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Join the conversation in the forum>> Our Store Week June 9-15 2019 Total Items in Store: 8448 Items Sold: 29 Gross Sales: $895.91 Cost of Item
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 415: Importance Of Being Honest As A Business Owner] -
2019-06-09 – 2019-06-15
Total Items In Store: 3016 (was 3013)
Items Sold: 18 (16 ebay, 2 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $ 60
Total Sales: $ 680
Highest Price Sold: $ 170 (Betamax vcr)
Average Price Sold: $ 37.78
# Items Listed: 19
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 36Gut Sales Report for the week: Sales were ok. Big surprise was the activity on Bonanza. 2 sales and a few inquiries. Hope that keeps up.
Challenge of the week: Trying to get items listed.
Scavenge of the week: I went to a thrift store that I hadn’t been to in awhile. They had a much better selection now of non-clothes and got some really good items.
Mark S
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Good early morning all, so nice to have Pod Buddies to hang out with while packing and shipping…
slow, soft, quiet, however you want to describe it, sucky week! I did more eBay sales yesterday, Sunday, than all of last week and with almost as many items sold. You never know.
Back to the garage now to slap on the shipping labels and hit play again on your latest installment, so many thanks, will post da numbers once settled across town at the regular job. Blessings. -
Week June 9 – 15, 2019
Items in store: 4010 Listings for 6043 Items
Items Sold: 97 Transactions for 110 Items
Gross Sales: $5058.11
Highest Price Sold: $175, Hugo Boss Suit
Lowest Price Sold: $3.24(shoe laces)
Average Price Sold: $45.98
Cost of Goods Sold $397, Plus consignment
Number of new items listed this week: 142 items
$$ spent on new inventory this week $130
Repeat Customers: 7Haven’t really been out sourcing in several weeks. The main focus in the summer when the weather gets nice and thrifting gets slow is the life-pile. I typically grow it in the winter to about a 10-15 week supply, to get me through the slowest months. I also still have about 1/3 of a 300 lb consignment shipment to work on and more on the way.
This week on Wednesday, I was putting the packages out on the porch for pickup and noticed the neighbours were having a yard sale. Picked up 17 Nintendo DS games with original cases, booklets and advertisements for $10. A few of them should bring in $50 each, while the others made nice small lots. I expect to sell them for in the $350 ballpark when it’s all said and done. Also picked up a Troy-Bilt Tiller to add to my fleet for $60. It was only used for one season and still retails at Lowes for $419.
3rd Saturday in June every year we have an antique festival in town where they shut the street down and there are vendors everywhere. Most stuff is usually a little too pricey for flipping, but I always walk home with a little something, typically in the leather category. This year was no exception. I grabbed a nice vintage leather camera bag large enough for 2 full kits. It needs a little repair, so I will see if I can do it myself quickly, if not, it sells as is. I also got a cloth lined brown leather bag. It was locked and I couldn’t get a look at the inside, so I talked them into knocking $20 off it. You just don’t see many in brown. Took me about 2 minuted to pick the lock when I got home. It’s not perfect, but still sturdy and suitable for carry or display.
Finally the scavenge of the week was from the same dealer as the doctors bag. Very early Hanover shoes, definitely the oldest I have seen….and I’ve seen a ton. We live a few miles from Hanover and the old shoes pop up quite often. My mother in law and her sister both worked there in the 70s sewing shoes. Anyway….these are mens button boots, likely the first decade of the 1900s. The label had the price stitched in $3.50. Hanover Shoe strategy was quality shoes, factory direct, for a more affordable price. In 1900, their prices started at $2.50. So cool, I’m a sucker for antique and vintage clothing, especially for local stuff….and it’s so rare to find mens shoes that old.
Here are the shoes. https://www.ebay.com/itm/303189789297
While I was at the festival, I popped into the chamber of commerce and got info on setting up a booth next year. Every year the festival gets smaller and smaller as antique dealers and interest sputter out. I could easily truck over a load or two of vintage clothing and antiques, and it would only take a few sales to cover the cost. Can’t wait!
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The_Seam_Store,
The Hanover Shoes find is amazing. As is your entire business, always. Any reselling goal I could ever possibly come up with during my slow & steady progression, can be supported and encouraged by seeing/knowing what you folks have already done and are still doing. One of the great benefits of being part of this community is the transparent view inside that you graciously allow all us to take. Thank you.
The brightest number I’ve posted this week is a super low COGS of $14 for both selling platforms combined. Putting my listing head down once I click ENTER….6/9– 6/15/19 (no cross listing is done between platforms)
eBay store: totommyto
Total store items: 656
Number of items sold: 7
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $145
Cost of items sold: $11
Highest price sold: $35 – Vintage Axis & Allies board game – paid $2
Average price sold: $20.80
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $54
Number of new items listed this week: 20
Sell through rate for the week: 1.1
Number International sales: 0Etsy store oldfleatoymarket
Total store items: 642
Number of items sold: 5
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $105
Cost of items sold: $3
Highest price sold: $25 – plastic zoopiks vintage drink markers – paid $1 for a HUGE lot (and keep selling them!)
Average price sold: $21
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $10
Number of new items listed this week: 10
Sell through rate for the week: 0.8
# International sales: 0My thoughts go out to those scavengers who have been taking more fire from Life than usual lately, and offering prayers when mindful as I read your postings.
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Amazing Hanover Shoes find! What part of PA are you from? I’m originally from Gettysburg, which is just about 10 miles from the original Hanover Shoes stables & farms. Their shoes aren’t as high quality as they used to be back when those beauties were made, but they do still have a retail location in the town square of Hanover.
