Trash Elf Twins Challenge 2018

[Amatino]

Who is your Trash Elf Twin? Find someone who matches your store in a few ways, create a challenge, and measure your results for the course of the year. This is designed especially to create incentives to list more and clear the Death Piles. Working against just one other makes it more personal than the general Podcast postings. And you can add a reward element, if you wish, for extra motivation.

E.g. ChristineR and I have similar sized stores, we’re both working our way through Death Piles, we’re both in the south, although on opposite coasts, LOL, and we both have similar time constraints, although for different reasons.

Post your T.E. Twin here and if she/he accepts your challenge, you’re in!

On January 1st… oh, okay, sleep in then. Sheesh. Where’s your enthusiasm? 😀

On January 2nd, post your current number of Active Items and photos of your Death Piles (or some other way of measuring.) Decide between you what your goals are and what the end of year reward will be for the winner. Make it not too painful, but enough of an incentive that you’ll be motivated.

Each week, post number of items listed and amount of Death Piles murdered.

Let the Games Begin!

[Amatino]

(This is kind of a cheat as she’s already accepted in another thread, but in the spirit of the game…)

I challenge ChristineR!

[ChristineR]

Hi Amatino, I’m lousy with setting goals (because I feel a lack of control over my time) but accept your challenge. Interestingly, I listed a bunch of Christmas death yesterday since my work is closed due to the fire. Usually it is things that come up keeping me from listing but we are stuck indoors. My death pile photos look much better than the last time I posted them in early 2017. Will be good to compare next year.

[Retro Treasures WV]

My twin doesn’t come here anymore. Boo!
Fred’s Premium outlet. We started at about the same time and our numbers emulated each other. He was specializing in clothing and took amazing pictures. His numbers started to take off, and I was using him as my “bar”. I even started to switch over to clothing more because of him. I think he left about a year ago. A lot of people left after the forum change due to login issues and others left after the election. Always sad to see excellent contributors leave.

[Karen]

After the election? So even on here you could not escape politics? 🙁

[Habnab]

Fun idea! As far as I know, Sue/OMFUG is the closest I’ve got to an eBay twin here, but she’d clean my clock using any metric, especially now that I’m working 30/hrs per week off-eBay…

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Habnab.

[Amatino]

LOL, Habnab, challenge her anyway! Think of the incentive! 😀 I’m with you on the constraints, though, I’m adding another job off eBay as we got nailed badly by the hurricane and I’m just not making enough on eBay.

Has anyone tried to invite Fred’s Premium back? It would be nice if we could get the good ones to join again!

[Amatino]

Two weeks until the end of the year. Found your Twin yet? It’s easy. Check out the podcasts and see who has a store similar in size to yours. Challenge them! Remember, it’s just a listing/Death Pile challenge, you don’t have to sell the same products or compare sales numbers. Make 2018 the year you kill your death piles and make a killing with your listings! 😀

[Amatino]

Hey folks, seeing as the Twin idea is a bust, how about just challenging anyone? Doesn’t have to be a similar store, just somebody who wants to be motivated to list and wants to reduce their Death Pile. Measurement metrics are number of items listed each week, and how many of those items were DP items.

Challenge anyone you’d like to make your twin.

ChristineR, my Death Piles are so scattered, I’m not sure how to catalog everything for the Challenge, but I’ll try to get photos up by tonight of the largest bits! Um… can I just log one outdoor cabin 8×16′ as Death Pile 1 and not photograph it? It’s packed to the ceiling with stuff and the photographs would just show a jumbled stash similar to a Hoarders Unlimited show! 😉

[T-Satt]

For us, I think it will be hard to have a “Twin”, but I can make sure to present our listing goal for each week along with the actual listings that we did.

[Amatino]

Hey ChristineR, it’s Twins Time!

If anyone ever wants a major Death Pile motivation, take photos of everything and share them on the Interwebz. Cringe! Well, I started it, so I just blocked out any PII and will cringe anonymously behind my monitor. LOL

Here are my Death Piles. As you can see, a right hodge podge. As mentioned earlier, my outdoor shed is DP 1 and there’s a photo of it sitting, all alone in a field. It’s 8′ x 16′ and FULL! 😀 In total, there are 14 DP Zones with anything from one box to a hodgepodge of mixed items.

Each Monday, I will post the total number of items listed, and how many of them are DP items. Shall we work our challenge as percentage of listed items is DP? So, if we list 100 and 70 are DP, we get 70% for the week. If we list 10 and 7 are DP, it’s still 70%. That will make it more of a weighted average, and less about actual numbers. I’m okay with that or with straight numbers, either way.

My goal is 5 per weekday, or 20 per month; of which I hope to list 90% DP.

Ready? Go!

[ChristineR]

Sorry I’m a day late. I was hoping to get in and consolidate my piles and boxes plus firm up a bit of organizing, but didn’t happen. I’ve saved last year’s pictures and annotated some of them Here and created a new board for 2018 Here. I definitely made progress last year, but there is lots left! I notice I love to pick up fabric items but have been avoiding listing them.

I’m not doing much scavenging or RA lately, but we should keep track of the % of death piles with our weekly numbers. Monday I got to list and I have everything new RA listed. I also did some mark downs on some listed Christmas and 15 month marked listings. A few things sold right after. I’ll probably start on a box of death next time I get the chance. I’m wary about setting specific listing goals but I’ll try to do listing sessions 2-3 times a week. That would probably be an improvement. If it goes well, I’d like to make that every other day listing at least a couple of items. It would be wise to schedule listings and launch them daily, but I feel compelled to launch them right away even though I know this. Good luck with this week! Gotta go to work.

[Sharyn]

OK, I don’t know if I have a twin, but I do have death piles! Some of it is stuff that I need to fix or test. Some of it is stuff that I recently purchased either at auction or a recent rummage sale. The last of it is stuff that was recently given to me at my year end trip.

And I can’t seem to keep from buying new stuff. Going to auctions gets me out of the house, so I hate to give it up! I need to list, list, list!!

For your viewing pleasure:
https://imgur.com/a/xTu4b

[Amatino]

You guys are making me feel better about my DPs! LOL. You have as much as me and it’s as haphazard. Love you all! 😀

Sharyn, perhaps somebody will offer to Twin with you. If not, and if ChristineR agrees, we can Triplet until a Twin turns up.

[ChristineR]

Of course, all are welcome as far as I’m concerned. At first I really missed those quick stops at the thrifts, but the guilt and need for order has set in so the shopping urge is not as strong. When I do shop I’m far more likely to walk out without buying and I really try to think twice and only hit on items worth my time. I realize I just can’t process everything there that has value, so I’d like to stick to the stuff I personally think is really cool.
I found that I really like taking a box at a time up to my listing space and then when I bring it back down it feels really rewarding. I appreciate having piles because I can switch over to anther type of item for variety. Good luck to all!

[Amatino]

Week #1.

Rather ignominous start for me considering I started this challenge! LOL. Last week just threw stuff at me that bumped eBay waaaaay off the To Do List. Oh well, when you start at rock bottom, unless you hire a payloader and start digging, the only way to go is up!

#items listed: 5
#items from Death Piles: 5
%age DP: 100%
New Inventory purchases $21

[ChristineR]

Week #1 – Ok, not great for me but I’m feeling Ebay motivated.

2018 Death Pile Challenge:

Number of Items listed this week: 24 including some multiples
% from piles (includes a few older one off RA purchases that sat unlisted): 100%
Number of listing sessions: 2 – really want to get this # up. I need to get to listing more regularly.

Other Ebay Tasks:

Organizing boxes, recycled materials and piles: half day; inventory of all new RA ltems, all new items listed or relisted this week if ended: 1.5 hours. Lower dollar Christmas items spun off on auction or deep discount, some ended. Valentines and St. Patrick’s Day items boxed for listing next along with wool items and ski clothes (not much of any of these types so wanting to list this week). I’m going with the one box at a time / bite of the elephant approach. Feels satisfying. Good luck this week!

[Amatino]

Wow, you did well, ChristineR! Great job on the working on the business part of it!

I started working today but got ripped away with a medical emergency. I’m rehabbing a dog and it got into a fight today. Unfortunately, I don’t think she can be successfully rehabilitated, so now I’m in a fight to save her life. If we can’t keep her, the chances of me finding a home that will suit her are very slim, and she’ll have to be euthanized. 🙁

But.. it’s only Monday. Great things can happen in six days!

[Sharyn]

I listed 30 items last week, all of which were part of my death piles. yay!

I had wanted to go to an auction, but we had a snow storm that day. There was an online auction, but I decided that the drive and the prices weren’t worth it. So, I didn’t buy any new inventory. yay!

BUT, there is another auction on Jan 16, and another online auction that ends on Jan 18. Oh boy. Let’s see if I can be careful and only buy stuff I think will net me $30 or more.

In the meantime, I’ve got this week to list. Let’s see what kind of dent I can make!

[ChristineR]

Sorry to hear about your doggie – that’s awful. Just take it day by day.

[Amatino]

YTD Running Totals after Week 1

ChristineR Listed 24 DP 100%
Sharyn Listed 30 DP 100%
Toni Listed 5 DP 100%

Winner this week: Sharyn! Well done!

[Amatino]

Week #2.

#items listed: 10
#items from Death Piles: 9
%age DP: 90%
New Inventory purchases $0

Still nowhere near target, but at least I managed to double my listing numbers!
Flat refused to go anywhere that would entice me to buy, so no new inventory this week.
I asked my hubs to unpack a bunch of old computers in the shed, figuring it would be easier to sell the parts than the whole PC. The key word there, though, is “old” and it ended up with the stuff going into auction instead of GTC. I figured if I put them out there as a virtual “giveaway”, they’d go quickly. After he’d done all the work stripping them down, I felt too bad to say “nah, they’re not worth much, I’m just gonna chuck ’em!” 😀

[ChristineR]

Week 2

# listing sessions 4 yeah!
# items from piles 32
# Items listed 41
% from death piles: 79%. I listed all of this week’s thrift buys so did not add them to the piles.
New inventory purchases: $20 thrifted plus one online RA purchase $150. I did treat myself this week to a stop at my favorite thrift. Needed a treat by Saturday. Also didn’t do much RA after Christmas because the discounts were stingy, so picked up some multiples this week when they did additional mark downs.

Two boxes of death up and down the stairs this week! Partly got done because my other job was spotty due the freeway closure. I will have less time this week.

[Amatino]

Nearly doubled your listings this week too, ChristineR! 😀 Great job!

[Sharyn]

I listed 34 items, all from death piles. I didn’t buy anything, and I have hardly bought anything since mid December.

However, I have an auction tomorrow, and I may bid in an online auction that ends on Thursday with a Saturday pickup. I also have other stuff going on during the week (for instance, today is MLK Day and my kids and husband are home). So, my listing numbers will not be as good next week.

I did take photos of some larger stuff including some dreaded electronics. I didn’t get to listing them yet, but they will be this week. I’ll be very happy to get them moving. I buy electronics because they sell well, but I put off the testing when I know I have easier stuff in my piles. I like selling electronics – including some of the interesting discussions with buyers – but the testing just takes too much time.

[Amatino]

YTD Running Totals after Week 2

ChristineR Listed 65 DP 89.5%
Sharyn Listed 64 DP 100%
Toni Listed 15 DP 93%

Winner this week: ChristineR

Points:
Sharyn: 1 Pt last week + 1 Pt for 100% this week.
ChristineR: 1 Pt this week
Amatino: 0 Pts

YTD Winner: Sharyn, 2 Points!

Well done, ladies, keep it up!

