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11/26/2018 at 11:05 am in reply to: Trash Elf Twins Challenge 2018 Thread #3 From Week 31 August #52273
I listed 23 this week. No death pile items.
These were items I already had photographed the previous week. I have maybe 5 items left to list from those photos. I don’t think that I will be doing much more this week except for repairing some death pile items plus some non-eBay stuff. My next week report will definitely be lower.
11/26/2018 at 11:00 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52272Week of Nov 18 – 24
* Total Items in Store: 1265 eBay, 11 Mercari
* Items Sold: 24 eBay
* Cost of Items Sold: $28.22 + $0 Commission
* Total Sales: $575.07 eBay
* Highest Price Sold: $47 Olivia Riegel Grapes Bottle Stopper; $102 for four listings of Gorham silver plate flatware to the same buyer
* Average Price Sold: $23.96
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $17.25
* Number of items listed this week: 23Finally, a reasonable week of sales! I recently listed a pattern of early 1900s Gorham silver plate flatware called Stanhope. I sold four listings for $102, then two listings for $35, and three listings for $68 all this week! It must be a popular pattern. I only have three listings left. I paid $11.50 for a box of it and a set from Mappin & Webb, which hasn’t sold yet.
My $17.25 on new inventory was spent at the same auction where I paid the same amount in October and filled my minivan. Did the same this week. One lot was several wood and metal barrels, and some are filled partially with nails. One has the antique type square heads that Jay & Ryanne sold a few years back. From my initial research, they don’t sell for much, so I’ll lot up enough to make it worth a listing.
I’m interested in what this commercial building will end up as. I’ve been assuming that you would target a certain type of business and then lease it. If you decide to make it your own business, I assume you will need to hire a manager (or at least assistant manager) and sales people to a point where it runs mostly on its own. Or, at least, that is how I see it. I’ll be following your progress.
11/24/2018 at 8:37 pm in reply to: Unintentionally tried to ship contraband, seized through GSP #52222This has been mentioned previously on the forum. Someone posted a link to an eBay account/seller that seems to get all the “contraband” and resells it (domestically, I assume). eBay’s programming should catch these items and prevent them from being sold internationally in the first place.
11/22/2018 at 1:05 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Doc Martens, Gun case, Vintage bike radio, Speaker stands, Electric stapler, Panasonic TV #52179In October, I bought three lots at the minimum bid of $5. With premium, the total price came to $17.25. Each lot was several boxes and other assorted stuff. It was hard to see what exactly was in each box, but I found a thing or two I thought were interesting, so I bid based on that. I ended up having about 45-50 listings from those purchases, so each item comes to less than 50 cents. I sold something for $16 the previous week, and last week I sold this set of dinner plates for $28. So, I’ve made back my money on two sales:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/183526032154My family and I were in Boston in the Spring. We visited a used book store where I bought a vintage book for $2. Then we were in Manhattan during the summer, where I bought an antique book for $1. In my mind, I had a race of NY vs Boston, and NY won with this 1857 Book of Patents for $34:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/183381592247For our wedding in 1999, one of our gifts was a Waring blender. I think I put something in there that it couldn’t handle, and it never really worked well after that. More recently, I bought a Ninja blender in an online auction (love it!), and I needed to make room in my cabinets. Since the Waring didn’t work all that well, I sold the pitcher for $20:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/183434503644Before I bought my current lighting system, I tried out different set ups with lamps I already owned. They didn’t work very well, and the photos didn’t come out that great. I’ve been meaning to retake photos for these Bradford Christmas ornaments, but they sold first. I bought them in a box lot for $2.40, and sold for $24:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/183492179597This was a menorah that my grandma bought for me in the 80s that I don’t use any more. I tried listing it when I was still new to eBay selling. It didn’t sell and, for some reason, I de-listed it. I decided to retake photos and relist it, and it sold for $24 within hours. I must have learned something about selling on eBay in the last 3 or so years.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/183536515827-
This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
Sharyn.
Happy Thanksgiving! Now that I don’t work in an office any more, this forum is like my work buddies, helping me when I can’t figure something out, offering the latest news on updates, and providing further education on how to run my business. I’m very thankful for all the information and help I get. I hope that I provide some in return.
OK, I’ve used that function for downloading sales reports. I just didn’t remember.
For my active listings:
67.3% for items less than $20
23.5% for items $20 to less than $40
4.6% for items $40 to less than $60
4.5% for items $60 and higherI was able to order by price (I did that by just clicking on the column header for Current Price). I have over 1200 items in my store. Since each page shows 200 (default) at at time, I could sort of count until I got to a certain price. However, I screwed up and didn’t want to recount.
