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03/15/2018 at 4:29 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Rolodex, Owl bookends, Clocks, Desk lamp, MCM trash bin, Zenith Trans Oceanic radio #35289
Sharyn, that cassette holder and the price you got for it blew my mind. It’s amazing what people will pay for something just because of the show it was associated with. I’ll definitely be on the look out for those! Thanks!
03/15/2018 at 4:13 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Rolodex, Owl bookends, Clocks, Desk lamp, MCM trash bin, Zenith Trans Oceanic radio #35286I stopped buying those gooseneck lamps cause they sucked to pack for little return. But if I could sell them for $80 or more, I may start reconsidering. Here are some of my more interesting sales over the last couple weeks.
I acquired this Mexican sombrero at the university where I work. The international student department had been dissolved and they were giving away all of this stuff. So I went and grabbed up anything that I thought was worth selling. Lol! I’ve never seen a sombrero made this well before. The straw was really stiff and it weighed a lot more than it looked. I saw other well-made sombreros selling for the 80-100 dollar range, so I listed mine for $150 because why not? Well it didn’t take long to sell for full price! ¡Olé!
Mexican SombreroI love it when I’m the only one at an auction who finds the value in a particular item. For example, this religious framed lithograph just really stood out to me and apparently no one else. I got it for $2. I took it home, cleaned it up and listed it for $130. I really had no clue as to how long I would have to hold on to this piece before it sold. But to my surprise, it only took a couple months. I took a best offer of $95 because of the broken glass. The lady who bought it was really sweet too and wrote me a kind message about how much she loved it.
Framed Religious LithographHere’s a good example as to why you shouldn’t just throw away box lot trash until you’ve done enough research. This old 1937 paper vehicle registration was on the bottom of a box of misc. stuff. There wasn’t much to it, but it was in good enough condition for its age that I thought maybe someone might be interested. I listed it for $18. It took a few months, but it sold!
Old Vehicle RegistrationI purchased a large box of cool glassware at an auction for $65. It was a bit of a gamble, but it really paid off. I’ve already doubled my profit and have a lot more to sell. Well inside was this really cool tea cup and saucer. It’s called a Taltos Fortune Telling Teacup. If I were more of a fancy tea drinker, I would have kept it. But I’ve got plenty of liquid vessels, so up on eBay it went. I listed it for $40 and sold it for full price after a couple months.
Taltos Fortune Telling TeacupHere’s another item that I didn’t image anyone would have an interest in. I snagged a bag of used metal keys from a lady at an auction who said she didn’t want them. I said yeah, I’ll take them. Free is free. Now I know OLD old keys (like skeleton keys) can be valuable if you can get them for cheap enough. But these were just regular newish everyday kinds for doors, cars, luggage and whatnot. In other words, nothing special. But I listed them anyways and they sold after a while for $20.
Lot of Used Keys03/12/2018 at 2:07 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 351: Being Frugal Is Not A Secret Club #34906March 4 – 10
Total Items in Store: 1399
Items Sold: 23
Total Sales : $600
below yearly average of $655
below 2017 total sales of $769
Highest Price: $65 (1970s Bulova Accutron N3 Date and Day Watch)
Average Price: $26
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $115
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of Items Listed this Week: 42It hasn’t been a great week of sales. My volume of sales are about average, but my average price stinks. On top of that is a high COGS from a couple bad buys. I’m going to start sharing my 365 day sales average as well as my 2017 weekly total sales to better reflect how well or poor I’m doing.
I had LOTS of best offers this week. I entertained most of them, countered a lot with realistic prices and had to outright decline several. Much like a lot of things on eBay, they come in waves. I try to stick to my guns with reasonable price decreases, but when sales are slow it’s really tempting to take those half price offers.
In thinking about this week’s discussion about frugality, I went and checked out my credit card purchase over the last month. I went out to eat a total of 6 times for a sum of $160. Ewww. It’s weird because I’ve always viewed the act of going out to eat a rare treat to do maybe once every other month. In my mind, when I think of going to a restaurant for dinner, I guess I’m forgetting how often I’ve been going lately. I need to get a handle on those kinds of purchases again I suppose. I understand the frugal lifestyle, though. And it’s something that I strive to adhere to. Though it can be hard when your partner doesn’t completely believe in living frugally. But I think she’s beginning to come around.
Feb 25 – March 3
Total Items in Store: 1376
Items Sold: 25
Total Sales : $850
Highest Price: $150 (Authentic Heavy Duty Licinio Chavez Sombrero Hat)
Average Price: $34
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $70
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0
Number of Items Listed this Week: 40Another pretty solid week of sales on my end. But I’ve been slacking a bit lately with listing. I’m getting into my busy time of year at work so I’m putting in more hours and coming home exhausted. That on top of lots of stuff going on in my personal life just makes it hard to get into eBay as much as I would like.
