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Items in Store: 178
Items sold: 5
COGS: ~26.00
Total Sales: $97.47
Highest Priced Item: $25 Thatcher Co. 1 Gallon Square glass milk jug
Avg. Sales Price: $19.49
International Sales: 0
Unpaid item cases: 1
Returns: 0
New Listings: 1
New inventory costs: $9.90Okay week for me. I was happy to see a good number of sales even with the average price being lower. Most of what I sold had been in my store from the early summer. I had another handbag sell so I think that sale may be helping. It is hard to really infer anything when the sample size is so small, but I’ll take it. COGS is high because one of the items was part of a bad auction buy. Was trying for some nice watches and then found out that the watches were knockoffs. So, I’m assigning the cost to the items I can sell. I should still break even with the other items, but this one was a good lesson about not getting excited over specific names if you don’t know how to do a high level authentication. My one unpaid item was a larger ticket for me, but I closed the case, relisted, and had it resold yesterday…this time with payment. Many of my unpaid items are GSP sales so I’m wondering if buyers don’t see the full GSP price until after they initiate the check out process. Any one have insight into how that works?
I got my first section of shelving built in the basement this weekend. My husband helped and we used some of the left over lumber that we have around after construction. It isn’t even scrap wood! We have a huge pile of 2×6 pine tongue and groove and many sheets of plywood in the yard still. I have more than enough to finish the rest of the shelves. I plan on a 3’x21′ run with 4 2’x4′ sections running perpendicular. Each will have 3 shelves with room to store on the floor under it. I can’t wait to get the rest built, but for now, the priority is the rest of the house. Still need to do the painting so we can get the flooring down. Our scheduled completion date is sliding back and now we are looking at end of January instead of Christmas. I’m eager to get it done just so I can have more time to focus on listing. It will happen soon enough! I am planning on 2017 being a good year for building up the eBay business so I can get the house paid for and move into owning my own time!
I don’t offer free shipping as a standard practice, but I do evaluate it as an option when determining my asking price. I’m still evolving my personal guidelines on when I offer free shipping. Most of my First Class packages I’ll offer free shipping on if the listing price is over $15 and my COGS is less than $1, but I do factor the shipping cost into the listing price. Some higher dollar items I will also offer free shipping since my potential gross profit is well over $100. If those items also have make offer available, I will factor the shipping into any offers received. I’ve started to look at the sold listings to evaluate the frequency of listings with free shipping offered. If the majority of sold listings and current listings offer free shipping, I will offer it to stay competitive when someone is just doing a quick look.
I think I’ll likely start offering more items with free shipping as my inventory and sales grow. Some items don’t make sense to offer free shipping on (like a $30 sink that costs $35 to ship), but for those that could get a boost with it, I’ll strongly consider it. Jay, like you often say, it is all about the numbers.
I’m right there with both of you. I had made an agreement with the hubby that if we got the majority of the house paid off and I could replace my income in eBay sales there would be no reason not to make the switch. I too have great benefits and the pay will be difficult to match when all the benefits are considered, but with the house payment gone, I shouldn’t need the full pay covered anyway. I had a short test of eBay focus this morning while I was at home with a sick child and it was my most productive morning, eBay or work, for a long time. I’m thinking this will be another 7 years for me. We are wrapping up construction on the house and will be refinancing into a 15 year mortgage in the Spring. Count down starts then! I’ll keep gaining motivation from all the awesome sales others are posting!
Local for me is about 13 miles!
I thrift at a variety of shops in towns around me, the farthest being about 45 minutes away, but they do $0.49 and $0.99 Saturdays for specific colors.
I primarily source at auctions, most of them being online with a local company so I can typically preview the items and pick them up. I have to head out and pick up my latest finds, but it is 40 minute drive in the opposite direction from home so I’m wondering why I bothered.
I did some yard sales with mixed results, but I have been able to find enough for good prices with the auctions and thrift. I have done the FB sourcing, but I find that many people are asking higher prices so I look but rarely buy. I have been looking into the liquidation online auction sites, but I don’t have the time to list that volume right now so it is on the back burner. We have a salvage company in one of the surrounding towns and I’ve picked a few things, but they are also a little higher priced than what makes sense for me right now.
I always keep an eye or ear out for opportunities to pick up stuff.
I have over 10 carousels of unsorted slides in addition to the boxes of slides that sit on my desk as well. Many of the ones in the slide boxes are actually in metal holders which aren’t the easiest to pull out the slide to put in a viewer so I just ordered a pack of these:
I’ll put all the slides from the carousels and boxes into these and then see if I can unload the carousels on eBay to cover the cost. At least with these I can see the slides quickly and potentially ship a lot of like slides in a small binder. I sold some 120 mm negatives in a binder with the poly sleeves and it was easy to photograph and ship.
