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@martyholthaus – I have to watch myself on things like this. I have tried my hand at electronics repair, camera repair, fountain pen repair and furniture restoration since I started eBay, to varying degrees of success. They can increase my return dramatically, but sometimes at a significant cost of time. I’ve pulled back on the electronics especially because it can be a deep hole. The pipes at least are a more finite spend of time.
The comics could be fun. I see lots frequently at auctions, but don’t know what I’m looking at and pass on them. I know the right one can be fruitful, like with the trading cards. Nice niche.
@Jay – Will keep my fingers crossed for your shop as well. We hope to make the trip over to check it out. It’s a shame your place is always booked whenever we check it out.
The place we booked is normally $200+ per night, but we booked it for $89. We’ve been going every summer for several years now and that is the cheapest we’ve found for a 3 bedroom house. Only 15 minutes from downtown Brussels.
We lucked out and found a deal on flights from Iceland air that had fully refundable tickets for less than we normally pay for non-refundable.
Thanks for the show! Appreciate the level headed advice you always give. Low on hype and right on in substance.
Slowest week of the year so far for me. Really has been a roller coaster year with weeks going up and down. On the bright side, I’m still ahead for the year compared to last. My problem really is in getting listings done. I need to focus and block out the distractions. Should help temporarily as kids go back to school finally. My son started two days a week last week and my daughter should go back in mid-April.
Took a big gamble and booked a non-refundable AirBNB for July in Europe. Keeping fingers crossed that the vaccine rates keep climbing and we’re able to get ours before then. Currently the country isn’t accepting any travelers. Prices were so low that it was tough to bypass.
I’m going to miss the Yard Sale Treasure Map also. I checked out Craigslist’s new app that you mentioned and it is pretty weak. That’s really going to leave a void.
My biggest sale this last week was a vintage Dunhill tobacco pipe. It was one I restored myself to increase its value. I bought a large lot of very collectible pipes that were in poor condition. In researching them I came across some blogs detailing how hobbyists were restoring them and thought I’d try. A little elbow grease can go a long way to increase value. This was the third I’ve restored and sold from the lot. The other two sold for more than $100 each. I’m in about $3 per pipe plus labor. Takes about 2 hours to restore each. Of course, restoring a pipe takes up time I could be listing…
Week Ending 3/20/21
Total Items in Store: 1153
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $366.51
Net Sales (After fees): $298.19
Cost of Items Sold: $31.16
COGS Percent 10.45%
Net Profit Margin: 72.86%
Highest Price Sold: $74.95 Vintage Dunhill Pipe
Average Price Sold: $28.19
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $32.20
Sold via promoted listings: 9
Promoted Percentage: 69.23%
Average Days Listed: 369
Longest Listed: 1363
New items listed: 11@retro-treasures-wv – Wow, a mysterious burning smell, that’s really something to keep you up at night. Glad you found it before something serious happened.
That sale you found it what makes this job so much fun. You never know what you’re going to run into. Now to find that$700,000 Chinese bowl. 🙂
I totally feel for you. Did the same thing during the Christmas season. Fortunately, my buyer were both very cool and cooperated. I actually sent them each labels to send to the other and they did. My weights were off as well and forunately everything went through without problem. Hoping you are as lucky. Lesson learned.
@temudgin – You made me smile with the Santa Maria comment. I went ahead and posted it at $75 to try and get rid of it fast. I purchased it in a lot of Railroad lanterns and this was kind of an odd ball out. It has some significant rust, though it is still pretty solid. Always appreciate your input.
Oh, and regarding the $299, I consider stopping my Worthpoint subscription every time I see that. Considering how often some of us price high on our fishing expeditions, there are a lot of incorrect prices out there on items sold buy it now. I still have a painting hanging on my wall that Worthpoint says I sold for $6750.
Thank you all for your input. @Temudgin, your comment about it being a “fantasy” lantern makes some sense. I didn’t think about the panes being an issues, but now that you mention it, most of the other lamps I find made with panes like this are electric where the wind wouldn’t be a problem. It seems that they were working from the idea of a nautical lantern and the few examples I finally found of it are all sold with that theme. I finally found some searching on the burner model.
Here are the examples I found:
Big Vintage Round Wedge Brass Nautical Ship Oil Lamp Lantern | #243885587 (worthpoint.com)
I recall reading somewhere recently where a seller called USPS and got the actual GPS coordinates of where the package was dropped. I’ve never done it but might be worth a call. I know packages are frequently misdelivered in my neighborhood. Might at least give you grounds for filing a claim.
Thanks for the podcast.
Had an average week of sales. A little low on the item count, but had several $100+ sales that boosted things. Would have been better, but as I was packing items this morning, I knocked the Kachina doll I sold for $150 off onto the floor and it broke into 3 pieces. That was a big ouch to cancel. It’s been quite a while since I’ve broken anything. On the bright side, I liked it a lot and had it on display in my house, so now I can keep it once the glue dries.
