Scavenger Life Episode 484: $1000 A Week Machine

[Ryanne]

 Join the conversation in the forum>> Check out our coffee! ► http://bit.ly/broadporchebay Our Store Week October 11-17, 2020 Total Items in St
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 484: $1000 A Week Machine]

[purpleguppy]

Heard there was an explosion in downtown Harrisonburg and though of you. Happy to see the podcast released. Hope you’re all well.

[Jay]

I thought the same thing when I saw the news. It was a couple miles from Broad Porch in Harrisonburg. Sounds like it was a gas leak.

[Uncle Taco]

Jay et al,

I think that the “Frugality” part of this is CRUCIAL.  I couldn’t be doing this full time if I lived like a lot of my friends or relatives.

I believe Frugality is a KEY component if someone wants to do this FT the way we do it (i.e reselling vintage and not new items from China) and that we don’t talk about that aspect nearly enough.

I’d like to know if when you say that “ebay pays all your bills” are you including the mortgages (I assume you have mortgages)  on your Air BNB properties and you downtown building(s) and the renovation costs of those? I know you’ve mentioned you own your home.

Also, can you further clarify the average $1000 per week? I know that’s just sales so if you take out your cost of goods, your helper, your 13-14% ebay final value fees and your $75 per week for anchor store subscription, that’s closer to around $670 per month profit. I’m also leaving out taxes. Is my math close to accurate?

I know that’s how I run my numbers so I’m making 100% sure I’m bringing in enough to cover my expenses and my family and I live VERY frugally compared to most we know.

Thanks for all you do. I wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t found you guys online years ago so I feel like I owe you  alot. Thanks

 

[Lauren]

Numbers for this week:

Items in Store 608

Items Sold: 16- 11 Ebay, 5 FB Marketplace

Total Sales: $375

COGS $29.25

Total Profit $345.75 minus fees

Average profit $21

Average sales price $23

Highest Priced Item: $45 Ice cream maker- local, no fees

New Listings: Ebay-0, Amazon- 130

 

Been focusing on Amazon this week. Had a $130 dollar day on amazon today thats not included in my numbers. Ebay was a pretty solid week. Been working on a secret project this week, and I ran out of stuff to list, but I have more that will be available starting tomorrow so next week will be a big listing week again. Woohoo!

[The_SEAM_Store]

+1 on File Exchange,

I’ve been using it for years for weekly/monthly sales reports, active listing/inventory reconciliation, item specific changes. It’s definitely the optimal way to go, especially if you have a larger inventory, and some basic level excel/numbers experience.

[Jay]

We’re slow learners. Glad to hear it works.

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 341
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $235
Cost of Items Sold: $87
Highest Price Sold: $69 (RA new pajamas from summer clearance)
Average Price Sold: $34
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0

Thanks for the podcast. This week I listened to it while I waited for my teen and her friend to take selfies at the pumpkin patch.  LOL.  So much for listing while you listen.

@Simon, congrats on your early retirement.  I can’t wait to see how you ramp up Ebay even more. It’s been impressive and you always have been really organized with your numbers.

I’ve been alerted by the day job that it will be a busy week.  Between that and obsessing about my son’s college app and search, Ebay is just really on the back burner.  Mercari is super dead, everything is pretty much listed for their minimum $9 now and once and a while an items sells. Sometimes someone will ask me for a break on the $9 and I’m like it’s not even worth the effort to get up and pack it!  Since Mercari’s shipping went up, it’s a bummer for my typical 1-2 pound items.  Have a good week!

[Simon]

Thanks @ChristineR.  It’s going to be interesting to see how things go.  I’ll spend a bit more time on eBay but I’m also going to do some community service and a bunch of deferred maintenance around my house so I’m not expecting to ramp up very quickly.

[simplicio]

We had our first snow of the year so the kids were tobogganing all weekend, good fun. I had time to set up some more ebay shelving too.

Had another great week on ebay.

