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I don’t know if this will help anyone, but I like to get more analytical about my business when I start worrying about the economy, the news or the state of the world. It’s important to remember that buying things online has been around for 25+ years now and it’s not going away anytime soon. Things will sell as long as you keep listing and price them well. Nothing moving and that’s make you anxious? Change your offer settings, end and sell similar your oldest 100 listings, add promoted listings at 5% to a bunch of items. Don’t put this stuff off! Remember, the goal is to get some more things shipped out this week. Keep the faith…
Retro’s post above about 45 listings, 45 sales, $45 average sales price leading to $100K in a year is really something to think about. Every reseller starts from 0 listings, and the only way to build up your store from that point is to buy and sell and keep building those pipelines. But what good is a roomful of inventory if it’s full of things that aren’t listed or most of it isn’t selling? This is always one of the big challenges with selling online.
For the last month or so, I’ve focused on organizing my space (always my biggest battle personally) and creating strong new listings. I do the research, I price them well, I promote the listings and I accept offers. My sell-through rate for my store has been over 10% for the last three weeks. I’m very happy with that. My goal this week is to keep doing the work, to do what I can to continue this momentum, and not get too discouraged if the numbers drop slightly over the rest of July. Q4 is around the corner and I am setting myself up for success.
6/30/2024 to 7/6/2024
Items in store: 307 (up from 303 two weeks ago)
Items sold: 37 — 16 via best offer, 12 via seller initiated offer, 29 via advertising
Gross sales: $1654.79 (up 129% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1039.46 (up 170% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $44.72 (up 11% from one year ago)
I took a little vacation around this time last year, so that’s why these numbers are so high compared to one year ago.
Highest price sold (net): $235.44 — Lord Nelson battle flag relic card from 2011 Goodwin Champions
Lowest price sold (net): $11.11 — William Contreras 2021 Donruss Optic holo autograph rookie card
Do you pay for the promotions where they put ads for your items on other sites and charge you per click even if then item doesnt sell?
I don’t do any of the pay per click stuff, just promoted listings standard at 5% on new listings and 7.5% on anything older than 30 days, anything big and bulky and anything I can restock once the listing sells (like my card lots sorted by team, or cards I have duplicates). So I pay the promoted listing fee when the item sells and the buyer clicked on that promoted listing or another one from my store in the last 30 days, which happens on about half of my sales.
I have been thinking about messing around with Promoted Listings Advanced on some of my non-card inventory like signed memorabilia which has been in the store a few months with no watchers and no offers. I’d love to learn how to use the feature. I’m sure most sellers could benefit from knowing how to best use promoted listings.
But I like to set it and forget, and it’s so simple to run a markdown sale or send stuff to auction that I will probably just do that instead.
I wonder how useful offsite ads would be for a seller like me where most of my buyers know to go to eBay to find their cards, memorabilia, or weird books and media that I sell occasionally. Same for your store with thrift store and auction finds, Americana, random items that you come across. Are people really Googling for items like that, then clicking on the eBay search that comes up, then buying from you? I’m suspicious. But buying trends change so fast that it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that offsite ads are worth it for some sellers.
Christine, do you think the ebay yarnlady is this yarn lady?
I get sales like that every so often where it’s someone with an obvious online presence…always interesting to see…and love when they pay full price. I knew there was money in yarn, cross-stitch etc but $180. Wow! Great sale!!
Poor Travis Pastrana figure with a bum leg! Nice $100 sale though. What is your packing method for all those little guys? I assume you’re not bubble wrapping each one individually…
The Butchers DVD looks like exactly the kind of junk horror that I love on a rainy weekend. Well, maybe love is the wrong word. One of the reviews on its Wikipedia page calls it “an abhorrent sleazy little movie that will only serve to repel and disgust anyone that’s unfortunate to come across it.”
Sounds like $30 well spent to me!
I would love to be able to fly through listings in the app. I have a laptop where I do all my eBay work (buying and selling) and would love to shift some of that to the phone, so I could work more on the go and be in front of the computer less.
But functionality for everything I use for eBay is so much worse on the phone. It would take me so much longer to use Gixen, my favorite bid sniper program because it’s so much easier to copy and paste item numbers in multiple tabs. And as Retro said, templates are a no-go in the eBay app. Plus looking up prices in Terapeak is so much easier in a browser.
What are other selling apps like? Etsy? Mercari? I’ve used them as a buyer but never as a seller.
