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I have 7 or 8 regular consignors, I’ve kept it sort of limited/VIP/invitation only for fear of overpromising my services due to my physical pain…..and because I still want to have a little time to get out and thrift myself. 5 of the consignors are thrifters I met online, other menswear nerds. A few of those are part-time resellers, but use me to increase their cash flow when their careers are taking up their ebay time. We all have a similar knowledge of goods, so I know what to expect from each of them and donate/return very little of what they send, which is nice.
Out of the rest, 1 is a friend of a friend, and 1 is the owner of an estate sale company. These two are hit and miss. The estate sale guy will send entire boxes of junk sometimes, and then send ultra high end stuff the next time. You never know.
The above mentioned are all on a structured %% consignment payout once items are sold. Paid monthly on the 15th for the prior month sales, which helps eliminate most issues with returned consignment items. Occasionally something will get returned after I pay out, but not too often.
I also have been known to buy out closets/small deathpiles directly, however at a much cheaper price….essentially thrift prices.
Week August 4 – August 10, 2019
Items in store: 4263 Listings for 6212 Items
Items Sold: 78 transactions for 88 Items
Gross Sales: $4739.66
Highest Price Sold: $408 …. LVC Leather Jacket
Lowest Price Sold: $8… Necktie
Average Sale Price: $53.86
Cost of Goods Sold $322, Plus consignment.
Number of new items listed this week: 118 items
$$ spent on new inventory this week $175
Repeat Customers: 9Our 4 day vacation this week was nice, but short. 6 Boxes of consignment arrived while we were away, and 3 more are on the way this week. Somehow I managed to put up 140 listings since we returned, in an effort to stay ahead of the tidal wave.
This week I sold a vintage sport coat to the costume department of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. I dropped a letter in the box just in case they needed any specific items, or wanted to off-load any unneeded costume pieces. Never hurts to ask.
Spotted a little glitch today.
We are away on a short 3 day vacation before the peak season push begins, returning tomorrow, shipping orders Thursday (8/8)
The handling time is set to 3 days across the board. I had a buyer purchase a suit yesterday (8/5), orders page instructs me to ship by 8/8 as expected.The buyer contacted me asking if I could possibly ship today because he needs the suit this weekend. When I told him the suit couldn’t be shipped until Thursday, he asked how it could get to him by Friday if I wasn’t shipping til Thursday.
When I go to the shipping page, sure enough it’s showing that the buyer was given the date (8/9) when they checked out.
Anchor support had no idea, and at this point could really only issue me a service record number to clean up any mess that may arise due to the mixed information.
Fortunately, none of the other 42 orders seem to have been affected.
Week July 28 – Aug 3, 2019
Items in store: 4204 Listings for 6169 Items
Items Sold: 73 transactions for 81 Items
Gross Sales: $3599.89
Highest Price Sold: $350 …. LVC Sheepskin Jacket
Lowest Price Sold: $9.72… 3 Pairs of Shoe Laces
Average Sale Price: $44.44
Cost of Goods Sold $272, Plus consignment.
Number of new items listed this week: 78 items
$$ spent on new inventory this week $55
Repeat Customers: 15The past couple weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster, three $1000 days followed by three $200 days. Can’t wait for fall.
Timed it…..3 minutes to change my handling time for vacation, loving that! So much better than an hour loading 20+ heavy pages of listings into bulk editor with all the weird system errors that pop up each round.
So far I’ve been able to reduce my summer lifepile from about 1200 items to about 350. It’s been a few weeks since any consignment came in so I’ve been able to blow through the pile a little quicker than anticipated. I’m sure they will all send huge boxes at the same time…it never fails. Picked up a new consignor from Australia….one of my repeat buyers. I’m not quite sure how that will play out yet. Can’t imagine he will be sending in any jumbo moving boxes.
My back pain came back after 6 weeks of no pain. Bummer. I just hope it’s not another 2 years before I can get relief this time.
Congrats @Retro Treasures, I dropped from a XXL to a M a few years ago. I still remember how exciting it was to lose the first 50! the increase of energy. Use that momentum to your advantage. Happy for you!
This info for me is on the Paypal “Reports” page, I have to assume they are including shipping as well, but I am not entirely sure.
