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Happy birthday Jay and Ryanne. Thank you for keeping our little slice of the internet going, and congratulations on everything you’ve accomplished this year. Looking forward to seeing what new adventures you two have in the works for the next year.
I had another successful batch of monthly auctions this past week. Back in the day, eBay auctions were maybe a different animal than they are now. I rarely see many bidding wars. But every month, a few items which had been sitting in my inventory forever sell for the opening bid, which I set at 50% of my buy it now price. I’m space limited (for now) so this is a nice way to keep the pipeline flowing smoothly, and then when I relist unsold items, that’s another chance for things to sell — particularly if I adjust my prices or offer settings downward a bit. Something to keep in mind especially for those of you have items in collectibles categories. Auction listings are free in many collectibles categories with a store, and so is scheduling the start time and adding a best offer feature.
Another benefit: my auctions ended on a Monday and all but a few were paid for by Wednesday. Zero non-paying bidders too. That’s not the norm but it was nice to see things run so smoothly.
6/4/2023 to 6/10/2023
Items sold: 72 (43 via auction, 23 via best offer, 7 via seller initiated offer, 15 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $2770.77 (down 18% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1869.99 (down 24% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $38.48 (down 31% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $165.03— Mixed lot of graded and encased cards
Lowest price sold (net): $8.72— Max Scherzer no-hitter bobblehead giveaway from a Washington Nationals game
I’ve been thinking about this video for the last few days. It would have led to some really interesting discussion in the heyday of the podcast and these forums. I agree with some of his points and not so much with others but some of that is my own scavenging story which is different from most. I didn’t have a safety net when I started. I source really heavily when I find good buys if I’m confident I will make a good profit.
But I see where he’s coming from with most of his points. I thought it was ironic that one of his best buys (around points #3 and #4, the table of sealed collectible items and cameras) was purchased from a viewer. Not exactly something that can be duplicated easily.
But I know a lot of YouTube flippers make a lot of deals with viewers, both buying and selling. Seems weird and unsustainable to me, but I think for a few people it works as the foundation of their business. Scavenging is a strange concept to some people, too — look at all the things that all of us can find for a few bucks or less which others miss.
I did like #6 a lot. One of the biggest virtues of this life is that it can be as low stress as you want it to be. Selling online can teach you to not sweat the small stuff if you let it, because most of the individual components that go into selling on eBay or selling online are either out of your control (the eBay algorithm, the natural ebb and flow to sales throughout the year) or you have a ton of flexibility (sourcing, listing, shipping).
I ran my monthly auctions this past week, and I’ll give a full rundown in next week’s numbers thread, but these numbers are pretty good considering 2/3 of my inventory was listed at auction all week. I’ve really improved in the last few months at consistently listing good quality items which sell quickly. I find it really gratifying to post something new and watch it sell within a few days or a week, especially when it’s a very unique item.
5/28/2023 to 6/3/2023
Items sold: 23 (11 via best offer, 9 via seller initiated offer, 20 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $1028.25 (down 57% from one year ago)
Net sales: $506.90 (down 70% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $44.71 (down 27% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $60.05 — Flat rate box of magnetic trading card holders
Really nice on a slow week that my highest price sale is true scavenging. I remove all the cards I buy from their cases before I sort them into new sleeves and whichever inventory box they belong, and as long as the cases are in decent condition, I pile them into a flat rate box and list it when it’s full. A few extra bucks in my pocket, buyer gets a good deal compared to the price of new supplies and there’s a little less trash in the world. The circle of eBay.
Lowest price sold (net): $7.72— The Writings of Nichiren Daishonen Volume 1 book
I could have increased my profit by shipping this any other way besides priority mail, but I had a regional A box (RIP) handy and the buyer purchased this while I was packaging up my other sold items that day. I only pay a buck or two for most of my media items since I buy them from thrift stores and library sales, so I don’t care much at all about maximizing my profit down to the last dollar. I’m sure I would if books were my main niche, but that seems like a slog. There are a lot of weird items that go unnoticed out in the wild though. Like a lot of the books I sell, this one didn’t have a barcode. But it wasn’t completely rare. There were a handful of other copies listed in the $20 and up range, with solds in the $20 range, but I figured if I priced it at $20 I would get an offer in the $15 range pretty quickly, and it was nice to see that hunch pay off.
