Home › Forums › Weekly Numbers › Scavenger Life Episode 386: Is it Buying Season Yet?
- This topic has 73 replies, 30 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 4 months ago by Geoff.
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11/18/2018 at 6:36 pm #51897
65 items to pack when we got home from 2 weeks of traveling. Sounds like a lot, but the dollar amount was pretty basic. We can’t complain! Forum friends pointed to a beta program where you can send offers to watchers through this random link.[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 386: Is it Buying Season Yet?]
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11/18/2018 at 8:16 pm #51902
November 11-17, 2018
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,466
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $548.84
Cost of Items Sold: $138.25
Highest Price Sold: $104.99 (men’s watch)
Average Price Sold: $32.28
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $117.84
Number of items listed this week: 55Store 2
Total Items in Store: 541
Items Sold: 5
Gross Sales: $61.56
Cost of Items Sold: $3.12
Highest Price Sold: $26.39 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $12.31
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $681.00
Number of items listed this week: 17Amazon.ca sales: $255.20 (Approx $63.80 net profit)
Amazon.com sale: $459.00 (Approx $114.75 net profit)Pretty average week for us, maybe slightly above average. Listing pretty hard on the weekends, and a few things each weekday evening.
Bought a BIG collection of vintage patches this week, so those will sustain our second store for quite some time.
Been buying lots of bread and butter items for the main store recently, with a few great items mixed in. Starting to slowly list some of the inventory from our antique selling side business. As we get closer to moving in the new year, I’m wanting to move those items out. Many of them are higher dollar, so may not sell quickly, but they’ll go eventually.
Decent week on Amazon in both Canada and the US. Retail arbitrage toys/etc are starting to fly, and the replenishable items keep chugging along.
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11/19/2018 at 9:01 am #51906
Do you now what kind of storage space youll have at your new house?
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11/18/2018 at 9:47 pm #51905
2018-11-11 – 2018-11-17
Total Items In Store: 2545
Items Sold: 21
Cost of Items Sold: $60.00
Total Sales: $599.26
Highest Price Sold: $99.99 (Vintage Matchbox)
Average Price Sold: $28.54
$ Listed $103.97
# Items Listed: 3
ASP $ Listed $34.66
Money Spent on New Inventory: $50Didn’t have much time to list. My mom is having health issues and that took up a lot of time this week. Also, went hunting this past weekend. I did manage to pick up 1 nice item while hunting up North Michigan.
Gut Sales Report for the week: Started out slow, but ended strong. Feels like the busy season is starting.
Challenge of the week: Still trying to get my basement cleaned up and organized the way I want it to be.
Scavenge of the week: Union Made in USA Burberrys’ Mens Suit
Game of the week\season: Michigan – Go Blue! Expecting a victory down in Columbus this coming weekend.
Mark S
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11/19/2018 at 9:04 am #51908
My Store Week Nov 11-17, 2018
Total Items in Store: 1106
Items Sold: 16
Gross Sales: $358.03
Cost of Items Sold: $32
Highest Price Sold: $44.95 (Allen Edmonds Shoes – sold cheap b/c they needed a heel repair)
ASP: $22.38
STR: 6.2%
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5
Number of items listed this week: 6Well, it has been a pretty average week with lots of lower dollar sales items. I will be listing less going into Christmas as we are very busy at home and I have decided I want to sell off some of my older less desirable inventory (will probably throw up a low priced daily auction) to boost my STR and next year will focus on better quality over quantity. I am still recovering from the “early days” when I first discovered the Goodwill Outlet Bins and I would literally be throwing anything and everything into my cart in order to hit the “35 lb. limit” when our price drops from $.79 cents to $.59 cents a pound. A lot of that stuff is pure junk… and has been sitting in my inventory since 2015 (yet STILL sells.. everything sells!). I am MUCH MUCH more selective now and don’t mind stopping into a thrift store on my way running errands and only walking out of the store with one $50-$100 item or even nothing if there is nothing good to be found.
I sold 2 items from the “send best offer to watchers” this past week and they both paid!
I had one “issue” an antique geological booklet simply went missing.. I dropped it off at the post office in the big package delivery drop (Get to skip the line this way.) Well, 15 days later no scan and no trace of that package. It is the ONE and ONLY label that I had printed off with the new eBay shipping label page… so hmmmm … hopefully that has nothing to do with this. I’m going to have to refund my buyer.
Great news is that after all this time with limited or no GSP sales, I had 4 International Sales this week, through GSP, so something has “kicked in” for me. Glad that is picking up.
And last but not least, I sold my shell cordovans that I bought last week last night so a good start for this week for sure. All of my Alden Shoes (Smaller Sizes 8 and 8.5) have been getting many offers and bids all from Japanese buyers – so maybe it makes sense to end auctions for Asian time Sunday night whenever that may be. It has definitely been a trend for me for this brand so just thought I would mention it.
Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving with family and friends!
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11/19/2018 at 9:57 am #51923
Good luck ebaymom digging out from under that bin inventory. I didn’t do it at the bins, but I made the same newbie mistake. I’m getting there slowly but surely and my shopping habits are drastically different now.
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11/19/2018 at 9:09 am #51909
Feels like there may be room for a subforum about the running-a-business part of this. I would probably post there some. The real ebay inside baseball doesn’t interest me that much but I always like to talk about numbers, cashflow, financing etc.
