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T-Satt,
I am an early riser also. I wake up between 5:15AM and 6AM depending on the day. I try to get to bed by 10PM, but when I am getting a lot of sales like last night, I need to stay up till about 11PM.
I still have a 50 minute drive up to work (without traffic. With traffic is more like 60- 90 minutes).
The good news is that I work from home 3 days a week.
If I go full time with ebay, I would probably still get up early because I have to drive my daughter to school. However, I would probably get up that early anyway to get things done.
Mark
Hey, who flipped the bozo bit? Or who turned on the faucet?
This was suppose to be a nice relaxing Tuesday in May. Tuesday is usually my low day, 1 maybe 2 sales.
But today I have had 5 sales on ebay for $226 (decent avg of $45) plus one on Bonanza for $28. I also had 3 good questions asked that I have had to answer. It feels like it does in December, but this is May.
Not that I am complaining, but is anyone else seeing this type of activity in their store today?
Mark
Mike,
I am with you on this one. I heard about this scam on another podcast and have always kept this in mind.
If they want another address I think they have to cancel the order, change their address, then re-purchase. Is that correct?
Mark
Brian,
Man, I wish I could find a sealed record from the 60’s or 70’s that is actually still popular!
Did they advertise this in the estate sale promo, or did you just stumble upon it?
Did they state they had a lot of records?
I am just trying to see if I can define the MO for this type of item so that I go to those estate sales.
Mark
T-Satt,
Also, my calculations show that you would also get a discount of $78.75 (10% of your 9% fees on $8750). for staying Top Rated. So now we are only talking about $65. And that is if the return rate and price doubles. I am with you, nothing to get upset over or fret about. Hey, maybe you will get even more sales and it is a wash or you actually make more money.
Mark
Brian,
Oh, I forgot about the cigaratte cards I already have. I don’t think there are any that are a complete set, but some are close. I also have original boxes for some of them. I estimate that I can get close to $500 alone for the boxes sold separately. I was thinking of selling the boxes first because for some reason, I have no connection to them. There is one box that I have which goes with a set of cards from around 1910. I think that is so cool to sell the box with the cards! I am going to get a jump on the price. The box is worth maybe $100 and the cards around $300, but when I sell them, I will list closer to $500 because it will be a great set.
The cigaratte cards are all over the place. Some are basically fortune cards. Other themes are cowboys, American heros, cars around 1910 (really cool and worth a lot), houses, landmarks, boxing (also worth a lot, but most are not in good condition, but a lot of world champions). There are also Navy Battleships, flags of all nations, Seals of the United States, Countries of the World, colleges (these are also worth a lot), military, etc. One card really puzzles me and I couldn’t find anything about it anywhere. It is a small cards that reads “June 11 1912 tuberculosis blue star day TOBACCO card”. Most have been to commemorate the day, but not sure who made it, when, and the exact reason. I have about 40-50 of those and was going to list with quantity if I could figure them out.
Mark
Brian,
The Cracker Jack Planes is a set of 147. I only have 48-50.
That is a good idea about a year for the maps (if I can get an exact year), I didn’t think of that.
I was thinking of listing by manufacturer or by location, but year is also a good idea.
Mark
Brian,
That is crazy finding a Rolling Stones sealed album from the 60’s. I sometimes find sealed records that old, but it is something no one is looking for.
How much did they charge you for the Rolling Stones sealed album?
Mark
Nancy,
That is very strange that Smart Post would work for T-Satt and I and not for you. What size box are you trying to send? 15 X 8 X 6 shoes box size and smaller is what seems to work. Any larger than that and the price goes way up. Is that what is happening to you?
I wonder if others on the blog could chime in to say if it is working for them or not.
Mark
T-Satt,
No problem.
Smart Post continues this week to keep making me money. I’m lovin’ it!
Mark
Brian,
Yes, that was one of my favorite sales of the year. Yes, I can expense the mileage to the estate sale which is great also. The amazing thing about those Cracker Jack plane cards is that they are in very good condition. For 70+ years old, that is amazing. I got about 50 of them for $30 (were $50 to start and on sale for 25% off, and then got him down to $30), so the price was right also. I am thinking of keeping them for right now. I have about 600 other Cigarette cards from circa 1910. I picked all of those up at a garage sale for $600. I estimate that I good ask for about $4000 – $5000 on ebay if I break them into sets and some by themselves. The thing that holds me back is 1. Somehow I connect to them and 2. They are so much work to get listed. So, I am sitting on about $5000 of Cigarette cards right now and that sounds weird saying that.
The maps were nothing real special, just your run of the mill Sunoco, Esso, Flying A Service fold out maps. But what was so interesting to me is that there are about 50+ of them and all from the 1960’s and all in excellent shape. They bring back memories of using those types of maps as a kid on road trips. Some can fetch $25 on their own, but most are the $5-$10 kind that I will lot together. They are for a number of major cities in the US. There is Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, the Penn Turnpike, CN rail, Denver, Washington DC, Milwaukee, Duluth, St. Louis, San Francisco, Michigan, Indianapolis, Richmond, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lucas County, South Bend, California, and detailed map of Railroads in Colorado. Most people should be able to connect with something in there.
Mark
04/29/18 – 05/05/18
Total Items In Store: 2,398
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $60 (around)
Total Sales: $656
Highest Price Sold: $85 (Vintage Star Trek Hat)
Average Price Sold: $38.59
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 288
Number of Items listed this week: 43I was most excited by two things that happened this past week:
1. Smart Post rates are back to close to what they were before the Jan. increase – see the posts from episode 358 at the bottom.
2. I went to an awesome estate sale. I was on the far side of town, about 45 min away, for a gymnastics meet and had to drive all the way back on a Saturday afternoon. So, with all the down time at the meet, I looked at the approximately 100 estate sales to pick which ones to stop at on the way home. I narrowed the list to about a dozen because of their proximity to the expressway. After studying all of the estate sales, I only found 1 that I was really interested in.
So, we stopped at the sale. I loved the sale. It had things I had never seen before. Most of the good stuff was from the 1940’s – 1960’s. My favorite item was about 50 1940’s Cracker Jack Battle Plane cards. When was the last time you saw those at a sale? I also found some Wings Cigarettes plane cards. I was instantly drawn to a Box of 1960’s US Maps. My first instinct was to buy the whole box of about 40. I had never seen anything like this before, but I didn’t even bother to look them up. I ended up getting the whole box for $7.50 – score. Then I picked up a 1969 Sports Coat. I knew it was from 1969 because it had the exact date on it and because it was pretty wild looking! Picked up a Football Game from 1940.
Those are the kinds of sales I am looking for and love to go to. I only come across them every so often, but they are so fun to go to and explore – almost like a time capsule.
Mark
The reason this is such good news is because I use USPS parsel select for most everything. Usually I can get a $1 – $2 (sometimes $5 or more) savings with Smart Post. So, assuming an average of about $1.50, if I sell 1200 items (my projection for the year), then that is $1800 for the year or $150 a month. $150 a month is enough for a lot of things such as a good used car payment or whatever you want to spend it on.
My point is that the savings is significant and it can really add up, especially if you are a high volume seller. There is a “profit maker” for me and I put it on my forecasting spreadsheet.
Mark
Another good rate from Smart Post.
I think Smart Post is back to close to its rates from before!
Mark
