Home › Forums › Weekly Numbers › Scavenger Life Episode 458: Help A Fellow Small Business
- This topic has 67 replies, 27 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 12 months ago by Jay.
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04/12/2020 at 2:03 pm #76136
Help out our fellow small business, Broad Porch Coffee and order some delicious beans! Join the conversation in the forum>> Our Store Week Apr
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 458: Help A Fellow Small Business] -
04/12/2020 at 2:36 pm #76139
04/05/20 – 04/11/20
Total Items In Store: 3335
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $ 70
Total Sales: $ 764.60
Highest Price Sold: $ 65 (Rollerblades)
Average Price Sold: $ 30.58
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 0
Number of items listed: 34Gut Sales Report for the week: It felt like all I was selling was Inline skates. I
sold 7 pair this week and another person wants to buy 2 pair. Without the skates, it would have
been an ok week.Challenge of the week: Still trying to take pictures of about 10 items everyday
Mon-Sat.Scavenge of the week: Nothing.
Mark S
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04/12/2020 at 3:51 pm #76144
Just last night my husband and I were frustrated that insta cart does not deliver whole beans from our local market. I almost ordered from David Lynch – but since his business if probably gonna be okay – I immediate paused the podcast and ordered from your guys.
Looking forward to my beans!
David
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04/12/2020 at 4:33 pm #76151
Awesome. Phil and Jill are good people. We love his roasting profiles.
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04/12/2020 at 4:08 pm #76146
Hello!
Always searching for a good coffee subscription 🙂
- This reply was modified 4 years ago by Eve Everett.
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04/12/2020 at 4:32 pm #76150
Yeah! Thanks Eve. Good to see you again.
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04/12/2020 at 4:20 pm #76148
Total Items in Store: 283 Ebay, About 55 Mercari
Items Sold: 13 Ebay, 6 Mercari
Gross Sales: $699 Ebay, $85 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $72 Ebay + $10 Mercari (some items ours)
Highest Price Sold: $153 (Two Norwegian cross stitch kits of cats)
Average Price Sold: $53 Ebay, $14 Mercari
Returns: 1 immediate cancellation $14
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: About $85 online clearance RA
Number of items listed this week: 12 Ebay, 7 MercariSo grateful that you are still doing the Podcast and keepin’ it real. I’m excited about your new business coming down the pike. Makes total sense for your town and future renters. Smart to have partners.
Finally after a couple of weeks of listing my Ebay store “turned back on”. I’ve been sending offers and listing about every other day. The good sales definitely got me even more interested in listing, though I have my day job work to do as well. In fact, I’d rather be listing on Ebay and getting stocked up again. I’m not being super picky about photography. I’ve been listing vintage fabric, kitchenware, and art work lately from the piles. It feels really good to get some of these boxes out of the garage and tackle them. Easter stuff did not move well but I sold a couple of items.
Mercari seems quite active lately. I was hesitant to put items from the piles on Mercari because they don’t get sucked into my bookkeeping spreadsheet and I have to keep my own records. It’s a bit tedious too because you can’t sort the sales by sale date, etc. and have to drill down into orders. But, some of the lower dollar vintage I’m giving a go on there.
Incidentally, I found out this week that extreme couponers are listing on Mercari in case anyone is looking to buy essentials, especially personal care items. I normally buy some groceries and drug store items on Walmart.com but they are sold out of a lot of items and shipping is slower than before.
Have a great week and happy Easter to those who celebrate.
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04/12/2020 at 4:34 pm #76152
Glad to see CA has done a great job keeping the virus at bay. Gov Newsome was smart to lock down early and completely.
You’ve been very committed to Mercari over the year. Does it feel like the platform has staying power?
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04/12/2020 at 9:01 pm #76166
Hi Jay, we’ll see. It’s a great place to get rid of our stuff and lower dollar items I think. The ease of use is really key plus people are on their phones a lot and it’s reaching younger buyers who aren’t necessarily using Ebay. I think Mercari has had to cut back on their Google pay-to-play and sadly had to ditch the cheaper shipping on lower weight items but I still like it.
