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I can’t really ignore amazon, but eBay has my heart.
I enjoy eBay a lot more in almost all respects. I think amazon will continue to feel more like a “job” to me than eBay does.
I don’t have any intention of purposely focusing more on amazon long-term, but am still not quite to where I want to be numbers-wise there. When I get there, I’ll ease up on new products and just refill existing skus as needed. I’m close, but haven’t hit my target numbers yet.
Congrats on the new rental being up and operational!
Re: paying for courses/mentorship: No thanks. I’m terribly stubborn, and have heard way too many horror stories about bad, overpriced courses. I don’t really learn well in a conventional manner anyway. I’ve pretty much got to learn by trying, doing, failing, correcting, and improving at my own pace, on my own time. A course would likely break that cadence, and I’d end up either frustrated or feeling like I’d been “taken” They might work for others, but I won’t be a customer…
August 11-17, 2019
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,698
Items Sold: 19
Gross Sales: $445.43
Cost of Items Sold: $39.00
Highest Price Sold: $49.99
Average Price Sold: $23.44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $290.38
Number of items listed this week: 40Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 1008
Items Sold: 16
Gross Sales: $197.84
Cost of Items Sold: $10.25
Highest Price Sold: $16.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $12.37
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $76.00
Number of items listed this week: 25Amazon.ca sales: $1,250.08 (Approx $375.02 net profit)
Amazon.com sales (USD): $2,236.10 (Approx $894.44 net profit)Pretty average week in both ebay stores. Steady, but lots of low dollar sales. Doing a bit more listing, so numbers are slowly trending upwards between the listing and summer coming to an end.
Amazon was rocking last week. Canadian sales came up substantially. Largely due to some book sourcing/selling I’ve been doing. I’ve been sending used books into FBA for the last month or two, and I’m starting to see consistent sales there. Partner that with school season about to kick off, and away we go! In the USA, Amazon sales have been trending up. I’ve added another eight replenishable/refillable skus to my offerings, and have been doing a much better job of keeping everything in stock. The two combined have pushed my numbers back up.
On an amazon note that may be of interest, they’ve just rolled out a beta program where they’ll allow your items to sell, even before they hit the warehouses. The give the buyer an estimated delivery date based on the expected arrival of your units to the FC’s. I enrolled two days ago, and it’s already resulted in a sale for me. Might help to smooth out short-term inventory outages going forward.
On Friday, we went to a large annual flea market about an hour away. We were there when the gates opened at 8:00am, and finished around 6:30pm. We stopped for about an hour total for snacks, lunch, and to drop merchandise off at the truck. Got a lot of bread and butter items, with a few higher dollar items. I wore my gopro, and have about three hours of footage, I’ve just been so busy that I haven’t been able to condense it into a shorter video. Maybe this week at some point…
On a personal note, we’re in the midst of lawyers, lenders, and realtors as the paperwork gets finished for our new home. Closing date is next Friday (30th). The house itself is move-in ready fortunately. I’ve picked up some new LED light fixtures for the garage (our new work space), and have started getting quotes for someone to mud/tape/sand the drywall in there. Have to order the paint/urethane that’s going to go onto the floor this week. Fortunately, we have a month between possession and having to be out of the home we’re currently renting, so we can take our time moving and getting the work space ready.
I’m hoping all of the painting/etc can be done by mid September. That gives a week or so to air it out if needed, and another week to move everything in and set it up.
I’ll strap the GoPro to my backpack strap and see what footage I can grab on Friday!
I’m a bit late to the party this week…
August 4 – 10, 2019
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,678
Items Sold: 16
Gross Sales: $359.42
Cost of Items Sold: $36.40
Highest Price Sold: $39.00
Average Price Sold: $22.46
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $68.14
Number of items listed this week: 55Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 993
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $126.90
Cost of Items Sold: $12.25
Highest Price Sold: $16.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $12.69
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 31Amazon.ca sales: $741.97 (Approx $222.59 net profit)
Amazon.com sales (USD): $2,369.31 (Approx $947.72 net profit)Did a bit of listing on both accounts this week. My wife has started pushing some of our new listings to Poshmark (both US and Canada). No sales there yet, but we’ll give it a fair shake before deciding.
It was a crazy busy week personally. We spent Thursday at the house we had offered on doing/having some inspections done. Pretty much everything checked out, so we removed conditions, and as of yesterday, there’s a sold sign up! We take possession on August 30th, but have our current rental until September 30th, so there won’t be a crazy rush to get moved in. We’ll take our time moving. Right away I’ll get at finishing the garage for ebay/amazon use. It’s heated, insulated, and drywalled, but needs the crack filling done, paint, some upgraded lighting, and I’ll finish the floor. Then we’ll air it out for a week or so, and start moving inventory, packing station, printers, photography umbrellas, etc in. Can’t wait to have a dedicated work space set up!
