Home › Forums › Podcast Comments › Scavenger Life Episode 408: The In Between Work
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04/30/2019 at 4:16 pm #60983
Join the conversation in the forum>> Our Store Week April 21-27, 2019 Total Items in Store: 8400 Items Sold: 39 Gross Sales: $1,588.78 Cost of
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 408: The In Between Work] -
04/30/2019 at 4:52 pm #60989
Hello!
I’ll be listening at work tomorrow morning!
Accomplished 6 items listed per day goal, and creative/aggressive scavenging goal.4/21 – 4/27/19 (no cross listing is done between platforms)
eBay store: totommyto
Total store items: 614
Number of items sold: 6
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $332
Cost of items sold: $35
Consignment payouts $0
Highest price sold: $135 – Cool old detonator direct to a ‘famous’ prop master, paid $20
Average price sold: $55.33
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $76
Number of new items listed this week: 26
Sell through rate for the week: 1.0Etsy store oldfleatoymarket
Total store items: 636
Number of items sold: 7
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $185
Cost of items sold: $18
Consignment payouts: 0
Highest price sold: $55 – rusty old 15 pound boat anchor, paid $8
Average price sold: $26.42
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $23
Number of new items listed this week: 16
Sell through rate for the week: 1.2 -
04/30/2019 at 4:54 pm #60990
Week of 04/21-04/27
Total Items in Store: 3,190 (Up 56% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 115
Number of Items Sold: 107 (Up 12% YOY)
(Includes 0 Etsy, 12 Poshmark, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 15% (Down 7% YOY)Total Product Sales: $3,219 (Up 21% YOY)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: Up $180
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Up $370
Cost of Items Sold: $609
Cost of Labor: $249
Highest Item Sold: $100 – Cougar Paws Work Boots
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 11-7.Clothing
# Listed: 1,911
# Sold: 65
STR: 15%
ASP: $25.87Shoes
# Listed: 689
# Sold: 31
STR: 19%
ASP: $36.94Hard Goods
# Listed: 590
# Sold: 11
STR: 8%
ASP: $27.48EBay
# Listed: 3,190
# Sold: 95
STR: 13%
ASP: $27.88Etsy
# Listed: 232
# Sold: 0
STR: 0%
ASP: $0Poshmark
# Listed: 759
# Sold: 12
STR: 7%
ASP: $40.00Excellent about the theme this week. The In-Between (not to be confused with the Upside-Down) is where the money is made. And for most of us, that is where the WORK is. And that is also where the money is made. And making solid processes in the In-Between to make that efficient, that is so important when making that leap to full time…
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04/30/2019 at 6:37 pm #60996
Haven’t listened yet, but will tomorrow morning while I’m packing!
April 21-27, 2019
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,699
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $571.85
Cost of Items Sold: $51.40
Highest Price Sold: $119.99
Average Price Sold: $33.64
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $81.86
Number of items listed this week: 20Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 935
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $84.94
Cost of Items Sold: $6.75
Highest Price Sold: $26.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $14.16
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 12Amazon.ca sales: $747.00 (CAD) (Approx $224.10 net profit)
Amazon.com sales: $1,940.00 (Approx $582.00 net profit)All around pretty average week. Maybe slightly slow. Had a few decent sales pull my main store numbers up, and Amazon was working well.
Started listing on Poshmark, just as a trial. No sales/offers yet, but I’ve only listed 12 or 13 things over there so far. Not holding on to a ton of hope, but it would be nice to have an additional income steam/platform working for me.
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04/30/2019 at 7:10 pm #60999
Soooooooo soffffffffft this week. Even for now considering eBay more of a PT, flex job. My listing went way down last week, while I worked and tired myself out at my other flex job, riding that wave of busy-ness while it lasts. Both jobs involve lots of STUFF, and I’m getting a bit burned out on it all. Perhaps need to go sit in an empty white room, or hike in the middle of the woods or something to get a break!
