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11/24/2018 at 2:54 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Doc Martens, Gun case, Vintage bike radio, Speaker stands, Electric stapler, Panasonic TV #52216
I had another nice bunch of sales last week. Here’s some notable ones…
I spotted this brand new with tags Harley Davidson denim shirt at a thrift store. They wanted $7 for it, but I had a good feeling that I could make at least 4x profit. I couldn’t really find much about it after some research, and there wasn’t really much like it being sold, so I listed it higher than I would have at $70. After a couple months, I took a best offer of $62.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302913898171This was my sale of the week. I mentioned before that I scored an almost car full of ham radio equipment, including this equipment made by a brand called Drake. Overall I didn’t spend too much on all of it. This speaker/power supply combo cost me $18. It sold after a couple months for full price of $230. I’ll be keeping my eyes out for more of this stuff.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302925724454I won a box lot of old Masters of the Universe action figures at an auction for $22.50 (9 sellable items at $2.50 each). I was going to lot them all together, but decided to sell them individually instead. I found that some characters are way more popular with collectors than others. I listed two He-Man figures and they both sold on the same day for $35 each.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302959580072This was a great sale. I acquired some very old original film negatives at an estate sale. These two were pretty fun to research. They were photographs of a US Navy ship named SS Leviathan taken in the early 1920s. I had them listed individually, but a buyer bought them both for $120 total.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302951592918
https://www.ebay.com/itm/30295159291411/19/2018 at 10:19 am in reply to: Method to Automatically Switch Back To Classic eBay Shipping Label Page #51932This is awesome! I’m going to try it out and see if it works well on Firefox. I’m hoping it does because it’s getting really annoying switching back to the classic view each and every time I go to print a label.
Thanks!Nov 11-19
Total Items in Store: 1956
Items Sold: 23
Total Sales : $1132
* above yearly average of $830
* above 2017 total week sales of $620
Highest Price: $230 (Drake Ham Radio Power Supply and Speaker Combo)
Average Price: $49
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $75
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 68Good numbers again this week. And I’m finally feeling better after this two week long cold that’s been plaguing my life. Nothing worse than sickness. I went on a crazy listing spree on Saturday since I didn’t have any plans or chores for the first time in a long while.
I’ve been wanting to build an elevated packing peanut dispenser too! My basement ceiling might not be tall enough though, but I’ve seen YouTube videos of how they’re made.
No scavenging this week. We had a chance to go to a couple auctions, but the weather has been so miserable that we decided to just stay home.
It is really neat to see all the different faces and styles of dress in these old photos. And if memory serves me right, I believe the camera lenses back then were much slower which meant that people had to stand quite perfectly still in order to get a clear picture.
Great sales again, Steven! That turntable was a great sale indeed. Did you pack that and the Marantz together?. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted my What Solds so I’ll post some of the more interesting ones.
Last spring, I was out scavenging for shipping boxes when I came across this Jiffy fabric steamer in an alleyway in a pile of garbage bags. I know steamers aren’t cheap, so I brought it home. I thought if it didn’t work, I could always sell the parts off of it. Well it worked just fine after running vinegar through it for a while. It took a couple months but it sold for $50.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302927672097This was a huge sale, and the first of my ham radio equipment to sell. I got lucky at an auction last summer and bought all kinds of cool electronics. This particular piece I paid a hefty price for… $90. But I knew I could make a good profit as long as it worked well. It took less than a month but it sold for full price of $430.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302925693824This aluminum shopkeeper’s door bell came in a box lot that I overpaid for ($25 for the whole lot with only a couple sellable items in it…rookie mistake). Well I hoped to at least make back what I spent so I priced this bell at $25 and it sold.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/302847328555At the beginning of November, I decided to go through all of my backlog of items to list and dig out anything Christmas related. This vintage Santa Claus electric toy lantern came from a box lot that I paid $5 for (3 sellable items at $1.67 each). It sold within a week for $30. They sometimes sell for more, but mine was missing the light bulbs and it had the wrong box.