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Hi! Here we are again. Another week. Another set of numbers. This is the life of an eBa store. We didn’t nothing different but made more than twice as
[See the full post at: The Numbers: July 24-30, 2022] -
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Total Items in Store: 3647 listings for 5650 items
Items Sold: 28
Gross Sales: $2310.86 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1715.85 + $300 yard sale = $2015.85Cost of Items Sold: $687 ($55 mine / $632 consignors)
$Highest Price Sold: $200 Vintage Tuxedo, but I think it’s going to get “rented” for free and returned.
Average Price Sold: $82.53
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $41
Number of items listed this week: 11I was getting ready to pack up the garage sale, and decided instead to reopen it for 2 days Friday and Saturday, since the weather was 15 degrees cooler and low humidity. Sold another $300 worth out of the donation pile for a grand total of $650 (plus $56 worth sold for my mother in law).
Not much listed this week, had an eventful week at the rental. Had to meet a well service guy for a contaminated well, a plumber for a clogged floor drain line, repair a broken basement window, and replace an AC. Man I wish it was a paying job.
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No. We are volunteer landlords for an incarcerated family member, indefinitely.
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Even Amazon finds it difficult to make a profit selling on Amazon:
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/the-journal/emh53zg/why-amazon-is-dialing-back-its-own
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Just listened to this episode and it’s actually more related to the recent bipartisan threat of regulation that has them scaling back. Sounds like Bezos put out a mandate that he wanted Amazon’s private label brands to have 10% of total sales on the platform. That directive caused an explosion of new products as the private label team tried to reach the 10% goal. Now that congress isn’t happy and is considering a bill that would prohibit Amazon from selling on it’s own platform they are re-evaluating what they are selling and questioning if it’s such a great idea.
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Are you finding it difficult to locate a helper or have you decided to just wait on tat a bit?
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I don’t really search for a helper. I’m reluctant to have a stranger in my home, so I usually try help out someone I know who needs some cash. The problem there is, I don’t know very many people in the area. lol. I’ve had 3 helpers over the years. One was simply a bad fit, one moved away and the last was a friend who needed a different kind of help than we could give her, and it just didn’t work out.
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Monthly numbers: 07/1 – 07/31
Active listings: 1394
Items sold: 38
Sales: $659.79
Highest price sold: $28.75 – Chicago White Sox Fitted Hat
Average price sold: $17.36
Cost of items sold: $55.16 / average cost: each $1.45
Spent on new inventory: $61.00
Number of items listed: 89
Returns: 1 – Pair of shoesSlow month for me and another return, that makes two in the past two months. I sold an item that I had listed in Oct. of 2015. It’s good to know that the “list it and forget it” is still working.
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Total Items in Store: 365
Items Sold: 5
Gross Sales: $293.58 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $174.76 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $19
Highest Price Sold: $109 (1980s art plaque, paid $3.99)
Average Price Sold: $49
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 4Fell down on the listing this week as we had family in town and hosted an event yesterday. Sales were ok considering and had a few yesterday. Leaving on vacation next week and will do time away. I look forward to seeing what I can do when school begins mid-August.
I don’t have the capital to do RA at the moment but it seems like in might be a good time for the right stuff. I was disappointed with the summer sale offerings from my high end RA favorites. It is interesting mixed messaging on the media re the recession. I also read about more people thifting in general for their own use, but I’ve only really noticed that with the college kids and clothes the times I’ve been out.
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Week of Jul 24 – 30
Total Items in Store: 1640 eBay, 33 Etsy
Items Sold: 15 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $5.10 + $30.50 Commission
Total Sales: $426.60 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $155 Tumi Laptop Briefcase
Average price: $28.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 35Yes, this was a better week. I also had two solid weeks of listing, so that helps.
I made a bit of an embarrassing mistake. I’m sticking my head in the sand at this point, so I guess it won’t make a difference unless the buyer complains (which they haven’t so far). I was in the mist of helping someone buy two of an item, one in a silver color, and the other gold, with combined shipping. I saw the two purchases come up, one right after the other, but I told her that she bought one with the wrong name and address. I assumed that she was using someone else’s account, although I didn’t really ask. I canceled the sale so that she could buy it correctly.
Funny thing, though, I realized later that the first sale was under a different username. So, two people were looking to buy it at the same time, and I didn’t double check. Too much of a coincidence for me to think through, plus these items have been in my inventory for a month or two. It was also Saturday, and I was relaxed, thinking about how I wanted to spend the day, and not really looking at the details.
I was worrying for too long about how to make it up to the original buyer, and I never contacted her. She hasn’t said anything, and I’m crossing my fingers that she just buys it from someone else.
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Items in Store 2105
Items Sold 29
Total Sales $1,072.00
COGS $92.00
Total Profit $980.00
Average profit $33.79
Average sales price $36.97
New Listings 85
Items scavenged 45
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 50
Sourcing Allotment 19Twas a fine week in ebay land. I had some really fun sales. I had some really fun scavenging finds. I went back to the same sale where I bought the Major Matt Mason toys. This time he had a bunch of his daughters toys out. I bought everything for $40. Nothing of big value, but it is ALOT of $5-10 items. What’s really fun about it is it’s all from my childhood. It will be real fun to play with them with my kids, then list them to create that $5-10 item pipeline. Alot of them are happy meal toys from the 80’s and early 90’s. It was no sweat to pay $40 because I knew a single set of hand puppets in there I was familiar with sell routinely for $40, as well as a bag of Mcdonalds food transformers also worth $40+ (LOVE those!). If I find a couple gems in there that sell for big bucks that will just be bonus – the whole lot is still worth a few hundred.
