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Thanks for the feedback! I also posed this question to my wife about the hoarder tracking. She said “are you just doing it at this point for ‘s***’s and giggles’?”
well….yeah. I like the positive reinforcement ego boost that I made a good decision.
I’m officially done separately tracking hoarder items. I can always run a report in eBay later down the road as I keep these listings in their own store category.
We went to Columbus for new years and I checked out some Goodwills to make it a business trip. Being picky I didn’t come back with much though my wife did find plenty for her own personal wardrobe.
The two highlights for me was a fancy wetsuit that looks like a triathalon wet suit. It will sell for somewhere between $50 and $150 once I do more research. Once I knew the STR was amazing and the bottom dollar was $50 that was enough to throw it in the cart for me. Paid $10.
The other cool item was a vintage Vitamix mixer. This is the old all aluminum model with a dial control with reverse. It looks soooo cool and typically Vitamix is big bucks. Sadly these older ones don’t have big value. It is something I’ll list for $75 and probably sell for between $50-60. Paid $3.
Other than that I got a few pair of shoes and a few clothing items. The coolest pair of shoes was a pair of Wolverine 1000 mile boots. They have an excellent STR of about 70% and will sell for between $50-100. Why is 70% a good STR for shoes? Because of size/condition. 75 current listings and 52 sold in 90 days specifically for the chelsea style of this shoe. If you have a decent size and in good condition that basically means instant sale. If I have a size without competition I may even list for $150.
It takes some practice to get used to putting things back. When I’m at a thrift store I’ll fill my buggy with potential items and then before I leave I’ll got through the whole cart item by item to verify STR and sales price. So while I leave alot of items on the rack now without even considering, I als0 am well versed with putting back items I put in my cart – sometimes I put the whole cart back and walk out with nothing…and feel GOOD about it!
Week of 12/23-12/29
Items in Store: 3007
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales: $1,024.00
COGS: $110.00
Total Profit: $914.00
Average profit: $38.08
Average sales price: $42.67
New Listings: 10
Items scavenged: 0
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 35
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,596.81
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 34
2024 ASP $46.36
2024 total sales $83,034.00Another year in the bag and it was another record year. I hit $83k in gross sales. YAY! I also sold more items than ever at 1791 items. I listed less than last year at 1835 new listings vs 2500 last year. In 2023 I went from a 2k item store to a 3k item store. This year I maintained the 3k item store. My sweet spot is going to end up around 3500 items that I maintain. I am beyond thrilled with how my year turned out! My long term goal is still to list 40 items a week, sell 40 items a week and maintain $40+ ASP. To get there I have to list more in the short term. Thankfully I have a several THOUSAND item death pile. The days of hoarding a death pile in case I lose my job so I can go full time without sourcing expenses is over. I already have a fully robust store that – for many people – is a full time income. It’s time to go ahead and reach my store’s full potential even still as a part time business.
I have a list of goals for next year:
Process upgrades
- Upgrade listing/shipping computer and switch to 2 vertical screen setup
- Finish upgrading shipping supplies station (in progress)
- Add light on articulating arm to photo station
- Convert 1 wardrobe in inventory shed to bin storage – adds 9-12 bins (250-300 items)
Bottom line – I need a cleaner, more efficient work space. Anything that can save me time – even at seconds per item – adds up and is worth investing in. I want to get to where I’m selling 2300-2500 items a year. Saving 30 seconds per item on any one of my processing steps (listing, shipping, photography) could save almost 20 HOURS in a year! If I can reduce my times by 30 seconds on every step, that is a HUGE time savings. Doing this size of store part time with the workload I have means efficiency is the most important aspect of everything I do. Anything that can improve my listing quality with minimal cost and zero net effect on time is also worth doing. That’s why I want the articulating light arm. For smaller items my light setup isn’t as effective. Having a light I can move into place will increase my image quality (better lighting = lower ISO value of camera = less graininess and more detail)
Store goals:
- List 2500+ items (get store to 3500 items)
- Maintain scavenging parameters that focuses on high STR and high value. I only want to source $50+ items unless the STR guarantees a fast sale.
- Have helper photograph 30+ items a week to tackle clothing backlog deathpile.
