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Love this conversation.
Out of curiosity, I just checked my listings:
1,477 listings
< $50 – 91.8%
$50-100 – 6.1%
$100+ – 2.1%Generally speaking, most of my lower dollar items are fast/easy to find, list, store, and ship. Hats, t shirts, mugs, etc. I’d say all in, a t shirt takes me 10 minutes (finding, listing, packing/shipping) on average. Hats, more like 5 minutes. Mugs, maybe 10 minutes. Profit margins are good (buy for $2-3, sell for $15-25).
If something was going to take me 30 minutes, and was going to be listed at $20 or less, I’d be inclined to throw it in my donation pile.
I always try and focus on items in the $50-100 range, but list a lot of quick list/flip items between these.
On the flip side, we’ve built a second store, entirely around items that are low dollar value ($6-20). Mostly vintage patches, and ephemera. They are super cheap to buy ($0.25-$1.00) I can list 15-25 an hour with relative ease, and shipping is as easy as a stamp and an envelope. No tracking concerns, as their value is generally not significant enough to warrant it. We’ve got about 550 items like this listed, and make $200-400 per month on them.
joeMEZZ/Jay/Ryanne, you print your box label on the 4XL, and a packing slip on a regular laser printer? Or no packing slip at all?
Do I need a 4XL? Still using my laser printer and 2up labels at this point.
Good tip! When I start nearing the end of my current supply, I’ll call around to the shops in my area.
The first bad buy of the year that popped into my head: I bought four or five native-carved soapstone figurines at auction for $80. Each one is signed and has a certificate with it. I researched and listed them in the $80-100 range (each), and have had NO interest in them at all.
Last year, not such a bad buy, but I purchased a lot of used 5lb fire extinguisher wall brackets for $16. I think there were 80-90 of them in the lot. I’ve probably sold 40 over the last two years, but every time I look at the box, I curse it. I sell singles for $6-7/ea, or lots of five for $25ish. They sell, but are sooooooo slow.
Alternatively, best buy of the year for me was a paid of late 1960’s Levis jeans. Paid $8cdn, sold for $899.00usd (~1,123.75cdn), plus shipping.
I don’t think I’ve fully explained our current shipping process(es) at any point, though they’re a HUGE deciding factor in where we will eventually purchase our new home.
As a Canadian, Canada Post is often very expensive, and tracking/insurance are costly. I looked for alternatives, and found our current process:
We ship 2-3 times per week, and have a mailbox address in the nearest state to us (about a three hour drive away). We print USPS shipping labels with the US address as our return address. Then, we pay a local CBS (Cross Border Shipper) to drive our packages across the border, allowing us access to USPS/etc in the states. Their fee is generally pretty nominal (around $1cdn for a package under 2lbs), and USPS rates/tracking are WAY more seller-friendly.
As sad as it may be, in many cases, if a Canadian purchases from us, we can pay to have it taken to USPS, and pay the shipping costs in USD, for LESS than the same package would cost in Canadian dollars though Canada Post.
As a result, when we purchase our next home, we’re hoping to be a maximum of 30 minutes from the US/Canada border, and to make the trip across around twice a week. There is some paperwork, and some hoops to jump through, but it’s do-able.
Jay:
“This is a great point. Those sellers who try to hide all their income on their taxes make it difficult to access credit.”
We have been planning to make the jump for some time now, and as a result, I’ve been claiming my online income for just this reason. We hoped to not need much by way of credit once we made the leap, but I knew if we did, they would want to see income history/trends. I don’t mind paying taxes on my income, and the thought of the government finding out and asking for back-taxes down the road is/was terrifying to me. No surprises…
Hey Troy, answers/comments:
“When you move to eBay/Amazon full time, do you expect that you will increase your weekly purchases of inventory by 50%? 100%? How are you funding that extra capital expense to keep the business flowing?”
With amazon, I’ll purchase as much as I have time for, and as much as the market will bear. With the exception of the odd RA clearance item, or toys in Q4, 90% of my amazon stock is replenishable items. The kind of things people run out of, and pop online to order more of. Every time I send in boxes to FBA, I’ll try one or two more products to try and go wider. So far, it seems to be working, and is somewhat consistent.
If I can pad out my bottom line with a few hundred dollars a week in consistently selling items, it’s ideal. To this point, I’m maybe spending about $1,000-$1,200/mo on inventory, and am turning about 30% profit on that investment, on average. As I go wider, this may increase, but I don’t have plans to spend $10k on a new private label item, or a big wholesale purchase any time soon, so capital isn’t a huge concern.
“Also, what is your normal STR? Looking to see how soon you should start to see returns on your increased listing activity. Would you expect to see significant cash flow returns in 4 months? 6 months?”
Seems our normal sell through rate hovers around 1% each week. As we’ve been ramping up our listing, it seems to be slowly trending upwards (possibly due to the Q4 rise though). We get most of our items pretty cheap, and one of the great benefits that I guess I haven’t really mentioned yet, is that we buy our items in Canada, but sell the majority of them on eBay.com, in USD. So if I buy an item for say, $3cdn, and sell it for $25usd, instead of a profit before fees of $22, it works out to more like $27.50. The exchange gives me about a 25% bump in income right off the bat.
