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@debitendcredits – Great sale on the slide rule. Never seen a round one before. Guess that’s why it went for so much.
Week Ending 5/21/22
Gross Sales: $871.60
Net Sales: $719.62
Total Items in eBay Store: 1053 Total Items in Etsy Store: 234
Items Sold eBay: 16 Items Sold Etsy: 1
Gross Sales eBay: $836.65 Gross Sales Etsy: $34.95
Net Sales eBay: $691.89 Net Sales Etsy: $27.73
Cost of Items Sold: $25.65
COGS Percent 3.56%Highest Price Sold: $350.00 Antique Divination Cards
Average Price Sold: $51.27
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00Average Days Listed: 527
Longest Listed: 1264
New items listed: 18What a difference a week makes. Nice to have a bit of a return to normal sales last week. Sales were really boosted by two large sales, a set of Divination (tarot-like) cards from the 1870’s for $350 and a vintage surfing poster for $200. These sales were even more satisfying in that the objects were basically free to me having been unexpected items included in some auction lots I purchased. My favorite type of sales. Both were best offers and had been originally priced much higher prices.
Also satisfying was my COGS were only about 4% of sales, in Jay and Ryanne territory. Mine usually run closer to 14%.
I’ve been running 30% off promotion on all items in my store that are over 2 years old for about 10 days (approx. 400 items). Haven’t seen much action from it, mainly selling items that are marked down below $15 with the discount. I have run sales several times over the years but never see much return from them.
I checked out the Too Good to Go app in my area of DC. Only a handful of restaurants available, but the deals are very tempting with prices from $3.99 to $5.99. Hopefully it takes off.
Week Ending 5/14/22
Gross Sales: $126.00
Net Sales: $106.00Total Items in eBay Store: 1050 Etsy Store: 211
Items Sold eBay: 4 Items Sold Etsy: 0
Gross Sales eBay (W\O shipping and tax): $126.00
Net Sales (After fees) eBay: $106.00Cost of Items Sold: $29.20
COGS Percent 27.55%
Net Profit Margin: 60.95%
Highest Price Sold: $59.95 Model Train
Average Price Sold: $31.50
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $106Average Days Listed: 117
Longest Listed: 348
New items listed: 7Like many of you, last week was a disaster for sales. No sales until Thursday. Worst week since last summer when my store was on vacation mode. I actually had a nice sale on Friday, but the buyer waited until Sunday to pay so will be counting it in this week’s sales. Thankfully, this wee is already doing much better. It’s like someone turned the water off at the source for the first part of the week.
To add insult to injury, my biggest sale from last week arrived broken. Fortunately, it was repairable, but as it was a collectible, much less valuable repaired. At least he was willing to work with me. I refunded $100 of the $200 sale and he gave me great feedback.
Hit a few estate sales on Saturday and found a few good items. Best find was a box of model train catalogs and magazines. Several of the catalogs were original from the 1920’s and 1930’s. I’m still going through the pile but already have $350 worth of listings from the $20 investment. Also got a nice condition wartime edition of The Joy of Cooking for $2 and have that listed for $100. Like most estate sales the majority was priced at eBay prices, but managed to find some gems. Have to give Cecile props for finding the train catalogs. They were sitting in a box in a dark corner of the basement and I walked right by them.
I think it was a full five days after my wife got it before she tested positive. Keeps you guessing.
Yes, at under $200k you can keep payments under $1000 per month and the math for an AirBNB is pretty easy. I have wondered if the saturation point is going to be reached pretty soon. With that one being so close to downtown and to the entrance to the park, it felt like it had some protection built in. I guess the buyer agreed.
The house is at 1477 Clearview. Needed some work, but had a nice view of the mountains and would have made a great AirBNB.
Week Ending 5/7/22
Total Items in eBay Store: 1048
Items Sold eBay: 6
Gross Sales eBay (W\O shipping and tax): $525.00
Net Sales (After fees) eBay: $430.00
Total Items in Etsy Store: 202
Items Sold Etsy: 0Cost of Items Sold: $80.80
COGS Percent 18.79%
Net Profit Margin: 66.51%
Highest Price Sold: $200.00 Toy Jeep
Average Price Sold: $87.50
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00Average Days Listed: 37
Longest Listed: 64
New items listed: 7Third week in a row I’ve only sold 6 items. Thank goodness large sales are thrown in there. This was a strange week in that my average sale was only 37 days old. Normally I average about a year. No sales at all this week so far.
Finally finished a side project that has been taking up a lot of my time and I’m hoping I can get back to more steady listing.
We made a fast trip up to Luray on Saturday to look at another house for sale. We liked it and made an offer over listing price and still got out bid. Buyer waived all inspections and appraisal. That is one crazy real estate market now.
@the_seam_store Good to hear from you. I’ve wondered where you disappeared to. Welcome back.
I had messaged him. I guess he ignored. I assumed refunding completely would disable their ability to print a label.
