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06/14/2017 at 8:59 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 314: Selling on eBay while in the Military #19389
Jay, here is my thinking on inventory. 30 days is too quick to make a call on an item. For a 33% sell thru rate, that is everything selling in 90 days. So I am not concerned if something doesn’t sell in the first month, but I look at the views that it had in the first 30 days. That is when it will get the best boost, and if it had low views, I have to rethink titles, pictures, keywords, pricing, etc.
I don’t have a great way now of seeing what our histogram would look like for how long it takes for our items to sell (listed vs sold), though we are tracking the listing date better now. Before, our inventory sheet was on the day it was purchased, not listed, but we changed that recently. But, I would bet we are about 60-70% sold in the first 90 days. I’m totally spitballing, which as an OCD accountant, I hate, so I may have to see what I can come up with.
For older items that just aren’t moving, yes, I lower the pricing to blow it out, even if it is break even at that point. I figure that I have already done the work to get it listed, might as well get some good feedback when I sell something at a low price to someone. We sometimes pull lower items and sell at a yard sale too, just to get them out.
06/13/2017 at 9:37 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay? #19378Absolutely!
06/13/2017 at 8:39 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 314: Selling on eBay while in the Military #19376Fresher stuff sells well, but depends on what and when. We know we get a boost in the first 24 hours of a listing, but I also think it lasts for a while. I sold a suit this week within 20 minutes of listing it. We have also sold Halloween costumes and Christmas items within the same hour or day, at the appropriate time.
Sometimes the quick sale is luck or aggressive pricing…but sometimes there is money in waiting. Again, depends on the item. I will take a 20% cut on some shirts (since that 20% is only $4 or so), but wait longer on some suits, since that 20% could be $20.
06/13/2017 at 8:35 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 314: Selling on eBay while in the Military #19375Yep, I agree. And for the margin…it depends. For my clothing, since a large portion are items under $25, I would rather sell it at a lower margin, turn over the inventory, and put the cash into something that will be new, fresh, and better. If it is a collectible…holding for the right buyer may work.
I see everything as item specific. How I treat an old Ralph Lauren shirt would be different from an old Brooks Brothers shirt, and different from a Samuelsohn suit, and different from a christmas village collection (or how Veronica would see it anyway).
06/13/2017 at 8:29 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 314: Selling on eBay while in the Military #19374No problem Linda.
My name is Troy and my wife is Veronica. We sell on eBay full time as a couple. Veronica started our business as a hobby in 2004, and I grew tired of working for other people in 2015 and we made this our full time gig. I still do some contract accounting work with my old company, but we don’t count on that money in our income.
The business model is that Veronica loves collectibles, toys, and holiday items, and that was all we did until I came in full time. I saw that the thrift stores were 80% clothes, and wanted something that sells more consistently and with a different cycle than her items, so I focus on men’s clothes. We like to make this a bit of a competition (we call it “He Sells, She Sells”) and like to see who sells the highest priced item each week, and who sells the most in dollars for the year.
If Jay ever wanted to interview us, that would be fine. We were on a game show once, so podcasting doesn’t scare us!
06/13/2017 at 8:10 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 314: Selling on eBay while in the Military #19372No problem sharing my forecasts. And here is to hoping that they are on the conservative side.
As to the 1,500 selling level…right now, I don’t give it much thought. To me, it is a number, nothing else. I am forecasting my sell through based on past sell thru rates by month. I don’t think that the inventory level has any bearing on that, provided that you are not saturating your market (something I think is hard to do by one seller unless the market is REALLY small), the market in general (which NONE of us can predict), or your market for what you purchased hasn’t changed.
