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October is our busiest month at the cafe because everyone comes to our area to see the leaves change. Every weekend in October has broken our previous
[See the full post at: The Numbers: Week October 22-28, 2023] -
My Store Week October 22-28, 2023
Total Items in Store: 845
Items Sold: 31
Gross Sales: $917.32 ($813.73 eBay, $37.14 Bonanza, $48.95 Plato’s Closet, $17.50 Zitfit)
Net Sales: $425.13 (minus eBay fees, shipping, taxes, returns)
Cost of Items Sold: $45.83
Highest Price Sold: $71.95 (2 pairs of jeans to Sweden)
Average Price Sold: $27.19 (inc. shipping)
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $44.90Number of items listed this week: 35
$ Amount Listed this week: $731.39
Overall, this has been a very good week for me. The daily listing is really paying off now. Tomorrow is Halloween and lots of kids activities but I will try my very best to keep up the momentum. I am also attempting to pay more money for better items. It’s a hard habit to break as I have been sourcing from the $.99 rack for so long. For the Sweden sale, the buyer wanted to combine shipping (which you can’t do in the eBay shipping program). She kept sending me comps on another US seller that was offering International First Class Shipping so their shipping was lower (of course, without tracking!). I was very hungry for the sale so I decided to cave and added International Priority to one listing and upped the price and told her I would sell her both of the pairs she wanted. Next I stuffed both jeans into a padded flat rate mailer. It’s been about 5 years since doing this… so the process has changed.. there is now an HTS number and of course the customs form and having to go to the post office… it all took an extra 2-3 hours to figure it all out and make the extra trip. If these “dont’ fit” or are a return I am going to be so bummed. It’s nice to offer these shipping options to close a deal, but I really am grateful for the ease of the eBay shipping program. The craziness of it all is that the charge was apx. the same for both options… so no real savings for the customer. It just seemed that way to her because I was able to pack 2 pairs into one package.
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I am also attempting to pay more money for better items. It’s a hard habit to break as I have been sourcing from the $.99 rack for so long.
This is something I struggle with a lot as well. Thinking about sell through rate has helped me feel a lot more confident about what I purchase and what I pass up. I try and weigh each of these factors:
- How many sold listings in Terapeak (especially last 3 months) and how stable were the prices?
- How many active listings for this item, and do those have watchers?
- How fast do I expect the item to sell, and why do I expect it to sell fast or slow?
- How much profit margin am I making? (either in whole numbers of percentages)
- How excited will I be to list this item?
Usually this list can help me figure out what’s a buy and what isn’t, and thinking about these questions has helped me get a better idea of what I want my business to look like in 2024 and beyond.
Also, very interesting international shipping story. I ship direct to international customers (most of my packages are 8 ounces or less) and they are happy to get what they want without jumping through the hoops (and costs) of the Global Shipping Program or whatever it’s called these days. Every once in a while, I get a weird buyer like yours who asks too many questions and it makes nervous. But it usually works out. I hope your jeans make it safely to Sweden and the buyer can comfortably go outside soon. Ideally after they leave you a positive feedback.
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Week Ending 10/28/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $571.60 (eBay: $472 / Etsy: 124.95)
Net Sales: $472.81
Total Items Sold: 14 (eBay: 13 / Etsy 1)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1204 / Etsy Store: 565
Cost of Items Sold: $14.75
Highest Price Sold: $124.95 (Sony Discman)
Average Price Sold: $40.83
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 2Average Days Listed: 451
Longest Listed: 2058
New items listed: 9
New Listings Value $379.55Average week of sales made better because a lot of what sold this week was stuff I got for free originally, so my cost of goods was only about 3%. Big contrast to last week’s 31%. So far this year I’m averaging about 15%.
I feel like I’m running a race with last year and we’re neck and neck 30 yards from the finish line. Only about $2000 ahead of last year this time. The final stretch should be a nail biter.
My big sale for the week was a cool Sony Discman that I got in a box lot of electronics. Big heavy thing. Hard to imagine people walking around with one of those.
My big sale was really a lot of ornaments for $160 sold to my repeat buyer of the last several months. I lotted up 5 of my current listings for her and gave her a 40% discount. Not a problem since my COGs were only about $10. Same buyer has now spent $924 with me this year.
