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I’ll never part with my minivan as an ebay seller. It is the best! Better than having a truck.
My minivan is my defacto transitionary storage space. I keep it full. I haven’t been listing much from work lately so I’m not getting alot of turnover in my van storage, but I will get back on it this month.
Items in Store: 2969
Items Sold: 40
Total Sales: $1,932.00
COGS: $214.00
Total Profit: $1,718.00
Average profit: $42.95
Average sales price: $48.30
New Listings: 33
Items scavenged: 16
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 36
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,625.69
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 36
2024 ASP $44.97
2024 projected total sales $84,536.00Shockingly busy week! I haven’t been listing as much since I got back from vacation so I was blown away when I saw I sold 40 items. I’m on pace to average 36 sales a week this year, which is better than last year and 2020. I compared the last 5 weeks to the same period every year since 2019 and this March period is a great snapshot of my growth.
2019: 86 sales for $2266
2020: 112 sales for $3053
2021: 119 sales for $4536
2022: 148 for $5214
2023: 96 sales for $3035 (I didn’t list for like 3 months and it reflected in sales.)
2024: 176 sales for $8345
The 2024 numbers are extra awesome because I was on time away for a week and a half and I haven’t been listing much. It COULD have been alot higher if I was firing on all cylinders. It seems like a 3000k item store is one of those inflection points that takes things to the next level sales wise. I’m hoping somewhere in the 3k-4k store size range is the magic 40/40/40 store I envision – list 40, sell 40, with a $40 ASP. Right now I’m selling more than I’m listing and I am quite happy with that. I’ll get a good bump in inventory storage open space selling more than listing.
Speaking of storage space, spring weather is here and I am due some organizing. I wanted to be in a much better place death pile wise….but I’m not. Oh well. We do what we must! I’m not worse per-se, just not bettter. I’ve still never delved much into the trailer storage death pile. Now I have a death pile in my non-ebay shed (neatly boxed and on shelves at least). I have things moving in the right direction. Once I spend some time in my inventory shed reorganizing and then reorganize my garage office…oh why am I bothering with a plan. Once yard sales start this month it’s all gonna go out the window and I’ll be back to treading water! I still have the rest of the hoarder stuff that is going to be heading my way sooner than later and I am NOT ready for it. I’ll figure it out. I always do!
I’ll keep ending/sell similar and sending bottom dollar offers on the stale items to keep clearing out the junk. The new stuff I’m sourcing is higher dollar so my ASP should keep creeping up as the old stuff clears out. This week 13 of my 40 sales were $15 or less items that I was just trying to make something on and get rid of.
Mouse wars update: I took a few weeks off without having the traps out since I went on vacation. I put them back out this Saturday and already caught 3 of the buggers. I didn’t check today before work so hopeully I have 1-2 more when I get home. DIE MICKEY! DIE!!!
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 11 items for $1315.
One buyer bought 4 clothing items from this collection. I love selling multiple items to a single buyer! I sold a pair of shoes last night for $475 to really cap off a great week. I had one sale of a $400 pair that fell through. Buyer misunderstood the sizing so I cancelled for them. Bummer!
Items in Store: 2976
Items Sold: 33
Total Sales: $1,962.00
COGS: $223.00
Total Profit: $1,739.00
Average profit: $52.70
Average sales price: $59.45
New Listings: 18
Items scavenged: 28
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 36
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,600.17
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 36
2024 ASP $44.66
2024 projected total sales $83,208.67This week was pretty busy. I had to catch up on shipping in the first half of the week which took up alot of time. Baseball season kicked off with practices and it’s gonna be quite time consuming with 5 kids playing this year. I was hoping to hit my 40 listings but my daughter laid an egg and only photographed 12 items this weekend. I had over 50 items ready for photos… Oh well, I’ll just have to make up for it this week.