(Sez me, from the bottom of the barrel!) 😀

[Sharyn]

You set this up for inspiration, right? Like I said, this week I’m not going to be able to list as much. You can beat me, just list, list, list!!

[Amatino]

LOL. Thanks, Sharyn. Actually, I’m amused, not depressed.

It tickles my weird sense of humor that I’m the one who started this and does the weekly runnings, but am at the bottom of the race. However, it’s only week two of 52, so you ladies better up your game. I’m just getting warmed up! *waggles eyebrows threateningly* 😀

[Marjean28]

I just stumbled on this thread. I have been pulled away from eBay for a variety of reasons, the biggest being I’m going to list my house on Airbnb for the Super Bowl. So, I’ve been painting, sewing new curtains, decluttering, buying new linens, etc. once the Super Bowl is over, I’ll be back at eBay heavily and have a huge goal for myself to list 2500 items by the end of April. I hate working alone, so any manner of company or support during that process will be welcome. My death piles are overwhelmingly large, like many of yours. My biggest challenge is taking pictures and inventory management. I can’t remember where I put things so I need to inventory as I put everything away. This leads to listed piles and death piles. Good grief. I’ll pop my head back in after the Super Bowl.

[Sharyn]

Good luck Marjean28! Come join us when you can!

[Amatino]

If anyone wants to join in, please feel free. You’ll be paired up on an First In First Paired basis. It’s not about sales, or how many items you have in your store, it’s about listing and Death Piles. How many items did you list this week? What percentage of them are DP items?

I personally find it very motivating! Every week it’s in the back of my head that I’ve got to keep listing and hitting those DPs. I’m loving this Challenge!

[Sharyn]

Amatino – I received an email with your DP stats, but I don’t see it here. I think it disappeared.

I listed 28 items this week, and all were from DPs. I thought that I would list less, but I had a box of ephemera that was already photographed and easy to list.

I also listed some electronics and other larger stuff. Yay! Very happy about that! I do have a concern with an old radio, and I am planning to hit Steve Shultz with a question after he posts his What Sold video.

The only bump in the road are three online auctions ending Thursday! We’ll see what happens …

[Amatino]

Hmm…. The Edit Goblin gobbled again, it seems!

Week #3.

#items listed: 21
#items from Death Piles: 21
%age DP: 100%
New Inventory purchases $0

Those ^ are mine. Slowly getting my listing numbers up!

[ChristineR]

Week 3

# items listed 35
# times listed 8! (sometimes only got like 2 items done, but I tried often)
items from death piles: 31
% from death piles: 91%

Current week is insanely busy and my numbers will be tiny.

[Amatino]

YTD Running Totals after Week 3

ChristineR Listed 100 Ave DP 90%
Sharyn Listed 92 Ave DP 100%
Toni Listed 36 Ave DP 96.5%

Winner this week: ChristineR. Yowzer! Great round number there! LOL

Points:
Sharyn: 2 Pts last week + 1 Pt for 100% this week = 3 Pts
ChristineR: 1 Pt last week + 1 Pt this week = 2 Pts
Amatino: 0 Pts

YTD Winner: Sharyn!

Well done, ladies, great going! You’re setting the bar high for me. 🙂

[Amatino]

Sharyn, what are you doing with the stuff you buy at the Auctions? Are you going to put it aside and only work on your DPs?

Perhaps I should have explained that DPs are anything you had in stock at the end of last year. New items purchased this year are new stock and won’t be Death Piles until next year.

I’m trying to list my items purchased this year within a month of purchase so that I never add to any Death Pile. So far, so good. Only have about six items that I bought this month that I haven’t listed yet. Woot woot!

Wait… if I wipe out my DPs this year, I won’t be able to participate in a Challenge next year! 🙁

Oh well. I’ll think of a new challenge then! Yay!

[Sharyn]

Amatino – Like you, I don’t want to add to my death piles, so I need to list anything I buy within a reasonable time.

The stuff I bought last week is a lot of about 280 new women’s pants in two colors and a number of sizes. I started creating a listing, and then found that I need to go through Selling Manager Pro to do variations. Right now, I feel like tackling my DPs rather than figuring it out. I will get to it in the next week or so.

My death piles are all stuff left over from last year. I didn’t do too many auctions in December, so what I have left are things I had put off, hadn’t had time to tackle, have to test, or have to get over a mind block issue.

Today, I went through a pile of computer equipment that had been given to me and was taking up some significant space. Much of it was cheap Dell stuff from early 2000’s. I’ve decided to donate the majority of it, and I’ll be making a trip to the Goodwill tomorrow. Unfortunately, that doesn’t count towards the challenge, but I’ve gained some maneuvering space!

[Amatino]

LOL. It does if you strip the computers and sell the parts! 😀 That’s what I did with my donated PC’s. I was given about 8 of them, and they took up two shelves, just sitting there, like giant dust bunnies, sniggering at me. I kept putting off listing them, daunted by the amount of info I would need to list the accurately and the idea of the entire shipping process and cost. Eventually, it dawned on me that they could be parted out. Mother boards, sound cards, modem cards (they were that old), DVD drives, floppy drives, RAM cards, power supplies, and case fans, all listed in lots. The sound cards went the same day, the mother boards went next. The scrap metal from the cases went to recycling. Cleared my shelves, got some new sales, and added to my DP for last week. WIN! Woot woot!

You got a teenager and a screwdriver handy?

[Sharyn]

I thought about it, and then just decided to drop it off at a donation center earlier today. Maybe if I had your encouragement first? I just wanted it out of the way. Maybe next time.

[Amatino]

Week #4.

#items listed: 37
#items from Death Piles: 7
%age DP: 19%
New Inventory purchases $48

Best listing week so far, but very few from DP. I got a lucky break on Monday and scored a bunch of RA items for only $1 each, and listed them all to avoid any carrying forward to a new Death Pile. So my entire inventory purchase for the week has been listed, as well as a few DPs. I’m happy.
Just wish I could double or triple that listing figure!

[Sharyn]

I listed 27 items: 18 were from death piles, which is 67%

I tried bidding on some online auctions, but I was outbid on everything. Or, I should say, that I let myself be outbid when I realized the trip wasn’t going to be worth it. Good news for death piles!

[ChristineR]

I just shipped on Ebay this week while doing other things, so it’s zeros for me across the board. At least I only bought one item for resale.

[Amatino]

YTD Running Totals after Week 4

Winner this week: Amatino.

YTD:
ChristineR Listed 100
Sharyn Listed 119
Amatino Listed 73

YTD Winner: Sharyn

You’ll note I dropped the DP %ages. It was turning into a math nightmare. Hope that’s okay.

[Sharyn]

Not a big deal on the percentages.

I hadn’t looked really close at the numbers. Are you basing “winners” on total items listed, or only those from the death piles?

I had thought only death pile stuff counted, but now I see it is total. I guess if we make progress it doesn’t matter from which pile.

[Vintage Lacy]

I find y’all to be highly inspiring and want to jump in too. If I post every week, perhaps it will help me stay more accountable. Been in the glumps lately and when I get stuff actually listed it feels so GOOD…so by God I am going to set some goals and keep going. I don’t necessarily want to be part of the contest but nice to have the company. So here’s my 1st week’s accomplishment:

New Listings:
Amazon – 0
Ebay – 2
Etsy Store 1 – 25
Etsy Store 2 – 5

Total listings accomplished: 32
All were from death piles.

Onward and upward!

[Sharyn]

Welcome, Vintage Lucy! Sounds like you had a good week listing!

[Amatino]

Thrilled to have you join us Vintage Lucy. You’re now twinned with Sharyn.

In answer to your question, Sharyn, I use the DP percentage as part of the points system. For example, one week you were the only one with 100% DP listings, so you got one point for that week, although ChristineR had the highest numbers for the week. So she won the week’s challenge, but you got a point for the YTD challenge. But for the YTD, to do a running %age is becoming a bit of a math headache. Running the points system is easier.

[Amatino]

Week #5.

#items listed: 16
#items from Death Piles: 15
%age DP: 94%
New Inventory purchases $8

Bombed out this week as I went down sick. Dragged myself out of bed to make my goal of 500 Active Listings before the end of January, and then sort of collapsed for the rest of the week.
New inventory was only one pair of men’s dress shoes, one pair of rubber galoshes and two boxes that I should have looked at better before buying. They’re only $1 each, but I’m not sure they’re going to be worth listing. They’re called Vaultz, will have to do research.

[Vintage Lacy]

Thanks Sharyn and Amatino! I certainly have been more motivated since joining the group.
(side note: my name is Lacy, not Lucy ) 🙂

New Listings:
Amazon – 17
Ebay – 10
Etsy Store 1 – 5
Etsy Store 2 – 4

Total listings accomplished – 36
Total from death piles – 12

The week got away from me for one reason or another, and then I took a fun little train adventure Friday and Saturday but we need adventure in our life to keep things balanced. So I am happy with 36, although my goal each week is 50 and eventually 75. Good for you Amatino…listing while you are sick is quite a feat! My hat’s off to you!

[Sharyn]

Lacy – oops! My mistake on the name.

I’m running late today and haven’t calculated my numbers yet. I hope to get to it later today, but could be tomorrow.

[Sharyn]

OK, I got my crap together.

I listed 32 items, 24 were from death piles

I finally spent some money on new inventory; $12.10 in an online auction. I have a number of photographs that I took late last week, so I won’t be working on these right away. I’m currently taking stock of what I bought and listing it in my inventory spreadsheet.

[ChristineR]

After a good start I am super busy outside of Ebay last two weeks. No listing and all zeros for me. To boot, I went to one of our big three annual rummage sales this weekend and one estate sale down the street from my house. Good thing I don’t have time to go to many estate sales! I basically bought one large grocery bag worth of stuff – a few multiples – so about half of what I would have bought in the old days of creating piles. We have family in town this week and work is busy, so I hope to list a bit this coming weekend. I also have taxes and bookkeeping for last year to tackle. Oye!

[Amatino]

YTD Running Totals after Week 5

Twins #1:
Amatino: 16
ChristineR: 0
#1 Winner this week: Amatino.

Twins #2:
Sharyn: 32
Vintage Lacy: 36
#2 Winner this week: Vintage Lacy

Vintage Lacy would also have won last week, as she listed 32 to Sharyn’s 27. Looks like you have a serious challenge here, Sharyn! You two are well matched. 😉

YTD:

Sharyn Listed 119+32=151
ChristineR Listed 100+0=100
Amatino Listed 73+16=89
Vintage Lacy:32+36=68

YTD Winner: Sharyn

[Amatino]

Vintage Lacy, my sincere apologies on the name error.

[Vintage Lacy]

Thanks, Amatino, but no need to apologize. It’s all good in the Scavenger hood. 🙂

This is really fun, and oh so inspiring. So glad to be part of a group of like minded and friendly peeps.

[ice_queen]

Ok. I’ve read the thread and would love to join a supportive challenge, but I’m a bit confused. Do you need a twin? How do you find one? Just read the podcast numbers thread?

I currently have 579 items in my store and am on a big push to try to hit 1000 by March.

So far this week (starting the 4th), I have listed 43 items. My goal for the week is 120 so I better get cracking!!!!

[Sharyn]

Amatino is the one “running” this forum subject. What she will probably do is put you with one of the two groups we have right now. When a 6th person arrives, she’ll twin you with that person.

She’s the boss, so we’ll let her make the decisions. The idea was to have a “twin” you would track against.

@VintageLacy – I don’t even know if we have similar sized stores. I pretty much sell on Ebay and currently have 1129 listings. That number has been drastically going up and down lately because I’ve removed and/or grouped some lower priced items. How many total listings do you have?