Fun fact for all the history buffs & junkies out there… The Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War partially happened because of Hanover Shoe Farms. The Union forces limped back above the Mason Dixon line after hard fought battles throughout the South. They ended up in Gettysburg since it’s only 3 miles north of the MD line, had a Seminary & The Sisters of Mercy who also doubled as nurses, and the proximity to Hanover Shoe Farms to fix & repair the soldiers’ boots. The Southern forces also were in search of supplies & rest on their way to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and eventually the goal was New York City. That all never happened and Gettysburg will forever be known as the turning point & high water mark for major battles in the Civil War.
#themoreyouknow
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We are in New Oxford.
Hanover Shoes has been out of business all together since the early 80s when they were absorbed by Clarks. There is a Clarks/Bostonian outlet at their old store on the square. Hanover Shoe once manufactured for Bostonian, but that is no longer the case, obviously. Bostonian is now a Clarks brand as well, Clarks is headquartered here now, just on the edge of McSherrystown.
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I knew they no longer made the shoes on site/sold the horse farms but do they still call the retail location “Hanover Shoes” in the square? Personally, I haven’t been back there in a good 20+ years (since graduating high school from Delone), but I know my dad still says “I’m going to Hanover Shoes”. Figured they kept the name but didn’t make the shoes on site/at the farms anymore. He must be calling thew Clarks store by the original name.
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Hah, you graduated with my wife, Holly. That’s so funny.
She said she already thinks she knows who you are, and that you are already friends on facebook….the one with the house keys. lol
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Brian. I’m not too sure about that civil war story. I think that might be a local rural legend. Hanover shoes and the farms weren’t established until about 35 years after the civil war ended.
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Interesting, after you said it, I looked it up and found this: https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/shoes_at_gettysburg
The article does confirm, however, that the battle was accidental.
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June 6 to June 15, 201
Total Items In Store: +/- 105
Items Sold: 5
Cost of Items Sold: $15.50
Total Sales: $ 179
Highest Price Sold: $ 55 (art print)
Average Price Sold: $ 35Gut Sales Report for the week: Sales were very, very soft, but it was the last week of school and I didn’t have a ton of time to work on eBay… so it was okay.
Challenge of the week: Getting some death piles listed! I want to load up the shop over the summer so I head into September/next school year with a shop of at least 250 items of decent value. Because I have problems with inventory management/organization, a super-large shop doesn’t work for me, so I’m trying to go higher-dollar with each item. I think about 250 items will be manageable.
Scavenge of the week: I found some art deco silverplate which might be more valuable than I expected. Apparently it’s a scarce line by a niche designer. The first day I found 6 cups, but then researched them and realized there are other pieces in the set (a tray, a pitcher, etc.) so I went back to the shop every day for a week hoping more pieces would emerge. The second day I found 2 more cups, but that’s it. I’m still keeping my eyes peeled and will probably list them mid-week if nothing else shows up.
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Happy Birthday @Ryanne, I’m rounding the turn in a few months as well.
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Week of 06/09-06/15
Total Items in Store: 3,250 (Up 44% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 70
Number of Items Sold: 78 (Down 1% YOY)
(Includes 1 Etsy, 3 Poshmark, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 10% (Down 5% YOY)Total Product Sales: $2,047 (Down 1% YOY)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: Down $26
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Up $4
Cost of Items Sold: $332
Cost of Labor: $50
Highest Item Sold: $105 – Daniel Cremieux Suit
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 13-12.Clothing
# Listed: 1,925
# Sold: 50
STR: 11%
ASP: $24.27Shoes
# Listed: 730
# Sold: 18
STR: 11%
ASP: $32.77Hard Goods
# Listed: 595
# Sold: 10
STR: 7%
ASP: $24.35EBay
# Listed: 3,250
# Sold: 74
STR: 10%
ASP: $25.94Etsy
# Listed: 230
# Sold: 1
STR: 2%
ASP: $12.85Poshmark
# Listed: 786
# Sold: 3
STR: 2%
ASP: $38Veronica is doing well running the show by herself while I am up here in Montana. She had a great day sourcing on Saturday and had a solid 70 new listings last week. I’m getting ready to stack hay early this week and rehook up the main water line to get water going on the pastures again once the hay is off. Got lots of other small projects to do around here as well.
Listing will be a vacation when I’m back in Colorado… 🙂
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Happy birthday, Ryanne!!!
Week June 9-15, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1006
Items Sold: 30 (1 Amazon, 4 FB)
Cost of Items Sold: $246.49 (21.7% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,135.66
Highest Price Sold: $99.99 (1960s Sterling Silver Torah Pen)
Average Price Sold: $37.86
Returns: 2 (1 started & received, 1 not yet shipped by the buyer)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $370
Number of items listed this week: 19
Promoted listings test: 13 sales, 340.42 (30% of total sales), $16.55 fees (4.9% of sales)Really great week for me. $1000+ weeks are usually reserved for the holiday season for me, but this is an awesome shot in the arm for the summer! Volume was high (avg about 17-18 sales/wk), avg price was good (exactly half of my sales were above $30 and half below $30).
The high dollar sale was one of 2 of these pens that I bought at a high end estate sale about a month ago. Didn’t even know what they were when I picked them up, just noticed that they were very detailed, likely vintage, and both sterling silver. Paid $30 for 2, sold the first for $100 so I’m pretty pleased so far. Other good/interesting sales included some of my old bread & butter items: bottle of Guerlain Samsara (BOLO for everyone out there, Guerlain just changed the bottle & formula for Samsara, so even though this style bottle isn’t very vintage, it will become sought after), 1960s French Cruise playing cards, and a briefcase backgammon game (ALWAYS pick these up for under $5 at yard sales if they’re clean & complete).
On my way home to PA to see my dad for Fathers’ Day, swung by a records store that I had heard about but never went to in person. It’s in a very random & depressing area, inside of a run down & sad mall where even the Old Navy went out of business (you can see the outlines of their letters on the wall).
