Scavenger Life Episode 446: Interview with Dan The Diner, Fellow Scavenger!

[Ryanne]

 This week, Jay interviews Dan The Diner, fellow full time (for now) scavenger and Ebay seller. See this super cool video profile of him by Pursuit:
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 446: Interview with Dan The Diner, Fellow Scavenger!]

[Mark S]

1/12/20 – 1/18/20

Total Items In Store: 3348
Items Sold: 39
Cost of Items Sold: $ 125
Total Sales: $ 1348.15
Highest Price Sold: $ 100 (Cooler)
Average Price Sold: $ 34.57
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 14.74
Number of items listed: 8

Gut Sales Report for the week: Very Good sales. I had all cylinders firing this week. I have the majority of items on promoted sales. I am running 3 sales in the store including a 30% on 534 of my oldest items from Nov 2013-Jan 2016. I have also been sending out a lot of offers.

Challenge of the week: List more. Haven’t had much time to list with all the sales going on.

Scavenge of the week: Didn’t buy much, but bought a very nice VCR for cheap.

Mark S

[WabashValleyRelics]

Great episode. The loneliness and social isolation is definitely an issue with working from home full time. I never realized the majority of my social life was based around going to work and interacting with my co-workers until I started reselling. I also feel like current events and pop culture passes me by a lot more now. My group of work buddies would always talk about the latest movies or tv shows on our breaks, so there was always a reason for me to stay on top of things. Priorities and the way I spend my free time is much different these days.

1/12 – 1/18

Total Items in Store – 13,796
# of new listings ~422
# of orders – 123
Gross Sales – $2,818.31
COG Sold ~$8
Inventory Bought – $0

29 items sold this week came from outside the big magazine/paper haul I got over the summer. All items I paid less than a dollar for. Some of the items, like the hats, print ads, brochure, and the 78 record were picked up for less than ten cents apiece due to buying in bulk. One of the items was an Avon 70s skin care cream had been up since 2014. Probably came close to breaking even on that one, but I’m glad it’s out the door.

It’s been a big tabloid week for us. We started working on the dozens of banker boxes we have full of Examiners/Enquirers/Globes, etc. I’ve listed over 400 of them this week and have probably pictured well over 1,000 of them, I’m seeing freakin’ tabloids in my sleep at this point, haha. The original goal was to process them all this month and get them sorted/Sku’d but I’m getting pretty burnt out on them, will probably switch up items to list this coming week.

[simplicio]

Great interview! I love it when people do this kind of stuff without asking anybody’s permission, when they see an opportunity and take it.

Jay, you studied Russian literature? На русском языке или на английском? Я когда-то изучал русский язык и лингвистику. Правда много уже забыл, а Пушкина мне еще нравится иногда читать.

I had a good week on ebay, a bad week overall. My entire company is being laid off by the owners. We are all confused by this move, as we’ve been fully billable and indeed working overtime for 2 years. I and the people who work for me have jobs till Feb, then we’re out. We are the lucky ones, the rest have already been let go but we have contracts to fulfill. I am not too worried, in no small part thanks to ebay, which should provide a good cushion.

This weekend I did another major overhaul to my work area. Exhausting but worthwhile. I also bought a new photo tent, and some other necessities like more shelving and bins. Adds up.

Sales c/w shipping: CAD$4,487, 14 sales, COGS: $866, Fees: ~$617, Postage: $511 –> Gross profit: $2,493
Expenditures: $2,599 –> Cashflow: $1,270
I sold an endoscope for $700, bought for $150 (ebay). A torch head for $460, bought 2 for $500 (ebay). Lab laser for $350, I think I paid like $30. And an animal dissection apparatus for $600, paid about $20.

[DantheDiner]

Я не думаю, что можно изучать русскую литературу на английском языке.

[Jay]

There are good translations, but yeah, probably best to study in the native tongue. I enjoyed the darkness of the mind in 19th century Russia.

[Jay]

We read the 19th century Russian lit in English. I found the history and themes of 1800’s Russia fascinating. Liberal arts!

[T-Satt]

Week of 1/12-1/18
Total Items in Store: 3,262 (Up 30% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 75
Number of Items Sold: 58 (Down 28% YOY)
Weekly STR: 8% (Down 6% YOY)

Total Product Sales: $1,996 (Down 8% YOY)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: Down $594
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: Up $431
Cost of Items Sold: $402.60

Still seeing a very low amount of sales compared to prior year. We have transferred to me working full time for the foreseeable future, and Veronica is on eBay. We are in a complete transition year, with my mom moving from Montana, our younger son moving to Texas, and we are beginning our real estate ventures.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Whoah, you have ALOT going on!
The fact you are still where you are with your store is amazing.

