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Items in Store 2157
Items Sold 19
Total Sales $470.00
COGS $42.00
Total Profit $428.00
Average profit $22.53
Average sales price $24.74
New Listings 37
Items scavenged LOLZ!!!
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 49My store was dead – hopefully the calm before the storm.
Scavenging was not dead this week. Not at all.
In the middle of the week we were at the mall and we just happened to step into TJ Maxx so my wife could use the restroom. As I waited with some of the kids I perused a childrens clearance rack near the restroom. It was a special “final markdown” rack and the prices were insane. Fancy dresses for $3. Complete outfits for $2. I got a bunch of stuff for my kids, then said “hmmm, I wonder what else is special clearanced in the store”. Over an hour later I walked out with 100 items for just over $600. Brand new name brand clothing for less than goodwill prices! It was crazy. That was an opportunity that simply does not come around often so I had to go all in. Once all is sold, about $2500 profit.
This Saturday I wasn’t going to go to any yard sales. My wife talked me into it since it will be the last yard sale weekend of the year for us due to other commitments for the next few weeks. I’m always disappointed in August yard sales here as they usually suck. I was pretty much correct, but there were two interesting ones.
First up, a sale that had an entire table of Victoria Secret Bras. Now I know there is a big market on ebay but 1: I never find this stuff, 2: Do I really want to sell women’s used underwear?
There were no prices and they were still laying there after 11am so I figured they were priced high. The lady said “$2 each, but I could do 2 for $3.” I said without missing a beat “Make it $1 each, I’ll just take all of them and let my wife just pick what she wants.” Ah the old
The lady was super happy to sell…all 45 of them! I can’t stop chuckling to myself that I’m a used bra salesman now. Life dreams people!!!
The last sale was a huge 3 car garage full of stuff. Initially I almost left because they had ebay prices on things at the front. Then I committed myself to find the things they missed. Twas a good idea! I made a small pile and the husband came over to talk to me. He was clearly a car guy – the back of the garage had a ton of car parts, tools, ephemera, and old car magazines. I kept shopping as we chatted. The more we talked, the lower the prices became and the more free stuff he started giving me. I got all the ephemera, manuals, and magazines for free. Brand new minivan headphones for free. I basically filled up the back of my van for $60. One of the parts alone – a 1920’s Cadillac wheel grease cap – sells for $100 consistently.
I could have gotten soooo much more, but I really don’t have the space.
Also at the sale was a really special stereo with a big “not for sale” sign on it. As I was loading I stopped to take a look at it a bit closer. Twas an amazing stereo. After I left I researched it to find out it was a Super rare $40K stereo (clairtone Project G) – just sitting in the dude’s garage for playing tunes. It was immaculate too. Not a scratch on it.
Now the crappy part is that when I unloaded my van that evening I realized in the stupor of seeing that stereo I left a stack of things at the sale. Nothing too valuable – some newsboys hats and an old black & decker all metal drill. Doh!
I’ve only listed 4 things so far from that sale and am at $300. It’s hard to know where I’ll end up once all the ephemera is listed/sold, but likely several thousand dollars. I know there is $1000 worth of stuff without the old car ephemera.
I dread posting my numbers tomorrow. My store is as dead as this forum.
Steve Schultz,
I just saw a clairtone project G at a yard sale. It wasn’t for sale, but holy moly – it was amazing! I didn’t know exactly what it was when I saw it, I just knew it was the most amazing stereo system I’ve ever seen in my life. Then I looked it up after I left.
I think I’m gonna go back and see if they will put a price on it anyways. I don’t think he knew how specia it really was. It’s just his “garage radio”!!!!
That’s because it has the wrong head. The body is Batman begins prototype suit figure.
the head is Alfred from the same toy line.I use these labels:
BETCKEY – 4″ x 6″ Shipping Labels Compatible with Zebra & Rollo Label Printer(not for dymo 4XL),Premium Adhesive & Perforated[12 Rolls, 3000 Labels] https://a.co/d/70Nmlmx
3000 labels for $60. 2 cents a label. That will last me over 2 years.
Heads up,
If you havent price compared pirateship lately, I suggest you do. Their cubic rates were improved and they are beating ebay rates pretty regularly. If you use parcel select, they now also do cubic rates on parcel packages.
