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Week Ending 5/20/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping & tax): $559.65 (85%/15% eBay/Etsy)
Net Sales: $465.57
Total Items Sold 11 (7/4 Ebay/Etsy)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1228 / Etsy Store: 543
Cost of Items Sold: $61.24
Highest Price Sold: $300.00 (Art Deco Light Shade)
Average Price Sold: $50.88
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $345.82Average Days Listed: 166
Longest Listed: 602
New items listed: 13
New Listings Value $2,234.00The week came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. I had a six sales last Sunday, including a $300 sale on an Art Deco milk glass light shade and an $88 sale on a set of 4 antique post cards, then the rest of the week was sporadic small sales.
Didn’t meet my 20 listing goal, but most of what I listed was high dollar and required extended research. I acquired a lot of vintage ammo reloading equipment at an auction a few weeks ago and got it all up last week. From the message boards I was on doing my research seems like these appeal to people interested in target shooting mainly. A little disappointed that nothing was an immediate sale, but I priced high due to the rarity of some of it. We’ll see.
My auction winnings were an eclectic mix of art, books, sewing machines, antique wooden yarn spools, cabbage patch dolls, vintage playing cards and a vintage Raleigh bike. Just the kind of variety I enjoy and that keeps this interesting for me. My favorite is a lot of 6 framed cruise line menus from the 1950’s by artist Eugene Savage, which I wrote more about in the Scavenge of the week thread.
@Jay – Sounds like you are making a smart choice with the laundry. Buying yourself time is one of the best investments. And you’ll be better positioned for running the next three places you open.I signed up for maxsold at some point, but anytime I glance at their emails it all looks like junk to me. Same with Goodwill finds. Maybe worth a second look, though.
@Craig – In the DC area I’ve found Maxsold to be my most consistent source of inventory. I grumble sometimes about the poor picture quality but I think that works to my advantage often. I frequently find some gem of an item hidden somewhat. This lot of menus is a great example. The pictures didn’t show all the menus, only one was full view, no signature close up, and the description simply simply said, “pictures, framed, needs dusting”. I wasn’t sure what they were, but knew old Hawaii sells. I did a Google image search on the one full view and matched to Savage.The newer company to watch for it Ctbids.com. They seem to have taken a lot of Maxsold’s business lately in our area.
I won several cool lots this week from a Maxsold auction. I found it at the last minute from an email they sent me. I wasn’t looking for more inventory, but the email has a picture of a Hawaiin print that looked enticing so I jumped in. The print ended up being a set of 6 menus from a cruise line designed by artist Eugene Savage in the 1950’s. All framed. I won the lot for $15 and hope to get at least $300. Prices are all over the place with some sets selling for over $1000.
The other exciting stuff from the sale was a lot of Singer sewing machines. I got two of the child’s “Sewhandy 20” sewing machines and one adult size. I paid a little more than I should have at $160 for the lot, but it had crappy pictures and I was a bit rushed. Still hope to get $600 – $800 for them all.
I’m picking up more books these days and this auction I picked up two lots that have some interesting collectible books and cookbooks.
Week Ending 5/13/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $555.60 (ebay: $440.75 / Etsy: $114.85)
Net Sales: $472.41
Total Items Sold: 14 (eBay: 11 / Etsy: 3)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1224 / Etsy Store: 539
Cost of Items Sold: $50.08
Highest Price Sold: $149.95 Byers’ Choice Caroler
Average Price Sold: $39.69
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00
New items listed: 24
New Listings Value $733.70Not a bad week of sales. It would have been a bit better, but a few Saturday buyers waited until Sunday to pay, so those will go on the next report. Was happy to have three of my newly listed items sell almost immediately upon posting. My big sale was Byers’ Choice caroler depicting Martha Washington – part of the Mt. Vernon collection. I asked more for it than previous sales and it sold within a few hours of posting for $149.95. I paid $20 for it from an online auction.
I’m working my way through the lots I purchased a few weeks ago still. This week was a lot of lower dollar items. A bunch of Longaberger pottery, a few more Byers pieces, and a handful of Persian music CDs that I’ve had sitting aside for a while. I was prompted to post them after I received my one return request for a Persian cassette that I sold that was DOA. The person that purchased it asked it I had any more, so I posted the stack quickly. She didn’t buy any of them yet, but someone else purchased one for $25 overnight.
Will be taking Friday off this week to go on another college visit for my daughter. Heading down to Williamsburg to see William and Mary. Kind of hope she doesn’t like it, as I always hate making that road trip down 95. I feel like something is jinxed on that road as the last few times we’ve gone that way the trip has changed from a 2 1/2 hour drive into 5 or more. Wish me luck.
@Retro – Totally agree about yardsales. I think that is what got me hooked on this whole scavenging thing to begin with. At first I was just tagging along with my wife as the designated driver, but it only took a few weeks before I was turned. I think we caught the back end of the thrifting boom.
This previous thread on SL discusses shipping thermometers. https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/can-you-ship-a-vintage-thermometer-with-small-amount-of-mercury/
I don’t know how you guys still find time to scavenge when you have so much going on. Hope you found some good stuff.
