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Jay and Ryanne, thanks for another great podcast. Great tip about Alone. Immediately ran to Netflix and started watching. I love that kind of stuff. I was surprised by the contestants who suffered gastrointestinal issues from eating tainted wildlife. Eat one wrong thing and you’re toast. Very impressed with archery skills I’m seeing. Hitting a squirrel in a tree with an arrow has to be crazy hard. It would take me about 6 hours to tap out. RE musing on the universe, I try to avoid pondering about the cosmos or things like geologic time, since it magnifies our individual insignificance.
Total Items in Store: 590
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales includes s/h: $631
Highest Price: $220 – Sansui store sign
Average Price: $49
Cost of Goods Sold: $40
Returns: 0
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $120
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 10Gut reaction to week: Solid. Got a nice boost from my sign sale ($220) on the first day of the selling week. Went yard sale-ing on Saturday but underwhelmed by items I saw. Tons of Hobby Lobby-style home decor items that I wouldn’t take if they were free.
Still amazed at the mind-set of some yard-saleers. Example: Jogging stroller marked at $50. It was toward noon and the rush was definitely over. I offered $40. Woman responded she had ‘thought hard’ about pricing it at 60, but settled at 50, and so she just had to have 50 for it. If she would offered 45 I would have bought. I just said ‘OK’ and left. The more I go to yard sales the more I’m comfortable with just walking away when I encounter inflexible sellers. I wonder how they feel at the end of the day when the crap is still setting in the driveway. “Oh man, I really showed those pesky re-sellers I won’t be taken advantage of!”
Magazine selling: Oh boy, that’s a long game. Got a load of about 200 Architectural Digest for $5 early this year. Spent hours listing them. I’ve probaly sold 5 for $100 total. It’s all an experiment, but right now I wish I’d spent my time on something more productive.
@The_SEAM_Store: Thanks for the suggestion! I like the functionality and price. I just need to see how I can have actual roof rails installed. My car has grooves where they can be fitted, just need to check where I can get them.
Congrats on buying the Odyssey as a scavenger wagon. Makes a lot of sense — carries a ton, you’re able to lock it and have your stuff out of the elements. I use an ’05 Chrysler Pacifica. Like an SUV. Works pretty well but there are times I need something larger, like a van. Toying with idea of adding a hitch so I can use a hitch-mounted rack or maybe some type of roof rack.
Jay, happy belated birthday greetings! As I’ve said before, you and Ryanne have accomplished so much and are your own bosses. And you’re turning trash into cash, which is incredibly fun (serious). Just this week I went to drop off three packages at the post office and noticed a young woman unloading an Ikea bag full of packages on the counter. Said to myself with a bit of envy ‘Dang, you had a good sales weekend!’ I’m 64 and I’m just really impressed when I see young people who choose to put down the game controllers and make some cash.
Total Items in Store: 579
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales includes s/h: $284
Highest Price: $155 (Displays2go 53-Inch Tablet Floor Stand for iPad Mini)
Average Price: $47
Cost of Goods Sold: $20
Returns: 0
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $55 (6 items)
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 1Gut Reaction to the Week: Real slow. Likely my lowest sales week this year. No matter. March and April and the first half of May were incredible. Not surprised at all about the slow down. The weather the last couple of weeks has been incredibly nice, so I hope people are getting outside and not sitting in front of their screens. Also, I’ve had house projects that were overdue, so it was fine that I didn’t have to spend an hour each day packing.
Garage sales seem to be back in full bloom. This Saturday I went out and had a decent haul. I think people were trying to keep social distance, but very few were wearing face masks. Full disclosure: I didn’t wear one but I did my best to keep at least six feet away from people. The thing that blows is lack of community yard sales. Here in Kentucky they’re banned. But I’m seeing subdivisions holding sales, plus streets. Not sure of the difference between a subdivision and a community.
Scavenge of the Week: A store display Sansui electric sign for $15. Back in the 70s Sanui was a big name in audio components. Got it home and found it wouldn’t turn on. Put a new bulb in, no dice. Then replaced a doojiggy called a fluourescent started (cost $3 for two). That did the trick. Posted on eBay Saturday night for $220 BIN, sold in 24 hours. Nice change of pace from the glut of $20-30 items I’ve been selling lately.
Total Items in Store: 590
Items Sold: 12 eBay; 3 Facebook Marketplace
Gross Sales includes s/h: $938 (eBay – $259, FB Marketplace – $680)
Highest Price: eBay – $100 for Newco ACE-LP Coffee Brewer; FBM $250 for conference table and chairs
Average Price: $26 eBay; $227 FBM
Cost of Goods Sold: $15 eBay; $408 FBM
Returns: 0
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: 0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 9Gut reaction to week: eBay’s been a roller coaster for me the past month. Up one week, down the next. This was a real down week. What saved the week was office furniture sales on FBM. But all the good stuff is sold on FBM now. Sourcing is a real issue now. Even though businesses are opening there are very few yard sales. Yard Sale Treasure Map shows a whopping 14 sales in the entire Cincy metro area for Saturday. Normally there would be dozens. My local GW re-opened this week. I was shocked when I checked in this week. Under normal times it’s usually sparse. It was even worse than normal. No electronics at all. A couple of days before I checked I saw a line of cars donating stuff. Maybe they’re still working through the backlog.
