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Spent yesterday off from the office job photographing, cleaning, listing. Didn’t get a ton done, but far more than I normally would outside of a weekend day. Listened to the show while doing that, was giggling out loud thinking of you valeting your truck with the oven on board.
Week November 4-11, 2018
Total Items in Store: 964
Items Sold: 20 (3 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $158 (20% of sales)
Total Sales: $785.36
Highest Price Sold: $99.99 (Led Zeppelin bootleg record https://www.ebay.com/itm/192605730356)
Average Price Sold: $39.27
Returns: 0 (1 cancellation though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $60
Number of items listed this week: 20
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $327.19 (41.7% of total sales), $16.38 fees (5.0% of sales)Sales this week were good, combination of volume & quality. High dollar was the Zeppelin bootleg mentioned above, but also did well with this Halcyon Days Tiffany pill box (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202295685177, paid $10) and a Polaroid Land Camera leather carry case (https://www.ebay.com/itm/192605965184, paid $2).
Got out to 2 sales on Saturday. They were polar opposites of each other – one was clearly a hoarder house that was floor to ceiling boxes & cases. They just needed to clear everything out and everything was super cheap. I picked up a bag of interesting things including vintage Halloween candles (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202499228317), Chinese baoding balls (https://www.ebay.com/itm/192720904391), and some other neat vintage items. The other sale was very high end, a perfectly preserved home, authentic Asian antiquities (and prices to match). I only spent $20 at this one and got things like this 1960s chess set (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202500554134) and a set of 1970s/80s Metropolitan Museum of Art souvenir coasters (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202500545098).
I consider it a blessing when I have too many things to pack! Also, about packages going top weird places in route to their destination – I just had a package going from my place here to a buyer in Ft. Lauderdale, FL end up in San Francisco for sorting. :/ Not a reused box, a new box that they just put in the wrong bin.
Week October 28-November 3, 2018
Total Items in Store: 966
Items Sold: 13 (1 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $198 (24.9% of sales)
Total Sales: $794.96
Highest Price Sold: $415 (225+ Gas & Oil Maps https://www.ebay.com/itm/192328131031)
Average Price Sold: $61.15
Returns: 1 (yet to send)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 13 sales, $209.98 (26.4% of total sales), $10.50 fees (5% of sales)Low volume, but high quality sales throughout the week. About half came from the map lot, but also loved this sale (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202349168479) – in my “picking career” this is the fourth Godfather first edition I’ve found and they are always good & fast sellers; paid $1 sold for $60 best offer (best I ever got was about $250 for an earlier printing).
This week is off to a terrific start, over $300 in sales in the first 2 days.
About to listed to the show, sounds like a really interesting topic – both coming back to a pile to ship as well as hoarding resources and using them for years to come.
Week October 21-27, 2018
Total Items in Store: 978
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $120 (16.3% of sales)
Total Sales: $736.90
Highest Price Sold: $120 (Masonic Bible & Signed Card https://www.ebay.com/itm/202356781589)
Average Price Sold: $36.85
Returns: 0 (1 NPB though, also 1 return started & then closed without return)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $475
Number of items listed this week: 40
Promoted listings test: 11 sales, $423.94 (57.5% of total sales), $21.20 fees (5.0% of sales)Pretty nice week – above average totals and a good average price sold. That Masonic Bible sale was the only “big” sale, but had quite a few in the mid range including 4 other sales above $50. COGS also dropped into an area I’m comfortable – anything below 20% works for me & my model (although I strive for those under 10% weeks that I see so many of you having).
Back to the grind this past weekend – after 2-3 weeks without cleaning/processing/photographing/researching/listing items, got 40 up this weekend and significantly reduced the size of my piles.
10/22/2018 at 9:51 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 382: Treasure Hunting with a Fishnet #50578Yeah, my desk/computer/printer are in there, plus the bed is a fold out couch and that’s where I take photos (with an off white table cloth draped over). I’ll get back to it this weekend, especially if this is the weather we’re going to have – first frost of the year!
