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Feb 5 – 11
Items/listings in store 1525/1383
Sold 15
COGS $21.09 for items, $85.60 free shipping = $ 106.69 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $335.48
Highest Price Sold: $58.30 shipped Burberry’s Navy Blue Pinstripe suit – 6.95 COGS
Lowest Price Sold $12.00 (4 pack of Airwick Oils– cogs 0, shipping 6.30, packaging .25, fees $1.48 = $8.03, profit =3.97)
Average price Per Sale $22.37
Intl – 1 (Puerto Rico?)
Returns – ? The Burberry suit above the cx asked how to do a return but did not initiate – for size of pants
$ spent On New Merch –$65
Listed New 50 Items
Return rate 1.20% overall / 1.92 clothingA bit of improvement over last week so moving in the right direction. Would like to get my sales per week to $500. The Burberry’s suit may be coming back but so far no actual return request…… we will see. Sold the LAST of my Airwicks Oils RA. Glad to be rid of them. The only RA item I have bought that was a ‘good’ flip was some Walmart clearance fly fishing line. Bought for $2 per box and sold for an average of $16 per box and they ship out at 4 oz. Still have a few but barely look for RA any more. Been trying to list as much as I can with still working my main jobs 55+ hours (total) per week. Can’t wait till the slow down in May to really start listing ‘full time’. I am making a big dent in the death plies and want them finished once and for all.
Jan 29-Feb 4
Items/listings in store 1482/1348
Sold 12
COGS $14.57 for items, $55.88 free shipping = $70.45 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $251.71
Highest Price Sold: $32.49 shipped pair of Womens Carhartt lumberjack pants- cogs 2.50.
Lowest Price Sold $12.85 (3 pack of Chi-Chi’s Salsa– cogs 0, shipping 6.30, packaging .25, fees $1.60 = $8.15, profit = 4.70)
Average price Per Sale $20.96
Intl – 0
Returns –0
$ spent On New Merch –$0
Listed New 41 Items
Return rate 1.20% overall / 1.92 clothingBetter week than last but still only about 50% of average. The lowest price sale of the salsa was another of my ‘They pay me to take them out of the store after coupons and gas points’ deals with the salsa. They actually cost -40 cents per jar. I usually sell a bunch at a yard sale ($1 per jar or 6 for $5) but that is not for a few months still. happy to get them out of here!
Jan 22-28
Items/listings in store 1495/1320
Sold 8
COGS $16.40 for items, $37.44 free shipping = $53.84 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $133.81
Highest Price Sold: $30.00 shipped pair of FootJoy size 14 golf shoes
Lowest Price Sold $12.00 (4 pack of Airwick Scented oils – cogs 1.06 cents, shipping 3.65, packaging .25, fees $1.51 = $6.47, profit = 5.53)
Average price Per Sale $16.72
Intl – 0
Returns –0
$ spent On New Merch –$110
Listed New 24 Items
Return rate 1.20% overall / 1.92 clothingTerrible week for sales. Worst non vacation week since may 2015. Not only were there hardly any sales the sale I did have were LOW – the FootJoj shoes being the only one over $20. Sold the last of my Airwick scented oils RA/Gas Points stock. Glad to be rid of it really. Going to concentrate on getting my clothing all listed. It is the busy time of the year in my real job so in addition to Ebay I am working 55-60 hours a week. Luckily it is from home.
Hope for things to pick up (not so far this week) but I will just keep listing. These are the weeks that scare me about going ‘full time’ but when we do we will be early retired and have much smaller monthly base expenses. As of now it is set for June 2020 but what happens with ACA is going to be a significant factor as we will have 10-13 years before Medicare kicks in.
Jan 15-21
Items/listings in store 1476/1302
Sold 15
COGS $175.20 for items ($59.60 each for 2 RA items see below) , 107.25 free shipping = $282.45 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $559.92
Highest Price Sold: $100.74 x2 Lego’s Star Wars Sets – I had 3 of these sitting for 6 months and all 3 sold beginning last week – see that post for cost details
Lowest Price Sold $12.00 (4 pack of Airwick Scented oils – cogs 1.06 cents, shipping 3.65, packaging .25, fees $1.51 = $6.47, profit = 5.53)
Average price Per Sale $37.32
Intl – 0
Returns –1 (clothing for fit)
$ spent On New Merch –$24
Listed New 35 Items
Return rate 1.20% overall / 1.92 clothingGlad to be almost done with my RA experiments. Relatively lots of cash tied up for the return (ROI of about 30% after all is said and done) and margins of 21%. 3 of my sales were RA accounting for almost 80% of the COGS above.
Lowest sale is a grocery store item I pick up when my grocery store has bonus gas points on them. After the use of coupons and the value of gas I can get some products for less than free (as in the value of the gas is let than I pay to take them out of the store). Thus I will keep doing selling them when I get them for the gas points.
Doing a lot more organizing of inventory and moving to a yet again bigger storage space in the house (went from a closet to the closet 1 shelf to a bedroom to a bedroom and 1/2 basement and now to the attic for clothes storage, bedroom for listing/photos/office work, 1/2 basement for hard goods death pile storage.
We are moving in a few years and we already have purchased 2 separate properties in our new location as the rule will be no ebay stuff where we live! I think separation will be a good thing. We do plan to use ebay funds to at least assist in our gut remodel of the new-to-us farmette.
While LLC’s can be very useful in some situations they are not as useful as many people think in protecting personal assets in small businesses. This is because they only really protect the owners personal assets from liability arising from the actions of an employee of the LLC. The individual doing the action that leads to liability (employee or owner) would be personally liable for the damages as well.