Sales c/w shipping: CAD$4979, 17 sales, COGS: $691, Fees: ~$673, Postage: $$601 –> Gross profit: $3014

Expenses: $689, New inventory: $663 –> Cashflow: $2354

Couple pneumatic controllers (recently bought at auction) sold for $1400, and a water quality meter (bought on ebay) sold for $800.

[Julie B]

3 more weeks at my job before I go FT reselling – I think the last 3 weeks are going to feel like forever.

I had 2 GREAT thrifting days this weekend. Saturday was at one of those Amazon Return stores where everything is priced $5 the first day no matter what it is.  I found some high dollar stuff, including some sort of gun calibrator I’ve listed for $189 and a box of fancy supplements I’ve listed for $140.

Sunday I went to my first garage sale in years. It was a charity that works with women rescued from sex slavery type situations.  Many of the women aren’t ready to work out in public so they run an ebay and Poshmark store!  They are remodeling their space so they sold all of their ebay inventory for dirt cheap.  I got tons of NWT clothing items for $1.28/ea.  10 Ryan Michael shirts with $170 price tags per shirt. Tons of dresses and other things with $200+ price tags. It was insane!  I’m kicking myself that I didn’t go on Saturday – who knows what I missed out on.  I thought about offering to buy all of the leftover stock but I really didn’t want to drag that much stuff home.

[Sharyn]

Interesting discussion about buying a car. Our daughter started a job about a month ago, and we have only one car with an automatic transmission, which is my minivan. So, we need to buy another one. In consultation with Consumer Reports and other research, we’ve decided on a 2017 Mazda 3. At the dealer on Saturday, the manager started talking about how a 2018 would be better for resale, and I’m like “uh, our newest car is 13 years old”. Ha! They didn’t have exactly what we wanted, so we are still looking.

I’m starting to see prices again in messages. I think Jay is right. Some programmer made a change and somehow wiped out the prices, and now they are back.

Salt cellars – some people still like to use them. Perhaps they are considered more formal or fancy. I bought a large lot of glass ones a few years ago. They didn’t go for much, but they did sell pretty fast.

Yes, a slow week all around:

Week of Oct 11 – 17
Total Items in Store: 1330 eBay, 33 Etsy
Items Sold: 13 eBay
Cost of Items Sold: $22.30 + $26 Commission
Total Sales: $242.82 eBay
Highest Price Sold: $39 lot 2 vintage Optimus / Radio Shack headphones
Average price: $18.68
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $9.20
Number of items listed this week: 0

I volunteer for my town’s friends of the environmental commission group and manage the Freecycling events twice a year. I had to cancel in the spring. Although it is an outdoor event and could still happen, we rely on a local university to provide many of our volunteers, but they are currently remote. From ideas here on the forum and our freecycling Facebook group, we decided to go “curbside” this time. It was quite successful with about 130 houses that registered. I cannot use the event to get inventory as it is strictly against the rules, but some friends offered me a few items that hadn’t been taken. I’ll have to rewire a brass lamp, and I’ll have to figure out how to ship a large, heavy vintage (maybe antique?) enamel table.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store    1564

Items Sold           24

Total Sales          $721.00

COGS    $127.00

Total Profit         $594.00

Average profit   $24.75

Average sales price          $30.04

New Listings       76

October is really turning out to be a dud compared to September. I agree that people must just be really burnt out on virus and politics and that is why sales are not where I expected. Not to mention the stimulus never happened.

 

Yesterday I did all of my listing photos and I had a moment of panic. I updated my app on the iphone and mobile photo uploading was RUINED! I had to log a case with ebay in hopes it gets fixed. With the new ‘recent” tool photos upload in a default order no matter what order you select them. So all my photos are in reverse order. If I went to the tradtional photo album area to select photos, completely wrong photos were being uploaded!

 

I did find a workaround. You click on photo album, then click “all photos” at the top of screen, then click “all photos” again. This will allow you to upload photos the same as prior to the update. That’s ALOT of clicks to get to upload photos…annoying.

 

In regards to the $1000 machine, I checked my numbers and this year I have a $1000 a week machine too! My weekly total sales average to date this year is $1142.79 and my average minus COGS is $1022.69.

