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Week Ending 6/17/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $803.58 (ebay $549 / Etsy $255)
Net Sales: $660.13
Total Items Sold: 13 (eBay 11 / Etsy 2)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1223 / Etsy Store: 551
Cost of Items Sold: $106.33
Highest Price Sold: $179.95 (Singer Sewing Machine)
Average Price Sold: $61.81
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00Average Days Listed: 313
Longest Listed: 1270
New items listed: 5
New Listings Value $59.95Decent week of sales for the time of year. Just surpassed my sales for the year so far from last year. Good to see having started the year out way behind. Best sale was another child’s Singer sewing machine for $179.95 that was made in the 1950’s. Another nice sale was an original Currier & Ives hand colored print from the 1800’s that sold for $140.
Not a lot of listing going on the last two weeks. So much else keeping me busy including family from out of state. Today was the first day this week I’ve had time to seriously sit down and look at things.
My best sale of the week was $299.95 for a Singer Sewhandy Model 20 child’s sewing machine from the 1950’s. This one was in excellent condition and had the 100th anniversary medallion, which seems to make it a bit more valuable. Paid up for it at auction ($85) knowing it was something special and would likely sell quickly. Listing is for eBay but it sold on Etsy for full asking price.
It reminds me of some of the copper Judaica items that I’ve had in the past. A lot of the metal work done in Israel mid-century combined copper and brass and was frequently hammered like this. Not an obvious religious symbol though. Also, a lot of those from that era used the verdigris as an major accent, which this one doesn’t have.
Week Ending 6/10/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $625.22 (ebay $305 / Etsy $319)
Net Sales: $539.76
Total Items Sold: 11 (eBay 9 / Etsy 2)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1224
Total Items in Etsy Store: 548
Cost of Items Sold: $155.46
Highest Price Sold: $299.95 Singer Sewing Machine
Average Price Sold: $56.84
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00Average Days Listed: 138
Longest Listed: 969
New items listed: 1
New Listings Value $69.95Pretty slow week of low dollar sales saved at the last minute by the sale of sewing machine on Saturday afternoon for $300. On Thursday evening, out of desperation, I sent out 33 offers of 20% off for some of my newer inventory, which generated 3 sales. Two of my sales were from the 30% off sale that I’m running of old inventory. Must higher cost of goods this week than I’m used to seeing. One of my items sold for less than I paid for it which skewed the figures.
I only listed one item this week due to focusing on a side project I started. I’ll share more about this later, but I’m hoping to create an alternate income stream. Like most things, a lot of upfront work. Will get back to posting this week.
My favorite sale was a CD. I picked up a small lot of CDs two years ago via online auction. The majority of them were in Persian and required looking up using Google translate and Google image search in order to determine who the artist is and the name of the album. I had sold a cassette from this lot a few weeks ago and the buyer opened an INAD saying the cassette wouldn’t play. They were nice about it and queried whether I had any more. I took a picture of the last 7 of the CDs that I hadn’t posted yet and offered them for $15 each. They said they’d take 3 so I created a private listing and sent them the link. They never completed the sale, so after a week I pulled the listing, took pictures individually and researched. One of the $15 dollar CDs sold within 24 hours of posting for $49.95.
Week Ending 6/3/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $268.72 (ebay $248/Etsy $19.95)
Net Sales: $219.54
Total Items Sold: 8 (ebay 7 /etsy 1)
Total Items eBay Store: 1234 / Etsy Store: 555
Cost of Items Sold: $23.18
Highest Price Sold: $59.00 Christmas Ornament
Average Price Sold: $33.59
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00Average Days Listed: 237
Longest Listed: 1530
New items listed: 5
New Listings Value $539.75Slow week of sales. Slow week of listing. Between the holiday, family appointments and a few items that took a bit more research, just didn’t get that much done. I feel very lame after reading Retro’s post above.
Three of my sales were items that I just posted within the week. My favorite was a CD of Persian music that sold within 24 hours of posting.
I started running my annual summer sale this week. I put everything that has been in my store longer than 2 years on sale for 30% off. I rarely see much uptick in sales from running these types of promotions, but I figure it is worth a go. Looking at traffic it does seem to have increased my page views since the sale started and I sold 1 item that had been in my store for 1530 days. The longest tail item for the week.
I noticed that I am selling fewer items via promoted listings now that in the past. When I started promoting items, I was getting about 60% of my sales via promoted listings. Last year that percentage fell to 43% and so far this year the average is at 38%. I usually promote at 5% across the board, but I’ve noticed lately that the suggested rate is climbing and is usually 9-12% in the categories I usually post in. Something to ponder…
Such a valuable lesson you are teaching them. I will be watching eagerly to see their success.
@Retro – you really killed it on listings last week. You have some serious drive.
@Craig rex – I am amazed how you are still killing it, considering how much of your inventory you’ve moved to the other site. You are the poster child for specializing and knowing your niche.
I would love to see what your buyer’s Christmas tree or lawn looks like. Or whatever they are decorating. Are there other types of ornaments?
I have hinted that I would love to see her tree when she gets it set up. I have to imagine she already has a very nice collection. She is the single biggest repeat buyer I’ve ever had. I hope to keep her happy and coming back. She might just motivate me to get back to listing ornaments, as I still have loads of the type she likes unlisted.
Week Ending 5/27/23
Total Items in eBay Store: 1234 / Etsy Store: 553
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $588.60 (eBay:$479 / Etsy: 110)
Net Sales: $506.84
Total Items Sold :9 (eBay: 7 /Etsy: 2)Cost of Items Sold: $95.19
Highest Price Sold: $240.00 (Hubley Cast Iron Doorstop)
Average Price Sold: $65.40
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
Average Days Listed: 145
Longest Listed: 911
New items listed: 25
New Listings Value $2,144.00I was ready to lament my poor sales this week until I looked at history and see that this was the best last week of May that I’ve had since I started keeping regular records in 2020 – even better than early pandemic. Not a lot of sales but had two large sales that made it better than average.
My big sale was a Hubley cast iron German Shepherd door stop from the 1930’s. Prices on these are all over the place with asking prices for some over $1000, but recent sales on Terapeak weren’t supporting that level so I took an offer of $240 after starting at $299. My second big sale was from a repeat customer who has been regularly buying ornaments for the past few months. She ordered 6 of my higher priced ornaments and I gave her 35% off for her regular patronage with me getting $143.
I was happy to see that I had 25 listings from the week. For some reason I didn’t feel that productive. One was a relisting of my return that had only sold earlier in the week, so that was a net 0 for the week.
@Retro – Great teaching moment! Can’t wait to hear how it turns out. Thrifting… the Next Generation.
OK, That one is particularly bad. If it was relatively close, I might still have to bid on the California Raisins lamp and some of the book lots, though. I could only find one comp for the lamp from 2017 where it sold at auction for $15.99. There are some crazy California Raisins collectors.
It is very boring advice, but list more, sell more still works.
@Craig – For sure. I started out the year feeling like a flower dying on the vine. I hadn’t been posting as much last year and my sales were down even from last years slow sales. At end of Februay sales were down about 30% from the previous year, but now after steady listing I’m only 5% below last year and my store has the most items in it since November 2021. I feel its going to be a good year.@Jay – I almost forgot. I was at my daughter’s dentist appointment yesterday and looking through The Washingtonian magazine and came across this mention of Broadporch Luray:
Very cool plug for your business. Congrats, you guys are getting attention far and wide.
