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This is an interesting question right now for me, as it ties into alot of things going through my head.
First things first, what a challenging year health-wise.
Secondly, having the 6th child on top of the health issues my wife and I went through (and still are going through) was shall we say…challenging!
I look back on this year and I have no idea how I accomplished everything I did! I listed more items last year than I ever have in a year, and that is with taking off pretty much the last 4 months of the year!!!
So, what have I learned? I learned that I don’t think I can do this anymore unless I have help. I am 100% at that point that I need another person to do alot of the menial tasks for me. I don’t want to stop doing this business – I love it! I also need the money from it – 6 KIDS PEOPLE!!!
We’re pretty much at a cross-roads in life as a family on multiple fronts and this business plays into all of them.
1. We’re in a 3 bedroom house with 8 people. We’ve coasted since all the kids were small. They ain’t getting any smaller. We either need to add on to this house or move. That is a HUGE commitment and a major investment. I can’t do it unless this business goes to the next level.
2. I’m at a point professionally where I have to decide am I all in on my day job career, or am I a full time ebay seller? A few years ago I was close to quitting and going full time. I actually invested in this business as a backup plan for when (not if) I got laid off. I had decided that where I’m at now was my last day job one way or another. Now? I’m (frustratingly) starting to take my career very seriously and starting to consider where I want to be/how far I want to go. I ::gasp:: actually enjoy alot of what I do now. Can I keep growing this business, take my career more seriously, balance home life, and keep working on my health? Well for sure ebay has taken the back seat since September. As I stated at the beginning, I need an employee – more than the occasional hour my oldest can give me – to keep this going. My oldest turns 16 next month. I may offer her a real job, but she would have to take it seriously. My wife thinks she can. I think she needs a job outside the house in which she fails spectacularly so she sees how good she’d have it working for me. If it ain’t her, I’ll have to seriously considering hiring a contractor.
3. Health – career – family time – ebay – house. All these things…but do we even want to be here in WV anymore??
Our health has been severely impacted and the weather here does us no favors. We don’t like winter anymore. We basically only get about 4 months out of the year that has weather we truly like. We aren’t really into the outdoor activities that are popular here. Truth be told I’ve always lived in WV but I’ve never felt like a West Virginian and I for darn sure am not a mountaineer.
We’re in this limited window right now where if we’re ever going to make a move, it needs to be now. This next year is the sweet spot. If we don’t do it now we never will. My wife has talked for years about moving to Florida or the Carolinas. First off, that’s a scary move for someone who has lived within 20 miles of the same place my whole life. My heart has never been into that kind of move…until this week. Something clicked in me and I think a move to Florida would actually work for us. We even have plenty of family down there.
Just for giggles I did an engineering job search in Florida, not expecting to find anything. One job caught my eye though. I couldn’t shake it and ended up applying. Not just a “for giggles” application that I thought it would be at first. More like a “was this fate” that I searched this job at this time? I’d basically be overseeing the design and manufacturing of parts using a state of the art additive manufacturing process for freaking NASA! It’s a weird feeling to look at my qualifications and realize I actually could do this, have all the skills, and that I actually want to! Never in my entire professional career have I ever actually given a crap about my career trajectory. It’s always just been a job that I have to do to provide for my family. I got a degree in Mechanical Engineering not because I had passion for it – I was just good at math and technical stuff and I thought it would pay well.
So right now I think I’ve committed myself to seeing this Florida thing through and see if I get any serious offers that would entice us to move there. I’ll keep searching and applying. If nothing materializes it isn’t the end of the world. I’ve already been told where I work now I’ve been targeted for future management. I actually turned a management role down because I wanted to stay in a technical role. In the meantime no matter what I have to get my ebay business cooking, get more stuff listed and get alot more sold. I need the cash and I need to reduce how much stuff I have. By the end of this year we have to make some MAJOR decisions.
One way or another, this reselling business will play a major part. How much of a role will it play in 2024? Well stay tuned because I have no idea.
There used to be a crazy amazing pinball place near there that was called PAPA. It was only open a few times a year (due to stupid antiquated local laws) but they had pretty much every pinball made and all in immaculate condition.
They shuttered so I bet alot of the machines at this new place came from there.
If you file jointly with your husband you won’t need to do quarterly – just have him withhold a bit more from his check.
I’m usually fine with my federal since I get so much child tax credit, but State taxes always gets me even with extra held out. WV pretty much doesn’t have any deductions. Boo!
Right there in the store. I try to pick a quiet corner where not alot of people are traversing so I’m not in the way. If I have alot of items I’ll get another cart to sort out the items I’m going to put back.