 

Last year my average minus COGS was only $685, so that’s a HUGE jump.

 

In regards to the being frugal talk, my major frugality comes via clothing. I’ve converted my whole family to buying used. As I type this, I’m wearing expensive Clarks dress shoes, a $100+ Dri Duck jacket, American Eagle Khaki pants, and a Nike golf polo. All of it is from Goodwill at a total cost of about $11. The only new clothing I buy is socks and underwear. Lol!

Since I’ve lost 120 lbs, I’ve been able to swap out my wardrobe with stuff I already had in my ebay inventory. The best day ever was when I realized I could wear normal width shoes. I went on a shoe ‘shopping spree’…at home in my inventory building.

My wife was slow to come around, but she is 100% on board now. Her wardrobe is amazing. She shops for herself and the ebay store every Saturday and Sunday. When she clears out her closet to make room for new stuff I list everything she discards since it was originally purchased as inventory anyways. Shoes? She has ALL the shoes. How any woman can afford to buy shoes at retail, I just don’t understand. My wife has a closet full of $100+ shoes that in total cost less than a single pair at retail. Again, I sell them when she tires of them so it is always a net profit rather than a loss.

[junque redux]

Thank you for posting that photo workaround, it was driving me nuts.

[old_man_marty]

My Sales Week Ending: 10/17/20

Total Items For Sale: 57 (Up 2)

Profit: $21.57

Items Sold: 1

Items Listed: 3

Average Profit: $21.57

Highest Profit: $21.57 DKNY Wool Sweater Dress

Cost of Items Sold: $0

Returns: $0

$ Spent Sourcing: $0

[Doublythumbs]

Oct. 11 – 17

• Total Items in Store: 4,018
• Items Sold: 18
• Total Sales :  $573
  • * WAY BELOW yearly average of $1,005
• Highest Price:  $96 (Vintage MCM Gold Tone Gooseneck Desk Lamp)
• Average Price:  $32
• Returns:  0
• Cost of Goods Sold:  $46
• Costs of Goods Purchased this Week:  $0
• Number of New Items Listed this Week: 22

Another slow week. Like you, this has been the slowest past few weeks in a long time. But since I’ve been keeping track of my numbers for the past four years now, I can see that October has historically been somewhat slow for me. Things always pick up starting at the beginning of November. I know it’s been a weird year, but I’m confident that sales will start rising in a few weeks.

Regarding the topic of knowing your average sales, I’ve been keeping track of my weekly average for some time now. I’ve been excitedly watching that number rise to exceed $1000 which was an awesome milestone. It’s good to know your average in order to keep you grounded. So for instance, this week was a bummer with under $600 in sales. Knowing my average of $1000 a week keeps me from beating myself up about it. And on the other end, if I make triple that in a week, I’ll see my average bump up a little but I’ll know not to get too cocky.

[gargolfer]

10/10/20-10/16/20

Total Items In Store: 2095
Items Sold: 40
Gross Sales: $1153
Highest Price Sold: $150 (2 Vintage Revere Ware Muffin Tins)
Average Price Sold: $28.84

Returns:  1 $32
Money Spent on New Inventory: $74
Number of items listed: 58

 

• Back on track with sales this week. Made it back over $1K after a really slow week last week.
• Found 2 1980’s Revere Ware muffin tins in a box I got from an auction a couple weeks ago and they sold for $150 this week. People will buy the craziest things!
• Had a return this week on a set of flatware. I listed them with the wrong pattern and had to refund the buyer.  Dumb mistake!
• My numbers don’t include a couple of small sales on FB Marketplace. I cleaned out a few larger items from the garage which works very well using FB.
• This week’s discussion also prodded me to go and take a look at my weekly averages. So far this year my average week is $1102 in sales.  My average week last year was $754.  When I quit my day job last May, I was averaging $440 a week and my goal was to get to at least $1K per week by the end of the year.  I was able to reach that goal and maintain it.  I try to get at least $2000 worth of product listed each week which got me to my sales goal fairly rapidly.  Over the next year, I am going to have to try to raise my listing goal to $3K and see if I can get to a $1500 weekly average.

