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Items in Store: 3121
Items Sold: 40
Total Sales: $2,366.00
COGS: $268.00
Total Profit: $2,098.00
Average profit: $52.45
Average sales price: $59.15
New Listings: 31
Items scavenged: 4
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 38
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,530.88
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 33
2024 ASP $46.43
2024 projected total sales $79,605.70Oh yeah we are cooking now! I broke out my talk on promoted listings to a separate thread. Good stuff – go check it out.
https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/promoted-listings-my-results-with-trying-new-percentages/
The big push I had listing all of that retro toy haul has paid off. I’m close to $500 in sales already from that $200 buy. Man I’m glad I didn’t let that stuff sit anymore.
So I have an interesting project going on this week. My older kids did a yard sale at their grandma’s house last weekend and this past weekend. They made…$0 the first week and $15 this past week. Ouch!
They are wanting to save up a bunch of money to do a bigger haunted house this year, and to have money for the anime convention they go to in October each year.
They were dedicated, punctual, and did all the work themselves at those yard sales. I’m very proud of their efforts even if it didn’t pan out. I’ve always said that if you are able to make good money at a yard sale then you are REALLY leaving money on the table (for people like me!). I made an offer to my older kids this week. I have a wardrobe full of coats and suits that I’ve let sit for years unlisted. I want it all listed now. If they can do all the work and get the 60 items in that wardrobe listed this week I will pay them $2 per listing AND 10% of the sales price for every sold item. The 10% commission is contingent on all the listings getting done this week.
My daughter already had an email account from a past attempt to get her into creating listings for me. If you haven’t tried it, ebay lets you assign different privileges to “authorized users” so you can let employees or helpers only have access to certain parts of your store. In this case I gave them access to creating drafts and terapeak access. You can also grant a helper access to printing shipping labels among other things. They can do all the work with drafts but cannot make any listings live.
Anyways, they did 7 items yesterday and they asked good questions. Will they actually finish the job? Eh, stay tuned! I don’t think they will unless I really push them (which I DON’T want to do!) If they can get this done then I’ll have 2 helpers capable of doing complete listings. I have a TON of bread n butter clothing that I could put them on. This could be a game changer for my business. Hopefully they can keep it going.
Sourcing this week was ‘meh’. Just a couple items at yard sales. I’ve sworn off thrift stores for the time being. Yard sales are winding down so I won’t get much more from them. That’s ok though, because I have to really hit the listing. Once yard sales are officially done I will go back to a once a week thrift store check for high dollar items.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 12 items for $1587.
It’s about time to list some more boxed new shoes as I’ve cleared out a bit of space in my inventory shed on the premium shoe shelves. I’ll try to get 10 more pair listed this week. I am back to doing a couple of the hoarder clothing items at lunch time at work.
That’s the beauty of this game – typically a disappointing pickup STILL results in profit. Just not as much.
Wow what a nightmare!
eBay returns for larger items can go the same way. I always try to stop people from returning if it is an item I use fed ex or UPS. eBay returns will default to usps ground and something I shipped for $10-15 could incure a $50+ return label!
Items in Store: 3130
Items Sold: 42
Total Sales: $2,708.00
COGS: $259.00
Total Profit: $2,449.00
Average profit: $58.31
Average sales price: $64.48
New Listings: 29
Items scavenged: 47
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 38
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,504.78
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 33
2024 ASP $45.95
2024 projected total sales $78,248.63Now that’s a great week! I wish they could all be this good. I averaged around $2200 a week in sales in the last 20 weeks of last year ($2500 in Q4). If I can keep that kind of trend this year I will cross $90k in sales.
I’m lagging still on my weekly average listings. I’m running out of room in storage and that makes things harder. I’m about ready to punt on jackets/coats as that will clear up room for 18 more bins in my inventory building. That would let me blaze through the rest of the hoarder clothing with reckless abandon if I have that kind of dedicated storage space. I’m going to evaluate my listed coats this week and drastically reduce price on the less desirable ones. If I could reduce coat storage by half that is still 9 more bins which is enough to store 225-250 clothing items.
