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Hey Y’all. Sorry no podcast this week, as we are again traveling for video work to lovely San Francisco. We will post our numbers in a couple hours an
[See the full post at: Scavenger Travel Life] -
10/1/17 – 10/7/17
Total Items in Store: 2,092
Items SOld: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $50 (around)
Total Sales: $500
Highest Price Sold: $85 Lucchese Boots (Thanks to Steve for his BOLO on these)
Average Price Sold: 29.41
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 155
Number of items listed this week: 0Typical week for sales. However, sales have actually picked up and today seemed like the busy season to me. I had 7 items to pack today and it felt good! It would help if I could get to listing more items per week.
Went crazy at the Rummmage sales this week. Found a 1920’s Typewriter for $10 and can get close to $200. Got a great EB jacket and Nike Zoom Skates. Probably got $1300 or so worth of items for $75. Got a few more Rummage sales this week that will close out the year for the big sales. Got some crazy great prices at an estate sale near work. They were practically giving it away. Came away with a lot of great items on the dirt cheap! I don’t usually buy suits, but I found a Jos. A. Banks Signature Gold suit for $8 at a church Thrift shop. On ebay they sell for well over $100 and they say retail is $1295. I will see how that sells and if I will buy any more.
Sold a Halloween costume today and some Christmas stocking yesterday, so I’m in the Holiday spirit. My make up sales continue and I’m loving that. The make up is the best thing I’ve ever bought to sell on ebay. If you recall, I got $8000 – $9000 of make up for $150 last April. It is compact to store, sells fast, sells for a good price, there are many multiples (had 54 listings with 633 total items), easy to ship, and I usually make money on the shipping. What is not to love about that!
Mark
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RR Store Week October 1-7, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1370
Items Sold: 19
Cost of Items Sold: $29.17
Total Sales: $377.83 ($367.83 eBay, $10 outside sale)
Highest Price Sold: $64.99 (Lot of vintage radio charts)
Average Price Sold: $19.88
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $33.99
Number of items listed this week: 7And I though last week was bad. Ouch. Please tell eBay to turn my store back on! But seriously, this ain’t good, and I know why. The past few weeks were terrible for estate sales, and the thrift stores were pretty bare. So my listings were mostly bottom-of-the-barrel death pile items that take forever to list and don’t sell for much; these numbers clearly reflect that. Thankfully, I hit several estate sales this weekend and ended up with a literal carload of goodies. Lately, I’ve been channeling my inner Steve Schultz and picked up a few boxes of reel to reel tapes. I even picked up an actual player, and now I know that if it doesn’t work, I can part it out.
I’ve got a very busy week ahead of me, and I’ve already hit the ground running. Here’s to a much better week.
*Paul*
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Week of Oct. 1-8th, 2017
Total Items in Store: 507
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: 79
Total Sales: $737
Highest Price Sold: $110
Average Price Sold: $29.48
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30
Number of items listed this week: 34Highest priced item was a professional model baseball glove, purchased for $8 (flea mkt), sold for $110 in 3 days. BOLO for all-leather ball gloves in great condition-try to pay less than $5. My average sale is around $35 or so, but there are some nice home runs out there (PUN, sorry). ALWAYS check ebay before buying, since many gloves are only worth $10-$20. Use the brand name (Rawlings, etc.) and the model number which is stamped on the glove in large print. Not much money in kids models, so I avoid those. I only find really nice gloves 1-2 a month, but buy all I find.
My fall sales FINALLY picked up this last week. Last couple of weeks of Sept. and first day of October were really slow. Hope we have turned the corner, as I would like to trim my inventory down to about 250 by late November.
Only my second “last week’s sales” post-please let me know if I have missed anything.
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I’m gonna miss those sweet voices this Monday morning! We’ll hold it down for you!