Ended up finding some very difficult to find original pressings including Beastie Boys License to Ill, Depeche Mode Violator, Foo Fighters Nothing Left to Lose, and Soundgarden Down on the Upside STILL SEALED! These are the types of albums that you usually have to settle on recent repressings. This place will likely now be on my must stop list anytime I’m out that way. -
Played the pod-cast this morning and Susan was listening and she say’s thanks for the Shout Out and appreciates your thoughts. She even got up for a few minutes after the pod cast and asked what all was backed up in the office. Think you guys got her mind off the pain and thinking about something else.
On another note: Jay you talked about Sales being low and that it happens. Well if you remember you had a longer thread going last year about the 30 day / end the listing / and relist for another 30 days in order to have Ebay-Cassini see each relisting as a brand new listing to keep the stores fresh and not being seen as going stale or having stale listings with low views and no sales.
Well interesting that now that Ebay has converted over to all GTC and eliminated the short listing options, according to Craigslist Hunter, he says he and other larger stores have been talking about there Sales sliding drastically since this Ebay change.
Since you like data, experiments to prove the cause and effects and the results of those experiments, take a look at this. He did an experiment using his two stores and talks about the results. Then the other large stores did the same thing and got the same results and there sales have bounced back.
To also set the stage for this video he did, he talked about sales starting to slump a few videos earlier and said then that he would contact an experiment to find out what was happening after years of stable, consistent sales, why suddenly Sales tanked.He said earlier that it would take him a few months to run the experiment in both stores and gather the data then he would produce a follow up video.
Well this is the video of the results. It is about 10 minutes, but very interesting and seems, in my opinion, to support the list, end and relist process. I am not going to call this process a “theory” any longer after someone actually doing what you have always wanted someone to do to verify their actions. Well this convinces me.
The good thing is it can be done automatically within SixBit. I am currently working with SB tech support to see about what it means to keep ending Ebay listings and then auto creating a new listing and uploading and how that may interfere with Etsy which is on a $.20 fee for 90 day listing. Troy and i both use the SB Enterprise edition which we use to cross post to Etsy so that could be a problem by causing Etsy to end early and relisting and getting charged triple $.20 charges. But sure we will work that out.
BUT.. as to your questioning last year of the value to list / end / relist every 30 days, well these guys think that the Ebay GTC change is the culprit of causing older listings to be seen as stale and thus the work around to it is to use the 30 day list / end /relist to over come it and has seems to run enough of a test to seem to prove it.
Check it out and see if this could actually be some of the culprit to low sales on top of the seasonal slow down we all see. interested in what some of the follow up opinions are on the list / end / relist at 30 to 60 day cycles now.
TTFN ..
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
SmartParts Small Equipment Parts-
Cool! Im glad he did the experiment. Im looking for to seeing what he says. Could it be as simple as just ending and re-listing items? If so, that’s dumb because its so arbitrary. Same exact listings.
If he’s proven this to be true, it would be a proven Theory and no longer an untested Hypothesis. A Theory means it can be verified by anyone running the same test.
Like the theory of relativity. It’s established science until someone can prove it wrong.
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Think so.It goes back to our old conversations that when you end a listing completely, Ebay retires the old ID number it assigns completely. Then when you do a fresh relist, Ebay assigns a brand new ID number to that listing and as far as the search engines go, it is a brand new item as if you just bought it yesterday and listed it for the first time today. And Cassini sees it as a new listing, you get the added exposure of a newly listed item. Pretty much they way a few of us have been it explaining it here on SL but was always in the relm of an opinion because a few years back no one did the experiment or were tracking stats the way some SL members do now and as CraigsList Hunter seems to have done.
What i am communicating to SixBit is to set an allocation plan in place to end each listing at the 27th or 28th day mark. Beat Ebay to the punch so to speak. Then have SixBit end all listings 27 days from the date they were created. Then come back and automatically relist the listing or at least put them in a SB folder where I can see which ones SB ended that day and then highlight all of them and click re-list and let SixBit take back over.
I think this part is being worked out now. But since we also use SB to cross post on Etsy and Etsy uses a 90 listing time frame, we don’t want SB to keep ending the listings at the 27 day mark on Etsy also. That would mean we would incure “triple” listing fees. $.20 each month instead of the $.20 for 3 months.
It is doable manually. I have already worked that out, but was trying to get SB to do just the Ebay part automatically and I would take care of Etsy manually based on the ended listing that get dumped into an “Recently Ended” SB folder.
mc at mdcgfa in Atl.
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I ran a test on this about a year or two ago for 4 or 5 months. I stopped using GTC, ended and relisted a different small section of my store every day 10 days and then relisted them in 10 days when they ended, to utilize all 10000 of my “free listings” Honestly, in my case, the small increase in return was not worth the extra daily task. If I had a smaller inventory, or fewer items with multiple quantities, I would have been more likely to keep doing it.
Granted: this was also tested long before the GTC requirement was ever mentioned, so it’s not really an equal experiment. I believe it makes a difference, and gives a boost just the same as any listing change, sale or promotion.
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Howdy: yeo you hit on the point that is was before Ebay did the rollover to everything being good until canceled. And if you listen to Craigslist Hunter he also was tracking where his items were showing up in the search results rankings. He was staying up on the first page back then also, but he was doing all of this manually by doing 7 day, then ending, then 10 day, then ending, then 30 day and then ending. He also points out that they tweaked the listings each time slightly, and did a major edit at the 30 to 60 day mark.
Also he points out that with more higly comepetive items it is more important to utilize this process.
Another intersting thing is CLHunter has a large following and access to several pals who run stores larger than Jay and Ryanne and they all reported a big drop in Sales and as a team, he seem to indicate they worked on this together and they saw Sales return to the pre-Ebay GTC implementation.
