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Total Items in Store: 335
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $7 (used) + $226 (new)
Total Sales: $508
Highest Price Sold: $240 (Anthropologie Bedding Set – paid $120 Springtime)
Average Price Sold: $56
Returns/Int’l Sales: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0! Week one of death pile challenge.
Number of items listed this week: 8 + multiplesWell it’s week one of my death piles challenge, which really should be called a pile challenge because I haven’t necessarily cherry picked. I’m starting with the bulkiest items – throw pillows, wool blankets and afghans. I’ve posted some on Facebook too. I spent some time organizing the piles and I’m kind of excited to list the art. It should be fun to rediscover items perhaps except for all of the coffee mugs.
I dumped the other Hatchimal and got my $ back and happily sold some RA bedding. Hopefully it will be a good month for bedding. It was unfortunate that I was sick and swamped in December because immediately after I started listing I started selling other items. There is definitely a correlation.
I just reviewed the IRS guidelines for hobby sales and see that you only get two years of hobby profit, then it is by default a business. This is my third year of selling so it’s time to open separate accounts. Also, I really should be making purchases on a cash back card for shipping etc. but have been too lazy. I used Easy Auctions Tracker this year and successfully loaded all of my data. The spreadsheet looks overly complicated but hopefully bookkeeping will be faster this year. So much to do, so little time!
I hope Evangeline Lily doesn’t mind me turning her into a trash elf.
Already hearing the siren’s call of the thrift when I drive by after work. But, staying strong. Thanks for joining up to those of you who are in. I listed my after Xmas clearance items yesterday and then sold something else immediately. Not listing sure probably didn’t help my December sales. I think it will feel good to see some space clear and have things get more manageable. I’m having to remind my family that I am really a very organized person. LOL
Hi Becky,
Glad to see you here. I’m a fan of your videos and I enjoyed seeing the interesting non-eyeglass items you have sold. Wishing you the very best adventures and magic kiddo times in 2017. 🙂I cut back shopping stops, but it will take me a while to catch up. So, I thought if I posted here it will keep me honest. I’m completely confident there is an abundance of stuff readily available for when I clear some room, plus things are not seasonal here. Join me anytime!
Hey Mike,
I know a gal who did a Shabby Chic style wedding and purchased a lot of mismatched tea cusps and plates instead of renting. You might try to market on Craigslist or Facebook in lots if you have enough similar items for that to make sense. Good luck.
Yeah for retail arbitrage! I sold six of these in December. Retailer routinely runs a sale on full price merchandise for a few days, so I wait for that and then speculate on a few items I think will sell well as gifts and sell out at retailer before Christmas. Paid about $22 with taxes. I pinned this item and shared in Facebook, and two out of three of my buyers had zero Ebay feedback.
Also have been picking up these plastic seasonal Hallmark cookie cutters for a dollar or two. They seem to do well but sadly I didn’t get the Christmas ones listed.
Hatchimals experiment was a fail. I overpriced them when demand was greatest and more came out into stores before Christmas. My daughter got one for Christmas and I’m trying to sell the other on Facebook. I got insanely busy the week before Christmas at work or I would have donated them instead. 🙁 I also got called a scumbag on ebay messages by another parent. 🙂
Hi Lee,
I’m curious about what kind of law you practiced? I went to the University of Miami program for estate planning. Not many fellow parent-lawyer-pickers around these parts.It’s the item equation – difficulty to find in your area, difficulty to pack and ship, estimated holding time, price, storage space of that available, difficulty to locate or stack in storage, return risk, uniqueness, time to clean, test, mend, steam/iron, or repair (credit: Retro T), etc.
Lately I’ve been editing too based on whether I find it personally interesting and compelling. I love Beth? Waller’s videos though. Of all the sellers who make videos, she seems the least attached and disinterested in her items. 🙂
You’re welcome Liz. If you head up North, feel free to post a reply. A San Fernando Valley meet up would be cool sometime if LA sellers are interested. Sorry Fred we hijacked your thread.
