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02/28/2017 at 9:23 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 299: What Control Do We Have as eBay Sellers? #1352602/26/2017 at 2:01 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 299: What Control Do We Have as eBay Sellers? #13359
Listening as I list right now. Love the idea about checking sell through rate – it’s important to understand if your volume is remaining consistent in conjunction with how much things are selling for. I had 44 sales in January which is about 5.6% of my inventory.
Week February 19-25, 2017
Total Items in Store: 779
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $197
Total Sales: $671.96
Highest Price Sold: $130 (Four Star General flag)
Average Price Sold: $48
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $250
Number of items listed this week: 36Good week in volume, total sales, and avg sale price – although my COGS were pretty high (nearly 30% of my gross sales). I sold many higher dollar items and the cost to get them were high. I sold the Four Star General flag ($130, $55 COGS), a One Star General flag ($100, $50 COGS), a tobacco pipe stand/humidor ($100, $15 COGS), 1896 Morgan Dollar ($75, $15 COGS).
Sourcing this weekend was also great. Hit up 4 estate sales that were all on their last day – I didn’t expect much to be left, but there was plenty and prices were incredible because they had to be out by end of day. Picked up 3x vintage Boston Celtics jackets, a Red Sox jacket from the 1960s, a bag full of Masonic pins & medals, Beatle Yellow Submarine original 1968 button set, vintage Harvard & Princeton souvenirs, and much more.
The “Nike Team” label likely means that it was specifically made to give to university athletes. I went to a Nike university and I had a friend on the golf team – they just had cases of this stuff and they could take whatever they wanted, he gave me a golf windbreaker that was so well made, way better than stuff you buy in the stores. Sounds like you found this site: https://niketeam.nike.com/en/en_US/ and if you can’t find it, it was probably from a few years ago. Based on the extra long side zippers, I bet it’s for a team that you need to quickly need to remove to reveal your jersey and if it’s not oversized it’s likely a sport without pads – soccer, field hockey, track, swimming, diving, baseball, etc. Good luck!
I agree with the 50%. They should look at it this way – take them to a coin or pawn shop and just see what they offer you for the group… it’s going to be a lot less than 50% of their value.
Also, @Zach, if in the collection there is actual gold or silver, please reach out to me. I’ll give you a good fair mutually agreed upon price without going on eBay. I’m a bit of a hoarder of that precious. I’ve worked out some great deals with Rydell Relics on silver that he had from a family member. 🙂
02/22/2017 at 3:51 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Projection screens, HeathKit clock & Voltmeter, 8 Track Quadraphonic recorder, Patagonia jacket #13118Wayne Newton!
Few of my interesting sales:
Vintage CAT Caterpillar Diesel Power Service Hat
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201825289172
Part of the box of hats I bought this past weekend… a lot of true vintage gas & oil which is always a score. This one sold within hours for $30 best offer.1978 Rolling Stones Some Girls LP
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191979726866
Pretty standard bread & butter sale for me… $30 for a nice listenable copy of an all time classic record. The thing that made this interesting was the note that the buyer asked me to include – it was a gift and they asked me to include this note instead of an invoice/receipt: “Dance as if everyone is watching & you don’t give a shit. xxoo Bubsey” Love it.1960 Elvis His Hand in Mine LP
http://www.ebay.com/itm/192080009103
Another bread & butter sale. This one was different because the buyer paid another $30 for shipping to Germany.1987 Cobra Commander GI Joe File Card
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201651431950
Not too spectacular, $9.99 sale, but I picked up a stack of these at a garage sale for $4 total and have turned nearly $100 in sales now and still have more to go.Pre-1965 & 1972 Blue Ribbon Playing Cards
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201791209761
http://www.ebay.com/itm/192085045072
Sold to the same guy for $28 each deck ($56 total, best offer)… didn’t pay more than $1 total. The buyer was so happy that I was willing to combine shipping. 🙂02/19/2017 at 7:29 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 298: The Scavengers and The Collectors, A Love Story #12892Yes, sir.
02/19/2017 at 5:41 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 298: The Scavengers and The Collectors, A Love Story #12881Aw, I can’t wait to listen to the show tomorrow… everyone likes a love story 🙂
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Week February 12-18, 2017
Total Items in Store: 777
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $86
Total Sales: $443.05
Highest Price Sold: $190 (Chanel Sublimage Eye Cream)
Average Price Sold: $40.28
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $185
Number of items listed this week: 43Really crushed some listing this weekend. Helped that I had several like items to make the sell similar go quickly.
Steven – big news… Found a guy on Craiglist selling sealed TDK MA-XG cassettes (for those of you not familiar, these are considered “The King of Cassettes” based on their suburb sound and extra heavy spindles to prevent vibration). He had 5, was asking $100 for the 5. When I got there, started talking, got him down to $80 plus he threw in 2 non-working Walkmans (should still get $20 each out of them), TDK promo carrying cases, and some other lower end cassettes – nice little scavenger move to help lower the overall cost per item. Have each of the TDK MA-XG cassettes listed for $120 OBO.
Other great picks this week at some estate sales: 1950s CAT puffy vest, 1950s-1960s gas station & mechanic service caps (Exxon, Texaco, CAT), 1970s Members Only leather jacket, 3x 1950s Fisher Scientific thermometers, and a bunch more of cool stuff.
