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Thanks Linda. I figured the weekend would be slow, but not the entire week!
*Paul*
Ideally, just over $3000 a month. And that just covers the basic bills and a bit for more inventory. If I could pull $4000 a month, my financial anxiety would be relieved. My biggest issue right now is not driving. My car is busted, so I’m not able to hit up as many estate sales, thrift stores, etc. as I used to. I’m lucky to have a girlfriend who likes picking with me, but she’s only available on the weekends. I’m trying to save up the dough to have the Benzo repaired, but it’s been tough with the low sales. It’s all a bad cycle I’m trying to break out of. Luckily, when I visited my storage unit last week, there was way more inventory in than I remembered. So, I have a lot to work with right now. And I just found an auction house a couple of miles away that’s open every other Sunday. They have box lots! Can’t wait to check it out.
The record guy let me go about a year and a half ago. His assistant said he couldn’t afford to keep me. A month later, he fired the assistant. Personally, I think he was going senile. His assistant was a whiz at coins, and I know records inside and out. Hard to understand why he’d let go of two experts that were making him money…and who worked for less than they were worth.
Interestingly, right after I wrote my initial post, I had a $380 sale, a Super Nintendo bundle. More of those, please.
*Paul*
RR Store Week May 7-13, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,313
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $46.23
Total Sales: $518.38
Highest Price Sold: $79.99 (50s eyeglasses)
Average Price Sold: $20.74
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $34
Number of items listed this week: 62Yeah, another lame week. Not sure why; I listed consistently, and what I listed was all over the place, not just vintage clothing. I fielded questions, took/countered multiple offers, etc. I even sent a bunch of my really old items from Buy It Now to Auction to clear out some stuff. Still, crickets. I’m not in panic mode, but this is unsettling. I’d hate to have to get a little part time job to supplement my income.
*Paul*
Edited to add: Friday, the postal carrier skipped my packages. First time in a couple of months, but still. And it was six packages! So Saturday I took them to the post office, explained that they weren’t picked up, and asked them for a scan with Friday’s date. He happily obliged. I think it helped that the supervisor was standing right there. So, the retro scan is a thing!
RR Store Week April 30 – May 6, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1.272
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $9.28
Total Sales: $516.92
Highest Price Sold: $79.99 (70s bell bottoms)
Average Price Sold: $25.83
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $56.25
Number of items listed this week: 33So crazy. This is half of what I made last week. Hopefully this week will be better. I’m in the final stages of De-Death-Pile-ification, so that should free me up to do more sourcing, which has been minimal lately. One of the dreaded items in the death pile was a Super Nintendo console and 24 games.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how I use eBay as a resource as well as a selling platform. The Super Nintendo is a perfect example. First, I didn’t have a cord to connect it to my TV. $4.35 and three days later, I had a cord. Then I tested the games. Half of them didn’t work, so I Googled up ways to fix them. Very simple: open the cartridge, clean the chip with an eraser, close it up, good as new. But I needed a special screwdriver to open the games. $5.85 and three days later, I’m cleaning cartridges. All the games that didn’t work are playing perfectly, and the bundle is listed at a very high price. Fingers crossed it sells soon.
*Paul*
RR Store Week April 23-29, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,259
Items Sold: 32
Cost of Items Sold: $57.97
Total Sales: $1,025.72
Highest Price Sold: $119.99 (Vintage Brockway Trucks ashtray)
Average Price Sold: $32.05
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $81
Number of items listed this week: 31If I could have weeks like this every week, a lot of my financial anxiety would be relieved. Didn’t do anything different; in fact, I missed my listing goal because of all the time intensive death pile clothing. Lots of Oxy Clean soaks, steaming, and measuring. I wish I could just list records all day. So quick and easy.
Saturday I went to three estate sales, and boy did I clean up. I filled up the trunk and half the back seat, all for $81 bucks. While waiting for some face time with the boss at the first sale, one of her employees walked through the house announcing that everything was now half off. Music to my ears! I piled all my picks on the table. She eyeballed it and said “$30 for everything”. Sold! Yesterday I sold an ink cartridge from that sale for $26 bucks…almost paid for the whole haul. The sale was in a gorgeous million dollar mid century home with a spectacular view, full of high end pieces. A goldmine.
We got to the third sale during the last hour on the last day. They were desperate to get everything out, and encouraged me to make a pile, which I promptly did. Again, I got an incredible deal. I was practically giddy.
Aside from being driven to estate sales by my girl, this is a one man operation. No kids to worry about, and my girl has her own place. Not a lot of balance with work and leisure activities right now. Too busy getting my business back up where it needs to be. Weeks like this are my short term goal. But I get the fun stuff in here and there. Mexican food and margaritas for lunch, a birthday party, a moonlight walk, etc. My vacation goal for the year is to spend a weekend in Palm Springs doing as little as possible. (sigh)
*Paul*
Silver tabs…will do. Also, keep your eyes peeled for orange tabs. I recently sold a pair of orange tab bell bottoms for $80 bucks. And if you find any Levi’s with an upper case E on the tab (known as “Big E’s”), those do VERY well, especially the 501’s.
*Paul*
RR Store Week April 16-22, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,251
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $22.98
Total Sales: $440.30
Highest Price Sold: $54.99 (Maui Jim sunglasses)
Average Price Sold: $22.02
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $61
Number of items listed this week: 29I had a really rough week personally, so I wasn’t able to list much. My totals show this very clearly. But tragedy was averted, and things are much better now. And strangely, I’ve made more in sales the last day and a half than I did all last week!
