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Thanks very much Jay (and Eric) for the interview. I really enjoyed hearing about another niche area. I’ve parted out small appliances over the last couple of years. Food processors, juicers and grills have done well for me. I doubt many people have the setup that could allow them to part out large appliances like Eric so it seems like a good business model.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1710
Items Sold: 38
Total Sales: $752
Cost of Items Sold: $73.74
Average Price Sold: $19.79
Average Cost of Item: $1.94
Highest Price Item Sold: $34.95 – Realistic Pro 2022 VHF/UHF 200 channel
Number of items listed this week: 73
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 230
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 136
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 97
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.22%
# of Hats Sold: 25 (65% of sales)Typical week for me. The sales come in very unpredictable patterns. One week Monday is super busy. The next week Monday is dead and Thursday is busy. I wonder what causes those kinds of waves of activity.
Thanks for the video Steve. I really enjoy watching them every week.
One note on those Polar Care / cold therapy units. I had done well with those in the past but I’ve stopped buying them because last year I got a message from eBay that one of my listings for one of those (a different brand) had been removed. It turns out that those units actually require a doctor’s prescription. I did some research to confirm that it’s true. I’ve decided I don’t want to get my account suspended so I’m going to avoid them for now. Side note: The listing that eBay “removed” was for an item that had actually sold a couple of months prior.
Thanks for doing a show even while you were on the road. My week isn’t the same without a SL episode to listen to.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1680
Items Sold: 25
Total Sales: $762
Cost of Items Sold: $159.12
Average Price Sold: $30.49
Average Cost of Item: $6.36
Highest Price Item Sold: $165 Polaris pool cleaner
Number of items listed this week: 60
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 230
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 154
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 97
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.49%
# of Hats Sold: 17 (68% of sales)My biggest sale of the week (pool cleaner) was a bad buy so I didn’t make a lot on that one (and had to store it all winter).
My favorite sale of the week (and a BOLO for everyone) was a Microsoft Trackball / Mouse Explorer 1.0. I picked up a couple of trackball mice on a hunch and i paid a couple of dollars for each. Maybe I’d heard about them being worthwhile from a podcast. This Microsoft one sold for $119.95. The other one is a Logitech trackball which is listed and hasn’t sold for $12.95. Watch out for Microsoft trackballs.
Hope your trip works out well and sales continue to come in nicely for you.
Here are my numbers:
Total Items in Store: 1645
Items Sold: 34
Total Sales: $621
Cost of Items Sold: $58.58
Average Price Sold: $18.27
Average Cost of Item: $1.72
Highest Price Item Sold: $25.46 Harley Davidson Hat
Number of items listed this week: 49
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 228
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 140
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 99
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.07%
# of Hats Sold: 29 (85% of sales)Sales appear to be back to a normal level. I had bumper sales leading up to Easter and then Easter week was dead. This week I ran a hat sale for a couple of days and sales picked up quite a lot for those days. My average sale was pretty low as a result and I had no big ticket items sell.
I went to a small flea market yesterday and saw all the categories of seller that Jay mentioned last week. I’m really only ever interested in the junkers or people selling their own stuff. I have no interest in new junk from China or people selling at retail prices.
On the one-day handling thing, it’s really hard to find the ebay page which has the specific mention of getting a shippers scan in a particular time frame. I’ve looked for it in the past because I read conflicting info from time to time. I think eBay shortened the estimated delivery times so that may be the reason why R&J have been getting defects. You only get a shipping defect if it doesn’t get scanned in time and also doesn’t arrive on time. If you get it scanned in time OR it gets delivered on time there is no defect.
I bought compatible labels from amazon (so that I could see product ratings) and they worked out fine.
Nope. It’s definitely a Red Bull claim. They specifically mention the New Era Red Bull cap on their vero page as not being authorized: http://www.ebay.com/gds/vero-profile-red-bull-gmbh/584edbaea5ab1d07881ba710/g.html
Michael D – I’m just part time right now, but I look forward to the day that I can toss in my 9-5 and just do what I want. I have a few years to go so I’m not sure if I’ll still be keen on eBay but right now, an eBay life sure does sound appealing.
My brother visited from overseas this week. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years since before I started eBay. The look on his face was priceless when I mentioned I had 1600 items listed on eBay. The average person thinks of eBay as a place to list one or two things at a time, not hundreds.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1630
Items Sold: 20
Total Sales: $501
Cost of Items Sold: $42.98
Average Price Sold: $25.07
Average Cost of Item: $2.15
Highest Price Item Sold: $59.95 Vintage Apple Macintosh M0110A Keyboard
Number of items listed this week: 27
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 226
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 98
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 17
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.23%
# of Hats Sold: 11 (55% of sales)I had less than half the number of sales this week compared to the last couple of weeks. I see the same thing happened this time last year so hopefully things will bounce-back this week. My favorite sales of the week were a couple of piles of vintage architecture magazines that I bought from a hoarder’s estate sale a few weeks ago. The same person bought both piles for $45 each. I have a whole box more of the same that I haven’t listed yet.
