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Numbers for September: 09/01/2018 – 09/30/2018
Total Listings: 944
Had 40 Sales for a total of $991.70
Cost of Items Sold: $112.60
Highest Price Sold: $210, best offer for 7 out of print magazines
Average Price Sold: $24.79 – Average Cost: $2.81
Spent on new inventory: $135
Number of items listed: 29
1 return, 1 GSP CanadaA week of jury duty slowed me down on the listing in September but I still plan to reach 1000 listings soon. The out of print magazines were ‘Carrousel Art’ which of course are about Carousel Horses and such. If you ever find these magazines at an estate or yard sale – grab them. They are kind of rare and I’ve sold single issues for up to $50.
The one return was a buyer who purchased a cassette tape and started the return before they even received it. Even though the title, pictures and description all indicated it was a tape, they thought they were buying a CD. I re-listed it and it only took about 3 days to sell to a local buyer.
Sharyn, just wanted to mention that you need to be careful when shipping to Italy. Many things are banned for import including leather goods. I have no idea how eBay GSP handles it. Many eBay sellers would just state “used clothing – men’s jacket” and leave the leather part out. There is still a small chance that a customs agent could confiscate it or charge a fine but probably unlikely, probably about the same chance of getting caught selling hard goods via USPS Media Mail. That said, great sale.
Just a short reminder, if you have a eBay store, make sure to use your shipping supply coupon before the end of September or it will expire. The link I used to find my coupon was: https://www.sd.ebay.com/subscriberdiscounts/viewOffer/Q3Premium2018. Hopefully this link will work for others also. It basically is located in ‘subscriber discounts’ on the Manage My Store page. I think there are less choices for box sizes this time, but I mainly buy the padded envelopes anyway.
Numbers: 08/01/2018 – 08/31/2018
Total Listings: 955
Had 34 Sales for a total of $986
Cost of Items Sold: $197
Highest Price Sold: $169.95 (1997 book about furniture)
Average Price Sold: $29 – Average Cost: $5.79
Spent on new inventory: $333
Number of items listed: 61
1 GSP to EnglandI had several days without sales in August, but overall I’m satisfied with my numbers. I hope to reach 1000 listings in a month or two, but I’ll keep listing past that mark. Best scavenge for me was 3 free Black+White Photography Magazine special issues at a yard sale. The lady just gave them to me, she didn’t want to sell them because they were full of nude photos. I just sold one for $30 (free shipping). At the same yard sale, I paid $5 for an old Longines watch box that contained several fraternal and other pins. When I got home, I discovered that two were 10k gold and one was sterling silver.
Now off to listen to the podcast while I list.
Thank You Troy for the eBay open report, lots of useful info.
Numbers: 07/01/2018 – 07/31/2018
Total Listings: 927
Had 33 Sales for a total of $817
Cost of Items Sold: $60
Highest Price Sold: $195.95 (1952 Maryland Shooting Match Trophy Plaque)
Average Price Sold: $24.75 – Average Cost: $1.82
Spent on new inventory: $21
Number of items listed: 36
No returns, No GSPI did a simple search on eBay for “college yearbook”. Out of the first ten listings, none have the TRS logo and only one has free shipping (6th from the top). One is sponsored (4th from the top) and Two are marked as “New Listings” (7th and 9th from the top). None have free returns and three do not even accept returns. Seven of the sellers have 100% positive feedback. This is a very small sample but it makes me wonder if I should use free returns or free shipping on my listings. I mainly sell vintage and collectibles, I did the same search for “cell phone cases” and all of the first ten had free shipping and six of them had free returns. I’m glad I sell people’s old stuff.
After discovering I had about 100 items with lost photos and spending about 10 hours to fix them, I called eBay. After being on hold for only 17 minuets I got a sales rep. I first asked if the problem about the photos had been fixed and she said it had been. Then I made several complaints about how I never heard about the image problem from eBay and I only found out about it from discussion boards and other sellers. I told her that that is very inconsiderate of eBay and that it indicates that eBay dosen’t much care about their sellers. She mentioned that many other sellers had made the same comment and that eBay was listening. I then stated that I read that many sellers were getting a 1 month refund on store fees as compensation. She said that eBay wasn’t doing that and that she couldn’t authorized a refund. I asked to speak to a manager. After a manager came on and asked what I wanted, I explained it all again. I had to wait about 2 or 3 minuets and then she came back and said I would be issued a refund. I received it on Tuesday. I also received the eBay “Sorry” email with the free 200 listings which is almost useless to me. Sorry about the long post, but just one more note.
