Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Everyone keep an eye on your service metrics. Ebay has begun passing out the FVF penalties this week, And It’s not pretty for those affected. Despite having 3-4 anchor reps assure me that while the metrics are not appealable, the extra fee would be appealable, I’m hearing that this is not the case at all, so be careful.
Mostly just me. Actually it seems that the photographer guy flaked on me. Would love to get someone in here to help with that for sure. I’ve taken every picture of every item Ive ever listed or sold. Over 31000 items.
My wife helps me a little when she can, but she has her own business too so she’s busy as well. Primarily she tags and bags stuff for inventory after I do the rest. I take what I can get and am very thankful for the help, however insignificant it may seem to her.
Yes, that’s after pretty much everything. Shipping, Ebay fees and COGS/Consignment being the biggest bills. I believe the only thing not accounted for yet is my February mileage, but I drove very little this month.
What are your net profits for the month?
About $15,000, of which $4000 will have to be set aside for estimated tax.
But seriously, do you have any idea why someone would spend that much on so may ties? Do you sell to designers or prop houses?
I’m not sure with this guy, he’s been a regular customer for a few years, but usually only 2-3 items at a time. His account indicates he is in the UK, though his packages always ship to NY. His feedback is set to private so no help there. I imagine he could have a mens shop or something, but I have also personally seen and purchased mens tie collections well into the hundreds. I send him messages about combined shipping, and to thank him, but he never responds, and never leaves feedback.
Yes, I’ve sold many things to prop houses and theaters, a few things back to designers, and a couple things to museums. Though most of those items are vintage. I had a nice little vintage clothing collection going for a while, but most of it has been sold off now to make room for profitable inventory. I think all I have left here is a custom tailored tuxedo worn by Boston Mayor, Maurice Tobin, to the 3rd inauguration dinner of FDR in 1941.
Good luck with your endeavor. I suppose they might fit in a PFR mailer, but I don’t know off hand. I don’t think I’ve ever used one. I ship everything in boxes, except my shoelaces (small ebay mailer). It’s not necessary to use only boxes, it’s just my personal preference based on the way I like to receive my purchases.
SEAM: Huge fan of the Jeep line, especially if it is the Straight 6 engine. Our oldest still drives our 1999 Jeep Cherokee, and Veronica loves her Wrangler.
I was impressed with the Patriot as soon as I drive one. I was a little worried it was going to handle like a Jeep, which would not be optimal for my back. I really would have liked to find the High Altitude version with a 6 cylinder, but this one popped up locally and it was close enough to having everything I wanted, plus exceptionally low mileage. I’ll trade a little torque for gas mileage, no problem.
Who needs 66 ties?
The same guy who bought 26 last week….and hopefully will buy more next week.
Is there a story to your impressive tie business? You have a ton of NWT ties – how did you get into ties? I’m assuming you happened upon an “all in” lot at some point. It has been a while since I’ve shopped the tie racks as they always just seem to be junk ties from Sears and Wal-Mart.
Yeah, I have a lot of ties (I seem to have a lot of everything lol). I typically only run with about 600-800 ties in my store at a time, but last November I was put in contact with a distributor who was clearing out old inventory, and was able to purchase about 3000 NWOT ties direct at about 5% retail, many with multiple quantities which made listing nice for sure. I still have quite a few of that lot left to list, maybe 600, plus another 1000 or so pre-owned ties that are being held off until the others are listed. Not to mention….my consignors send lots of ties as well. My consignors items take priority over mine, so they get filtered into my store as they come in.
Yeah, the tie racks usually yield maybe 1 purchase for every 100 ties, if that. Every now and then you find a bunch of nice ones in once place, but not too often in my immediate area. There are weeks when I don’t find a single tie in thrift stores, but there are days when I come home with dozens. You never can tell.
I’ve been buying a lot of shirts lately to do some experimental lot selling with, so that’s going to be my new adventure for the next week or two. Does anybody here on the forums have any experience selling lots of 3-5 shirts or anything similar? Just looking for any tips or tricks.
I’ve sold some shirt lots before, typically in lots of 2-5, sometimes 7-10 as well.
Here are a few things I’ve found helpful, some of these may be obvious, but I’ll list anyway.—I’ve found it best to make sure all the shirts are the same size and similar style. This will make your lot more likely to sell to an end-user, rather than another reseller, so you can get a higher price.
—Be careful with posting lots with multiple brands, on occasion listings get taken down automatically if the algorithm detects possible keyword/brand spamming, even if you are really selling each of the brands. I typically keep my lots all to one brand per lot to keep on the safe side.
—Inspect well for damages. Collar ring, armpit stains, chipped or missing buttons, holes, odors, etc. Also for dress shirts, check the chest and cuffs for monograms.
—Make sure you weigh your lot. The ounces can add up quickly, putting you unexpectedly into the next shipping tier.
—Fold the shirts nicely for packaging. Presentation is everything.
Oops, accidentally did that post delete thing again.
Happy 400!
Week Feb 17-23, 2019
Total Items in Store: 3470 listings for 5396 total items
Items Sold: 95 Transactions for 169 Items total
Gross Sales: $7254.26
Cost of Items Sold: $581
Consignment payout: $976
Highest Price Sold: $1569, one buyer bought 4 Shirts, 1 Pocket Square and 66 Ties!
Lowest Price Sold: $4.99 (Pair of Shoe laces)
Average Price Sold: $76.36/transaction, $42.92/Item
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $36
Number of items listed this week: 70 ListingsAmazon Experiment
Amazon Products – 49
Items Sold – 9
Gross Sales – $243.48
Average Price Sold – $27.05
Cost of Goods Sold – $20Bought a car this week. It was a pain, but looking back I’m thankful I didn’t have to try to figure out how to get to a job without a car, or use vacation time to go test drive possible options. I still owed money on the old car, and didn’t want to re-finance that money, or even finance a new one. So I chose to keep the old car in our garage for now, and bought the new one with cash. I’ll keep making the payments on the old one for a few months, and attempt to find a motor to swap out as cheap as possible and then sell it. This will hopefully maximize the $$ I can get back for the old car, as well as save nearly $3K in interest on a car loan. And once the old car is gone, we wont have a car payment…..hopefully for a while…..if not forever.
Oh, BTW, the new car is pretty sweet. 2014 Jeep Patriot Limited, Fully loaded with only 29K miles on it. Should last us quite a while.
It’s been a long week stuck at home for me, but I found a new (to me) car and I’m back on the road again! I usually don’t thrift on Saturdays, but I think I’ll make an exception today and hit a few local shops.