At a yard sale I can be more free wheeling when the COGS are low. With the prices at most thrifts now, I don’t buy anything unless I already know my profit margin.
Before I check out, I go through my cart and look up the items I’m not sure about. I put back anything that doesn’t meet my purchase parameters. Everything else I buy I might as well go one step further and create the draft except for shipping info.
I’ve done this occasionally when I’m by myself and have time.
When my wife has already taken the keys and went to the van with the kids, my timer is ticking.
Side note: I’ve seen people do Whatnot auctions right from the thrift store, and even from a Goodwill outlet prior to purchasing anything. That’s BOLD!
I had a sale this week on a piece of samsonite luggage. I meticulously packed the item, then weighed/measured it only to find it was WAY bigger than my input measurements. I looked closer at the photos and realized it was the wrong thing. An hour later of failing to find the right item I went through my history to find I sold this bigger item I had in hand in April 2021. Apparently I grabbed the smaller item back then and shipped it.
The measurements would have been smaller so I probably just thought I overestimated. The buyer clearly enjoyed the wrong item more than the one he bought from me as I never heard from them.
They were both samsonite 1910, but one was a rolling laptop bag and the other was a rolling garment bag.
Anyways, explained the situation to the buyer and they were ok with the cancellation.
Items in Store 1963
Items Sold 23
Total Sales $540.00
COGS $143.00
Total Profit $397.00
Average profit $17.26
Average sales price $23.48
New Listings 2
Items scavenged 20
Listing 2023 weekly Avg 1My ebay office is a disaster right now as we finish putting up the Christmas decorations. We also had a bug go through the household this week. THANKFULLY it was a minor bug that just took each kid out of commission for 48 hours or so.
I hope to get my ebay space more organized this week so I can get to work listing.
I used to repair, restore, and collect arcade games/pinballs.
Coin mechs are one of the most fascinating aspects for me.
Inside the coin door there are slots for “coin mech cartridges”. you to put in whatever size coin mech you want.there is one brand of coin mech made by Imonex that is fully adjustable to match whatever coin you want.
one of my earliest eBay money-making rackets was to buy big lots of coin mechs, test them, and sell them.
I’d also sell modified mechs that would take multiple coins for home use.
eBay app- active listings vs solds. This gives you a 90 day STR for your search terms.
the large items are coming from my death piles – I already have them.
I don’t really like doing drafts on mobile due to the limiting nature of the app, but now that they are making them similar ( by ruining one) there isn’t much difference.
It just makes sense to do them immediately. I typically don’t because by the time I’m done paring down my cart of items I’m ready to go.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265785221111
Picked this up at a yard sale for $5. Didn’t research it – I was just entirely smitten by it and LOVED it. Probably the most adorable shelf figuring I’ve ever seen. Then when I got home and researched it – HELLO!
Funny story on this one – I picked up two of these at the same yard sale. The other one was only a $25 item. I sold the other one and initially packed this one up instead. At the last moment I double checked. That was almost a major $100 mistake!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265532641590
This is the second one of these I have sold. Picked this one up in Columbus for $7. I almost didn’t buy it because space in the minivan was at a premium on that trip. I did because I knew what it was worth. Now I’m glad I did! The best part of this sale was that I pre-packaged this one when I listed it. It was sooo nice to just grab it and slap a label on during Christmas break. This is what we call “advanced” shipping skill level to do.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266047280683
So I saw this printer at a yard sale at the beginning of summer. The seller wanted $100 and gave this long winded story about how much it’s worth, etc. Whatever dude…
Anyways, stopped by a yard sale at the end of summer and thought “this sale feels familiar”. Then I saw the printer and chuckled to myself. I wasn’t even going to ask about it. I picked up this item: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266013095242
and asked for a price. He started to give me a long story and then said “$5”. Well NOW I’m gonna ask about the printer. I got the same story, but the price was much more reasonable – got both items for $20.
Items in Store 1984
Items Sold 22
Total Sales $759.00
COGS $115.00
Total Profit $644.00
Average profit $29.27
Average sales price $34.50
New Listings 0
Items scavenged 4
Listing 2023 weekly Avg 0I had a nice relaxing time off from my day job from 12/22 until today. Of course I did do ebay shipping during that time but not much else work wise. Lots of playtime with the kids.
I scavenged a bit but followed my new scavenging rules:
- $100+ items I can buy
- $50+ items have to have a 50%+ 90 day STR – no long tails
- <$50 must be 100%+ 90 day STR for a near immediate sale.