Another sale I’ve been looking forward to was the local high school yard sale. They do 1-2 every summer for various clubs/teams at the school. They pile everything into the cafeteria and after 12pm you can fill a bag or a box for a set price. I always go to these at noon and load up. It wasn’t as great as previous years, but I still got plenty of good stuff.
I had an irritating customer service issue this past week that resolved nicely. Customer opened an item not received case. Their notes were confrontational and accusatory in the case, so I knew this would be fun. They were upset that I used USPS instead of Fed Ex, even though it had nothing to do with the issue.
First, I explained why: For larger items I always put Fed Ex ground in the listing with my shipping discount applied to ensure the lowest price for customers on both coasts. For west coast shoppers, I ship Fed Ex. For East Coast shoppers I ship USPS priority because it is the same cost but 1-3 days faster. It is an UPGRADE.
This guy couldn’t wrap his head around that.
So the reason why the item wasn’t delivered was because the buyer had dogs in his yard. The carrier didn’t deliver due to dogs, left a note, and attempted 2 more times, again with notes each time. The buyer ignored the notes. He claimed to me that “this has never been a problem with any carrier”. Sure bud…. Anyways, I explained that carriers change all the time as well as there are backup carriers that cover routes. They all have the right to refuse delivery if they feel threatened by an uncontained dog.
So after explaining my shipping method and why his item wasn’t delivered, he left me negative feedback because I didn’t refund him immediately
I wrote him back to express my displeasure in the fact he left me negative feedback before I could help him resolve his issue. I also pointed out the fact that he waited a MONTH to contact me. More whining and excuses (he claimed he did write me after a few days but ebay records show that is not true and he admitted it when I called his BS). I washed my hands of him and said “I hope you get your item eventually.”
I contacted Ebay for business, they had me wait out the case timer and contact them again on Saturday. They closed the case in my favor and deleted the feedback. Easy Peasy.
The item was returned to me yesterday. Technically I don’t owe this buyer anything since he violated ebay policy. I don’t appreciate the rude behavior or the negative feedback when I was very punctual and helpful in spite of him, but I’ll let him sweat it out a week or so and then refund his purchase price.
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I had a nice experience last week at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City. I attended two days of the five day show and my main goal was to submit as many cards as I could to the consignment company I use since they were offering a 30% discount on their fees. I submitted more than 1000 cards which was more than I thought I would do.
It will take a while for these cards to get processed for sale, and now my eBay store is at its lowest level of listings in a few years, so my sales will definitely dip in the short term and I will need to remain conscious of how much I spend on new inventory. Bigger picture, I will be fine between the consignment income and all the stuff I have to list. I can see very clearly how my business to grow over the next 6 to 12 months which is very exciting.
I didn’t buy much at the show (maybe $50 total, the deals were just not there compared to buying through online auctions), but it was fascinating to walk the aisles and take everything in. Everything from museum quality memorabilia to dealers with massive boxes of individual cards as low as $0.10 each. There is a big element of trading cards which happens on YouTube and through streaming platforms, so there were a lot of people walking around filming. It was especially amazing to see how frantic buyers and sellers were on Sunday, the last day. The table where I spent my $50 had thousands and thousands of cards in boxes, all with the same price (lowered from $3 to $2), and when I visited the table, it was complete chaos. Cards spilling everywhere (even onto the floor) and no organization whatsoever and crowds of people. I wiggled my way in and found a few cards which will sell for more than $2, but overall it was a wild contrast to my online sales and it made me very grateful to buy and sell on eBay.
There is a smaller regional card show in Philadelphia in late September, and I plan to repeat the same process of trimming my inventory by submitting cards for consignment. Plus I love being somewhere new and getting to explore, and maybe I can use the card shows as a way to do that. There was no Too Good To Go available in Atlantic City, but I had great Mexican food and some of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had.
7/24/2022 – 7/30/2022
Total items in store: 1356 (down from 1799 last week)
Items sold: 39 (35 via best offer, 2 via seller initiated offer, 20 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $2065.05 (down 53% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1423.05 (down 55% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $52.95 (up 21% from one year ago)
Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 12 hours (down from 15 hours last week)
Highest price sold (net): $93.76 — PJ Washington Panini Prizm Draft Picks mojo autograph RC #05/10 PSA 9
Lowest price sold (net): $9.63 — Connor Scott Leaf autographed 1/1 printing plate
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It’s always fun to go to big events to just see how other people are doing things. Incredible how large that community is. Assuming it was ages from young to old.
Could you imagine a world where you just spend time sourcing and ten send the cards in for consignment. No more listing and shipping?
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The show was a lot more diverse than I expected in every single way. I got a kick out of seeing young kids with fancy Pelican card briefcases with autographed and graded cards which are worth hundreds and thousands. So different than my experience with cards as a 90s kid when I went to the local flea market or the local show at the mall and spent my allowance and money I saved up.
Could you imagine a world where you just spend time sourcing and ten send the cards in for consignment. No more listing and shipping?
This is basically what I’ve been doing the last few months while making exceptions for cards where I can make a better listing than the consignment company or items they won’t list (for example, sealed sets or lots of 2+ cards). So I have a nice backlog of stuff to build my eBay inventory up when it’s not as nice outside. I know there will eventually be a day where cards won’t hold the same values because of less collectors, less flippers, the economy, overproduction or a million other things. But last week’s show set attendance records, so the market is still very strong for now. The great thing about consignment is that it allows me to buy and sell so much more than I could just listing on eBay.
There is a lag time with everything about selling on consignment, including getting paid, so that would be a challenge if I needed money for a big unexpected expense. I can see a year or two down the line once I have built up some real savings how I might be able to shut down my eBay store completely for a few weeks or even a month, do some traveling and use the consignment sales to cover all my expenses and even make a profit on the trip. Scavenger’s dream, basically.
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