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Week of May 14-20
* Total Items in Store: 750
* Items Sold: 11
* Cost of Items Sold: $11.22 + $8 ish Commission
* Total Sales: $236.00
* Highest Price Sold: $59 four pieces of enamel on copper art
* Average Price Sold: $21.45
* Returns: 1 (haven’t received yet)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: approx. $108
* Number of items listed this week: 30 (includes 14 resisted as auctions)The week was pretty slow, but not bad. I like that enamel on copper sale. It was listed as best offer, but the buyer paid full price.
I had removed a large number of slow selling low value listings about 2 weeks ago to sell off at a flea market, but the day ended up very rainy day, and I had to leave after only an hour or so. I received a promotion email from eBay for some free 10-day auctions listings if they started on May 25. They will be running a commercial during the basketball finals on June 4, and they wanted auction listings that would end around that time. I have a store, so I didn’t need the promotion, but I ended up re-listing 14 items as auctions. Let’s see how that goes.
I believe you dip it in kerosene, light it on fire, and then start the stove or fireplace. What you have is the starter only.
I thought that I had a mortar and pestle, and then a nice “ebayer” told me what it really was. You can check out my listing if you want and decide if it is what you have.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=182579724948&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT
Amatino – Lilu & Hops are lovely cats. Lilu is a calico just like Steve Shultz’s cat, but smaller. They are interested in my work – particularly the boxes!
Gompers – What you are saying makes sense. I might separate out the custom made club (iron #7), since it is a bit different. I’ll need to do some more research on the green club since it is unmarked. I assume it isn’t particularly valuable, but I don’t know.
Jay – I did do some research, and I don’t think that the brand is a big deal. Joe Turnesa and several of his brothers were well known golfers at the time, so maybe that will help and maybe not. I did find that one of the fishing rods that happened to be in the bag was a good brand and model, so that will at least pay for the purchase and provide some profit if only those sell.
Steve – When you packed that tire, what type of packaging did you use? I have a spare tire (doughnut) that I need to list.
My better sales from last week:
This is my big sale of the week. I saw this antique 10 Volume set – the Century Dictionary & Cyclopedia – at my local library’s yearly book sale for $20. I initially hesitated at buying it, but I was able to come back two days later and it was still there. The negotiated price was $200, but I had to include shipping of about $40.50 because eBay doesn’t have a good way to list with two separate boxes. The total weight was over 70 pounds.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182556986882This is a consignment. My neighbor is an aerobics instructor, but stopped doing Zumba classes. She gave me a bunch of Zumba clothing to sell. A buyer asked me to combine pants from two different listings, which I agreed to because it was a big enough sale. Five pants sold for $55.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182572001758Last year, I bought an online auction lot of tarot cards, and they sold really quickly and for decent prices. They are definitely a BOLO for me. I went late on the last, rainy day to an estate sale two weeks ago, and they priced three packs of Tarot cards for $2. Two sold the day after I listed them, and the last one sold a day or two ago. Here is the highest price one that sold for $28.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182578107286Here is an Alice Cooper concert T-shirt sold via GSP to someone in the UK. I had hung clothing on my steamer for photos. I think that it looks horrible, but it sold for $28. I paid $1 at Goodwill. I now photograph clothes flat on a white sheet.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182288149274I have not yet bought a thermal printer. Based on what I read on SL, this is something I need. Early on, I purchased a box of 500 pages of adhesive labels (2/page), and I have my inkjet printer. When I get really low on the labels, I will buy the Dymo (I’m pretty low now, but not quite ready).
So, my inkjet does only so-so with printing on the adhesive labels. The USPS can usually scan them with no issues. FedEx, however, has had issues with many of my labels, so I have to print them on regular paper, fold them in half, and put them in the provided clear envelopes with sticky backs. So, maybe there is a reason that you can’t print FedEx on the thermal labels. This is a theory, no backup, just a thought.
Week of May 14-20
* Total Items in Store: 731 (57 delisted)
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $26.61 + $29.87 Commission
* Total Sales: $450.44
* Highest Price Sold: $160 Antique Century Dictionary & Cyclopedia 10 Volumes
* Average Price Sold: $34.65
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4
* Number of items listed this week: 17Love the little TM marks you are using in some of your write-ups!
My week was pretty decent. Certainly beefed up by the antique book set, which were published in 1899-1900. The last volume is an atlas, which I think is the star of the set. The sale price was actually $200, but shipping of about $40.50 was included. I didn’t want to include shipping, but these books had to be shipped in two boxes because the total weight was over 70 pounds. eBay doesn’t allow a flat rate over $25 for media mail, and it has no way to accommodate two boxes.
