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[sonia_pc]

So, I’m really a numbers person. And I do love Excel. Even though selling online is a very part time activity for me, I’ve been tracking all my numbers since day 1, so I thought I’d share them with you guys as they were already crunched:

Product Sales (including shipping) $23,115
COGS $12,458
Fees + Shipping $4,305
Labor (outsourced) $-
Gross Profit $6,352
Total # of Sales 152
Jan 1 # of Listings 19
Dec 31 # of Listings 67
New Listing in 2018 200
2018 STR 29%
2018 ASP $179
Avg sales/wk 2.9
Avg listings/wk 3.8

Sidenote: Breakdown of Sales by Platform
eBay $7,879
Etsy $13,425
Others (Facebook, Direct selling to people I know, local website similar to Craigslist) $1,811

Quick recap: I’m a very part time seller (full time demanding corporate job, married w/ a kid,…), based in Lisbon, Portugal, and I sell mostly mid-century modern/ Scandinavian design items that I love and source online from other more affluent countries in Europe. I began on Etsy in late 2017 and in 2018 I started selling a bit on Ebay too, inspired by you guys here at Scavenger Life.

I’ve learned many things on this forum and I love to hear from people that sell online, as I don’t know anyone in real life that also does it.

[sonia_pc]

I would say that if a sentence doesn’t flow or sound well then, regardless of being grammatically correct, it just should go.

Logics seems twisted to my English as second language self- double negative 😂 it really is easier to understand if you say:

Shop like no one else, because you are like no one else.

But then there would be a repetition so someone came up with that twisted formula

[sonia_pc]

It’s a german brand – Rosenthal.

[sonia_pc]

IMHO it looks like pencil and charcoal could both have been used, as there is detailed precision and lots of smudging. I’m by no means an expert, but That’s what I’d say.

If you’re listing it, perhaps you could mention both pencil and charcoal?

[sonia_pc]

Another great input. I can see all those hardships coming together so easily :)))

[sonia_pc]

Hi Sharyn, that was incredibly helpful and detailed. I was just tinkering with the idea and thinking it should be hard to pull together and you came to show me I wasn’t overthinking.

Thanks for taking the time!

[sonia_pc]

Hi, would you mind sharing what kind of agreement you have for consignments? I am thinking that could be interesting. TIA

[sonia_pc]

For the sake of accuracy regarding selling limits, I can share my experience, as I have just started selling on ebay less than 2 months ago so I can tell you exactly how things went:

– Early March: default(?) new seller limits 10 items / $500
– March 13: limits raised to 30 items/ $1,500
– March 28: limits raised to 90 items/ $3,000
– April 13: limits raised to 180 items/ $4,500
– April 28: limits raised to 180 items (stayed the same)/ $5,900.00

So, every two weeks they have kept raising the limits without even having to ask.

In this time frame I only sold 9 items/ roughly $600. I had some positive feed back, but not from all buyers (no feed back from some, but ebay “knows” things are being shipped and delivered timely).

Despite not selling heaps of stuff, I kept listing as much as my limits allowed me to. On the last raise just the amount went up, maybe because I don’t need a larger number of items (right now my $ selling limit is maxed out with just 28 items listed…). I still have stuff listed on Etsy that is not on Ebay.

[sonia_pc]

Thanks for sharing your experiment and explaining it thoroughly. I’m a sucker for hard data ha

[sonia_pc]

Hi,
I have started an instagram account for my etsy store, it’s lisbonvintagestudio.

It does drive some traffic to my store (6% of the total visits), and I’ve had sales that I can link back to my account on Instagram – like this person from Japan that says on instagram that he can’t wait to get the item he ordered and tags me on photos of the item at his home after it arrives. It’s kind of fun, but I’m really not big on social media 🙂

I don’t mind posting often on Instagram, mixing random stuff I like with photos from items on my store, but I’m not that good at going after the possible buyers, it kind of sucks the life out of me to do it purposefully, like commenting and liking stuff if I wouldn’t do it anyway and thanking comments on my photos and so on… :). I’d like that to happen organically, but that’s just me being kind of a dreamer

I’ve just found out yesterday that you can tag directly the items on photos and people are directed to your store, and that’s a huge step in making instagram more sales driven. You have to link your instagram account to a facebook store and be approved by Instagram, etc and take a few more steps, but I still haven’t investigated further – it made things a tad more complicated that there seems to be different policies towards US vs other countries. Did any of you look into that?

