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04/17/2020 at 5:42 pm in reply to: GE Wildcat Record player, Vintage eyeglasses, Military aircraft litho, Pioneer #76367
Great sales, everyone! My non-essential goods continue to sell well – the collectors are still buying.
Here’s a ridiculously large Nerf blaster that’s set up like a machine gun. Sold as tested working but with damage and missing parts, it went for $30 plus shipping. It cost only $16 to go to Indiana via FedEx Ground/Home which has been the cheapest option lately for larger and heavier items by a wide margin.
My best consignment challenge coin sale of the last couple weeks was this one from US Naval Special Warfare Group 1 Training Detachment, where they train SEALS and other Navy special operators. It sold for $176 plus shipping.
This unused 2013 Starbucks travel mug came out of the family donation box, most likely received as a premium rather than purchased (I hope). It went for $28 plus shipping.
I do well with vintage aluminum selling at full asking price but this 2 cup Foley coffee percolator has been listed for a while. It sold on a best offer for $25 plus shipping. It was $2 at a flea market last summer.
These early ‘60’s vintage walkie-talkies by Ross were mine and turned up in my dad’s estate. Sold for $35 plus shipping.
This is a large mahogany plaque depicting a pre-2004 US Army combat diver qualification uniform badge. The same badge was also used by most of the other armed services at one time or another for scuba qual. I bought the plaque in the early 1980’s to go on my “I love me” wall after I went through the Army’s course in Key West.Oh, yeah. I just assumed the inventory was used/vintage. That’s Dorky Thrifter. I would respectfully disagree with Jay though regarding commodity items. With a commodity, that long time, legit, US-based store you’re getting is really important. I think anyone who has bought commodity items on eBay knows there is a surplus of bad sellers in those categories and many buyers do try to avoid them and also won’t buy direct from China. (I’m dealing with a bad one right now, in fact, and I tried to be selective.) I’ll bet as reliable as they appear, in that category they get a lot of repeat buyers.
As cheesy as it is, that store is all that you’ve got going for you in selling new no-name glasses. There’s no barrier to entry – I can probably go on Alibaba right now and order these wholesale for a lot less than $4.20 a pair. (As a matter of fact, you ought to check that out and see what they paid.) So yes, I’d try and maintain the store if I could. Otherwise I would only pay pennies a piece for that product.
But – I am probably the wrong person to be giving advice on a commodity item store 🙂
Very interesting! I know nothing about using inkfrog or sixbit to do that but I can’t imagine eBay caring if you’re lifting an entire listing to put in your store so long as the original owner doesn’t complain. If they’re that organized maybe some or all of the unlisted glasses are already cataloged. That would be a bonus.
I also know next to nothing about selling glasses. If you don’t either, Dorky Thrifters on YouTube specializes in glasses. I don’t think she posts regularly anymore but she has done informative videos on cleaning, pricing, etc. glasses that are still on her YouTube channel. (She used to hang out here on SL, too, several years ago.)
I’d be concerned about trends overall in sales of glasses with this level of investment per a single type of item. Maybe WatchCount would be helpful to see how the market is doing on eBay.
Certainly an intriguing proposition for you – Good luck!
I don’t have much to say about the price other than paying $4 to make $15 seems like a lot but the items seem to be selling well (for now…) and you get to avoid creating 1,500 listings.
On the other hand, most of us scavenger sellers have limited tolerance for items selling for under $20. Usually try to avoid them unless free or only cost pennies, are easy to list, pack, and ship, and not the type of thing that gets returned. You haven’t said the type of stock it is but it sounds like it is low-hassle inventory so that’s good.
But regarding those 1,500 listings you’re getting, just make sure you’re going to actually be able to get them. Ebay does not allow transfer of IDs without their authorization and I don’t know if there’s any way to get that authorization. If the seller’s ID is a corporation or LLC you can buy the corporation or LLC from the owner and it’s not a “transfer” of the ID as far as eBay is concerned, but there are disadvantages to buying someone else’s business that way rather than just their inventory and equipment (assets). Which is why most small business sales are asset sales. If you were only buying the inventory, what would you pay for it at auction?