04/21/19 – 04/27/19
Total Items In Store: 1059
Items Sold: 12
Net Sales (Total Sales – Selling Costs): $263.60
Highest Sold Price: $99 antique knife
Average Sold Price: $21.97
Cost of Items Sold: $17.25
Returns/Refunds: $0
Money Spent on New Inventory Last Week: $27.00
Number of Items listed this week: 0? -
04/30/2019 at 7:30 pm #61000
Total Items in Store: 270
Items Sold: 2
Gross Sales: $40
Cost of Items Sold: $7
Highest Price Sold: $25 Craft kit
Average Price Sold: $20
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0Reporting to you from the dead zone this week. I’m amazed too about people who have like 3 or 4 kids, work full time and squeeze in Ebay. Hat’s off! I’m getting sandwiched between the older and younger generations through the summer on a reno / relocating project and honestly I have been a little bit on a tv binge lately, which is not like me so maybe to deal with the stress of it all. I guess I’m taking a hiatus from listing (and buying). Might as well make it official. My luck finally ran out this week getting $200 in sales despite that.
Still need to finish the podcast. Thanks for doing it!
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04/30/2019 at 8:31 pm #61001
2019-04-21 – 2019-04-27
Total Items In Store: 2939
Items Sold: 21
Cost of Items Sold: $ 60
Total Sales: $ 610.35
Highest Price Sold: $ 60.00 (set of baseball bases)
Average Price Sold: $ 29.06
# Items Listed: 14
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 47Gut Sales Report for the week: Felt like I had a lot of sales (and there were for my store), however I had a very low ASP. But, for this time of year and my lack of listing, this was a good week.
Challenge of the week: One of my vintage trophies that I listed last week sold for $50. That felt good because I was assuming very long tail on those.
Strategy of the week\month: Rummage sale season is here. I usually find good items at these sales.
One of those Guys: I am one of those guys with a full time job, kids, and ebay on the side. Plus, both my girls are in competitive gymnastics. It is off to Kentucky this weekend for the Regional Championship.
Mark S
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04/30/2019 at 10:13 pm #61002
Good to hear from you guys! I am embarrassed how many times I refreshed your site to see if it was live, the podcast is like a weekly ritual for me now. 🙂
Yes, kids definitely make productivity hard. Most of my ebay stuff happens after our 2 and 6 yo’s are in bed for that reason. I once tried to do my day job from home and it was a disaster. I think I got like 10 minutes of work done all day.I have to disagree on immediate payment for offers and auctions. At least, keeping other ebay infrastructure constant. Probably 1/3 of my sales involve some sort of prearranged deal on shipping such as a quoted shipping price (overriding the calculated shipping), free shipping, or local pickup. The buyer relies on me to invoice them after sale for the appropriate amount. Ebay would have to make offers more detailed (including specifying a shipping method and cost) before it would work to immediately take that money out of their account. Plus, to be frank, it’s annoying but it’s not really a big problem if 1 item out of my 650 is unavailable for a few days because a buyer flaked. All in the game.
Sales: CAD$1237, 8 items, COGS: $75 –> Item profit: $950
Expenditures: $356 –> Cashflow: $669
Hours: 11, $30/hr after tax
Listed: $2085, 14 items
Notable sales: more voip phones, total of 50 for $375. Maybe should note, this is an experiment with promoted listings that seems to have worked out well. Also a pump probe for $375.Got some great scavenging in this week. On Saturday I had to haul some stuff to the dump, so I stopped in at the dump thrift store and got a big box of brand new sealed identical remotes for $25. there are 62 remotes and I see lots of solds for USD$10 each. Some lot sales too… so this should be worth $600 at least. Also some random biomedical equipment at surplus for very cheap.
I also snagged 17 Herman Miller chairs for $5 each on Friday, which I posted about elsewhere in the forum. Going back to try to get more today at lunch – fingers crossed. Most of them have tables like for a lecture hall, but I believe the shells alone should be $100+ each. A lot are bright orange and in mostly good shape. In order to make room in the car, I took the first carload to a vintage furniture shop a few blocks away and put them on consignment – we’ll see how that experiment pans out. Yesterday I got 10 more.
