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We had our best week in six months that was helped by a huge sale. A set designer purchased $1300 worth of vintage markers (the kind used in elementar
[See the full post at: The Numbers: October 31 – November 6, 2021] -
10/31/21 – 11/06/21
Total Active Items (2 different stores): 375
Items Sold: 14 Gross Sales: $485.62 (what the buyers paid, not incl shipping or taxes)
Highest Price Sold: $119 plus shipping – 1923 Czech Mauser rifle bayonet (acquired via eBay snipe at $47).
Returns: 0
COGS: $79 (including consignment commissions but not including original cost of any family castoffs sold)
New Listings: 6
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0It took a couple of days but the buyer who received someone else’s item that I mentioned last week finally used the label I sent him and returned it to me. My faith in humanity is restored.
Congratulations on blowing out all those markers at once! I know it was a nice stash that kept on giving but I’ll bet you might have been getting just a little bit tired of them. 🙂
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Wow – wow! Nice job, Jay and Ryanne (hey, you two!) Here’s my week. It sucked. 🙂
Total on eBay: 85 (all time high)
Items Listed: 5 (Exceeded Goal By 1!)
Items Sold: 1
Total Profit: $13.93 – “Straight Down” (Brand Name) Women’s Activewear Jacket (This profit does not count loss from return.)
Returns: The Dan Post boots got returned (for fit) and I reimbursed my shipping costs to buyer as well. Hopefully, some good karma will come back to me.
Goal This Week: 2
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10/31/21 – 11/06/21
Total Items In Store: 4135
Items Sold: 29
Total Sales: $ 995.43
Highest Price Sold: $ 48 (Shoes)
Average Price Sold: $ 34.33
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 577
Number of items listed: 27Gut Sales Report for the week: Sales started to take off this week and it began to feel like the busy season. I was thinking the same thing as Jay that people will buy more off ebay because of the supply chain issues.
Focus for the week : Been trying to get my new storage unit organized and get the rest out of the basement to the storage unit. Did a good job but still need to move about 30-40 more containers from the garage to the storage unit. I am moving 4 at a time when I go to the storage unit.
Scavenge of the week: I went to an estate sale Saturday and got there right at 9AM when it opened. They let 20 people in, but I was number 30. There were about 8 people in front of me outside – no big deal. But it took nearly 45 minutes for me to get into the sale. I found out when I got into the house. The guy was a big collector and had collected many, many things. The checkout person said it took the first person 25 minutes just to get to the checkout because there were so many things to look at. It was mostly nice stuff, but I was only interested in a few things. I ended up buying 114 1970’s Ford Car Sales brochures – most in near mint condition. I bought 30 maps that were mostly from the 1960’s. I bought about 6 pair of shoes and 40 new sealed boxed DVD sets (mostly BBC stuff). So far what I looked up, the boxed DVD sets are averaging about $25 each.
Thoughts for the week: Sales are picking up and it is looking to be a banner busy season. I have my storage unit in place now so I can buy as much as I can find. All in all my business is on the move in the
right direction.Mark S
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10-31-21 to 11-6-21
Total Items in Store: 1714
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales:$ 142.19
Net Sales:$ 102.22
Cost of Items Sold: $ 1.50
Highest Price Sold: $ 51.90 set of uncirculated bills from US Mint
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 0
Number of items listed this week: 20Awesome marker sale. I hope everyone’s sales pick up as the holidays make their fast approach.
Slow week for me on Ebay. A bunch of important life stuff wrapped up so I will now have more brainpower to focus on my store. Found even more stuff to list as I unpack and organize. Always happy to have more stuff to list. This week I will focus on pictures.
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I love hearing that the markers are still selling! We sold a vintage marker to someone thru gsp recently and ebay said it was a non shippable item. They kept the marker and refunded both me and the buyer. Hopefully someone at the gsp facility is enjoying that “old marker” smell! I think sales have picked up the last few weeks, but not by a lot. Although, we have been less than our normal level of motivated when it comes to listing and I am getting anxiety walking past the death piles.