Interestingly, he returned the item because it was broken. It was a new Google Nest thermostat I had received via a special offer and couldn’t use. I opened the return to inspect and he had neglected to remove the protective tab from the battery compartment.
At least I can sell it again to recoup some of my losses on the shipping.
But I also saw a huge increase in sales after I started a Promoted Listings Standard campaign on Thursday. I had never used Promoted Listings before, and all of the options were overwhelming, so I went with a standard 5% ad rate on every listing in my store.
I’ve been doing the promoted listings consistently for a few years. I usually leave things unpromoted for the first few weeks then add the promotion. I like the feature they have that allows you to apply the recommended level with a cap at a certain percentage. I cap mine at 5%. I average 50% of sales being promoted. I sometimes think I’d like to see how things would compare without the promotion, but would hate to lose sales to prove a point. I definitely noticed a bump in sales when I first started and feel it must be part of the reason some of my items sell at higher prices than other available items.
Congratulations on the anniversary! Well deserved success.
Week Ending 4/30/22
Gross Sales: $571.11
Net Sales: $486.86
Total Items in eBay Store: 1050
Items Sold eBay: 6
Total Items in Etsy Store: 199
Items Sold Etsy: 3Cost of Items Sold: $90.97
Highest Price Sold: $199.95 Mixed Media Art
Average Price Sold: $63.46
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $184.00
Average Days Listed: 343.89
Longest Listed: 1169
New items listed: 12Almost the exact sales numbers as last week down to the same number of sales on each platform. Biggest sale was a unique piece of Judaica art, a mixed media piece illustrating a Jewish blessing. Picked this one up on the last day of an estate sale last Spring for $26.
Got most of my new purchases from the previous week listed which felt like an accomplishment. Trying to at least not allow my death pile to grow.
My scavenge of the week was a Ryobi Power Washer. A guy posted on my neighborhood list serve for free because he couldn’t get it to work. It was only a few years old, so I hoped it would be something simple and it was: just needed a new trigger gun ($40). Spent several hours yesterday power washing the house. I just got a quote from a company two weeks ago that wanted $1450 to wash my house, driveway and patio. I’m going to lose a few days of listing this week but I feel like I’ll be making money since I’m saving so much.
I got a return on a Google Nest thermostat due to it not working. This just added insult to injury. I bought the thermostat for myself only to find it wouldn’t work for my system. It sold a few weeks ago, but I swapped the label with another package and it went to the wrong buyer. I convinced them to ship it to each other thankfully, but now he can’t get it to work. I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work, but I didn’t want to pay for postage back from Hawaii to investigate so just refunded him in full.
Between your notes on SL and looking through your store and going through this lot, I have a much better idea on what I should be looking for now. A general rule seems to be to look for a combination of features: low-number limited-editions, signed, near mint or better condition, and of course, a well-known player. Special features add value. With exceptions. AND, stay away from the 1980’s.
Thanks again for the information. So, what I have are the standard chromium cards and not the refractors. I can see the difference now that I know what I’m looking for. These alone appear pretty special even without the added refractor coating and have a completely different look than the basic trading card, which is why I assumed I had something special. Shame they aren’t worth more.
I ended up with around 50 of these basketball cards, another 4500 football cards and 5000 baseball cards. I’ve been able to use Terapeak to identify some valuable cards that came in some of the sets I have and verified I don’t have them. For someone that isn’t a rabid fan, and primarily knows only the biggest names, I am astounded at the volume of names I’ve never heard of.
I bought these for the education value mainly, and I’ve gotten my money’s worth in that respect. I see so many cards for sale at estate sales, usually at high prices, and always feel like I might be passing up money. Will likely put them up as lots and see what happens. So much to learn. It’s admirable how much you’ve taught yourself.
@craig-rex – Thanks for the offer. Here is one that has me stumped on pricing. I got a stack of 51 Topps Finest refractor basketball cards 1993-1994 season. Most appear to be $2-$5 cards, but a few have higher dollar sales history. One in particular, this David Robinson card has sales from $0.88 to $39.95 in non-graded condition.
From looking at past sales via Terapeak there seems to be no discernable difference between them. Almost all sales were for mint condition cards. A good portion have been selling in the $20-$30 range. Looking at what’s available, there are 48 with a few graded this Robinson GSM 10 card for $19.99. I just don’t understand why so many people are paying so much for non-graded cards when comparable cards are selling for so much less.
There are also a lot of these available on COMC.
What would you price it at? Would you even bother with it?
Thanks!
@craig-rex – I’m starting to go through the boxes of cards I purchased and thought some of your old posts would be a good place to start. I wasn’t wrong. Your reply to Sharon a few weeks ago in particular was very helpful. The link to article about why cards from the 1980s are virtually worthless was eye-opening. Looks like a good portion of the cards I purchased are from this era, but seem to be a lot of 1994 and later, so maybe I have something yet.
Your generosity in sharing your knowledge is commendable. Thank you!
