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June 21 – 27
Total Items in Store: 3,975
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $963
* EQUAL yearly average of $963
Highest Price: $215 (Pair of Technics 3-Way Floor Speakers)
Average Price: $31
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $30
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $43
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 51Not too bad of a week. It felt a lot slower than it actually was. I had a couple semi-decent sales that really saved it for me.
Not much going on here to talk about. We hit up some yard sales again. Picked up a set of Bose speakers for $25. Unfortunately, when I brought them home I found out that a mouse had made a home in one of them. I might be able to salvage the speaker and tweeter, but the box is shot.
I had a local pickup sale with those Technics speakers that I mentioned above. I’ve had them listed for 3 years with a lot of people asking me if I could ship them. Nah, just didn’t feel like it. Finally a buyer from a couple hours away found them and we negotiated a price. I’m so happy to have them out of my storage.
June 14 – 20
Total Items in Store: 3,952
Items Sold: 28
Total Sales : $1,254
* Above yearly average of $965
Highest Price: $199 (Huge Lot of Handwritten WW2 Letters)
Average Price: $45
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $44
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $9
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 34Another great week on my end. This year has been fantastic compared to my numbers from last year. I’m so glad to see business pick up finally.
Steph and I went out to yard sales for the first time this year. We saw very few people with masks on which was discouraging. I didn’t have much luck other than negotiating a $7 price for a really nice wheelbarrow.
I had a really devastating return. That $460 knife from last week is being returned because the buyer thought it was a spring loaded blade. I sent him a link to a video demonstrating how it works but I guess it wasn’t good enough. And of course he put his reason for return “Doesn’t work or defective.” Ugh! Well I guess when I go to relist it, I’ll need to give better instructions on how to use it.
June 7 – 13
Total Items in Store: 3,951
Items Sold: 36
Total Sales : $1,930
* Above yearly average of $960
Highest Price: $460 (Benchmark Knives Rolox Viper Stag Handle Knife)
Average Price: $45
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $68
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 17Things really picked up for me this last week. I made a few big sales that really helped my totals, including that knife I mentioned above as well as a really pretty pottery bowl for $125. And I included in my numbers above a profitable trip to a gold buyer. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been collecting scrap gold and sterling from auctions and such. Broken rings and necklaces, salt shaker lids, silverware that have been through the garbage disposal, a gold tooth – all this amounted to $320 cash! I’ve never been to one of those cash for gold type places, but I did some research and found the most reputable one in my area.
It’s funny you mentioned about bikes in the podcast. I took a vintage bicycle to a bike shop to have the cranks removed. While I was there, the owner and I got to talking about the current bike market. He said that because of the COVID thing, the factories haven’t been able to pump out enough bikes this year and buyers are paying much more for stuff on eBay. It’s a seller’s market right now. He asked me what I was looking to get for my bike frame. When I told him around $200, he said I’d better at least double and maybe triple that number. So just to let everyone know, be on the lookout for bike gear to resell.
May 31 – June 6
Total Items in Store: 3,959
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $759
* Below yearly average of $946
Highest Price: $90 ( Lifetime Cookware 3 Quart Double Boiler Saucepan w/ Lid)
Average Price: $24
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $82
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 36Happy belated birthday, Jay! And happy future birthday to you, Ryanne! It’s been a slower than average week of sales. But I thought my numbers would be lower than they actually were so that’s nice. I tried getting back into the eBay listing routine but found it really hard to find time to list. I’ve got a lot of summer time choirs and projects that I’m working on, so I’ve resigned to stop worrying so much about listing goals during this time and just do what I can.
Yup. I started with a box of old toys that I had laying around back in April 2016. Back then I didn’t really know what I was doing. .99 cent auctions were only landing me a few dollars at close when what I was selling should have earned a lot more. It was a few months into it when I discovered your podcast and it really changed my business. I’ve had my ups and downs over the years but now that I’m rolling steady, I have a very healthy outlook for the future.