I gotta say, the current state of inflation and the absolute UNHINGED state of real estate prices in my area have got me bummed. I got a raise at work, my ebay business is cooking, and yet there is no way I can afford to move to a bigger house. The houses big enough for my family are now selling for $500k. These same houses were selling for $325k just a year ago and $250k in 2020 pre covid. Combine that with the interest rates and well, we’re gonna get pretty resourceful to keep making our 3BR house work.
It just sucks to know I’m making more money than ever and can’t do anything with it. Could I make it work between my day job salary and my ebay business? Yes. Can I justify locking myself down to a $3k a month mortgage payment? NO! If something happens that impacts my earning that would be very bad.
I still have on the table doing a home addition that I’ve previously drawn up. Doing that would still be cheaper than moving with current rates and prices and I’d have a house big enough for everyone to fit. Still not cheap though…
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 10 items for $1256. I sold 4 pair of shoes this week and was getting inquiries on other pairs. I suspected more would sell once spring sprung and it seems that is the case. I hope to sell a bunch more over the next 2 months! I’m at $20k PROFIT now on the hoarder collection.
A pair of shoes I sold last week – Gucci Soccer Cleats – went through the ebay authentication process. This is one of the first pair I listed from the collection and I was a bit skeptical of the authenticity at the time. They were in the sporting goods category and got pulled into the authentication process after I listed it. Knowing all I know now, I knew these were authentic and just as suspected I passed the authenticity check no problem.
It just really surprised me when I first started on this collection that just because something is high end designer and super expensive does not always mean the items are on an order of magnitude higher quality than “normal people” high quality items.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266461143898
Cuisinart Vari-Speed Blender Model CB-4 12 Speed Glass Jar Lid TESTED WORKING
Cuisinart appliances are always worth a look when you come across them. I paid $3 for this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266361603475
Ralph Lauren Polo Sport Performance Jersey T Shirt White Size XL Mesh NEW
One of the many NWT Ralph Lauren shirts from the hoarder collection. Sold for $60 on offer as I was hungry for sales. Here’s another one of them I sold this week for $65 on offer: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266520073788
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266548025257
Craft Spartan Race Running Shoes Womens Size 8
A shoe brand I had never seen before, but they caught my eye. A VERY well made shoe meant for triathalon runners. Sold for full price. I paid $8.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266702900605
Hoveround MPV5 Powerchair 9 X 3.50-4 Drive Wheel & Pneumatic Tire w Pr1mo Hub
I sold two of the hoveround wheels I picked up a couple weeks ago at an estate sale for full price. Not bad for a $5 each pickup.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266471311261
Vintage Apple II Utilities Guide 1985 New In Package Sealed Manual Book Software
I’ve had this in my inventory for several years. I picked up a pile of vintage Apple accessories and manuals all sealed at a yard sale for $1 each item. This was the last item from that haul. I think I made $400-500 total.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266462984480
CoreBody Reformer Nautilus Pilates Yoga Exercise Workout System
Sold on offer for $50. I had a box that I just had to lengthen a bit to fit. It’s always an adventure to pack/ship something like this. But hey, it’s done and I made $50! I think I paid $4.
Of course I had my bread n butter shoe/clothes items, but the true scavenge of the week was a Harley Davidson Power Wheels. These tend to sell for big bucks.
I will likely list for $300-400 and I have the advantage of being willing to ship. Most people just do local pickup.
I have a history with Power wheels. When my oldest kids were young, I got into power wheels modding. I still have their power wheels but rarely get them out. I did custom paint jobs. I would modify to parallel battery arrangements for LONG ride times (over an hour of full power riding). Turbo setups that could swap my parallel battery setup to series for a turbo boost. Full lighting setups (Headlights, tail lights, reverse lights).
I would buy power wheels for cheap at yard sales, repair them, put in new upgraded batteries and sell them for big bucks.
At one point all the neighbor kids could come over and they’d all be cruising in my collection of power wheels.