[Vintage Lacy]

Sharyn – I think we aren’t that far off from each other, although I have my inventory spread over 4 different places.

As of this moment:
Amazon – 1130 listings
Ebay – 318 listings
Etsy shop 1 – 202 listings
Etsy shop 2 – 112 listings

I have been selling on Amazon for ten years, Etsy for four years, and Ebay a year and a half. It goes up and down a lot for me too, depending on the season and what else I have going on.

[Marjean28]

Oh twinnie….twin…twinser…where are you? 🙂 Well, I’m back and here to share my woeful listing data and confess about my death piles needing to be listed. Here’s what I have listed since getting back into the listing swing:
94 items since Saturday, February 3rd. of which 53 were from death piles. Of the stuff I just listed, 7 items sold within 24 – 36 hours. That feels good because it validates the items I sourced as being good.
I’m happy to be paired with anyone, regardless of store size, goal, or other criteria. I’m just interested in an accountability partner of some sort 🙂 Thanks Amantino!!!

[Marie in Florida]

I may be in. I’m an extremely slow lister. If I list 10 in a week that would be amazing. I guess I don’t prep ahead. So then I have to clean, delint, photo and finally list. Lately I’ve been grabbing a few items from my worst room and listing the basics as a draft. I just took the pictures for 4 of them. Hopefully I can list those today?
I have a basic store. Since I run over my 250 “free” listings, I often will start a listing as an auction. Currently I have 333 items. Back to work

[Amatino]

Helloooo newbies! Thrilled to have y’all join in.

Okay, the idea of the thread is not how much you have in your store; it’s hou much you PUT in your store! 😀 Those of us who started out here have huuuuuge Death Piles (DP) and we don’t get to list as much as we’d like. In order to kick our collective (and virtual) asses, we agreed to a challenge. And thus the Twins Challenge was born. Originally it was about matching stores, but as the idea has morphed in practical terms, it’s purely about how much you list. We show percentage of DP listed because the challenge was to clear the backlog. It’s all about motivation. Look how much I’ve listed, and look how much was DP. Woot woot!

We were doing dedicated challenges, but now we’re just pairing up new challengers as they come on board. If we have an uneven number, the “extra” person will get tagged onto my Twin team and we’ll become a Triplet team until a new challenger turns up.

At the end of each week, each team gets a winner. There’s an overall YTD winner as well that works purely on points. New folks are welcome to submit their entire year’s listing numbers to be added to the YTD, if they choose (and have tracked those numbers), or can just be added in from their personal starting point. The idea is to keep this simple, if at all possible.

Right, we now have a new Twin and a new Triplet formation. Going forwards the Twins are:

Twins #3: ice_queen and Marjean

Marie in Florida will join ChristineR and Amatino (me) to form the Triplets, until a new person joins in to allow us to twin you off against a challenger.

Let the Games Begin! (… in best Hunger Games voice…)

[Punk]

I really need to put a fire under my ass. I’d love to twin up with Marie! Can I include the items I list on etsy also? Some items are cross listed but I’d only count that as one listing, obviously. 😉 ATM I have 25 items listed on etsy and 19 on ebay. I’m very new to ebay and still learning the ropes. My death pile is extreme. I’d be too embarrassed to post pictures. I stopped buying many moons ago. I need some accountability or I’ll keep procrastinating. I think a minimum of 10 a week is doable with my schedule.

[Marjean28]

Good Morning ice_queen!

How are you today pard? I wanted to see if you’d like to exchange emails. I think if we both reach out to Jay, we can do it that way. I’ll send him an email now to ask for yours. Anyway, my goal for today is to keep myself from going out sourcing and list…….ugggghhhh. It’s like eating my vegetables, an acquired taste! When will I get that candy hangover feeling from buying and want kale instead? LOL

[Jay]

Feel free to email us here: TheScavengerLife@gmail.com

[Amatino]

Hey Punk, welcome!

So now we’re up to 4 Twins! Woot woot!

Listing is listing, even if it’s not on eBay, but cross-listing one item is just one item, even if it’s listed twice.

This is starting to snowball. Perhaps we should have our own thread, Jay? Call it Listing Challenge or summat? 😉

[Punk]

Thank you, Amatino!

I look forward to the accountability. I’m hoping to have over 150 listing on etsy and enough to make it financially feasible to open an ebay store by May 1st. I haven’t allowed myself to scavenge in quite a while. But I’ve got the itch and my favorite church sales and auctions will be starting mid May. I will admit I still pick up free stuff and buy things we need, if I know where I can thrift it.

Thanks again!

[ChristineR]

Regrettably easy numbers this week for me. I’m listing new purchases so as not to add them to the death piles. Listed only 9 items, none from death piles. I think I will have a better week this week, even with the kids out for the holiday weekend.

[Punk]

So, this week wasn’t great but I’m trying. I seemed to list more on Etsy, just because it seems easier for me atm. I also had a few items that were alike which made it quicker with tags.

In the week of the 5th thru the 11th I’ve sold 3 on Ebay and 2 on Etsy.

I’ve added 4 new listings to ebay which minus sales brings it up to 20 listings.

On Etsy I’ve added 14, minus sales brings it currently up to 28 listings.

So 18 listings created. Taking more photos today, then off check on a summer house and after that wait tables. The side work sucks but I love serving food.

I purchased nothing. These are all dp items. If I buy, I have to list it withing a week.

I’ve been listing small, easy to ship items. That’s the way I’m heading into selling this time around. I find it so much easier.

I’ve also changed up my storage solutions. I use to just use the shelves in my office but that sometimes required dusting items off. 🙁 And sometimes I’d have to search for the item, not fun.

I’ve also been doing my spreadsheets daily and not weekly or monthly.

[Amatino]

Week #6.

#items listed: 0
#items from Death Piles: 0
%age DP: 0%
New Inventory purchases $0

My entire week was a big fat zero with me still down sick. Total bust for my targets. Bah humbug!

Didn’t think you’d win a week with those numbers, did you ChristineR? 😀

[Vintage Lacy]

New Listings:
Amazon – 19
Ebay – 18
Etsy Store 1 – 2
Etsy Store 2 – 6

Total listings accomplished – 45
Total from death piles – 19

I went to the bins twice last week. Twice! It’s a sickness, I tell ya. There are hardly any estate sales this time of year, which are my bread and butter so I have been getting my picking itch scratched by the bins. However, it’s SO much more fun to find treasures than it is to list and I am bringing it home faster than I can list it. And I really don’t want my death piles to keep growing…they are huge already. So I have put myself on time out and am staying away from the bins for the rest of the month. I am getting closer to my goal of 50 a week and this week I actually tackled some items that are more challenging to list instead of being lazy and only listing things that are super easy to list.

Punk, you are doing really well…keep up the good work!
Amatino, so sorry you are still sick. I am sure when you get better you will blow all of us out of the water.
ChristineR – Hey, you got 9 items listed. It all adds up!

[ChristineR]

I had been really good for a while, but I’ve been feeling the itch lately. Rummage and church sales are my favorites and I get an alert from Craigslist in my email when one happens. There are not too many rummage sales each year, so maybe I’ll catch a break. The worst was that estate sale up the street from my house. The 9 items were all craft kits that should bring over $100 each. If I let myself go to estate sales I know I would get hooked but maybe couldn’t process it all. I’m saving that as a reward for the death plies purge.

[Sharyn]

I listed 24 items this week. All but six were from death piles.

I could tell I was a bit slower than previous weeks. I did have non-Ebay stuff to take care of.

The prices for both online and live auctions this week were high, a blessing in disguise. I did buy one item. HOWEVER, I will be going to the bins for the first time on Thursday. A colleague from my old job lives near there, so we made plans to meet up. It will be about an hour’s drive for me. Hopefully, I continue to be careful and don’t spend too much.

Right now, I’m listing jewelry, which is easy to photograph, but takes a little time for good descriptive words and occasional research.

[Marjean28]

I think I’m off on the timing of this information. My numbers for last week (which I counted through Sunday, Feb 11) were 96 items listed and about half of it was from death piles.

[Amatino]

Just waiting for ice_queen and Marie in Florida to list their numbers and we can do the week’s tally.

[ice_queen]

Hi. Sorry. Flu hit our house, we seem a bit better now.
Marjean28, sorry to be a sucky partner right out the gate. Lol

My email is icequeenocf@gmail.com
I’m ok posting it here, feel free to email me.

So, this week was supposed to start

Items listed:60
From death piles: 13
New inventory purchased: $1.25 (lol)

[Amatino]

I know how that feels, ice_queen. I’ve been out of action for the past couple weeks!

I don’t think Marie in Florida is ready to play yet, Punk, so I’ve added you to Twins1 and we’ll be Triplets for a while. If you want to give me listing figures for the five weeks prior (if you have them) I’ll update your figures.

New folk, I’ve tried to pick up your prior listing numbers from your posts above. If I’ve erred, please let me know.

Triplets #1:
Amatino: 0
ChristineR: 9
Punk: 18
#1 Winner this week: Punk
Trips1 YTD
Amatino: 89+0=89
ChristineR: 100+9=109
Punk: 0+18=18

Twins #2:
Sharyn: 24
Vintage Lacy: 45
#2 Winner this week: Vintage Lacy
Twins2 YTD
Sharyn: 151+24=175
Vintage Lacy: 68+45=113

Twins #3:
ice_queen: 60
Marjean28: 96
#3 Winner this week: Marjean28
Twins3 YTD
ice_queen: 43+60=103
Marjean28: 94+96=190

YTD (in alphabetical order)

Amatino Listed 89
ChristineR Listed 109
ice_queen Listed 103
Marjean28 Listed 190
Punk Listed 18
Sharyn Listed 175
Vintage Lacy Listed 113

YTD Winner: Marjean28!

Wow, winner, straight out of the gate! Well done! Looks like we have a challenge on our hands

[Punk]

Thanks, Amatino!

I just starting listing again after a very long break. My total dp listings would be 51 (24-ebay / 27-etsy), Including those 18. I started listing the beginning of Jan.

Looks like I have a ways to go… 😉

[Punk]

Sheesh….edited because my brain can’t add today.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Punk.

[ChristineR]

I’ve listed all of my new purchases (so as not to add them to the piles) and I am back on the piles again. Going to go to some fun midcentury china and lamps next that I have been avoiding like the plague. Shouldn’t we only get credit for DP items in this challenge Amatino? I think someone brought that up before.

[Amatino]

I’ll go with the popular vote on that one. The idea was to motivate you to list, list, list. My thinking was list all your new items, so you don’t add to your DP, and list as much of your DP as you can. So, keep listing!

If you want me to change it to DP only, I can do that. Tell me if you want to do it that way.

[ChristineR]

It sounds like most of us are still shopping a little bit (but a lot less than before) and I’d rather not make you redo the #s, so I’m ok as is. Yes, I was tracking # times listing and just remembered that was my goal.

[ice_queen]

So this begs a question.
Most of my items were from a shopping trip I took several weeks ago. I haven’t really bought anything since.
But I don’t count those as death piles bc I am just still working through the huge mound from that trip. What I consider a death pile is stuff that’s been sitting in a box a long time that I REALLY don’t want to list. Lol.

I’m ok with the challenge being either way. However, if it is a DP challenge in particular, can someone clearly define DP? Thanks. 🙂

[ChristineR]

I tend to call them my piles, because unlike R & J I did not cherry pick the best items out and leave the others sorted by type. I simply overbought for a good year and a half and didn’t have an organized method of listing. So, there is good and bad in my piles, easy and hard to list items, but all of it’s been sitting over a year since I cut way back on buying with the no scavenge challenge. Now if I do allow myself to shop, it’s gotta be listed first, then back to the piles. My goal is not really to win the challenge but to stay pretty true with keeping the outflow up and listing more often every week than I was before.

