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Fun podcast this week! I listened to it while relaxing on the beach today. I loved that you guys turned a “work” trip into a special treat. I love doing that. I occasionally have to travel for work, so some times my wife comes with me for a cheap getaway – my roundtrip flight is paid for, plus the hotel for the days I’m working, so we’ll just pay for her flight and maybe one extra night in the hotel (although that extra day is usually also free via the hotel points I get to collect for my travel days even if my job is paying). We’ve done this in Salt Lake City, Miami, and a few times in Orlando.
Week June 25-July 1, 2017
Total Items in Store: 941
Items Sold: 22 (2 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $284 (42.8% of sales)
Total Sales: $663.44
Highest Price Sold: $150 (c1915 Seth Thomas Humpback Wooden Mantle Clock)
Average Price Sold: $30.16
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $44
Number of items listed this week: 23
Promoted listings test: 11 sales, $528.46 (79.7% of total sales), $30.69 fees (5.8% of sales)Another nice week of sales volume & total wise, but it was also the week of “selling mistakes”. First, you’ll notice that my COGS are incredibly high at 42%+ of my gross sales. That’s driven by my high dollar item, the clock – I only paid like $10 for it, but it cost about $200 to get running. I had it up for $500, but it’s been listed for nearly 3 years and it was taking up valuable storage real estate. Decided to cut my losses and take the $150 offer that came in.
Another mistake, albeit much less costly, was a NIB Waterford Champagne Flute that I bought at Marshall’s after Christmas. Thought I could get $125+, but have only been selling them for $60-$70 after paying $45 each.
Only went to one sale this weekend. I wasn’t planning on going out just to take a week off and catch up on a backlog of listing, but saw a sale with an incredible record collection. The sale started at 10a on Saturday and they put numbers out at 830a… I was there at 820a and got #8. Pretty good, but I knew that at least one other record guy would be ahead of me. And the exact guy that I thought would be there was, #1 and he had gotten there at like 730a. He obviously got to the collection first but we know each other and were pretty cordial, going through together – he got a good 75-80 albums and I did ok too with like 30. Prices were great too – $2 each or 3 for $5 (and these were pristine copies of Hendrix, Doors, Beatles, etc – none that I picked up will sell for less than $20 each).
06/29/2017 at 6:37 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Silver phone cover, old calendar, FM Converter, vintage Sony Cassette Recorder, super high end Amplifiers #19916Yeah, on the website it’s quite a process… but in the eBay app, there’s a button to end right on the listing page. One, two clicks and you’re done. Not sure why it’s so easy there and so complicated on the site.
06/29/2017 at 3:42 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Silver phone cover, old calendar, FM Converter, vintage Sony Cassette Recorder, super high end Amplifiers #19910Such a cool silver phone cover! You mentioned it was sterling – seems like it’d be worth more than $25 in scrap? Is it super thin or something?
Anyway, some of my interesting sales over the past 7 days:
1977 Star Wars C3PO Necklace
I bought the whole set at a sale about a year ago – already sold R2D2, Millennium Falcon, XWing. I paid too much at the sale, like $15 each, thinking they’d be worth close to $100 each. This one sold for $40 – still a nice profit, but not nearly what I expected.Vintage 3″ King Wooden Chess Set
I always pick up chess sets like this. I never have a problem selling them. If they’re real wood, they’re an easy $30 and some models if you can determine date/maker can go for well over $100. Bought this one for $3, sold for $40.NIB Waterford Snowflake Wishes Goodwill Champagne Flute
Bought a few of these at Marshalls after Christmas 2 years ago. Thought these and some other Waterford glasses would do very well. Not losing money on them, but paid like $60 and have only been selling for $80.Dr. Grabow Pipe
Another pipe sold! I’m now officially in the black on the $300 lot of pipes I bought about a month ago. Still have several listed that will be pure profit.(8) Hand Carved African Safari Animals Wooden Napkin Rings
These have been sitting for quite some time. Took a $20 offer to get them out the door. Thought they were cooler than they were and paid like $8 for them.06/26/2017 at 6:56 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19819I love that you & Veronica have these little competitions, keeps it interesting! Are you willing to calculate profit margin for a competition? Personally, I think it’s easy to find something that will sell for a a lot, but it’s tough to find it for cheap enough to make a profit.
