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I am of the mindset that you should never stop scavenging – just increase your standards for items. Avoid the slow selling low ASP stuff and focus on the unicorns. You may walk away empty handed more but:
- The mileage still counts!
- You can’t get the once in a lifetime finds if you aren’t there to start with.
I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll mention it again – I WASN”T going to go to the premium hoarder yard sale! I wasn’t going to go scavenging at all that day because I wanted to focus on death piles. Anytime I say that, my wife always encourages me to go anyways since you never know what you’ll find. (She’s an enabler – LOL!)
Items in Store: 2835
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales: $1,447.00
COGS: $201.00
Total Profit: $1,246.00
Average profit: $38.94
Average sales price: $45.22
New Listings: 0
Items scavenged: 12
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 27
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,391.32
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 32
2024 ASP $43.00
2024 projected total sales $72,348.64Well baseball/softball season is a wrap, and a HOT wrap it was! This week is fairly open…but it will be crunch week to get ready for the new baby. My wife will be in the labor window starting this coming weekend.
This heat is soooo oppressive and it has really thrown a wrench into my ebay plans. I need to badly do some reorganization but I can’t string together a good amount of time to get it done. I’m thinking this coming Saturday I’m going to have to wake up at daybreak at 6am to get some stuff done. I REALLY don’t like waking up early on the weekend as that is my recovery sleep time. I can’t spend a ton of time in my inventory shed if it is hot – it’s basically an oven even with several fans going. It’s bad enough just collecting items to ship on the super hot days.
Yesterday was a ‘mild’ 85, so I did do some organization in the garage with the door open. I was at least able to clear my walkway paths so I can freely move around.
The problem is that I have over 275 drafts ready for photos but between the hoarder haul and the toy haul I’ve filled the space I normally use to process through photographed items awaiting being placed in inventory. I have my photography table covered up in draft items as well.
Yard sales were sparse this week – people just did NOT want to sit out and bake in that heat. I only got a handful of items. Next weekend is looking to be about the same temps so I don’t expect a bunch of yard sales then either.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 8 items for $768.
I have the drafts made for almost all the shoes and I’ve started in on clothes. There are some really heavy hitters in the clothes that I didn’t expect to be as good as they are. I haven’t even got to the heavy hitters I knew were there. My overall ASP should be much higher on this last haul since I left a bunch of the lower ASP or slower selling items.
Yard sales were a bust this week due to the heat. I was done with my whole loop in less than 90 minutes. Nothing really worth mentioning.
At Goodwill I found this amazing 1981 RCA Selectavision VHS player…but I passed. It’s just sooooo big and heavy and I’ll let it sit for a long time before I list it. They wanted $17 for it too. It just wasn’t worth enought to justify the size and trouble. Now if it was another one of those rack mount Sony players I found a couple years ago I would have been all over it!
Then in the next aisle I found a Bose media center with the interconnect cable for $4. The cable alone is worth $50! The media player is MUCH smaller and worth $50-60, so an easy $100 pickup.
Items in Store: 2866
Items Sold: 29
Total Sales: $1,012.00
COGS: $137.00
Total Profit: $875.00
Average profit: $30.17
Average sales price: $34.90
New Listings: 50
Items scavenged: Alot
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 28
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,389.00
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 32
2024 ASP $42.90
2024 projected total sales $72,228.00Well looks like focused ebay work will slide another week. What a fun softball weekend though! My daughter’s team made it to the winner’s bracket final of the league playoffs but lost to the juggernaut team that went undefeated all year. It was a heartbreaking loss as they were winning near the end but couldn’t finish it out. That meant they had to come back through the losers bracket. Something clicked in those girls though – they all showed up, had positive attitudes, encouraged and cheered each other. The next game they 4 inning shutout mercied the other team in the loser bracket final. Then on Saturday in the Championship game they mercied that undefeated team! That meant they would play the decisive game on Sunday….at 1pm…in near 100 degree conditions. What did they do? Just play tremendous team ball and MERCY them again to win the Championship! To top that off, my daughter was selected for all stars. It was a pretty cool (but hot and exhausting) fathers day.
So more practices and a game next Saturday as well for allstars. This is her last year playing and I am over the moon that she will always have these tremendous memories. I cherish my youth baseball memories to this day.
I was able to get a lot of work done during breaks/lunch at work. I also tried to do 5 items photos each morning before going to work. The work paid off with 50 new listings.