[Sharyn]

My problem (and I’m loosely calling it a “problem”) is that my parents brought me several car loads of stuff from their friends this past fall. They live in an active adult community where their houses have limited storage space.

I’ve caught up quite a bit this past month, although, I’m far from finished. I think that the higher prices at auctions have helped keep my purchases to a minimum. Also, I’m getting better at rounding up the cheap stuff and donating.

One of my parent’s friends lost some weight and sent me several bags of clothes. I’ve decided to send most of it into a online thrift store called Swap.com. I’ve used them in the past when their policies were much better. Now, I’ll only get about 30-50% of the purchase price, but I’ve decided the loss of profits will be worth the gain in time and storage space. I’m assuming this won’t count towards this challenge since I’ll be cheating in a way. I do have some work to send the items in, but not the time it would take for staging, photos, and listing.

[Vintage Lacy]

I don’t care either way. I am just happy to be motivated to list, whether it’s newer items I just picked up or older items. I was under the impression that death piles were essentially anything picked up last year or older, but I could be off base on that. Perhaps a clear definition of what a true death pile means would be helpful. At least 6 months old? Or a few months? Lord knows I have plenty of it…no matter how we define it.

[Steven S]

To me a death pile is items purchased wth the thought they were easy money but you’ve now lost some interest after finding out they will take some effort and will not be the goldmine you had hoped for.

[Sharyn]

Steve – I have a pile or two of electronics in my death piles. I know that they are good money because I see the stuff you sell. However, I keep putting it off because of the time I need to test them. I’m always going for the easy to photograph and list items.

I started testing a DVD/VCR combo months ago, but I didn’t have any blank tapes to test the recording function. Someone gave me some blank tapes, but I keep putting it off. I have a bass amplifier, a few receivers, speakers, and some things I’m going to have to research to figure out what the hell they are. DVRs? Music systems? Ugh!

[Punk]

Hi All, I’m in this thread for motivation. I need it. I’ve been buying junk and selling it online for quite a while. I’ve only sold a handful of items on ebay because for some reason it scared me. I guess I bought into all the horror stories. I also followed ebays crappie advice of listing items with low starting bids, items sold for super cheap which left a bad taste in my mouth, years ago. That’s on me. I didn’t do my research. The only other venue I’m using now is etsy but that may change in time.

I’m really here for inspiration and motivation. You all amaze me! I enjoy these forums because there’s no drama or bs. I have hoards of stuff that needs to be listed. H.O.A.R.D.S. Mostly stashed in the office, basement, barn and an outbuilding. Going through some of these boxes, bags and bins is like Christmas. So, I really shouldn’t buy more but if I do, it has to be listed within a week. It also has to make a large profit.

So, it doesn’t matter to me either way. My numbers this week will suck. I’m filling in for someone on vacation through next week. And sitting two houses. Life in punks world, atm.

Wishing you all many new listings and Big, easy to ship, sales to all!

[almasty]

I bought some items last Sunday that I threw in bags or placed on top of other unlisted items. Some, I see multiple times a day. Others from that run, I have not seen since. I consider items purchased and unlisted in that short of a period of time to be part of the death piles.

I feel that to an extent it is sort of a frame of mind. I don’t see it, I’ll eventually get to listing it, but it’s not listed yet. Since I don’t realky care about when I will list it, it is part of the death piles.

Yesterday, I listed items purchased from 2 months ago, a month ago, a day ago. They were all from the death piles, other than the ones juuust bought. I was actuallt proud of listing some items from the day before, that’s sort of rare for me.

(not a hoarder, just can’t keep up sometimes. All of the unlisted piles are as neatly organized as the listed)

[Amatino]

For the purposes of this challenge, and only for this challenge (the definition may be different for anywhere else on SL), a Death Pile is any item purchased and not listed before Dec 31, 2017. Yes, that was only six weeks ago, but the idea is if it’s not listed, it’s money lying dead = Death Pile.

The overall challenge is to list everything: all your new purchases this year plus everything you have piled everywhere. Virgin clean spaces!

In order to do that you can:
– not buy anything this year at all and only list DP
– buy less than you list so that you’re clearning DP on a gradual continuous basis
– just list. The DP will get sorted. Or not.

The likelihood of anyone listing everything they have is remote, at best. But what’s a challenge for? 😉

Just list, dammit! 😀

[Marjean28]

Amatino,

I love that! “Just list, Damn it!” Too funny! How about this one (for a Trash Elf T-shirt): “Give yourself a raise….just list, damn it!”

(Smiles)

[ChristineR]

Listed 40, including multiples
Items from death piles 8. Everything I bought very recently is listed and I didn’t go shopping this week.
# listing sessions 3

[Vintage Lacy]

New Listings:
Amazon – 13
Ebay – 7
Etsy Store 1 – 3
Etsy Store 2 – 1

Total listings accomplished – 24
Total from death piles – 11

Kind of an Ugh week for me and didn’t feel like listing…so it actually feels like an accomplishment to get any listings done at all. I really had to push myself and knowing that I would be reporting in today helped. This week will be better. I hope everyone had a good week.

[ice_queen]

45 items listed
22 of them from DP
I spent $100 at an estate sale buying many thousand slides.

Should keep me busy a while.

[Sharyn]

I had a slow listing week due to activities outside Ebay, and this week will be slow again.

I listed 15 items, 6 were new & 9 were from DP

I made purchases from two different online auctions for a bit over $77

[Amatino]

Sorry, folks, yesterday was a bust for me. I’ll post my numbers shortly, just have to put them together.

If Punk and Marjean28 can post theirs too, I’ll get the YTDs done as well.

[Amatino]

Week #7.

#items listed: 5
#items from Death Piles: 0
%age DP: 0%
New Inventory purchases $0

Another blah week. Thursday I went to a pharmacist and told him about being sick for so long. He recommended L-Lysine and a Vit B Complex. It cost me $25 for just those two bottles, but I feel so much better this week!

Yesterday I was trying to catch up, and then got a call that two filing cabinets were available for only $20 each, but I had to collect them *immediately*. Fast dash all the way to fetch them and then rearranging the shed to fit them in. I’m loving how well they work for storing inventory. They hold more per drawer than a tote and it’s so much easier to get stuff out. Just open the drawer, don’t worry about lifting down heavy totes or removing recalcitrant lids! Anyway, by the time we got done with that, it was the end of the day. No listing yesterday either. 🙁 I really have to get myself going soon, I’m doing way slower than I should be!

[Punk]

OK guys, I’m a total loser this week. I’ve listed nothing. Although, on a positive note, I did get a bunch of photos taken and hope to go to town on listing this week. Thankfully, I have a few free days. I had 2 house sitting jobs and I was scheduled to work extra hours at the “part-time” job. I’m so done with that. I didn’t sign up for that. 37 hours is no where close to 20. I’m looking for another Part-Time job this week. They’re loading me up with hours to “punish” my coworkers who call in and show up late. Sorry for the rant.

[Amatino]

Ranting is part of the benefit of being in the Challenge, Punk. Scroll up and you’ll see a few rants, and quite a few zero weeks too! 😉

Good job for getting the photos done. You’ll be in the running next week! I say in the running (preen, preen) because I’m actually back at work and actually listed today and actually feeling very proud of moi! I’m actually in need of a thesaurus! 😀

[Amatino]

YTD Running Totals after Week 7

Triplets #1:
Amatino: 5
ChristineR: 40
Punk: 0
#1 Winner this week: ChristineR
Trips1 YTD
Amatino: 89+5=94
ChristineR: 109+40=149
Punk: 51+0=51 (Updated your numbers, Punk!)

Twins #2:
Sharyn: 15
Vintage Lacy: 24
#2 Winner this week: Vintage Lacy
Twins2 YTD
Sharyn: 175+15=190
Vintage Lacy: 113+24=137

Hey, Sharyn, look how close you are to 200! Now there’s motivation for you! 😉

Twins #3:
ice_queen: 45
Marjean28: (No numbers posted)
#3 Winner this week: ice_queen (by default)
Twins3 YTD
ice_queen: 103+45=148
Marjean28: 190 (NNP)

YTD (in alphabetical order)

Amatino Listed 94
ChristineR Listed 149
ice_queen Listed 148
Marjean28 Listed 190
Punk Listed 51
Sharyn Listed 190
Vintage Lacy Listed 137

YTD Winner: Sharyn and Marjean28 have tied.

[Amatino]

It’s getting too long. I’m moving all the YTDs to the bottom in future!

[Marjean28]

Hi Amatino. I am way overdue to report my numbers. I want to report them, not to take the crown for the week from the queen, Ice_Queen, but to remain accountable. Help me out if you could please, do you count the week from Sunday to Saturday? Or, is there another parameter? Also, when do you want them reported by? Monday? THANKS!

[KatieScott]

I’m new to this forum but a long time listener of the podcast.

I too need listing motivation.

I try to list 100 things a week, most of my listing tends to be over the weekend but I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate listing into my (already busy) weekday routine.

I got 18 things photographed & listed this morning.

[Marjean28]

I’m late! But, here are my numbers for the week of 2/11/18 – 2/17/18
99 items listed, of which 89 were from death piles 🙂

[Amatino]

Hi Marjean28, the numbers are posted on a Monday, although I’ve been giving a day’s leeway lately. It would be good if everyone would post on a Monday. What you decide your week is up to you. Personally, mine runs from Monday to Sunday, but I know some folks are Sunday to Saturday. As long as you’re consistent, it will all come out in the wash. I’ve added your numbers into the tally and they’ll show up next week. Glad you’re staying in the game!

Hi KatieScott, and welcome. Your Twin is Punk and you’ll be Twins #4. I’ve added your numbers to the group and you’ll show up next week. If you want to give me your year-to-date listing, I’ll put it in. Otherwise you’ll just start from now. Looking at your listing goals, you’ll be in the top few really quickly either way. Great to have you with us!

Punk, you haz a Twin! Gird your loins. She posted 18 things in one MORNING! 😀

[Marjean28]

Thanks for the info Amatino! I’ll be sure to get on it. In thinking about how to track my listings more effectively, I stumbled upon an obvious solution. I hadn’t done this before, so I thought maybe others hadn’t either. On the eBay Manage Active Listings page, I customized it to include the category, Start Date. Then I sorted by start date and it is much easier to track how much I have listed in a given day. This may be one of those Captain Obvious things, but it helped me. 🙂

[Marjean28]

Ice_Queen, did you ever receive my email? I sent one about a week ago. Sincerely, your twin in trash, also known as your trash elf twin, Marjean (smiles)

[Amatino]

Have a look at My eBay All Selling. It has some cool numbers too. Finding under the Selling Tools tab on your Seller Hub

https://imgur.com/FWxTxT5

[KatieScott]

Amatino – thanks & yes I’d love to play along.

Hi Punk – we’re apparently twinsies.

My listings so far this year by week:

Week 1: 42
Week 2: 38
Week 3: 8
Week 4: 27
Week 5: 120
Week 6: 45
Week 7: 93
Week 8: 28 so far

(so that’s 401 so far this year)

P.S. I used to do a lot of scrapbooking and in the scrapbooking forums we’d have similar type motivation thread of how many pages we finished. This sort of thing helps me to get more done. Thanks!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by KatieScott.

[Amatino]

Santa Claus’s little red knickers! Wow, Katie! Just.. wow!

I think I should give up eBay and go work for McDonalds!

