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Thanks Sharon. Yeah, I think they might end up in Garage Sale #2. I’ve only gone through about 6 boxes so far in terms of valuing items. I’m in a high cost of living area but people I think still like to get things super cheap at a garage sale unless it’s an amazing brand. So I’m not sure I could get $5 for most of this stuff but I didn’t pay that either. I’m also taking into consideration what I like to sell on some of it. A lot of the $10-15 box I made up was stuff I’m not passionate about, but a few items of midcentury china I’d love to get someone using again.
Well no need to run numbers because I only had two sales and one was returned due to a stock photo I used of a discontinued item to show the print – my fault but little nit picky.
I’ve launched my preparation for the yard sale. A realtor is coordinating a neighborhood sale so I’ll participate in two weeks and then maybe add another date to do with a friend since I probably won’t finish screening all of the piles by the first. I’d also like to Marie Kondo our closets. I only made a couple of listings on Ebay. I’ve pulled the car out, set tables up, started the process of Terapeaking some boxes of stuff. There is a good number of items that are worth $10-15 on Ebay with buyer paying shipping. I’m on the fence about that level of item. I’m planning to take some video and posting here later.
Have a great week. Congrats on the 1 year anniversary of the shop! It looks like an awesome place to hang out.
Thanks Jay. My production and timing was controlled by the rainmakers. It was a great, flexible job but it will be nice to have more freedom. I’m lucky. I got a lot of wistful looks from my coworkers. The nice cushy job you appreciated so much earlier really can get old when you are in your 50s and 60s.
Total Items in Store: 232 Ebay, 20 Mercari
Items Sold: 7 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $82
Gross Sales, Ebay: $432.09, $27 MercariNet Sales, Ebay: $326.37
Highest Price Sold: $70 Two like new Tommy Hilfiger pillow shams
Average price, Ebay: $61.73
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $48
Number of items listed this week: 0Congrats on your great sales R&J. I had a great week considering I still haven’t gotten back to listing. I did run a sale and took some offers. I listened to an old podcast this week while I was working on something and it was nice to hear your voices again.
Today is my first day of “retirement”. It feels weird. I already took a nap but have many things to do. I have some important non-Ebay things I need to address but I’m really looking forward to rediscovering and organizing my unlisted inventory. My dad is going to come over and keep me company / help with the sorting. I think it will give him some new purpose and he likes to watch my sales. He’s so cheap and he can’t believe what people pay for things. I’m thinking about making videos for what sold again as I relaunch just for kicks.
I’ve decided to stick with Mercari for our better brand clothing since it’s so much faster to list. I have a couple of bins of that. I get about $10-20 apiece but can list in a minute or two on that platform and I’ll get more than at the yard sale. I look forward to checking out the new Ebay listing tool. I’d love to do it all on the phone but just find that the desktop works best for me so far and then I take the photos on the phone.
@Retro yes now that I left my day job I’m going to get the app. It’s not a ton of driving I’m doing for EBay – I live very close to all the places involved. Previously I would often just go on my way to work.
Small seller here. I was buying EZ Auction Tracker, but just downloaded Ebay’s spreadsheet for 2021 and added/matched COGS for sold items (which I keep on paper and receipts). It was actually nice since I have some multiple items and consistent titles to sort this simplified data. I don’t have a dedicated space so I can’t take any office deductions and I don’t bother with mileage, so my bookkeeping is pretty simple. EZ Auction tracker is a great product but it’s pretty dense for a very small seller, especially one who forgets to upload data every 90 days from time to time. The Ebay spreadsheet total was very similar to the 1099 they issued to me.
Total Items in Store: 232
Items Sold: 4
Gross Sales: $183.17 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $118.03 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $40
Highest Price Sold: $59.00 (New pajama pants)
Average Price Sold: $36.63
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $12
Number of items listed this week: 0 – it’s been weeks
Glad for your sales. Despite weeks of not listing, I managed to squeak out a few, including some really stale stuff. I only have maybe 5 boxes or so of new RA merch left. One more week at the day job (which will be busy) then I can start assessing the garage piles and reorganizing. It will feel so good to not be sitting at a desk even though I was just part-time. Depending on some outside life stuff, I’ll try to keep myself listing a few items a day and it will be interesting to see what happens with sales. I have my usual partner for yard sales who will help me sell off some heavy/big/low dollar items after I’ve sorted. I’m looking at a Youtuber and thinking it would be good to get a light box but I would hate having that out in our living space.