Hi Goose. Such a cool nickname! Welcome to the party. Could you please share a link to your store? I’m always interested in checking out SL members’ trash heaps …er, I mean most excellently curated curios. Here’s mine https://www.ebay.com/str/newportretrohq
Greg
Ryanne, totally on board with you about the bux in parting out stuff. I’ve made lots off buying old Dyson vacuums and selling the parts. Some of the old models have dozens of parts. Same for beat up Herman Miller Aeron chairs. You can make hundreds off a chair that has its mesh seat/back ripped up. Thanks for another great podcast. Psyching myself up for signing up for Managed Payments.
Total Items in Store: 591
Items Sold: 25
Gross Sales includes s/h: $2,577 (eBay – $747, FB Marketplace – $1,830)
Highest Price: $1,500 – Lot of 3 Herman Miller Aeron chairs
Lowest Price: $9.95 TV Remote Control
Average Price: $37 eBay; $460 FBM
Cost of Goods Sold: $60 eBay; $1,074 FBM
Returns: 1 (TV remote)
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $45
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 10Gut reaction to the week: Nice bounce-back week on eBay after a downer week. Definitely above my historical average. This past week I started helping a friend sell his office furniture (shutting down his company’s office to go virtual). Listed on FB and Craigslist. I get 40% of whatever sells. Started the week off strong by selling 3 Herman Miller Aeron chairs in excellent condition for $500 each. Selling on FB makes me appreciate eBay. LOts of time wasted answering questions, arranging pick-ups where you’re ghosted, haggling, etc. Also a headache when you put a lot of things on FB at the same time; you get a flood of Messenger texts and it’s easy to confused about who’s interested in which item. Also made the mistake of cross-posting on Craigslist. Not much comes through CL but again, it’s the confusion of coordinating queries. Hard to explain, but suffice to say I will stick to one platform (likely FB) if I do this again.
Not technically from my death pile but from a basement shelf: five Allen+Roth closet brackets and an expandable closet pole. Leftovers from a remodel project completed 7 years ago. Sold all within a week of listing for $210 total.
Congrats on the Roaster Building. Looks very cool. Nice work, you two! Love your title for the podcast – The Painful Gaze of a Boss. Sounds like the title for a short story for young adults. I got an image of 11-year-old Jay mopping a hallway that stretches forever.
Total Items in Store: 610
Items Sold: 15
Total Gross Sales includes s/h: $366
Highest Price: $64 – 2x Heavy Duty Truck Oil Filters
Lowest Price: $8.99 TV Remote Control
Average Price: $24
Cost of Goods Sold: $10
Returns: 1 – Fancy Wine Decanter $350
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: 0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 54Gut Reaction to the Week: There’s an old David Bowie movie titled ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’. The movie of my past week would be called ‘The eBay Store That Fell to Earth’. Landed with a thud after weeks of giddy selling. To add insult I had a return last week of this really expensive wine decanter as an INAD. Ouch. I got the thing as an Amazon return. So perfectly packed I thought there was no way the person who returned it even took it out of the box. Oh well. It’s on me. Life goes on. On the plus side, the load of TV remote controls I bought for virtually nothing are selling well. They’re the only thing saving my butt lately. Things are reopening slowly here in Cincinnati but auctions are still only online. I keep checking them but haven’t seen anything interesting. Thrifts not open yet, not yard sales to speak.
Spent the week listing mounds of car owners manuals I got for $120. I’ll do OK with them, but nothing too exciting. Most are in the $10-15 range. Only messing with them since I can’t do usual sourcing.
Scavenge of the Week: A friend is closing his office so I’m helping him sell his furniture. I just started lising so no sales yet. I’ll get 40% so I’m interested to see how this stuff sellS.
Mike – Such good news about Susan! Just awesome. My wife has had cancer 3x so I have small understanding of what you were dealing with. But she didn’t have as serious recovery period as your wife. Anyway, glad to hear things are looking up for her.
Greg
Total Items in Store: 571
Items Sold: 25
Total Gross Sales includes s/h: $504
Highest Price: $40 Brazilian Hammock Chair by Hammock Sky – Multicolor
Lowest Price: $7.90 TV Remote Control
Average Price: $20
Cost of Goods Sold: $20
Returns: 0
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: 0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 48A solid week. Sold the same number of items as the previous week, but only about 40% gross. I wonder if the spike in sales over the past month is coming back to earth. Spent the past week listing my lot of 220 remote controls I bought a few weeks ago. Probably 4 out of 10 are junk – no-names that aren’t worth the bother to list. The ones I’ve listed are selling well. This week I’m turning to my pile of car owners manuals from the 70s and 80s. I’ll get my money back ($120) but don’t see making very much for the effort involved.