I don’t expect to see any sort of explosions in cash flow, but do anticipate over the next two or three months to see a slight/gradual rise. When I go full-time in February(ish), I’d hope to see it accelerate a bit more. For now, I’m ok if things don’t pick up substantially until January. Anything that sells between now and January 1st will be taxed at my current marginal rate, which is much higher than it will be next year, so I’m ok with getting our inventory numbers up, in anticipation of future sales, just as much as increasing our income now.
November 11-17, 2018
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,466
Items Sold: 17
Gross Sales: $548.84
Cost of Items Sold: $138.25
Highest Price Sold: $104.99 (men’s watch)
Average Price Sold: $32.28
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $117.84
Number of items listed this week: 55Store 2
Total Items in Store: 541
Items Sold: 5
Gross Sales: $61.56
Cost of Items Sold: $3.12
Highest Price Sold: $26.39 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $12.31
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $681.00
Number of items listed this week: 17Amazon.ca sales: $255.20 (Approx $63.80 net profit)
Amazon.com sale: $459.00 (Approx $114.75 net profit)Pretty average week for us, maybe slightly above average. Listing pretty hard on the weekends, and a few things each weekday evening.
Bought a BIG collection of vintage patches this week, so those will sustain our second store for quite some time.
Been buying lots of bread and butter items for the main store recently, with a few great items mixed in. Starting to slowly list some of the inventory from our antique selling side business. As we get closer to moving in the new year, I’m wanting to move those items out. Many of them are higher dollar, so may not sell quickly, but they’ll go eventually.
Decent week on Amazon in both Canada and the US. Retail arbitrage toys/etc are starting to fly, and the replenishable items keep chugging along.
We went to them with very realistic numbers, and we’re fully transparent. My wife will be taking approximately a 50% pay cut, and I’ll be taking a 60-70% pay cut (in the beginning). We could/would have the ability to buy the second house cash if forced to do so, and I think that alone helps greatly.
Fortunately, I have been claiming my eBay/Amazon income on my taxes, so I’ve got hard numbers and tax returns to back up my projections. Had I been flying under the taxation radar, I think it would be a much tougher sell.
Good question. I suppose I should have specified;
Maybe more appropriately, I should have called it an additional mortgage. We’re keeping the exisiting mortgage on our rental house, and will be getting an additional, new mortgage for the home we’ll personally move into. If we really scraped, and dipped into our retirement savings, we could pay cash, but I’m hoping to put 40% or less down on the new house. I want to preserve as much liquid cash as possible as a rainy day fund, and to invest in other income streams down the road.
Having the bank give us a soft yes, and acknowledging that we’re in good enough shape financially to make it happen is a relief (moreso for my wife than for me. I knew we could make it work one way or another).
11/17/2018 at 9:42 pm in reply to: Karen originally from Long Island now living in Pennsylvannia #51884Recently stumbled across you on instagram. Really inspiring watching your store/sales/feed!
We met with the bank on Thursday to make sure we could get approved for a second mortgage, based on the lower income we expect my wife to bring in, and what I realistically expect my eBay/Amazon income to be. Fortunately we’ve been banking cash, and have some substantial bonuses/dividends/etc coming in before we move/buy, so it sounds like we should be able to get approval, while keeping our rental property.
Currently at 2,010 listings total. On pace to hit 2,075 by the end of November as targeted.
Amazon keeps chugging along consistently, and I’m just waiting for Amazon to update the listings for the new product I’m getting ready to send in before I can see how sales pan out on it. Crossing fingers.
44 more days at the office before I can give my notice without jeopardizing my bonus/dividend. Not that anyone is counting…
Sending positive thoughts Veronica’s way, Troy.
November 4-10, 2018
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,429
Items Sold: 14
Gross Sales: $463.87
Cost of Items Sold: $46.00
Highest Price Sold: $69.99 (men’s t shirt)
Average Price Sold: $37.13
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $234.76
Number of items listed this week: 40Store 2
Total Items in Store: 528
Items Sold: 4
Gross Sales: $41.57
Cost of Items Sold: $1.20
Highest Price Sold: $12.79 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $10.39
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $17.60
Number of items listed this week: 0Amazon.ca sales: $106.40 (Approx $26.60 net profit)
Amazon.com sale: $227.00 (Approx $56.75 net profit)My wife was out of town for work last week, and as a result, I had no adult to tell me to stop buying and listing during the evenings. I ended up working from 5:00-11:00pm-ish each evening (after a 6-4 slog at the day job each day).
Bought quite a bit of inventory (mostly bread/butter stuff), and got a fair bit listed. Sales were solid, but not outstanding.
Congrats! We buy/sell antiques as well, and had a space in an antique mall, up until last July when we moved, and it became too cumbersome to manage (3hrs away).
Our space was 8 1/2′ x 10′ and we paid $220/mo, plus 15% commission. Most months, it worked really well for us. Gave us an avenue to sell bigger pieces without having to set up and tear down for a two-day weekend sale. The nice thing was once we carried something into the mall, in most cases, we didn’t have to futz around with carrying it out. One way trip!
We sold a variety of items in our space; everything from $5 vintage books to $800 oak furniture pieces. In our experience, the small odds and ends generally covered our rent and expenses, the bigger pieces ($100+) were our income.
One tip for you; rotate, re-arrange, or re-organize your space at least somewhat, every few weeks. There are a lot of regulars through most antique malls, and if nothing appears to be different from the last time they saw your space, they won’t take the time to look. Moving your items around from time to time really helped keep our numbers up.
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