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Thank you, they are Motorola CLS1410. Found a bunch of them at a yard sale at the beginning of summer for $40 total. Sold the first set right away and had to wait a couple months for the last set to find a home
By hitting mostly auctions I find 10x is not that difficult to reach on a regular basis (I have gone to auctions since I was a kid but I have only been doing this to generate income for the last few months).
Hitting 10x with thrift stores and yard sales just isn’t in my wheelhouse, as I do not know much about the value of clothing and the more modern items I find there. My background knowledge and interests fall in line with the weird and old stuff I find at an estate auction.
I do not anticipate my sell thru rate to drop beyond what is expected with a growing inventory as it will inevitably skew toward long tail items as we grow. (Bookmarked and studied the discussion you and others had on the forum about this a while back)
My ASP should average out to the low to mid $40’s with my current inventory.
But I had nearly a month with below my projected ASP and this week just brought the average closer to projections.
I am attempting to bring that long term ASP closer to $50 by the end of the year
All the profit is reinvested (along with a good chunk of the day job income) The goal is definitely to retire in the near future from the career job as it is quite stressful and not something I intend to do for life.
Week July 30-05, 2018
Total Items in Store: 903
Items Sold: 29
Cost of Items Sold: $117
Total Sales: $2,079.90 (not including shipping)
Highest Price Sold: $450 Walkie Talkie set
Average Price Sold: $71.72
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 99The three week drought on higher dollar sales ended this week with 5 sales over $100, with steady sales each day of the week.
The day job took me out of town for part of the week and I struggled keeping up with my listing goal, but I accomplished some much needed yard work and household organizing so it was still a productive week. Picked up some free smalls from a local thrift that is closing doors, sad to see them go as they are the only thrift I didn’t dislike going to.
Looking forward to making up some lost time on listing and building up the inventory this week and listening to the podcast when I go in to the office tomorrow.
Awesome question! The psychology of buying and selling is one of my favorite topics to study.
I strongly believe in pricing high relative to the comps I can find for my items. I’m generally selling collectibles and items that are “wants” and not “needs”.
Therefore, my customers are largely looking for something that makes them feel good in some way as opposed to filling a base level need, where lowest price becomes a motivation (think groceries, house, vehicle).
The price a seller places on an item is the first indication given to the buyer on the quality, and in my opinion, desirability of the item.
There is a large body of psychological research pointing to the validity of pricing high to motivate buyers to purchase, and I have found for my items this holds true.
I have no intention of putting the type of items I currently sell on sale as this can lead the buyer to believe there is some reason it is no longer “worth” the initial asking price. Which is akin to saying that the seller does not value what they are selling in some way. Again, this is for the type of items I sell, which does not include clothing or commodities.
I do have Best Offer on many of my items, and I do this due to pricing well above comps, which allows a savvy buyer to still purchase my items. The lowest price I accept on a best offer is still above comps and I do not accept anything below the best offer price I have pre-determined for the item.
Like J&R, I sell predominately low demand, unique items and possibly would price differently if I sold commodities with high competition.
Week July 23-29, 2018
Total Items in Store: 833
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $34
Total Sales: $649.50 (not including shipping)
Highest Price Sold: $83 Old light fixture
Average Price Sold: $40.59
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $508
Number of items listed this week: 147Looking forward to listening to the podcast today while listing since I made it to an auction Saturday and stocked up on inventory. For the last two weeks the auctions have been fairly good to me, hoping that continues for a while. I have four weeks in a row of hitting my listing and inventory goals. Makes me think I need to up the goals a bit higher so I don’t get complacent.
Week July 16-22, 2018
Total Items in Store: 738
Items Sold: 16
Cost of Items Sold: $32
Total Sales: $632.68 (not including shipping)
Highest Price Sold: $90 Vintage Coffee Maker
Average Price Sold: $39.54
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $417
Number of items listed this week: 142Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I will while listing after I get home from work tonight. Excited to hear about your auction experience. Other than earning an income, it is my favorite part of the job.
I was able to hit my listing goal for the week and the auction I attended was great and I was able to surpass my inventory goal as well. Felt like a soft sales week with mostly low dollar items but the numbers turned out to be acceptable for where I am at in regard to listed inventory. Same goals as last week for me, though I may have other obligations for the weekend which would prevent me from hitting an auction.
I had a soft start where I only listed around 50 items while building up inventory the first month. But the last two months I just got to work on listing!
Thank you! For sourcing I have followed what I’ve learned from the podcast (and from everyone here on the forum) and I hit an auction every Saturday (if there is a good Sunday auction I will do that as well).
I love auctions and find it easy to load up on great items. I’m not a fan of selling clothing so I don’t hit many thrift stores but I’m not able to drive by a yard sale without stopping, so I get some great items there.
I do all the pictures, listing, and shipping myself but my girlfriend helps with cleaning, testing, and she helps at the auctions. It would be difficult buying as many items as I do without her help.
Week July 9-15, 2018
Total Items in Store: 612
Items Sold: 19
Cost of Items Sold: $42.50
Total Sales: $731.74 (not including shipping)
Highest Price Sold: $120 Vintage Galoob Toy
Average Price Sold: $38.51
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $250
Number of items listed this week: 140First time posting my numbers. About two months in, working diligently on eBay. My immediate goals are centered on building inventory and getting my active listing numbers up. This week I will source 200 items and get active listings to 750.
Great podcast and congratulations on your new property!
I’ve been out of drop shipping long enough to feel left behind (Alibaba wasn’t even on my radar when I started). I never carried an inventory and most of the stuff I sold was shipped straight from the Chinese factory (I tried out a US supplier in the wedding niche but the margins just weren’t high enough).
Your first point is why I have no interest in drop shipping. If there are a hundred sellers selling the same cheap item, they don’t need me selling the same item. What am I offering of value? The answer for me, is not much.
That is why I enjoy scavenging and reselling unique items. I feel I am a part of preserving history and keeping useful items from just topping off the local landfill.
If I was interested in drop shipping today, the barrier to entry is not technical or sourcing like it was when I started, it is finding an unsaturated market.
I haven’t researched recently, but there are likely thousands of products that are very lucrative. The barrier would be the research time necessary to find those untapped product categories.
I was early enough to drop shipping where the barrier to entry was high enough to keep the competition manageable. Had to learn to code and finding suppliers took some actual work.
Frankly, the money was very good, and if I was a smarter person I would have scaled it much higher. But I was young and didn’t fully understand what I had and sold them. From a philosophical standpoint, it doesn’t fit what I am looking for now either. I still manage a number of other sites I built in other niches but I personally don’t intend to get back into drop shipping. I think your right on it being too good to be true today, the competition appears to be very intense in most niches.
