The Numbers: Week June 25 – July 1, 2023

[Jay]

We’ve been enjoying reading the “Scavenge of the Week” that Craig started. Going out and never knowing what you’ll find really is then lifeblood of th
[See the full post at: The Numbers: Week June 25 – July 1, 2023]

[Sharyn]

@jay – Somethin’ got kinda messed up here. The link on your post from the main page goes to the weekly numbers Forum section, and it is labeled “The Numbers: Week June 25 – July 1, 2023” even though your post title is “The Numbers: Week July 2-8, 2023”. I’d post my numbers, but I don’t want anything to disappear if you fix it.

[Jay]

You’re correct! I’ll try to change the title.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Items in Store: 2304
Items Sold: 28
Total Sales: $1,077.00
COGS: $136.00
Total Profit: $954.00
Average profit: $34.07
Average sales price: $38.46
New Listings: 76
Items scavenged: LOLZ lots! (over 400)
Listing 2023 weekly Avg: 30

 

I have to keep telling myself to be patient with this premium hoarder collection – the sales will take time. Every time I list one, my brain tried to convince me it will sell instantly. They rarely will. Trust the process.

 

I just really would like a couple quick big hits to replenish cash reserves. I started the summer with $4k in cash reserves just for yard sales (that I never DREAMED I’d actually use). That’s gone. Now I’m into the general cash reserves I keep in my business account. While I still have plenty cash reserves, it is uncomfortable to move that much cash so quickly.

I have  a $10k personal line of credit at the credit union I could use for special inventory purchases, but I would rather borrow from myself if I have the ability. I’d also really only want to use that for a quick flip. This is NOT a quick flip by any stretch.

So far I have sold 5 shirts for $290. Only one high dollar shirt sold. 3 of them were less than $30 used shirts. Selling 5 items in less than 10 days is not bad. I currently have  112 active premium hoarder listings (shoes and clothes) for a listed value of…$21788! A $195 average list price. Whoah!

 

I have 31 more premium hoarder drafts (mostly clothes and lower dollar shoes) waiting on photos for $3125.

So on 143 listings I’m at $25k potential value and I have over 300 more listings to do ( 100 of which are high end shoes) By the time I’m done with just what I’ve bought so far I’ll have a list value of $70-80k.

I’m really feeling the pressure in my workspace. I’ve had so much come in so fast that my workspace is getting overwhelmed. I’m listing so much that it is rough to process new listings into my inventory system. Moving 500 new listings over 6 weeks into inventory takes time and effort and that time/effort bucket is where I’ve been stealing from to accomplish other things around the house. So…I’ve got the opposite of a death pile – a listings pile!

 

My daughter is stepping up her photo game this week. I’m giving her about 20 listings a day that I’m creating on my breaks & lunch at work as well as some time in the morning before I go to work. I hope to do 120 new listings this week which wouldn’t be possible if she wasn’t taking photos.

[craig rex]

I just really would like a couple quick big hits to replenish cash reserves. I started the summer with $4k in cash reserves just for yard sales (that I never DREAMED I’d actually use). That’s gone. Now I’m into the general cash reserves I keep in my business account. While I still have plenty cash reserves, it is uncomfortable to move that much cash so quickly.

Any chance I can convince you to run a steep sale (let’s say 50%) on old inventory (let’s say a year or older) or better yet, 7 or 10 day auctions on that inventory with your start bid at 50 percent of your BIN price. It won’t all sell but I’d bet 10 to 15 percent of it will, more if you drop the start bid price or get less selective about what you list. No fees to schedule listings, just the start fee if it’s outside collectibles categories and maybe a few others. $25 to $50 up front for potential profit of…well, you tell us after you run the auctions. Plus a few more sales after you relist the items back into your store because buyers can be unpredictable like that.

Might churn your inventory more quickly than usual, but that might not be a bad thing considering the size and scope of your clothes and shoes.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I’ve ran the 50% off sale several times in the past and it did nothing for sales.

 

I’m slowly doing end/sell similar on my oldest items. That has resulted in some sales. I just have to keep on plugging on it.

[craig rex]

I’ve ran the 50% off sale several times in the past and it did nothing for sales.