[T-Satt]

Thanks Retro! Yeah, it has been very busy for a while now. It has been a blessing to have the full time job now since eBay has really taken a nose dive for us. But it was good that it prompted us to reassess our short and long term goals and reorient our actions.

Getting things to the point that they are at with our store has made it easier to pull back on the activity with it, and we can see how we can maintain the store as a supplemental income rather than carry the full burden.

Gonna be a lot going on overall. Veronica and I keep having ideas as to what the next 2 years holds, and it keeps changing as we keep getting changes in our family stuff.

Man plans…God laughs…

[Jay]

Welcome back. Glad things are going well. Your wife ran eBay on her own before so I bet she’ll do fine without you 🙂 You’ve built up a system so now just feed it!

[T-Satt]

Thanks Jay. That is definitely the case. I still work the backend admin and accounting work, and I do crossposting to Poshmark, but I’m not listing at this point. Feels strange to be back in the full time world, but with things really slowing down for us lately, and we have had some big car expenses, plus getting ready to help our son with his college expenses in Texas (that is a whooooole other subject), it is a blessing to have that consistent stream of income to handle the regular bills.

[Jay]

Paying for college is no joke, especially if you’re trying to not saddle him with debt.

Good news is that the eBay business is there when you want to ramp it up.

[T-Satt]

@Jay: He will still end up with debt, becoming a doctor is just too expensive, but we are working some angles to keep that down. The schooling is too rigorous for him to work, so we are looking to help pay for his housing/living expenses. Hoping to find a duplex that we can house hack to help that, so gotta get the financing for that, and me having a very good salary helps with the financing…

It is long term where we are planning to go anyway, and better to slowly buy an investment than just pay rent. Just have to find a place where the numbers work out…

[almasty]

Welcome back T-Satt!

Yeah, I feel like selling online currently involves working harder, sourcing more, paying more for items, listing more, and shipping more just in order to break even or make less than the year before. Fun times out there.

[T-Satt]

Thanks Almasty!

Definitely tougher now than before, and with the goals that we have for the next 20 years, setting that foundation by increasing our income now and having the ability to get financing is more important.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Hey Troy… Welcome Back. Missed you but I knew you had a lot going on but the college bit is new. I figured something was up.

Same, same here. Things are very slow overall. Seems like since the Oct Ebay change on all the item specifics things are just not the same. We are about the same as last year. Working on final data this week.

Don’t be a stranger to the forum if you can spare a little posting time.

I am also spending some time doing some online marketing for the fellow that took over my old spray foam company. So been doing social media stuff and web site design work for him to fill in the income gaps.

Susan is about 80% through with her treatments. About 7 weeks more. Just me and the one part time [2 half day a week helper and me on Ebay and Etsy.

Keep us posted on how things are going periodically.

Mike at MDCGFA

[T-Satt]

Thanks Mike. Yeah, I think between forcing GTC, screwing up all the Item Specifics (we are still working through them), and other issues, it just tanked our sales. 30% drop YOY is not what you want to see in December…

Glad Susan is on the mend and mostly through her journey. We still think about her and send prayers for both of you!

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

We too are still working through the Item Specifics change. We dropped all SixBit wrappers like you did and I dropped in code so the item specifics would also automatically show in our description area and in turn that whole description area we just copy and paste into the Etsy description and everything we need then shows there. All working fine.

Our time consuming part is going back on what we still have left from the old WonderLister listings and pre-Ebay IS Bomb and getting them changed to the new format we like. So, yes some work.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. Susan is very fatigued and wobbly on her feet. Doctors all say she will be feeling better within a few months after the last chemo and radiation treatments are all done. Takes a few months for all the side effects to clear the system.

Let’s all just … “Keep on Truckin!” 🙂

mike

[Timo]

MDC Mike:
I use SixBit and understand what you mean about building descriptions using data fields including Item Specifics. This is a fantastic feature, which takes sort of a programmer’s mentality or skill. I use and appreciate it.

I did try to get this going with the data fields in description wrappers but had too many problems, mostly with font sizes being difficult to manage if memory serves. So I am not using any wrappers at all.

