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08/14/2019 at 9:29 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Clock radio, Microphone, Dual Turntable, Pana-Vue, Zippo wicks, Reel tapes, DVD VCR Combo #66362
Thanks, Joe. If I decide to sell it as a whole, I’ll be sure to replace the brake pads. But I have a feeling I’ll part it out since most of the parts don’t seem to be original after closer inspection.
08/14/2019 at 9:28 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Clock radio, Microphone, Dual Turntable, Pana-Vue, Zippo wicks, Reel tapes, DVD VCR Combo #66361Gravel art! I was so close. LOL! Well now I know for the next time I find one. Thanks!
Aug. 4 – 10
Total Items in Store: 2436
Items Sold: 19
Total Sales : $626
* Below yearly average of $945
Highest Price: $135 (Marco Drain Cleaner Motor Part)
Average Price: $33
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $36
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $118
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 50Bounced back a little bit in sales this week. With $600 being the low end of my comfort goal, I can rest easy enough. I had an annoying experience last week with a deliverer hired by a buyer. I sold some chairs to a guy in Georgia and he paid uShip to pick them up and deliver them. This was my first experience with a delivery service like this. Right off the bat I could tell that the driver was a flake. He wanted to pick them up early on Friday, which was fine since I now work from home. Then he didn’t show. I called him and asked what the deal was and he said he could either pick them up after midnight or sometime between 4 and 5 AM on Saturday! Well I opted for the latter. Woke up super early…and no show again! He then called at 8 AM and said he was two hours away and to expect him soon. So I waited (mind you, I had things I had to do away from my home, so this was a major inconvenience) and STILL HE DIDN’T SHOW UP! He didn’t contact me at all on Sunday and finally on Monday he called and wanted to get them in the evening. Fine, I said. That would give me a time-frame to go get my lawn mower worked on and be back before he arrives. WRONG. At noon, he texted me and said he was 20 minutes away. Luckily, Steph was home so she put the chairs out by the garage for him to get. It all worked out in the end though I guess. The buyer was happy. But the whole experience just left a bad taste in my mouth with uShip.
I went to a huge flea market on Saturday. Rogers Flea Market in Ohio. I was there for 5 hours and still didn’t get to see everything. I used some of your tips from the podcast. Look for the junky booths and don’t bother with the fancy ones with price tags on everything. I think I did alright. My buy of the day was a case of Kodachrome stereoview slides from the 1950s. There are some good airplane and automobile pictures in there. I also picked up a set of Lifetime cookware for $40. That was a little steep, but it included a stock pot which goes for $80-$100 used.
Goals for this week… list list list as always. But I would like to get some stuff done around the house that I’ve been putting off. Specifically, I need to power wash the side of our house. I’ve had to put it on hold since the water spigot wasn’t working, but I’ve since fixed that issue. I also need to do something about our rain spouts. They’re draining right next to our foundation which is a big problem.
08/08/2019 at 10:28 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Clock radio, Microphone, Dual Turntable, Pana-Vue, Zippo wicks, Reel tapes, DVD VCR Combo #66098Steven, you deserve so much credit for doing these videos every week! I watch them as faithfully as I listen to Jay and Ryanne’s podcasts. Thank you so much! I’ve been quite busy outside of eBay these past few weeks and haven’t been able to post any What Solds. But here are some interesting recent sales…
I found these two vintage restaurant exchange tokens at the bottom of a box lot (lot cost $15; each sellable item $1.36). My research indicated that they may have been used in lieu of a paycheck with the restaurant employees during hard times. Don’t know if that’s true, but what’s interesting is that they sold for $20 to a guy who seems to be a relative on the owners because he had the same unique last name – Kademenos.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303221189030I’ve recently learned that vintage cereal prizes and premiums are a highly collectible thing. Some prices for simple tiny plastic toys are crazy! This lot of stickers and paper premiums came from another box lot ($15 lot/.48¢ each). I didn’t know what to price them so I put them up for what I thought was a high amount. They sold in a matter of minutes for $30. Hopefully I didn’t miss out on a higher price. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more stuff like this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303228661078A few weeks back, I posted about my scavenge of the week being a vintage Trek street bike for $40. I haven’t decided what to do with the bike itself, but I listed the accessories that came with it. These Blackburn Pannier Bags sold rather quickly for $50, and a week later I sold this Cannondale handlebar bag for $30. Already doubled my investment and haven’t even gotten to the actual bike.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303229528991
