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My sale of the week was this SEAL admiral’s challenge coin on consignment that went for $95 plus shipping on a best offer. It feels like prices are getting soft on challenge coins, as this one should have been a relatively quick sale closer to my asking price of $145 but the offer was from a repeat buyer who purchased two other items along with the coin this time so I won’t quibble. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275709631262
Week of 4/2 – 4/8
Total items in Store: 314
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $271.92 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $83.49 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $95.00 plus shipping (US Navy 2 Star Admiral’s Expeditionary Combat Command Challenge Coin; numbered, and a SEAL related command)
Average Sales Price: $27.19 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 0Not a bad week for no new listings in the last 30 days, but I did try to take a few minutes to send out offers when I could. A very busy time of the year for me off eBay but I’m hoping to resume some serious listing soon.
This time of year was very dead for me in 2022. I think it will come back, as it always has.
Week of 3/26 – 4/1
Total items in Store: 324
Items Sold: 4
Gross Sales: $191.89 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $15.31 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $149.89 plus shipping (US Army 82nd Airborne Div 50th Anniv Annual 1942-1992 Yearbook)
Average Sales Price: $47.97 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 0I enjoyed the interview, Jay – like old times!
My store was on time away the last two weeks as I was on a vacation as well so things were slow but I did have this nice sale the week before last. It’s a US Army 82nd Airborne Division 50th Anniversary Annual 1942-1992 Yearbook that sold for full price at $149.89 plus shipping and cost me $2 at an indy thrift in North Carolina last year.
It seems as if the setting change may need to be in place prior to the buyer accepting…
I guess that makes sense, because eBay considers the sale completed at that time for other purposes (like taking their fees) and nothing about the transaction can be changed after that. I didn’t realize that the time to pay setting can be changed, though, and that you can exempt specific buyers. I haven’t had anyone ask for a long time to pay in quite a while but it can happen so it’s good to know.
Week of 3/5 – 3/11:
Total items in Store: 338
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $65.85 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $2.50 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $12.99 plus shipping (USAF Sr. Force Protection Badge)
Average Sales Price: $10.98 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 26A busy week listing but getting nickels and dimes for sales. I had some interest in higher value items and sent out lots of offers, to no avail. I’ve been using promoted listings for a while at the “recommended” percentage (what does that even mean, when there is no specific measurable action eBay must take to earn it?) but the last couple weeks I have tried waiting at least a couple days to promote a new listing. That way if someone’s got a search out for the item and it sells right away, I haven’t paid the extra to promote. I’m rethinking that now since only a couple all my new listings this week have gotten any views at all yet, and most of those just one view. Correlation does not equal causation, I know.
I also don’t allow best offer right away for most items, so that person who’s been looking for that exact thing will pay full price hopefully. If someone wants it badly enough but my price is too far off, they can always email me and ask, which has happened.
How large was your inventory whenever you moved?
Hard to say; it was different every time. I was already a collector, picker, and occasional flea market/antique mall seller when I enlisted in 1979 and our last move upon my wife’s retirement was in 2020. When I was active duty, there were many extended selling breaks for deployments and TDY and for PCS I would sometimes put everything in long term storage and pick back up upon the next assignment. For many years my selling inventory would turn very quickly – I’d take it around to dealers or blow it out at a flea market, send it off to specialty mail-order auctions, or for the first 10 years or so of eBay I could put just about anything up for a 99-cent auction and it would be gone, not leaving a lot of money on the table.
After my retirement the collections got bigger and the inventory got fatter but my wife was still AD. I remember one move we had 100 boxes of books when I was selling a lot of those. For another move I filled a large U-Haul truck for a partial PPM with my “collections” which was actually mostly unlisted inventory. Our last move in 2020 wasn’t too bad, with an active inventory of about 300 mostly smalls in several bins, some miscellaneous larger items, and maybe 10 more boxes of unlisted.
Times change, I forgot you can do a full PPM just about anywhere now. That’ll be a lot of work but I think a lot less stress, too.
Week of 2/26 – 3/4:
Total items in Store: 319
Items Sold: 16
Gross Sales: $503.52 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $159.30 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $99.91 plus shipping (30″ orange ship’s ring buoy)
Average Sales Price: $31.47 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 3This week of sales shows how things have changed for me in the last couple years. I would previously average fewer sales a week but at a much higher average sales price. Now I have many more lower value smalls. It seems harder all the time to purchase higher value items in my favorite categories cheap enough to make money. I won’t pay $100 for something that will sell for $150 to only make $10 after fees and overhead. It doesn’t help that selling costs have risen so much with sponsored listing fees. The best thing about the smalls though is the profit margins, of course. And the 2 minutes it takes to pack and ship one.
I did have some customer oddness this week. One new eBayer with 0 feedback messaged me that they were interested in an item but wanted to make sure I was legitimate and would I please provide my real full name? I was pondering how to respond (other than with silence, and a swift block) when the item sold to someone else. Problem solved.