I ordered a couple lbs of expresso from Broad Porch since I drink two large mugs of it daily. I didn’t see anywhere to let them know you’d sent me either but with the number of random out of towners ordering this week they should figure it out. I hope their “shipping department” is up to it. 🙂
I did open a second store last year for low value items including patches and postcards and the like that would not have tracking. I also sell any clothing I come across in that store and don’t offer returns. I am able to easily maintain TRS status in my main store and with my low volume, all it takes is a couple postcards with no tracking to kill my TRS. Administratively it’s easy to maintain the second store because I use EasyAuctionsTracker that pulls the numbers for both stores and I keep the stores open on different browsers. But after a flurry of initial sales it has not been worth the subscription cost so I am rethinking it. I know you all don’t care about TRS but it’s tough to let go if you’ve been used to it.
I concur that sellers who specialize in collector niches can develop strong followings. Some whom I follow put everything on auction and almost never leave any money on the table – they get vigorous bidding and great prices. I think it would discourage interested collectors from subscribing to a seller if their new item emails contained too much random stuff. But I do think you guys probably get more repeat buyers than you realize, even with your kitchen sink approach. You’ve mentioned it before but eBay really should give sellers that information somehow.
I think you’re right about this time being different, as far as a recession is concerned. This one was not triggered by financial factors, and I think there’s much more of a “we’ll get through this together” sentiment. For example the banks back then generally had absolutely no qualms about foreclosing on houses (and of course financial institutions were failing in alarming numbers). Now, it seems they are really trying not to put people out on the street. That could change, of course….
It’s great to see how decent everyone’s numbers are, considering the circumstances! Mine are not, but eBay isn’t my main income so I’ll be fine.
04/13/2020 at 10:43 am in reply to: eBay Repricer “StreetPricer” – Did anybody get the invite? #76188+1 Zach. In listing items yesterday (on a desktop) I noticed that next to the price there was note with an active link that said something to the effect that similar items are selling for X. I did not click on it because I was putting the item up for $85 (vintage, one-of-a-kind) and the suggested price was $12.95. So that’s probably the kind of thing to expect. For some reason it’s showing as a broken link today.
+1 to Christine and Sharyn re Craigslist and MaxSold. Where the busy spaces are on Facebook I think also depends on your area. For example in DC the Marketplace has very few members but there are some Yard Sale and Buy/Sell pages here that have members in the five figures. Besides MaxSold you could also check out your local auctioneers but do your research as there are some crooks in that business and of course you’ll want one that’s online.
If you don’t want to ship things you could still sell a large lot on eBay and just list it with Local Pickup only.
Regarding area eBay sellers, there used to be a feature on some website like FlipperTools or somewhere like that where you could download a list of all eBay IDs within a certain zipcode but I cannot recall where I saw it and cannot find it now.
To find nearby sellers you could do an eBay search for the type of item you have a lot of by using a very general search term like “pottery”. Then you can sort the results by “Distance: nearest first” and the list of items that comes up will have a note like “< 5 mi. from 12345” zip code above the seller’s name for each item. Or if you want fewer results, in the left column on the search page down a bit from “Categories” under “Item Location” you can select “Within XXXXX miles of 12345”. You can pick out sellers with higher feedback numbers to get the most active dealers.
There is one big catch with this method – the only way to contact them is through eBay messaging by clicking “contact seller” in one of their listings. And you cannot solicit a transaction to be conducted outside of eBay or put in your contact information or ask for theirs. You would have to be very clear in messaging that you intend to list a large lot on eBay for local pickup and are looking for someone interested in being notified when you put it up.
My post office was happy to see me as recently as yesterday.
I think your clerk is misinterpreting Hogan’s executive order. It does not prohibit “traveling to and from a federal, State, or local government building for a necessary purpose.” It also allows staff and owners of Non-Essential Businesses to travel “to and from customers for the purpose of delivering goods.” Non-Essential Businesses have to be closed to the general public but staff and owners may perform “Minimal Operations” including “picking up mail” and retail businesses can continue to sell products on a “delivery basis.”
Here’s the order: https://governor.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Gatherings-FOURTH-AMENDED-3.30.20.pdf
Of course you don’t want to risk getting arrested by testing a police officer’s interpretation in person, though, if the clerk follows through on their threat.
