Hey y’all. As we’ve mentioned, we have been on a crazy traveling schedule for video jobs. This has left zero time to produce a podcast this week. I know, it makes us sad too. When we get home from this job, we’ll have more time to dedicate to our own projects and our brains won’t look like that tangle of cables at the thrift store that we all know and love (hey there is some good stuff in there!). Have a great week, we hope your sales are starting to really pick up from the summer lull. Keep on keepin’ on!
What Sells on eBay: Epic 30 Day Handling Time Edition
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We are back from our 4 week trip to Europe. All 150 items have been packed and shipped, here are several of the cool ones. Enjoy!
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Scavenger Life Episode 221: Shipping 4 Weeks Worth of eBay Packages In Three Days
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After traveling for four weeks overseas, it takes a solid three days to catch up with our life. Of course packing 150 packages for eBay takes time. But also: catching up with friends about small town news, hanging out with our cats, sleeping weird hours because of jet lag and visiting our local thrift stores to see if we missed anything. But we’re slowly getting back into our comfortable eBay lifestyle.
It was a good week of sales for us. We expect sales to continue till January. Remember to save any extra money you make now to help during the slow months. It’s all about creating a 12-month business where good months balance the slow months.
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Technical nerd note: Apologies for the poor audio quality in the first 5 minutes. We do a double recording (just in case) and our nice recorder was not running. After 5 minutes it sounds nice though. I blame jet lag! -Ryanne
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In this podcast we mention the following links.
–Tim sent us this story about a guy who digs for 1800’s Levis in abandoned silver mines. They can sell for up to $100k. What?
–MarkH20 reminds everyone that eBay is altering their Return System“Hassle Free Returns” is officially going away. Sellers now have more control over their return policies. For us, we’ll continue to offer 30-day returns. It’s what we expect as buyers.
Oh, and if you want to listen to us scavenge in Amsterdam, here’s a podcast that Mark did with us. He followed us around at the IJHallen flea market and then interviewed us about how it all works.
The Weekly Scavenger Numbers
Our Store Week September 13-19, 2015
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 3895
- Items Sold: 37
- Cost of Items Sold: $90
- Total Sales: $1,680.25
- Highest Price Sold: $180 (commercial crepe griddle)
- Average Price Sold: $45.41
- International Sales: 3 GSP
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $60
- Number of items listed this week: 0
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 551
- Items Sold: 8
- Cost of Items Sold: $40
- Total Sales: $379.93
- Highest Price Sold: $110 (Vintage place mats)
- Average Price Sold: $47.49
- International Sales: 0 GSP
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 30
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Scavenger Life Episode 220: Scavengers in Paris
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In the photo above, you can can see Ryanne’s dream stay in Paris. A packaged sandwich and a Tall Boy. This is about how our brief stay in Paris went. Cheap and simple. Wish we could have stayed much longer but only stayed a night on our way to Barcelona where we now start a week of work.
We’ve been traveling all of September but eBay sales have been steady. Not tremendous, but a good solid stream of sales. We’re ready to really put in some time this fall/winter into our eBay store. Sometimes just photographing and listing is calming.
Check out our Download All project. You can now download all our episodes all at once to load onto any device you want.
This week Anna wrote a fun write-up of her experience at eBay’s 20th Anniversary. There’s also the videos of all the speakers at the event.
The Weekly Scavenger Numbers
Our Store Week September 13-19, 2015
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 3930
- Items Sold: 26
- Cost of Items Sold: $46
- Total Sales: $1,084.92
- Highest Price Sold: $135 (vintage briefcase)
- Average Price Sold: $41.69
- International Sales: 2 GSP
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $100
- Number of items listed this week: 0
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 560
- Items Sold: 6
- Cost of Items Sold: $10
- Total Sales: $158.94
- Highest Price Sold: $45 (vintage vase)
- Average Price Sold: $26.50
- International Sales: 2 GSP
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 35
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VIDEO: IJ Hallen, Europe’s Largest Flea Market, Haul 2015
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We don’t usually do haul videos, because we prefer to show you all what actually sold. But for the sake of a little fun, here is the booty found at IJ Hallen this year. We made the goal to buy smaller things that would fit in one army duffle bag to bring on the plane home (and a train from Amsterdam to Barcelona). I think we did pretty good, getting small, inexpensive items that seemed cool and would sell. Check out a similar Brutalist style menorahs that sold recently, nice price! Enjoy!