06/26/2017 at 3:04 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19809@Liz, amazing sale on that figurine! Any chance you’d link to it? Anything that made it special (rarity, subtle variation, etc)? I don’t know anything about Meissen figurines personally.
06/26/2017 at 3:00 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19808@Lee, similarly I can’t get Amazon feedback. 81 sales this year and 3 [all positive] feedback (3.7% of transactions). In the last 6 months on eBay, I have 375 sales and 221 feedback (59% of transactions).
06/26/2017 at 11:06 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 316: Craigslist Road Trips- We Live For A Deal #19795Week June 18-24, 2017
Total Items in Store: 947
Items Sold: 28 (7 Amazon, 2 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $190 (16.0% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,119.83
Highest Price Sold: $176 (1977 Star Wars Imperial Troop Transporter)
Average Price Sold: $39.99
Returns: 0 (1 damaged item in mail though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $170
Number of items listed this week: 43
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $345.94 (30.9% of total sales), $11.52 fees (5.2% of sales)Another tremendous week. Counting my blessings that sales keep coming in and things are going well. I know that this pace can’t last, but I’ll take it.
Three bigger sales including the Star Wars toy mentioned above, and then the two Bonanza sales I mentioned in What Sold. Otherwise, everything else was bread & butter – 10 records for about $267, a pipe for $35, a vintage lock for $30, a set of cufflinks for $25 (plus $51 Priority shipping to London), and a few other odds & ends. It all adds up.
Picks were decent as well – nothing earth shattering, but a lot of bread & butter records, vintage toys, and other smalls. I didn’t go to as many sales as I usually do because I was starting to develop a death pile. Focused a lot more time this weekend to listing and got more than double my usual listing volume up.
Thanks everyone! I’m going to throw in a couple of those keywords and bump up prices.
06/23/2017 at 4:28 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Cosco serving cart, Speakers, Wear Ever pans, Trav L Bar, Vintage fan, and Norman won't drop it. #19729At an estate sale. It was a bigger area estate sale company too. And I wasn’t there first in line or anything. I didn’t even realize that they were gold filled either until I got home & researched. I picked them up because they were Wedgwood and that’s it, figured maybe I could get $40-$50 for them. I was pleasantly surprised.
06/22/2017 at 5:55 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Cosco serving cart, Speakers, Wear Ever pans, Trav L Bar, Vintage fan, and Norman won't drop it. #19709The week thus far is another good one. Fingers crossed the sales don’t stop!
Waterford Crystal Large Carriage Wide Mantle Clock
c1980s Caravelle by Bulova Gold Toned Ladies Watch
I rarely get sales on Bonanza, maybe only 2-3 per month. And even fewer times do I get offers on Bonanza. A buyer offered a combined $275 for these two items and I absolutely jumped at it. Paid about $30 for the Waterford clock and $5 for the watch.1977 Star Wars Imperial Troop Transporter
Part of the Star Wars cache I got last year at a toy collector’s sale. I paid up for the vintage toys, I think about $60 for this one – part of the attempt to get higher quality stuff in my store. Sold for $176.JUNKUNC BROS Brass Padlock with Key
Part of the vintage padlock lot I bought 2 weeks ago. Bought the locks for an average of $3 each, this one sold for $30 best offer.1971 NFL Serving Tray.
Only had this in my store for 3 weeks. Bought for $4, sold for $30.Wedgwood 12K Gold Filled Jasperware Cufflinks
Mentioned this in my Sunday post. Great sale, bought for $15 and jumped at the first $200 offer.(68) c1950s Buitoni Figurette Redemption Cards
Mentioned these on Sunday as well. Really cool story behind them that they were inserted into boxes of pasta. Collect 100 and you could trade them in for a box of Italian candy. Glad the person didn’t trade them in. Bought for $5, sold for $70 best offer.06/18/2017 at 11:22 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 315: Okay, you’re making money. Now what? #19555Cool topic that I’d love to hear more of this week. I’ve said in the past that I do this a side hobby/gig (not a hustle 🙂 ) and my profits go towards things my wife & I want (not necessarily need because that’s what our day jobs buy us) – date nights, dinners, vacations, splurge gifts, etc.