Week October 1-7, 2017
Total Items in Store: 942
Items Sold: 27 (1 Amazon, 1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $101.32 (10.4% of sales)
Total Sales: $973.90
Highest Price Sold: $179.99 (c1964 #1904 Mattel Barbie Skipper)
Average Price Sold: $36.07
Returns: 1 partial refund
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $1550 (more on the below)
Number of items listed this week: 26
Promoted listings test: 6 sales, $187.48 (19.3% of total sales), $8.06 fees (4.3% of sales)Really pleased with the week overall… multiple sales everyday, nice $50+ sales every other day, etc. But I’m sure no one wants to hear about that, every whats to make sure I didn’t make a typo on money spent on new inventory. 🙂 Well, I didn’t…
I had been talking to someone on LetGo about records they had listed. They were a bit further away than I usually travel, but we met at a Burger King in the middle so all was good. Ended up buying the whole lot of records for $260 – Grateful Dead, Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. Good stuff…
But since I was outside of my normal pickin’ territory, I decided to see what sales were around. Found a sale that looked unreal – the guy apparently was a collector & hoarder, but also incredibly clean & organized. When you usually see hoarders, it’s just stuff piled up – this guy meticulously cataloged everything. He had over 10,000 records all sorted by genre and alphabetical all within their own protective sleeves. He had toys sorted by genre & year. Thousands of pictures of classic cars with name/location/etc written on the back and sleeved (I bought a box of 650+), hundreds of gas station maps (I bought a box of 225+). But the reason my purchases were so high was his Barbie collection. He had hundreds – old, modern, accessories, vehicles, houses, etc (many in their original boxes). Of course I don’t know enough about each individual one to make a good judgement, but I was drawn to the early 1960s ones “under glass” (re: expensive). They were all way over priced for me to buy & flip, but since it was the last day of the sale I gave the guy running it my number and said I’d like to leave an offer if they don’t sell. He prodded me to make my offer right now – I threw out $1200 for the 24 under glass, we eventually settled at $1300. My drive home was nerve-wracking – did I pay too much? How am I going to research these? WTH am I doing? I got home, researched, photo’d, listed, and one sold within a couple hours – a Skipper with an extra outfit to a collector in Germany. 14% of my investment back in one sale.
Rest of the ones I listed. If I get my asking price for all, I’ll end up with sales of around $6500. Let’s do this, Q4 holiday season!
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Outstanding work! I know that it gets a bit nerve racking when you spend larger amounts of money for inventory, but as long as it isn’t a fatal mistake, it is good to stretch out and bet on yourself.
Very nice investment!
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Yeah, I’ve never bought a bad “cache”… but just still nerve-racking pulling out $1300 in one swoop. I trust my experience/gut and know that it will pay off soon. 🙂
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Total Items in Store: 402
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $97 + Free shipping of $15
Total Sales: $387
Highest Price Sold: $64 (Artsy measuring cups and spoons)
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns: 1 item broke in transit – buyer was great
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 33 (love my new iPhone 8 – upload photos to app, seems faster)Hope you have a wonderful trip to SF and enjoy getting home afterward. That’s a lot of travel! I’ve not been shopping and continue to hack away at the piles, digging out Christmas items in particular that I don’t want hanging around next year. Feels good to be getting some Ebay traction now that we are in our regular school routine. I take one large box upstairs from the garage at a time and it makes me feel good when I have a box of items listed and it goes back down.
I’ve heard people speculate before that accepting a best offer seems to give you a sales spurt and I saw that this week. I should probably go through my old listings and put BO on more of them. It’s funny – I thought I would try to create a lovely Etsy store by now, but I’m kind of doing the opposite and just taking super quick photos with the Ebay app on my dining room table. Whatever it takes to just GET STUFF UP.
Have a great week.
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Total Items in Store: 921
Items Sold: 13
Cost of Items Sold: $35
Total Sales: $392.90
Profit: $357.90
Highest Price Sold: $100 Snowboard Bindings
Average Price Sold: $30.22
Average Profit: $27.53Still no listing happening, but sales keep happening in spurts. The Snowboard bindings sale came in just as I was getting ready to drop about $80 on an inventory purchase, so that was nice.
Last week some of the union shop machinists were laid off at work. The rumor is that HR is coming in middle of this week and some office workers will get the kibosh as well. My boss vaguely alluded to the fact I’ll be okay, but I’ve heard that before.
I swore to myself that I would not keep doing this to myself and if I ever got laid off again I would go full time ebay and reselling in general. Truth be told, the thought it might happen is scary as all get-out. I’d have to make ALOT more money reselling to match my day job income.