You’ve been added to the group totals. The only person who is remotely close to you is Marjean28. I may need to shuffle some twins around to match them up more evenly, I don’t want anyone to be toooooo depressed by being up against you. 😀

[KatieScott]

I’m trying to switch my focus from quantity to quality – I think it is going to take some time to get there. But in the meantime, I can list pretty quickly.

[ChristineR]

Listed: 16 items, 15 from death piles, 2 listing sessions.
Listed some items that I was super unexcited about – antique hand painted plates and vintage user guides that are worth less than $10. I want to make myself learn what not to buy and eat my vegetables with what I bought, but it’s probably really not worthwhile to list the stuff that is worth less than $10. I dunno. Right now I have a box of paper goods that is easy to list. Then I really should do Easter. I only have one box of that.

[Amatino]

Well done on your self-discipline, there, Twin! I have also been debating the less-than-$10 question. A lot of my low-value stock is clothing, but I have some odd decor items too. For the clothing, I decided to create lots of 2-5 pieces to take me up to about $15. Decor items are harder to lot.

That being said, I sold a mug for $7.99 that I really wasn’t going to list bc it was so blah, but got a beautiful email from my buyer saying it was a person’s favorite mug and got broke. So, now I feel like there’s value even in the smalls! LOL.

This week I listed 20 in total, with 15 from DP. No inventory purchases.

[ChristineR]

Good job, no purchases for me either. I made one friend of the old timer pickers. He told me about a great 3 day estate sale in a multi-million dollar part of town happening. But, I was like nah – I’ve got the piles plus a lot going on. Halo for me this week.

[Marjean28]

Hey, I’m on it! It is a Monday and I’m getting my numbers in on time for once. woot woot!

number of items listed:32
number of death pile items: 1

Yes, I know…and on top of everything, I went shopping. I want to increase the value of the items I list and my death pile now consists of things I should get rid of due to low value, fix, which I did do some of over the weekend, or need a lot of research.

[Amatino]

ChristineR – your halo! Turning down a cool estate sale definitely qualifies! 😀

https://imgur.com/nkzWV7J

[Punk]

Hi All! (and “hi” back twin Katie!) Although I have photos ready to go for about 30 items, I’ve only had the time to list 5 on Etsy (from my death pile).

I’m hoping to list and cross list midweek. This job, that I had once loved, is exhausting me mentally. I put in notice of the days and max hours I’d work last night. It’ll be a wait and see game. In the past, they’ve refused to give me set hours. I really hate the idea of quiting but it’s getting to that point.

Love the Halo and fully agree!

Wishing you all easy to ship, big money sales and death pile fires under the butt.

Have a great week! 🙂

[Vintage Lacy]

Hello Everyone,

Here are my numbers for the week. I was up late last night…trying to squeeze in a few more listings so I could finally hit my goal of 50 a week…but I got too tired and had to quit a few short. Still pleased with how I am doing. I am determined to allow myself to go out picking again in a week or two if I can keep up this pace.

New Listings:
Amazon – 8
Ebay – 10
Etsy Store 1 – 25
Etsy Store 2 – 3

Total listings accomplished – 46
Total from death piles – 38

Good Irish luck to everyone this week, as we enter March.

[ice_queen]

Ugh. I have had a horrible week. We discovered our tub is leaking and all the walls are rotten and the whole bathroom needs a “to the studs” reno…

15 items listed
All of them from DP

[Sharyn]

I listed 24 items, 16 were from this week and 8 were from last year (death piles).

Better than last week, but definitely not my best. I finished photographing a bunch of stuff today, and I have a number of listings in draft using a previous week’s photography, so I’m ready to go. Let’s see what I can do this week!!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Sharyn.

[Amatino]

Another great week! Well done, everyone! I love how we’re all motivated to list, list, list!

YTD Running Totals after Week 8

https://imgur.com/7XnHHXx

The numbers were getting really complex, so I took some time and created an Excel spreadsheet so that it’s all one-page-view for me. Much easier to track. Hope you like!

If you pick up any errors there, let me know.

One thing I noticed is that some of the twins are not well matched. If you are happy where you are, all good. If you are feeling overwhelmed by your Twin’s listing prowess and that makes you feel disheartened, we can shuffle. It’s entirely up to you! I’m an odd puppy, the fact that I’m listing at all is such a boost to me, I don’t mind being stone last. But that’s now. As the year progresses, I may feel bummed that ChristineR is regularly whooping my ass… or I may suddenly explode and SHE feels bad! LOL.

[Marjean28]

Well, I’ve been using my spreadsheet and tracking daily, which has helped a lot! My week runs from Sunday to Saturday. I was so excited to post my numbers, that I accidentally thought it was Sunday already (does anyone else lose track of days doing this full time?). But now that I know it’s Saturday…LOL…I have enough time to go tackle that death pile!!! Look out KatieScott & partner, Marjean28 and Ice_Queen are coming to dethrone you! Bring on the competition (SMILES AND LIGHT HEARTED LAUGHTER) Happy Listing folks!

[Amatino]

I love how motivating this thread is! 😀

[Amatino]

Week #9

LOL. After commenting how motivating the thread is, I can only claim 9 listings! All Death Piles, though. It was just an incredibly busy week for me with the non-eBay side.

My husband is away this week, I’m hoping that it means I can devote a lot of hours to the business!

[ChristineR]

Life stuff totally got in my way this week, all zeros for me.

[Marjean28]

Okay folks, I got a lot done last week and am happy to post my numbers. My spreadsheet continues to motivate me, or at least keep me cognizant of where I’m at listing-wise.
number of items listed Feb 25 to March 3: 153
from death piles: 55
total dollar value listed: $5,004
average per item value: 90.98
Overall, I’m pleased with what I accomplished.

[Amatino]

Wow, Marjean28, you did great this week! I love your average value, that’s just terrific.

[Vintage Lacy]

Well maybe it’s something in the air. Lots of family drama last week and I was putting out fires and NOT listing. Dang. This week I am going to list list list.

Total listings:
Ebay – 10 items

None from death piles. 🙁

[Sharyn]

I listed 30 items this week, which was better than the last few weeks. However, I don’t think I listed any death pile items from last year.

At this point, my death piles are items that require some kind of work. They need to be cleaned or tested or fixed. If I’m going to get this done, I have to be careful about buying new inventory. I do have an auction and a few rummage sales this month, so I just need to remind myself about my backlog.

I’m glad to have made such great progress so far!

[KatieScott]

This past week I listed 48

[Amatino]

Week 9 Numbers

https://imgur.com/tS9PcZg

Punk and ice_queen didn’t post numbers. If you post them, I’ll add them in for next week’s round.

Marjean28 wiped the floor with us this week! Sheesh! Great job!

[Amatino]

If it’s acceptable to the Twins, I’d like to switch KatieScott and Marjean28 to become Twins. Your numbers are more in sync. That will twin ice_queen and Punk.

Punk, you wanna pull up your Active Listings page, go to “Customize” and add Date Listed. Then do a count of all your listings that show active for the year to date? Everyone else has given me an approximate count for before they joined, which is why you’re trailing a bit. (Trying to keep you motivated!)

[ice_queen]

I’m sorry. We are still quite sick. Listing but not counting

[Sharyn]

If you sort your listings by start date, and make sure that the latest are listed first, you can just scroll and count until you get to the last thing you listed the previous week.

[Marjean28]

Amatino, whatever arrangement you think is best is fine. Katie, howdy pard! Ice_Queen hang in there. I’m sorry there’s been illness in your house, I know it can be hard. Marjean28

[Amatino]

Sorry you’re feeling foul, ice_queen. Sending you lots of warm and healing wishes!

[Amatino]

Good morning all! Hope you had a good week.

Week #10

Listed: 12 Urk!
Death Pile: 12.

I’ve been listing consistently, if not much. I’ve had sales consistently, but not many. So this week I’m going to try to up my listing numbers A LOT and see if sales are directly proportional. It’s been a busy couple of months with my off-eBay work. I’d love to get eBay working at a level that allows me to quit!

[Sharyn]

I had easy things to list this week because most were from a few recent online auctions. I was able to list 55 items! But, only two were from death piles. As I’ve mentioned, most of my death pile stuff requires work, so I keep pushing it off.

Right now, I’m working on new inventory, but I’ve promised myself that I will work on a few older things here and there.

[Vintage Lacy]

Went to a garage sale Friday and three estate sales and did really well…the car was full! My favorite find was a 1960s folding aluminum sleeping cot in great condition and great graphics. It will be a perfect display piece for my antique show in April. I found lots of good ebay items too and was very proud that I brought them home on Friday and listed 10 of them on Saturday. I have never been that quick before on new items so I am very motivated. Listed lots of death pile items too.

Items listed: 45
Items from death piles: 35

Ebay – 10 items
Amazon – 0 items
Etsy shop 1- 25 items
Etsy shop 2- 10 items

Side note: the garage sale was the first sale we went to on Friday and there were 20 people waiting in line to get in! It was crazy! They made us wait until the clock ticked over to the exact opening time and there was a mad rush to grab things. I am used to seeing this at estate sales but not at garage sales. It was a nice sunny day, the first one we have had in some time and I think everyone was itching to go picking.

[ChristineR]

Sick all week and husband out of town. Just shipping out for me, no shopping or listing. This week should be better I expect.

[Marjean28]

Howdy Folks. Here are my numbers for the week of March 4 – 10:

total listed: 107
from death 2017 death piles: 29
total dollar value listed: $3268
average dollar value listed: $37.22

Everyone hang in there. Let’s see how much of our 2017 death pile stuff can be listed before the end of the first quarter! I listened to Jay & Rhyanne talk about how having helpers has reduced their death piles. What a nice concept for the future. Aaaaaahhhhhhh. one can only dream 🙂

Marjean

[Amatino]

Have Punk and ice_queen dropped out? I know ice_queen was sick last week, but I’ve not seen Punk on the forums since February. I’ve switched the Twins, as discussed last week.

Punk and ice_queen, if you post your numbers, I’ll update the list.

https://imgur.com/5w6kkuO

[ice_queen]

Hi! I’m here!
Sorry, we have been down and out. I have had a pretty big medical scare in the last Few weeks and we are all still sick on and off. This has been a horrible winter.

I know I’m too late to post official numbers, but I listed 67 items last week despite being a bit nutty. So I’m pretty proud of that!

[Amatino]

Hey, ice_queen, welcome back. Sorry to hear you’ve had such a rough time! Was the scare just a scare, or are you still scared? Hope it’s all getting better! Sending you Elf Thoughts of wonderful things!

You did really well with your listings. I’ll update the records for you. Very well done!

[ice_queen]

Thanks!
Still scared, but trying to just breathe through it.
I am a thyroid cancer survivor, which the dr says makes me more likely to suffer several other cancers and I am having several symptoms of ovarian cancer. My GP feels confident that isn’t what it is tho, so I’m hopeful that it’s just a cyst or something. I have an appointment with a specialist and ultrasound next month. So for now,
I’m trying to get back to normal.

Anyway, thanks for the congrats. I’m trying to put my head down and just get some money flowing!

[Amatino]

Oh, ice_queen, I’m so sorry! I’ve walked your road and feel your pain. It’s totally the pits and some days you wonder whether it’s worth getting up. But, you know, it always is. I started a Gratitude Journal and decided I would write down only 4 items per day for which I was grateful, but I couldn’t duplicate. So, I’m grateful for waking up today couldn’t be used on multiple days. Once it’s used, that’s it, no repeats. Well, the first few days I used up all the “generics” – thanks for being able to see, grateful to hear/walk/talk/have both hands, etc. Once I’d run through those I was totally stumped. It took me a loooong time to come up with something to write in my journal. But gradually I began to notice the good stuff in my life, and by the end of the year I could write an entire page of things I was grateful for. I started noticing the small stuff. It changed my life!

