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Total Items in Store: 3129
Items Sold: 30
Gross Sales: $1,452.01 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $ 1090.73 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $226
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $150 (dress shoes)
Average Price Sold: $53.78
Returns: 1Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $238.41
Number of items listed this week: 41Hey Jay & Ryanne and everyone else. I think this is only my second numbers post ever and I half-assed the first one. Numbers were sort of middle of the road for the week but I can’t complain too much and I’ll be happy if I can maintain a similar level throughout the summer. I have some concern that sales are going to REALLY fall off a ledge in June and July (I mean more so than usual). We’ll see.
What everyone else says has been true for me: costs of goods (and everything else) are up, sales are down, and competition is fierce. That said, I still enjoy finding things that are being undersold (or free) and selling them for more money on the internet! I keep getting more selective with what I buy and how much I am willing to pay for things and figure that at some point my new listing volume will dramatically slow down. Oddly, that hasn’t happened yet, as I have several fresh death piles just sitting there waiting for me to do something with them…
I miss the podcast and hope you guys are doing well with all of your businesses.
Scott
Just checking in (from Chicago) to say I miss the podcast but I understand how it might feel like a grind to continue recording them with so much other stuff going on. Glad to hear the cafe business is going so well.
I’ve never done a numbers post on here but let me see what I can piece together:
- Total Sales: $1,147.67
- Net Sales: $793.69
- Items Sold: 26
- Average price sold: $44.14
- Items in store: 2687
Felt like a very slow week but has picked up the last few days. I looked at my numbers compared to last year and my sales are $6k+ behind the 2021 pace so far. I think my expectations need to return to be adjusted to pre pandemic-type sales. I guess the pandemic + stimulus $$ bump couldn’t last forever.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m hanging on to all those items (rather than selling) until society has progressed a bit further along the pandemic timeline (hopefully that is soon).
Update #2 – As of 3 hours ago ebay has lifted my suspension and even “apologized for the inconvenience.” I can list again. Yay for me. Not to be overly dramatic but I’m going to be overly dramatic. It’s kind of like (but on a much smaller scale) when you almost get run over by a semi truck as you are about to cross the street but then you look up at the last moment and narrowly avoid being killed. You gain some perspective and it makes you grateful (and more careful). I feel a little bit like that.
UPDATE: I just got an e-mail back from the Chrysler folks and they said that they are withdrawing their complaint! They advised me that I could re-list using the words “compatible with!” in the title!
This is unexpected but welcome news!
Old Dad,
I’ve not generally been an auto parts seller BUT I found a guy on Offer Up giving away a ton of new in box auto parts because he wanted to clear out his garage. So, like any good scavenger I took them and listed them! Thanks for the tip though. I removed most of the auto parts listings that I had as a precaution and I’m going through each one to make sure that only the part number is in the title and description. I have a couple Haynes Auto Repair Manuals that have Auto Manufacturer brand names in their title. Any idea if these will cause issues?Mark,
I got a VERO a few years ago and I remember calling ebay and the rep telling me that they fall off after 12 months. It’s tough to know what might cause a VERO claim but I’m looking through all my listings and doing a bit of e-research on brands that might complain. Based on this research, I ended a couple of John Deere items and moved them over to Mercari. Who knows if they’ll sell over there.Jay,
Thanks for the words. I don’t think there are any very good answers. I was just having a sort of “whoa is me” moment and wanted to share with people who would understand. I’ve progressed to stage 3 of VERO jail, acceptance. Just doing what I can and moving a few listings over to Mercari. Interestingly, I sold 5 more items overnight and am still able to send offers. So maybe the Wizard of Ebay is not TOO upset with me or maybe it’s just more randomness. Anyway, do you have any specific brands or companies that come to mind when you hear the word VERO? Might be helpful as I go through my listings. I have a vintage GUCCI Shoe Shaper listed and removed the word GUCCI out of shear paranoia. Thanks to all who commented.The email mentioned that they were going to hide my listings. However I have sold a few things since then and new “offer opportunities” keep popping up. I AM able to send offers and print shipping labels, etc. I cannot list though. I created 10 drafts this morning and they are all stuck in draft status. I’ve been selling for almost 10 years and have had maybe 1 or 2 others total in that time. 2 in 2 months and a 3 day suspension is pretty jarring. ebay is a significant portion of my income and it suddenly feels like no matter how vigilant I am as a seller I can randomly get kicked off the platform.
I also cannot upload photos. I have been attempting on the app on and off for the last 4 hours
Thanks for the feedback guys. Looking at the returns over time was an interesting exercise. The last 3 months have definitely been among the highest in the last few years. What’s your personal weight limit for “too heavy for free returns?”
April 2019 – 8 April 2018 – 5
March 2019 – 6 March 2018 – 6
Feb 2019 – 10!!! Feb 2018 – 2
Jan 2019 – 3 Jan 2018 – 5
Dec 2018 – 5 Dec 2017 – 8
Nov 2018 – 5 Nov 2017 – 4
Oct 2018 – 2
Sept 2018 – 2
Aug 2018 – 5
Jul 2018 -1
Jun 2018 – 2
May 2018 – 2That’s a good point about the buyers abusing INAD regardless. Initially when I turned on the free returns I didn’t notice much difference but 2 of the last 3 months have been among my highest return rates in the past 6 years. Could be a random blip. Hurts on the heavy items. The situation is fluid. I’m going to leave the free returns off on heavy items for now and re-evaluate in 90 days.
I’m curious if you have noticed a dip in sales since adding the handling fee. As a buyer, I would balk at paying a handling fee.
I added free returns on my items a couple of months ago and I’ve had 2 buyers open INAD cases during that time on clothing items that didn’t fit. It seems that buyers who have become conditioned to being dishonest in order to avoid paying return shipping will continue to do so (at least in the short term). On the bright side, there has not been an increase in overall returns.
Wondering if there is something actionable to do with “underperforming listings.” Woke up this morning and the number suddenly went from 80 to 999+!
I absolutely agree. We actually had 2 separate, scheduled meetings to discuss the details of the transition. The first was an overview of the plan and the work involved. The second involved the financials and goals. It is nice that we’ll have the summer as a trial period. As her and I discussed, it will only work if the numbers work and the numbers will only work if she puts in the right amount of work. She has a good work ethic but there is still a leap of faith in her not having actually done this work on a daily basis over a long period of time. We’ll see how it goes. She’s excited about the prospect. I figure that there is not really a ton of risk involved in trying it out and the potential reward is a moderate to significant quality of life improvement.
I’m planning a twist on the “going full time” idea. My wife works as an elementary teacher. The work is never ending and the pay is crappy. I floated the idea to her of partnering up with me on ebay and leaving her job. I didn’t think she’d be interested but she is. We’re going to begin training on her spring break and hit the ground running during the summer while she’s off. The moral of the story is that I’m going to use ebay to fund HER freedom while I continue ebay part time and work full time.
