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https://www.ebay.com/itm/266415261674
HALO Mega Construx Covenant Brute Lance DPJ89 130 Pieces Sealed New
Paid $5 at a yard sale. Took an offer of $100.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266463018845
Electrolux Automatic Control Canister Vacuum w/ Power Brush Hose Standard Wand
This was one of my sell similar items I relisted last week. I took an offer of $100 since I wanted big stuff to move. This had the potential to be a nightmare to ship but I was prepared with a perfect box and a giant bag of free packing peanuts from work. Nothing beats the feeling of a ‘perfect’ shipping job where everything goes smoothly and everything fits perfectly. Packing peanuts can really save a ton of time on something like this. I save them for the ‘expert level’ packing jobs.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266388390900
Star Wars Episode One Bathroom Set Four Piece Phantom Menace Vintage
Paid $1 at a yard sale. So this was returned to me 2 months ago. The buyer was ENRAGED because the soap dish still had some soap residue on it. Some people need to NOT shop used items on ebay. I took his return, happily gave him his full refund to get him out of my hair for good.
This time sold for full price. Oh don’t worry folks – I detail scrubbed every piece with a power brush prior to shipment this time. The whole set is clean enough to lick!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266344390889
Spotlight On Music Grade 3 Cd Set Macmillan/McGraw-Hill CDs Curriculum
Now this is turning out to be a VERY lucrative score! I bought 4 of these sets for $5 each at Goodwill. This is the second set to sell – this time a $200 offer.
I hit a few yard sales this weekend. I got a minty complete in box Wii (with Wii Sports $$)at one sale for $10 and a box only with all the guts for free at another. Always fun to get video game stuff!
The scavenge of the week was this item:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266479877177
Antique Ruby Red Victorian England Hanging Oil Library Parlor Prism Lamp
Paid $50 at a yard sale. Oh man I was REALLY on the fence on this one. What a shipping nightmare! It was difficult to photograph too. I had one of my kids stand on my photo table and hold it up.
Special note – the ebay photo auto background eliminator works VERY well now! I haven’t used it in a while because it was so crappy. Sold comps were in the $300-350 range.
Sweet! Do you ship on Pirateship or ebay? I went full time pirateship earlier this year and haven’t looked back. It is nice to get the full 6x points on the card. I pull up my listings and look at the “print label” screen in ebay to see what the buyer paid and what shipping method I had on the listing. Then I do the label on pirateship. I have alot of custom templates set up for various weights/sizes. Also a template for padded flat rate envelopes. It is actually quite quick once you have the system down. I also beat ebay shipping’s price on a good percentage of labels due to cubic rate shipping.
I also like that I don’t get shafted on UPS overcharges. They try occasionally but pirateship alerts me immediately and makes it really easy to dispute. I win every dispute.
I saved up so many points and free rewards nights during COVID that last year we stayed at this place for 8 nights on points. 70k points per night, 5th night free when using points, and 3 free rewards nights. No resort fees when using points either.I also did a hilton timeshare tour for 100k points so the whole trip only cost 180k points. That trip would have cost about $5k if booked regular.
https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/myreses-embassy-suites-myrtle-beach-oceanfront-resort/
A couple tips:
Stay at Drury inn, Residence Inn, or Embassy suites for more free food (and drinks!)
Drury Inn and Residence Inn do full breakfasts and full dinners on weeknights.
If you don’t already use a rewards card that gives you hotel rewards. I use a Hilton Rewards AMEX and use pirateship for all my shipping to get 6 points/dollar on shipping (shipping on ebay via paypal with CC will only get 3x rewards). I’m on pace to sell 1500 items this year which will earn me 4 free nights (3 nights on average -30k/night with points plus a free night for spending $15k+) at hilton properties just for my shipping costs – basically free since that isn’t my money! I put all my inventory purchases, expenses, and all my home utilities on this card so I can get multiple free nights which I use to go on weekend getaways to Columbus for scavenging and family fun.