I pray that you find strength and can see the good stuff in this tough time. You’re a wonderful woman with a lot to live for. Take heart, you have friends!

[ice_queen]

Items listed this week: 60

Plugging away. Feels like I listed more than that, but that’s what my tally’s say. Lol

[Vintage Lacy]

Items listed this week: 23
Items from death piles: 20

Ebay -6
Amazon -2
Etsy shop 1 -15
Etsy shop 2 -0

The week got away from me for one reason or another. Just glad to have gotten listed what I did. Went to the bins Thursday and scored my best find there yet…a beautiful 1930s quilt in pristine condition and a very rare pattern. I am going to list it this week at $595 and see what happens. Cost me app $4. Woohoo!

Went to an estate sale Saturday where you were told to text your place in line ahead of time. We ended up #70 and #71 in line. It opened at 9 and I finally got inside the house 45 minutes later. It was sheer stubbornness that kept me there. I will be glad when the season really kicks off and all the dealers are dispersed to many sales across the city. This time of year there’s a lot of people fighting over a small piece of pie.

[ice_queen]

Hey…were you at the bins in salem or pdx airport on sat or Sunday?

[Sharyn]

I listed 28 items, three were from death piles.

This will not be a good listing week for me. My kids have half days from Tues to Fri because of parent teacher conferences. I do have two days where I will go in for the conferences. I also have some non-eBay work I have to do. And, I have to do my taxes.

I’m always saying “this is the year I do my taxes early”, and it never happens. I’m just installing the software now and starting the process. Of course, I have to go over my Go Daddy Bookkeeping stuff because I know I’m not up to date. Oh well.

I do have photos of 15 or so items that I can list this week, so at least I’ll get that done. About three are from death piles. I found a cool trick. If my husband takes a day off work and is wondering what project to tackle next, I can say “how about you test some electronics?”. It might not work every time, but it did last week!!!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Sharyn.

[ChristineR]

Tough to get to listing last week, but did sit down twice and got 10 itmes listed. 8 were from death piles. I did manage to stop at a couple of thrift stores during the week’s running around (which felt really nice) so I will continue to list those items first and then get back to the piles. Have a great week challenge friends.

[Vintage Lacy]

@ice_queen No, I wasn’t. I don’t go to those two. Salem’s a good 50-60 minute drive away depending on traffic and it’s a very small outlet. Haven’t tried the airport one yet. I go to the Hillsboro bins and the Milwaukie bins. Both are suburbs of Portland and I do very well at them, even with the crowds.

[ice_queen]

I tried the Hillsboro one once and left empty handed. Maybe it was just a bad day. The salem one is small for sure, but closest to me. When we do the Portland bins, it means an overnight in a hotel…so I only go once a month or so.
The airport one has been the most successful for me. On the times I have tried the Milwaukie one they haven’t brought new product out very often. Anyway, hi there “neighbor”.

[KatieScott]

I listed 24 last week and 70 the week before. I’m slacking. I’m going to try and list 200 this week.

[Marjean28]

Howdy Folks.Sorry I’m late posting this. Here are my numbers for the week of March 11 – :

total listed 96
from 2017 23
total value $1,610.00
average value $33.82

It is down from the prior week, however I achieved a ton because I moved in a new (to me) china hutch into my dining room, allowing me to take my old one and use it for china and stemware inventory storage in my basement. then i started to pull old already de-listed books off my book shelves and inventory my newer listed books. it was a lot of work, and is still in progress, but useful. I am excited by the fact that etsy will allow variations on their listings. now i am listing my old book lots on etsy but not as a big lot, rather they are being listed as one type of book with variations. you can have 10 variations per listing. so, the math is great: 10 of the same genre of book (say vintage cookbooks) in one listing for 20 cents per 4 months. that brings the cost of listing books down to 1/2 penny per month! .20/10/4 = .005/month or the equivalent of 2 cents per month. Hello ETSY!!! However, that kind of gives me license to list all the old books I want and that may NOT be a good thing for me actually! My sales are up as a result of all the listing and my walk way through my death piles is becoming less of a fire hazard!

Happy Listing!

[Amatino]

You ladies are all doing great!

My listing for the week totalled only 17 items, all DP.

I started the week out really well, and then tailed off as other things came up. I’m a little over-committed, unfortunately. The hubs is away still working on hurricane damage in Corpus Christi, so I’m taking care of the ranch on my own. I have a Student Showcase coming up, so I’m making bellydance bras for the advanced ladies who don’t sew, and I have a sewing class coming up for which I’m sewing skirts as samples. That one’s the biggie, as I have to sew up the skirts to test the designs, and there’s a fair number that are being unpicked as I go to correct design flaws. Well, as the saying goes: as ye sew, so shall ye rip! LOL. The dreaded taxes are upon us, too, but I don’t think I’m going to make it this year. I might have to request an extension. Plus we’re transferring properties out of an LLC that we’ve decommissioned. I think I need a helper! I’m seriously thinking of hiring a photographer.

On the sales front, I’ve definitely noticed that consistent listing = consistent sales. When I list a flat five a day, I tend to sell a flat two a day, on average. I’ve got to work out how to up my listing numbers to see if it changes proportionately, i.e. list 10 = sell 5. It will be my experiment for next month. Try to list more and report back.

[Amatino]

My daughter used to go to a Kickboxing class who had the motto “Go Hard or Go Home.” I think you should adopt that as yours, Marjean28! LOL

https://imgur.com/5OFxxnY

Here are our numbers for Week 11. We’re doing wonderfully!

I don’t know what happened to Punk, it’s really sad to have lost somebody, but I do understand – of mice and men, and all that. ice_queen, if Punk doesn’t return by next week, I’ll move you up to triples with ChristineR and I until you have another challenger.

So, the winner for the 3rd week in a row AND overall YTD is Marjean28. KatieScott, we’re looking to you to bring it and give our Champion a CHALLENGE! 😀

Great week, folks. Keep it going!

[Amatino]

Hey, ARE we all ladies in this challenge? No guys had the gumption?

😉

[Vintage Lacy]

Ice_Queen, Hey there neighbor!

Good to know about the airport bins. I told a picking buddy about it yesterday and we agreed we need to go check it out! Thanks for the heads up! One of these times you make the drive we should get together for coffee and Scavenger chat…it would be fun! I’m sorry the Hillsboro bins haven’t panned out for you, but then we are all looking for slightly different things. My aim is to not only find things to sell online but at my antique shows, so I skew towards vintage stuff. I have another friend who hits the Milwaukie bins at least once a week and she finds the most amazing things, but then she’s investing a bit of time in doing so.

[Amatino]

Week 12:

Listed 49
Death Piles 16

Great listing week for me, lots cleared out, although mostly new stuff acquired this year. I’ve almost entirely cleared the piles of jeans and pants that were piled in my bedroom. Very excited to see that go! I’d say maybe one or two more good listing days and my bedroom will be a serene oasis of rest and rejuvenation, rather than additional storage area for my shop! 😀

Unfortunately came to a screeching halt on Friday. I smashed my knee in a motorbike accident in 2001, and the long-term consequences are excruciating. I’m undergoing a series of Torturous Treatments at the moment, and while the outcome is great (I had these last year), the experience itself results in a KO that is humiliating. I cry like a two year-old throwing a tantrum! LOL. Anyway, only 3 to 5 weeks of this, depending on how my body reacts, so listing might be a little slow in the weeks ahead.

[ChristineR]

Hope everyone is healthy in the coming week. It’s such a big part of one’s life.
We have a ton of unusual life stuff getting the way of Ebay – planning to remodel our kitchen finally, my daughter’s orthodontics, birthday party, my son’s tennis, etc. etc. etc.. I just can’t seem to get a chunk of time to sit and list. We also are in the minority of people who are going to get hammered under the new tax act, so I’ll be sending any Ebay earnings to my quarterly payment. It would be a great time to have great sales on Ebay. I listed twice, only 9 items and 2 from death piles. Ugh.

[Sharyn]

I mentioned last week that my listing numbers were going to be down for a while because of outside stuff. I was happy to get 14 items listed, 5 of which were from death piles.

These next two weeks, though, will not be good for listing. Not sure that I will get anything done, but we’ll see. There’s parent/teacher conferences, spring break, finishing taxes (85% complete), and other non-eBay stuff.

[Marjean28]

I didn’t list much in the way of death piles this week. but I did list.
total listed 116
death piles 2
dolar amount $3,510.00
average dolar $30.26

I scored a couple of nice finds at the Goodwill bins, which I have always called diggers. the story there is, before the blue bins on wheels, they used to have a series of conveyor belts with small plastic tubs that would come out. everyone would line up along the conveyor belts and dig furiously through the tubs. So, we called it diggers 🙂

I got 8 ruby red glass soup bowls from France for $2.40 and I found them listed for about $28-30 each (and in solds), so that was a nice score. And I picked up an electric pizelli cookie maker for 29 cents. I’m pretty stoked about those finds. My death piles from 2017 are almost gone now. The only real things I have left are some books, tons of tiny seed beads, which I am dreading listing, record albums that I don’t have a player to check them on, and broken, dirty, or things that are missing parts. Oh, I guess I have some clothing to do too, but that’s it really. don’t get me wrong, I do have other death piles, but they are from 2018 sourcing trips.

ahhhhhhh….yikes!!!

Everyone stay healthy and safe, and pain free! Marjean

[Vintage Lacy]

Item listed:
Ebay- 25
Amazon – 0
Etsy shop 1 -5
Etsy shop 2 -0

Total items listed: 30
Items from death piles: 25

Starting to gear up for my big antique show and the next three weeks will be concentrating on that…two weeks of prep and one week of the show. Not sure if I will even be doing any listing, but maybe in the wee hours of the evening I might be able to do a few. Hit a crazy good estate sale on Saturday and went back Sunday for half price. I will have loads to list, once I get back to having the time to do lots of it.

[Amatino]

Wow, Marjean, great finds! And great listing numbers! That being said, if you’ve cleared up everything up until the end of 2017, you’re pretty much cleared of Death Piles according to this thread’s definitions! Very well done!

Are those seed beads glass or acrylic?

Sharyn and ChristineR – seems like the three of us are rowing the same boat. Perhaps that’s why we’re going in circles? We’re lopsided! LOL

Good luck on your antique show, Vintage Lacy. Where is it going to be? Perhaps those elves in the area will swing by and say “Hi!”

[Marjean28]

Those death piles I described are 2017. I’m still in it with you gals…..sorry to say!!!!

[Amatino]

LOL. That’s rough! 😀

Out of my… erm… approximately 200 sq ft of DP (we won’t go cubic feet, bc that’s just too scary!) I’ve got about a dozen pants left to finish my first two square feet. Woot woot! I’m gonna be in this group for a loooong time!

[Vintage Lacy]

Thanks Amatino!

I rent a 101-year-old grange hall twice a year and fill it to the brim with treasures from about 40 dealers and local artists. It takes a team of us 5 days just to set it up, but I love the challenge and each time we do different vignettes so it’s never the same show twice.

It’s called Brookhaven Vintage Marketplace and our website is Brookhavenvintage.com for more details. It’s in the countryside a few miles outside of Beaverton, Oregon.

This year marks the 22nd year I have been putting on the show.

[Amatino]

OMG! I wanna come! That looks fantastic! And it’s only a 32 hour drive for the 2,000 miles, according to Google maps!

I really wish I could. I shall add it to the Bucket List!

[Amatino]

Me: “I wanna travel!”
Wallet: “Like… to the back yard?”

