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Buyer just admitted to being out of town. Funny she first described it as “post office issues”.
My favorite recent sale. Paid $3 apiece at indy thrift where the older ladies like fussy stuff. They have raised their prices since I found the place unfortunately but still an amazing place. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232286931796
These handmade items take a looong time to sell but I feel compelled to rescue them. Paid $3 at the same indy thrift. http://www.ebay.com/itm/331886005086
Struggling to sell vintage wrapping paper, but did manage to sell this one. Paid .99 at a thrift store. http://www.ebay.com/itm/331889763494
Thanks. It is insured for $360 in a plain box around 19″ on it’s longest side. I’m guessing they might have those apartment style wall of mailboxes, so you would expect the buyer to have had this problem before but maybe this particular mail carrier changed it up due to the downtown / business location. I’m glad the carrier didn’t leave it if they were worried about theft.
🙂 Ebay slacker over here. At least I didn’t buy anything for the piles.
Thanks. I google mapped it and it looks like it might be a mixed use building with apartments above a business. It is a pretty good sized box. I wrote back to her and I’m hoping she will pick it up, but it’s been there since July 6th. Tracking does not show it coming back to me yet. Fingers crossed. Maybe she just moved there but like, hello? pick up your stuff! 🙂
Total Items in Store: 335
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $10 (used) + $78 (new)
Total Sales: $365
Highest Price Sold: $70 Vintage Pyrex dish
Average Price Sold: $33
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0On vacation this week so late posting last week’s sales. Thank you for the podcast consistency and sorry you had to pass on NYC. Soon you should be sitting pretty and reno will be a memory.
Good sales up there. Here are a few recent used items sales:
Sold overnight; paid $3.99 at Goodwill. There was another listed complete with the lid, but they didn’t have the pattern keyword thankfully. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232403628201
This is something from our house. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332192013040 I should sell more stuff from around the house, but it’s not as fun somehow.
Found a cache of vintage ’80s heavy metal easy to ship stuff. I only bought a handful of it but maybe I should go back because it’s moving. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232356476790
I like to buy small amateur paintings like this and find them often for around three to five bucks at thrift stores. The 70s color scheme doesn’t move as well but this aqua one did better though it did take quite a few months to sell. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332165850863
Finally, sold this early tech mug to Australia. Purchased for .99 at a GW near my dad in No. Cal. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332188180290
Total Items in Store: 330
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $44 new + $3 used
Total Sales: $198
Highest Price Sold: $50 tie between 2 mugs and a sheet set, all new.
Average Price Sold: $29
Number of items listed this week: 18
Spent on new inventory: About $50I’m a total melmac nerd and I like the swirly kind. Trays sound super cool. Still functional today but color matters for the pricing I think. I find it very painful to spend money on maintenance items like new tires, vet bills, or repair home items that keep things status quo. I love getting quality food, furniture, textiles, and clothing at a bargain price – inventory mostly but also items for our family and that’s all on Ebay profits. We splurge a bit on vacation stays, kids’ extracurriculars, and my husband’s tv (for football) and electronics.
Finally catching a kid/work break and got back to listing a bit. Sold a promo Pyrex overnight for $70 so that’s motivating! I indulged in two garage sales in the immediate neighborhood and picked up a blue Kobenstyle Dansk piece and some Pottery Barn curtains dry cleaned already. I paid up a bit but will still make $. So I’m not cold turkey but being way more selective. Also trying to think more seasonally about selecting and running listings.
Finally, I wanted to share this article https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/07/05/why-women-quit-working-after-50/#70a6c5963fdc about the pressures on women making regular full time jobs unattractive at age 50+. I’m approaching 50 and can relate. We had kids late, are both only children, and I had some surprise health issues crop up this past year. By the time our kids are raised our dads will probably need care, maybe sooner. The great thing is that Ebay is a super gap filler for people in this situation. I’m so grateful for the free education I’ve been able to receive via the internet. Whenever I have more time, I’ll be ready to ramp up.
Just listing and doing research and I noticed a new little phrase by the price of NIP items (with UPC) “Trending at:” and then “eBay determines this price through a machine learned model of the product’s sale prices within the last 90 days.” I wonder if this plays into deals and savings filter. Again, I don’t see much advantage at all as a seller to include upcs if they are not required. It really just helps Ebay drive prices down and show my shoppers other people’s items.
Selling slowly mostly bread and butter new items, but thought I’d post a few vintage sales.
These two had some noticeable flaws, so I hope they read and viewed the listing.Paid $7 at flea market. Texture and color sold it, my other plainer train case is not moving. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332154747905
Paid $3 at indy thrift and it had a big scratch on the top but otherwise in great shape. http://www.ebay.com/itm/332168246073 I can’t resist beautiful midcentury wood. I found an awesome like new salad set similar to this one and was stunned to find out Kustom Kraft walnut doesn’t really do that well. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Six-Piece-Kustom-Kraft-MCM-Solid-Black-Walnut-Salad-Bowls-With-Tongs-GUC-/142432132578?hash=item21299ddde2:g:jMMAAOSwDrNZPeY- I guess it’s one of those things like Courac that is underrated?
