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Alan: Depending on how it is structured, I would love to see an eBay Plus program. Good for buyers, and good for sellers that can (and choose) to meet the requirements of eBay Plus.
They have touched on this on eBay Radio. Depending on how it works in Europe, I would expect us to see it here soon.
On my list to talk about with eBay folks at eBay Open.
Jay: Right now, 4,000 listings is our goal. When we hit that level, we should be at the sales goal we want each week. I want to get to a 150-200 listings per week level on a consistent basis.
So right now our process has me listing shirts, coats, suits, and pants. I list, our photographer photos. Veronica does jeans, shoes, and hard goods. The jeans and shoes she treats like my clothing. She lists, then the photographer does the photos. Then she does the hard goods all the way (though we will start giving the photographer the hard goods soon. He bought a HUGE light box and is ready.)
Yes, we COULD just build up the inventory and let the sales come in during that 5 weeks. But then we don’t keep the photographer with enough items to keep him fed. I could just let him know that we won’t have much during that time.
But that isn’t what I’m looking for. I’m much more enjoying how to stretch and grow and get the business set up so that it can keep the photographer (and lister) fed while I’m gone.
Besides, I need to also look at how to be gone for 5 months on the Appalachian Trail. Or the PCT. Or 4 weeks in Italy in 2020 for our 25th anniversary.
I COULD just go that route…but I would much rather get a pipeline that can work with less of my time. That is a much more fun goal to work for.
It isn’t easy. It isn’t easy to find. There isn’t a simple way to do it.
That is why I’m liking it…
Oh absolutely the margins get tighter at that level. I would say that looking at the numbers that are posted each week, the vast majority of sellers are at a 10X Gross Return (buy at $3, sell at $30). We find these types of returns sometimes, but we can’t find those at scale to provide the margin we are looking for.
So we are running at a 5x (buy at $5, sell at $25). That is good and we have a good STR at that level. When we get to 4,000 listed items, we will be humming where we want to be. We should hit this in 2019, and then it is how to maintain the store, with less hours required, so that we can start a different business line.
Once you go to the next level of scale, the margins get even tighter. And they have to be higher priced items to handle the absorption of labor cost. Assuming labor is $4-$5 per item listed, I need to have items that are at a higher price point to justify the labor. I don’t want to buy at $5, pay $5 in Labor, $5 in Fees, and net $10 at a $25 ASP. I will if the item has high velocity and easy to source, but that isn’t ideal. I would rather buy at $20, sell at $60. Now that can absorb the labor. Or buy at $50 and sell at $125.
Most scaled retail is at a 2X gross return. I would like to avoid that if possible.
Mark: Yes, we are shifting more into that direction, but no plans now to go to that level. My plan is to get the people and processes in place where my main focus is on the sourcing. The photography and the listing pieces are not where the profit is. The profit is in the sourcing. If I can keep two people fed while sourcing for 2-3 days per week, then I am free to start up another line of business.
But I like the challenge of how to set up the business to run while I’m gone for 5 weeks. Forces me to look deeper at where I can go.
Jay: You are somewhat correct. I don’t look to be completely hands off on the day to day, but to be in a situation where I’m not required. For me, the goal is to have the business continue to run while I’m gone for 5 weeks on the hike. I can check in when I’m in town for resupply, but the day to day can run without me.
Mark: Completely agree on the processes need to be in place. You are right, I work processes a lot, so I skipped having that step nailed down before you bring in extra people. This is why I changed how I was doing my listing, so that I could make the process a pure photographer and a pure lister (which is me for now).
Interesting thought on a spreadsheet for the boxes. That is mostly Veronica’s area. We have them broken down and organized by size, small to large. No spreadsheet though. She seems to find them pretty quick, and I would guess we have 100-200 boxes down there right now.
Mark: We will never stop doing some sourcing in the wild, as we do enjoy the hunt and the surprise at what we find. The plan though is that we wouldn’t HAVE to do it if we didn’t want to.
One of my goals is to be able to be gone for 5 weeks next summer and the business keeps running without me. That is the fun challenge. I have replaced myself (and most of Veronica) on the photography. And I have set up the process to replace myself (and some of Veronica) on listing. But how to make sure that everyone stays fed for 5 weeks when I’m not sourcing. And I don’t want Veronica to feel the pressure of having to source that much by herself to keep everyone fed. Again, she could, and she would, but I won’t.
Your time estimate is spot on with ours. When I’m sourcing at thrift stores, I find something every 5 minutes. The downside is that for the margins I like to keep, I have to source on Saturday’s when it is 50% off. I can source during the week, but it is harder to find the items where the margins can absorb the labor cost of 2 people. I have some thoughts on improving this with some new sources and some focused buying, but haven’t really tried to put into action yet.
You always look to cover risk. You can’t avoid risk, you look to manage it the best that you can.
Back to insurance…this is why our business insurance covers so much for so little. For $500/yr, we have outstanding coverage if we lost ALL our inventory. We don’t get our time back, but we get the cash to repurchase inventory.
What are your biggest risks…and how can you manage them.
You sleep good at night too…
Always a big difference between cheap and value…
Darn Tough socks are $20 per pair…with a lifetime guarantee…
That is value.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
T-Satt.
“What’s to stop buyers from returning all their masks the day after Halloween?”
By the belief that people are generally good.
Wal-Mart and Target have this issue now. “Renters” that buy big screen TVs the week before the Super Bowl, and then get them returned the week after. Same was true for video cameras (bought on Thursday/Friday, returned after the weekend or after a 2 week vacation).
Bad people do bad things…but most people are good…
Wow. BHFO is ranked 27th…
And they are HUGE…
Interesting. We were ranked 70,012.
Even Cyndi at Amazing Taste was only rated 42,929.
Shows how many really big sellers there really are on eBay. If even Cyndi is only 42,929 at her volume…wow…
Except for 100 gallons of Olive Oil… 🙂
“I’ve watched all the episodes of Walking Dead so I’m prepared.”
Funniest thing I heard today!
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
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