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Great news on the markers! I remember when you purchased them. At the time I thought you were brave. Love how you continue to teach us to jump in with both feet:) Congratulations!
Our Store Week October 31-November 6, 2021
Total Items in Store: 546
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $333.79(including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $199.20 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $7
Highest Price Sold: $95 (Danbury Mint I Love Pugs Train)
Average Price Sold: $47.68
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
Number of items listed this week: 6Sales picked up a little. Since I’ve started to post my weekly numbers here, I’m always appalled at how high selling fees continue to be. Almost 40% this week for me. Will continue to monitor.
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After all this time, I’m amazed that those old markers keep selling like that. Your buyer must have a pretty big prop budget.
Week of Oct 31 – Nov 6
Total Items in Store: 1387 eBay, 36 Etsy
Items Sold: 15 eBay
Cost of Items Sold: $10.50 + $24.50 Commission
Total Sales: $325.39 eBay; Includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: $79 Donna Ricco Dress NWT
Average price: $21.70
Returns: 0 (one chargeback that I disputed)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 1Sales did pick up a bit, and they seem to be going steady. I did have a few bigger sales that helped. I need more of them.
I’ve done better about giving away the lower value items, but I still do list them. I’ve come to realize that I need to do the research ahead of time. If I think something has value, take photos, and then find it’s a less than $15 item when I go to list, I list it anyway. I sold a Lenox Christmas ornament yesterday for less than $5. Ouch.
Funny story: I had a doctor’s appointment last week. She likes to chat a bit, which is nice. Somehow she (not me) brought up the topic of thrift shops. My medical doctor! So, now I have to check out a Red, White, and Blue thrift shop that isn’t far from where I work. I don’t think I will have time this week, but maybe on the weekend or the following week. LOL
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Yes, always go ahead and list something you have put time into. I listed a shirt yesterday and when my daughter photographed it she found a stain and a rip I missed. She asked if she should throw it away. I said no, and lowered the price to $9.99. I told her it would sell faster than everything else. Sure enough, it sold same day.
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Weekly sales 10/31 – 11/06
Random Item Store
Total items 1295
Items sold 32
New items listed 70
Gross sales $747.41
Net sales $311.21Patch Store
Total items 4008
Items sold 73
New items listed 140
Gross sales $549.53
Net sales $309.17Etsy
Orders 20
Gross sales $299.00
Net sales $254.15Gross sales total $1,595.94
Net sales total $874.53Gross sales were alright this week but I too am a bit surprised at my net sales after fees. I did see that my patch store got charged for October and November’s subscription fee this week so that was $120 and then another $60 on my other store so without that I would have been about the same as I have been the past month or so at a net of $1000+. Not sure why eBay waited to charge me for October’s subscription this week but I did go back and see that they didn’t charge me at the beginning of the month last month. Oh well, still making a lot of profit on this old junk I sell 🙂
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Congrats on the marker sales! I think I remember you went back the next morning to get the rest. Good thinking!
Dismal sales for me this week. I listed a multi-quanity legos RA and that’s it. Very busy at the day job so that’s good. I also got my booster on Friday so kinda killed my energy this weekend.
Sold 4 items $183.45 gross, only $56.84 net? Hm. Some large subscription fees I’ll need to look at. I haven’t read all the postings but it sounds like some others had high fees last week too.
Also noted this week and some items at the store seem to be very low stock. My daughter’s iphone broke and the Best Buy guy said they have basically no phones and haven’t been able to get any unlocked phones from Apple for a while. Went to a restaurant that said they don’t have some food items right now… Seems like the squeeze is on. Not sure what is happening down in Long Beach. I have a friend who lives there and can see all the boats off the coast from her house.
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Here in WV random items are out of stock at all stores. The price of beef has Practically doubled.
This summer domestic auto dealers had empty lots. Now the imports (Honda and Toyota) have empty lots.
its just a mess all around.