My selling experience on FB is mixed. I mostly offer my kids’ stuff and art I thrifted that is large to ship. In the local selling groups once the membership swells, your offerings get buried down in the feed quickly. Also, the item has to be significant enough to coordinate a pickup or people won’t deal. I don’t really want to spend time packing and storing larger framed art but FB has been pretty disappointing. FB and CL I would say are lower pricing than Ebay too. The number of potential buyers is so small by comparison so unless you have a quick flip business model, it doesn’t really pay off. We don’t have offer up, etc. here. One plus to FB is that people are less flaky than CL.
Total Items in Store: 348
Items Sold: 7
Cost of Items Sold: $9 (used) + $70 (new RA)
Total Sales: $222
Highest Price Sold: $55 (2 Corgi Dog Mugs)
Average Price Sold: $32
Returns & Int’l Sales: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $225 After Xmas Clearance Sale
Number of items listed this week: 0Dead until after Xmas eve. Last year I had fairly good sales between now and the second week of January, with people buying my new items for themselves. Hoping to repeat that and get to some listing while I’m off with my kids this week. The last few weeks were insanity and I’ve really been struggling to fit Ebay in.
Re this week’s topic, I like the idea of trash elves reporting experiments and results. But, I don’t mind hearing speculation because Ebay doesn’t come out and tell you how their search engine works and gets tweaked. We keep having to throw around this one Australian guy video from a few years ago since that seems to be the only comprehensive public break down. Plus, Ebay loves to give sellers self-serving advice that might help move items but not get sellers the best price. So, I love to have an independent place where people can gather to share their thoughts, even without proof and you can make your own choices with that information.
Re Pinterest, I hope buyable pins are coming soon for Ebay sellers. In the meantime, I have more and more buyers with zero feedback, so I’m suspecting that the pinned items are getting hits on Google while the Ebay listings are not. I’m tempted to ask more of them.
I ran into a downsizing sale at an Eastside estate on my way to work. Bought some midcentury pottery, canoe muffin flatware, Ken Edwards mexican pottery, and more. Ugh – shopping estate sales is so fun but dangerous because of the quantity – at this rate it would take two weeks to process what I bought and I’ve added to my backlog. The new stuff sells quickly so I feel ok about that.
Have fun R&J on the rest of your trip. Glad you thrifted some great items. Happy New Year to everyone!
Hi – Love San Diego and used to live there but I’m up now in Santa Barbara at the Northern end of So Cal, sort of considered Central Cali almost. Have fun if you go picking down there. I’ve written before I like to hit the thrift cluster around the Balboa/Rosecrans area in Point Loma.
Total Items in Store: 348
Items Sold: 10 (1 Facebook)
Cost of Items Sold: $16 (used) + $113 (new RA)
Total Sales: $423
Highest Price Sold: $166 (Quantity 3 Anthropologie cow butter dishes @ 1:00 in the morning. I confirmed. 🙂 Paid $66 earlier this month on sale.)
Average Price Sold: $40
Returns & Int’l Sales: 0 – International sales have completely dropped off. Mine were mostly Canada and UK.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $25
Number of items listed this week: 4Sick all week, personal life stress, and not much listing. Have a bunch of Christmas stuff that didn’t sell or went unlisted (sigh). Week was just ok, but the big sale was helpful. Lots of buyers with zero feedback, which seems to suggest pinning is working.
The Hatchimals are still around. They released some into stores this month and other Ebayers dropped prices to unload while I was not paying attention. The Facebook group totally called it – priced to sell and 1.5x their $ in November – and I think at least one person here on the forum expected that too. Luckily, I only bought two for my experiment and plan to donate them if they don’t move express delivery even though I can maybe still double my $.
I don’t offer free shipping but plan to rework my older listings of new items in the new year in accordance with my suspicion that Ebay is placing an emphasis on freshness and my (so far) positive experience with Smartpost.
Happy holidays trash elves!
Hi Liz, glad you are ok. We are a Subaru family and very happy with the value and safety features. We also have a minivan, and that topic has been discussed here before – very versatile but not cool and kind of a pain to back up in the City so you get a bit more car for the buck. We got a really good deal on a repo. Good luck!
Pinning is super fast, so there is not much of a time investment. I have been pinning and participating most mornings on two Facebook “Pinterest parties”. It’s difficult to tell in Ebay, but given that Google and outside traffic are up, I do think it is helping generate sales.