I want to source less than ever this year and keep focusing on death piles. Not counting the premium hoarder collection, this year was the least I’ve ever sourced by volume of items. I think I’ve hit the sweet spot for now and just want to maintain. It will be several years before I would run out of death pile even at an accelerated listing pace of death pile items. It is so important to keep scavenging even though I’m buying less as you can’t find the home run items unless you are still looking. Getting to 2500 items listed should be much easier as my son will be more consistent than my daughter was. In 1Q 2025 I plan to burn through a big pile of clothing – I’ll create 10 listings a day during my break/lunch at work so he always has 10 items to photograph each day. He’ll keep improving his speed, so 50 items a week should be no problem for him. I want to front load as much listing as possible in the 1st quarter of the year. The stretch goal will be 1000 new listings in 1st quarter.
I think I will start culling old items as well this year. Things that just don’t have much value vs the space they take up and/or have very low STR have got to go. I’m much more tolerable of very small low value items. If I have a big item that is taking up alot of space and sells for less than $50 – why am I keeping that around?? It’s not even worth blowing out price wise because the risk of an INAD return or a shipping damage claim on a bulky item could end up costing me money.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 4 items for $405.
At this point I’m only still doing this number because I pull the data anyways for a spreadsheet where I’m keeping track of my profit on this pipeline. Maybe I should stop tracking it and just accept this will be a part of my business for another year or two. Thoughts?? (Checking to see if anyone is reading still) I already know I’m going to end up around $150k in sales once it is all said & done. It was very important to keep track of numbers early on since my upfront costs were so high. Now – not so much. I have 477 current listings for a listed value of $77k. I still have around 100 or so listings left to do which will add another $10k to list value. These items do keep my ASP up, but I know it won’t last forever. My hope is that my enhanced sourcing methods focusing on higher ASP will balance my store out over the next 2 years so once all these items are gone I will still have a $40+ ASP going forward. Pre hoarder collection I had a $35 ASP that was solid as rock independent of store size. I’ve been at $49 ASP since I started listing hoarder items. So steadying out at $40 seems realistic with my enhanced sourcing rules. This collection really pushed my whole business to the next level. I want to maintain that momentum!
This is an excerpt from my numbers post for the last week of the year (if that thread gets posted)
I have a list of goals for next year:
Process upgrades
- Upgrade listing/shipping computer and switch to 2 vertical screen setup
- Finish upgrading shipping supplies station (in progress)
- Add light on articulating arm to photo station
- Convert 1 wardrobe in inventory shed to bin storage – adds 9-12 bins (250-300 items)
Store goals:
- List 2500+ items (get store to 3500 items)
- stretch goal: Front load 1000 listings in Q1
- Maintain scavenging parameters that focuses on high STR and high value. I only want to source $50+ items unless the STR guarantees a fast sale.
- Have helper photograph 30+ items a week to tackle clothing backlog deathpile.
If you already have a death pile of sub $25 items and if you ASP is $25 or less, then you should absolutely be shooting higher when scavenging. ONLY buy items $35 or better. Shoot, go even higher if you are still buying with the higher pickiness.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266402927518
Davey Allison 1986 #95 Miller Action Historic Series 1:24 scale Stock Race Car
Sold on offer for $110. Paid $5 at a yard sale. Most of these collectible cars aren’t worth much. This one was an outlier.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266926815666
Graphex Optar 135mm Camera Lens Vtg F/4.7 Graflex Photography Antique Wollensak
Another vintage lens from a big lot I bought this summer at a yard sale. What a great pipeline!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266970534500
Polo Ralph Lauren Yacht Club Vest White Men’s Size XXL Vintage NWT
Sold on offer for $200. This is a hoarder collection item.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267096175602
Super Nintendo SNES AV RCA Video Cable Factory Sealed Original OEM
This was in the SNES box I sold last week. High end gaming collectors are a special breed, and I knew this would potentially have value on its own. Only a super high end collector trying to put together the most minty fresh complete original snes would ever want something like this. Sure enough, sold for full price. They basically paid for the staple and the bag. Most expensive staple I ever sold!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267088393842
White House Black Market White Pinstripe Womens Pantsuit Size 16 Jacket 12 Pants