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Total Items in Store: 162
Items Listed: 16
Items Sold: 15
Total Sales: $287.50
Highest Price Sold: $50 Breyer pewter rearing Spirit horse Dreamworks
First, thanks to RetroTreasures and Lukastreasuretrove – your words inspired me and I got off my duff and right to listing. Managed 16 listings last week, all Christmas ornaments. I have plenty of shipping supplies (I have a huge supply of reuseable boxes, and hate to break down boxes only to have to tape them back together, so my guest master bathroom is literally full of boxes), I just plain don’t like the work, especially on fragile stuff. It is so fiddly to get it settled nicely in the box, and then the worry until after delivery. If it was easy, though, everyone would do it and then where would we be?
I have tons more Christmas to get listed, and I just generally need to get listing more anyway to make a dent in the storeroom. Hopefully the combination of the holidays coming and listing more will yield even more sales! Still having many older items sell after the end and relist thing, that is very helpful. I did have to dig around and find some long, flat storage totes for the glass Christmas ornaments. I had them in those cardboard file boxes, but they are too deep, resulting in too many layers to dig through when items sell. I get 2 layers in the flat totes, with large bubble wrap between layers so it is easier to find everything, the size and shape are just throwing a wrench in my organization system.
Oh, and ChristineR – I read a fascinating article on the shipping/unloading conundrum recently. There are, of course, a multitude of factors. Easy ones are fewer workers and more regulations around trucking the containers out of port, but another big driver is just that demand for stuff is through the roof. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but if pre-2020 about 1o ships came in per week (or whatever time period), now there are 20 ships coming in. The port is unloading as fast as possible, but more and more container ships keep coming. They can’t divert to SF (no supply chain to unload and distribute), east coast (have to go through a canal). So they are over-loading the containers and removing pallets from the goods to cram more stuff in when loading, but that makes the containers harder to unload and takes longer (and must be done before trucking). Anyway, it was a great read, and since it looks like it wont be solved anytime soon it hopefully will mean more sales for us!
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Our Store Week October 24 – 30, 2021
Total Items in Store: 2071
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $402.65 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $230.10 (minus eBay fees, shipping, taxes & Store Subscription of $21.95)Item Sales: 280.70
Cost of Items Sold: $ 15.52
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price(s) Sold: 50.00 – Book – Ole Foley by Paul C. Boethel – TexanaAverage Price Sold: $ 33.55 – Gross
Average Price Sold: $ 23.39 – Net
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 38.70Number of items listed this week: 20
Another slow week – but we are listing a lot this week so far and are ahead of last November at this time by around 175.00. So, it’s all good.
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Great sale on the markers – very astute to purchase them all in the first place and to make sure that you got them all. I like to do the all in buys also, if you can make money on one then the same should be true for buying a large lot. My only concern would be if they dried up. I’ve had problems in the past when buying ink pen refills, many times the older ones have dried up, so I always try and test a few when buying them nowadays.
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Sales Report for: 11/6/21
Total Items in Store: 1222
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $1,669.00
Net Sales (After fees): $1,438.00
Cost of Items Sold: $140.00
COGS Percent 9.74%
Net Profit Margin: 77.77%
Highest Price Sold: $472.00 Antique Miner’s Lamp
Average Price Sold: $98.18
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 9
Promoted Percentage: 52.94%
Average Days Listed: 284
Longest Listed: 880
New items listed: 19Blown away by the markers sale. Wow! I bet you danced a little jig when you packed those up to go.
So nice to have a strong week again. Best week of sales since January. Several >$100 sales pushed the average to almost $100. Quite a variety of sales from artwork to antique books.
Biggest sale was for an antique miner’s lamp that I put up for a rare-for-me auction and sold for $472. I’d been sitting on it for a while and watching similar sales as I wasn’t sure what to price it at since it was rare enough to have no recent comps. I decided to put it up for auction because a lot of the older lamps on auction had run up into big dollars. I purchased it at auction for $30. I think I might have been able to get more if I’d sat on it for fixed price, but feel that the $472 was a fair price for it. I had checked with a collector’s group on eBay to gauge interest and best offer I’d gotten from them was $360.