I found one that had been framed so I couldn’t see any of the print details, but I googled the subject and found the same print without the frame that had the print name, company, and copyright date on it. I did put that info into my listing. It took a few months to sell.
I like your comment on how your husband can’t get over how someone will pay $25+ for something you got for $1. Mine is the same way and is often astonished at what I can sell. I’d love to homestead, but we inherited a beef cattle hobby farm and quickly realized that our current lives have no room for animal husbandry. We sold the cows and planted fruit trees and bushes. I have grand plans of a 1000 tree apple orchard that we will use to make hard cider to sell.
I do have two little goats as pets and would love to get more for dairy, but we had to negotiate terms on the number of animals I bring home and we have a two goat limit for now 😀 Some day I would like to raise all my own meat and have a large garden, but I think it will have to be when I free up my schedule and move on from my traditional 9-5 job.
Great to meet you!
We had originally planned on doing all the drywall ourselves, but we are coming up short on time so we contracted out the majority of the house. I don’t mind the work and have gotten pretty good at it. When I switch to scavenging full time in a few years I might just look into also doing some small job drywall and painting work. Of course, I’d like to get a few investment properties myself so I may just do that work and be done.
Welcome! I’m with Jay and will say give auctions and estate sales a chance since you don’t have to bid on or buy anything you don’t want! I am in central Pennsylvania and auctions are my primary sourcing location. I find a lot of items for a dollar or two at the auctions and sometimes even get a box of stuff for that much. Don’t forget to look around your house for things you don’t need/want anymore. That was one way I increased my capital without spending cash at first.
I hadn’t even thought about the wooden train sets for eBay. We are getting ready to “move” into the new house in the next two months and I’ve said nothing that we don’t use or need will be making the move over. My son has a ton of toys that he doesn’t play with anymore that are from his toddler years (he is now 8). Time to list those trains!
I saw this article on Hatchamals last week on MSN Money and thought it was an interesting analysis of the Hatchamal market on eBay.
TL/DR version – They expect them to go higher in the first two weeks of December, but a new supply from the manufacture to hit a week or so before Christmas will bring the prices back down. As always though, all speculation with some basis in past trends.
Oh and they mentioned one listed for $2,500…..may have seen your listing 🙂
Total Items in Store: 182
Items Sold: 3 (2 eBay, 1 to a co-worker)
COGS: $18.50
Total Sales: $174.49
Highest Sale: Pair of Red Wing LoggerMax boots $135
International: 0
Returns: 0
Spent on new inventory: $3
New listings: 5Was going to be a low week until I sold the boots yesterday. I decided to run a 10% sale on my purses and handbags and that was one of my sales so hopefully some of my higher dollar purses will follow for Christmas. The sale to a co-worker was a Pikachu backpack that I picked up the day before at the thrift for $1. Quick easy flip without ever having to take pictures or list and she was happy to pay the price I would have listed it for on eBay. I was planning on doing more listing on Thanksgiving, but I didn’t get anything prepared for listing in the car. That being said, I was happy to get the 5 items listed this week since the house project was a main focus. Friday night we found out that the drywaller was going to overcharge on an area he left out of the original bid since he underbid the big job so we switched gears on Saturday and hung and mudded 10 or so sheets in the house to save the $1500 they wanted. That was a full day of work, but I’ll save that kind of money through sweat equity when I can.
Just picked up 3 of these at Lowes since they had them on 50% off for a one-day deal they are running through November for black Friday.
Here you go!—
We’d like your feedback!
The Seller Experience Team is updating the Seller Hub Active Listings and Manage Orders pages to be faster and more efficient for you. We’re asking a few select sellers to try out the new pages and give us feedback so that we can make them great before we open them to everyone.
Please respond by November 6th to join our pilot!
How to participate in the pilot
Click here to take our brief survey! We’ll let you know if you’ve been selected to participate. If you are selected, you’ll be given access to either the new Active Listings page or the new Manage Orders page (Don’t worry – we’ll let you know which page you’ll be testing!)
Use the new page! Once you have access, conduct your business as usual. Most of the features you’ve come to expect are already in the new pages, and more are on the way.
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No clue what the exact issues they are trying to address are and I’m only seeing the Active Listings page changes. My non-scavenging life is in software development/research and I lean into the usability arena so being able to test out changes is something I like to participate in. As of now, I have only noticed the time remaining change I mentioned above. I have not noticed any benefit in ease of use or efficiency in page navigation.
