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Thanks for the video, Steve!
I don’t know what’s going on but old magazine back issues have been flying off the shelf for me during the last week. I sell them in lots and am picky about what magazines I’ll sell because they are not fast movers nor large money makers. I’ve had some cooking magazines for around 2 years. Last week I sold 1 lot to a prop house and then last night I sold 5 different lots to 1 person. Yesterday I sold 17 vintage photography magazines from the 1960s. I get each magazine for 10 cents. After COGS, fees and shipping I’ve cleared $97 on magazines in the last week. But mostly I’m just glad to have them move out of my inventory.
All other sales have been small dollar bread and butter items. I haven’t had any big ticket items sell in quite some time. But I also haven’t sourced any big ticket items lately either. I guess I consider anything $100 and up to be a big ticket item. I rarely get to source these days due to outside work. Less time in thrift stores means less chance of finding the big dollar stuff.
I have a filthy spacemaker coffee maker in my basement that I’ve been putting off cleaning and listing for 2 years. I should probably get it listed before everyone finds out that they are being made again and can buy brand new for cheaper.
I’ve had consistent sales this week but nothing impressive profit-wise. Suddenly a lot of my older items are moving, things that have been in my inventory for years! I did update my listings about a month ago, perhaps that explains it.
Thanks for the video Steve. It looks like the doggos got some peanut butter ice cream? My dog ignores everyone and everything when he’s eating ice cream. He even ignored my husband when he returned from a week away – which is usually met with great fanfare by the dog. Peanut butter ice cream is serious business.
Technically, the buyers are paying the sales tax; we as sellers just had to collect and remit that tax to the states (until Ebay stepped up to do it for us).
Thanks everyone for your responses. My sales to UK did increase once I started mailing direct but nothing serious, 2 this week. I’ve been mailing via First Class International. I did not realize that there isn’t tracking on First Class to UK so I’ll have to revisit that decision. I may go back to my old shipping policy which was GSP for all countries except Canada, which I ship to directly. GSP does offer me peace of mind.
Most weeks I work well over 40 hrs/wk at a full time job. It’s been that way for almost two years. But I love ebay and plan to come back to it full time so I’ve kept my store going. I’ve been putting the least amount of effort I can into it while still trying to maintain at least 900 active listings. I do shipments in the morning, which is usually just 1 or 2 items, maybe up to 10 on Monday if I slacked over the weekend. I spend probably 2 – 3 hours listing each week to keep the store over 900. Some weeks I don’t list at all. I thrift whenever I feel like it & I consider it to be a break because I love it. This minimal amount of effort has resulted in my lowest profit in years but it’s still nothing to sneeze at; on average this year my monthly profit has been $707.
I see so many people on Facebook trying to make extra cash by selling their friends crap they don’t want through various mid level marketing schemes, and people posting about needing a flexible part time job for some quick cash. All they have to do is sell on Ebay or Posh! It seems like such a simple solution to me. But maybe that’s because I’ve been at it for so long and love it so much.8/12 – 8/18
Store was set to vacation for most of the week with extended handling time. I’m on jury duty this week so I’m not adjusting my handling time back. It will probably remain on for awhile as I am commuting a lot into Atlanta to train my job replacement. It’s a 5 hour round trip on a good day – barf. At least the jury duty is local.Total Items In Store: 909
Items Sold: 11
Total Sales: $313.93
Cost of Items Sold: $67.83
Average Price Sold: $28.54
Highest Price Sold: $64.99 – Disney Hollywood Studios Starbucks You are Here Mug – Bought for $1.51. Lucked out, it was a first edition. Sold within a few days of listing.Item I was most happy to see go: A “bacon is the duct tape of the kitchen” wooden sign my husband bought during one of his only trips to a thrift store. He bought it for $3 and wanted me to “flip” it for him. Didn’t have the heart to tell him it wouldn’t go for much (mass produced Chinese garbage). After at least 18 months, it finally sold for $15.99 w/ free shipping.
I think rates may have gone up. I borrowed from them in early Spring and remember thinking that the fee/rate was pretty high compared to the 2 other times I borrowed previously. And that was with selecting the 30% payoff rate and having a history of repaying the prior few loans way ahead of schedule. I guess the loan product is so popular that they can charge that much or they’re taking more losses on it than before so they have to make up for that by charging more. I recall I tried to calculate what the effective APR would be (if it were calculated as such instead of being called a “fee”) so I could compare it to other loan products on the market and it was up there.
Ryanne – I love r/powerwashingporn too! You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes. I used to pressure wash our driveway which is a HUGE! It would take me a few weeks to do, working on it every evening. I get bored and start doodling pictures with the washer. I can’t help but mentally note whenever I see a public place that could really use a good power wash. If I had a half way decent washer I could see myself pressure washing people’s small walkways for money.
1. Hand Sanitizer – the alcohol in it removes most permanent marker
2. A wooden chopstick for holding down tags that won’t stay flat for photographs
3. Un Du adhesive remover – pretty great stuff. 1 bottle goes a long ways.
4. Various batteries
5. 1 shiny Quarter and 1 crisp dollar bill for when I want to show the size of something small in comparison.
6. Clothes pins for holding back excess fabric when a garment is way too large for the mannequin
7. Air in a Can for cleaning out the cracks and crevices of various items.T-Satt this is awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to post all of this information. It’s the next best thing to being there! Or maybe even better because I didn’t have to pay bookoo (beaucoup?) bucks to get there.
Best sales of the week:
Winter coats sell all year round – Polo Ralph Lauren Men’s Wool Peacoat. Could have listed for more but wanted a quick flip. Sold it within a few weeks. Paid $6.99 sold for $62. http://www.ebay.com/itm/253711113967
Mrs. Grossman Lot of stickers from the 1980s and 90s. I bought a gallon ziplock bag full of these in a lot for $25 and have been selling them in smaller lots. This lot sold for $32. So far my profit on all of the sticker lots that have sold is $180.29 with 5 lots totaling $129 left to sell. These have been dream inventory: easy to store, easy to ship and practically a zero chance of returns (hope I didn’t just jinx it).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/253331574953Don’t remember if I listed this sale last week. NWT Chico’s heavily embroidered Pagoda Jacket. I paid $15. Retail price on the tag $188 (who buys a $188 jacket, never wears it and then donates it?!). I took a best off for $101. Sold probably within a week of listing. https://www.ebay.com/itm/253746448168
Crashed on me twice at different times during the day. Wasn’t planning on buying anything anyway. Does is seem like Prime Day isn’t as big of a deal as it was the last few years?
Speaking of the new payment platforms that eBay will be rolling out – I would be interested to hear from some of the foreign trash elves about what their preferred online payment method is in their countries. I know that Paypal isn’t the preferred platform in many countries, which I believe is a good reason for for eBay to diversify its payment options. I offer international shipping and think that the new payment options could maybe increase international sales. I hope I’m selected to be an early adopter for the program.
My “scavenge of the week” is an Hermes necktie. It’s only the 2nd one I’ve ever found. The first was NWT and I sold it for $199.99. This one is in great condition but used and not special. It will probably only net around $30 to $40 – but just the fact that its only the 2nd Hermes I’ve ever found after years of doing this, made it exciting.
My “Scavenge Heart Break” of the week was what could have been an amazing Alfred Shaheen 1950s/1960s dress. It too was only the 2nd Alfred Sheheen dress I ever found and it was a great example of a dress from its era. But the condition issues were just too great so I left it behind. Even with help from a seamstress and the cleaners I don’t think it could have been salvaged. It could have been a $300 to $500 dress in better condition. Ouch.
