Scavenger Life Episode 406: Disposable Income, WTF is that?

[Ryanne]

 Join the conversation in the forum>> Our Store Week April 7-13, 2019 Total Items in Store: 8283 Items Sold: 40 Gross Sales: $1,278.88 Cost of
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 406: Disposable Income, WTF is that?]

[T-Satt]

Going to listen tomorrow when we ship. Until then, I’ll post our numbers since I just wrapped them up…

Week of 04/07-04/13
Total Items in Store: 3,078 (Up 57% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 166 – New Record
Number of Items Sold: 92 (Up 48% YOY)
(Includes 4 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 6 Poshmark)
Weekly STR: 13% (Down 1% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $2,495 (Up 69% YOY)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: Up $713
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Down $307
Cost of Items Sold: $501
Cost of Labor: $373
Highest Item Sold: $60 – Brooks Brothers Suit
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 9-7.

Clothing
# Listed: 1,825
# Sold: 62
STR: 15%
ASP: $25.47

Shoes
# Listed: 674
# Sold: 21
STR: 13%
ASP: $31.84

Hard Goods
# Listed: 579
# Sold: 9
STR: 7%
ASP: $27.43

EBay
# Listed: 3,078
# Sold: 82
STR: 12%
ASP: $26.49

Etsy
# Listed: 228
# Sold: 4
STR: 8%
ASP: $32.36

Poshmark
# Listed: 680
# Sold: 6
STR: 4%
ASP: $32.17

Happy with the new record on number of listings this week, and I still was off of listing for a day with my contracting job. Onward and upward…

Also about to move to Anchor level, between the subscription and the listing fees, we were at $280 this month. Almost time to level up…

[Mark S]

2019-04-07 – 2019-04-13

Total Items In Store: 2916
Items Sold: 10
Cost of Items Sold: $ 70
Total Sales: $ 706.00
Highest Price Sold: $ 400.00 (MCM Furniture)
Average Price Sold: $ 70.60
# Items Listed: 20
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 160.00

Gut Sales Report for the week: Another week of slow sales. The MCM Furniture sale saved me this week.

Challenge of the week: Another good thing was that I got a lot of my stereo equipment listed this week. One of them sold in 1 day to someone in Israel. It was under $30, but still.

Scavenge of the week: Now I know I had planned not to go to any estate sales, but this one was too enticing. I bought a bunch of large vintage trophies that will sell for some good money.

Strategy of the week\month: Still looking to cut back on buying items and concentrate on getting the stereo equipment and trophies listed.

Mark S

[kaninekleenup]

Haha trying to cut back on buying….wish I could…it’s just seeing those 20 dollar items for sale for 1 or 2 dollars every week…

[totommyto]

Hello, and my best to everyone!
Listened last night while packing after my regular 12 hour, enjoying the best surprise company! I really liked this podcast. Rang my Simpatico bell! Plan to listen through again this morning.

Another week of success with the 6 listings a day goal, and getting out and scavenging more creatively and more aggressively. I’m looking forward to a consistent weekly bottom line profit buildup as I do the consistent weekly work. I also completely dumped another consignment arrangement, working on ending the oldest one and almost there.

4/7 – 4/13/19 (no cross listing is done between platforms)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 587
Number of items sold: 12
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $256.00
Cost of items sold: $16.50
Consignment payouts $9
Highest price sold: $45 – vintage 10 pc Italy Nativity set – cost $3
Average price sold: $21.33
Returns: $35 2018 Toyota Rav4 manuals – buyer bought wrong ones.
Money spent on new inventory: $63
Number of new items listed this week: 26
Sell through rate for the week: 2.0

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 624
Number of items sold: 2
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $42
Cost of items sold: $2
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $22 – Vintage cassette tape suitcase – paid $2
Average price sold: $21
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $19
Number of new items listed this week: 16
Sell through rate for the week: 0.3

[ebaymom]

Hello and welcome back! I missed the podcast and will be re-listening to it this afternoon while packing.

For the first time in a long time, I didn’t list anything this week.. (I usually try to do at least 1 listing a day minimum and/or replace what I have sold at the very least – but this week I just wasn’t feeling it…so I took the week “off”.) It was nice to still have some “passive” income trickling in, at least it felt very passive to me! Here are my numbers:

My Store Week April 7-13, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1042
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $290.28
Cost of Items Sold: $6.49
Highest Price Sold: $105 (Small Fenton lamp, paid $2.99)
Average Price Sold: $41.47
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $21.47
Number of items listed this week: 0

I did have one interesting thing happen – Last year (September) I “closed” out an eBay return because a buyer did not print out a label correctly and did not return the item in the specified time. Ebay let me keep the money and closed the return. A week later I did end up getting the item back and the buyer opened up a paypal dispute. I wanted to just let this play out to see what would happen. I submitted my “evidence” that the eBay case had already been closed in my favor. This spent months in “review” – I ended up losing the case and paypal released her funds, but sent a message that due to “seller protection” they would try to appeal this decision with the buyer’s financial institution. Months went by… and then this past week, I received a very unexpected paypal “case update” out of the blue that went like this:

We received notice from the buyer’s financial institution that Case ID xx-xxxxxxx has been decided in the buyer’s favor. However, because you’re a valued customer, we’re not debiting your PayPal account for the disputed amount.
Here are the case details:

Buyer’s name: xxxxx
Buyer’s email: xxxxx
Buyer’s transaction ID: xxxxx
Your transaction ID: xxxxx
Transaction date: September 22, 2018
Transaction amount: $48.15 USD
Disputed amount: $48.15 USD

Thank you for your patience during this process. We appreciate your business.
You can find additional information and tips about buying and selling safely at our Business Resource Center. After you log in to your PayPal account, click Tools, and then click Business Resource Center under “Grow your business.”

Sincerely,
PayPal

(So, bottom line, Paypal refunded the buyer and also let me keep my money! It was worth it to “fight” this case instead of automatically refunding her. Win-win for all.)

[Winchester38]

April 7-13, 2019

Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,690
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $691.84
Cost of Items Sold: $56.00
Highest Price Sold: $160.00
Average Price Sold: $34.59
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $84.08
Number of items listed this week: 46

Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 918
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $186.84
Cost of Items Sold: $22.25
Highest Price Sold: $23.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $18.68
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 27

Amazon.ca sales: $636.00 (CAD) (Approx $190.80 net profit)
Amazon.com sales: $2,058.00 (Approx $614.40 net profit)

Pretty average week for me. Had to take a day off this week to deal with some pre-moving stuff (buying a new trailer). Really pushing Amazon recently. I’m VERY close to being on pace for cracking $10k in gross sales in the US this month. That’s huge for us personally. It’s about $13k CDN when converted, and at a conservative 30% net ROI, that’s $3,900 worth of pre-tax income for the month, on top of the two ebay accounts, amazon Canada, and my wife’s income.

A big to-do this week for me i to finalize and submit our income taxes for 2018. I’ve got the numbers/etc 99% together, just need to review, and meet with my accountant.

Nice to have you guys back! Missed ya last Monday! Cheers!

[T-Satt]

@Winchester: Nice progress!

[Jay]

That gross profit on Amazon is impressive. How much money do you have tied up in inventory each month? Do most of the items sell within a month or two?

[Winchester38]

Honestly, on my US inventory, my return is higher than 30% (closer to 50% on average most months). I like to be ultra-conservative in my estimates for now. All lower demand, higher margin, slower selling items that I have little to no competition on.

I’ve currently got 224 units in the US warehouses, spread out over about 60 skus. Retail value somewhere around $5000-6000usd. My total cost on those is probably somewhere around $2000-2500cdn. Yes, most items sell through in a month or so at this point.

