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A slow week. We sold sixteen items. A buyer purchased a $250 painting that would have saved the week…but the person immediately cancelled. Ooof. Hey
[See the full post at: The Numbers: February 19-25, 2023] -
Items in Store 2127
Items Sold 19
Total Sales $644.00
COGS $161.00
Total Profit $483.00
Average profit $25.42
Average sales price $33.89
New Listings 72
Items scavenged 2
Listing 2023 weekly Avg 33My daughter crushed doing photos on clothes this weekend doing 46 items. I’ll have to do some more clothes since she did the photos so quickly.
Unfortunately, my store did not crush it in sales. Sales were SLOW, I had a $180 return for fit, and two items were pulled by ebay. One for a photo vero and the other they claimed was a prescription medical device (it isn’t). It isn’t worth the fight to show ebay it is not a restricted medical device. It’s a fetal heartrate monitor.
Oh well, dust it off and keep on listing.
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I have been posting my numbers very last minute the last few weeks, so let’s break that habit and get them done earlier. Easy to do when sales are as slow as they were last week!
But that will happen when 0 items over $100 sell. Plus my monthly auctions, which will reflect in next week’s numbers, did great this time around and I still have 150 more auctions which close tonight. Use up those free auction listings if you have collectibles items, folks. Even if it means setting minimum bids at half your buy it now, which is what I do. Trading cards are the most popular category for auctions, so I am “lucky” in that sense, but I think there are a lot of buyers who like bidding and trying to win as opposed to the one-click buy-now mentality that exists on basically every other marketplace platform.
2/19/2023 to 2/25/2023
Total items in store: 301 BIN/BO, 150 auction, 451 total
Items sold: 15 (11 via best offer, 4 via seller initiated offer, 7 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $727.76 (down 77% from one year ago)
Net sales: $494.20 (down 78% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $48.52 (down 9% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $64.93— Jessie Diggins 2018 Topps Olympics nordic skiing autograph
Lowest price sold (net): $13.17— Jake Daubert 2012 National Treasures bat card ##/99 — second week in a row that a Jake Daubert bat card is my low price sale…you love to see a pipeline of consistent sales like this!
It’s always so interesting to think about how we break down our numbers…my numbers look terrible on the surface compared to a year ago, but because I’m selling on another platform, things are fine. And even within eBay, sales are pretty strong…I’m down 11% compared to last month and 15% compared to last quarter, but that’s all within reasonable expectations. I often wonder if this is the case for people who post here every once in a blue moon about how sales are bad, without a lot of details, and then disappear again for a while.
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I like hearing about your auctions. I think trading cards are perfect for that format.
We also had a lot of low dollar sales. Our number are often nice because of several sale over $100. Nice to find that kind of inventory.
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One of the things I love most about the auctions is how consistent they are. I set my opening bid price at about half of my BIN price, and while it’s always a mystery which specific items will sell, it’s fairly consistent that about 10% sell. From this most recent batch, the auctions which ended on Sunday, 13 listings sold out of 150, and for the ones ending yesterday, 21 sold out of 250. January I had exactly 50 sell out of 500, with Monday also performing better. Not sure if that is a coincidence or not, but something I’ll have to think about.
Something else I like about these auctions is that when I relist the items to my store, sometimes they sell. In fact, I had two sales like that yesterday, and both items sold for higher than the minimum bid price. Just another reminder that this is more of an art than a science. But it’s always a good feeling when things sell. I had more sales yesterday than I did all last week. It’s a different way of selling than list and forget until you hear the cha-ching sound a few times a day, but it’s a big confidence boost to experiment and see things work out well. A reminder that we can try different things whenever we want, keep what we like and tweak until we have a workflow that we’re happy with.
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Yes, I agree. The bakeries that I have found through TGTG have all been of much better quality than anything I’ve found in my town. Should I ever want something special, I will definitely use them.
On another subject, I think you wrote somewhere about UPS closing at 6:30pm. If you go to their website and find all their drop-off sites, you might find something with longer hours.
I haven’t tried it yet, but it said that my local Autozone has a drop off area. They are open 24 hours, but I think that the UPS closes at 8 or 9PM. Worth checking. I’ve been using FedEx solely because their dropoff at Walgreens is open to 9PM or so, but I’d like to switch over if I can drop off at Autozone.
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I also had a slow week, although, I sold as many items as I did last week. The average price was down, so total sales were lower. On the other hand, I had fewer commissions sales, so my COGS were lower.
I continue to try out new restaurants on the Too Good To Go app. They’ve added a number of places in Princeton in the past few months. Last week, I tried a bakery and a restaurant, which I picked up on my drive home from my part time job. I only mention it because of the cooked goose leg I got from the restaurant. I purchased two bags, so I got two goose legs. They were in a vacuum sealed bag that included the fat and cooking instructions. We had them for dinner, and they were pretty good! Also included in each bag was a drink and a can of baked beans expired in September. I’m not concerned about the expiration date, but I felt this was an unusual haul.
Sometimes I wonder whether the places on TGTG are really getting rid of extra food or if they are trying to introduce themselves to people who wouldn’t normally buy there. I think I know the answer for the restaurant. For the bakery, we got some of the most excellent pastries I’ve ever eaten, so I think the answer is different for them.
Week of Feb 19 – 25
Total Items in Store: 1796 eBay, 31 Etsy
Items Sold: 11 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $8 + $31 Commission
Total Sales: $226.74 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $44 Vtg Brass Orient Express Table Lamp
Average price: $20.61
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 11-
One of the first places I ever scavenged was the Princeton Record Exchange, digging through boxes and crates of used CDs. I haven’t been there in a few years and really need to make a trip for nostalgia reasons!