I decided to try two things this week that have been discussed on the board and see if it makes any difference. I ended and relisted all of my Christmas listings that were over 1 year old – approx. 100 listings total. I then upped my promoted listings fee on these items to 10% from 5% that I normally use. I will be interested to see if either of these has an affect. Of course, one old stagnant listing sold almost immediately…. for $11.95. That listing had been up for almost 3 years. I’ll let you know if it makes any difference.
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Items in Store: 2782
Items Sold: 34
Total Sales: $2,107.00
COGS: $233.00
Total Profit: $1,874.00
Average profit: $55.12
Average sales price: $61.97
New Listings: 30
Items scavenged: 16
2023 weekly new listings Avg: 45Wow this week was a total blur! It was incredibly busy non-ebay wise. I was kinda surprised I got 30 listings up – a credit to my workday break listing dedication. Right now I’m just staying in a constant state of exhaustion. Maybe November will bring some relief.
I’ve crossed the halfway mark on my fall/winter listing goal of 1113+ listings and I’m on track to meet the goal. I need to average 59 listings/week through the end of the year to get there.
I’ve been heavily focused on listing the new in box shoes which is fine but I really need to get back on the clothing this week to get my listing numbers up.
The more you list the more you sell. The more you sell the more you ship. The more you ship the less time you have to list, so the less you sell. Curse you cycle of exhaustion!
We had some AMAZING weather this week and ended up with multiple good yard sales as well which is really odd for late October. I was pretty picky so I didn’t buy too much. Our normal crappy weather will be arriving this week so I’d say we can about put a bow on yard sale season. What a season it was!!!
Premium cumulative numbers
Total COGS: $12441
Total Sales (minus fees): $15449.31
Items Sold: 163
ASP: $109.26
PROFIT!: $3008.31
9 items for $1200 this week. I kept listing NIB shoes and they kept selling. I turned down a $250 offer on a new Burberry scarf this week. That was hard to do but I know it will sell for over $300. Sold a Louis Vuitton Blazer this week for $150. I took an offer as I wasn’t supremely confident in the authenticity once I studied it. Odds are it is real but I’ll tell you a secret – alot of these high end brands really aren’t as high of quality as you would think they should be for the price. Take Prada for instance – many of them are made in Vietman or china now. I guess I’m just becoming jaded now that the shock of this haul has worn off. “Whoop de doo!!! Another pair of Prada/Gucci/Louis Vuitton shoes ONLY worth $250??? What a piece of junk!” I joke…but also serious. I looked at my numbers this week, see multiple $250 shoe sales and felt disappointed. A $250 sale is not ‘enough’ of a homerun? What is WRONG with me!!!
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A $250 sale is not ‘enough’ of a homerun? What is WRONG with me!!!
I know we’ve sold things in the past too low. Usually its been categories that were new to us and we ere just excited to sell it. But then we realize what we had and the next items we find are priced higher.
Art is definitely a category we now understand and sell for higher. In our early days, we sold good art too cheap!
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The more you list the more you sell. The more you sell the more you ship. The more you ship the less time you have to list, so the less you sell. Curse you cycle of exhaustion!
This is where sell similar can give you some help. Especially with the size of your store. Lately I’ve been using it on days when I don’t plan to do much eBay. Either that or I schedule a few listings for that day. Also I’ll skip a day here and there. But I try to list a few extra that week to make up for it.
I guess I’m just becoming jaded now that the shock of this haul has worn off. “Whoop de doo!!! Another pair of Prada/Gucci/Louis Vuitton shoes ONLY worth $250??? What a piece of junk!” I joke…but also serious. I looked at my numbers this week, see multiple $250 shoe sales and felt disappointed. A $250 sale is not ‘enough’ of a homerun? What is WRONG with me!!!
How easily we get spoiled! Kind of expected this to happen though. I’ve certainly dealt with these feelings this year. Especially with media items, my Chicago trip ruined me on spending $18 a book sale. Maybe not forever, but for now.
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Total Items in Store: 1,109
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $717.94 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $480.64 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $70
Highest Price Sold: $125 (Large pottery vase)
Average Price Sold: $42.23
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $50 (estate sale 1), $36 (estate sale 2), $20ish thrift
Number of items listed this week: 14Sales felt super slow but weekend was better. I sold some pretty stale listings this week and I’m grateful for that. I’m pretty backed up on my recent purchases, but started at clearing that yesterday. Lots of listing work to be done. My goal is to clear last week’s hauls by Friday. I might take a break and reorganize a bit by weekend. It’s getting a little chaotic in the garage and I have some empty bankers boxes.
