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My numbers for the week of 12/25/16:
Total Items in Store: 49
Items Sold: 6 (All BIN)
Cost of Items Sold: $23.50
Total Sales: $232
Highest Price Sold: $65 – Reindeer candle holders
Average Price Sold: $38.66 + shiping
Returns: 0I expected the slowdown since I haven’t listed in the last few weeks. Happy to have sold 90% of what I listed this year, though. I strive for high sell through rates and in 2016 I really improved my average selling price while keeping COGS steady at 10-15%. I am about 3 weeks behind on listening to the Podcasts and was happy to send the kids to school this morning and get back to eBay. My goals for 2017 are to do double the listings I did last year, spend less time on FB and more time actually doing the things that translate to money.
Happy New Year everyone!
The listings end time doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it. In the case of the snowpants, I staggered listing them because they were so similar. One pair sold an auction and the other sold at Buy It Now.
My numbers for the week of 12/18/16:
Total Items in Store: 56
Items Sold: 10 (1 Auction, 9 BIN)
Cost of Items Sold: $41
Total Sales: $312
Highest Price Sold: $100 – Vintage Suitcase
Average Price Sold: $31.20 + shiping
Returns: 0As I suspected, there has been a drop off in sales this week. I didn’t list a single new item and won’t be listing this week either. It will be back to work once the kids are back in school. I haven’t listened to the Podcast yet but I do have a few theories I have tested on my own that I’d like to share.
One is whether or not having watchers bumps your item up in search results. There are FB groups that have “Watch My Item” posts. You provide a link to one of your active listings and the next people to comment go to it and add it to their watched list (you do the same for the posts above yours). I have a hat that I can’t sell. It was buried deep in search results, several pages in to a basic search. I posted it to the Watch My Item thread, got about 7 watchers on it, and then went back to search for it again later that day. It was on page 1 of search results. The bump was temporary, and I still never sold the hat, but I have tried this on multiple occasions with multiple items and the result is the same. The item that gets watcher traffic absolutely gets a temporary boost in search results. I don’t do this as a regular thing though…I don’t really think it’s worth my time in the long run.
The second theory I have is something that I cannot prove with statistics. It would take alot of effort to track and “prove” but it seems to hold true for me. I have a suspicion that a sale of an item bumps up your other items in search results within that same category. I rarely have multiples of new items. But sometimes I do. And when one sells, quite frequently I get a second sale within a 24 hr period. I had 2 pair of snowpants for sale, similar but not identical so they were listed at the same time. They’ve been listed for weeks and neither pair got much traffic. One pair finally sold and the second pair sold within hours of the first. This would be easy to shrug off as my example is a seasonal item. But it happens often enough that it seems like something more than coincidence. I believe it is why sales seem to beget more sales and why people with “niches” may have more success in a certain category than a more miscellaneous seller. I’d say my main category is toys, and I often sell the same toy other sellers have for more $ than what they were asking. But I have one bottle of vintage perfume (a category I don’t sell in often) that sits there unpurchased while those around it go for more $ than I’m asking. I can’t prove any of this because I am not willing to devote myself full time to collecting data that supports my theories. But no one would be able to talk me out of believing it.I have had one claim with USPS. Package was sent Priority Mail and was received damaged (obvious outer shipping box damage, item inside broken). I did the online claim with USPS and had my $ (declared value + shipping cost) refunded to me by check within 7 days. Easy.
I’ve had one FedEx Smartpost claim. Item was received broken by the buyer. No visible damage to the outer packaging. Forget it…The claim has to be filed by eBay to FedEx. FedEx says it’s USPS issue and USPS points you back to FedEx. The only way you will get reimbursed is if the package is so damaged FedEx won’t even deliver it. Never got any $ or any response even from the claim.
I have never used Shipsaver, but I’m not a big fan of buying unnecessary insurance. Higher dollar items are usually going Priority Mail which has $100 ins. included. I would never just automatically buy insurance for run of the mill things…you will pay more for the coverage than if you just took a loss on an occasional broken item. In 7 years of selling, I have had zero lost packages, and only the 2 broken in transit items mentioned above.My numbers for the week of 12/11/16:
Total Items in Store: 60
Items Sold: 24 (7 Auctions/17 BIN)
Cost of Items Sold: $72
Total Sales: $708
Highest Price Sold: $100 – Talking Ariel
Average Price Sold: $29.50 (+ shipping)
Returns: 0I don’t believe in free shipping unless you are shipping light 1st Class or Flat Rate envelope type items. Many sellers who offer free shipping say they add the cost of shipping to the furthest destination into the price of their item . That is not logical to me. Unless you have a truly rare item, this method makes your item a better deal to the furthest states and overpriced to the ones close to you. So more of the $ you collect from the buyer goes to the carrier and to eBay for FVFs on shipping than would stay in your pocket.
Holiday sales continued for me this week. My inventory is low, right where I like it at year end. I’d love to have under 50 items as I start 2017. I expect a dramatic drop off in sales though because I won’t be listing this week and possibly not next either…we have out of town holiday plans + 2 of my 3 kids have Birthdays during the week of Christmas. Enjoy the Holidays everyone!Thank you, Jay. I do a majority of BIN but the main categories I sell in do well at auction this time of year (even just 3 years ago they did well at auction year-round, but that has changed). I sell a lot of pre-owned toys, seasonal items, boots, and a mix of other things. Right now about 20% of my active items are auctions, but of the 28 sold last week 17 of them were auctions and 11 were BIN. Of course those numbers reflect the holiday buying season for me so they are higher than average but I generally do 3 inventory turns per year. I am a long time listener, and I really enjoy your podcast and listening to your philosophies on things. My business model is a bit different than yours, though. My focus has always leaned towards finding things with a high sell-through rate. So a large inventory has never been my goal. So far it’s worked for me as a part-time seller with limited storage space. I can’t help but find this years numbers a bit discouraging for me, to have worked harder for about the same outcome.
My numbers for the week of 12/4/16:
Total Items in Store: 71
Items Sold: 28
Cost of Items Sold: $55
Total Sales: $690
Highest Price Sold: $71 – Doll
Average Price Sold: $24.64
Returns: 0I was interested to hear the opening comments in your podcast today. I am a small part time seller (going on 7 years). In the past I had always felt that you get what you put into it when it comes to eBay. My effort has grown, and my sales reflected it. This is the first year where I have not felt this was true for me. I have worked harder on eBay than ever, I listed more items than any previous year, I consider myself pretty skilled at sourcing…yet my sales numbers are just barely what they were last year. I have a higher number of unsold inventory items than I have ever had in the past. I am sensing that supply is starting to exceed demand (even in used items) and I’m getting a bit worried as I look to the future. Jay and Ryanne, how are you overcoming this? You are currently putting a big investment in your business with the new storage building and even contemplating making it a much bigger investment than you originally thought. While at the same time acknowledging that your sales are officially down from 2015 and your active (unsold) inventory is continuing to grow. How do you look toward the future and feel that this is a good time to make such an investment? Do you feel that it is an up and down economy thing and the coming years will improve? Or do you agree with the listener you mentioned that said it may get worse before it gets better? I am asking this question sincerely as I try to figure out my own plan for the coming new year.