I do a base 5% ad rate for promoted listings on newly listed items and after I run them through an auction cycle (usually after 60 days without a sale), I bump it up to 7.5%.
I will say that I’ve noticed a boost in my sales compared to when I had the rates at 2% or 3%, especially on items where I have a lot of possible competition for the listing. I think it’s worth boosting ad rates on items where you want your listing to stand out among a sea of similar listings, or if you have some wiggle room on price. Who knows how eBay’s secret sauce works in terms of why these items sell, but as long as things are selling I’m happy. 5% or 7.5% is nothing compared to what I’d make selling all my stuff on other sites or locally.
Wow, pottery queen strikes gold again! That bowl is so beautiful. Amazing how something with that level of craftsmanship ends up donated to Goodwill…then posted on Goodwillfinds…and lucky to find it on there considering what a mishmash that site can be…plus you got it for a good price. I’ve browsed Goodwillfinds a few times in the last few weeks since you’ve been finding some neat stuff on there. Nothing for me yet. But I’ll keep trying.
Also, your week of scavenging has to be one for the end of year best of. What a Goodwill you have near you. Where did you find the golf clubs? And what were the runners up to your honorable mentions?
Played around with some of the keywords in the title on your Kobe listing and I came up with this.
Nike DriFit Kobe Bryant T shirt XXL Los Angeles Lakers Retirement Trophy GOAT
The rule with card selling on eBay for 20+ years is squeeze in the full team name (city and nickname) to the title if you can. It’s less important now that there is so much flipping going on (a lot of buyers search for specific player and type of card) but there are still plenty of team collectors out there. I don’t deal in clothing nearly as much but the few times I’ve listed jerseys and things of that nature, I followed the same pattern and they sold. Make of that what you will. I’m sure your shirt will sell eventually regardless of title.
Kobe cards saw really huge sales spikes after his death. Autographs in particular but all of his cards to a certain degree. Prices are lower now, of course, but still well above where they were three years ago. I’ve had some good success selling a small lot of 10 Lakers cards in the $20 range once I started adding a $3 Kobe card. His cards might even carry more weight than LeBron who IMO is the real GOAT, but I won’t tell your shirt buyer that.
I always have a hard time with textbooks, in part because I spent a few years teaching college English (mostly during grad school) and hated the principle of expensive textbooks. Then anytime I’ll find a textbook out in the wild that looks current and valuable, it turns out the textbook has been updated 16 times and the old edition is essentially worth negative dollars.
But you should do well with your set, another set of 6 just sold for $150 a few days ago, so hopefully that means you’ll hear the cha-ching sound on yours very soon.
This thread was too quiet this week, but I hope that means everyone is out scavenging life experiences instead. I have some nice scores for next week that I am looking forward to sharing.
Thanks for the info and link, I enjoyed Dave’s blog quite a bit. Found myself getting nostalgic reading his post reflecting on Blockbuster. Certainly scratched that itch for nostalgia better than the since-cancelled Netflix show!
Are you doing sell similar on old listings or any markdown sale or promotion when you have these weeks where you list zero new items? Those things helped my sales stay afloat when I had very little time to devote to eBay early this year. Dropping the price on old items and running monthly auctions (starting bid half price of my buy it now) helped as well.
None of this changes the overall dynamics of eBay — some items you will simply need to wait a year for the right buyer to come along, some items will sell within 24 hours of creating the listing for full price, some items sell at random times for mysterious reasons. But it has helped keep my inventory from growing too stale which I think is important to eBay’s algorithm circa 2023. More importantly, it got some extra money in my pocket so I could move on to new stuff. You are not as space limited as me, so different concerns than I have and obviously different niches, but I think these are always interesting questions to ask ourselves.
I follow your store so I see that you’ve been firing off listings the last couple days. I hope you have a great weekend of sales.
Oh well, this week starts my summer challenge – 13 weeks and 1000 listings. If that doesn’t get my store a-rockin then I might as well quit. I got off to a good start and posted 7 listings this morning. I have to average 77 a week.
I will be in awe if you meet this challenge, but you are so disciplined about this that I think you can do it and your store will reap so many benefits in the second half of the year from listing at such a dedicated rate. Your kids enthusiasm could be inspirational, but whether they stick with it or not, you’re giving them a fountain of knowledge that will serve them well as they grow up. So many people look at money so differently than we do, like once it’s spent, it’s gone. But that’s such a limiting approach. We can and should do better, and it’s really great that you’re teaching your kids like this.