I used to buy from the Goodwill Outlet in San Francisco but that location closed down. These days I buy hat lots from eBay. My COGS has gone up considerably but I think I can still make the numbers work. About 2/3rds of my listings are currently hats and 1/3rd is everything else. I don’t really want to be dependent on a single type of item.
Good show guys. I enjoyed listening on my way to work today.
My numbers for this week:
Total Items in Store: 1641
Items Sold: 45
Total Sales: $805.73
Cost of Items Sold: $80.41
Average Price Sold: $17.91
Average Cost of Item: $1.79
Highest Price Item Sold: $34.95 Lot of 5 Canvas U.S Federal Reserve and U.S. Mint coin/deposit bags
Number of items listed this week: 71
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 216
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 167
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 77
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.74%
# of Hats Sold: 32 (71% of sales)This was my best week ever in terms of the number of sales. I’ve never sold more than 40 items in a week before. “Shipping is getting annoying” – I heard Ryanne’s words in my head yesterday as I completed my second round of shipping on Sunday afternoon. Most of my sales were lowish value items so my total sales amount was not the highest it’s ever been but I’m very happy with this result. Having my wife help me with listings is definitely a big contributing factor. I wouldn’t be able to listing nearly as many items without her help.
Ryanne, check out the Levi’s headquarters next time you’re in S.F. They have a little exhibit near the lobby showing a bunch of old jeans. (Maybe that’s where the $80,000 jeans will end up).
Ebay Stickers: On eBay radio, one of the eBay employees hinted that they might be working on stickers that could be used to cover up Amazon logos on re-used boxes. Smart thinking.
Jay – regarding “higher purpose”. For years my purpose with my job has been to provide for my family. I’ve had a few jobs I’ve likeD and a few I’ve despised which have been a total grind for years on end but supporting my family has been my main goal. One of my 2 kids graduates college in June so I’m starting to see a point where I can start thinking about dialing back. In fact, I’m thinking I might take aim for early retirement (maybe retirement with eBay side income) in 3 years. In the meantime, I’m taking full advantage of a good paycheck to fully fund retirement options (401K, roth IRA, HSA). It would have been nice to have found an occupation that truly inspired me but finding an occupation that paid well and provided good benefits was the next best thing for me.
I was interested to see that wire recorder. I’ve never really thought about what existed prior to magnetic tape since it’s always existed in my lifetime. (My father used a real-to-reel player before upgrading to a tape deck).
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1615
Items Sold: 36
Total Sales: $1025.89
Cost of Items Sold: $207.26
Average Price Sold: $28.5
Average Cost of Item: $5.76
Highest Price Item Sold: $149.95 ASTRON RS-35M Linear Power Supply
Number of items listed this week: 47
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 222
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 108
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 91
Sell-through rate (for the week): 2.23%
# of Hats Sold: 26 (72% of sales)I had a great week. One of my best weeks ever in fact. Lots of sales, few were high dollar sales too. One of my favorite sales was a 1930s United Airlines calendar that I bought at an estate sale for a dollar or two and sold for $85.
On the weekend I went to an estate sale of a hoarder. Rooms full of mountains of stuff like boxes with every newspaper the guy had ever read in the last 20 years. I spent a couple of hours there and found a few boxes of things. No huge wins but I love digging through stuff looking for hidden gems and I’m often rewarded for my persistence.
I hope the good sales continue this week…
As I understand it, if you’re already doing 1-day handling and First Class shipping, there’s nothing extra to do. First class packages are already included. You don’t have to add a Priority Mail option.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1604
Items Sold: 24
Total Sales: $524.75
Cost of Items Sold: $44.05
Average Price Sold: $21.86
Average Cost of Item: $1.84
Highest Price Item Sold: $55.9 Franciscan china
Number of items listed this week: 39
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 217
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 128
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 103
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.5%
# of Hats Sold: 16 (66% of sales)Pretty typical week sales-wise. Nothing special there.
My find of the week was a 1970s HP calculator. It cost me about 50 cents (I got 2 items together from an estate sale for $1) and I plan on listing it for over $200. I don’t want to jinx myself so I’ll wait till I actually sell it before sharing more info about that.
Thanks for talking about scammers and how rare they are. I belong to Facebook reseller groups and I read Reddit and there is always talk about scammers but it’s a very uncommon thing. People just dont talk about their hundreds of smooth transactions so there’s a perception that that scamming is very common. It’s not.
Jay – as a retail business you dont get to choose whether or not you collect / remit taxes to the state. You’re supposed to collect sales tax on sales within your state.
Another things to consider… If you are doing most of your sourcing at auctions these days you might find that financially it’s better for you to avoid paying sales tax on your purchases and just collect sales tax on the sales within your state. I would imagine that your sales within your own state would be a fairly small percentage of your overall business.