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302940134427Did I mention that I disassembled a Sub-Zero refrigerator that wasn’t working when we moved in this house? Well the parts have been selling very steadily. It only took a couple afternoons of my time. So far I’ve made about $400 after fees and such, which has more than paid for the replacement fridge I bought. Since the parts are no longer in production, I’ve set the prices quite high. Here’s an ice container that I sold last week. I got $48 for it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302949620768I’m always on the lookout for silver aluminum Christmas trees. I acquired this smaller 4ft one at an auction for $30. Kind of more than I would have liked to spend, but that’s okay because it sold after a couple weeks for $170.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302938619726So a long while ago, I bought this large box of antique 6×8 inch glass plate negatives on a whim for $155. It was a pricy experiment, but I had a good feeling about them. They’ve sat for a long time though because I just didn’t know how to go about selling them. Well finally, I tried one as an auction just to see if there was any interest. This was a high school class photo from around 1919 and I was able to pinpoint exactly where it was taken. It sold for the opening price of $30. Not bad, seeing as how I got about 180 of these slides left to sell.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302942334571Here’s a fantastic little sale that I wouldn’t have made if I didn’t do the research. These Crayola crayons came out of a box lot that I paid $35 for (26 sellable items at $1.38 each). These weren’t vintage or anything, but apparently they were a very limited run and therefore desirable by collectors of Crayola stuff. Anywho, I priced them at $40 and they sold after a couple months.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302870371887I’m sorry to hear about your wife’s troubles, Troy. I’ll be sending positive thoughts her and your way too.
My October numbers were on par with my previous year’s, which were to say not extraordinary. Maybe just slightly better than my average 3rd quarter numbers. But historically, November is when I start to shine and it’s showing already.
How was your hunting trip, BTW? I was never really into hunting, but my family is and I get my freezer stocked up every year from their generosity.Nov 4 – 10
Total Items in Store: 1911
Items Sold: 33
Total Sales : $1390
* above yearly average of $831
* below 2017 total week sales of $1419 (This must be a reoccurring good week for sales)
Highest Price: $230 (Drake Ham Radio Antenna Tuner)
Average Price: $42
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $135
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $264
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 34Another great week of sales. This is more like what I’d like to see on a weekly basis. It was shadowed though by the fact that I’ve been sick all week. I caught a nasty bug from somewhere and it hit me hard. There’s nothing worse than wanting to get a lot of stuff done but not being able to because of illness. Thankfully, I’m on the upswing and I’m ready to start listing again.
I had an interesting return last week. I had these VERY specific hats for sale for a very long time now. They were for a local high school football championship game from 1985. I had three exact matching hats, brand new with tags. Two of them sold in one week. Odd, so I figured there must be a big game coming up or something. A few days later, I get the return request. The guy said it was great but when he told his buddy that he found it on eBay, his friend went and bought the second one as a gift for him not realizing the first guy already bought it.
I’m glad you’re having a great scavenging trip! It’s good to get out from your regular routine every once in a while. I know Steph and I are due for something like that.
I had another thing happened that I wanted to share, and it actually covers a couple topics from this week’s podcast. I, too, had a buyer almost immediately cancel a purchase. No big deal since it was only a $10 item, but when I went to relist it, I noticed that my inventory list shows that I had none left. It was an item that I listed previously with multiple quantity, but for whatever reason it messed up after I did a “sell similar” relisting spree a few months back as an experiment. So if that buyer hadn’t of canceled, I would’ve had to of canceled the sale anyways. He saved me a ding on my record. lol
Oct 28 – Nov 3
Total Items in Store: 1902
Items Sold: 18
Total Sales : $1081
* above yearly average of $817
* below 2017 total week sales of $623
Highest Price: $430 (Drake Ham Radio Receiver)
Average Price: $60
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $119
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $10
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 36I’ve have a great week! I made a few really good sales which brought my numbers way up. I didn’t do as much listing or scavenging as I should have, but it was a busy week both at home and work. But what I did list was all of my Christmas inventory. And it’s already been flying off the shelves for good prices too. I have a few more items that I want to put up right after Thanksgiving when people officially go into Christmas season mode.