[Vintage Lacy]

Amatino,

Texas isn’t too far…haha. I have one customer who makes a special trip up from Arizona for the show and another who plans her trips to Oregon from Alaska around the show. They bring extra empty suitcases!

[ChristineR]

Really not on a good Ebay track, but did manage to list 9 items before we went on vacation. Only 2 from death piles, as I had a box of long backordered clearance RA items arrive so I listed those first. Sat down to list twice but it was short lived. Sigh. Good times though with the fam while on our trip.

[Vintage Lacy]

Completely in show mode now so no listing last week. We load the 26 ft truck on Thursday and then start set up, so no listing this week either. I will start listing again after the 15th.

[Amatino]

Hey, how did I miss putting up the YTD last week? And nobody reminded me! 😀

Sorry about that. I’ll make sure to put it up this week and both weeks will show.

As anticipated, last week was a bust for me. Only 4 items listed the whole week. 🙁

[Sharyn]

I am currently on a trip to Boston checking out colleges for our daughter! I think I listed just a few items last week, but I don’t remember. I haven’t even done my numbers yet or listened to the latest podcast. I’ll add last week’s listings to this week’s for next Monday’s numbers.

[Amatino]

Have fun in Boston! I’m also waiting for ice_queen, KatieScott and Marjean28, so I’ll check in tonight and post numbers.

Plus…. I’ve added an extra column, just for fun. It’s “points” column, where each week’s numbers are allocated one point based on who has the highest listing numbers for the week. It’s fun to see how close we are and an added incentive to get that point! LOL

[ice_queen]

Hi. Sorry for delay. First day back to work/school since we were off last week for spring break.
I mostly took the week off from eBay to spend time with the family. I did do some re-arranging and organizing in the eBay room. I did a tiny bit of listing.
Total listings (all from death piles): 42

[Amatino]

https://imgur.com/ckmetgY

To be fair to everyone who posted on time, I’m putting the numbers up. Those who missed this week, please post and I’ll add them in to next week.

I’ve added a fun new column – Points! 1 point for the winning twin each week, with a running total. I figured it would be added incentive. Those points are so close!

ice_queen, it seems that Punk has dropped out, so you’re a triplet again. 😉

[Sharyn]

I did my numbers early this week, so I guess I’m the first to post! And … I post nothing! Again!

We had a family trip combined with taxes and a rather long things to do list. However, I’m gearing up for a more normal schedule, and I’m sure I’ll have something to post a week from now. However, much of what I will list will require clean up or testing, so I won’t be listing in high numbers.

[Amatino]

LOL. Don’t feel lonely, Sharyn, I join you in the Zero bucket! This past week I was swamped with my classes and prep and homework, as well as the leg problem mentioned before, so the only eBaying I did was sending out orders!

It’s going to be very difficult for me to make any kind of listing dent until June. I am loaded with classes, start a new part-time position on Wednesday, and have a Student Showcase coming up that takes hours of planning, prep work, and herding of people (much harder than herding cats!) Thank fates it’s all over on June 2nd, which is a Saturday. I can rest on Sunday and then really get stuck into eBay on the Monday. (She says, fingers crossed!) 🙂

[Marjean28]

Hi folks, I can’t even remember if I posted my listings last week, but I can tell you that I essentially only listed new this week. But please don’t kick me out 🙂 I just want to be able to have some place to be accountable. I know, I am happy to take a deduction for every old item I passed over in favor of a new one to post…ha ha ha.

I have made some interesting strides this week. My husband read my mind and said I could have the entire basement, including finished living space, for my ebay store. So, I have listed my furniture on craigs list, offer up, and let go, along with the nextdoor ap and FB marketplace. Any reasonable offers are being taken, including free, just to get the space back quickly. We bid on some commercial shelving racks from an online auction and will be putting up storage. It will be done scavenger style, of course!

That should go a long way toward making room for taking photos and putting all this inventory somewhere instead of having death piles, mingled in with listed piles. UGHHHH!!!

As for what I listed last week, I put up 67 items on ebay, 7 on poshmark, 32 on etsy (but I only put up 9 listings because they are listed as variations….saves a lot of listing fees). I’d say about 10 were from death piles.

thanks all. Marjean28

[ChristineR]

Pretty slim week for me, with a weekend trip out of town. I listed 8 items, 4 from death piles. I bought a handful of items while away so hope to list more this week. I’ll be starting with those.

[Amatino]

Just waiting for ice_queen and Vintage Lacy. KatieScott hasn’t posted in 3 weeks now, so I guess she has dropped out. That means ice_queen is a twin again, moving to join Marjean.

Marjean, there’s no penalty for not listing DP. The idea is to clear the DPs, so listing current means you’re not adding more to the DP, which is kinda clearing it, right? LOL. You’re still pounding us in terms of numbers!

Will put up the YTD this evening, giving ice_queen and Vintage Lacy a chance to update.

[ice_queen]

Thanks for waiting. Sorry. Hubby is home on Monday’s now as his hours have been cut so we work hard heads down all day on Monday. Which means I forget to post.
I did 82 items this last week.

And look Maryjean, we are twins again!

[Vintage Lacy]

My show opens in 5 hours. None for me. Sorry for the terse reply, but tons left to do. Have a good week everyone.

[Amatino]

https://imgur.com/UPpIQD0

Good luck, Vintage Lacy. Wish I could be there!

Congrats on the week, everyone. We’re slogging along slowly. Inch by inch, we win the race. Yard by yard, it’s very hard! 😉

ChristineR, check out our points! I’m down 0 for 2 so far this week in terms of listing days, and have to go to work tomorrow, then have medical on Thursday, so it’s 0 for 4 unless I start sleeping for a hobby. But I gotta get the next point!!! LOL

[ChristineR]

Thanks Amatino. I’m just having a mediocre listing week so far, so you’ve got a shot at it. It’s kind of nice to know I have company loving Ebay but having shopped to much initially and having so many other obligations. My husband worked all weekends at the hospital last schedule which was brutal. This time he has a better schedule so I hope to get some traction. Just before the summer sales slowdown lol.

[Amatino]

LOL. I was just thinking the same thing about my listing forecast. I’m due to slow down on the non-eBay stuff in June. June! Well, at least we’ll be loaded and ready for the Fall and Winter sales run! 😀

[Amatino]

Ok, zero for me again this week. However, I’m done with all the stuff that took me away from eBay (for now) and will have some numbers to put up next week. Hope y’all had a better listing week than I did!

Vintage Lacy, report! How did your show fare?

[ChristineR]

So so week for me even with company and kid events. I listed 14 items, 11 from death piles. Listed three times, but one was a single listing before I got interrupted.

[Amatino]

Dammit! You got that point! 😀

[Sharyn]

I listed 12 items last week. All were from purchases made this year.

I did a good bit of washing/organizing clothes that I want to send into a consignment place, but they aren’t accepting new items right now. Do I get points when I send them in? LOL. I guess I’d rather not get the points than have to list them myself!!

[ChristineR]

I have a similar issue – going to unload some of our better brand clothes from home, and I want to do it before the free returns requirement. Personally, I don’t think consignment or my items should count. Maybe I’ll switch on and off with the clothes and death piles. Not much shopping lately…

[Sharyn]

When you say free returns requirement, I’m assuming you mean for TRS Plus. I just want to make sure that you know that you will keep your TRS status as a seller whether you have free returns or not. You can still sell clothing without free returns, but the item won’t have TRS plus.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Sharyn.

[ice_queen]

19 items for me. Slow going…

[Vintage Lacy]

Hello, coming back up for air, after 12 hours yesterday of packing and loading a 26-ft Uhaul truck TWICE, moving it to storage, and cleaning the Grange. It was a very good, solid Spring vintage show, and while the weather was challenging a couple of the days, we mustered through and had a good event.

Our main feature as you walked in was vintage Farmhouse and it was the HOT seller of the show. Old formica tables, vintage weather mill and a cool cast iron old weathervane that sold before we even opened, old galvanized buckets, wicker baskets, beat up stools, wood rolling pins, roosters, old watering cans, old ladders and window frames, flour sack towels, chicken feeders, old kitchen utensils, pottery mixing bowls, signage, old quilts, old chenille bedspreads, old gardening tools, old ironstone pottery.

Quirky hot seller: Milk glass. There are shows we don’t sell any, this show it flew out.

My favorite two items that sold: Sometimes I pick up something because it would be a good prop, not thinking it might sell, although I always stick a price on it. I sold a little green step-bench, with paint splatters all over and it looked like a dog had chewed on one end. Paid $2, sold for $18. I also sold a cool old metal rusty shopping cart, with a curved front and beat up. It was a great display piece. Picked up at a barn sale for $10, sold for $65 to someone who’s going to put it in her garden and fill it with plants. Love that.

Today I was sore and exhausted. Pretty much a zombie, which is typical after a 10 day show. I plan to get back to listing tomorrow and back to my normal routine.

[Sharyn]

Sounds amazing.

Last year, I took some items off eBay that weren’t selling, and brought them to a once-a-year yard sale down the road from me. I sold enough stuff to cover the $10 entrance fee, and then it started raining. The organization decided to try again the next day, but my husband and I just couldn’t get out of bed and lug the stuff back.

What you are doing sounds like a lot of intense work, but much more profitable. I’m sure you’re much more willing to get out of bed in the morning!

This Saturday, I am volunteering for a freecycle event in my town. People can come by and drop off stuff they don’t want and/or they can park and take anything that they might want for themselves. Taking stuff for reselling isn’t allowed, but, at the end of the event, I might take some leftovers that no one wants. I’ve been to this several times in the past, but this is the first time I’m running it.

[ChristineR]

Interesting report. I heard online that milk glass is cyclical and is cooled right now. If you can manage take some photos next time. I was thinking of starting a topic for photos of displays. We have an awesome local sort of antique mall but very upscale. They have a a lot of rustic and nautical items with great styling.

[Amatino]

Just waiting for Marjean’s numbers and I’ll post the YTDs. Will check again tonight.

[Vintage Lacy]

Sharyn, the freecycle event sounds like fun! I wish they did one in our town.

ChristineR, you are right, milk glass is very cyclical, as are a lot of staples. I found that in my brick & Mortar, as well as at my show. Items wax and wane, but always seem to come back sooner or later. It might be in 6 months or it might take a year or two. Here are some trends I noticed:

Waxing: Brass, copper, ironstone, pyrex, wood kitchen utensils, old cookbooks, milk glass, vintage tablecloths, wire and wicker baskets, cast iron.

Waning: most clear glass, most standard china (unless it’s something unusual and spectacular), silverplate, birds/birdcages/birdhouses, hammered aluminum.

This, of course, could change by our next show in October.

I took about 50 pictures, but I’m not sure how to post a few of them on here.

[KatieScott]

Hey – sorry this fell off my radar – here are my last 4 weeks:

March 28-24: 80
March 25-31: 77
April 1-7: 21
April 8-14: 156

I’m trying to hit it hard on the listings. I’ve been trying to pay down our debt and I’ve depleted our checking and savings, so I need to make some extra money to build those accounts back up quick!

[Amatino]

https://imgur.com/vuo8dLj

Welcome back, Katie!

Well, you guys sure do give me homework! I’ve had to reshuffle folks to match up their listing numbers better so that nobody gets discouraged. I try hard to ensure that folks are matched as closely as possible so that it really is a challenge and inspiration.

VintageLacy, post your photos to Imgur.com, create an album, then select the photos to include in the album. Copy the album link that Imgur gives you and post it here. We’d LOVE to see them!