As I’ve said before, it’s not the most enjoyable work, but now that I’ve got 50-60 established products that are producing consistent income, and are readily available to me, it’s just a matter of keeping them in stock. It’s honestly probably about 12-15hrs/wk worth of work between buying, labeling, packing, shipping, and maintaining pricing. It’s getting to the point that I’m sending two or three boxes three times a week, just to keep things in stock.

Really helps to have four sales streams (two eBay, two amazon), each selling completely different items in different ways. They seem to balance one another out nicely.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Winchester38.

[Jay]

I’m impressed with your Amazon pipeline. We could never make it work since we were sending in items we found at thrift stores which then had issues with either too many returns or would be slow to sell.

Sounds like you’ve found the right formula of a new popular item that doesnt have much competition and a steady supplier.

[Winchester38]

I still send in odds and ends from thrift stores too. Sealed board games and puzzles, used text books, etc.

My Canadian inventory is primarily clearance items, but I’m slowly trying to find good replenishables to set a solid 8ncome base too.

My US inventoy is 99% replenishable items. In some cases the currency exchange ends up working in my favor (buy for $10cdn, sell for $25usd, net $18usd, which ends up being $23cdn, for a solid doubling of my money, even after fees and shipping). I’ve put in the hours to find the items, and still spend an hour every Wednesday meeting online with my “mastermind” group to hone my skills further. It’s been a big help.

[Jay]

Do you get many returns? Does everything sell within six months when the extra storage fees hit?

[Winchester38]

I almost never see storage fees in the US. It all turns over quickly enough. In Canada I pay a small amount each quarter ($10ish).

I don’t see much for returns. Sometimes on toys/etc I’ll get returns, but it’s not a significant amount of them, and not enough to deter me. As sad as it is, it becomes a cost of doing business.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Winchester38.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Similar to y’all, life got in the way of posting numbers last week so here are the past 2 weeks. You note in the show that eBay has been pretty “meh” for a few months and I agree… but these numbers are a point in the right direction, for me about 30% high than the previous weekly average for Feb & March.

Weeks March 31 – April 13, 2019 (2 weeks)

Total Items in Store: 1001
Items Sold: 35 (7 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $290 (19.4% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,493.08
Highest Price Sold: $179.99 (1958 Miles Davis Milestones LP)
Average Price Sold: $42.66
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $330
Number of items listed this week: 17
Promoted listings test: 17 sales, $681.17 (45.6% of total sales), $28.75 fees (4.2% of sales)

The past 2 weeks check all the boxes – avg sale price over $40, COGS under 20%, avg over 2 sales per day, and no customer complaints/returns.

That Miles Davis sale was really awesome to wake up to a few days ago – buyer paid full price, no negotiations. No other high dollar sales, but a lot in the $40-$50 range, which add up quickly – 45% of my sales were over $40 but only 1 was higher than $75.

[Jay]

Great numbers. So cool to see how well LP’s do for you.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

*how well SOME LPs do 🙂

Think I’ve noted before that finding something like this Miles Davis is rare – not only an original pressing from 1958, but also in really great condition. Have to dig through A LOT of polka to find something like that.

[Sharyn]

I listened to about half the podcast last night (waiting to get on a flight that was delayed and then ultimately cancelled). I think that the eBay fee that was quoted on the podcast is incorrect. I double-checked, and the normal fee for a US sale is 2.9% + $0.30. If eBay managed payments has a 2.7% fee, then you will save 0.2% plus the $0.30.

My numbers:

Week of Apr 7 – 13
* Total Items in Store: 1402 eBay, 3 Etsy
* Items Sold: 27 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $42.95 + $8 Commission
* Total Sales: $400.33
* Highest Price Sold: $40 Vintage printer tray
* Average Price Sold: $14.83
* Returns: 2
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 26

Lots of small sales (including some items that I keep relisting as auctions until the end of the month when I donate what hasn’t sold) and two returns, but otherwise an OK week.

Every year I want to get my taxes done early, and every year I muddle around getting all the information together, and then submit just a few days early. This year, my procrastination wasn’t such a bad thing because we owed a rather large amount plus a penalty for underpayment. Yeh, we got hit hard here in NJ.

However, the government took out about the amount we owe plus $500 less, so we would have had a refund if things had been the same. I’m going to do some research and try to appeal the penalty. In the meantime, my husband needs to adjust his witholding, and I’ll need to do some estimated tax payments. The last few years, he has been getting a refund, so I relied on his witholding to cover my business’ taxes.

[ChristineR]

My condolences Sharyn on your tax bill. We really got hammered here too and paid thousands more. Fortunately, my estimates were good and I paid it quarterly. It’s really difficult to not be bitter about it. Apparently there isn’t much sympathy because many people don’t get it’s hitting people living a middle class lifestyle in an expensive, high tax area. Some of our friends with a full time instead of part time second spouse like me actually didn’t get hit as hard because they had already been phased out of some deductions. We were right in the sweet spot. 🙁 On the other hand, some people have it worse because they are paying for kids in college to boot.

[Sharyn]

We’ll actually be in the “paying for college” group next year. Ugh.

I forgot to mention in my original post that I reached 1400 listings! However, I will go back down in about a week or so when I pull a number of items for my town’s freecycling event. I’m sure I’ll recover in a month or two.

I’m also inching towards a 1000 feedback score. I’m currently at 968, but I’ve been noticing a higher percentage leaving feedback lately. Once you get past the first 500, the change in the star color happens much slower.

[ebaymom]

Hey Christine, I totally get it! I’m in the same boat … “it’s hitting people living a middle class lifestyle in an expensive, high tax area” – that is so US and I am trying not to be bitter – but these tax changes were such a downer this year for me. We don’t make a ton of money (my husband is a school teacher and I do very part time eBay – a lot of our neighbors are doctors and lawyers with dual incomes – they drive the BMW’s and I drive the beat up (paid-off!) mini-van, LOL). We live in a great (high tax) area by choice for the schools and amenities. This used to be OK considering our tax deductions gave us a substantial amount back that helped make this all doable. I didn’t realize the SALT limitations took into consideration state tax + property tax – so we capped out early and lost significantly over previous years. Also, taking into consideration that I also have 5 children – losing the personal deductions really hurt. This tax change definitely penalizes the middle class (who were formerly itemizing) and even more so anyone with 2 or more children. We can’t itemize now and have lost several thousands of dollars over what we normally receive.

[ChristineR]

@ebaymom Thanks it’s good to know we aren’t alone! #goptaxscamstories I’m driving my old paid off minivan too in a better public school district. Don’t want to dwell on it, but it was a bitter pill to swallow. You should be getting $2k credit (not deduction) for each kid who is 16 or under on 12/31/18 to help offset the loss of deductions. Luckily, that was a last minute add on to get one of the final majority votes.

[ebaymom]

Yes, I forgot to mention that I was very thankful for the $2k/child credit – we would have fared much worse without that one 🙂 It did help, but we still came out less than what we received last year with 7 personal deductions to claim in our household. I have one middle class friend that has 9 children and in a similar financial situation. They also came out way behind this year on their tax bill.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Is it possible something is wrong on your return?

The credit for children was doubled to $2k,the standard deduction was also doubled to $24k, the tax bracket % was lowered slightly and the thresholds were slightly raised.
So net you should have come out better unless your kids are older than 16. It is kind of crappy they capped it at 16. Kids aren’t even out of high school until usually 18!

The big hiccup was the SALT cap at $10k. Personally, it is mind boggling to my lowly redneck West Virginian brain that anyone would WANT to live in an area with that high of property taxes. I have a 2100 sq ft house in an excellent neighborhood and my property tax for the year is $1200. There’s no way I’d live in an area where I paid $10-20k in taxes a year on the house I own. Thats nuts!

As for the $750k cap on mortgage interest claims? Yeah I have no sympathy for someone who can afford a $750k mortage and its associated interest. Next.