So my plan is if I do get laid off, I’ll hit it hard and fast on my ebay store for 2-3 months during unemployment and see where I’m at. This is what I’ve been preparing for 2 years now. The inventory, the storage buildings, the systems, etc. I’ve been slowly building all of this to eventually go full time. Stay tuned until next week…
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Yes, this is the stress of working for someone else. Steady paycheck and benefits are awesome, but not the unexpected, random layoffs.
As you said, you have the pieces in place to really sell big on eBay. If you put in the same hours on eBay as you do at your day job, I think you’ll be surprised how much money you can make.
Sounds like this decision may be made for you. Inspiration through desperation! That’s how we got started on eBay.
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I can echo Jay’s sentiments. Sometimes when we are thrown off the cliff, we find our own wings.
If you are “safe” at your job and are still there, I would urge you to continue to work hard, build your inventory, improve your processes to make them efficient, and keep putting money away. FU Money. There is no better feeling in the world when you are working for someone else than to know that they DO NOT OWN YOU. Having options is true freedom.
Good luck either way. And if you ever have questions, this forum is a great place to ask and get great answers.
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Good luck with your job situation. Hope it works out one way or the other. I’ve been through multiple layoffs over the years at different jobs. Never pleasant even when it’s not you that personally gets laid off. My last layoff was 12 months ago. I must say I enjoyed having some freedom. I was diligent about looking for another 9-5 job but I also had lots of extra time for eBay and for mid-week visit to the Goodwill bins when I felt I’d earned a reward. It definitely helps to have some savings though. If you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, a layoff could be devastating.
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Well apparently I survived Armageddon Wednesday. My boss gave me the nod just before lunch that they were all done letting office people go. What a crappy feeling. I feel bad for those let go. Some people don’t recover from something like that and one of the ones let go really worries me.
Needless to say, it is hard to concentrate today.
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Week of Oct 1 – 7
* Total Items in Store: 1071
* Items Sold: 17
* Cost of Items Sold: $28.81 + $6.30 Commission
* Total Sales: $510.03
* Highest Price Sold: $149.25 Service for 16 flatware NIB
* Average Price Sold: $30
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 1I had a very nice week of sales; a number of high priced sales really helped.
We threw a family event this weekend, so last week was focused on cleaning & organizing. I only listed one item that I had put off from the previous week. We still have a couple of guests in from out of town that leave Tuesday. I will be listing, but probably not to the normal level.
I bought a used Dymo 4XL, which I am now using. I much prefer the label and size, but I am finding that switching between the Dymo for labels and my regular printer for packing lists to be a pain. Also, I can’t do multiple labels at one time. I haven’t researched solutions yet because of the busy weekend, but I will this week. I guess I still like it better. My purchase included an Accutek scale that goes to 50 pounds, which is also a big improvement over what I had been using.
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i also love the dymo for labels. no toner refill! it’s great.
i hear you about switching printers on the print menu when you do invoices.
it is a bit of a pain, esp when you forget to switch it and it prints on the dymo and wastes precious labels. but i like the quality of the thermal labels and love not refilling toner as often on my brother laser printer.-
I like the skinny 450 turbo labels. Unfortunately, they work great at one post office and won’t read at all at another. I’ll have to play with it to see if I can adjust the print.
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I was considering the 450 vs the 450 4XL and whether all I needed was the skinny labels. The 4XL is significantly more expensive. When I was doing my research, I read on one website that the skinny labels are no longer accepted by the post office for packages, only letters and flat packages. I don’t know whether that is true or not, but I opted for the 4XL based on that.
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Jay and Ryanne, can you see the smoke from the Sonoma Valley fires? That’s what they just said on the news. Awful! The last time I was in Sonoma I was in a red Mustang convertible I rented for the day. It was glorious. Now the news shows blackened ground and burned down houses. Stay safe. 😢
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Total Items in Store: 1884
Items Sold: 28
Cost of Items Sold: $17.50
Total Sales: $897.12
Highest Price Sold: $77.20 (90s Tommy Hilfiger Button up shirt)
Average Price Sold: $32.04
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $3
Number of items listed this week: 32Sales have been picking up. Listings down for us this week as we had a lot of stuff going on.
