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@Craig it’s so awesome how your business seems so under control. I hope to get there. Also very cool how your products are uniform and small.
This week I had a couple of days where I thought I should not go thrifting and went anyway, only to not really be rewarded. Another day I did better. I found a matching $3.99 new Pottery Barn pillow for our couch, a $150+ glass Waterford vase for $20, 4 Baccarat cocktail glasses. I feel like what I picked up is solid. I’m trying to be thoughtful, leave more things behind, and I’m taking time to look some things up and check out the margins.
I did find a piece of peacock art for $40 – a splurge. I definitely questioned myself – I couldn’t tell if it’s a watercolor original or signed print, it’s quite large and has glass (why did I do that?), and that is really more than I like to spend. I hope it pays off. I haven’t opened it up to check it out yet.
It seems like there are a ton of estate sales cropping up – probably because Spring real estate season approaches – but I have been good at staying away from those in general.
@VT so sorry to hear about your circumstances.
@Amatino it’s just dish packing foam. I use that and then large bubble. The only times in the past I had something break is before I used the foam and when I used too small of a box. I ordered some from Amazon before but it’s thinner so I like the uhaul. Miraculously I found a HUGE roll at a thrift store that will last months. I hate that it’s not biodegradable but paper would be much more expensive and it helps me use less bubble. Hopefully customers are reusing.I’m an extrovert but super camera shy. I’d have to do it with only my hands. I hear that you have to be really consistent to get traction live selling and it takes a while to get a following. It’s not somewhere I want to invest my time. It would be nice to get multiple sales st once though of course.
@VL I don’t have a lot of glass either. I usually pick up only Scandinavian glass, which is hard to find here and it sells fine on Ebay. I do have my family’s costume jewelry hanging around. Totally not my thing. Are you selling BIN jewelry over there? I imagine it’s fairly saturated by now. I will ship glass – my secret is dish packing foam from Uhaul. Never double box.
I listed 25 items this week, plus added a few imported drafts to Mercari.
@Craig we’ll see. Their prices were higher at a different sale. There was nobody around when she gave me that big bundle price so I think it may have been kind of the timing – or the fact that the house was so packed and lower end. We’ll see. It’s not a bad strategy to go later on a packed house since I have my piles. I feel like I have enough knowledge to find things I have sold before or know about. On other houses it would be a complete waste of time.
A little preview for tomorrow. Sales are HORRIBLE. I’m running a sale, promoting, making offers (not many available), and listing. Oof.
Sounds like everybody is cleaning out and organizing. 👏👏👏
@VL I forgot to mention that I only have BIN on Niknax and VAMP. It’s really dead over there. Once in a while I get to send an offer. Seems like mainly a live platform. I have notifications off on district but lmk your handle and I’ll try to catch a show.
Scavenge of the week was an estate sale I went to at the very end of the first day. I have known this company to be a bit too expensive for my taste, but the lady was exhausted and the house was super full of less valuable stuff. She said “I”m going to give you the deal of the day” and it was $20 for everything. I had a full Ikea bag and a brand new Pottery Barn jewelry box – Arabia and Le Souk pottery/ceramics, frames, Pottery Barn linens, a few collectibles. This seems to be one of the cheapest and least professional families running our local estate sales. They are pretty lazy about pricing things in the less fancy homes. They do a lot of pile eyeballing and don’t really organize things. I’ll keep checking in on them.
Yes, I think it’s a lot about consistently making new listings. I’ve heard and believe that’s got to be a heavily weighted factor in Cassini.
February is always my worst month, and we have a lot of uncertainty this February. @Craig you have March Madness coming up and I usually have good home decor sales in March and April.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235819204348 Sold a painting by an unknown artist for $90.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235819201475 Great sale! Has been listed forever and went overseas. Not my usual but I know to look for this.
@VT thinking positive thoughts for you. @Sharon great job getting your auction going. It might actually be good to get stale listings out of your Ebay store in the long run… Of course they want you to put new ones in all the time. @Liz hello!
On one of my Ebay podcasts they said Ebay acknowledged that has an annual problem because February has fewer days and there are more resets at once. The listing disappear but then it gets resolved in a day or two. However, I do think a few listings tend to drop off now and then.