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Scavenger Life Episode 219: On The Eve of IJ Hallen- Europe’s Largest Flea Market
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We’ve had a long weekend after hanging out with our friend, Mark, at the IJ Hallen flea market. This is our third visit to Europe’s largest flea market. We found a lot of cool items and only spent about $100. Could have easily spent more but we limited ourselves to what we could fit into a single army duffle bag. We’ll be posting a rare “haul video” on Wednesday to show what we bought.
We’re still having summer sales traffic (aka slow), but this is probably because our handling time has been 10-30 days(!) since August. Instead of being bummed, we’re grateful for the continuous sales even though we’re traveling.
On this podcast we mention the following links:
- Faith (aka Flim) mentioned LoHeads or LoLifes on her interview. Watch this short video about the phenomenon of 1990s Brooklyn tough guys who love Polo clothes.
- Several listeners mentioned that eBay has a new experimental price search page. Good to see eBay opening up some of it info in more designed ways.
- eBay has a wait list to get access to the new new Seller Hub. Might as well see what it’s like. I assume it’s going to eventually replace the current Seller Dashboard. I’m hopeful it’ll give us access to more info.
- Mark sent a link to a video that shows you will soon to be able to better customize your return policies.
- Jenn sent us an interview she did discussing eBay as an alternative for people who’re getting out of jail to getting a hourly wage jobs.
The Weekly Scavenger Numbers
Our Store Week September 6-12, 2015
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 3959
- Items Sold: 17
- Cost of Items Sold: $40
- Total Sales: $850.69
- Highest Price Sold: $120 (vintage coat)
- Average Price Sold: $50
- International Sales: 2 GSP
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $10
- Number of items listed this week: 23
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 532
- Items Sold: 3
- Cost of Items Sold: $5
- Total Sales: $170.78
- Highest Price Sold: $110 (Weight straps)
- Average Price Sold: $56.66
- International Sales: 0 GSP
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 35
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Open Q&A: eBay’s New Defect Ratings & Amsterdam Photos
We’re ending Week Two of our Amsterdam vacation…and there’s still a third week to come! It usually takes us at least a week just to clear our minds to enjoy where we are. Be nice if it was a human right to three week vacations, but in the meantime we can save and scavenge to give ourselves the vacations we want.
Our store has been slow as molasses probably due to our long handling time. Any sale is a bonus to us at this point. We’re really psyched to see the active sellers report good sales.
As an eBay seller, it’s important to keep up on the new updates that eBay puts out every six months. The Corporation is always tweaking its system to the chagrin of many sellers. Changes are never fun, but I find that most updates that we’ve experienced since 2008 have made sense. Here’s the new Fall Seller Update.
Big news is a change in the defect system for the better. No more punishment if you solve the buyer’s issue without eBay getting involved. So returns are cool as long as the buyer is happy. Also no more defects for DSR’s (bye bye nebulous 3-star ratings). You simply have to ship when you say you’re going to ship, and treat customers humanely. Isn’t this what we all wanted?
There’s a new Seller Hub that I assume will replace the current Seller Manager Pro. Hopefully it just modernizes and streamlines the info we’re all using in our day to day business.
There’s a couple listeners at the eBay 20th Anniversary Celebration. Sounds like there’s good food there. Let us know if you’re there and what’s going on. Let us live vicariously through you.
Feel free to post questions of any issues you have. Some simple rules-
- We do allow anonymous commenters, but we encourage you to use your
ID so people can get to know you. Plus you won’t have to re-enter the
code for each comment. - Be civil. People have different ways of doing the same thing. If we disagree, no big deal.
- We are solution oriented. If you want to simply hate on eBay, go to the dark depths of the eBay Forums where your hate can be polished like a precious jewel.
- Please back up any issues with facts and specific links. We don’t deal in rumors.