Yard sales were just ok until I got to a very special one. I pulled up and the sale was LOADED with 80’s toys. I looked over at the seller and realized I knew them! This couple used to run a local vintage toy and card shop that I regularly brought my kids to prior to covid. They also used to sell on ebay. They were clearing out some garage space with old unsold inventory. We talked for a minute and I explained that I’m a pretty serious ebay seller now. I built up a huge pile of stuff since the prices were dirt cheap. Then when it was time to settle up I told the guy to go ahead and round up his price. He said “ does $100 work?”, so I handed him $200. This is a connection I want to cultivate. I want to be the guy he calls when he wants to move stuff. He’s also a picker at heart with a lot of connections so he may even send other folks my way.
This is actually a connection I’ve been dreaming of making since they closed their toy store in 2019. I’ve always wondered what they did with their stuff and/or what other stuff did they have that wasn’t in the store. I’ve seen them both around but I didn’t want to broach the subject casually.
Profit wise on the haul, I will make plenty of money. Likely several thousand once the work is done and things start selling. A lot of it will sell pretty quick.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 5 items for $407.
I kept focusing on getting drafts done this week and did get some up and listed. Still hovering at 200 draft listings awaiting photos.
My numbers are on my work computer so I’ll post those Monday. Yes, crazy hot! I have an arcade cabinet that I have pending sale on FMBP but I told the buyer there is NO WAY I’m unburying that thing from my shed this week! He’s fine with that – we’ll get it next week.
I’ve been pulling items from my inventory shed after 11pm and STILL sweating my butt off.
Jay, what is your process to list 20 items? Is Ryanne still doing ebay at all or is she full time coffee master? Do you have a reliable helper? It would be awesome if you could find someone super reliable that could run the ENTIRE show in 4-5 hours 5 days a week. All you have to do is keep supplying items to list and let the money compound. Is that a possibility? If you are pulling in $1400 net a week then paying someone $500 a week is not too bad at all.
So I’m still plugging away on premium hoarder items during work breaks and lunch. Today I pulled out one of the best pieces from this last haul. Here is the same vest that I have:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/325490066665
Mine is a 46″ chest and I am listing it for $5K!!!
This week I hit a motherlode of 80’s/90’s vintage toy goodness.
So a bit of a backstory. Back in oh 2016/2017 a vintage toy store opened up near me. It was a fun place to take my kids. They always had some cool cheaper toys like transformers minicons or lalaloopsy minis I would buy for my kids. They expanded their store, started hosting pokemon tourneys etc. Then in 2019 their landlord didn’t renew their lease so they could move in a higher paying insurance company. I’ve seen the owners around and in that time I’ve become a much bigger ebay seller. I’ve always wondered what they did with all their stuff after they quit selling – even on ebay. I’ve dreamed many times of scoring their unsold inventory.
So near the end of my yard sale loop I see a sign for a yard sale that said “80’s toys”. Cool! I get there and there is just a TON of stuff! I look around for the seller and sure enough it is the toy store couple. We get to talking, and I explain I sell on ebay now. He tells me to load up a pile and we’ll do some biz. He brings out even more stuff for me to look at and I throw it in the pile. His prices were dirt cheap for what the stuff was. His wife wanted to do something else with a part of the garage so they wanted to just fire sale a bunch of stuff. I get enough stuff to completely fill my van and tell him to make sure to go ahead and round his price up. He says “$100”, so I give him $200 as that just wasn’t enough for all the amazing stuff I had. As I’m loading he gave me a few more items including a board game worth $100 around Christmas time. We exchanged numbers and when he wants to get rid of more he’ll give me a holler. There is ALOT more.
They had a ton of cards too, but unlike you Craig I just don’t do cards.
I’ll be honest, I really don’t know what all I have from this haul. Conservatively it is $2000 worth of inventory – possibly double that. More importantly, I made a GREAT connection that could also tie me into other connections in old toys.
Now in other sales, I hit a rich person sale that was clearing out a garage and attic dirt cheap. The highlights included a silk tapestry rug from Israel, a new in package Ralph Lauren American Living bedding set, and some new with tags Ralph Lauren clothes (of which I’m an expert in now!). The guy gave me his card to call him when he gets even more down from the attic, but I haven’t reached out. I was a bit overwhelmed with the toy haul and…well…I got too much stuff already!
