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I will stress that this is not normal at all – it’s usually been a few hundred a week. I’m quite glad about it but I know that slow weeks will happen much more frequently.
I still remember he first time I sold $100 worth in one week selling “trash”, I was king of the world!
You have great photos. I especially like how you take photos of ties. You sell so many ties which really surprises me.
When you say you have consignors, does this mean you have people going out to scavenge for you? Or people selling off their own wardrobe?
Thanks, I am always working on ways to improve my photos.
Ties are a bread and butter item for sure. 437 sold in the last 90 days for $13,250
Most of my consignors are fellow menswear thrifters/ebay sellers, who either gave up on ebay, or just don’t have time for it right now.
They are located all over the US/Canada. Seattle, Phoenix, Long Island, Toronto, DC. They don’t work for me, I just provide a service for them.
I’m always in awe of your numbers. If Im reading correctly, you net $5k a week. If you made that much, we could almost buy all the empty buildings on our Main Street.
Remind me, are you mainly buying suits and menswear at local thrift stores? I assume you’re only selling high end items.
Thanks so much!
Yes, from 2005 my original store was ” The Something, Everything and More Store” which was an accurate description of my inventory. I began the transition into menswear in 2011 or so, and shortened my store name to The SEAM Store (mainly for easy URL use theSEAMstore.com is a lot easier than thesomethingeverythingandmorestore.com) and coincidentally it fit my new products nicely. Today I am 99%+ menswear. I thrift, e-thrift, do wardrobe buyouts and do some wholesale buying. I also have 7 consignors.
We are in a fairly rural area just outside Gettysburg, but centrally located so I can be in a better sourcing area within 1 to 2 hours drive. Unfortunately, my back doesn’t let me go out sourcing all day too often anymore, so I’ve been stuck with areas closer to home for the last year or so….that’s where having a few consignors around the country really has helped me.
Higher-middle-end stuff mostly I guess. If “middle end” is even a thing. lol. Also a lot of vintage and things I just plain find interesting.
Week Feb 3-9, 2019
Total Items in Store: 3546 listings for 5466 total items
Items Sold: 106 Transactions for 142 Items total
Gross Sales: $7923.33
Cost of Items Sold: $824 + $1022 consignment payout
Highest Price Sold: $365 (Brooks Brothers 3 Piece Suit)
Highest Transaction Sold $522 (26 Ties)
Lowest Price Sold: $4.99 (Pair of Shoe laces)
Average Price Sold: $74.75/transaction, $55.80/Item
Returns: 3
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8
Number of items listed this week: 89 Listings for 90 ItemsAmazon Experiment
Amazon Products – 65
Items Sold – 2
Gross Sales – $23.90
Average Price Sold – $11.95
Cost of Goods Sold – $2This was my best sales week ever! I’m tired. Hopefully have someone coming to help me with some photos a few times in the next couple weeks. Not a permanent thing, but just a little push for me right before Suit season. I’m so used to doing all this by myself, but my arthritic spine always makes it more difficult than it should be.
Question-is there a place on eBay that allows you to run a yearly report with sales information you can use to prepare taxes? I was looking, but could only find quarterly reports.
You can subscribe to “Sales Reports Plus”. It’s a feature of old ebay, but there is a link to it on the seller hub in the “Selling Tools” Section. Unfortunately, the sales info you will get is not retroactive, but it will keep a record of your sales from the day you sign up, forward.
Week Jan 27-Feb-2, 2019
Total Items in Store: 3565 listings for 5513 total items
Items Sold: 66
Gross Sales: $5285.65
Cost of Thrifted Items Sold: $278
Consignment Payout $1071, less any future returns.
Highest Price Sold: $516 Vintage Tanuki Fur Coat- (consigned) $357 Citizen Eco Drive Watch – (Thrifted)
Average Price Sold: $80.09
Returns: 4
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $1242.69
Number of items listed this week: 63 listings for 87 ItemsAmazon Experiment
Amazon Products – 45
Items Sold – 5
Gross Sales – $97.80
Average Price Sold – $19.56
$ Spent on amazon inventory this week – $20Just barely missed breaking $25,000 in sales for January, second month in a row within $200!
My wife decided she wanted to give poshmark a try, so I spent some time this week helping her with photos. She listed 13 and sold 1. It was fun watching her go through all the emotions of a new seller.
Thanks for the clarification. Makes us feel good that “make offer” doesnt immediately disqualify our listing.
By the way, what program are you in that lets you email a Customer Rep? I see it was signed “Premium Services”. We have an Anchor Store and can only call.
I called anchor support, and the rep sent me an email after the call at my request. Maybe they’ve changed the name of it since they’ve added another store level above anchor. When I call it always says “thanks for calling eBay merchant support”. Another small example of confusing contradicting info lol.
