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Antarestar, I noticed a sealed up item on the shelf and started doing research on mobile ebay and the web immediately. I quickly found some selling at that price and they had Amway in the title. I think I verified this by a google search and then later that day did a sell similiar with the highest priced listing on ebay. I don’t think I had it more than two weeks before it sold. I wish there had been more than one…. 🙂
I’ve had pretty good luck finding “new” sealed items at goodwills in the hardware section. Often you can tell someone just cleaned out a garage or basement and just didn’t look anything up. I’m sure that was the case with this expensive filter.
Thanks Jay. I’m going to post a longer motivational “you can do it!” post to new resellers sometime soon and I’ll go into more detail, but so far I’ve used the money to pay off a credit card, have some home improvement work done this summer, and help fund a party for my wife’s 50th birthday. And of course a good chunk gets rolled back into the business as new inventory.
Not being late this time to post my monthly numbers for August:
I just had the best month in my 1.5 years of an ebay store! All my listing this summer has paid off!
60 sales (record!)
$ sold (minus shipping): $1552 (record and way above $1K goal!)
Per sale average: $25.87 (goal over $25, so just over)
cost per item average: $3.17 (lowest this year)Items in store peak for month: 715 (another new record!)
Returns: 0
Biggest sale: Amway replacement filter https://www.ebay.com/itm/192606167041 I found this in the hardware section of the local Goodwill, paid 2.99 sold it for $125!
Sold a bunch of patches to multiple buyers. Sold some vintage sealed in the box legos that I won at an auction this summer that I was shocked I didn’t have more competition for. All in all a great month.
Will be listing as much as possible in the next two weeks (wife will be out of town, son is back in school) before my job ramps back up. Would love to tackle some death piles (slides, pyrex, leather, etc.) and hopefully get up to 800 total items before the holiday rush.
I updated on Android and can see drafts. Just made one on the computer to double check. Go to the drop down menu in the app and go to selling. They should be there under your selling data. I did have to pull down on the page with my finger to refresh, but usually they are just there.
Agreed that it appears that some of the “features” on the new app were not well thought out especially for high volume sellers. I always start listings on my phone and end them on the computer. The photo section is slightly improved and I save a few clicks there, but those clicks are wiped out with the defaults it imposes (like auctions). The two real pains are it doesn’t have the condition description any more so I have to either write it in the general description and copy paste it, or just do it later, and also I have to always change the 30 day default to good to canceled on the computer. They still don’t allow business policies on the app which sucks. Overall it is probably slowing me down about 1 minute per listing, which doesn’t sound like a lot but it sure adds up over hundreds of auctions.
Kinda late to this thread, but lately I have a $20 rule on most items, meaning that if I pay $2 for something, I better be listing it for $22 or more, if I buy it for $10, at least sell it for $30. There are exceptions, like new items that are a breeze to list and will sell fast or if I buy a lot of smalls (like patches or ephemera) that list quickly. But if it is pottery or something I have to describe a lot of details and take a lot of photos, I’ll pass.
That said, I get stuff in the $5-15 range all the time as extras in box lots at the auction. So my strategy is I’ve got a cool vintage consignment shop in town that lets you bring a box of items in daily. They give you 40-50% of their sale price to you when it sells. So I keep a box downstairs near my inventory and I put these lower value things in there until the box fills. I take it in and they usually take 75% of what I bring. What they don’t take, I donate.
They price competitively and sell a ton of stuff (I shop there and flip items on ebay that they didn’t research/price well) so I don’t get a lot of $ but it offsets my original cost from the auction. So in the case of the pottery you used as an example, they’d probably price it at $10-12 and I’d make $4-5. Which doesn’t sound like much but I did almost zero work for that money.
Since you guys are taking a week off (get well Ryanne!), I don’t feel so bad not posting my July numbers until now! 🙂 I have had a busy summer which I may post about later, but quickly, it has been overall a good sales summer for me.
My Monthly Numbers for July:
I had a horrible July last year and I almost doubled my numbers this year! Probably have 250 more items in my store now as compared to then, which helps the bottom line.
51 sales (another good month)
$ sold (minus shipping): $1265 (goal $1k, still above!)
Per sale average: $24.80 (goal over $25, ok, but sold a lot of low value patches)
cost per item average: $3.53Items in store peak for month: 700 another new record!)
Returns: 1 (well it was a low value item and I let him keep item but refunded fully, due to a mistake I made in the listing). Also one partial return on a broken plate of three (still made money on the sale after refunding a third), AND the woman bought another lot of bowls from me afterward (which didn’t break) AND gave me positive feedback, woohoo!
Biggest sale: Aramith Granite Stone Collection Belgian Billiard Pool Ball Set for $100, https://www.ebay.com/itm/192557266865 , paid $20 at my favorite thrift store).
Sold many of the patches I’ve been listing and other bread and butter items. Listed as much as possible but slowed down in August (more to come as to why!). Ramping back up now for the fall/winter rush!
I did just now. First I checked that it wasn’t a scam, but it appears to be from ebay. Then I double checked, and my invoice was paid 8/15. It appears to be a glitch. Interestingly, I see you are in/near Portland as am I. Maybe a geographical error only? Are there other non Pacific Northwest people who got an ebay collections email today?
