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well thanks for being so forthright about the story. We are all chiming in including myself about what we would do from the cheap seats – like that is fair. Really cool find and really great story.
Is this your most memorable flip?
On the sale — just curious, does worthpoint (7 years back) have any data on the item? Apologies if that was covered on the podcast i was in and out packing the car while listening. Personally i think it is well worth the money if you are selling professionally – not just for avoiding mistakes — it just saves sooo much time as well.
Great podcast. It too would honor the sale.
11/19/17-11/26/17
Tough week. Had my store on vacation mode a good portion of it with a return date of the Monday after holiday – not sure if that effected sales. I did identify an issue with our calculated shipping where we were not offering FedEx smart post for a lot of listings that by adding really improved our shipping costs – hopefully that helps as it was a big slip up on my part. We did see 5 sales already this week so hopefully it is a sign of things to come.
The recent conversations that Jay has been toting around focusing on bigger inventory has gotten me thinking — as the last 2 months i have been bogging myself down on one estate i purchased that has stuff of lower values and longer tail. Earlier in the year one thing i did pretty well was source bigger items — and my sales were a lot better then — so i am taking the initiative to do sourcing everyday and focusing almost entirely on big items (with some balance on smaller stuff to keep the funnel going as needed) While I did not have the biggest listing week last week with the holidays my emphasis on bigger items went well and already flipped a keyboard 70 dollars to 170 one day online. Back to it and looking to hit my listing goal of 100 items for the week to get back on track.
Total items in store (beginning of week): 861
Items sold: 5
Weekly sell through: % 0.58
Total Sales: $195.4 (no shipping)
Average price: $39.08
Cost of items sold: $31.91
Gross profit: $156.32
Highest item sold: MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 3 LOGIC MOTHERBOARD X883815-010 + Housing w/ Battery etc.. (86.00 cost, 0 dollar cost.)
New items listed: 4
Asking price of new items listed: $1029.00
Cost of new items listed: $210.00Not huge volume and low selling avg price. Gearing up to get a lot done the early part of this week and then enjoying the Holiday. Thanksgiving is the best! hope everyone has a great week.
11/12-11/19
Total items in store (beginning of week): 780
Items sold: 12
Weekly sell through: % 1.54
Total Sales: $252.35 (no shipping)
Average price: $21.03
Cost of items sold: $35.19
Gross profit: $217.16
Highest item sold: Sony STR-K790 FM Stereo /FM-AM Receiver & Subwoofer & 5 speakers & Remote bundle – 68 dollars sale, cost 21 Dollars
New items listed: 93
Asking price of new items listed: $2005.93
Cost of new items listed: $82inserting correct links
<img src="<img src=”https://i.imgur.com/GzDqhK5.jpg” title=”source: imgur.com” />” alt=”vase ” />
<img src="<img src=”https://i.imgur.com/rNCwBCB.jpg” title=”source: imgur.com” />” alt=”mark ” />
I think I may not be completely following the question 100% as I do not see how a box may be 4 feet long. A couple of thoughts I have since I do ship a good amount of larger things and actually have never not shipped in one package:
– I definitely ship items that are really big in one package. Breaking something into 2 separate items could be the right way to go in some cases. If it were me I would be looking at: are these lamps going to sell for more as a pair or not as well as looking at the dimensional cutoff points that make a shipping box irregular shape via UPS (UPS in all likelihood will be the most cost effective). Once a box gets over a threshold size there is a big jump in cost – and the size is not simply over a certain amount of inches – it is taking the entire dimension relative to weight into account. A simply rule of thumb is if you are crossing 32 inches for one side however it is clear you should start paying attention – it is fairly easy to figure out if you have the dimensions and can just pop em into the UPS calculator. Again – it is being aware of the massive jump that tales place in cost over a certain “dimensional” size
– Can these items be taken apart? Are they delicate? Anytime I am shipping an item that is big and delicate I NEVER and using one box. I am always putting items in a box with padding, then putting that box in a second box again with bubble padding to fill in the gaps. This is double boxing” which is a must for shipping things like lamps. (your use of ‘one box’ may have just been semantics and you already double box but just figured I would chime in that I never would ship a lamp in one box just in case)If it is me and I find that selling the lamps in a pair is going to bring a good amount more in price then I would look at the possibility of breaking up the lamps to their smallest parts, putting each in a box, and seeing what it would look like double boxing the whole thing. If that total package falls into a certain threshold then it will be the best shipping option for the customer. If not, then I like your ideas you suggested.
I apologize for being out of subject to these posts – but i just wanted to share that I had 0 sales yesterday and i was pumping my scavanger life podcast to assist in keeping the faith as i continued diligently listing and making myself not think about it. Finally, i heard that magical chink ching as i am taking a picture and it was as if I literally stumbled on an oasis after wondering in a desert for a year. No different than one of Pavlov’s dogs I literally hit my head on a wooden post in my basement instincts took over dodging the pile of items i am photoing to rush to my computer and hit the accept button nearly shattering the lovely Crystal vase next in line.