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04/30/2019 at 10:18 pm #61004
While we’re talking about offers though… one thing I would LOVE is for ebay to display FOR ME the calculated shipping cost to a buyer whenever they message me about an item. For whatever reason many buyers can’t see the calculated shipping and so they ask for quotes (I still don’t know if this is an ebay bug or just inexperienced buyers). I then have to bring up the ebay shipping calculator, look up my item’s dimensions in my spreadsheet, look up their postal code etc. Ebay, just show me the calculated shipping rate that you should be showing them!
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04/30/2019 at 10:15 pm #61003
I know what you mean about having kids, a job, and eBaying. That’s the story of my life. I’ve been eBaying part time for over 20 years, with pipe dreams every year of “taking it to the next level”. But with a full-time job and an 8 year old son, I lack the motivation to get eBay going. We do enough to keep TRS, but I know we could ramp it up to a legit part time business. We just lack the dedication to devote the hours required for the in between work.
I love my job and it pays well, which lends to the lack of eBay motivation. We don’t need the money to live on, but extra eBay cash would accelerate our debt-free plan. It seems every week my wife and I plan to get our eBay inventory organized and list, list, list. But every week it doesn’t happen. I listen to this podcast religiously, downloading every Sunday night (or Tuesday lol), which keeps the drive alive. We just have to do something different and turn our plans and ideas into actions!
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05/01/2019 at 11:55 am #61032
Working full time with a young kid would leave with little incentive/energy to come home to work more. Im surprised you can even do it part-time. Maybe just setting a goal of making $x each month and putting that towards the mortgage would be good motivation.
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05/01/2019 at 12:33 pm #61038
@Jay: As Nietzsche says: “If you have a why you can bear almost any how”
That is how families do full time + kids + ebay. Most likely, the kids and family are the why. And parents will do just about anything for their kids.
Personally, I take my responsibility for my family very seriously. I know Veronica does as well. When we have to do things for the kids (or for the other spouse), we work our tails off. When we work for just ourselves, the motivation is low. That family responsibility is meaningful, and a meaningful goal is key.
Be Responsible
Seek Discomfort
Pursue Meaningful Goals
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05/01/2019 at 12:33 am #61006
Loved the discussion, especially at the end about auctions and accepting offers. I had a rare My Little Pony item that was the only one I’ve ever seen… I turned down an offer for $100 a few months ago… and it is now listed at $60 and sitting there and no one wants it. Waaah.
You never know when a buyer will refuse your counteroffer and break your heart.
I think there is a certain “shine” a new listing has…once it has been sitting a while the lustre wears off somehow, especially for collectibles.
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05/01/2019 at 12:00 pm #61033
I dont think it matters how long an item is listed, but I agree that we sometimes misjudge how popular a collectible will be. If someone offers $100, we must decide if the item is so cool that another rare collector willing to pay more. or are we already setting the high price?
Today we had an offer on a rare racecar shirt listed for $150. We accepted a $50 offer. Not because the shirt has been listed for a long time, but because we just arent getting the high offers we expected. Sometimes there really only a couple people on the planet wanting a rare item.
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05/01/2019 at 3:23 am #61010
After having great sales for Jan-Mar, April was a very slow month for me with several days of no sales. I do not know if this had any effect on sales but I’ve heard that a lot of people had either a smaller tax return this year than expected or had to actually pay additional tax because they didn’t have enough deducted in 2018.
Numbers for April 2019
Total Listings: 1006
Had 44 Sales for a total of $791.60
Cost of Items Sold: $107.33
Highest Price Sold: $60 – Expired Polaroid 52 Film
Average Price Sold: $17.99 – Average Cost: $2.44
Spent on new inventory: $80
Number of items listed: 53
Longest Listed Item Sold: Book, listed August 2015
GSP: 1 Canada, 1 England -
05/01/2019 at 8:44 am #61017
Items in Store 1091
Items Sold 13
Total Sales $452.00
COGS $46.25
Total Profit $405.75
Average profit $31.21
Average sales price $34.77
New Listings 36I was right to exclude the pinball sale last week. The buyer was a weird flake and I’m glad he didn’t pay. For some reason the unpaid item case never opened on its own. I’ll be closing it out tonight. Things started to settle into a routine late last week with the new baby and I was able to do some ebay work.
