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@Retro – Exciting opportunities ahead. Best of luck with the application. I sympathize with your dislike of cold. I grew up in Florida and miss the warmth.
I continue to be in awe of your work ethic. In the face of all you’ve been through, you’ve still managed to keep eBay plugging along successfully. Wishing you a better year ahead.
And, I forgot to mention. I received a refund from USPS for $1.30 for overpayment on a shipment because it weighed less. Hard to believe they are making that effort. Had to have cost the government so much more to process that.
Week Ending 1/7/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $628.71 (eBay: $314.21 / Etsy: $314.50)
Net Sales: $523.25 (eBay $245.47 / Etsy: $277.78)
Total Items Sold 21 (eBay 12 / Etsy 9)
Total Items eBay: 1074 Etsy: 346
Cost of Items Sold: $49.76
COGS Percent 9.51%
Highest Price Sold: $49.95
Average Price Sold: $29.94
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Average Days Listed: 148
Longest Listed: 671
New items listed: 16
$ Amount New Listings $652.20Nice start to the year with 21 items sold. Average sale price was a bit low, but I had a few multiple item sales to a single buyer. Mutli-item sales to the same buyer is something I am seeing more with Etsy that I don’t see as much of with eBay. These were for Christmas ornaments which also seem to do better on Etsy.
Starting to track a new metric with the new year that I’ve seen a few others mention in the past: $ amount of new listings posted. I’d like to get to the point where my store is averaging $1000 per week. Feels like if I want to make that much I need to at least post that much consistently. Didn’t quite get there this week, but without a goal…
Thought it was interesting that my gross sales for eBay and Etsy were on $0.29 apart.
@Jay – Wow! That horse sale is phenominal. I see those for sale every once and a while, but usually they are the ones you pick up from Ikea. I’ll have to look a little more closely next time.
I’ve never tracked my actual worked hours, but it might be interesting to do it for a few weeks just to see where the time goes.
One other metric I do not track, but which might be helpful, is the $ amount of new listings. First week of the year seems like a good time to start. I have been striving to drive up my average sales price and have been mildly successful as my average has risen from $43 to $49 over the last 3 years. This added metric may keep me more mindful of this. I have had some weeks this past year where I listed a fair amount, but a good portion of the listings were much lower than average. By the same token that if I want to sell 20 items a week I need to list 20, If I want to sell $1000 per week, I should probably focus on listing $1000 per week.
@Retro – How do you determine your STR on items you’re planning to buy? Also, curious what is driving you to target larger items? Over time I find myself gravitating towards smaller items due to storage, packing and photography demands.
I’ll be interested to see how your creating drafts on the fly works out for you. I have often thought to create drafts while I’m doing my research, but have never been consistent about it, which doubles the effort. It sounds like a smart move.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what to do differently this year. Sales are down considerably for me, even accounting for the Pandemic surge. There are a lot of factors that affected them. Part of the reason I started doing my weekly numbers is to get insight into my business. Looking back at my years’ worth of numbers, there are some metrics that suggest why my sales are down. A lot of this is Scavenger Life 101.
Lesson 1: List more to sell more. Duh! I didn’t list nearly what I have in previous years. I averaged 11 new listings per week and 12 sales. Last year that ratio was 15:16 and the year before 20:19. I’m surprised the correlation between listing and sales is so consistent. But no doubt, I have to buckle down and increase listings. I’m setting a goal to get back up to listing 20/week.
Lesson 2: Acquire more inventory but at a lower cost. I spent more money this year to make less. I spent on average $6.76 per item listed versus $3.12 two years ago, spending about $4000 on new inventory this year vs. $3700 last year and $3200 the year before. At least part of this was due to the Pandemic driving prices for new inventory up. I found it much harder to acquire items at auction at my target of 10-20% of expected sale price. I also shopped less at Estate Sales and Yard Sales due to the fear factor of catching Covid, which took away one of the less expensive sourcing options. Yard Sales and last-day Estate Sales were always a great sources of low cost inventory. Goal to visit more yard sales and last-day Estate Sales at least once per month, but also to bid on at least 2 auctions per month.
Lesson 3: Diversify sales channels to increase sales. I started off the year adding Etsy. At year end, Etsy accounted for 17% of sales for the year. I received a $2000 pandemic business grant from my county government at the beginning of the year and that is what prompted me to take the plunge. I used that to pay for the $1464 ($122/month) cost of Sixbit. It was a huge time investment, too, and I often wondered if it was worth the effort. At mid-year I was ready to drop Etsy, but last part of the year was better and seeing the year-end numbers, I’m inclined to stick with it another year. The monthly cost is a concern, though, and I may consider a different tool for cross-listing.
