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Have some time today but feeling really unmotivated to list for some reason. Sales are crazy slow this week. So I decided to update photos of my death piles – finally! Thanks Amatino.
Behold my remaining death piles. Pretty much limited to the garage. Have about 5 bankers boxes in the guest room unlisted. Maybe 15 or so in the garage. Many smalls included though. I’m happy things aren’t really spilling out and the guest room closet is not packed any longer. Long way to go but I made progress last year without donating much. Not much sourcing last year either. I just missed a rummage sale because my friend was in town. I should thank her! I also have some Kondoing to do with our stuff, so there is another layer to all this.
I have a West Point Pepperell vintage sheet set for sale from the 80s with a similar logo on the package. When I googled it, it looked like it merged with Westpoint Stevens at some point.Package logo in photos
02/11/2019 at 12:06 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Kodak cameras, Coleman cooler, Weejuns, Moto X boots, Magnavox B&W TV, Zenith record player, 8mm Tape rewinder #56737@Julie great score on the quantity listing of party favors. I don’t find them super cheap locally but have some some sets before. Something to look out for because they are temporarily sold when the movies come out but mainstream retailers don’t seem keep a lot of different themes on hand any at one time.
02/11/2019 at 11:15 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 398: How To Buy or Not To Buy on eBay #56730Total Items in Store: 309 Ebay, About 45 Mercari
Items Sold: 4 Ebay, 4 Mercari
Gross Sales: $215 Ebay, $75 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $26 plus shipping included $13 + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $135 Ebay UK Needlepoint Kit
Average Price Sold: $53 Ebay, $19 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $38 for 3 items
Number of items listed this week: 2Slow week on Ebay, but luckily sold a nice item after making offers to watchers on Ebay. I’m happy they added that option. Taking low offers on old Mercari listings. I’m very happy that I cut back on free shipping as I am noticing the bump. It cost over $5 to ship a 13 ounce Mercari item in Paypal.
When I was doing RA I was plowing a lot of profit back into inventory, but now, I’m in siphoning mode with this business and it’s helping us with some expenses. The RA did really well but the deals are not as good now. I suspect with the popularity of RA growing, retailers will continue to make things harder on resellers. We’ll see. I think I’m doing ok with my used and vintage items but it’s been hard to list lately.
BTW, I went to the REI garage sale and I recommend it if buying for yourself, but not for reselling. There were some items nearly new.
Have a great week!
Busy outside Ebay again and listed only 2 items this week. Holiday weekend with part of my family out of town, so this weekend might be a good opportunity to list.
02/08/2019 at 4:23 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Kodak cameras, Coleman cooler, Weejuns, Moto X boots, Magnavox B&W TV, Zenith record player, 8mm Tape rewinder #56642Thanks for sharing. Steve that looks mighty cold! We are starting to look at colleges for my son now, and after watching the national weather lately, I’m kinda reconsidering U Michigan and U Minnesota. He’s sick of wearing sunscreen everyday, but…that Polar Freeze sounded scary. We are finally! out of drought here into severely dry 🙂 Hoping our water rates go down.
A few interesting sales. This midcentury art pottery dish sold for best offer of $40. I’m a sucker for the crackle finish. Took a while and went to Palm Springs. Pretty cheap shipping since so close, though I am starting to notice the price hikes. I paid $3 I think for this at a thrift store.
These 80s Just Ask children’s books are really awesome for science-compromised parents and sell well. These I read to my kids and picked up used. At my favorite thrift store, I narrowly missed buying another set. Some ladies are plowing through the kids books lately and taking virtually all of them. Overall, I really like selling used kids books in sets. Another set of my daughter’s sold recently for $35. I paid a fair amount for these when she was on a tear. Sometimes I step up and pay full price for my kids when it comes to books they are really into.
Sold this vintage breadbox and very happy to get it out of the garage. Sold super quickly at $35 and I paid I think less than $10.
Finally, I still pick up paper goods if cheap. The vintage hallmark cards have been hit and miss (Christmas didn’t move well), but some does ok. These 80s Garfield book plates I got for .50 each at the indy thrift. I put these stickers I stole from my daughter because the old ladies tape down their price tags and I can’t peel them off without ripping the plastic. If someone has a better solution, please let me know.
Yeah! I sold a craft kit for $135 with make offer to watchers beta on Ebay. Sweet.
@Ebay mom: You’re welcome! If I had a helper, I would probably have them pick up a tote and take it home to photo and start drafts. But, takes time to find someone of course.
I have the lighting issue you have. I have shadows on my items, poor lighting as I am often taking photos early morning before everyone wakes and don’t want to set up a lighting kit in our main living area (no basements out here). I think my photos are good otherwise and stuff does sell. My current motto is “great items, great prices”. I used to have aspirations of some perfectly curated Esty store.
Sourcing-wise, you could try rummage sales to buy in bulk. Garage sales are time consuming but estate sales could potentially pay off better with quantity buying.
On Mercari, I started with liquidating my own kids’ better brand stuff and books. I suspect that there are a lot of young moms on Mercari shopping. The Farmhouse stuff, Rae Dunn promoted by Youtube young moms is selling on Mercari. It’s way faster to list, but the prices are not quite as strong as Ebay generally speaking. Still, I’ve moved some super stale items crossposted from Ebay on Mercari and Mercari is gaining traffic I think. Maybe it would be good for the smaller items your daughter likes to list.
Hang in there Ebay mom, I hear you and that’s quite a spread in ages you have with all different needs. I think online sourcing could be a time suck unless you are talking quantity. The best way to step up if you really want to I think is to hire someone flexible for listing. My older one is way too busy and neither kid is interested, but I’ve thought about finding someone since the sourcing is plentiful here. But for now, I’m content to let reselling go to the back burner as needed, knowing that I will probably step this up later when life is less demanding. I also really enjoy listing on Mercari since it’s super fast and easy. You can promote with your phone anywhere during downtime – like waiting in the car to pick up. Good luck!
Total Items in Store: 309 Ebay, about 50 Mercari
Items Sold: 9 Ebay, 0 Mercari
Gross Sales: $306 Ebay
Cost of Items Sold: $27 + $14 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $94 (Christmas! stocking needlepoint kit, paid $4 goodwill)
Average Price Sold: $34
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 6Busy outside Ebay but enjoyed the podcast. I like this kind of analysis, though I’m not sourcing much these days. Sold the expensive craft kit after participating in a group Pinterest FB share. February is usually the worst month of sales for me, so I’ll have to try to goose along sales as much as possible. I sent offers to watchers on Ebay – no results yet. Thanks to those who were sharing about that beta. Chatter on FB that Mercari is pretty dead this month. Have a great week.
Thanks Simon! I use easy auction tracker but there always seems to be some glitch where I don’t get all of the sales updated. Our computer guy erased it from the temp file this year so I have to go to paypal for Jan and Feb.
I’d add shipping cost / whether it fits in a USPS flat rate or is eligible for cubic rates.
Congrats ladies. I have a lot going on outside of Ebay at this time. I managed to list 6 items. Hope to squeeze in more this week. Have a nice week.
Comedian’s stand up on garage sale people
You know who you are.
Thanks Big Sally, I don’t really have time to fall down a rabbit hole. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has dealt with either an online outlet or local type of art liquidator. Maybe that person in Seattle would be interested…doesn’t hurt to check.
I might just go ahead on Ebay if it’s a dead end. This painting is only 11″ square so easy to ship. I’ve never sold something this expensive, so I wonder about how much insurance would cost and how good it would be. :O
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