I picked a Sunday morning to liquidate a bunch of items I got super cheap for my daughter’s movie night party. Everything sold that day at a small profit. I really don’t like selling on Facebook Marketplace, but wow. I just have people do porch pickup so I don’t really want to get into buying for FB and meeting up with people or having extra people come to the house though.
My big kids are both beyond stressed, struggling and it was an emotional week. Hanging on by the fingernails and providing an ear for them. It is one time it is good to be an older parent with life experience. I didn’t get a lot of listing done but hope this week I have more freedom for that.
Glad to hear about the bustling cafe business. I’m reading about some Airbnb city challenges but hopefully it’s still great in your neck of the woods. Plus your cafe helps make it a destination. Way to go!
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might take a break and reorganize a bit by weekend. It’s getting a little chaotic in the garage and I have some empty bankers boxes.
If you saw my garage/office I bet you’d feel alot better about yours! The only thing I haven’t had to do to navigate my mess is crawl under things to get around. Give me time – I’ll get there.
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Oh my goodness. Well you are moving product so that’s good. If I stopped buying for the next 6 weeks or so then I could probably get by until after the “Fourth Quarter rush”. But I actually like organizing so it will be a good break. I also need to reorganize my boxes since that’s kind of annoying right now.
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If you saw my garage/office I bet you’d feel alot better about yours! The only thing I haven’t had to do to navigate my mess is crawl under things to get around. Give me time – I’ll get there.
If either of you saw my apartment…it’s bad. I don’t feel great about it. I’ve gotten a lot better about keeping most of the eBay stuff in one room and I’ve gotten much better about keeping that room organized. The trading cards are pretty nicely done at this point, and will be even more consolidated once I prepare one more round of wholesale lots with 250+ cards in them. But more random stuff on the floor than I’d like. A few messy piles. Some stuff which I have no idea how it got there or what I was thinking. A few things I’m not even sure what they are. It’s a visual reminder of how I spent my pandemic, and kind of beautiful, but mess messes with my brain especially in winter.
So I’ve got some work to do on my next “off” day.
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We should start a thread to share pictures of the mess we’re working in. My basement is starting to look every bit the hoarder house after the last few auctions I’ve won. And, I’m planning to bid on a big auction tonight. I’m just a chipmunk storing up for winter. 🙂
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Sales felt super slow but weekend was better. I sold some pretty stale listings this week and I’m grateful for that.
I have about 20 stale listings with 5+ watchers and I’m thinking about trying a markdown sale for the first time in probably a year. I’ve tried sending offers of 20% or 25% but no one will bite. No reason a markdown sale would work better, but maybe it will shake someone’s wallets open.
My big kids are both beyond stressed, struggling and it was an emotional week. Hanging on by the fingernails and providing an ear for them. It is one time it is good to be an older parent with life experience. I didn’t get a lot of listing done but hope this week I have more freedom for that.
As a big kid who didn’t/doesn’t have this with his own parents…you’re a great mom! And isn’t this freedom to shift away from eBay one of the best things about this life?
I was able to make those shifts from week to week a lot in this past year to deal with emotional/life stuff, and I always felt like I was more present in the moment than most of my family who all work M-F office or labor jobs. I didn’t even worry about making the post office, just dropped my stuff at an automated postal center and waited a day or two for someone to scan it in. Nothing lost, nothing damaged. The USPS in my region is amazing.
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@Craig thanks. Yes, Ebay has the flexibility I need.
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My sales were so bad last week; I don’t even want to talk about it. Numbers below.
I do have a question that maybe someone could answer. I posted it here:
How to sell a Persian rug with eBay and Etsy restrictions on items from Iran
Week of Oct 15 – 21
Total Items in Store: 1748 eBay, 37 Etsy
Items Sold: 2 eBay, 0 Etsy
Cost of Items Sold: $0 + $9.50 Commission
Total Sales: $34.86 eBay, $0 Etsy; includes fees but no shipping
Highest Price Sold: eBay $23 for Set 2 bathroom cartoon prints
Average price: $17.43
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 16 -
No better way to put an end to one month and start a new one than by looking at the numbers. It’s doing the work the right way.
I had a really unusual pattern in last week’s sales. My sales figures by day:
Sunday 10/22: $365.95
Monday 10/23: $363.20
Tuesday 10/24: $345.59
Wednesday 10/25: $358.38
Thursday 10/26: $325.93
Friday 10/27: $421.75
Saturday 10/28: $191.95 (whew finally I needed a break)
The sales bar graph on my dashboard was a horizontal line for most of the week. It was pretty fun. It would have been very close to a straight line all week if one Friday sale had happened on Saturday. I have four theories why this happened.