That last statement I think is the key. If I have loaded up on something that was selling, and then it STOPS selling as the market tastes change, that can reduce the sell thru rate and leave me with a glut of inventory. Similar to the Amazon Buy Box when Target goes on sale. You see that the item is selling great, but then by the time you buy it and get it to Amazon, EVERYONE is selling it, and after the race to the bottom, your inventory just sits there, not that I have experienced that personally… 🙂
For example, I was able to sell 7 Diamonds shirts pretty well in 2013…now I avoid like the plague. That is happening now with Thomas Dean shirts. I can see that they are slowing down, so I’m avoiding them. Same with some Ralph Lauren shirts. I have gotten better on my CURRENT purchasing, but until recently, wasn’t really culling out the old stuff and blowing it out to start fresh. I think that mentality shift is what has to happen to keep the sell thru rate up and avoid the downturn that some see at the 1500 mark. Old purchasing mistakes are still there. Plus, look at how much better you get at that level. You take better pictures, write better item descriptions and titles, price better, etc. If you don’t tend the garden, a lot of old stuff sits there, the sell thru drops, and you tread water on the total sales $ and volume, as the fresher stuff sells, but the past mistakes are still out there.
Ok, so that is my reasoning for not caring about the 1500 level. As to the forecasts, I started getting GOOD data by month in 2015. So I look at each month in the past two years (2015 and 2016) as well as the previous month in the current year, and forecast what I think 2017 will be for that month. So for June, we had a 24% STR in 2015, 14% in 2016, and May 2017 was 20%. In the past 2 years, June had a lower STR than May (2015 was a drop from 28% to 24%, 2016 was a drop from 17% to 14%. So, I predicted June as lower than May. May 2017 was 20%, so I planned a drop to 17% for June 2017. Seems reasonable.
For July (the month I hate the most), 2015 was 12%, 2016 was 10%. Small variance between the two, so I forecasted 11%. I REALLY hope that it is more than that, but I would rather prepare for the worst (optimist in thought, pessimist in planning).
So based on forecasting 100 new listings per week, and sales volumes using this method, I predict we will cross into 2,000 in inventory in November 2017 (though we flirt with it in Sep at 1,967 and Oct at 1,966.
Lots of things can change this, so I don’t bet the farm on being 100% accurate, as I can only control one number, how much I list. But if I’m listing the wrong things, or the markets change, or any number of things, it will affect the actual sales. As I said in my previous job…ALL PREDICTIONS ARE WRONG! I just don’t know were it will be wrong…
06/13/2017 at 9:18 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 314: Selling on eBay while in the Military #19334Week of 6/4-6/10
Total Items in Store: 1,547
Items Sold: 58
Number of Items Listed This Week: 101
Total Sales: $1,450.13
Cost of Items Sold: $274.52
Highest Item Sold: $40 – Lemax Sugar N Spice Frosted Candy Road Christmas Village Accessories
Competition: Highest Priced Items: Veronica wins again and expands her lead for the year 14-8.
Competition: Highest Total Sales: Troy leads the year $18.9k to $14.0kFelt the summer slowdown this week, and lower sales number reflects a growing number of returns (I run this as a cash business, so returns lower the sales for the week).
Listing activity stays up, even with two days of me working a contract job. Our improvements to our process continue to show dividends, so that we can list more per hour, giving us the opportunity to grow as well as time to do other non-eBay things.
06/07/2017 at 1:56 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay? #19140And to continue the frustration with Shipping on eBay…
4th day in a row where when using the Bulk Shipping Tool, the Priority items are kicked out and will not print.
We get phantom defects because of an eBay bug…then we can’t use their tools to ship.
Ok, frustration over.
I would love to hear if anyone uses a third party shipping tool and if they have recommendations.
Thanks!
06/07/2017 at 12:56 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay? #19137Alert to all…
We had an issue with one day’s worth of packages not being scanned by our carrier (a newbie), and while working that issue, we looked at the other “defects” that we were getting on our “Tracking Uploaded & Validated on Time” metric. To keep Top Rated Seller Status, you have to stay above 95%. We were suddenly at 96%!
We downloaded the report of all defects and researched them and found a problem. There are defects that shouldn’t be defects. We had about 10 items that were shipped on time and scanned on the same day, but the eBay report was showing the “First Scan Date” as “not available”. I talked for QUITE a while with the eBay rep and he admitted that there was a previous bug that caused this, but that the defects currently CANNOT BE REMOVED and are still impacting the metric. He said that all he can do right now is to make a note on the file and that if we get any more defects that affects our Top Rated Seller status, we can call and ask that we keep our Top Rated Seller Status. So, their strategy is for us to HOPE we don’t get any more issues and if we do, we BEG them to keep us at Top Rated. Not encouraging…
If you have not already, I would check your Seller Rating and download this report and contact eBay if you have any concerns.