If it is just you traveling, you could also book on Hotwire. It’s not as good as it used to be, but you can still save 20-40% on nicer hotels. I’ve had great results using the info they provide to determine what the actual hotel is. The newest trick to determine the actual hotel is to do a google lens search on the hotel room image if they provide the actual photo of the hotel room. Combine that with the map zone of the hotel and you’ll know the exact hotel. They used to occasionally straight up tell you what the hotel would be but I haven’t seen that in a while.
I bought a bunch of shoes that are just bread n butter $40-80 list price. Nothing of special note.
After I had finished going through the shoes I was waiting on my wife to finish up in the women’s clothes. 2 items caught my eye in that section.
The first was a plaid jacket that had an unusual cut. It was a vintage Brittany Riding Apparel riding coat. Worth $150. Score!
Then as I rounded the corner an unusual color and fabric dress caught my eye. It was gold velvet. It is a Anthropologie Jenny Yoo Deep V Gown. Also worth about $150.
One other real interesting item I bought was a train very similar to this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/166391745987
Mine is in original box, all cars say RC. The track is missing. I paid up at $40 but I think it will be a fairly quick sale for $125-150. The individual cars sell quite well.
Oops, hit submit before I was done. Here’s a few more:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266451982640
Salvatore Ferragamo Sardegna 2 Blue Crocodile Driving Shoes Size 11 D
Sold on best offer for $600. I turned down or countered ALOT of offers between $400-550. Finally I got a $600 counter and took it as I really wanted a sale. Again, could have got full price if I was patient but I just have SOOOOO many of these shoes I have to be somewhat reasonable on offers to get some moving.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266453555098
Burberry Brit Men’s Quarter Zip Pullover Sweatshirt Red Size XXL
Sold on offer for $125. Had a good negotiation interaction with buyer so I wanted to do business with them. I paid $20 for this item.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265202634352
New Sealed 1995 Kool Aid Pog Milkcap Collector set + Slammer Limited Edition
Sold the remaining 3 sets at full price to a buyer who previously bought one of these. The only POGS I have left from that huge haul are the Star Trek TNG full sets that I can’t get anyone to bite on.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266439734485
RRL Selvedge Denim Jeans Low Straight Mens 38×32 Ralph Lauren
Paid $25. Sold on best offer for $175.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266464401472
McDonalds Changeables McDinos Transformers Lot of 9 Vintage Happy Meal 1990
I LOVED playing with the original robot versions of these as a kid. My kids have loved playing with some of these as well as I’ve found them over the years. This particular lot I bought at a local thrift shop for $1. Sold for full price.
I had just under 50 sales this week and there was no debate this time – my most profitable week ever.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266371173849
Louisville Slugger META 29/19 USSSA Composite Baseball Bat SLMTX10S-21
I bought 2 bats at a yard sale for $25. I bought two mainly to get my buy cost on this one down. I sold the cheaper one a few weeks ago for $50 and now sold this one for $140. I could have got more if I waited but I wanted the sale!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266428523263
Honda Goldwing GL1100 Rear Tail Brake Light Assembly STANLEY HM25RC 1980-1983
I bought this not knowing the details. It was cheap, cool, and in good condition. These parts always have parts numbers so the research is fairly simple. I was hoping it was a bigger home run but $50 for a $2 find – yes please!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266362022663
Men’s Strappy Leather Fisherman Gladiator Sandals Brazil Size 10 D Wild Rain
This was a pair of shoes in the premium collection that I actually considered donating to goodwill! I had a whole bin of less desirable loose shoes when I bought the first big collection of shoes. I couldn’t find anything on these and had a hard time making out the brand. After the first fake shoes scare, I went ahead and listed all the loose shoes I was confident were real, including these. So $30 from something that I once considered a throw away item is awesome!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266139504789
kawasaki motorcycle oil phone landline vintage untested
Paid $1 at an estate sale. Sold for $35. No comps but I knee this was a cool thing the right buyer would pay good money for. I found my right buyer.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266278410719
Lego 8845 Dune Buggy Expert Builder 1981 Complete Set w/ Instructions
This came from a large vintage tub of lego I paid $20 for. I love going through these big bins with my kids. We’ll spend a day or two sorting and trying to build the sets from the included instructions. This particular bin I was able to complete several sets such as this one. Sold for full price.