He states they tracked large percentage decreases in there stores right after the GTC rollover and all their ability to do the 7-10-30 day end and relist process was no longer and option. So now they just do the same as before, but have to catch it right at the end of what they have paid for [like the 28th day] BUT BEFORE Ebay does a rollover relist with the same ID number. A monthly auto rollover within EBAY’s GTC process will not create a new listing ID.
These guys were getting new ID every month, even 2 or 3 times a month and were selling a consistent amount. Then GTC kicks in and BAM, Sales tank and for numerous months in a row. Then they go to the let’s end these prior to Ebay rolling them over, get a new ID number and then Sales bounce backa dn continue for several months. Doing this makes Cassini see them as new.
The drop he states in the video was a 24% or more drop and a few even 50% drop in Sales. Then to implement this process and see that percenatge come back is pretty good.
All of this applies of course to the SL members who are reporting a drop in Sales over several months. And to implement this strategy each and every item has to be identified as to when it was created and then ended a day or two before Ebay does it. That would require a software program to do it for thousands of items. It will take one whole month just for the first cycle to complete itself. So many items ending each day, until you have gotten every item in your store ended and relisted with a new ID number. Then that would need to repaet itself for several months to see the results.
Luckily CraigsList Hunter did a lot of this but he doesn’t mention if he and his staff did it manually and continue to do it manually.
I am trying to get SixBit to do it automatically.
Troy [T-Sat already has SixBit doing this to some degree several months ago] but I see his allocation plan is slightly different than mine, so I am having the SB team work on it and I am also waiting on Troy to get back from Montana to work on this with him.
But to see sales drop 25% to 30% for several months in a row, then to implement a process and see those sales bounce back up as a result of that type of manuver and stay there. I am pretty impressed.
For a more definitive test, i would ask CL Hunter to stop the process for 3 or 4 months staright and see if sale plumment agagin and then re-apply the process and see if he can repaet the increase back up. That would be the final convincing test for me.
In other words, do the whole thing over a second time and see if the same pattern and results are replicated. Then I would be sold 100%. But if SB will do it automitcally, then why not, it will be all front end work for me.
Good side thread we got going. LOL 🙂
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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Same exact listing as you say but with the brand new ID number and that is the secret. Ebay doesn’t know it is the same listing. It comes in new, doesn’t match the old ID number so it gets picked up as new. Ebay doesn’t scan all of the title, description and IS and says, hold on this is the same content as last time. But only sees this as new.
And as a kicker, there is a way in SixBit to have SB actually make an automatic change to the description and title by placing an “Append” or a “PrePend” text in the place or apply a new wrapper to the description area. {It’s a SixBit thing not worth explaining].
Another way of explaining it is that it is like you end a listing completely and state as the reason the item is no longer available. Then come back and do a “Sell Similar”. Same text-content just a new ID number.
Another thing to think about would be the listings with multiple quantities and Variable style listings. Unsure how those would work. With a multi quantity a new ID number listing would not show that at one point you had 24 of something and had sold 20 of them with only 4 left to buy. With a new ID number that would be gone. But i wouldn’t care because we mostly sell 1 of a kind items. About 95% and higher are all “onsies”.
We used to do something similar in WonderLister within the batch edit function.
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Thanks for posting the info from CLHunter about the consequences of mandatory GTC, MDC! My sales totally fell off in March, April, May… I’ve been a 30-day BIN lister for a few years, after previously dabbling in auctions. I suspected right away that the plummet in views had something to do with the onset of GTC.
I sell trendy clothes and shoes, and also sell on Poshmark. My items aren’t exactly flying off the shelves on Posh, but they get seen WAY more on that site.
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@ Troy:
Hey buddy good to hear that you are getting a handle on the ranch stuff for your mom.
Just FYI.. Based on the above video by CraigsList Hunter I came across a question for the SB Tech Team and have an open ticket / question to them on the needed allocation plan to accomplish the list / end / relist and how it impacts the 90 Etsy cycle.
I am waiting for the reply from either Steve or Dustin and will shoot that on along to you so you can see what they say.
Catch you later after you get your feet back on the ground
P.S. you running a computer that doesn’t have Windows 10 on it? Doesn’t that slow down SixBit for you also? Just curious.
mike at MDCGFA
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@Mike: Yeah, I talked with the SB team a few months ago, and they said that they planned to change the allocations to have a forced end and relist after a set number of days. Auto Relist for Ebay doesn’t make sense, so they plan to switch it to ending after a certain number of days, then relisting as new.
PS – The allocations on the eBay listing and the Etsy listing can be separate, so ending the listing on one platform won’t affect the other platform.
PSS – My laptop is not on Windows 10, but the desktop (where SixBit lives) and Veronica’s laptop are.
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@ Troy: Glad to hear they will build this in. That would allow us to accomplish what CraigsList Hunter is advocating within SixBit and set the end and relist with an allocation plan just on the Ebay Tab.
* I knew that the Etsy and Ebay Tabs were separate so that will be the key to selecting the 27 / 28 day end time frame on the Ebay Tab but leave the Etsy Tab to just do their standard 90 day rollover OR Maybe set Etsy to end at 88 days. That way we could be doing the same thing as on Ebay only instead of every 30 days, on Etsy will will happen every 3 months.
I notice after one of the more recent SB updates, that when I go and do a relist there is a selection to force a complete new upload, but there is not an allocation plan that I can see as of yet to do this automatically.
** OK that your desktop which is where you are acting as your own file server for SB is running is Win10. And that hers are. Then as long as the motherboards and chips are running at a PassMark Score of 3,500 or higher you are good to go. My old laptop that our helper was using was running at a PassMark Score of less than 2,000 and it was always stalling-hanging up. So I got a new laptop for them that clocks out at over 7,000 for a PassMark Score and it is smooth, speedy sailing.
As Jay calls these things “Robust Programs” and as such, a user has to have the fire power in a computer to run it.
P.S. SixBit has their new “Shopify” module in Beta Testing. I hope to see that roll out in the near future.