I had a slow week too apart from one great sale. It really doesn’t feel like the holidays are going to be a big deal for me… kind of expected that because my stuff’s not too seasonal. Oh well, slow and steady.
Sales: CAD$1030, 7 items (avg $147/item), COGS: $151 –> Item profit: $722
Expenditures: $147 –> Cashflow after taxes: $538
Listed: $215, 2 items
Hours: 3, $180/hr
Notable sales: last week I bought a box of 7 toners for $10. I’ve now sold 6 of them for a total of $662. I like this sale for being a good flip in both % and $ terms.
Scavenging: bought a constant pressure pump for $50 on Wednesday at auction, sold for $175 today (so not included in totals above). Also bought a big lot of flame resistant PPE thingies for $100 + shipping, waiting to have it delivered to me by the auction house. I think I figured it to be worth $2000 on paper. It’ll be a “pipeline” as you guys say.I am trying an experiment to try to move more stuff. I relisted my entire store, and I dropped all prices by 20% with a $30 floor. So, we’ll see what comes of it. So far, not a whole lot.
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11/19/2018 at 9:27 am #51914
I also don’t really care for the inside baseball talk of eBay. eBay is always up and down. Over the past ten years, Ive seen people swear eBay was ruined and done for. It just keeps pumping along.
I see eBay as a means to an end. And our end goals are always evolving. I’m more interested in hearing what people are doing with their eBay profits. Paying bills and buying vacation is cool, but always fun to hear people using profits to build other ways of living.
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11/19/2018 at 9:45 am #51919
I hear you. I’m afraid I’m still in the “pay bills and get out of debt” stage of ebay so it’s not a very interesting story. The longer term goal is to have zero debt, build some intergenerational wealth, and spend less time in the office (less but probably not zero).
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11/19/2018 at 9:52 am #51921
Amen Simplico. I’m all about the business side of it too (cash flow, inventory growth, business processes, etc.). And don’t knock the “get out of debt” reason for this. If everyone would only have good debt (on assets) and not bad debt, we would be in a much better society!
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11/19/2018 at 9:33 am #51915
Week of 11/11-11/17
Total Items in Store: 2,747 (Up 62% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 99
Number of Items Sold: 101 (Down 16% YOY)
(Includes 4 Etsy, 1 Bonanza, 1 TrueGether, 0 Poshmark)
Weekly STR: 16% (Down 14% YOY)Total Product Sales: $2,969 (Down 14% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $600
Highest Item Sold: $100 – Corral Vintage Lizard Brown Inlay Cowboy Boots
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 27-19 (that officially means she won for the year…again… )Clothing
# Listed: 1,692
# Sold: 61
STR: 15%
ASP: $27.18Shoes
# Listed: 442
# Sold: 17
STR: 16%
ASP: $37.16Hard Goods
# Listed: 613
# Sold: 19
STR: 13%
ASP: $29.57Etsy
# Listed: 172
# Sold: 4
STR: 10%
ASP: $38.63Poshmark
# Listed: 89
# Sold: 0
STR: 0%
ASP: $0Much calmer week, Veronica back at home and mostly back to health. Surgery date set for December 11…
Solid week (though interestingly DOWN from last year), and seeing Etsy sales get stronger. First week we haven’t made a sale on Poshmark, but Bonanza and TrueGether show up. Gotta love retail…
Gonna grind out some listings this week before Turkey Day. Our oldest son is home from college and brought his girlfriend (Love Her!), though his Jeep didn’t make it. Alternator conked out about 2 hours from here on Friday night, so we will plan to pick it up on Saturday when he goes back.
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11/19/2018 at 9:36 am #51916
Nov 11-19
Total Items in Store: 1956
Items Sold: 23
Total Sales : $1132
* above yearly average of $830
* above 2017 total week sales of $620
Highest Price: $230 (Drake Ham Radio Power Supply and Speaker Combo)
Average Price: $49
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $75
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 68Good numbers again this week. And I’m finally feeling better after this two week long cold that’s been plaguing my life. Nothing worse than sickness. I went on a crazy listing spree on Saturday since I didn’t have any plans or chores for the first time in a long while.
I’ve been wanting to build an elevated packing peanut dispenser too! My basement ceiling might not be tall enough though, but I’ve seen YouTube videos of how they’re made.
No scavenging this week. We had a chance to go to a couple auctions, but the weather has been so miserable that we decided to just stay home.
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11/19/2018 at 9:49 am #51920
Solid numbers Doubly. Love that Ham Radio sale!
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11/19/2018 at 9:43 am #51918
Fun quick podcast today, welcome back! Can’t wait to hear next week if sales have picked up for more people. I’ve have back to back above average weeks, but nothing has gone crazy yet.
Week November 11-17, 2018
Total Items in Store: 950
Items Sold: 20 (3 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $160 (20% of sales)
Total Sales: $778.99
Highest Price Sold: $90 (1965 Midge Barbie https://www.ebay.com/itm/202075710702)
Average Price Sold: $38.95
Returns: 0 (1 item not received that I’m dealing with)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $287.83 (36.9% of total sales), $15.83 fees (5.5% of sales)Above average sales volume, average price, appropriate COGS range and Sunday also kicked off next week’s numbers with a solid 5 sales. Similar to you, I sometimes wonder how I can do this and why someone is paying me $40 for a lock (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202070590253), $20 for golf balls I paid $1 for at a yard sale (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202349188516), but get excited when I find NIB Legos (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202028252495). And then I look at my Paypal account and don’t care why they’re buying as long as they keep doing it.
