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I feel you with this one. And I’m really excited to see how many Amazon boxes I can pick up at the curb today before the recycling trucks come since I know there will be a real bonanza from the Christmas deliveries.
Just finished the podcast. Really interesting show this week. Couldn’t agree more with your advice to the new scavengers. For most of us, I think it just takes time to understand what you can sell to make the best profit, and more importantly, what you enjoy selling. My wife and I have been at this now for 4 years and we have gone through many phases, from where we source to what we focus on for buying, and it evolves continuously as we learn more. I’m reminded of the “10,000 hours” maxim, where it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. It’s just a matter of putting in the time, as long as you enjoy what you are doing.
I’d also ditto the comments of others who mentioned buying lots is a great way to learn. So many times, some obscure object in the lot turns out to be more valuable than the item I bought the lot for, or at least more valuable than I could have imagined, and it opens my eyes to a whole new genre that I need to keep an eye out for.
Thanks for the podcast.
Finally starting to feel like winter here. Had our first school closing this morning due to ice on the roads. Haven’t had a chance to here the podcast yet, but plan to listen to it on the road this afternoon. Here are my numbers for the week:
Week Ending: 12/14/19
Total Items in Store: 1217
Items Sold: 33
Gross Sales: $2013.56
Cost of Items Sold: $175.89
Highest Price Sold: $350 (Russian Lacquer Box)
Average Price Sold: $49.15
Returns: 0
Spent on New Inventory: $425.02
Number of items listed: 14
Via promoted listings: 18
Promoted Percentage: 54.55%
Average Days Listed 276.82
Longest Listed 1264Had some nice sales right at the end of the week to save the week. Thought we’d already hit the lull, but did $1180 in sales since Friday afternoon. It was nice to see a stack of 14 packages going out this morning.
One other metric I’ve recently started tracking that I forgot to add into this weeks numbers. Average number of days an item was listed: 231 days.
Longest tail: 793 days for an NPR Christmas ornament.Another good week here. I’m really amazed how much is flying out the door. On track to do about 1/3 of the income for the year just during November and December.
Total Items in Store: 1231
Items Sold: 43
Gross Sales: $2071.71
Cost of Items Sold: $42
Highest Price Sold: $120 (Civil War Fractional Currency)
Average Price Sold: $35.50
Returns:
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 32
Number of items sold via promoted listings: 23 (53%)It’s nice to see that the year’s work in scavenging and listing is paying off. Interesting to note that 53% of our sales were via promoted listings and I’m averaging around 5% for the promoted fee. I added a line above for me to track this metric as well. I only started promoted items a few months ago and it really seems to be making a difference. One thing I don’t like about the promoted listings is that you can’t see whether an offer is coming in from a promoted listing. Now I’m second guessing my reduction as I can’t tell until after the sale whether I’m getting hit for the additional fee. Significant as we tend to sell about half our items for best offer.
Lukas Treasure Trove
Those RTR tapes are some great sales and always get my interest. I’ve got a bunch listed, but not getting the sales that you are, Steve.
It’s been a good week and had some interesting sales.
Sold this morning after less than 24 hours this Pal-Bell Matzo plate made in Israel in the 1940’s or 50’s. Paid $13 at auction, sold for $80 off an asking price of $99.95.
This pre-war German beer stein sold for $75, also from an asking price of $99.95. Paid $12 at an estate sale.
Got this chalkware crucifix in an auction lot, basically for free, as I bought the lot for something else in it that already sold. I took an offer of $27 after asking $49.95.
Enjoyed researching this sale. A civil war era 50 cent fractional currency bill that I found in the bottom of a box of ephemera I purchased for $35. Came with about 20 other bills, plus a lot of other items. Took an offer of $120 on an asking price of $149.95.
I bought an old Victorian era scrapbook that was falling apart at an auction for $51. It was full of old advertising card from the late 1890’s to about 1907. Sold this D&M advertising card of a standing dog for $49.95 within 24 hours of posting.