Looking forward to seeing you get back home soon and maybe we can do a phone hook-up agagin.
Take care buddy…
Mike-
@Mike: Yeah, we use the “Force as New Listing” when we relist old items (about that time to do it again). I’m not sure why they can’t bake that into the Auto Relist, but I’ll trust the programmers on that one.
No problem on a phone call. I’m back in Colorado for about 10-14 days starting July 1. Got closing work on the contract accounting gig July 1-3, then Veronica’s birthday on July 4, then I better get some listings done… 🙂
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@Mike (and any other SixBit user): I updated to the latest version of SixBit, and back in April they added the Custom Duration program, where you can set SixBit to end your listing after XX number of days and it will relist it for you.
We set ours for 58 days at this point, as that will stop the listing before it is stale. We will see if this will help. Clothing sales especially have seen a drop in STR, primarily over the last 2 weeks.
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FYI to @Mike and other SixBit users: So, changing your listings in SixBit from GTC to Custom Duration will run the math AUTOMATICALLY. After changing to Custom Duration (58 days), we soon dropped to about 700 active listings, as the remaining 2,500+ listings were older than 58 days, so SixBit ended them. SixBit has now been adding these items back to active (with Auto Relist) and are at 1,187 now.
So, be warned if you move your whole store to this that it will immediately end any listings older than what you select.
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hey t, how long did it take for the items to auto re-list once they were cancelled? i went into my running listings and selected a few old ones as an experiment, changed the customer duration to 120 days. within a few minutes, they were cancelled but I haven’t seen them re-list yet. so, wondering how long before you saw them relist.
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Saul:
I am pretty new to Sixbit but did something similar.
I think you have to go to ‘Sell Items’/Views and click the view named ‘Available to List, Unlisted on eBay’. The cancelled items should show there. Then submit them manually from there. Be careful in case any are missing for inventory reasons or if any are extra that you have been preparing to list.
It may be that Sixbit would do this automatically for you if they were all part of an allocation plan that you had set. My subscription level does not have allocation plans enabled.
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Yes, when you decide to cancel a listing yourself, then a quick message pops up and says that any allocation plans that were pre-set have been removed and will have to be set agagin upon relisting. That is with versions that have the allocation plan module. But in any case, if you manually end a listing(s), then you will have to do a manual relist yourself.
sixBit has no way of knowing why you “manually force end” a listing and won’t auto re-list it. What if you broke the item, lost the item, or sold it on another platform [if you don’t have the “Duo” version like Troy and I do, then it is up to the user to list, end, and re-list manually as those events occur.
mike at MDCGFA
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@Timo: That is correct. Since I’m on the Duo version, I get the allocation plans option, so our items were set to Auto Relist and they all did (no extra work).
The nice part about that is that you can decide if you want to change pricing when the item relists. So say you want to relist the item and drop the price by $1 on each relist. Or increase the price by 10% on each relist, etc.
For items that may have a price sensitivity, you can do this.
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June 9-15
Total Items in Store: 2326
Items Sold: 27
Total Sales : $1026
* ABOVE yearly average of $894
Highest Price: $350 (Set of Four MCM Stanley Dining Room Chairs)
Average Price: $38
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $94
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $41
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 51I had a great week this time around. Thanks in part to a nice sale of some Mid Century Modern dining room chairs that took forever for me to list. They took me some time to clean up and finally take some decent photos, but it only took less than a month to sell for full price. The only issue is that the buyer can’t pick them up until July, but he’s paid already so I don’t mind babysitting them.
We tried shopping at the outlets on Friday but I really didn’t find too much. Goodwill outlets can be great some days and completely lousy other days. But at least it was nice to get out of the house. Later that day I went to an afternoon estate sale and bought a mystery tote of electronics for $25. It wasn’t really a mystery as you could look inside and examine what you were buying, but it was elbow to elbow in this little house and I didn’t want to miss out so I just grabbed it. Well anyway, I got burnt. It was mostly empty electronics boxes and instruction manuals. I’ll probably at least make my money back on some of the old software that was inside. It was a gamble that I lost, but a lot of times the risk is worth it.
This week I’ll be listing more flatware and odds and ends. I’ll also need to get started on installing this sink in my basement sometime soon. I’m procrastinating because I really know nothing about plumbing. But I’m finding that that’s one of the joys of owning your own house… learning new skills along the way.
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Items in Store 1203
Items Sold 23
Total Sales $577.00
COGS $47.00
Total Profit $530.00
Average profit $23.04
Average sales price $25.09
New Listings 49Summer goal
Week Goal Actual Difference
6/10/2019 875.00 411.00 -464.00
6/17/2019 875.00 577.00 -298.00Currently $762 behind goal pace.
This week was setting up to be terrible. Typcically most of my sales come Monday-Thursday and my weekends suck. This week I was dead all week then had a great weekend.
I am still off of my summer goal I have set for myself, but I am moving in the right direction. All the listing I am doing will start to pay off and I can build some momentum to make up ground. I crossed 1200 listings for the first time. Hopefully that leads to my items sold per week trending upwards as well.
This weekend yard sales were fairly disappointing. Lots of junk sales, but there were a few good ones. Typically I load up the back of my van, but not this week. At one sale there were 3 pair of Miss Me Jeans laying out among the clothes. This was almost noon, so I figured they were asking a ton for them to still be there. I almost didn’t ask but I figured what the hay. I asked the guy how much for them and I didn’t hear him at first. I asked again and he said “a buck”. I asked if he was sure and he said “yep, I want to get rid of ’em”. There were 4 other women at the sale that audibly gasped. I scooped those things up as quick as I could!
Listing wise, this weekend was video game weekend. I listed a bunch of video games and accessories that I’ve had for a while. This was a great first test for my daughter to photograph for me. I showed her how to photograph one item and walked away, just to see how she would follow instruction and adapt if something changed.
