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My user id is a Princeton reference!!! The first place I ever scavenged at besides eBay. There are a few nice library sales in Princeton as well.
I seem to remember past posts about valuable cruise ship menus. Were they yours? Was it from an old episode of the podcast? Something @ChristineR sold? Somewhere else? I don’t remember. But I feel like you’ll do well with these.
And that’s on top of a great haul. What a neat mix of stuff! I’m going to have to follow this auction too. It will be educational if nothing else.
I like that Honkytonk Man lithograph poster the most of all your Eastwood posters. What is the photo background? I don’t remember seeing that wood background before. But most likely it’s just slipped my memory. Amazing all you and Ryanne have done in the last five years!
Every so often, I check your solds and it is fun to see different backgrounds depending on how long you’ve had the item. Like a snapshot of your scavenging life. I like the ones where you used to model the clothes most of all.
You had a GREAT sale today and I’m looking forward to discussing it next week!!! No spoilers…
I was thinking about younger people and Google lens when I wrote that post. At one point, you needed a subscription to use Terapeak but apparently in April 2021 (three years ago, yikes!) they made it free for all sellers who use Seller Hub.
I have absolutely zero motivation to do eBay when I am sick, even bare minimum like shipping stuff out becomes a chore, so I hope you feel better and can give us some reports how it works soon!
I saw tat a player named, Sean Burroughs, died yesterday. Not to be morbid, but does that make his cards go up in value, at least in the short term?
When I saw that headline, I bought two Burroughs autographed cards directly on the consignment site for $2 to $3 each because I felt these cards were underpriced. I increased the prices by a few bucks. Burroughs career was quite short, just a few years, as he struggled with substance abuse problems which I’m sure contributed to his tragic passing way too young at 43. He wasn’t a star player and he happened to play at the beginning of the modern autograph boom, so he has autographs in about 40 different sets, which is about normal for your average player in the last 20 years and why every card show you can find a seller with bins of $1 or $3 autographs. The prices for Burroughs autographs on the consignment site are about 50% higher than they were 24 hours ago, but the vast majority are under $10 and I think the ones above $10 are very unlikely to sell at that price.
I might make $5 to $10 profit next week or month to a nostalgic Padres fan or someone who was moved by Burroughs life story and wants a few of his cards for their collection. Those buyers still exist, though I think they are the minority in cards compared to flippers and people who are closer to gamblers. I might not sell those two cards until the site’s big Black Friday sale and ultimately only make a couple bucks profit to another flipper. It’s just how the card market is now, and I try and take it all in stride.
Buying and selling cards of players who have passed away is a pretty regular occurrence for me. Whether the player is long retired or younger, the same patterns usually hold. In general, prices spike for a few weeks after the player’s death and slowly prices move back down to where they were except for rare cases like if the player didn’t sign much. Sports teams change year over year, and players card values change along with it. I don’t think it’s too morbid (though I get what you mean) but sometimes it feels strange that part of my job is reading the sports obituaries!
After a player dies, you can always tell the real amateur hour sellers because they put RIP and skull & crossbones emojis in the title of their listings, which is a real poop emoji and I think sellers like that give resellers a bad name.
Christine, the cynical side of me says boo, I hate change! I kind of liked not having Terapeak on the app.
But looking at it from a different perspective, having Terapeak on mobile will make it easier for people who are inexperienced at reselling to look things up. The type of person who scans everything at a thrift store, or the yard sale seller who uses eBay listings as comps. These people aren’t usually the type of resellers who stick around, or the type of sellers who we like to buy from, so not sure it matters.
Especially since “what does this sell for” apps are not exactly hard to find. Ultimately I think this is another move which makes eBay easier to use, which means (in theory) eBay remains the place for people will sell their weird stuff.
eBay also added eBay live functionality on their website (previously was app-only) and I will be curious to see how much more heavily they promote that and how it expands. The trading card consignment company I use does streams four days a week, and it has become a nice little source of extra income for me as I’ve figured out which cards sell well in lives and which don’t. So much of it is depending on who is hosting and who is buying in the stream that day. But, like all other types of buying and selling, there is a logic to it once you really start to pay attention to the patterns and figure out what’s going on.
I would love to see a random gewgaws live stream, or something like postcards run by our old friend spinach eater. Maybe eBay can incentivize new sellers with some kind of bonus similar to the old eBay bucks (RIP). It would not surprise me if there is an eBay elf in a boring meeting pitching these types of ideas, and I hope their boss listens!
4/28/2024 to 5/4/2024
Items in store: 156 (down from 178 last week)
Items sold: 15 — 9 via best offer, 3 via seller initiated offer, 10 via promoted listings
Gross sales: $1047.74 (down 29% from one year ago)
Net sales: $647.79 (down 15% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $69.85 (up 42% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $273.66— CJ Stroud 2023 Leaf Pro Set purple autograph #9/10
CJ Stroud was the top rookie quarterback last year and the hype around his low print rookie cards and autographs has remained at ridiculous levels even though it’s the NFL offseason. I’m having trouble finding my purchase history of this card, but remember paying around $100 for it early last season or maybe even before the season. I don’t love spending $100 to make $150, but when you have a high confidence interval, the math makes sense. I still have two more Stroud autographs in my eBay inventory at very high profit margins, but at some point over the next few weeks, I’ll remove them so I can add them to my next consignment shipment.