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303229534161I was at my parents’ house and found that my dad’s lawn mower died. It wasn’t worth the price to fix it, so he was going to give it away to a local metal scraper. Being a resourceful little scavenger, I took a few pieces off for myself. This gas tank was the first to sell, and it sold for $100!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303229553713I love buying art for cheap at auctions because I can hang it up in my house while it’s waiting to be sold. This piece, though, just didn’t fit my decor. It’s a “pebble painting” made from thousands of tiny dyed stones glued to a board. Apparently I’m too young to remember, but I guess they were a thing in the mid century. This one sold for $75. It wasn’t even in the best of shape. I bought it along with a stack of other art for $10.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303156174820I love this sale! It took me a minute to comprehend what it was when I dug it out of a box lot (the same box as the tokens above), but I played a little pool in my time and finally realized it was billiard chalk. REALLY OLD billiard chalk. I didn’t know if there would be a market for that kind of thing. Alas, there is! This chalk sold for $30 after just a few weeks.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/30322929796908/05/2019 at 9:06 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 422: Ready for a Recession at Any Time #65946Our next trip will actually be at the end of this month. We planned a trip to Georgia for a week to visit another couple of friends of ours. We’ll be checking out Dragon Con while we’re down there.
08/04/2019 at 11:43 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 422: Ready for a Recession at Any Time #65881July 28 – Aug. 3
Total Items in Store: 2406
Items Sold: 13
Total Sales : $268
* Below yearly average of $946
Highest Price: $30 (Cannondale Bicycle Bag)
Average Price: $21
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $16
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $24
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 0I had some disappointing numbers to report this week. But it doesn’t really surprise me too much as I didn’t turn my 1-day shipping back on until Friday and hadn’t listed any new items for two weeks. Now things are stabilizing once I got back to working again.
So like I mentioned later last week, we took a trip to visit some friends in Seattle. We had a free place to stay, though it was four of us crammed in an apartment smaller than an average hotel room. But it was fine since we were out exploring most of the days. We explored some museums, ate lots of neat food, drove to Olympic National Park and did a lot of hiking, got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time, and explored Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands (and had the best slice of pie ever!). We tried to keep it as frugal of a trip as possible. We chose Spirit Airlines which wasn’t as bad as I’ve heard. That alone saved us almost $600 vs. flying with SouthWest.
July 21 – 27
Total Items in Store: 2421
Items Sold: 16
Total Sales : $671
* Below yearly average of $955
Highest Price: $130 (Even more Keystone Stereograph cards)
Average Price: $42
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $31
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 0Greetings! Steph and I just got back from our big vacation to Seattle. We had a blast! It was a long plane ride back home so we’re both running on fumes at the moment. I’ll talk about our trip next week. But sales had been somewhat steady while we were gone. I only had one buyer complain about the handling time, but because I set my HT to 10 days and put my store on vacation mode, she doesn’t have any leg to stand on if she give me negative feedback.
Well, time to get packing. Our mail lady is going to really hate us tomorrow.
I’ll have to keep my eyes open for retro TV antennas from now on. That’s pretty cool. haven’t posted my What Sells in a while. Here’s a few notable ones from the past week.