Office job is closed on Wednesday, so hope to get a handful of things listed before headed to visit for the holiday. I’m sure I’ll be running around doing laundry, packing, etc, but need to find time – I have about 10 things to list that I want to be up in preparation for the buying weekend.
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11/19/2018 at 9:58 am #51925
Barbie has the coolest old friends that like to make us $!
I love that lock! Learned on Etsy how serious buyers can get over a lock or even a single key to a lock! Great red/gold, authentic age patina, stylish logo shield, lock has it all and presented in a solid context!
Nice!-
11/19/2018 at 11:05 am #51939
I learned about a year ago that 50s-70s locks are quite well made and are easy sells for good prices. Especially when you can get old, dirty, greasy ones for $1 (and they’re more desirable). https://ebay.to/2qVOpG2
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11/19/2018 at 1:25 pm #51960
Brian,
Great Lock Show! I have dived good into the ornamental flat keys (not skeleton). It will be fun to tackle locks the way you have. I recognize just about every brand you show from the much handling of keys to those locks.
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11/19/2018 at 9:54 am #51922
Total Items in Store: 349, About 25 Mercari
Items Sold: 8 Ebay, 3 Mercari, 2 Facebook
Gross Sales: $586 Ebay, $93 Mercari, $40 Facebook
Cost of Items Sold: $236 + $44 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: Ebay, $355 (New bedding set, paid $150 summer clearance)
Average Price Sold: $73 Ebay, $31 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150 (RA, 3 item set) + about $80 at indy thrift xmas boutique
Number of items listed this week: 18 Ebay, 4 MercariFelt busier on Ebay this week. Mostly some of my remaining RA items selling this week so kind of a high COGS and shipping. I’m still loving Mercari. I haven’t gotten to listing vintage there, but will try. It’s so fast and simple to list or cross post and I encourage others to give it a spin for bread and butter items. I don’t think it would take enough time to significantly limit your activity on other sites. Plus there is no social media sharing required and the promotion feature and Google treatment is great.
I haven’t been shopping lately, but indulged a bit this week. My favorite indy thrift has a special Christmas sale. They hold back new in box items, toys, and holiday items all year. It’s always fun and prices are higher than their regular prices, but I find gifts and a few nice things to resell.
Got to pay free shipping & return this week for the first time. Buyer mistakenly thought they would get $200 extra worth of item included. What? So, that didn’t feel really great to pay shipping both ways on a PFRE. But at least she didn’t lie about the reason and blame me.
I only have 5 items stuck in the make offers to buyers. I can’t seem to get any new ones. None of them sold. I’m still lowering prices on items in carts only. That’s produced spotty results.
Also a quick warning to my friends with the 1% promoted test and others. If you revise the item, Ebay sticks in a high percentage – above trending! – and you have to manually lower it again.
Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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11/19/2018 at 11:19 am #51942
You are really tempting me to test Mercari…
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11/19/2018 at 10:16 am #51928
Hi everyone! I didn’t get a chance to post my numbers last week so I’m going to post this week and last below.
This week:
Total Items in Store: 696
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $243.63
Cost of Items Sold: $9.75
Highest Price Sold: $59.99 (Pair of used Nike Air Force Ones I bought at Goodwill for $6.41)
Average Price Sold: $18.74
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 19Last week
Total Items in Store: 689
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $318.15
Cost of Items Sold: $10.28
Highest Price Sold: $49.99 (Tie between two items: Vintage Soundesign cabinet speakers and a Brother sewing machine with carrying case)
Average Price Sold: $21.21
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $34.29
Number of items listed this week: 20I was pretty worried about sales this past week. I did not get a single sale on Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday more than made up for it. Right now I’m working on getting all of my death piles cleared out and posted. The goal is to have everything up before Christmas. Even if nothing sells, it will be posted and in the pipeline for the future.
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11/19/2018 at 10:18 am #51930
11/11 – 11/17/18
eBay store totommyto
Total store items: 650
Number of items sold: 13 (0 international)
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $501.25
Cost of items sold: $20
Consignment payouts $15
Highest price sold: $72.50 – 24″ Baby Crissy vintage Doll
Average price sold: $38.55
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $0
Number of items listed this week: 15
Sell through rate for the week: 2Etsy store Oldfleatoymarket
Total store items: 646
Number of items sold: 5 (0 international)
Total Etsy sales ( not counting s/h): $73.50
Cost of items sold: $6.50
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: Two items sold at $20 each – old stapler & tourist ash tray
Average price sold: $14.70
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of items listed this week: 2
Sell through rate for the week: 0.8Here’s a healthy sale price on a double handful of cheap (but cool) plastic hair barrettes from the mid 1980’s:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Barrettes-Lot-Girls-Hair-Clips-TRUE-1980s-plastic-animals-shapes-colors/253970069642?hash=item3b21cbb88a:g:6SgAAOSwm3lb4z~A -
11/19/2018 at 10:18 am #51931
Items in Store 1069
Items Sold 14
Total Sales $718.75
COGS $51.25
Total Profit $667.50
Average profit $47.68
Average sales price $51.34
New Listings 29My week was boosted by 3 big ticket sales over $100. I can’t recall ever selling 3 big ticket items in one week. I can see why J&R really love having multiple big ticket sales every week. I could get used to that!
