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Here are my numbers for this week:
Total Items in Store: 1421
Items Sold: 29
Total Sales: $600.67
Cost of Items Sold: $78.3
Average Price Sold: $20.71
Average Cost of Item: $2.70
Highest Price Item Sold: $47.92 -Snap-on Soft Blow Bronze Tip Hammer
Number of items listed this week: 70
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 197
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 118
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 34
Sell-through rate: 2.04%
# of Hats Sold: 18This was another very typical week for me all around though we did get more new items listed than usual. I’ve also set up a second account to try my hand at selling postcards. I listed about 25 old postcards as a test and didn’t sell any yet. Not sure it’s going to be something I’ll pursue.
One question that came up in this week’s podcast was “What kinds of hats sell?”. I extracted some info out of my main spreadsheet to show you a summary of the kinds of hats sell for me.
I’d also love a store level in between the 1000 and 10,000 item levels. I’m in that void now and makes me re-think whether I want to continue listing and paying those insertion fees.
Whenever I answer a question I always respond with an offer. I usually just take a couple of dollars off if it’s a $20 item. I’ve had a pretty good conversion rate. The way i see it, a potential buyer is communicating with me. I’d be crazy to turn down the opportunity to encourage a sale from that buyer. Most of the time my buyers are faceless. Unlike a B&M store, I usually have no way to know when someone is looking at one of my items. Since the offers are only valid for 48 hours, it encourages action from someone who may be undecided.
Thanks for the suggestion Retro TWV. I think I’m going to try your suggestion initially with bubble wrap, boxes and peanuts. This is one of the few situations where peanuts makes sense to me too. Generally I dislike them but I think they might be ideal for keeping the plane snug.
Jay – our umbrella policy is not exactly what eCommerce411 described. Basically it’s supplemental insurance over, and above, home and auto insurance. It’s not a replacement. Our umbrella policy provides up to $1 million of coverage. So, for example, if one of my kids has an auto accident and killed a number of people, my auto insurance has a limit of $500,000 (the highest limit available). If I was sued, my umbrella policy would kick in a provide additional insurance up to $1 million. I have the policy to prevent my assets from being suddenly wiped out. It’s pretty cheap insureance. Just a few hundred dollars a year and it provides peace of mind that I wont lose everything I worked to save for retirement.
Total Items in Store: 1380
Items Sold: 30
Total Sales: $ 929.07
Cost of Items Sold: $210.65
Average Price Sold: $30.97
Average Cost of Item: $7.02
Highest Price Item Sold: $119.95 Snap-On Tools 1/2” Flex Rachet 25” long
Number of items listed this week: 46
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 196
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 122
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 82
Sell-through rate: 2.17%
# of Hats Sold: 13I had a great week. Lots of higher-dollar items sold this week, raising my average sale value (They cost me more however so my COGS is quite a bit higher than normal too.)
My favorite sale of the week was an old baseball glove that I took off someone’s free pile. It turned out that it was from the 1950s and it sold quickly for $45.
The suggestion to update your insurance policies is a good one. In recent years, insurance companies have apparently started applying loyalty penalties. Some people will stick with the same insurance company for decades and don’t notice their premiums rising. The advice from financial advisors these days is to shop around occasionally.
2 years ago I noticed my insurance costs getting out of control. I have auto insurance (3 cars, 4 drivers including 2 teenagers), homeowners, life, earthquake, flood and umbrella insurance. Before I shopped around, my insurance costs were $8,650 annually. After raising deductibles and switching companies on several policies, my insurance was $4,823 annually which saved me $3,827 in the first year. It’s still a lot of money but I don’t feel like I am over-insured.
Thanks Thrifted Sister. Foam rubber is something I hadn’t thought of. Have you ever bought foam rubber online? Any recommendations? I’d be nervous about trusting this to a mail packing store. I’m not sure that they’d have any more experience than me with this kind of delicate thing than me.
I’ve used those Scotty Stuffer boxes in flat rate envelopes and they have worked well. My only complaint is that they are quite expensive. In the past, people have said that a 8 x 5 x 4 box will fit in a flat rate envelope so that’s an option for mugs / glasses that weigh over 16oz when packed in a box.
The 8x6x4 ebay boxes work fine for most used baseball hats. Anything with a wide brim needs an 8 inch wide box. (I order 10x8x4 non-ebay size box for those). The ebay boxes with hat will weigh under 8oz and ship for $2.60 I ship about 10-15 per week in those boxes.
The flip side of your theory on the benefits of free shipping is that if you’re selling your item for $13 with free shipping and I’m selling mine for $10 plus shipping of $3, some people may think of my item as cheaper than yours.
I honestly don’t think it makes much of a difference one way or the other and you’d actually need to be a high volume seller of a single item with both choices listed at the same time to ever know. Different items (with different markets and different competitors) are going to sell differently depending on the shipping charged so if you’re selling a bunch of different things like most of us here I dont think you’d ever be able to prove the effectiveness of one option or the other.
Here are my numbers for the week:
Total Items in Store: 1335
Items Sold: 37
Total Sales: $753.09
Cost of Items Sold: $61.15
Average Price Sold: $20.35
Average Cost of Item: $1.65
Highest Price Item Sold: $49.95 Mare Island Pictorial History (1940s)
Number of items listed this week: 70
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 198
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 77
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 54
Sell-through rate: 2.77%
# of Hats Sold: 21It turned out to be a pretty good week. The weekend was busier than normal and that got my sales numbers a little higher than normal.
This week I also tried a free shipping experiment for a few days this week. I put all my hats on free shipping but I didn’t see more sales than normal. I think it probably only makes a difference to a small number of sales. In my case, if it boosted sales by 10% it would only add 2 sales which wouldn’t be a noticeable difference since my sales number vary by more than that from week to week anyway.
My wife is still helping me with the eBay business but she’s still content to just photograph and list hats. Every other aspect of the business is left to me. Having her list hats helps a lot but she’s not really invested in making this a business so it feels more like having a helper or employee than having a partner.
Fred – I tried Go Daddy bookkeeping briefly. The advantage is that it can pull your sales and all your fees into one place which lots of people find useful. You still need to account-for / enter your COGS ad all your other non-ebay related expenses. Since I already track everything in a spreadsheet, I didn’t find it that useful. Many people do. I’d suggest trying it for a month to see whether it’s useful.
One thing that’s missing on the original list is a business license which may be required by the city or county.
I always follow Ryanne’s approach. When people ask a question I almost always send an offer with a couple of dollars or more off the price. The person you’re communicating with is obviously already interested so it makes sense to jump at the chance to persuade them to buy now. (The 48hr expiration on the offer helps with a sense of urgency).
Here are my numbers for this week:
Total Items in Store: 1302
Items Sold: 28
Total Sales: $603.34
Cost of Items Sold: $56.4
Average Price Sold: $21.55
Average Cost of Item: $2.01
Highest Price Item Sold: $44.95 3 Sealed TDK metcal cassette tapes
Number of items listed this week: 41
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 198
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 125
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 46
Sell-through rate: 2.15%
# of Hats sold : 16This week was completely typical for me. I wouldn’t have guessed from the numbers that we’re so close to Christmas. I guess I’m not listing stuff people want to give as gifts. This comes after my biggest week ever the week before. Strange how that works.
Hope everyone has a good week. I would imagine that for eBay sellers, this is going to be the last big week of sales before the shipping times wont work for xmas.