[retiredtreasures719]

Hey gang! Thought I should stop lurking and chime in a bit. Things have slowed down for me too. I’m used to the occasional day with no sales, but last week I went 3 days! Then I had a really good day followed by another day with no sales. It, pardon my language, sucked!

Here’s my two cents on auctions. I generally avoid them, but recently I have been doing more of them. Sometimes they work great, sometimes not. I generally auction things that I’m finding a wide range of prices on, for instance a sterling fork/spoon set Sandringham by Shiebler. Prices ranged from $5 to hundreds of dollars. So I debated with myself and decided to ask $19.99 for them and was still doubting my price. So I put them on a 5 day auction with a starting price of $19.99 and ended up getting $28 for them. My other auction scenario- I have an item which doesn’t seem worth much, but can’t find anything to compare it with so I start it at an auction for .99 with the buyer paying shipping. It’s only costing a bit of time since I have 500 free auctions and with the pandemic, time I have in spades. Occasionally I make out quite well and if it doesn’t get any nibbles after a couple of tries, it goes in the Goodwill bag.

My theory on the slow down is that stimulus money is running out and people are lying low until after the election. These are scary times between politics and a pandemic. I also did a bunch of sourcing this past weekend, so I’m ready to hunker down and list, list, list!
Happy Halloween y’all!

[totommyto]

Hello all, I have not been a regular on the forums for months now.  Like I had mentioned, we put our home up for sale, been very busy, and good news, it sold.  God willing, we close on the 30th and everything looks as good as it could be.  We will live apartment life for about a year and see what’s next.  Also, my 401K has been cashed out without penalty (I’m close to 60 years old), and debt has been paid off.

Earnings on eBay/Etsy have been consistent with my normal.  Here is a 5 month average report:

eBay weekly net about $300 with about 12 sold, with average sell price about $25

Etsy weekly net about $110 with about 5 sold, with average sell price about $22

These numbers are without shipping and without fees taken out.  COGS average about 10% of selling prices.  My eBay store currently has 748 listings, Etsy has 548.

So, what lured me out of hiding?  Jay mentioned the free shoebox full of Lego score on this weeks podcast.  When it comes to sorting and sifting obscure little toy parts and pieces, and making money off them, I cannot resist posting the occasional report.

Around mid July I scored what amounted to around 6 large bins of mostly Lego.  There were also some Mega Bloks, Transformer, Technic (also Lego brand), and various other toys mixed in.  I bargained down from $200 to $180, since the vendor was going to let me walk.  Legos are expensive generally.  I won’t go into the various sorting and sifting and all that, just know it was, and still is a project.  And one has to be careful of clone Lego, I kid you not!  Luckily the lot I found was all around the same date and seemed to belong to the same kid.  I could have quick flipped for around $400 that day, or sold in large lots for around $1,000.  I chose the slow and steady and have a love affair with Lego way.

So the numbers so far are $1,500 sold, another $1,200 (minimum) listed and should sell, and another $300 or so to list.  So, $180 into $3,000 and I am a Lego professor now with still much, much to learn.  I reserve the right to stop learning until I find more Legos.

Fun to mention are that just five minifigure lots, about one pound of Legos, paid for the whole shebang.  Here are the highest selling of the minifigs:

Star Wars Commander Wolffe, $55, found complete and sitting in a partially built ship:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-Commander-Wolffe-Star-Wars-7964-Clone-Trooper-minifigure-blasters-Wolfpack/254667352746?hash=item3b4b5b6aaa:g:f0IAAOSwR9JfHyVf

A lot of Star Wars minifigs, $45, found mostly complete:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=254692327034&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo=&_sabdhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=34110-4128&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=1&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_fosrp=1

A Marvel Hero Iron Patriot, $44, had to piece him together from all those Legos!

