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08/13/2018 at 3:47 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 373: Should Running A Business Be Complicated? #47410
Aug 5 – 11
Total Items in Store: 1637
Items Sold: 22
Total Sales : $857
* above yearly average of $759
* above 2017 total week sales of $0 (Closed my store after the flood)
Highest Price: $190 (GM Oldsmobile Underhood Lamp Assembly Kit)
Average Price: $39
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $58
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $18
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 27I had a great week of sales! Though it felt like I sold way more than I actually did. But I’m happy with my totals for this time of year. Didn’t get to list as much as the previous week as life got in the way as it tends to do. But we did get to explore a different Goodwill Outlet store on Monday. Boy, that was an experience! It was way different than the outlet we were use to. More people and way more sketchy. But I scavenged some okay stuff. We probably won’t go back there but I’m glad we checked it out.
This morning I had a message on my phone from the post office. On Saturday, we had some packages to be picked up that I scheduled the night before. Well I forgot to put them out until it was too late. Oops, that was my fault… but no big deal since technically I didn’t have to have them mailed out until Monday. Well today I got a snarky voicemail from the postmaster saying the carrier came Saturday morning and our big package box was empty and it was a waste of her time and if I don’t have any packages for pickup then I need to not schedule a pickup or at least call and tell them before they come out. Huh? I don’t think this post office likes us very much. I tried to call back to explain myself but she had already left for the day. So on one hand, I hate to piss off our local post office who we rely on to do our business. But on the other hand, that kind behavior just isn’t very professional. I already bent to their will when I bought the outdoor patio box to store packages in so the carrier wouldn’t have to walk to our door.
08/13/2018 at 3:46 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 373: Should Running A Business Be Complicated? #47409Wall Drug Store in South Dakota still sells a cup of coffee for .5 cents. And they’ll remind you with a billboard every ten miles on route 90.
08/09/2018 at 12:01 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Vintage Converse, Slot Car Track, Sony 8mm VCR (not working), Paper towel holder, Doorbell, Models #47218Oh man, Steph and I found a pair of Converse just like those at an auction on Saturday inside a box lot of mostly vintage baby shoes. She tried to get them but it went for $120. My auction nemesis got them. At least we ran the price up on him! Haha
Here’s one of my big ticket items of the week. This Korean War era frag grenade ammo box came from an auction last spring. I paid $10 for it along with an aluminum tackle box that sold last week. I really thought I would be sitting on this for a while because of all the other wood ammo boxes currently for sale on eBay, but I did some extra research and posted my findings in the description and it sold within a couple weeks for $70.
Korean War Era Grenade BoxThis next sale came as a surprise. It was a large Rolfs brand leather wallet. It came out of a box lot of office supplies that I paid $22 for ($2 for each sellable item). Maybe that’s a well known top-shelf brand, but I know almost nothing about wallets. But I’m so glad I researched it. This oversized size is called an attache wallet, and they regularly sell for $60. I priced mine for $70 and it sold within a day! Easy to pack and ship, I wish I could make sales like that all day!
Rolfs Leather Attache WalletSteven’s videos have inspired me to try seeking out and selling new old stock car parts. I was never really into vehicles and their insides (other than the necessities like changing oil and tires), so I took a small gamble on a box lot of older car parts still mostly in their boxes. Researching these parts were easy enough with the part numbers embossed on everything. This was the first to sell. It’s a 1969 Camaro Backup Light Housing. Listed it for sixty bucks and took a best offer of $52. Each sellable item out of that lot only cost me $3.
1969 Camaro Backup Light HousingThis is a fun sale. I acquired a Battle Masters board game at a Goodwill for a dollar. From prior research, I knew it was a great seller if it was complete, so I took the insignificant risk. It turns out that this game has like a hundred pieces, and of course mine was missing a LOT! But I took the time and listed all the pieces in like groups anyways for $15 each. They’ve been slowly selling, including this lot of three goblins. Open box and complete normally sells for $60 to $100. So far, I’ve netted $54 from my parts and I’ve got a ton left to sell.
Milton Bradley Battle Masters Game PiecesInglewood, 5 months of severance pay would be amazing! I don’t blame you for sticking it out for that.