Half of the sales this week were of Christmas items. We picked up a large lot of vintage 1950’s ceramic Christmas figurines/planters/candle holders and those have been selling strong. Best sale from this lot was a Noel candle holder set that sold for $339. This one is definitely a BOLO. I wanted to call it “Sexy Noel Candle Holder” in the title but Cecile nixed that. Vintage Commodore Candy Cane Pixies Elves Noel Candle Holders W/ Box and Candles | eBay
Also had a rare Facebook Marketplace sale for $150. Sold a doll house that we originally purchased for my daughter when she was little. I had it up on eBay as well, but hadn’t gotten much attention there.
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I had one of those 7-10 day stretches where life stuff came up to such a degree that it’s cathartic to take a few minutes and go over the numbers. I haven’t listed anything since last Wednesday, my longest gap in listings in probably 6 months.
Fortunately, you would never guess that from this week’s numbers. I had 5 sales which were in the $200 range and another buyer who went a little crazy and spent over $300 on about 15 items. All of those sales helped a lot, but I still would have had a normal-ish week for my busy little store without them.
I doubt my sales will look like this next week if I don’t spend some time listing, but it’s nice to have a sales week like this with my body and brain mostly on autopilot.
10/31/2021 – 11/6/2021
Total items in store: 3438 (down from 3502)
Items sold: 76 (58 via best offer, 4 via seller initiated offer, 6 repeat buyers)
Gross sales: $3659.21 (up 134% from one year ago)
Net sales: $2746.43 (up 148% from one year ago)
Lowest price sold (net): $11.08 — Jake McCarthy Team USA patch and bat card
I had a few sales lower than this, but with this one the buyer sent me a really nice note thanking me for bonuses I had included for a previous purchase, a particular card for a friend’s or family member’s birthday.
For all the modern cards that are worth good money, there’s still a lot that are worth pennies or maybe $1 or $2. Cheap looking rookie cards of average players, plain jersey cards where the language on the back says “The jersey on this card was not used in any particular game, season or event) and autographs of players who got cut from the team before they ever played in a game.
I end up with a lot of cards like this when I purchase bulk lots, which are maybe 10 to 15 percent of my buys. So if a buyer indicates that they collect a certain player or team, this provides me with an easy opportunity to give them a little freebie and clear out a few cards in the process. I added some nice stuff to this buyer’s original birthday purchase, maybe $5 worth of cards (if that) but the types (rookies, jerseys, autographs) that collectors love if they like a certain team or player. Especially for free!
I added an autograph to their new purchase and received another glowing feedback. Feedback won’t pay the bills, but maybe the buyer will come back again for a Christmas gift. If not, well they made my day for one day.
Highest price sold (net): $296.48 — Cody Martin National Treasures gold auto patch rookie
Cody Martin is a backup player for the Charlotte Hornets, essentially an average player on an average team. National Treasures is one of the premiere sets (especially for basketball) and a box of 8 cards runs in the thousands per box. Whether you buy a box or buy into a case break, you will hope for a rare card of the top new rookie but more often than not, you’ll end up with Cody Martin. Did this buyer get a good deal getting one of the very best Cody Martin National Treasures cards for $300?
Well, I bought this card at auction for almost exactly $100 a few short months ago, before this season had started. Prices always drop in the off-season (out of sight, out of mind) but this season is just getting started and maybe Martin has improved tremendously. This might seem strange if you’re reading this and don’t know a lick about cards, but I don’t really know enough to have an informed opinion on Cody Martin’s current of future basketball abilities or card prices. I’m aware he exists, and if one of his cards sell, that might be an indication he had a good game. But that’s about it, even with all of my knowledge.
Basically, I know enough to bid on something that’s undervalued based on past sales history, to list it high (but not too high) and wait for the right buyer, then repeat the process thousands of times. That’s what works for me and how I keep this interesting.
But there are a lot of card buyers and sellers who focus on buying rare and expensive cards of individual players, getting as many as they can and the best of the best, then selling at the right exact moment. Basically setting their own market. That seems like a much riskier version of what I do, since if the player gets hurt or isn’t good, your “investment” is just a bunch of piles of dumb cardboard. But I’m sure it works for some people who really have the knowledge base. Or, if they don’t want or need to sell, then they have a collection that makes them happy and gives them something in the background of their life to think about and tweak and add to.
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