The 20% passthrough deduction for my ebay business doesn’t really mean much. After deductions I don’t make much at all – $30k+ in sales equated to a taxable $1200 income this year. My savings there was like $29. Yay for business deductions!

In the end, my paycheck withholding was lower this year and my refund was double what it normally is. I fell in the sweet spot of maximum return with 4 kids under 16 and due to my low propterty taxes and mortgage interest I always take the standard anyway as it is VERY hard to beat in my area.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/irs-tax-return/2017-tax-reform-legislation-what-you-should-know/L96aFuPhc

[Retro Treasures WV]

And if your child is 16-23 and a student, you can get a $500 tax credit.
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/family/rules-for-claiming-a-dependent-on-your-tax-return/L8LODbx94

If your taxable income is less than $75k this is a better deal than the dependent deduction now. If your income is more it’s not quite as good.

[ebaymom]

@Retro – Nope, nothing wrong with our return – I’m a numbers person and I use turbo tax every year – I love doing our taxes. It’s all the SALT cap – our property taxes are ~ $9k a year and we live in a typical 2000+ Square foot 4 bedroom suburban home – it is just the way it is here – property taxes are ridiculous. We just were in the exact “sweet spot” that the new changes held no benefit for us. We were used to itemizing but the new SALT limitations and loss of the personal exemptions made things work out that we don’t surpass the newly raised standard deduction without counting the full amount of our property taxes and state taxes. The $2k child tax credit helped, but did not net as much as the old personal exemptions system when one was over the lower standard deduction from 2017. The 20% passthrough – while happy to have that also, it saved us well under $50 – but we’ll take whatever we can get.

[Retro Treasures WV]

It doesn’t make sense that you think the $2k per child credit is worse than personal deduction.

At a 22% tax rate, the $2k credit is the same as a $9090 deduction. Times 5 kids that is a $45454 deduction.

So what am I missing here? How is it that the personal deduction plus the doubled standard deduction is worse?

Your property tax was $9k, so that means you only got to deduct $1k of your state income tax. Is that where they got you? You’re in Ohio, so assuming you lived in Columbus (expensive) and made $165k (I’m shooting for the moon here for worst case), your state tax burden would be just under $6k.
https://smartasset.com/taxes/ohio-tax-calculator#X0VQGyfjTX

So you’d be missing out on deducting $5k there. The child tax credit increase more than makes up for that.

I’m perplexed… I’m don’t know what I’m missing here but I would really like to understand.

I use turbotax home & business and it is way more thorough than the standard turbotax software.

[ebaymom]

Retro, Our state/local tax liability was ~$5k… so that is definitely part of it… My husband is a school teacher and we make under $100K combined. We have a significant amount of charitable contributions that we could not deduct this year so that is another part of the equation. The final blow was the elimination of the personal deduction (7 people – 5 kids, + my husband and I (You weren’t including myself and my husband in your calculation) makes the new numbers turn out less for us. I use turbo for business also…

[Retro Treasures WV]

I used this calculator to figure your federal tax liability. Assuming 100000 in pay with 5 kids, your federal tax liability is $0 taking the standard deduction.

Estimated Tax Analysis
Gross income
(subject to personal rates) $90,000
Taxable Pass-Through Income + $0
Traditional IRA contributions – $0
Adjusted gross income = $90,000
Standard/Itemized deductions – $24,400
Taxable income = $65,600
Tax liability before credits
(includes taxes on pass-through income) $7,484
Child tax credits – $10,000
Family tax credits – $0
Estimated tax liability = $0

I ran turbotax and H&R block calculators as well putting in more of your likely information. These are worst case scenarios with no deductions other than the standard.

There is 100% something wrong with your taxes. You should have got back every penny PLUS several thousand, because the child tax credit is REFUNDABLE. Your tax burden is zero, but you get back some of the child tax credit as cash money. My assumption is that you did not put in your kids social security numbers and the tax credit wasn’t there. Without the SS#, the tax credit won’t show up.

[ebaymom]

Retro, we may just have to agree to disagree on this topic… but I’ll try one more time. Without posting the particulars of my complex tax situation here – take a hypothetical example of Sally & Joe Smith, with a $41,000 taxable income and 5 kids under 16 years of age.

Plug this into a 2017 tax calculator such as this:
https://www.priortax.com/tax-calculator/2017/
Their “refund” is $7,919.

Now, plug the same into a 2018 tax calculator such as this:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/taxes/tax-calculator
Now their “refund” is only $5,900.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I did your calculator with just the 41k and the 5 kids in your calculator and turbotax calculator. Zero with holdings in each calculator.

Turbotax calculator showed refund of $8694
H&R Block: $8597
Taxact: $8715
efile.com: $9919 (I believe their earned income credit was higher here) Maybe I should ditch Turbo tax and file here in the future! I like their number.
Jackson Hewitt: $8418.

Nerd wallet did tell me $5900. Their calculator is wrong. It does not take the earned income credit into consideration. If they can’t even get that simple thing right I don’t think I’d trust them with my wallet.

In that scenario, you qualify for the earned income credit.

[Sharyn]

Hey – I just got to the part of the podcast where you mentioned my post with the steps to get tracking information no longer available online. Just a quick comment – I never had to pay anything. I had to check a box saying that I would pay if they didn’t accept my appeal (or whatever they called it). The deal is that they will make you pay if you are going to use that information to make money.

In my appeal, I said that I was protecting a sale where I already made money, and I wasn’t trying to make any additional money. That seemed to work because I was never asked to pay anything.

So that is important. If you have to make a request through the freedom of information act, you need to explain that you aren’t trying to make additional money off the information.

[Jay]

Good to know. This was a great thing for you to find out and share.

[Jay]

You’re correct that Paypal fees are 2.9% + $0.30. Not as much of a discount on Managed Payments as I thought. Not paying the 30-cents per sales will add up though. That’s about $60 per month for us.

[simplicio]

Good podcast. Yep, disposable income is definitely a weird term – I guess the original sense of ‘dispose’ in the sense of ‘at my disposal’ is meant, but it sure sounds funny now. I think of it as ‘discretionary’, which is maybe a bit better.

Yep, ebay is not passive income. I think perhaps the right term is deferred income? Like, you put in a lot of work up front and then at random intervals it pays off. The nice thing being, it does allow you to spin up the flywheel and then leave it to keep spinning when you need to do other stuff.

It seems these days like every second buyer is trying to coax me into off-ebay sales. Either “just invoice me through paypal” or “just send your address for cash/pickup”. Must just be a random blip but I keep getting it.

I had a really good week on ebay.

Sales: CAD$2342, 13 items, COGS: $462 –> Item profit: $1490
Expenditures: -$353 (i.e., a credit – this time from shipping insurance payout) –> Cashflow: $2306
Listed: $10, 1 item (ouch!)
Hours: 6, $295/hr
Notable sales: Optical comparator, part of an ancient lot of optical stuff – $420 (local sale). Pipe thawing machine $775 (paid $350 or so).

I have not been sourcing and listing much! Need to spin up the rotors again!

[Jay]

Yeah, we’ve had a handfulof people message us that it’s better to call it “discretionary” income. I think its just semantics, but the point is that our culture teaches us to spend any extra money we have after expenses.

Do the buyers who want to pay you off eBay expect some kind of better deal? eBay really protects them if something goes wrong.

[simplicio]

Yeah, I don’t get what the pull is for the buyer to do off-ebay sales either. It seems counter to their own interests. I really dislike it because I know ebay has an algorithm that looks for this stuff and based on previous experience, it has a hair trigger. I’ve had convos get flagged as off-ebay sales just because a buyer mentioned which city they’re in.