I got plenty of listing done.
One item I was working on yesterday was another copy of a HeroQuest board game. I sold one 99% complete a few months ago for $160. This one is mostly complete as well, but the part missing is a large cardboard piece that goes in the box – the armory store. That bugged me, so instead I decided to part the game out. I was thinking off the top of my head $250 or so in profit parting out. Then I started meandering aimlessly on ebay checking random prices of parts to gauge my decision, trying to decide how far to break down the game in lots.It became apparent I was being very inefficient with my time, so I made a plan. I created a spreadsheet and listed all the individual lots I planned on selling. This gave me a clear path to execute my task. I used the spreadsheet to set my lots, set my price, set whether I’d use free or calculated shipping, and noted if I had created a draft or not with sell similar as I went.
This made the work SOOOO much easier and quicker having a plan like that – it stopped my paralysis by analysis dead in its tracks.
In the end I have 28 individual listings, for a total listed price of right at $500! My final profit should be over $300, taking into consideration the free shipping on many of the listings. Parts for this game tend to turn over fairly quick, so I should be able to sell a few lots a week. I think it will all be gone within 6 months.
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11/19/2018 at 11:20 am #51944
Spreadsheets can save the world… 🙂
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11/19/2018 at 10:48 am #51934
Total Items In Store: 446
Items Sold: 2
Total Sales: $145Highest Price Sold: $120 Pottery Barn Down Duvet Insert I thought I had bought a comforter. When I finally dug it out of the death pile it turned out to be duvet+duvet cover Listed both of them. I think I could have eventually got the full 150, but the week was so slow. Cash in AND space in the closet is a good thing
Average Price Sold: $75Coolest sale: A handful of misc mid century tourist brochures and maps from Seville, Spain for $25. Paid $1 for a box of ephemera and am slowly selling a bunch of weird stuff. I think the picture sold this. The map would look great framed for decoration
# Items Listed: 11
Money Spent on New Inventory: $25Challenge of the week: Getting rid of the listed and unlisted junk stuff. Have way too much Chico’s Ann Taylor, mugs, ties, caps…. Probably will try $4.99 or $2.99 Auctions I want my closets/rooms back
Scavenge of the week: Browning Dirty Bird Wicked Wing Jacket with a rip for $5
Game of the week\season: UCF heading for a record breaking 2 unbeaten seasons
Did you catch the numbers? I did not included the cancellation and the slow hasn’t-cleared Paypal echeck items in my sales list. 2 items sold! Previous years at this time I was averaging at least 1 item a day in November. In previous years I only had 2/3 or 1/2 the listings that I have now. And my listings are better stuff now than the 3 year old stuff. Thankful for the duvet sale, but a little nervous
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11/19/2018 at 11:02 am #51937
Week of Nov 11 – 17
* Total Items in Store: 1258 eBay, 11 Mercari
* Items Sold: 13 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $14.32 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $263.07 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $34 Book on US patents from 1857
* Average Price Sold: $20.24
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5.75
* Number of items listed this week: 42I still feel that sales are slow. One of the topics in the forums is about promoted listings and how more sellers are using them now that they show up on your active listings page. I’m thinking to add PL to my older stuff to see if that spurs sales or not.
With the holidays around the corner, the bidding at auctions is much more competitive. This will go on through February or so based on my experience from last year. I was at an auction on Thursday. All the stuff I was interested in was selling too high. I bought one box lot of books for $5. We had an early snow storm that day which ended up being worse than they predicted. After looking out the window a few times, I decided to leave with only the one box.
Once I got home (and it did take about two times longer than normal), I looked through the box in more detail. At the bottom were two Sears catalogs from 1970 and 1973. The one from 1973 is in very good condition and, OMG, the fashion! The bell bottoms! I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to list it this week, but we will see.
I don’t think that the 1970 catalog had quite the fashion as 1973, but I didn’t get as good of a look at it. Someone had pressed fern leaves every few pages, which warped the book somewhat. I’m not sure if I should sell it with the fern leaves or not. My mother says yes, I’m thinking no.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Sharyn.
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11/19/2018 at 11:17 am #51941
27 eBay packages mailed this week
48 local sales via Facebook Market Place (it’s been HOT the last two weeks)
4 local sales via OfferUp
4 mailed items via Facebook Market PlaceScavenge of the week: I found a shoulder mount 10 point deer in a trash container and sold it locally for $120. Can’t believe someone threw it away, it was well made and a very stately looking buck.
Also got a Big Leboowski sweater at an auction for $7. Second one I’ve score this year at this auction. I think the others don’t really understand the value.-
11/19/2018 at 11:23 am #51945
You are killing it! 48 Local sales?! And then a Lebowski sweater for only $7?!
We sold a Lebowski sweater a few years ago for over $250, was our biggest sale at the time. Very nice!
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11/19/2018 at 11:35 am #51948
What are your average price sold on Facebook? It is the same as eBay?
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11/19/2018 at 11:57 am #51949
Jay would it be possible to do a cut and paste of the language you use in the email you send to the buyers that don’t pay after they make an offer?
I also really like the idea of sending it directly to their email address.
Thanks!
Caren
eBay store: The Speckled Goat-
11/19/2018 at 2:21 pm #51978
this is the “one last personal appeal” message we send people–
We’re going to try one last personal appeal on the (insert item here) you bought. You made us an offer, we accepted, and are now waiting payment.
