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> we can claim our moving expenses on our income taxes for the year.
Unfortunately, with last year’s tax reform, that deduction has been eliminated except for people in the military. https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-reform/last-call-on-these-popular-tax-deductions-33675/
Hi Everyone
Thanks for the podcast R&J!
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2695
Items Sold: 39
Total Sales: $777
Cost of Items Sold: $86
Average Price Sold: $19.92
Average Cost of Item: $2.23
Highest Price Item Sold: 2 items sold for $44.95 i) Line 6 Tonecore Uber Metal Distortion Pedal ii) Roxant Pro Video Camera Stabilizer
Number of items listed this week: 86
YTD Sales: $4032
YTD sales compared to this time last year: -8%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 360
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 261
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 225
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.45%This week’s sales were about on par with the same time last year and didn’t have anything particular notable. Just a fairly consistent stream of sales (up until Superbowl Sunday).
Regarding changes in sourcing over time, there are lots of factors and trends are one factor. I used to find lots of George Foreman grills and juicers at garage sales. I don’t see them as often now. I’m waiting for the first Instapot to appear at a yard sale.
Regarding sending an offer to watchers, try this link. Replace the whole xxxxx bit at the end with your item number:
https://ofr.ebay.com/offerapp/sio/createOffer/xxxxxxxxxxx
eg: https://ofr.ebay.com/offerapp/sio/createOffer/323277251451Have a great week
Simon01/28/2019 at 12:13 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 396: Guaranteed Delivery? How is that working? #56002Thanks for the interesting show. You covered a lot of topics today.
My numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2648
Items Sold: 42
Total Sales: $829
Cost of Items Sold: $93
Average Price Sold: $19.75
Average Cost of Item: $2.23
Highest Price Item Sold: Two items at $49.95 each i) Zenit Night Vision Scope Monocular ii) Garmin GPS 12 for Parts
Number of items listed this week: 69
YTD Sales: $3255
YTD sales compared to this time last year: -14%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 369
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 269
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 165
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.59%To be clear about guaranteed delivery: If the item arrives late and the buyer contacts ebay about the late delivery, ebay can give them a free return label. eg: if the item was needed by a specific date. It’s not supposed to be for general return reasons but I suppose a buyer could use it that way. I’d guess that the claims against guaranteed delivery are minuscule. I’ve never had anyone use it (that I know of).
01/25/2019 at 1:34 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 395: What Lifestyle Is eBay Supporting For You? #55850Just as a quick follow-up. I checked my late deliveries and I only had 1 late delivery in my last 420 transactions on my Seller Dashboard. That one was valid. So I suspect the problem with late deliveries is a regional or local problem. It looks like my post office was working on all the days they said they were working over the holidays.
01/22/2019 at 6:45 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 395: What Lifestyle Is eBay Supporting For You? #55629I’ve sold a lot of remotes over the years. I’m surprised to hear about remotes for cable company boxes. I’ve always avoided them as they seem incredibly common. I’ll have to research those in future.
Another one to look out for ….. the other day I paid $1.50 at a thrift shop for a corded remote control for an adjustable bed. It wasn’t branded but I could find it online using the model number on the remote. It sold quickly for over $50
01/22/2019 at 5:22 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 395: What Lifestyle Is eBay Supporting For You? #55618Inglewood – I have your journal forum thread bookmarked. I hope you’ll keep giving us updates on your situation.
01/22/2019 at 12:17 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 395: What Lifestyle Is eBay Supporting For You? #55589Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2621
Items Sold: 41
Total Sales: $846
Cost of Items Sold: $84
Average Price Sold: $20.62
Average Cost of Item: $2.06
Highest Price Item Sold: $59.95 SONOS BOOST – wireless extender
Number of items listed this week: 49
YTD Sales: $2426
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +-12%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 362
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 167
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 55
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.56%It felt as though this week I was only selling hats this week but I checked the numbers and hats accounted for 70% of sales this week which isn’t too unusual. I find it odd that people buy baseball hats when it’s freezing cold outside. I thought the market for them would be much more seasonable than it is.
