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Tracking has it only 10 miles away… the box still has to make it close to 3000 miles. Fingers crossed!!!
Your health puts you in a really difficult spot, although it sounds like you understand your limitations and are doing what you can. With that being said, do you think there’s anything else you can do to improve sales and still not over do it for yourself? Perhaps do you know someone else in your community that is in a similar situation? If there’s someone else that shares a health issue and cannot work full time, maybe you team up and trade off. You guys go out sourcing together, you list for an hour and then they list for an hour and so on. It’s probably won’t be easy to find someone like that, but it could help.
Records went to Washington state, looks like just outside of Seattle. Immediately after the buyer paid, he sent me a message on how to pack them – make stacks of 10ish and wrap those in bubble wrap tightly, then pad the interior of the box. I also filled the oversized box with a generous amount of peanuts, probably a layer of 5 inches on the bottom and another layer on the top & sides. The box weighed over 18lbs, so I shipped media mail for about $11 and then another $7 for insurance. #ShippingNerds
Yup, it’s pretty easy. Buy one label as normal and then go back to your item sold and in the dropdown menu you’ll see that you can print another label. If you print two (or three or four), all tracking numbers can be found under that item. Good luck!
Good looking store, jinedo58! Here’s a touch of constructive criticism on ways you might be able to improve:
– Change your “Featured Items” at the top of your store. I saw them and thought your whole store was filled with trucker caps. I sorted your items and found you have some really cool high end books, hats, housewares, etc. I like to use my featured items for either the most expensive or the coolest items in my store that is my first impression to someone that finds themselves there. See: http://stores.ebay.com/treasuresfromgrandmas
– For your unique and/or higher dollar items, perhaps include a much more robust description. For example, why are your St. Francis Xavier books so rare? Were there very few printed? Are they for Seminary classes only? Are they special editions? For the 5 extra minutes it takes to Google or Wiki something, it could be the difference in making a sale. See this listing as an example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191930182382Hope this helps! Good luck!
Karen,
What is your overarching strategy and/or goal? Looks like you’re talking about the tactics you use that would ladder up to a strategy. You mention that you’re not making a living at this, but do you want to? Either yes or no is totally fine, but that answer determines if you’re missing the boat or not.
I’m personally not making a living off of eBay/reselling and I probably won’t for a very long time if ever. I do it for the knowledge and for some extra spending cash, so that plays into my strategies of when to go sourcing and where to go sourcing and how much time I spend on it. If I was full time at this, my strategy would very very different and I would be spending a lot more time on things – including being the first one in line at an estate sale, or at the Goodwill clothing bins as soon as they bring new stuff out, etc.
The beauty of this is that you make it whatever you what. If you don’t want to list clothes, all good – don’t buy clothes. If you don’t have a lot of storage space (like me), all good – don’t buy big bulky things like furniture. The list goes on and on and it’s all about what works for YOU! 🙂
Can’t wait to listen to the podcast on my way home – I was totally jonesing this morning on my way to work!
Week January 22-28, 2017
Total Items in Store: 741
Items Sold: 16 (3 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $116
Total Sales: $581.30
Highest Price Sold: $130 (John Derian Tray)
Average Price Sold: $36.33
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $85
Number of items listed this week: 22Pretty good week, although I’m nervous because the buyer has not yet paid for that tray. Buyer is in Canada. Today I believe is the day to open a non-paying bidder case, so we’ll see. I sold this tray once in like September, but that buyer didn’t pay either.
Big news of the weekend was a sale of something I picked up on Saturday. I hadn’t been out to an estate sale since the first week of December, so that immediately felt good to get back on the horse. One of the sales I went to was purely because I was so close. Didn’t feel like going because it was the third day and I knew everything would be super picked over. That was absolutely the case, however I spotted a box of what I thought were 45rpms records. When I pulled one out, to my surprise they were one sided gramophone records from c1900. I asked how much they wanted and they said $25 for the box, ended up paying $20. When I got home my research showed most sold for $5-$8 each, unless there was something crazy rare (like pre-war Jewish recordings, certain foreign language recordings, etc that were probably destroyed in the war). I didn’t seem to have any of these and I didn’t feel like listing individually for the slow play – put them up high (thanks, Ryanne!) at $500 for the lot OBO. THEY SOLD WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF LISTING FOR FULL PRICE. These will be part of my what sold on Wednesday and since they sold on Sunday will hit next week’s numbers. Here’s a preview: http://www.ebay.com/itm/192090827002
On the official RL site, there are custom monogram shirts for sale. This patch seems to be similar, but not exactly the same as the crests they are currently offering: http://www.ralphlauren.com/product/index.jsp?productId=116689356
Also, what does the inside tag look like. I love this site as it shows authentic tag examples over time and what to look for: http://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/lauren-ralph/
That flask travel set isn’t quirky! It’s necessary! 🙂
Killer stuff, Steven.