If you’ve changed your mind or need more time to pay, we simply need to hear from you. We’re reasonable. Your lack of communication will hold up this item for over a week while we wait for the unpaid item process to complete. If you don’t want it, at least let us sell it to someone else.
I see that you’ve bought items on eBay before, so you are not an amateur eBayer. Please respect this process and pay for the item you bought.
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11/19/2018 at 3:25 pm #51986
I prefer the Ivan Drago approach to unpaid Items:
“If they pay, they pay…”
It’s taken me a long time to get to the point that unpaid items don’t bother me. I’ll send the mobile app payment reminder after a few days. That’s it. If that doesn’t spur a payment then nothing else will. The unpaid item assistant will take care of relisting the item for me. I don’t pull items to ship until they are paid for.
I get your point on the podcast that emailing the person worked, but I bet that is an anomaly more than anything.
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11/21/2018 at 1:09 pm #52113
Yes. Solon said, call no man happy till he is dead. Likewise, call no sale a sale till the buyer has paid. (And, technically, 30 days have elapsed since delivery).
The unpaid assistant is great. I send a reminder through the app the day after, and then I burn zero further calories.
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11/20/2018 at 6:14 am #52020
Ryanne: Could you describe again how to reach the page where the buyer’s email address appears? I have an unpaid buyer and can’t locate the person’s email address. Thanks.
Ryanne: Never mind, I just learned how to locate the buyer’s email address. For anyone else:
1. Go to Seller Hub.
2. Click on the combo box (the list of options) next to the item you sold.
3. Select the “View record” option.
4. The page will display that has the buyer’s email address.- This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by BrianB.
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11/20/2018 at 3:04 pm #52075
Brian B. May I suggest a better way to contact the buyer and safe guards you.
On your seller dashboard click on items sold. You will see the item that was bought but unpaid for. There is a small box at the beginning of the listings. Hclick it and select edit. One of the choices on the drop down box is “Contact the Buyer”. Click on that and Ebay will open up a message box for you to type in your message. Has a 2,000 character limit. but this is the Ebay communication center and by doing it this way, there is a record of the conversation. If you use your personal email to contact a buyer directly to his email address there will not be a documented record of the dialogue.If you have a long reply [more than 2,000 characters], I have even sent multiple messages. I state 1 or 2 or 1 of 3 and then even name the 2nd and 3rd page until I get to 3 of 3. I have had to use as many as 6,000 characters before. [JAY.. Bet you are not surprised at that, coming from me LOL :-)].
But in any case there are several places to use the contact the buyer. Then just in case they may not see it like Ryanne says, I will use direct email, but all that will say is I sent you an email via Ebay messages, please review your Ebay folder.
I ave gotten replies most of the time, and it stays within the Ebay searchable databases.
Mike at MDC Galleries.
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11/20/2018 at 5:07 pm #52081
Yes, I agree. I prefer to have all communication via the ebay messaging system, but as Ryanne pointed out some buyers don’t look at these messages. I always start with the eBay messaging system.
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11/21/2018 at 5:25 pm #52123
I accepted an offer on Sunday, and I sent my normal reminder yesterday (after two days). Today, I went to send another message, but, based on the podcast suggestion, I also sent it to her email address. This was my normal friendly reminder:
Just another reminder to pay for this order. I have eBay’s unpaid item assistant set to automatically open a case after four days of nonpayment (which would be tomorrow). If there is any issue at all including needing more time or deciding to cancel the purchase, please message me right away.
She paid about an hour later! So, this is another data point, and I don’t know how many we need until Jay says “this hypothesis is now a theory”. It’s been a while since I had a NPB, so I can’t do it all alone!
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11/21/2018 at 6:04 pm #52126
Ha. I think if multiple scavengers get unaid items paid for by sending an email, we’re having a working theory 🙂
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11/19/2018 at 9:26 pm #52006
About the same but with no fees. I do cross post and remove from eBay when I sell locally.
Some things I sell locally I could never sell on eBay due to the weight. I accidentally bought a 5 gallon container of floor finish at an industrial auction. Ended up selling it to a guy and now I keep buying them and selling to him.
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11/19/2018 at 12:45 pm #51953
That Big Lebowski sweater is so popular, Pendleton is making it again: https://bit.ly/2zd8k80
Was yours vintage or newer?
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11/19/2018 at 2:15 pm #51977
Nov 11-17
Items in Ebay Store: 691
Sold items: 27
Sales: $748.76
COGs: $37.50
Consignment payout: $78.15Mercari items: 550
Sold: 2
Sales: $45 (lot of Little People 70s vehicles and a musical Nightmare before Xmas Jack Skellington doll)
COGs: $1Poshmark items: 270
Sold: 2
Sales: $117.60 (VS vintage 80s negligee set and a pair of Tod’s loafers)
COGs: $7My highest sales were on ebay: vintage wool toggle coat for men of the English brand “Gloverall” for $125, that was $1 at a Florida estate sale; a USMC dress blue jacket for $99, that I paid $3 for at a charity thrift; a vintage Belgian wool blanket (full) for $78.61; and 6 dishes for $100.10. The dinner plates were from the vintage “Atomic Starburst” collection by Franciscan.
It does take time to “share” on Poshmark and to list items on Mercari. I do those things at the gym usually when sitting on the bike for 30 minutes. If I had the space for a treadmill-desk in my house to walk and have a computer, that’d be awesome.