I just did a 10x8x6 3 lb package that even in my region beat the ebay rate by 50 cents. In the past that never happened.
ebay quarterly shipping coupon: anyone else having issues accessing the coupon. I tried about 2 weeks ago and the code would not load. Now when I go to the subscriber discount page and click on the shipping coupon button … nothing happens.
Items in Store 2139
Items Sold 33
Total Sales $823.00
COGS $106.00
Total Profit $717.00
Average profit $21.73
Average sales price $24.94
New Listings 12
Items scavenged 5
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 50
Sourcing Allotment 12Spent time at a family reunion this weekend instead of sourcing/working. We had a surprisingly great time. I did take some time to clean my listing area and got all listed stuff in inventory storage. I’m primed and ready for a good week of listing. I hope to see more activity on here than last week. Post your numbers people!
Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come as we head into the hopefully busy holiday season.
This is the weirdest recession ever isn’t it, that we’re expecting a busy holiday season.
Case in point – our state had their tax free weekend for back to school items this weekend. We were at the local mall on Saturday and Sunday. It was INSANELY busy! I commented to my wife I felt like I was back in the early 90’s in the heyday of this mall when it was always packed. We’re FB friends with some of the people that are in management positions with the mall and some of the stores. Many stores were doubling/tripling their projected sales for the weekend. There were LINES out the entrance at some of the shoe stores just to try on shoes!
In another oddity, at my day job we are getting major increases in sales intake. I’m talking higher intake than before covid. We supply parts domestically and globally.
I hope my ebay store has the same order intake increases this fall. I want all the moneys!!! Papa’s gotta build a home addition.
Items in Store 2160
Items Sold 24
Total Sales $873.00
COGS $71.00
Total Profit $802.00
Average profit $33.42
Average sales price $36.38
New Listings 79
Items scavenged 25
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 51
Sourcing Allotment 22My week was saved by two $200 sales this weekend.
Scavenging wise I did not do any yard sales this week due to family plans. I did go to the state surplus store this week. I try to go once a year. They are way overpriced on most stuff but there is always some gems in there. This time the gems were sealed toner cartridges for $10. I scanned all of them and cherry picked all the good ones. Also got one of the high end mosquito traps that uses a CO tank.
Also while there I heavily eyeballed a bunch of really nice newer filing cabinets they had. These were extra deep and would be PERFECT for inventory storage. I’m not sure where I would put them without completely blowing up my inventory system though. Man, talk about highly efficient space! I can see why people use them as long as you put the right stuff in them. Perfect for clothing.
This week I went ahead and plowed through that vintage toy haul I got last weekend. There were a few good items in there, and the total list price was $1000. I’ll make my money back and be into the profit this week for sure. Then I’ll have another little pipeline that will give me small sales here and there for a long time. The whole lot doesn’t take up much space at all – about a cubic foot – so the value per foot of storage space is astronomical.
This week I need to focus on listing bigger items and I need to clean up my office. I only have so many hours in the week to dedicate to ebay and cleaning/organization is always the first thing to go to clear time to list.
Items in Store 2105
Items Sold 29
Total Sales $1,072.00
COGS $92.00
Total Profit $980.00
Average profit $33.79
Average sales price $36.97
New Listings 85
Items scavenged 45
Listing 2022 weekly Avg 50
Sourcing Allotment 19Twas a fine week in ebay land. I had some really fun sales. I had some really fun scavenging finds. I went back to the same sale where I bought the Major Matt Mason toys. This time he had a bunch of his daughters toys out. I bought everything for $40. Nothing of big value, but it is ALOT of $5-10 items. What’s really fun about it is it’s all from my childhood. It will be real fun to play with them with my kids, then list them to create that $5-10 item pipeline. Alot of them are happy meal toys from the 80’s and early 90’s. It was no sweat to pay $40 because I knew a single set of hand puppets in there I was familiar with sell routinely for $40, as well as a bag of Mcdonalds food transformers also worth $40+ (LOVE those!). If I find a couple gems in there that sell for big bucks that will just be bonus – the whole lot is still worth a few hundred.
Another sale I’ve been looking forward to was the local high school yard sale. They do 1-2 every summer for various clubs/teams at the school. They pile everything into the cafeteria and after 12pm you can fill a bag or a box for a set price. I always go to these at noon and load up. It wasn’t as great as previous years, but I still got plenty of good stuff.