[Doublythumbs]

April 7 – 13
Total Items in Store: 2211
Items Sold: 17
Total Sales : $1681
* ABOVE yearly average of $913
* ABOVE 2018 total week sales of $1253
Highest Price: $1200 (Barnstead Thermolyne 4800 Digital Muffle Furnace Oven)
Average Price: $28 (with the big sale taken out to not skew the number)
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $32
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $254
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 75

Great to have you both back this week! I had a very good week of sales all thanks to one sale in particular. It was my highest sale ever! It was a laboratory oven thing that was about to be disposed of at my dad’s job. He offered to buy it for scrap price which equaled less than $10. There was nothing wrong with it other than some cosmetic wear. I had to track down a temperature probe that would reach 1200 degrees Celsius to test it. It wasn’t fun to pack. But I’ve learned that it’s cheaper to ship really heavy items via FedEx or UPS rather than USPS, and FedEx actually does package pickup too.

Excluding that sale, I would have made $331. It felt slow. There were two days this week where I didn’t make a single sale. That rarely happens anymore. So I’m really thankful for that big sale and a few other somewhat higher priced sales.

We went scavenging crazy toward the end of the week. There were garage sales and estate sales and an auction for three days in a row. I was worried that my inventory was getting low but I don’t think that’ll be a problem anymore. I’m still going through my buys, but I think my scavenge of the week was a set of maintenance manuals for the 1978 series Johnson Outboard Boat Motors. I’ve seen some of these sell for 70-90 bucks each, and I’ve got the whole set. I also found a 1970s Sears Christmas toy catalog that may fetch around the same price. Both of these items I only got for a dollar.

In other news, the new roof is getting done and is looking good. We hired some Amish contractors and they’re hard workers. And our insurance is working well for us so we might not have to pay a dime for it. We can’t wait for it to be completed! Also, my CPA completed all my taxes. Overall, I owed around $3500. It’s a little less than I thought I would owe, so I can’t complain.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store 1078
Items Sold 17
Total Sales $412.00
COGS $53.25
Total Profit $358.75
Average profit $21.10
Average sales price $24.24
New Listings 31

Staying consistent with listing, not scavenging, and just trying to weather what I hope is a 2 month blip in sales due to the tax situation for blue state buyers. Tax wise for me, I have 4 children so I made out like a bandit with my biggest refund ever even after adjusting my withholding at my day job. For my business, I officially made $1200 this year. Last year I made $0 after deductions.

Had a crappy setback financially yesterday. Our dog ate a leash recently (yes, a leash…among other things). When I went to take her out yesterday morning, she was limp with tongue hanging out, and cold with the occasional involuntary twitch. She had lost bladder control as well. This was as dead as a dog can possibly be and still have a heartbeat. She was as cold as the concrete floor in the garage – no exaggeration.
I brought my kids down to say their goodbyes, and my daughter asked me to try to take her to the vet. It was a 20 minute drive and I figured she would be fully gone by the time we got there, but she was still inexplicably alive. The vet could not read any of her vitals except heart rate because they were all below the range of instrumentation, including temperature.

After a few hours they had her temp up to 82 (100.5 is normal) and she was lifting her head and looking around. Her bloodwork basically said she had no red blood cells, no white cells – all the markers were bottomed out at the base of range…basically her blood was water because she was bleeding out in her intestines. They brought her out for us to see her before we left and I felt like I was seeing a ghost after what I saw at 6 that morning. She stood and even wagged her tail when we petted her.

By evening she was stable enough for surgery. The vet removed a ziplock baggy full of nylon from her stomach and intestines. She rebounded so well that I actually brought her home this morning.

I am still in shock that our little dog survived. The emergency vet has never seen any case like it, from how she came in to how quickly she recovered.

And that is the tale of how our $40 pound puppy became a $2500 puppy, and how my fresh tax return disappeared as quick as I got it.

[Jay]

Yikes. Glad your dog made it through, but that’s a hefty medical bill. I know your kids are happy 🙂

[ebaymom]

Glad that your dog pulled through.. what an ordeal!

[xxThinkLinkxx]

April 7-13
Total Items in Store: 1299 (it was over 1300 yesterday but I made some sales since then, lol)
Items Sold: 9 (1 custom listing for 2 statues)
Total Sales : $670
Highest Price: $230 (2 Asian Ceramic Peacock Statues, technically my highest sale so far too!)
Average Price: $49 (I excluded the peacock statues sale)
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $36
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 34

I had a better week in sales on my end. Sold a Maxfield Parrish Print for $80, Fox Fur for $100 and the 2 Ceramic Peacock Statues for $230. Was very thankful for those sales! 🙂 And to bounce from Doubly’s post, it was very exciting about his crazy sale!

The sales/auctions were a good haul the past couple days, I’m still going through my pile lol. I ended up finding, so far, 1989 Ralph Lauren perfume bottles. And some nifty spectacles!
I also found comic books, at a super sketchy car garage place that had a sale. I kept a few, a neat The Addams Family Episode Guide comic and some Pokemon guides/sticker books, haha.

The roof is coming along like Doubly mentioned. The Amish contractors are great. They worked on my parents roof and my grandmas roof. Very nice and extremely hard working. We had a storm yesterday and everything held strong even halfway done! lol

Have a great rest of the week all!

[xxThinkLinkxx]

EDIT:
“Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $253”

[Jay]

Great to hear about the roof. Installing a metal roof is smart.

[Anonymous]

items sold: 34
sales: $1,040. (i don’t include shipping revenue)
average selling price: $30.58
cost of goods: $129.54
returns: 0
purchases: $228.36

store listings: 953
inventory $ risk: $3,631
listed this week: 55 items

ebay hours: will begin tracking this week

what’s on my mind:
I added best offer to 100 listings earlier this week & had some success with it. Unclear on how to handle $5, $6, $7 offers on $40 items. I engaged the first few, but have stopped responding to them as of this morning.

Have a few others awaiting payment and a 2nd unpaid case open. Buyer paid after 1st unpaid case opened & hopefully this one will go the same way. Any suggestion on unpaids and/or using unpaid item assistant?

Hello,
New to the forum & first time posting numbers. My average weekly sales for 2019 are $1,005 thus far. Inventory is 80-20 mens clothing, shoes & accessories & random finds of all varieties. My goal is 2k/wk.

[Jay]

Welcome. You can always put “auto decline” on items under the amount you’ll accept. This choice is on the listing page when you enable “make offer”.

You’re making great money on just 1000 inventory. Are you working full-time by yourself?

[SilverFoxFinds]

Nice to have the numbers inch back up to more of a normal week. Would like to be moving more items per week…or perhaps just the more bulky inventory I see all the time that could give me some fresh space to fill! 🙂

I wish I had been schooled on the mistaken thinking behind “disposable” income when I was younger. I had a very well-paying job right out of undergrad, and really should have socked away so much $$ then. Doing so now, percentage wise, but in a smaller fund.

Still having days with no sales, which isn’t common, esp in April, traditionally one of my best months.

04/07/19 – 04/13/19
Total Items In Store: 1086
Items Sold: 18
Net Sales (Total Sales – Selling Costs): $623.96
Highest Sold Price: $175 Head’N Home Drifter Suede Hat w/ Sterling & Turquoise Hat Band
Average Sold Price: $34.66
Cost of Items Sold: $51.75
Returns/Refunds: $0
Money Spent on New Inventory Last Week: $27.50
Number of Items listed this week: ~20

[Simon]

Thanks for the podcast. It was good to have you back to make my Monday-morning commute a little less painful.

My numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2902
Items Sold: 47
Total Sales: $982
Cost of Items Sold: $150
Average Price Sold: $20.89
Average Cost of Item: $3.19
Highest Price Item Sold: $95 Midwest Aero-Star 0.40 RC Model Airplane Kit
Number of items listed this week: 89
YTD Sales: $13044
YTD sales compared to this time last year: -4%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 379
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 236
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 191
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.62%
Hats sold this week: 29 (61% of sales) worth $508.67 (51% of sales $)

I took a day off work last week and focused mainly on eBay which helped boost my number of listings for the week. Sales were plentiful but mainly cheaper items which kept the sales $ down.

