Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hello again!
Another good week.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3427, 31 sales, COGS: $465, Fees: ~$487, Postage: $842 –> Gross profit: $1633
Expenditures: $967 –> Cashflow: $2098
Notable sales: some medical items for $650, paid $60.
Yeahhh sourcing is a problem. I am still sourcing on ebay but I can’t find the time for enough of that to really supply me much. It seems like there aren’t as many flippable deals on ebay right now… maybe people are trying to squeeze every penny out more now. Also, one of my favourite accounts to source from has shut down.We cleaned up our entire 2-car garage this weekend. It was full of junk, and we threw away mountains of stuff. I know I threw out some valuable stuff, but I did not have the time or storage room for any of it (we gave away what we could). THIS is why you will always have scavenging opportunities, because lazy people like me can’t be bothered, even though we know it’s worth more. When you’re trying to comprehensively clean out a garage filled with 5 years of detritus from 2 households, the last thing you want to do is interrupt your flow to try and list little pieces of it on ebay or locally. We pulled it all out onto the lawn, purged it, and put it back in. Now I have a workshop instead of a very dark labyrinth full of tripping hazards! It’s wonderful.
Hi guys, good to hear from you as usual.
Another good sales week on ebay… unfortunately still dismal scavenging.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3,449, 21 sales, COGS: $257, Fees: ~$481, Postage: $735, –> Gross profit: $1,975
Expenditures: $195 –> Cashflow: $2,233
Biggest sale was the last 11 of my medical wall panel things… had a good run with them, I think I originally bought like 50 of them for $5 each and over 1.5 years, sold them all for around $70 average.Built a square foot garden on the south side of our garage (16’x2’x20″) this weekend.
Mostly, I sometimes use Chit Chats (cross-border shipper), which is a savings. But I don’t need to use them in order to make a profit by any means.
Hope everyone is hale and hearty still…
Had another good week on ebay. Also received a good severance from my old job. I feel almost guilty for saying so but weirdly, in the middle of this pandemic with my wife on mat leave and me being laid off, is when we finally paid off a whole bunch of annoying debts and are in a good place financially. Hope our luck holds.
Regarding shipping from Canada – yes, Canada Post is more expensive. However, I would say that it is only catastrophically more expensive for people selling low-dollar, light items, or books (no media mail in Canada so a book costs like $15 to ship). As long as your ASP is way more than your shipping cost, you can still sell to the states no problem. About 50% of my sales are to USA.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3930, 20 sales, COGS: $976, Fees: ~$543, Postage: $667 –> Gross profit: $1745
Expenditures: $0 –> Cashflow: $2721I really REALLY need to get sourcing again though. I have done an abysmal job of sourcing these few weeks.
Good to hear from you guys, cool that you’re thinking of opening up a cafe. So you will be sort of silent partners in this venture? Or do you intend for this other coffee co to rent your space?
I continue to be exceedingly lucky, I am selling just fine in this crisis.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3083, 31 sales, COGS: $389, Fees: ~$428, Postage: $656 –> Gross profit: $1610
Expenditures: $698 –> Cashflow: $1957Still not really sourcing to any significant extent though. New job is taking up most of my spare time & brain cycles.
Sorry to hear about your AirBNBs, that sucks. Obviously not applicable to you, but I’ve been reading stories about a common scheme where somebody leases a bunch of long-term rentals and then rents them out as short term on AirBNB for profit – the catch being, the virus means they are now stuck with multiple properties unable to pay the lease.
So far things are really good for my business. People are buying, maybe even more than usual. Just crossing my fingers that it can keep humming along.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$4575, 18 sales, COGS: $1089, Fees: ~$621, Postage: $507 –> Gross profit: $2358
Expenditures: $507 –> Cashflow: $3447
Really not listing anything new. My profits the past few weeks are very much “eating the seed corn” and I’ll have to get back into sourcing soon or this is going to peter out.Thanks for the “no knead bread” recipe by the way! I made it and it was a huge hit. Seems like breadmaking is some sort of response in the collective unconscious to this pandemic, because it was very satisfying and it seems like lots of people are doing it.
Started my new job this week, going fine. Now I’m working exclusively from home.
I am sometimes a bit oblivious to what the things I sell actually are – if they’re NIB with a model number, and they are worth more than I paid for them, I feel no great need to dig too deeply.
I was packing an item last night which in my head I categorized as “some sort of medical filter thingies”. Wifey informed me that yep, they’re filters for ventilators.
Good to hear from you guys, thanks for the podcast!
I believe the social distancing rules currently being pushed in the States and Canada, while they may be good enough on a population level, are a little lenient if you actually value your health. This story was interesting – a choir tried to practice distancing, one person was (asymptomatically) sick, and 45/60 got infected anyway.
We are making and using homemade masks now. Any mask is better than nothing, western public health guidance be damned. (Our N95s we are going to give to some of my wife’s fellow nurses once their health region actually allows them to be used – right now they require nurses to use less effective surgical masks for most situations.) I am at most risk, going to the post office etc. But I am fully working from home now which should help. It’s my last week of work at my “old” job!
