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Thanks Sharyn – interesting article!
We buy the ribbons on Ebay, mostly they are pretty standard. We steer clear of electric ones, which I think are harder to fix and there’s less demand for them.
We’ve sold 10 manual so far on Etsy for prices ranging from $100 to $200 and they’ve all sold within four months of listing.
We look out for bright colours – red, yellow, orange, blue etc
Definitely worth it if you don’t mind putting a bit of work in to research the model and get them working smoothly!Posting my monthly numbers for September. I’ve converted from GBP to USD.
SEPTEMBER 2018 – Total sales $1,646
ETSY
Total items in store: 1125
Total sold: 56 (29 UK, 20 USA, 5 Europe, 1 Japan and 1 Australia)
Total sales: $1,637
Highest price sold: $169 Typewriter
Average selling price: $29
Returns: 0
EBAY
21 items for sale, of which we sold just one for $9!Money spent on new inventory: $335
New items listed: 76 (all Etsy)
Good month again for us, although lots of lower price items were selling so our ASP is down on last month. We managed to (finally!) get about 20 mirrors listed and some typewriters, which should bump up our ASP when they sell through.
It’s amazing that people want to buy typewriters! My partner is becoming quite an expert at cleaning and fixing them up. There’s a good profit to be made on Etsy if you can offer them in good working order and are willing to ship them.
Car boot sales are winding down for the winter, so we’ll be working our way through listing our backlog over the coming months.Posting my monthly numbers for August from a grey, wet and chilly UK. I’ve converted from GBP to USD.
AUGUST 2018 – Total sales $2,127
ETSY
Total items in store: 1049
Total sold: 37
Total sales: $1,324
Highest price sold: $128 Typewriter (to USA)
Average selling price: $36
Returns: 0
EBAY
Total items in store: 26
Total sold: 18
Total sales: $803
Highest price sold: $522 antique Ernst Bohne porcelain half doll ‘Dresden Flowers’ (cost $6.40 in a charity shop)
Average selling price: $35
Returns: 0Money spent on new inventory: $351
New items listed: 74 (all Etsy)
Late with my August numbers – but happy to report this as our best month ever!More than half our sales in August were to overseas customers. The impending (UK) exit from the European Union has pushed the value of the pound right down. I voted to remain and think it’s a very bad idea, but I’ll take the Brexit export bonus as a consolation prize.
Not much listing done this month as I’ve been busy with my other businesses and some decorating at home.
Posting my monthly numbers for July. I’ve converted from GBP to USD.
JULY 2018
Total items in store: Etsy 1012 Ebay 32
Total sold: Etsy 34 Ebay 2 (19 international)
Total sales: Etsy $911 Ebay $29
Highest price sold: $91 Art Deco glass lampshade
Average selling price: Etsy $27 Ebay $14.50
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $247
New items listed: 183
Another slow month, but I’m pleased to have pushed my listings past the thousand mark. We’ve just bought a new shed for storage and invested in lots of heavy duty metal shelving. Space for more stuff.
I’m hoping Etsy will invest some of the higher seller fees in promoting the platform to UK buyers. It’s crazy that more than half our sales are international. Hardly anyone has heard of Etsy over here. Plenty of room for growth in our UK sales…
August has started really well for us. We just sold our highest price item of stock on Ebay – antique Ernst Bohne porcelain half doll ‘Dresden Flowers’. We took an offer of $522 and she’s on her way to Texas. She was $6.40 in a charity shop.I agree about cool vintage stuff not being price sensitive. A high price often adds to it’s desirability.
I’ve never put anything ‘on sale’ on Ebay or Etsy. I’ve occasionally reduced prices, but I wouldn’t want to advertise that in the listing. On sale suggests that you overpriced it or you’re desperate to sell it.
When pricing I look on both Ebay (currently listed and solds) and Etsy. I usually price high. I want to be really pleased when my stuff sells, not to be left wondering if I could have sold it for more!
When I look back at stuff I sold 2 or 3 years ago, I’m now surprised at the low prices. I used to think about what items were worth and a fair mark-up or margin on the price I paid.
Now I try to make an imaginative leap into the mind of the buyer. They have money. Lots of it. And they want cool vintage stuff. Lots of it. They want to look at beautiful photographs and have an enjoyable (hassle free) online shopping experience. They don’t care what the seller paid for the item or where they got it from. They are not scavengers. Definitely not.
Here’s my brunch. Pancakes UK style. I make them with wholemeal flour, an egg and milk. Thinner, flatter and much less fluffy than the American kind.
Traditionally you’d have granulated sugar and lemon juice on them.