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October 1st – 7th 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 483 // Ebay 547 (Items not crossposted I list different types of things on Etsy and Ebay)
Items Sold: Etsy 7 // Ebay 11
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $11.49 // Ebay $33.43
Total Sales: Etsy $323.95 // Ebay $189.89
Highest Price Sold: $250.00 Giant Golden Book of Biology illustrated by Charles Harper
Average Price Sold: $28.55
Returns: 1
Number of items listed this week: 32 (listed at $458)I am still waiting for the Giant Golden Book of Biology to be delivered. I hope that it arrives safely. It is insured and has signature confirmation on it, but I really want it to arrive with no problems. I think it may be my biggest sale so far (for a single item).
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Week of 10/1-10/7
Total Items in Store: 1,794
Number of Items Listed: 57
Number of Items Sold: 76
Weekly STR: 18%
Total Product Sales: $1,993
Cost of Items Sold: $465
Gross Profit for Week: $1,303
Highest Item Sold: $110 – Rock Revival Jeans
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 23-16.As a follow up to our listings and eBay Guaranteed Delivery, we can now see that some of our items are showing as Guaranteed. I called Concierge to ask why some items were showing as Guaranteed (Shirts, Shoes) but some were not (Collectibles, Pants). The rep let me know that the rollout isn’t by account, but by eBay category. That makes sense, and all items are supposed to be rolled out by sometime in early November.
Had an interesting case where a buyer stated that a pair of Franco Sarto shoes were fakes. Franco Sarto shoes are not a high enough brand to be faked, so we figured that they wanted to have the return shipping paid for. I called eBay Concierge this morning, and got a nice lady from the UK, who conferenced called me in with another UK person, that said that they were going to look into the buyer and see if they do this on a regular basis, and that eBay will pay for the return shipping for us. I opened the case, accepted it, paid for the label, and will get a credit on our account to cover the shipping, and they will monitor the case as well as looking at the buyer. Service was excellent.
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Store Week 10/1/17 – 10/7/17
Total items in store: 1581
Items sold: 16
Cost of items sold: $38.40
Total sales: $607.92
Highest price sold: $145.00 (Vintage Filson jacket)
Average price sold: $38.00
International Sales: 1
Returns: 0 (1 started)
Money spent on new inventory this week: $40.00It was a pretty decent week that ended up much better than I thought. And I had one cool sale the prior week that I forgot to mention. It went to a former Secretary of the Treasury! I just love eBay!
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My company FitShipper Labels is sponsoring this cool e-commerce conference in Chicago next weekend.
If anyone’s interested in attending, let me know I can probably get you a free ticket.
October 19th to October 21st, 2017
Belvedere Banquets and Events
1170 W. Devon Ave.
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007Speakers:
Greg Ross-Smith – Manager — Product Activation at Ebay
Tyler Thomas – Member — Ebay’s Ad Solutions Team
Jason T. Smith – Co-host — Thrifting with Jay & Nay
Chris Green – All-Around Amazon Expert
Cliff Ennico – Attorney, author, syndicated columnist
Barbara Boschen – Co-Founder of CoMerchant
Cynthia Stine – Founder — eGrowth Partners
Eddie Levine – President, Wholesale Breakthrough
Erin Bixel – Shopify Guru
Greg Gilpin – Vice President, Wholesale Breakthrough
Jeff Cohen – Chief Marketing Officer – Seller Labs
John Lawson – Author, IBM Ecommerce Futurist and Ebay Influencer
Kathy Terrill – Sales & Social Media Success Coach, I Love To Be Selling
Robyn Johnson – Strategic Amazon Business Consultant
Stephen Peterson – Host — eCommerce Momentum Podcast
Ashlin Hadden – Voldico Insurance -
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I didn’t realize that you guys were coming to the S.F area. The fires came on pretty unexpectedly. My son’s college (Santa Rosa Junior College) has been closed for the last 2 days due to the fires. Fortunately our immediate area hasn’t been threatened (we’re in northern Marin) but it’s a wake-up call. Nobody expects a suburban area to burn. When a Kmart and a Hilton burn in a wildfire you realize it’s something out of the ordinary.
My numbers for the week
Total Items in Store: 2000
Items Sold: 30
Total Sales: $631
Cost of Items Sold: $76.34
Average Price Sold: $21.03
Average Cost of Item: $2.54
Highest Price Item Sold: $48.95 Wii bundle
Number of items listed this week: 59
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 273
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 179
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 80
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.5%
# of Hats Sold: 20 (66% of sales)It was a little quieter this week and there were no big-ticket sales to bring the average up. Based on the past couple of years I’d expect to sales steadily rise from here but we’ll probably just get a 20% bump leading up to Christmas. (Used hats apparently dont make great presents.)