Yes, and our area was behind the major metros. I think it was actually a woman in one of the Bay Area counties who organized other counties and started the super early shut down. In our area, only the Federal prison is bringing people to the hospital these days. Now what is the question… My understanding is that California is still behind on testing and results.
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04/12/2020 at 5:12 pm #76158
04/05/20 – 04/11/20
Total Items In Store: 15,014
Gross Sales – $2,117.28
Total Orders – 89
Total Items sold – 112
Cost of goods sold – ~$11
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 0Slower week than normal, was under 2k for the week until yesterday. I also applied for the Disaster grant and it was almost comically simple, so I’m very skeptical that I’ll actually get the funds. The SBA is already trying to back out of the law that was passed, which I didn’t know was even possible to openly ignore a law. Last I read they’ve now changed their grants from 10k to 1k per employee. The whole thing is a clusterfuck, really.
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04/12/2020 at 5:16 pm #76159
Are most of your sales still from the old newspaper and magazine lot? Just amazing how many you sell.
Yeah, when we applied for that SBA loan/grant, I knew immediately it’d be a non-starter because it was so easy. Only way it works is if they just start sending out cash to pump money into the economy. Honestly it’d be better than giving tens of millions to big corporations. At least small businesses would spread it out locally.
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04/12/2020 at 5:27 pm #76160
Yeah, 90% of the sales were magazines. And I agree, it seems like nothing was learned from the 2008 recession, even though this is much different circumstances. I don’t see why their #1 priority shouldn’t be small business funding, it’s the backbone of our economy. Corporations shouldn’t even receive free money from a slush fund, it would make more sense to give them access to near 0% loans that they can then pay pack.
I’ve been reading that many who applied received an email to reapply. I’ve received nothing, not even a credit pull yet, which means they haven’t got to my application or they just flat out denied it due to have no employees.
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04/12/2020 at 5:45 pm #76161
Ordered my coffee! Listing my hoard of vintage jewelry. I probably never would have gotten around to it if not for the shut down.
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04/12/2020 at 5:49 pm #76162
Awesome. Now you can get extra caffeinated and get it all listed. We’re working through our “never would have done this” list.
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04/12/2020 at 6:15 pm #76163
April 5 – 11
Total Items in Store: 3,926
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $1,115
* Above yearly average of $972
Highest Price: $170 (Jackson Dynamic Electron Vacuum Tube Tester)
Average Price: $36
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $35
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $6
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 43This past week was spent very unproductively. I’m lucky to have gotten 40 listings done honestly. Every day was a struggle to get off my butt and work. It must be my cabin fever getting the best of me. Maybe I needed a week of being lazy to reset my brain a little.
That’s so cool that you’re starting your own coffee business. Steph and I have always talked about how fun it would be to do something like that. I wish you the best of luck and I’ll check out your coffee suppliers’ store too.
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04/12/2020 at 9:01 pm #76167
Yeah, when you work for yourself, sometimes you forget to take a “weekend”. Our bodies always tell us when its time to turn off for a couple days.
I forget that wage earners get two days off a week to do whatever they want.
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04/13/2020 at 7:47 am #76172
I find that doing an organization or improvement project re-energizes me. Something with a clear scope of work and defined completion point.
I disagree on the week of laziness being good for you. Newton’s 1st law of motion applies here. An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Get up and do something – you’ll feel better!
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04/13/2020 at 7:36 am #76170
Items in Store 1574
Items Sold 42
Total Sales $1,284.00
COGS $70.00
Total Profit $1,214.00
Average profit $28.90
Average sales price $30.57
New Listings 99Another excellent week. Man if I would have know I was at 99 new listings I would have done one more to hit an even hundred. Lol!
