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Incredible shoes & incredible sale! Congrats!
Great to have you guys back! I couldn’t imagine packing like you do to do a long trip abroad…
I’m one of the fools dragging a big suitcase across cobblestones – picturing myself in Amsterdam, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Barcelona where that was the exact scene.Week October 8-14, 2017
Total Items in Store: 930
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $89 (13.8% of sales)
Total Sales: $644.41
Highest Price Sold: $155 (c1962 Barbie Side Part Bubble Cut Platinum Hair in Red Velvet & White Satin)
Average Price Sold: $32.22
Returns: 1 (partial refund)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $33
Number of items listed this week: 10
Promoted listings test: 13 sales, $326.45 (50.7% of total sales), $15.10 fees (4.6% of sales)Semi – slow week. A lot of low dollar & old items sold, which I’m quite happy are out. Ran sale on a lot of items I deemed as dead stock. Sold probably 4 of those items at a significant (40%-60%) discount.
However, this week is shaping up to be a record setter (assuming it keeps up at the same rate) – on Sunday alone sold 13 items for $840 (avg $64!) including 8 records and 2 of those vintage Barbies.
Picks this week were pretty much bread & butter – records, a couple small toys, etc – but the coolest thing I found were these two pieces of currency from the French Revolution. I love that they’re already framed/ready to hang – the frames even look like early 1900s based on the backing & nails.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
Brian Treasures from Grandmas.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
Brian Treasures from Grandmas.
Yeah, I’ve never bought a bad “cache”… but just still nerve-racking pulling out $1300 in one swoop. I trust my experience/gut and know that it will pay off soon. 🙂
I’m gonna miss those sweet voices this Monday morning! We’ll hold it down for you!
Week October 1-7, 2017
Total Items in Store: 942
Items Sold: 27 (1 Amazon, 1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $101.32 (10.4% of sales)
Total Sales: $973.90
Highest Price Sold: $179.99 (c1964 #1904 Mattel Barbie Skipper)
Average Price Sold: $36.07
Returns: 1 partial refund
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $1550 (more on the below)
Number of items listed this week: 26
Promoted listings test: 6 sales, $187.48 (19.3% of total sales), $8.06 fees (4.3% of sales)Really pleased with the week overall… multiple sales everyday, nice $50+ sales every other day, etc. But I’m sure no one wants to hear about that, every whats to make sure I didn’t make a typo on money spent on new inventory. 🙂 Well, I didn’t…
I had been talking to someone on LetGo about records they had listed. They were a bit further away than I usually travel, but we met at a Burger King in the middle so all was good. Ended up buying the whole lot of records for $260 – Grateful Dead, Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. Good stuff…
But since I was outside of my normal pickin’ territory, I decided to see what sales were around. Found a sale that looked unreal – the guy apparently was a collector & hoarder, but also incredibly clean & organized. When you usually see hoarders, it’s just stuff piled up – this guy meticulously cataloged everything. He had over 10,000 records all sorted by genre and alphabetical all within their own protective sleeves. He had toys sorted by genre & year. Thousands of pictures of classic cars with name/location/etc written on the back and sleeved (I bought a box of 650+), hundreds of gas station maps (I bought a box of 225+). But the reason my purchases were so high was his Barbie collection. He had hundreds – old, modern, accessories, vehicles, houses, etc (many in their original boxes). Of course I don’t know enough about each individual one to make a good judgement, but I was drawn to the early 1960s ones “under glass” (re: expensive). They were all way over priced for me to buy & flip, but since it was the last day of the sale I gave the guy running it my number and said I’d like to leave an offer if they don’t sell. He prodded me to make my offer right now – I threw out $1200 for the 24 under glass, we eventually settled at $1300. My drive home was nerve-wracking – did I pay too much? How am I going to research these? WTH am I doing? I got home, researched, photo’d, listed, and one sold within a couple hours – a Skipper with an extra outfit to a collector in Germany. 14% of my investment back in one sale.
