The Numbers: June 19-25, 2022

[Jay]

Summertime is here with the twin realities of slower sales but plenty of yard sales to stock up on new inventory. We have been loading up on boxes of
[See the full post at: The Numbers: June 19-25, 2022]

[ChristineR]

Number one, thanks for keeping the Forum going. I really hope you continue on Ebay and in the Forum.  Next, interesting re the restaurant closure. You already have the fab place Jay dreamed of to connect with people and it’s super successful.  I imagine that you are pretty busy with all of the current balls in the air.  Wondering if you are finding enough quality employees locally to help keep it all in the air.  Miss the podcast guys!

Total Items in Store: 317 – back over 300! 🙂
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $281.81 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $183.16 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $32
Highest Price Sold: $100 (two sets of Flower of the Month Royal Albert tea cups and plates – paid $14)
Average Price Sold: $32
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $65
Number of items listed this week: 37

Sales a bit anemic for how much I started listing the last couple weeks, but I’m taking and making offers to get at least some sales.  I’ve been ignoring my stale old items and not looking at their views. I don’t seem to be able to sort the column by views.  But, I’m thinking I might end and sell similar on those and see if it helps as someone suggested on the Forum.  I should have some good listing time this week, so look forward to that.

A couple of items from the college recycle sale sold, and I paid like .50, which is unheard of pricing around here. I love rummage and church sales the most!  Yard sales definitely take more time and I haven’t been doing that though I would enjoy it.  I’ve caught up on a tiny bit of RA and recent thrifting purchases.  Now need to get another dent going in the piles.

The excitement this week is that we had a leak in the upstairs bathroom above the garage.  The testing is finding all kinds of ’70s hazards so we will gut it soon and part of the reno will be covered by insurance.  Bad news is everything must come out of the garage either this week or next week. That’s all my listed and unlisted inventory, packing materials, etc.  Oof.  Good opportunity to reorganize but lots of chaos.

Wishing you all a great summer week of sales.  Saw the Elvis movie with my daughter and loved it.  We are waiting for the end of Stranger Things.

[Jay]

Glad you now have time to visit the yard sales. Its where the magic happens. Yikes about a leak above your eBay inventory!

[ChristineR]

Luckily nothing was ruined but it will be a huge mess in the house for a bit.

[Antique Frog]

@christiner You have rummage sales? I haven’t been to one of those for years (a.k.a. jumble sales). Can’t say I miss them. I had to play rugby at school- football was banned- and the experience was about the same, except with old grannies.

No sales this week, 40 quid’s worth last week. Bought a large 3 foot by 2 foot etching in a broken frame from a flea market for £5 thinking it was a Norwegian artist. Turned out to be Bruce Onobrakpeya, Lagos, 1971, retails at around £800 to £1,000 if some professional framer hadn’t framed it with a matt made out of some industrial packing material, which has left a brown ring round the print and over the signature and title.

[Jay]

We’ve found some great pieces of art ruined by bad framing jobs. Is it salvagable?

[Antique Frog]

Well the print’s fine, it’s the signature, title and date that’s got a tidemark. The artist’s 90 years old this year, and still working.

[ChristineR]

Yes, rummage sales.  We have a lot of experienced pickers here but it seems like many go for different niches so it’s not a total bloodbath in our small city at those sales thankfully.  If it were I would pass. The estate sales can get pretty crazy though because of the confined spaces.  I haven’t been to many of those yet.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Yes, yard sales are the way to go now. The thrift store experience is VASTLY different than it was a few years ago. The really fun stuff rarely hits the storeroom floor now and if it does, it is priced high.

I’ve really enjoyed the eclectic selection of stuff I’ve been finding at yard sales this summer. I’m still at capacity even with my prolific listing, so I figure once yard sale season is over I’ll shut down sourcing for a while to get caught up.

 

I don’t fault auctions or thrift stores for maximizing their income. That’s their job. It’s my job as a scavenger to adapt. If you can’t adapt then might as well exit the game.

[Jay]

That’s a good way to put it. It is like a big game. Our goal is to get the best stuff for the lowest price.

[Antique Frog]

That’s the sourcing side. The selling side’s becoming so rule-bound that adapting without considering alternative arrangements becomes difficult. Like this VerpackG nonsense from Germany.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I’d venture this is a much bigger deal for you since you probably do alot of business with Germany. For most of us Americans, writing off Germany is no big deal. I have no intentions of jumping through their hoops.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store 2001
Items Sold 32
Total Sales $1,171.00
COGS $134.00
Total Profit $1,037.00
Average profit $32.41
Average sales price $36.59
New Listings 92
Items scavenged 45
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 50

Now this was a great week.

