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[Simon]

Thanks for the podcast guys!

Here are my numbers for the week:

Total Items in Store: 2119
Items Sold: 46
Total Sales: $1008
Cost of Items Sold: $128
Average Price Sold: $21.91
Average Cost of Item: $2.8
Highest Price Item Sold: $59.95 Chicago cutlery set of 6 steak knives
Number of items listed this week: 33
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 311
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 188
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 91
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.17%
# of Hats Sold: 30 (65% of sales)

It was a surprisingly busy week for me. I rarely crack the $1000 threshold in weekly sales. I definitely wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t tracking the numbers carefully. My sales volume were all over the place from day to day. I had a few very busy days then a few very quiet days. It’s so weird that retail sales are variable like that. Who would have guessed that so many people would be buying baseball hats at this time of year.

I bumped into the first-class international shipping issue on Monday on eBay. I went onto PayPal and had the exact same issue. I don’t really understood the current connection between eBay and PayPal but I wonder if this particular shipping issue was actually with PayPal. (I ended up shipping directly through the USPS website).

I got a neutral feedback this week. The comment was “Good quality nice” — people are strange.

[Simon]

Thanks for solving that mystery T-Satt. That was very interesting.

[Simon]

I didn’t make the time to post my numbers this week (just an average week for me) but I wanted to mention that I got a GSP order today and the country code on the shipping label is BR which I think is Brazil. That’s a first for me. I know that Brazil’s postal system is notoriously bad so I hope GSP is successful. That’s another 200 million potential customers!

[Simon]

Sorry to hear that you were impacted by those mud slides Christine. Such a horrible thing to happen to those neighborhoods.

[Simon]

I’m late this week but here are my numbers for last week:

Total Items in Store: 2089
Items Sold: 36
Total Sales: $766
Cost of Items Sold: $82
Average Price Sold: $21.28
Average Cost of Item: $2.29
Highest Price Item Sold: $74.95 Southern California Rapid Transit District Metal Bus Sign
Number of items listed this week: 7
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 301
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 165
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 71
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.72%
# of Hats Sold: 24 (66% of sales)

For the year, we had 1750 sales and our gross sales were just under $40,000 (plus shipping) which is about 25% above the previous year. The cost of those 1750 items was just over $5000. We sold about 1100 hats for the year (67% of our sales)

I hope everyone has a great 2018!

[Simon]

…. you walk past the homeless people on the way to work and check if their cardboard homes include any boxes that would be good for shipping. (I’m guilty of doing this though I draw the line at actually taking any).

[Simon]

Your cat is hilarious Steven. Thanks for the video. I always find them super-interesting.

[Simon]

Here are my numbers for the week:
Items Sold: 65
Total Sales: $1251
Cost of Items Sold: $111
Average Price Sold: $19.25
Average Cost of Item: $1.71
Highest Price Item Sold: $44.95 Vintage SABATIER JEUNE 9.5″ slicer / chef knife
Number of items listed this week: 34
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 295
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 160
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 102
Sell-through rate (for the week): 3.17%
# of Hats Sold: 50 (76% of sales)

I had a great week. This was my highest number of sales since I started reselling (over 2.5 years ago). A surprising number of hats sold this week. I expect that things will slow down this week since we’re getting close to deadlines for shipping (especially for buyers on the west coast).

I hope everyone else had a good holiday season and will have a well-earned break.

[Simon]

Hope you guys stay out of the fires path ChristineR. After the recent fires in our area, I can certainly empathize with what Southern California is going through.

[Simon]

Thanks ChristineR!

The forum ate my response so I’ll try again….

I’m not sure if this is what you were asking but take a look at this sales graph that shows what percentage of hats have sold over time using a bunch of specific data points from the last 2-3 years. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the sales are in the first 6 months / 200 days and there’s a definite plateau around 550 days. (The wobbly bit in the middle probably reflects the specific type of hats that I was listing at that time.). This graph definitely highlights the long-tail nature of selling hats. They are not a quick flip.

[Simon]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the show!