Part of me thinks i am sick but it is fun having something that you just like doing. I have not gotten into looking at the google maps yet but kind of feel like it is a slippery slope ! : )
It is crazy (not that i am at a point yet where i am making more at my business than a job). But I think there always has been a truth behind there is a lot of potential reward for taking a leap and working for yourself as a business owner as compared to someone else. Ebay is a great outlet to do that / get that going. I was in sales before as well — and i get so much more gratification hearing that ching sounds and knowing that i keep all of the pie as opposed to selling someone else’s dream.
Welcome luckysparrow. I am a stay at home dad and it is great being available to be part of my kids lives everyday. I too am way more happy. It is great — i am running now and have lost 20 pound as compared to before i was traveling all week and missing my family! Like you I don’t really have a specific answer i tell people when they asked me what i do. They see my in my warm up pants picking my son up at kindergarten and probably don’t know what to think as i the only dad doing it.
I took a stab at finding something using the image search tool on the ebay ap with no immediate avail. If you have not tried that yet i recommend you do. Maybe in person it will work better — maybe try throwing the signature up in an image search if you have not already (absent of a real expert chiming in with more useful knowledge)
If you are interested in the ebay image search you just need to have the ebay ap on your phone and it should pop up when you ‘search for anything’. I find that it saves me a lot of time researching in general – while not 100% of the time resulting in an exact match often times just helping me narrow down the possibility that a signature is one i should know, for instance, or helping me dig up some useful description titles for an item that shares similar qualities.
Mark S – thanks for sharing your spreadsheet – very nice.
Second week on a row I did not hit my listing goals. Have made a few adjustments this week and so far on base to well exceed 100 listings. Still plenty of inventory on hand to list, however end is in site so i will have to get my buying hat ready soon.
11/05/17 – 11/11/17
Total items in store: 734
Items sold: 15
Weekly sell through: 2.04%
Total Sales: $ 538.24 (no shipping)
Average price: $35.88
Cost of items sold: $223.09
Gross profit: $315.15
Highest item sold: Lot 285 cds (cost 104, sold for 140.)New items listed: 60
Asking price of new items listed: $2812.5
Cost of new items listed: $209.49Yes – you only need to have one of the options in your listing. The buyer will see ‘guaranteed delivery available.’
Guaranteed delivery is on the seller dashboard under ‘performance’ tab – currently mine is reading error message ‘Sorry, your status isn’t available right now. Please try again later.’
I have been taking part – no noticeable increase in sales. it is a short sample. For context – i did a search for “crown trifari” which yields 10,000 listings. switch on guaranteed delivery – it brings it down to 6 listings.
I spoke with Ebay — no known bugs — but seems to me like it is not smooth yet. To be expected. Ebay did confirm that it does not matter which order you have your shipping options — your listing will qualify so long as one of them is valid — so according to that rep anyway you should be good.
Hi Jay –
I see 2 records over the past 3 years – they look to be the same one sold 2xVINTAGE KREIDLER SCOOTER MOPED ALL ORIGINAL
Item ID: 232067699406Seller: j***0
Store Fixed Price 0 $600.00 1 $600.00 Free 2016-09-14VINTAGE KREIDLER SCOOTER MOPED ALL ORIGINAL
Item ID: 232086876776Seller: j***0
Store Fixed Price 0 $500.00 1 $500.00 Free 2016-09-20Geoff
its fine now – however had been prohibitively slow earlier this am for me.
Comment from the podcast: Regarding freight – I have not yet shipping freight though I have looked into it a bit. R&J – since you are in the process of looking at building more storage, maybe worth exploring: for shipping freight their tends to be a lower price if you have a shipping dock. Looking at the cast iron sink sellers is informative – readytore seller is a good example – They charge 125 dollars – who know if that is close to their actual cost, but it seems like you may be able to obtain a nice competitive advantage if you volume and have the infrastructure in place (shipping dock)
My week was not great – looking to keep focused this week on hitting my goal of 115 listings. I did not come close to that last week – in retrospect their were a lot of distractions with the kids and Halloween etc… Working to streamline my processes to become more consistent in listing a large amount every week.
10/29-11/04
Total items in store: 721
Items sold: 12
Weekly sell through: 1.7%
Total Sales: $315.95 (no shipping)
Average price: $26.33
Cost of items sold: 71.74
Gross profit: $244.21
Highest item sold: Commodore Color Monitor – 1802 Gold Star – 85 dollars (cost $2.00)New items listed: 50
Asking price of new items listed: $1864.25
Cost of new items listed: $38.50
