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Thanks for the advice, I ended up passing on the deal. I already had over half of the van full by the time we could make it to the Christmas stuff. They had another buyer lined up for the next day and I told them to go ahead and sell it. Storage space is at a premium right now.
Neat numbers on the sales, going to run that scan in March and say June and see how many Christmas items are selling.
I follow a lot of folks, half of them I can’t remember why.
What type of items do you sell? Would make it easier to suggest someone.
Awesome sale.
I have had some great sales on Amazon, but for ebay the highest would be a collection of items. I bought an entire appliance repair store in New Jersey for $1,500. The owner didnt pay taxes for over 8 years and the NJ Taxation office seized his store. I put the bid in not thinking I would actually get it. But, surprisingly I was the only bidder. I rented a 26ft truck and drove up to the store. Tax officers meet me at the store and luckily I didnt have to take everything. In fact the only thing I was interested in were the small loose appliance repair parts. I left all of the furniture and half repaired appliances except for a sub-zero wine rack. After a few weeks of educating myself on appliance parts I had over 800 listable items and almost 1,100 items I couldn’t identity or didnt have much value. The first month of having the parts listed I made over 3k and I continue to sell several a month. If I had to guess I have made over 10k on the whole deal. The remaining 1,100 items I sold to an appliance repair guy in North Carolina for $450.
I use Goo Off, takes paint marker prices right off. Never had a problem with it leaving a mark on the sole of the shoe.
I also make an sales invoice, I have a blank square at the top where I put their drivers license. I then make them sign it saying they have picked up the item and the transaction is complete. I scan two copies one for them and one for me.
This all stemmed from a local pickup where the customer told ebay he didn’t pick it up. Since I didnt have proof ebay sided with the customer.
• Ebay
• Total Items in Store: 8,205
• Items Sold: 122
• Total Sales $1845
• Highest Price $85 Captain America Jacket
• Average Price Sold: $15.12
• Returns: 3 (Clothes and one appliance part)
• Cost of Items Sold: $89
• Cost of items purchased this week $75Decent week, top sellers Captain America Leather Jacket $85, Brass Sword $45 and a Babylon 5 spaceship model $39.
Went on Christmas break early Thursday and didn’t get back until Monday so was a lot to pack when I got back. Only thing I purchased last week was a cart of Dvd’s for $75 from a local charity. I lot these up, or sell them penny book style on Amazon. The really slow moving ones I throw into our antique booth for $1.
We started our free shipping experiment about six month after we started selling clothing. We were selling some clothing but it was a low conversion rate when I compared it to Amazingtaste store (at the time she was doing free shipping). We switched to free shipping on light clothing, adjusted prices so we could still accept offers and items started moving at a faster rate. It’s been a year now at free shipping, items are moving at profitable prices and it works for us. Mileage may vary for each seller.
If I could walk into a store and buy 100 things at $25 that would sell for over $100 I would do it all day, as long as they sell. But, it’s hardly that easy. I would rather take that $75 and buy 35-40 items and increase my coverage then wait for three things to sell for higher amounts. But, I am in the minority that is happy with a $12-15 item average. Interesting to see how the experiment plays out.
Weirdest thing: While going through some boxed up books donated to a charity I found an urn of ashes. Charity could not find out who donated it in order to give it back. Gave the urn to a preacher that worked for the charity so they could say a blessing over it. Not sure what they did with it after that.
Hidden treasure: Gold coin in one of those fake books you hide in a bookshelf. It was in a collection of over 100 books, guessing the father died and kids tossed all of the books. Gave it to the charity and they and they ebayed it for 1.2k.
Nice had a lot of friends in the Navy. Retired last year, 1995-2015 twenty and out. Now I do Amazon/Ebay full time.
Mayberrymom,
You can create custom shipping plans to exclude certain areas. I am not sure what you mean by remote but you can create a free shipping plan and exclude APO/AE, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico Ect..
I have about 10 different shipping plans and I just name them according to the item I am shipping. Ie. “Book Calculated” will ship via media rate based off of weight, “Remote Control Flat” will ship all remotes for a flat $4. “Clothing Free” will ship clothing for free, while “Clothing Calculated” will ship clothing based off of the weight at priority speed. I have “No Global” plan for items that cannot be sent to global shipping. Ect..ect..
Forgot to add something into the equation. Doing merchant fulfilled I will get at least $4 in shipping. Since I don’t get that doing FBA, it would be like loosing an additional .62 cents and theoretically add another $2237 loss into the equation.
So looking at my numbers the new fees will break down like this.
Average book will be between 1-2 pounds.
Self Fulfilled
Media shipping $3.16
Bubble mailer .22
Total shipping $3.38Amazon Fulfilled Feb 2017
Single Pick/Pack Fee $4.18
Cost to mail book in $.33
Total cost $4.51Not including the storage fee, its rather minor for >2LB books. I would have to both look for a new warehouse and build a lot of storage shelves if I had all 8,000 items sent back. So for now going to consider it a wash, even though it is probably cheaper to have them store it. I also didnt include the referral fee/variable fee because it is the same for FBA and merchant fulfilled.
So unless I am missing something in the fees I will be spending $1.13 per book to have Amazon handle most of my orders. So far this month I have sold 3,609 units, so thats $4,079 difference if I would have handled them myself. In the past it was a .42cent savings to have them handle it. Lot to think about.
I think Amazon is trying to get rid of the penny book crowd like Jensenbooks and Murfbooks, these large penny book sellers send in thousands of books a day to FBA and I am sure take up huge loads of warehouse space and resources shipping out $4 books. Heck maybe they are trying to get out of the used book business all together.
Total Items in Store: 8325
Items Sold: 174
Cost of Items Sold: $325
Total Sales: $3491.92
Highest Price Sold: $110 Quilted Bootsx2
Average Price Sold: $19.72
Returns: 12 (Clothing and broke HO train)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $65
Number of items listed this week: 585 (All DVDS and Books)Probably the last good week of Christmas sales, it started dying off Sunday night and has been a slow decline throughout Monday and today. A few weeks back I bought 100 brand new boots that were donated to a local charity for $5 apiece. Someone bought 2 sets for $110 and then an additional set for $60. Sold a few others for $55-60 to other customers. Sold a Xbox 360 set for $65, bought it for $10 at a thrift store, didn’t have controllers but I have buckets of those. Sold a firefighter helmet for $60.
Bought four boxes of older cell phone cases, mostly otterbox for Iphone and Samsung phones, from a charity for $20. Counted 120 cases and some chargers, so not a bad deal will just take awhile to sell. Also bought a few more game systems, full-size bed for $20 (going to the booth), and one of those bike tow behind child carriers.
I offer free shipping on light clothing, replacement board game parts, and small appliance parts. I just build it into my price so I don’t lose money. If it gets sent back I just eat the few dollars as a loss and move on.
Ryanne
Walmart had the Nest 3rd Gen for $99 on black friday. Since its not a common item on most people’s shopping list there was a small pyramid of them left over the next day at our local Walmart. When I was at Luray shortly after Thanksgiving I asked if they had any but they had sold out.
I would like to link the door locks and thermostat at the cabin so I could control them from home. But, still no internet at cabin, fighting it off as long as possible. We only lost one renter this year from lack of internet and that weekend quickly rebooked.