Ebay really should capitalize with some advertisement right now to bring in more sellers. Amazon is really screwed up right now and their shipping quote times are laughably bad. Ebay is pretty much the only place in the world right now where you can get what you want and have it shipped quick. #ebayisopen #ebayhaswhatyouneed-
04/13/2020 at 7:41 am #76171
In other news, the Governor declared the county I work in a “hot spot” by executive order. This is supposed to kick in additional restrictions on businesses. I have not heard from my boss what, if any, changes will take place from it. The likely thing is that I’ll be working 100% from home. We already have to wear masks 100% of the time at work. They may reduce the amount of workers that can be there at the same time. It’s looking to be an interesting week!
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04/13/2020 at 10:54 am #76190
Retro I totally agree. Ebay should step up. I like their new slogan “Seriously, we have everything.” Ebay’s army of small sellers is a total advantage right now.
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04/13/2020 at 9:24 am #76178
Hello all, I logged into Broad Porch Coffee Co, after a simple goggle search, easy ordered a ground bag of the ‘Southern Split’, which sounds like a fantastic dark roast, my preference. Paying with Paypal was also a plus.
Thank you, thank you for the Podcast! “Keep talking, Let them hear you talk!”04/05 – 04/11/20 (no cross listing is done between platforms)
eBay store: totommyto
Total store items: 780
Number of items sold: 11
Total eBay sales (not counting s/h): $416
Cost of items sold: $34
Highest price sold: $182.50 – lot of 7 vintage jet plane desk models, paid $20
Average price sold: $37.82
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 11
Sell through rate for the week: 1.4
Number International sales: 0Etsy store oldfleatoymarket
Total store items: 624
Number of items sold: 5
Total Etsy sales (not counting s/h): $174.50
Cost of items sold: $11
Highest price sold: $65.50 – set of 7 vintage Shakespeare books, paid $5
Average price sold: $34.90
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: 0
Number of new items listed this week: 12
Sell through rate for the week: 0.8
Number International sales: 0-
04/13/2020 at 10:32 am #76186
Southern Split and the Ethiopian (a light roast) are my two favorite Broad Porch coffees.
Good to see that Etsy is still doing okay for you.
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04/13/2020 at 11:24 am #76196
I’m hoping the Southern Split blows away the Starbucks French I am accustomed too brewing so I can say goodbye to Starbucks!
The interesting thing on Etsy is that I don’t do anything different than ebay. No baskets, bows, note cards, or frills when packing/shipping. Same photo quality and effort. Different listings formats yet basically going for the same buyer.
I am a bit selective on what I list on each platform although not much difference there. The only other conscious thing I do is refrain from using eBay packing supplies, or at least black out the logos. I get this gut feeling that some Etsy buyers hate eBay. I trust my gut enough.
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04/13/2020 at 9:26 am #76179
Good to hear from you guys, cool that you’re thinking of opening up a cafe. So you will be sort of silent partners in this venture? Or do you intend for this other coffee co to rent your space?
I continue to be exceedingly lucky, I am selling just fine in this crisis.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3083, 31 sales, COGS: $389, Fees: ~$428, Postage: $656 –> Gross profit: $1610
Expenditures: $698 –> Cashflow: $1957Still not really sourcing to any significant extent though. New job is taking up most of my spare time & brain cycles.
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04/13/2020 at 10:39 am #76187
We’re still hammering out the details, but the ideas is we’ll be partners. We wont be silent and will put time into the Luray shop. But ultimately they’ll skill is running a successful coffee shop. Our skills are growing the business and building infrastructure.
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04/13/2020 at 11:54 am #76198
I coincidentally happened to have purchased lots of coffee right before the lockdown. But, Scavenger Life is such a big part of my week, I went and purchased the Southern Split. We also enjoy a dark roast. I forgot to write a note about Scavenger Life, but I’m sure they’ll be seeing all these purchases from all over the country and wonder what the hell is going on.
