Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta,
I have an Etsy Store. I had it for a while and tried to sell handmade jewelry on it. It didn’t sell there, so I just stopped listing. More recently, I have started listing vintage items. One of the draws for me is the variations option in listings. I saw that another cookbook seller was essentially putting up a lot of books and counting the titles as the variation. You can have 10 variations per listing. So, 10 books for 4 months is 1/2 cent per month listing expense. Plus the seller fees are %3.5 of purchase price not counting shipping costs to Etsy and 3% + 25 cents of sales priced plus shipping costs for the credit card vendor (“etsy payment”). That is significantly lower than the final value fees on eBay, particularly now that insertion fees are jumping to 30 cents and FVF are going to 10% Plus 3% to PP or whoever their successor is.
I have about 25 listings in my Etsy store now (www.etsy.com/shop/reclaimeddame). I have sold one encyclopedia set for $150 and accidentally only charged $5 for shipping, bringing the price down by about 30 bucks. Still was a profit and the STR on that is obviously good, but lacking in statistical significance with that low count. My friend purchased and item for me and left me good feedback. I honestly think that is a necessity in the beginning. I also know that pinning your listings on pinterest actually draws visitors in. Because Esty makes it so easy to do, it seams worthwhile.
Because I have a limit of 1000 items in my store on eBay, I’m going to start putting all my vintage books on Etsy to free up space. I may also put my vintage clothing there too. I have to spread the wealth around so to speak, eBay fees will kill me before I get off the ground if I don’t.
As with anything, there’s a learning curve. I’ll keep my eye out for best practices you all discover along the way and I’ll post them here on this thread as well.
happy listing! Marjean
Those death piles I described are 2017. I’m still in it with you gals…..sorry to say!!!!
I didn’t list much in the way of death piles this week. but I did list.
total listed 116
death piles 2
dolar amount $3,510.00
average dolar $30.26I scored a couple of nice finds at the Goodwill bins, which I have always called diggers. the story there is, before the blue bins on wheels, they used to have a series of conveyor belts with small plastic tubs that would come out. everyone would line up along the conveyor belts and dig furiously through the tubs. So, we called it diggers 🙂
I got 8 ruby red glass soup bowls from France for $2.40 and I found them listed for about $28-30 each (and in solds), so that was a nice score. And I picked up an electric pizelli cookie maker for 29 cents. I’m pretty stoked about those finds. My death piles from 2017 are almost gone now. The only real things I have left are some books, tons of tiny seed beads, which I am dreading listing, record albums that I don’t have a player to check them on, and broken, dirty, or things that are missing parts. Oh, I guess I have some clothing to do too, but that’s it really. don’t get me wrong, I do have other death piles, but they are from 2018 sourcing trips.
ahhhhhhh….yikes!!!
Everyone stay healthy and safe, and pain free! Marjean
Hi Siglini,
I wanted to reach out and ask you about some of your photos from your recent book cache. Or, I should say, offer some feedback. I’ve bet selling books on eBay, the Nextdoor app locally, amazon, and now, of late, Etsy.I could be wrong, but I didn’t find a photo of the copyright page in a few of the listings I looked at. For a number of buyers, particularly of vintage, it’s s sought after piece of information.
When I research older books without a barcoded ISBN, I first go to ABE Books to get the best information.
I used to bundle books is on eBay, but now I list them on Etsy because the allow variations in the book category, so it makes it almost free to post them there.
Good luck!!!Jay, to your earlier question about COG for my tool, I don’t ever count a cost for my personal items I donate. I say that because in the past, I would have either donated them to a thrift shop or given the item away to someone I know. So, to me, I’m donating to my own self now. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s how I view it, plus I bought the tool about 3 years ago now (even though I barely used it).