Some of my interesting sales this week:
(11) N Scale Advertising Train Cars & (24) Sections of Atlas Track
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191920108662
I bought these at an auction and thought I had a huge score. Paid up $40 for them, thinking I could get $200+. As soon as I started researching, I knew I was in trouble. After 2 years, finally sold for $52 best offer. After fees, I’m going to profit like $4.(4) Mid Century Chrome Atomic Liquor Bottle Stoppers
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201602930533
Thought these were so amazing when I found them at an estate sale. So retro, MCM, atomic. Paid $2, put them up for $35 but they sat forever. Sold for $14 on clearance.(12) Vintage Tarot Palmistry Zodiac Charms Talismans Numerology Books
http://www.ebay.com/itm/192006140730
Got these as part of an auction lot that I was bidding on for just the tarot cards. Paid $80 for the lot and have already sold the tarot cards for over $400 total. These books I took a best offer of $100 on… so all in all the whole lot sold for over $500 on that $80 investment. I feel like this is a good example for paying up for something that you know is good.c1950s Bergdorf Goodman Playing Cards
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191963266315
Awesome little card deck that I got at the flea market in Ohio for $1. Sold to someone at Bergdorfs in NYC for $30.1985 Stormtroopers of Death – Speak English Record
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191963139043
Part of the rare punk/metal record collection I bought a few months back. I’ve mentioned before that I went over my normal budget per album of $1 for this lot at like $5 per record because I knew there were hidden gems in there. This one sold for $50. I bought the whole lot for $100 and have over $500 in sales from the lot because of how rare some of them are. More to go!Julie – I hear you on some of that stuff that seems good but has been overproduced. I fell into the Avon trap like 3 years ago and ended up donating most of it back for a tax write off. I learned my lessons. My mom, however, just retired so she started an eBay shop because “I make it look so easy”. She is falling into all of the pitfalls that I did starting out, even though I literally made her a list of things to do and not to do – buying that garbage stuff, becoming emotionally attached to things, taking a negative or bad experience too hard, and of course the big one is that she has been agreeing to list things for friends and not accounting for the fees she’ll be entailing. I guess people never learn unless they do it on their own.
Glad it worked out Steven… but just shows that some people like to complain for the sake of complaining. He wasn’t going to return the item or leave negative feedback, but yet he still wanted to put it in your ear.
Can’t wait to listen to the show tomorrow morning on my way to work. I love buying up a whole pile of like/similar items, especially if they’re collectibles – usually means the seller was a collector and has good condition merch. Also buying a box full of something means BIG savings!!!
[PS… change the date on your postings to 2017!]
Week January 15-21, 2017
Total Items in Store: 742
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $19
Total Sales: $266.95
Highest Price Sold: $49.99 (vintage Reed & Barton Damascene Owl & Moon pendant necklace)
Average Price Sold: $24.27
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $160
Number of items listed this week: 51So so week of sales – decent volume for me, but a lot of lower dollar items. But at the same time my COGS % is the lowest it has been in a long time.
Back on the horse listing after a 6 week hiatus. Really got cooking and listing quickly by grouping like items – records, playing cards, estate tobacco pipes, etc – and knocking them all out at the same time. Death pile backlog quite manageable now and should get that taken care of by next weekend.
The bathroom reno is completely done except for the glass around the shower. The glass guy came & measured and should be back to install by Friday. We’ve been using the new bathroom except for the shower for nearly 2 weeks now and am ready for it to be 100% done. I still promise I’ll post a video once done.
Haha, might be a little confusing with the way worded… but I do mean Polish – as in made in Poland.
