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Jay,
I think buying/building a storage shed on your own property is definitely a good idea if you can do it. Unfortunately, most HOA’s do not allow such things for those of us who live in neighborhoods.
My solution has been a 10′ X 30′ storage unit near my house. It is less than $200/month. I was forced to do this in mid October of 2021 because I was out of room at my house and if I wanted to grow my business, I had to do it.
This solution has its ups and downs. It was great to reclaim the space at my house that Retro Treasures talks about. My Inventory is so much more organized and easy to get to. On the other hand, making the trip to the storage unit is kinda a hassle. But, in the end, it had to be done if I wanted to grow, so I did it. No regrets. I can now grow my business as large as I want.
Mark
Jay,
Yes, it does take a lot of work. That is why it is taking me so long. I am not sure how regular of a show I will be able to produce.
However, I have put a lot of thought into how to do the show. I have the outline for many shows. Now, it is just getting down to the details of exactly what I will say.
Mark
12/19/21 – 12/25/21
Total Items In Store: 4253 (was 4270 previously listed)
Items Sold: 20
Total Sales: $ 558.83
Highest Price Sold: $ 70 (Vintage Jacket)
Average Price Sold: $ 27.94
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 70.07
Number of items listed: 3Gut Sales Report for the week: Sales were slow as expected. Sales were actually better than I expected.
Focus for the week : This week I am going to get my basement more organized.
Scavenge of the week: I was waiting in line at the thrift store and saw some Hummels. I thought those were worthless now, but looked them up anyway. Turns out some of them are still worth a lot. I bought several that are worth good money. Also bought an Apple TV 4th Generation for cheap.
Thoughts for the week: Still working on getting my Youtube channel going.
Mark S
12/12/21 – 12/18/21
Total Items In Store: 4270 (was 4252 previously listed)
Items Sold: 20
Total Sales: $ 777.83
Highest Price Sold: $ 115 (Vintage GI Joe Accessory)
Average Price Sold: $ 38.89
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ about $180
Number of items listed: 38Gut Sales Report for the week: I’m with Retro – “Looks like the “too late to buy anything online” Christmas slowdown struck” but for me sales started getting rocky on Wed. 15th and stayed that way for the rest of the week.
Focus for the week : Just trying to keep up with listing and shipping.
Scavenge of the week: Picked up another nice pair of Allen Edmonds for cheap.
Thoughts for the week: Still working on getting my Youtube channel going. I have a good handle on my content for the first episode. I did a trial run thru it.
Mark S
MyCottage,
I will try to make this as simple as I can.
1. I create a Buy Lot (BL) Entry in my purchases spreadsheet.
This contains the following information:
Date, Address
Item Title, BL#, cog, Price
Example: 12/17, 123 Main St., Allen Edmunds Shoes Size 12, 100a, 5.00, 49.99
I take the items that I buy in roughly the same timeframe and try to group them with like items as much as I can into a listing Lot that all go into 1 container.
2. Listing Lot (LL) Entry
Item Title, BL#, cog, Price, LL#, Condition, Notes, Dimensions, weight
where Item Title, BL#, cog, Price are copied from the BL entry.
Example
Allen Edmunds Shoes Size 12, 100a, 5.00, 49.99, 200-1,NA, 15-8-6, 3 (lbs)
Note: The LL# becomes the Custom label(SKU) in the listing
So, for this example, this would be Container 200.
The Shoes are put in a bag with 200-1 written on a Marking Tag and tied to the bag.
Rest of items are put in container, with 200-2, 200-3, etc.
Then, I store container 200. When it is time to photograph container 200, the photographer takes out all the items and then starts taking pictures 1 item at a time in any order they want. The first picture they take of each item is a picture of the tag (200-1 would be the tag for the Allen Edmund shoes). In that way, I know exactly what item it is and when the next item starts. That is why the order they take the pictures is not important.
I copy the pictures to a folder (200 in this case) on my PC and each item gets a sub-folder under it. 200-1 would be the first sub-folder. All pictures are reviewed and corrected if needed.
Then, when it is time to list, the lister opens the Listing Lot 200 spreadsheet. All they do is copy and paste the information into the ebay listing. For the pictures, they point to the item folder and import the pictures.
Advantages to this
1. I have all the pictures for each item saved on my computer by Listing Lot #.
2. If there is a question about where I got the item, I can use the BL and I can say exactly when and where I bought the item. I could also see which BL lots were the most successful.
3. The listing lot spreadsheet is used for cog entry. It gets a little complicated here, but I read in the Listing Lot spreadsheet into my Wonderlister database into a cog table. At the end of the year, I have a custom SQL Server query that I wrote that links all the cogs to the sold items (by linking the LL# to the SKU number of the sold item). I run that 1 query and I get a list of all my solds with the corresponding cogs for the year.
4. I have a database table with a list of every item that I have listed in a single table. I can query this table if I ever need to find any information about that data.