I’ve been eyeballing my wardrobe storage in my inventory shed this week. Coats/jackets have my worst STR and also have the worst value per sqft of storage rating in my inventory. I plan on being aggressive with my coat pricing this fall and eventually liquidate with $9.99 auctions at the end of the year. The space my coat/jacket inventory takes up would be better served to hold 32 more of my standard bins. How bad is it? My listed coats/jackets are about $50/sq ft inventory space. My average for bins is almost $400/sq ft!!

 

So…I explained all this to my wife. It was her idea to wait to liquidate until Christmas. So immediately after this conversation where I said I’m getting out of the coat game….I leave a yard sale with 7 coats!!! LOL!  Why did I do this? Because this person had 7 Harley Davidson leather riding jackets for $5 each. These are a special exception because they have a great STR year round and sell for more than $100 each. I just sold a fabric harley davidson pea coat last week that was listed less than 1 week. I’ve sold similar jackets for $200+ before.

 

So now it is time for the mid-year round up.

First things first, I hit 2k listings! Yay!

Items listed so far 2022: 1294 ( 93.5% increase Year over year)

Items sold:  688 ( 13.5% increase Year over year)

Total Sales:   $24611( 8.5% increase Year over year)

It seems my listing is helping and hopefully will compound in Q4. It will be a real stretch, but I’d love to beat my 2020 abnormally high sales due to my listing push.

I still have a goal to shut down listing and scavenging on Thanksgiving for the year. I’ve done well so far and I think I can push my listing rate to get to 2500 new listings by then. I’ll need to average 60 listings/week from here on out because I also want to take a 2 week vacation in the fall. 20 work weeks left in the year. Let’s do this!!!

[Lukastreasure]

@retro-treasures-wv – Great to see your sales and numbers.  A good reminder that listing is king.  I’m tempted to grouse about my low sales, but I’m just not listing enough.  Great find on those Harley Coats!

[craig rex]

I plan on being aggressive with my coat pricing this fall and eventually liquidate with $9.99 auctions at the end of the year.

Congrats on 2000 listings. I am really curious to see how these auctions end up for you. I haven’t done auctions in quite some time, but every month I think about running a few just because I have the free listings available.

$9.99 was in the range of what I would use as minimum bid as well. Anything less and you risk only making a few bucks after fees. Every once in a while something gets bid up or you get a buyer who bids on multiple items, but mostly I found that auctions would seem like a good idea and the bidding was exciting, but about half the auctions in a batch wouldn’t get bids. Maybe my minimum bid was set too high or the right buyers just weren’t bidding that week.

Then I would go to package up all the auction wins and that was the worst part about it. It felt like my own little assembly line from hell. I used to do 500 auctions ending over the same weekend, so maybe if I ever do them again I won’t run quite as many.

The aggressive markdown strategy is a really good one. You might also see a boost with these slow selling items if you end some of the listings and sell similar, or if you add a public coupon to them. Especially since they’re taking up a lot of space compared to your other inventory.

[Retro Treasures WV]

You know thats a good idea to end and sell similar for them to renew all of them. Plenty of them are older listings for sure.

nothing I do price wise right now will make them move faster. Once the end of august rolls around I’ll end and relist with an updated price. I have a bunch that need listed anyways that I’ll focus on in august. I want to have every cost/jacket I have listed by Labor Day.

[Lukastreasure]

I’m blown away by the free shoes sales.  Is that just a NYC thing?  I lived in downtown Washington, DC for several years and don’t recall the same phenomenon there.  Wonder if there are other big cities with that culture.

Had two good scavenging events last week.  Got lucky at an auction for a change and picked up a good amount of quality items for reasonable prices.  Some antique wood planes and post-war era Lionel trains were the highlights.  Then stopped at an Estate Sale and picked up a trunk load for only $71.  Best was a like-new space heater for $20 that I should be able to get $150.  Kept me busy during the week researching and listing.  Still have a lot to list this week.

Sales are still slow for me.  Got busy with life stuff last week and didn’t get to post my numbers, so here are both weeks:

Week Ending           6/18/22           6/25/22
Gross Sales:              $272.38         $203.80
Net Sales:                  $242.95         $165.18
Items eBay Store:         1051               1062
Items Sold eBay:                 5                     6
Items Etsy Store:            246               256
Items Sold Etsy:                   1                   0
Cost of Items Sold:         $65.00         $12.95

Highest Price Sold:         $74.95         $74.95
Average Price Sold:         $45.40         $33.97
Returns:                                         0                 0
New Inventory cost: $168.91          $71.00

New items listed:                 7                         17

[Jay]

I’m blown away by the free shoes sales.  Is that just a NYC thing?