The two big auction houses that I normally go to have started to do online auctions temporarily. I hope that they don’t enjoy it too much because I don’t need more online auction companies. The first one had mostly the more expensive stuff and I didn’t bother bidding. The second company just put their stuff online, and I think that their starting prices are too high in some cases. I saw a few things here and there I might bid on, but I’m going to be careful. IRL, they would start combining lots if it didn’t sell right away. They can’t do that online, so I wonder how they are going to handle it if some items don’t get any bids.
Week of April 5 – 11
* Total Items in Store: 1442 eBay, 37 Etsy
* Items Sold: 28 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $25.05 + $197.09 Commission
* Total Sales: $894.13 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $250 for 14K ring with a gemstone and small diamonds (on commission), 2nd place $126 for Azerbaijan glassware pitcher (also on commission), 3rd place $99 for ruby color iMac from 2000
* Average Price Sold: $31.93
* Returns: 0 (but 1 immediate cancel)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 8My week was tremendous, but mostly due several items on commission, so my COGS are quite high. I did have a $99 sale of my own, and I had many sales overall, so just a good week.
The $99 sale was an older iMac in partially working condition. I messaged him to make sure he knew it didn’t work as I don’t want a return from Texas (although the listing is no returns). He said that he has free time because of the current situation, and he likes to fix computers and get them in working condition. So, this lockdown has not been bad for my sales at all.
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04/13/2020 at 4:04 pm #76211
They’ve received lots of orders and it was a real surprise! They texted us because they couldnt figure out why they were getting orders from all ver the country 🙂
You did have some great sales.
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04/14/2020 at 9:36 am #76229
They were super fast with their shipping too! I ordered yesterday and within a few hours had an email notification that my coffee had shipped. 🙂
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04/13/2020 at 12:08 pm #76200
Hi R&J – Thanks for the podcast this week. Since I don’t have a commute at the moment (week 5 of working from home), I listened while I listed yesterday. I paused and ordered a bag of coffee. (I didn’t see a place in the checkout to mention that R&J sent me. )
Good luck with your new business I’ll be really interested to hear how that goes. Is there a new podcast in your future perhaps?….
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 3815
Items Sold: 67
Total Sales: $1484.27
Cost of Items Sold: $170
Average Price Sold: $22.15
Average Cost of Item: $2.54
Highest Price Item Sold: $94.95 Sony Handycam Digital MiniDV DCR-TRV30
Number of items listed this week: 71
YTD Sales: $14964
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +15%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 445
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 352
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 287
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.76%
Hats sold this week: 40 (59% of sales) worth $630.19 (42% of sales $)I had a great week. I was just $12 short of beating my best week for the whole of 2019. I’ve been doing lots of listing while stuck at home. That has helped a bit but it seems like people are continuing to buy lowish-value items like hats which is surprising to me.
I made my biggest sourcing purchase ever this week 1000 preowned hats for $1000 ($700 plus $300 shipping). Fingers-crossed that they actually arrive. The seller has some challenges – no car and no printer. It wouldn’t surprise me if he finds it will cost well over $500 to ship that many hats. If the hats do show up I’m going to have a serious challenge finding a place to put them. I might have to get a storage unit so that my wife doesn’t leave me. 🙂
I hope everyone has a healthy (and profitable) week.
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04/13/2020 at 4:04 pm #76212
Wow. you had a fantastic week. Was the 1000 hat lot on eBay?
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04/13/2020 at 5:21 pm #76217
Yes. That was an eBay purchase. If you want to see the gamble I’m taking, have a look at the ebay listing. The photos are horrible so I really have no idea what I’m getting : https://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-AROUND-1000-VINTAGE-TRUCKER-SNAP-CAPS-HAT-ADVERTISEMENT-SNAPBACK-HATS/164117498242
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04/14/2020 at 8:19 am #76223
That don’t look like 1000. They’re also sitting on the floor next to an animal pen. Man I hope this works out well for you. Keep us updated!