You state something about both T-Satt and you dropping description wrappers. (SL forum does not seem to have a post from T-Satt on this subject, so maybe there was some off forum conversation.) Can you share more about that conversation and/or give some details about why you both might be dropping wrappers?

[Timo]

MDC Mike:
Maybe you missed this post, I was hoping to hear back from you about the SixBit wrappers.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Hey Timo… Man time flies. Yep. Had it booked marked but with so much else going on it dropped down out of sight quickly and sorry, but forgot about it and didn’t double back on it.

It may have been an offline phone call with Troy sometime back, can’t remember exactly.

But when he and i talk on the phone, we cover a bunch of topics at times. But my feelings is that the wrappers are better for run of the mill policies and or snippets that you want on all of your listings. But I prefer most of the data to be localized within the description area.

I write the code in the description area and have everything show up there. Mainly because when we cross post to other sites, the Ebay Description is all inclusive and contains everything we want a buyer to know about the item. Yes, on Ebay, that means some of the description data are the same as the Item Specifics. But on sites that don’t have an Item Specific area, then everything is in the description that is imported and we don’t have to edit or add anything else to it.

An example is Etsy. Etsy doesn’t have Item Specifics like Ebay. But in SB the Description area is imported directly into an Etsy description area and as such, the item specifics data is included.

To get any item specific area, the condition area, title and even custom fields all you have to do is enclose the code in double brackets. Example:Go to the Manage Templates drop down in the SB add area, select Manage Templates, select the template you want to add the auto coding to and do the following… if you want everything you typed in the Item Condition area of SB to automatically show in the description, type [[Condition]] in your template in the place you want it to appear in your template and save it in that template. If you want a bunch of Item Specifics to auto show, do the same for each field. If you go to one of newer-later listings and look at the description, the only thing we type is the Bullit point lines of copy, which is usually 2 to 4 short lines and eveything else populates automatically.

Here is an SB Description area with the code

[[Title]]
* We type these couple of lines in.
*
*

Condition: [[condition]]

Brand: [[brand]]
Country: [[country]]
Color: [[color, colors]]
Size A: [[dimension, size]]
Style: [[style]]

etc, etc. The reason for two codes in a few is that Ebay uses color or if not our custom field says colors [plural] so we include both terms. SB will pick up and show whatever is entered into either one of those fields.

The reason Troy and I both do this in the Description is that as we create various templates for categories that require a whole set of different item specifics such as limited edition art prints, original abstract acrylic paintings vs. home decor and Hard goods it is easier to add data in the custom IS fields and have them auto populate in that specific template. Troy has a ton of templates. We have much fewer.

Then we don’t have to worry about having to attach a wrapper or if edit something, having to make an edit in the description and then saving and opening up the wrapper. Just double work.

But, BUT… If you have a few sayings at the bottom of standard disclaimers, or snippets used over and over you may want to use a wrapper, but we just build it into the description area along with everything else.

As far as formating goes, when everything is in the description area, you can use the built in editor for basic stuff like to highlight, underline, bold, highlight, change fonts, color and size, etc. And to see how it will look, just click the small Preview tab under the editor window. The Edit and Preview tabs are side by side and we just click back and forth.

Troy and I just find it easier and faster to have everything in the one description area and not have to bounce back and forth between the wrapper and description area AND… If you make a change to a wrapper it will change all listings that use it and there may be times you want to custom it or edit and having in the same area is faster.

And lastly, some platforms will not bring over the wrapper to their platform but if everything you want to describe and or say about an item is in the Description area, you will then have a complete listing description on Etsy, Shopify or any other platform that brings in the description only from Ebay.

Hope that helps a little and I was not too confusing.

good Luck and sorry for the delay.

mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art

[Ryanne]

Timo wrote:

@MDC Mike:
Thanks for the reply. I hope Susan is doing well too.

Regarding SixBit code as you call it, thanks for your comprehensive reply. Here are a detail or two from my limited experience with SixBit that might dovetail into your coded descriptions if you are not already using them as well:

I am doing almost the same Coding thing but also using the SixBit {If Construct so that empty Item Specific fields are not put into the description. This way a template can have item specific fields that are used only occasionally. And, when not populated, the description is not left with an empty data field or blank line, etc.

I am using Custom Item Specifics with some of them configured to not show on eBay but rather used only in my code-generated descriptions.