Yeah, I should clarify, I haven’t done a markdown sale in quite a long time, either. I use it on my consignment trading card platform all the time, but eBay is not set up where you can search sellers by their sale discount level and so it’s just lopping off profit. Sending direct offers to buyers, or even just re-pricing, is probably more effective.

I had some success with coupons in the past (both public and private) but really haven’t seen much action with them this year. I think the end of eBay bucks really limited their effectiveness. Maybe eBay will make coupons more of a priority in Q4 or next year, who knows.

I think markdowns might be useful if you have a large batch of newly listed inventory, but that opens the question that Jay posed below — would the items sell without the coupon? And I think if you are pricing well and have your offer settings at a reasonable rate, it’s pretty much all a wash.

I bet there are some sellers who operate in different niches than us who really make good use of coupons and sales, though.

[Jay]

I’m always open to experiments, but I think trading cards is much more price sensitive than most clothes and the kind of random, vintage items we sell.

I dont think there are dozens of watchers for our vintage items who are just waiting for the right price before they purchase. Instead, I think most of our items have zero watchers and then suddenly someone does a search, finds our unique item, and purchases.

As Retro said, deep discounts have never spurred a huge amount of sales. I even question whether the items that do get purchased during a discounted period would have purchased at full price.

[craig rex]

@Jay

Most of my trading card sales — since I don’t really deal in the high end $500+ modern and graded cards that are so prevalent in the hobby — happen in the same way you describe for your vintage items. If I get one or two watchers on a card listing, that’s usually a sign the item is going to sell soon.

Using end and sell similar, or auctions, has worked in the other niches I sell in, too. This DVD set sold last night for $25 after an auction (unsold) and selling similar on the unsold listing. It had been in my inventory for three years, and there is actually another active listing for cheaper! Granting that listing is from a bulk reseller — this is where I think we often have an advantage over the big sellers who use stock photos. It’s just a matter of getting our listing

Maybe all of this sell similar and running auctions has led to one or two extra sales a week (on average) of old items? But I also have a tiny 500 item store at this point. I suspect I would sell more if I had more active listings.

It’s also a matter of differing goals — a lot of items I’m fine with taking 50% of my buy it now price now versus getting a little bit higher priced sale at some point down the line. With the amount of storage space you and Ryanne have, space may not be at a premium. Space is at a huge premium for me, and I’m also learning that I really enjoy turning over inventory quickly. Nothing better than selling an item within a few days of listing it, because there is always more to buy.

If nothing else, I think you and Ryanne would see a bump in sales from ending your oldest listings and selling similar on them. I sorted your store by age (newest to oldest) and once I hit page 30, everything from that point on has been listed for over a year. From what I understand about eBay’s algorithm in 2023, 1+ year old listings are basically dead in the water. Does that mean buyers can find them, or not? No idea. But the Auction Professor regularly uses end and sell similar, and he deals in a lot of the same oddball stuff you folks do.

[Jay]

Fair enough. Maybe we will do a deep store wide sale for one week to see what the action would be.

 But the Auction Professor regularly uses end and sell similar, and he deals in a lot of the same oddball stuff you folks do.

I’ve never dived into his details but I’ve never seen a direct correlation between the ways people futz with their store and sales. Or at least never seen evidence of huge jumps in sales for the odd ball stuff.

I also question the game of “Price High and immediately offer 50% off”. Maybe that game works? But difficult to tell.

[craig rex]

I’ve never dived into his details but I’ve never seen a direct correlation between the ways people futz with their store and sales. Or at least never seen evidence of huge jumps in sales for the odd ball stuff.

I don’t follow reselling content much at all, nothing has ever grabbed me in the way your podcast did, but I remembered reading that article at some point and then I found his eBay store after a little Googling. Based on the amount of feedback they receive, they’re moving at least 500 items a month in a 35,000 items store, and they definitely still use the end and sell similar technique. I sorted their store by age and 30 pages in, their oldest items are just eight days old. Talk about commitment to the process!

They had some items on sale too, but like you I question the logic of markdown sales. I think if you’re gonna do a sale, do it right after you’ve refreshed your inventory so you have a lot of newer listings that also show up as on sale. But I like sending offers to watchers directly ahead of running a sale.