Had a below average week of sales, but got a lot accomplished and posted some great items. A lot of the items I posted this week came from a “junk drawer” lot I purchased at auction for $22. I managed to squeak $580 worth of listings out of that drawer. Something new I found that is worth picking up is old glass thermometers. The person had saved the box and paperwork for them and I listed one for $75. Biggest sales of the week were 2 books from my $2 book lot from a few weeks back – one for $110 and the other for $90.
Week Ending 5/6/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $412.69
Net Sales: $324.91
Total Items Sold: 12 (ebay 11 / etsy 1)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1213 / Etsy Store: 552Cost of Items Sold: $6.39
COGS Percent 1.97%
Highest Price Sold: $110.00 Book
Average Price Sold: $34.39
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0.00Average Days Listed: 926
Longest Listed: 2502
New items listed: 31
New Listings Value $1,388.00@craig-rex – Sorry for your loss. It is nice to hear that eBay gave you the flexibility to spend quality time with him during his last few months.
@Debitendcredits – do you buy the postage through them as well, or just the ability to track?
Those TV tables are a cool sale. Odd combination of starburst design and granny-look TV trays. Ugly and cool at the same time. I can see the execs sitting in their pit brainstorming, ” these TV trays just aren’t selling”. “Slap some starbursts on it! Everybody wants starbursts.” “Brilliant!”
That’s cool that the one sale doesn’t allow in the scanners initially. Last one I went to you couldn’t get near the books for the scanner people. I’ll have to keep your DVD strategy in mind at the next one here.
I’ve got so much inventory on hand right now that we didn’t do much scavenging this week. Just dropped into the thrift store when I stopped by to drop off a van load. I really had to hold back this weekend as there were yard sales everywhere. I just can’t until I clear some room.
Week Ending 4/29/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $812.50 (eBay $552.68 / Etsy $137.80)
Net Sales: $672.31 (eBay $552.68 / Etsy $119.63)
Total Items Sold: 14 (eBay 10 / Etsy 4)
Total Items in eBay Store: 1194 / Etsy Store: 537Cost of Items Sold: $47.49
Highest Price Sold: $199.95 Cast Iron Motorcycle
Average Price Sold: $58.04
Returns: 0Money Spent on New Inventory: $5.00
Average Days Listed: 383
Longest Listed: 1999
New items listed: 25
New Listings Value $1,781.75What started out as a really bad year is finally starting to pick up a bit. April ended being the best since 2020. Not sure if anything has changed in the market, or I’m simply posting better stuff. I have been putting in a lot of effort scavenging and listing since the beginning of the year, so I’m going to take the credit. 🙂 I’ve posted more in the first 4 months of the year than I have since I started keeping records. Now to keep the momentum going.
Best sale of the week was a 1930’s Champion cast iron motorcycle cop for $199.95. These cast iron toys are tough to sell as there are sooo many reproductions. I’ve spent a lot of effort to make sure what I am selling is the real thing, but I am always left with some doubt. I’m pretty sure this one was real, but won’t breath easy until the return period is over. Sold 4 more books for a total of $239 from the $2 lot I bought at auction several weeks ago.
It rained all day here on Saturday and ended up getting some water in my basement and spent several hours yesterday cleaning up. My basement is where my office and storage is located. I’ve had a lot of water problems simce we moved in but thought I had them mostly under control. We still keep most everything in plastic boxes or elevated just in case, but I got a little complacent and left two boxes of books on the floor in an area I haven’t had problems in years. Ended up throwing out 20 – 30 books. Some of the books were personal and had some sentimental value, so a bit disappointed about that. We’ve spent over $10,000 on trying to remediate these issues since bought the place in 2006. Guess it’s time to spend some more…
@christiner – I think we can all feel your pain on the sticky stickers. Especially bad when they damage the finish on an item. One of the auctions I buy from uses stickers to track their items and I am gobsmacked sometimes how they have chosen to place a sticker on the surface of an antique fragile item.
We hit two thrifts this week that had nothing worth picking up. Slim pickings, indeed.
Week Ending 4/22/23
Gross Sales(w/o shipping $ tax): $1,700.00
Net Sales: $1,406.74
Total Items in eBay Store: 1181
Items Sold eBay: 6
Total Items in Etsy Store: 526
Items Sold Etsy: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $917.18 (includes consignment payout)
Highest Price Sold: $1,250.00 Steiff Lion Head Trophy
Average Price Sold: $283.33
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $573.61Average Days Listed: 28
Longest Listed: 52
New items listed: 13
New Listings Value $599.35Had a slow week of sales last week, but fortunately what sold was mostly high dollar. Big sale of the week was the Steiff Lion Head trophy plaque I mentioned listing a few weeks ago, for a best offer of $1250. Highest previous comp I could find was $580, but this felt special and there were no others for sale, so I shot very high, asking $1500. Sold to a semi-famous “Teddy Bear Artist” in Japan. Unfortunately, this was a consignment, so I only took 20% of the profit. This was only the second or third consignment sale I have ever done, but it was a fun one.
An unusual week in that the average time listed was only 28 days, whereas my norm is almost 1 year. Good to see that my new stuff is selling. Etsy continues to be a dead zone for me of late.
Bid on 3 online auctions last week and won a fair amount of items, spending almost $600. All three auctions were ending at the exact same time, so bidding was challenging to keep track of. A nice eclectic bunch of items to list like a cool antique art deco mantle clock, ammunition reloading tools, Coleman lanterns, and cast iron toys, among other things. Should be a fun lot to list.
