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Christine, I’m not sure if there’s a “limit” on how much to do end and sell similar. I have been trying to go through all my listings at least once a month. I’ll take some of my card lot listings down and change up the cards in the listing. Or with some of the other stuff I sell, I’ll drop the price by $5 or $10. Or, if nothing else, just a basic end and sell similar. The algorithm loves it when you “touch” your listings.
Besides the algorithm, I’ve found that this process helps me a lot more psychologically. When I engage with the items I’ve listed, then I start dealing with the inventory I haven’t listed. I cleared off a shelf the other day which was all full of framed or matted items. Sports memorabilia, autographs, music and concert memorabilia. None of it’s listed. I don’t even remember where or when I got some of this stuff. I might not have the time or energy to get it all listed this week…but surely I can do one or two of the smaller ones…and if I do one or two, I’ll probably do three or four.
Listing my death piles reminds me a lot of my favorite book when I was a little kid, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If I give myself space for new inventory, I will fill it up and I will probably let those death piles grow. But I have been trying to flip that around this year and last year. If I go through one bin every few days, pretty soon I will have an organized space. It’s always a work in progress, but for the last couple months I’ve been winning the battle which makes those inevitable slow eBay weeks a lot more bearable.
That Ghostbusters sale is bound to get me right back on the procrastination train. Next stop…a mess of junk in a USPS bin that I won’t touch for two years! No, I won’t let myself get back there…I’m just going to congratulate you on a nice sale and go through a bin full of obscure books later this week.
Those warped Beatles records are such a tragedy. I loved your description and I think there are a select very few potential buyers who still read descriptions and would be swayed by such an honest description from a seller who truly appreciates the item. I hope that your buyer was one of them, and leaves you a nice feedback.
Sharyn, I think the dividing line for North/South Jersey is around Trenton area. Everyone down here thinks Central Jersey is a myth, but I think there is that section of the state like Monmouth/Middlesex/Mercer counties that really is an in-between. Not close enough to NYC to be considered North Jersey but not far enough south to get fully consumed by hoagie and wooder ice culture.
I live down the street from a dive bar and love hearing everyone go nuts when Philly sports are having a moment. I’m hopeful the Eagles pull it out, the Chiefs have had enough Super Bowls and it will be good for someone else to get a turn.
That old Yiddish book is so neat looking! Did your neighbor collect these types of items for their value, and now they’re cashing in, or just downsizing and happy to make a buck from these things that they don’t need anymore?
What are your thoughts on the Paul Skenes 1:1 card?
In case anyone is not familiar, here is the story Retro is referring to. Basic summary is, last year was the first year that Topps partnered with MLB to put special patches on the debuting rookies uniforms, and then those patches were inserted as very rare special inserts into boxes with odds of like 1:50,000. Most of the cards you will pull out of boxes are regular base cards, sometimes insert sets which appear one in every few packs, and so on. But not every box has an autograph, let alone a special autographed patch with MLB debut patch from the player’s actual uniform.
If that’s not enough, Paul Skenes was the #1 rookie last year who had one of the top rookie pitching seasons of all-time, so his 1/1 card is by far the best one…the hype is real with his cards and, in my opinion, justified. And this 11 year old kid from California pulled the 1/1 Skenes auto debut patch card from his one Christmas box. Amazing!
Like most card people, I was extremely cynical when I first heard the news that it was all a bunch of marketing bs. But the NY Times article does some good reporting. Seems like the story’s real. So all I can say is…good for this kid! I think it was smart of him to pass up the Pirates offer for the card to send the card to a big auction house. This is a $50,000+ card. Maybe more. High end modern and vintage cards sell like high end pieces of art. But what I love about cards, as much as I kind of cringe at these prices, is that I don’t think there are any 11 year old art dealers out there!
There were still cheap-o $1 and $2 packs of cards in the late 90s, but you’re right that higher and higher end packs and sets became normal. The hobby changed like crazy over the last couple decades. But I think it was going to end up this way no matter what. Technology and streaming really changed a lot of industries, and continue to change them, collectibles being one and online auctions another. It’s different than it was when I was a kid buying cards at the local hobby shop! But I like change. When you’re a scavenger, change is a way of life.