Lowest price sold (net): $15.09 — Jordan Travis and Keon Coleman Leaf 1/1 printing proof card
This might be my highest priced low sale of the week in a year or more. One of the perks of a small store and having another stream of reselling income besides eBay. I’ve been really trying to avoid those $10 and $20 space filler listing cards. I send them to consignment or I put them in small lots with a slightly larger profit margin But there are some cases where listing cards like that makes sense, like this 1/1 card featuring two picks from the recent NFL draft who both played for the Florida State Seminoles. There is usually a small window to sell cards like these. There are always new sets, new rookies, new hype players. While it’s possible that Jordan Travis could be the next great QB or Keon Coleman the new top WR, and this card is more valuable down the line, it’s more likely that this card will sell for around $5 next year. It feels good to move it now, and on to the next box of cards and bin of random items to list!
Can we still list open perfumes as collectibles on Ebay? I forget.
I don’t know about perfumes at all, really, but looks like it! All of the opened listings (as opposed to “never opened”) that I checked have the equivalent of a condition note in the description: some language like, we cannot guarantee the fragrance.
I had an epiphany while I was writing this and searched full instead of opened and got a lot more results which, as far as I can tell, confirm that you can sell perfume whether the bottle is full, empty or anywhere in between.
It’s interesting that all your big clothing sales this week were Goodwill finds and yard sales. Anything from the hoarder haul? Or just nothing particularly big?
I have been thinking a little bit lately about what happens with items like your Bose sound bar that take a lot longer to sell than we think they will or than they “should.” I can say that I’ve seen this happen as well, and it’s often with an item that has watchers (like your Bose) and there are a few other similar items available. Not sure if it is buyers waiting for the “best” discount or what’s going on.
I’ve noticed this happen also as I’ve been doing the spring cleaning with my cards business. I’ve been making these large boxes with about 50 graded cards in them. An interested buyer would need to have a deep wallet (I price them at $400 and listen to offers over $250) and do their research to recognize the value of the cards. This is not really an item which has exact competition, like a box of sealed cards from the 2024 xyz set which has a barcode, but I’m curating them so that they have value to a flipper who works differently than I do. I have sold 5 or 6 of these boxes in the last few months, which is enough to know that the next one sell eventually. Sometimes these lots get 15 watchers in the first day and sell at full price. Sometimes I sit on them for a few weeks and negotiate the buyer (which can feel like pulling teeth) up to $290 or $310.
Maybe I do have a theory. Your Bose sound bar listing was competing with all other Bose sound bar 5’s as well as similar brands across eBay, Amazon, etc. The ideal buyer for my graded card flat rates is also considering spending their $300 on single cards, other lots, sealed boxes or packs, case breaks or live auctions.
So maybe it’s harder to close the deal on items that have such this high level of competition compared to the random one-off: the hickory stripe pants in your exact (weird) size, the specific card that’s only sold on eBay three times in the last two years. Those are the items which are more likely to sell at full-price the day they’re listed, or sell randomly whenever your perfect buyer finally comes across the listing or has enough fun money in their budget that week.
I can actually comment on this since I’ve gotten prospective about my card buying and selling, doing the research and trying to plan ahead, instead of seeing a card I sold (bought based on Terapeak comps) and thinking, Huh, Orioles must have won last night. It’s amazing that I was able to sell that way for so long.
First things first, it’s hard for any team to win a game, let alone win the series, when they score 0, 1 and 1 runs in each of the games! The Orioles are on an incredible heater right now with pitching. It’s not just one pitcher but almost everyone. It’s a long season and usually things even out or go back towards the middle. They won’t continue to have multiple pitchers with shutout pitching streaks. Someone will get hurt, someone else will have a few rough games and go down to the minors to get straightened out, and a few of those 2-1 wins will become 2-1 losses.
Of course, this is true for the Reds as well. Most teams are not hitting well versus the Orioles this season. But the Reds hitting has been bad, bad, bad. Batting average is not everything, but the Reds are next to last in the league in team batting average at .210 and teams who hit that poorly almost always finish in last place or close to it. The Reds did well last year and that would be disappointing. But they have a lot of young players and I think they’ll be on a general upswing over the next few seasons. Hopefully some of their top hitters get it together soon. It’s promising that the Reds are nearly even in wins and losses so far this season with the hitting as bad as it’s been.
Great numbers on the Whatnot auctions, really interesting to see. Looking forward to hearing more about your future Whatnot numbers as I buy and sell from livestreams, albeit through a consignment company so it’s not me running the stream. As mentioned in my reply to Jay’s post above, my experience has also been surprisingly positive. It really does feel like hanging out with “our people” in the best moments, and some items sell for more than you would expect. Though most don’t. Maybe as these platforms grow?