Oh I get plenty of low ball offers on my premium collection items. Sobs stories too! “Poor me, I can only afford $200 for this jacket.”. Seriously? Just put your offer in and let it speak for itself. It’s clearly disingenous if you are bidding on an item such as this.
For many of these items I have my minimum set at the lowest offer I’ll consider countering at so I can avoid pointless back and forth offers.Now the clothing stuff I’ve had more BINs and reasonable first offers that I have accepted.
The shoes I get alot of folks hunting for my min bid. I’ve had to decline or counter many $300-500 offers, which feels INSANE to do. It has paid off though multiple times.
I’ve gotten in the habit of highlighting my entire post with “CTRL A” and then “CTRL C” before hitting the post button.
I also do my Numbers post first thing Monday morning in a word file and then hold onto it until jay posts the numbers.
Items in Store: 2790
Items Sold: 49
Total Sales: $3,382.00
COGS: $326.00
Total Profit: $3,056.00
Average profit: $62.37
Average sales price: $69.02
New Listings: 85
Items scavenged: 9
Listing 2023 weekly Avg: 45Once I realized I had a shot at 3k I pushed HARD on listing the shoe collection this week. My son had an event at the library Saturday morning so I stood out in the parking lot listing shoes while standing in the entrance to the sliding door of my van. I got some weird looks. LOL! I had to do some significant inventory management to create some more room for more of these shoes. That new room is filled already so now I have to get more creative. I have a plan and in the meantime I will be going through my inventory and doing sell similar on older listings that take up a bunch of room. Hopefully some of them sell this week. For now my van has to act as temp storage for unlisted shoes. I may need to shift to listing bigger death pile items that aren’t high value to generate some sales and clear up some space.
Not much scavenging this week. Sunday was spent rebuilding our entranceway closet. I don’t just have to be super efficient with my ebay business – having storage for 8 people for shoes/jackets in a single 6′ long closet requires some high end efficiency work too!
I watched a video last week that talked about growth (see link at bottom of post). It made me really think about my monthly STR. So I took all my sales data, broke it down into monthly STR (total monthly sales vs average of weekly store size for that month), and plotted it out with a trend line. Oof, not good. As my store has gotten bigger, my STR has consistently dropped. I think another year of data would show that it is more of a logarithmic trend than a linear trend. Forecasting out I’d say I’m bottoming out at about 5-6% STR , with a 2-3% variance up or down depending on how active I am listing.
Premium collection update:
This week I sold 14 premium items for $2478. 5 of the items were shoes I just listed for $1450. That’s one heck of a return on investment – $125 into $1450! One of the pair of Gucci shoes I listed had a sealed card in it from the Neiman Marcus store they were purchased from. I opened it and read it. It was from the Men’s fashion sales person. It was a lovely personal handwritten note. This collector likely bought a lot of these items from this Southern Florida store as I’ve seen multiple receipts from this store. It kind of broke my heart that this note was never even seen. The shoes were bought, then placed in a stack in a closet never to be opened again.
I decided to include the card in the listing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266455797342
Premium cumulative numbers
Total COGS: $12441
Total Sales (minus fees): $12078.20
Items Sold: 139
ASP: $100.17
I will be back in the profit this week (spoiler alert – already there!). Gotta keep the pedal to the metal and build up some capital to buy the rest of the stuff AND a new storage building.
I didn’t do much scavenging this week – just one Goodwill trip. I wasn’t even going to do that but my wife wanted to stop by (She’s an enabler I tell ya! LOL!)
One of the items was a Rock Band Drum set. I’ve sold these before and they can go for good money. They are a pain to ship. Unlike past rock band drumsets I’ve bought (I….may have 2 more sets in my death piles unlisted…) I will get this one listed this week…and those other ones as well I suppose. I do need to test them, which I have the capability to do now that I have an Xbox.
This one will sell for $150.
Other than that, just a few pair of shoes in the $50 range each.
I had some YUUUUGE sales this week – my best week ever*. Can’t wait for the numbers post this week so I can share!