Every time I do one of these guest pass rentals, the timeshare offers to do a “90 minute” presentation as the “guest of a VIP”. I used to do them every trip for the free rewards but quit a few years ago as the rewards just weren’t worth the wasted time. They claim 90 minutes but it always ends up 120-160. I’m not doing that for a $100-200 gift card.
I’ve made 2 exceptions in the last 2 years. Last August we were at this same resort. I told my wife I wouldn’t do it for anything less than a 100% free trip to Medieval Times for my ENTIRE family (the equivalent of 4 adults and 4 kids due to ages). I told them that’s what I wanted and the guy said “ok I can do that”. That trip would have cost me over $500. So yeah, I sat through that irritating 2 hours. The math they present is absolutely hilarious to me, but I could see how it could confuse folks who don’t have my background.
This trip they offered me a $100 gift card. HARD PASS!!
The other exception was a presentation while staying at a Hilton resort (for free with my business credit card points and free nights from ebay business). Hilton is getting into the timeshare game. They offered me 100k hilton honors points for a quick presentation down at their new timeshare style resort. 100k points is worth well over $600 if you use them right. The funny thing is that the normal hilton property I was actually staying at was better. It was boring and dumb but I had those 100k points in my account before I got back to my hotel. Score!
So fellow scavengers, don’t do a time share tour unless you are getting at least $500. They CAN and will do that much.
The only timeshare tour I would recommend that has very little rewards is a Disney Vacation Club tour. Why? Because it’s actually a pretty cool experience! They have a special building at disney world that houses a demo condo unit for EVERY DVC property. You get to tour every unit (even the luxury ones). Some of these places are really amazing.
At the end there is no sales pitch. They hand you a price list and basically say you can buy now or you can take the guide home and buy later if you want to think about it more. There is no negotiations, no hidden gotchas. Then they give you ice cream, a few fast passes, and transport you to wherever you want to go on property.
Would I ever buy it? NOPE! I stay here for less than $1000 for a 2 bedroom:
In the off season I’ve stayed here for as low as $500 for a week.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266535420629
Polo Ralph Lauren Long Denim Work Chore Coat Jacket 100% Linen Men’s XXL
Sold on offer for $400. What an awesome jacket! I’m still in awe of just how “unicorn” that hoarder sale was, and for it to happen right in my own neighborhood! Literally the sale of my dreams, but TOTALLY real! I considered holding out for $500+, but was hungry for a sale during a slow week with time away active.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266333476799
American Eagle Cut Off Jean Shorts Pink Men’s 36 Denim Extreme Flex
Whoops, this was a hoarder item and I forgot to log it as such. Oh well! Men’s American Eagle can do quite well while Women’s is a dime a dozen. Sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266514545163
Lilly Pulitzer Macfarlane Lace Shift Size 10 SUNGLOW YELLOW KISSED BY THE SUN
I bought 3 Lilly Pulitzer items at a yard sale this summer. That was a great sale where I got multiple $100+ items. I tend to remember those! If it is cheap, Lilly is a BOLO. I took a $34 offer on this. I paid $8.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266708595299
Kodak S1100 XL 35mm Point & Shoot Film Camera S1100 XL
Point & shoot cameras are hot. You should try and comp any you find. This sold within days for a $25 sent offer. Paid $1.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266702893107
Tony Lama 6814 Leather Cowboy Boots Men’s Size 11 D Cap Toe
These were a scavenge of the week not long ago. Sold for full price in 10 days.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266371628742
Belleville 675 ST Gore-tex Boots Mens 12 R Cold Weather Waterproof Steel Toe
Combat boots are almost always a BOLO if the price is right. I picked these up at a yard sale for $2. Belleville is one of the better brands, and the Gore-tex lining makes them even better. Took about 7 months to sell for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266321091656
Xtreme ESPN 2 Hat Cap Snapback Skateboard Skating Extreme Sports Vtg 90s
Just a cool hat that sold. I love vintage hats. I just wish they had a better STR. Sold for full price. Paid $1. I’m VERY picky with what hats I pick up now. I have one bin dedicated to hats and I try to keep it full but DON’T want to keep more than fits in that bin.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266595325228