Every time I’ve gone to a card show in the last couple years (always to drop off a thousand or more cards at the consignor I use, then I leave and find a nice hole in the wall to get lunch), there are always kids like 8 to 14 years old (I don’t have kids…terrible with guessing ages of kids) walking around with thick Pelican briefcases that are mostly full of graded modern cards which are worth about as much as my entire eBay inventory. They know what they want to trade for (all the big names in a gem mint PSA 10 or a 9 at worst) and they know all the sold prices on eBay. It makes me feel old and it blows my mind at the same time. But at least young people are still involved in the hobby! That gives me a little more hope that I can still live this scavenger’s life, with cards a central part of it, for at least a few more years. I’m really happy about that.
I have this weird knack for finding out about those rummage sales and church sales the day after they happen or the next week. I’m not much of a social media person, and because of that sometimes I miss events that I would enjoy. But I hope to remedy that a little bit this year by planning ahead a little more.
Christine, we had snow in the Philly area over the last few weeks for the first time in a few winters. It was wonderful the first and second times, but by the third time I was ready for spring. Too much ice and wind! I have lived in New Jersey my whole life, but it may be time for a warmer climate soon…
Nice job listing 6 days last week! I hope this means you will see really strong sales this week. Usually that is how it goes for me — I list a lot one week, and I see stronger sales than normal a week or two later.
If you keep up the listing momentum this week (or even if you don’t), on one of the days you don’t, give end/sell similar a try on some of your oldest listings. Mostly to make your store look really active for the algorithm. But also because you mentioned that your sales are usually horrible through February. Best way to fight that is use every tool in your seller’s toolbox.
Retro, I think you have such a strong foundation for your store with so many systems in place to reprice and reorganize that it makes a lot of sense for you to phase out promoted listings. There are probably special cases where promoting will still make sense, but you have such a strong grasp of pricing your items to sell that I don’t know how much it matters. I agree that weaning off them slowly makes sense, and it’s not like you couldn’t quickly and easily turn promoted listings back on if your sales drop off or you have a specific target you like to hit.
I am not brave enough to go down that road! I am still sticking with your system of not promoting the item on the initial listing, then promoting it at 5% (sometimes I go 7.5%) when I do end and sell similar after 30/60/90 days. I do have some exceptions for bulky items since I don’t have a ton of space for my inventory and am fairly disorganized with the space I do have. I don’t know if this is the best way to use promoted listings in terms of maximizing my net profit, but it is the system that has worked best for me (by far) in terms of not thinking about this stuff too much and keeping me motivated and focused on the big picture stuff: listing, photographing, shipping.
The promoted listings conversation is always so interesting to me because I have only used promoted listings for a few years. When I first started using it, it was like turning on a faucet for sales. And I would definitely recommend that to any eBay seller who hasn’t had that experience! But slowly the numbers evened back out over time, and I think that’s the case for everyone unless you are just fanatical about listing, listing, listing good new items and pricing them well and keeping your inventory very organized. And those slower weeks where your net sales are <$1000 and you’re losing an extra 5% (or more) on many of your sales because they were promoted…it can be discouraging.
I do think that promoted listings remains a great option for listings that are 6 months or older, especially after doing an end/sell similar and making sure your price is not completely out of line with reality. Also for listings with a lot of competition. But for those unique one-off items, I don’t think promoted listings really makes sense.
Unless you’re like me and you sometimes deal with option paralysis about pricing, repricing, what to list, how to list it, etc. In which case — find a system that works for you and stick to that. And if you pay an extra 5% for promoting a listing sometimes, like I do? Hey, at least it’s a little extra money in your pocket. Use some of that profit to buy something else, and hopefully it’s a unique item or one with strong enough recent sales that you won’t even need to promote it to get it gone.
Anyone else’s sales running hot and cold so far in 2025? I’ve had more days with 0 to 2 sales (and hardly any offers) than I would like, but also some days with huge numbers so that the numbers as a whole have basically come out to what I would expect or hope for.
I had a strong weekend of sales, so Sunday night I took an hour out of my evening and sent a good chunk of my eBay inventory (275 items) to auction at opening bids around half my original buy it now. It’s been a while since I did auctions. But I like to experiment and tweak this time of year. Auctions are super hit and miss, even in the collectibles niche where auctions remain pretty popular. Adding a best offer to your auctions (as opposed to a straight buy it now) is a pretty cool feature. Every time I run auctions, I always get a few sales I’m happy with from buyers sending an offer. I had one sale this week where the original listing was $20, I sent to auction with an opening bid of $9.99 and a buyer sent me an offer for…$20. If only they all went like that!