As I mentioned last week, the company I worked for ended up going public on the New York Stock Exchange last Thursday. It was a great day and gave my financial situation a boost – but to the theme of the podcast – I won’t consider that disposable income. I’ll treat that with care like the rest of my income.

Hope everyone has a great week!

[Jay]

Did you own stock in the company from being an early employee. I think I know the company (PD?). We know a couple of people who work there.

[Ryanne]

so funny, we were at this tech conference in Seattle and several people who worked at this org now work where you work and there was a buzz about the IPO when it happened.

[Simon]

That’s fun to hear that you have connections in my company. I saw photos of booths at couple of different conferences on / around IPO day so some of those must have been from the conference you were at. I’ve worked here just over 3 years. In the tech world that’s considered a a fairly long time though I’m not a very early employee. I was granted a very generous number of options (as it turns out). I’ve had options at 4 previous employers and none of those amounted to anything so I considered these options to be valueless up until a month or two ago when I heard about the IPO. Anything I make from my stock is just an unexpected bonus.

[Jay]

You earned it. Hope you get that Silicon Valley payout!

If you ever were to meet our two friends there, they would have no idea about this part of our lives. They just know us as the “video archive people”.

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 277 eBay, 50 Mercari
Items Sold: 6 Ebay, 0 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $40 + $6 shipping included
Total Sales: $185
Highest Price Sold: $75 (Used Anthropolgie Tea Set, paid about $25)
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 8

An ok week on Ebay. Limping along here selling of existing inventory. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about Ebay’s future because after that public beat down of management, I sense they are doing a bit better with technology management and progressing toward a modern app. It doesn’t seem as disruptive as it used to be. This week is a bit dense with non-Ebay but the taxes are filed and the weekend might be good for listing.

With our high cost of living, I don’t really ever feel like I’m waltzing around with significant disposable income to worry about spending or investing. My husband has been socking away pre-tax money for retirement like a madman and that plus our housing, taxes, and other cost of living keep us keeping up. Probably some of the people who don’t have kids can afford to be a little bit loose. Why not treat yourself a bit I guess in that instance? If we do have “extra money” we will stay somewhere nice on an annual vacation or spend it on experiences together – good memories. I do feel like there has to be some kind of balance with the frugalness and living your life while you are relatively young. (Our moms passed away in their early 60s.) Most people need a little treat now and then to stay motivated at the grindstone. But fancy cars and collections of things don’t appeal to us.

[Jay]

Very true. I always feel we walk a fine line when we talk about being frugal. Absolutely nothing wrong enjoying life and spending money. As you said, it’s about making memories. In Seattle, Ryanne and I treated ourselves to a super fancy multi-course meal. A very special occasion for us.

It’s definitely balance. When we spend we like it to be a treat. If we spend money all the time on fun, then it’s no longer special.

[ChristineR]

@Jay right on! I’m so glad to hear that you did that. Yes, I tell my kids the ice cream only tastes so good because we don’t have any at home so we only have it once in a while.

[JamesC]

So I don’t want to be a repetitive stickler, but I feel like I was kinda blown off on my first post asking the question of whether or not you guys feel like you could start reselling from the ground up today, by your original model of going to thrift stores and garage sales. I had mentioned that I had heard you two say on several podcasts that you don’t like garage sales or thrift stores so much lately because you aren’t finding much there, and that you like auctions now. The reply from Jay was that is just what you are doing now but that there is still plenty to be found at thrift stores.

But on the last few podcasts, you have again been talking about not finding much at thrift stores worth buying, and how you need better quality items which you only find at auctions..

So I’d like to pose the question again, with some serious consideration….

I’d also add that if you still feel there is plenty to find at thrift stores, garage sales, how do you actually know when you aren’t actively going to these places to source items?

I have been working a lot and am on my way up to 500 items from 300, and have seen a small increase in sales so far, but its still continuing to become harder to find quality items at good prices… Goodwill just increased all shirts to $4 minimum (often when I find name brands they are priced at $8+), jeans are $5… I saw a copper clad pot today for $9… and this isn’t just Goodwill. The trashiest shop I go to is trying to sell artwork at $50 a piece..

I am still finding stuff, but I feel like a lot of people have to be recognizing the trend of increased competition, and stores steadily rising prices as they become more hip to the game seeing all the resellers in their shops.

[Mark S]

JamesC,

I had said in another post that sometimes we have to change our tactics in finding items.

I think J&R are evolving their business in their own way in their own region. Each region is going to be a little different. I do go to garage sales and can find real quality items there. But I don’t think that works where J&R live. So, you have to do what works for you where you live and that does change over time. It may have worked for them at one time, but now it isn’t working.

Personally, I don’t like Goodwill one bit. I like a local independent thrift store that is working great for me. I also do well at garage sales, Estate Sales, and Rummage sales. Will that work for you where you live? Maybe. Maybe not. You just have to get out there and see what works for you. When it stops working, change it up and find what does work.

That is my two cents on the topic.

Mark

[Jay]

James, I don’t remember anyone blowing off your question. It might be that you’re not getting the answer you want.

We started selling in 2008. Has the landscape of selling online changed in ten years. Sure.
Is online selling totally and completely different. I personally don’t think so. The basics are the exact same.

When we started, we were super amateurs. We sold clothes with rips and tears. We sold things for $10. It was a grind and we didn’t know better. There were no Youtube videos or blogs that talked about how to sell. We learned by finding eBay stores we liked and copying what they were doing. It took 18 months before we felt comfortable in what we were doing. We built this community because we couldn’t find one to join.

Now you can start an eBay store and make money much much quicker. Just spend a weekend watching endless Youtube videos and you’ll learn where to buy, what to buy, how to photograph, how to list, how to pack. Step by step tutorials. But like you said, everyone can learn just as quick too, so there is more competition.

I think that you may be underestimating the amount of abundance and waste in the US. The firehose of stuff is just so huge and consistent. This is why suggest changing where you scavenge if you aren’t finding the stuff in thrift stores. We’ve discussed how the big chain thrifts (goodwill, Salvation Army, etc) are getting hip to selling stuff online. Other people are scavenging in Goodwills because its the obvious place. It’s no secret.

We like to buy at auctions right now because its a time saver. We spend a day at an auction and buy enough stuff for a month. When we do go to thrift stores, it’s kind of boring because we are finding so much more at auctions. It’s just the “scavenging mood” where in right now.

But if I was into thrift stores, I’d be hitting them hard. We used to shop 4-5 times a week. We’d drive in a 60 mile radius of our home, going to every thrift store we could find. We may have been amateurs, but we were always committed. It felt like we were just one more old pair of shoes from buying our freedom from having to work for someone else.

It sounds like you’re getting discouraged. No one on this forum said it’d be easy. Many of us post our numbers and you can see who’s doing well and who struggles. We all struggle, but money is being made.

Did you have any other specific questions other than wondering if scavenging is not easy and takes work? The answer is yes.

[Retro Treasures WV]

If auctions were good in my area I convert to them in a heartbeat. They aren’t though, so thrift stores it is!

J&R have also largely quit buying clothes/shoes and stick to hard goods. Currently Goodwill and other thrifts are TERRIBLE places to shop for hard goods. They cherry pick all the good stuff for their own auction website and everything else on their shelves is horribly over priced. The change happened almost overnight in my area. That is why I switched from hard goods to clothes/shoes!

ALl my electronics, toys, and hard goods mainly come from yard sales now.

[Jay]

Well said. We still find and sell some clothes because you cant deny the clothing pipeline, but it’s not where our heart is.