T-Satt, I had the same operation in June as your wife is scheduled, and my advice is to listen to the advice to rest. She can sit and copy listings from ebay to Mercari/Posh all on her phone and still be working, and don’t let her lift heavy things!
Mercari is pretty basic, but that basic-ness drives me a bit batty honestly. I haven’t found a way to easily locate items and “deactivate” them when I have sold the same item on Posh or Ebay; on Mercari I scroll through my items on my phone or do the “find” feature on the desktop of 50 items a page. There isn’t a “search your listings” feature. That’s my only complaint and hopefully I can find the answer soon.
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11/19/2018 at 2:48 pm #51982
Thanks! That is the 100% plan, for her to rest. I’m going to handle the business (and will be working at the contract gig) while she rests. I think my Mother-in-Law will be flying in to stay with us for that first week, so that will help as well.
She ain’t doin’ nuthin’ but restin’!!!
🙂
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11/19/2018 at 2:49 pm #51983
Just an FYI – Canada is not accepting parcels from the U.S. or other countries at this time via Canada Post (through USPS). Canada Post employees are on rotating strikes (and have been for weeks) and the backlog has reached the point where they have trailers taking up parking lots waiting to be sorted.
eBay has even written the Prime Minister to force employees back to work, which I expect may happen through legislation this week as many retailers are complaining about shipping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as the holiday season.
eBay is fully aware of the situation, and is working with sellers who have parcels stuck in the system (either in Canada or the originating country) to prevent any items not received issues or to reverse negative feedbacks related to the strike.
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11/19/2018 at 2:58 pm #51984
What situations do others not use “Immediate Payment Required” when selling Buy It Now items?
For myself, the only times I don’t use the immediate payment required is on related items where I think someone will want to buy multiple items, and the shipping would be combined (and therefore need to be adjusted). Examples I recently had that are like this are related magazines (where a collector may want to pick and choose which ones they want) and a bunch of vintage tennis racquets where buyers wanted to choose several for one shipping cost. Both these situations had multiple buyers buy multiple items and they paid almost immediately after getting updated invoices.
Just curious if other situations beyond those forced by eBay where someone wouldn’t use immediate payment when selling BIN?
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11/20/2018 at 6:18 am #52021
How are you indicating immediate payment is required? Are you referring to a BIN as opposed to an auction? I don’t see an indicator for, “Immediate payment required”. Thanks.
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11/20/2018 at 8:40 am #52030
To require immediate payment, you have to click a checkbox in Account Settings. I have Business Policies set up, so when I go to edit a Payment Policy, there is a checkbox “Require immediate payment when buyer uses Buy It Now” under Electronic Payment. If you don’t use Business Policies, then there should be a similar checkbox in the area for electronic payment.
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11/20/2018 at 5:27 pm #52082
Thanks. I have updated my business policies and now have access to the “Require immediate payment” option. This can be handy as I sometimes sell electronics and I get lots of bogus buyers.
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11/20/2018 at 6:29 pm #52083
How does “Require immediate payment” actually help? If I am a shill buyer I can still bid or commit to a BIN item without paying, can’t I? I hope I am wrong here because this could be a very desirable feature if it prevents bogus buyers from jerking me around. I often have this problem when selling electronics.
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11/20/2018 at 7:40 pm #52085
I’m surprised this is new to you. If you have “require immediate payment turned on”, then people must pay as soon as they “Buy it now”. It’s the best thing we love about BIN vs Auctions.
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11/21/2018 at 11:50 pm #52155
I’m surprised this is new to me too. I learned something new from the podcast/forum that I should have already known! Thanks.
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11/19/2018 at 3:26 pm #51987
I convinced my very mild mannered parents to watch that movie a few years ago. They thought it was hilarious and giggled the whole way through. My brother was shocked and horrified, as if I had sullied them or something. Not sure what his problem was.
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11/19/2018 at 3:30 pm #51988
Store Week: November 11-17, 2018
Total items in store: 1825
Items sold: 33
Cost of items sold: $39.14
Total sales: $1043.54
Highest price sold: $180.00 (16 vintage drawer pulls)
Average price sold: $31.62
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory this week: 0It was another pretty strong week for me. The first part of the week was amazing, and I’m sure the long weekend probably helped.
Like you said, I don’t think Black Friday is any big deal on eBay, but it’s definitely a good time to get some deals in the stores. This year a lot of the prices are good ahead of time, which I love because I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving, making people work the holiday so people can save a few bucks. As a LONG time retail worker, please don’t shop on Thanksgiving, folks! (Unless it’s on eBay, of course!)
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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11/19/2018 at 3:40 pm #51989
eBay (and Amazon) released digital toy catalogs to drum of interest in the holiday season. While I don’t think it will really impact individual sellers, I think it is cool because it reminds of the the Sears Wish Book from when I was a kid.
Here is the link:
https://static.ebayinc.com/assets/Uploads/Ad-Scans/Toybook-2018.pdf-
11/19/2018 at 6:32 pm #52000
If you didn’t already know, keep an eye out for those Christmas wish books from Sears, JCPenney, etc. Some of them sell for a lot!
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11/19/2018 at 9:41 pm #52007
Yes! I found them looking up a 1973 Sears catalog I just bought in an auction lot. The Christmas Wish Books were going for $80-$100. The catalog I have is more in the $25-$35 range.