02/16/2017 at 10:15 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Lee jeans, Girl Scout items, Hansa Branta Eskimo parka, Stereo viewer, Polaroid camera #12699Advertising tins can be quite valuable or quite a dud, I’ve found. I always pick them up too if cheap, research them, list the good ones/donate the bad ones.
Also love that metal eagle – I’ve had a few and yes, packing is a pain because they’re so heavy and often times have sharp edges to worry about.
02/16/2017 at 8:50 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Lee jeans, Girl Scout items, Hansa Branta Eskimo parka, Stereo viewer, Polaroid camera #12692Love those Eagle gooseneck lamps! I have one sitting on my desk that I use everyday and have sold many over the years!
02/16/2017 at 8:47 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Lee jeans, Girl Scout items, Hansa Branta Eskimo parka, Stereo viewer, Polaroid camera #12691Steven – Can’t believe you didn’t keep those wooden trays for yourself in your MCM room! They’d be perfect!
Some of my sales from the past week:
Chanel Sublimage Eye Essential Regenerating Cream
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201620397723
Last summer you might remember I bought a bunch of higher end perfumes & beauty items at an estate sale. One of those pipelines that I paid up for but it keeps on spitting out cash. Paid $60 for this cream, sold for $190 best offer.(207) 1930s Clay Composite Jockey Poker Chips
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191739201835
Bought these at a sale for like $3. They were in a pretty cool old box that I actually already sold on it’s own for $50. The chips then sold on clearance sale for $30.c1960s New York Mets Plastic Bobblehead
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191979872266
Very cool flea market find. Paid $5 just because I knew it was 1960s based on the style of the Mets logo. After research and noticing that it was made in Hong Kong (instead of China, Vietnam, etc) that confirmed my suspicions. Sold for full price, $100.c1970s Audiovox AVX Cassette CA-1 Adapter for 8 Track Deck
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201717745538
Another old ball, outdated electronic accessory. This converts 8 track players to cassette players. After research, looks like people use them in their cars. In my head, the guy that bought it has a classic 1960s/70s muscle car and wanted to throw in his Molly Hatchet cassette and cruise the strip. Paid $3, sold for $30.02/16/2017 at 8:44 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Abacus, Matches, Headphones, Fanny Pack, Piano Lamp #12690[deleted – posted on the wrong thread]
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This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by
Brian Treasures from Grandmas. Reason: [deleted - posted on the wrong thread]
02/15/2017 at 7:29 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 297: Being Frugal vs Running A Business #12607Great example, Simon – better than mine. When we only have 10 items in our stores, it’s imperative to get them out the door quickly. However, once we have 1000 items, a large percentage of them will take longer to sell.
I think this is proved out by some of the sellers that only do clothes (forgive me, I cannot remember your names). Their model is so impressive – week in and week out, 50% of their inventory is selling or more. They have a commodity item that 1) people need, 2) people need all the time, and 3) they are willing to compete on price in order to get things out the door. Many of us, myself included, focus on high quality, unique, antique, collectible items that we’re willing to wait and sell for top dollar – which in turn takes longer. No one needs most of the stuff in my store – but I’m there when their human desire to consume interesting things comes in to play.
02/14/2017 at 11:18 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 297: Being Frugal vs Running A Business #12595Linda, you’re right that R&J have built something incredible from nothing. And your story sounds awesome. But what Beth’s original question was about was why she can sell 10 things per week with only 100 items in her store, while someone with 1000 items only sells 20 things instead of 100 (10x as many items should equal 10x as many sales). The equation isn’t a straight line – it’s a curve that eventually flattens out. I think this is why R&J’s theory on different pipelines works so well – when on pipeline flattens out, another is there to pick up the slack.
02/14/2017 at 2:22 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 297: Being Frugal vs Running A Business #12543Beth, I guess we would replace “production” with “sourcing” in many of our cases. No matter what, when you increase inventory whether you produce it yourself or buy it from elsewhere your sales will go up – no doubt there. It’s just that the rate at which it increases is not linear, it’s a curve.
One of the reasons for this is because as your base store/inventory increases, the marginal return percentage is less as compared to the base. If your sales base is $100 and you increase by $50, you’ve increased your return marginally by 50%. But now to get that same 50% increase, you actually need an incremental $75, which is the difficult part. You get another sale of $50 and it’s only a 33% increase on the $150 base. In order to keep the marginal return at the same level, you need to sell more and/or higher dollar items – not the same things at the same rate, and there is where the curve comes in to play.
Your head hurt? Mine does.
02/14/2017 at 11:46 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 297: Being Frugal vs Running A Business #12516Beth, the law of diminishing returns simply states that each incremental dollar you invest (in supplies, inventory, stocks, bonds, etc) will have less marginal value that the previous. For example, you spend $1 on a pair of shoes for your first item ever in your store. That first pair might net you a $50 sale (50x ROI). So you buy 2 more pairs of shoes for $1 each ($2 invested) but you sell them for $80 total (40x ROI). You’re still making more money overall ($80 vs $50), but the incremental $1 spent only netted you an extra $30. When you have $1000 invested in items for your store, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll still get that original 50x ROI as your first $1 invested. It a curve that is very steep to start and then flattens out.
Here are some resources to read – it’s not an easy concept to understand, but it is very common in almost all areas of business:
Video: http://study.com/academy/lesson/law-of-diminishing-returns-definition-examples-quiz.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lawofdiminishingmarginalreturn.asp
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/law-of-diminishing-returns
http://www.economicshelp.org/microessays/costs/diminishing-returns/
Good luck!
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