When I do end and sell similar, I end 200 items at a time, then go into unsold items and sell similar, then I delete those items from my unsold once they’re back in my store. This way nothing gets lost or duplicated and the whole thing takes maybe two minutes. Seems like an easy process to train a helper on as well.

Fiddle around with prices and titles if you like. I do, but I have a smaller store now. But even if you make no changes to the listings, you’re likely to see a few sales right away from items showing up as new in interested buyers saved searches, and a few more sales in the days and weeks after as other interested buyers find the “new” items. I’ve had even more success as I’ve started to cut prices a little bit, but that’s more on $50 and up items.

[Lukastreasure]

@Retro – Incredible!  What a haul.  I can’t wait to see your xmas numbers…

[Lukastreasure]

Week Ending 7/8/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $565.70  (eBay $465 / Etsy $100)
Net Sales: $462.15
Total Items Sold: 12 (eBay 10 Etsy 2)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1215
Total Items in Etsy Store: 530
Cost of Items Sold: $102.46
Highest Price Sold: $175.00  Vintage Bike
Average Price Sold: $47.14
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00

Average Days Listed: 208
Longest Listed: 1087
New items listed: 1
New Listings Value $74.95

Not a bad week for this time of year.  Much better than last year since I had my store on vacation mode then.  My big sale of the week was unusual.  I sold a vintage 1970’s Raleigh bicycle back to a previous owner.  I assume I sold it too cheap since he was buying it to resell again, but I was happy to get triple what I paid for it for less than a month holding it.  It was large and taking up too much storage space.

[Sharyn]

I guess the post title won’t get fixed, so I will list my numbers. It was a piss poor week, but I did get $100 from Swap.com.

When I decided to help sell my neighbor’s stuff (early 2022), I realized that I could not handle all the clothing. I sent two boxes into Swap.com, and they took forever to list about half of it. Some of it sold, and I received a few payments, but the rest of the items weren’t getting listed.

I contacted them several times, and they kept saying that they were overwhelmed, they started a new system that was taking time to set up, etc. I think it was February of this year when the website was completely revamped, and all my listings went away. I tried to contact them, but got no response.

I did a little search on the company, and someone complaining about them offered a link to the Better Business Bureau of Illinois. I submitted a complaint, and after going back and forth twice, they offered me $100 cash or $50 credit. I took the cash as it is at least something. The response I got said that they were new managers, and that they did not get the inventory from the old site. I think that is BS, but I’m done with them and their fraudulent ways.

I am still working on setting up an auction for him that will now probably be later in August.

Week of Jul 2 – 8
Total Items in Store: 1702 eBay, 28 Etsy
Items Sold: 4 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $3 + $21 Commission
Total Sales: $61.97 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Plus $100 from Swap.com buyout
Highest Price Sold: eBay $25.56 Slinky Brand Tank & Cardigan Set
Average price: $15.50
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 26

[Joe]

Average but decent week; listing a little slower but still grinding away.

Total Items in Store: 15,247
Items Sold: 176
Gross Sales: $2,289.43 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1339.28 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)

Cost of Items Sold: $176 (approx)
Highest Price Sold: $133.38 (Ipod Classic)
Average Price Sold: $13.01
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $80
Number of items listed this week: 400

For context, these were my 5 best selling categories for the week:

Music > Vinyl Records

Music > CDs

Video Games & Consoles > Video Games

Music > Cassettes

Consumer Electronics > Portable Audio & Headphones > iPods & MP3 Players

 

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 802
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $92 (including a couple of items I originally bought for us but sold)
Total Sales: $530.00  Net: $321.55
Highest Price Sold: $95 (Small vintage painting)
Average price: $44.17
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $145
Number of items listed this week: 42

Made it over 800 listings for the first time.  I’m  organizing and labeling inventory as I go along.  Have a bit more of that to do.  Also have a few unlisted things that crept into listed boxes since I wanted to keep like items together.  I think I have removed most of that.  I think I have one more box to list before I finish the long garage wall.  As for clearing the floor, well that will be a bit longer than I hoped.  A stack of bankers boxes remains and no shelves left to put them on yet.