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04/13/2020 at 12:17 pm #76202
I’m one of the few who never guessed Coffee Shop. What a great idea for that area! I’m so excited for you. The locally owned coffee shop, Swift and Finch where I live has been closed due to the virus but in the meantime they’ve been staying afloat by driving to different neighborhoods each morning in their converted French 1971 Citroen van. It’s the coolest most unique little van. They take it to farmers markets and to different events around town like weddings and whatnot which pay them to come out in order to provide a whimsical coffee experience on site.
Sales have been down for me but I’m continually surprised at every sale I get. I can’t believe anyone is buying anything right now. If nothing else, I feel good shipping items out because it’s helping the currently beleaguered post office.
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04/13/2020 at 12:29 pm #76203
I ordered a couple lbs of expresso from Broad Porch since I drink two large mugs of it daily. I didn’t see anywhere to let them know you’d sent me either but with the number of random out of towners ordering this week they should figure it out. I hope their “shipping department” is up to it. 🙂
I did open a second store last year for low value items including patches and postcards and the like that would not have tracking. I also sell any clothing I come across in that store and don’t offer returns. I am able to easily maintain TRS status in my main store and with my low volume, all it takes is a couple postcards with no tracking to kill my TRS. Administratively it’s easy to maintain the second store because I use EasyAuctionsTracker that pulls the numbers for both stores and I keep the stores open on different browsers. But after a flurry of initial sales it has not been worth the subscription cost so I am rethinking it. I know you all don’t care about TRS but it’s tough to let go if you’ve been used to it.
I concur that sellers who specialize in collector niches can develop strong followings. Some whom I follow put everything on auction and almost never leave any money on the table – they get vigorous bidding and great prices. I think it would discourage interested collectors from subscribing to a seller if their new item emails contained too much random stuff. But I do think you guys probably get more repeat buyers than you realize, even with your kitchen sink approach. You’ve mentioned it before but eBay really should give sellers that information somehow.
I think you’re right about this time being different, as far as a recession is concerned. This one was not triggered by financial factors, and I think there’s much more of a “we’ll get through this together” sentiment. For example the banks back then generally had absolutely no qualms about foreclosing on houses (and of course financial institutions were failing in alarming numbers). Now, it seems they are really trying not to put people out on the street. That could change, of course….
It’s great to see how decent everyone’s numbers are, considering the circumstances! Mine are not, but eBay isn’t my main income so I’ll be fine.
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04/13/2020 at 2:25 pm #76207
On today’s podcast Ryanne was talking about FB Marketplace taking down items. I sell a lot on Marketplace and other local apps. When I listed something like a picture of a horse or a bunny garden ornament FB thought I was selling animals. So now I’m real careful about the wording. I just say garden ornamen because they can see it’s a bunny. It isn’t ebay– I don’t spend much time with descriptions unless it’s measurements. When FB takes items down you can appeal it. I’ve been successful with that, for ex. saying this is not an actual horse it’s a picture of one.
I’m happy to help with any other questions re: FB Marketplace or other local app selling. Stay well, everyone!-
04/14/2020 at 2:05 pm #76241
I’ve pretty much abandoned selling on FB marketplace due to the constant takedowns for things that should be fine.
The buying experience is now becoming a pain as well because the marketplace is OVERWHELMED with non-local advertising junk.
They’ve taken a great thing and ruined it.
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04/13/2020 at 4:07 pm #76213
My numbers for the week of 4/5/20:
Total Items in Store: 224
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $86
Total Sales: $772 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $185 (Bible Commentary)
Average Price Sold: $42.89
Returns: 0Exciting to hear of your new coffee shop plans!
