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@Steve – you are quite the creative. That’s a really nice looking clock.
@Sharyn – Finally tried TGTG. I was going to be in the neighborhood of that donut shop and decided what the heck. The pick up was just before closing time and they just reached into the display counter and filled a bag with an assortment of scones, donuts and fritters. Amazing deal. Made the kids happy with the donuts and the scones were great.
@retrotreasures – I agree. You probably made the right move with that FBMP sale. I’ve made some nice sales there, but almost every listing comes with a couple of scam inquiries. I am very selective about what I post there. Nice to not have to pay the commissions though.
Week Ending 10/22/22
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $268.60
Net Sales: $183.91
Total Items Sold 10
Total Items in eBay Store: 1082
Items Sold eBay: 8
Total Items in Etsy Store: 275
Items Sold Etsy: 2
Cost of Items Sold: $15.93
COGS Percent 8.66%
Highest Price Sold: $49.95 Train controller
Average Price Sold: $26.86
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Sold via promoted listings: 4
Average Days Listed: 474
Longest Listed: 1702
New items listed: 20Disappointing sales last week, but the cleaning of my office space and scavenging from my death piles is paying off. Most of the items I posted were from stagnant death piles and 4 of the 20 have sold already.
I took a page from Steve’s playbook this week and sat down with a broken turntable I’ve had sitting on the shelf for a few years. It is a vintage Dual turntable I bought from an eBay auction for cheap, not something I am usually inclined to do. It was advertised as working well but after the auction completed the seller messaged to say that it “broke” and no longer worked. I got it cheap enough ($16.50) that I told him to send it anyway. After a quick assessment all the switches were frozen and the platter wouldn’t turn so I set it on the shelf as a future project. This particular era of Dual turntables are notorious for freezing up from the grease hardening and fortunately after a thorough cleaning it is working perfectly. I have it posted now for $325 or best offer and hope to get at least $250 on it.
@Sharyn for the post. I’ve downloaded the app also and have still not pulled the trigger on an order. That fear of the unknown. There aren’t very many stores in my area participating and most are bakery/donut shops. I just looked again and there is a donut shop I’ve never tried that has added, so may take the leap.
@Jay, happy to hear things are busy at the shop and you guys are well.Even Amazon has amended their free returns policy. At least for some items we’ve purchased the only free return is one that you drop off at one of Amazon’s partners, either Amazon locker, Wholefoods, Amazon Fresh, etc… Perhaps this only applies to suburban areas where the infrastructure exists. I’ve also noticed that several of the stores my daughter has been shopping from are charging to return items unless you bring them into their retail stores.
Week Ending 10/15/22
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $1,024.25
Net Sales: $860.68
Total Items Sold 18
Total Items in eBay Store: 1073
Items Sold eBay: 16
Total Items in Etsy Store: 257
Items Sold Etsy: 2
Cost of Items Sold: $149.11
COGS Percent 17.32%
Highest Price Sold: $249.95 Bakelite Backgammon Set
Average Price Sold: $56.90
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $42.89
Average Days Listed: 400
Longest Listed: 1548
New items listed: 8First time I’ve broken $1000 since early July and I had the highest number of sales in a week since February. Unfortunately, most were low dollar sales, but I was saved by 3 sales over $100 with one huge $249.95 Bakelite Backgammon set sale on Etsy. I have turned down so many lower offers on this set that I was considering lowering my price. Glad I held off.
Etsy accounted for 36% of my sales this week having also had a $124.95 sale there. What a difference a few weeks will make. I was thinking hard 3 weeks ago about giving up on Etsy but had decided to stick it out through Christmas.
I, too, spent a few days organizing and trying to get my death piles cleaned up for better posting flow. I had allowed my listed and unlisted inventory to mingle on some shelves in the listing area and I decided that needed to stop as my unlisted items were now taking up too much floor space. Now I can sort through the piles and get everything off the floor. It’ll help my mental state as well by reducing that clutter. I’ve been pulling items aside for listing as I sort and had 15 item set aside for pictures to start the week.
@Sharyn – Thanks for mentioning this. I called UPS to try and get more information but they weren’t much help. He confirmed that there “might be” brokerage fees that are charged to the recipient but couldn’t tell me if there actually would be, or what the cost would be. He did say that if the user pre-paid VAT, the customs and brokerage fees are possibly included. Guess I’ll put a call into eBay. I got the impression that the brokerage fee may just be part of the customs costs, a fee paid to the contractor that processes the package through customs.
Buyers are funny sometimes. This buyer reached out to me before purchasing to ask if I could lower the shipping and I told him I added the cheaper UPS cost and he should just choose that at checkout. He then proceeded to purchase with the original shipping cost. ??? I contacted him again and he didn’t see my note. I’m shipping UPS anyway and will refund him the difference.
Hi Antique Frog, that isn’t any different than what it would be for USPS is it? eBay usually collects the VAT regardless of the shipping service in my experience. What is different about UPS?
I did some more checking. Looks like UPS is cheaper starting at around 4 lbs. Even for a small 10x8x6 package there is a savings for your buyer of about 17% ($45 vs. $54). I tried several combinations of size and weight and it goes back and forth as to which is cheaper depending on the combination. I just added UPS along with the USPS option I was already using. Hopefully lead to more international sales.
This savings is even greater for shipments going to Australia ($54 vs $72 for a 4lb. 10x8x6), which for me is my second largest location after Europe.
@Craig-rex – Thought about you yesterday. Dropped in at a Lighthouse for the Blind thrift store after dropping off some packages at the post office. They had one of those 16×19 card storage boxes there filled with lots of the types of cards that I see you posting about: cards with jersey swatches, game tickets, and signatures, about 90 in acrylic screw type cases with a Topps hologram seal. They were asking $2-3 each. I didn’t see anyone famous (to me at least) but still offered $150 for the lot just for the education value, but they wouldn’t take less than $400 a bit too much of a risk for me. I figured the box was probably someone’s cast offs after they cherry picked the goods ones, but I’m sure you’d have found some valuable obscure names. Cards were from the mid-2000s and 2010s.
@Craig-rex – I, too, always check the games section. One of our first big sales on eBay was a Harry Potter Monopoly game that we got from a thrift store on our first or second thrifting trip. Still sealed for $10 and sold within a few days of posting for over $100.
I got the part for the printer in the mail yesterday and it was an easy fix. Works perfectly! I’m going to keep an eye out for these in the future as it appears it breaks frequently and I’m sure there must be a ton of them out there in thrift stores. If anyone else sees a Brother HL-2270DW. Apparently, it is a common issue across several of their models, at least from the number of comments of thanks on the Youtube repair video.
Did you check Terapeak. One sold on there in January for $220. 31 other sales of similar.
@ChristineR – Congratulations on the big sale! Didn’t you show us that piece a while back? Seems I recall something like that.
That is a cool find. I’d never heard of that thrift chain before, but turns out they have a few in my area. Will have to check them out.
I don’t do much with thrift stores as I don’t find many great deals in my area, but Cecile and I stopped by our local Unique yesterday since we were driving by. I had my usual experience, but Cecile happened upon a cart that was just being deployed to the shelves and found two old L. E. Smith Moon and Stars Apothecary jars for $8.99 each. It was customer appreciation day so 25% off. They should each sell for $50+.
She also found a new and sealed Charlie Harper Memory Game for $3.50. For some reason these are a cult favorite and sell for about $40 on average.
I did find me a brother printer for $19. Good condition, but wasn’t pulling paper. Googled it and there is an easy fix with a $7 part from Amazon. These sell new at Office Depot for $175, so I’m still feeling pretty good about it.