In regard to what eBay does for my lifestyle, I might be the most boring person alive but all our ebay profit goes straight into our checking account and it’s used in the same way I use the income from my day job. I don’t differentiate. Our financial goes remain the same. So, at this time of year I’m paying the normal bills plus fully funding Roth IRAs for my wife and I for 2019. (My big financial goal right now is for me to retire from my day job in 18 months and do eBay for part-time income).
Hope everyone has a great week!
After hearing about the Marie Kondo method on the podcast on the way to work yesterday, I heard it mentioned twice more during the day so it certainly seems like a big trend at the moment.
I got a mention in the podcast!
One minor correction. I actually list the vast majority of my hats at just under $20 initially. Once in a while I find something that I think is worth more but that’s uncommon. Sometimes I price at $15 when the target audience is just so small that I don’t want price to cause me to lose a sale (eg: “joe’s Plumbing Supplies, Someplace, WA”). I keep my $20 price for about 6 months at which point I’ll start running sales or add best offer. I permanently reduce hat prices after being listed 2 years and I start pulling them off eBay at around 3 years. I sell a lot of hats because I have a lot listed and because I’m patient. The average hat sale takes about 6 month.
My sales for this week are pretty normal for this time of year. The rainy weather here has meant few, if any yard sales which has put a damper on my sourcing and I only sold low-priced items this week.
Total Items in Store: 2639
Items Sold: 36
Total Sales: $690
Cost of Items Sold: $53
Average Price Sold: $19.17
Average Cost of Item: $1.49
Number of items listed this week: 75
YTD Sales: $1580
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 368
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 184
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 103
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.36%Thanks for the response Mark. Here are my numbers for 2018. (I’ve got some 2017 / 2018 comparisons at the end).
Total Sales – $47,0404 (not including shipping)
COGS – $6,189
Shipping Charged – $7,995 Actual Shipping: $8,834
Fees (eBay / Paypal) – $9,872
Gross Profit – $36,328 (sales + shipping charged) – (shipping actual + fees)Total # of Sales – 1,995
Jan 1 # of Listings – 2,065
Dec 31 # of Listings – 2,568
New Listings in 2018 – 2,7712018 STR – 1.6% weekly average
2018 ASP – $23.58
Avg sales/wk – 38
Avg listings/wk – 53======= Highest sales for 2018
1. Orbi Netgear RBK53 AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System Router – $369.95 (paid $20)
2. Rollei 35 S Compact Camera w/ Sonnar 40mm f/2.8 Lens – $298.95 (paid $33)
3. RARE POQET PC “CLASSIC” MODEL PQ-0164 Portable Handheld Computer w/ case- $279.96 (paid $5)
4. APOGEE MQ-100 Quantum Meter with Integrated Original Sensor – $249.95 (paid $30)
5. ORIGINAL 1962 NEW YORK METS BASEBALL OFFICIAL YEARBOOK Inaugural First Season – $209.95 (paid $1)======= Compared to 2017 =====
ASP: 2017- $22.64 – 2018 – $23.27
Avg. Weekly Sales: 2017 – 34, 2018 – 38
Avg. Weekly 2017 STR: 1.9%, 2018 – 1.6%
Listed: 2017 – 2,568, 2018 – 2,771So my average weekly sales were higher and the ASP was also slightly higher but my STR has dropped. I listed more items in 2018 than 2017.
This is an interesting thread. I’m still pulling my numbers together so I’ll post when I have those but I wanted to throw a question out.
It looks like my sales increased by about 19% from 2017 to 2018. I mentioned this to my wife and she asked a simple question that I didn’t have a good answer to – “What caused the increase?”
There are so many potential answers : we had more stuff in the store, maybe we had better stuff, maybe ebay sent us more customers, maybe sales and promotions helped etc. Despite all the numbers that I keep, I’m not sure I can answer my wife’s simple question.
What about your store? Did sales increase or decrease in 2018 and do you know why?