Rest of the ones I listed. If I get my asking price for all, I’ll end up with sales of around $6500. Let’s do this, Q4 holiday season!
10/02/2017 at 8:43 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 329: 200+ Ebay Sales To Pack. We’re Not Complaining. #23486re: Promoted Listings glitch
From what I’ve seen/heard, the glitch is only with reporting and not actually with listings showing up in search results, etc. Checking my numbers, I’ve had a relatively consistent 30%-35% of my sales coming through Promoted Listings each week in September. That’s just my perspective.
10/01/2017 at 10:03 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 329: 200+ Ebay Sales To Pack. We’re Not Complaining. #23475O, upgrading… isn’t it the BEST?!?!?! I’ve gotten the chance to a couple times for work and it’s glorious.
Are you going to have a “packing 200 sales” video? Would be incredible to see your process in 10x speed and then the stack waiting for your USPS carrier!
Week September 24-30, 2017
Total Items in Store: 942
Items Sold: 23
Cost of Items Sold: $86 (10.6% of sales)
Total Sales: $808.77
Highest Price Sold: $89.99 (1969-1970 Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra GT Center Wheel Cap)
Average Price Sold: $35.16
Returns: 0 (1 purchase cancellation though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $225
Number of items listed this week: 20
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $276.49 (34.2% of total sales), $15.12 fees (5.5% of sales)Solid week of sales including that cool Mustang Wheel Cap (paid $2), $120 worth of records headed to one guy, cleared out a few super old things (the 2nd & 3rd longest things in my store according to my records).
Got to go out and pick at a few estate sales for the first time in a good two months. It felt great to get out on a beautiful Saturday morning, crisp fall air, hot coffee, standing in line for a pretty epic 70s-80s video game sale. They had original Colecovision, NES 001, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 in box with literally every accessory. I was 4th in line and had every opportunity to buy the systems, but they wanted like $500/each for the systems and I just couldn’t go that high. They’d probably each sell in the range of $600-$700 and there just wasn’t enough meat on the bone to make it worthwhile. I didn’t get a chance to call today and find out if they sold for their price, but I’m sure someone paid at least $400/each for them.
While everyone was drooling over that stuff and I had already realized it wasn’t going to happen, I did find some cool stuff elsewhere in the house – box of pre-WWII drafting pencils, handful of all wood Fisher Price Little People, an antique wooden & brass bellows, a 1940s Gillette travel razor with wrapped blade, vintage padlocks, Zippos, early 1900s drafting kit, and more bread & butter. Ended up spending $225, but my profits will far exceed the guys that got the video game systems.
09/27/2017 at 3:35 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23360One or two podcasts ago, someone noted that they got an email on an item they were watching saying “another eBayer is making an offer on this item – don’t lose out” (or something to that effect). Most of us thought it was hooey – but now I’m a believer.
09/27/2017 at 3:16 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23357Nope, $49.99 was the price for like 4 years (had put it on sale every so often). Got an offer last night for $20, countered at $30, woke up to a $49.99 sale to a different buyer. It was great!
09/27/2017 at 1:38 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23351Topic from a few episodes ago: eBay sending out emails to watchers/recent viewers
I was skeptical when this topic was brought up, but I’m a believer now. I had an item for nearly 4 years now with little to no interest. Last night I got my first ever offer on it, but it was low so I countered. This morning I woke up to a sale – at full price (more than 2x the offer) from another buyer! 🙂
09/26/2017 at 8:45 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23268That desk is so ridiculously awesome! It takes a special buyer to have the room/aesthetic as well as the money/willingness to buy online sight unseen – glad you found the perfect combo of both to get that price for it!
09/24/2017 at 9:17 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23176Ha, good catch… actually 2 extra numbers. Should be “947”.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
Brian Treasures from Grandmas.
09/24/2017 at 8:15 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23172Can’t wait to listen to the show in the morning. I thought last week’s convo (on the show & on the boards) was super interesting how challenges, changes, problems, stress affect people differently.
