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03/25/2019 at 12:29 pm in reply to: Winchester38's Journal – A Journey To Full-time Reselling #59212
Yeah. It’s more for her conscience than anything. She’s been with the company for almost 13 years, and has really towed the company line for many years. Giving this much notice even leaves her open to them cutting her annual bonus back before she leaves, but at the end of the day, she feels better about giving them ample notice, and helping them to transition someone else into the role.
I couldn’t do it either, but at the end of the day, we’re making these changes and moves to rest easier at night. If this helps her to do that, who am I to say no. Hopefully it doesn’t cost her/us a few thousand dollars, but the way we’ve talked about it, even if it does, that won’t be a significant enough amount to have swayed our decision, or to matter in a few years time.
Just listening now;
On the rural internet topic, as we’re currently home shopping and looking to scale back, this is a real issue. We’re currently in a city with great internet service.
We had offered on a rural home a month or two ago that checked almost all of the boxes for us and the sellers were pretty sticky on their price. At the end, we could have paid more for it than we probably should have, and almost did, but the slow internet speeds were the deal killer. We just couldn’t justify overpaying for a home just because we “loved” it, and not even getting quality internet service along with it.
Yeah, we’re in the same spot. I’d rather take our time and wait for the right property than rush into something we’re not going to love long-term. We’re prepared to rent for as long as it takes to find the right forever home.
This evening, my wife drafted her resignation letter. Tomorrow, she gives her eight weeks notice.
Starting to iron out the details of the move. Still trying to find a place to live on the other side of the country… Might end up renting until/unless the right home hits the market before we head east.
March 17-23, 2019
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,636
Items Sold: 21
Gross Sales: $628.02
Cost of Items Sold: $86.60
Highest Price Sold: $250.00
Average Price Sold: $29.91
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $88.60
Number of items listed this week: 13Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 854
Items Sold: 9
Gross Sales: $162.90
Cost of Items Sold: $14.20
Highest Price Sold: $27.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $18.10
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $85.00
Number of items listed this week: 31Amazon.ca sales: $474.00 (CAD) (Approx $142.20 net profit)
Amazon.com sales: $1,699.00 (Approx $509.70 net profit)Haven’t listened yet, but will tomorrow morning when I’m packing eBay sales and a few boxes for amazon.
Only had a partial week of work. Got back from traveling late Monday night, and spent all day Tuesday packing/shipping.
Then most of Wednesday and Thursday were spent shipping and replenishing my amazon inventory.
Ebay sales were down, but a $250 jacket sale saved my bacon. Finally got back to listing on Friday. Excited to plow back into things now that I’m officially full time online.
In life related news, my wife just drafted her resignation letter. Tomorrow she’s tendering the letter and giving her employer eight weeks notice. Two and a half months until we move across the country. It’s GO TIME!
03/20/2019 at 10:19 pm in reply to: Winchester38's Journal – A Journey To Full-time Reselling #58978We got back from two weeks in El Salvador after midnight on Monday night. Near the end of the trip, I was genuinely excited to get home and back to work. An absolutely wonderful feeling/realization.
Extended handling time served us well while we were gone. Sold 46 items for $1,523.73 USD on our main account, and 23 items for $339.70 CAD on our second store. That’s enough to pretty much pay for the entire trip (around $2,500cdn, including flights).
Had a marathon packing/shipping session yesterday. Took us about 6hrs working together to get it all done.
Today, I bought, prepped, and shipped 150-160 units or replenishable items to Amazon.com.
Tomorrow, back to listing on eBay.
I’m so incredibly happy/excited to be doing this full time now. Giddy even…
Awesome. Congrats on 500, Inglewood. From 500-700 was where I first started seeing consistent income, and regular sales.
I suspect as you push on, you’ll get hooked on the higher and more consistent income and will end up eventually upgrading, but it all depends on what you want, what you need, how much space you have, and how much time/energy you want to invest. It’s nice to have the power to make the decision for yourselves!
03/05/2019 at 2:51 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58176Inglewood:
When I start making my own shipping trips I’ll cross as a commercial vehicle (pay an annual fee, use the commercial lanes, declare everything, provide manifests, etc), and will DEFINITELY do everything on the up and up. I’m setting myself up to do this long-term, and in no way want to jeopardize that. I’ve heard that some borders are cake, and some are painful. There are three within an hour or so of where we’ll be moving, so hopefully at least one of them is reasonable.
Jay:
Taking shipments across is completely on the up and up. That doesn’t mean they have to like it, or make it easy though. I’ll have to pay an annual fee ($400ish) to cross as a commercial vehicle, and jump through some hoops with paperwork, but otherwise, shouldn’t have to much difficulty.