[Marjean28]

Hi Everyone. sorry to have ghosted last week! I just was busy busy busy trying to get up listings and expanding my ebay storage space. I listed 77 items during the week of 4/8-4/14, but I don’t expect those numbers to count because I didn’t turn them in. Plus most of that was not death pile stuff. So, on for this week. For the time period of 4/15-4/21, here are my death pile listing counts:

total death pile ONLY counts – 19

I did manage to set up a new photo booth area. Its much bigger and now I have 3 mannequins: a medium size female torso, a plus size female torso, a large size male torso. Then I figured out how to put my syrofoam head on a plant stand from the garden, so I guess I have another mannequin of sorts.

[Marjean28]

Shoutout to Katie Scott….I’d love to connect via email. If you feel the same way, please get my contact info from Jay 🙂 I’m going to email Jay and ask him if it’s ok to get yours. Thanks! Marjean28

[ChristineR]

Ugh! I listed one item that wasn’t a dp. Pathetic. Non-ebay busyness and burn out in the way this week.

[Amatino]

Marjean, all listings count. I’ll add your numbers for last week into this week’s round.

Well, I did get back to work, but didn’t manage much. Only 4 items listed! So not a blistering return to the fray. 🙂

However, I too was working on my storage stuff. We have a street sale coming up in a month and I’m sorting items to add to the sale. I’m choosing stuff that is not so high value that it’s worth paying fees on it – if I can get $10 after fees on eBay or $10 in person at the street sale, why bother listing and packing? – as well as items that I would prefer not to have to pack for shipping (large light fitting) and items that I might have returns on (printers that I can’t test bc I don’t have cables.) Also, low dollar items ($10 or less) that I can offload to get space. No clothes or shoes, they’re sold at garage sale prices at the street sale.

The MIL was visiting last week, so we went to a garage sale on the weekend and I got two large boxes, about 30″ square, for $15. One box was DIY items like light fittings, a shower head, etc., the other was all Christmas stuff, including about 3 dozen Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments in boxes. Not new, but still in the original boxes. None of it is high-value, unfortunately, but I can sell similar to list them very fast. Some of the DIY stuff may end up in my house; we are planning a bathroom redo, so I’m eyeing those items with a view to scavenged renovations. There’s an incredible amount of stuff in our house that is scavenged! The trick is to mix expensive new stuff with scavenged old stuff! We gutted our kitchen, for example. The backsplash tiles are new stone, the pressed tin ceiling and ceiling fans were bought especially, but all the woodwork, light fittings, curtain rails, furniture and most of the appliances were scavenged. Total cost for the whole thing was about $6,000. We have granite counters, wood floors, stone backsplash, tin ceilings. It looks like it cost tens of thousands! Trash elf for the win! 😀

[Sharyn]

Last week, I listed 14 items, and 8 were from death piles. I’m pretty happy with that because it included one VCR that took me forever to test.

I did do a few online auctions this week, which should be faster listing. However, my purchases included two vintage flashlights that probably need a weird battery in order to test, a typewriter that will need a new ribbon to test, and a modern printer that will take time (and maybe ink cartridges) to test. I also have a cassette player from the previous weekend that I need to test. I have C size batteries and cassettes; I just need to do it.

I wish I didn’t have to test things, but I buy electronic items because they usually sell well. I’m still working on death pile stuff that I haven’t fixed or tested, but it is dwindling!

[Marjean28]

ok. so if all listings count, I’ll change my numbers to reflect what I did. I listed 105 things last week, of which 19 were death piles. I guess I thought only DP listings counted. Sorry!

[Vintage Lacy]

I finally got back into listing at the end of last week. I had stuff to wind down the show to deal with, like bookkeeping, because for some odd reason people like to get paid. It’s the strangest thing. 🙂 It’s about 15-20 hours of bookkeeping so it always feels great to get it over and done with.

I listed 11 items, none from death piles.

Ebay- 6 items.
Etsy shop 1 – 5 items.

I did treat myself to a trip to the bins last week and estate sale season has started in earnest so I went out both Friday and Saturday, and even went back to a cool one on Sunday to score more at half price. My most thrilling find was about a dozen vintage elf figures (at fifty cents each) that are so rare I am having a hard time researching some of them. I also found about 30 vintage Christmas ornaments and that made me happy.

Most importantly, I re-organized my storage unit that’s designated for my online shops front to back, top to bottom. A place for everything and everything in its place. You have no idea how happy that makes me!! 🙂

I will post pics from my show this week. Thanks Amatino for the help.

[KatieScott]

81 for me from 4/15/18 – 4/22/18

[ice_queen]

I got 94 last week. Not all DP.

[Amatino]

Sorry about the late update, it’s been one crazy week!

https://imgur.com/ZjCtAV5

[VintageTreasures]

Hello Amatino and Elf Twins!

I’d like to join the challenge if you’ll have me. I didn’t join earlier because I thought it was mainly a death pile challenge and I felt like I’d run out of death pile stuff before the year was up.
Hmm, who am I kidding? More like I don’t like to list the death pile stuff, after all it’s in the pile for a reason, am I right?
So I’m thinking I can post my numbers since April 1st if you’ll have me and I’ll just personally compare my results with whomever I’m paired with as of that date. I can’t give accurate listing numbers from before April 1st because before then I counted all my 30 day expired relists as part of my new listing numbers and that’s not kosher!

Hope to be joining you!

[Amatino]

Hi VintageTreasures, we would LOVE to have you join us! Please post your numbers since April 1st, I’ll put you into the system and pair you up with your best match.

We have fun getting all our listings up and the challenge is to LIST! in the hopes that you clear DPs and don’t create new ones.

Welcome aboard!

[ChristineR]

Listed 24 items, 14 from death piles. Have almost all of my few recent thrift shop purchases listed. I sat down to list 4 times, so I’m quite happy with that. I’m starting to have some empty spaces in my listed items areas as things sell down. Feels good. I sort of feel like I’m a slow lister even though I’m using the method people talk about here. Lately it’s a hodgepodge because I’m making myself list the latest purchases so they don’t get added to the piles. Hoping to get back to my sorted backlog soon so I can try to move a bit faster with sell similar. I also did a bit of pruning to stale listings this week and revising. Also making some decisions as we are going to have a garage sale to get rid of some of our kids’ furniture since they have grown. It’s kind of hard to let go of things for cheap that I could sell for more on Ebay, but honestly I’ll never get to it all at this rate.

[Sharyn]

I listed 32 items, 5 of which were from death piles.

I’m very happy with my progress this week, but, better yet, I made a list of my death pile items that need fixing or other work in order to list. I can’t tell you how this list made my day. It is less than 20 lines long, although a few tasks cover more than one item. But, just getting that organized and on one sheet made it seem so much more doable.

I feel like I can get caught up. What a great feeling it would be to mostly just be listing the new stuff. OMG!!

In the meantime, I keep adding stuff to Amazon/eBay carts so that I can purchase replacement batteries, light bulbs, typewriter ribbon, special book repair tape, etc. I’m making progress!

[Amatino]

Well done, ChristineR! You’re back in the lead, bc I listed zero this week. Yup – zilch! The only “listings” I did were the relists on my 30-day items.

To answer your question on a different thread, ChristineR, I list within eBay. Currently sitting around the 520 listings mark. I tend to relist daily anything that ended the previous day on 30-day, and deliberately end any GTC item on the day it shows it’s “ending” and then list it the next day with the 30-day ends from the day before. Monday listings are always a big jump, bc I don’t tend to list on weekends. I’ve started reading up on and investigating WonderLister and may make the move. Still thinking about it. With only 500-odd items, it’s not such a time sink for me to list daily within eBay at the moment. I bulk list 50 at a time, and it takes me maybe 10 minutes.

I’m swamped with off-eBay stuff until June 2nd, whereupon everything kinda slows down to a casual stroll! Phew! I feel like I’m running alongside a speeding train because my jacket is caught in the door. I’ll be glad when we pull into the station on June 2nd, that door opens, and I can give my tattered soles a rest! LOL.

[Vintage Lacy]

I listed 15 items this week, 10 were from death piles.

ebay-10 items
etsy- 5 items

My focus this week was on a storage unit I had since closing my brick and mortar last year. Finally put the time into sorting, hauling, donating, organizing. Swept it out empty yesterday, after many hours of work and whew….it’s gone. Such a great feeling, and one less expense each month.

I plan to get more listing done this week, but won’t have the whole week to do it, as I am doing another show on Sunday. It’s called I See London, I see France Plucky Maiden Junkfest and it’s in a really cool setting at an old Amusement Park that sits on the banks of the river that runs through Portland. This show focuses on British and French vintage items so I have been sorting my inventory accordingly.

And…..Sunday night I take the red-eye to Michigan, and from there on to…Venice, where I will be all next week. I am so excited, I can’t sleep. It’s been on my Things-I-must-do-before-I-die list forever. Part of why I do this crazy lifestyle is so I can travel and boy do I feel blessed. I will try to check in next Monday with my listing numbers for this week.

Have a great week everyone!

[VintageTreasures]

Hello All,
Thank you for allowing me to join the challenge so late in the game! Here are my numbers since April 1st. I haven’t been keeping track of DP or non-DP so I can’t break that down. These are just the brand new, never listed it before listings; and not counting any 30 day re-listings.

4/1 – 4/7/18: 46
4/8 – 4/14/18: 24
4/15 – 4/21/18: 66
4/22 – 4/28/18: 55

I would say that my numbers this month are way above average for me. I recently got a basic store subscription instead of just using the 50 free listings and then paying for any overage. I wanted to get my listings up closer to 250 so I would feel like I’m getting the most out of my subscription. So I’ve been hitting listing pretty hard (for me).

[Amatino]

https://imgur.com/tg4r6kP

Once again, I held it over waiting for ice_queen and KatieScott. Ladies, please, out of consideration for the others, can you post on Mondays? Thanks.

[Vintage Lacy]

I am checking in early, as I have a feeling I won’t be able to Monday, as I will already be travelling. None for me this week, too busy getting ready for the show on Sunday and my trip. Please put me down for zero for next week too.

Thanks!

[Amatino]

My apologies if I came across a little brusque earlier, I meant no offense. I’m sleep deprived, have been working ’til midnight almost this whole week.

[VintageTreasures]

Hello Fellow Trash Elf Twins!

Here are my sad new listing numbers for the week of 4/29-5/5/18. Drum roll please – A total of 8. I was out of town on a long getaway weekend (plus – Wednesday through Sunday) with my sister, which was super fun. Consignment store and thrift store shopping galore! But I did no listing at all after Tuesday. Hope all your numbers are better!

[Sharyn]

Hey – having a fun, long weekend sounds like a good reason not to list as any I’ve heard!!

I did list 22 this past week, and four were from death piles.

[ChristineR]

7 items listed in one sitting before I left town. I believe most were from death piles.

[Marjean28]

Hi Folks,
I had a bit of a hectic week which cumulated with my daughter in the ER last night. So, I’ll be brief today. I listed 6 things in my small store and about 50 in my big store. I’ll check back in with better details next time around. Thanks.

[VintageTreasures]

I’m sorry to hear your daughter ended up in the ER and I just wanted to say I hope she’s okay.

[Amatino]

Hey Marjean, hope your daughter is okay too!

I hit zero again this past week. A combination of big classes, a new assignment, and our annual Student Showcase coming up have totally wiped out my time off eBay. I am so ready for June 2nd, when all the pressure is over and I can get back to work. 🙁

KatieScott and ice_queen have not posted again, so if they don’t pop up next week, I’ll pair VintageTreasures with Marjean.

https://imgur.com/0bcTSuf

[KatieScott]

I did 94 listings from April 29 – May 5

[Amatino]

Welcome back, KatieScott! We missed you! 🙂

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