I got my taxes back from my CPA. It turns out I owe less than I thought I would. I made a total of $34,000 in sales. I spent $16,000 in expenses (shipping, fees, mileage, supplies, internet and rent deductions) and $5,400 on COGS and about $750 in returns. That left me with a Net profit of $11,600. Subtracting my refund from my day job, I owe $2,700 state and fed combined. (These are all very rounded numbers). My CPA charged me $250 to take care of all my tax things. Not bad for my second year of selling on eBay. Though looking at my numbers, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to my year’s resolution of $40K Net Profit. Maybe $25K would be a more realistic number.
As for all this commotion with the spring seller update, I kind of have to say that these changes make it appear that eBay is focusing more on high volume businesses and are forgetting us small-time sellers. The new store size category can tell you that much. It’s sad to think that they’re forgetting their roots and seem to only have their eyes on profits. Like you said, it’s probably just a bunch of MBA business people coming up with these plans to benefit the company. They’re out of touch with the likes of us. Like many of you, I’ll try out the free returns to see if it works for me. I don’t get very many returns anyways so it might not make a big difference. But I don’t expect to make more sales either. The nixing of the restocking fee is a bummer too.
03/01/2018 at 12:55 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Metal car banks, Cross stitch kit, Marantz parts, Easy Bake oven, Pocket Braille Writer #34147Nice bunch of sales last week, and this week is looking to be another good one. Here are some highlights…
Whenever I see older Disney stuff, I’ll scoop it up if the price is low. It seems to always sell regardless of what it is. This Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs porcelain figurine set came out of a box lot of similar collectable stuff. I paid $5 on the whole lot, so this item came to $1.67. It sold after maybe 3 weeks for full price of $40. It was in okay condition with some minor chips in the paint on a few of them. But I made sure to point out every little flaw.
Snow White & Seven Dwarfs FigurinesSo when I was reorganizing a bit last week, I found some little items that I must have forgotten to list from back when I first got started in the eBay hobby. This little photo booth picture was one of them. I have no idea where I acquired it or how much it may have cost me… probably no more than a dollar out of a box lot. So I listed it and I swear it was one of the fastest sells I think I ever had. Within minutes it had a buyer. I sold it for $10, but I wonder if it was worth more for some reason. Oh well, 10 is more than nothing I guess.
Vintage Photo Booth PhotographHere’s my high sale of the week. I acquired 24 of these gold-filled eyeglasses from an auction last summer. They were in various conditions. Some were pretty nice while most of them were very worn out. I got the whole lot for $60. My intention was to photograph and list each one individually, but after doing three, I had enough. So I decided to sell them in one big lot for $275. The best offers started coming in immediately after I listed them. But I just sat back and waited until a good deal came to me. Finally, someone offered $260 and I said sure thing! I might have been able to get full price eventually (and maybe even close to double if I would have listed each one individually), but I opted for the quick sale on this one.
Lot of 24 Vintage EyeglassesI was in my local thrift store browsing the aisles when I spotted this vacuum cleaner hair cutting system. I immediately remember this thing from when I was younger and when the infomercials there were on TV. I never used it myself. So I looked it up on a whim and was shocked that they were selling regularly for around $75. I bought it for $3, took it home and cleaned it out, and listed it high for $90. It sold for a BO of $79. I’ll be keeping my eye out for these from now on.
Robocut Hair Cutting SystemHere’s a cool brand of outerwear that I haven’t heard of before recently. Schaefer Outfitter. It looks geared toward the rancher/cowboy type. I picked up this jacket in a thrift store for $10. It looked practically unworn. It was a good 2XL size too. I priced it at $90 and it sold for full price. I got a very nice message from the buyer too saying how much he loved it and he was going to recommend my store to all of his rodeo buddies.
Shaefer Outfitter Jacket Blazer02/27/2018 at 4:31 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 349: Having A Huge Inventory Is Not The Goal, It’s The Strategy #34024Ha! Jart! Too funny! You probably were able to figure out what real Jarts were, but in case you haven’t, they’re a lawn dart game from several decades ago. They’ve been restricted from being sold due to too many injuries. I thought I read somewhere that there’s never actually been any fatalities though, but it would have been bound to happen eventually. If they were thrown straight up into the air and landed just right on someone’s head, it’d pop right through the skull for sure.
02/26/2018 at 10:49 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 349: Having A Huge Inventory Is Not The Goal, It’s The Strategy #33956I remember when you mentioned your Jarts sale a few months ago. I might have to reactivate my old Facebook account and try out this Marketplace.