03/05/2019 at 12:53 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58164I can ship directly, but not using amazon’s partnered UPS shipping rates, so it becomes quite a bit more expensive. I’m working on a back-up option, and am planning on sending a shipment this afternoon as a test. Crossing fingers.
Looking forward to the summer when I start taking my own shipments across the border!
Awesome story. Love that you dipped your toes in to everything, tested, and then jumped. If it works, and you enjoy it, that’s all that matters! Thanks for sharing.
I’m with Troy. Set a smaller, incremental goal. Hit that one, and ramp up again. Doing it that way will be slower, but will impact your cash flow less, and won’t feel so monstrous. Plus, hitting those milestones can be really fulfilling and will keep you motivated to push further.
For me, I’ve approached it differently, but I usually focus on my 60 day sales number when I open the ebay app. I can remember setting a goal of $1,500 originally (works out to $25 per day). Then $3,000. Then $5,000, then $6,000. Now that I’ve made the jump to full-time, my goal has jumped to $10,000.
I know that by listing more items, and having a bigger inventory, it puts me in a position to hit those goals, so by working backwards, I set my listing goals. Different approaches, but at the end of the day, the same result.
03/05/2019 at 8:44 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58134Recently, it seems that the US border has been making it more difficult to send FBA shipments across the border from Canada. There’a limit of $800 per package, per destination, and since the items for FBA aren’t technically sold yet, there’s more work involved for them to assess values to them. They’re pulling more shipments than usual for checking, and it’s slowing shipments down. At least this is what my cross-border courier is telling me.
03/04/2019 at 8:38 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58040Listening now! This is my first Monday morning listening to the podcast as a self-employed person!
February 24 – March 2, 2019
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,681
Items Sold: 26
Gross Sales: $645.38
Cost of Items Sold: $59.60
Highest Price Sold: $49.99
Average Price Sold: $24.82
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $135.68
Number of items listed this week: 52Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 858
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $116.90
Cost of Items Sold: $19.00
Highest Price Sold: $14.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $11.69
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 35Amazon.ca sales: $856.00 (CAD) (Approx $256.80 net profit)
Amazon.com sales: $678.00 (Approx $203.40 net profit)Gut sales report: A touch slow, but not as slow as the numbers would end up showing. Highest sale was only $49.99, so my ASP and gross sales got pulled down.
Scavenge of the week: Some selvedge denim jeans and a pair of Danner boots.
Challenge of the week: I’ve got two:
1. I had set a lofty listing goal of getting to 2,550 total listings by the end of February. I was behind, and had a couple of marathon listing sessions to get me there (just barely). I ended the month at 2,550 total, with 431 total new listings for the month.
2. I’ve recently been having issues with my cross-border shipper getting my Amazon shipments across the border (no ebay issues, fortunately). As a result, a number of my replenishable, good selling items have run out of stock, and my sales have slowed. I think I’ve found a potential work-around, and have a few shipments on their way in now. Lesson learned, once resolved, I’m going to keep more than one month worth of inventory in the FBA warehouses. I’ll probably up that to two or three months worth.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
Winchester38.
Your numbers sound roughly right to me. How many days per week do you list? Five days a week? Seven? If it’s five, at $125/day, you’d be at roughly $2,500/mo COGS (depending on the month).
Sounds like your listing numbers are roughly the same as mine, except I’ve been focusing less on the listed value, and more on the quantity of listings while letting the listing values fall where it may.
I’ve been finding that 20-25 listings per day is quite doable. I aim for that range. I’ve done as many as 44 in a day without any help, and without working a non-stop 8hrs.
Keep me/us posted on how it goes!
Awesome updates, Inglewood. Happy to hear your health is improving (my stress headaches have disappeared since giving my notice at work)! That’s more important than anything else!
Is it the Kitchener area you’re intending to move to? Where are you currently? I’ll be driving across the country in May or June, but probably won’t dip further south than North Bay/Ottawa.
As for listings and store size, I hear you. I pushed hard to get to 500, and found I had to revamp my inventory system around 400. Once I hit 500-600, I was hooked. Sales were happening pretty much daily, and the extra income pushed me into “GO” mode. If memory serves correctly it made sense around 700-750ish listings for me to upgrade my store.
Like you said, the main thing is finding the balance between listing, income, and burnout. Selling things that interest you is a huge help. As J&R always say, don’t build a sweat shop for yourself. Take your time if you need to. The reward will be well worth the wait.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
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