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I’m glad your son is safe Simon, but I’m sure it was still unsettling. My dad is up in Green Valley where I grew up along the Napa and Solono county border. They were lucky to have an advisory first before evacuating Tuesday. Today and tomorrow will be the test with the North wind change. I told him to take our family slides and he got most of the photos still at his place. We would lose some of my grandma’s paintings but he’s in a better position than most. I really feel for the early fire victims in Santa Rosa. Makes you realize you should have all of your photos, videos, and hard drives together in one place, which we don’t.
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I hope your Dad’s house comes through unscathed Christine. I’ve watched the news intently over the last few days. It looks the authorities are being very careful to get people out of the way as early as possible.
The fire situation has definitely made us consider what we’d do in a similar situation. We’ve never considered wildfires as being a possibility in all the years (decades) we’ve lived in the area.
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Is anyone else having trouble listing items due to an inability to specify a return policy? I have this problem. I called Ebay. They said it is a known problem and they are working on it.
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Didn’t do much eBay last week apart from shipping, but sales ticked along OK… mostly sales of old, big, bulky stuff I am happy to see leaving my storage room.
Sales: CAD$461, 5 items
COGS: $84
Gross profit: $295
Expenditures: $0
Net profit: $295
Hours: 3.5, $84/hr
Listed: $0
Notable sales: incubator bath $10->$170It is more and more obvious to me that I am becoming limited by lack of storage space.
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Oct. 1-7
Total Items in Store: 727
Items Sold: 14
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $675
Highest Price: $350 (Vintage Ideal Mfg Co. Powder Measure Reloading Tool)
Average Price: $48
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $75
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0I’m kind of late in posting my numbers. We’re on vacation this week in Savannah, Georgia. It’s so beautiful down here. We tried to do some scavenging but the thrift stores aren’t very good in this area from what we’ve seen. And it must not be auction season either. We were contemplating moving down here, but if we can’t source things to sell then it might be a problem. Is there anyone in the forums from this area?
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IMJOSH,
I would love to attend the conference. Let me know if you still have tickets. Thanks.-
Awesome! Just email me your full name, state of residence, and company name/title (if applicable). Josh@fitshipper.com
You should get an email from the conference within a day or two with info.
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My numbers for the week of 10/1/17:
Total Items in Store: 96
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $22
Total Sales: $224 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $69.95 (Cordless Can Opener I bought for $1 at a garage sale)
Average Price Sold: $24.89
Returns: 1 ($21 for a new in box item…demo batteries leaked inside it.)Slowest week I’ve had in a while. But things started picking up on Sunday and I expect much better numbers next week. I got called for Jury Duty this week and I was feeling a little overwhelmed about it because the start of 4th quarter in not exactly when I wanted to take a week off of listing….but turns out they weren’t seating a jury this week and I didn’t have to report after all. Part of me was bummed, because I’ve never done it and it seems kind of exciting. Part of me was relieved that I’ll have time for reaching my listing goals this week.
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Woops…hit enter before I was done.
I noticed the eBay version of the “Buy Box” this week popping up in search results. So far it’s just here and there on new items. Most of the things I sell are pre-owned so it won’t really affect me too often. But the way they are doing it is putting a “See more like this” link right in the Gallery View of a listing. So basically right on your listing they are directing searchers to a competitor. When you click on the link you will see the item you clicked on, and then a competitor’s exact same item who has undercut you on price. As a buyer I like it, as a seller I hate it. If you want to see an example of it, I don’t know how to post a screenshot here, but if you plug this in the search bar- Disney Planes Fire and Rescue Pulaski Die-cast Vehicle -2 of the 10 results have the link directly under the shipping price. You can click on the link to see what it looks like. This will definitely make pricing more competitive for new items, even if there are only a handful of others on eBay.-
Yes, eBay is making a “buy box”. If you sell commodity items, get ready to compete strictly on price like on Amazon.
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Heres an example of one of these new pages:
https://www.ebay.com/p/Beats-by-Dr-Dre-Solo3-Wireless-Headband-Headphones-Black/228714967-
I wonder why eBay doesn’t just capitalize on the unique vintage item market that Amazon has seemingly abandoned.