I had another message on one of my other items. It was a toy that belonged to me as a child, found in my dad’s house after he passed away a while back. My listing identified it very specifically as to what it was and the year made. The message I received was not specific as to what they were upset about, but it went on about how I was one of the biggest idiots on eBay, or words to that effect. That definitely merited silence and a block.
Week of 2/19 – 2/25:
Total items in Store: 332
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $295.43 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $140.11.00 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $89.89 plus shipping (US Navy Special Warfare Ctr West Ranges Challenge Coin)
Average Sales Price: $22.73 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 21All the TGTG talk is making me hungry. Unfortunately it’s not in my area yet.
The COGS ended up pretty ugly that week as a percentage of gross due to 4 sales of things that I’ve had for a long time and just paid too much for. Sometimes if you hold things long enough the market catches up but it didn’t in this case. I just wanted to get out of them and move on. Fortunately, I did get my money back plus a little bit. I’m happy to see them gone. Generally sales were good; typical for me this time of year. For some reason I’m busy when many on the forum are not, and vice versa.
Congrats on your desirable PCS. Been through many – the OCONUS ones can be a special kind of difficult, right? I was always very happy when the move was drivable and I could do a partial DITY move (now they call it PPM I think?) and rent a trailer or truck. I’d beat the movers there and be up and running right away. Early on I’d just shut down eBay for a move before I learned here on SL you could actually set 30-day handling and sell things. Now with Time Away, it’s more complicated. And you don’t have the luxury of a partial DITY to Hawaii. You’ll have to look at the timelines they give you and see whether you can use Time Away or you’ll have to shut down for a while (or a combination), especially taking into consideration the time performance windows your movers get. If you end up using Time Away at all, remember all the usual precautions like setting it to start ahead of time and not sending out offers for a while ahead of that so you don’t get pinched by someone paying for something after you’ve left and you’re stuck with your previous handling time on that sale.
In your situation, I would pack all the inventory myself ahead of time, using the small size (book) boxes, number them (don’t mark them “inventory” – there is a prohibition on the government paying to move items for resale so it’ll be best to let everyone think you’re just a hoarder) and create a detailed packing list for each. That way it won’t be too much trouble to sell out of them ahead of time and after you arrive without unpacking them all. If you leave it to the movers, they’ll use large boxes for clothing and you won’t be able to do a detailed packing list while they’re stuffing them. If your inventory is already in bins, you don’t want to leave it like that. The movers will simply tape them shut and load them on the truck as is and many of them will arrive broken, risking missing or soiled items. (I made that mistake once.) You’re not allowed to self-pack boxes for movers but I found it was not an issue if I left the boxes open so they could look inside to their satisfaction and seal them up. If they really object to all the small boxes with comparatively lightweight items, they can stack them inside wardrobes or something to put on the truck but you’ll still be way ahead of the game upon arrival.
If you’re up against your weight allowance, unfortunately your computer and inventory cannot be included in the 500 lbs you get for spouse pro-gear but there may be some stuff you can include. Again, don’t mention your store inventory to anyone.
$175 on Dec 2, 2013. A bit old to be of much use, but it’ll help for ballpark, hopefully.
Week of 2/12 – 2/18:
Total items in Store: 326
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $254.63 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $33.00 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $74.34 plus shipping (vintage Italian stiletto manual folding knife)
Average Sales Price: $25.46 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory: $21.45
Number of new items listed: 4 (plus 4 end-and-sell-similar of old items)My returns for 2023 are up 200% over 2022!!!! – Well, that’s technically correct (I think – I’m no mathematician) since I had no returns at all in 2022 and two last week, but not really earth-shattering news. I couldn’t resist the click-bait, sorry. There was nothing I could have done any differently to prevent them since they were both from buyers who apparently did not read the listing description or look at all the photos. Probably bought on their phones since the eBay app makes it too easy to buy without seeing all the photos or the seller’s description or condition statement. Mildly annoying but I’m not going to let it take up space in my brain. FIDO.
I have to admit that when I first saw them, I did not recognize the logo. It seemed very familiar to me but I couldn’t place it. Google lens wasn’t coming up with anything but the Bedford China backstamp with a Boston retailer address and how they looked and felt I knew that they were old. I figured it would have to be something interesting that I could sell them for more than $3 each. I put them away but as it turned out, I happened to be looking at a lot of military shoulder patches and there was a 26th Infantry Division patch with the YD logo on it (it stands for Yankee Division; originally all New Englanders) in the lot and I finally remembered.
Week of 2/5 – 2/11:
Total items in Store: 333
Items Sold: 18
Gross Sales: $453.50 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $76.00 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $100 plus shipping (lot of 3 WWI 26th Infantry Division mess hall or club china plates)
Average Sales Price: $25.19 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 17Small potatoes compared to you all, but a pretty good week for me. I’ve always had strong January sales so I just need to keep listing to keep the inventory up and the store active.
My sale of the week was a lot of 3 different size mess hall or officers club plates marked with the US Army 26th Infantry Division logo from the WWI era. I thought about selling them individually but I reasoned that the buyer I wanted would pay up to get them all. They were $3 each at an estate sale and the lot sold for $100 plus shipping on a best offer. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275600492499