Lesson 4: Treat Scavenging more like a job. Having family around so much over the past few years due to the pandemic, I’ve let listing and scavenging take a back-seat to other things and it developed into a habit. Part of what is nice about this lifestyle is the flexibility to work when I want, but I need to get back to the discipline that grew my store initially. I’m putting myself together a daily schedule as a trial so that I can have a more regularity to the activities that drive sales.
@craig-rex – It has been fascinating to watch the evolution of your store over the past year and I always enjoy reading about your sales. Nice to see that your efforts are paying off.
Week Ending 12/31/22
Gross Sales (w/o shipping $ tax): $515.20
Net Sales: $430.11 (eBay: $221 Etsy: $209)
Total Items Sold 14 (eBay: 7 Etsy: 7)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1076
Total Items in Etsy Store: 345
Cost of Items Sold: $26.00
COGS Percent 6.04%
Highest Price Sold: $99.95
Average Price Sold: $36.80
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Average Days Listed: 233
Longest Listed: 831
New items listed: 13Happy New Year, everyone!
I was a bit disappointed with my numbers at first, but a look back at the last two years showed my sales right in line for the week. However, 50% of revenue came from Etsy, so without Etsy I would have been down considerably.
I received one Christmas return already. The buyer misread the listing and thought it was new but opened the return as defective, not working. When I got it back I just refunded the purchase price with an explanation. Hopefully, it ends there. Only $19.95 so not too bad.
My best sale of the week already opened a return request, though I haven’t received it back yet so didn’t count it above. It is a vintage knife that I already sold once and had it returned. Weird. I’ve got very clear pictures with close ups and detailed description. Had a lot of watchers, too. Relist…
Wow. Nice find. If its accurate the sale was $5100. It looks like it is well used, so hopefully you found an original. I see that board was re-released in 2018, so be aware.
Week Ending 12/24/22
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $848.95
Net Sales: $719.60
Total Items Sold 15
Total Items in eBay Store: 1082 Items Sold eBay: 10
Total Items in Etsy Store: 346 Items Sold Etsy: 5
Cost of Items Sold: $60.16
COGS Percent 8.36%
Highest Price Sold: $295.00 Antique Handcuffs
Average Price Sold: $56.60
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Average Days Listed: 305
Longest Listed: 1224
New items listed: 9An unexpected week to be sure. Sales on Etsy accounted for 1/3 of item sales but 70% of the $ amount. This is the first time that my Etsy sales exceeded my eBay sales (I started posting on Etsy last January). A pair of antique handcuffs led the pack at $295 and all sales were $50 or greater.
eBay sales were all lower dollar with a max at $45. This was one of my lowest weeks on eBay for the year and the lowest pre-Christmas week in 4 years by a large margin.
I had one rare return request. I didn’t notice a crack in the Blenko pitcher I sold last week. I was hidden in the seam between the handle and the body of the pitcher. I might have been able to negotiate a discount with the buyer, but as I rarely get returns I decided to just eat it. It still displays nicely and the buyer gave me a nice review.
@Jay – I confused Sixbit with Inkfrog. Were you not using Inkfrog for listing? Just for backup purposes?
Etsy has accounted for 17% of my sales this year. That is on about 1/4 of the inventory that I have on eBay. As it has been a bad year overall, I am happy that I put the effort in. Not sure I’d focus solely on Etsy though. eBay continues to be more consistent in sales and allows a wider variety of items.
Hard to compare apples to oranges, as I have been selective what has gone on Etsy. I posted only my higher dollar items and the inventory there is less long tail. Getting started is a serious investment of time, but once up and running the effort for the additional exposure has been minimal. Buyers seem to be a bit less cost conscious. Etsy doesn’t have a make offer option, so don’t have to deal with lowballers. I have had a handful of buyers reach out to negotiate lower prices, but not the norm.
I may take a look at List Perfectly as I’m not happy about the cost of Sixbit. Though I am not eager to put the time into learning a new platform again.
@Jay – Are you guys still using Sixbit? If so, you are already over halfway to posting your items on Etsy. Since you’re familiar with the interface the learning curve should be pretty mild. The most confusing part is understanding the allocation settings and categories. I started with my most expensive items and worked my way down therefore maximizing effort. Always happy to answer questions if you start down that route.
@Steve-list – I almost passed it up because it was so ugly and looked like it was made by some child in craft shop. Something made me use image search on it and when it came up with matches, I realized I should pick it up. Apparently, there were a few versions with another version being rarer and selling for more. I always look at Tiki mugs, which I’m sure anyone else who follows the Thrifting Board on Facebook does as well.
@borderrooster – Always happy to have more input on the board. You have a decent size store, what is your focus? Vintage, clothes, electronics…
