore it (except for shipping) if i’m Feeling a little burn out coming on….then get back to it when I am feeling more enthusiastic. I support and applaud people with the energy to run a brick and mortar store, but eBay is the way for me! -
I’ll add my two cents worth, take it or leave it… If you want to open a successful brick and mortar retail store, open a resale clothing shop in a wealthy high end suburb. For some reason this is a proven business model that almost never fails. If you intend to sell ANYTHING else, DO NOT OPEN A BRICK AND MORTAR STORE – ONLY SELL ONLINE….
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