Week Jan 20-26, 2019
Total Items in Store: 3523 listings for 5444 total items
Items Sold: 69
Gross Sales: $5974.36
Cost of Items Sold: $445 + $660 consignment payout
Highest Price Sold: $738.81 (LVC Leather Jacket thrifted the week before)
Lowest Price Sold: $4.99 (Pair of Shoe laces)
Average Price Sold: $86.58
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $1456
Number of items listed this week: 43 Listings for 106 ItemsAmazon Experiment
Amazon Products – 45
Items Sold – 5
Gross Sales – $129
Average Price Sold – $25.60
Cost of Goods Sold – $10Scavenge of the week, Vintage Schott Western Fringe Coat
Here is the email from Hunter. I sort-of wanted to see the words he was seeing, but I guess this is fine.
Hi Wes,
Thanks for calling in about your question around eBay Guaranteed Delivery.
Do listings with Buy it Now qualify for Guaranteed Delivery if the item is purchased through Best Offer?
Best Offer listings will be guaranteed if they also have a Buy It Now option with immediate payment. If the order was completed by accepting a Best Offer, it will not be under eBay
Guaranteed Delivery. This is due to it not being immediate payment.If there is anything else you need assistance or clarification on always feel free to reach out!
Have a great rest of your day!
Hunter B.
Premium Services.
eBay
So, I’ve got an answer from Anchor Support on the Guaranteed Delivery.
It seem’s my hunch was correct, Guaranteed Delivery is only activated when the buyer makes immediate payment for a Buy it Now purchase. Listings with a best offer option still qualify and populate in the search results when sorted by guaranteed delivery, but if the buyer chooses to make an offer, the purchase no longer qualifies for guaranteed delivery. This is all ok with me, as the program doesn’t really benefit the seller, as long as my listings populate in the guaranteed delivery search results, I’m happy.
Unfortunately, the “customer facing” information on Guaranteed Delivery doesn’t mention this requirement anymore, but according to the Anchor Rep it did at one time when the program first was rolled out, and that must be where I picked up on it. If you remember one of the requirements to be in the program was to add “require immediate payment” to all the listings.
Heres an ebay Youtube video about that from back when it started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcuCT5E2XA
I am awaiting an email from Hunter at Anchor support with the verbiage from the “Customer Service Facing” description of the program. Will post here when I if/when I receive it.
No, they are not really that clear with this stuff…are they.
Ok, here’s the deal. I have been testing the options out for an hour or so with my second account.
When a buyer searches by guaranteed delivery, they are quoted the expedited shipping rate that will get it to them in the designated time frame. When they chose Buy it Now, they buy it with the expedited shipping automatically added as the default
If they choose to submit an offer, and it is accepted, it appears that the buyer can still technically have guaranteed delivery, but, at checkout they would need to manually select the shipping upgrade that shows the guaranteed delivery date. Additionally, during the offer process, the original guaranteed delivery date could expire, if the buyer takes too long to complete payment.
To clarify, you CAN have best offer as an option, but the buyer does not have a delivery guarantee unless they Buy it Now.
Additionally, say you accept an offer, but the buyer doesn’t pay for a week, you obviously can’t guarantee the original stated 2 day delivery date, that has since passed 5 days ago.
Best offer purchases are also not eligible for other promotions, such as % off sales, milti-item discount promotions etc. These features also come off the Fixed Price part of the listing only. Best offer is just an added option for the buyer. They can’t have the best of both worlds. They have to choose between asking for a better price, or taking the shown discount.
In terms of a guaranteed delivery, they have to decide whether they want to pay the asking price NOW for the guaranteed service, or ask for a discount which voids their guarantee.
Yes. One of the eligibility requirements is for it to be a fixed price purchase.
Reason: You can’t very well guarantee delivery for a best offer, since it could go for a full 5 round counteroffer, which with 48 hours per offer/counteroffer could take up to 20 days to negotiate. (Worst case)
If the buyer chooses buy it now, the guaranteed delivery click starts when payment is made.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a guaranteed delivery order show up late. Of course, I use Best Offer, so most of my transactions aren’t guaranteed delivery eligible……unless the buyer pays the full Buy it now price.
53 out of 1184 transactions in the last 90 days.
Seam Store: Thanks for the info on your numbers. Jay beat me too it this week, but that was my question too, as in how much of your sales goes back to the consignors (your COGS just seemed low to me, and I was thinking that the consignment payment was the difference).
So rough math would be that your consignment “COGS” is about $500-$750 per week, right?
Yes, that’s probably a safe number. The 2018 monthly payout average was around $2125….so yeah $500ish/week.