Here are my numbers for the week:
Items Sold: 46
Total Sales: $975
Cost of Items Sold: $82
Average Price Sold: $21.19
Average Cost of Item: $1.8
Highest Price Item Sold: $44.95 1976 California High School Yearbook
Number of items listed this week: 46
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 291
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 153
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 103
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.21%
# of Hats Sold: 31 (67% of sales)

I had a good week. I’m very happy with this result. I’m pleasantly surprised how many people are buying used hats at this time of year.

I saw something interesting happen yesterday on eBay. I had a sale for a item where I’d specified FedEx home delivery. The item was worth $30. I never specify “signature required”. When I went to print the shipping label, eBay had added signature confirmation with a little note on the Print Shipping Label page saying that they (eBay) had added it for me to ensure that the buyer received the item. There was no way for me to unselect it. I changed the shipping method to Priority Mail (which was cheaper for me anyway) and that got rid of the signature-required option. Weird.

In regard to negative feedback. I can tell you that when a return case closes, negative feedback might disappear. I had a nasty buyer that gave me negative feedback and opened a return case. He never returned the item. (He said he was “teaching me a lesson”). When the return case closed after 30 days, his negative feedback disappeared automatically. It might be a trick that sellers could use to get rid of negative feedback eg: “open a return case and I’ll refund your money, no need to send the item back”.

Hope you get paid for your santa!

[Simon]

Better late than never….

Total Items in Store: 2082
Items Sold: 41
Total Sales: $914
Cost of Items Sold: $193
Average Price Sold: $22.3
Average Cost of Item: $4.73
Highest Price Item Sold: $65.95 Pink Polaroid Camera
Number of items listed this week: 49
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 289
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 158
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 80
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.97%
# of Hats Sold: 28 (68% of sales)

Pretty good week. As usual, sales were inconsistent throughout the week. If I wasn’t good about tracking my numbers I would never have guessed that I exceeded $900 in sales. Wish I could find more pink polaroids. That was a quick sale.

90% of my listed inventory fits into one bedroom in my house. (The beauty of dealing mailing in hats). I have overflow, unlisted inventory and packing supplies in my garage. My garage is a mess. Having a dedicated shed sounds great.

Jay I’d be interested in hearing a year end summary from you guys regarding your numbers. Whatever you feel comfortable sharing. eg: number of orders for the year, cost of goods sold %-wize, biggest selling category, most orders in a day. Whatever numbers you can figure out relatively easily.

[Simon]

I’m at 2000 listings now. I really hate paying $100/month in insertion fees and I wish they would create another store level. With the current model they are really just encouraging people to open multiple stores to save money which is inefficient for everyone.

[Simon]

Thanks Jay. Yes, my wife started listing on ebay so she wouldn’t have to go back to working in a retail job. I guess it’s been a year now. Our weekly eBay sales exceed what my wife would make in her job so it’s a win-win. She sticks to listing hats exclusively. I do all the sourcing, shipping, other business stuff and listing of everything except hats.

By the way, I meant to thank you guys for fixing the formatting of the forums so that it’s usable on a mobile phone. It’s soooo much better now.

[Simon]

Congratulations on that amazing jacket sale. That’s amazing.

My numbers for this week:

Total Items in Store: 2074
Items Sold: 43
Total Sales: $803
Cost of Items Sold: $106
Average Price Sold: $18.69
Average Cost of Item: $2.49
Highest Price Item Sold: $51.96 x 2 : ULTIMA V for PC and for Commodore 64
Number of items listed this week: 48
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 287
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 126
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 50
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.07%
# of Hats Sold: 23 (53% of sales)

I’ve worked for a couple of online ecommerce companies over the last 5 years. One thing I noticed in recent years is that a lot of people are on their phones making purchases on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day. To try and capitalize on this I started a sale in the middle of the day on Thanksgiving Day and I ended up making the most sales I’ve ever had in one day (14). I don’t know if it was a fluke. Black Friday was very quiet for me but then Saturday was another very busy day. This is not a particularly popular time of year for hat buying so I’m grateful for all my sales.

Hope every has a good week.

[Author]

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