I have been anticipating the process of ending a number of my slow moving, low value items that I bought in the beginning and selling them at a flea market. I had decided to skip the original flea market two weeks ago because of bad weather in favor of this past Saturday, which showed 0% chance of rain with a high of 68F up to two days prior. I stopped looking at the predicts and was very surprised when the rain started about an hour or two after setting up. They decided to reschedule for the following day, but my husband and I just couldn’t get out of bed Sunday morning. I’m going to post photos of my stuff to a Facebook group I belong to, and then just donate the rest.
My attitude has changed over time. Jay and Ryanne have certainly helped with their podcast and forum comments. The fact that I have built up my store, and I am making more money, helps too.
I know that you can set up your account to block buyers with unpaid item strikes, policy violations, etc., but not negative feedback left for other sellers. So, you would have to cancel a sale based on what you found after they buy something from you. A canceled sale would be a strike against you, but I guess not as bad as having to accept a return.
Maybe I will be more careful with GSP buyers, but I don’t know what criteria I would use to cancel the sale. That is something I’ll have to think about.
I’ve never heard of a high school doing that either. Interesting.
I would stay away from common stuff like cafeteria dishes. I don’t think the large furniture would have any interest unless you find an old old school desk, but I don’t know if the price would be worth the effort.
Electronic stuff can be good sellers, but they have to be tested. Consider the work that requires before you buy anything. Smartboards would also be a pain to find the right box and ship, but I expect they could be good sellers – I’m not speaking from experience, though.
I think that tools sell well. Anything vintage sells even better. Drafting equipment could be good especially if it is higher precision.
I’ve heard that relatively recent textbooks can be good because homeschoolers will buy them.
I had a similar thing happen to me this week. A buyer left negative feedback “very bad quality”. Months ago, this would have bothered me greatly, and I would have tried to do something about it. This time, though, I was unfazed.
This was a GSP buyer, and, if I offered to pay for a return, I would have had to pay original shipping to Europe & shipping back plus the original purchase price. I had no interest in doing that, and he had not contacted me wanting to return it.
I looked at his feedback left for others and saw several other buyers who responded to his feedback with something like “serial leaver of neg feedback, item as described & clearly pictured, no contact”. So, I copied that over to my response, and now I’ve moved on.
It is so much better now that I can do that.
Had a decent week. Here are a few of the more interesting sales:
Lead crystal wine glass etched with part of a Jewish prayer plus a new velvet wine bag – I bought this as part of an online auction lot last summer. Paid just a dollar or two, sold for $35:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182257796859My big sale of the week was a strut stabilizer for an older BMW. My husband bought it for his 1999 BMW 323 about a decade ago, but then decided not to install it. He still has the car. I was able to sell this part for $75 within about a day of listing it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182563514343Not my highest sale, but something new for me. This is a high school yearbook from 1952. Battin High School was a public school in Elizabeth, NJ that was all-girls until 1976. It is now a K-8 school. Bought in a yard sale for $1, sold for $18 overnight.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182570589963I have had that issue, but it really isn’t a problem. When you pick XL, and it comes up as 4, it means the fourth item in the list of sizes. I created a few listings for clothes recently, and I picked XL, but it came up as a number. After I created the listing, I clicked on the link, and the item specifics showed XL.
So, it is a glitch, but not a problem, if that makes any sense.
I believe that FedEx doesn’t charge you for the cost of the label until it is used. I don’t know about UPS. USPS does charge you, but, at least in eBay, you can ask for a refund if it doesn’t get used.
I’ve heard other people say they’ve had problems in the past week or two. Jay has asked others exactly what steps were taken when the topic was “eaten”. From other other posts, the problem would happen after they created a topic and then tried to edit it.
I did see the email that was sent out when you created the topic. I did have a question about the setup. I notice that it uses CFLs. I wonder why it doesn’t use LEDs and would those be better. I eventually need to get a better lighting system myself. I have decent lighting, but I still have to edit my photos in eBay.
Week of May 7-13
* Total Items in Store: 794
* Items Sold: 16
* Cost of Items Sold: $93.57 (high because of car part) + $5 Commission
* Total Sales: $356.96
* Highest Price Sold: $75 BMW Part – Strut Stabilizer
* Average Price Sold: $22.31
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20
* Number of items listed this week: 32The BMW strut stabilizer was something my husband bought for his car probably 10 or more years ago. After he bought it, he decided he didn’t like the idea of modifying his car. So, the part has sat in our garage for that long. He still has the car (19 years old). I finally listed it and, it sold within a few days. My COGS are higher because I put in the sale price as the cost price. He bought it for around $120.
For “stale” items, I’ve decided to take some of them and sell at a flea market next weekend. When I first started selling on eBay, I bought some auction lots just because they were so cheap. I’ve found that ordinary household stuff, even some nice china, doesn’t sell well unless there is something really special about them. I did sell some after I added best offer, but I need the space and don’t want to sit on the rest anymore. I’ll sell them for 50 cents here, a dollar there, whatever, but I have so much that I think I will make a few hundred dollars. Enough to justify the flea market rather than donate.
