62

[Mark S]

12/24/17 – 12/30/17

Total Items In Store: 2,058
Items Sold: 26 (most I have sold in 1 week) – 1 on TrueGether
Cost of Items Sold: $75 (around)
Total Sales: $881.58
Highest Price Sold: $100 – Vintage Army Trench Coat
Average Price Sold: $33.91
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 184
Number of Items listed this week: 12

December was my best month to date. I sold 112 items on ebay for $4002. I also sold 3 items for $63 on
Bonanza and TrueGether. Now I did have $137 in adjustments for canceled orders and returns, but I am
going to say that I made my first $4000 month in December.

I had went to an estate sale this past week. They had 3 Quimper pottery pieces: two were $.75 each and
the other one was a dollar. I snagged them up right away. That clued me in that the place may have other treasures that no one knew about. I looked it over closely, but just some local pottery pieces that I also picked up.

Mark

[Mark S]

Linda,

That is awesome that you are now debt free. Dave Ramsey has some real good principles about money.

I think that is a worthy goal for all of us to reach.

Mark

[Mark S]

Linda,

I have just about every kind of box that you can get from USPS. I get these 3 boxes from ebay with the quarterly coupon: 18 X 14 X 10, 12 X 10 X 8, 10 X 8 X 6. I get the following boxes from a local wholesale box company. I don’t think my company will help you much because the key is that I can go to the warehouse and pick them up without any shipping cost. You can probably get the same from Uline for a similar price, but you will have to pay about 70% more for the shipping. So, look on the web for a place near you where they deliver free or you can pick them up.

Box Each QTY
48 X 7 X 7 $1.79 25
30 X 14 X 7 $1.74 10
24 X 12 X 4 $0.92 25
14 X 11 X 4 1\2 $0.71 25
14 X 8 X 6 $0.66 50
12 X 9 X 4 $0.58 25
10 X 8 X 3 $0.46 25
10 X 8 X 6 $0.44 25
20 x 10 x 6 $0.93 25
30 X 14 X 10 $1.77 10
34 x 10 x 6″ $1.28 10

Having these boxes saves me time from having to search for a box. It saves money when it saves money to send Smartpost.

Mark

[Mark S]

I have a friend that bought 5 bitcoins at 7,000 and sold at 19,000. He made about 60K. But he warns against buying them now because of the frenzy.

Mark

[Mark S]

I had a very wierd situation this week. I don’t sell very much on Bonanza and TrueGether, maybe 1-2 items per month on them. However, on Friday, the same item sold on both Bonanza and Truegether. The price on Bonanza was nearly 22% more than the price on TrueGether. I didn’t think that was suppose to be possible – price difference of that much and both selling. But after looking into it, I found that the shirt was being sent to the same address. However, the guys first name was the same, but the last name was different. Also, each had a totally different email address. I didn’t want to spoil a Christmas gift, but I had to contact them both to find out what to do. It turned out that it was two different guys looking for the same item. So, I had to cancel the Bonanza sale. Turned out ok. I couldn’t see a way to cancel a transaction on Bonanza – it looks like the refund from Paypal is all you need to do.

Mark

[Mark S]

12/10/17 – 12/16/17

Total Items In Store: 2,072
Items Sold: 32 (most I have sold in 1 week) – 1 on TrueGether
Cost of Items Sold: $110 (around)
Total Sales: $1339.32 (My 2nd highest week)
Highest Price Sold: $150 (Camel Hair Blanket)
Average Price Sold: $41.85
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 158
Number of Items listed this week: 15

Great week of sales, wish they were all like this.

Bought some Quimper pottery this week for $125. I think I can get upwards of $900 if I sell them individually as Jay has suggested to me. I think that way is much better money wise than selling all as 1 lot.

I have really enjoyed selling multiple items from 1 listing. I have a number of these listings and I am going to continue to look for these types of items. You just keep selling them with one listing!

I have been getting more serious about my shipping materials inventory. I created a spreadsheet of all
the shipping materials I use and there are 65 unique items. 35 of the 65 are boxes and 7 are some type of poly mailer. I update the quantity on hand and in storage two times: 1. If I reorder the item and 2. When I notice the item in the shipping area getting low and I get more from storage. It is very simple and it prevents me from running out of any shipping materials by setting a % full. When the % full drops below 50%, I start to think about replenishing that item.

I was looking for a brown belt for myself at an estate sale. I found three that looked fairly average for $1 each. Then I looked to see what size they were and realized that all three were vintage Coach belts. Long story short, they should sell for about $115 in total. I have a new BOLO!

Mark

[Mark S]

12/3/17 – 12/9/17

Total items in store: 2084
Total sales: 701
# items sold: 22
Average: $31.86
Returns: 0
# items listed: 35

Good week. Busy on the weekends and slow during the middle of the week.

