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Hi Big Sally,
TSF. I got busy and I’m still sitting on my modern painting. I’d really prefer to sell it through a middleman vs. Ebay and I think they have a better audience. But, the two smaller auctioneers I tried weren’t interested except in an appraisal fee.
Christine
@Ryanne hard to tell how small they are but these remind me of the little Anthropologie print nut bowls. They sell really well. I mention in the description other possible uses.
I’m with Almasty. If it’s up to you, I’d pick the best stuff out and have fun with that. Chances are this is the most fun and your most probable path to fewer regrets.
More than us, listen to your own instincts, which seem to be telling you not to fill your space with too much more stuff, spend the $, or guilt future sourcing when you may really need to get out of the house and escape life with a new baby for a few mintues. Seriously, there is always more stuff!
There are some of us too paying a tax bill this year we did not have before under the new law. For certain people in Cali, NY or Jersey, it’s time for some extra belt tightening. We are the minority of taxpayers but still there are enough of us that I think it might be making some impact on retail. We are discussing not taking a vacation this summer, driving somewhere close by, or staying at a relative’s house instead of flying. The people who didn’t anticipate the hit are probably not feeling spendy.
Total Items in Store: 282! Ebay, About 38 stale Mercari
Items Sold: 5 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $100 Ebay, $35 Mercari best offers
Cost of Items Sold: $39 + $7 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $25 best offer 70s Heller Canister Set
Average Price Sold: $15 Ebay, $17 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8 (thrifted two sets of Dansk plates)
Number of items listed this week: 0 šSuper busy with helping unusual family needs. Both a generation up and a generation down. Contract work is also busy. My little Ebay store is diminishing and limping in with a few sales. On Mercari took some lowball offers on household stuff. I look forward to getting back to listing and I almost finished my bookkeeping but still need to finish my tax return and planning for my daughter to be somewhere all summer.
We subscribe to a pretty good financial newsletter at my firm. Said market might be a bit shaky for a while but they don’t expect a recession based on the current state of the economy. Said eyes on April corporate earnings. Crazy times.
I’m a bit afraid because my dad is downsizing this summer to a condo. We have moved most of the smaller salable items here but there will probably be some more stuff coming to my house. Ugh! My garage is still pretty full of death piles! Stuff overload. Lots of stuff I’m determined to sell but not enough stuff moving out!
Zero for me. Another week of being completely overwhelmed with outside Ebay stuff. Hope you all had a good week.
No shopping but only was able to get to 2 items. Feeling very overwhelmed outside Ebay and trying to get on top of things. Sometimes Ebay just has to go back burner. I look forward to attacking a box from the piles again when I can. Have a great week.
Total Items in Store: 282 Ebay, About 35 Mercari
Items Sold: 7 Ebay, 1 Mercari
Gross Sales: $211 Ebay, $15 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $33 + $9 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $70 (Midcentury pitcher from my parents’ house)
Avg Price Sold: $30
Money Spent on Inventory: $0
Number of Items Listed This Week: 2Once again, very grateful for the vintage item sales as I am super swamped with contract work and life obligations so can’t get to listing. Made up a bit of ground by almost finishing my COGS bookkeeping this weekend and tidying the garage packing material. It’s looking like my 2018 Ebay profit is a little bit more than the estimated thousands in additional taxes we owe under the new tax law due to the SALT deductions cap, so that’s a bit depressing. I’ve also made the decision to end free shipping except on super lightweight items. Free shipping does add up and I’m not sure one really succeeds in passing that on to the buyer at the end of the day. Finally, I concluded that having less RA items is negatively affecting my sales probably, but right now for us it is good to keep costs down and the retailer is not running sales like they used to anyway. They also stopped putting your COGS on the packing slip and take down their old photos and listing descriptions.
Enjoyed the Podcast. Reno is SO expensive. One the reasons we are feeling so poor is in the aftermath of our kitchen reno. The cost of living is already so high here and reno just really puts the squeeze on. I know the pinch you are feeling R&J will pay off later! We have high maintenance friends in the tech business, while we are those people who just got regular advanced degrees and took a very traditional route. When the crash happened we were grateful for our slow and steady, comparatively frugal, retirement savings tortoise approach. But you have to be happy for the honest ones who simply get lucky or just finessed themselves into the right situation. The only times I feel jealous is when I see the travel photos. I feel like we will definitely regret not traveling more.
