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Mike, I’m so glad to hear that you’re wife will be okay. Cancer is a really scary thing and can throw your world upside-down.
Thanks for the tips, Retro! I’ll be sure never to let it make any calls to home base. It’s going to take a little work to get it hooked up to my car but I’m just thrilled to not have to fight with sketchy FM radio anymore.
April 28 – May 4
Total Items in Store: 2240
Items Sold: 19
Total Sales : $668
* BELOW yearly average of $877
Highest Price: $110 (Four (YES, 4!) Cooper Bros & Sons QUEEN ANNE Dinner Forks)
Average Price: $35
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $80
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $185
Number of New Items Listed this Week: Zero!Good job on your sales this week! You had some pretty nifty sales for sure! And great topic too. Steph and I have our own system that seems to work so far. Basically, we work together by not working together. We have our own separate stores. We both do all of the aspects of running those stores (scavenging, researching, photographing and listing). Of course, neither of us would refuse to help the other if asked, but it’s kind of nice to not have to rely on the other to do a task for a shared store. The only downside that I’ve noticed so far is when we go together to auctions, it sometimes happens that we both want the same stuff (even though most of the time our interests take us in different directions). When that happens, I just have to remind myself that we’re still a team and it’s not a competition. The money that both of us earn is going toward the life that we’re building together.
So I decided to take the week off from listing to focus on my growing list of to-do’s around the house. I feel like I’ve accomplished so much! My biggest accomplishment was installing a security camera in front of our garage where we leave our packages for pickup. Now we feel a lot better about leaving our boxes out of our view.
We did go to a few sales though. My scavenge of the week came from a church rummage sale. I picked up a bunch of stuff (mostly kitchen items for myself) which included a Sirius radio kit. I’ve heard that some models have the lifetime activation on them, so I was thrilled when I plugged it in and started receiving all of the broadcasts. I’m hoping this is one that won’t expire, but I’m going to keep it until it does anyways. It’ll make those long auction road trips so much better.
Awesome job on that clock, Steven! I had a pretty decent week last week with some higher than normal sales.
This old raggedy looking cross stitch came from a rummage sale last fall. I only paid .10 cents for it. It was stained and the frame was all beat up, but I still sold it for $20. No big deal, right? Well unfortunately (and this is the first time I’ve done this so far), I shipped the wrong picture! I get an abrupt message from the buyer that she received the wrong picture. Ugh! So I had to ship the correct one to her on my dime and I’m hoping she sends me back the other like she said she would. I could have been worse, I guess. It could have been a big $300 stereo.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302836550383So I’ve seen old, beat up Carhartts sell and I’ve seen brand new ones sell. How about a brand new vintage Carhartt? I got this jacket along with some new old stock work pants and shirts at an auction for a total of $35 (each sellable item came to $3.89). Everything still new with tags. The owner must have bought everything and just stored it away and forgot about it. The original receipt for everything was found in the pile too. It dated back to the early 90’s, so just sort of vintage. The jacket sold for full price of $90.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303046575852I scored this Uniden President Zachary T CB radio at an estate sale earlier last winter. I only paid $2 for the thing! I brought it home fully expecting it to be busted but behold, it’s never been taken out of the box. It was still taped up in the plastic and everything. I think that’s why I was able to get 3x as much as the past solds. I sold it for full price of $150.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303135018698Here’s my big sale of the week. I acquired this Dodge brand vise at an auction for $45. That’s kind of a high price, but I’ve seen these kinds of vises sell for a lot of money. I brought it home and got it cleaned up a little and found that the main screw was damaged and there was another important bolt that was sheared off. But I disclosed all of this information and took a best offer of $200. I was happy to get this out of storage since it’s quite large and heavy. I’d love to see what it looks like if the buyer completely restores it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303012454558Hmm… these are all interesting thoughts. You’re right that the yearly average does account too much for seasonality. And Retro, you’re right that the previous week’s numbers don’t really do a whole lot for the bigger picture. Though I do like to see the comparisons, maybe I’ll start looking at the ASP rather than the total sales, and maybe I’ll start doing a monthly comparison instead of a weekly. Thanks for the suggestions.