Three items I listed yesterday sold within minutes of listing them. I know vintage Levi’s can be daunting, but they’re so worth the effort. I listed three pairs of 501’s from the early/mid 1970’s. Within a minute, I had a half price offer on the first pair, listed at $79.99. I countered at $70, telling the guy that they hadn’t even been up for two minutes. I got three additional offers, then the first guy accepted my $70 counteroffer. I listed the other two pairs without Best Offer. One sold in about three minutes, and the last sold within the hour. Of course, in hindsight, I’m thinking that I should have priced them higher. But I’m happy with $210 in an hour. Google “how to date Levi’s” or “how to date red line Levi’s”. Just a bit of knowledge could fetch you some big bucks. And don’t shy away from distressed jeans; two of the three I sold had big holes in the crotch area.
I finally found a laser printer at an estate sale! I spend so much money on ink; my Epson is a thirsty girl. I’m still going to keep it around for color printing, but for the packing slips and labels, my Brother HL-2240 is my newest employee. Best part: $5 bucks. Still has paper inside too!
Alright, back to work. I have a lot of listing to make up from last week.
*Paul*
T-Satt, I’m starting to get the hang of it. Still takes me longer, but that scan sheet is worth it. In fact, I just heard the sweet sweet beep of the postal carrier scanning my sheet. Music to my ears!
I created kind of a work-around for the Global Shipping snag: I sold a bikini to a Canadian customer via Global Shipping. Glad for the sale, but it was on a Saturday, which throws a wrench in my Bulk Shipping plans, especially since I had a busy weekend. Since the bikini was my only GS sale, I printed that one up the normal way, then just dropped it off at the post office Sunday night; I knew I’d be close by, and it only took a second. So the GS item went a day early, the scan sheet covered the rest of the weekend’s sales, and all is right with the world…until tomorrow.
*Paul*
RR Store Week April 9-15, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,252
Items Sold: 31
Cost of Items Sold: $43.95
Total Sales: $814.49
Highest Price Sold: $110 (vintage Hakata doll)
Average Price Sold: $26.27
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $27.85
Number of items listed this week: 31Between my birthday and taxes, I didn’t get a whole lot listed. But I still hit my goal, which makes me very happy.
Lots of what I sold this week were freebies from friends and family. My neighbor’s old clothes are starting to move, and some sunglasses my parents gave me sold as well, including a pair of vintage Vuarnet sunglasses for $60. That’s pure profit! And I didn’t go begging; my folks are trying to downsize before retiring and moving in the next few years. They’re happy to give stuff to me instead of donating it. I got my “eye” from my Mom, so I know most of the stuff I’m getting is quality.
Also, did anyone else get asked to be an eBay Expressionist? I was invited to this new program where they get a cross section of sellers to discuss the platform. From the sign in page:
“eBay expression is a community of eBay sellers, who have the opportunity to provide feedback, input and insights through surveys and forum discussions about eBay products, services, new concepts and ideas. These valuable insights will help us improve and shape the future of eBay. eBay expression is by invite only and the mix of sellers participating will change over time.”
I will definitely be checking the “How Can eBay Improve?” threads here on SC and contributing what I can on the Expression site. Unfortunately, I had to sign a non disclosure form, and since my eBay seller name and my name here are the same, I don’t think I’ll be able to share much. But we’ll see.
*Paul*
T-Satt, I did almost the exact same thing. I wrote the customer’s last name on a Post-It, stuck it on the package, printed the labels, then matched everything up. Not loving the process, but I’ll do whatever it takes to get TRS status back. Like Ryanne, I’m afraid of mixing my labels up (happened once and I vowed it would never happen again). But I just did a batch of five items, and it wasn’t so bad. But, also like Ryanne, I wish eBay could do this for those of us who prefer printing individually.
*Paul*
RR Store Week April 2-8, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,252
Items Sold: 31
Cost of Items Sold: $45.21
Total Sales: $792.48
Highest Price Sold: $151.99 (50’s never used bathroom exhaust fan)
Average Price Sold: $25.56
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $47.70
Number of items listed this week: 24So I dove into Scan Sheets with mixed results. First time took me a while because I never use bulk shipping. I had to figure out how it’s done, then go from there, as I normally just print them individually. Took me twice as long to ship…that kinda sucked. Next night I did the same, with similar results. Both times the carrier scanned the sheet the following day and everything was fine. Third night I go to print up postage for four items. Bulk shipping kicked out an item sold through Global Shipping. There was a link to the “new” bulk shipping page (still trying to get used to the old one) that included all four items, but I couldn’t adjust the weight on anything. It was all fixed. So I did it the normal way instead. Not sure why it would do that if the package has a domestic destination.
Bulk shipping seems to be tailored to sellers that sell a lot of the same thing; if your iPhone case package weighs 4 ounces, then you plug 4 ounces into the initial listing and when it comes time to ship it’s not an issue. But since I sell a variety of stuff, all with different weights, bulk shipping is a bit more challenging. I guess I can plug in the weight of clothing as I’m listing, but that adds another step to the process. I wish I didn’t have to do all this extra work just to pick up the Post Office’s slack.
Not much listing this week. Too busy celebrating my birthday, which is tomorrow! But come Tuesday, it’s back to work. I hit my sales goal this week, and I want that to continue.
*Paul*
Very familiar with those books, Christine. Thanks for the links! And best of luck finding Tiki Modern; I bought mine as soon as it came out. I had to have it! I’m still on the lookout for Sven’s original Book Of Tiki for less than $100. Have you seen the Smuggler’s Cove book? It’s amazing, and closest to the kind of bar I have in mind. Can’t wait to serve you a proper Mai Tai!
*Paul*
Much obliged, T-Satt! I checked out a video, then did my first Scan Sheet last night. Fingers crossed they actually use it. It’s a completely different way of shipping for me; I print them individually ass opposed to using Bulk Shipping. But I’ll try anything to get the Post Office to scan on time.
*Paul*