I stopped by a couple yard sales Saturday and at one I bought a HUGE lot of Loving Family dollhouse stuff for $40. It was a desirable dollhouse plus TWO trash bags and a large box full of dolls furniture and accessories. I’ve always done very well with the Loving Family stuff. I didn’t want this stuff sitting around so I pushed it to the front of the line and processed everything this weekend. I already have the majority listed. The hardest part with a lot like this is deciding how to break it up and list it. If you don’t start with a plan you can waste a lot of time getting stuck in research purgatory.
My plan:
1. Sort everything out and remove any non- Loving family “junk”.
2. Research pieces with part numbers to see if they are part of a set.
3. Search through lot to see if I have full sets – group sets together.
4. List separately any high dollar items.
5. Lot up remaining furniture and accessories for auction sales
6. Sort dolls into model years and search for family sets based on year or model numbers.
7. Sell valuable dolls separately, sell complete families or twin sets together.
At this point I went in already knowing a lot about Loving Family and have done bulk buys on it several times so it was pretty easy to blast through it all.
The highlight of this lot was a complete 2002 African American Family set. This is a cool set because the mother and daughter have real hair and the parents each have a baby carrier for the baby and toddler.
Once I am done the total listed value will be over $1k! -
05/01/2019 at 8:55 am #61018
Oh and thanks for the tip ‘o the hat. Lol!
5 kids, full time job, kids are homeschooled, coach sports, and a very active ebay business.How do I do it? That’s simple: There are alot of things that DONT get done consistently.
Being late to things is more the rule than the exception.
We have mountains of unfolded clean laundry paired with similar mountains of dirty laundry.
The house is typically a mess since the kids. Never. Leave…
Yard work…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The neighborhood garden club must hate me.
There are always dirty dishes everywhere.
All of my walls have marker/crayon/pencil marks and also dried substances of unknown origin.
My ebay area is in a barely functional state.
I can’t in good conscience ask guests to take their shoes off anymore because our floors stay dirty.
I don’t scream out in pain anymore when I step on Lego or other small sharp plastic object – I just whimper quietly and die a little more inside. Lol!Yes, it is very stressful to constantly battle the never ending tidal wave of messes having 5 kids entails. I want to do it all but there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. One day We’ll have a clean tidy house and you know what – that will be a sad, depressing day that I do NOT look forward to.
I would not trade my chaotic life with my wonderful children and wife for any other life in the world!
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05/01/2019 at 8:59 am #61019
Yeah laundry sorting is the absolute worst. Especially the socks, half of whose mates have gone looking for a better life elsewhere. Piles of clean laundry sit on our bedroom floor for days/weeks. I have reached the stage of Acceptance and now refer to the arrangement as our Turkish Closet.
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05/01/2019 at 12:03 pm #61034
Thank you for your service continuing the human race 🙂
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05/01/2019 at 12:08 pm #61035
A new life awaits you in the offline colonies
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05/02/2019 at 2:21 am #61078
I have 1 kid that I homeschool. I recently stepped down from running the local homeschool group because OMG… Hell is truly other people. 250 families worth of flakey homeschoolers that all want events that are custom made for their little lives but contribute zero effort to making those events happen. Eeeeeeeeffffffff. It was like having another job. A really frustrating job that you make zero money at. I ran or helped run that group for years, and my son casually said recently “I had no idea you ran the homeschool group”. Are you kidding me, child?!
So yeah, busy. Crazy busy here, with just 1 kiddo. But laundry? I am on top of that $hit! Missing sock? I hunt that sucker down immediately. Laundry is folded as soon as it comes out of the dryer. Everything else might be a disaster in this house, but my laundry game is on point. Super proud of that fact!
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05/01/2019 at 10:25 am #61027
Totals for the MONTH of April 2019. I am mainly a mens clothes seller, free shipping, free returns, 1% promoted listings, no best offer, good till cancelled.