In other news, I had to go back to work…BOO!!! It was a great 4 weeks off. When our last child was born in 2021 I was in ICU with covid. I was very sick her first week and then was in the hospital for a month, so I basically missed her first 5 weeks.
So to spend 4 weeks with this little guy and be able to be there and fully support my wife – oh boy it was so amazing!
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 12 items for $1690.
Well I made up for the slow week last week! I have crossed $50k in total sales on this collection. Taking into consideration my entire COGS (not just on what has sold) I crossed $25k in actual profit (after ebay fees and $18761 cogs). Funny, my bank account sure don’t look like I’ve made an extra $25k in the past year. Thanks inflation!!
I currently have 464 items listed in this collection at a list value of $75k. I have a TON still to list. We’ll get there eventually – just keep swimming!
yeah, that’s pretty brutal.
it would be a monumental effort with a 10k store, but I would recommend you start to really look at all your old items.
when I end/sell similar I do 5 items at a time. I open each sell similar in a New window and give the whole listing a once-over looking for anything that needs updated. If needed I’ll do a quick research to check current market comps and STR. Sometimes the recommended price and comps tool that pops up is helpful.
I also revise the shipping info as well.I try to do 30 items a day while at my day job spread throughout the day. Every morning I end the oldest 30 items in my store, and then do 5 listings at a time in my down time to keep it from being overwhelming.
the end goal is for this to be an evergreen process where the oldest listing in my store is 6 months old max. Every month I would end sell similar the listings that fall out of that window. I just go with gut on repricing depending on the market.
Some great sales this week. I’ll hit the highlights in no specific order or value.
I sold 2 lenses from the big lot of vintage photography equipment I got earlier this summer. I’m so glad I went all-in on that!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266892001139
Exakta Steinheil Munchen Cassaron VL F3.5 40mm Germany Pancake Lens
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266925941814
Elitar Soligor 3” f1.5 Telephoto Lens Bolex 16mm camera Angenieux
$50 and $175 respectively. And they’re in crap condition! If these lenses would have been in minty condition I’d be swimming in cash.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266702902057
Your Smart Baby’s Newborn Program Doman Gentle Revolution Extra Books Sealed
I picked this up for a couple bucks at Goodwill. Sold on offer for $120.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932892223
CUTCO 5 Knife Set 1021-1025 Wood Swirl Handle Chef Knives USA Vintage
Sold on offer for $100. Picked these up at a yard sale for $2. I’m sending them direct to Cutco for the customer. In hindsight, I probably should have done that myself. I really just wanted the sale. It is possible the customer will get brand spanking new knives out of the deal. I’m happy – the customer is happy, it’s a win/win!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932019678
Homies Palermos Italian Figures You pick
I sold 9 of these figs to a single buyer for $50 after the quantity discounts. I spoke in detail about this lot in last week’s numbers post. Looks like I made the right decision.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266870281808
INXS The Swing Cassette Tape Rock
Sold on offer for…$3. A couple years ago I had a goal to list LOTS of items. To get my numbers up I did things like list a TON of cassettes, CD’s, and records individually even if the STR sucked and the list price was sub $5. The work is done and over and water under the bridge but it was NOT a good use of my time. My COGS was pretty much $0 and I could knock out an entire listing in a batch process in less than 5 minutes per item total time investment.
I posted this one because at a yard sale this weekend I found 2 bankers boxes packed full of AWESOME 80’s/90’s cassettes. I looked through it, talked to the seller, and considered how I could break it up into lots to sell. Then I thought of this sale, got up, and left without buying any of them. I need to keep my time spent listing junk stuff to a minimum.