*I Actually have a week with a higher total sales $ by about $50 but that was heavily skewed by the sale of a pinball machine.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266393983306
Blackweb Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with LED Lighting Effects BWA18HO004
A good example of scavengerlife. I actually bought this keyboard for $1 at a yard sale to use at work. I tried it, and it was INSANELY LOUD clickety clackety. So I sold it for a great profit.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266353650370
Polo Ralph Lauren Mens RLPC Beach Division Pants Cotton Pin Stripe Size 40 x 32
Sold for full price! This one took just under 3 months. These sales will all happen eventually for these higher dollar items. Just gotta be patient. I knew this would be a multi year process when I bought in on the premium hoarder stuff. It’s so easy to get frustrated when listing these amazing items and they don’t sell quickly. I’ve struggled with that feeling with these shoes this week as 1 out of 5 do get offers almost immediately. Why can’t all 5? I just want instant gratification and a giant pile of money – is that too much to ask???
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266453564513
Gucci Horsebit Loafer Crocodile Alligator Loafers Men’s Size 10 Aqua Blue
These sold same day as listed for $500 after some negotiating. The buyer was the first buyer I had for this shoe collection. Back then I was rattled with finding some fake shoes in the lot. I panicked and started taking any/every offer on some shoes listings. I was worried at the time that the shoes I sold him may have been fake. I know enough now to know they were indeed real. Needless to say, he got two great deals on identical but different colored shoes. These he still got a good deal on, but definitely not a panic fire sale price (which was the initial offer he made -$250).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266317830124
Queer as Folk The Complete Series Showtime U.S. Version 28-Disc Box Set 2007 DVD
I held out for a good price on this and it paid off – sold for $325 on offer. I paid $5 at the premium hoarder yard sale. Just saw it off-hand in a bin of DVD’s while I was waiting for them to total up my huge purchase of clothing.
I stopped by the house in my neighborhood where all the bins of clothes were brought today. I counted 27 bins of clothes, some linens, some misc stuff like hats, and 4 large bins of loose shoes.
the clothes bins that I looked in had 20-25 items each as I suspected they would.next week I’ll be able to get a better look at everything. The main lady I buy from will be back in town in about 2 weeks. I will try to make an offer on everything left at that point. I’m thinking of offering $7500 for everything left. That’ll put me right at $20k and that feels about right. It is more stuff than I can currently take on, but I’m going to have another 8×10 shed placed next to my main ebay shed hopefully before then that I can pack full.
Technically I did not scavenge these this week, but I did pull them out of an 18x18x24 box and had forgot about them from 2-3 weeks ago. Yes, items like these are BURIED in boxes and bags in my ebay office. That’s just how many of these amazing items I have!!!
How I typically do these premium hoarder hauls is I go through the clothes on big racks quickly. I take down and hand the items I happily pay sticker price for to the sisters selling things. Anything I’m hesitant on I set aside for either research or to negotiate on price.
They are adding up my items and folding/boxing/bagging them as I go. I don’t know which boxes/bags each item is put into. I try to have to whole process done in 30 minutes or so.
Then at the end of this specific sale I went back to my pile of questionable items and said “I can do more research on these items and pick/choose or I’ll just give you 60% of your asking price and take all of them”.
So I saw these items so fast and threw them on my buy pile that I didn’t know just how good they were!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266453558673
Nike Aqua Gear Wet Suit windbreaker 3 piece Set NEW VINTAGE Men’s L/XL
This is probably my favorite item out of the whole hoarder lot. So RAD!!! I’m a sucker for 80’s/90’s color block stuff as that’s my era. I had absolutely no clue how to price it as this kind of set in this condition simply doesn’t come around. I considered an auction, but decided to just “moon it out”.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266453556784
Polo Ralph Lauren Leather Jacket Motorcycle Driving SOFT Men’s Size XXL NWT
I remember seeing this item, letting out a light chortle at the absurdity of the items I was going through and thinking to myself “Why of COURSE I’m going to take a NWT Polo Ralph Lauren Leather Jacket for $30.” I never looked at the price tag as I knew it was a Home run. Then this morning I saw the price tag, did a comp search, and gave myself a self-high five!