02/26/2018 at 12:33 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 349: Having A Huge Inventory Is Not The Goal, It’s The Strategy #33899Feb 18-24
Total Items in Store: 1359
Items Sold: 23
Total Sales : $800
Highest Price: $260 (Lot of 24 Vintage Eyeglasses with Cases)
Average Price: $35
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $135
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $5I had a pretty good week of sales. Mostly smaller priced items, but a few higher ones to bring up my average. We took the weekend off from any form of eBaying due to a flood warning. On Friday, we spent the evening pulling everything up out of our basement to store in the first and second story of our house. It was a complete disaster zone for a while. It felt like living in a hoarder house for sure with mazes of totes and stuff. Luckily, the storm moved more south of us so no flooding, at least in our neighborhood. Sunday when the coast was clear, we took several hours to put everything back. The nice part about it was that I got to reorganize a bit. I now have a lot more room in my storage space for more items, though I might keep it that way for a while and not start buying more things.
My buy of the week came from an estate sale on Saturday. There wasn’t much stuff that I was interested in. Mostly granny knick knacks and googahs (thanks for that new word!). But I did stumble across a near mint condition set of Jarts for a couple bucks! Now I’ve been collecting these for a little while (I’m up to 6 sets) and haven’t tried selling them on eBay. From what I understand, they’re a restricted item but people get around that by selling “just the box” with the unwritten understanding that the box won’t be empty. Sounds kind of risky to me. I think my backup plan is to try a set a Guinness record for most lawn dart sets owned by a single person. I’ll be one of those kooky people that get on TV.
02/22/2018 at 10:26 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Bose speakers, Lucchese boots, Anri chess set, Mailbox, Tension pole lamp #33652I didn’t have a terrible week, but not a great one either. My weekly average over the last year is $635 so at least I was over that. Here’s some interesting things that I’ve sold…
It’s funny that you sold a Sansui brochure last week, as I too sold one! Maybe it was to the same buyer? This came in that box lot of ephemera that I got at an estate sale for $3. So I only have pennies into each piece. Mine also sold for $30.
Sansui BrochureMy big sale of the week came from a sulphide marble. I actually sold a few marbles for pretty good money last week, but this was the best one. If you don’t know what they are, sulphides are basically transparent glass marbles, usually bigger shooter ones, that have a little trinket inside. Usually a white colored animal, but sometimes they can be other items. They’re pretty collectable in the marble market. I paid $11 for this at an auction and sold it for $80. If you’re planning on selling marbles, you must be very specific on condition. Marble collectors are extremely picky.
Sulphide Cat MarbleI saw this old can of Recoton record cleaning solution at a yardsale for .25 cents. I thought the label was really cool and retro and figured someone might appreciate it for display. It was also still almost full of the cleaner. I priced it for $20 and it sold after a few months.
Recoton Record CleanerThis was a neat sale from my watch and clock part lot that continues to make me moola. It’s an old cuckoo clock bird part. The mouth moves when hooked up to whatever mechanism the clock uses. It seemed really old, so I priced it pretty high expecting to take a best offer. Well it sold for full price of $50.
Antique Mechanical Cuckoo Bird PartI had a Lampe Berger burner when I tried to get into cigars. That hobby didn’t last long, but I remember the Lampe Berger oils were really expensive. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t resell partial bottles of the stuff. It is flammable, so you have to ship it ground. But it would be just like selling used perfume or old spray paint.
Here’s a sale of a bunch of used ones. Looks like they listed it as pre-owned under Home & Garden>Home Décor>Home Fragrances>Catalytic Fragrance Lamps02/19/2018 at 11:29 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 348: Acknowledge When Hard Work Pays Off #33343Feb 11-17
Total Items in Store: 1352
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales : $694
Highest Price: $80 (Antique German Clear Sulphide Cat 1 1/2″ Shooter Marble)
Average Price: $29
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $69
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0I love the way you’re utilizing space on your shelves for mugs! That’s so smart!
It was a pretty average week for me. I sold a lot of lower priced items as well with a few mid-priced ones here and there to bring up my totals a bit. I’ve been working all week on listing death pile items. Stuff that I literally have zero interest in and just did not look forward to dealing with. I listed a LOT of it but had to stop because it was putting me in a crappy mood. Lol.