For estate sales I normally only go late in the day or on the last day, mainly to avoid the mad rush of the crowds earlier in the day. I will only go early and stand in line if I see an item in the photos that I just have to have or I know I’ll make a killing on. Going late in the sale, I almost always find great treasures that others have passed on, many times it has been items I’ve learned about hear on SL.
Congrats on the new Main Street Property. You both are artist that just got a new canvas to work with. I would vote for a commercial airbnb space that people could rent out for a few day or a weeks for different projects, pop-up stores and such.
I’ve been fighting the missing picture glitch for the past few days. Out of about 920 listings I had about 100 listings with ether all or all but one photo missing. I used this tool that was mentioned in one of the scavengerlife forums:
http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/BulkPhotoScanner.htm. I used the fast scan option, then ran the report that shows the number of images in each listing along with titles. I had about 16 that had 0 images and about 75 that only had 1. I plan to call eBay on Friday to complain about not being notified about this problem and to also ask for a reversal of some store fees.I mostly buy at estate sales and occasionally at yard/garage sales. I always make a pile of the items I want whether they have a price on them or not. I make sure to be there when they price the items I picked. When I think a price is too high, I’ll tell them no and pull it from the pile. After one or two no’s, miraculously the prices start to get cheaper. Sometimes I’ll mention that I’m a reseller and ask if I can get a better price which for me has worked far more times than not.
Now back to listing.
I’m kind of late with my numbers for the month of June. My numbers are about the same as last month except that my number of items listed is way down due to my back going out for a couple of weeks and having to take it easy. It is way better now and I hope to list quite a few items in July as my death/profit piles are overtaking my spare bedroom.
Numbers for month of June
Total Listings: 921
Had 47 Sales for a total of $855
Cost of Items Sold: $95
Highest Price Sold: $88 Vietnam Era US Air Force OG 107 Uniform
Average Price Sold: $18 – Average Cost: $2
Spent on new inventory: $145.69
Number of items listed: 31
2 GSP, Canada and Australia
No returns for month of JuneI just recently set up free returns with automatic approval. The person that purchased the Uniform opened a return case stating it didn’t fit, I had the measurements in the listing so I think he was just fishing for a discount. After the return window closed I called eBay right a way and had it closed. I searched for a while trying a to find a way to do it on line but to no avail. Luckily I only had to wait about 3 minuets for a teck to answer.
On many of my low price items, I increased the prices and then changed them to free shipping. I did notice a small bump in sales for older things but it didn’t seem to last very long.
Now to go and listen to the podcast, and a few past ones I haven’t got to yet.
Numbers for month of May
Total Listings: 916 (1194 items/total value $26,499)
Had 47 Sales for a total of $987
Cost of Items Sold: $93
Highest Price Sold: $75 I, Robot Marquee/$59.95 Hawaii Real Photo Postcards
Average Price Sold: $21 – Average Cost: $1.98
Spent on new inventory: $295
Number of items listed: 50
2 GSP, Italy and NetherlandsI sold my 3rd “I, Robot” Marquee in May, that makes a total of $245 for the 3 I sold so far.
Right before the end of a church sale, I spent $20 for 3 plastic aircraft models, I was surprised to see them still there. 2 of them have sold already for a total of $100.
I spent a total of $150 for this stuff from various vender’s at a town wide sale. The 2 Pendleton shirts are vintage made in USA, I haven’t tested the Colortone Color Wheel yet but it appears to be unused still in its original box. Most of the money went to the letter press printing blocks and type, 28 miscellaneous, 248 Chinese characters and a lot of 42 small leaves images. There is a Lionel Trains Instructions book from 1951 and a Marklin Trains catalog form the 70’s along with some other publications I think I’ll do okay with. The two bronze boat props are damaged but I think they will make nice decor for somebodies nautical or Tiki bar.