Templates:
My templates for the {If Construct scripts are in text files but it seems that they probably should be moved into regular SixBit templates. I have some old SixBit templates but always preferred to Duplicate an existing similar item so they never seemed useful. Perhaps time to re-visit using them. So thanks for that reminder.

Back to Wrappers:
I tried putting some of this [Item Specifics] code in a wrapper but had too much trouble. It worked but it seems like mostly with font sizes getting messed up. So it didn’t seem worth the effort. But it is a shame to ignore the fact that SixBit can update all affected listings when a wrapper is modified.

I don’t use them at all. Doesn’t sound like you and Troy are using wrappers at all either.

[totommyto]

Hello everyone, and what a treat to hear Dan’s story! So funny how the non business majors seem to be the main ones who really see the scavenging opportunities around them, seize them, and then build the processes to make the money over time. Maybe the brain has to see these kinds of business opportunities differently to get one to act.
It’s been awhile since we have had an interview on the forum. Loved it. Dan is a smart cool cat. Wondering if part 2? is going to interview part time eBay seller Dan with the ‘real’ job?

1/05 – 01/11/20 (no cross listing is done between platforms)

eBay store: totommyto

Total store items: 831
Number of items sold: 9
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $397
Cost of items sold: $19
Highest price sold: $125 Big heavy rusty snap on tool box, paid $10, flea market shoulder carry, so fun to be a man. Packing it went much better than my last, helps to not have to ‘build a box’.
Average price sold: $44.11
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 7
Sell through rate for the week: 1.1
Number International sales: 1 (an old broken, bent industrial task light, $95, buyer paid $85 for ship to Taiwan, cost $1)

Etsy store oldfleatoymarket

Total store items: 631
Number of items sold: 7
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $143.50
Cost of items sold: $5
Highest price sold: $26.50 – a risque ‘Brassai Secret Paris’ SC book, paid $1
Average price sold: $20.50
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 13
Sell through rate for the week: 1.1
Number International sales: 0

[Jay]

That would be a good follow up: how does Dan like working for someone else?

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store 1528
Items Sold 44
Total Sales $1,248.00
COGS $103.00
Total Profit $1,145.00
Average profit $26.02
Average sales price $28.36
New Listings 79

The $1k+ train is still on the tracks baby! I was worried going into the weekend but ended up with over $600 in sales on the weekend.

Nothing else of importance happened this week scavenger wise.
I did officially hit 100lbs lost this week! At the beginning of June I weighed 345, and now I weigh 245. My all time high a few years ago was 352. It’s weird, because even though I weigh 245 I fit the size clothes I wore in high school at 185-190. People tell me I look more like 200lbs and are shocked when I tell them I’m 245. Last night my wife showed me a picture of myself from about 8 months ago. Sheesh! That guy looked extremely uncomfortable in his skin.
Next month we go on a trip to meet a goal I’ve been looking forward to for a LONG time – we’re going to Universal Studios and I’m going to ride the harry potter rides! We went 4.5 years ago and I had to take the walk of shame from the loading point on one, and failed the test rig on the other. I did not ride many rides on that trip…
This time imma ride ALL the rides!
That trip will be funded courtesy of my ebay business that I have grown with the help and encouragement of this group. Thanks to everyone here for being awesome.

[Doublythumbs]

Congrats, Retro! 100 lbs is a huge achievement! YES, RIDE ALL THOSE RIDES NOW!

[Jay]

Getting to a stable weight will be the best healthcare choice you can make. Save you so much paid, money, and trouble as you get older. Huge congrats.

[T-Satt]

Congrats Retro! That is great news!

[ChristineR]

Congrats on all fronts! I hope you don’t get motion sickness – Universal is big on screen rides and HP is a doozy! I get to sit with my butterbeer in the pub when we go.

[Ryanne]

congrats on 100lbs, that’s a big deal. try lifting 100lbs and realize that’s how much you’ve lost. that takes some serious dedication. nice work! (keto and exercise? was that your method?)

[Retro Treasures WV]

Yes, keto, intermittent fasting, and lots of walking. I haven’t stepped one foot in a gym – just walk during my breaks at work.

It’s amazing how fundamentally wrong most main stream information about Keto and fasting is. For a person like me who was metabolically unhealthy, it is permanently life changing.

[simplicio]

King!

