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Flim Store Week April 23-29, 2017
Total Items in Store: 839
Items Sold: 30
Cost of Items Sold: $252.87
Total Sales: $1,623.58
Highest Price Sold: $110 (boots)
Average Price Sold: $54.12
Returns: 2While going fulltime ebay has been challenging, I think my day to day stress has gone down significantly. Especially living in New York, being able to ride the subway on off hours is a HUGE stress reliever – not to mention doing all the life things (grocery shopping, laundry, bank, etc) during off hours instead of cramming everything after work or on the weekends is great. The one thing I’m trying to balance is time with friends who are still on the 9-6 work schedule. I make it a point to try to grab lunch with people once a week, and dinner once or twice a week. It helps maintain my sanity after being alone working all day. I’m a naturally social person, and constantly shopping alone and listing alone doesn’t sit well with me (although I am an only child and am perfectly happy by myself for long stretches of time). So I’ve been going to flea markets with friends on the weekends, killing two birds with one stone.
And tomorrow I get to shop at my friend’s workplace – she works at a big magazine publisher and every so often they do these incredible sample closet sales. Every cosmetic sample that gets sent to the magazine goes into the sample closet, and then they sell it for $1-3 an item. They only allow people to be in there for 10 minutes, but you can get back in line as many times as you want. I’ve gotten Chanel/YSL/Givenchy cosmetics for $1. It’s the best.
Oh yes. Just sold a fancy lotion for $400 that I got from CL for $120. Thanks NYC fancy people!
It seems it’s just on mobile – I guess to make sure people who are browsing on their phones know that they’re buying pre owned and not new items. This seems like a good thing, but I think the term “nearly new” is problematic.
Not sure if image is uploading, try this screenshot link
Yup, I was choosing “new without box” for shoes and eBay adds “nearly new” before the title listing. This is on mobile.
I believe same goes for “new without tags” listings. eBay adds “nearly new” before the title.
The Philippines was fantastic! They have “ukay ukay” stores which are all secondhand clothing – the thing is, at that point the clothing is usually on its 5th or 6th owner. While I didn’t find anything to resell, it really hit home the fact that the US is so incredibly wasteful. People reuse so much more because they have to. I loved seeing all my cousins and aunts in my old clothes that I’ve been sending abroad for YEARS. Also showed me that I buy way too much. -_-
Flim Store Week 4/9-15
Total Items in Store: 824
Items Sold: 23
Cost of Items Sold: $193
Total Sales: $1,468.18
Highest Price Sold: $328 (vintage bag)
Average Price Sold: $63.83
Returns: 0Had 2 buyers flake out this week on a $150 item and a $350 item, so that was a drag, but my numbers have been relatively steady.
I finally get all the burnout talk from J&R all these years! Especially being a 1-person business – it’s tough to self-motivate some days. The clothing market is really tough some days when I feel like people churn and burn with $10/free shipping items. I can’t make that happen with NYC thrift prices and being a 1 person show. I also had a really scary temporary hold placed on my account for listing what some 3rd party business considered a fake Coach bag. I’m 99.9% positive it’s real, but ebay wanted to suspend my account from listing for a week. I called them at 4am (got the email at 2am) and had a conversation with a manager and convinced them to let me sell. Consistency is key, and a week without listing would have impacted my sales for at least 2 weeks. That was a scary email! Of course, there are dozens of listings for the same bag live right now on ebay, but I’ll be selling Coach bags on another platform from now on.
I did some consigning with the Real Real (fancy resale site) before I was away in the Philippines so I could make some money while I wasn’t listing. It’s nice to get another income stream and they do free pickups in NYC.