Yes, I provide first class options to many countries on the USPS DELCON list. If the item is consigned or the value of the item warrants insurance, first class international is insurable through fitshipper.
Yes, I get somewhat frequent customs complaints, primarilly from UK buyers, even though their current VAT rate (20%) has been in effect since 2011. FYI: The UK VAT is 20% on merchandise over £15, plus an additional £8 processing fee tacked on by Parcel Force/Royal Mail.
Ebay has an international customs statement on each listing right below the shipping price. Yet, they always say they didn’t know. Rather, didn’t read. I have a pile of polite professional canned responses just for these folks, which direct them to the websites where they can find more info on their local VAT rate pay their bill for delivery. Most people pay it, some stuff bounces back. Typically unclaimed items are returned from the UK after 21 days and 3 delivery attempts. Unclaimed international returns classify as refused mail and are not covered by Buyer protection. If the item never returns I’m not on the hook for it. If it does show up eventually I just refund and relist, minus the shipping. Techically you are not required to refund at all, but this is fair.
Feedback is easily removed if the buyer has raised stink about the customs charges, and INR/INAD cases are easily closed if the buyer has not paid the customs.
It’s all part of the business. I just add the steps to handle it into my process, and don’t let it get to me.
I wasn’t sure to whom this question was directed, so I’ll answer just in case.
I have never used the Global Shipping Program after hearing complaints of overcharged shipping/customs, and have been shipping worldwide directly (with a few exclusions) for about 10 years now.
-We shipped 51 items internationally in July.
-International buyers account for 26% of our 2019 Total Sales@The Thrift Raider
Be careful shipping to Brazil. While it’s ok for New items, unfortunately, it is against postal regulations to ship Used Consumer Goods into the country. We also block Italy across the board, since 99% of our inventory is prohibited there. The sales are not really worth the risk of the heavy fines to us.
Week July 21 – July 27, 2019
Items in store: 4184 Listings for 6162 Items
Items Sold: 82 transactions for 101 Items
Gross Sales: $4634.91
Highest Price Sold: $300 …. LVC Sheepskin Jacket
Lowest Price Sold: $3.74… Shoe Laces
Average Sale Price: $45.88
Cost of Goods Sold $348, Plus consignment.
Number of new items listed this week: 83 items…oops.
$$ spent on new inventory this week $110
Repeat Customers: 13Thank goodness July is almost over. It wasn’t horrible, but I’m still hoping things pick up a little soon. Historically, August is usually one of my strongest months (except last year it was one of the slowest of the year)….we’ll see how it goes.
Going on a short vacation next week, so I need to get a lot done this week…..I got a little lazy this past week with the cooler weather. I’m excited that changing my handling time for vacation will now be a breeze with the business policies tool, compared to the lengthy process it was with the bulk editor.
Noticed our Goodwill put out the Halloween stuff already, geez. I love shopping the halloween section, it’s a great place to rescue vintage clothing from being destroyed by unknowing costume hunters.
I’d agree. You may hit those homeruns from time to time, but in general you get out what you put in through diligent work.
@Jay, is this based on your own records, or the %% change ebay provides on the Seller Hub? One thing to remember on the Seller Hub is that eBay only gives a comparison for your current top two listed categories. For me right now it’s ties and suits/suit separates. However, a year ago, I hadn’t yet purchased the 3000 tie lot, and suits and sport coats were still separate categories, so of course it shows an increase.
One way to get a more accurate comparison is to check in paypal, under the reports tool.
Week July 14 – July 20, 2019
Items in store: 4179 Listings for 6185 Items
Items Sold: 68 transactions for 85 Items
Gross Sales: $4417.48
Highest Price Sold: $248.85 …. Vintage Leather Fringe Jacket
Lowest Price Sold: $11.99… Alligator skin scraps for crafting
Average Price Sold: $51.97
Cost of Goods Sold $272, Plus consignment
Number of new items listed this week: 111 items
$$ spent on new inventory this week $6
Repeat Customers: 10Spent 4 days switching to the ebay “Business Policies”….OMG what a mess that was. I can’t even begin to imagine how much worse it would have been if I sold the variety of things some of you do.
