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Just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for all your work from a regular listener that does not normally use the forum. It was great to be able to listen to your thoughts on eBay, business, and life every Monday for the last 4 years. It honestly made the largest shipping day of the week a little more bearable. Good luck to your future success…
Cheers,
Jason
Week of February 1 to February 7
Total Items In Store: 5429 (-25)
Items Sold: 163
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $2115.15
Cost of Items Sold: $561.06
Total Gross Profit: $1554.09
Highest Price Sold: $108.06 (Unused Postage Stamps FV $200)
Average Price Sold: $12.98
Money Spent on New Inventory: $190.88
Number of items listed: 290I miss the glory days of eBay… I remember back in 1998-1999 you could basically put anything up for auction and you would get the fair market value or more. I’ll never forget the last second pop in price on auctions…
Have a great week!!
Week of January 25 to January 31
Total Items In Store: 5454 (+78)
Items Sold: 145
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $1650.50
Cost of Items Sold: $293.12
Total Gross Profit: $1357.38
Highest Price Sold: $50.00 (Sterling Weighted Pinocchio Pin/Brooch)
Average Price Sold: $11.38
Money Spent on New Inventory: $33.42
Number of items listed: 184I didn’t get much listed this week and my sales were down. I think there is a direct correlation between the two. I have a lot of the same type of items and I see several multi-item orders per week. Usually the buyer will purchase one or two newly listed items and then look at the older stuff too. It works well for me.
I wish I could be better with my numbers. It has always been a struggle for me and I always put it at the bottom of the priority list. It is something that I intend to do better in the future.
Week of January 18 to January 24
Total Items In Store: 5376
Items Sold: 210
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $2400.94
Cost of Items Sold: $449.68
Total Gross Profit: $1951.26
Highest Price Sold: $49.99 (Brother Disney Embroidery Card)
Average Price Sold: $11.43
Money Spent on New Inventory: $823.52
Number of items listed: 275My death pile is starting to get out of control… And, I spent over $800 in inventory this week… I’m going to have to stop the buying and get to listing!!!
I hate taxes… enough said!
Week of January 11 to January 17
Total Items In Store: 5271
Items Sold: 203
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $2495.30
Cost of Items Sold: $485.16
Total Profit: $2010.14
Highest Price Sold: $149.99 (Lot of original Railroad & Train photos)
Average Price Sold: $12.29
Money Spent on New Inventory: $696.14
Number of items listed: 333Just like Dan, I love getting large lots of the same items. It makes the listing process go so much smoother. I got my start in Media and wish they were not going out because it is so easy to list and ship.
My goal was 500 items listed – I got 333 complete Monday through Wednesday. Something came up and I was unable to list Thursday and Friday or I would have probably gotten to my goal.
Retro – Awesome job on the weight loss… Keep it up!! I’m with you… I’ve been on living healthy for about a year and a half now. It just becomes a lifestyle! But, that doesn’t mean I don’t still struggle (especially when I get a whiff of chocolate!)
Week of January 4 to January 10
Total Items In Store: 5083
Items Sold: 158
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $1605.23
Cost of Items Sold: $320.44
Total Profit: $1284.79
Highest Price Sold: $44.99 (Dr. Seuss Book Lot)
Average Price Sold: $10.42
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Number of items listed: 0Took some time this week to get organized for the coming year… My goal is to list 500 items per week for the next few weeks. It seems like a lofty goal – I just need to stay focused and not going on tangents like I do so many times.
I had a nice thank you letter this week also (and it ties in to Magazines). I sold a lady a back issue of a magazine that contained a feature story on her. She had been looking for years for the issue she said. I love stories like that.
I love magazines. Nobody wants them so they are so cheap and they actually sell really well… And, they are so quick and easy to list.
Yes, everything was authentic. That particular shirt had actually never been purchased on Amazon, so there is no way the NBA did a “test buy” – they just made the accusation and Amazon believed them.
I first started selling books, movies, and CDs via FBA in the early 2000’s well before they allowed sellers to sell clothing. When they allowed clothing sellers, I jumped on board and treated the sourcing of clothing like I did my media products. I just purchased large liquidation lots from large manufacturers and listed each item individually. It worked great for years without any problem.
Back then, it was perfectly acceptable by Amazon to have that type of model. It wasn’t until the last couple years that Amazon no longer wanted sellers like me. I’ll admit… I saw the writing on the wall a couple years ago and made the decision not to change my business model. My average purchase price was $2.00 and average selling price was $16.00. So, it was really hard to step away from that. So, ultimately it was my fault for failing to change.