This has weirdly been my best ever sales month on ebay. I am not buying much, just hoarding cash at this point. Taking almost any offers that come in.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3383, 24 sales, COGS: $436, Fees: ~$469, Postage: $508 –> Gross profit: $1971
Expenditures: $101 –> Cashflow: $2813Good to hear from you guys. This is a weird dreamtime for me. I have 2 weeks of work left in my current job. I am in the office MWF but basically we are running a skeleton crew and I am encouraging everybody else to stay home. One of my favourite sources has totally shut down. So I’m down to sourcing on ebay… which is going pretty well anyway.
You weren’t too far off base regarding the Canadian market. I sell almost exactly 50% US, 50% domestically. The cross-border USPS shipping may be halted for individuals, but services like Chit Chats and DYK Post that I use are still doing it. And yes, Canada Post is much more expensive, particularly for light items – it’s more competitive for bigger (3kg+) stuff.
I had another good week… the shutdowns are not hitting me yet, but maybe that’s to come.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$2722, 16 sales, COGS: $262, Fees: ~$363, Postage: $320 –> Gross profit: $1777
Expenditures: $854 –> Cashflow: $1505I am also reinventorying and I do find some “ghost inventory”. However, it’s almost always due the same scenario: a buyer bought, then cancelled, and the item failed to relist. ESPECIALLY for items with quantity, where the quantity didn’t update upon cancellation.
Storage is now full. I was going to get another unit, now I am uncertain if I want to make that kind of investment right now. Might let the units get a little messy instead, stack stuff on the floors. Don’t think adding $200/mo to my bills makes sense.
Keep trying to think through the post COVID future. I think a big thing is that Amazon is going to, for better or worse, eat another huge piece of the economy. Between people wanting things shipped to their homes, and using AWS versus a company having its own physical servers… they are going to gobble everything up. Not sure what that means for all of us.
Bad week on account of the plague, real good week on ebay.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$6,413, 24 sales, COGS: $684, Fees: ~$880, Postage: $730 –> Gross profit: $4119
Expenditures: $306 –> Cashflow: $5227
Notable sales: the lot of 200 widgets from last week, bought for $5.99, has paid off. I sold 10 of the widgets for $2500. I think this is now my best ever pick. Was a local ebay buy.
Trying to control my spend now in preparation for needing a lot of cash on hand.
Unusual number of sales this week probably due to my slashing prices on lots of old inventory. It’s starting to work in clearing storage space.Also got a zebra printer, waiting for the labels in order to try it out. Very promptly last night my laserjet (for which I paid $20) ran out of toner… the replacement toner being $300 I’ll probably just buy another surplus printer.
Yeah, I have a new job. Very pleased to be working for an old boss.
No, we cannot live off ebay except by downsizing significantly, which we don’t want to do. We’re in a good place for our kids. However we have a lot of work to do in getting more frugal.
I would say though, ebay would have floated us for a month or two if I were unable to find work.
I believe, though, that we will be there in a year or two – then perhaps I can quit eng or drop to a PT consulting gig.
I had a listing deactivated on me due to coronavirus… weirdly it was some dispensers for hand sanitizer I’ve had for ages, and not touched the price of… but ebay is being careful that nobody is seen to be “price gouging”. Good to know we are all being protected from the dangers of adequate supply. I have some respirator cartridges on auction but they have not yet been taken down.
I had a good week on ebay, and my new job is secure so no longer facing a cashflow cliff at the end of March.
Sales: CAD$3,627, 17 sales, COGS: $494, Fees: ~$490, Postage: $582 –> Gross profit: $2,062
Expenditures: $396 –> Cashflow: $2,742
Think my biggest sale was a laser for $400, to a buyer in China. Post is still going! just with some delays.
I got in a really great buy. Got qty 200 of a new Siemens widget that sells for $50-300 each, for a grand total of $5.99 (local pickup). My proxy bid was $2100… man, that’s satisfying.My wife is feeling unwell enough, and is concerned enough about this pandemic, to be going on Mat Leave early (baby is due in July). Need to sit down with my accountant ASAP and figure out how much we need to claim she is making from the business… it’s a double mess because in 2019 we went from a partnership to a corporation and both of those arrangements factor into the mat leave calculations.
Good week on ebay.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3,734, 19 sales, COGS: $1,888, Fees: ~$485, Postage: $508 –> Gross profit: $853
Expenditures: $1,015 –> Cashflow: $2,234
Sold a microscope for $550, paid $150. 2 big projectors for $830, paid $50 each I think.
Been listing a whole whack of medical stuff, which has been selling fairly well.Sounded like Jay meant 10% of those who get severe symptoms, not 10% of the total.
Ah! One silver lining. Ebay randomly de-listed an item of mine last year. I think because it was a quantity listing, the last one sold, then the buyer cancelled (a common bug).
It just so happened however that the listing was for a box of 20 brand new respirator cartridges. I saw it in storage and did a spit take – “weird this hasn’t sold yet?!”
Now I’m waiting for the right moment to relist this baby, #vulturestyle