There’s a BIG annual flea market about an hour from us starting this coming Friday (16th), so we’re planning to spend the full day there sourcing inventory. I’m hoping/planning to wear my GoPro camera, so hopefully I’ll end up with some shareable footage when all is said and done.
Then the following Monday (19th) there’s a big charity book sale about an hour a way that I’ll go to in hopes of sourcing books for amazon.
Going to be a busy few weeks, but we’re very excited!
I run two stores, one is my main store, the other I use for selling only items that are sent via letter mail (no tracking). My main reason for splitting them was not having the untracked items pull down my shipping metrics on the main account.
In your situation, I’d definitely start a second store. The ease of keeping your numbers split from the charity will be huge if you keep growing. That alone would make it worth doing in my opinion.
As far as feedback goes, it’ll come. Don’t sweat it. If you’re worried, when you first open the new store, buy five or ten $0.01 items to build some feedback as a buyer. I did this when I started my second store. You can often find cheap, junk jewelery/etc from China that is less than $0.05 with free shipping. Easy and cheap way to “buy” feedback.
The only other issue you may run into with a new store is your listings being limited at the start. Ebay will likely limit you to 20 listings for the first month or two. Use them up, sell a few things, and then call to ask them to increase your limits. They usually will, and within four or five months, your limits will be so high that they won’t be a factor any more.
Thanks Ryanne! We’re pretty stoked. We’ll be even more excited when we’ve paid it off in full (likely 2-3yrs).
You got it! It’s 30×40, insulated, drywalled, and heated. I’ll hire someone mud/tape/sand the drywall, I’ll paint the ceiling/walls, and throw a couple of coats of commercial paint on the floor. Then we’ll start moving everything in.
House is a done deal! Possession August 30th
Some pics here:
I like! Refreshing to get some random knowledge instead of the usual hauls/solds.
I can assure you that RA is alive and well. There are lots of people still doing the target/Walmart/tjmaxx/etc flipping with great success. I’m doing this on a small scale.
I’ve heard stories of people being shut down doing it, but it’s generally when a brand gets finicky, and clamps down.
As far as retail receipts, I’ve used them to get unrated in products/categories before.
With all of the above said, Old Dad is technically right I think. Amazon can/will clamp down as they see fit. They just don’t seem to do it very often, or unless prompted by a manufacturer.
Amazon restricts new sellers on a lot of items/categories. I don’t think it makes any difference whether you’re a on a free account or a professional account.
It’s been a LONG time since I used the free service, so I can’t comment on the sign up process, but I do know they still offer a free account.
I’d go ahead with entering your banking info. If you work around it somehow, how will they pay you for things you’ve sold?
I am VERY close to buying a house with what could become my ideal space.
It’s got a 30×40 detached garage that’s insulated, dry walled, and heated. Currently trying to figure out how I’ll lay it out if it comes to fruition.
I want it to be entirely self contained. In a perfect world, it’s got:
– Decent lighting, clean floor, walls, and ceiling
– Shelving for hard goods
– Space for rolling clothing racks
– Small area for unlisted inventory
– A photography/listing area
– A packing/shipping station. This will likely also serve as amazon prep/ship space.
– Room to pull my truck in/out (loading/unloading)July 28 – August 3, 2019
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,641
Items Sold: 18
Gross Sales: $450.14
Cost of Items Sold: $36.00
Highest Price Sold: $49.99
Average Price Sold: $25.01
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5.00
Number of items listed this week: 45Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 974
Items Sold: 13
Gross Sales: $167.86
Cost of Items Sold: $10.5
Highest Price Sold: $27.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $12.91
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $425.00
Number of items listed this week: 40Amazon.ca sales: $418.16 (Approx $125.45 net profit)
Amazon.com sales (USD): $1,526.69 (Approx $610.68 net profit)A little better week than last week. Started setting listing goals again, and am seeing numbers come up. Correlation/causation/destiny/ebay? Not sure, but having more listed definitely won’t hurt.
As for recession planning, it can’t be too far out on the horizon. Too many good years behind us for it to continue too much longer.
With that said, we’ve got minimal consumer debt (still have a truck payment), and a decent net worth. We’re about to buy a house (hopefully. Inspections on Thursday), which will take us an estimated three years to pay off completely. We’re putting about 65% down, which will mostly tap our liquid cash (still have retirement savings, and equity in a rental property/etc). Scary to think how much can change in three years, but knowing our bills are/will be relatively low, and if need be, we can hit the retirement savings and be completely debt free is mildly comforting.