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=254667450537&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo=&_sabdhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=34110-4128&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=1&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_fosrp=1

A Snake Tribe from the Ninjago line, $38, research paid off, many found complete

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=254664153230&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo=&_sabdhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=34110-4128&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=1&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_fosrp=1

Star Wars Wolfpack Clone Trooper, $32, found him with Commander Wolfe:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-Commander-Wolffe-Star-Wars-7964-Clone-Trooper-minifigure-blasters-Wolfpack/254667352746?hash=item3b4b5b6aaa:g:f0IAAOSwR9JfHyVf

There is quite a bit that goes into finding, identifying, and successfully selling a giant mixed lot of Legos.  I enjoyed building the minifigs the most.  The excitement in finding a tiny little hairpiece to complete a figure was embarrassing though!  The worst part was opening up ‘advanced’ transformers and then trying to close them back up again while all the bells and whistles go off the entire time.  And they shoot stuff.

Thanks again all, and Jay And Ryanne.  I never miss a podcast, and I still lurk around now and then.

Tom

 

[totommyto]

Ooops, I showed Commander Wolffe twice, here is the Wolfpack Clone Trooper…Do you care?

: )

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-Wolfpack-Clone-Trooper-Star-Wars-7964-minifigure-jetpack-blaster-figure/373128821665?hash=item56e035fba1:g:sZQAAOSwseJfHyo4

[Simon]

Hi Ryanne & Jay

Thanks for the podcast and the congratulations.  I listened to the show outside on a sunny Monday afternoon while washing hats (instead of sitting in front of a computer like I’ve been doing for several decades).

Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 4160
Items Sold: 43
Total Sales: $1282.13
Cost of Items Sold: $117
Average Price Sold: $29.82
Average Cost of Item: $2.73
Highest Price Item Sold: $294.95 Hallmark Keepsake Frosty Friends 1980 Ornament
Number of items listed this week: 68 worth approx. $1586
YTD Sales: $48204
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +19%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 480
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 362
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 136
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.03%
Hats sold this week: 32 (74% of sales) worth $575 (44% of sales $)

My biggest sale of the week is a bit of a BOLO for anyone that is interested in such things.  I found a box of “Frosty Friends” Christmas tree ornaments at an estate sale.  I’d normally walk right past that kind of thing but I hadn’t found much at the sale and I idly looked a couple up on ebay to discover that they might be worth a few bucks. It turns out they are quite collectible & valuable – especially the oldest ones.  I paid $35 for the box and I’ve already sold close to $600 worth of these ornaments.

I liked hearing the discussion about your car.  My wife is getting embarrassed about the car I drive. The clear coat (paint) is peeling like it’s had a nasty sunburn. To me it’s a badge of honor :- driving a car I’ve owned for 14 years. When I replace it, it will most likely be due to pressure from my wife rather than social pressure from friends or neighbors.  Not driving new cars is one of the contributing factors for me being able to ditch my day job to do ebay.

By the way, Jay,  my wife and I do have a plan to eventually leave the Bay Area and head north out of the state but my wife’s elderly mother is in the area so we’ll be staying here for now, to be able to help her out.

I hope everyone has a great week.

[Jay]

Ha. We also like to drive our old cars as a badge of honor. Its a good feeling to have a car with no payment. I also like not worrying if it gets scratched etc.

[Kentucky Picker]

Listings in Store: 749
Items Sold: 11
Gross Sales (includes shipping): $369
Highest Price: $106 – Cobra golf club
Average Price of Solds: $34
Cost of Goods Sold: $50
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Purchased this Week: $30
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 15

Jay and Ryanne, congrats on setting up your retirement accounts! It’s clear you have already have a nice portfolio of investments and businesses. So adding retirement accounts makes sense. I’m all for using a car until it’s ready for junking. Lot depends on how you use it. For someone doing a lot of driving, I think going with a newer model makes sense from a safety POV. Also, bravo for setting up Broad Porch on eBay. Not sure why but I ran into a glitch last time I tried to order on the BP site.

@Simon: Cheers, mate, on your escape from the corporate anthill! I’m sure you’re going to love every minute of your new independence.