Princeton is absolutely the kind of area where Too Good to Go might get really popular. I think your suspicions about some places using TGTG for advertising are spot-on, at least in suburban areas if it’s a business which doesn’t have a lot of food waste. I think almost every bakery and bagel shop and pizza place would benefit from using TGTG, just in terms of cutting down food waste and making a very few bucks in the process. Restaurants and other places, I think it depends.
But some of those places offer incredible deals. There is one specific restaurant in Philly which I make a habit of going to because you get a whole huge meal for $6 and it’s delicious. But my favorite is an artisan chocolate shop near me which gives out a few bags every week at the same time on the same day. I am not a big sweets person but these are good quality chocolates. A lot of their chocolates have some corporate branding on them (like for apartment buildings or real estate companies) or they are a little imperfect (in the spirit of TGTG) but still delicious. I would never know about this shop otherwise, would just walk right past it, but it has changed me. Good chocolate (like coffee and some other things) is worth paying for.
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Total Items in Store: 669
Items Sold: 4
Gross Sales: $180.17 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $121.50 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $20
Highest Price Sold: $41 (one new Serena and Lily pillow sham, paid $6)
Average Price Sold: $45.04
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0Slow week but typical for me for February plus I didn’t list. I’m celebrating selling two bars of thrifted soap for $40. Ebay can be amazing. This week should be much better for listing.
My husband mainly but I too have been having some issues buying on Poshmark with INADs. He just bought a pair of women’s shoes sold as mens for example. Bought a pair of pants marked 32″ inseam that were altered by about 5″. It’s a bit frustrating as a buyer. I told him to try looking for returns sellers on Ebay but he said the prices were higher on Ebay for what he was looking for.
I was looking through my store and noticed some super stale low end stuff. A few items I dropped to $5 and they still didn’t sell. Thinking of donating a few things in case they are a drag with the current algorithm. I did sell similar mid-2022 for everything listed 2021 or earlier.
Have a great week.
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02/19/23 – 02/25/23
Total Items In ebay Store: 4704 (was 4695)
Total Items In Etsy Store: 650 (was 631)
Total Items listed: 5354 (was 5,326)
ebay Items Sold: 10 items for $ 578.80 Net $ 458.92
Etsy Items Sold: 3 items for $ 179.70 Net $ 104.97Total Gross Sales: $ 758.5 (including eBay\etsy fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $ 563.89 (minus shipping, and taxes)
Items Sold: 13 items
Highest Price Sold: $ 100 (Jacket)
Average Price Sold: $ 43.37
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 142.81Number of items listed: 20 ebay, 22 Etsy
Gut Sales Report for the week: This week felt really slow, and it was till the end of the week where I was able to make some sales and get an ok week.
Focus for the week : Hit an estate sale this week. Have enough TBL, so I was waiting for just the right good sale, and I finally found it.
Scavenge of the week: Picked up a big box of 1980’s Fashion jewlery, mostly earrings. I am hoping I have close to 100 units that will sell for an average of around $20 and make good profit from it.
Thoughts for the week: Still really glad to have Etsy help my sales along on these slow weeks.
Mark
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Week Ending 2/25/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $273.20 (eBay $208.35 / Etsy $64.85)
Net Sales: $216.18 (eBay $162.52 / Etsy $53.66)
Total Items Sold 10 (eBay 7 / Etsy 3)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1156
Total Items in Etsy Store: 476Cost of Items Sold: $20.24
Highest Price Sold: $60.00
Average Price Sold: $27.32
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00Average Days Listed: 292
Longest Listed: 1599
New items listed: 24
New Listings Value $3,137.00Things slow here, also. Been a slow year so far. I’m running about 33% below last year, which was already a slow year. Doing what I can to increase sales. Sent a bunch of offers for items with lots of watchers. Only had one respond with a low ball. Relisted about 20 older items. Posted 24 items exceeding my weekly goal in both numbers and dollar amount.
Will probably bid on an auction that is happening later in the week. I see a few good lots that have potential. Will see.
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ebay is doing some job cuts.
EBay to cut 4% of Its workforce; Analysts expect further sales decline
Mark
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I did some digging last night after I saw your post, because I got curious whether eBay had ever done layoffs before. In fact they laid off more workers in 2008 citing the economy that time. And compared to Amazon’s layoffs, eBay’s are small. So not sure this is much to worry about, though of course it’s a shame for those employees and the sad reality of corporate capitalism.
I also found a discussion thread about the layoffs on the eBay forums which was started by none other than our old friend MyCottage. Come back MyCottage!
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I’m of the opinion that this is small potatoes compared to big tech as a whole and for ebay specifically. Their 4Q numbers were not that bad.
It’s a perfect storm of I think some of these tech companies got greedy and thought the 2020 numbers would continue.
They also realized they were pretty overstaffed with alot of bloat once everyone started (and still do!) work from home.
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Week of 2/19 – 2/25:
Total items in Store: 332
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $295.43 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $140.11.00 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $89.89 plus shipping (US Navy Special Warfare Ctr West Ranges Challenge Coin)
Average Sales Price: $22.73 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 21All the TGTG talk is making me hungry. Unfortunately it’s not in my area yet.
The COGS ended up pretty ugly that week as a percentage of gross due to 4 sales of things that I’ve had for a long time and just paid too much for. Sometimes if you hold things long enough the market catches up but it didn’t in this case. I just wanted to get out of them and move on. Fortunately, I did get my money back plus a little bit. I’m happy to see them gone. Generally sales were good; typical for me this time of year. For some reason I’m busy when many on the forum are not, and vice versa.
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