I add honey, lemon juice, fruit and Greek yogurt. Delicious carby feast.
I never have them for breakfast though. That is always porridge!
And it’s a chip butty. (Not chip buddy). In the north of England they’re called chip barms. A barmcake being a soft white round bread roll. Add your chips (French Fries), loads of butter, salt and vinegar and you have proper British fast food. Carbohydrate heaven.
Luftmentsh
That’s really useful and interesting. Thank you for this!
As an Etsy seller, I’ll also try and work out how to include the accumulating listing fees into the costs. I enjoy fiddling around with Excel.
LesleyHi T-Satt
Yes, definitely lots more sales in Q4. Last year Oct and Nov sales were double these figures for June with a much smaller store (it was around 350 items).This year, since January I’ve been averaging 1.5 sales per day. June is slow!
I’m working hard to ramp up the the numbers of items over the summer.
T-Satt
Thanks!
I’d love these numbers to be my weekly rather than monthly totals.
Back to listing…It’s not illegal, but it’s just something that doesn’t happen! Front gardens are usually very small and have hedges, fences etc. Parking would be a problem in many places.
There are very occasional ‘jumble trails’ where a city area/town will have a sale on a particular day and people will put their stuff out on the street for sale. They haven’t really caught on though.
Car boots usually happen in fields. The farmer will rent it out to a company who organises it. Sellers pay a small fee ($20) and buyers pay a tiny fee to get in ($1.50). Regular ones are weekly, usually early Saturday or Sunday mornings. Not sure why. Just to torture those of us who’d rather have a lie in!
Hi Nancy
Thank you.
No – I didn’t know one word tags were bad!! Tell me more!
I opened the store in 2014, but it’s only been more than 100 items for about a year and a half.
I don’t use the forums at all. Are they useful?You’re right, charity shops are small and expensive. Lots of the major charities are now selling their vintage/antiques/valuables online via Ebay. It makes financial sense for them to get as much as possible for their donated goods. We all know that selling online is profitable. The shops are left with the newer landfill plastic detritus with very little or no value.
We’ve recently found that a national charity has it’s online selling warehouse in Leeds, so we are buying stock from them and picking it up. Typewriters and bulk ceramics so far.
No yard sales, no. If a family had stuff to sell they would take it to a car boot sale,
which is where we scavenge. We normally do 2 or 3 on a Sunday. Takes about 3-4 hours. Nice early 6am start!Car boots are a mix of families selling their own stuff, their dead relative’s stuff (or stolen stuff!) and dealers/traders selling ‘house clearance’ boxes of mixed household possessions. There are also dealers there who buy box lots at auction and sell at car boot sales.
Most car boots are late spring to early autumn only, so we’ll look for some good auctions in winter. There are good non fancy auctions, they’re just not good at advertising themselves.
Yep, I sell vintage and antique books, kitchenalia, flatware, ceramics, toys and games, tins, fabric, glassware, typewriters, mirrors, brassware, bags, tools, rugs etc.
Very few clothes – I’m just not interested in clothes and it’s hard to make a good profit. Although we did pick up a fabulous orange cotton ventile sixties anorak recently. It’s on Ebay item number 253725681556. Hopefully it will sell near the asking price.
It’s around 60% UK buyers, 30% USA and the rest Europe and Australia/NZ.
The shop is at http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DigVintageStuff
Hi Jay.
The main reason is because I enjoy it!I started on Etsy (in 2014) and it’s been a very positive experience. I like the look of Etsy – no annoying pop up adverts – and I find it very easy to list. Ebay feels clunky to me. Low fees and no store fee. Friendly and motivated buyers. I know I can get more money for my stuff on Etsy than I would get on Ebay. The (non handmade) buyers there are all looking specifically for vintage. I rarely get asked to give a discount. I have a lot of fun buying, researching, photographing and selling cool stuff!
The shop is smallish now, but my aim is to build it up so so I’m one of the main UK vintage Etsy sellers. Bigish fish in a smallish pond.
Posting my monthly numbers for June. I’ve converted from GBP to USD.
Fairly slow sales, but hey, it’s June. We’re having a heatwave in the UK, and we’re in the grip of football world cup fever. Not a sports fan, so staying out of the heat and listing away…June 2018
Total items in store: Etsy 863 Ebay 35
Total sold: Etsy 23 Ebay 3 (9 international)
Total sales: Etsy $915 Ebay $107
Highest price sold: $198 vintage snow shoes (paid $6.60)
Average selling price: Etsy $40 Ebay $35
Returns: 0
Money spent on new inventory: $232
New items listed: 180