My eBay sales have been anemic the past month. I have a sense the economy is in worse shape than many people think it is. I see some sellers are having strong sales yet a good number seem to be down. When people are worried about jobs, they tend to stop spending on everything except essentials. Without getting political I think the stalled stimulus plan is a huge drag on the economy. I hope something is done soon.

Meanwhile I continue to work through my huge pile of industrial fall protection equipment. It may not be the best time of year to be selling these types of items, but sales so far are slow but steady. Bought a 4-tap soda dispensing machine at auction for $30. I’m seeing solds for around $400, so I’m excited about listing it.

Hope everyone has a safe and profitable week!

[Robb_]

Jay,Ryanne,

I was thinking about why sales are slow. I think a possible strong factor is that  some people are taking vacations in the fall which they may have taken in summer because Covid set things back. Which makes me wonder if there may be a late vacation possible factor in sales seeping over to November.

[Retro Treasures WV]

My company is forcing everyone to use all vacation by years end. Typically, you can always roll over a year’s worth of vacation. The longest tenured workers get 6 weeks of vacation, and since the pandemic cancelled vacations some workers have 12 WEEKS of vacation to burn!

I assume this is the case at alot of companies to free up liquidity, or worst case, ease their financial burden on vacation buyouts when they have to lay off a large amount of people in first quarter 2021.

[Jay]

Yikes. The cut throat world of being an employee.

[OldNorth]

Week of Oct 11-17

Total Items in Store: 133
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $230.16
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Highest Price Sold: $49.99 (It’s a Small World Souvenir Booklet )
Average Price Sold: $17.70
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40

How do other people handle assigning COGs when they buy lots?  In the past I’ve just split the cost between how ever many items I list evenly over whatever I paid for the lot.  But lately I’ve bought a few lots for pretty good money and all the value was basically in one item so I’m assigning like 95% of the cost to that one item and then splitting evenly among whatever is left.  If I split evenly, I’d show a loss for most items except the one big ticket item.  Accounting aside, I’m having fun sorting through lots of video games, jewelry, and ephemera.

[Jay]

As long as you have a system that the IRS would consider reasonable. We just divide the lot price by the number of items we intend to keep/sell.

[Lukastreasure]

@oldnorth – When i buy lots I assign COGS depending on the lot content.  If I buy a lot that has many items of value that I considered in my bid, I split the cost among them based on relative value (when I’m not being lazy), and sometimes just divide it by number of items in lot that are saleable.  When I purchase a lot based on the value of a single item I really wanted, I assign the COGS to the item and list the others as $0.  So, basically the same as you it sounds.

MIke

[Elle]

@jay we drive old cars too. Much less stressful. Our last beast was a 2001 GMC Yukon. Best car ever. We retired it because it had 297,000 on it and the interior is shot. Not horrible but you know doors open when you go around corners etc. We parked it because it developed an exhaust leak. Like turn the thing on and exhaust comes out in a wall from the passenger door all the way back. We kept it and will fix it but we figured we needed a newer car for traveling. We bought a 2008 Minivan. Cash. Best feeling ever not to worry about it isn’t it? One of my favorite stories about the Yukon is the day we got hit by a Prius. Lady must never have looked in the rear view mirror threw it in reverse and smack. Yukon wasn’t hurt a bit naturally..  But we still laugh like how did you not see this black beast behind you??? 🙂

[Jay]

Yeah, it’s nice to drive around and not worry about scratches. That Yukon does sound like beast.

[jchi680]

Hey quick couple thoughts as I haven’t had too many big sales lately. Started up a new eBay store to deviate from the one I started when living with my parents. So far I’ve listed a lot of different stuff, a puzzle, DVD’s and Cd’s (got them really cheap), some axes and a sledgehammer, some older travel magazines, etc. So far just the DVD’s and CD’s are selling but really hoping for other stuff to sell! I’m at 130 or 140 items so it’s a good start but have another 60 items or so to list I think.