10/22/2018 at 9:10 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 382: Treasure Hunting with a Fishnet #50504Week October 14-20, 2018
Total Items in Store: 960
Items Sold: 14 (1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $108 (22.8% of sales)
Total Sales: $472.94
Highest Price Sold: $160 (Valentino Pink Wedges https://www.ebay.com/itm/202206049886)
Average Price Sold: $33.78
Returns: 1 (although they have not shipped back yet)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 7 sales, $197.96 (41.9% of total sales), $9.91 fees (5% of sales)Slightly below average week, but actually moved quite a few older listings that I thought would never sell – 8 of my 14 sales were items that had been listed for more than 18 months. COGS were a bit higher than I like, mainly due to the Valentino shoe sale.
Our house guests left this weekend, so looking forward to getting back to sourcing & listing this coming weekend. I had hoped to get back to it this past weekend, but errands, cleaning, catching up took priority and I didn’t get around to it. Have at least 30 items to list, plus I’d like to hit a sale or two.
TBD – we haven’t officially planned anything. I still have the Nordics near the top of my list (especially during Northern Lights season), or going back Italy, neither of us have been to Eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand) so that’s always a possibility too.
Listening now. Congrats on catching up! We have had some guests last week so I’ll be playing catch up this coming weekend. Below are my numbers for the past two weeks.
Week Sept 30 – Oct 13 2018
Total Items in Store: 975
Items Sold: 38 (1 Amazon, 1 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $224.50 (17.4% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,293.89
Highest Price Sold: $143 (NIB Apple AirPods)
Average Price Sold: $34.05
Returns: 0 (1 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 18 sales, $359.01 (27.7% of total sales), $18 fees (5.0% of sales)Above average couple of weeks, volume increasing hopefully signalling the signs of holiday shopping beginning. The high sale of the week was a new in box Apple AirPods I got from work, so $0 COGS! Woo. Other great sales included Hayclon Days enamel box (sold for $85 best offer https://www.ebay.com/itm/202295687914), Two John Derian decorative trays (sold for $130 each best offer to the same buyer, https://www.ebay.com/itm/192096427298, https://www.ebay.com/itm/201567985283).
My wife will be away in DC this weekend on a friend’s bachelorette party, so I plan on focusing all weekend on catching up on listing those backed up piles. Should be able to get 30+ listings ups.
10/09/2018 at 1:45 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 380: What Do Lifetime Sales Really Mean? #49871Personally, I use the custom invoice feature on eBay as my thank you/what to do in case there’s damage. That requires no extra time and/or packaging cost and clearly lays out what I’ll need if there is damage to the product, etc. Found thus far it’s worked quite well.
Congrats on the milestone! I hit $100k in lifetime sales early last year. Was such an incredible feeling, knowing that I’m actually doing something right. And to think that I started all of this out with $100 in stake money to invest!
Here’s to keeping the growth going!
Week September 16-29, 2018 (2 weeks since my last post)
Total Items in Store: 982
Items Sold: 28 (3 Amazon, 1 CL)
Cost of Items Sold: $244 (19.7% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,236.01
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Vintage 1977 Bose speaker pair)
Average Price Sold: $44.14
Returns: 1 started, although not yet shipped
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $385
Number of items listed this week: 73
Promoted listings test: 12 sales, $500.26 (40.5% of total sales), $25.34 fees (5.1% of sales)Nice solid two weeks – not through the roof, but above average. Hoping this is the beginning of the Q4/holiday sales! Some good sales include a vintage Harvard piggy bank (https://www.ebay.com/itm/201834671425), a 1960s era Las Vegas Stardust hotel door hanger (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202370357119), lot of flashbulbs (https://www.ebay.com/itm/192578305817), and some dead batteries (https://www.ebay.com/itm/192097103797). Love those batteries – people collect them! I pull these out of a radio I bought at a sale. I always look in the battery compartment to see if it’s clean and sometimes can pull out these gems.