One thing I would like to implement is going ahead and creating the drafts at the store when I scavenge. Since I’m already researching the STR and sales price, I might as well take the extra minute or two to create the listing. Then get them photographed and listed when I get home. soo…
4. Immediately list new purchases.
My 2023 rules for listing are:
- Spend 30 minutes each week looking for 5 high dollar items ($75+) and list them.
- List 10 larger items (VCR size or bigger). Note: Can overlap with rule 1.
One thing I would like to implement is going ahead and creating the drafts at the store when I scavenge. Since I’m already researching the STR and sales price, I might as well take the extra minute or two to create the listing. Then get them photographed and listed when I get home.
I need to do some organizing to create a workflow space to make this happen.
I’m still going to track my average listings but I’m not really setting a listing goal aside from the 10 large items each week. Once I get into Q2 I’ll have a better idea of my listing goals. By then I’ll have listed 130+ large items and should have cleared out a good amount of space from selling around 30% of them.
Anyways, Happy New Year everyone and good luck!
Items in Store 2006
Items Sold 19
Total Sales $1,002.00
COGS $72.00
Total Profit $930.00
Average profit $48.95
Average sales price $52.74
New Listings 8
Items scavenged 1
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 36Closed out the year strong. Nice!
Sold a Mall Madness board game for $150 for Christmas. That’s the second one I’ve sold at Christmas for that price.
I have paid my oldest child
to do photography, and occasionally pick items from inventory for shipping.
she is great at photography and cleaning items, but she is slow and loses interest quickly. She’s good for an hour at a time at most.
I pass Blenko glass every day on my way to my day job. They are somehow still in business.
When I go to estate sales, blenko glass is what everybody kills each other over while I’m chilling in the closet looking at old shoes.
Items in Store 2017
Items Sold 21
Total Sales $867.00
COGS $81.00
Total Profit $786.00
Average profit $37.43
Average sales price $41.29
New Listings 33
Items scavenged 7
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 36I finished up the listings of a bunch of high dollar items this week and immediately sold 4 of them for $350. That made a huge difference in my week!
I’m thinking of my goals for next year. Goal #1 has to be improving my organization. I was on the path of being organized and clearing/condensing out storage in the summer. Everything fell apart due to neverending health issues and illnesses for me and my family from September through November.
Now it is cold and gets dark early. I tend to do the minimum in the deep parts of winter and then go on a big cleaning organizing kick in the spring. I need to reverse that trend this year and target small improvements each week.
Goal #2 is to keep focusing on listing my high dollar items. One of the people I watch on youtube is a game seller called “Chase after the right price”. He bought several giant inventory buyouts and has a series of videos where he takes 30 minutes to go through his death pile storage unit and pull out 10-20 items worth $100+ that will sell quick and generate cash flow.
I kind of did the same thing and pulled $100 items when organizing back in August. I’m reaping the rewards right now of doing that and want to keep going. So each week I’ll take 30 minutes and try to find 5 high dollar quick sale items I can list. I’ll target $50+ as long as it will be a quick sale.
This may tie into goal #2, but goal #3 is to focus on listing larger items so that I can start clearing space. They can’t sell if they aren’t listed, so I need to list at least 10 large items a week. My larger items tend to be higher dollar items but they aren’t always quick sales.
This year I focused on listing alot of items. That’s good and all but to hit my listing goals I listed alot of small, low dollar items. That doesn’t result in alot of cubic footage of inventory moving out the door.
Goal #4 is going to be the hardest. I’ve set similar goals MANY times and always fail at it. I have to STOP buying bread n butter items. I’m thinking I can only source items that are $50+ and/or a super quick seller until yard sale season comes back in April. The only exceptions I can make to the $50 rule is if the item has a greater than 100% 90 day STR in ebay solds. A $50-$100 item needs to have a 50% or greater 90 day STR.
So that’s my rough draft my business objectives this year. Thoughts?
I do my clothing drafts first.
1. Research and use sell similar if possible
2. Fill in item specifics, shipping, and description – include major flaws in description.
3. Copy/paste my premade templates for measurements depending on item
4. Take measurements and put right into draft description.
Then I can photo at my leisure. I always have “See photos for details & condition” in all of my listings. If I see any minor flaws while photographing under the high intensity lighting I take a closeup photo.
To make taking photos easier, I used dailyrefinements method of using a large piece of foam board on an angle with felt on it.
https://www.dailyrefinement.com/blog/ebaysetup
Regular felt works just fine at holding the clothes in place. My board is modular – I just it on my photo table and put a quick clamp at the front of the table to keep the board from slipping off.