We don’t need another Amazon.-
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Jay.. Didn’t someone who went to the Vegas Conference give some numbers on that split? I think I recall reading in one of the SL posts from someone who went that the one of a kind, unique was something like only 17% or 27% of Ebay’s business. So round off and say about 2/3rds to 3/4ths are new items. And trying to remember further they posted that when asked about abandoning the unique, used sellers because they are such a lower percentage they were reassured the people asking the question that Ebay would not ever abandon those sellers / market? For some reason I thought I saw that here back in the summer.
But let’s hope they stick with us.
mike in Atlanta
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With new items taking up so much of the Ebay market, I wonder what the return rate is especially if they are commodity items. Often times, when purchasing something one knows is produced in mass and can be easily replicated or rebought, the thought of return ( if not to an exact liking) can be easily reached.
On another note, when selling new items that are massed produced, the competition is going to be even stronger with a constant fight for who has the lowest price.
This may be a part of selling used items, but there are going to be items that buyers may not be able to easily find, so there may not be so many competitors. It really depends what the item/items are.
On another note, with sellers such as Jay and Ryanne (and I am sure other sellers) having such a huge store consisting of items that are not new and yet making huge profits, eBay is not going to turn their back on that. I do not see eBay simply dismissing that market or profit opportunity. I think in order to maintain a demand for used items and the attention of eBay as sellers of used items, we need to keep listing (whatever your specialty is) and finding those items that do not have 50 listings with 2 sold.
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Good point, I hadn’t thought to just use search, lol.
But I think a specific search, like “shoes”, may not tell us what we want. If I do a search for the string “e” (most common letter of the alphabet), I get:
– Sold, used: 251k
– Sold, new: 781k (ratio: 3:1)
– Unsold, used: 1.69M
– Unsold, new: 7.52M (ratio 4.5:1)So I guess I was wrong.
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I have long said that people shop on eBay for two reasons:
1) Unique Items
2) Cheap ItemsCheap happens in the commodity game, and will definitely be part of the NEW items that are out there. I deal with that (a bit) in the clothing arena, since there are a LOT of clothing sellers, and some items will come down to price. I have been moving away from that as much as possible by trying to source unique items, as I find the uniqueness will either fetch the higher price or will increase the sales velocity. So Ralph Lauren/Banana Republic/J Crew/Brooks Brothers shirts WILL sell, but if it is a basic pattern that can be found anywhere, I leave those now and move on.
I don’t think eBay will ever truly move away from the used game, as that is where their unique selling position is. They are embracing this with the “Fill Your Cart with Color” campaign this year. But I do know that they are wanting to get all of us in the online retail game to improve our listings, our merchandise, our pricing, and our shipping strategies to be able to compete with Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. And I agree with that.
Just because we list on eBay, doesn’t shelter us from the fact that we are competing with those other platforms for buyers attention and buyers dollars. For eBay to stay relevant in 2017-2025, they will have to change, improve, and deliver better services to the consumer. And they have it much harder, since they don’t control much of the experience, as WE are the ones that have to deliver that better service, merchandise, and pricing.
So even though we are all living in the 20% world (the used item market), we can still make a good living as long as there is a market for it. But I also know that when eBay is making 80% of their revenue from the New Item Market, they are going to make changes to keep that side happy as well.
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What percentage of what you guys sell is new or “new other”?
I would say a good 20% of my stuff is new. Almost anything I have in quantity is.
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How do you find the 20% of stuff you sell that is new? Is it retail arbitrage? Or wholesale?
Selling new stuff is just a different beast. My hats off to those who can do it.
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We are about 95% used, and 5% new.
I agree with Jay, finding new items to sell is a different beast. We are looking into options to expand that side of the business though, as long as we can find that the margins are there, if not on the ROI, at least on the ROI of time through multi-quantity listings.
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Let me know if this is a proper summary of how people sell new items:
–Retail arbitrage. People go to big box stores and buy up undervalued items. Problem is that there’s rarely ever unlimited quantity so you’re always hunting for the next deal.
–Buying lots of returned items from retailers. This is like retail arbitrage but items are often lightly used in damaged packaging. This makes it difficult/impossible to sell “as new” so you risk making buyers angry selling used items as new.