We sort of downsized and upsized at the same time. Bought a house in June, but the mortgage ended up being less than rent was! Win-Win. Now to start cutting costs in other areas…That is quite a lot to think about, Troy! But you’re right. I’ve got to think honestly about my figures and see if they make sense for my budget, both business and personal. As far as finding new inventory, I don’t think that will be a problem. Auctions are in abundance where I live, along with vintage items that I’ve got a good eye for. My only missing piece (well not the only, but the biggest) is time. I’m currently limited to only Sat. and Sun. for sourcing inventory. It will be great to start going to auctions in the middle of the week when it’s not so crowded.
Now with your insurance, I assume that cost includes both you and your wife? I’m not married yet, nor have any kids so I would expect that price would be lower in my case.
Thanks for the encouragement, Mark! Yes, I’ve been saving up a little nest egg for this moment. Right now I have 8 months salary in my savings account. I’ll keep putting more in until the day I leave too, so I expect that number to rise to 9 or 10. One downside to leaving my job is that eBay won’t be the second income to just bank without a second thought. Saving might become harder to do…at least at first. But my dirty math indicates that I’ll eventually be making more with eBay than my current day job. It’ll just take patience and perseverance.
July 29 – Aug 4
Total Items in Store: 1631
Items Sold: 18
Total Sales : $626
* below yearly average of $742
* above 2017 total week sales of $0 (Closed my store after the flood)
Highest Price: $70 (1953 Korean War US Military Hand Grenade Wood Box)
Average Price: $35
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $47
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $7
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 71Great podcast! I appreciate all the work both of you do with it every week. It really keeps me motivated and inspired.
I had kind of a slow week last week in sales. But I’ve been listing like a rock star! It’s funny how it just takes a few minutes of effort to get the ball rolling on a task before you get going and don’t want to stop. 71 items in a week may be pretty typical for a full time eBayer, but it’s very significant to me.
That being said, I’ve been putting more and more thought into going full time with this. My job has become a dead end and is beginning to resemble a sinking ship with poor management and money problems. I’ve figured that I’m making roughly the same amount each week in eBay sales than I’m making in my take-home paycheck, and that’s only working on it a couple hours a night. Now there’s a lot more to take in account such as taxes and health insurance, but I imagine if I were to put in full time hours, I could easily double my gross profits after a few months. My only concern is how much health insurance will cost me. Plus all the other unknowns that I haven’t even thought up of yet. Unexplored territory and all that. It’s a scary step, but I think I’m going to take it.
08/03/2018 at 9:58 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Train case, Gun case, Sony 8mm VCR, San Fran prints, Magazine rack, Speakers, Hats #46774My store has been doing surprisingly okay during this summer slowdown period. I’m averaging more in sales than last year for sure! Here’s some notable items that sold…
This is the second home vacuum hair cutting system I picked up and sold almost immediately. Definitely BOLO! This Flowbee brand hair cutter was acquired from the same thrift store and for the same price of $5 as the first one. All the parts were intact, and it looked hardly used, if even used at all. I priced it higher than average at $90 and took a $75 best offer. I probably should have held out for a little more since it was only a day after listing it, but I was hungry for some sales.
Flowbee Home Haircutting SystemVintage tackle boxes are a nice item to find cheap and sell for a good profit. This aluminum “My Buddy” brand fold-out box came from an auction a few months ago. Paid a little more than I would normally have at $10, but it came with this awesome military grenade box that I’ll talk about next week. Finally got around to listing it for $70 and the low ball BOs started rolling in. It didn’t take long to make a deal with one guy for $55.
Vintage Aluminum Tackle boxThis small Victor brand rodent live trap came from the same auction as above. It was in a box lot with a couple other sellable items for $2. Antique and unique traps can fetch an amazingly large price. There are collectors of these things for sure. This was not an old or unique enough example, but I still got $30 out of it. I had it set up in my basement with some stale bread while it was listed for sale. Didn’t catch a thing, but I think that’s a good thing.
Small Victor Live TrapI would have never found this old photograph if I hadn’t decided to list some old promotional paper booklets that came out of a box lot. It was tucked inside of one of them and just fell out when I was photographing them for listing. It’s an 8×10, B&W photo of a dairy processing company out of Marietta, Ohio. The detail was amazing! For as far away as the photographer was, you could get a magnifying glass out and see the lines in the people’s faces. I knew there were dairy collectors out there who would appreciate this photo. I was right, as it sold in a day for $30.