On this particular sale, ebay charges and absurd 15% FVF + the 30 cent per order fee. After shipping I made about $2. Blech!!!!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266420775864
B-D Yale Luer-lock Spinal Quincke Stainless Steel Needle Size 22 Gauge 3” 1135
Another random item from the vintage medical equipment stuff. Sold for full price. My cost was pretty much nothing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266940900801
COACH Denim Crossbody Blue Gold Hardware Brown Leather Accents C0767 40758
Sold for $40 on offer. I picked up 8 bags for $50 at a yard sale a couple weeks ago. It’s nice to make almost all the money back in one sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266926725507
Smith Corona Super Sterling Blue Typewriter w Hard Case & Key Vintage
An item from my “list in place shelf” challenge. Sold for $70 on offer. I paid $3 for this MANY years ago.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266917456413
Polaroid Camera Sun 600 LMS Instant Film Flash Camera With Strap Vintage
Sold for full price. Paid $2. Polaroids are BOLO – ’nuff said.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932023936
Godzilla King of the Monsters Rodan New Jakks
I picked up 3 of these in the big vintage toy buy from a couple weeks ago. I paid $200 for the entire collection and I knew these 3 would sell almost instantly for $30 a pop. I’ve already sold two. I’ve already covered my purchase cost on that haul in just a few items.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266661524099
Dickies Men’s Utility Painters Pants White Relaxed fit Pants Size 32×30 1953WH
I bought a BUNCH of dickies painter pants and shorts for $1 each on clearance at walmart a while back. I finally got around to listing them. This customer came back and bought another pair after receiving their first order of these pants. Just a nice $20-25 item pipeline that doesn’t take up much space.
This weekend was the big city wide yard sale near me. While I did fill the back of my van, it felt kind of disappointing. The most prevalent items were good shoes- filled an entire bin with the shoes I bought. I didn’t get any video game, toys, or electronic stuff.
At one sale I bought a BUNCH of gallon size vintage beer can party kegs. Including the smaller ones there were 24 items for $40. They’re worth about $25-30 each after I did some quick research. I listed one that I couldn’t find comps on for $100 just for giggles.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266945984152
Hoepfner Pilsner Beer Mini Party Keg Can 4 Liter Vintage
At the same sale I got a bunch of Dale Earnhardt stuff. There were no prices and I didn’t really want it. My gut identified the two pieces most likely to be valuable, the rest were likely low STR and $20 or less. He asked for $30 for everything – I can deal with that.
My gut was correct – the two I suspected were valuable had good STR and worth about $50-60 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266945983749
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266945982435
There is one more worth $50 I haven’t listed yet, then the rest will sell for $15-25. I priced at the low end of comps to help spur sales since the STR is bad on the rest.
I got to talking with the guy and explained I planned to sell everything on ebay. He asked if there was anything else I was looking for and I explained I was hoping he had some of the cone top beer cans. His eyes lit up and he said he had about 50 of them up in his man cave. If you don’t know, I suggest you do a quick google search for “cone top beer can”.
He knows they are worth some good coin. I told him if he ever decides to sell them to give me a call. We exchanged numbers so fingers crossed! If there ever was a deal I would consider doing commission sales, this one would be it.
The big winner from the scavenging week was this BMW headlight I picked up for $5.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266945984968
BMW 3 Series 328i 340i Right Passenger Side Halogen Headlight 2016-2018 OEM 16
My only regret is that they only had the one headlight. LOL!
Oh yeah those Mitchell/ness vintage jerseys are awesome! I’ve picked up a couple over the years. They don’t turn up often. Especially now that goodwills cherry pick.
If it is a seasonal or rare item, terapeak is the go-to.
Another point is that Some things sell dirt cheap in the summer and sell for high dollar at Christmas time.an example: Mall Madness vintage board game. If I went by 90 day str I’d list a complete one for $60. Terapeak ( or in my case experience) tells me that at Christmas time it sells for a premium of $150-175.
i have a 95% complete one I’m am going to try and complete by October so I can list is for $160. I’ve sold 3 copies of this game over the years at Christmas.
if it is bread n butter item the 90 day solds works for the most part.
Contact update: he did respond today. Said he was out of town for a bit. It looks like this will end up being a nice little contact.