Total Items in Store: 1237
Items Sold: 34
Gross Sales: $2156
Cost of Items Sold: $184
Highest Price Sold: $900 (MCM Painting)
Average Price Sold: $62
Returns: 4
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $150
Number of items listed this week: 31First time posting my numbers. Have been meaning to for ages as I feel I need to get more focussed on bottom line. Getting a little more organized so makes pulling the numbers easier.
Had my best week ever, thanks in large part to my biggest sale ever. I sold a MCM painting for $900 for which I only paid $66. I hated to see the painting go though, as I really loved it and wouldn’t have minded it staying on my wall, however, bills to pay and all that.
Having 4 returns in one week was quite surprising, as we rarely get returns.
Biggest issue we have is that we lost our Top Rated Seller status a week ago after shipping 9 packages a day late back in August. I was surprised when they took it as at first they granted me a 30-day grace, then after not shipping anything late again, they still pulled the TRS. I missed the ship date after going on vacation and improperly setting my handling to 5-day instead of 6. I don’t think I’ve ever shipped late prior to that. I’ve opened an appeal, so hoping they see that my overall record is clean and that it was an anomaly. Concerned a bit about not having TRS during the Christmas season, but it didn’t seem to affect my sales last week.
As always, enjoyed the podcast.
I agree totally, I archive all of those emails just for the purpose of having the extended record in case something comes up. Perhaps we all need to call in and complain so that they appreciate the impact.
@Amatino: That Amazon set up is pretty slick. I like that it is larger than the lightboxes I’m used to seeing. Looks like it’s pretty easy to set up and tear down also.
@ Julie B, I’ve never noticed the non-flat rate boxes on their store previously. Either I didn’t look long enough or they were out of stock when I did. Just ordered a few sizes. Thanks for the info.
I’ve always wondered why sellers use these in the first place. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who uses them regularly, when they are cost effective.
When we first started eBay we read about these free supplies and stocked up on them. After a few thousand sales, I’ve only had a handful of situations where shipping in one of them saved the customer money (game box shipped to Hawaii for Mahjong set). I usually use the “free” shipping supplies I pick up from the road on trash day or from business dumpsters. Between what I find and the boxes I get from eBay with my subscription, I just don’t see the need.
And, like has been noted, I see so much abuse of the free supplies it has to be a huge waste for USPS.
Just this week I was looking at the space these boxes are taking up in my storage and thinking it was time to return them to USPS.
A lot of the loose things I used to store on the shelves now go in boxes. However, like you, we’ve have been buying more glass lately, which makes it tough to get away from shelves. Look forward to seeing what you guys come up with.
@Jay, Yes, you have to unstack them all. I admit, I hate it when what I need is in the bottom box, but I get a little thrill when it’s in the top box, so it balances out. 🙂
One reason I like the costco shelves is that they will fit 3 of these storage boxes on a shelf. Long range plan is to buy more of those shelves so that I don’t have to stack and unstack. Maybe when we move into the other room.
With all this talk of inventory, I thought I’d share a few pictures of ours. I am fortunate in that my wife did a lot of research before we started really selling and had an inventory system in mind from the start. It’s modified over the years a bit, but it uses the “Amazon” system that Jay and Ryanne have been talking about. We use a spreadsheet to keep track of everything. No sku, just box or shelf location. Two things I really like: We use the clear storage boxes, which make locating the rare lost item easier, and rolling carts under the stack of boxes in front of the shelves. Store glass and some larger items on the shelves. Artwork on top. Except for a few larger items, our entire 1247 item inventory is in these pictures. Have to be a bit careful of the rolling carts, not to stack too high, otherwise tipping is a problem.
We’ve about outgrown our laundry room and envision expanding to the guest room soon. I don’t recommend the Ikea shelves and wouldn’t buy them for this purpose again. Have since found the metal shelves they sell at Costco and like them much better. We use them for storage of the to be listed inventory stored in another room.
