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I’m just going to sneak in hear and whisper 9 for the week.
That was disappointing. Excuses, excuses: We had cloudy days, my dental saga continues, and full-time work is killing me. This week won’t be much better, but I’m really, really going to try for 20. At least I stayed away from the bins and the only thrift store shopping I did was personal – bought two pairs of shoes for my daughter, and one pair for me.Weekly report: Another SLOW week. I dropped a lot of prices on Poshmark and got 3 small sales out of that. I met my listing goal again, although it’s been focused on Poshmark. Once I get caught up, I’ll crosspost over to Ebay.
Items sold – 5
Gross sales – $84 (about 1/4 going to shipping and fees)
COG sold – est $5. Almost everything else was my kids old toys and clothes ($20 eight years ago).
Active listings – 186
Items listed – 21The two biggest items were a Calico Critters set for $28 on Mercari that I had a lot of fun photographing. And then I sold a hunting tree mounting part for $25 on ebay. This part was a piece from a really random lot that I get from one of my local sources. It cost me $6 and quite a bit of research. But I’ve sold $100 from it, with a couple more items left. Quite a bit when to the trash or thrift store, too.
I’ve been starting to get interested in perfume as a category – it’s pretty standardized and the product is small, which is a big plus as space is my biggest constraint. Tonight I was in a bidding war for an online auction of old perfume from an estate auction. It appeared that there might be $400 worth of perfume in a grungy tote. I was hoping to get it for $50. I went as high as $85, and the lot went for $110. Too high for me to make the gamble. It also saves me an hour of driving and lets me spend that hour on new listings. I should be glad I didn’t go higher, but I hate to lose a bidding war.
I’ll listen to podcasts or audiobooks while I photograph, share and follow (on Poshmark), and ship.
In addition to Scavenger Life, I listen to A Reseller’s Passion, Thrifters Villa, and Flip the Script. I also like The Science of Social Media, The Bitter Southerner, and Death Sex & Money.
I get audiobooks through the library via the Hoopla Digital app and Libby app.
21 for me this week. It was close!
I discovered my current home photography setup doesn’t allow for pants. So I’ve got to figure out a work-around on that. In the meantime, I’ve got my pants listings drafted, and and I am hoping for sunshine over my lunch hour.
I’ve got a busy week ahead, but I feel like I’m on track for 20 listings for this week.Great podcast! I love hearing about people who got started with books on half.com. I miss that site; it was great for textbooks and DVDs.
Weekly report
A slow week for me. I did quite a bit of sourcing over the last two weeks, so I am trying to get those things listed.Items sold – 5
Gross sales – $68 (about 1/4 going to shipping and fees)
COG sold – est $14
Active listings – 164
Items listed – 20So, I went to our local bins this week for the FIRST TIME. Then, later that week my family wanted to give it a try. Let’s just say my family will not be going back, but I will. It’s chaotic for sure. But I found some good items that I think will do well on Poshmark.
I hit my target, spot on. 20 listings for me this week.
I did too much sourcing: found a few treasures but also found a few things that are becoming more work to get ready for sale. Probably about 30-40 items purchased this week.Here’s my report for Jan. 6-12
I sold two $100+ items, which is big news for me: A Vietnam era infrared metascope that was up for about 24 hours, and an autographed Bill Clinton book that was up for several months and I was certain would sell for Christmas. Other fun sales were some cowboy boots I bought my daughter for $5 over the summer – they went for $39 real quick! And I am sold a couple more patches. They are an easy item, so I don’t mind the small sale.
Items sold – 15
Gross sales – $428 (about 1/4 going to shipping and fees)
COG sold – est $20
Active listings – 160
Items listed this week – 13In sad news, my favorite thrift store for personal items closed down. About 1/2 of my wardrobe is from there, and I was always finding some good cassette tapes and LPs for me. It was a place I would take friends too, and most of their items were well priced for individuals, not the greatest for resellers. I went on their last day and they announced a bag sale while I was there. I grabbed a bunch of items marked around $10, just to see if they would resell.