I normally don’t highlight bread n butter sales, but this is an important one. I bought a TON of women’s clothes from a yard sale this past October. Tons of nicer brand upper tier mall brand – most new with tags. I paid $2-3 an item but the sales prices are typically in the $25-50 range. I’ve only just started listing some of this lot, so hopefully this is a sign of times to come. This was one of those times where I make an exception to my scavenging rules. When such a large collection of all very clean or even NWT bread n butter items are in one place and at a very low price I feel it is worth going ahead and going all in. To source this much bread n butter items from Goodwill would take years and probably 100+ hours of sourcing time going through racks. The COGS would also be much higher. Now at the time I knew I had started my two oldest 100% listing clothing so knowing I would have zero of my own time tied up in the listing process this made the purchase even more of a no-brainer – it would be about as close to printing money as you can get. Sadly that didn’t work out with my older kid, but my son will still photograph it all for me.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266681519095
Oneida Glimmer Silverware Forks Spoons Knives Serving Set Stainless Lot of 18
These are from a death pile lot of mixed silverware I let sit for years. It paid off to take some time and break the lot up and find the make/models of each set. I have sold all but one listing from that lot and have made about $200 off that $3 investment.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267101243437
WWE Championship Spinner Foam Belt Raw Youth Wrestling Cena 2005 Jakks Pacific
I still have a soft spot for toys. This one met my STR criteria (greater than 100% 90 day) so I picked it up earlier this month for $4 at Goodwill. Sold for full price in 10 days. I’ll take a $20-30 sale all day long if I know it will sell very quickly.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267006981478
Adidas ADI Firebird Tracksuit Vintage Red White Size XL Men’s
Sold this previously and it was returned for fit. So far this one has stuck. SOld on offer for $150. Paid $2 at a yard sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266628886459
Red Man Select Tobacco Corduroy Snapback Hat Cap Redman Vintage
Sold another one for full price. I bought 4 like new at a yard sale for $1 total. Noice!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266535408834
Columbia Yellow Anorak Hooded Jacket Mens Size Large Waterproof Omnitech
Columbia is hit/miss, but this one was a hit!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267096174348
Super Nintendo SNES Box with Inner Packing and papers ONLY NO SYSTEM
Another of my wife’s childhood nintendo boxes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267093965208
ARIAT Jeans Mens 34 x 32 Blue Denim M7 Slim Fit Straight Leg Western Cowboy
Ariat is a great BOLO brand for shoes and clothing. Extremely well made.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267045955974
Porsche Design Sunglasses P’8613 64 mm White Aviator P8613-C-6414-135
Hoarder item. I have a bunch more Porsche sunglasses still to list. I even have another pair identical to these as the original owner like to have a “wear” pair and a “collect” pair.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267095283575
Grundfos Comfort System Instant Hot Water Circulator Pump UP15-10SU7P/TLC New
I bought this as a personal item years ago for $100 and never installed it. Turned a swell profit.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266577085580
Sony Playstation 2 SCPH-30001 R Tested Cords 1 Controller 11 Games 3 mem cards
Bought this lot at a yard sale for $20. Took a year to sell.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266832892858
Mr. Christmas Disney Mickey’s Clock Shop Animated Musical Complete Vintage 1993
I bought a bunch of these Mickey christmas sets at a yard sale this summer. I still have a few and I’m hoping for a post Christmas run on them. This was weird timing for this sale as it wouldn’t get there in time for Christmas.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267102899265
Xfinity Home WiFi Router Modem White XB7-T w/ Power Adaptor
I love selling routers like this! Sold same day as I listed it. Paid $4 at Goodwill. Ironically, on the model tag it says it can’t be resold. Whoops!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267102998764
Kalso Earth Women’s Solar Black Mary Jane Shoes Size 9.5 B
Sold within a day. This is a BOLO brand shoe I’ve always done well with.
Week of 12/16-12/22
Items in Store: 3046
Items Sold: 39
Total Sales: $2,046.00
COGS: $299.00
Total Profit: $1,747.00
Average profit: $44.79
Average sales price: $52.46
New Listings: 56
Items scavenged: 10
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 36
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,608.04
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 35
2024 ASP $46.41
2024 projected total sales $83,618.04I listed a bunch. I did some organizing in my garage office. I made plans for efficiency improvements. It’s nice to feel rejuvenated. Other than that I can’t remember much ebay-wise from this week at this point. The week was a blur due to all the family activities we were doing. Expect a much bigger post for the last week of the year. I already wrote it – it’s an opus.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 6 items for $482.
We started watching Dr Who during Christmas break so I’m hoping to start understanding what you say over the next few weeks. LOL!
Yeah, I went through the exact same thing last time I tried to do a UPS claim. The fact that they had fake claim numbers and fake claims phone numbers just blows my mind.
for my own sanity, I don’t even bother with claims now. I have maybe had 10-15 total in the history of my eBay business. They are very rare thankfully. I just refund and move on with life. I had one a couple months ago, where I shipped a TV.
my net loss was like $50.I also believe that all of the major carriers are blatantly committing fraud and eventually there will be a lawsuit and we’ll all get five dollar payouts. Yay…
Two new scavenges of the week Christmas style.