Let me know if any part of this explanation is not clear.
Mark
Jay,
I scavenge about 6 hours a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. Let me break that down.
I go to an independent thrift store 2-3 times a week. They have a ton of new inventory always coming in and they have great prices. No need to haggle. This allows me to get great items for cheap and very quickly.
The other part is that I go to estate sales 1-2 per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. But, the key here is that I have a vetting process where I spend 1-2 hours a week vetting the estate sales in my area. That is because there can be 30-50 estate sales or more in a 30-50 mile radius from me. Usually I am not driving more than 20 miles, but I will if the estate sale is good enough. The end result: I go to the best estate sales in the area with the best items I can find. I usually get there when the sale opens, but not always necessary. But, I find that if I get there when the sale opens, I have access to all the best items. In the first half hour, I get most of the great items uncontested. If I wait for several hours, the good items start to disappear. I don’t think the people know what they are doing, it is more like a broken clock that is right twice a day.
With these two strategies, I get way more items than I can list, but I don’t have death piles. I put them in a numbered container with all the details in a spreadsheet so that when I am ready, I have pictures taken and then they are ready to list. That sure beats death piles!
Mark
12/05/21 – 12/11/21
Total Items In Store: 4252 (was 4237 previously listed)
Items Sold: 34
Total Sales: $ 1458.44
Highest Price Sold: $ 100 (Ski Pants)
Average Price Sold: $ 42.90
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 220.02
Number of items listed: 49Gut Sales Report for the week: Excellent Week. Nothing over $100 sold, but had several at $100 and some other strong sales to bring a great week.
Focus for the week : Just trying to keep up with listing and shipping.
Scavenge of the week: I found some great Allen Edmunds shoes for under $5 each. I have a few items that need more research before I will know.
I seem to have no problem in finding quality items at a good price. Maybe it is just that I have become more knowledgeable, I don’t know. I repeatably go to estate sales with great quality items and no one seems to even look at these great items. I am convinced that people who go to estate sales around here have no idea what the great items are. I think most are just people looking for things for themselves and then never get beyond that. Great for me!Thoughts for the week: Still working on getting my Youtube channel going.
Mark S
debitendcreits,
This post is for debitendcreits. On 11/15/2021 you were asking about my 8mm films. I didn’t think there was a film, but I did find 1 reel that had the film. I just don’t know if it is blank or if anything was recoreded on it. Let me know how to tell.
Mark
Lauren,
I don’t know if that printer is good or not.
Here is a top 10 list of portable printers.
Mark
Retro,
That is the beauty of ebay – do the work when you want.
You have already done all the hard work, so just sit back and enjoy it now!
Mark
11/28/21 – 12/04/21
Total Items In Store: 4237 (was 4209 previously listed)
Items Sold: 26
Total Sales: $ 982.77
Highest Price Sold: $ 100 (Vintage Uniform)
Average Price Sold: $ 37.80
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 420.97
Number of items listed: 27Gut Sales Report for the week: Good solid week.
Focus for the week : Just trying to keep up with listing and shipping.
Scavenge of the week: Found some good Silver plated Flatware in storage chest for cheap.
Thoughts for the week: Still working on getting my Youtube channel going.
Mark S
craig-rex,
I plan to make it a practical approach to selling on ebay, minus the hype.
I am going to start out basic, and then go into detail on subjects that I don’t see others doing. I have a number of the subjects already planned and outlined.
At the beginning, those here may not learn much, but may see things from a different perspective. Then, as things get going, I will go into more detail on certain topics that you may not find here.
I will let you know here when my first episode is ready.
Mark
11/21/21 – 11/27/21
Total Items In Store: 4209 (was 4172)
Items Sold: 21
Total Sales: $ 557.06
Highest Price Sold: $ 150 (Jacket)
Average Price Sold: $ 26.53
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 201.18
Number of items listed: 58Gut Sales Report for the week: Slower week, but expected with Thanksgiving.
Focus for the week : I was trying to prep a number of items to list and also list a lot. Thanksgiving and football games got in the way.
Scavenge of the week: Holy incredible deals Batman! I found a vintage Stetson hat in like new condition in the original box at an estate sale. Paid $30, will list at around $1000. At the same sale, found a number of “Big Golden Books” (as opposed to the Little Golden books). Some of these books were in the $100 range that I got for close to nothing.
Thoughts for the week: Starting a Youtube Channel! I have put a lot of thought into starting a Youtube channel about selling on ebay. I am in the process of getting this set up to go. Stay tuned for more details in future posts.
Mark S
DarlinDils,
Consider using Fedex to pack and\or ship the art work.
I have found that sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn’t.
Just a tip: Take the art to Fedex now and find out how much they will charge for the box and how much to pack. Add that cost to the listing. Then the packing will be paid for when it sells and it will be a hassle free sale where you can relax.
Mark
