Scavenger Life

Posting this late since we just got back from a ten day trip to NYC and Boston. We had a great time at the Specialty Coffee Expo where we and our partners got to see all the new equipment, techniques, and rub shoulders with fellow coffee shop owners. People from all over the US/World dedicated to making a quality cup of coffee. It was the first time all the owners have been gone, and our staff ran the cafe alone. No emergencies happened so our systems are working. Big success!

Before we left, we put our eBay store on “Time Away” which is eBay’s new-ish way to put our store on vacation. Theoretically it’s a smart way to let customers continue to purchase but be reminded that shipping will be delayed until we return. Unfortunately we probably had our worst week of sales since we started recording our numbers publicly. Very few sales and mostly very low dollar. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it felt like eBay pushed our listings down in search once we used “Time Away”. This makes us want to use our eBay hack of just changing out handling time when we travel.

We did sell a big piece of coffee equipment that we no longer use for several thousand dollars today. Not including this sale since it was for the coffee biz.

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

Our Store Week April 3-9, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8382
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $601.51 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $498.16 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $22
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $68 (jacket)
Average Price Sold: $33.21
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 50
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

What we sold this week sold for good prices. Problem is we only sold 12 items, which is half of last week. It was slowwww for us. One reason may be that we put our store in “away” mode since we left for NYC on Thursday. It’s impossible to see a pattern after just a week. Sold two things today.

We’re in NYC for the week before going to Boston for the Coffee Expo. Of course we’re scavenging on the streets, having already sent home one box. It’s nuts and so much fun to take long walks and just pick stuff up that’s valuable.

How are your sales? Find anything cool?

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

Our Store Week March 27-April 2, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8336
Items Sold: 12
Gross Sales: $713.17 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $517.28 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $44
Cost of helpers: $0
Highest Price Sold: $200 (vintage lamp)
Average Price Sold: $43.10
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Ah, the unglamorous life of selling random items on the internet week after week. If you’re reading this, you’re probably like us: you’ve built a pile of items you’ve scavenged, setting aside some time each day/week to list them on eBay, shipping to people who are happy to buy what you’re selling, and creating a pipeline of cash …while likely few people you know really understand this part of your life. It’s okay. No one needs to understand 🙂

Had a solid week of steady sales. Best sale was an Insane Clown Posse hat that we purchased four years ago. We were at an auction standing around a cold warehouse with a bunch of farmers and rednecks. The auctioneer starting selling an old cardboard box full of ICP hats. Just me and one other guy knew what they were. I got the box for $50. The farmers thought I was nuts. Felt a little bad because I could tell the other guy was a probably a Juggalo in his younger years. This box is when we started talking about finding “caches” of items and “going all in” and  “building a pipeline”. We’ve probably made $4000 off that box over the past four years. Still have several hats left. I miss in-person auctions.

We just had the busiest and most profitable day at our Luray cafe. Our staff did A+. I was washing dishes all morning while talking to all the people coming in to drink coffee and eat. Lots of local people I knew. Lots of travelers coming to hike for the day. I had the time of my life!

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

Our Store Week March 20-26, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8312
Items Sold: 24
Gross Sales: $1,144.18 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $881.93 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $99
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $110 (insane clown posse cap)
Average Price Sold: $36.74
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Without doing anything different, we had a great week of sales. Just happened to attract sellers who were buying $100+ weird vintage gew gaws, doo dads, and tchotchkes. If you list it, they will buy.

Ryanne also went on a daylong shopping spree for the first time in a long long time. She brought home a carload of very cool treasures to list.

On the coffee front, Broad Porch just released a coffee in a can.
Unfortunately not available to sell online online, but a very cool project to get it from our roaster into a can. It’s legit!

How was your week?

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

Our Store Week March 13-19, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8248
Items Sold: 26
Gross Sales: $2,003.20 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1,478.84 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $144
Cost of helpers: $80
Highest Price Sold: $210 (antique belt buckle)
Average Price Sold: $56.87
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $75
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)

Below are our sales for the week even with the ongoing Russian war + rising inflation. People seem to always still want to buy our weird stuff. This week our highest item sold was a vintage homemade t-shirt that said “alligator team”. Who knows!

We can tell COVID is fading from people’s top list of concerns as our coffee shop fills up. We’re even taking a trip to a big coffee expo next month which we’re all excited about. It’ll be one of our first travels in the past several years.

What’s the favorite thing you sold this week?

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

Our Store Week March 6-12, 2022

Total Items in Store: 8209
Items Sold: 22
Gross Sales: $1,133.47 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $869.06 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $108
Cost of helpers: $40
Highest Price Sold: $80 (vintage t-shirt)
Average Price Sold: $39.50
Returns: 2
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 40
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(Your numbers can be found here: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/sales)