April 21-27
Total Items in Store: 2256
Items Sold: 27
Total Sales : $1,010
* ABOVE yearly average of $896
* BELOW 2018 total week sales of $1,673
Highest Price: $200 (Antique Dodge 40 Slide Set Bench Vise)
Average Price: $37
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $62
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $435.00
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 38Great description of the in between work in this week’s podcast. When I started selling on eBay three years ago, I did it as a hobby simply to make a little extra cash. But I soon fell in love with the work, even the in between tasks of photographing, editing, listing and storing. But make no mistake about it… it is work! That’s the reason why you’ve got to sort of flip the switch in your head once you decide to make the commitment to make this more than a hobby. This is no longer hobby work for me. True, I can still have fun just like anyone can have fun at their job. But I had to learn to find discipline on a day to day basis.
I had a great week of sales this week. Weird how polar opposite my weeks have been lately. I made a few notable sales including a very heavy bench vise that I was so glad to get out of my inventory. I had one return for a clock key that didn’t fit. No biggie, those things sell consistently so I’ll just put it back on the market.
This week I decided to put eBay on the back burner in order to focus on the list of projects that I’ve been making for myself. I’ve checked a few off already. Now I’m attempting to install a security camera outside of our house. The initial setup took me about four hours last night, but at least it’s working now. Now to run the wire from our garage to the basement…fun!
04/29/2019 at 5:39 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Danskos, Lava Lamp, RR Map, Fire Prevention poster, Patch, Mailbox #60928I had kind of a lousy week of the 14-20th. One of my lowest sales weeks in a long time. Sales really perked back up again last week so no worries. Here are some highlights…
This was my big sale of the week. I spotted these funny plastic cups at an estate sale and talked the lady down to $2 for the set of three. I thought I could make a quick $20 or so from them until I did some research. These are apparently rare. There was a nice news article written about the company, Whirley Industries, and even these cups specifically. So I did what any Scavenger Lifer would do. Price them high and wait for the best offer. Well it took maybe two months until someone bought them for full price of $70!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303069601596Here’s a Gillette shaving safety blade that I got in a box lot of goodies that I paid $28 total (each sellable item $2). I didn’t think razors got a lot of sellable value based on previous research, but apparently I was wrong. Certain brands and models can fetch a nice little sum. This one I was able to date to 1950 based on the code on the blades. I took a best offer of $60 for it. It helped that it was still in its original case and was in almost pristine condition.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303109353660I pulled this George Harrison 7” album sleeve from a platter box of records that I was going to sell as a lot. It was in fairly good condition and was the only thing that was worth it to sell individually. The funny thing about it, there was one that previously sold for over $200! So I tried pricing it that high with no prevail. I steadily lowered the price until it finally sold for $20. No bad for a paper sleeve, I think.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303129042589We’ve all probably seen these little metal banks in box lots and thrift stores. They’re made by Banthrico and I always see them in the shape of trains. I sold this one for $20. An alright little sale but not a thing I would go out of my way to pick up if it wasn’t for it being in a box lot.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303114952583I actually got to use it today on the backyard walkway. I had a blast.
Here’s a couple pictures of the new roof.
https://imgur.com/3RjMtiMApril 14-20
Total Items in Store: 2247
Items Sold: 12
Total Sales : $359
* BELOW yearly average of $896
* BELOW 2018 total week sales of $996
Highest Price: $79 (Three Whirley Industries Hands Off My Mug Plastic Mugs)
Average Price: $30
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $13
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 47It was a very “soft” week last week. There were a couple days that I didn’t sell a single thing, which is very unusual. I just wish I knew why the sudden change in sales this year. Like Mark S mentioned in the forums last week, I too have more items up for sale than ever before, yet my sales have been constantly below my previous year’s sales. But I’m still feeling fine as long as I’m able to keep my head above water.