I picked these Vietri brand place mats up at an estate sale a couple months ago for a couple dollars. I recognized the name as a high end kitchenware pottery maker, but I didn’t know how well their butt-ugly plastic place mats would do. Still, I priced them high at $50 and they sold within a day. Whoops. Must have been more desirable than I thought. But I’m happy with the cash and easy sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303210175501A few years ago, I purchased an Oreck vacuum on LetGo for I think $40. I used the hell out of it. I was given a replacement Oreck and decided to part this old one out. Many of the parts have sold surprisingly quick. So far I’ve grossed $115 on the parts I’ve sold. This piece in particular sold for $35, almost as much as I paid for the whole thing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303152600954I was so excited about this Mastercrafters clock when I dug it out of a pile of junk at an estate sale. I got it for $3. Unfortunately, when I brought it home and plugged it in, it didn’t work correctly. The little lamppost would light up so I knew it was getting power, but the mechanics wasn’t functioning. I tried my best to get it working again but it was a bit too complicated for me. Too bad too because working models have sold for over $100. I managed to get $42 for this one in Needs Repaired condition.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303069622641During a yard sale outing, I spotted this old Western Brewery glass in a dirty garage and paid .25 cents for it. I brought it home and cleaned it up the best I could and after doing some research, listed it for a crazy $60. Well like the place mats above, it sold overnight for full price. I kind of regret not listing it for higher or maybe trying to list it as an auction, but I can’t complain about the rate of return on this one.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303210159383This sale gave my dad a good laugh. I acquired this Borden’s malted milk can in a box lot. Each sellable item from that lot came to about $2.50. It sold after a few months for $25. Dad was laughing because he said he used to be able to buy these in a store for .25 cents. I’m not quite old enough to appreciate the absurdity of it, but maybe one day the empty pickle jar in my fridge might be worth the equivalent of $25.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303024372453July 7 – 13
Total Items in Store: 2433
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $835
* Below yearly average of $960
Highest Price: $100 (More Keystone Stereoscope Cards)
Average Price: $27
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $82
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $1,154 (WOOF!)
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 65I had a fairly average week of sales last week. Just a babbling brook of cha-chings, enough to keep me satisfied but not too much to overwhelm. Which was perfect because Steph and I have been occupied with other things. Namely, we bought a van! We got a tip from her mom about a minivan for sale near us so we decided to take a look. It turns out to be a 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan but designed to be a cargo van. Perfect for us! Relatively low mileage, great condition, no rust and just at the peak of our comfortable price limit. We’re really happy about it. We took it on two auction trips this week already and filled it up both times, hence my cost of goods purchased amount this week. LOL.
I must say, I commend you for the way you handled that email about your stuttering. I think you’re right that the writer had good intentions when he/she wrote to you, but from an outsiders point of view it sounded so very judgmental and condescending. And you’re absolutely right to treat this not as a malicious attack, but as a chance to educate the ignorant. I admit, I don’t know anything about stuttering. I just knew one other person back in grade school who did it. But I applaud you for being so open about it and deciding to embrace it for your own happiness.
My scavenge of the week came from the first auction we went to. There was a lot of high end furniture selling, but one set of six chairs in particular caught my eye. They were chrome and suede leather armchairs made by Founders in the 1960s. Very mid century modern. Kinda ugly enough that nobody at this auction would have been interested in them. I got all six for $10! I’m planning on listing them all for local pickup for over a thousand bucks.
This week I’ve decided to put eBay on the back burner in order to focus on some house chores and projects that I’ve been neglecting. I’ve been listing like a maniac over the past 6 weeks and it’s time to take a little break.
07/07/2019 at 10:54 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 418: Brick & Mortar Store Is Not For Us #64604June 30 – July 6
Total Items in Store: 2400
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $1044
* Above yearly average of $950
Highest Price: $130 (Keystone Stereoscope Cards)
Average Price: $34
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $58
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $2
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 55Last week’s sales were kinda weird. The beginning of the week was filled with sales all the way through Wednesday. Then it just died. I made a couple on Independence Day and didn’t have a single sale on Friday or Saturday. But I still managed to sell over $1K which was unexpected.
There hasn’t been much excitement happening our way. Just trying to stay cool in this hot, muggy Ohio Valley weather. I am rocking it on my listings lately though. I may not hit 3000 listings by the new year, but at this rate it’ll be close.
June 23 – 29
Total Items in Store: 2376
Items Sold: 26
Total Sales : $878
* Below yearly average of $930
Highest Price: $200 (Collection of 95 Ringling Bros Circus Photo Slides)
Average Price: $34
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $77
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $32
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 56I thought I was going to have a slow week. It definitely felt like it. So I was shocked that I grossed nearly $900. Looking back, I did notice a couple really nice sales that helped boost my numbers, including these 35mm slides that are going to a museum.