Bought several lots from an online auction this past week. Prices are still going high. Best purchase was a lot of Railroad lanterns. Took a bit of a gamble as the pictures were really bad and it was tough to see exactly what we were getting.
3/13/21
Total Items in Store: 1151
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax): $850.80
Net Sales (After fees): $702.98
Cost of Items Sold: $63.18
COGS Percent 8.99%
Net Profit Margin: 75.20%
Highest Price Sold: $200.00 Pre-Columbian Pottery
Average Price Sold: $50.05
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $231.61
Sold via promoted listings: 10
Promoted Percentage: 58.82%
Average Days Listed: 244
Longest Listed: 1096
New items listed: 21This bums me out, too. We use the app extensively in our area, Metro DC. The $2 per year I’ve been spending for full access to the YSTM has been money well spent. It is ironic that Craigslist, which seems to be having a slow but steady death, would stop another company from basically promoting its use. I’m amazed at their seeming lack of interest in the new ways of doing things. I avoid posting sales on their site because of the problems I’ve experienced with their audience.
@Jay – Originally I cut and pasted my numbers from a mail document in Gmail. Weird thing is, on the second short post I just typed into the text box here on this page. What I did notice just before I submitted was that at the bottom of the text box there was a DIV instead of the P that is normally there. I had to close my browser to get rid of the DIV and get it back to a P (P for Paragraph I assume).
@temudgin – Thanks! I was worried I was shooting too high because I saw a lot of solds for less and a few listed for less than mine. I just follow J&R’s advice to list high. Sooner or later the others will sell and mine will be the only one left. :-)</div>
Funny thing, the codes don’t show up until I hit submit. Before that it looks normal. This time I used a blank Gmail for my text document, so won’t do that again. That last post was typed directly into the text box here, though, so not sure what happened there.
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<div class=”bsp-mentions”>@doublythumbs – That just happened to me as well when I cut and pasted from a text document. I’ve had it happen pasting from excel before but never from a text doc. Hmmm.</div>
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<div class=”bbp-reply-content”></div>Thanks for reviewing the seller update. I usually just skim through them and miss the big stuff until I notice it affecting me. That bump in subscription numbers will make a good difference for us. We’re at just under 1200 listings right now and 60% of our store is collectibles, so we should be able to drop back down to a basic store for a while.
Your numbers are great this week. I’m constantly amazed at the consistency of the pipeline you’ve built. I delude my self that I’m playing with the big boys during the Christmas season, but those of you that pull off big numbers year round are an inspiration.
I wasn’t able to post last week so have two weeks of numbers here. I’ve had several large $150 dollar sales which really helped pull me off the bottom. Sold my first military Challenge coin. I found a Donald Rumsfeld coin in a trinket box that was sold for $3 and ended up selling it for $149.95. Also sold a Franklin Mint Star Trek Deep Space 9 pewter model for $150, and an antique Christmas ornament for $150. The ornament was one of the few times I’ve had a sent offer accepted.
<div><b>Week ending Feb. 27, 2021</b></div>
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<div>Total Items in Store:</div>
<div>Items Sold:11</div>
<div>Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax):$622.06</div>
<div>Net Sales (After fees):$521.27</div>
<div>Cost of Items Sold:$58.42</div>
<div>COGS Percent11.21%</div>
<div>Net Profit Margin:74.41%</div>
<div>Highest Price Sold: $150.00 Star Trek Model</div>
<div>Average Price Sold:$56.55</div>
<div>Returns:0</div>
<div>Money Spent on New Inventory:$0.00</div>
<div>Sold via promoted listings:8</div>
<div>Promoted Percentage:72.73%</div>
<div>Average Days Listed:180</div>
<div>Longest Listed:760</div>
<div>New items listed:</div>
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<div><b>Weekly Numbers 3/6/21 </b></div>
<div>Total Items in Store:1148</div>
<div>Items Sold:24</div>
<div>Gross Sales (Not including shipping and tax):$1,083.66</div>
<div>Net Sales (After fees):$899.83</div>
<div>Cost of Items Sold:$124.82</div>
<div>COGS Percent13.87%</div>
<div>Net Profit Margin:71.52%</div>
<div>Highest Price Sold: $150.00 NPR Carl Kassel Bobblehead</div>
<div>Average Price Sold:$45.15</div>
<div>Returns:0</div>
<div>Money Spent on New Inventory:$0.00</div>
<div>Sold via promoted listings:13</div>
<div>Promoted Percentage:54.17%</div>
<div>Average Days Listed:361.71</div>
<div>Longest Listed:1312</div>
<div>New items listed:12</div>
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@craig-rex – Thanks for sharing the anecdote. Card selling is a big mystery to me. I pass on boxes all the time because the one time I did buy one the amount of time researching for very little return made me feel burned. Sounds like you’ve got it figured out. Great niche.
