Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
As of October 1st, eBay started collecting tax on all my sales in California where I am located. My older listings have manually entered tax rates but for the past few year or so I have used the tax table, but only filling in the entry for California. Now, on both styles of listings, eBay is collecting the sales tax. I’m not sure how to report the information on my California Sales Tax return because you list “Total Gross Sales” then subtract out the “Sales in Interstate or Foreign Commerce” and the remainder is the “Total Taxable Transactions.”
So it appears that you do not have to do anything to your listings as it seems eBay takes the tax out either way and just ignores what you have checked off in that area – maybe they should just remove the options altogether along with the tax tables.
One additional note, I’ve always charged sales tax at the rate where I live, the same as a brick & mortar, but I have no idea if eBay is charging that rate (8.25%), the state wide rate of 7.25% or the rate where the package is delivered, which varies between 7.25% and 10.5%.
As for clothing sizes, I sometimes put it as “vintage tag size” in the title and then I’ll show the actual measurements in the description.
I vote for the “list it and forget it” method. Many of my items are vintage and may be hard to fine so when that one special buyer is looking for that one special doo-dad, I want it available in my store. If it only takes a few days to sell great! – if it takes 5 years that is also great! I just ignore the “This listing hasn’t had any sales in at least 16 months. Please consider updating it” eBay notes under my older listings.
My Numbers for Oct. 2019
Total Listings: 1079
Had 45 Sales for a total of $835.60
Highest Price Sold: $90 – 1949 Watercolor by Stan Cohen (cost $4)
Average Price Sold: $18.57 – Average Cost: $2.40
Cost of Items sold: $108.18
Spent on new inventory: $8.21
Number of items listed: 52
Issues: 1 return ($8 Pepsi patch)My numbers for the past three months have been very similar and flat, but November is looking much better as November 1st was almost a $300 day.
I mainly purchase at estate sales. Most of them around my area are by professional outfits and they already know that I resale on line, if they don’t I’ll make a point of telling them as I consider it a bargaining point in trying to get better prices. Many times I have said that I like this or that item but I need a better price to make it profitable and worth my time to resell it. I think most estate sellers realize that a large part of their sales are to resellers and dealers.
I always make a pile of stuff which seems to get me a better price, if they start pricing stuff high I’ll start rejecting items and magically prices start to drop. Always ask to be placed on their email list if they are an estate service. At garage sales I always ask if they have other stuff for sale such as old photos, Tiki stuff, fishing, toys, tools or old catalogs and such, it is surprising how often they end up having it but they didn’t put it out because they didn’t think anybody would want it.
I am able to think of only one or two times that it would of been detrimental to let the garage seller know I was a dealer – that was because they actually had a sign out that said No Resellers.
I haven’t made used of the SKU section in my listings, but I do use the add/edit note option to keep track of my inventory. I just have numbered bins and normally it is pretty easy to find an item in them, although the ephemeral bin may take a while sometimes. The only drawback is that I can only search 200 listings at a time if searching through the my note field (by using control f).
Store: steve-list
Numbers for Sept. 2019Total Listings: 1053
Had 45 Sales for a total of $886.11
Cost of Items Sold: $103.48
Highest Price Sold: tie – $50 B. Picart Engraving / $50 Peen Fishing Reel
Average Price Sold: $19.69 – Average Cost: $2.29
Spent on new inventory: $137
Number of items listed: 52
Longest Listed Item Sold: Listed August 2016 – Graphic Novel
International Sales: 2 GSP France/Malaysia & 1 non GSP to England
Issues: 1 return and 2 cancellationsMy numbers are about the same as last month. Scavenge of the month, a Peugeot 301 bike (probably keep) and 229 various sealed VHS tapes (mostly in 4, 6 and 10 packs) for $20.
Store: steve-list
Numbers for August 2019Total Listings: 1039
Had 48 Sales for a total of $896.79
Cost of Items Sold: $153.13
Highest Price Sold: $54 – 6 Boxes of Marklin HO Train Bridge Piers
Average Price Sold: $18.68 – Average Cost: $3.19
Spent on new inventory: $116
Number of items listed: 60
Longest Listed Item Sold: Listed August 2016 – Walker River Pailutes Book
International Sales: 2 GSP U.K./New Zealand & 2 non GSP Czech Republic/India
Returns: 1 being processed – buyer thought she bought something elseAll of my new listings are no longer GSP. I list them as calculated world wide shipping with First Class International and Priority Mail. So far I’ve had no problems and I think it has increased my sales some, time will tell as I only have a hundred or so listings that way but going forward I plan to do almost all of my listings that way. I’ll keep the expensive, the large and the heavy items as GSP.