I met with my accountant since our quarterlies will be less this year and I tried to explain why Ebay appeals to me so much even though the profit is highly taxed and not that big. It’s like a fun game and I can always use the money – now more than ever. I love getting cool, vintage stuff to people. The RA was a fun challenge as well but I won’t want to be laying out capital for a while. Shopping used is the most fun but I’ll have to continue to temper that for now. I did go once to thrift store as a treat and found a couple of items worth it. My daughter likes to thrift for clothes – a lot of Gen Z looking at clothes and shoes I notice lately. I haven’t seen the old record dogs. 🙂
I love about Ebay that as long as you get your shipping out timely, nobody else is really involved. So you can rev up or down as needed. It also makes me feel good to bring cool items to people and get them in use again, plus scavenging is fun but I don’t allow myself to do much of that these days. My eye is much sharper now and Terapeak has given me a much better sense of what things are worth and confidence in pricing.
@Temudgin the road is littered with former attorneys. LOL. Thank you! I plan to go through and sort it all and have a yard sale/donate the small potatoes I think. I live in an area rich for sourcing so no worries about finding other stuff to sell later if I can manage to get this stuff sold. I’ll report back on what percentage was worth it. I’m thinking $20 potential profit is my cutoff maybe. I did start making a dent in my piles earlier.
I hope you see the uptick in sales after time away expires like I did. I got no sales on my vacation. I have heard from other honest “influencers” that sales have slowed though. This week was pretty dead for me. Made about $200 last week.
Today I am quitting my part-time job of 20 years with a generous hourly pay rate. It’s scary to “retire” at age 53 but I need to support my teen who is seriously struggling and take care of my own mental health. Family and exercise will be a priority but we’ll need to be even more frugal and my husband wants me to work on clearing the piles, some of which is my parents’ stuff. At this point, there are some things that might not be worth it due to the shipping increases over the years. When I started you could ship a coffee mug for like $5 and change. I’m grateful to have Terapeak now to check and I may have a yard sale if there is enough stuff that’s not worth listing. Stay tuned.
Hoping for good sales for everyone.
For this time period I had zero sales while time away was on. The day we got back I had several sales. We had a nice vacation. It was in Hawaii where masks were still required inside and everything was outdoors or very well ventilated. It was strangely amazing just to talk to random strangers again and do normal tourist things without being paranoid about getting Covid. Unfortunately my daughter is sick this week with a regular cold after returning.
While away I did some shopping on Ebay for an 80s party we are going to. It’s kind of amazing what some surf and preppy clothing I used to own goes for. It would be a fun niche to get into. I opted for some crazy print high top Reebocks and a color block shirt so far. Need a Bongo jean skirt to go with it. The 80s careerwear is hilarious.
Congrats again on the growing success of the coffee shop!
I bought online sale. At the time I found a few great items at 70-80% off and I’m getting full retail. I just looked because March can be good sales but the prices weren’t quite low enough on what I would choose. Williams Sonoma is quite hard to get cheap enough to flip in my experience.
I wish we had an outlet here – I know a lot of retailers really do well with that and I’ve bought from them as a buyer myself.
I also find used and new PB in the wild. I feel like other resellers overlook their throw pillows.
Slow week last week and this week is better already.
I started consolidating some inventory, which felt good. I listened to an old SL podcast while I worked in the garage. I have some new unlisted items (or listed on Mercari only items) which I need to get up on Ebay. Thin margins on this trial farmhouse style Magnolia RA from Target. Target started ordering more of some of the popular items that were once sold out. I also experimented with Pottery Barn and some of that has gone well and quickly. It turns out they have pretty good sales online at times and it’s certainly a brand people look for. Lots of vintage piles left too and a few boxes of stuff from my parents’ house.
I also started going through some clothes and decided to go ahead and put a few things on Mercari. A friend of mine just sold some things to Real Real but my stuff is not of that caliber. I feel like I might not be alone in having the post-pandemic urge to clean out so might be good sourcing for scavengers.
We are going on vacation next week. So far my day job work has not slowed too much but I expect it to as the new full time hire ramps up. I miss just having a day at home alone to list.