I sort of eased off on listing last week to focus on lawn work. There’s so much that needs done outside. I’ll need to make a list and just focus on the important items first. Though I can’t wait to get to use my new power washer on the brick and siding! The roof was finished last week and we couldn’t be more happy. We chose a nice neutral tone for if we wanted to change up the color of the siding or shutters later down the road.
I also happen to notice that I hit a nice milestone recently. I made $100,000 in sales since I first began selling a few years ago! Now granted, that doesn’t include the deductions of fees and taxes and COGS, but it was nice to finally make it to the 6-digit club.
04/19/2019 at 10:29 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Woolrich sweater, Stim u lax massager, Bears light up hat, Pole lamp, Ashtrays, Pearlcorder, Reel push mower #60519Last week was one of my best weeks of total sales since I’ve started on selling (in contrast to this week which may be one of my worse). That was mostly due to one sale in particular…
I acquired this muffle furnace from my dad who bought it for scrap price of less than $10. It worked perfectly fine, and we even tested it with a high temperature probe that he borrowed from work. I think I only had it listed for about a month or so. It sold to a government agency out in Colorado for full price of $1200! Packing wasn’t too bad. I had the perfect box to ship it in. And I learned a little bit about shipping via FedEx.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303094044085I got this die-cast scale model Schwinn Black Phantom bicycle in a box lot for which I paid $13 (each sellable item came to $1.44). I was after some old railroad padlocks in the lot, but this was an added bonus. It sold rather quickly for full price of $50. I couldn’t believe the detail that went into this little model. I’m glad I took pictures with a ruler held up to it, otherwise I’d be worried that the buyer thought they were getting the real thing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303114962838This was a neat sale. I bot a box lot of ephemera at an auction for $17 (each sellable item came to $1.56). Inside was a small stack of unused V-Mail WW2 letter papers and envelopes. It was nice, but I didn’t think much of it until I went to photograph them for listing. Inside the stack was a used letter written out for someone’s husband stationed in in the states. It looks to have been returned to the wife due to the letter getting mangled or maybe the sender trimmed it in a way not allowed. Well I listed it for $30 and it sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303032985334From that same box lot came this pamphlet from the Farm Bureau Co-op which detailed pest control solutions from 1955. I loved the illustration on the front cover and knew others would appreciate the artwork too. I listed it for $25 and it sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/30302876168304/15/2019 at 12:02 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 406: Disposable Income, WTF is that? #60200April 7 – 13
Total Items in Store: 2211
Items Sold: 17
Total Sales : $1681
* ABOVE yearly average of $913
* ABOVE 2018 total week sales of $1253
Highest Price: $1200 (Barnstead Thermolyne 4800 Digital Muffle Furnace Oven)
Average Price: $28 (with the big sale taken out to not skew the number)
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $32
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $254
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 75Great to have you both back this week! I had a very good week of sales all thanks to one sale in particular. It was my highest sale ever! It was a laboratory oven thing that was about to be disposed of at my dad’s job. He offered to buy it for scrap price which equaled less than $10. There was nothing wrong with it other than some cosmetic wear. I had to track down a temperature probe that would reach 1200 degrees Celsius to test it. It wasn’t fun to pack. But I’ve learned that it’s cheaper to ship really heavy items via FedEx or UPS rather than USPS, and FedEx actually does package pickup too.
Excluding that sale, I would have made $331. It felt slow. There were two days this week where I didn’t make a single sale. That rarely happens anymore. So I’m really thankful for that big sale and a few other somewhat higher priced sales.