There was an amazing like new vintage cedar chest they wanted $100 for that was worth $600-800, but I just can’t take on big stuff like that right now. It still had the tags and the key still sealed in the envelope. REAL cedar too – not just veneered.
The first sale of the day I got some complete in box Nintendo 64 games and a box of loose NES carts. I love finding vintage video game stuff! Too bad the complete N64 games were just sports games and not Mario or Zelda games.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266411298062
Heart To Heart Plush Stuffed Bear Pajama Gown Heartbeat Tested Chosun 1986
I always keep my eye out for interesting plush. Paid $1.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266388631162
Naot Womens Dorith Red Ankle Strap Sandals EUR 38 7.5 US
Naot is a great brand when you can find it. Picked these up for $5 at Goodwill. Sold to a local buyer I met up with for $50.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266451986317
BOTTEGA VENETA Black Closed Moc Toe Leather Slides Size 44 Men’s 10.5-11
A pair of premium hoarder shoes. Sold on offer for $215. I paid $25 a pair for all the new in box shoes. Find of a lifetime I tells ya. Crazy.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266836298270
101 Dalmatians (VHS, 1992) Rare Black Diamond Edition
Included this sale just for fun. Sold for $10 – a FAR cry from the $5000 that the internet tells me it should be worth. COGS is practically 0. Got a whole bag for like $1.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266854843249
EASTON NATURAL YOUTH 13” BASEBALL CHEST PROTECTOR Blue
So last summer I picked up 2 of these new in package chest protectors at a yard sale for $5 each. Sold them for $30-40 each and thought “boy I wish I had more of those”. Last weekend ended up at the same yard sale and lo and behold – they had 3 more! Already sold one. The seller said to me she hoped I would show up again this year and I did. LOL!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266370526386
Vampire The Masquerade 1992 White Wolf Storytelling Game Rpg Horror Role Playing
Ah, this is a nice memory. One of my first ever all-in yard sale hauls. I bought an entire bookshelf of White Wolf Role playing books for $1-2 each WAY back in 2016/2017. Over 100 books. I made a TON between amazon and ebay. This one was tucked away in a death pile bin I pulled out and listed last summer. Sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266406506710
Vintage Kalmar Designs Teak Wood 20 Slot CD Holder
This was an item my wife found at Goodwill in a section I don’t really look at. I was hoping to get $100+, but I was hungry for sales this weekend to ensure I hit $1k in sales. Sold for $80. Paid $4.
Not much traffic. Every time I’ve been there I’m usually the only one there. Some of their prices are laughably high, and some are amazingly low. They are all over the place. They’ve had several pallets of old video projectors for a couple years that nobody wants. Mainly because their prices are $75 each. If they blew them out for $10 each I would take every one of them if I had the space.
They are only open on weekdays until 4, so very limited hours.
They have alot of large office furniture and equipment. Some of it is pretty high end stuff. Some of it is junk.
Since this is just a part time gig for you, I am wholeheartedly in agreement that personal enjoyment is a BIG part of the equation. Even if you just broke even on that sale, that’s perfectly fine while you figure out what works and what doesn’t. But you didn’t lose more or even break even. You MADE a significant amount of money! The first time out! That’s quite an impressive thing to do.
My whole ebay business is really just a fun hobby for me at the end of the day. A hobby that makes a significant amount of money considering the time investment. I’m gonna do or buy things that I enjoy. I’m not gonna do things if I don’t want to. I could donate half my death pile to Goodwill tomorrow and still be miles ahead. To be honest, I’ve considered it. I have an entire trailer I use as storage that is all death pile. I could just move everything out in the driveway and do a huge fire sale yard sale of any item that is worth $20 or less.
The death pile served a purpose – allowed me to have a large reserve inventory so that if I lost my job I could go full time immediately and have no inventory or overhead costs for 6+ months. Do I really need that much reserve inventory now that I have a 3000 item store? I’m not so sure.
Well that comment took a surprising side trip!
On Monday I took one of my kids to a Cybersecurity camp at a local university. Since it was out of my way I just worked remotely and hung out in the lobby all day. Conveniently (Mwahahahaha) that allowed me to hit up one of my favorite thrifting spots in the area during lunch – the State Surplus equipment warehouse.
Now I had limited van space since I still have most of the latest hoarder haul in there so I had to be picky. They still had a good assortment of toner cartridges and a few high value copier maintenance kits that sell for $100+. I picked up the better STR, higher value items from that pile. I also picked up one of these for $50:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195731491487
That one sold for $750. How do I know that? Well spoiler alert- terapeak shows actual sales prices. I have the listing created and will make it live this weekend.