It’s a definitely just certain neighborhoods. Good finds are found at end of the month when people are moving out. Instead of just putting stuff in garbage bags, people leave items on the sidewalk.

Plus we walk a LOT when we visit. Its our favorite thing to do.

[Antique Frog]

@lukastreasuretrove I don’t know if it’s true of American wood planes, but the older British planes (18th- early 19th century) have the maker’s name in relief inside a zig-zag bordered box.  Used to be common- haven’t seen one in years.

[Lukastreasure]

#antiquefrog – haven’t come across any like that yet.  Oldest one from this batch was made in 1900, a Stanley plane.

[craig rex]

I am doing these numbers after enjoying today’s Too Good To Go surprise bag from the local coffee shop a short walk up the street in my small town. My bag contained two scones, two chocolate croissants and a small container of carrot sticks in some kind of sesame dressing, all for $3.99. I don’t eat a lot of sweets or carbs when I’m not obsessed with a new food waste app (thanks J&R, sincerely Craig Rex’s waistline). So I loved to see a savory, healthy snack in there. I can’t imagine the shops or the app make a ton of profit since prices are so low, but I hope everyone makes just enough that this app continues to be widely used.

I had a really nice experience at a library sale late last week as well, lots of good quality items and a very friendly staff. So it’s been a very positive week of a scavenging life even if eBay is still pretty slow.

In contrast to eBay, my consignment sales remain strong. This month was my third consecutive with over $6,000 in consignment sales and the last two months are very close to one another in terms of quantity of items sold and total dollars. Before you get too jealous, those numbers are gross, not net. My monthly profits have been about half that since I pay a fee every time a card is processed and added to my port, and I have sent in a few hundred cards every week for the last 3-4 months, so those $0.50 and $1 charges (sometimes more) really add up. 95% of the cards I’ve sent in over the last few months have been processed by this point, which means I won’t pay as much in processing fees in July but my sales will likely slow down. Stuff that is priced well sells very quickly on COMC, often within minutes. It’s a unique marketplace. Everyone in the trading card world is complaining about how slow sales are on every platform, but I wasn’t selling on consignment last year, so I’m really happy with my sales, and eBay still has its bursts of activity now and then.

@maybel9 had a great post in last week’s thread about ending 10 to 20 items each week to sell similar. I haven’t done that since January, so I’m going to play around with it this week in small batches and will report back.

6/19/2022 – 6/25/2022

Total items in store: 2091 (down from 2123 last week)

Items sold: 34 (22 via best offer, 4 via seller initiated offer, 16 via promoted listings)

Gross sales: $1880.83 (down 43% from one year ago)

Net sales: $1344.73 (down 45% from one year ago)

Average sales price: $55.32 (down 15% from one year ago)

Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 11 hours (down from 14 hours last week)

Highest price sold (net): $140.95 — Richard Mentor Johnson 2018 Historic Autographs cut signature

Richard Mentor Johnson was the ninth vice president. I don’t love a lot of the contemporary political trading card sets for a bunch of different reasons. But this oversized autographed “card” is a little piece of Americana. I paid about $50 and listed it for $250. I knew that this would be worth something in that range to the right collector. My buyer had sent an offer a few months back of $150, and I countered to no response. But after I put a 10% public coupon on all my listings last week, the buyer tried again with a $175 offer, and I wasn’t going to haggle over $10 or $20 when things are so slow.

Lowest price sold (net): $11.15 — Pete Pihos 1975 Fleer autograph PSA DNA authenticated

One of the mega card sellers whose auctions I look through every week (in fact that’s next up after I submit this post and drop off this weekend’s mail at the post office) ran a bunch of auctions last year with many multiples of the same item ending at the same day and time, or a day or two apart. I was fortunate enough to win a large quantity of these auctions for $2.27, $3.02, $4.26, prices like that. Every 3 or 4 weeks since, I’ve sold an autograph of Pete Pihos  for $10 to $15. He is an old-time football player who made it to the Hall of Fame in 1970, but he’s not famous enough that I knew that before Googling. I’ve also had quite a few sales of autographs of Red Sox manager Bill Carrigan, and I sold my first signature of the civil rights leader Barbara Jordan this week on the Juneteenth holiday.

Since I had so many duplicates, I also sent some of these autographed items to sell through my consignment port though they sell much slowly there, even though they are also cross-posted to eBay. Before the last few months, I had only ever sold on eBay so it is really interesting to see what sells on different platforms.

