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[Mark S]

Almasty,

Great post, I agree.

I love this kind of conversation. It really makes you think about your strategy – that is what I love to do. I also love to discuss it, and everyone here makes great points and are successful sellers.

I think we all learn a lot from these awesome discussions.

Keep the thoughts coming!

Mark

[Mark S]

T-Satt,

I see what you are saying. I think it all depends on what your constraints are and what you are trying to accomplish.

For J&R, they have nearly unlimited storage and the resources to pack and ship whatever sells. If they have a few bad items, no big deal, they will still make close to their $2000\week. They can go away for weeks at a time and still make what they need.

But if you have someone like Brian who has very limited space, he is trying to only buy things that he can mostly fit into a small closet. He is taking less space, but it probably takes him more time to find those certain items.

Then there is Steve. He doesn’t have that many items compared to J&R, but he probably spends a lot more time per item than them. He still makes good money.

For me, I have the time and room for about 6000 items. The closer I get to 6000 items, the more money I am going to make. If I find I have some bad items or listings, I can always fix them or have a fire sale. Time is what I am short on. So, I don’t spend too much time on any 1 item (though I do sometimes if I have to do additional research). I buy a wide range of great items that don’t require a whole lot of time and that is working for me. This also makes it much easier for me to scale the operation. If I went full time and moved into a building and scaled things up, I could ramp up to 10,000 – 20,000 items fairly easily. I really wouldn’t have to change a whole lot. Maybe hire another person or so. Scale ability is also big for me.

So, I think we all have to pick what we value to focus on: time, inventory space, fast selling items, total sales, researching, scaling, etc. We all find our niche and then we flourish. If you don’t make as much money as you want or need, you have to figure out how to get there. Usually the fastest way there is to have more good items to sell.

Mark

[Mark S]

I think the math is very simple here. If I have 1,000 items and have a monthly sell through rate of 4%, then I am selling 40 items a month. If I have 10,000 items and have a monthly sell through rate of 4%, then I am selling 400 items a month. If the average sell price is the same, I am making 10 times as much with 10,000 items. Yes, at some point your sell through rate may go down a little as you grow, but for me, it has stayed fairly constant over the years.

I am not sure why this is not obvious here that the larger your store, the more you will sell (assuming you have mostly good items). Take it to the extreme, if every Walmart store had only 10 items in it, they could only sell 10 items a day or the next time they re-stock. If each Walmart store has 10 million items, they have the ability to sell up to 10 million items in a day. Of course they are only going to sell a % of that, but you get the idea.

Sales is a numbers game, all sales people know this. For example, statistics show that you will get about 3% (may have changed, but good for this example) rate of sales from cold calling people. So, if you call 100 people, you will get 3 sales. You call 1000 people you get 30 sales.

To me, this is simple. If you follow the advise here (good listings, good items, etc) the more items you have, the more sales you make, period!

Mark

[Mark S]

Ryanne,

It seems to have all worked out fine with the car. I paid $1500 for the car 3 1\2 years ago. I put 70,000 miles on it. They are going to give me right around $1500 for the car being totaled. So basically I have been driving it for the cost of maintenance and repairs.

Mark

[Mark S]

02/11/18 – 02/17/18

Total Items In Store: 2,239
Items Sold: 22
Cost of Items Sold: $85 (around)
Total Sales: $909
Highest Price Sold: $115 (Radoff City Painting)
Average Price Sold: $ 41.32
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 76
Number of Items listed this week: 60

The word this week is “Grandville” as in Grandville Michigan. Never been there, never heard of it, but I did this weekend.

This weekend we were at my daughter’s Gymnastics competition in Holland Michigan. While there, I found 2 estate sales to go to. One was in Grandville (right near Grand Rapids) and it had a bunch of Mid-Century items, so of course I went there. It wasn’t just a bunch, this was a 10,000 square foot place full of Mid-Century Modern furtiure and other vintage items! But just like any other estate sale, the prices were a bit too high for resale. But of course I did find some under priced items. The lamp and clock collection was amazing. There were about 25+ lamps and maybe 15 clocks. I was pretty sure J&R would dig this place. I was wondering how he found this much Mid-Century items. But I guess if I had
a warehouse to put furniture in, I could probably fill it up too. The address was “2900 Wilson Ave SW Grandville Mi” and phone number (616) 915-2255 in case anyone is interested. The guy said that he has an estate sale about once a month or so. He also has “by appointment” at other times.

Then, I sold something the same day and the person was from Grandville Michigan.