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11/19/2018 at 8:23 pm #52004
Thanks Ryanne! Appreciate it.
Caren -
11/19/2018 at 10:41 pm #52010
Just about to listen to the podcast. Pretty excited for Thanksgiving — easily my favorite holiday. P
11/11/18-11/17/18
Total items in store (beginning of week): 491
Items sold: 5
30 day sell through (rate): 4.34%
Total Sales: (no shipping): 147.99
Average price: $29.60
Cost of items sold: $11.69
Average cost per item: $2.34
Gross profit: $136.30
Highest item sold / best sale: Chrome Mid Century Modern Table Legs – sold $69.00, paid 0
New items listed: 12 -
11/19/2018 at 11:00 pm #52014
Nov 11-18
Store: 1000
Sales: 25, $627
Facebook Local: $50 wall art
COGS: $80
Highest sale: Sundance Catalog sweater $45STRATEGY: Back to my daily listing goals. I need to stay on track or I fall off track. Killing the death piles – I only have about 25 items always on deck. Donated / threw away damaged items from Bins I got.
I have been accepting offers like crazy. I want to move this old clothing to make room for better buys.
Is Mercury in retrograde? I had problems this week:
1. pulled a damaged item, partial refund to buyer in advance.
2. first NEUTRAL feedback ever
3. Item Missing – cancelation (my fault). Unresponsive buyer.
4. 2 “fit” issues returns. -
11/20/2018 at 8:17 am #52028
November 11-17, 2018
Total Items in Store: 3,332
Items Sold: 103
Gross Sales: $1,075.09
Cost of Items Sold: ($49.67)
Consignor Commission: $391.13
Highest Price Sold: $39.91 (evening gown)
Average Price Sold: $10.43
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5
Number of items listed this week: 150I am working toward liquidating some of our lower priced inventory, and
increasing the average price of item sold.
The challenge is that we do consignment, and don’t always have a say
over what is coming into inventory.
This was a fairly average week for us, nothing extraordinary to report.
Lots of death piles, but we are not taking any new consignments until the new year.-
11/20/2018 at 9:11 am #52033
What are your rules for taking consignment?
–Minimum selling price?
–Whats your cut?
–How long are you willing to hold it?
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11/20/2018 at 10:37 am #52045
Had some high dollar sales, but things are slow. Definitely selling fewer items per week/per day.
Trying to list the last of the Christmas items I have, and they are time consuming. This morning I put together a vintage tinsel tree, and am hoping I’m not too late (and with too much competition) to get a solid sale from it! Almost through all the glass ornaments I have, them back to listing non seasonal stuffs.
11/11/18 – 11/17/18
Total Items In Store: 950
Items Sold: 14
Sales: $802.38
Highest Price Sold: $175 – c1890s Seth Thomas Oak Schoolhouse Regulator Wall Clock 12″
Average Price Sold: $57.31
Cost of Items Sold: $101.50
Returns/Refunds: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $43
Number of Items listed this week: ~25 -
11/20/2018 at 11:34 am #52054
Hi Jay, I am not sure if I am replying to your question correctly, but . . .
What are your rules for taking consignment? We basically consign items that have resale value. Clothing furniture and home goods.
Across the board, we earn 60% of sales price (consignors get 40%), the consignment period is 60 days, after that items become our inventory (with a few exceptions).–Minimum selling price? Generally items should have an over $19 resale value. Sometimes we take lower end if it is small, and easy to ship. We have charity accounts so we tend to be more flexible with these and the split for charity is 50/50.
These are the basics, and we are always refining . . .it is our goal to sell within 60 days for the consignor, but after that unsold items can become longtail for us. We did start with a brick and mortar and we are all online now.
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11/20/2018 at 11:57 am #52059
Interesting. So, after 60 days, do you pay them for the item? How much do you pay them after 60 days?
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11/20/2018 at 1:25 pm #52065
Like Tsatt asked, I’d love to know more about what happens after 60 days. Do you just keep the item?
Also, any reason why you do consignment vs just buying your own items? 60% is a good take, but items are easy to scavenge to receive 100%. Just curious if dealing with people is worth the trouble.
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11/20/2018 at 2:09 pm #52070
Oh these are good questions! I started as a consignment store (mostly because I didn’t have to put any $ up for inventory), so I just continued on that way because the business was already in place. I do scavenge a bit, but I am not really into sourcing, much better for items to come to me, but that is a personal choice!
Items become our property after 60 days, so if they sell after consignment period we receive 100% .Most of our consignors have been with us for years. Our niche is we provide a service for people who do not want to sell online, and just want to hand it off and trust that we will inspect, sort, price, photo, and do our best to sell their items.
It is a hard business. It is hard to deal with consignors, we are selective about who we will consign for because trust goes both ways. I don’t know that I would do consignment if I hadn’t started in a brick and mortar that way. It has some interesting challenges.-
11/20/2018 at 2:52 pm #52073
Hi.. This process is very similar to a place we consign our oopsies, mistakes, not worth much and discards to. We have an account with them and they take the items we periodically bring over. They like for us to brings whole tubs, not one or two items at a time. They take the items and list them to sell and also have some retail space they display at.
They decide what they will take or not. If they refuse any items we just take them right back. For the items they take-keep, the deal is they set the price, list or display at the highest price they set. If an item sells in the first 30 days at full price it is a 50/50 even split. The n at the 30 day mark they disocunt the item at 25% off, then if not sold at the 60 day mark they discount the item to 50% off again the 50/50 split still applies.