Polo Ralph Lauren Linen T Shirt Striped Made In Italy Men’s XXL
Premium hoarder item. Sold on offer for $50.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266508448507
The King’s Abbey board game Kickstarter Edition 2016
I paid $2. Wow this game has alot of pieces. Normally I like counting pieces for games to show how complete it is. For this one I just assumed it was complete due to how well it was organized. No way I was gonna take the time to count that many pieces! I didn’t even want to photograph them all as you can tell.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266681520409
Lenox Federal Platinum 54 Piece Lot Flatware 18/10 Stainless Forks Spoons Knives
So I bought this shoe box size plastic bin of dinnerware a couple years ago for like $3. It looked like nice stuff, and I figured some day I’d take the time to sort it out and list it. Well that day finally came when I found it while clearing out my weight lifting platform death pile. I sorted it by brand/style. Then I found each style to check comps. Sometimes easy, sometimes I have to wade through all the styles on replacements.com to find it. That search paid off for this item. I could have pieced out every individual piece of all this silverware, but I wanted to keep it simple and keep my ASP higher. I took an offer of $65.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266662865568
Faerie Tale Theatre VHS Tapes Lot Of 6 Shelley Duvall
Any time I see a collection of VHS or DVD I check it out. Sometimes it’s junk – sometimes it nets a good price and a quick sale like this lot. In most thrifts you have to buy each piece individually and it can add up quick. I paid $1 tape and this sold for full price within a month.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266641548889
Lee Corduroy Pants Regular Straight Leg Men’s 33×32 Brown Vintage Union USA
Vintage Lee and Levis are BOLO. Sold for full price. I just found a powder blue pair like this at Goodwill the other day. Paid $4.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265743936679
Billy Joel Vinyl LP Lot of 4 52nd Street An Innocent Man The Bridge Glass Houses
Paid $1 each record. Sold on offer for $35. Took 21 months to sell…yuck! I even lotted this up to try and improve the STR. It was fun to list a bunch of records. I enjoyed handling, researching, and playing them all. BUT, the STR is ABYSMAL!!! Thankfully all the records I have aren’t taking up much space. Eventually I will just lot them up as classic rock just to get rid of it all. They’re just junking up my store at this point.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266362021775
SAS Duo Quarter Strap Comfort Women’s Leather Sandals Size 8.5 WW Natural
Sold for full price. Paid $6. SAS shoes are kinda hit/miss, but when they are a hit they are a $50+ sale. These were a great size and a great style. They still took 7 months to sell but I got full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266345189972
TRUE RELIGION Chill Indigo Jogger MZIB395TS Soft Denim Size 40
Premium hoarder NWT item. Sold on offer for $100. I believe these had a $10 tag on them at the sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266415251556
Sony DVDirect Express Multi-Function DVD Writer for Camcorders VRD-P1.
oddball Sony A/V components are always worth a look. This took 6 months to sell at full price. Bought for $4.
3/11-3/17
Items in Store: 2991
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales: $1,372.00
COGS: $160.00
Total Profit: $1,212.00
Average profit: $39.10
Average sales price: $44.26
New Listings: 0
Items scavenged: 14
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 38
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,567.27
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 36
2024 ASP $43.43
2024 projected total sales $81,498.18Ah well an amazing beach trip is in the books and it is time to get back to work. It always sucks to come home after a trip like that. The ocean water was a “soothing” 58 degrees F and yes, I got all the way in and swam around every day. Ain’t nothing quite like being in water so cold that you can’t tell if you are cold or on fire. We even got to see some dolphins swimming along the coast one morning.
I do have a toy recommendation if you have small children: https://surferdudes.com/
I have 3 of these and they are freaking awesome. I won’t lie, I totally go play with one of these even when my kids aren’t. They are that much fun. Hands down the BEST beach toy you will ever own.
