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ebaymom, I just listed a bunch of creepy “haunted” dolls yesterday. Some of them can really bring in a lot of money, but you’ve gotta attach a story behind it. I was too lazy to make something up, so I just said I found them in my attic and they creep me out so I’m selling them.
I think they’re rolling it out to sellers a little at a time. I was among the first to have the honor of being allowed to test it without being asked to opt in. Steph still has the classic version for now.
July 15-21
Total Items in Store: 1574
Items Sold: 16
Total Sales : $566
* below yearly average of $728
* above 2017 total week sales of $356
Highest Price: $115 (1961 Green Coleman Gasoline Lantern Model 228E)
Average Price: $35
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $36
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 0I had a pretty average week last week in terms of sales. I was happy to sell a few largish items that have been taking up room on my shelves. Overall, I haven’t really been motivated to sit down and list. Maybe it’s because of my new 1 hour commute to and from work everyday. Or it could be all the little things that need done right after buying a house that’s taking up most of my time.
Speaking of taking a lot of time, I spent most of the afternoon on Saturday disassembling a refrigerator with a blown compressor that was here when we moved in. Normally I would have just hauled it away, but something compelled me to look up Sub Zero refrigerator parts on eBay. They sell for a lot of money! $40, $60, even some things for over $100. I stripped everything! Shelves, knobs, hinges, timers, grates and grills. I bet I could make over a thousand bucks from everything.
I’m glad you mentioned the new label pages. I HATE IT! It just seems so unnecessary when the classic page worked just fine. There’s so much white space. I hate having to scroll down and click more options every time I want to choose Priority instead of Parcel. The label sizes are different now so when I print, the little “Cut Along Line” goes over to the other label. The little buttons where you can adjust your lbs, oz, and dimensions will allow you to go below zero into the negatives for some reason. I’ve been writing to them using the feedback button everytime I’m annoyed by something, but I have a feeling they don’t really read those. Kind of like the complaint box that feeds into a shredder. But the good news is it’s showing the correct prices now. I’ve been comparing everytime I’ve sold something and they must have fixed that bug.
07/22/2018 at 11:16 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Wind up car, Tori Richards Hawaiian shirt, TV Repairman's box, Outsider art, Birkies #45908Oh hey! I recognized Sioux Falls almost instantly! It’s such a pretty sight. That was my first stop when I did a road trip across South Dakota. What a beautiful state! The Badlands were my favorite part. Anyways, nice sales as always. Here are a few of mine…
I’ll start with the big money maker of the week. This simple, 4-button remote controller came out of a dumpster. It looked like the business was just cleaning out a junk room or something. Well I knew this looked important, so I grabbed it and a bunch of other stuff I could fit in my car. Turns out, it’s used to control those huge antenna dishes on top of roofs. I priced it high and just had to wait for the right buyer to come along. After probably a year, I sold it for full price of $340!
Antenne ColtrollerThis letter opener / folding knife came from the bottom of a fishing tackle box that I only paid a couple bucks for. Everything else in the box was trash (melted rubber lures, rusty hooks, that sort of thing) but I knew the box itself was desirable (Kennedy brand). I didn’t think anything about this knife until I looked up the maker – Queen Cutlery. Apparently it’s a bit of a desirable brand. So I priced it higher than what I thought it was worth anyway, and it sold within hours for full price of $50.
Queen Cutlery Letter OpenerSo sometimes I make mistakes when buying things at auctions. But it’s all about the learning experience, and thankfully most of the time they’re cheap lessons. This is one of those things that are really neat but just don’t sell well. I got this box of 6 copper & wood screen printing blocks for a couple bucks. They were mostly portraits of dapper looking people, but so far this Christmas card one has been the first one to sell for $20. I probably won’t be picking these up again if I see them, but I thought I’d share the lesson anyways.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302799914210Finally, here is a nice sale of random wrist watch and pocket watch parts. I bought several boxes full of random clock repair stuff at an auction for a total of $65 (each sellable item only came to .88 cents). I really should have went big and bought everything there, but I just didn’t know enough about clock repair to have known. This stuff demands big prices! But anyways, this was the random stuff that was left over after I picked all the good stuff out. It took a while, but it eventually sold for a best offer of $129. And the guy was so happy when he received it too!
Lot of Random Watch PartsWelp, I thought about it and went out and bought an outdoor storage box from Sam’s Club (Keter 230-gallon Deck Box if you want to check it out). We’ll just set it in front of the middle garage door. I’ll get around to putting casters on the bottom so I can wheel it around when I need to get my lawn mower out. I’m kinda sad that I had to spend money on this, but I suppose it’s better than pissing our mail carrier off. LOL!
And yes, it is a huge house. 5500 sq/ft. We got it for a steal too. Cleaning and upkeep will be a hassle, but the storage space makes it worth it!
I just called them back to verify. Apparently the mail carrier was having trouble with a heavy package that I had left out. It weighed 23 lbs. I mentioned my concern with rain and she said she would drop off some rain-proof sacks, whatever that entails. But I think I’ve come up with a temporary solution. I’ve got a large garden cart that I can borrow. I’ll put my packages in there with a tarp bungee strapped over them and leave it at the garage.
I would drop them off at the post office personally, except I have to leave for work at 7 AM and they don’t open until 8.
I won’t lie, I probably would have climbed into the dumpster. LOL! Who knows what other treasures they threw away.
I went there during the filming of that movie. It was surreal! I worked with a guy who lived there and he recorded one of the house explosions on his phone. Crazy!
