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I am also glad to have my 2020 taxes done. I did have to explain to my accountant that the difference between my total sales (from my spreadsheet) and my PayPay 1099 was that the 1099 included sales tax collected by eBay for multiple states. I keep track of each sale, whether it is a CA sale or out of state, the cost of goods, shipping charged, and actual shipping on a spreadsheet, this helps me a lot at tax time. Since eBay now collects all of the sales tax, it makes it easier for me to fill out my annual CA sales tax forms as I put all of my CA eBay sales as going through another reseller that collects all the sales tax and forwards it to the state.
I had one great scavenging adventure last week. At an estate sale, I picked up my usual lot of miscellaneous collectibles, including an old metal For Rent sign from the ’50s. Inline to pay, they wanted $67 for everything ($15 for the sign). A buyer behind me asked if I wanted to sell the sign as he was a Real Estate Agent, as usual in those cases, I said I would think about it and normally it stops there – I think they are trying to get me to say a price first so they can negotiate. But when he offered me $100 cash, I accepted on the spot – and since I was still in the process of paying, I got my card back from the clerk and just paid cash. Everybody was happy, even the clerk didn’t seem to mind.
March was an average month for me. I spent quite a lot of time combining two separate storage locations into one bigger location. I’ve been saving quite a lot of stuff and junk ever since I was a teenager, now that most of it is in one location, I plan to try doing a few MaxSold online auctions to clear out some of the clutter.
March 2021
Total listings: 1229
Items sold: 55
Sales: $1179.70
Highest price sold: $95 – 1862-1874 Chinese Painted Plate
Average price sold: $21.45
Cost of items sold: $146.13 / Average cost: 3.65 each
Spent on new inventory: $3.99 (Tiki mug from Goodwill)
Number of items listed: 52From eBay Performance Page:
Gross Sales: $1,651.96 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,069.09 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)Numbers for February 2021
Total listings: 1230
Items sold: 47
Sales: $1124
Highest price sold: $85 – Schepens-Kraus Watercolors (sold 3 for $255 total)
Average price sold: $23.91
Cost of items sold: $149.09 / Average cost: 3.17 each
Spent on new inventory: $474
Number of items listed: 66
Returns: 1From eBay Performance Page:
Gross Sales: $1,490.48 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $932.02 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)The watercolors sold to two different buyers at the full asking price which was nice, I assume that the second buyer saw that one sold and bought up the remaining two, not bad for small paintings that I paid 50 cents each for at a yard sale. Due to the big storms in the middle of the country, I’ve had five or six emails from buyers wanting to know where their item was. All of a sudden, tracking started to show up again for most of them Sunday night but I still ended up issuing one refund, I requested the USPS return the item to me, I’ll see if that happens.
My new inventory costs were kind of high for February, but $295 of it was due to an invitation to an estate pre-sale – the first one I ever got. The place was packed with stuff, and since it was a pre-sale the prices were high and not very negotiable. I still bought a huge lot of slides, a bunch of leather holsters, a ship’s wheel, and some Hawaii items, maps, and books.
My favourite site for looking up hard to find books is https://www.abebooks.com. They are a booksellers site and have listings from quite a few different sellers. There is seldom a book or publication that I can not find info on there. I also use my Worthpoint account, eBay solds and Amazon, but AbeBooks seems to have better listings for rare and valuable books.
Numbers for January 2021
Total Listings: 1207
Items sold: 53
Sales: $1095
Highest price sold: $96 – Lot of 1950’s slides of Japan
Average price sold: $20.65
Cost of items sold: $134.86 / Average cost: 2.54 each
Spent on new inventory: $170
Number of items listed: 25From eBay Performance Page:
Gross Sales: $1,446.09 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $844.59 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)Thanks, R&J for the info on the eBay performance tab. Having the amount that eBay takes out in taxes will be a big help. The best part is, I was able to go back further than 90 days by using the custom tabs. I went back to January 2018 through March 2018 and it worked. It would be nice to be able to look at a whole year but it only seems to work for 90 day periods.
Numbers for December 2020. eBay store: steve-list
Total Listings: 1233
Items sold: 70
Sales: $1413.50
Highest Price sold: $144 – Panasonic 31 Band Radio
Average Price Sold: $20.19
Cost of Items sold: $177.25 / average cost: 2.53 each
Spent on new inventory: $32.20
Number of items listed: 54Not counted in the numbers above is a Santa Blow Mold that I bought for $10 and sold for $60. I completely forgot about it and only came across it a couple of weeks before Christmas so I listed it on Craig’s List for $90, but I ended up taking an offer for it as I didn’t want to ship or store it any longer.
The Panasonic 31 Band Radios normally sells for a lot more but it had modifications made to it along with cosmetic issues so I gave somebody a good deal on it.