My best scavenge of the month was on the 3rd day of an estate sale. I got a lot of religious books including 2 Knox version of the Holy Bible for only $1. The bibles were in poor/acceptable condition but they both sold to different buyers within 1 day of listing them.
Probably too late to help, but from Worth Point, the below pair sold for $16 on June 1, 2018
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-boy-scouts-sea-scouts-nickle-1930838191
the below five sold for $14.99 on April 30, 2018
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/six-vintage-sea-scout-uniform-buttons-1926150896
this group of 4 pre-1935 buttons sold for $14.99 on May 29, 2019.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/early-pre-1935-bsa-boy-sea-scouts-2002125307No idea if the above were buy it now or auction. I thing I’d shoot for $5-$8 each.
Store: steve-list
Numbers for July 2019Total Listings: 1025
Had 34 Sales for a total of $631.20
Cost of Items Sold: $66.36
Highest Price Sold: $100 – WWII Lucky Bastard Club Certificate
Average Price Sold: $18.56 – Average Cost: $1.95
Spent on new inventory: $543.50
Number of items listed: 33
Longest Listed Item Sold: Listed June 2015 – Casio AC Adapter
International Sales: 1 NON GSP Netherlands / 1 GSP CanadaThis has been one of my slowest months in the past year or so, probably due to only listing about half of what I normally list in any given month. About $300 of the new inventory was a catch of 10 binders filled with Tattoo Flash Sheets and a lot of Boy Scout Collectibles. I’ve always done great on both.
I made a $20 mistake somehow, I shipped a ball cap before I received payment. No idea how it happened. I probably should of sent the buyer an email asking for payment, but I thought that if they are honest they would send payment and if not an email wouldn’t effect them. First time in over 15 years of selling on eBay that I made that mistake.
Quick note on Media Mail:
From: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Media-Mail-Book-Rate
“Packages can weigh up to 70 lbs. and measure up to 108 inches in combined length and distance around the thickest part. A surcharge may be applied to certain items; including printed matter over 25 pounds.”
Retail cost are listed at this link, although I haven’t found anything on the surcharged mentioned above: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c059From the video it looks like most of the items are packaged but visible so that you can tell what they are. But for clothing sometimes the size isn’t visible, so the staff will open it so you may see the size info. In the video she also showed some items that were in cardboard boxes that had little information on them so she had the staff open them to find out what they are. Customers are not allowed to open the packages – they have a list on the second link I posted of about 10-15 rules that buyers have to follow at Bin Time. Note, I’m just going by what I saw in the links and the video – I’m in California and haven’t visited the place.
The video in the second link explanes it some. supposedly they purchase items by the self and do not presort the items but just put everything in the bins. All of the items are packaged up and you are not allowed to open them but they do have employees at opening stations where they will open them for you so that you may either see the condition or in some case what the item is.
I wonder if that band saw was powered by a hit and miss engine. The metal wheel looks similar to a flywheel off of one: Hit and Miss Engine at Google Images
It looks like a bushing for holding a roller bearing. Normally though there would be bolt holes in the base to mount it / hold it in place.
Store: steve-list
Numbers for June 2019Total Listings: 1022
Had 50 Sales for a total of $1347.10
Cost of Items Sold: $86.73
Highest Price Sold: $300 – Vintage Riding Spurs
Average Price Sold: $26.94 – Average Cost: $1.73
Spent on new inventory: $206
Number of items listed: 55
Longest Listed Item Sold: Listed Sept. 2015 – Local History Book for $60
GSP: 1 CanadaThe Riding Spurs were a late in the day estate sale purchase for $10. Second best sale of the month was a C Ration can of Pan Coated Chocolate Discs (M&M’s) from 1970 that went for $81 at auction. A BOLO are pre 1975 military C Rations that still have the accessory package in them. Many times the outside of the box may be gross from one of the cans leaking, but if the accessory pack contents list cigarettes your in the money. Note that not all of the packs had cigarettes and they stopped including them after 1975.