[Jay]

Its fun to see you diversify and adapt how you sell. I think think has been our key to success over the past decade +. If you get stuck in the one way that worked once, then it’ll dry up fast.

[craig rex]

Its fun to see you diversify and adapt how you sell. I think think has been our key to success over the past decade +. If you get stuck in the one way that worked once, then it’ll dry up fast.

I am coming up on one year of doing this full-time, no other jobs to pay my bills, and it’s amazing to look back on all the changes I’ve made over the last year. My eBay business is so different now. So many process improvements and experiments and it is really satisfying to make changes on the fly and see their impact within a few weeks or months. I think that some sellers want to stick to the same system forever, but it’s so important to adapt and change and find little advantages where we can.

[Sharyn]

So, are you guys planning to add some lunch options to your menu? Did the dinner event last month go well enough to consider opening through the evening?

Week of Jun 19 – 25
Total Items in Store: 1602 eBay, 33 Etsy
Items Sold: 5 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $2 + $0 Commission
Total Sales: $110.02 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $30 for two framed Lizars hummingbird prints
Average price: $22
Returns: 1 (sent wrong item, will resend correct item, buyer will keep wrong item)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
Number of items listed this week: 1

All our visitors have gone home and our family events are over. I will hopefully find time to list again, although my part time job has been busy.

I tried out the Too Good To Go app this weekend. It was $3.99 at an organic food shop for $12 of vegetables that were near their usefulness. I made Guacamole that evening with two avocados I picked up. I grabbed a bunch of soup veggies (turnip, parsnip, shallots, celery) that I plan to use for dinner tonight. The only misstep was some broccoli that really needed to be cooked that evening, but I’ll try for tomorrow night’s dinner. I enjoyed the experience, and I’ll do it again if anything for the novelty of it all.

I did go to a rummage sale on Friday. I wasn’t really finding anything, but then I picked up a couple of things that weren’t front and center and probably missed by others. I’m not planning on any auctions right now since I haven’t been able to list much.

[Jay]

So, are you guys planning to add some lunch options to your menu? Did the dinner event last month go well enough to consider opening through the evening?

We 100% would love to offer more food and expand hours, but it brings along a lot of challenges. More staff, more refrigerated/freezer space for different kinds of food…

[Retro Treasures WV]

How has turnover been for you? I know you were paying pretty good wages. I’m curious if that has resulted in better job satisfaction and retention for employees.

[Jay]

We pay very well for the area so have only lost people to normal reasons like graduating college. We have a good staff. The real challenge is building systems that are logical, practical, and can be taught…while keeping standards and quality high.

I understand why many businesses fail because the owners do everything and cant let go.

[craig rex]

The real challenge is building systems that are logical, practical, and can be taught…while keeping standards and quality high.

I understand why many businesses fail because the owners do everything and cant let go.

There is one restaurant in my small town that is like this. When the owner is there, he is always at the bar hovering and he is a real sourpuss with both customers and employees. The restaurant is a night and day difference when he’s not in the building. I would go there a lot more often if the owner would step back and let his employees do their jobs. Or if he was pleasant. The restaurant does seem to have enough systems in place (good food quality, outdoor dining during and after the pandemic, decent customer base) that I expect they will still be around in a few years. But it also wouldn’t surprise me at all if they suddenly close.

[Jay]

I guess that’s what makes “corporations” so successful. They take a product/service, strip it of any one person, and build a system to repeat it again and again.

For a small business I see the challenge of keeping the soul but taking out the grind.

[craig rex]

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I guess that’s what makes “corporations” so successful. They take a product/service, strip it of any one person, and build a system to repeat it again and again.

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That consistency of a corporation is a double edged sword, there’s nothing special about a Starbucks or ____ chain, it’s the same everywhere — but at least you know what you’re getting. They stick to their posted hours. Quality isn’t completely terrible if the chef takes a day off. I can’t say the same thing about many of the small restaurants in my town. It’s a very thin margin. I still give them my money as often as I can, and just try to learn their tendencies so that I have a good experience there. But I understand why so many people stick with chain restaurants.

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[Liz]

Hi, not sure if anyone remembers me. I used to post 2-3 years ago. I kind of lost my scavenging mojo for awhile, sorted myself out over the pandemic, and now I’m back at it.

Items in Store 384
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales: $1297.19
COGS: ? I sold a mix of stuff I scavenged and stuff we no longer use.  COGS for the stuff I picked was $46
Total Profit $887.32
Avg price per item: $40.54

I’ve had a few really good months of sales. I think it’s a combo of looking at things with a fresh eye and not being precious with the pricing. I’ve been motivated to get my death piles listed and actually see light at the end of the tunnel! I only have 4 more totes to go and I’m 95% done listing everything from the last auction I attended.