I had some really awesome sales this week. My normal items were the stars this week as I only sold a single shirt from the premium hoarder collection.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266735912481
Orvis Sherpa Fleece Jacket Deep Pile Leather Trim Men’s Size XXL
picked this up at Goodwill for $9. Sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266640912132
Mole X Repelling Control Pellets 8 oz. each Environmentally Safe New 3 Packs
I got a bunch of this stuff on sale at Walmart during a store reset clearance sale for $1 a bag. I sold 6 bags to one person this week. Nice!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266683651037
Code West Cowboy Boots America USA Flag Men’s Size 12 July 4th Red White Blue
Sold on offer for $150. I got these at Goodwill a LOOONNNG time ago back when they charge flat rate $4 for adult shoes. They smelled like smoke so I let them air out in a death pile for a few years. The irony is that I picked up an identical women’s pair at a yard sale this weekend.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266886728157
Stetson Angus Cowboy Hat 7 3/8 R 49 Granite Gray 6X Felt
Sold for full price $200. This took a 16×16 box and it had to be put in diagonally. It is deceptively huge! The sticker price at this yard sale was $20, but I ended up paying $100 total for a HUGE haul of clothing, toys, and this hat. If I divide COGS amongst alll items I paid about $2.50.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266925626953
Spanky’s Quest Super Nintendo SNES Authentic Tested Working Cleaned
This is from the big video game haul I got on an ask 2 weeks ago. I paid $20 for a Nintendo and a bunch of games. I cleaned all the games, disassembled and cleaned the pins, and replaced the battery if the games had one (old nintendo games with save functions have a battery inside the cart). To get top dollar you have to have clean games…and I wanted all the dollars. Sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266925614844
The Suffering (Sony PlayStation 2, 2004) PS2 Complete W/ Manual CIB TESTED
Another game from the same sale where I paid $5 for a big stack of PS2/PS3 games. They were all in rough shape. How I deal games now is I scan or enter all games into the pricecharting app to see what they sell for on ebay on average. Any games that are low dollar ($8 or less) get set aside to lot up. Anything I can sell $10 and up gets listed individually. Any complete games that sell for $15-20+ I will sub out the nicest condition boxes from the cheap games. This one is a good example – a desirable PS2 horor genre game but the box was trashed. I swapped out a nice box from one of the $4 games.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266442247602
Dr. Martens ENGLAND 8314 vintage buckle shoes Boots black size 10UK/11US
When you see Doc Martens. If they say Made in England on the inside, they are BOLO! Sold for full price $150. Picked up for $8 at Goodwill.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266522631951
Vintage The Winner Sneakers Shoes Sears Men’s Size 9 M White
Took an offer of $76 just to get the sale. Not bad for a pair of $5 shoes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932888850
Kodak EasyShare C182 Digital Camera Tested Works Plum Purple with cable
This came from the big vintage toy lot I listed this past week. I was just throwing bins of random stuff into my pile at this sale, and this camera was in one of those bins. I doubt I would have bought this. Color me surprised to find out it’s valuable and with an insane STR! Sold same day for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266925681291
Arch Genie For Dance Pointe Ballet Stretching Foot Stretcher Pink The Original
This is a death pile shelf listing. I’ve aleady sold half of that shelf – I’m gonna have to do that challenge again! Paid $2. Sold for $40.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266920370667
Panasonic RX-DS45 Boombox CD Cassette AM/FM & Aux. Stereo No Remote Tested Works
Another death pile shelf item. Sold for $75. I paid $3 for this WAAAAAAYYYY back when you could buy items like this at Goodwill for $3. Ah, the glory days!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266891006949
Seaquest Diva Pink Scuba Diving BCD Vest Air Source XS
I bought a big box of scuba gear at a yard sale this summer for $10 for the box. Sold for full price. I could throw the rest in the garbage and still make out great….but I won’t!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266925603328
BOSE Wave Radio III SoundTouch Music System AM/FM With Remote Tested
Paid $40 at a yard sale. Remote was not included and it is a MAJOR necessity with this radio – what crap design! I bought a remote off ebay for $10 and got it tested/listed. Sold for $270 in 2 days.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266804349211
Kenwood DDX 514 Car Stereo with Disc DVD Player Radio
Sold on offer for $75. Paid a couple bucks at a yard sale.
I love buying car radios! I test them when I can, sell and cross my fingers when I can’t.