Goodwill here seems like the Amazon of thrifting – you are paying higher prices for convenience. Goodwill has the most convenient location, hours and acceptance of donations in my town. The independent thrifts have better prices but the limited hours are an issue for me. Luckily, my local Goodwill employees only know of the items on the list they get from higher ups to send off for online or put on the $19.99 clothing racks. So, a fair amount of bread and butter stuff falls through the cracks.
Hi Sally, I hope next year I’m out of the sales tax business altogether! I’m still wondering how Ebay will handle the change and if they will do it timely (in our State as of 4/1). Ebay is located here, so really they ought to be prepared. If Ebay doesn’t prompt, I’ll have to remember to shut off my collection setting.
FYI trash elves.
“The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) began drafting new regulations to implement the decision, which are to take effect April 1.
Meanwhile, state legislators and state Treasurer Fiona Ma are fast-tracking a bill that would impose a looser requirement, exempting smaller Internet retailers from collecting taxes. They hope to have it enacted by the April 1 deadline set by the CDTFA, thereby avoiding the confusion of having two different and conflicting tax-collection systems.
However it occurs, Californians will begin paying sales taxes on many, if not most, of the items they have been ordering via the Internet. And that means more money flowing into state and local government coffers…Much of the additional revenue would come from a provision in the bill that requires āmarketplace facilitatorsā to collect taxes. Those are organizations, such as eBay, that donāt sell directly to customers but are marketplaces for sellers, much like updated, electronic versions of the old newspaper classified advertising sections.” Full Article
True. You might talk to a qualified attorney about using entity wrappers though. I know you like your local accountant, but really it is a legal issue. I’ve seen a lot of misinformation on the web about LLCs.
That’s cool. Glad it was worthwhile and you made some connections. There is a bit of risk involved with any business but since you have several irons in the file that should help. I’m not a corporate attorney and I avoid giving legal advice online, but make sure you look into liability issues for all of your businesses. I’d hate to see someone derail you. Look forward to seeing the photos of the new rental.
Great job! I listed 9 RA items, all the new clearance I have in hand so back to new being 100% listed. Don’t need any more used, vintage piles but I went late to a church sale and found a cute little midcentury painting, some 70s print napkins, and a 60s art instruction book. Glad I didn’t go on time because there were ghosts of better stuff that I don’t need to add to the piles. I have missed two out of our three “monster” rummage sales. I have to admit it hurts just a wee bit to see the announcements but I’m staying away.
Total Items in Store: 283 yikes Ebay, about 40 Mercari
Items Sold: 4 Ebay, 1 Mercari
Gross Sales: $152 Ebay, $18 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $25 + $7 shipping included + three items ours
Highest Price Sold: $70 Ebay, midcentury pitcher from my parents’ kitchen pitcher
Average Price Sold: $38 Ebay, $18 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5 late arrival church sale + RA clearance roughly $100
Number of items listed this week: 9This podcast reminded me of another video I saw on Youtube this week. There are so many things Ebay could be doing better. I feel encouraged that they seem to be coming around to listening to sellers and modernizing in a smarter and less disruptive way. Hopefully they will focus going forward on improving and simplifying the app and listing process. This is my #1 hope for improvement. I’m sure they are doing more back end work, and you always wonder if that affects sales. At least they are not glitching like they used to. There are some clues to more capable programmers on board. Remember how frustrated we all used to get when they were rolling out changes?
Again I’m grateful for the sales this week as I have many extra demands on my time this month and not much time at all for listing unfortunately. Kids’ birthdays, company, COGS bookkeeping, taxes, work on a school fundraising auction, spring break, planning my kids’ summer activities, etc. are all still ahead. My contract work is also busy. My Mercari listings are stale and I haven’t been promoting there so that’s pretty dead.
Congrats to R&J on the latest acquisition. I miss hearing more about your reno and wish you the best. Regarding the business class, LOL. It sounds like it must have been difficult to sit through some of those speakers with your valuable time. You set yourselves apart because you are very wise and work SUPER hard. Much harder and more consistently than most people are willing to if they are being honest with themselves. I’d bet on your business being very successful so long as it works in your remote lower income location.
Have a great week everyone!