A trip like that is why I do this ebay thing. I don’t have to budget – we just go. I made enough on ebay while I was there to pay for the whole trip.
Sadly, my portable hot tub I keep set up in my ebay garage sprung an air leak right before I left. I had to drain it and then when I returned I took it out. I did the responsible thing and placed the elliptical machine in its place so my wife and I can get more exercise. So instead of a lazy 30 minute soak in the morning I can do a 30 minute exercise. Boooooo!!! I also now had room to set up another table to stage ebay work. In the next week or two I’ll have my weight platform cleaned off and I’ll be able to throw myself full tilt into getting physically fit again like I was before Covid wiped me out.
I had over 40 items to ship yesterday. The downside of returning from an extended trip.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 7 items for $691. The big item was an amazing 100% Linen Denim style Ralph Lauren chore jacket. I didn’t really have comps, so I shot for the moon at $700. Ended up taking an offer of $400 and the buyer since it sold has bought 2 more shirts from the hoarder collection.
3/4-3/10
Items in Store: 3022
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales: $944.00
COGS: $138.00
Total Profit: $806.00
Average profit: $33.58
Average sales price: $39.33
New Listings: 23
Items scavenged: 4
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 41
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,586.80
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 37
2024 ASP $43.36
2024 projected total sales $82,513.60We left to go on a beach trip on Thursday of this week. As soon as I turned on Time away (until the 18th) my store straight up died. Still not a bad week for having a fairly long time away turned on for half the week. I’ll take it! I travel scavenger style as well. I booked an oceanfront 3-bedroom condo for 7 nights at Wyndham Ocean Boulevard Resort for $875 total on eBay. You can’t beat that! I’ve been booking timeshare condos on eBay since 2008. The deals aren’t as plentiful as they used to be, but they are still there. We always travel off-season typically last minute which helps too.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 4 items for $432. One of the items is a big test – a pair of Gucci Soccer cleats that are going through the authenticity program. I was leery of them when I listed them, but now that I’ve processed most of the shoes I’m confident they are authentic. We’ll see what the authenticator thinks. This is the only pair I’ve sold through the authenticity program so far.Last week we went on vacation to the beach, so not much scavenging. I wouldn’t have done much anyways. I did stop by Goodwill yesterday to give it the once every 1-2 weeks run through.
I bought a couple pair of shoes – the best being a pair of Asolo hiking boots with Gore-tex lining. Pretty much any shoe/boot with gore-tex lining is a good pickup and a sign of high quality.
I picked up a couple clothing items – the best being an Orvis high pile fleece jacket. Comps put it at $70-80.
One other item of note is one I did NOT buy. It was a farberware 455 Rotisserie. I gave it a good once-over and it appeared be functionally complete buy missing a minor accessory or two. The sales prices can get up to $150. They were asking $15 so the profit was there. The box is really big though and the STR was not great. I passed based on the size of the item and the STR. I am more focused on clearing space right now and don’t want something like this taking up space for a while.
I’ve used the tool a few times. I actually just used it yesterday as a buyer left negative feedback because usps fumbled the shipment and took too long.
eBay removed the feedback within a few hours.Ah that stinks. Pay a premium…to pay a premium. At the end of the day the numbers either work or they don’t. Eventually they’ll price themselves out of a huge crowd and regret the greed….or they won’t and they’ll make more and more.
I also don’t get the strategy of trying to get global prices over a single weekend with a very local crowd of 50-100 people. I bought some mobility scooter tires at an estate sale last week. I paid $5 a tire. The lady asked me what they were – I told her. Then she asked if I would tell her what they are worth. I said “every part for those things is worth a lot. It’s finding the buyer that will pay that price is the problem. I’m probably the only person who would come through here this weekend and buy them – much less know what they are”.
Amazon links appear to be broken on the forum. I tried a couple ways. You’ll need to remove the spaces before and after the “:”.