Fun story from the flea market this week.  I don’t normally bother but I dug into the $1 clothing pile.  I spotted a Garnet Hill flannel sheet set that retailed new for over $200.  Ended up buying 22 items (mostly Garnet Hill bedding) for $22.  Talked to the guy.  He buys fabric items by the ton from one of our independent local thrift stores.  Drives it around to markets as far as Las Vegas.  Unfortunately what doesn’t sell he dumps in the landfill.  He was really proud of his business and ability to buy the truck.  He said he is banned from one of the other stores.  Turns out the one he buys from is the one I don’t shop any longer because the college kids look everything up on the internet and they price to high for resellers.  Seems to me they should rethink that with this guy getting pretty good items in this piles sometimes.  Had another fun sourcing event that I will share in next week’s scavenge of the week.

Need to pick up my listing today. My daughter hopefully will get back into taking photos.  At her behest, I bought a light box finally on the Amazon Prime Day sale.

[craig rex]

@ChristineR

You’re going to hit 1000 listings before Q4 at this rate! I have some work to do to catch up to you. Nice work!

I might need to join you in the lightbox game come winter. What type did you buy?

I loved the story of the flea market guy too. I read it in Jay’s voice which I think means I miss the podcast…

[ChristineR]

https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_pop&orderId=112-0267705-4915447&lineItemId=qhljstnupikrwny&shipmentId=XHV719xPB&packageId=1&asin=B0BJ6SRZWX  This is the one I settled on, but there were many sizes and similar brands.  It seems ok, but I kind of wish I would have gone with this one with lights on the sides as well.  My daughter said the front of some items was not getting light but maybe she wasn’t placing the item well or should have closed the front flap.  https://www.amazon.com/PULUZ-Professional-Shooting-Photography-Backdrops/dp/B0B6VGN6KR/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=4CBYKWMGOAW8&keywords=light+box+upgrade&qid=1689606294&sprefix=light+box+upgrade%2Caps%2C203&sr=8-1-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

Thanks Craig.   I’m going on a big trip in 10 days so I hope to power out a bunch of listings before we leave.  I was thinking too about Jay’s podcast discussion of the flea markets where we are all part of the food chain.  I definitely miss the podcast but I’m so happy for their local success.  It’s very cool to witness.  I listen to Pure Hustle podcast, which is ok if you skip through their promotions.  They are Scavenger Life disciples.

[julesbijouxvintage]

Our Store Week:  July 2 – July 8, 2023

Total Items in Store: 4092
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $ 750.33

Item Sales:  580.99
Costs of Items Sold: $ 34.03
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price(s) Sold:  171.63 – 6 Vintage Ceiling Light Globes – various sizes to Hong Kong – Special Listing created for buyer

Average Price Sold: $ 50.02 – Gross

Average Price Sold: $ 38.73 – Net

Returns: 0 –

Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 11.10

Number of items listed this week: 76

This is the July slowdown we generally experience this time of year… we just keep listing.

A bummer happening yesterday… we (me) have been volunteering at a local thrift store for the past 4+ years in the book department. We were told of a policy page forbidding the paid and volunteer staff from shopping from the back… we have the lady in charge price our items and then I pay up front after shopping the shelves there…apparently – no more. This morning I tendered our resignation and let them know that if it changes we would be open to volunteering once more… we will see… So, changes and we will find new places to shop and get caught up on all the backlog we now have.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I’m surprised you were allowed to do that as long as you have. Every thrift store worker/manager I’ve ever talked to either only allows shopping on days you do not work or straight up no shopping at all at that location.

as a customer or donator that would be  disappointing to find out the workers were cherry picking in the back room.

at least you can still shop whenever you want.

[Antique Frog]

I worked in a couple of thrift bookshops. In the first each volunteer had an assigned number to access the till; any purchases had to be logged. In that shop stock went straight out on the shelves- it had already been picked from a central warehouse.

The second got most of their stock from donation bins in supermarket car parks. I could buy books from the back room- there was about half-a-ton coming in every week- but the book had to be priced using Abebooks or other sites by another volunteer. Did it once, with a book in Polish, and it took the poor volunteer about half-an-hour to actually find another copy for sale. Then the manager priced the book, and the purchase by the volunteer written down in a notebook by the till (along with whatever chocolate bars etc. they’d bought). Prices were slightly lower than the averaged internet price, i.e. too high for purchasing for resale.

There’s money in books… also tram tickets, billets doux and rashers of bacon.

[Author]

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