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Thanks for the responses on this! I am a women sell things that her dad had owned at a 50/50 split and she mentioned to me that some of the stuff here dad had was old bike parts. She did not specify what type of bikes…that was why I guessed some sort of bike part.
Yes, definitely! One for the record books is a good way to put it. I will make sure to think back on this week when the inevitable slow week (or weeks) head my way!
First week of full time and easily my best week ever. Total profits after all expenses/fees checking in close to $2500.
Top sales:
Autographed Harry Potter 1st Edition Sorcerer’s Stone sold for $1000 – found for a dollar at estate sale and paid $100 for authentication
Two consignment sales – Klipsch Cornwall Speakers and a vintage McIntosh 4100 receiver. My share of the sales was $800.Woke up to a nice $200 sale for a lot of three Motorola Rugged Cell Phones that I got in an auction box lot for $4.
Best recent scavenge at a garage sale – big box of new in box medical stuff. The guy selling told me that if I didn’t know what it was, then it wouldn’t be of any use to me. I offered $20 for the box and he was surprised and took it. Sold 6 units already for $25 each with at least two dozen left to sell. Still don’t even know what they are…
Understanding that this was a rare week, but felt good and the wife loved it!
I haven’t had time to run the exact numbers, but for the month of May, my profit after all expenses was roughly $1600 – so a bit slower than I had hoped. But the big change is that my last day of work will be this Friday. That’s not to say the change is happening b/c of eBay. With my wife and I both working, daycare costs for 2 kids is taking it’s toll so we decided to make the change based on that alone. Two kids in daycare around my area is almost $30k per year. So I guess what that mean is I am taking a full-time job to be home that pays a $30k base salary and the eBay profits will just assist with costs. Plus we have always lived below our means so no debt at all and mortgage has been paid for almost a year! I have hopes that I will be able to find some pockets of time to help with listings – but we will see, worst case I keep listing at night.
The sourcing has not been a problem as the weekly auction I attend keeps a lot in the pipeline. Garage sales and the occasional flea markets have been good as well. Recently sold a couple of Power Amps thru FB that I bought for $10 each at garage sale for $80 and $200. Also had someone reach out to me about a consignment item that I hope will go for around $2000.
The next step now that I will no longer have the day job is to seek out and take chances on higher dollar items and flip for larger margins. Time constraints make it so I can no longer mess around with items that are only going to make $5 – $10. Easier said than done, of course!
Ok, thanks! And to be clear, you would not be concerned that the ship destination shows Taiwan on the offer? It will still be set to go to KY?
I do free shipping on 90% of my items so the numbers don’t reflect that cost.
Total Items in Store: 689
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $812
Highest Price Sold: $125 – Babe’s Musical Bat – collectible from 1927 World Series
Average Price Sold: $35
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $30Between the 2 young kids, full-time job, and dealing with a squirrel in my attic, I ended up taking about 10 days off from listing and sourcing. I’ve been non-stop since I started doing this six months ago so it was a needed break. I ramped back up this last week and got over 120 items listed. One thing I noticed was that towards the end of my 10-day break, sales really dropped off. I even had my first day in months where nothing sold. It’s possible it was just a coincidence although it’s also possible that the eBay algorithm rewards a more active account. In fact, this new week started off great as I sold 12 things yesterday and a few more today.
A couple of highlights from the week:
– A tiny bat-shaped harmonica from the 1927 World Series sold for $125. I probably could’ve held out for more but it was a quick sale and easy to ship.
– Picked up a sealed PC game – Silent Hill 4 – at estate sale for $2 and sold within a week for $100
– Same estate sale I grabbed a New in box Sony CD Walkman for $2 and sold for $70. It was the fastest sale I’ve ever had. I was writing the very next listing and it sold in the process. Maybe 2 minutes tops. That always makes me worried that I priced too low but the comps were right in that range.Sourcing has been a bit slower lately too – my weekly auction had an off week and my schedule didn’t allowed me to get there the week before that.
Estate sales have been OK, but one I went to had me laughing. Lots of collectibles and nice stuff but they had everything, and I mean everything fully researched. Some of the tags even listed the recent eBay prices…which is what they were trying to sell it for. So I grabbed a card from the company running the sale so I can avoid their sales in the future.A bit of a slow week perhaps, although it’s more likely that I was spoiled a bit by some good recent weeks. Still, it was profitable and I consistently listed. High point of the week was that both my wife and I took Friday off of work, kids were at day care, so we went out to estate sales. She was able to pick a few things that I overlooked and she is a great negotiator so we got some great deals. My favorite pulls from the sales we went to was a very old Heathkit Preamp which is in pretty solid condition for $10 and a new boxed Lord of the Rings hard cover book set for $7 – that’s for my personal collection though, although new they go for roughly $100. And I should also mention that due to Steven’s videos I knew to be on the lookout for reel to reel tapes. Was digging through an attic at the last sale and found a large wooden crate filled with tapes still in the box. Some used, some new – all in original boxes. There is probably about 70 of them. When I brought them up to the girl to determine price, I could tell she had no idea what they even were. She tossed out $20 and I took it without even countering.
Now that I’m 5-6 months into this, I definitely notice that my inventory is coming less and less from thrift stores and much more from estate sales, auctions, and liquidations. Excited for garage sale season coming soon as this area has more than you could even fit into your day.