There were many more larger items I COULD have bought. The one that really caught my eye was an entire Pallet of new in box Rack mount UPS units. $50 each!!!! Oh man…soooo heavy…..sooooo big….but sooooo much profit! If I had Jay and Ryanne’s Warehouse style space I would have totally got them. Alas, I am out of space.
Items in Store: 2845
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales: $885.00
COGS: $147.00
Total Profit: $738.00
Average profit: $30.75
Average sales price: $36.88
New Listings: 10
Items scavenged: 15
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 27
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,405.39
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 33
2024 ASP $43.21
2024 projected total sales $73,080.35I sound like a broken record, but I spent all week busting my butt on home projects. We have some family visiting this week and we want to make things look nice. I am over 200 drafts awaiting photos with the work I do during breaks/lunch at work, and this week I WILL get those listed. School is done, baseball will wrap up this weekend with the last of the playoffs, and all the house projects are (mostly) finished.
Yard sales were disappointing this weekend. There were lots of sales but prices were sky high or everything was junk. Sometimes both at the same time! I also just wasn’t really feeling it this weekend and was mainly looking for home runs. My favorite find was a personal item. I really wanted to get an edger to make my sidewalk look nice. I was going to buy one but was holding out hope I could find one at a yard sale and I did! I picked up a corded edger that I immediately put to good use.
Something I REALLY want to do is empty out my garage/office into the driveway and fully organize everything. That will be a MAJOR project but one that must be done for me to take things to the next level. I need to get to the point I have good functional space as what I have now is bare minimum functionality. This is a project that will need a couple days without rain so I can leave some things out covered with tarps if needed. I have a vision for what I want and I think I can get there.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 7 items for $404.
A good assortment of sales this week from shoes and clothes. No super big sales, but they all have to sell eventually. I sold a pair of shoes right off the bat this week for $215 so I’m off to a good start.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266109208780
Patagonia Women S Stellar Blue Turtle Shorts Little Flippers Baggies Drawstring
Last summer I bought a bunch of patagonia shorts and tank tops at Dick’s Sporting Goods on 90% off clearance. So I paid like $3 for these shorts. I’ve sold quite a few pair of these and I have a couple pair left.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266505281026
BJU Bob Jones 5th grade MATH 5 3rd Ed COMPLETE SET Distance Learning SEE DESC
This was from the large lot of homeschool curriculum I bought at a yard sale last year. Summer is the best time to sell school books – a great way to offset some of the summer slowdown.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266836320859
Cricketeer Mens Sport Coat Blazer Sport Jacket Two Button Measures 36R Vintage
I wanted to get alot more for this originally, but I did an end/sell similar a bit ago with a reduced price and then took an offer of $30 on top of that. Fine with me! Still a great profit. Gotta get this stuff out the door!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266641546170
Berne Bib Overalls 42×28 Unlined Workwear Denim Jeans B910SWD NWT
I’m always on the lookout for NWT clothing at Goodwill. I paid $10 for these and sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266492104016
Vintage ITT Rotary Dial Wall Telephone Beige Tan
Yard sale find from last year. One item of many in a box for $5, so my buy cost was less than $1. Sold for $50 on offer.
I didn’t buy very much this week after the glut of hoarder stuff last week. I was only looking for homeruns.
I bought a couple outfits from this super entertaining older woman at one sale for $3 each. They are WILD designer outfits from parties she went to at the Greenbrier Resort over the years. That lady brings da party wherever she’s at – what a hoot! Each outfit will sell for $100+ based on comps but will likely be long tail. One’s a pink leather & crochet set. Another is a Cowgirl set that looks like something Dolly Parton would wear.The last sale of the day I scored two pair of women’s riding boots for $15 each – Tory Burch & Burberry. SCORE!! The Tory Burch boots will be listed for $100 and the Burberry ones for $200.
At Goodwill the buy of the week was an aquarium water filter system that sells for $100-150 in used condition.
I’ve had this thought sooo many times in small businesses. I always compare it to my eBay business. I make $100 a day and have next to zero overhead costs.
I go into or pass small business that have employees, rent, bills,etc and think “there’s no way they are doing more than $200 in business a day!” They might even barely do $100 in business on some days. How is this even feasible!