Listings/items at end of month = 3610 / 4104 Total listed value $86141
Items sold = 273 up 32% YOY
$ sold = $7206 up 40% YOY
ASP = $26.40 up 6% YOY
Monthly sell through rate 7.6% (still low but moving up a bit)Expenses
Postage = $1413.75 (19.6% of gross)
Ebay fees = $937.27 (13.0% of gross) (includes Promoted listing fees of 75 sales totaling $1894.68 ($19.20-8.33 credit = $10.87) 27.5% of items sold/ 26.3% of $ sold) and return labels
COGS = $749.42 (10.1% of gross)
Returns = $327.43 (4.5% of gross)
PP Fees = 284.99 (4.0% of gross)
Total operating expenses = $3712.86 (51.5% of gross)
Total operating profit (my name for it – does not include expenses such as mileage, shipping supplies, depreciation, etc …) $3493.14Notable sales:
Vtg 50’s Original Clicker Lakeland Car Coat Jacket 40 Brown Wool Talon Zipper (buy price $1.05, Sold 160.00)
Brooks Brothers Mens Seersucker Suit 100% Cotton Blue White Stripe 44R 38W 30L (buy Price $14.00, sold for 129.99)
Vtg GE General Electric Deluxe Toaster Oven Toast-R-Oven T-93B w/ Manual / Racks (buy price $5.30, sold for 129.99Sales breakdown by price range:
$100+ =3
80-100 = 2
60-80 = 3
40-60 = 17
30-40 = 24
20-30 = 76
10-20 = 168YTD Items Sold = 1066 (+41% YOY
YTD Gross = $29,144 (+55% YOY)
YTD Net = $14,698.14 -
05/01/2019 at 11:37 am #61031
Total Items in Store: 1919
Items Sold:30 (Ebay 21 Poshmark 6 Etsy 3)
Total Sales: $943
Highest Price Sold: $149 (Leather Trench)
Returns: 0
Money Spent Inventory This Week: $75We had a good week. We have been trying to not buy new inventory but we couldn’t resist hitting a couple annual church sales.
The three Etsy sales were all sold to a guy who is a runway designer for Coach! He bought a super cool spy looking trench coat, a vintage windbreaker, and vintage blouse.
I helped a cousin set up her Ebay store a few weeks ago and she is doing great! She is the best “student” because she will go search the internet for answers to her questions before coming to me. 🙂 Her goal is to add $500 a month to help pay off bills. I tried to help my mom set up her store but she isn’t interested in doing that much work. Lol.
Hope everyone is having a great week! Yard Sale season is on!-
05/01/2019 at 12:13 pm #61036
Helping someone who is motivated and a self starter is fun. In the end you’ll learn a lot from her as she gets more involved.
I’ve met so many people, who say they want to earn more income and learn how to sell. In the end they aren’t willing to do the work or find it over whelming and quit.
Helping your cousin is a nice thing to do.. Good for you.
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05/01/2019 at 12:38 pm #61039
@So Cal Joe: Amen brother.
I always told my players I coached that I expect 2 things every practice/game: Attitude and Effort. I can’t provide those things. That is only from within them. But if they are going to improve and receive the coaching that they need, they have to provide the Attitude and the Effort.
When I get with adults, if they don’t provide those two items, I slowly pull back the time that I will spend with them. If they don’t want to put in the work to get a goal accomplished, why should I spend the time teaching them? Better for them to pursue what they really DO want and find someone that will help them with that.
But for those that come to me with Attitude and Effort? I will put forth all I have to help them succeed.
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05/01/2019 at 1:15 pm #61041
When coaching, it is SOOOO frustrating when my own kids don’t show up with “attitude and effort”, which I also expect of them. My two oldest are both of the same attitude – they just expect to be better – without any of the work.
I hate to say it, but I’m usually far more proud of other kids on my teams than I am of my own kids. I’ve never forgotten what it was like to see rampant nepotism in athletics when I was a kid. I’m not about to be “that guy”. I coach whoever shows up and has the right attitude and tries hard. If my kids get left behind, so be it. There is no greater joy in sports than helping a shy, intimidated kid get their first hit in baseball or their first goal in soccer.
My kids NEVER ask me to go outside and practice with them, even with me constantly reminding them that it is an option. It is so frustrating. I want them to ask! I’ve learned to accept that they are going to succeed or fail on their own merits.
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05/01/2019 at 2:56 pm #61055
@Retro: Amen!