Steph and I drove through there on Sunday for the Greek festival. I was sad to see a lot of the restaurants that I’ve been wanting to visit closing their doors. I hope the Tudor’s Biscuit World stays open. It’s the only one this far north.There are a lot of more interesting restaurants and food options mostly. And a couple of breweries have started up in the last few years. As far as the shopping experience, it seems to be a lot of gift shop kind of stuff like art and pottery so far. But even so, it feels like there’s more buzz in the air. Festivities are becoming more common. More exhibits and events are happening. People seems more optimistic about Wheeling’s future than they were 5 years ago.
July 8-14
Total Items in Store: 1571
Items Sold: 19
Total Sales : $970
* above yearly average of $726
* above 2017 total week sales of $543
Highest Price: $334 (Satellite Antenna Handheld Controller)
Average Price: $51
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $13
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $3
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 15So I had a much better week than the previous one. And I started listing and taking photos again. I feel like I’m getting back in the game. Hopefully it’s not just a fluke and these numbers can continue throughout the summer slowdown season. That antenna controller was something that I found in a trash bin last year. I had no idea what to price it for because there were no comps. But I think I did alright.
I think you’re absolutely right about having goals and having that big idea in order to keep from burning out. My goal is to pay off my new house in under 10 years. And my secondary goal is to start making enough on eBay sales to quit my day job (which requires a nice little safety net in my savings, maybe $60K or so). So with that all in mind, I can go down in my office 4 or 5 nights a week and continue to work after working my day job instead of getting lazy in front of the TV every night.
Your idea of improving your community using real estate is awesome. I’ve seen it happen right before my eyes over the last 5 years. Wheeling, WV had become stagnant. Buildings were sitting unoccupied. The culture scene was dismal. The people were leaving to other cities. But a revival started as a tiny ripple and turned into a huge wave. It was like a few people got the idea of the potential that the city could have, opened some different stores and restaurants, and more and more people got on board with the idea. Now they’re tearing down dilapidated buildings to make room for more businesses. And all it took were a handful of people with a vision to get it started.
07/13/2018 at 8:57 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Vintage electronics, Vintage Advent Speakers, Car parts, Models #45309Every time I come home to visit, my dad ask to see some of the things I’ve sold. So I’ll go through on my phone and show him all of my sold items. I love how amazed he gets at some of the sold prices for things that he wouldn’t have given a second thought of throwing away. And it helps him understand that this can one day be more than a part time side gig; that there’s legitimate income in this “hobby.” He still goes on and on about how I shouldn’t quit my job because of security and benefits and health insurance and so on. But at least now I think he’s starting to see the possibility.
This is interesting. I’ll need to remember to check and see if it’s the default now for me too. It’s always been one of those little annoyances every single time I shipping priority to make sure I changed that box from shipsaver to USPS.
07/12/2018 at 10:00 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Vintage electronics, Vintage Advent Speakers, Car parts, Models #45229It wasn’t very busy last week when I opened my store back up from the hiatus. But I did manage to make a few okay sales. Here are some of the highlights…
I received a message while moving from a guy who was really interested in this carousel slide projector manual. So I responded back that I’d be opening my store back up in a few days. Sure enough, it was the first thing to sell on that Monday morning. $25 for something that I found in the throw-away pile at work.
Carousel Slide Projector ManualNext up is my big sale of the week. I acquired this Kodak No. 2A Brownie Model C box camera inside a set of drawers along with a bunch of other odds and ends, all for $22.50 (each sellable piece cost me $4.50). Box cameras are hit or miss, usually missing. But this one was nearly pristine and came in a limited edition green color, so I knew collectors would want it. It took a couple months, but I finally took a best offer of $69.
Green Kodak No. 2A Brownie Model C Box CameraMy dad gets really excited when I tell him about things that I’ve sold. It just amazes him for some reason. So he’ll give me old electronics that he brings home from work that would have gone in the trash. This old vacuum tube was one of them. I didn’t have a way to test it at the time of listing, so I only listed it for $15. I got really good feedback so it must have worked well.
Hytron Electronic Vacuum Tube 6L6GCI went all in on a huge lot of N-scale model trains at an auction for $125 (each sellable item came to about $2). They haven’t been selling as well as I had hoped. Maybe I set the price (and my expectation) too high. Maybe in a few months, I’ll lower some prices and see what happens. But this pair of Bachmann motorized trains finally sold for $50. With that sale, along with some other things I sold from that lot, I’ve made back my cost so everything else will just be icing on the cake.
Bachmann N-Scale Model Train07/11/2018 at 9:43 am in reply to: New shipping label page on eBay is costing me more than classic shipping page! #45109I’m glad it wasn’t just me then. This can cause major problems for eBay if they don’t get it fixed ASAP. Luckily, I caught it before I bought the inflated shipping labels. If I get time today, I may call them and explain what’s going on. Whether they’ll listen is another story. But I’ve got screenshots to prove it.
On the new label page as well as the classic, it give you a percentage of how much you’ll be saving when buying labels on eBay. In my example above, that number is different (14% on classic as opposed to 11% on new). That’s probably the cause of the inconsistent prices…but why the difference in the first place? Recognizing the wrong category of the item maybe? Not recognizing top rated seller status?
And yeah, I couldn’t figure out how to move on to the next item I sold after I printed a label. That seems like a vital button or link to have there. Points that I’ll bring up to the rep along with the insurance discrepancy.
07/10/2018 at 8:08 am in reply to: New shipping label page on eBay is costing me more than classic shipping page! #44990It didn’t ask me or give me the option to opt in. It might be one of those “trial” things where certain sellers “volunteer” to test it out before rolling it out to everyone.
By the way, the new design is just awful. The classic had everything on the screen as soon as you pulled up the page without any scrolling. The new design forces you to scroll down to pick all of your options. Poor web design if you ask me.
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