I wanted to share a mistake I made and a lesson learned. And I totally blame it on working on ebay before drinking any coffee. I woke up to a request for a price change on a $19.95 item. Apparently, I set the weight to 2 lbs when it was really only less than 16 oz. It would have cost the buyer over $10 for shipping to Seattle. He suggested $22 including shipping. I thought that was reasonable given that it would only realistically cost me around $4 to ship. Well in my half-sleep stupor, I changed the item to include free shipping and sent him a $22 offer thinking that would take care of everything. Well later in the day, I hear the cha-ching on my phone thinking cool, he paid. But he only paid $19.95 total. That’s when I realized my mistake: The item was still set to $19.95 but now with free shipping. Of course he bought it at that price! I don’t know if eBay presented him with the cheaper amount or if the buyer was smart enough to realize I made a mistake. So the lesson here is… don’t send a higher priced offer to include shipping costs while simultaneously applying free shipping to the item. And don’t eBay when you’re still asleep. Luckily, It was a cheap lesson to learn this time.
02/15/2018 at 7:51 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Pioneer Reel To Reel, trucker hats, vintage game parts, 8mm home movies #33143I really enjoyed having it and using it as my “clothes chair” while it was waiting to sell.
02/15/2018 at 11:30 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Pioneer Reel To Reel, trucker hats, vintage game parts, 8mm home movies #33074I’ve been saving my 8mm film for a large lot listing like you. So far I have about as much as you did before your sale. But like you said, sitting down and going through and making sure they’re not damaged is time consuming.
I had a pretty good week of sales. Here are some of the more interesting ones…I love selling machinist chests. This is the third one I’ve sold in the past few months. I can usually get them for cheap at auctions. This one I only paid $3 for. It was in pretty rough condition when I got it. It was used as a jewelry box by the previous owner. But I took a couple hours and cleaned it up, applied some mineral oil and wood wax and re-lined then drawers with new felt. It looked awesome when I was done. It sold in a day after listing it for full price of $170.
Wood Machinist ChestHere’s my biggest sale of the week, as well as the largest things I’ve ever had to pack so far. I acquired this Plycraft Mid Century Modern Orange Padded Chair at an auction for $35. I thought I paid too much for it but I just got caught up in the bidding. It needed some restoration work done on it and I listed the exact condition with pick-up only. After a few months with little interest, I received a message from a guy in Germany very interested in the chair. After lots of back and forth with him, I was able to get the thing disassembled and into a box small enough to ship internationally. I took his best offer of $230. It’s currently sitting in customs hell at the moment. Hopefully he’s satisfied when he finally gets it.
Plycraft Mid Century Modern ChairHere’s a fun little sale. I got this Space Invaders arcade parts and operating manual in a box of stuff from an estate sale. I only have maybe a dollar into it. There were a bunch listed on eBay already for cheap, but you could tell that they were just scanned printouts. I made sure to mention in my listing that mine was 100% original and not a reproduction like others people were selling. Lol. It sold in about a month for $20.
Space Invaders Arcade ManualHave you ever almost left something from a table lot but decided to keep it at the last minute only to find out it’s worth more than you thought? That happened to me with this glass torchiere lamp shade. It was kind of dirty and ugly, but I thought what the hell, I’ll yardsale it if anything. After I cleaned it up, I did some research and it was apparently quite old and valuable. I listed it for high and took a best offer of $125. I only paid a few bucks for the whole table lot.
Torchiere Lamp ShadeFeb 4 – 10
Total Items in Store: 1325
Items Sold: 26
Total Sales : $1,170
Highest Price: $230 (Bentwood Norman Cherner for Plycraft Mid Century Modern Orange Padded Chair)
Average Price: $45
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $137
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $0Hey, look at that! My sales picked up again! You’re right with what you said in the podcast about complaining when sales are down. It’s just a part of eBay life to have crummy weeks sometimes. Sales always seem to pick back up again. I had a few really nice sales too. Including the largest individual item I’ve ever had to ship… a mid-century modern wood chair. AND IT WENT TO GERMANY! What a headache that was! I listed it as pickup only, but the buyer was very adamant about seeing if I can get it to fit in a box if I disassembled it. To make a long story short, I managed to disassemble it enough to fit in a small enough sized box that USPS would accept. No way would I have gone through all that effort if I wasn’t going to get more than $200 for it. I REALLY hope he’s satisfied with it because I don’t want the hassle of a return.
I didn’t get a lot listed last week because I was focusing on getting my tax numbers in order. This is the first year that I’m consulting a CPA. He owns a small-time CPA business with just two employees (him and his secretary) which was just what I was looking for. When we met up on Friday to go over my numbers, he was so impressed with everything and how I kept tabs on my sales and COGS and mileage and numbers that he wanted to hire me to work for him. LOL. Nah, I’ll stick with selling old stuff on eBay.
02/08/2018 at 8:32 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Phono cartridge, Sony CD player, VHS re-winder, Hot Wheel set, Amateur painting #32572Ah yes, you’re right. I read about the reason Mattingly wasn’t suppose to be on the Apollo 13 glasses when I was listing these. I only have the one design (the most common one).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302577379572 -
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