[Doublythumbs]

Jan 12 – 18
Total Items in Store: 2991
Items Sold: 20
Total Sales : $580
* BELOW yearly average of $877
Highest Price: $80 (Set of 6 Reed Barton Holbrook Hathaway Teaspoons)
Average Price: $29
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $69
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 70

Great interview with Dan this week! The part that really resonated with me was how Dan spoke about taking the initiative to seek out social connections. Since going full time almost a year ago, I’ve found it harder and harder to find any reason to leave the house except for auctions and groceries. Buying a house an hour away from all our friends didn’t help either. It’s kind of a mental strain when you’re holed up at home listing away all day for weeks without any social interaction (other than Steph obviously). I’ll have to see what I can do to work on that. It’s difficult though since we live in a small rural town.

Another slowish performance over here. I’m thinking about making some changes to my selling style. I haven’t really been utilizing the Send Offer feature and maybe it’s high time I start. And perhaps I’ll give the 1% Promoted Listing a try. See if that drums up some sales. I’m not sweating it just yet; $500-$600 weeks are still just fine. But I’d rather like to see higher profits so I can start investing a little better.

No scavenging last week. I just worked hard listing a bunch of cool stuff. I got a tip from my brother-in-law about a guy wanting rid of a bunch of beer / liquor signs and decor. I guess his liquor store went out of business and he needs to clean out the building before he can sell it. BIL is gonna pass him my number the next time he sees him. If anything comes from it, I’ll be sure to report about it here.

[Jay]

Yeah, being social is an action when you work for yourself. Got to make time for it!

[jadowa]

Week of January 11 to January 17

Total Items In Store: 5271
Items Sold: 203
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $2495.30
Cost of Items Sold: $485.16
Total Profit: $2010.14
Highest Price Sold: $149.99 (Lot of original Railroad & Train photos)
Average Price Sold: $12.29
Money Spent on New Inventory: $696.14
Number of items listed: 333

Just like Dan, I love getting large lots of the same items. It makes the listing process go so much smoother. I got my start in Media and wish they were not going out because it is so easy to list and ship.

My goal was 500 items listed – I got 333 complete Monday through Wednesday. Something came up and I was unable to list Thursday and Friday or I would have probably gotten to my goal.

Retro – Awesome job on the weight loss… Keep it up!! I’m with you… I’ve been on living healthy for about a year and a half now. It just becomes a lifestyle! But, that doesn’t mean I don’t still struggle (especially when I get a whiff of chocolate!)

[Retro Treasures WV]

I eat chocolate every day!
95% Lindt dark chocolate – it’s basically a health food.
I cap off almost every day with 4 squares of that with some peanut butter.

Once you cut out pretty much all sugar, it’s amazing how sweet 95% dark chocolate can be.

[Ryanne]

yep, i’m all about the super dark chocolate too. that’s my go-to for sweet stuff. my other favorite snack is popcorn, but can’t do it. so i do pork rinds with dressing/dip, or more recently queso. omg yum. keto is awesome.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Pork rinds, melted butter, and flavacol. Mix it up in sealed container. That satisfies my salty/crunchy occasional craving, but it’s very rare.
I was a huge popcorn eater before. Now I can go to the movies and eat….nothing.

[Sharyn]

Great interview, and very timely for me. I’m actually having an interview tomorrow. It has been over five years since I was laid off due to the plant closing.

The job will be part time and is dependent on them winning a proposal. I will make a lot more money with a position in my field than what I do with eBay, and we could really use the cash.

Like Dan, I live in NJ, but I live in the central part which isn’t as expensive as his area closer to NY. Then again, it isn’t cheap. People in my town can commute via bus and train into NY in 1+ hour. Just being within commutable distance with public transportation makes an area more desirable, even though many of us wouldn’t consider a 1+ hour commute reasonable.

I would like the better social environment of a job. I know that really bothered me initially, but I’ve gotten used to it. Then again, if I don’t get the position, it isn’t a huge deal.

Week of Jan 12 – 18
* Total Items in Store: 1500 eBay, 34 Etsy
* Items Sold: 17 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $20.95 + $36.87 Commission
* Total Sales: $323.31 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $40 Set 2 vintage Victorian style vases
* Average Price Sold: $19.02
* Returns: 0, but one of the vases damaged in shipping
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 13

My highest price sale was also the one that was damaged in shipping. Only one of the vases broke. I’ve made a partial refund to the buyer and then submitted a claim to the USPS.

I also had a situation where I sold two bangle bracelet watches. My son was checking out one of them and broke the spring. I’ve partially refunded the buyer and will be sending out the one that is in good condition.