She did wonderfully! She followed my instructions and asked good questions when she got to different items. Her photos we all well centered and focused. She’s gonna make some good money this summer.
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Just had a Whoa Nelly! Moment. For anyone that is doing a longer term “Promoted Listings” campaign. I think you may want to check it out and see if you have this situation on your listings.
We usually run short Flash type sales and when we do promoted Listings we usually do it for a 1% over the trending average and run it for a month or so and then it ends, and we do it again.
Well we decided to do a longer time frame for Promoted Listings and do the same 1% over the trending average, but this time run it without and ending date by using the on “Continuous” until we would decide to stop it manually.
Well the thought just popped into my mind to go and check and I discovered something I had previously just assumed but was surprised that I was wrong.
For anyone here at SL that is running a long time period for Promoted Listings, go to the Active Listings on your seller dashboard. Then when they all pop up, usually about 200 per page [we have approx. 1,200 listings]. Then look at the column titled Promoted Listings” and if you don’t see that column make sure you use the blue “Customize” link and click on “Promoted Listings” to add that column to the page view.
Now as I looked at this column and scrolled down, I saw the following, which was not something I expected because of this assumption.I assumed when I started the Promotion about 3 or 4 months ago and selected that I wished to use the 1% over the trending rates that both numbers, the trending rate, as well as my 1% over that were both floating numbers. Meaning, If the rate went up, then so would my 1% above that trend go up accordingly. But I also assumed that if the rate went down, that my 1% above the trending rates would decline along with it. WELL, NOPE!!
Here are a few examples of what I am seeing.
Trending rate My Rate
6.3% 7.3% what I would expect [1% above the trending rate] BUT next the surprise,
5.7% 8.9% = 3.2% above the trending rate
6.2% 8.1% = 1.9% above the trending rate
9.8% 14% = 4.2% above the trending rate
6.7% 9.9% = 3.2% above, etc., etc.The first thing that pops into my mind is that while the trending rate will and does fluctuate up and down with the trends, that when I set the amount I wanted to pay for promoted listing [1% above the trending rate] locked in at that moments current trend rate and becomes a “fixed” percentage.
That means if the rates go up then I would guess as I originally presumed my rate would go up right along with it, BUT if the trending rate drops, then my 1% number sits as a ‘fixed” number and does not drop or lower as the trends go down. HuH!!
I would like to ask if any SL member is currently running a longer term “Promoted Listings” campaign, that you check this out and see if you are having or seeing something similar. Have any of the trending rates gone down while your percentage, if it was ‘tied” to the trend rate such as a 1% above trend, is “stuck” at the original percentage. If so, then I think we have an Ebay glitch that will need to be reported and fixed, unless I missed something or assumed the 1% above was a floating number tied to the floating up or down of the trend.
In the meantime, I am ending my Promoted Listing campaign and will start another later once we get some clarification on this.
Thanks,
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta-
I add items to promoted listings once a month. At that time I reassess ALL promoted listings in that campaign because the trending rates change.
Once upon a time I would just apply trending rates to adjust all listings. Not anymore.Now I will only apply trending rates if it lowers the rate. Otherwise I stand pat. In some cases I’ll even lower my trending rates. Take for instance shoes – there are several generic trending rates in shoes that can vary 2% or more. Once I notice a trend I start moving all similar items to the lower rate.
My goal is to settle all of my listings promoted percentages to the bottom of the seasonal markets. That way I’m not setting my percentage during the high market and then throwing away money the rest of the year.
In a general sense, it seems I’m going to settle around 4% on most items.
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Thanks for the podcast
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 3087
Items Sold: 38
Total Sales: $1112
Cost of Items Sold: $127
Average Price Sold: $29.25
Average Cost of Item: $3.35
Highest Price Item Sold: $119.95 Magnavox Freetimer D8040 Vintage Boombox
Number of items listed this week: 78
YTD Sales: $23046
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +16%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 373
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 203
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 87
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.23%
Hats sold this week: 20 (52% of sales) worth $365.48 (32% of sales $)Another decent week for me especially for this time of year.
Regarding eBay returns, I started my own return on eBay this week (June 12). It was a relatively cheap item that was defective. The seller must have had the RMA option switched on because as of today (June 17) I still haven’t received a shipping label. Ebay has given the seller until today to provide a shipping label. The seller has been messaging me telling me that If I close the return (as “changed mind”) they will refund me. Obviously trying to skirt the INAD defect. Super annoying that they aren’t forced to resolve this more quickly.
My find of the week this week was a toy that reminded me of something that Frank from American Pickers would find. It’s a 1960s Japanese robot. Like new in the box. Apparently worth around $200. I found it at a garage sale.
Hope everyone has a great week!
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First week of full time and easily my best week ever. Total profits after all expenses/fees checking in close to $2500.
Top sales:
Autographed Harry Potter 1st Edition Sorcerer’s Stone sold for $1000 – found for a dollar at estate sale and paid $100 for authentication
Two consignment sales – Klipsch Cornwall Speakers and a vintage McIntosh 4100 receiver. My share of the sales was $800.Woke up to a nice $200 sale for a lot of three Motorola Rugged Cell Phones that I got in an auction box lot for $4.
Best recent scavenge at a garage sale – big box of new in box medical stuff. The guy selling told me that if I didn’t know what it was, then it wouldn’t be of any use to me. I offered $20 for the box and he was surprised and took it. Sold 6 units already for $25 each with at least two dozen left to sell. Still don’t even know what they are…
Understanding that this was a rare week, but felt good and the wife loved it!
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Your first week is probably one for the record books! Yeah, dont get too comfortable with those numbers being normal. Sounds like you had a couple big sales that gave you the big boost.
