Scavenger Life

Welcome to Long Tail Life! We had a good week of weird item sales. Old lamps, old paintings, old shoes, old pens, old sweaters, old pants, old forks, old dog leash, old suspenders, old tea pot. That’s what people bought from us. We love it.

Based on a good suggestion from our resident baseball card expert Craig Rex, we’re adding a “Scavenge/Sale of the Week” thread on the forum. So post the favorite thing you sold over here.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week August 21-27, 2022

Total Items in Store: 9031
Items Sold: 24
Gross Sales: $1,230.81 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $968.92 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $55
Cost of helpers: $60
Highest Price Sold: $225 (vintage college letterman sweater)
Average Price Sold: $40.37
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

We started posting our weekly numbers on the week of October 6, 2013. Almost 10 years ago.

We’re starting something new — posting our “Weekly Scavenger Numbers”. We love when people share specific selling numbers. I mean, how much money can we actually make selling junk on eBay? In the comments, go ahead and post what you’ve done this week. And let us know if there are other numbers you want us to share. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Who knew that years later we’d still be posting our numbers each and every week. We enjoy seeing the numbers you post and the details of your week because it makes us feel connected to other lone scavengers out there. It’s always been important to us to keep track of the sales and get a good perspective of where we’re at. Interestingly, we were making about the same amount of money (and often more) in 2013 than we are in 2022. Why?

It’s all about how we source. We simply love finding items no one wants that are also cheap/free. This method is extremely satisfying because it’s a challenge that feeds into the “scavenger hunt” passion we have. It also means our eBay business is extremely low risk. Since we have little money tied up in our inventory, there’s no monetary pressure to dump the inventory if it doesn’t sell quickly.

We love the long tail of selling on eBay. It’s our comfort zone. Anytime we think we should throw out some weird items that have been sitting on our storage for a long time because “who would want this thing?”…well, it’ll sell. Another lesson in patience pays off with an endorphin rush of remembering where we find that lonely item no one wanted.

We appreciate that other sellers have different philosophies, circumstances, and pressures in how they run their stores. Every seller has to find the thing that keeps them listing day in and day out.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week August 14-20, 2022

Total Items in Store: 9048
Items Sold: 23
Gross Sales: $1,033.60 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $805.97 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $72
Cost of helpers: $60
Highest Price Sold: $185 (Dress)
Average Price Sold: $44.93
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 30
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Solid week for us as summer starts winding down. We got a break from the crazy heat here which is very welcome. Otherwise, this is just an example of a week of plugging away…and watching items we listed months/years ago sell 🙂

At our coffee shop, we’re doing a new round of hiring to replace all the high school students now going back to class. There’s always a cycle of hiring at these kinds of jobs which means fresh faces and change…along with training and the challenge of consistency. I’d be easy to slack and see quality plummet.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week August 7-13, 2022

Total Items in Store: 9040
Items Sold: 22
Gross Sales: $1,245.84 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $947.37 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $47
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $170 (set of dinner plates)
Average Price Sold: $43.06
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 10
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Our numbers are very much higher this week thanks to a big sale: a coffee grinder from our cafe. We bought it used when we first opened. After a year plus, we decided to upgrade to a fancier grinder. Bought for $1000, used for 18 months, and sold for $1500. Nice.

Even without that big sale, we had a good week. Sold a bunch of potter/china + shoes. Plus we sold a creep old doll for $65. Lots of packing which was annoying. Annoying = $ 🙂

Our coffee shop has had a gangbusters summer and now we’re getting ready for an equally busy Fall when tourists come to see the leaves. I don’t look forward to the drop off in sales for January and February, but it’ll be nice to catch a breath. We have some big plans in the pipeline for 2023.

Hope you had a good week.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week July 31-August 6, 2022

Total Items in Store: 9050
Items Sold: 25
Gross Sales: $3,134.81 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $2,444.47 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $1071
Cost of helpers: $40
Highest Price Sold: $1500 (coffee grinder)
Average Price Sold: $97.99
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 30
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Hi! Here we are again. Another week. Another set of numbers. This is the life of an eBay store.

We did nothing different but made more than twice as much as the week before. Sold a good number of items over $50. A set of dinner plates, a skirt, a shirt, a sealed puzzle, an empty whisky bottle, glass bowls, shoes. Some of these items we’ve had for a long time.

Read this article about big stores liquidating shelves of merchandise they can’t sell because people are focusing on buying food/gas.

Retailers have begun to slash prices on inventory in their stores and online. Last Monday, Walmart issued the industry’s latest warning when it said that its operating profits would drop sharply this year as it cut prices on an oversupply of general merchandise.

Many companies cannot afford to let discounted items ‌linger on their shelves because they have to make room for new seasonal goods and the necessities that consumers now prefer. While some retailers are discounting the surplus within their stores, many would rather avoid holding big sales themselves for fear of hurting their brands by conditioning buyers to expect big price cuts as the norm. So retailers look to liquidators to do that dirty work.

So I think we’re just in a weird time with how little people are buying. The advantage for scavengers like us is we pay little to nothing for our inventory so do not need to liquidate for cashflow + we have storage to hold items until people buy them. It’s all chill.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week July 24-30, 2022

Total Items in Store: 9044
Items Sold: 25
Gross Sales: $1,642.10 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,260.37 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $133
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $325 (set of dinner plates)
Average Price Sold: $50.51
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 30
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

We put our store on “Time Away” while we’ve been in NYC and had half the sales as last week. We’re grateful we had any sales at all while on vacation 🙂 We sold a lot of fun stuff just not enough of it.

Good news is we did a lot of good scavenging in NYC. Every time we’d leave the apartment, we’d bring a big canvas bag and fill it up on our walks. Never once did we return without a bag of stuff: books, shoes, lots of small home decorations…

A scavenger emailed us this article about someone finding a designer lamp on one NYC corner:

It’s unknown who was able to get to the lamp first, but whoever it was, they’re in for big profits if they decide to sell. As mentioned, the item costs $4,300 on furniture resale site Chairish. Similar models, such as the daffodil and red tulip versions, are going for $1,535 and $5,195, respectively.

The story also inspired others to share their unique finds. As it turns out, stumbling upon luxury goods is not uncommon in Manhattan, with some even lucky enough to find a $2,000 Caprani lamp and a pair of Prada sneakers.

It’s not common for us to find items that sell for thousands, but it is nice to find solid $30-50 items while getting some exercise and people watching 🙂 Our kind of vacation.

Check out our coffee! ► broadporch.coffee
Join the conversation in the forum>> HERE

Our Store Week July 17-23, 2022

Total Items in Store: 9024
Items Sold: 14
Gross Sales: $668.60 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $540.05 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $32
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $80 (pair of women’s shoes)
Average Price Sold: $38.57
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 100
————
(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)