Both of these issues were resolved outside of any eBay intervention, which is important because I don’t want to deal with getting any defects again. To avoid those defects, though, I refunded much more than needed in order to keep the customer happy. I’m due to get my TRS status back soon, and I don’t want to screw that up.

[Jay]

Good luck on the job interview. Not a bad thing to dip your toe into a job again to see what its like. Good news is that you always have a fall back now.

[almasty]

After hemming & hawing about going to a sale all day yesterday, I finally went to one during the last hour. IT WAS A SUCCESS. I never manage to get to sales in the last hour out of anxiety due to fomo, but it was worth it for me in this case. Several boxes of stock in my niche. YES. I’ve been listing through one box all day and should have it done by tomorrow. To make it easier on myself, I’m just going to create a lot of auctions to move stuff out. The more interesting items will be listed individually. Hoping to get a majority of this done in the next 2 to 3 weeks while I juggle all of the usual listing/shipping/reselling activities around it.

Prior to that, I was listing more of my auction finds from last month. This has been my first big buy since that auction, so it’s okay. The collections all fit together nicely, so I don’t have to disrupt my listing routine too much to go from one to the other. I’ve also been working aggressively through my backlog over the past month, with 6 bankers boxes of stock from mainly 2016 & 2018 listed. This is actually the sort of stock that I can’t buy anymore due to to the large price increases where I live, so having the backlog to make up for my inability to source in one type of item is working out well for me.

Getting better with non-niche items. Thrifted an action figure on Thursday, listed it on Friday afternoon, sold it Saturday evening. Woo! I find the silliest looking ones, like movie figures or shirtless wrestling figures, but they all move quickly. Eh.

This has been a surprisingly good holiday Monday. Strong sales on both of my Ebay stores, as well as Etsy. This weekend has also been busy. It felt like the typical strong January sales weren’t coming in at the beginning of this month, but it has picked up on all of my venues.

[SilverFoxFinds]

Great podcast – awesome story, Dan! Love hearing how you eyed up the situations you found yourself in and made the most of it, honing your operation each year. It’s CRAZY that people just throw away textbooks, they are so expensive. Just watched a documentary called Waste Land, about an artist who worked with a group of recyclables pickers at the (former) world’s largest landfill. It was very good – though stomaching the amount of waste we all produce was really difficult. The very poor workers have great insights on consumption, waste, re-use, where value lies.

Retro – congrats, that is awesome! I’m needing to “recover” from the holiday carb excesses that rise up each year….I put on my flannel lined jeans this morning, since Winter has apparently come to replace Spring for a few days, and found that they were far more snug than ever before. The fit of my clothing is the sign of dietary changes needing to come. My New Year’s resolution, if you can call it that, is to walk more – daily, if possible. Needing the exercise, and just to get out of the house more.

So, ditto on the social contact. Doubly, I’m with you on how rarely I leave the house sometimes! I live in an area that I’ve never worked an outside job in, and still feel fairly new to, so making new social connections has been a real challenge. Been trying to connect with friends afar more regularly, until I create the right means of connection here locally.

1/12/20 – 1/18/20
Total Items In Store: 765
Items Sold: 17
Net Sales (Total Sales – Selling Costs): $873.13
Highest Sold Price: $370 – Lot of 19+ Lbs vintage legos, sold via auction
Average Sold Price: $51.36 (totally skewed by the LEGO sale)
Cost of Items Sold: $6.25! Still coasting off free stuff, though have had very little of this in terms of new inventory coming in.
Returns/Refunds: $0
Money Spent on New Inventory Last Week: $18.75
Number of Items listed last week: 10ish

[DantheDiner]

Thanks for the kind words. The interview was super fun.

This week’s numbers were sustainable, but still very depressed considering how much my inventory has expanded.

1/12/20 – 1/18/20
Total Items In Store: 7,360
Items Sold: 73
Total Sales: $1,096
Highest Sold Price: $100 (Broken laptop)
Average Sold Price: $15.01
Returns/Refunds: $49

[chaoticgood]

Great podcast! I love hearing about people who got started with books on half.com. I miss that site; it was great for textbooks and DVDs.

Weekly report
A slow week for me. I did quite a bit of sourcing over the last two weeks, so I am trying to get those things listed.