I have a saying. You have heard “You can take a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”.
I say that I’ll take the horse to water. I’ll even put their head IN the water. But I refuse to go to the other side to suck it in…. 🙂
Don’t do things for your kids that they can do for themselves. Show them how. Give them encouragement. But then stop. If they don’t want to do it, they don’t get it. Soon they learn that rewards come from effort.
You only get rights when you shoulder responsibility.
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05/01/2019 at 12:56 pm #61040
April 21-27
Total Items in Store: 2256
Items Sold: 27
Total Sales : $1,010
* ABOVE yearly average of $896
* BELOW 2018 total week sales of $1,673
Highest Price: $200 (Antique Dodge 40 Slide Set Bench Vise)
Average Price: $37
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $62
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $435.00
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 38Great description of the in between work in this week’s podcast. When I started selling on eBay three years ago, I did it as a hobby simply to make a little extra cash. But I soon fell in love with the work, even the in between tasks of photographing, editing, listing and storing. But make no mistake about it… it is work! That’s the reason why you’ve got to sort of flip the switch in your head once you decide to make the commitment to make this more than a hobby. This is no longer hobby work for me. True, I can still have fun just like anyone can have fun at their job. But I had to learn to find discipline on a day to day basis.
I had a great week of sales this week. Weird how polar opposite my weeks have been lately. I made a few notable sales including a very heavy bench vise that I was so glad to get out of my inventory. I had one return for a clock key that didn’t fit. No biggie, those things sell consistently so I’ll just put it back on the market.
This week I decided to put eBay on the back burner in order to focus on the list of projects that I’ve been making for myself. I’ve checked a few off already. Now I’m attempting to install a security camera outside of our house. The initial setup took me about four hours last night, but at least it’s working now. Now to run the wire from our garage to the basement…fun!
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05/01/2019 at 1:23 pm #61042
@Doubly: “But I had to learn to find discipline on a day to day basis”
Very much needed, but it has benefits. Discipline = Freedom
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05/01/2019 at 1:29 pm #61043
Do you get value from comparing your week to the same week from the previous year? Statistically it is not really relevant.My thought is that only negative mental impact is acheived from that metric.
Take for instance this week, you had a $1k week which is awesome, but with that $1673 number beside it the shine is really taken off.
I’d recommend you drop that metric and just look at monthly numbers year over year. I’d even take it a step further and look at trend lines so you don’t get stuck “in the weeds” looking at numbers.
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05/01/2019 at 3:01 pm #61056
@ Retro: For me, I like looking at the week this year compared to the same week last year. Doesn’t give a full story, but it starts. Plus, the way that I have them lined up, you can see the trend for the past 4 or 8 or 13 weeks if you want.
I don’t compare a week to a prior year average week though, because the prior year average has a summer dip and a great Q4 baked into the average.
By comparing the weeks to that same week in the past year, that removes seasonality.
Doubly: If you did this with your numbers, they may provide more info…(unless that $1,673 was the same week last year. If so, I’m betting that you had a one-off sale or just an out of trend week.)
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05/02/2019 at 12:20 pm #61101
Hmm… these are all interesting thoughts. You’re right that the yearly average does account too much for seasonality. And Retro, you’re right that the previous week’s numbers don’t really do a whole lot for the bigger picture. Though I do like to see the comparisons, maybe I’ll start looking at the ASP rather than the total sales, and maybe I’ll start doing a monthly comparison instead of a weekly. Thanks for the suggestions.
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05/03/2019 at 3:28 pm #61174
Interesting conversation about comparing weeks. I think we all agree that there are big unexplainable changes in eBay sales from week to week so comparing this week to last week doesn’t seem to provide much value. I find the same thing is true with comparing this week to the same week last year. There’s a lot of variability. Comparing the sales from a whole month this year to the same month last year is probably more useful to smooth out the weekly ups and downs.
However, for me, comparing the YTD number with the YTD total from this time last year seems to provide the most useful figure to see how things are going. I’m currently within 1% of where I was this time last year so I can predict that I’ll probably end up pretty close to the same total sales as last year unless there are major changes in my life or in eBay. Neither of which I’m expecting.