Week June 11-17, 2017
Total Items in Store: 925
Items Sold: 15 (2 Amazon, 1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $61 (9.5% of sales)
Total Sales: $640.89
Highest Price Sold: $200 (NIB Wedgwood Gold Filled Cufflinks)
Average Price Sold: $42.73
Returns: 0 (1 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 3 sales, $82.98 (12.9% of total sales), $4.90 fees (5.9% of sales)Another pretty good week. Low-ish volume, but a couple of nice sales saved the week. I bought the Wedgwood cufflinks at an estate sale about 4 weeks ago for $15, put them up for $250 and took the $200 without hesitating. Another fun sale was a lot of Buitoni pasta trading cards from the 1950s – apparently one came in each box and if you collected and sent in 100 you got a free 1lb box of Italian candies. Well, I’m glad the person kept their cards as I ended up taking a best offer of $60 on them since I’ve had them for a good 8-10 months, paid $3.
Didn’t get to any listing this week as we spent Sunday at my wife’s parents’ house for Fathers Day, BBQing. Made it out to one sale on Saturday and did decently, but also found a guy on CL selling about 50 records for $100. Made an appointment, went over, and ended up buying them. Many were in rough shape, but there were enough gems in there to make it worthwhile – Beatles, Zeppelin, Floyd, Bowie, etc. The rest I’ll re-donate for the tax deduction.
06/16/2017 at 8:57 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 310: Am I Selling on eBay the Wrong Way? #19468Welcome to the forum! Personally, I always have some sort of sale on but it’s specific items/categories and not my whole store or anything. Old, big, bulky items that have had little/no interest that I need to move get put in the clearance section of my store. That section is always on sale and max percentages off. Then, I’ll rotate certain categories on sale – some times it’s records, sometimes clothes, sometimes toys. I haven’t pinpointed if it actually helps sales at all, but it keeps me checking on items and ensuring old stock is moving while I bring in new things.
This of course all has to do with my limited storage in an urban apartment. If I had a larger area for my inventory, I might be less worried about moving stuff out.
06/15/2017 at 1:28 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Sundial, Phono cartridges, motorcycle part, GE Console Stereo, running shoes, Vintage Halloween costume #19451That Paris map is beautiful. Love the design on it.
06/15/2017 at 8:53 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Sundial, Phono cartridges, motorcycle part, GE Console Stereo, running shoes, Vintage Halloween costume #19437Amazing sales, Steven. You’ve really found your niche with fixing & parting out old stereo equipment.
Some of my interesting sales for the past week… thus far it’s been mostly bread & butter records, pipes, and trucker hats:
Hand Carved Skull Head Pipe Unbranded Made in Italy
Continuation of the pipe cache I found two weeks ago at an estate sale. Have nearly made my $300 investment back and I still have like 20 pipes left listed. This one sold for $40 best offer.Savinelli Goliath 315EX Pipe
This one sold for $55 best offer.Exxon Gas Service Station Mesh Hat
Nice old cap. Likely a 1970s/80s gas station attendant uniform piece. Paid maybe $0.25 in a box lot of caps, sold for $25 best offer.Brooklyn Union Gas Mesh Hat
From the exact same box lot, this one sold for full price $29.99.Vintage Levi Strauss & Co Blue Denim Jeans Wallet
This lasted only a few hours in my store. Found it on Saturday at a sale, put it in the “pile” and got a price for the pile… less than $1 per item. Sold for full price $39.991975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project USA Soviet Union Souvenir Patch
Another great cache from last summer that just keeps paying off. For $20 bought a bag full of NASA mission patches. Already have 10x my money and still have some left. This one en route to Canada for $19.99.06/14/2017 at 8:46 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Prince & Wendy picks, Engineer boots, Coleman Cooler, Video switcher, Jeanie Rub massager #19388Excellent info Paul, thanks! Definitely bookmarking those sites for future reference.
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