Vintage Crystal Dairy Photograph07/30/2018 at 3:58 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 371: T-Satt (Troy) Reports on eBay Open #46449July 22-28
Total Items in Store: 1576
Items Sold: 21
Total Sales : $728
* roughly equal yearly average of $730
* above 2017 total week sales of $636
Highest Price: $89 (Adalet Explosion Proof Industrial Light Fixture Sconce)
Average Price: $35
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $33
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 37Great interview! Thanks for sharing with us your experience at eBay Open, T-Satt! It seems like things are pretty optimistic despite the recent blunders and hiccups. I still think eBay could improve trust if there were a lot more open communication with us sellers. Why does it seem like eBay keep things hush-hush all the time?
I’m slowly getting more into listing again, even though we’ve had guests over a few times this week. I think I was just dragging my feet for no reason, but once I get started, I don’t want to quit. 37 new items listed is still pretty low for me, but I think I can whip out a lot more this week.
No scavenging this week, but I did have a scavenger experience that I thought I would share. The refrigerator that I gutted for parts to sell had been sitting in my garage for a couple weeks taking up space. I’ve been calling garbage collectors and nobody would pick it up for us. And I don’t have a truck to haul it to the landfill. Someone mentioned to leave it out on the curb for metal scrappers. I did, thinking this eyesore of a fridge would be sitting there for a week, just to be dragged back inside when it was evident that nobody wanted. Well I’ll be damned, that thing was gone in less than 6 hours! I have to wonder what kind of money they could get out of it at a scrap yard? I’m just relieved to have it out of the house!
07/30/2018 at 3:43 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 371: T-Satt (Troy) Reports on eBay Open #46447Heroquest! I totally had that game when I was a kid!
07/26/2018 at 11:14 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Mouse Trap Instructions, Weed puller, Mailbox, Super Soaker, Platter Pak #46179I had an okay week of sales last week. Here are some notables…
I paid too much for this cast iron pot at an auction last year ($20). I thought it was a bean pot of some sort, but later learned it was a smelting pot. I intended to restore it with a lye bath, but it sat in my garage for too long. I just wanted rid of it. Ended up listing it as is and it sold for a best offer of $40. Doubled my money before fees and learned something new in the process.
Hollands Smelting PotI would never have thought that cutting boards could bring a decent price if it wasn’t for SL. This extra thick cutting board came in a box lot of misc. stuff that I paid $13 (13 sellable items so $1 each). I labeled it as a butcher chopping board because of the extra thickness. Took a few months but it sold for full price of $50.
Small Butcher BlockHere’s my big sale of the week. I bought this vintage Coleman lantern at an auction for ONE DOLLAR! I was shocked that nobody wanted it, and so was the auctioneer. I had no knowledge of vintage lanterns, but it was a no brainer purchase. After some research, I learned that it was from 1961. It looked hardly used. Came with all the original paper work and the box too. I priced it rather high and waited for a good offer, which came for $115 last week. Since it was bulky and taking up a lot of room, I decided to take it.
Vintage Coleman LanternHere’s another neat item that sold. I spotted this industrial light fixture under a table inside a barn auction. I paid $2 for it. It needed a good cleaning as it was covered with dust and filth. But it cleaned up really well! Surprisingly, no cracks or damage. And the old lightbulb that came in it still worked! I priced it for $100 and took an $89 offer.
Adalet Industrial Light Fixture07/26/2018 at 10:34 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Wind up car, Tori Richards Hawaiian shirt, TV Repairman's box, Outsider art, Birkies #46174Thanks, Mike, for the excellent reply. I took a quick dive into the world of printing and found some more keywords to use. Even just the word “printer cut” brought up way more sold items than what I was previously finding. I’ve revised all my titles. Hopefully that’ll spark some sales. Thanks again!
Good point. And I just checked and I do happen to have over 200 listings ending within 4 days. But like pythonesk said, with a premium store, the listings are 10 cents each so it’d be a $20 credit.
I mean, I appreciate the gesture, but this email reads like a half-hearted non-appology. How am I going to use 200 new listings by the end of the week? Ain’t nobody got time for that! I wonder how much I’ll be refunded in insertion fees? I think I had around 250 affected listings.
I just got the same message. Wow, 200 listings for 4 days only. That totally makes up for 8 hours of my time fixing their mistake and who knows how many potentially missed sales… Come on, eBay! This is just insulting.
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