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05/03/2019 at 5:56 pm #61184
Yeah, unless we sell the exact same items year after year, it’s difficult to compare.
Why did we make more last year? Maybe we found a cache of cool items that sold well. Maybe the items we found this year weren’t as valuable. Unlike a publicly traded corporation, we’re not looking for continuous growth.
So comparisons don’t matter to us, but we do like to know our weekly numbers to make sure we’re making the money we need. If not, we need to rethink what we’re selling.
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05/03/2019 at 6:53 pm #61186
So for me, it is all about trends and comparisons. And like I always say, what are the numbers telling me?
Numbers can be accurate, but they really need context to be able to tell a story and provide meaning. That is one reason that I love this forum for reporting numbers. It puts all our numbers into some context.
This is why I keep numbers on a weekly and monthly basis. I can compare to prior periods, prior years, look at seasonal trends, etc.
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05/01/2019 at 4:29 pm #61064
Selling online is mostly in between work, the fun of scavenging is maybe 20% of the time…
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05/01/2019 at 8:40 pm #61074
Week of Apr 21 – 27
* Total Items in Store: 1361, eBay, 3 Etsy
* Items Sold: 9 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $24.25 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $160.80
* Highest Price Sold: $24 Technical book on airplane performance
* Average Price Sold: $17.87
* Returns: 1 + refund on damaged glass
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 20Pretty crappy week. Not much to say about it. My township did have their freecycling day on Saturday. I brought extra stuff from auction lots that I didn’t want plus I added in some items that I took out of my inventory.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by
Sharyn.
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05/02/2019 at 12:13 am #61077
Just finished my 4th month selling on ebay. I have done pretty well I think but need to continue to find time to scavenge. I do a good job at getting all my items posted quickly once I get them. March was a great month for me but I expect to me near the $500 dollar range in sales. My goal is to sell around $1000 a month and that is good with me having full time job and young children.
April 1 to April 30th
DunnSell Ebay Sales Report
The average price sold is: $23.37
The total money received is: $561.01
Max Item Sold For : $54.00 (Monster Energy Ken Block t-shirt sold 4/30/19)
Items in store is 291 end of April.
Month and Sales
Jan $376
Feb $310
Mar $838
Apr $561-
05/03/2019 at 3:45 pm #61178
Way to go on the sales Dunn_sell.
Be careful listing Monster Energy items. They are a target for Vero violations..
Congrats on your numbers.
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05/02/2019 at 7:51 am #61080
I am usually a Buy It Now with Best Offer unless I know for certain it is a sought after Collectible. (I had a $4 Yo-Yo sell for $160!) However after having a Designer Watch (Tommy Bahama) sell 30 minutes after posting for full price, I tried a Watch auction. Now I really hope now the Winner doesn’t pay (2 days so far) because they are getting a New in Box (battery replaced) $135.00 MSRP Watch for $20.50! I don’t know if ebay still does Reserve pricing because I don’t use that feature – I feel that if you need to have a Reserve Price, just do Buy It Now….
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05/02/2019 at 2:41 pm #61121
Hi….this is my first time contributing the conversation! I’ve followed you guys for at least 3 plus years and LOVE your podcast and website. I wanted to share my numbers with you, cause I had a great 10 day span. (Great for me anyway!) My goal is to get to an average of $1400 per week. I also wanted to see if anyone else knows about the baby OSHKOSH overalls craze?! I listed a pink 24 Month Oshkosh overalls and I had over 12 people (alot of them from Oregon?!) send me offers. I finally settled at $35….but I think I sold it for too cheap! There are some of them going for $200 plus!! Not sure what the deal is with them!?
April 18 to April 28th sold apx $1210
Items in Ebay Store 2995
Highest item sold …. Antique dress form $325
# Items sold …. 34
Avg price sold ….35-
05/02/2019 at 2:46 pm #61122
Welcome. That’s a great week of profit.
We avid kid’s clothes because they usually dont sell for much. So many cheap kids clothes everywhere. But it sounds like you found a good niche!