I’m going to check and follow other accounts.

[sonia_pc]

Olá Daniel, Obrigada 🙂

Here it goes:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LisbonVintageStudio
https://www.ebay.com/usr/sonicoutinh6 – I don’t have as many items on ebay as on etsy, because I have a listing limit (just been selling there since march 15th). After I list on Etsy, copying it to ebay is really easy (one item at a time, no automation there)

I would really appreciate it should you have any suggestions regarding them. I really appreciate that many people here are so open and candid – and Jay seems to be top performer when it comes to that 🙂

[sonia_pc]

In fact shipping is quite expensive within Europe, but combining shipping really brings down the cost per unit, so I try to bundle several items from the same seller

[sonia_pc]

Hi Ryanne

I can’t help you with this particular item, but when I have a guess on the possible origin of something (like those that were mentioned here – Bitossi, Swedish pottery, …) and it’s something that might be valuable if I can find out the maker, brand, designer, whatever, I turn to facebook themed groups that are amazing at identifying just about anything in their range of interest – like: Finnish glass lovers, Mid century Bitossi and other Italian pottery, West German Pottery and so on.

As most of these people tend to know a lot not only on their stuf (say Italian Pottery) but also other kinds of things, they will at least point you in the right direction.

I have had much success doing that, but it can be a bit time consuming. However, as I like to learn about objects, design, etc and selling is also a hobby (even if a profitable one), that just adds to my fondness of the overall process of selling online

[sonia_pc]

I can’t help you with this particular item, but there are theme especific facebook groups that are amazing at identifying just about anything in their range of interest – like: Finnish glass lovers, Mid century Bitossi and other Italian pottery, West German Pottery and so on.

[sonia_pc]

Thanks for welcoming me Rhianna and Jay and taking interest in my pursues 🙂

Regarding your questions:

– I am Portuguese alright, born and raised. I have lived, studied (including University) and worked within a 15 miles radius from where I live now all of my life. That also includes my parents, my inlaws and siblings. That must seem a bit unusual to you guys in the USA, but it’s pretty common here;

– I sell some things locally, mostly at a local platform akin to Craigslist (though less hectical and more organized), OLX. That would be personal stuff I’m getting rid of or some things that appeal only to the local market (like screenprints from sought after Portuguese artists)

– On Ebay and Etsy I sell mostly to people in the US, Japan, Canada, Germany, UK and other miscelaneous countries (Australia, France, Finland…)

– I have never had a single issue with anyone on Etsy but have only been selling sice late 2017 (or Ebay for that matter, but I only sold like 6 items there – began march 15th). I do try to be exhaustive in descriptions and photos. People on Etsy are just really friendly and some like to chat a bit. It seems to me they are also willing to pay more for the same items than on Ebay and there’s a bit of a sense of smallish community with people being quite polite.

– My main challenge is sourcing as I have lots of restraints:
– I hardly have any free time to scavenge in the wild and there aren’t that many opportunities here (no good thrift or charity shops)
– Portuguese goods that are really well made and would be worth selling aren’t known/ have no brand
– Items that people value anywhere in the planet are high priced here – people just don’t give that stuff away in masive quantities for sure!
– I live in an apartment and don’t have much free space to store or time to pack.

– So, in my case it all boils down to somewhat high value items (I’d say 150 USD average), with an average profit margin of 50% to date. I focus mostly on mid century designer glass/ ceramic that are somewhat collectible but not really unique or high end and I source 90% online, taking advantage of ebay auctions from sellers in Germany, UK, etc that are fast movers, scandinavian countries local online platforms where Americans don’t tread (haha), etc

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