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Happy Birthday, Ryanne! You can join my family in celebrating milestones that are evenly divisible by 10 this year. My sister turned 50 in February, my husband’s and my 20th anniversary was on the 6th, and my dad turned 80 on the 7th. (Yes, we actually got married the day before my dad hit 60).
I also thought about this meme I’ve seen on Facebook:
Welcome to your 40s. If you do not already have a mysterious ailment, one will be assigned to you shortly.Week of Jun 9 – 15
* Total Items in Store: 1372, eBay, 3 Etsy
* Items Sold: 20 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $17.70 + $4 Commission
* Total Sales: $340
* Highest Price Sold: $30 – 1966 Facit typewriter nonworking
* Average Price Sold: $17
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 7I actually had a good number of items sold, but nothing was over $30.
Regarding travel golf caddies, they sell quite well. My dad gave me two over a year ago, and they didn’t take long to sell. Because they are meant to withstand rough handling, I just wrapped them in thick black sheeting, taped it up, and added the shipping label. Easy peasy, and definitely a BOLO.
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Happy [belated Birthday Ryanne. My daughter turned 40 in Nov. and she said to me sunday, I don’t feel 40, I still feel like a kid inside and have urges to do stupid stuff.
I told her we all do, but now she has enough sense and maturity to not go through with it.
Ryanne, hope you get to keep that “kid” inside and have fun with your life as it seems that you are, based on how you come across in the podcasts. Sounds like you and Jay just have a lot of fun doing this.
So welcome to the second half of your life. 🙂
Mike at MDCGFA in Atl
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About Webinterpret using an email I received from their sales rep
Lot’s of birthdays this week, mine was on the 13th 🙂
Below a message I received from Webinterpret a coupe of weeks ago, it answers some of the questions raised on this episode.
Does not precise whether it is a quantity amount or a percentage amount, but it is good for clarification.From: Alleya Khan <alleya.khan@webinterpret.com>
Date: May 29, 2019 at 2:57:44 PM EDT
To: Paulo H
Subject: You’ve made $398 this month, make even more by listing ALL of your itemsAlleya here with Webinterpret!
I was just taking a look into you Ebay account and It looks like this month you have made a total of $398 with us… I’m excited to give you this opportunity to grow your business and increase your sales by upgrading your account to a plan.
Take into consideration we only listed a fraction of your eligible items, right now you can unlock all of your eligible items by selecting one of our plans!
Because you have sold 2items, I would recommend the Pay as you Go plan listed here https://www.webinterpret.com/us/pricing/, scroll down until you see Ebay & Amazon and check out the Pay as you Go option.
Let me know your thoughts!
REMEMBER WE SYNC EVERYTHING!
The stock levels, postage rates, prices, item specifics, and content of your domestic listings are fully synchronized with your free international listings.So any changes to your US listings will automatically reflect on your international listings every 24 hours. And any changes to the item’s inventory count are updated in real time, eliminating any risk of selling products that you no longer have in stock.
SET-UP AND CHECKLIST
To help you set up your account for the best chances on being listed internationally with us check out this doc here:
Account Set UpTo manage your international listings, please visit
app.webinterpret.com > then ‘login with eBay’. There is also our helpdocs that can be found here to help you with your ebay integration and tips and tricks to help you along the way with usFor any other requests, please don’t hesitate to contact us !
Happy Selling!Alleya Khan
Sales Executive-
Interesting. They that 5% of profits + $99 each month. This would be on top of all the fees we pay on eBay. Seems pretty pricey.
Happy birthday 🙂
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@Jay, it’s actually $49/mo if you scroll down to the bottom section.
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The Dirt:
I used Webinterpret several years ago when it first came out as a 3rd party application, but it did not work with auction format, which was my primary format at the time. So, I was eager to try it again when the promotion came out.
I believe I opted in to the promo in October 2018, cross listing to every site except Italy, due to customs regulations that prohibit the import of Leather goods, Shoes and haberdashery….which is literally my entire store except a dozen items.
After satisfactory results, I opted in to the Pro version some time in November, so I could get my entire store translated.
My account was suspended for 3 days because web-interpret crossposted an item that was illegal to sell in France. so if you use this service be very careful the items you list, and be aware that ebay holds you responsible for mistakes made by this third party.
I’m fairly happy with the service, though they claim with the Pro version that you can list on about 12 sites, but to actually list on the additional sites cost very high insertion fees, some times up to 50 cents a listing. I’m sure these items would have sold anyway either domestically or internationally, so it’s hard to say how much of an increase there has really been in overall sales, but there has definitely been larger percentage of international sales.
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The Cleanup:
Total international sales through Webinterpret since Oct 2018 in USD : $27,561
Total subscription and selling fees paid to Webinterpret (in addition to normal ebay fees) since Oct 2018 in USD : $1255, with another invoice coming up in a few days.
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Happy Birthday Ryanne!
I had a great father’s day – we camped for 4 days in the Cypress Hills. No cell coverage, so ebay kind of ground to a halt, which was a nice break.
Nonetheless I had a very good week on ebay.
Sales: CAD$2325, 12 items, COGS: $593 –> Item profit: $1356
Expenditures: $637 –> Cashflow: $1312
Hours: 6, $219/hr (packing mostly happened this Monday)
Listed: $1030, 14 items
Notable sales: another microscope $490, medical film to Germany $200 (2 packs, paid $10 for 33 packs).
Listed: bought a few good auction lots. One is a total flyer, a huge lot of protective sleeves for directional drilling pipes. I have no idea how to price these – are they worth $20, 200, 2000? Can’t find a damn thing. I put them up for $500 each, no takers so far. I’ve got about 50 of them. This will either be a huge score or a giant pain in the ass that never sells.I agree that a small business owner needs to be honest with themselves. It’s really hard to do, maybe it’s the hardest thing to do. We want our businesses to be successful, and we especially want our time not to have been wasted. Sunk costs can drag you down indefinitely.