For example if you have a worker who you have drive packages to the post office and that person causes a car accident, that employee would be liable as well as the employer (the LLC in this case). Lets say the LLC only has $20,000 in assets – the most the victim can get from the LLC is $20,000 and nothing from the owner of the LLC. However the liability of the driver is personal to him and can take all his assets, up to the amount of damages.
So lets now say that you, the LLC owner, is the one driving the packages to the PO. Both you (personally) and the LLC would be potentially liable. The LLC would offer no actual protection for your personal assets.
Here is a link for more info:
http://www.litigationandtrial.com/2009/05/articles/attorney/automobile-accidents/can-i-set-up-an-llc-to-avoid-personal-liability-in-a-lawsuit/Jan 8-14
Items/listings in store 1446/1282
Sold 21
COGS $88.41 for items ($59.60 for 1 RA item see below) , $99.30 free shipping = $187.71 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $792.40
Highest Price Sold: $240.00 shipped Converse John Varvatos Men’s Leather Jacket ($6 COGS, $6.60 shipping regional A box, $24.54 fees, .25 packaging, $202.61 profit)
Lowest Price Sold $6.85 (1991 Love Stamp First Day Cover– cogs 3 cents, shipping 2.60, packaging .25, fees $.99 = $4.95, profit = 3.23)
Average price Per Sale $37.73
Intl – 0 Returns –0
$ spent On New Merch –$57
Listed New 48 Items
Return rate 1.04% overall / 1.61 clothingPretty good over all week for me. My second highest sale was a RA sale on a Star Wars Lego set. Sold for $107 shipped but COGS was a bit over $60. After fees and shipping I made $24.20 on the item. I still have 2 more of them and I have had them over 6 months. This was a bad buy but happy to sell at least one. (while I was typing this ANOTHER set sold! Gotta love the ebay algorithm …..)
The John Varvatos jacket was a great buy and was found at my ‘honey hole’ vacation area church thrift shop. I saw this one weekend and did not know if it would be a good buy at $6. On the drive home I knew I should have picked it up because what leather jacket is NOT worth enough to make back at least my $6 after fees. I do not have a smart phone (it is a long story) so was not able to look it up till I got home (110 miles away). Went back 2 weekends later and it was still there (thankfully). I was amazed…..
My lowest sale was a stamp related sale of a 1991 Love Stamp 1st Day Cover. I got over 100 of these (all different) from 1989-1992 time period. They are basically postcards with the card being about the scene depicted in the stamp. I got the lot of them for less than $3. The problem is that they are individually not worth much. This was an early buy and I would probably still get them now but would not list them the same way. What I should have done is either list them in similar themed lots – like maybe 4-6 themed FDC’s for $15-$20 OR have a 2nd store like Spinach Eater that does not have/need tracking. They are EASY to list, EASY to store and EASY to ship. If I could ship for $1 instead of almost $3, I think these would be awesome!
Sorry for the long post …..
Since my restocking fees ‘purpose’ at least in my mind is to defray the cost of the ‘free’ shipping I give, if I had a very high priced item I would, if it was returned in as sent condition, waive part of it. Again, this is only my opinion. You make several good points for charging it.
Additionally I have not had this situation come up. I have only had 3 items sell for more that $200 in the 18 months I have been doing ebay and (luckily) none of those were returned.
I agree. I would make sure the item was returned undamaged then back out the original shipping and maybe $25 (so about $50???) and return the rest. I have free shipping on 99% of my items so the restocking fee basically serves to reimburse shipping expenses. I certainly understand to arguments that our time has value and should be compensated but on this easy to ship item I personally would not charge the full 20%. That being said I think you have the right to charge the 20% if you wish.
Reply to add return rate:
Over all 1.04%
Clothing 1.61%I try to really check my items and fully disclose flaws. Also I am probably 60% clothes and of that 90% mens clothes and 10% womens.
Jan 1-7
Items/listings in store 1419/1272
Sold 15
COGS 24.56 for items, $54.04 free shipping = $78.60 (I offer free shipping on 99% of my items)
Sales $348.74
Highest Price Sold 2 Items $39.99 each Brooks Brothers Men’s Lambswool Sweater / WearGuard insulated coverallsLowest Price Sold $5.69 (Yamaha fuel tank fitting – cogs 1.06, shipping 2.60, packaging .25, fees $1.03 = $4.95, profit = 75 cents)
Average Price Per Sale $23.24
Intl – 1 GSP to UK
Returns –0
$ spent On New Merch –$72
Listed New 80+ ItemsSlow week but I just put my store back online after a 3 week vacation. Sales picked up and have been steady since 1/4. This is my 1st weekly report and hope to do it all year.
To add something different I am putting in my lowest price sold item and a bit of info on it so you can see something to avoid. The Yamaha fittings were a EARLY purchase (over 1 year ago) that I got from Walmart clearance. I got many different fittings for marine applications for 1.06 each with tax. This was the last to sell. Some sold for as much as $10. but I have been slowly reducing the price. I bought these without looking them up and it was basically a newbie error.
Thanks to all the posters on the forums – I learn so much!Sure Ryanne you can call me Kelly! Also looking forward to hearing about your employee/contractor does. I have tried hiring family friends (high school students) to take pictures and load them into a basic listing which I then finish up and price. Have not had a bad experience just they did not want to continue. Boring work for sure!
My Goodwills have 99 cent Sundays so more than 1/2 my clothing stock was bought for that (1.05 with tax) but I will pay full price if the piece is special. I spent $7 on a Ralph Lauren jacket a few months back that had a HUGE eagle on the back. Sold for $325.
But mainly I flip 99 cent items into $20 shipped items ……. bread and butter/boring but pretty simple