But, now I am excited for the new chapter of my business and looking forward to what the future will bring.
Week of December 29 to January 3
Total Items In Store: 5209
Items Sold: 153
Total Sales (w/o Shipping): $1576.26
Cost of Items Sold: $468.64
Total Profit: $1107.62
Highest Price Sold: $125.00 (Carole Towne Christmas Village People/Structures Lot)
Average Price Sold: $10.30
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Number of items listed: 188My first sales report, though I have been following the podcast for a while now. I introduced myself a year or two ago, but just a quick intro… I have been a full-time online seller for 18 years (and 3 1/2 years prior to that part-time). I have always sold on eBay, but this will be the first year that I am no longer a seller on Amazon FBA which has always been at least 80% of my business.
Long story, but basically the NBA said I was selling a counterfeit T-Shirt. Amazon shut down my account immediately. I fought the NBA’s claim for 4 months at which time Amazon ordered me to remove my inventory from their warehouse at a cost of $15,000 or they could throw it away for me at a cost of $10,000. So, I had all 30,000 items returned to me (Amazon sent it back in literally 8,000 boxes – a process that I still have nightmares about).
In December, my lawyer finally got the NBA to remove their claim against me under threat of a lawsuit. Amazon opened my account back up for two weeks and then I get another email from them saying that my account has been closed again… This time because I owe them the $15,000 for returning my inventory.
Well, Amazon, because of your lousy policy of closing down a 17-year-old account (with sales over $1M each year for the last four years) on a single false accusation causing me to almost lose my business, lay off my employees and have my wife go back to a regular job just so we can make ends meet… See Ya – I’ll take my business elsewhere…
Funny thing is, I am a little relieved. I never really loved selling on Amazon like I always have on eBay. I am really optimistic heading into the new year. I don’t have to worry about employees, my wife went back to work as a Nurse and loves it since that has always been her passion (not to mention the insurance is great), and I can do what I have always loved… sell on eBay.
So, here’s to a great year!!
Yeah… When things settle down around here a little, I’ll shoot you an email.
Thanks,
JasonI sell in the collectibles category… Coins and stuff. It’s a totally different business model than my main business… It’s kind of fun though.
Jay – I agree that it is not passive income. I know a couple people that do Private Label on Amazon and they are continually having to come up with new products and ideas. Once you get an item ranking well in Amazon’s search, there are things you can do to automate the process, but it’s just not my thing I guess…
T-Satt – I don’t do Arbitrage either – for the reasons you mentioned. I buy overstocks and closeouts from retail stores in large lots (sometimes a full semi). I know it is a gray area on Amazon to sell overstocks as NEW now (It wasn’t when I started doing it). But, the margins are 800-1000%. There is some extra labor in sorting and bagging it, but I have found this model works for me.
Diversity for me is using each channel for a specific purpose. And, I don’t usually cross-list.
I currently have 3 sales channels… Amazon is where all of the pristine brand new items go. Ebay is for NWOT, Lots, Collectibles, Used, and Unique Items. My third I just started about 6 months ago and is an app/website called Tophatter. It’s a live 30 second auction site. It’s a wild ride – the prices are all over the place. But overall it’s a nice additional revenue stream.
I have never did wholesale… I just can’t get the math to work for me. I get the appeal of a steady source of inventory, but I feel it’s hard to find products with enough margin to overcome the fees associated with selling on Amazon or eBay.
From 2014 through 2017 my sales averaged about 70% from Amazon and 30% from eBay.
I would say the biggest reason for the decrease is the labor cost. I was paying employees to do the work that I used to do. My focus shifted more towards running the business and less about making money.
Secondly, Amazon has had massive increases in their fees over the last few years. For example, last year during Q4 they raised their FBA Storage fees by nearly 6 times. So, Q1-Q3 I was paying about $2500 per month in storage fees, but that ballooned to nearly $13,000 per month October-December. They are all the time raising fees… Just a couple weeks ago with 1 day notice, they raised their selling fees in the clothing category from 15% to 17% – which doesn’t sound like much until your are doing the volume I am.
Lastly, I think it was inventory selection. With the increased cash flow, I stopped doing as much research on the inventory I purchased. If I saw a deal, I jumped on it because I had the cash. Before, I would try to figure out how quickly I could sell the inventory and really scrutinized every purchase.