1/19/2024 to 1/25/2024
Total listings: 356
New listings this week: 12
Items sold: 27 — 10 via best offer, 10 via seller initiated offer, 16 via advertising
Gross sales: $1139.27 (down 18% from one year ago)
Net sales: $755.38 (down 18% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $42.20 (up 15% from one year ago)
High sale of the week: $81.59 net, about $50 after COGS Bruno Fernandes autographed jersey card /149 2021-22 Panini Obsidian
Over the last couple years, I’ve hit quite a few more estate sales and garage sales than you’d think for a guy who never sells anything from those sources. Maybe they’re not a good source in this area, maybe I don’t have a good eye for those types of items or maybe I have a knack for picking the bad ones.
But they all seemed full of so much junk to me, with everything that I knew a little bit about very overpriced. Like going to a bad thrift store, but worse. I really struggled even to find those eye catching finds where you may not know what it’s worth or what it will sell for, but the item looks quality. I’m sure it’s area dependent. And I probably missed plenty of things that didn’t look like much, but sell fast for a good price.
If I feel the itch to scavenge out in the real world during spring and summer, I’m definitely going to try and check out some different flea markets and garage sales. It’s always good to have a wide range of how you source for items. Like working all the different muscle groups in your body, but for scavenging.
Christine, how early are you getting to the flea market that you’re helping someone unpack? How does the situation come up where you see someone unloading their vehicle and decide, I’m going to help them? What kind of discount does this get you? Tell us the full story if you would, please…
What a roller coaster of a find in three sentences! Hopefully the small metal files are the perfect size for cleaning out all the dried-up modelling glue from the nooks and crannies of the organizer.
I’ve been hovering around 400 listings for about a month now, and last week was basically a wash with 21 sold and 19 listed. Hoping to list more than I sell this week, and off to a good start so far with 16 new listings in the last three days. I do have a tendency to slow down on listings towards the end of the week, which is not necessarily good or bad, simply how I choose to spend my time. It crossed my mind last week that if I can bank 10-15 “easy” items to save for quick listings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, maybe I can finally get over the hump of 500 listings in my eBay inventory by February! But I’m fine if I never get there, too. I hope everything sells. Sell it all.
1/5/2024 to 1/11/2024
Total listings: 402
New listings this week: 19
Items sold: 21 — 12 via best offer, 5 via seller initiated offer, 8 via advertising
Gross sales: $962.70 (down 28% from one year ago)
Net sales: $588.21 (down 27% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $45.84 (up 17% from one year ago)
High sale of the week: $67.46 net, about $40 after COGS Lauri Markkanen locker room nameplate from the 2018 NBA All-Star Skills challenge
Going all the way to Lauri’s home country of Finland! Love eBay for connecting items like this with a buyer who wants them.
Christine, I think it’s not as much that it’s a slow time of year for me. January and February are pretty decent in the sports memorabilia and cards world, football playoffs plus basketball, hockey, soccer all in the middle of their seasons. I also think that January and February are pretty decent months for eBay in general. But I have gotten way more selective in what I’m buying to list on eBay. I know what items I will get excited about listing, and I haven’t been finding those at the prices I want. Also, I am committed to working through my death piles. Even with the cards I buy for my consignment inventory — my average COGS so far this month is $2.57. Last year, it was $4.15. And I’ve been buying about half as much. We’ll see if this holds up — one $$$ purchase can skew those numbers — but I have quite a few cards in the processing queue of my consignment port, so I’ve decided I don’t need to buy inventory unless I’m really, really, really (3 reallys) confident that it’s a good pickup.
I’ve been to the bins a few times. I can see the appeal, but they’re not for me. Same with the local flea markets. But I’m going to some new flea markets in the spring and see how that goes. If they aren’t an outlet for me to buy inventory, maybe one weekend I will get a table and sell some stuff.
Nice haul. That backpack is very colorful. I think the scavenging spidey sense is very real. When I went to that big library sale in Chicago, that was a spontaneous trip…but I just had a feeling I needed to go check it out. Even when there was a line the first day, and big crowds (two things I usually avoid), I pushed through.
I get that excited feeling when I find something in the $200 and up range for cheap. $100 isn’t exactly bread and butter, it’s a good score. But once you’ve been doing this a while, you have the knowledge that maybe that $100 listing will only sell after a year for or might only net you $50 after COGS and shipping and fees. However, a potential $100+ profit is always exciting to me, and I hope that never changes.
I love collectibles. $50 for that beer can? You love to see it!
The model kit makes me want to buy out a toy store/card shop owner. Put it on my scavenger’s bucket list, I guess.
Your mention of the mandela effect made me curious just how many eBay sellers think that’s they read the Berenstein Bears books as kids, and the answer is…there are hundreds of us.