I got a very strange (and some might call it offensive) message from a buyer on Saturday. The messaged me through one of my Korean war slides asking me if I had any Jewish tattooed skin lampshades. WTF? He went on to say that they’re very collectable and would be very interested if I had any. I didn’t quite know how to respond to that, so I didn’t. I looked it up and it appears to have been a myth perpetuated by a German nazi woman who had them made from goat skin. Regardless, I think it would be against eBay policy to sell murdered people’s skin in any way, shape or form.
Yes, Retro, you’ve got that right. I was bummed out all weekend. But thankfully the latter happens more often. There’s no feeling quite like finding a doohicky at the bottom of a box lot that pays for the whole auction.
Thanks, Troy. I know I keep going on and on about quitting and making a go at it with eBay. I’m just excited to see my pocket change gig grow into a full time business. I feel like I just need a few more months of data (and savings) before I feel comfortable enough to go for it.
Oct 21-27
Total Items in Store: 1885
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales : $628
* below yearly average of $809
* below 2017 total week sales of $667
Highest Price: $50 (Sub-Zero Refrigerator Replacement Part Door Hinge)
Average Price: $26
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $28
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $397
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 48This week felt really good but my total sales were just okay. I can’t complain too much, I was just a bit disappointed. I could have sworn I made at least 800 in sales. And I would have too if I hadn’t gotten a big return on a refrigerator shelf that I sold for $180. I didn’t included it in my numbers. It’s a bummer because it was my fault for putting the wrong model number in the listing. I’ll have to eat $40 in shipping. But I know it’ll sell again since these parts are being produced anymore. I already sold two other parts for $50 each, I expect to make a good bit of money from this refrigerator that didn’t work when we moved in. It only took a couple of days to disassemble it and photograph and list everything.
We went to a big auction on Thursday, but that was a huge disappointment as well. This auction house usually has really great stuff and towards the end we can buy box lots for a dollar or two. But this time there wasn’t really anything worth selling. I still ended up spending around $400, but when I got home and inventoried all my stuff, I realized that I just bought mediocre items. It dawned on me that this was the stuff that I usually throw in my yard sale pile. Things that just aren’t worth my effort to list. I think I bought someone else’s yard sale pile. Ugh. I’m not saying I won’t make a profit on it, just not as much as I normally would.
The good news though is that we got an estimate on replacing our roof, and it’s a lot less than we originally thought. So now that the mystery is gone, I feel better about eventually soon quitting my day job. I still don’t know when I’d like to do it, but I do know it just doesn’t make sense financially to continue working and losing 11 hours a day when I could be using that time to sell on eBay.
10/22/2018 at 2:38 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 382: Treasure Hunting with a Fishnet #50557How’d you like Hocking Hills? I visit there every few years for a hike to Old Man’s Cave. Were the leaves in full fall colors?
10/22/2018 at 2:36 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 382: Treasure Hunting with a Fishnet #50556Oct 14-20
Total Items in Store: 1859
Items Sold: 15
Total Sales : $863
* above yearly average of $822
* below 2017 total week sales of $1500 (huge couple of sales that week)
Highest Price: $400 (North Face Inferno DL Goose Down Sleeping Bag)
Average Price: $58 ($31 if you don’t count the big sale)
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $26
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 60It felt like a really slow week, so I was surprised at my totals this time around. That sleeping bag sale really boosted my numbers though. It would have been drab without it. Funny story about that, I had it listed for a hundred dollars less than it sold for until somebody asked a question about the temperature rating. So I did some research and found that it was one of the best sleeping bags out on the market and I underpriced it. So I bumped it up to $400 and it sold the next day.
No scavenging last week, but we do plan on going to an auction on Thursday. This week I’m working on listing all of those refrigerator parts from the high-end fridge that wasn’t working when we moved in. I expect to make back what I spent on a brand new refrigerator.
Troy, I can relate too well. I also tend to stay at crummy jobs long after their prime. I love the way you suggest perceiving my day job now as the side gig. That perfectly puts into words how I’ve been feeling lately! Thanks!
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