Another new thing for this past week. I was on my way to a very promising estate sale about 10 miles away with less than 1 hour left in the sale. I was less than 1 mile away and then someone rear ended my car at about 45MPH. Needless to say my car is totaled, but still drivable. No injuries.

I am still on my listing spree to get to 3000 items by about June.

Mark

[Mark S]

Sharyn,

That makes sense that the boys suits sell well. What parent wants to pay a couple hundred dollars for a suit that their boy may wear once or twice? By the time they go to wear it again, they have grown and the suit is too small.

So, I will put this on my BOLO, but I don’t remember seeing very many. I have access to a lot of mens suits, but I find you have to have the cream of the crop to make it worth it. So I look only look for the best in Mens suits. I found a near perfect Mens Polo Ralph Lauren Suit from the 1960’s and put a high price on it. It is getting a lot of interest because I can see all the hits on it in my “Performance -> Traffic”

Mark

[Mark S]

I really liked the Victorian Valentine.

I could see why that would sell quickly. Especially when some people pay $5+ for just a Hallmark card. For a little more, they can get a pretty neat piece of history.

Mark

[Mark S]

02/04/18 – 02/10/18

Total Items In Store: 2,245
Items Sold: 14
Cost of Items Sold: $50 (around)
Total Sales: $582
Highest Price Sold: $90 (WWII Uniform)
Average Price Sold: $ 41.57
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 63
Number of Items listed this week: 43

Decent week.

I am still on a listing spree to get to 3000 items by about June. If I focus on what needs listed instead of lack of sales, I do better because I know if I do the listing, the sales will come.

My family went to Chicago for the weekend because my daughter was in a Gymnastics competition. Really fun, but the prices there are crazy for everything. Parking is my pet peve there. $48 to park your car at the hotel each night?! Are you kidding me?! Some hotels for me don’t even cost that much.

I used “ParkWhiz” in advanced because I knew that and found parking at the same address as my hotel (not sure how that works) and got it for $75 for 3 days which is pretty good for Chicago. We did the City Pass thing there and that is a good way to go if you want to see the main sites there. My younger daughters liked it. But then they still charge you for parking and coat check, etc. $4 per item to check at the Field Museum – I carried my coat and put the others in a backpack. My driveway had 2-3 feet of snow if some places because of the snow plow when I got back home. Some fun plowing that out late at night after I got back.

Mark

[Mark S]

Ryanne,

I sent an email to you.

Mark

[Mark S]

This is an unusual request.

I had a buyer who wanted to buy this “WWII US Navy Uniform, 2 Pieces (jumper & pants) Dress Blue Service Uniform” (https://www.ebay.com/itm/331943670680) from me, but then realized it wouldn’t fit. I ended up selling him a Cracker Jack Hat.

I told him I would let a group of sellers know what he is looking for. You are that group.

He is looking for a WW II Navy enlisted uniform to wear at a couple of functions. His chest size is 42″ and a 34″ waist.

Let me know if you have anything that might fit this description.

Mark

[Mark S]

01/28/18 – 02/03/18

Total Items In Store: 2,216
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $75 (around)
Total Sales: $891
Highest Price Sold: $103.50 (Sony Boombox)
Average Price Sold: $ 35.64
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 148
Number of Items listed this week: 97

Good week all around.

I am on a listing spree to get to 3000 items by about June. This is very aggressive for me as a part timer, but I am sure going to try. I have looked at what my sales will be in 2019 via my forecast sheet and this is all the motivation I need. I do have a contractor doing most of the listing for me, but to hit over 300 listings a month is still very time consuming as a part timer. I have close to 900 items “ready to go” so that does help to get ahead of the curve. While the lister is lister those items, I am off buying and getting more items ready. I am going to try to keep this up the whole year if I can. Hoping to hit 4000 items by year end. Even if I can come close to 4000 items, sales will be awesome in 2019.

One of my main obstacles is going to be space. I have a plan to clear some more space in the basement. So many things to do.

Mark

[Mark S]

Simeon,

Yes, not very cost effective. I am using Fedex ground now more than Smartpost. I used to use Smartpost a lot, but now I can’t remember the last time that it was cheaper since the rate increase.

Mark

[Mark S]

Steve,

Yes, that has been my experience in the past.

I was starting to wonder if they changed the rules. Must have just been a few uninformed reps.

Mark

[Mark S]

Brian,

Thanks for the info. Those themed “parties” seem like they could suck up your time.

Mark

[Mark S]

I am finding very few cases where FedEx SmartPost is cheaper than USPS. Just had 1 for California, but that is the only one that comes to mind. Is everyone having the same experience with the new SmartPost rates?

Mark

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