Finding the edges is a bigger motivator. If there are 20 videos online about how to scavenge and sell something, then you know the competition is there. We like the challenge of scavenging things and in places where other people aren’t talking about.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Scavenging on the edges is how you keep learning and expanding knowledge too.
When you walk into a thrift that appears to be crap you have a choice:
1. Buy nothing and complain about a lack of inventory supply.
2. Push yourself to expand your knowledge and find the hidden treasures.

Once you find enough hidden treasures, they aren’t so hidden anymore.

Once upon a time I would have to look at every single shirt in the mens or womens racks and look up a TON of them. Know I can just glance through with half focused eyes only looking at the collars and exposed sleeves and maybe run my hand across them and find multiple treasures in mere minutes.

Same with shoes: I can tell the good ones just by a glance and a touch before I even see the name brand.

I know there are some folks on here that are this same way with paintings, glass, and pottery. I am not there yet as I don’t really like these categories. Some higher value items still occasionally catch my eye though.

The quality items eventually become obvious to your trained eye.

[T-Satt]

“Push yourself to expand your knowledge and find the hidden treasures”

Amen. This is where the Obstacle becomes the Way. (Great book, should be mandatory reading)

When you hit limits, you look for ways over, or around, or under, or through them. And the obstacle changes YOU. And that is where improvement comes.

One channel I follow on YouTube is Yes Theory, and I love there motto: Seek Discomfort. It is in discomfort that we grow, we change, we adapt, we overcome.

For my own two cents on the subject of can you start today…absolutely. While Veronica, Founder of our little enterprise, has been in this since 2004, I only dabbled a bit until 2013. Then I got serious in 2015. Yep, you can start today.

What you buy will depend on your location, your sourcing options, your interests, and a vast array of other factors. But can you do it? Yep.

[ebaymom]

I think it is “do-able”, but I don’t think I am the only one who has complained about the increasing prices and competition at the thrifts. You have to work harder to find good stuff – it takes more time, but there is definitely profit to be made at the thrifts. It’s the same thing with garage sales. Some of them are absolutely incredible – people are moving and just want to get rid of their stuff and make pennies on the dollar. Others are price tagging everything with eBay listed-not-sold prices and these sales are just a waste of time if you are a scavenger.

[almasty]

I’ve started a 2nd eBay store that is a generalist, non-niche store. The majority of items in it are from thrift stores. I devote very little time to sourcing or listing in it, and have actually built up a pretty decent side income off of it considering. It is a basic store with 240 items. I also have a back stock of around 5 boxes for it that I haven’t gotten to yet.

If I worked it like I do my normal business, I’m sure I could actually do pretty decently with it. I just don’t have the time or care enough to.

If you work this like a f/t job and it is your only source of income, you can make it work with thrift stores alone. You just have to be dedicated to constantly being out there and learning new fields. It just takes hard work.

[T-Satt]

@Almasty: “It just takes hard work.”

Amen. So many things that are worthwhile do.

Anything that is attained easily will have little value to the recipient.

[Manateejaq]

Hello! Here are my numbers for the week.

April 7-13 2019
Total items in store: Etsy 408 // Ebay 793
Items Sold: Etsy 7 // Ebay 14
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $31.05 // Ebay $24.12
Total Sales: Etsy $102.95 // Ebay $175.86 ((Total = $278.81)) Lowest week so far this year. 🙁
Highest Price Sold: $35 St John Collection Sweater Shell
Average Price Sold: $13.28
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 27 (at $357.93)

[BigSally]

Ryanne and Jay,
I was laughing when Y’all talked about street scavenging in Seattle…oh boy…can you resell used needles, poop and broken tent poles? Were you at the convention center or in the ‘burbs’? Downtown is rougher than ever. If you’ve not seen the documentary “Seattle is Dying’ check it out, spot on. Sadly.

[Ryanne]

yep, seems like most cities now. tent cities next to stores that will sell you a couch for $40,000.

[AtomicStar]

Here’s my thoughts on “disposable income”

My husband is approaching retirement. I’m 11 years younger, so I still have a ways to go. We’ve worked our butts off our entire adult lives. My husband is a retired USMC colonel and has a second career in the defense industry. I’ve been self employed my entire adult life.

A portion of what we make we spend on whatever we enjoy. For my husband that’s travel and for me it’s anything from good quality skincare products (turning 50 this year) to fine meals out. Some call this disposable income, I call this enjoying life.

In 2011 I was in a horrific accident when a distracted (texting) driver went off the road and ran me over while I was hiking with my then 16 year old son. I wasn’t supposed to survive as my pelvis was crushed and my lower spine had multiple fractures. Several of my internal organs were lacerated. I lived in a nursing facility for a time where I learned to walk and function again. ( I am fully recovered and the chief of orthopedics of Tufts NE calls me his miracle) So my perspective on life might be different than most people. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. So if a cute pair of shoes calls your name AND you are already sure your retirement is secure, enjoy the shoes and nice meals out. You’ve earned it.

[Jay]

+1 Glad you came out on top.

[Ryanne]

yes, you absolutely are not guaranteed tomorrow. thanks for sharing your story, that does change your/our perspective.

i am never opposed to treating yourself/ourselves. we are mostly talking about people that “treat themselves” basically all the time, disposing of their extra income (example was a $20,000 VR chair and a bunch of fancy guns). we’d rather spend that extra money on investments.

i did buy myself a (used on ebay) pair of travel/work shoes when we got home (mine are getting beat up) and a (used on ebay) fancy-ish travel backpack (the one i have is also getting beat up and the zippers are sucking). so yeah, that’s my type of treat, practical, 25% the price of new ; )

[AtomicStar]

Ryanne, agreed. I’m for responsible spending. With some things you get what you pay for. So for you, a quality backpack/shoes is a wise investment. The way we go about it is we pay our bills, pay ourselves, invest in our account for our retirement home, pay my son’s college tuition, (retirement is auto deducted from our pay), and then what’s leftover can be discussed. And even when I indulge in something “fine” I buy it off eBay for less than retail always. Meals out are rare, but nice. We make sure to take advantage of happy hour to reduce our bar tab and we typically just enjoy main courses without apps or dessert. So while I say we indulge, it is within reason.

[T-Satt]

@AtomicStar: Thanks for sharing. That is a great perspective. Glad you came through so well!

[T-Satt]

@AtomicStar: Also loved the Happy Hour, no desserts part. When Veronica and I go on long sourcing trips, we decided recently to add in a sit-down lunch to rest and reward the work. We know the happy hour starting times and deals at MANY locations now. One of our favorites doesn’t start until 3, so we sometimes push to then to get a 2-for-1 drink reward!

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Right on T-Satt:
This was wife Susan’s Birthday weekend. So we did three days of straight field work and treated her to 3 long, mid-day lunches and celebrated her Birthday and a tribute to the old days of 3 Martini lunches. [Not business expensed though, like the old days! :-)]. We had a blast.

Our daughter Kim joined us all three days. She asked, ‘is this what you guys do everyday. After we explained, she got it, but siad it must be nice. My reply, At 70 years of age, working for 50 years at 60 hr. work weeks, paying tons of taxes and now being retired for 5 years, Yep, we deserve a few indulgences. Unlike many of the 20 something who think they deserve everything, everyday, a few times a month or quarter is perfectly fine by us.

Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art

[Jay]

Sounds like a good life.

[T-Satt]

Amen Mike!

Downside is that I am being pulled in two directions at once right now. One is my drive to work hard, and now work even harder to prep for the hike of the Colorado Trail (looking to head out on August 4).

But, the other side is that I need to get more time AWAY from work so that I’m ensuring my body is ready for a month of walking 20-25 miles per day with a 40lb pack.

So…I need to work hard, and spend more time away from work…

Yeah…good times!