03/03/19 – 03/09/19
Total Items In Store: 630
Items Sold: 25
Net Profits (Total Sales – Selling Costs – COGS): $492.97
Highest Price Sold: Two $75 Sales and one $70 Sale. The $75’s were a Camcorder I got out of an box lot and the other was a Kenwood Car Receiver I picked up for $12 at an estate sale. The $70 item was the most interesting and surprising. I bought a box lot of video games for $30 and it’s been selling nicely, but tucked inside was a Demo Disc that you would play at stores at a PlayStation Kiosk. Apparently, they are collectible – listed for $100 OBO and took a $70 offer.
New Inventory: $210
Returns/Refunds: $ 60 – A pair of shoes that I listed the wrong size. But the bulk of this number was a partial refund due to some damage during shipment. Sold a pair of Cast Iron Duck door stops for $125 and buyer sent a picture of a piece of the foot broken off. I offered a $50 refund and they took the offer. Thought I had packed these quite well too.Great video Steven and thank you for the shout out! I was happy to help you add to your very cool collection!
A slower week than the prior three but continued the basement rack building and diagrammed the floor plan for the basement storage. A work in progress but at least there’s a method to the madness now. Next goal is to get a bit more sleep this week. Spent a couple hundred dollars at a weekday auction and was up until 2AM sorting and cataloging – then up at 6:30AM to go to work.
My Store Week Feb 24-March 2, 2019
Total Items in Store: 610
Items Sold: 32
Gross Sales: $829
Cost of Items Sold: $48
Highest Price Sold: $70 – Two Items. An old Variable Autotransformer, still don’t know what it does but power tested it and it sold quickly. The other was a collectible 2 VHS box set from the movie Scream – went to a horror film fan in Australia via the GSP – picked that up at an estate sale for $2.
Average Price Sold: $25.90
Returns: 1 – Wool Hat returned for fit
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $240
Number of items listed this week: Approx 60
Scavenge of the week – Got a bunch of box lots from auction this week – one of which did not look like anything special. But after pulling things out, one after another appear to be great finds. Lots of Mid Century Modern and small easy to ship collectibles. I think the guy must have been a collector himself. Vintage light bulbs that surprisingly go for a fair amount – Mazda Christmas tree bulb replacements – small and large.Solid week – here are a few tings that sold.
Westclock Alarm clock – listed this a Mid Modern and it worked fine. Got it as part of a box lot and sold for $25 w/in a day.
https://imgur.com/n7ZZ2IHPipe holder with glass humidor and a few pipes – picked this up at an estate sale for cheap and sold for $60. Took a few months though.
https://imgur.com/UP4wEfA5-Disc Jazz CD set in Box. CDs were in mint condition. Got this at an estate sale for a buck and sold for $30 in two weeks.
https://imgur.com/SFSFdFpI picked up a dozen various racing hats two months ago for $10 and this is the second one I’ve sold for $25. Have a few from this lot that are Ferrari listed at $40 with some interest so hoping those move soon.
https://imgur.com/bqNGbqoThis Panasonic Cassette Recorder was part of a box lot and sold withing 24 hours for $60. Based on what else was in the box, I probably paid $1 for it.
https://imgur.com/uHh6v9cLunch at the Ritz Friut Cocktail earrings – actually sold these for my mom as she picked up at an estate sale for cheap. They are as hideous in real life as they look in this picture. Sold for $65
https://imgur.com/ZFnx3TrSylvan Projection Bulg was part of a box lot. Second one I’ve sold within a week- this one for $45. Other was different but went for $30
https://imgur.com/iR1ChBGThis was a Goodwill find for $5 – Birch bark Lampshade. I knew I had something special when a lady at GW stopped me and asked if she could see it. She picked it up and looked it over and said “Great find!” Sold for $125 within a month.
https://imgur.com/53U3t3EMy Store Week Feb 17-23, 2019
Total Items in Store: 554
Items Sold: 35
Gross Sales: $1,002.50
Cost of Items Sold: $80
Highest Price Sold: $125 (Genuine Birch Bark Lampshade)
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: Approx $80
Number of items listed this week: Approx 60
Favorite Sale of the Week: I have a Goodwill near my work that has been stocking hockey equipment in near new condition.
I have found some gloves, pants, and skates that have sold well over the past couple of months. This week I sold a near new pair of kid’s skates for $45 that I paid $7 for. Crazy that things this new are given away.Stories from the week: Weird week. I was all ready to report a bad week considering how things started, but a nice finish on the back-end made up for it all.
I made the mistake of swapping shipping labels on two orders. Had to pay for additional postage to get them to the right location and to top it off, one of the items did not work upon arrival – it was a motherboard to a PC that I bought for $30 – thought I had identified the issue as I have some expertise in computer building but I was wrong. Overall I sent the motherboard and a vintage firkin bucket and lost a few bucks. And then I had resolution on a set of glasses that never delivered (USPS) – I refunded…ugh.
So the week was ugly at the start but some good things happened. I went to my first live auction on Wednesday and spent $41 – Listed 40 things and have already profited $60 off two items – a mid century modern clock and a Panasonic VHS Recorder. Another item that has been selling quickly is the Barbie Jumbo Jet that I took apart for pieces. Bought for $3 and have already made three sales for $36 with plenty left to go. Possible BOLO item as it’s easy to part out.