12/18/2018 at 12:43 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 390: Building a Business to Build a Life #53578Thanks for the podcast R&J. Hope you enjoy your time in NY. You weren’t specific but I presume this time your trip is for fun, rather than work.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2595
Items Sold: 60
Total Sales: $1156
Cost of Items Sold: $101
Average Price Sold: $19.26
Average Cost of Item: $1.69
Highest Price Item Sold: $63.71 Vintage Radio Shack TRS-80 pocket computer PC-2
Number of items listed this week: 25
YTD Sales: $45477
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +19%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 352
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 327
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 203
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.31%I had a pretty busy week. On par with this time last year. No high value sales. Just lots and lots of bread-and-butter items. (40 hats sold this week). The average age of my sales (from listing to selling) was about 11 months. I actually sold a couple of hats that has been listed for 3 years.
I found Jay’s comments around that hourly wage thing interesting especially the comment that if it doesn’t feel like work (eg: going to an auction), it’s not work. Does “work” really have to mean doing something unpleasant? eBay is work but I actually enjoy most of what I have to do around my eBay business so it feels more like a hobby. I don’t have any interest in calculating my hour wage for my ebay business because if I wasn’t doing eBay I’d be spending time on something that didn’t make any money at all (like watching tv or taking a hike) so any money is better than none no matter how low the hourly wage works out. The hourly wage discussion only really matters if i) you’re trying to decide between doing another hourly-job or ebay or ii) you’re trying to set yourself some kind of goal to increase productivity.
Hope everyone makes a few dollars this week and gets some down time over the holidays.
Hi R & J – Thanks for the podcast!
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2630
Items Sold: 48
Total Sales: $1143
Cost of Items Sold: $141
Average Price Sold: $23.81
Average Cost of Item: $2.95
Highest Price Item Sold: $99.71 Saitek Pro (X52) PC Flight Control System,
Number of items listed this week: 66
YTD Sales: $44322
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +19%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 351
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 191
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 74
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.83%Sales were good this week as is typical for this time of year. (I’ve been running 20% ahead of 2017 consistently for the whole of this year and this last week was on par).
During the week I listened to the podcast about the rise and fall of Nasty Girl as you recommended last week. I enjoyed that. What was interesting is that during much of that time that Nasty Girl was going through that period, I was working at Modcloth, an online women’s clothing company that specialized in vintage-style clothing. It was started by a husband and wife who sold stuff from thrift stores initially and grew to a $100 million/yr business before fashion fads changed and the company tanked. ( I was laid off at the end of 2014).
Regarding leaving a full-time job, I’ve got a count-down timer on my computer which tells me every day how many days I have left till I plan to retire from full time work. Today it says “402 business days” which is about 18 months to go. I’m half way through the plan I set 18 months ago. My goal coincides with my 55th birthday. Until then I have a golden pair of handcuffs at my current job with a salary that cant realistically be replaced by my current ebay biz.
Hope everyone has a great week. Based on last years numbers it looks like this upcoming week is the last big week for online sales for me before the holidays.
11/26/2018 at 12:16 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52285Hi Ryanne & Jay. Thanks for the podcast!
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2620
Items Sold: 48
Total Sales: $1258
Cost of Items Sold: $150
Average Price Sold: $26.21
Average Cost of Item: $3.15
Highest Price Item Sold: $100 Franklin Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Dictionary (old device, new old stock)
Number of items listed this week: 76
YTD Sales: $42373
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +20%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 343
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 143
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 51
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.83%I had a pretty good week sales-wise but, like you guys, no noticeable bump over Black Friday. I had a week off work and spent most of the week doing eBay so I got a lot of random stuff listed.
My interesting purchase of the week was a box of new, old-stock TV parts for 1940s TVs. Fortunately they were all clearly marked so I’ve been able to list and sell several Horizontal Output Transformers and Deflection Yokes this week despite having no idea what a Deflection Yoke actually does.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Hi R & J,
Congrats on a great week of sales! 88 sales is certainly a lot of shipping to do in one week.
Here I my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 2586
Items Sold: 41
Total Sales: $1077
Cost of Items Sold: $147
Average Price Sold: $26.28
Average Cost of Item: $3.59
Highest Price Item Sold: $84.95 Macintosh Mac Apple Performa 575 – For parts
Number of items listed this week: 27
YTD Sales: $39834
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +20%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 332
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 197
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 86
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.59%Another solid week for me. Not as great as the week before but it was higher than the same week last year.
Have a great week everyone!
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