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03/07/2019 at 11:47 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58301
Yep, almost every sale is through offers. I can confirm that you will sometimes get really lowball offers too, but I hold out for better unless I just want to dump items.
Posh has slowed this week (ebay too). Only a couple of sales so far.
Retail is always so finicky…
But, I haven’t crossposted or shared much this week either. Could be part of it…
@ctebay: I’m so glad you reminded me on this. We moved to ShipRush a year ago, and they required PayPal as the payment processor, so we lost the ability to put our shipping on our credit card. So I tried flushing PayPal before we shipped this morning, and it worked like a charm, charging our business credit card since it is the preferred method.
Thanks! That is $40-$50 a month in our pocket!
So, new procedure: In the morning, we process all returns, then flush PayPal to $0, then ship.
Much appreciated!
Love this story. I would love to hear more about your numbers:
–What are your margins on your brick and mortar store vs your eBay store?
–What kind of velocity (Sell Thru Rate) are you seeing in your retail store? Your eBay Store?For what it is worth, this is why I always have a float in PayPal. It is normally at least $200 at any time for this reason.
Yep, you need a day off. That is a requirement if you are going to last for any length of time.
You can go hard and everyday for a while, but sooner or later, you need a break.
bcfo: Here is what I would do…
Sounds like you are working at a $500/day level, so that is $3,500 per week. I like to think in weeks, because I don’t list every day, but I list every week.
So, for the next month, push that to $4,000 per week. Make that a goal and show that you can hit it. After you do that for 4-5 weeks consistently, move to $5,000 per week. After 4-5 weeks move it to $6,000.
I’m a big fan of the Adjacent Possible. You can’t get from A to Z, but you can get to B. Then C, then D.
I have had 150 listings per week for the past two years…still ain’t there, but we are getting closer…
I have been on both side of this debate, but now that we are on the Free Returns, we very rarely do free shipping.
I think on used clothing, where fit and condition are more of an issue, free shipping is a no. On new clothing, I think it would be a benefit. I think if your buyer is likely to be someone that is also buying from Amazon…Free Shipping is a plus.
Etsy and Poshmark are not free shipping, for what it is worth.
03/04/2019 at 1:46 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58080One click import definitely. Though there can be some sorting out to do afterwards. For the most part, I know that it somewhat OVER imported (including some past sales, but that may have been my fault).
Organizing the data is pretty easy if you are using SKUs and your SKUs are all unique. I had some clean up here as well.
After we get through my side, I can also reach out to the guys at SixBit to see if we can have one of the tech guys on sometime to walk through some more technical questions (and answer better than me!). Heck, I’ll probably learn a bunch from them myself. I had a lot of questions answered with them at eBay Open the past couple of years. Great group of people…
Mark is 100% correct. This is the main reason I like to forecast, so that I can see what happens from a net cash perspective when I make a big change. For us last year, that was bringing on a photographer, and I know that was going to generate a 4-5 month cash flow hole before the increased purchasing, listing, and paying for the photographer was going to pay off. Now it is much better, but for a while it was tight.
You can ramp up, but it will depend on your STR as to how long it will take for your increased listing activity to generate increased sales. If your monthly STR is normally 33%, then you are turning your store over every 3 months, so you can expect to see your return pay off in about 3 months. If your STR is 10%, it will take closer to 10 months to begin to see the benefits.
This is why cash flow is so important, and why startups are always looking for venture capital (or just cash in any form) to feed the beast on the front end. As Mark says, this is an investment…
For us, it was mostly growing into it. We spend about $700-$1000 per week when we source, and average sourcing about 3 weeks a month. But we used to be at a third of that. We just grew into that level over the years…
And now I see opportunities in the $3,000-$16,000 range, in one single purchase. This is the level up that you go through.
03/04/2019 at 1:01 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58074bcfo: I just saw your other post and I had a couple of questions for you over there. Also, feel free to reach out to me directly if you want to discuss anything. tsatterf@yahoo.com
BCFO: Your numbers are correct.
So, a couple of questions:
25 items a day x 7 Days a week = 175 listings per week. Can you find 175 items every week when sourcing at the $5 price point AND they sell for an average of $40? Also, can you list that amount every week? We have current goal of 125 per week for Veronica and I, and a stretch goal of 150, and we can’t hit it consistently.
I would agree that listing 7 days a week is a grind, and you may want to chunk your days to listing/photo/sourcing.
Veronica and I can get close to your numbers between the two of us (and if I was truly full time eBay, much easier, but I keep having 1-2 days a week on my contract gig), but not necessarily at a consistent $40 ASP. We are closer to $30 on an average $5 purchase.
So your numbers math out, but can you handle that type of lifestyle (175 per week by yourself seems like a stretch), but only you can answer that question.
03/04/2019 at 12:49 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58071We believe in purging (in the right way and for the right reason). Go purge away!
03/04/2019 at 12:47 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58070Yeah, 68 clothing items, and Veronica killed it on shoes with 21.
And yeah, Poshmark is some more work, but if you have the right tools (SixBit for us), cross posting is easy. It has been a solid $300-$400 extra each week.
I’ll definitely get the hangout figured out so that we can be live with you and Ryanne, and have a chat going for other questions. My thought would be to walk you guys through how we use the tool, how we crosspost, and any questions you have. Then, I can plan to answer any questions people send in ahead of time, and then have a chat for others to ask questions as well.
03/04/2019 at 8:51 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58042Week of 02/24-03/02
Total Items in Store: 2,906 (Up 54% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 93
Number of Items Sold: 104 (Up 121% YOY)
(Includes 2 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether, 8 Poshmark)
Weekly STR: 15% (Even YOY)Total Product Sales: $3,366 (Up 87%)
Sales Volume Variance to Prior Year: $915
Sales Price Variance to Prior Year: $647
Cost of Items Sold: $641
Cost of Labor: $230
Highest Item Sold: $200 – Canali Italian Full Canvas Suit
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Veronica leads for the year 5-4. Though I have to give props to Veronica for the Saturday push with a $185 sale on a Pickle Castor Jar!Clothing
# Listed: 1,750
# Sold: 68
STR: 17%
ASP: $28.21Shoes
# Listed: 584
# Sold: 21
STR: 15%
ASP: $39.65Hard Goods
# Listed: 572
# Sold: 13
STR: 10%
ASP: $41.01EBay
# Listed: 2,906
# Sold: 94
STR: 14%
ASP: $31.06Etsy
# Listed: 219
# Sold: 2
STR: 4%
ASP: $37.39Poshmark
# Listed: 571
# Sold: 8
STR: 6%
ASP: $46.50Listing activity to a bit of a hit with some stuff going on, and our photographer is gone for a week this week and Veronica is going to visit her mom and sister in Phoenix from Thursday through Tuesday, so listings will probably be down again. Good news was that sales were up last week, with a week we usually see in Q4 (last week was our third best sales week ever).
Posting now, going to listen while we ship this morning…
I also wonder if they will note when listings are considered “stale” and are dropped in search rankings. If eBay is all about Sales Velocity, I would think they would want sellers to not have listings considered stale…
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