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Total Listings in Store: 887
Items Sold: 14
Gross Sales: $787 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $573 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $116
Highest Price Sold: $165 – New Duvet
Average Price Sold: $56
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $140
Number of items listed this week: 20Better week on Ebay for me. I ran a 25% off sale on the whole store. I just started a 20% off sale and so far it’s not as busy.
Getting ready to do my vintage market booth again. Will pivot and bring the things that are selling best, with a 4th of July / nautical spin. Will bring less overall. We will get a little fog cover and it should be a really nice 71 degrees high.
I’m getting a lot of “horder” / storage unit comments from my family as the garage is a mess. I get so tired on booth days and everything gets dumped in the garage. I have been buying a bit too much and spent time on the booth situation, so it was good to get back to listing this weekend. I’ve already decided to have a garage sale late summer as well. For now, I will be working this week on organizing in there and listing a few things on FB Marketplace.
I finally booked my daughter’s graduation trip, we will see the French Quarter in NOLA, then Nashville and see Dollywood staying at a friend’s house nearby. My mom was from NO but I haven’t been back much as an adult. I’ve only seen Memphis before so looking forward. It will be mid-July, and certainly hoping to miss any heat dome situations. Fingers crossed.
I scored some 1970s works by this artist https://www.lot-art.com/auction-lots/J-Florian-Steiner-20-th-Century-Hungarian/147-j_florian-06.8.22-clark that look nothing like the one shown here. Unfortunately a couple have water damage to the backings. The old man was selling them for the “great frames” at $5 apiece and was shocked I liked the art work. He was definitely not the right owner for these.
I think the value is in the filling in of item specifics on Ebay, assuming that goes well. Measuring items if correctly would also save time. The tags on some sites would be helpful too. Listing on Poshmark and Mercari are so straightforward, but I’m wondering mainly how the software programs do with Ebay. It also could be better than sell similar if it selects the correct category and saves your preferences. Sometimes I notice on ss that people leave out a very important keyword.
My previous post should say bugs not books. lol. I think this has promise. I also would gain back a couple of days worth of time at the end of the year if I could input COGS when listing. Is anyone putting that in the custom sku?
Scavenge of the week was the flea market QVC shopper score. I bought about 14 Vera Bradley and Lug bags, plus a few other brands. Listed some of them over the weekend. Sold the first one today https://www.ebay.com/itm/335455349654 Paid about $1 for saleable each item in this haul. I may lot up the art supplies, since there are many sets.
At the college rummage sale, I bought some things for us – practical stuff mainly – a few posters in sleeves for the live market booth, a lot of beauty items which I listed on Ebay and Mercari this weekend, the shams, a Pottery Barn sham, and a couple of mugs. Nothing too spectacular. I’m thinking next year of maybe going to the boutique area first and seeing if I can score some perfume.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335057048869 Took about 6-9 months to sell. Paid $10 or 15. I just found two pillow shams of this make at the college recycling sale, one in the package. Made an offer on that this morning. 99% of the college bedding is well used or basic brands, so it’s pretty easy to spot the best stuff.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334913104193 This took forever to sell. I thought it was so fun and maybe a prop place would buy it.
I’m also waiting as I like to let them work out the books with other people first before I try a new product.
Yes and they have a professional and concise settings I would use. Pretty cool how it measured one of her items for her. I would definitely do this in the future vs all the tax etc hoops that come with hiring someone. If my daughter becomes more independent this year I’ll consider it. Listing is the slow down for me. Plenty of sourcing available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF1xLX-3I0E&t=1458s Here is a video about this new feature of the product. The price is too high for me at $69 per month I think for now but interesting and also nice that your listings are backed up and COGS can be inputted.
There are three types of sellers at the flea market. Only one type I can and want to buy from: the house clean out people who arrive late. The other two are pallet people and antique / vintage booth sellers, who have higher prices most times than I want to pay. We also have produce and flowers, neither of which are a very good deal vs Trader Joes.
Total Items in Store: 890
Items Sold: 9
Gross Sales: $395 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $245 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $29
Highest Price Sold: $98 Halloween decoration
Average Price Sold: $44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $200
Number of items listed this week: 1We are in transition and I took some time off last week after the crazy week prior. I’ve been remiss not doing Ebay photos. Have a bunch of listings in the queue. I have to say I don’t have a lot of Ebay mojo but I had better find some.
The vintage market booth was not great on fathers day – grad weekend. Disappointing and for us it was hot – 90 degrees. I’m doing it again next Saturday and hoping it is better for sure.