–Buying wholesale. You find a way to buy brand new items at a discounted price when you buy in bulk. Big up front cost. Problem is that anyone can do the same thing (and they do), so you compete on price. Sellers are making sliver of profits.
–Creating a White Label brand. You buy items wholesale but slap a “brand” on it that you make up. This lets you sell the item exclusively. Problem is that you need to spend a lot of money up front to place an order with a factory. Another problem is that its often just the another junky item from China. Even if you found a cool niche product, the other wholesalers will quickly move in and compete against you.
Have I missed anything? I just don’t see how this way of selling makes things any easier or less stressful. If anything, it feels like a more stressful way of selling since you commit so much money up front.
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Maybe overlooked one thing.
– Make what you sell. DIY creation of sewn items, wood crafts, jewelry, bird houses, candles, etc., etc. Upfront cost is more your time and less on the materials. Down side maybe no market for your items or you will have to create one. Probably pays very little for the time invested. But people on etsy do it and make a living I guess.mike in Atlanta
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I’ll add one more thing to the list – it is possible to buy overstock/refused merchandise at auction for resale. One auction company near me sells this sort of stuff, and I’ve dabbled a bit in it.
I’ve done very well with one lot, not well at all with another (small investment, so no big deal), and the jury is still out on the last. I’m still interested in this auction and continuing to try out new things. I don’t know if there are similar auctions in other areas, but I can’t imagine that this one is unique.
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Yeah, that kind of falls in the “Buying lots of returned items from retailers”. In the auction you linked to, I see food items that are probably too close to expiration to sell.
Are the items you bought in new condition? Or “like new” condition because they’ve been beat up a little? What determined whether or not you did well re-selling?
These kinds of “troubled items” are still cool to sell, but often have to be photographed separately to show minor damage, and discounted because of bumps and bruises.
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Yes, some of the food items are expired and some are in date. The auctioneer will say before he starts the bidding. The big buyers at these auctions have discount stores – I think mostly in NY.
The first lot I bought consisted of 13 boxes of books. They are remainders, and have a remainder mark, but are new. I bought them for the tarot card sets that I sold at great profit through the summer. There were a few other workbooks, song books, etc. that also did well. I’m left now with books that I’m mostly selling one at a time making just a few dollars each time. But, they are selling.
The second lot was boxes of labels for handmade clothing. I bought them mostly because they were so cheap – less than $9 for thousands of these labels. I thought that they would sell here and there, but not one has sold. I will list them on Esty eventually. If they don’t sell, I’m mostly out the time I spent on getting them listed.
Those two I bought at the beginning of the summer. In August, I bought my third lot, which consisted of Asian housewares. The items are new, but some of the boxes are beat up. I listed them about a month ago, and I did sell a tea cup set. I have a mishmash of items, and I think some will sell and some may end up as donations.
I just have to be more careful of what I buy at this auction. Plus I have to wait out the crowd that starts to thin out about half way through.
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Most of the books have multiples, and I didn’t have to take pictures. I just used Ebay’s stock photos. The only exception was the tarot card sets.
The labels have multiples. I think there were 14 different kinds.
The housewares are a mix, some with multiples and some not. For the multiples, the product is the same even if the box is messed up. I made sure to show a really beat up box and wrote that the buyer would receive a box that would be no worse than what was shown.
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Oct 1 – Oct 7, 2017
Total Items in Store: 363
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: approx. $17
Total Sales: $ 334.18 (excluding shipping costs)
Highest Price Sold: $60.00 (Alberto Makali sequined dress)
Average Price Sold: $19.65
Returns: 2 (for fit… when I get returns, though not often, they seem to come in clusters)
International Sales: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 24Like Ryanne mentioned, I also noticed you can’t rank search by # of views in your listings anymore, that was sometimes useful to see what’s getting alot of views but no watchers/buyers. At times when I tried to spruce up these listings, they would then sell quickly afterwards.
Love that you can now run sales and see if an item has watchers at the same time, have been employing this, this week (less % off on items that have watchers, more % off unwatched items).
I’ve noticed a little bit of pattern about what happens after a sale ends, invariably the next day, I usually get a surprise full price sale on an item that has multiple watchers. So I’m a believer about giving sales a rest day after they end.
Have been following the thread re: email going out to watchers when someone makes an offer. I’ve been waiting longer to respond to offers if they’re not a slam dunk… so far nothing is different, but I’m hopeful.
