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My Store Week March 24-30, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1044
Items Sold: 11
Gross Sales: $341.24
Cost of Items Sold: $27.11
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Greek Vase)
Average Price Sold: $31.02
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $35.23
Number of items listed this week: 12Great podcast this week… always enjoy your discussions! This week felt really slow.. I also had a rash of “best offers” from experienced buyers who immediately “cancel” because the shipping is “too high” (a little frustrating, but what can you do?). I am also getting a lot of women’s clothing returns for shirts (in process so didn’t count them all yet.) It is true these all come in waves. This past weekend I was able to travel out to my old rural neighborhood in the country and I stopped in my old goodwill for just 5 minutes… wow… it was jam packed with name brand shoes, nice (cheap) men’s clothing and really great gew-gaws, art and other stuff… what a world of difference to my over-shopped and cherry picked suburban goodwill! This rural location either doesn’t realize what they have, or just doesn’t care and truly want to offer people a good deal, unlike my local one now which has a paltry selection, overprices, and seems antagonistic whenever a scavenger finds something really good. It really made me miss my old home so I may be looking for an excuse to make the 1 hour drive back regularly just to hit up my old watering hole… it was actually FUN going to this Goodwill! 🙂 Didn’t get much listing done due to kids being on Spring Break, but minimally trying to at least replace what I sell. My “survival goal” on ebay is to make $250 in profit per week (that is after all ebay fees and COGS, etc.) – so if I’m under my goal, I’ll start aggressively taking best offers and/or running more sales. I keep a running total on a spreadsheet so I always know where I’m at for the month.
Here are my numbers, and looking forward to listening to the podcast!
Total Items in Store: 1044
Items Sold: 19
Gross Sales: $349.58
Cost of Items Sold: $35.71
Highest Price Sold: $59.49 (Vintage Levis)
Average Price Sold: $18.40
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $36.61
Number of items listed this week: 13I actually went to my first garage sale of the season this past week and for some reason didn’t have my negotiating mojo with me – I didn’t ask for a ‘better price’ on my pile of stuff like I should have and normally do – out of practice I guess. There really wasn’t anything great there – but I did get a pile of duffel bags and cases that I know I will be able to make some profit on.
I had a real bummer of a return this past week: Three years ago a lady sent me a barrage of questions on a 3 piece career suit. I dutifully answered ALL of her many measurement questions and questions on color hoping for a sale and never heard from her. (I know better now.) Last week I received three more emails asking the same questions as 3 years ago and additional questions on color and measurements… I remembered her distinct name and ignored and blocked her. She opened up a new account and made a best offer the next day. I didn’t realize it was her – but I should have suspected. Lo and behold, I accepted and she paid. Hoping for the best – I sent out the suit. But, of course, she wore it, and then opened up an INAD return (because the suit was “dark gray” and not black). (It was clearly worn and slightly stained upon return.) I was so ticked off. Free Return to boot – so I lost over $20 in shipping so she could screw me over with an INAD. I didn’t say anything and I didn’t even call eBay to fight this one, honestly just wanted to get over it mentally and move on and not waste my emotional energy. Just sharing this because if you block someone and then get an offer soon after or the next day on the same item with a zero feedback buyer – I really should have declined the offer or cancelled the sale and refunded her before proceeding. I lost on this one… live and learn!
Retro, thanks for posting that letter.. I have never received anything like that on eBay, ever. Why would you have been “under-charged” for a 3 lb. 6 oz package when the label was for 4 lbs. ? That makes no sense! Those charges are going to add up for you – I would be complaining!
Loving this week’s topic!
Total Items in Store: 1048
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $382.85
Cost of Items Sold: $36.66
Highest Price Sold: $62.99 (GF Granny Glasses – thanks SL – I once tried to sell these for $10 until I knew what they were from you! (paid $1))
Average Price Sold: $25.52
Returns: 0 (1 Immediate Cancel, Japanese Buyer negotiating shipping after the sale)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 5Have a no-FOMO week!
Sharyn, I can’t believe your brother got a storage unit full of that stuff on his first go-around. Keep us posted – it’s quite entertaining!
totommoto,
I have received messages like yours… (low income… mom is dying of cancer… for the veterans… I’m a high school teacher doing a project for the kids and can’t afford to buy one of these for everybody… yada yada yada…) I often wonder if they are sending out 100’s of messages waiting for the one bleeding heart to just say, “Let me just send this item to you for free as a gesture of goodwill…” I bet out of every 250 messages somebody does just that!