Jay, I think my favorite part about making these lots is picking out a few bonus cards to send with each order. It helps that I have gotten so much more organized in the last few months, it makes the whole workflow a lot smoother and I pick out the bonus cards as I’m sorting out the next lot I make to replace the one that sold. I get a lot of lengthy feedback comments too, which is cool. Here’s a few of the positives I’ve received in the last few weeks:
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<div class=”card__comment”><span data-test-id=”fdbk-comment-17″ aria-label=”Best purchase ever! Awesome seller, super quick shipping, cards all in great shape, great deal, sweet extra cards!!! Very happy, thank you so much!”>Best purchase ever! Awesome seller, super quick shipping, cards all in great shape, great deal, sweet extra cards!!! Very happy, thank you so much!</span></div>
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<div><span data-test-id=”fdbk-comment-19″ aria-label=”Great seller! Made my son one happy boy for doing so well on his report card. Thanks”>Great seller! Made my son one happy boy for doing so well on his report card. Thanks</span></div>
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<div><span data-test-id=”fdbk-comment-23″ aria-label=”Not sure if those extra cards were supposed to be sent or not but I appreciate it if you did send extra it was great doing business with you and if you have any more good Washington lots contact me if you can I’d love to get a deal going thanks again have a blessed day!”>Not sure if those extra cards were supposed to be sent or not but I appreciate it if you did send extra it was great doing business with you and if you have any more good Washington lots contact me if you can I’d love to get a deal going thanks again have a blessed day!</span></div>
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<div><span data-test-id=”fdbk-comment-19″ aria-label=”So awesome!! Cards were exactly as expected and in perfect care. Fast shipping and even an extra couple cards..WHATTT!! Definitely will be back again. “>So awesome!! Cards were exactly as expected and in perfect care. Fast shipping and even an extra couple cards..WHATTT!! Definitely will be back again. </span></div>
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<div>It feels a little bit like old school eBay from 10 years ago to receive comments like this, especially since most buyers (myself included) don’t really leave feedback anymore. I would say about half of the buyers who leave comments like this end up buying from me again. Because sports teams are always changing, it takes quite a bit of research and time to stay current and make sure I’m not including cards of a player who got traded last year or that rookie who blew the game last week. But it’s fun work, especially when I change up the cards in a lot and it sells very quickly.</div>
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<div>I am really curious to see how these lots will sell as we approach Q4. I’ve been making them off and on for over a year now, but really stepped them up this year to where they’ve become a solid chunk of my business. I don’t know what the upper limit is for how many I can make or sell in a week, but I’d love to find out.</div>Retro, I hope you and your wife are celebrating a new addition to the family this weekend! Amazing everything that you can accomplish with so much going on, your ambition always inspires me. I’ll be spending this weekend in my little fan vortex knocking out as many listings as I can and shifting things around to improve my workflow and inventory space…maybe squeeze in a little nap, too!
Christine, I’ll be curious to see what your numbers are like the next few weeks while you’re running sales and then once they’re over. It’s always good to see the results of these little tweaks to our prices, even if it’s hard to find specific patterns since some weeks are naturally busier or slower than others.
I haven’t done a markdown sale in quite some time, but I do something similar to you when I send out offers. I will send out 20% offers to watchers even if I just created the listing in the last few days. Not on everything, some items I think I can get full price for or I am fine waiting a few months, but on probably half of my listed inventory. I think with certain buyers, price really matters and with certain types of items where there is lots of competition or it’s a want/nice to have listing versus a need, you have a narrow window to make a deal before they move on to spend their money elsewhere. So an extra $5 off can become the factor in making a sale.
It wasn’t that long ago that you had less than 1000 listings! So you’ve really been cranking out those listings. It should be a really good Q4 for you.
6/23/2024 to 6/29/2024
Items in store: 303 (up from 270 two weeks ago)
Items sold: 30 — 17 via best offer, 8 via seller initiated offer, 21 via promoted listings
It felt slow to me last week, but I’m very happy to have sold 30 items with only 300 active listings. It’s so important to do the numbers to keep your feelings about eBay in check.
Gross sales: $1289.09 (down 28% from one year ago)
Net sales: $852.36 (down 29% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $42.97 (down 4% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $146.62 — Paul Skenes 2023 Panini Stars & Stripes autograph jersey /85
Lowest price sold (net): $10.86 — Josh Metellus 2020 Panini Contenders Draft blue auto
Jay, what percentage are you and Ryanne running on promoted listings these days? I had an $85 sale with no promoted listing fee this morning and it felt like the good old days for a brief moment. I’ve stuck with 5% to 7.5% promoted listings this year and I promote everything. I’m not sure it’s the best way to go, but it’s been working so I haven’t messed with it in over a year.
Two weeks of numbers since I was a big slacker last week. Made it to 300 listings this past weekend, and now let’s get to 400 by the end of July…
6/16/2024 to 6/22/2024
Items sold: 31 — 21 via best offer, 3 via seller initiated offer, 16 via promoted listings
These numbers are a good reminder that watchers aren’t automatically going to become buyers. But there are all sorts of factors that go into this. I send 20 to 25 percent offers. Some of these buyers counter at 40 or 50 percent off my BIN. I don’t want to go that low. But maybe you do…in which case, send those big offers out! Especially with a holiday weekend coming up…
Gross sales: $1109.19 (down 43% from one year ago)
Net sales: $738.92 (down 42% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $35.78 (down 13% from one year ago)
I’ve been thinking about my ASP a lot lately since I’ve shifted my focus in the last few months to the small card lots I make. It can be frustrating when your ASP drops! But analyzing the numbers helped me figure out that I created this “problem.” Now I need to do the work to solve it by listing some higher-dollar items and maybe slashing prices on some of my older, high-priced slow movers.
