Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I think you guys have talked before about how sometimes you’ll have a week that feels lousy but by the numbers, it was pretty good… this was one of those weeks.
Sales: CAD$606, 5 items
COGS: $142
Profit: $364
Hours: 9 (hourly rate: $40)
Items listed: 13 (but one listing quantity 21)
Expenses incl. sourcing: $350 <–mostly due to buying a pallet of under-desk CPU holders
Cashflow: $256Took on some work on commission Saturday that, upon getting home, I reevaluate as not very profitable. So, kind of bummed out by that. But I did get a good item at a garage sale! Dressmaker’s mannequin NIB. Had to “text” with my “mom” a little before pretending to buy it for her. Should bring at least $125, cost $20.
My notable sales: medical power quality analyzer $34 –> $260 profit $188, mid-century teak room divider $93 –> $180 profit $56. The latter was cool but I thought I could get more for it when I bought… oh well, glad to see it go! But I have to pack this monstrosity tonight… :S
Yes, I absolutely agree. I hate scanning books, for example, but I probably leave money on the table for that reason.
Either a great weak on ebay or a mediocre one, depending whether the buyer pays for my one big sale. :S
Sales: CAD$1528, 3 items
COGS: $97
Profit: $1253
Notable items: Norwegian Bruksbo rosewood table $75–>$1300, box of table hockey players $6–>$130
Hours: 7, rate $179/hr
Listed: 11 items, total 158
Expenses incl. sourcing: $106Bought 4 printer trays for an office printer NIB for $5 each. I think they will get $150 each. From the same place I’m thinking of getting a pallet of monitor holder thingies if I can get them for <$5 each, they sell for $70+ but it’ll be slow to unload them all.
Also got a really cool old morse code key, I’m not sure on price but for $20, worst case, I like it for myself.
Yeah, it’s just google sheets generating it. Excel will do the same thing for you. I just subtracted date listed from date sold for all my sold items and then did a histogram of all those numbers.
Well I’m in no position to give advice! But I reckon ebay makes it very cheap to keep listings alive indefinitely, so you might as well leave everything listed and collect the occasional dividend. It’s just that you should expect a really low sell-through rate on the old stuff. Write it off, so to speak.
Like, if 90% of your sales are made within 1 year of listing (I’m just making up numbers here), and you have 5000 items, half of which are more than 1 year old, then you *effectively* have 2500 listings.
That’s my theory anyway but my data is pretty limited and new. I’d be curious to see a histogram of your sales versus time listed.
Here’s a histogram of my sales count since I’ve been keeping records, with their total time listed. I know the scale is weird but you can see there is a clear trend that most sales are newly listed items (0-17 days). (Maybe this means I’m pricing too low!)
I don’t know how meaningful this is since I’ve only been at it since November and keeping records properly since January. Be curious what yours looks like.
On the slower growth after 1500 listings thing: it doesn’t seem surprising, because the more listings you have, the more *old* listings you have, and old ones are naturally selected for being less desirable (the desirable ones being largely sold already). You can keep throwing more marrow bones into the same pot but the ones you threw in last week have already given most of the broth they can give.
So my question is: do you see lower returns *at the margin* for items listed after 1500 listings?
I don’t know how you track inventory, but my sheet has date acquired and date sold. So I bet if you look at the delta between them, you’ll find most of your sold items sold fairly soon after listing, and old stock makes up a smaller proportion.
Just curious, who here buys insurance on their items and if so, why? I figure if the insurance company is making money on average then I’m losing on average, so it’s not worth insuring against an item being lost unless I’m into the item for so much the loss would be a catastrophe.
Great podcast!
I had a fair to middling week on ebay…
Sales: $255, 4 items
COGS: $56
Profit: $148
Hours: 6 (hourly rate $25)
Listed: 4 items (150 total)
Expenses/sourcing: $263
Cashflow: -$9Went a little bananas at the salvage centre (thrift store at the dump!) but I know I got some good stuff. Still not sure how I feel about those weird chairs I paid $50 for but there was a good $500 of other stuff there so…
Looking back, a week of few sales, but all good ones. On the previous week I only sold $150 though, and “forgot” to post.
Sales: $1011, 3 items
Notable sales: Filter Queen vacuum $508, cell harvester $294, cordovan shoes $208
COGS: $131
Profit: $721
Hours: 6.5 (hourly rate $111)
Items listed: 6 (total 140)
Expenses incl. sourcing: $26I think I undersold the shoes… got carried away in negotiating with a best offer buyer. Ah well, first pair I’ve ever sold.
Haha no, it’s supposed to reference the concept of “carcinisation”, which a twitter group I am part of was using for a shibboleth/inside joke a few years ago. I just haven’t bothered to change it.
I am from western Canada – oil, grain, beef, and potash.
There’s this device called an Addressograph that’s basically a card imprinter for copying raised text on ID cards or credit cards. Used in healthcare settings a lot. I keep seeing them everywhere (maybe unique to my area, but I don’t think so), you can usually get them for under $10 and they sell for the ballpark of CAD$100/USD$75 if working.
I figure average sold price for this brand in normal leather seems to be CAD$120 so I put them up at CAD$350=USD$260.
Listing already has 4 watchers and a shipping inquiry after 11 hours. 🙂
Woohoo, my first pair. I have been hunting for these for a month or so since hearing about them from you. Much obliged.
It really depends whether you are primarily limited by your time, or by your bankroll. If there aren’t enough hours in the day, I don’t want to sell stuff for $15, I have to be very selective and make every item count.
If I have time to burn and I need to get every penny I can, I want lots of quick sales, small if necessary, to get the compound interest effect. (10% profit 10 times, reinvesting the proceeds, is 159% profit).
Quick nickel/slow dime, lot stuff up vs part it out, all this stuff depends on what your constraints are. Personally I am constrained by time with a full time job and 2 small kids, so I am super picky.