[Ryanne]

i think we’re on the exact same page. i waffle between wearing shoes with holes that rain gets in (get that from my dad!) and wanting nice things (yo i want a Tesla so bad!). and being frugal does not mean no treats, ever! it means, how can i get a treat for less or treat myself and make it special, not an everday thing that drains all my cash and resources for future things (i know so many people that do this).

i had a friend call me for advice on starting a business (retail/food) the other day. they have had a steady job for about 10 years, never saved, own nothing, have no cash. i told her it was possible to start scrappy (do a kiosk, do a pop up with consumer level equipment from craigslist, etc etc). she quickly realized she didn’t have the resources to make it as substantial and as quickly as she wanted. she has spent everything on going out to eat/bars and traveling the world. which is fine, but as Paula Pant says, you can afford anything, you just can’t afford everything.

[T-Satt]

I love that phrase: You can afford anything, you just can’t afford everything.

That should be mandatory learning as well. Boy do I wish schools were better these days, but I guess that is what parenting is for: teaching philosophy, psychology, and mental training for the next generation.

This is why I am STILL in school today…just not the one that requires classes. Between books and YouTube, you can get a HELL of an education in these arts at no cost…should we only use them…

[AtomicStar]

@T-Satt (your name is Troy, right?) Yes, we have our own list of places that offer killer happy hour deals. Our favorite is in Annapolis at The Chop House. Not only do they have great bar specials, they also have 1/2 price apps which are SO good. Sometimes we just have apps and wine for dinner. You can drop $200 easy for a dinner for 2, but during happy hour you can do the same for around $50-$60.

[T-Satt]

@AtomicStar: Yep, this is Troy!

We are loving the Applebee’s deal right now, with 1/2 price appetizers, when we visit our son and his girlfriend in Nebraska. Great treat for hungry college kids and at a much lower price!

PS – It is Taco Tuesday at Fuzzy’s Tacos if you have one in your area!!! 🙂

[AtomicStar]

@ryanne I was raised by a businessman and we had a nice life due to his extreme work ethic. But when I graduated college I realized that nice things were’t exactly affordable, lol. My plush lifestyle quickly vanished. My father never gave me anything as an adult and I am thankful for it. Everything we have we earned. I can thank him for my desire for nice things and I can also thank him for instilling drive into my being. Work hard, play smart.

[T-Satt]

@AtomicStar: Love that!

As I tell our boys…”Mom and I have money…you are poor.”

[T-Satt]

Didn’t really talk much about our week (we are really in a crank mode right now!), but thought I would pass on a Poshmark story.

We had an item marked as delivered, but the buyer said that they couldn’t locate it. Funds were on hold for a couple of days, then they were released with the following message:

“We are reaching out to you regarding your recent sale, “Allen Edmonds Burton Derby Oxford Dress Shoes”. Although USPS tracked this order as delivered, the buyer is unable to locate it. Therefore, we have processed this as a lost package and will be compensating both sides. We have added your earnings to your account, while also refunding your buyer as part of the protection we provide each of our users.”

Money received today. Solid customer service on their end.

Now to see what happens on the Poshmark INAD we have open for the shade of blue on a sport coat…

[AtomicStar]

@Troy I’m a taco fiend. I make Mexican at least three times a week. We have terrible Mexican food in Maryland. I’ve been to California multiple times and I am forever tainted on my opinion of Mexican food after having it out there. SO good! So now I make my own. 🙂

[T-Satt]

@AtomicStar: Amen on the Mexican Sister!

I grew up in New Mexico, Veronica has ties to Phoenix. We like GOOD mexican…mostly our own.

I love how the gringa blonde white girl I married makes the BEST enchiladas. AMAZING. Now we have to learn how to make the mexican cream cheese we buy at a restaurant (they make the most amazing cream cheese on their enchiladas, and you can buy it from them too). That cheese makes those enchiladas NEXT LEVEL!

[AtomicStar]

Is anyone on Instagram? I’m an Instagram junkie. Would love to follow more people that do what I do.

[AtomicStar]

@Troy I always tell my husband he’s lucky to have me as his personal chef. 🙂 I haven’t tried Mexican cream cheese, but there isn’t anything Mexican that I’ve tried and not loved. New Mexico is on my list of places I’d like to visit. Looks so beautiful there. Before I moved to Maryland I was a food writer. I used to live in the suburbs of Boston and the food scene was so good. Now I live in the sticks and have to cook most of our meals. Occasionally we drive up to Annapolis for something truly delicious.

Also, my name is Melanie. 🙂

[Mighty Brilliant]

Hi.
Listened to the podcast yesterday at work. Welcome back.

I commented in YouTube about the PayPal fees. I was scared I had missed another policy update and that they had increased the fees on us in addition to their money grab with refunds! Thankfully that was just a mistake. I am looking forward to managed payments, especially since the rumored fees will be lower.

A question about managed payments though. Each processor has their own fees and policies, so in managed payments, will we be subjected to the policies of the individual processor the customer selects or will eBay rules trump everyone? The 2.9% fees seem pretty standard across the board with credit card processors, so I’m not sure how eBay will be able to lower the fees unless they will be getting some sort of “bulk discount” from the processors and then pass the savings on to us. Fees for returns and buyer protection (chargebacks, etc) also seem to come into play. Curious how eBay will handle this.

You also mentioned crypto currency in the podcast. I am a huge proponent of crypto and would love to see eBay offer such payments as an option. As the industry matures, there are more and more companies offering payment platforms that will accept various types of crypto. It wouldn’t be hard for them to incorporate. It certainly isn’t yet mainstream, but if large companies like eBay will start allowing acceptance of crypto, that will help in encouraging use and adoption.

Cheers all.
~Christian

[The_SEAM_Store]

Hey guys. I’m still alive. 2 more days of light duty to go and I will be back in full swing….and hopefully my sales will follow. I didn’t really expect to see them fall off so drastically, but they are down about 40% from last month. Ugh. That stings a little with having to buy a car last month and the surgery bills eating up the emergency fund. We will make it through, but it may be tight for a month or two. I was still able to list 320 items during my light duty stint, after a few weeks of vigorous photography prior to surgery.

Concerning this weeks podcast, one thing to mention to the gentleman who sold the $1100 item, don’t forget to ship requiring signature confirmation on anything valued over $750.

I may have numbers later, if I can brace myself for the disappointment. Still….it’s better than working for the man.

[T-Satt]

@SEAM: Glad you are felling better!

[The_SEAM_Store]

Oh…and during my “time off” I got to spend a little time on ancestry.com and was able to finally identify who my biological grandfather was, solving a 68 year family mystery/secret. I now have 5 new aunts and uncles and several new cousins.

[Liz]

Wow, that’s incredible, The Seam Store! Do you have any plans to meet your new-found relatives?

[The_SEAM_Store]

I suppose it’s possible. I’ve only communicated with one aunt and her son so far, who both seem very nice….nicer than my known aunts and cousins. lol. We will see how it goes I suppose.

[The_SEAM_Store]

On the taxes topic. I was pretty excited to get my first federal refund in maybe 7 years. It was only $160, and was consumed by the $1800 we owed in to state and local, but I’ll definitely take it.

[Anonymous]

@jay
Yes, I did see that on the listing page re: best offer. I wish we could set auto-decline/accept using a % range & do it through the bulk editor vs individually. Solo ebayer here, but I am working on some other stuff as well. 40+hrs.

[T-Satt]

@call_me_raoul: That is one think I like about SixBit…Auto Accept/Decline can be set using % or in $. Nice to pick your poison!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tip T-Satt. I have read many of your posts here & they are very informative. I am going to look at six bit & some of the other 3rd party software next week. Presently @ 1k/wk & trying to double that this year. If listing/sales were linear, I would just brute force another 1,000 listings in 3-4 months. But I don’t find that to be the case at all. I think a more refined strategy using best offer, price changing etc..etc… is necessary. Some of this is tedious to manage natively within ebay. Thoughts?