Week September 17-23, 2017
Total Items in Store: 94715
Items Sold: 20 (7 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $88 (13.8% of sales)
Total Sales: $639.87 (not included items on consignment)
Highest Price Sold: $99.99 (1977 Star Wars John Williams Record with posters)
Average Price Sold: $31.99
Returns: 1 (started, but hasn’t been shipped yet)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $316
Number of items listed this week: 57
Promoted listings test: 6 sales, $108.99 (17% of total sales), $4.78 fees (4.4% of sales)Steady week for me, good pace, pleased overall. Total above don’t include a few consignment items I sold for family/friends. I mentioned the pieces from my aunt that were art pieces from my uncle. Almost immediately I got several watchers and some offers, ended up selling the pairs of cufflinks for $100 each to a professor at the University of Kansas. He asked if I had more than what was listed of my great uncle’s work – I don’t, but have reached out to some family members that do. Including my mom’s brother who has to large wall hangings that could fetch $5-$10k each. He was already thinking of downsizing last time I saw him in the summer, so he’s deciding if he’ll let them go.
Picked up a huge lot of records this weekend. I got the whole lot (~200) for $250. About 60 were worth listing separately, which I did and then listed the rest on CL as a lot for $100. Sold almost immediately, plus the guy asked if I had more (which obviously I have a good 350 records in my store). He’s going to get back to me, but he said he wanted a good 45 out of my store too totaling a combined $1800… we’re working on price right now, but could be a big story for me in next week’s post.
09/18/2017 at 7:52 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 327: Dealing With Stress Traveling, In Life and On eBay #22950Bro, “Just like the physical stress of doing manual labor will build calluses on our hands and feet, mental stress builds them on our mind.” 🙂
09/18/2017 at 5:38 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 327: Dealing With Stress Traveling, In Life and On eBay #22949I knew him, not super well, but I definitely knew who he was. He was my great uncle/my grandfather’s brother, so I’d see him at Christmas/Holidays on occasion. Also fondly remember the 1986 family reunion that was held at his “farm” (no animals) outside of Pittsburgh – he had barns that were his “studios” for super large scale work. My mom’s brother has two very large (at least 60″x60″ each) pieces of his hanging in his living room.
09/17/2017 at 6:33 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 327: Dealing With Stress Traveling, In Life and On eBay #22906This seems like a very interesting topic. I hope you’re getting time off – vacation is supposed ot be relaxing!!!
Week September 10-16, 2017
Total Items in Store: 924
Items Sold: 22 (5 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $106 (13.2% of sales)
Total Sales: $802.33
Highest Price Sold: $129.99 (Chanel Precision Ultra Correction Eye Revializer NIB)
Average Price Sold: $36.47
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $60
Number of items listed this week: 20
Promoted listings test: 10 sales, $305.44 (38.1% of total sales), $16.10 fees (5.3% of sales)Another good week. The big sale of the Chanel cosmetics I believe it the last item I had left from that high end cosmetics cache I bought earlier this year. Based on my calculations, bought the lot for $250 and sold everything for just a hair under $1100 gross. I was shooting for $1500, but I’ll take it.
Other big day was Wednesday when a buyer from Canada bought 7 records for $195 (+$40 shipping) – COGS for those particular albums was right around $15.
Picks were pretty limited, but excited about a bag of MacBook Pro cords & adaptors I got from a friend. He had gotten most from his office so had little to nothing invested in them and is in the process of changing jobs, so I told him I’d give him $30 for the bag of ’em. Turned out to have 17 total pieces, several chargers and some AV adapters. Hoping to get $350 for them.
Some other listings included some pieces my aunt gave me, that were actually my grandfather’s. My grandfather’s brother, Virgil Cantini, was a prominent artist in the greater Pittsburgh area and even got some national recognition. In the mid-century enameling collecting circles, he’s incredibly well known and highly collectible. There’s a lot of his work in my family’s homes, so not really worried about selling these few pieces.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
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