I don’t post my numbers too regularly, but the podcast mentioned sellers like me. Small inventory, no death pile, quicker moving product. I actually usually do have bins of unlisted inventory in my basement, but it is only to carry me through the winter months (I’m in Northeast Ohio). Buying season for me is early spring through early fall, where I fill up those bins. I time it really close so that it’s just enough to carry me through to March…which usually works great. Except for during a pandemic/shut down all my normal sources of inventory situation! So if I was listing at my pre-epidemic pace now, I would have only about 2-3 weeks of inventory left to list. What I have done is slow waaay down in my listing. Couple things a day. Just enough to keep my account active. Actually, I didn’t list a thing since last Tuesday. (A tornado hit our area on late Tuesday/early Wednesday am. My family of 5 was huddled under our pool table in the basement. Major tree damage and a huge fir tree snapped in half and hit the corner of our house. Damage to the roof but all external, thank the Lord. Power and internet was out for a day. Lots of cleanup and an insurance claim. No eBay happening.) Despite the lack of working on eBay, my sales have remained pretty consistent to pre-pandemic levels. I had one pathetic week about 2 weeks ago, and that was it. Everything went back to usual levels. Nothing I am selling is essential. I’ve recently sold some of the oldest items I had listed! I think I have enough to keep this going at my slower pace for a couple more months. By then I am hoping things will be opening back up so I can start sourcing new inventory. I’m a little concerned that garage sale season will be short and sparse this year. Not sure if people will be comfortable enough to open up their garages and have strangers touching everything. Will they just not have them this year? Will it still be risky to go out and be in contact with people and their stuff through the summer? It’s my main venue for sourcing. I might have to adjust. I have not gotten into estate sales but that would be where I would turn to fill in the need to source new items.
I hate to even say this, but with the percentage of people passing with the virus, there are bound to be an unprecedented abundance of estate sales in the near future.-
04/14/2020 at 8:56 am #76227
Yeah, you may have to change up how you scavenge this year. “Just in time” inventory will be tough this summer.
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04/13/2020 at 10:46 pm #76220
4/4/20-4/10/20
Total Items In Store: 2161
Items Sold: 39
Total Sales: $ 1051.70
Highest Price Sold: $ 90 (Perfume)
Average Price Sold: $ 26.97
Returns: 1 $30
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of items listed: 0 (Out of Inventory to list)• Sales are good…continue to hit goal of $1000/week.
• No auctions or yard sales due to shutdown making it hard to find items to list. I anticipate this will eventually start impacting sales.
• I am getting a lot of projects done in the absence of listings, so at least staying productive.
• Since quitting my career job last March, store has been increased from 800 items to almost 2200 items and sales have increased from $250/week avg to $1000/week avg.
• I also applied for the small business loan/grant. Didn’t even get a confirmation e-mail, so I am very skeptical that this will amount to anything.-
04/14/2020 at 8:56 am #76226
Nice. Sales. Slow and steady wins the race. Whenever things do open up, there will be a tidal wave of stuff to scavenge.
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04/14/2020 at 12:10 pm #76237
We had a pretty good week, selling mostly puzzles and DVD recorders. We are currently working on re-listing our entire store. It is a long story but we had our store shut off for 5 months and all our 1900 items got deleted. It was an error of my own. Regardless we are doing our best to put as much up as we can. We are trying to decide what to work on, hard goods or clothing. Is anyone selling clothing?
Ryanne, the 4×4 box is nice but it is really annoying that a lot of mugs won’t even fit in there, even without bubble wrap.-
04/14/2020 at 5:31 pm #76243
Hope you guys had a great trip away from home. I remember when you were deciding what to do with your store when you were gone. That’s incredibly frustrating you have to relist 1900 items from scratch.
We use Inkfrog as our backup. It’s web based so no need to maintain your own database. It syncs with our eBay store and keeps everything. Its great when we need to go find an old listing: has photos and everything. I think its $10/month.
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04/14/2020 at 7:57 pm #76247
We had a wonderful time. It was a great “experiment” to see if we could make money with print on demand items.