[T-Satt]

@call_me_raoul: Sorry for the late response, been busy!

In a way, you have to do both. You have to get more listings up, period. The best way to have growing sales is to have growing listings. At some point, you will find your stasis point (where the amount you sell per week is equal to what you are listing per week.) And for us, it is important to know that that goal level of sales per week is. For us, that is in the 150-175 level. At the ASP that we are running at, we want to sell 150+ items per week. That means we need to list 150 items per week. So we do that. The sales will come later, but we have to do the number of listings NOW to get the number of sales LATER. (Deferred Income…loved that in this weeks podcast).

But…you have to stay up on the market on the items you are selling. We have best offer on all our items, and we routinely look at what the market price is on some items and adjust prices accordingly. This is one reason that I love SixBit. I can quickly drill into the listings by brand, by type, etc., and change those prices (either in bulk or individually) very fast. Well worth the money for us now that we are at 3000+ listings (and growing).

[Marie in Florida]

Total Items in Store: 468
Number of Items Listed: 12 I don’t know how you all list so many or so fast. Congrats Troy!
Number of Items Sold: 6 Plus my 2nd Poshmark sale
Total Product Sales: $139 Middling Way better than February
Highest Item Sold: $40 A Tie, Ryanne I still buy them. This Turnball and Asser tie was the first item that I picked up in a “rich” county Bins 80 minutes away. Wish it were closer. My local bins has much lower quality.
Scavenger mentality. I bought a shirt for me at the regular GW. Pulled it out of the dryer and thought, “Yes, I get to wear a new shirt tomorrow.” And I’m excited. Then I realized that some would think this weird. But not you folks

[T-Satt]

@Marie in Florida: We just crank! We make our listing process as efficient as possible, use templates to prefill a lot of data, and then move.

Now, to be honest, most of these are clothes, so it lends itself to higher volume. We are waaaay slower on hard goods… 🙂

[MoCoyotes]

4/7-4/13

Total Items in Store: 2800
Items Sold: 24
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Total Sales: $932
Highest Price Sold: $199 (Basket weaving supplies)
Average Price Sold: $38
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $58.50
Number of items listed this week: 50

[casino el camino]

Hey everybody first post but I’ve called in a few times over the years. I’ve been selling car parts on eBay for 4 years full time. I delisted almost everything in my store towards the end of march. Part of it was to force me to make sure all photos had white background and also as a way of reorganizing. Over the years it seems like I all to frequently lose an item. The last six months I’ve been trying to not list small profit items unless I have multiples and that’s worked pretty well so far (15-30$ profit items). I have some one starting to list for me Monday so I’m excited for that. I am very lucky in that I have an unlimited supply of good parts. Some free, some from yards and some from vehicles I purchase. I have around 75 sub categories of car parts that work for me. I could make a lot more money and I may but it’s not particularly important. I will have a new warehouse this summer if all goes well. I’m glad I’ve lived in foreign countries on ten bucks a day without ever feeling deprived. For me it definitely gave me a better appreciation for all the opportunities in the states.

[Jay]

Welcome.
–Where do you get your car parts? Do you part them from wrecks or buy overstock new inventory?
–Do you only sell car parts? Any particular kind of car?
–If you are building warehouse, how large of an inventory do you have?
–Do you work alone or with employees?

[casino el camino]

Thanks Jay, I buy some from yards like lkq take a part style places. They tend to rotate their inventory pretty aggressively 12-1500 cars with most being crushed after 2 months. Other places might leave cars for years. I also have a buyers card from a used car lot a good friend owns. Every few months I’ll rep some cars for him at the auction and in return I can purchase the vehicles I want and buy them from the dealer at cost. And I have a number of friends who scrap cars and I can pull all the parts I want for little or no cost. I did rent a 5500 sc ft building my second year, while it was cheap, it leaked and landlord refused to fix it. Currently I have parts in 2 storage units 20×30 and my three car garage and a bedroom. I have a deal in place to rent a 1200 sc ft building in an industrial complex a friend is closing on. Shipping is the biggest issue I have. I enjoy packing and taking items to the post office. It relaxes me to pull parts. Abs units are the dirtiest item I pull. Mostly I sell interior parts. Every car has parts that will sell. I’m not a car guy , I drive the cheapest car possible. I spend a lot of time looking at what sold on certain cars/trucks. A 15 year old truck may have 20 to 60 parts that to me are worth selling. A module that might sell for 150$, I’ll wait till I have a handful and find the correct vehicle and test them. Same with master controls for windows, doors. Any luxury cars are usually good but the more common vehicles sell quickly. I usually learn something new every time I tackle a new vehicle. I frequently sell parts to the south. Midwest cars rust out quickly and interior parts stay in good condition. I’m pretty selective if I’m paying for the parts. I want a part to sell within 2 months. I set prices fairly high and believe in my research. It might take an extra week or 2 but when someone needs it and the cheap ones have sold out I’m the only one. I only do bin, immediate pay, no international sales. If someone messages me and I want the sale I’ll lower the price for 24 hrs but they have to bin, immediate pay. That way I’m not chasing deadbeat buyers. Any sales I may have left on the table I’m fine with it. I dont sweat returns, deal with it quickly and go take a swim. I make it a point to sleep well. No upset buyer is going to upset me. Finding and noteing color codes are important on painted parts. I mark every part make and year. 80 percent have numbers you can look up but it is a waste of time not to mark them as pulled. I live in a very inexpensive town with several universities and a vibrant art music food scene. I am ramping up the listing as a number of distractions are finally settled.

[Jay]

A great story of a successful seller 🙂 I’ve always wondered if you could make a living on eBay selling parts on wrecked cars.

[Steven S]

Thanks for detailing some of your process, I too deal with a small amount of automotive parts, research is indeed the key as well as good photos.
So many sellers are not good lister’s and it’s easy to stand out in the reselling of parts if you present well.
I think you see a lot of big commercial parts yards trying to sell but they’re too hasty with their listings, although if someone needs that hard to find part it doesn’t matter…gotta have it now.

[The_SEAM_Store]

I’d love to part out my disabled vehicle, but i just don’t have the physical strength or flexibility to do it anymore. Damn you Arthur

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by The_SEAM_Store.

[AJ]

I am about to trade in my ’96 Toyota Rav4 and I am looking at the parts I can pull without sacrificing trade in value. I can sell the roof racks for $200+ and the spare tire cover for $250-ish. If I didn’t live in a city, I would consider stripping it down more.

Typically I drive car til it is dead, but I want to get something bigger for my auction buys…so I am trading the Rav4 in for a glamorous 2000 Chevy Astro 🙂 I considered selling the Rav4, but someone previously did a terrible paint job, as it looks like it was painted with a dead chicken.

[Winchester38]

Owners manual? Retractable cargo cover? Spare floor mats?

I’ve sold all three in the past. Shouldn’t affect your trade in value if any of them aren’t included with your trade.

[casino el camino]

Steve I track or used to track a number of parts sellers, many of the yards do a shotgun approach using a software setup meant for selling between big yards. They might list 30k or even 100k listings with out photos or single photo. No way they have any idea the condition of part or if it’s available. Feedback and low percentage of sales reflects the big yards. Jay I work alone but have someone starting Monday to do some listings a week. I’ve had some helpers from time to time but was not a satisfactory experience. With the shop/warehouse I plan on having some part time help. On selling parts before selling or trading a car in, the jack can be a good sale, the tow hooks on the front of vehicles can sell, hitch receiver , medical kit ( Mercedes and a few others include these), tire center cap , the spare tire hold down ( I’ve sold them for 15-30$) all could be removed and sold without destroying trade in value. The cd for navigation for car SUV can be worth 100$ Or used to be.

[Author]

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