Flim Store Week January 8-14, 2017
Total Items in Store: 782
Items Sold: 40
Cost of Items Sold: $295.30
Total Sales: $2,299.22
Highest Price Sold: $410 (NWT dress)
Average Price Sold: $57.48
Returns: 5 (aughh)Heading out to the Philippines tomorrow for 3 weeks to see family I’ve never met before. Then ~1 week to travel solo in Singapore – I haven’t even booked my ticket yet. Around this time last year I was getting ready for a 2 week trip to 2 countries, and every moment spent at work I was counting down the days until I could leave. This time it’s so much more relaxed – I don’t need to cram everything into two weeks – and I’m super grateful. Here’s to 20 day handling times and any sales I can get while I’m away.
+1
Someone made an offer I accepted and hasn’t paid in 4 days. Leaving for vacation tomorrow. That item still had the old 2 day handling (not my current 20 day handling) so I get a ding because he hasn’t paid, but probably will when I’m away. -_- -_- -_-
Flim Store Week January 1-7, 2016
Total Items in Store: 815
Items Sold: 35
Cost of Items Sold: $334.99
Total Sales: $2,277.90
Highest Price Sold: $250 NWT bag
Average Price Sold: $65.08
Returns: 3A+ sales that I’m grateful for, since I’m leaving next week for 4 weeks in Asia. My first time meeting family in the Philippines – I’m really excited but also nervous about sales coming to a halt in my absence.
I mixed up 2 packages for the first time and it was pretty rough. One wanted to meet the other in person, but the other didn’t, and then one wanted a refund and the other still wants the item. So having them mail out to each other wasn’t an option. Just hoping packages come back this week so I can properly refund/resend/relist.
J&R, what do you do with returns when you’re away for long trips? Just refund from the road when the packages are marked as being delivered?
I’ve been running sales but it wasn’t really spurring much action. Then I put Make Offer on all listings yesterday and sold $600+ in one day. We’ll see if it keeps up throughout the week.
Total Items in Store: 832
Items Sold: 28
Cost of Items Sold: $583
Total Sales: $2,103.68
Highest Price Sold: $379 (bag), $180 (bag)
Average Price Sold: $75.13December was very good for sales, my 31 day total is over 10k which is great for me. I’d been going to sample sales for some time in the fall, so the higher end NWT items were great for listing for the holidays. Congrats on the necklace sale! I remember when you guys picked that up 🙂
Goals: TAXES AND BOOKKEEPING! I fell off the wagon and am again left with shoeboxes and piles of receipts. Yikes. Open a cash back type card to get better rewards for all the $ I’m spending.
Organization: getting more shelving to better wrangle all the stuff.
New $ streams: consign with the Real Real as well as check out Amazon -_-
Happy New Year all!
First thought: Levels, Jerry! Levels!!
Second thought: rent controlled apartment in Chinatown is my supreme fantasy. Maybe fewer stairs, though 🙂
Third: find a storage facility. If your rent is reasonable, then hopefully you can afford some kind of storage unit. If you were heading to Queens anyhow, there’s spots in LIC right over the bridge.
Lots of sales going on right now for plastic tubs and organizational storage items for the new year. I also use Ikea bags for soft goods like clothing. Utilize as much vertical space as you can with wire shelving.
Wrestling with the same issue, I’ve been buying fewer shoes because of storage issues.
Hey, it’s been a while since I’ve written in with my numbers, but they’ve been around $1500+ for the past couple weeks. This past week was great with about $2,400 in sales, boosted by a high sale of $750 for a Thom Browne overcoat. As Omfug mentioned, I’m definitely keeping the clothing sales afloat with higher end labels. And as Bryan/Cyndi mentioned, definitely seeing clothing prices drop along with lots of competition at the stores. Being fulltime I definitely see all the regulars I always suspected, as well as others I never saw during my former quick lunch break shopping trips! And I think the weigh and pays encourage people to dive into selling clothing quickly and cheaply. -_- I think for clothing, schedule markdowns help keep sales going. I never used to run sales, but notice sales get stagnant if I don’t have at least one category on sale. Good thoughts for everyone’s December sales!