Replying to this year old thread to say two things: Got my first VERO in a while. It was for a Porsche Patch and they said “Your listing was removed after the rights owner reported it as counterfeit.” which I’m sure it isn’t but oh well, I’m not fighting for a $10 patch. I’ve sold Porsche stuff before with no problems so maybe they are doing a yearly sweep. Posting this for others to be on the lookout for their Porsche items being removed.
Also, above in the old thread someone said that Porsche wasn’t named in the list here:
but Porsche is owned by Volkswagen, which is listed, so they actually are.
My Monthly Numbers for June:
I went from the worst month in May to my 3rd best month in June. Lots of changes: more listing, free returns turned on, and promoted listings on 80% of my store all probably contributed to the bump during a historically weak month.
50 sales (doubled from last month!)
$ sold (minus shipping): $1407 (goal $1k, nice!)
Per sale average: $28.15 (goal over $25)
cost per item average: $3.53Items in store peak for month: 605 (new record, nose to the grindstone!)
Returns: 0
Biggest sale: New Sealed Catan Board Game Expansion Pack for $75
Trying to list 40 items a week. First week only 31, and this week so far 35 but I should hit my target. This will be helped by the fact I found a lot of 41 patches for $7.00 at a thrift store. I’ve listed half and already sold 3 for $30.00 total. I think that there is about $250 total in listings. They are so easy to list. I also had a bunch of other patches from an auction a few months back so I’m just trying to get through them all. These aren’t high value items but they are a pipeline.
She did earlier in the thread, here it is again:
Lots of small notes from the excellent (as always) podcast.
1) After a horrible May I’m having a great June, so I’m the exception to the rule. It will already is my 2nd best month of the year with 4 days left and is 50% higher than May. Reasons? Not sure because a bunch of things happened at once in late May: I activated free returns (none so far), I’ve listed more these past two weeks (and some new items sold right away), and I put 80% of my store on promoted listings (5% rate) and had a bunch of sales mid-month. I’m guessing that the latter is the biggest driver.
2) Sales tax. It’ll be interesting how it all plays out. I live in Oregon and am spoiled with the no sales tax (other taxes are higher of course). I love buying everything for the exact listed price! I’m always confused when I travel and have to mentally add 5-10% on to every purchase. I wish I would get some benefit in my eBay store for being in Oregon with this new ruling but I’m guessing that states will get their share no matter where the seller is.
3) eBay photo glitch. I was out of town this weekend (store on extended handling time, made 5 sales yay!) and I got a message from someone viewing my item that this had happened. When I got home yesterday, I checked and it appears only two listings were affected. I do have things synced to Bonanza and did use the photos there to recreate them. So thanks for mentioning that on the podcast!
4) Free returns. Interestingly you added $1 to each listing which in supply/demand theory should lower your sales a bit. But your research seems to show that sales are flat, so maybe that means you have sold a few other items because of free returns and they are cancelling each other out. Also you took in more in from that $1 than you paid out in returns this week. So I wouldn’t turn it off quite yet, you are definitely ahead of the game! My small store has had no returns yet since turning it on and I’ve probably made $30 with my extra handling fee, so I’d probably have to get 2-4 returns to offset that. Last year I only had 4 returns total.
5) Lastly I like hearing about what you “eat on” each week! Mainly because I’m a “slow carb/low carb” eater so Ryanne’s forays into that arena are of interest to me.
My monthly numbers for May 2018
Wow what a “soft” month. Downright squishy! My worst month in my store’s 14-month history.
25 sales (for the month! So low!)
$ sold (minus shipping): $659 (goal $1k, way under, half of last month’s sales!)
Per sale average: $26.37 (goal over $25, so that was ok)
cost per item average: $3.74Items in store peak for month: ~550 (yay for listing!)
Returns: 0
Biggest sale: Levine’s Guide to Knives and their Values 4th Edition for $70.00
Trying to stay positive I will not say much about those dismal numbers. The knife price guide was a pleasant surprise, I paid $8 total for two knife price guides, one is worth $10-15 that I’m keeping to help me ID scavenged knives, and this one which sold within a month. The later editions don’t sell for as much because of some changes to them.
Also, June has started well with decent sales over the past few days. Hope that continues. I’d did Promoted Listing for my entire store, and 25% of my sales so far have been promoted so maybe it is helping.
June should be the start of a big listing spree for me. I want my death piles dealt with come September. Might hit an auction this Friday, that always gets my juices flowing after a dismal month!
Two notes, one personal, one about the podcast.
I only do monthly numbers so I won’t post May until next week’s podcast (preview: soft!) but I listed over 40 items this weekend to get my store to over 550 items for the first time ever! I’m going to list a lot in June and July in prep for the Fall/Winter. Hoping I can get to 750 by Sept 1st!
Also, regarding negatives, that sucks for you two. I just was looking at another seller last night (considering a purchase) and they had 8 negatives in the past year (they are a big seller like you guys), so, curious, I clicked through and all the negatives were on items in the $4-$20 range and every one obviously this seller would have taken care of. I felt bad for her, but, in reality, they probably don’t hurt her at all either. I would still buy from her, no problem. As you said Jay, there are just a small fraction of grumpy, petty buyers out there….