Regarding problems with the eBay website, I’ve been having a minor annoying issue with the site lately. I use templates a lot, specifically a general one that I created which sets up a lot of the options that are the same across the board. Well lately, I’ll click Make a New Listing and then create with my template, but my body text won’t be there. I have to go back to a previous listing and copy+paste the body. It’s just a slight annoyance but I thought I’d mention it since it was brought up on the podcast. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Not much else is going on our way. We got our trip to Seattle all planned out. Spent an evening with some close friends which was really nice. Went to a really bad auction and left almost immediately. The one diamond in the rough at that one was a set of Lifetime pots and pans, but it went sky high at the beginning of the auction. We had a taste of what storage locker auctions are like. In this particular auction, they actually dragged everything out and sold stuff off individually. But most of it should have gone straight to the trash. I did manage to score $50 worth of gift cards hidden away in some paperwork, along with a couple of Dell laptops. This week will be a lot more of the same, but that’s okay when you love what you do.
June 16 – 22
Total Items in Store: 2351
Items Sold: 27
Total Sales : $1297
* ABOVE yearly average of $913
Highest Price: $320 (Two Sub Zero Refrigerator Glass Shelves)
Average Price: $48
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $90
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $68
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 50Another good week of sales. You’re absolutely right about an eBay business having its up and down times. It wasn’t too long ago that I was really bumming about my sales. Now I’m back to making cushy profits. Next week I may only make enough to survive. After a certain point, there really is no control. You’ve just got to keep at it and stay focused on the bigger picture.
I had a good weekend of scavenging. At a yard sale there was a bicycle leaning against a truck with nothing indicating a price or that it was even for sale. So I inquired about it and the guy there said yeah, I’m asking $40. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. It was a mid ‘80s Trek street bike in near pristine condition. I could easily make $400 or more on it. I also found a rare Chicago Bears pennant flag behind a shelf at an estate sale for a dollar that has sold in the past for around $150. After several bad scavenging weeks in a row, it was really nice to actually find some great items.
This week will be more of the same… list list list. The sink that I was planning to install became too much of an issue and is beyond my capability, so I decided to hire a plumber to install it. Sometimes it’s good to bring in the pros to get something done right the first time, even if it costs more to do it. The aggravation that I was bringing down on myself wasn’t worth the couple hundred bucks I would save by doing it myself.
06/17/2019 at 10:43 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 415: Importance Of Being Honest As A Business Owner #63567June 9-15
Total Items in Store: 2326
Items Sold: 27
Total Sales : $1026
* ABOVE yearly average of $894
Highest Price: $350 (Set of Four MCM Stanley Dining Room Chairs)
Average Price: $38
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $94
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $41
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 51I had a great week this time around. Thanks in part to a nice sale of some Mid Century Modern dining room chairs that took forever for me to list. They took me some time to clean up and finally take some decent photos, but it only took less than a month to sell for full price. The only issue is that the buyer can’t pick them up until July, but he’s paid already so I don’t mind babysitting them.
We tried shopping at the outlets on Friday but I really didn’t find too much. Goodwill outlets can be great some days and completely lousy other days. But at least it was nice to get out of the house. Later that day I went to an afternoon estate sale and bought a mystery tote of electronics for $25. It wasn’t really a mystery as you could look inside and examine what you were buying, but it was elbow to elbow in this little house and I didn’t want to miss out so I just grabbed it. Well anyway, I got burnt. It was mostly empty electronics boxes and instruction manuals. I’ll probably at least make my money back on some of the old software that was inside. It was a gamble that I lost, but a lot of times the risk is worth it.
This week I’ll be listing more flatware and odds and ends. I’ll also need to get started on installing this sink in my basement sometime soon. I’m procrastinating because I really know nothing about plumbing. But I’m finding that that’s one of the joys of owning your own house… learning new skills along the way.
Mike, that all sounds like great news! I hope your wife makes a speedy recovery.
Hey Troy. My heart goes out to you and your family. That’s gotta be tough. I haven’t lost anyone so close to me yet, so I can’t know how it feels. But we’re here for ya and I know a lot of us will have you in our thoughts.
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