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05/02/2019 at 3:56 pm #61130
Thanks for the podcast this week. Monday wasn’t the same without you. I checked the forums several times on Monday wondering where you were.
Here are my numbers for last week
Total Items in Store: 2972
Items Sold: 44
Total Sales: $1151
Cost of Items Sold: $148
Average Price Sold: $26.15
Average Cost of Item: $3.37
Highest Price Item Sold: $119.95 Suzuki QChord QC1
Number of items listed this week: 90
YTD Sales: $14949
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +1%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 377
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 183
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 96
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.48%
Hats sold this week: 26 (59% of sales) worth $493.61 (42% of sales $)I had a very good week last week. I suspect this week will end up being much quieter but we’ll see.
I didn’t see anything in the Seller Update that impacts me in any way. Maybe that’s a good thing and I should be grateful.
Your comments about the in-between work and YouTube are spot on. Nobody shows the hours/days that have to be put into listing stuff. That’s definitely the hard work.
Hope everyone has a great week!
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05/03/2019 at 11:32 am #61164
Anonymous
- Location:
items sold: 33
Sales: $1,007 (i don’t include shipping revenue)
average selling price: $30.51
cost of goods: $125.40
returns: 1 requested (sounds flaky, 50-50 they keep item)
purchases: $332.79
store listings: 981
inventory $ risk: $3727
listed this week: 45
ebay hours: 31
what’s on my mind: Not much. -
05/03/2019 at 2:45 pm #61169
Great podcast. The “in between work” indeed. My sniping sometimes introduces me to those new sellers who are obviously struggling to keep up on the in between work. Unfortunately I may contribute to their demise as it often seems they’ve gone out of business when I go back to see what else I might get from them for dirt cheap.
Noteworthy, I thought, about the new seller update: it appears that many new subcategories will be added in the Business & Industrial and Restaurant & Food Service categories in June. I would have to assume that is to accommodate a significant increase in listings in those categories. I guess I still have not wrapped my head around the concept that the commercial world has really taken to the land of used shoes for B2B trade, despite reading Simplicio’s many useful contributions to the forum illustrating that. Home Improvement and Food & Beverage are expanding, too.
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05/03/2019 at 7:33 pm #61194
Message we received today…
Good Morning,
These shoes are not going to work for me so I am going to resell them. You took such good pictures of them, may I copy and use your pictures for my ad?
That was a first. At least she asked!
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05/04/2019 at 9:34 pm #61220
April Monthly Numbers
39 sales (lowest # of sales in the past year)$ sold (minus shipping): $1130 (not as bad as Feb but still not good)
Per sale average: $28.98 (2nd highest month ever because of a couple high dollar items, see below)
cost per item average: $4.59 (about average for me)
Biggest Sales: I got an offer from a seller for $150 for the covered vegetable dish that is discussed in this “What is it” thread here. It was the same person I mentioned who offered me $100 a month earlier.
Also sold a Sirius radio Sportster Replay device that allows you to pause/resume live radio in your car. It was an open box unused item at Goodwill for $20, but comps were in the $75 and up range. I listed it for $95 and sold it in less than 48 hours.
My third highest item of the month is really for Jay. I bought 11 boxes of vintage chalk for $4.00 at a independent thrift near my full time gig, and sold them in a week for $50! Yay to vintage chalk, pencils and markers!
Also as a bonus, all of these high dollar items I’ve already received positive feedback on which is great. No breakage or returnage!
Items in store peak for month: 850, If I can list 10 items a weekend I feel good right now. Can’t wait until summer when I can tackle some death piles.
Returns/Refunds : 0. That was a bright spot.
Customer issues: 0. Also fortunate.
Sourcing: Mostly thrift stores, some good possibilities including a few items that I bought for less than $5 and will be listing for $150+. Did some eBay sourcing and might 3x or 4x that sale once I piece out the items (Playing Card Decks). I hope all of those purchases pan out. Pretty much not buying anything I can’t make $20 profit on unless it is an easy new in box item, or a group of items. And I’m seeing this strategy pay off in my item sold average going up a bit the past two months.
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05/05/2019 at 9:20 am #61230
Congrats on the chalk sale. Always fun to sell items that other people overlook.
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