1) In terms of auctions, my local auction place for in person auctions the 2nd half of it the prices start at say $100 and go down. You hold up your number and each lot would be $100 for instance. People hold out of course waiting for stuff to reach $5-10 a lot even $20 a lot on some stuff.
2) What thoughts are there about for instance some YouTubers like Lonnie and John only wanting about 1000 items in their store at a time? Is that model just based on quick selling stuff and not long tail?

[So Cal Joe]

Lonnie and John’s stores are high volume and rely heavily on their Youtube viewers. It’s a great business model, but not always realistic for the average person selling on Ebay.

[Jay]

I dont know them, but So Cal Joe make sense. If they only stock fast-selling items, they would never have a large inventory. But the big question to ask is: what are their net margins? How much do they pay for fast selling inventory. If they pay $8 to make $10, then they better be selling in huge volumes.

Many people also don’t have the storage space for more than 1000 items.

 

[So Cal Joe]

I misspoke a  in the last post. It’s not as much about high volume as it is about having a high sell through rate.

I watch Lonnie’s channel (Shed Flips) the most and on his large volume purchases, he seems to be getting anywhere from 2X to 5X returns on his buys. He is a one man operation keeps very busy working out of a 12 X 30 foot  shed.

When you combine that, with a successful Youtube channel, you can see he is doing quite well.

 

[Pikapop]

@robb_ That’s an interesting reason I hadn’t considered. I had 5 days in a row last week with no sales. It was worse than my slowest summer weeks!

[Lukastreasure]

Ryanne and Jay, Good show.  Thoughtful as always.
Investment accounts are tough to rationalize when the amount is small and it is difficult to focus on the long time horizon when so many bills and wants are right in front of you.  When I was around 30 I cashed out my 401 K to pay off bills and it took a long time to get back in the habit and longer still to see the benefits.  Most people don’t see the options you guys do for alternative investments.  I came across the FIRE movement about 8 years ago and it was helpful for me to reframe my way of thinking so that I could see a path to getting out of a work situation I wasn’t happy with.  Without those investment accounts, I wouldn’t be where I am now.  4 years into this journey and I couldn’t be happier.
eBay continues to be a fickle mistress with weeks up and down.  Last week was a good week, but one expensive item damaged in shipping turned it upside down.  My largest sale was a vintage Casablanca fan never used and still in box.  We picked it up at an auction for $6 and sold it for $249.95.  I packed the box in another box with padding, and it still arrived damaged.  Fedex must have dropped it really hard as it crushed the styrofoam in the original box and bent the housing on the fan so that I had to refund.  Normally I insure items like this but it slipped my mind so I only have the $100 Fedex and have a claim filed.  Still not an awful week and not my worst.  The $863 is after the refund.

Week Ending 10/17/20
Total Items in Store: 1242
Items Sold: 20
Gross Sales: $868.03
Net Sales (after fees, shipping, etc.) $610.97
Cost of Items Sold: $70.15
COGS Percent 11.48%
Highest Price Sold: $249.95 Casablanca Fan
Average Price Sold: $30.55
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 16
Promoted Percentage: 80.00%
Average Days Listed: 345.05
Longest Listed: 1576
New items listed: 20

[Jay]

Yeah, we cashed out our retirement around 30 as well to buy our house in cash. Wish we didnt have to, but it was when banks weren’t loaning to weird people who sold on eBay as their income. Good news is we were able to leverage our house to buy rentals. A paid off asset is very valuable.

Very true. Investing is difficult in the beginning because it doesn’t seem like much. I don’t promote books or workshops, but I will make an exception for Jim Collin’s A Simple Path to Wealth: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1533667926

He clearly explains the way to build wealth through investing in index funds.

[So Cal Joe]

As a real world example, I worked for a company in the 1990’s for about 6 years. I invested money in the 401K plan, which was basically a mutual fund for investing in large cap companies.

After leaving the my job, in 1996, I left the money in the 401K. I was not allowed to add to it.  The money sat there for over 20 years.

There had been some company matching involved, but when I moved the money over recently,  to an IRA,  each dollar of my original contribution had become $12.50.

The 401K plan was nothing special. It was very similar to an index fund.

[Jay]

The power of compounding interest: https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator

[Author]

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