Completely agree!!!
Welcome! We are in the same area, living in Broomfield. I’m sure we have passed at the Goodwill and ARC stores sometime in the past!
06/06/2017 at 1:23 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay? #19082Your last statement was the truest statement…many don’t want to pay for it until they need it. Many people seem to forget that insurance isn’t free. Someone has to pay for it when you have a catastrophic medical cost. If people were doing what they should, they should be paying for insurance every day when they are young, so that they have paid for premiums when they don’t need the money, so that the insurance companies have the money to pay the costs when you DO need the money. Most people don’t look at insurance as a savings account…put money in early and consistently, so that it is there when you need it. I do this on our own finances. Every month, like it or not, I put money away in to multiple accounts for future expenses. Christmas account, auto repair, home repair, auto insurance, property taxes, homeowners insurance, business taxes, medical costs (for out of pocket). No kidding, I have like 15 bank accounts, and each is for a separate future cost that I know I will have at some point. When the car needs a repair? I have put money aside for that. When the house needs repair? I have money put aside for that. When we have to pay for a doctor visit? I have money put aside for that. These things are predictable, so I plan for them.
Medical insurance should be treated the same way. But many don’t see it that way. They see “I have costs for medical expenses, I have never had insurance, and now that I need it, the insurance company must give me what I want, and I want low premiums.”
I have always marveled that medical costs are the only ones in this society that everyone says that everyone else should pay for. When I want a new car, I can’t demand that someone else pay for it. When I need a new house, I can’t demand someone else pay for it. When I need food, I can’t demand that someone else pay for it. But if I have medical costs, I can demand someone else pay for it. Somehow, people see the economics on health care as different than the economics for everything else. It is like not having homeowners insurance, and then demanding that the company cover you with low premiums when your house is on fire. “I know that it is on fire, and that I haven’t paid any premiums, but you have to cover me NOW!”
Strange….
The biggest problem is with pre-existing conditions. Either A) let the actuaries figure out how much a person with pre-existing conditions will cost (since they are coming onto the insurance coverage with a higher risk and a higher cost to the pool than others) and charge a market rate (so that someone with pre-existing conditions can shop different companies and get a market rate) or B) mandate everyone to have insurance with very high premiums to cover those costs and for those that don’t pay for insurance, they are either in jail or pay a $100,000 penalty. You have to go to that extreme to make everyone comply. Just like driving…if you want people to drive safer…put a knife at their throat while they drive…then they will drive safer. 80% of the people drive safe anyway, but the 20% that cause the problem, they need that high of an incentive to get in line.
Anyway…rant over. I know I may see this differently, but I see medical expenses as no different economically than any other industry…but society views it differently.
We live in Broomfield, so not to far from you. Love the thrifting here in Denver!
06/06/2017 at 12:20 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay? #19074Our saving grace on the increased premiums was moving to Samaritan Ministries. It is not true health insurance, it is health care sharing, but it qualifies for the ACA law. And our premiums dropped from $900/mo to $500/mo.
06/06/2017 at 12:17 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 313: What’s your Backup Plan to eBay? #19073That is our plan, buy and hold. But I’m such a planner and accountant, that I am preparing my calculations now on how much each month to save in different buckets for maintenance (small stuff), capital maintenance (big stuff like roofs, water heaters, furnace, etc.) and vacancy (so I have a piggy bank if it is vacant for a few months). And if we grow enough fruit (profit) with each, we can continue to refinance to plant new trees (new houses). I see lots of parallels with business and farming…if done right, you constantly grow new centers of production….
Laundromats are intriguing, as a less labor intensive way to grow income. But lots to learn, and the range for purchasing them is wide. I have seen in one area from $50k to $750k…
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