USPS dropped the ball HARD in my neck of the woods. The regional hub in Charleston has multiple trucks they’ve never unloaded. I have two packages with presents stuck there since the 18th and 20th, respectively. Didn’t know the grinch worked for the government….
anyways, eBay inventory to the rescue. I was able to sub out toys from my death pile and listed inventory new in box for the missing items.
merry Christmas everyone. I’m going to bed now – been a looong day. It ain’t easy keeping track of and wrapping presents for 7 kids. Excel spreadsheet matrix to the rescue.
I went to goodwill to see if they had any good stuff from last minute donations to make room for all the new toys. Once upon a time, the week before Christmas was an AWESOME time to go to goodwill. They just chucked everything out on the floor as it came in for cheap.
yeah, those days are over it seems.
I did get a few things though – the highlight being these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176419659063
Mark McGwire Vortex bat
i paid $4 and knew what it was as soon as I saw it.
i also got a vintage Easton Redline baseball bat. Unfortunately this is the little league version but I’ll still list it for $100. I had a Redline when I played baseball in high school. Dang that bat was HOT!!! You didn’t even have to be good to hit home runs – just put the bat on the ball.
eBay felt the pirsteship pinch and FINALLY started passing on the cubic rate discounts to sellers so the difference isn’t as big as it was before. Pirateship is still a bit cheaper than eBay on a lot of labels and that adds up for me since I’m closing in on 2000 labels a year now.
Week of 12/9-12/15
Items in Store: 3014
Items Sold: 32
Total Sales: $1,284.00
COGS: $119.00
Total Profit: $1,165.00
Average profit: $36.41
Average sales price: $40.13
New Listings: 51
Items scavenged: 0
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 36
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,599.28
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 35
2024 ASP $46.28
2024 projected total sales $83,162.56Last week was a good restart to set the tone for this week. Now I’m fully back in the saddle. I was cooking on the cleaning/organizing and listing fronts. I got 51 listings live, but I had about 50 more drafts made that are waiting on photos. Every day in the morning I tried to ship a few things and photograph a few things. My oldest son did some photography without having to be asked, which is nice! Each day at work I tried to get at least 5 clothing items and 5 shoes/small items drafted and ready for photos. Then each night I tried to find a couple big ticket items laying around my office space to get listed as well. That paid off with two $100+ sales this week.
On the weekend I committed an hour to getting my listing desk cleaned off. My listing/shipping area consists of a 5’x3′ table top, a rolling shelf cart on one side, and a 2’x4′ folding table on the other side. All three were TERRIBLE and piled with junk and unlisted items. I finished the desk, processed the majority of death pile items on the folding table, and got most of the unlisted items off the rolling shelf cart and into draft status. This week I’ll finish up cleaning organizing the cart and the table.
The shelf cart is supposed to have 2 shelves for shipping supplies, and 2 shelves for to be listed items. It ended up a jumbled pile of some packing supplies, some to be listed death pile, and some listed items I was too lazy to move elsewhere. The folding table is supposed to just be an intermediate station that has bins for “to be listed” and bins for “to be photographed” that is contantly cycled through. It ended up a death pile repository that just got piled higher and higher…
I’ve also had 2 wide screen monitors sitting in my van that I picked up at a yard sale this summer to redo my listing/shipping computer setup. I finally brought them in and got them tested out. My intention is to put one or both in a vertical orientation so I don’t have to scroll so much while listing. I ordered the table mounted articulating arm last night so I can put them into service. So long to my ancient and dim 19″ square format monitor that sits on a carboard box for added height!
In regards to sales, I officially crossed $80k gross sales this year! Last year I improved on my all time high in 2020 by more than $10k and this year I’m beating 2023 by at least another 10k once the year is over. I’ve also matched my all time total sales (2020) this year. I’m currently at 1728 so I’ll finish out right around 1800 total individual sales.
At the beginning of the year I set a goal to get my store to a 40/40/40 store eventually – 40 items listed, 40 items sold, and a $40 ASP each week to get me an $80k annual business. I ended up at a 35/35/45 store, so I’ll be focused on the 40 listings a week in 2025 to keep pushing my store forward.
Sold 4 items for $335.
I am back to listing some more of the premium hoarder items this week. The highlight being a vintage Hartmann luggage bag. Shame on me for letting this one sit! I sold a pair of shoes this week for $170. Yay! I haven’t sold any premium shoes in a few weeks it seems.