I’ve downloaded orders before. How do I do it for current listings?
Congratulations! House buying is stressful and exciting at the same time. If not stressful, then just very busy.
I assume you agreed to buy their stuff in order to sell? It is furniture plus household? Is some of their stuff nicer than your where you might keep some of it for yourself?
I assume that the 28 foot container in the back will be for eBay storage.
I had to google swamp cooler. Why does it have both a swamp cooler and central air?
Is there an easy way to filter your listings for price? I can sort lowest to highest, but getting any kind of statistics would be counting by brute force. I know how to get a report on sold items, but not on current listings.
I think I’m very focused on lower priced items.
I accepted an offer on Sunday, and I sent my normal reminder yesterday (after two days). Today, I went to send another message, but, based on the podcast suggestion, I also sent it to her email address. This was my normal friendly reminder:
Just another reminder to pay for this order. I have eBay’s unpaid item assistant set to automatically open a case after four days of nonpayment (which would be tomorrow). If there is any issue at all including needing more time or deciding to cancel the purchase, please message me right away.
She paid about an hour later! So, this is another data point, and I don’t know how many we need until Jay says “this hypothesis is now a theory”. It’s been a while since I had a NPB, so I can’t do it all alone!
This is a low profit way to sell, but I can add in selling stuff around your house that would normally go into the trash or recycling. For instance, you can save all of your cardboard rolls from toilet paper or paper towels and sell them when you accumulate enough to make it worthwhile. People use them for crafts.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-20-Empty-Paper-Towel-Rolls-Cardboard-Tubes-For-Craft-Projects-Brown/153250114318?hash=item23ae6b2b0e:g:4~EAAOSwjdhbaeHOWhen I had started selling, a friend gave me hundreds of used tennis balls. I sold them in groups of 25 or 50. I think I sold the 25 count for $17.50 including shipping. In the worst case scenario, I had to ship it in a medium flat rate box, and I only made a little over $5. In the best case, I made around $10-11. I made more for the 50 count, although I charged less. People used them to play with dogs, put them on the bottom of table legs or walkers so that they wouldn’t scrape, and used them to test conveyor belts at a warehouse (for one of my local pickups). I also sold the empty plastic tennis cans. So, if you knew someone who worked at a tennis club, this could be a constant source of income. You only have to take photos once.
I think this could also work for golf balls, soda bottle caps (I think you can charge more if you sort by color or if you drink some esoteric brand), empty tins, cans, jars, bottles and so on. If you asked a restaurant that was interested in reducing the amount of stuff they threw out, they might be willing to save stuff for you.
I don’t do this on a regular basis, but I have some tins I’ve been saving up. I was thinking of empty spice jars, but it might take me years to gather a decent enough quantity.
11/20/2018 at 1:49 pm in reply to: Trash Elf Twins Challenge 2018 Thread #3 From Week 31 August #52067Yes, I realize that Tarn-X is caustic. I open up a few windows and make sure air is moving. I hope that helps a bit. I do realize that it isn’t good to use numerous times on silver plate, and I only use it on stuff that is very tarnished and needs extreme help.
The baking soda and aluminum foil is also very easy and effective, but I was finding it difficult to use on large items. So, it’s very good for flatware, but not so much on large bowls and trays simply because the whole item has to be underwater. Perhaps I should have used it on the flatware I had to minimize the amount of Tarn-X I used. I’ll try to remember that for next time!
To require immediate payment, you have to click a checkbox in Account Settings. I have Business Policies set up, so when I go to edit a Payment Policy, there is a checkbox “Require immediate payment when buyer uses Buy It Now” under Electronic Payment. If you don’t use Business Policies, then there should be a similar checkbox in the area for electronic payment.
Yes! I found them looking up a 1973 Sears catalog I just bought in an auction lot. The Christmas Wish Books were going for $80-$100. The catalog I have is more in the $25-$35 range.
I haven’t bought any returned merchandise.
My best buy was overstock books, which included 10 tarot card sets that went for really good money plus other books that did well. I did get a little sick and tired of selling the cheaper books, so I ended up donating a good number. I still have some listings left.
I bought some Asian style housewares, which are a pipeline and sell every once in a while.
I bought a huge amount of cute-ish clothing labels for less than $9, which would be great except that I haven’t sold any. That might be a story for another time. I have a few ideas of marketing them a bit differently before I give up and donate them all.
Then there these pants.
So, I’m at 50% success rate at this point.
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