A real loss for that community. I think the owner just was ready to retire, and the kids didn’t want to take it over.I’m glad that you are going back to auctions! The treasure hunt is my favorite part.
12 for me.
I’m trying to batch, and I have a few in the hopper for tomorrow. I better get moving; I went sourcing last week when I heard my favorite thrift store was closing.
@Amatino, can my personal goal be 20 / week?I’ve used two cross posting tools, and have done cross posting manually. So far, I haven’t found either tool worth my money (I’m super cheap). At this point I don’t have more than 200 listing in any platform. I sell mainly on Ebay, with Mercari and Poshmark behind that. I also have an Etsy storefront.
List Perfectly: I only did a three-day trial. It was relatively easy, and used an extension in Google Chrome. It was during a time when a lot of people were also using a free trail, and it was kind of slow and clunky. There were a few hours of down time.
Vendoo: I have been using this during the beta period. I like it pretty well, but I don’t think I’ll use it when I have to pay for it. It’s very focused on clothes, as I think it was developed by and for Poshmark users. I also find that I like to go into the listing afterwards and make sure everything is how I expect it. For example, I have had some (user errors) with shipping on ebay. Another thing I like about Vendoo is that you can unlist and relist items. This is good when items have been on Poshmark for a long time, as the algorithm seems to favor newer items. Ebay makes this easier to do on their site, but Poshmark doesn’t have a similar function. I also use it to relist on Mercari for items I have multiples of.
Cross posting manually:
What I typically do is list on one network, give it a few days, and then crosspost to another network if no one bites.
My main tip would be to take all photos in SQUARE mode. I think that is the requirement for Poshmark and Etsy. It works for Ebay and Mercari.
My challenge was always that I would need to delete the photos off the phone, so I couldn’t cross without taking new photos.
When posting manually, I usually just copy fields between apps. You may need to be in “edit” function of the particular listing. It does take some time, but I usually reserve this task for my captive time, such as riding in a car or bus, at a doctor’s office, or my kid’s weekly karate class.I need to figure out my ratio of sales. Ebay is definitely my strongest network, and Mercari and Poshmark seem equal. Poshmark is requiring a lot more work for the same profit, and I’m continuing to evaluate if that platform makes sense for me.
Hoping for a better showing this year! I can’t believe I did more sourcing this week. (Shakes head) It started with buying shipping supplies and then they had some other interesting auctions… Anyway.
Thanks for hosting the challenge @Amatino!You might also want to consider if the jewelry might do well on a place like Depop or Etsy. Especially since it is new, in package. Would this be considered deadstock? (I’m not sure that I understand that term completely).
I’ve had decent luck with women’s costume jewelry on Poshmark and Ebay, but mine is a bit older and not in new condition.
@SilverFoxFinds and @MDCGalleries Thank you for the tips and experience. I’ll switch these few items over. I was aware of the 1/4 rule, but it’s a good reminder!
And I loved the video. As much as I complain about the cost of shipping, it is pretty amazing to be able to send something across the country in an efficient timely manner.
Maybe include sunrise and sunset in the description. I too am having some delightful and slightly embarrassing unicorn flashbacks from my tween years.
@millionairedojo I see that you are selling patches with free shipping and just using a stamp. I have quite a few patches that I am thinking of switching to Free Shipping (First Class Postage Stamp). Have you had much issue with it not being tracked and/or people claiming not to receive their items? I’d like to keep my patches affordable, especially since I’m dealing in multiples.
Hey there!
I can’t remember how long I’ve been selling. I know I was selling books, especially textbooks, in the late 2000s. Maybe earlier. I had purchased lots of beads and jewelry supplies on eBay in the 1990s. I signed up for Etsy as a seller pretty early on.I enjoy selling in vintage jewelry and collectibles. But I also love getting random items, figuring out their purpose and value, and then making some money off of them. Of course, my favorites are the piece of junk that turns out to be worth $50+.
To be honest, I wish I were having more fun as a seller. It’s definitely work, on top of a demanding full-time job. I like that it’s a challenge, and that sometimes my hard work correlates to good sales. Sometimes, it doesn’t. I’ve enjoyed figuring out product photography, too.