Items sold – 5
Gross sales – $68 (about 1/4 going to shipping and fees)
COG sold – est $14
Active listings – 164
Items listed – 20

So, I went to our local bins this week for the FIRST TIME. Then, later that week my family wanted to give it a try. Let’s just say my family will not be going back, but I will. It’s chaotic for sure. But I found some good items that I think will do well on Poshmark.

[MoCoyotes]

Total Items in Store: 3067
Items Sold: 32
Cost of Items Sold: $40
Total Sales: $1163
Highest Price Sold: $99 (Vintage Letterman Sweater)
Average Price Sold: $36.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $42
Number of items listed this week: 65

eBay feels sort of slow, but I checked and we are about $1000 ahead of last January to today’s date. So gut feeling of slow was wrong.

About the podcast…I (Ryan) started selling like Dan when I was in college in the late 90s. I had a friend who could get golf clubs at wholesale price and I would sell them on eBay. After college got a job in finance but sold on the side selling vintage clothes (which is still my go-to). From 2006-2009 I had an eBay car sales business with my ex’s cousin. I was the eBay portion of the business. We sold muscle cars and the like, but when the economy went down in 2008 and 2009, the business, which was over leveraged and on shaky ground, collapsed. I went back to finance but still doing eBay on the side.

eBay became my primary source of income in 2012. I met Rita in 2015 and within a few months we started an eBay store together. I do 100% of the listing and 90% of the sourcing. Rita does almost all of the shipping. She also coaches lacrosse and knits and spins yarn which she sells locally and on Etsy. We both also do some carpentry work and I do some landscaping and tree work, mostly because I like getting outside and working with my hands, and the cash payment is nice. But that work is maybe 5% of my income.

I came from a scavenger family. I grew up going to auctions with my grandparents. My grandma was an antiques dealer. My grandpa bought and sold everything, mostly tractors and tools and property. My dad had property and bought and sold everything. So, if they were still around, they would actually like what I’m up to for a living.

Finally, I live in a city (St. Louis), but the city is low cost. Lots of estate sales and tons of great rural thrift stores. I prefer small rural thrifts.

[Jay]

If you keep costs low and put full-time energy into scavenging, then eBay can be a sole source of income. Sounds like you guys are doing well. Do you have any issues with isolation like Dan discussed?

[MoCoyotes]

Jay –

Both Rita and I are home together most of the time. She will leave in the evenings for lacrosse and I will leave in the day for scavenging, and she sometimes comes with me. Our friends all live in and around the city. We are both introverts though, so like being home and being quiet.

[Jay]

Ryanne and I are the same way.
–We enjoy each other’s company and the adventures we get to go on.
–We both also enjoy a lot of alone time as well.
–We each are on different community boards that gets us involved locally (sometimes too much).

I assume scavengers who talk about getting a job to socialize are likely flying solo. Having a partner really makes all this work.

[MoCoyotes]

We do have intentions to move to the rural areas near St. Louis. We like the country and I’ve lived a lot of my life in rural Missouri, so do want to get back there. But won’t go far from St. Louis due to our friends and her family being here. Also the estate sales in STL are lovely.

[Libby]

Awesome podcast! Thanks for talking about the social aspect, it is something I struggle with and attending monthly ecommerce meetups has definitely helped on that front. I think working by myself at home is the hardest part of being a scavenger. Hope you all have a great week. I have been hitting my sales goal this month but not a penny above.

[scott2]

Great podcast, really enjoyed hearing from Dan!
The whole move out day from colleges can be a goldmine. I lived at Yale for a few years and the stuff those kids threw away was amazing, christmas break and end of year was insane in the recycle rooms. I would put out bins in the recycling rooms of several different buildings with a note “text books only please” and the kids would fill them for me. I had days I was listing well over a $1k on amazon. And on actual move out day the streets would be lined with dumpsters and big cut off boxes and the kids would just FILL them, I spotted a few other pickers out there enjoying the spoils as well…

[Simon]

Thanks for the podcast. That was an interesting interview with Dan. Hearing about another scavengers lifestyle was certainly interesting and Dan was very articulate.