I actually signed up for inkfrog and had it all set up but apparently I did not add my credit card after the free trial. I didn’t receive an email from them to give me a heads up and I just completely forgot about it. We had so much going on with our trip. Regardless we are trying to see the bright side, we get to touch all of the items again and re-evaluate. Taking new pictures helps as well. Wishing everyone lots of productivity and good health.-
04/15/2020 at 7:52 am #76256
So did you guys make consistent income with :print on demand” with Amazon?
Isn’t this where you guys think of funny t-shirts when things happen in the news to capitalize on its popularity? Is it that easy?
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04/15/2020 at 9:19 pm #76292
We are giving it a shot to see if it can be an additional income generator for us. At this time it is more simple shirts that are geared towards birthdays, holidays ect. Most are in Spanish. We are always behind the curve when it comes to “trends”. 🙂 It was nice to get back to selling from my store again. Only 1500 more items to list -_-
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04/16/2020 at 7:03 am #76299
Makes sense. It has incredible potential because all you do is come up with the ideas and then let Amazon do the printing. I remember when you guys sold a bunch of shirts once when you came up with a funny design after some sports event.
Do other shirt sellers copy you if you have a design that seems popular? That would be my biggest concern since the bar to entry is so low.
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04/16/2020 at 5:52 pm #76317
We use other markets as well, like etsy and ebay. We have actually been selling mostly phone cases, t shirts, and a few mugs. We send most of the stuff to a print shop to complete. Other sellers do steal ideas for sure, but there really is no recourse for that. We actually had one that Edgar designed stolen by someone on redbubble, I had to send them a strongly worded letter. On redbubble you can get your whole account shut down if you copy others. It is a nice venture to do while we were traveling, it is not enough to make a full time living as of yet but we are working on getting our numbers up. Oh, we have done a few journals too.
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04/14/2020 at 10:15 pm #76250
My son had his $1200 stimulus money by Monday! We heard that those with the least income in 2019 are the first to get the $
Like many of you, buyers disappeared for a while, but this week they came back. Lots of lower stuff, but I don’t mind being in business again.
Crazy times. My relations in Michigan are under anti-gardening laws. A Walmart, Meijers, or Lowes has to block off the seeds, plants, shovels, compost and everything else that you would need to grow your own food. I’m not joking, “According to the order, stores that occupy more than 50,000 square feet and offer essential items can remain open, but will be forced to close off access to certain parts of the store, where items like gardening supplies, plant nurseries, house paint, flooring, and furniture are sold.” Governor’s executive order as of April 9.
And you know where all those hungry Michigan gardeners are going to turn? Ebay-
04/14/2020 at 10:22 pm #76251
I don’t get it. How is growing your own food going to affect the spread of the virus? That makes no sense whatsoever.
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04/15/2020 at 8:38 am #76258
It’s bizarre what they consider to be essential or non-essential during this time. You’d think seeds would be considered essential, plus all of the necessary components to grow them. I’ve read that they’re blocking off sections of big box stores by official orders, but you’d think that anything that leads to food (an essential item) would be considered essential.
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04/15/2020 at 8:30 am #76257
Sharyn,
I’m guessing its not about growing the food, its about buying the products to grow food in a B&M store.-
04/15/2020 at 9:03 am #76259
I happened to see an article this morning providing more details, but, like Almasty said, anything that would provide for food should be considered essential. Or, for providing people reasons to be outside and getting their vitamin D.
https://news.yahoo.com/angry-shoppers-slam-rules-preventing-153710207.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=2_04
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04/15/2020 at 1:49 pm #76270
It seems like it could be an attempt to be equitable to all businesses. eg: toy shops must close but Walmarts that sells groceries (and also sell toys) are open. Nurseries are closed but home improvement stores, that sell gardening tools, are open. It must be awkward in some stores to close off sections but attempting to restrict walk-in stores to limit sales to essential items only seems like a reasonable thing to do.
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04/15/2020 at 2:31 pm #76273
I hear you, but I think that gardening, especially anything to do with growing vegetables, should be considered essential.
