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I belong to International League of Thrifters – new items ok – Vintage Ebay and Etsy Sellers, and Got Vintage Shops Dealer Support Group. There are many others I’m sure. I always pin the admins out of courtesy, the 2 required links, and then find people who are regular and are likely to have deep followings on Pinterest and pin their items in hopes they reciprocate. I can’t prove this helps but Ebay shows my traffic goes up from outside sources on the graph and I sell to people with 0 feedback often. Also, I have sold a few items on the same day I posted in the groups pinterest parties. So, I do know it works to some degree. If people aren’t thinking to go to Ebay, this is another way to get them in there. Good for my RA in countries that don’t have the retailer with a presence there.
Sales seem to be completely dead most days, but Saturday was a very good day for me. I encourage people to check out using social media sharing groups. I pin both my new RA and unique vintage items on a couple of Facebook groups via Pinterest. It’s free and I really feel like it makes a difference even though I spend very little time doing it each morning. I’m hopeful it might get me some hits this Cyber Monday.
You’re welcome. I’ve only found a couple of other singles. I would normally pass over standard Peets mugs, but this is an artist collaboration. Artist-retailer collaborations are one of my RA and Ebay gotos.
Thanks Steve List. I found an old forum post and got it shipped out parcel post in a ziplock with a large, large amount of bubble wrap. I took it in and checked on it. Luckily no line on Black Friday.
This week I shipped some gifts at FedEx, including shampoo. FedEx was pretty careful about it and had to read the label. I even had to unwrap it. I also found out by using a recycled Walmart.com box I had ordered bathroom stuff in that there is a diamond shaped sticker on hazardous material. Luckily, FedEx let me take the sticker off when I explained it was dishes.
Happy Thanksgiving Trash Elves.
I already shopped this morning. Bought $240 in bowls. 🙂 I’m sure this sounds amazing to you Jay. LOL.
I also put a search out on Brad’s Deals for a couple of electronic items for gifts. We’ll see. I really like that site, but haven’t tried their search function before.Steve, so sorry about your kitty passing. I need to go to my local thrift. I saw the same record holder full of records this week and thought of you. I think it was a bit rusty though. Impressed with that price.
I really loved these and paid $7, but they took a while to move and I took a best offer of $31 Model Boats from Maine
This smells heinous!, but I’m a good trash elf and looked it up. Paid $10 yesterday at GW in the case. Sold BO of $75 to a dealer with a search out. I believe the post office will ship this ground / parcel, correct? Stinky French Mens Colone
Paid $12 for this at indy thrift, sold bo $50. Buyer left positive feedback with comment “much smaller than expected!!!” but the measurements are in there. Small Midcentury Paris Painting
Awesome mug. My last of $7. Paid $16 at a garage sale for all of them. Cache is gone. 🙁 Arts & Crafts Mug
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Total Items in Store: 405
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $127 + $13 free shipping
Total Sales: $510
Highest Price Sold: $63 Arts & Crafts Mug
Average Price Sold: $30
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $200+
Number of items listed this week: 3 ugh, so busy.Pretty good week for me even without listing, though some days were completely dead so I’m having waves of sales. I have good luck with multiples and Pinterest with my new items. Super fun time this week sourcing an indy thrift Christmas Boutique. This store is manned by older ladies and located near an enclave in our town with homes in the multi-millions. They save their best and Christmas stuff all year for this event and I found some brand new Cutco, Williams Sonoma linens, Folkmanis puppets and other goodies. I was twice asked if I was a reseller that day so that was kind of a bummer. I just kind of sidestepped the question and told them about my youngest child. My contract work is very busy and we have family in town so very difficult to list at the moment. I got up at 3 am so I listened to the podcast and I’m posting this.
Thank you for the podcast and good luck with your high end items! I hope they do really well for you and move on soon. Don’t forget to consider spending more time in the urban areas to look for stellar deals too. Busy, well off working people (like your coffee machine movers) spin off good stuff due to convenience. I’m confident you would do well with that approach and get some shorter tail stuff in your mix. Best, Christine
I got this today. Seems to be my month of customer issues. Comment was “Way smaller than expected!” but the exact measurements of the art work were in the item specifics. It really bothers me to ignore someone being unhappy but I feel like this comment suggests I did something wrong. I’m going to grit my teeth I think and take Jay’s advice.
We once met a retired couple who had stayed in some amazing properties and guest houses doing professional housesitting/petsitting. They told me the website, it might have been this one. Trusted Housesitters I’m sure there are others. I was thinking you make runs there to shop for yourselves and the rentals, so makes sense to pick there for your customers.
I’m game.
Lately I’ve been tackling seasonal inventory with the goal of not carrying anything beyond this year’s holiday. I did very well with Halloween, with some priced lower. Christmas is doing pretty well so far but I have more of that.
Another thing I did in the later half of this year was to get more quick and dirty with my photos. Almost everything is laid out on my wooden dining room table, which is near the desktop. I’m also more regular with pinning in the morning on Facebook groups. Sometimes I follow their suggested theme for listing. My backlog is sorted. It all helps a little bit. I feel like have a lot of competing interests for my time so I don’t set goals but I might be more regular if I have an appointment. Can’t hurt.Good morning Jay. I’ve been listening a long, long time. I totally get that you are not into RA / commodity items. I also remember that you enjoy picking estate sales, yard sales, and flea markets but don’t have so many in your area. I was thinking not of changing so much the type of items you pick, but expanding where you pick. There is more competition but you have a deeper knowledge base and see value in things others would not. With all of the abundance a populated place can offer, you could find good stuff at fairly good prices if you spent a bit more time there and found some honey holes. You did want to experiment at one point with paying more in the past and seem to be looking to expand into furniture after the building is up. Ryanne’s expressed interest in Craigslist hunting. I see an opportunity there but you know best what’s right for you and how your past city picks have done (price and velocity wise) vs. your rural picks.
As for me, my favorite finds are cool vintage items that I get for cheap. However, I have limited Ebay time so I do some narrowly focused online and physical RA at a couple of stores I like to shop in myself (though not at full price). Originally I got into that type of picking to fund my own purchases there, then I figured out their sales cycles and to focus mainly on animal theme and artist collaboration items. On those items I only make like 2x-5x the money. However, the new items move much more quickly because I price slow dime. There are other things I like about selling new items but mainly I think it’s important to keep my small store active.
Hi Amatino. I think I (maybe we) could improve this year by listing every day. Since I don’t have time to deal with more than packing some days, I really ought to save drafts as scheduled listings and then rolling a few out over the course of the week rather than listing in spurts.
Wow! Two boxes. I’m so envious. I’ve got two boxes of flatware alone.
I’m still at it as 2017 comes to a close. I have done some sourcing this year but really flipped my equation on its head. Just the last couple of months, I can see a lot of room opening up in my garage and closet and it’s WAY less hoarder like. Still a way to go but it feels really good to be getting things back under control. The time off from sourcing is letting me get perspective on the best approach when I allow myself to build inventory again.
Question Jay: Do you think you could become more of a blacksmith and less of a fisherman if you did more sourcing trips in the nearby larger towns and cities? I’ve suggested before that you consider swapping Airbnbs or signing up for a luxury pet sitting service. As T-Satt says the farther away from large cities they go, the more they find for the fisherman. If the reverse proves true, you could change up your equation with the vast knowledge you have for name brands and undervalued items. Don’t you just love this injection of armchair quarterbacking your life? LOL!