I try to ask myself from time to time, if I was somebody else and was suddenly teleported into owning these assets – would I still do what I am actually doing with them, or something else?
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The sunk cost fallacy is a real thing:
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-makes-you-act-stupid.html
So easy to fall into that trap.-
The Sunk Cost Fallacy is something that they need to teach every kid in school in my opinion.
I think every company I’ve worked for that failed was because of sunk costs. People have a hard time letting go of bad or misinformed decisions for some reason.
The quicker you accept mistakes/failures, the more time and money you will save.
I’ve seen way too many money pits and white elephants in my life – some of them were identified at the outset and people still poured 99% of the money and effort into them…and I can’t imagine the stress that some people cause themselves by not letting go.
The first person you need to be honest to is yourself in this world – it’s very hard to accept mistakes, and the “dream” may not come true, but in the end it is worth it.
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Excellent article!
I realized this about 15 years ago. What got me to this point is irrelevant. The best decisions are what to do GOING FORWARD.
For resellers, I see people that won’t lower a price because they don’t want to “lose money”. The problem is that they paid too much to begin with. The right price is the market price, and the market don’t care what you paid for it.
Anytime I get a decision, I don’t care if I have to take a loss, as long as the path forward is the right path GOING FORWARD. What happened to get me in a mess is only academic (so I don’t repeat it). If I have to eat crap now because that is what will get me where I need to be going forward, then that is what I need to do.
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Speaking of fallacies …
@Jay was watching the Youtube channel managed by your friend Pete (TheCraigsListHunter) and he recently made a video about the mandatory good ’till cancelled change.In that video, he explains why he himself is being impacted by this issue, in a nutshell, because he has a 7/10/30 day process to review and update items.
The reason he states is that, according to him, eBay algorithm de-prioritize listings according to how much a store has been updated, or the less you list, less priorities for your listings.
We talked about this dozens of times across the years, however he uses his store data (it is humongous) to demonstrate his point, comparing months he did not list versus those with constant updates or new listings.
sighs …
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Hey Paulo – I listened to that ep as background noise last week, just went back and re-listened to that portion.
I wish he had explicitly distinguished *# of things listed long ago that sold before and after periods of heavy listing activity*, versus *things that sold within 30 days of listing*. The first is what is interesting, the second is not surprising at all and doesn’t really speak to this ending/relisting strategy’s effectiveness. For me at least (can’t speak for Pete), a huge proportion of my sales are within 30 days of listing.
On a rainy day I will try to ask this question of my data. However I am low volume enough for it to not be very conclusive.
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@Simplicio you hit it on the head!!!!! I think you summarized it all in terms of how to interpret Pete’s report on the issue.
For me there is not enough data available, I have a 1000 items store so no matter what I do sales are about same.
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- Location:
items sold: 43
sales: $1,023.66 (i don’t include shipping revenue)
average selling price: $23.80
cost of goods: $164.26
returns: 0
purchases: $243.
store listings: 1016
inventory $ risk: $3,860 (what i paid for all existing inventory)
listed this week: 58
ebay hours: 20what’s on my mind: I removed best offer from all but 25% of my listings. I only turned on best offer 10 weeks ago, so I am committed to keeping it off for at least 10 weeks & see where I am at with it.
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June 9-15
Total Items in Store: 1364
Items Sold: 14
Total Sales : $603
Highest Price: $160 (VTG Stetson Hat)
Honorable Mention: Auction listing, a Nirvana Bleach Cassette Tape that sold for $48. It looked like it had different art on the cover from other listings. Glad I didn’t list it for $10, lol.
Average Price: $43
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $51
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $70
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 34Hello all!
Feeling a little better this week thankfully. And sorry Jay I didn’t get respond back! Yes, it’s so much better being at home trying to recover from a cold. I would have most certainly had called off a couple days if I was at my last job…
Like Doubly mentioned, we went to the Goodwill Outlet last Friday. I managed to get some things, lots of shoes lol. But they upped the prices on shoes so that was a bummer. Unfortunately since I was still feeling yucky I got tired super quick. But I found some nice Nike’s, Vans a pair of Dr Martens and a Patagonia jacket. And I found a 1977 The Shining Hard-Back Book Club Edition. Which I guess will so go for a decent amount. So that was fun.
Also, Happy Belated Birthday Ryanne! 🙂
Have a good week all!
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Hi everyone – I know I’m late to listening to this one, but I just had to write in about the routing yard sales or thrift stores thing discussed late in the episode. You can do this in Google Maps, which is what I used to use, but you are now limited to 10 locations. So these days I use mapquest which allows around 25. It is a pen and paper method, you simply write down all the addresses you want to go to and then you organize them for efficiency by looking at the map. Then re-write your optimized list. I have a word doc with lines just for this purpose, and it has a place for the date and what you spend at each sale (FOR TAXES!!) It would be nice if a computer would organize for you but this method still works great for me. Happy Scavenging!
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@CLTbay – I use the pen/paper/map method. I have old school fold-out maps of all the towns/cities near me, and I have every thrift store marked on the map.
Before going to the area scavenging, I create a list of all the “special” sales/auctions in the area that I can find that day. When I have a list, I use those skinny Post-It notes used for marking pages, right the address and type of sale on them, and put them on the map pointing to the location.
I find it very easy to work with the “old school” methods – however, it is hard to find maps these days for cities that are growing and the old maps are missing neighborhoods, highways, and exits.
People do look at us funny when we pull out an old fold-out map, but most think we are lost and offer help, which sometimes leads to a conversation about scavenging and we learn about new places to go.
We also have those old school Rand McNally road atlases for when we are out of our area to mark where stores are – and sadly, sometimes we stop at a phone booth (if you can find one today!), hope it has a phone book (which is even harder to find!), and look up local thrift stores. Old habits are hard to break…
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