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04/15/2020 at 1:08 pm #76269
Congrats on the new venture and good luck! We’ve been wanting to get over to Luray and rent your Air B&B spot, now just one more reason to go. Chalk up another order for the Southern Split. Placed the order yesterday after listening to the podcast. Looking forward to trying something new. Normally go for the large bag or Pete’s from Costco.
We had an amazing week on eBay with $2120 in sales. Three large sales Friday and Saturday that really put us over the top. Sold an antique lantern for $499, an old clock for $350 and two vintage Ansel Adams posters for $482. Frankly, I’m still in shock. I think that is probably our most for a single week ever. We’ve had that clock up for some time. Originally asked $895, but finally took an offer this week.
Week Ending 04/11/2020
Total Items in Store: 1148
Items Sold: 22
Gross Sales: $2,122.49
Gross wo Shipping $1,908.41
Cost of Items Sold: $139.43
COGS Percent 7.31%
Highest Price Sold: $499.95 Antique Lantern
Average Price Sold: $88.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 7
Promoted Percentage: 31.82%
Average Days Listed: 463
Longest Listed: 1389
New items listed: 29-
04/15/2020 at 8:20 pm #76290
You had a na amazing week. Goes to show that it helps having a big inventory because you never know when people will pull the trigger on weird purchases for a lot of money.
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04/15/2020 at 3:55 pm #76275
My bag of Guatemalan Broad Porch Coffee arrived today and I’m enjoying my first cup now!
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04/15/2020 at 4:25 pm #76279
we just opened a bag of Guatemalan too, it’s tasty!
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04/16/2020 at 10:24 am #76301
Received my bag of coffee down in here GA already! It smells amazing! Tell them they could save themselves some money on shipping. It was 13 oz and they mailed it priority.
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04/16/2020 at 4:24 pm #76314
Yeah, Ryanne going to bring her shipping expertise to the business. Glad you got it quick.
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04/16/2020 at 11:20 am #76302
Ya’ll have convinced me to try out this coffee. Just ordered a bag of Southern Split, because why not have a crazy mix?
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04/15/2020 at 7:30 pm #76284
Thanks for continuing doing the podcasts. It does give us a little normal, to this mess we are all in. There is a BACK Porch Coffee in the Northwest, hope it doesn’t affect you guys in VA. 21 of the 90 Goodwills here in AZ just opened on Monday. Its a start. We really do appreciate everything you share with us.
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04/15/2020 at 8:25 pm #76291
You guys all make our life interesting as well. We were all “stay at home to work” before it was cool.
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04/17/2020 at 2:33 am #76334
My eBay Sales (No Store) Week April 5-11, 2020
Total Items in Store: 26
Items Sold: 2
Gross Sales: $39.65
Cost of Items Sold: $0
Highest Price Sold: $21.64 (XBox One Game)
Average Price Sold: $19.83
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number Of Items Listed This Week: 7My wife and I plan on purchasing at least one pound of coffee from your partners this week. If my wife likes the coffee, we may be able to do a subscription. 🙂
- This reply was modified 4 years ago by old_man_marty.
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04/17/2020 at 8:48 am #76341
Our biggest local thrift chain started taking donations again drive through. Interesting because we will probably be late to reopen in our state and the locals will wait for the state even though we don’t have a lot of cases.
- This reply was modified 4 years ago by ChristineR.
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04/17/2020 at 10:49 am #76345
The Goodwills in NW Georgia were open only for donation drop offs but they shut that down a few days ago because they are now overflowing with inventory that will just be sitting in their stores until who knows when. Am tempted to check them out on the first day that they are back open. I’ll have to wait and see how I feel about the state of the area’s health first though.
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04/18/2020 at 8:45 pm #76395
First poster….long time listener. Congratulations on the coffee venture! Just ordered the ethiopian. So happy for you all.
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04/19/2020 at 8:55 am #76402
Light roast. That’s my speed too.
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