April 26 – May 2
Total Items in Store: 539
Items Sold: 25
Total Gross Sales includes s/h: $1,123
Highest Price: $350 (Wine Enthusiast iFAVINE iSommelier Smart Decanter)
Lowest Price: $7.99 (Sony PlayStation 2 PS2 DVD Media Remote Control SCPH-10420)
Average Price: $45
Cost of Goods Sold: $50
Returns: 1 (St. Johns Bay womens shoes – $25)
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $157
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 30April
Total Items in Store: 539
Items Sold: 77
Total Gross Sales includes s/h: $2,632
Highest Price: $145 (Vintage Drink Coca Cola Things Go Better With Coke Tin Advertising Sign 54″)
Lowest Price: $9.99 (Gates 6G-6FJX90M – G25180-0606 Hydraulic Hose Fitting)
Average Price: $34
Cost of Goods Sold: $112
Returns: 1
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $157Gut reaction to the week: Amazing. One of my best weeks. Got a nice boost from the sale of a $350 item (iFavine Smart Decanter) I got new-open-box for $20 at an auction. This past week was also my top sales week in terms of number of items sold (25). I’m surprised at the number of long-tail items that are selling. Things like pin-back buttons and military stickers. They’re low-dollar but when you’re selling a lot it does add up. Learning the low-collar stuff can be a pain to list, but they do sell and can end up netting a lot of cash. Maybe this period of gold-rush eBay sales is just a freak period. People with lots of time to kill spending a few bucks on trinkets? Who knows? Happy to ride the wave for now!
Scavenge of the week: Actually two. Made a 3-hour trip to pick up 220 TV/DVD remote controls I got for $40 through FB Marketplace. A long way to drive but it’s looking like a decent buy. There are a few gems that will sell for about $35. Many others for $10-15. Takes time to test, clean and list each, but the good news is they’re selling fast. Nice cash flow to fill in the time I can’t spend doing traditonal sourcing. My other scavenge was another FB Marketplace buy of 120 car owners’ manuals from the 1960s-70s. They cost $117, including shipping. I asked the seller (in NJ, I’m in KY) if he was willing to ship, and at first he said no. Then a day later he asks if I’m still interested, and without too much back and forth we had a deal. Haven’t a chance to look closely at them, but think it will be a good buy.
Gut reaction to the month: One of my top months in 2 1/2 years of eBay selling. The only thing that concerns me is my top-dollar items are dwindling — items I typically find at auctions or yard sales. In Kentucky retail businesses are OK to open on May 11, so we’ll see how auctions and yard sales come back.
@Sharyn: I saw your comment “Yes, I wouldn’t fight the INADs. The only way you can is if you offer free returns.” Most of my listings are free returns. So are you saying if a seller offers free returns on an item, the seller won’t get an INAD defect?
This is one of those subjects that eBay is so obtuse about when you look for a definitive answer. Or maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place.
I’ve had some luck with FBM. Even looking in areas far from me. Just ask if they’re willing to ship. There’s no downside to asking. All they can say is no. The first person I asked said ‘Sure’. One guy said no, then came back a day later to say he was fine with shipping. Wrapped up the deal in a few minutes.
I’ve also had decent luck checking alleys in my neighborhood. Of course it’s hit-or-miss, there’s a lot of competition. In the past few weeks I’ve found nice stuff like a vacuum cleaners and a jogging stroller I parted out for nice money. Just keep your eyes open. Good Luck!
Thanks for another great podcast, Jay and Ryanne. I like your attitude of gratitude in these cray days. Like being thankful for being able to walk outside. Hard to realize there are many who can’t even enjoy that simple pleasure.
April 19 – 25
Total Items in Store: 534
Items Sold: 18
Total Gross Sales includes s/h: $578
Highest Price: $104 (Saris Bones 2 Bike Rack)
Lowest Price: $11.99 (Toshiba TV/VCR Remote)
Average Price: $32
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $15
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 1Gut reaction: Another solid solid week of sales. Stuff that I’d even forgotten about after months of sitting on the shelf are flying out the door. My death pile is gone though, so active listings are falling fast.
Scavenge of the week: Started scouring FB the other night and hit paydirt fast: 220 TV/DVD/CD remotes for $40. The only catch is I have to drive 3 hours to pick them up. The seller was willing to ship but that’s almost 60 pounds of remotes. I’m a little queasy about the length of the trip, but I will only stop for gas (with hand cleaning etc. after touching gas pump), pick up from porch and then back home. I’m hopeful I can eat off this buy for weeks.