On December 18th I sold a $20 yearbook which was paid for with local pickup, but after 2 emails to the buyer and still not hearing back, I called eBay (only a 3 minute wait for a callback). They basically told me to give the buyer a few more weeks. I asked about canceling the order and issuing a refund, she said I could do that and since she made notes of the call I shouldn’t get a defect. I guess I’ll wait a while and see what happens as I am somewhat pessimistic about the defect.
Simon: As for the new eBay shipping feature with the the label and printing options automatically opening up after the button is clicked to purchase the label, for me it is a glitch. Two PDF copies of the label open up and when I try and click print from the printing option box that also popped up, only a blank page prints. I have to close the extra PDF copy and the printing option box and then I can do a file/print of control P to open a new printing option box to print it out. This may be a problem with my computer as I am using the Firefox browser on a Ubuntu system. I haven’t complained to eBay about it as it is an easy work around.
Jay, even after 6 years in the Navy, I never developed a taste for coffee, but to be honest, hearing about Broad Porch kind of makes me want to try it.
I was number 8 in line so I wasn’t in the first group to be let in, a few people in front of me spent $1000 or more. The only thing I was disappointed in not getting was a box of about five hundred mixed band stickers and a Green Day lunch box. I only purchased a Weezer lunch box, a Tiger Army wallet, and a VKMTS shirt. I also got a box of VHS tapes, NoFX, The Dammed, etc. for $5 which nobody else seemed interested in. Posters were going for $25 or higher and most of them were gone before I had a chance to even look at them. Several people asked about a Residents poster that was in the online ad, but it went very early in the sale. The singer kept most of the music, although I did find some band demo cassettes that I purchased. I also found two 1” reel recordings of the band, but I turned them into the sellers because I was pretty sure the singer meant to keep them and just overlooked them when clearing out personal stuff.
Numbers for November 2020. eBay store: steve-list
Total Listings: 1236
Items sold: 59
Sales: $1363.15
Highest Price sold: $100 – best offer for Two small watercolors
Average Price Sold: $23.10
Cost of Items sold: $142.50 / average cost: 2.42 each
Spent on new inventory: $487.76
Number of items listed: 95I spent quite a lot on new inventory, most of it was at an estate sale for a musician that was moving out of state. There was quite a catch of punk music stuff and it went for a good price, but I mostly bought vintage and non music collectibles that I think I should do pretty good on. It was kind of strange as I actually know the person that had the sale, it was for the singer of a band that at one time went on a national tour opening for Green Day, small world.
Hey J&R, I’m not a coffee drinker, but if you ever expand into roasting and grinding cacao beans, let me know.
Sharyn, Ouch to the “Newton’s Laws are Full of Flaws”, I saw that at an Eagle’s Hall sale last Saturday and passed it by. I probably did okay though as I purchased a 16 Qt All-Clad stockpot for $5 and a WWII Bayonet also for $5. But if I ever see that book again, I’ll snatch it up quick.
Numbers for October 2020. eBay store: Steve-List
Total Sales: $1436.80
Highest Price sold: $95 – Restaurant Ware Ball Pitcher / $133 – 3 Garden Gnomes
Average Price Sold: $25.20
Cost of Items sold: $176.84 / average cost: 3.10
Spent on new inventory: $478
Number of items listed: 62
I have had very uneven sales for October, I would go 2-3 days with no sales and then I would get a day with a burst of sales which seemed to be the pattern for the whole month.
My new inventory cost is higher than normal, but that is largely due to the Trader Vic’s in Emeryville having a yard sale, which I think they only do once every 5 years or so. The line was crazy long and quite a few of the choice items were gone before I finally got to the sales area, but I still found some good deals. I picked up 6 Tiki Mugs (sold 2 already) and some South Pacific wall art which I still need to list. Stuff was going fast and I think they probably sold out by the end of the day.
Now to go listen to the podcast while I list.
As a test, I just tried putting one of the new 6 x 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 boxes in a Priority Padded flat rate envelope. The only way I could get it to fit inside was to first put it inside of a plastic bag so that it would slip in easier but even then, when I took the box out I noticed that one end of the box was partially scrunched down some, but that might be my fault due to not taking better care and time when pushing it in. Is it possible that eBay made the boxes larger knowing that they would not fit in the Priority Padded Flat Rate Envelope? From the eBay shipping calculator:
- 4 oz. box: $9.60/$8.40 with eBay discounts
- Padded Flat Rate Envelope: $8.40/$7.75 with eBay discounts
Individually $0.65 will only increase eBay’s take by 6 or 7 cents per transaction on calculated shipping, but multiply that by the thousands of eBay packages sent every day and it is a small increase in eBay’s bottom line – although it is a rather small one and one would think hardly worth the time and effort on eBay’s part.
Yes, they are both labeled – box sizes are visible in the image I provided at the lower right corner, the 6 x 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 text is printed vertically and easy to miss as it is smaller.