Hi Doublythumbs, I believe the depression glass shaker you sold is made by Anchor Hocking and is the Colonial Knife & Fork pattern. There are some listed on eBay. Thanks for posting your finds and sales.
I still recommend to friends to sell on eBay, I just caution them that if they want to be more than just a casual seller selling a few items, it will take lots of time, effort and planning to have a good income from it. After learning about your experience with Amazon J&R, I will not sell there and I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. Etsy is a toss up for me, I did sell there early on, but I found that I did better if I concentrated on just one on-line site.
Numbers for month of April
Total Listings: 906 (1200 items/total value $26,461)
Had 45 Sales for a total of $1,202
Cost of Items Sold: $183
Highest Price Sold: $230 (one buyer bought 3 US Navy 9.5″ Bowls)
Highest Single Item Sold: $100, Original I, Robot Arcade Game Marquee
Average Price Sold: $26.71
Spent on new inventory: $71
Number of items listed: 21
No GSP this monthI only listed 21 items this month, but 5 of them sold for a total of $400 which helped my numbers a lot.
$60 of my purchases this month were for the 3 US Navy serving bowls. One buyer bought all three for $230 (shipping included). I sold one Atari I, Robot Marquee for $70 best offer, then a second one sold for full price of $100. I still have about 20 or so of them left over from my scrapping days years ago so I basically got them all for free. I just started listing them this month so I was surprised at the quick sale. Overall they will be a very long tail item because only about 600 of the games were ever made.
Thank You aperture (Daniel) I appreciate it. Now that I know what it is I’ll go and list it. Have a great week.
-Steve
Numbers for month of March
Total Listings: 914 (1214 items/total value $26,330)
Sold 72 Items for $1520
Cost of Items Sold: $117
Highest Price Sold: $125 1800’s Painted Pantry Box
Average Price Sold: $21.11
Spent on new inventory: $39
Number of items listed: 50
GSP: 3 – Italy and two to EnglandMy numbers are better this month than I expected as I had several periods of 2 or 3 days with no sales at all. One buyer purchased a cross stitch pattern then canceled about 10 minuets later. I think after buying it eBay showed her a cheaper one so she bought that one instead.
My highest price sold item, the painted pantry box, would of been worth more if it was from the US, but it was most likely from Germany. Harry Rinker on his gcnlive.com radio show ‘Whatcha got?’ appraised it at about $40 to $60 (if I remember correctly) so I was happy to take a best offer of $125 since I paid only $2 for it at a yard sale.
Temudgin, if you ever have done http coding, its not too complicated . The only hard part is that you need a place to host the photos other than eBay. I have a godaddy account where I host my photos, but it should work with imgur and other photo hosting sites, just make sure to size the photos before uploading them to fit the blog, I resized my images to 300 pixels for the above post. For the first image in my post above, I used this code:
You will need to change the number “192443922429” part to your actual sold eBay item number, and then the part after the “img src=” tag will need to point to where you have the photo stored.
I test the file in my web browser before uploading to the blog first to test the links and such to make sure that it works and looks okay.
I hope this helps and best of luck
-SteveSome of my sales for February. Photos should be links to the eBay listing. NOTE: I adjusted the photos to 300 pixels or less, so hopefully they will show up okay for everybody.
1971 North East Nevada Phone Book, paid $1, sold for $24.45
1978 HP Microprocessor Lab Board, this was left over from my old days of doing computer scrap, probably paid a few dollars for this and sold for $150. I had this listed for $100 and since I had it so long I took a best offer of $50 GSP from Switzerland. After a unpaid item case, I re-listed for $150. I turned down a few offers for $30 then somebody else fro Switzerland paid the full price of $150.
This is just an old car light I purchased for $1, sold for $25 (free shipping).
Lot of well used Lego manuals and catalogs, paid $4 and sold for $25
My favorite sale of the month, 1950s Paint by Numbers “Nude with Shaw”. Paid $5 and sold for $90
I picked this vintage game up at a consignment store for $5 and sold for $45 (free shipping).
These are a low price item, but they have been in my pipeline for a while now. I’ve sold over 94 of them so far at around $7.95 a set and still have about 500 left, paid about 20 cents each set. USPS Letter Carrier Patch Set.