Mark

[Mark S]

11/26/17-12/2/17

Total items: 2965
Itens sold: 23
Total sales: $762
Avg sale: $33.13
Highest price: $125 for Strat/o-Matic Baseball game
Items lusted: 36

Good week. December has started out with a bang so let’s hope that continues.

Mark

[Mark S]

What would I do in this case with the jacket? This us a difficult question because I’m not sure if it is just a business issue or a moral issue.

This happened to me in a different way. My lister accidentiasly llisted a $90 pair of shoes for about $25 and they sold right away. I merely saw it as a business decision. I thought it wouldnt be worth a defect at that time because i would lose TRS status, so i sent the shoes.

So, if this is merely a business decision, then I think J & R did the right thing.

But what if this is a moral issue? Then it us either black and white or gray. If it is a black and white moral issue, then I agree with T-Satt, it doesn’t matter how much money it is, right is right at any price.

But if this is a moral gray issue, then I believe there are two principles to guide us. 1. Do you have to lie to make it work? If so, then I believe it is wrong. 2. Dont go against what your conscience says. God gave us a conscience to guide us. If you go against what your what your conscience says, then I believe it is wrong. As the famous Monk said many years ago, “to go against conscience is neither right nor safe”.

So to me the real question here is to define what type of issue we are facing here.

Mark

[Mark S]

The bowling bowl sold for $29.69. Sending it USPS is $60, which is more than the customer paid in total.

[Mark S]

11/19/17 – 11/25/17

Items In Store: 2,044
Items Sold: 19
Cost of Items Sold: $60 (around)

Total Sales: $666 (Let’s hope that is not a bad sign)

HIghest Price Sold: $85 (Antique Ox Yoke Primitive Farm Hanging Light Man Cave Rustic Cabin)

This isn’t the most expensive item I’ve ever sold, but I think it is one of the most unique.
I just had to have this when I saw it.

Here it is: https://www.ebay.com/itm/332453762433

Average Price Sold: 35.05
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 29
Number of Items listed this week: 26

Decent week. Unusually quiet last Sunday and Monday, but the sales increased Wed. and beyond. Did a little retial Arbitrage on Friday, so we will see how that works out.

Quick question: i sold a bowling ball on Truegether. I want to ship it Fedex but Paypal doesnt have that option. Is there a place on Truegether to do that or do i just need to send it totally separate using Fedex Home?

Mark

[Mark S]

11/12/17 – 11/18/17

Total Items In Store: 2,064
Items Sold: 11
Cost of Items Sold: $40 (around)
Total Sales: $411
HIghest Price Sold: $90 (Eddie Bauer Jacket)
Average Price Sold: 36.36
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $ 43.44
Number of Items listed this week: 25

Just a so so week. I went hunting this week and looks like most everyone on ebay went also. But, even
while I was hunting, I was able to hunt down some New Dockers sweaters at an outlet shop on the cheap. The MSRP on them was $68. They were selling them $2.99 each with a 20% discount. I went all in on the “good” sweaters and bought 10 for $25.36 – including tax and the discount. Also got a Pokemon shirt for $0.84 and some Basketball Offical’s Black pants for $4.24.

Mark

[Mark S]

Your Welcome Geoff.

Mark S

[Mark S]

Here is the link for the Forecasting tool:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dGbiLgZXtqW6Au_RuDnXWLM-m9ofXH6AyfSBQOC61lg/htmlview#gid=390690754

Mark

[Mark S]

11/05/17 – 11/11/17

Total Items In Store: 2,060
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $100 (around)
Total Sales: $1053
HIghest PrIce Sold: $300 (Vintage Hartmann Suitcase)
Average PrIce Sold: 42.12
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory ThIs Week: $ 21
Number of Items lIsted thIs week: 0

What a difference a week makes! $270 last week after some key orders were cancelled. But good thing, the Harmann was one of the orders cancelled at $150. It sold for $300 this week.

I worked on the 10 year forecast and completed it. If you haven’t seen it, here is the link: 
Scavengers_Forecast

Scavengers_Forecast
I discussed the forecast in this past week’s What Sold forum. This forecasting tool will greatly assist you in the Strategic Planning of your business. See this link that describes the Strategic Planning Process:  ‪http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-the-strategic-planning-process-model-steps-examples.html‬

I know most of us are small shops, but we have to start thinking Strategicly about our business and plan the direction that it will go. Don’t just let it happen. My late father would often say, “If you aim for nothing, chances are you’ll hit it”. I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be the guy that sees the vision and goes for it! This forecasting tool shows me that I can scale the business much better if I contract out the various pieces that need to be done. I shared with Jay and T-Satt that my long term goal is just to focus on the buying\research and contract out the rest. 

Mark

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