So yesterday I moved out about 15-17 boxes of clothing, board games, books etc. Some of the clothing would have been worth money at pop ups or online but I hate selling clothing online and I don’t have room in my car for taking clothing also, plus everyone and their mother at pop ups sells clothing. So that felt really, really good to get out of the garage and house and off my plate.
Now I have a huge mess to tackle. Lots of art and frames that need to be cleaned, sorted, marked for projects. Unlisted inventory (maybe a good 8-10 boxes and bins) to be sorted and organized (sadly there is more unlisted that is already organized by type). I definitely did cut back on thrifting and I’m having a chat with myself about getting my business house in order and more profitable. I’m also more aware of frittering my time in general. Not really structured but steps in the right direction. There is a lot of value unlisted here – they are just piles, not picked over death piles. Logically, I would start with the largest and most valuable items, but somehow I just start grabbing things. I do have a loose goal of working in some textiles to make shipping a little more balanced each day.
Week of Feb 23 – Mar 1
Total Items in Store: 1222
Items Sold: 14Cost of Items Sold: $105
Gross Sales: $693 Net: $431
Highest Price Sold $64 (Portmeirion 4 bowl used set)Average price: $50
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150 RA extra 50% off sale + $60 +/- thrfited + flea
Number of items listed this week: 21It felt slower than this, so it is nice to see the numbers. Some of these items had been listed quite a long time, so that’s interesting. I am making serious traction on my reorganization and donations of clothing items and household items to my daughter’s former choir program. Felt great to get that stuff out of the house. I did some listed inventory consolidation but there is more to do and I need to organize all of the unlisted and prep for the art sale happening in 10 days. In the meantime I also hope to list quite a bit. I do feel the sting of punishment when I am not listing regularly. We can use the money too since this spring break trip to Boston just sprung up. It’s nice it’s the off season so a little less expensive. Lots and lots to do before we go!
Last week I thrifted less and had a pretty nice little haul at the flea market. No big ticket items and the theme of the day seemed to be brass items – hardware. I also got a vintage crate that I will use for my pop up markets for $3.
At the flea this week not many one time dumpers to shop with. From the $1 guy I got a complete set of Ralph Lauren sheets for $4 and some clothing for my daughter. Also a new pair of smart wool socks in package and a couple of used pair in great shape.
ty! so excited for him. I’m not sure what he will do just yet but getting accepted there is a real shot in the arm. My husband and I are hoping he chooses to go.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335658544439 Fisherman style is in for spring. I’m happy to see this sell, as it has been up for probably a year +. Good design. Paid $25 RA on clearance.
This was also up a long time and finally sold. Not my usual item. https://www.ebay.com/itm/235819197821 (Paid 3.99 at GW)
A few items I got an an estate sale sold super quickly, which is good because I paid more than I usually do. https://www.ebay.com/itm/335814426561 (paid $8) https://www.ebay.com/itm/335814420521 (paid $30)
So things are either selling super fast or have been listed a looong time. I guess maybe my recent sell similar did pay off a little more than I thought even though I didn’t get to make a lot of offers.
I listed 16 items on eBay and started turning on some more waiting drafts in Mercari. I’ve had a few sales on Mercari, which is nice. The fee changes they reversed have definitely helped. Also all the pictures and most of the data imported from eBay, so I’m able to do this on my phone while I’m just hanging around. Still not putting higher end items on that platform because of their customer service Cutbacks.
I can’t believe it’s almost March! I had some really nice time with friends over the weekend in our beautiful city. It was up to 70 degrees again with no wind. One of my younger friends turned 50. My daughter is also struggling a bit with growing pains and needing more of my time. I have no idea where the beginning of the year went. It’s an insomnia blur. I have to do my cost of goods for taxes very soon, which puts a stop to everything else for a couple days. Hoping to just do a bunch of organizing and some listing today. eBay as dead as a doornail for me this week.
@VT Good care is so important and having a family advocate. I hope things improve.
@VL I was not going to do live sales yet, but I got accepted to a bigger local sale that only runs quarterly and it should have a better mix of buyers both young and older. So I’m going ahead and doing it on March 15. I think I am pretty much just bringing the art this time and it’s only a 7 x 7 but I have a lot of organizing to do. Pretty exciting.
My son was just accepted to Tufts university for graduate school. 🎉 I think we are going to go to Boston around the weekend bridging their spring breaks. Better get to work!
Thanks for checking in everyone. I’ve met a lot of nice resellers and vendors locally but still working this business on the computer is so quiet.