Highest price sold (net): $80.60 — Jared Jones 2020 Leaf 1/1 autographed printing plate
A staggering 80% of my sales this week were my curated team lots, so this was far and away my largest sale by over $50.
Lowest price sold (net): $9.43 — Eric Montross 1995 Signature Rookies autograph
I rarely mess around with cards from the mid-90s, but occasionally I’ll make an exception for a quick flip. Montross was a very successful college basketball player who didn’t have much of a pro career, and he passed away a few months ago, so the sell-through rate on his cards is a bit higher. I have a few more of these in stock, but probably best to shift them to consignment and sell them for $5 than keep them in my eBay store waiting months to get $9. With limited space and time, always better to focus on higher profit and faster moving items.
Even in a heat wave where the apartment was unbearably hot during the day, I made steady progress again with my eBay store. It feels good. I should hit 300 listings later this week which is a nice round number. Then, it’s on to 400. My new team lots have been selling very well and helping me organize my inventory space better, so it’s momentum on top of momentum. The end of the month is coming up, and it feels really good to approach July with things building and building.
6/9/2024 to 6/15/2024
Items in store: 270 (up from 232 last week’s thread)
Items sold: 32 — 17 via best offer, 6 via seller initiated offer, 22 via promoted listings
Gross sales: $1409.76 (down 18% from one year ago)
Net sales: $899.06 (down 19% from one year ago)
Average sales price: $44.06 (down 3% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $114.79 — DeMar DeRozan locker room nameplate from the NBA All Star Game
A rare non trading card item, this would fall under sports memorabilia and it’s the second of these nameplates that I’ve sold with four other players in stock, and I’m already comfortably in the profit on all of them. Always nice to step outside the comfort zone a little bit, and see it pay off.
This one turned into a bit of a saga, the package was originally misdelivered to the buyer’s neighbor. Obviously it had a happy ending since I know what happened, and sure enough the day after it was scanned delivered, the neighbor dropped it off to the buyer. I try to remain very zen about this sort of stuff, not just because of eBay’s buyer protection policy, but because I don’t see the point in getting worked up over $100. I will sell something else to make up the difference if I have to refund a buyer or something gets lost. I can sell something at a little lower margin or even a slight loss if I really, truly need the money. There is always going to be more stuff to buy and sell.
The buyer was very chill and calm the whole time, and left me a really nice feedback once their prize was finally delivered.
Lowest price sold (net): $10.23 — Gabi Butler 2021 Goodwin Champions autograph with inscription
There are a few modern card sets which do autographs with random subjects, not just all the key rookies/star players/legends in that particular sport, and I have realized recently that these types of items sell for slightly higher prices in my eBay store than through consignment because I can add all the keywords to the title that an algorithm (or person with less knowledge) doesn’t know. Despite this realization, these $12 to $15 individual card sales are becoming less and less a part of my store as I’ve realized I can sell 10 cards from the same team at a slightly higher price with (ideally) a slightly higher net profit. The link is to Denver Broncos because they have been my most popular the last few weeks. One happy repeat buyer + making new lot listings with quality cards has led to quick sales. I have one Denver Broncos lot to pack up tonight and another on the desk to get scanned and listed, and if recent history is a guide, then it will be sold by this time next week.
Those sandals look very comfortable, which is probably a key factor in a lot of $50 high sell-through clothing items.
I’m not sure if chest protector lady is a mom who’s really supportive of her son’s Little League catching career (now retired) or part of a group of moms out there stealing from Dick’s Sporting Goods. I guess you’ll find out next year if you go back and she has 27 new in package chest protectors.
Love to see the vintage White Wolf books, always fun to find items like that and even better when you find 100 of them at once!
Your story reminds me of the outsider art by the late Chicago musician Wesley Willis. I live right outside Philadelphia and some of my happiest times in the city have been when I’ve stumbled across random musicians and dancers and artists in a park or busking on a street corner. A flea market is such an odd way to sell art, but I can picture what his booth must have looked like from your description, and that’s a real character you found. All in a day’s work of scavenging!
I would think with this kind of vintage toy store — there’s one in my small town which runs a small fair every year — the cards are all lower end stuff, mostly Pokemon and other TCGs, maybe a couple here and there worth $5 or $10. It is so easy to sell cards online that I would assume any brick and mortar that’s closed in the last ten years would liquidate their best card inventory online. Then again, I would think they would sell their toy inventory online. Maybe they are just not internet savvy or interested in selling online. I forget sometimes that not everyone wants to go through the “ordeal” of listing, shipping, etc.
If the connection pans out, you’ll have to grab some pics of some of the cards for me. Always impressed by how you make these connections to find these big hauls! Living my dream if/when I get out of the card selling game…
This state surplus warehouse sounds like my kind of place. I can’t wait until I am in a larger place with more room for storage.
What kind of foot traffic does the warehouse get on a daily basis? All I can think to compare it to are Goodwill bins, which have been a madhouse every time I’ve ever gone. But since it’s state run and equipment, you probably miss out on a lot of truly terrifying scavenging creatures.
If your van wasn’t full, or if you had twice as much storage space, how much do you think you would have spent? My guess is between $500 and $1000 based on the couple things you mentioned, and maybe even higher.