There are major differences between the stay-at-home orders in different states.
03/27/2020 at 11:12 am in reply to: 4” Reel tapes, Portable B&W TV, Car part, Chopping blade, Leather Corvette bag #75517Well my sales have picked up a bit since being in the doldrums since the beginning of 4th quarter 2019. Probably because I have been able to do more listing recently, despite my college junior joining my high school junior at home. Both are online with distance learning at scheduled times to keep them partially busy but try as i might, I can’t seem to get them on a low maintenance schedule. And the high schooler starts spring break Monday. Also busy doing our taxes, research and writing an annual book update due to the editor in a couple weeks, and purging for the upcoming family move. I use Dropbox for my backup and it had some issues lately, too, that took more time to fix than I would have liked but finally resolved.
My better sales are mostly my bread and butter, challenge coins and military items. The collectors are buying. I’m not selling anything that I can attribute to the current situation. Though others have reported an uptick in postcards and ephemera, I’m not getting any activity in those listings.
Here’s a US military M6 Vietnam War rifle bayonet bought for $24 that sold for $110 plus shipping.
I’ve been carrying a large box of my son’s Nerf blasters around for a while and now finally getting them listed. They were almost all cheap yard sale finds or the occasional grandparent birthday gift so there’s little to nothing in them. Most of them don’t bring big money but there’s quite the active trade in them on eBay, I’ve learned. Here’s a particularly fancy one from 2011 that is motorized and has lights that sold for $33, tested working. (The cats love to watch that part.) I’m listing free shipping due to the competition (but not offering returns). I usually only offer free shipping for something that will fit in a flat rate container (or first class package) for predictable overhead. The Nerfs don’t usually fit in a flat rate but I do my best to predict worst case scenario and exclude PR, AK, HI, and APOs.
Here was one of my better recent consignment challenge coin sales at $70 plus shipping. It’s for a 2011 event involving the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, an aircraft carrier.
This antique 100% scratchy wool English farmhouse blanket had stains, moth holes, and old repairs and sold for $55 plus shipping on a best offer. Age indeterminate but based on the Victorian style of the label I listed it pre-1930 which I think was safe. It was $5 at a yard sale. It took about a year to sell.
Another older listed item was this 12”x10” handmade lidded box with inlay design of Lady Justice. I’ve been holding out for a high price for someone looking for that perfect gift for a lawyer or judge so it’s been sitting as I’ve dropped the price periodically. It sold for $150 plus shipping, bought for $15 at a flea market.Special for Steven Schultz, Old Dad, and anyone else out there who’s turned a wrench or two.
That’s not happening for me.
Amazon is hiring warehouse workers at $15/hour and UPS and FedEx are hiring as well.
I don’t think we’ll see a noticeable increase in estate sales. The CDC says that as of yesterday 29 people have died in the entire US from COVID-19, out of about 1,000 reported cases, and most likely thousands more cases that are unreported because of milder symptoms. By way of comparison, in the US an average of 102 people die in motor vehicle accidents per day, every day, day in and day out. And that’s just one of many causes of death.
+1 IndySales. Trying to stay positive but what worries me most is the complete insanity that has seemingly overcome everyone in pointlessly cancelling travel and many other normal activities, the same things that made the 2008 recession so severe. This is not the Black Plague or Ebola in terms of lethality. Catching COVID-19 is not a death sentence. Yes it’s a danger to adult vulnerable populations, as are many aspects of normal life. We should be focusing on enhanced protections for those vulnerable until this virus runs its course.
Thanks for the update. I was following the thread since I do the same thing you’re doing with your Widgets but in my areas of collecting expertise. I’ve been successful for years in paying up for items I “know” are in demand and will sell quickly, but that demand seems to have come to a screeching halt for me. At the same time, though, the lack of demand for those collectibles corresponded with a precipitous drop in impressions (and sales) since November for all my items. Fortunately I don’t have to rely on the income. I’ve got a move coming up soon so my plan is to regroup after that.
Thanks! I was wondering if I saw you, too, but I’m in Southeast DC and rarely got up your way so probably not. It’ll be good not to deal with the DC traffic any more, if nothing else.
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