May 24 – 30
Total Items in Store: 3,947
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales : $878
* Below yearly average of $945
Highest Price: $130 (Silver Fold Up Doctor Medic 19th Century Eyeglasses)
Average Price: $27
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $44
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 10I did okay this week. I can’t complain since I made almost no effort to work on my store. I’m surprised I managed to list the 10 things that I did. But that’s not to say that I’ve been lazy. Everyday I was working outside doing some spring projects on my house and yard. It was nice to get away from the daily listing grind, but now I’ve gotta get myself back in the rhythm.
May 17 – 23
Total Items in Store: 3,977
Items Sold: 49
Total Sales : $1,464
* Above yearly average of $946
Highest Price: $120 (Handcrafted Irish Blackthorn Walking Stick)
Average Price: $30
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $130
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 53Another really good week for me! And not bad of a time listing new inventory either. I have a personal goal of at least 50 new items listed each week. Lately these past weeks I haven’t been able to meet that goal because of work that needed to be done around the house. And this upcoming week will be no exception. I’ve got a lot of plans on little projects that I want to complete while the weather is nice. I just got done building my raised garden. After I get it finalized, I’m taking out an old brick sidewalk that has become a hindrance. All these things would have taken a month or more to get finished, but now that I work for myself I can do as I please. It’s so liberating!
Regarding Facebook marketplace, I’m with a lot of people in saying that I do not like that site. I joined Facebook when it was only open to college students but decided to quit right around the 2016 elections for a lot of reasons. But I would be willing to look into it again as long as it lets me only have a store or whatever and doesn’t try to force me back into the personal stuff.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say these were originally two pipes but someone just assembled the bowl of one to the stem of another. Do they come apart? What does the end of the stem going into the tall bowl look like?
May 10 – 16
Total Items in Store: 3,970
Items Sold: 43
Total Sales : $1,019
* Above yearly average of $937
Highest Price: $85 (Vintage SICO C.R. Bridge And Signal Tracer Instrument)
Average Price: $24
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $51
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 40Another nice 1K+ week. That’s been my soft goal lately. It’s nice to make it there, but it’s not a big deal if I don’t. I’ve been slacking on listing this past week. Mostly because of the nice weather we’ve been having. I’ve been doing a lot of outdoor maintenance and upgrades. And maybe this week I’m going to build a nice raised garden for some vegetables this year.
Your story about the crazy lady demanding a shipping refund reminded me about my experience with crazy. I had a person wanting to buy several of my buttons, but eBay was doing the same thing as you and multiplying the shipping. Normally it would be no bid deal – I would just refund the shipping difference. And I even offered her free shipping since she was buying so many. But then it got ugly. I got sent a tirade about how I don’t have my store set up right and that I’m an amateur and don’t know what I’m doing. Well that sale got canceled really quick. Sure, I might have lost a $50+ sale, but my gut feeling told me it wasn’t worth it.
I love how nice you’ve made your building! What an improvement! I’m excited to see some before and afters of the inside too.
No problem! Here’s what was emailed to me:
Thanks for your patience. As of May 6th the PayPal transactions for eBay sales should be importing with the Sales Tax Collected and Shipping Income split properly again.
We suggest hiding/excluding your existing PayPal connection and adding your PayPal account again as if for the first time to re-import the transactions that imported without being split properly. The new PayPal connection should import all transactions back to the beginning of 2019. In the future, to view 2018 transactions or older, you would need to re-check the box for the older account.
To exclude an account:
1) Navigate to the “MANAGE” page and the “Linked Accounts” tab.