Took a break from sourcing last week because I was behind on processing things I already had, and also took a whole kidless day to declutter and rearrange kid area of the living room. Got a better, streamlined storage unit from IKEA, and purged a bunch of little not as functional furniture, so glad I did this. Next project will be my work area, another section of the living room, want to make it not so much of an eyesore.
Looking forward to the next podcast! Happy travels.
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My percentage of new items is about 5%. ALWAYS stuff still with tags at thrifts or yard sales. Wish I could find more!
As far as ebay dropping non-new sales: I listen to Griff and Lee quite a bit. Whenever a caller slams ebay for favoring buyers over sellers Griff nearly always hammers home how much ebay spends to bring new buyers to the site, because that is what makes the sales come in. IMHO, there aren’t many sites that have as many one of items, vintage and otherwise, than ebay. In fact, ebay may be unique and that attracts many people. Seems like ebay would want to keep us around for that reason alone.
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I source mostly pre-owned items but have dabbled in some new multiples and LOVE it. The initial outlay of money is scary every time I’ve done it. But you take pictures once, create listings once, and you have your “pipeline” in a fraction of the time that single items take. I have purchased new multiples at Garage Sales 3 times so far…those are rare to come by. Once at Goodwill. And half a dozen times at the Closeout type stores in my area. So far they have been really successful for me. As long as you make careful buying choices on the front end, it seems like its the way to bigger $$$ without more work hours. I have stuck in the range of buying for $10, selling for $50. So far I have found/flipped LL Bean Cashmere Cardigans, Quilted Bedspreads, and most currently deluxe Halloween costumes. All purchased at that price point.
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We’ve found that theres a difference between finding two or three new items to sell vs finding 100’s of the same new item. For people wanting to “automate” their store, this is a crucial point.
We often find small amounts of new items at thrift stores. Maybe it’ll be five of the same new shirt. It’s great to make one listing, take one set of photos, and sell those five shirts. But really, this doesn’t make life that much easier.
To really have an “automated” store, the goal is to find a source of items that are unlimited. You make your listing and then just re-order when your count gets low.
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Yet even then, it is not automatic. You can have each listing as a pipeline, but you have to keep creating new pipelines. Many lines will dry up at some point, and you will have to find new ones. It reminds me of the Oil & Gas Industry. You have to keep finding new wells to tap, and you may have to dig a few dry holes in the process.
Like most things in life, there ain’t nothing free and easy…
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My store is a hybrid of narrowly focused RA and used items. At least 50% of sales have been new, but I’m adding a lot of used lately from my backlog. I am #1 type on Jay’s list, buying undervalued clearance items, mainly at one retailer. The new items move much faster. I’m happy to get 2-4x ROI on these items with better velocity. There have been less than a handful of losers that I lost money on or that haven’t sold in the two years I’ve been doing this. I love selling new, discontinued items because: (1) the buyers are very happy to find replacements or rare items in new condition; (2) I’ve never had a new item return; and (3) people who aren’t familiar with the brand or don’t have the specialty retailer discover the item (especially animal related art items), often via Pinterest. I do have some competition and I’m not at all happy about the new buy box Ebay has come out with, but I’m willing to hold the items longer to get a higher price and these are not commodity items by the time they hit clearance. The best part of being a new item reseller is that I can cherry pick and experiment with the best of this retailer’s stuff, and not be saddled with their overhead, obligations to keep refreshing with new product, or spinning off the losers or poorly manufactured items. I have occasionally picked items from Ross and TJ Maxx and if I had more time and no vintage backlog, I could see that being a good opportunity if you had a good eye and went often.
I also love the fabulous returns on unique vintage items, but with a couple exceptions like Pyrex they move much more slowly for me with my small store. If I didn’t have the new items keeping the store active, I suspect that I would have some pretty quiet weeks.
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christine, Your business model reminds me of a guy who used to be on the ebay Boards (sadly, I think he passed away some years ago). He had been running a retail shop for years before ebay, in a tourist town, and was a business savvy guy. He sold a mix of new gift shop type stuff (presumably sourced at wholesale) along with antiques. His view was: the new stuff sold faster and provided his main cash flow source, and the antiques were the profit center because of his higher margins. So he was willing to wait for the long tail items to sell while the newer stuff brought in cash at a pretty steady pace.
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