I do like how your responded!Unrelated but along those lines… Just tonight I got this message:
Hi I think I may return this I like the pattern but the fabric is really rough and scratchy. -XXXX
Ugh, are you fishing for a partial refund?
MoCoyotes – I have seen this with short promoted listings… or upon ending a promotion and then trying to start a new one too soon afterwards… I will check to see how many are eligible to be promoted and the number will be very low (for example 308) when there are (1056 available). If you keep refreshing the number of available items to promote while waiting several seconds, I will often see the number start to increase… sometimes the number will fluctuate up and down for no good reason, which is very strange indeed. When that happens, I just close tabs and re-open ebay and try again until the number looks better…
My Store Week March 3-9, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1058
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $547.22 ($70 of which I am waiting for.. I hope it comes.)
Cost of Items Sold: $70.18
Highest Price Sold: $100 (Lot of WWF Action Figures)
Average Price Sold: $23.80
Returns: 2 (and 2 unpaid)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8.37
Number of items listed this week: 14Haven’t listened to the podcast yet and am looking forward to some quiet evening time to do so… It has been VERY busy with kids school, sports and other home activities, I have had very limited time to dig into a deep listing session like I really want to do… My store number is slowly going down because I’m not keeping up with the sales. Every time I list something… I immediately sell something!
As far as repeats go; I very rarely have repeat customers! The only repeat customer was when I bought a collection of local Oktoberfest mugs at a garage sale and sold one to my son’s pediatrician, who collects them. I left him a personalized note and then He bought another one… and those were all great sales to sell $3 mugs for almost $50…
Hope everyone has a good week!My Store Week Feb 24-March 2, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1064
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $198.76
Cost of Items Sold: $20.36
Highest Price Sold: $30 (Necklace)
Average Price Sold: $13.25
Returns: 0 (several non payers)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $15
Number of items listed this week: 14Thank you for your podcast! Yes, I love selling “part time” on eBay to help pay for my mortgage, numerous extra-curricular activities and to maintain a richer lifestyle than we would be able to afford otherwise. It felt busy this week, but really just a ton of low dollar sales. I am motivated to move old inventory listed from when I was new to eBay so I took many really low dollar offers on not-so-exciting-to-me inventory.
You talked about wacky best offers – I have been having so many non payers and also someone with an extremely low-bid (I accepted – sales were so slow) he immediately just said “Sorry – I changed my mind.”… (another seller also, so he knows the game.) What do you do when someone immediately “changes their mind”… if you have free returns… I think it just makes sense to cancel, which I did.
Another interesting thing – I sold a piece of vintage jewelry and noticed the promoted listing fee was over 40%! WHAT? I had been playing around with promotions, ending some old ones and restarted, etc. and this sale must have been charged two promoted fees.. (the only way it could have been this high.. if the buyer had clicked on the old promotion within 30 days, and then on the new, and bought.. so I think I was charged twice…) Anyway, that completely sucked, so I will make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Hope everyone has a good week…Congratulations on #400! YAY!! Love this podcast! Can’t wait to listen to this one multiple times…
Quick Numbers:
My Store Week Feb 17-23, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1062
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $345.73
Cost of Items Sold: $52.24
Highest Price Sold: $53.19 (Vintage Nike Run Walk Sneakers)
Average Price Sold: $28.81
Returns: 0 (1 Cancel, 1 Unpaid)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $39
Number of items listed this week: 11I have come across and like…the (Positive-but-yet…) “Buyer had good intentions…” for buyer feedback upon a return or cancellation.
Our Goodwills keeps raising prices.. to the point where it is cheaper now to get (new and better quality) clothing items cheaper at Walmart. All good name brand mens shoes (bread and butter) have all but disappeared at my goodwill down the street. It is as if they are on to the fact that this is a higher profit item and they are keeping these items for their online store or for other channels. 2-3 years ago – the picking was great and now it is dismal. While I won’t stop dropping in to occasionally look, (I have one right next to my post office and right next to my kids’ school.. it is too convenient!) Goodwill just isn’t cutting it anymore for me…
