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I agree with your strategy. We have found that “Q4” sales really start right around Labor Day, and are in full swing by Oct 1.
Our strategy? List like crazy up to Oct 1, and list like crazy up to Christmas. We don’t really source and hold (I know some sellers that hold on to some items and don’t list them until Q4 time), so our best strategy is to try to have 0 unlisted inventory going into October.
We are also going to try crosslisting on Etsy a lot more this year with SixBit. We have always held off doing much with Etsy because to list manually on that platform took too much time. With SixBit, we are planning to upgrade the monthly subscription to allow for us to list on both platforms with one listing, and SixBit handles the Inventory Control (if something sells on one platform, it removes it from the other so you don’t get into an Oversold position).
When it comes to the Christmas Decor, that is what Veronica focuses on, especially the Vintage items. Vintage Christmas items sell well starting now (she has already started to have a lot of Christmas Decor items sell).
The best items we have found for Christmas time are NWT or Unique. If things are being given as gifts, they generally will be given as new, or they have some type of sentimental value to the person receiving the gift.
09/03/2017 at 8:24 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22492We use auctions sometimes to move slow inventory, or something that had a flaw that we missed. FYI though: if you do auction with Buy it Now, your BIN price has to be 20% higher than your initial bid price.
Our best method for moving slow inventory has been to move it to our store category called Clearance Sale. Then everything in that category is put on sale at 75% off.
08/30/2017 at 8:15 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22380Our 2 Cents when it comes to bin numbering….
Two major schools of thought. The first is to group like items together as you are doing, and number them <group name>-1, <group name>-2, etc. We do this, with D1, D2 for Dress Shirts, J1, J2, for Jeans, etc.
The second school of thought is to be like Amazon, and just number the bins 1, 2, etc. and you place items in the first bin available (so commingling unlike items).
I would suggest the first option. Since we are all human and sometimes put items in the wrong bin, at least if it is with like items, you have a better shot of finding it quick by looking in 3-5 bins of the same item…than having to look through every bin.
Also, I would keep a spreadsheet (we keep it on Google Docs) of every item and what bin it was in. Serves as a great back up, and if you DON’T find it, you can look at the items you listed before and after it and that may help you find it.
PS – Have you ever wondered why it is “A Penny For Your Thoughts” but you have to “Put Your Two Cents In?”… Somebody’s making a penny…
08/30/2017 at 8:08 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22378We use PhotoScape. Free to download from the internet, love it. Cleans up to white background, auto level, auto contrast, crop, etc. We love it so much we won’t list without it.
Constant lighting was why we started using light boxes (Veronica) or studio lighting (me). Overall, not a bad investment if you want to stay in this game for a long time. My first lighting kit was $60 shipped on Amazon. Veronica now uses a lower end (but very large) light box for $80, and my softbox kit (two stands and one boom) was $120 shipped. They work great and it is nice being able to list at any time in any light.
Since we treat this as a business, we look at when spending the money pays for itself, and the ROI on these in better photos, less stress, and quicker listing has been well worth it.
08/28/2017 at 10:49 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22309I figured I would see this. Ball Corporation, my old company, makes the cans for this effort…
08/28/2017 at 10:39 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22308I thought I remembered you were from that area…
Just amazing…
08/28/2017 at 10:38 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22307ROI is huge…both in cash and time!
08/28/2017 at 8:30 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22302“we will be starting an inventory, bin numbering system with the new building. mostly so our helper can ship for us when we’re away.”
That was our big push. We have our boys ship for us a lot, and it saved them time finding items.
08/28/2017 at 3:46 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22280“One thing for sure, looking at the accumulation of inventory items, right after you order up the new storage building, in my opinion, you guys need to start thinking about a Inventory Organization System, a SKU number system and the method you will use to track it. If you start that process now and work on the tagging method then after the building is complete you will be ready to just move things into place.”
I will second that! Perfect time for it.
08/28/2017 at 10:48 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22263Just a side note. I have been devastated watching the news about the flooding in the Houston Area from Hurricane Harvey. Please keep those families in your thoughts and prayers and look for ways to help out if you can. I saw that our house we lived in has been evacuated in the McDade Estates area of Conroe TX. That hits close to home thinking we would be in the middle of this disaster had we not decided to move to Colorado. Makes this hit close to home…
08/28/2017 at 10:42 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 324: A Day In The Life Of A Scavenger VIDEO! #22262Week of 8/20-8/26
Total Items in Store: 1,677
Number of Items Listed This Week: 121
Items Sold: 66
Weekly STR: 17%
Total Product Sales: $1,632.64
Cost of Items Sold: $400.96
Gross Profit for Week: $985.15
Highest Item Sold: $149.86 – Vtg 1979 Chaps Ralph Lauren Cologne Splash Discontinued Fragrance w/ BoxCompetition: Highest Priced Sale: Veronica wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 20-13. But I want to say for the record I tried to make a comeback late on Saturday with a $100 sale of some Rock Revival jeans! I’m just bitter…this is a long losing streak! She is kicking my butt! 🙂
I am changing my numbers slightly as I’m phasing out the Easy Auction Tracker and using the reporting tools from SixBit. So much better and can be done instantly. Total Product Sales are ONLY the purchase price of the item (shipping not included). I’m now also going to include our weekly Gross Profit, as in all Revenue (Product Sales & Shipping Revenue paid by customers) less COGS, Shipping Cost, and Fees (eBay FVF and PayPal). I like Gross Profit the best as it is a more revealing number. What are we bringing in each week? We have all seen the Amazon sellers that show their high revenue numbers, but very few show that they bring home net of COGS and Fees. Revenue is Vanity…but Profit is Sanity. You can see we run normally run at a 4x on COGS (Product Sales are 4X COGS), but I would suspect J&R run closer to 10x.
Loved the video. It is always great to be able to see exactly how you do things and what this life is like!
08/23/2017 at 10:28 pm in reply to: No Podcast? Hey We Had To See An Eclipse in 100% Totality! #22174If you ever go go back, and want to sound like a local, ask for “Christmas”. That means half green and half red. Taste is wonderful!
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