2) Uncheck the box under the “Show in Reports?” column for the account you want to exclude.Excluding or ‘hiding’ an account means that it will not show up on your OVERVIEW, INCOME, EXPENSES or REPORTS pages, or in tax calculations. For more information and for a screenshots of this process, please refer to the article linked here: http://help.bookkeeping.godaddy.com/entries/404622-How-do-I-hide-accounts-I-don-t-want-displayed-
May 3 – 9
Total Items in Store: 3,972
Items Sold: 48
Total Sales : $1,432
* Above yearly average of $945
Highest Price: $152 (Chanel Antaeus Pour Homme 100ml Eau de Toilette Fragrance)
Average Price: $32
Returns: 2
Cost of Goods Sold: $114
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 48I had a fantastic week of sales. I’ve been packing like crazy this whole week. I think our mail carrier hates us for all of the package pickups, but that’s okay. She can cuss all she wants as long as she doesn’t damage our boxes
I finally got my GoDaddy Bookeeping issue resolved. I received an email from tech support explaining that I would need to de-list my PayPal account and re-add it so that the changes they’ve made on the backend can update. Essentially, the problem was that GoDaddy was pulling in sales tax into my sales numbers when it shouldn’t have been. If anyone wants me to post the email explaining in more detail how to fix this, let me know.
April 26 – May 2
Total Items in Store: 3,971
Items Sold: 39
Total Sales : $962
* Below yearly average of $993
Highest Price: $70 (Wagner Wide Shot Power Paint Sprayer)
Average Price: $25
Returns: 1
Cost of Goods Sold: $98
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 66I had a fairly good week last week. Like the previous week, it’s been mostly low dollar sales… just a lot of them. No scavenging again either. We’re both lucky that we’ve got a backlog of items that’ll last us a couple months, but there will come a day when we’ll need to figure out how to source more items. Some of the local auction houses have tried the online thing. The prices were just too high for the low quality pictures and lack of descriptions that they’re offering. I’m like you – I need to dig in there and physically hold what I’m bidding on. Otherwise it’s just a crapshoot.
Regarding putting local pickup on every item, I tried that for about a month. After about the fifth buyer thinking they’re getting free shipping, I turned it off. Now what I have is a little blurb at the end of each of my listings saying “MESSAGE ME ABOUT FREE LOCAL PICKUP IF YOU’RE NEAR MY LOCATION IN HOPEDALE, OHIO.“ I’ve had one inquire about it so far, but no actual sales.
April 19 – 25
Total Items in Store: 3,948
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales : $788
* Below yearly average of $983
Highest Price: $60 (Glass Ceiling Lamp Globe Shade with Brass Finial)
Average Price: $25
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $71
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 48Things kinda slowed down for me this week. Not terrible, but not amazing either. Still made plenty to keep me comfortable though. I kinda struggled with listing again. Some days I just didn’t have it in me to get started. But that’s not to say I wasn’t productive. I Got some yard and house work done instead.
I started making bread too! I looked up a no-knead recipe on your recommendation and gave it a try. It turned out wonderful! So good in fact that I ended up making a second loaf the following day. I threw in some garlic and onion powder in the second batch and it’s so good.
Regarding the shift of people working remotely, I really hope it starts to happen. I love living in our rural area but the only drawback is the lack of little businesses and people our age. If more people from the Pittsburgh area could start spreading out to little towns an hour away from the city, it would help the little communities around us so much.
Thank you! I use an Epson V500 scanner connected to my PC. It’s an old model that I bought years ago for a unrelated project for then about $120. It comes with these little plastic holders that scans up to 4 slides at a time. I use the software that came with it. It does all kinds of image correcting but I turn all of that off because I want to show exactly how it will look “raw” without any retouching. I make sure I note that in the listing too.
It does take some time, but I get a good rhythm going where while one batch is scanning, I’ll be going through and picking out the ones for the next scan. Oh, and I also have one of these and a slide loupe to save my neck and eyes while trying to read street signs or whatever in the image.
Hi Marty. Great question. Some of the keywords that I use are 35mm (although be careful with that since not all slides are that size), Kodachrome (these tend to be the most sought after because of the brilliant colors), Red Border (these are also sought after because it denotes the age) and the year of course.
For your example, I would title it: VTG 35mm Color Photo Slide 1940 Paris France Foggy [or any other adjective to describe the street] Street Lamp Post Light [name of street or any other specific location information if known].
I haven’t yet, but I could see using the word Artistic if I needed to add anything else to my title to use up the characters.