I had an irritating customer service issue this past week that resolved nicely. Customer opened an item not received case. Their notes were confrontational and accusatory in the case, so I knew this would be fun. They were upset that I used USPS instead of Fed Ex, even though it had nothing to do with the issue.
First, I explained why: For larger items I always put Fed Ex ground in the listing with my shipping discount applied to ensure the lowest price for customers on both coasts. For west coast shoppers, I ship Fed Ex. For East Coast shoppers I ship USPS priority because it is the same cost but 1-3 days faster. It is an UPGRADE.
This guy couldn’t wrap his head around that.
So the reason why the item wasn’t delivered was because the buyer had dogs in his yard. The carrier didn’t deliver due to dogs, left a note, and attempted 2 more times, again with notes each time. The buyer ignored the notes. He claimed to me that “this has never been a problem with any carrier”. Sure bud…. Anyways, I explained that carriers change all the time as well as there are backup carriers that cover routes. They all have the right to refuse delivery if they feel threatened by an uncontained dog.
So after explaining my shipping method and why his item wasn’t delivered, he left me negative feedback because I didn’t refund him immediately
I wrote him back to express my displeasure in the fact he left me negative feedback before I could help him resolve his issue. I also pointed out the fact that he waited a MONTH to contact me. More whining and excuses (he claimed he did write me after a few days but ebay records show that is not true and he admitted it when I called his BS). I washed my hands of him and said “I hope you get your item eventually.”
I contacted Ebay for business, they had me wait out the case timer and contact them again on Saturday. They closed the case in my favor and deleted the feedback. Easy Peasy.
The item was returned to me yesterday. Technically I don’t owe this buyer anything since he violated ebay policy. I don’t appreciate the rude behavior or the negative feedback when I was very punctual and helpful in spite of him, but I’ll let him sweat it out a week or so and then refund his purchase price.
Any time I see a person use an egg cup in a movie I instantly think “that person is a psycho serial killer”.
Lol!
Unless it is showing some feature you can’t show yourself, don’t bother.
I do this for the smartwool socks I have sold – as I can’t exactly open a pair of each kind and put them on to model.
I learned the hard way to never make it the main listing photo – bury any manufacturer photos at the end of your photos.
A couple of quick stats for year over year based on my listings push.
In 2021 through the end of July:
New listings: 735
Average weekly active listings: 1484
Items Sold: 676
Total Sales: $25488
In 2022 through End of July:
New listings: 1463
Average weekly active listings: 49
Items Sold: 786
Total Sales: $27243
So year over year, I’m up 16.3% on my average weekly active listings.
I’ve sold 14% more items, but my total cash sales is only 6.5% higher YoY.
I listed TWICE as many items this year. NICE!
My weekly average active listing will compound throughout the 2nd half of the year since I keep listing at almost 50 new items a week.
Unfortunately I’ll run out of YoY comparison data next month because of my extended 2021 Covid illness where I shut my store down from middle of august until middle of october. Then I didn’t list anything for the last 7 weeks of the year. I have to compare to 2019 which is not really a fair comparison since my store was about half as big then.
My year really hinges on what happens this fall and Q4 with a store well over 2000 items. I’ll likely have close to 2500 active listings by the end of the year. I’m in uncharted territory here. Could I surpass my 2020 numbers? Possibly. That year was front loaded with bonkers sales during lockdown and shortages. The second half of 2020 wasn’t as impressive. My 2022 numbers so far match the last half of 2020, so if I have a phenomenal fall and winter I could definitely match/exceed 2022.
My initial goals were this year were:
- Minimum 1500 new listings, Stretch goal – 2000.
- 1500 sales
- $52500 in sales
- Empty out the garage
I’m going to blow my listing goals out of the water.
I am not currently meeting the sales goals, but if I can average 33 sales per week for the rest of the year then I will meet all my goals based on my $35 ASP.
…now for that last goal of the garage….
Well that one got a bit complicated. First off, I gave up a large portion of the garage to my wife. She now has a large dedicated space for her vinyl crafting. She also has a large dedicated space for her pottery stuff.
Yes I’ve listed alot but I’ve also been bring alot of scavenged stuff in. Technically I have alot less stuff in the garage but I lost a significant amount of space to store it in. I still want to have the garage cleaned out and largely empty by the end of the year. Maybe I’ll start to tackle that harder once yard sale season is over.