Went to a few sales this weekend, one being a very high end one. That high end one featured the work of a local artist – pottery specifically. Literally hundreds of pieces for sale as they downsized to retire to FL. Actually bought a couple pieces for our own use, plus some cool pieces for sale: woven decorative bowl (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202453984092), layered tray (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202453986482), stained glass jewelry box (https://www.ebay.com/itm/192674939381).
09/17/2018 at 3:22 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 377: Talking Numbers with TSatt (Troy) #48832@T-Satt – have listened to about half the show so far, thank you SO MUCH for your continued knowledge sharing. I can’t wait to finish. (and of course @Ryanne & @Jay for always donating their time)
Haven’t posted since I believe 8/27, so here are my last three weeks in aggregate. I’ve been listening, but life/holidays/family/work got in the way of posting & keeping up with numbers.
(3 weeks) August 26th – September 15th, 2018
Total Items in Store: 958
Items Sold: 46 (2 Amazon, 1 FB Marketplace)
Cost of Items Sold: $326 (20.2% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,610.11
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Pair of 1977 Bose Speakers https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/230352367662072)
Average Price Sold: $35.00
Returns: 0
Number of items listed: 80
Cost of inventory listed: $1,127
Promoted listings test: 15 sales, $526.21 (32.7% of total sales), $30.07 fees (5.7% of sales)The high sellers for the period were actually won at a local auction – bought 2 pairs that I was going to use, but they were far too big when I got home with them. Paid $90 for 4 total speakers, sold one pair for $200 so far.
Travelling for work later this week, but hope to get back out to serious sales next weekend – it’s been too long.
Rockstar
Feel better guys!
Week August 19-25, 2018
Total Items in Store: 928
Items Sold: 17 (1 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $101 (17.6% of sales)
Total Sales: $574.96
Highest Price Sold: $80 (Panasonic Cassette Transcriber https://www.ebay.com/itm/192173670562)
Average Price Sold: $33.82
Returns: 0 (1 I can’t find though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $281.99 (49% of total sales), $14.10 fees (5.0% of sales)Interesting week for sales, sold some things I thought I’d never sell even with deep discounts. The high item above, the transcriber, took about 3 years. Sold a lot of boxing 8mm reels (https://www.ebay.com/itm/191757318785) which was my oldest listing in my store from 2014 (sold 2 Muhammad Ali reels out of the lot almost immediately after listing 4 years ago, the rest have sat without an offer), a Rolling Stones coffee table book that I’ve had for at least 2 years (https://www.ebay.com/itm/201932103737). All in all, a nice average sales week in terms of volume & dollars plus got my COGS back under 20%.
No actual new listings, although I’ve been pruning my listings over the past week in prep for the upcoming busy season.
Is @Steven S lurking around? I have a couple friends in the market for some vintage stereo equipment and wanted to see what you had. If you want, email me at bthouse68@yahoo.com
Thanks!
Too bad we couldn’t connect while you were here! One of these times you come up, the timing will work and we’ll be able to go out to some sales together.
Week August 12-18, 2018
Total Items in Store: 939
Items Sold: 25 (9 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $344 (30.2% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,137.91
Highest Price Sold: $225 (Chanel slip ons https://www.ebay.com/itm/192439621166)
Average Price Sold: $45.52
Returns: 0 (1 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 4 sales, $90.49 (8% of total sales), $4.53 fees (5% of sales)One of my best weeks in months, probably since April/May when I had some great weeks after tax season. Good number of higher dollar items sold (15 over $40, 3 over $100) including a Beatles bootleg record (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202356687850) and a c1986 Walkman (https://www.ebay.com/itm/192624285206), plus some old stock that I thought I’d never sell. But the COGS are an issue for the 3rd straight week. I like to be below 20% COGS (10% is even better), but I guess that comes with the territory of selling higher dollar items.
No picking or listing this week as my regular day job was crazy and then we drove down to Philly for a college friend’s 40th birthday surprise party. It was a great day to catch up with some many people that I rarely get to see anymore – and Sunday was shot being hungover 🙂
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Brian Treasures from Grandmas.
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