My second big sale was from a repeat customer who has been regularly buying ornaments for the past few months. She ordered 6 of my higher priced ornaments and I gave her 35% off for her regular patronage with me getting $143.
This is such a smart approach to take with repeat customers. eBay as a platform is so large that I think there is always the potential to lose repeat customers for any reason. Maybe that’s just a consequence of how easy it is to buy and sell online, period. But when those repeat customers come back to your store, throwing them a bone is the best way to keep them possibly coming around for a little while longer. Nice work.
I would love to see what your buyer’s Christmas tree or lawn looks like. Or whatever they are decorating. Are there other types of ornaments?
One of my favorite things about selling cards is that sometimes I get buyers who are really excited about their collection. Then they send me happy messages once they receive their card and photos of their collection with the new card displayed with all the others they have. I don’t have the same instinct to keep things long-term like they do, maybe I’ll keep a one-off item here and there, but I like to see other people’s enthusiasm for the things they love and selling on eBay allows me to do that quite a bit.
My numbers were very strong last week, and it’s only because of the time and effort I’ve put in to expand my store into different categories. My sales of individual trading cards last week were down about 50% from last year, which has been very consistent with my numbers over the last six months. However, I had around $1100 in gross sales in other categories, everything from trading card lots to trading card supplies to model trains and Lord of the Rings calendars.
Also, my individual trading card sales are still just as strong as last year. But more of those sales happen in my consignment port now. The individual trading cards which I list on eBay are all ones that I think will sell quickly for a nice price. No more listing $10 and $20 cards and waiting for the right buyer to pay 75% or more of my asking so I can make five bucks profit. The low priced cards (or photos, as you’ll read below) which I list are all things that I have in quantity. There is a lot more method to my madness now compared to a year ago. This has made eBay more fun and interesting for me, and I think probably more sustainable in the long term.
5/21/2023 to 5/27/2023
Items sold: 40 (20 via best offer, 9 via seller initiated offer, 26 via promoted listings)
Gross sales: $2249.37 (down 6% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1500.33 (down 11% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $56.23 (down 6% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $159.72 — Marty Friedman JSA certified autographed photo
This was a really quick flip, sold within 48 hours of me posting it. Bought on eBay for $25, original listing that I bought from was okay, but auctions are not a good way to sell something as obscure as an NBA Hall of Famer who played pre-World War I.
Second place was this 2-car model train set which I go into more detail about over in the Sale of the Week thread. It’s the first model train set I’ve ever sold and maybe the last, but I’m thrilled to see another example of how doing the research pays off.
Lowest price sold (net): $7.98— Jalen Wilson autographed 8×10 photo
I have dozens of this same autographed photo, purchased in lots of 10 a few months back for a buck or two each. At some point, I will want to liquidate, but Wilson was a star hooper at Kansas (recently graduated) who may get drafted late in the second round of the NBA draft next month. So I may get occasional $10 sales for quite a while still.
I used to have an Epson scanner with a cold cathode fluorescent lamp; that scanned coins and other stuff.
As usual, @antique-frog provides the best advice. I use an epson ccd scanner for the trading card arm of my business, it’s a night and day difference in picture quality compared to the printer/scanner combos.
The model I have is the Perfection V600 and it runs for about $250 new, but of course I got mine much cheaper than that. Though it’s a flatbed scanner, you can still scan with the scanner bed open and the background will come out dark. I can fit about 6 regular sized trading cards in cases or three graded cards on the flatbed. I scan front and back and crop the scans for individual cards or resize the window for lot listings. Pretty intuitive software too. I would recommend this scanner if you deal in a lot of smalls. It was a game changer for me in terms of speed and efficiency once I got used to the software.
I can see why you set up your scavenging rules now. It must be easy to fill all that space up with good items…but sometimes good items take quite a long time to sell.
You are basically living my dream once I get a few more years of city and city-adjacent living out of my system. But the eventual goal is something like what you described. Particularly the barn style shed and having a garage/separate area as my main office and workspace. Now, back to my one bedroom office, inventory and storage station to finish up with today’s outgoing packages…
Noted on the California Raisins stuff. I feel like I knew that already, maybe I sold a California Raisins CD at some point years ago.
I was looking at the book lots too, probably a no-go for space reasons right now, but definitely something to keep in mind for winter scavenging if I have moved into a larger place by then as I would like to