At the flea market this week a QVC addict had her employees liquidate her storage unit. I should have about $700 in listings from that, mostly bags and high end art sets (paid $85 for three moving boxes worth). There was also the college recycling sale today – I made it first to the cosmetics table and bought a bunch of water filter parts just to flip. Overall, again too much sourcing and not enough listing. It should be a good week to list I hope this coming week.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235524386716 This was at the bottom of a huge estate sale box. I don’t even want to know what I missed in that box. Paid around $8.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235562448767 Pottery Barn Halloween can definitely do well. I bought this at a yard sale and used it on display for a few years in my home. Great that it sold in June.
There was an eccentric guy selling art at the flea market. He has huge cardboard signs out saying he refuses to pay for his storage unit, no reasonable offer refused, etc. I bought a couple of pieces from him, one unframed one sold immeditely at the flea market $10 —> $80. I was so busy I didn’t even look it up but happy to get the flip. It wasn’t in my booth long enough for me to get a picture even.
Yes, it’s so funny the racks that used to be full of denim are picked completely clean in the mens department, womens is like Eddie Bauer and worse, or marked up super high.
On the flip side, I talked to other vendors and the kids do not deliberate if they really like something. Very impulsive buyers. I’ve been doing ok with my daughter’s clothing and some that I took a chance on and picked myself. As an old Gen Z I get a proud feeling if I pick something and they find it worthy. I’ve been able to pick up some Urban Outfitters skirts, etc. Sometimes they are very tiny but don’t even get tried on. Though I used to be that tiny at their age, it seems like nobody could fit in those XS short skirts.
Now, I hope Ebay is listening and gets a timely and superior ad campaign going for once. Stops chasing Amazon (and Temu, etc.) Mercari is hurting. Ebay has the volume and they need to focus on used! Posh is pretty established but I think Ebay could make a move to claw back some of the market share they lost. Now would be the time! Most income levels and certainly Gen Z are looking to save by buying used.
I think I managed to get one listing done. I am sitting here enjoying not dragging my teen out of bed and getting her to school for the second day in a row. Last week was super busy and stressful. Ahhhh. Just some medical appointments this week. I started a 25% off sale and have 5 items to ship out today. Lots of things just need pictures. I have a few July 4th linens and some PB seashell duvets. Need to get crackin’. My daughter took some photos for me last summer but I’m hoping she gets a regular job. Fingers crossed.
@Retro the other fun part of course is the bargain hunting! Can’t do that if we are at or near capacity as I think we both are. I am blessed with great sourcing here.
My son was helping transport and he asked me how long some of this stuff has been around. The playing cards, for example, I’ve had since R&J were talking about it on the podcast!
I did have two garage sales and went through all the death newbie coffee mugs last summer. I hope to make a big dent this summer in the rest and maybe even do the flea market or yard sale at the end of the summer. There are still things that came from my parents’ house. In the meantime, I have a lot of linens to put on EBay. I’m moving some very low dollar stuff from EBay to Mercari. I’m definitely getting a feel for multichannel selling.
Total Items in Store: 890
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $211 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $110 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $25 (plus one item ours, got money back)
Highest Price Sold: $36 (two new mugs, paid $16)
Average Price Sold: $30
Returns: 1 cancellation (broken item)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $40
Number of items listed this week: 2Vintage market booth: Gross about $600, rent $80, COGS roughly $80-100
A very rough week on Ebay for me. I haven’t been listing for weeks but started a 30% off sale and sales definitely picked up already. I have a bunch of drafts ready for photos but life is a bit crazy with family and friends visiting. My youngest graduates today from high school. I literally can’t wait until next week when things calm down a bit next week. There is a big solstice parade the following weekend and the market is closed so I decided to go again this Saturday and it looks like the fog is going to clear.
I’ve already explained in other posts why I like doing the market. It’s a bit of work and a lowish hourly return but I enjoy it. I am clearing both some larger art work I don’t want to ship and a bunch of vintage smalls death piles and clothes I would have put on Mercari but never get listed. The foot traffic was actually better than I expected last time so I’m hoping for a good Saturday. Pricing for live selling is a bit tricky and my COGS is all over the place so some items I need to charge more and those tend to be people’s favorites. Some of the large art I only paid a buck or 5. The best sellers were art, small ceramics, tiny figurines, clothing, sunglasses. Not doing well with hats (though it was foggy), pillows, large ceramics.
I hope to get back to Ebay next week in earnest and following one of my youtubers make it the “summer of sales” taking offers and running out lower dollar stuff. If anyone knows a bulk way to drop my Ebay offer floor, please lmk. Thanks!