- Comments are threaded (what?). So you can either reply to a specific comment or start an overall new topic.
Here are some things we’ve seen while in The Netherlands:
Art deco entry way tiles. |
Goats getting an electric brushing at the Amsterdam Bos farm. |
A window looking into a basement that I thought I was going to fall into. |
An old fashioned windmill in Haarlem. |
Ketchup and Mayo packets cost money everywhere but the US. It’s absolute MADNESS. |
Lots of electric cars, hurray! |
Scavenger Life Episode 218: Faith aka Flim on Scavenging in New York City
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Faith, aka Flim in the blog comments, has been steadily growing her NYC scavenging hobby into a part (and soon maybe full) time gig. We love to hear her stories of huge dollar sales on things she found just chillin’ on the shelf for $3 at her local Goodwill. The latest example she talks about in this episode is a set of 11 mid century, Lagardo Tackett stoneware fish plates which she has just started to auction. She might be the only person in the world offering these for sale at the moment. What an amazing find. She seems to stumble across these types of scores quite often in New York. It helps that she has a refined eye and impeccable sense of style. Thanks for talking to us Faith! Please take us shopping in NYC when we come back.
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Scavenger Life Episode 217: Trash Picking on the Streets of Amsterdam
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We have been settling into Amsterdam. That means taking lots of walks and looking through the trash. So far we found huge bag of newly laundered designer clothes, a house warming gift for our friend, a fancy purse/luggage piece, and then numerous items like lights and decorations that will be too big to bring home, sadly. Hopefully other scavengers have grabbed those things. Jay got a little cold, so you might hear him sniffling a bit (and Ryanne gets to write this post). Another great thing about being away from home- less distractions and time to list. Ok, you could argue that being in a beautiful, European city would provide more distractions, but being here for 3 weeks allows for time to work. We got on a listing spree (even Jay!) and will continue this coming week until we list all of our backlog.
Mark sent us this link to Paypal’s Purchase Protection info. Sounds like nothing much has changed, they’re just spelling out out again for everyone. We’ve never had a problem with these rules, so hopefully all will stay the same.
Check out Mikey and Wendy’s eBay ‘on the road’ shipping set up in their Honda Element or Hondaminium (so impressive, see the photo here) as they call it. They’ve been traveling for 6+ months on a big road trip, but they’re still selling and shipping on the road. Pretty amazing to see!
The Weekly Scavenger Numbers
Our Store Week August 30-September 5, 2015
- Store #1
- Total Items in Store: 3906
- Items Sold: 21
- Cost of Items Sold: $32
- Total Sales: $906.89
- Highest Price Sold: $250 (lot of nail polish)
- Average Price Sold: $43.14
- International Sales: 1 (1 GSP)
- Returns: 0
- Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5
- Number of items listed this week: 61
- Store #2
- Total Items in Store: 501
- Items Sold: 11
- Cost of Items Sold: $18
- Total Sales: $295.90
- Highest Price Sold: $60 (The Villager wallet)
- Average Price Sold: $26.90
- International Sales: 2 (2 GSP)
- Returns: 0
- Number of items listed this week: 63
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Scavenger Life Episode 216: Can I Make Money Selling on Etsy?
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Lately it seems there’s more and more eBay sellers in our comment section who are trying out Etsy. Who can blame them? eBay’s been slow this summer (all retail is slow in the summer), so why not try to sell on another platform.
We’ve always said that Etsy sucked and you couldn’t make a living selling there. Our experiment selling there in 2010 was a dud. But we can also be blowhards sometimes, so why listen to us?
Ryan and Maria certainly didn’t. They contacted us while we were in NYC and told us that each has a full-time Etsy store where they make their living. What???!!!! So we checked out Ryan’s store to see what they sell. 1990’s clothes all the way. Neon. Mom jeans. Overalls. Normcore. Dude.
Anyway, we had a great conversation with them about how they scavenge, photograph, list, ship, and work together while being in total love. We hope they’re in total love because we love them.
Ask any questions in the comments and Maria/Ryan will probably stop by to answer. Or share your own experiences with Etsy.
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