If I can find a wiring diagram I test with a battery and some alligator clip wires. This one I did test.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266891004705
Wear-Ever Popcorn Pumper Hot Air Corn Popper 72000 NO Butter Dish
Vintage popcorn poppers are BOLO as long as they have a certain style bottom in the heating section. You want the ones that spin the kernels in a vortex. NOT the ones that just blow air straight up. People buy them to do coffee bean roasting.
Saturday was partially rained out so not a ton of new items. I don’t need a ton anyways.
I did pick some vintage cabbage patch doll stuff for $50. I don’t know exactly what I have, but I do know one single piece with a high STR gets me back the $50 almost instantly when I list it. The rest is gravy. That’s the best pickups – when you know one item earns back the entire investment you can really do some damage. One of the items was a vintage clothing trunk think packed to the gills with clothing and original paperwork. Everything is so mint that it looks like it just came off the shelf.
At the same church sale ( it wasn’t a real church sale – I assume the church was selling spaces as alot of ‘pro’ sellers were set up with ‘pro’ prices.) I got 5 pair of high end women’s boots. I paid $80 total, but each pair will sell for $100+.
Oh I didn’t get the rude messages until today – 5 days after I explained my handling time.
Message of the week right here!
buyer was upset that after they took 4 days to pay that I didn’t ship immediately even though I have 2 business day handling time.
“
Lowlife you’re not even worth the food to eat your money worshiper that’s why when you pass away you’re not gonna take one dollar with you you a hole
“
it should be noted that this buyer also tried to talk me down on price AFTER purchase. LOL! I was really looking forward to that unpaid cancellation.
Items in Store: 3143
Items Sold: 30
Total Sales: $1,657.00
COGS: $141.00
Total Profit: $1,516.00
Average profit: $50.53
Average sales price: $55.23
New Listings: 92
Items scavenged: 16
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 38
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,465.97
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 32
2024 ASP $45.17
2024 projected total sales $76,230.32So I had this big pile of vintage toys and randomness I got from a guy who used to have a vintage toy/card shop. I decided to list ALL of it this week. I still have a few things to photograph, but I did get all the listings created. It felt good to get it all done, but at the same time it kind of frustrated me to put more low dollar items into my store. Will I make a bunch of money? Yes. Did it really take that long? No. When I’m in the zone I can research, organize, and list things very quickly.
Here’s an example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932019678
Homies Palmeros Italian Figures You pick
I had a giant box of these guys in vending capsules, with a few random other things mixed in. Initially I thought it would be a monumental task to deal with these. I pondered a few paths on how to tackle this.
Finally I decided to sort it to see what I had. It only took 20 minutes to remove them all from capsules and sort into unique pieces. I only had one complete set of 24 and someone flooded the market recently with cheap complete sets. So listing individually was the best path. I found a website that had the names of each of the 24 characters from this set and created a spreadsheet to assign quantities and to have data to cut/paste to build my variance listing. Then I flew through my photos real quick and got the listing created. Total time of work was about an hour. It will take a long time to sell them, but profit will be amazing. It would have been real easy to analyze this lot to death and spend multiple hours. I could have also just listed the whole lot for $100-150 unsorted and been done with it.
I also listed a HUGE amount of vintage mcdonalds toys. Once it was all said & done…I kinda wish I wouldn’t have picked them up. They were dirt cheap though and I was hoping there were some valuable ones there…there weren’t. But again, my regretful buy will still score me hundreds of dollars over time.
The other thing that bums me is I was hoping to develop a contact through that buy I’ve tried to establish communication with the guy but no response. Oh well.
Yard sales were weak this week due to some rain, but I did score some vintage cabbage patch dolls and a bunch of high end women’s boots.
Next weekend is the huge city wide yard sale near me. There will be 140+ sales along my normal route.
I have the store going in the right direction approaching Q4. I’ll just keep plugging away and I’m really wanting to hit $80k sales this year. I’m in a prime position to get there.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 1 items for $65.
Strange week. Nobody wanted my premium items but I sold a bunch of high dollar non-premium items. It would have been an EPIC week if I could have done both.
