Scavenger Life

This week, we had a steady flow of sales which felt great! In fact we sold about sixty items which is a big volume for us. That’s almost ten items a day 🙂 Unfortunately they were all mostly low dollar items 🙁 Our average selling price was less than 30 dollars. It was a good example of grinding out a profit one item at a time. This is how bills get paid, so nothing to complain about. The pipeline is flowing.

But it also shows that we’ve been spending much less scavenging this year because we’ve been busy either traveling or working on our rental business. You really do have to put in the hours looking for the items that will sell for $50, $100, $500. Any good scavenger knows that the items that bring a high price takes sometimes hours going from thrift store to thrift store, yard sale to yard sale, auction to auction. For the last six months, we’ve only been scavenging one night a week which is where we get most of our inventory.  We’re good at what we do and find items that sell, but our numbers show that we’re simply finding bread and butter items. After we finally renovate our second rental, we plan to get back to scavenging much more and raise the quality of our items…which will raise the profit we make each week. And it’s not just the money, we love to scavenge!

Hope you guys had a good Thanksgiving.

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Our Store Week Nov 20-26, 2016

• Store #1
• Total Items in Store: 4623
• Items Sold: 54
• Cost of Items Sold: $125
• Total Sales: $1,614.03
• Highest Price Sold: $130 (Urinal)
• Average Price Sold: $29.88
• Returns: 0
• Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $40
• Number of items listed this week: 126
• ———-Bonanza:
• Sold 0 items for $0
• ———-
• Store #2
• Total Items in Store: 1009
• Items Sold: 11
• Cost of Items Sold: $25
• Total Sales: $360.03
• Highest Price Sold: $80 (Lands End bag)
• Average Price Sold: $32.73
• Returns: 0
• Number of items listed this week: 0

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This is our first podcast after the election that has made Donald Trump the President of the United States. We clearly remember what it was like during the eight years of George W Bush: the expensive, devastating war that we’re still fighting and one of of the worst economic crashes this country has ever seen that we’re also still getting out of. Mismanagement, corruption and incompetence were the trademarks of the Bush administration. The most recent evidence doesn’t make us feel any better about a Trump administration and a deeply Republican Congress who claim to hate government but now own it. The new enthusiasm around White nationalism is a scary and real thing. The screwy logic of dismantling the progress we’ve made on renewable energy and pollution reduction is difficult to understand. But here we are. Hello.

Who knows will will happen over the next four years. The Affordable Healthcare Act will most likely be dismantled so we’ll need to figure out how to get healthcare again. There’s a clear sense that everyone is waiting to see what happens with the economy. We’re hoping for the best and planning for the worst. We hope our fellow Americans remember that we are at our best morally and economically when we are fully inclusive. The US is at its greatest when we govern from a belief that we live in abundance that we can all share in, and not scarcity that we must fight over. Instead of our leaders forcing us to choose who among us we must hate and feel superior over, we each must personally decide to embrace and help each other. We’re all in this together.

After the shock and disbelief wore off, we talked about it and agreed that we must be ready for anything. What else can we do as Scavengers? We started our eBay store almost exactly eight years ago when banks were failing and we were surrounded by evidence of impending doom. Selling online was a way for us to seek some amount of safety and control. Rather than put our fate in the hands of an employer, we felt better waking up each day and working for ourselves. We moved to a more affordable part of the country and cut out any unnecessary expenses. We carry no debt (except our mortgage), and keep a little cash nest egg if we need it. The idea that there’s a safety net in the US is an illusion, so we live each day as if there is not one. Let the adventure continue!

eBay was steady for us this week. Lots of low dollar sales which we were happy to have. We’ve been putting all our energy into filling up our store with new items.

You can see photos of the renovation we’ve been doing on our second rental on our other podcast Shampoo and Booze. Also, remember that the holidays and new year are the best time to cut down your bills. We love TING phone service for doing just that. And if you want to give us a little holiday tip, use our links here.

And if you haven’t already, we invite you to our new forum where we can now better share and archive our knowledge. See you there!

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Our Store Week Nov 13-19, 2016

• Store #1
• Total Items in Store: 4538
• Items Sold: 37
• Cost of Items Sold: $40
• Total Sales: $1,200.77
• Highest Price Sold: $100 (vintage sweater)
• Average Price Sold: $29.78
• Returns: 1
• Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $39
• Number of items listed this week: 200?

———-

Bonanza:

• Sold 2 items for $50

———-

• Store #2
• Total Items in Store: 1019
• Items Sold: 6
• Cost of Items Sold: $25
• Total Sales: $246.46
• Highest Price Sold: $40 (Vintage glass drink mixer)
• Average Price Sold: $41.07
• Returns: 0
• Number of items listed this week: 0

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This week we’ve experienced the full craziness of being self-employed. Because we’ve decided to invest in our eBay and rental businesses, we’re spending all the money we saved up over the past year (plus some). And we can’t even be sure if we’re making the right choices.

Is it smart to build a huge storage building for our eBay inventory? What if we get bored and don’t want to sell anymore? There will be a huge warehouse in our backyard. Is it smart to renovate an old house to turn into vacation rental? Why not just slap some paint on it and be done? What if no one wants to rent it? That’s a mortgage we don’t need.

Our mental health through all this is determined by how we handle these questions. I’d say we were pretty good this week. Only had a couple arguments when the pressure was on and decisions had to be made. The good news is that we always respect each other regardless of our differences of opinion. Then we ultimately agree on a plan of action. Plus, we never go to bed angry.

We have loved scavenging for the past eight years and see no decline in our interest. We’re even more excited to use our eBay profits to invest in rental property. So investing in these passions is smart for us even if we get stressed writing big checks. It’s scary to live without a safety net, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

eBay was steady for us this week. All bread and butter sales (average selling price was about $35). all we can do is keep listing. This election will soon be over and holiday season is upon us!

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Our Store Week Oct 30-Nov 5, 2016

• Store #1
• Total Items in Store: 4377
• Items Sold: 41
• Cost of Items Sold: $65
• Total Sales: $1,333.33
• Highest Price Sold: $135 (Art Poster)
• Average Price Sold: $35.52
• Returns: 1
• Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $60
• Number of items listed this week: 190
• ———-Bonanza:
• Sold ? items for $?
• ———-
• Store #2
• Total Items in Store: 1029
• Items Sold: 7
• Cost of Items Sold: $10
• Total Sales: $171.36
• Highest Price Sold: $40 (Wooden box)
• Average Price Sold: $24.48
• Returns: 0
• Number of items listed this week: 0

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