[Jay]

Welcome back. The good thing about eBay is that you can slack off and then jump right back in. Those are good sales.

[ChristineR]

Hi Liz.  What pricing strategy are you using vs. solds?

[Liz]

I don’t have a set formula for pricing. It’s a combination of research and gut feeling.  A lot of the resellers in my area are chasing the high dollar stuff -things that will sell for at least $100.  They’ll drop $50 on something to sell it for $100-125, which is one way to do it.  But there’s too much competition for those items and it ties up too much money in inventory.  While they are fighting over the high end stuff, I focus on the stuff I can easily flip for $30+.  It’s not a lot of dollars per transaction, but I’m making 10x my money on those items usually and I’ll sell a few of them every day, making the trip to the post office worthwhile.

I don’t have a huge storage area, so I need things to move along relatively quickly.  If something has been sitting for 12+ months, I re-evaluate.

There are a few categories I do not sell because they annoy me to list/ship.  Like, I don’t sell clothes unless I stumble upon something really special with great profit potential. Right now the only item of clothing in my store is a varsity jacket. I am going to stop selling most glassware and dishes because they are a PITA to ship.  I’ve never done well with art, so I stopped purchasing it. It sits for ages waiting for the right person and I just don’t have the space for that.

I’ve been focusing on practical items lately: cookware, belts, wallets, purses, bedding, flatware. I’ve sold a surprising number of brass chains for hanging lamps over the last few months. The chains were part of a $5 table that no one wanted at the last auction. That $5 table will make me $1200 over time thanks to those lamp chains. Everyone else was fighting over some vintage table top radios. The radios were cool but there was only about $200 in profit there.

In general, I try not to be stressed out or annoyed by my inventory, lol.  I’ve become very un-attached to my inventory. Previously, I bought things I was like “Oh, I LOVE this!” and would then have big opinions and feelings about it selling, which lead to stress!  Now I’m like, eh, it’s just stuff. Will it sell for profit?  That’s the whole point of this, making profit. I am not my target buyer.

I’m not currently chasing after what is “cool” because I feel like most people don’t have the money to throw around on “cool” stuff right now.  All my “cool” stuff is still sitting in my store, but the lamp chains, chandelier parts, and vacuum cleaner parts are selling. 🙂

[ChristineR]

Sounds good. Always great to sell overlooked but useful items!

[craig rex]

@maybel9 had a great post in last week’s thread about ending 10 to 20 items each week to sell similar. I haven’t done that since January, so I’m going to play around with it this week in small batches and will report back.

Thought I would make a separate post about this in case anyone is in need of some inspiration during another week of slow sales. I have tried a new experiment this week where I sorted my listings from oldest to newest, then filtered by price. Then bulk edit, end and sell similar any listings that were older than 2 months and had 0 to 2 watchers, or where I felt the price might be a little high.

So on Monday night I did $19.99 and $29.99 listings, end and sell similar on about 50 listings. On the $29.99 listings I dropped the price to $19.99. I wasn’t going to lower the $19.99 listings any further but I did drop my minimum offer to $10.

One of these listings sold for full price within a few hours, and I received offers on two others which went nowhere but, hey, at least they got an offer.

On Tuesday I did $39.99 listings which I ended and sold similar for $29.99. Again one sold right away, and another the next day through best offers.

I have seen less success with these items selling in the last few days as I’ve moved into end and sell similar on listings priced at $50 and up, but I had nice sales in my store overall. I have found that over the last few months, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays have tended to be my busiest, and I also have a 10% coupon running on all my listings right now. But I’m sure all the “new” listings have been helpful. This has also been a nice break for a few days from the usual listing grind. It will be interesting to see how many of these items sell over the next few weeks and months.

[NC]

I’ve had some luck as well at garage sales lately. I picked up 7 vintage wrestling shirts last week for 10 cents each (I just gave them a dollar and told them to keep the change lol) and I’ve already sold 3 of them for $220 total!

[Retro Treasures WV]

Ah yes, vintage pro wrestling stuff can be big bucks. The initial offers you get quickly will be from dealers. Hold out a bit and you’ll get better offers – usually from Japan.

[dwashnc]

My community has several “free boxes” that I routinely pick for easy profits.  I don’t know why people sit perfectly good items out instead of selling them but I won’t ask questions lol.

Glad to see you’re still killing it.

[Author]

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