Does whatnot offer other bonuses beyond the initial $150? Low fees are nice but it’s nicer for things to consistently sell. I suppose, in theory, you could continue to build a Whatnot brand with those bag sale type of items. Seems like a lot of grinding for a few hundred bucks, though.
Thinking about it now, it’s funny that no one thought to make a “home shopping network” website for eBay sellers.
Jay, this is basically what eBay live is. Click the tab from the homepage on mobile or desktop and you can see all the streams available. The consignor I use (comc_consignment) runs a stream four times a week basically from 12pm to 12am and they get 1000 total viewers in a day. Usually their streams are organized by sport. Bids start at $0.99 and run 15 seconds, plus a 10 second extension when someone bids. I’ve started watching the streams off and on throughout the day while I’m doing my usual buying and selling and photo editing, and anything I win, I can just transfer the cards to my digital COMC account and reprice them there. Or get them shipped to me. Or send them to auction again next week, or next month. Lots of options. I’ve been sending a lot of my cards to auction through the platform as well. Still learning what sells and why, but it’s been profitable the last three weeks. Live auction buyers are a unique species, and live auction card flippers value different cards in different ways, so there is a lot of potential in this format. I’m a little surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying COMC’s streams, but the hosts have unique personalities (one very over the top and silly, one a true sports nerd) and the chat during the streams is well-moderated and surprisingly positive.
I believe eBay live rolled out last fall (?) so right now it’s a lot of collectibles, comics, coins, and luxury goods like handbook. I would love to see a future eBay where you could submit items for a fee (COMC charges $1.50 to $2.00 per card) and your item runs in a future live auction stream. The beauty of the COMC stream is they run it from a room with a table and a COMC card stand in front of a COMC banner, and they auction off one card and open the bidding and congratulate the winner, then put the next one on the stand and repeat all day and night. A little harder with weird gewgaws and oddball items. But I think it would find an audience, slowly, over time. eBay elves, if you’re listening, give me a cut of all future streaming profits and a real answer on what factors go into Best Match search results, and you can take my idea and present it to your boss at eBay as your own.
This past week, for really the last month, I have spent a good chunk of daily eBay time tending my garden, to steal Jay’s term that I loved from last week’s thread. Really went through my inventory methodically. Run auctions, end and sell similar, sent out to 20 to 25 percent offers to watchers. Any individual cards that I thought would sell in my consignment port, I removed them from my eBay store and into a 400 count card storage box to get shipped. I really put in the work and grinded to organize my unsorted inventory, which has been the bane of my existence since as long as I remember reselling. Way back when I started, I used to keep all my eBay crap in the trunk of my car. Now I have a lot of shelves with random crap on them and piles of cards sitting around. I didn’t like it, but I never had the time or energy to really fix it, so I got used to it.
But I am starting to see my progress visually which is very dramatic and exciting. I didn’t have a big week of sales this week, but you can’t put a price on taking steps forward towards your goals. I’m not sure if I can truly finish my spring cleaning before it becomes early summer cleaning, but I’m excited to find out and even more excited to think about what eBay and life might bring for me after that.
4/7/2024 to 4/13/2024
Items in store: 178 (up from 159 last week)
Items sold: 14 — 5 via best offer, 6 via seller initiated offer, 13 via promoted listings
Check out that promoted listings number — 13 out of 14 sold. My PL percentages are 5% and 7.5% and I’m wondering if it might make sense to raise those numbers.
On the surface, 14 seems like a horrific number of sales in a week — just two a day! But for a <200 item store, it’s really not that bad.
Gross sales: $710.36 (down 55% from one year ago)
Net sales: $445.64 (down 55% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $50.74 (down 11% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $85.14— Honus Wagner and Dave Bancroft 2014 National Treasures bat card /25
Honus Wagner was one of the greats of early 20th century baseball and I held on to this card until I received an offer over $100 because I get a real pleasure out of selling cards like this. A little piece of baseball history.
Lowest price sold (net): $8.24 — Dre Greenlaw 2019 Panini Contenders Draft blue autograph rookie card
You know it’s a good week when you have so much good stuff that you can’t really remember it all! What did you pay for the Harley jacket? I’ve wanted to find one of those at a thrift store forever…
Christine, what do you look for when looking at clear glass? Is it just how heavy it is or the design or some kind of marks?
The little church thrift store by me has a room full of stuff like this, but I have no idea what I’m looking at so I have assumed that it’s junk like everything else in their store. But your post got me thinking I might be wrong.
These yard sale scores are amazing.
Love the record tote, and the yard sale who sold you a nice pair of women’s snow boots for a measly dollar. I would love to find a yard sale like that!
I feel like a lot of people pass up tools with batteries and chargers at Goodwill because there’s a lot of junk, and who knows if what’s inside is a different item or maybe it doesn’t work. This feels like an area where knowledge can go a long way and the ability to repair or test things can be really helpful. I don’t know anything about any of that stuff. But maybe someday!