We went scavenging crazy toward the end of the week. There were garage sales and estate sales and an auction for three days in a row. I was worried that my inventory was getting low but I don’t think that’ll be a problem anymore. I’m still going through my buys, but I think my scavenge of the week was a set of maintenance manuals for the 1978 series Johnson Outboard Boat Motors. I’ve seen some of these sell for 70-90 bucks each, and I’ve got the whole set. I also found a 1970s Sears Christmas toy catalog that may fetch around the same price. Both of these items I only got for a dollar.
In other news, the new roof is getting done and is looking good. We hired some Amish contractors and they’re hard workers. And our insurance is working well for us so we might not have to pay a dime for it. We can’t wait for it to be completed! Also, my CPA completed all my taxes. Overall, I owed around $3500. It’s a little less than I thought I would owe, so I can’t complain.
Mar 31 – April 6
Total Items in Store: 2153
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $1286
* ABOVE yearly average of $904
* BELOW 2018 total week sales of $1,363
Highest Price: $179 (SubZero Refrigerator Replacement Part Louvered Grille Cover)
Average Price: $41
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $96
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $66
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 45I had another terrific week last week. And I think the key really is just hunkering down and listing your ass off, which I’ve been doing. And I would have listed a lot more except I’d spent a couple days researching, cleaning and polishing up a huge lot of flatware.
We also hit up a tag sale over the weekend. This house where it was held was crazy! It was room after room after room of stuff. A lot of it was priced kinda high, but we were able to dig up a bunch of lower priced items that would make us a lot of cash. My scavenge of the day were these four old anatomy charts made by American Frohse. They’re huge, and in surprisingly ok condition despite being dated 1918. The human skeleton chart is my favorite.
My big sale of the week was another refrigerator part. The thing is, I’ve sold this part three times now. It’s been returned twice for size. I don’t know why people wouldn’t measure their refrigerator prior to buying. Hopefully the third time’s a charm.
Cool sales again this week, Steven. I think I just picked up that exact Faribo peach blanket at an estate sale yesterday. I had a really good week of sales. Here are some highlights.
I’ll start off with my big sale of the week. I acquired this Michael & Francis Higgins glass art piece along with another one at an auction for the opening bid of $5. I thought they looked neat, but never could have imagined that they were authentic art pieces from a well known artist. And I’m glad I did the research. I listed mine for kinda high at $300 and got a lot of ~$100 offers. But I held out and finally got an offer for $245 after going back and forth with a guy. Goes to show that even stuff bought for opening bid prices can fetch a couple hundred bucks every now and then.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303046617901Easter is coming. And so are the Easter related sales. Just like Christmas, my holiday specific items always fly off the shelf leading up to their special day. This little plastic bunny rattle made by Irwin sold for $15. It was missing a component which allows you to spin it around I think. But the lady loved it anyway and gave me a nice feedback. I got it in a box lot of vintage toys that I paid $21 (each sellable item was a dollar).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302836548977Every now and then I’ll list an item and it sells almost immediately. I try to tell myself that I priced it right according to my research and the buyer just happen to have a search out for my keywords, but I still get worried that I’ve undersold something. This old metal advertising bank in the shape of a book sold within minutes of listing for $40. Other book banks have sold for less, but maybe the brand on mine (The Art Metal Works) was a sought after name. Oh well. I only paid a couple bucks for it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303109263178This vintage lighthouse lens lamp came paired with another lamp at an auction. I paid $15 for both, but only really wanted the other lamp (it’s a cool gold sputnik style desk lamp). Well this one sold first for an amazingly $80. It wasn’t too terrible to ship. I just made sure to pack the shade in another inner box.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303108384862Here’s a neat little sale. I had this tuning meter sitting in a box for years. I finally listed it and, while it took a long time to sell, it found the perfect buyer. Later, he sent me a message with a picture showing what he did with it. He used it to restore a B-29 Superfortress compass control module. It’s pretty cool to get those kinds of feedback from buyers.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302748486926HAHA! LinkThumbs! I love it!
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