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OMG I almost forgot to moan about the Mobile App for iPhone. If you haven’t updated it, don’t!
It looks ok but drafts are inaccessible. You can start a listing, then save it as a draft, but if you want to get back to that draft you have to go to the browser.
It really screws up my process because I upload photos on mobile then complete the listing on the browser. Now, I get only one shot at getting the photos right. If I screw up or miss a photo I have to start a new listing, or else email myself the photos.
Glad to hear you guys back in action! Regarding authentification for the forum – I’m a little surprised because every login is through a captcha challenge, and I am sure registration was too although I don’t recall. Is captcha not sufficient to weed out spambots?
Had a fair to middling week with slightly negative cashflow. But I listed a ton of good stuff. Had to go 3 hrs out of town for one huge auction haul, then listed practically all of it that night.
Sales: CAD$901, 6 items, COGS: $93 –> Item profit: $669
Expenditures: $948, Cashflow after tax: -$360
Notable sales: arc lamp bulb $380, bought for $5. My only return customer to my knowledge – he bought the same bulb from me a few months ago. Also a medical restraint device for $200, bought for $10 I think.
Listed: $8215, 20 items
Scavenge of the week: 430 used smoke detectors (ionization type) for $120. These are hard to price but if they’re worth at least $10 apiece, I’m looking at $4k. Solds on individual ones are up to the $50 range, but these are pretty beat up. IF they sell at all, they’ll make me a lot of money. That’s always the big if.Online auctions are where it’s at. Occasionally you get burned when you didn’t inspect an item, but you save hours and hours and hours and rarely get carried away bidding.
Donate from orbit, only way to be sure.
Hope you guys get well soon.
Pretty tediously slow week for me, with not that much time for scavenging. Wife & I did have a great time horseback riding on our anniversary though.
Sales: CAD$235, 4 items, COGS: $51 –> Item profit: $137
Expenditures: $121 –> After tax cashflow: $31
Listed: $1115, 15 items
Hours: 6, $6/hrYeah, I source a few different ways but that’s one big one. The stuff I buy is pretty small fry as industrial lots go because it’s… basically long tail stuff that nobody else wants. Plus, as a rule it has to be shippable (or at least it has to fit in my hatchback!).
I don’t track returns on auction “hauls” but it wouldn’t be too hard I guess… I sorta get the appeal. OTOH, each purchase decision at auction (as anywhere else) is an independent decision that’s right or wrong. I don’t care too much if I made several mistakes at one particular auction as long as overall my buying decisions are working out OK.
Or do you mean lots in the sense of, say, return on one box lot?
If I buy a box lot of say 5 totally different items, I usually put the whole COGS into the line item for the “best” thing in that box. Sometimes, if a different item sells first, I “move” the COGS into that item so I can claim the whole thing on taxes, as long as it still results in a nominal profit.
If it’s a box lot of 5 identical items I think for tax purposes you gotta just divide the COGS evenly.
…
Anyway, that’s all irrelevant to cashflow. If I spend $1500 on an auction haul, that counts against the cashflow that week, but it doesn’t show up in COGS at all until something from that haul sells.COGS is like a narrative of one particular item; cashflow is a snapshot of your business in time.
I suspect you guys didn’t fuss the cashflow too much because you didn’t spend very much on inventory until quite recently! 🙂
In percent terms, the profits are incredible.
Yep, I agree what you guys report is cool and 1000% better than the amazon hustler idea of accounting.
I think cash flow is important because I spend a lot on inventory and I need to make sure eBay isn’t a money sink for me, regardless of individual huge profits on particular items.
It’s tricky to find the right balance of what to report and pay attention to. Obviously “item profit” is important – how much I made on any given sold item. But the cost of that item was usually accrued in some other week, so COGS doesn’t really matter for this week’s cashflow.
But expenditures including cost of unsold goods (bought this week) is relevant to this week’s flows.
Haven’t listened yet but it’ll be a busy week so, numbers.
Sales: CAD$2045, 10 items, COGS: $490 –> Item profit: $1250
Expenditures: $1447 –> After tax cashflow: -$32
Hours: 11, -$3/hr
Listings: $4010, 11 listings
Notable sales: drill bit sharpener $115 –> $1215
Scavenging: On Monday there was the great 2018 VOIP phone haul, 150 phones for $150, with a couple conference centre thingies and fancy headsets for good measure. Expect to make about $3000 when all is said and done.I also bought a huge auction haul which I’m waiting to be mailed to me. 2 pieces of high end testing equipment, and one fancy fishing reel.
OK, Monday commute, time to listen.
Think lavender is asking whether your profit margins are net of Cost of Unsold Goods.
08/13/2018 at 3:20 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 373: Should Running A Business Be Complicated? #47408That’s good to know. Maybe I’ll try it again just for backup. I do want a backup for sure.
Listing on inkfrog didn’t work well with my process. I take photos on my phone, then upload them to the mobile app, then complete the listing on the computer. Inkfrog seemed to only work with upload from the desktop. It seems trivial but I didn’t really want to change.
08/13/2018 at 2:22 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 373: Should Running A Business Be Complicated? #47397Not a bad week for sales…
Sales: CAD$1226, 6 items, COGS: $106 –> item profit: $919
Expenditures: $493 –> after tax cashflow: $293
Listed: $1029, 8 items
Notable sales: industrial light fixtures $30–>$300 with lots left to sell, POS displays $40–>$455 with half left to sell.OK so technically this is today but I’m excited. Just got about 150 voip phones for $75, picking up another maybe 100 tomorrow for the same price. Used these should be $30 phones but say 20, I think this might be a $5000 pick for about $150 cost.
Oh, on inkfrog. Did you guys successfully back up your photos or just the text of the listings? That was why I cancelled, couldn’t make the photos upload.
Yes, it’s been brutal. Just got a decent $300 sale tonight though so I guess the spell is broken.
<2 sales in 10 days>
<google searches “ebay curb stop wrench”>
no results 🙁Gotcha. I’m in a very slightly different pickle. My game is mainly long-tail commodity items. Like, obscure tools and parts. I tend to price super high like you, but I suspect it does scare away some buyers even with make offer. I think when an item is 5x retail, buyers just shrug and move on, and skip the make offer button.
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