- I had auctions end on Sunday, and those auctions were paid for roughly equally between Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This is close to what happened but I also had plenty of other items from my store inventory sell on those days and of course, the best day of my week was Friday. No auctions paid for then.
- All of my unsold auctions went back into my store inventory as BIN/BO on Monday, and I picked up 2 sales in the first 24 hours (including one for $101) from these “new” listings. I’m sure I had a few more throughout the week, though I didn’t track those as well.
- I have improved a lot at timing more of my trading card listings so they match the news. As an example, I had 12 sales this past week from teams that were in the baseball playoffs, either players on the Rangers and Diamondbacks (who are playing in the world series)or from players on the other playoff teams who were just knocked out. I listed a lot of these cards very recently and many of them sold quickly, sometimes within a day.
- Breaking down numbers like this is random, and arbitrary, and maybe meaningless. This past Sunday I did $80 in sales. Yesterday and today I did about $30 each. Is that the sky falling? No, that’s what you see when you stare at numbers and letters too long and trying to make them make sense. Also when you run bi-weekly auctions!
It’s been a great eBay year for me and I am starting to think about some major changes for 2024. Maybe some big plans in store. It’s exciting. First things first, let’s see how November’s sales go.
10/22/2023 to 10/28/2023
Listings: 407 (first time I am over 400 listings in a while)
Items sold: 66 (28 via auction, 15 via best offer, 13 via seller initiated offer, 34 (!!) via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $2372.75 (up 11% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1561.28 (up 6% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $35.95 (down 37% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $169.16 — Walter Camp c. 1910 authenticated type 1 photo
Lowest price sold (net): $7.68 — Dre Greenlaw 2019 Panini Contenders Draft blue autograph rookie card
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Good Morning. I’ve listened to the podcast and used to post a few years ago. I am in Charleston, SC. I had to stop thrifting for 18 months when I lived in the Dominican Republic; there is nothing to scavenge there. But I picked back up here last Nov 2022. I normally just scavenge for free stuff on the roads here, take consignments, or buy from one cheap thrift store. The Goodwills here and other Habitat-type stores have pretty high prices and there is a large population of scavengers haunting the Goodwills. So I stick to garbage days/have my routes.
Total Items in Ebay Store: 319
Ebay Items Sold: 5 for $88.50Total Items Facebook: 54 (mostly furniture and rugs not cross-listed)
Facebook Items sold: 4 for $270
Cost of Items Sold: $2
Highest Price Sold: 2 JONIX air purifiers for $150
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0Number of items listed this week: 6
Total sales: $358.50
I scavenge on Tuesdays mid-morning and Wed morning in two neighborhoods. I also have three apartment complexes I typically drive through on errands and look at their dumpster areas. I homeschool my 9 yo daughter, and she helps me look for and load items in my truck. This week we found:
– four pairs of Lucchese cowboy boots sitting on a curb. I sold one black crocodile pair in two days for $415! That will reflect in the new numbers. I listed the other three ranging from $399 to $659.
– white painted wood writing desk posted on Facebook for $40. I offer delivery locally for $25.
– 3 standing wine racks listed at $295 total
– Bombay console/sofa table listed at $300 total.
We drive slow around the neighborhoods. One man saw me trolling and flagged me down into his waterfront home. He gave me the wine racks and Bombay table. He also needed some plastic Xmas tree stands and two standing fans gone, so I took those and donated them. I haven’t gotten into opening trash cans yet, but I wish I had gone back to the cowboy boot curb and looked in their trash can.
– Melissa
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Welcome back! If I remember correctly you’re a military family that was living in Virginia Beach? Assume you’re back from deployment or the overseas assignment.
We also prefer scavenging for free. Definitely have less control over what we find, but its fun and makes our eBay store completely risk free since we pay so little for things.
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Hi Jay, yes I was a Marine attorney and retired. I renovated a relative’s home in the DR for 18 months which is up for sale soon. We moved to Charleston for a temp job for my husband, he takes short term engineering jobs in places we want to live for a while and experience. So I like to scavenge for free, that way I can let stuff go when we leave.
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That’s smart and also pretty amazing. Always fun to hear people who have been successful in life still enjoy the thrill of treasure hunting and reselling. I bet peole who see you pick trash off the street would never imagine you had a long career as a lawyer in the US Marine Corps!
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