Well, I had a hard week…that is opposite of soft! I had great sales for me. I have been steadily listing and it’s paying off. My initial goal was 1 sale a day and to grow it from there. This week, I sold 22 items. That is an average of just over 3 items per day! Wooot! Woot! I’m super excited by this. One of the changes that I made, based on some of the advice from this forum, was from the other MN seller, I can’t recall his name, but they are in southern MN. I ran 24-hour sales ranging from 15 – 20% off. My sale tagline is something like “get it now before it’s gone” or some such urgent non-sense! I also removed the “up to” since I included every item in the inventory in the sale. I also added promoted listings with a high budget. I only had 2 of the sales actually come from the promoted listings aspect, though I have no idea how that actually works. Here are my numbers for the week of 3/10-3/17:
number of items in my store (oops, that’s as of this moment, not Saturday night): 972
number of items listed: 107 (about 1/3 were from death piles)
amount of dollar value listed: $3268
total number of sales: 22
Total Net Sales after eBay Final Value Fees & Marketing Fees: $575.23 (no marketing fees this week)
Average Sale price: $31.11
Total COG: $27.14
Highest Priced Item Sold: $192 for my personal Fordam jeweler’s rotary tool (I paid about $100 more than that to purchase it), $80 King Kong VHS – this one I’m kind of proud of picking and pricing because I got it at the goodwill bins and then priced really high, it all paid off: https://www.ebay.com/itm/273099774735
I have been adding a few things to esty, and I am not sure I even bothered adding the sales from that endeavor here in my numbers. Oops! I did have a set of books sell from Etsy about 2 weeks ago. I sold an encyclopedia set for $155. It had 2 views and one sale. I only have about 22 items on Etsy, but I’ve sold like 4 things. I love that there is no haggling over price too. In fact, I took the best offer feature off of my listings under $50. I find it irritating. Besides, I’m running those sales anyway. Overall, really felt like a great week for me.Howdy Folks.Sorry I’m late posting this. Here are my numbers for the week of March 11 – :
total listed 96
from 2017 23
total value $1,610.00
average value $33.82It is down from the prior week, however I achieved a ton because I moved in a new (to me) china hutch into my dining room, allowing me to take my old one and use it for china and stemware inventory storage in my basement. then i started to pull old already de-listed books off my book shelves and inventory my newer listed books. it was a lot of work, and is still in progress, but useful. I am excited by the fact that etsy will allow variations on their listings. now i am listing my old book lots on etsy but not as a big lot, rather they are being listed as one type of book with variations. you can have 10 variations per listing. so, the math is great: 10 of the same genre of book (say vintage cookbooks) in one listing for 20 cents per 4 months. that brings the cost of listing books down to 1/2 penny per month! .20/10/4 = .005/month or the equivalent of 2 cents per month. Hello ETSY!!! However, that kind of gives me license to list all the old books I want and that may NOT be a good thing for me actually! My sales are up as a result of all the listing and my walk way through my death piles is becoming less of a fire hazard!
Happy Listing!
Yowza, 47K items, I can’t get my mind wrapped around that!!!! On the opposite end, I see ice_queen’s comments for this week and feel the need to share a little mom wisdom and encouragement. We are all at different points in our journey, and all work loads are relative to our personal burdens and constraints. I know this sounds like I am patronizing, but I am truly not. Ice_queen, I commend you on your courage to even deal with your eBay store while you’ve had such challenges as you have described, just as I commend all of us here, rowing together, and chugging toward the goal. Heads up all! Thank you for being here on this forum and being an inspiration to me in my online selling journey! Marjean
That,my friend, is an authentic….,gee gaw…. sorry, I couldn’t resist! I don’t know what it is actually…
I have found that each store varies, even within chains!!!! It’s Ike a micro culture of its own. For Goidwill, I go on tuesdays because it’s 75% off the colored tag of the week. Then I make sure to also have a 25% off coupon to use as well, that comes from donating. I always have something to donate as I sometimes have purchased in haste or can’t use an item for some reason. My tips at the bins, goodwill outlet or other pay by the pound place, is don’t overlook hard goods. I rarely buy clothes at the bins. I tried the mom and pop thrift stores in my area, st Vincent de Paul’s, and found them over priced as well. Sometimes the high end auction is cheaper, particularly for jewelry. My go to items are Tupperware canisters, antique waffle irons, vintage cast aluminum pots and pans, cuisinart griddles, Krupps espresso makers, and vintage wool sweaters. My downfall are old books…..can’t stop buying them….
Hi pickin. I am curious to know if you track how much the promoted listings are costing on average each month. Do you happen to track that? Oh, and hello from a fellow Minnesotan! I’m in the cities. I’d love to go to a good farm auction. Ours up here are high buck fine art and estate. Marjean
Hi, I love the story of the boot scraper! I’m curious, I don’t get it. How is it about scraper? Do you know how it works? Great video, thanks for sharing, Marjean
AdventureE,
You have my gratitude here.the list of information you have provided is incredibly extensive and useful to both e, any anyone else I need of this information.Because she is currently enrolled at a college while in high school, she actually underwent the entire process you described here. In fact, the college she is attending had her work through this process herself. What an invaluable benefit that has been. Additionally, she has to set up a meeting with her Professors at the start of each semester and talk to them about her conditions and needs so they understand. A piece of paper only says so much. And there is no outward appearance of her issues to an observer.
Thanks again!!!!!
Marjean28I would strongly suggest using the Abe books site for researching rare and valuable books
In response to Sonia….
We checked out Stanford, she may apply. We are aware that there are fantastic offerings from private schools. However, I don’t anticipate her ACT/SAT scores will be high. She has a brain impairment and anxiety disorder, both mean she has trouble testing. Her pre ACT came back at 23 out of 36. She will work to improve it, but we are not expecting great test scores. She also has significant health problems, so being close by for undergrad years felt like a good idea.
We want a school that really wants her and is accommodating. We checked out Harvey Mudd, of the 5 consortium colleges in CA too, thinking they would be a great choice. We were shocked by the admissions agent who literally told me, “Harvey Mudd is not the place for her”, when I explained her medical problems and need for accommodation. I felt like saying, “have you heard of the Americans with Dissabilities Act?” But it would have fallen on deaf ears.
The IVYs are so competitive. Seems like such an added pressure to me. Im looking for a school that wants her and is willing to serve her. Somewhere small and nurturing.
Oh and someone mentioned travel to Europe earlier. We have been sending our daughter abroad to Europe in the summers. We have had a variety of foreign exchange students. The kids become friends and visit each other in the summers! Tickets are subsidized with airline points.
Happy hunting all.