The at the 60 day mark, they drop the item to 60% for just a week to 10 days. Then if the item is not sold, they notify us and we have one week to come claim all unsolf items that are at the 70 day mark.
If we don’t want the stuff back, then they keep the items after the 77 day mark we have forfeited the items and they will either deep discount them at 75% to 80% off to just dump them but they own them at this point and 100% of the sale is there’s. If we don’t do our pick up during the 1 week grace period we have to pick up then in essence, we have abandoned the items and all deals are off, and they are then the owners.
this is much like the way a dry cleaners works and pawn shops. If after a certain period you don’t claim your stuff, it is considered abandoned and in turn they gain it by defult.
At this point if they don’t even want to sell it, they donate to several local causes, clothing to battered women’s sehlters or disaster relief, books to children’s hospital or elderly homes, then the balance goes into there dumpster.So I guess this must be a common practice or type of procedure across the baord, give or take.
Mike at MDC Galleries
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11/20/2018 at 3:01 pm #52074
Yes, most consignment stores work in a similar manner. I actually take my mistakes or items that don’t make sense to sell online to a local consignment shop as well. They do 50/50 split for 90 days and have a markdown schedule. You can pick up your items, I just choose to donate. I actually did have consignors pick up for the first three years in business if they wanted, but 95% never picked up even when they indicated they wanted to. It became a logistical and storage nightmare.
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11/20/2018 at 4:12 pm #52079
So do you let the buyer set the price? And if they choose too high a price, they know they have a chance to “lost” the item after 60 days?
Im surprised people dont get angry when you keep the item.
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11/20/2018 at 4:45 pm #52080
We definitely set all prices, part of the appeal is that we research each item to make sure we are getting the best price. Most of the time consignors are happy with this, if they already have a price in mind or have unrealistic expectations, we do not consign the item. It is better they sell it themselves. If buyers want to pick up their items, they can let us know beforehand, and we choose items accordingly (needs to be at least $50 resale to qualify). We did have pickup, but 95% of the people that said they wanted to pick up unsold items never did. Lesson learned on my end! Our consignors don’t get mad, we are very clear with the contract going in, but it can be tricky. Most of our consignors are clearing out, redecorating, and selling parts of an estate, they don’t want it back!
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11/20/2018 at 3:16 pm #52076
I haven’t been able to get the link to work for the make offers to buyers, I have tried a few different ways and times, anyone else not able to see or use it? Thanks!
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11/20/2018 at 4:11 pm #52078
If the “make offer” option isnt showing up, there’s nothing you can do. eBay seems to be randomly testing it. We saw it yesterday, but its gone today.
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11/20/2018 at 3:51 pm #52077
The link didn’t work for me either at first, but it worked after refreshing the page a few times. It seems like a very glitchy system.
I sent out over 100 offers to buyers today. Let’s see what happens!
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11/20/2018 at 6:33 pm #52084
It worked after refreshing a few times, thank you! I only sent out a few, I am curious to see how it works for everyone!
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11/21/2018 at 9:15 pm #52149
Happy Thanksgiving to all! It’s been a crazy busy couple of weeks, but I have managed to squeeze in eBay here and there. My office is back to looking like a bad episode of hoarders. Two of my daughters dumped stuff on me to sell (one just bought her first house) and I went overboard at an online auction. It’s going to be a quiet Thanksgiving so I am hoping to have a listing marathon this weekend. The first week of November went great and I thought here we go….but then things slowed down again. That being said, I can handle slow, as long as things keep going out the door! Here are my numbers for the good week and the slow week. Jury is still out on this week!
Nov. 4-11
Total sales. $269.33
# sold. 22
Avg. sold. $12.24
# listed. 23
# in store. 1102
Returns. 0
COGS. $13.31
$ spent on new. $22.76
Highest sales $49.99 Vtg Hakata Urasaki Washable Doll, $39.99 book Beethoven Klaviersonaten Band INov. 12-17
Total sales. $108.20 (1 Bonanza)
# sold 9
Avg. sale. $12.02
# listed. 20
# in store. 1106
Returns. 0
COGS. $5
$ spent on new. $25.00
Highest sale. $26.00 Waterman fountain pen -
11/27/2018 at 4:13 pm #52374
So my numbers are slightly inflated this week as i realize as i write this that my cast iron legs had ‘free shipping’ in them — so my actual numbers have a 20 something shipping cost… Lately i have been trending towards the “free shipping” — the goal being to actually sell for a higher price. Anyway, i should change the way i report my numbers to myself and the forum to make sure i do not have inflated dollar amounts
Hit some nice sales this week and did a good job listing. Have some more nice ticket items to post this week as well. Nice podcast this week — i think starting out as an internet business as a base and then going to retail potentially as it makes sense is the new normal. If you do go ahead with it i am looking forward to following your venture.
11/18/18-11/24/18
Total items in store (beginning of week): 505
Items sold: 6
30 day sell through (rate): 5.25%
Total Sales: (no shipping): 419.94
Average price: $69.99
Cost of items sold: $62.67
Average cost per item: $10.45
Gross profit: $357.27
Highest item sold / best sale: Cast Iron Industrial Table Legs – sold 195 paid 20.00
New items listed: 42
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