Here are my numbers for the week:

Total Items in Store: 3492
Items Sold: 44
Total Sales: $932.29
Cost of Items Sold: $103
Average Price Sold: $21.19
Average Cost of Item: $2.36
Highest Price Item Sold: $94.95 Converse Weapon High Top Gold Purple Size 11
Number of items listed this week: 70 worth approx. $2012
YTD Sales: $2593
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +7%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 444
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 337
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 92
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.26%
Hats sold this week: 33 (75% of sales) worth $547.96 (58% of sales $)

Months till I quite my 9-5 job: 5

I had a pretty good week. According to the sames, it’s on par with this time last year. I’m not a shoe guy at all but I grabbed a couple of vintage pairs of sneakers at a warehouse estate sale and they turned out to have some value which was good for my sales total for this week.

[Jay]

Five months till retirement? Have you told us your plan when you own all your own time?

[Simon]

( grrr, I meant “quit” not “quite” )

I’ve had a plan to give up the 9-5 office life for at least 3 years. (I actually have a countdown clock on my work laptop that tells me every day how many working days are left). I hope to leave my 9-5 job the day before my 55th birthday.

Once I retire I plan to continue doing ebay at least as much as I do today. It will probably expand to fill my available free time. I’d also like to do a lot more travelling, both in the U.S and overseas. (I’ve been researching travel-trailers and RV options.) I also plan to do some kind of community service as I’d like to give some of my time back to the community. I’m not sure what form that will take.

I’m excited that retirement is now coming up fast.

[Jay]

And I know you live in a pretty upscale part of the Bay Area, any decision about selling and moving somewhere cheaper? You mentioned staying only because of family.

[Simon]

Yes. Long-term, our plan is to move somewhere less expensive. That’s not likely to happen while my aging mother-in-law is still in this area. My wife wouldn’t agree to move just yet.

[Lukastreasure]

Great show. Nice to hear how someone else got started and then grew.

Sales have fallen off a cliff for us this last week. Probably the lowest week we’ve had since September or October. Sorry to see the slower weeks return. I’m sure lower sales have to do with less listing. The holidays were so busy I had little time post new items and since the holidays ended there have been so many other things. Time to get focused again. Have a good back log of items I need to work on.

Week Ending 01/18/2020
Total Items in Store: 1148
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $563.08
Gross wo Shipping $418.50
Cost of Items Sold: $49.75
Highest Price Sold: $74.95
Average Price Sold: $24.61
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: 0
Sold via promoted listings: 5
Promoted Percentage: 29.00%
Average Days Listed: 136.18
Longest Listed: 441
New items listed: 19

[Paulo H Leocadio]

About Amazon Auctions of Returned Products

Folks,

Been catching up on the last five episodes, a lot been discussed about Amazon backstock.

Since I have not read the comments, sorry if duplicated.

Amazon has now an auction specific site for sellers to put their things on auction. Not seen details or how it operates.
but under amazon.bstock.com you can find Amazon lots of backstocks or returned items. They are boxes or pallets. It is all described in details, every single lot describes what’s inside and the average price per item.

I am relatively interested. There is a trend now of many eBay sellers posting YouTube videos about their pallet purchases, they tell how much they paid, they open during the video, some of them show what they are putting for sale and where, some even have “what sold” type of videos.

Cheers

Paulo H

[Jay]

I wonder of this stranded inventory at Amazon warehouses.

[Arizona Mike]

A slow week for book sales on eBay, trying to ramp up average inventory levels to 2000 books and book lots this year, as this is my market for higher-priced long tails and I follow the list-and-forget system as well. Amazon was okay but I sold about a third of my inventory in January and the January sales spike is slowing down. The antique mall booth remains a slow-moving site to sell duds that aren’t profitable on my other two platforms. I don’t earn a lot, but I don’t lose money either.

1/20 – 1/26

eBay Only

Total Items In Store: 774
Items Sold: 16
Total Gross Sales: $ 480.95
Highest Price Sold: $ 75 (Category Book Lot)
Average Price Sold: $ 30.06
Number of items listed: 31

Amazon Only

Total Items In Store: 1952 (The January sales spike depleted my inventory a lot)
Items Sold: 108
Total Gross Sales: $ 2170.53
Highest Price Sold: $ 123.30 (Hospitality Management Textbook)
Average Price Sold: $ 20.10
Number of items listed: 0


Antique Mall Storefront Only
Total Items In Store: 589
Items Sold: 12
Total Gross Sales: $ 100.35
Highest Price Sold: $ 17 (History of Fashion book)
Average Price Sold: $ 8.36
Number of items listed: 15

Total money spent on new inventory (Across 3 platforms): $122.50 – ramping up inventory again.

Good podcast, always enjoy those interviews with other sellers.

[Author]

Posts