I do well with Williams Sonoma. Paid $5 for these at my favorite indy thrift and sold best offer $50. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232325496453 In the past I tried finding used WS tablecloths myself and they fetch good money on Ebay.
Nice little sale. So easy to ship. Not everybody has Ikea (including us). Goodwill charged $2 new. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232348253942
I echo what Amatino and So Cal said. After I add photos in the mobile app, I just quickly review for mistakes and make it live. In my iPhone I’m unable to upload photos directly to the listing, so they all get saved. I’m waiting for the 8 to upgrade. Personally, I don’t like to review my listings on the iPhone or do much typing since it’s so much faster on the keyboard.
I spend hardly any time typing the listings and my narrative is very, very short, but I feel a bit self conscious that I am slow. I’m working with a big backlog, so I always choose items that are virtually identical as something I already have listed so I can sell similar. If I have none of that I work on a bunch of very similar items (type, weight, size) from my backlog on the same day or week. I have it all sorted and kind of want to time myself.
As I go along the learning curve, I’m learning some items are my favorites and faster to clean up, list & ship. I like to sell art & art pottery but it can really slow me down on the research. I love to sell embroidery kits – everything about it is quick and most do ok.
Total items in store: 307
Items sold: 5
Cost of items sold: $220 (RA New) + $10 used
Total sales: $505
Highest price sold: $360 (New duvet & shams purchased Spring for $180)
Average price sold: $101
Money spent on new inventory this week: $0
Items listed this week: 4Crazy week of contract work and kid transport making really good money that will go entirely to the emergency vet. Spending a quiet weekend and this week with one of my kids and our poor doggie, who has a rare condition. Staying close to home and hopefully will manage better listing numbers. Grateful for the sales I have had the last month while listing barely anything. No time for promoting on social media groups either. Sometimes I think maybe Ebay’s home & garden category sale coupons might help move my items. Ebay upped my limits from tens of thousands to millions of dollars worth of inventory LOL. I went ahead and put on 60 day return policy since I have only ever had two returns. Another plus is nothing was added to the piles this week.
I hope everyone has a nice 4th of July holiday.
T-Salt: I definitely underused the PFR in the beginning, but many of my items are décor and breakable. I bought some boxes that fit in the PFR, but many of the items at that price point do not fit. And I know some people put mugs FOMO in there, but I’m not comfortable with that because I worry about breakage.
Total Items in Store: 336
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $10 used + $47 new RA
Total Sales: $193
Highest Price Sold: $30 new brass owl hook
Average Price Sold: $21
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: maybe $5
Number of items listed this week: 7Getting excited to see photos of the new rental. It would be fun to hear how much total you estimate you spent furnishing it. Great that you’ve been collecting items over time. I think the email alerts and some time are all you need to get great stuff if there’s a city nearby. We’re pretty picky and busy so it took some dedication to source for our own house. Husband is also not terribly keen on haggling or dealing with people. During reno, we didn’t get much notice from the contractor so we just paid up for some things. Have a search out for a backyard tiki. Thanks Paul for the recommendations last week. Unless I go see my friend in Palm Springs this fall, then I’ll check out Oceanic Arts. We should make a special trip, because we never find time when we are passing through that area.
Really tough schedule for Ebay again between pre-vacation work and the kids’ sports and camps. I did get a few things listed yesterday afternoon. Also the retailer I source RA from has made their sales less attractive, with shallower discounts. The new items are my better movers and keep my store active so kind of a bummer. I found some similar items missing and have no idea when they were removed – not in ended. Hm.
Went to the local college rummage sale but I bought items for us, except a couple of costumes for resale. Great to pick up matching Tupperware, post its, etc. Someone had been through the snapbacks, knives, and other good stuff before I got there. I tried to make a beeline for the perfume but couldn’t find any. Scores were ugg boots and Patagonia jackets for my kids. College students are so lazy. They just get it dirty and donate it in great shape rather than clean it. That’s ok, I’ll happily do it. The prices are amazing – the event is really all about recycling.
Have a great week.
This is an extremely important concept for new sellers to get. I totally bought things that were not worth my time in the past, having no idea how much time it takes to list. Though the Ebay listing functionality is running much more smoothly than it was when I started, I’m still limited as a part-timer in what I can get up. So important to remember when out sourcing. The other thing to keep in mind is that the cost of shipping items over a pound just keeps rising. I think there are some 1-2 pound items between ten and twenty dollars that are not going to be worth it to the buyer to pay shipping of $7-12. Some of those are sitting in my garage unfortunately.
