Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[disneysteve]

It would seem that the holiday shopping season is ramping up if my sales are any indication (and I'm seeing similar stories in the Facebook groups). Things that have been sitting for months are suddenly selling. I shipped 7 items on Monday, 1 yesterday, 2 today, and have 1 ready to go out tomorrow (so far).

This will be the first holiday season in many years that I'm actively on ebay so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. I've seen numerous comments in the groups about how the 4th quarter is always their highest grossing period of the year, which makes sense. I just need to keep listing and sourcing good stuff. I did get up to 175 items listed, which is 173 now because of a couple of sales yesterday and today. I'd like to get up to 200 by the end of October.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It would seem that the holiday shopping season is ramping up if my sales are any indication (and I'm seeing similar stories in the Facebook groups). Things that have been sitting for months are suddenly selling. I shipped 7 items on Monday, 1 yesterday, 2 today, and have 1 ready to go out tomorrow (so far).

This will be the first holiday season in many years that I'm actively on ebay so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. I've seen numerous comments in the groups about how the 4th quarter is always their highest grossing period of the year, which makes sense. I just need to keep listing and sourcing good stuff. I did get up to 175 items listed, which is 173 now because of a couple of sales yesterday and today. I'd like to get up to 200 by the end of October.

How fast do you predict/estimate selling those 200 items?

[disneysteve]

How fast do you predict/estimate selling those 200 items?

My rolling 90 days sales are at 148 items so 1.64 items per day on average. My number of listings has been steadily growing. I'm at 175 right now but 90 days ago I was probably in the 130s or 140s. I generally figure on selling 1% of inventory per day, so 1 item/day with 100 listings, 2 items/day with 200 listings, etc.

[disneysteve]

I had a really solid sourcing weekend. Yesterday I went to an estate sale and picked up two sets of Lionel trains. Paid $200 total. One set is worth $200-250. The other set is worth $500 or so. I took both engines to a hobby shop today to test them and they both run perfectly. The guy there taught me a lot about them and showed me how you can tell that these were barely used based on the almost non-existent wear of the contact points.

At the same sale, I bought 2 identical Venetian Murano glass vases and a matching bowl for $15 total. I'm researching them now. I've only found one of the vases online. It is currently listed on ebay for $120 but I have no idea if that's a realistic price or not. I've joined a couple of Murano glass groups and posted there to try and get more info. I suspect the $120 ask is high but even if their true value is more in the $50 each range and I can get $150 for the 3 pieces, that would be 10x my investment.

Also at that sale I bought one other art glass vase and 3 vintage books. Another $5 spent for those items and probably worth $40-50 all together.

I went to some yard sales today. I picked up a tub of about 100 rubber stamps for $5. I haven't fully researched them yet but I've already found a couple that sell for $5 each. I know they aren't all that valuable but even if I get $1 each that would be a 20x return.

Now I just need to list them all. That's not the fun part of this process. We're leaving on vacation on Thursday (unless Hurricane Ian changes our plans) and Rosh Hashanah starts tomorrow evening so I may not get much listed before we go away. I'm trying to at least get some of the research done.

[disneysteve]

I mostly sell vintage and collectible items, but I'll sell almost anything. I love when I find and sell an item that the vast majority of pickers and resellers overlook. At a recent estate sale, in a plain brown box on a basement shelf, I found 2 sealed bottles of jewelry cleaner. I think the brand is sold on QVC or HSN. I paid about $4 for each bottle. Today I sold one bottle for $33.50. After expenses, my profit is $27.49.

I'm happy to let everyone else go nuts over the china and crystal and well known stuff in the main room while I'm rummaging around in the basement and cabinets and garage finding hidden treasures like this.

[disneysteve]

I went to a yard sale on 8/27 and bought a tote full of Thomas the Tank trains... $40... I had 64 wooden trains which I divided into 2 lots of 32 and listed them on ebay for $65 per lot. A couple hours later, someone bought both lots, so $130. That's $90 more than I paid for all of them and I still have 56 pieces left to sell.

I just sold another lot of 31 Thomas trains for $15. These were die cast ones so not as valuable as the wooden ones. Still, that brings my total to $145 in sales off my $40 purchase and I still have probably two more lots that I can sell. I've got several wooden vehicles (helicopter, ambulance, fire truck, etc.). Those seem to sell pretty well. Then there are some plastic Thomas toys. I'll probably get another $20-30 for what's left.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

If someone were to follow DS trend they could be making some serious side hustle money from thrifting

[disneysteve]

September 2022 wrap up

24 sales
$549.74 gross
$276.76 net

September was definitely an off month for me. Partly because we were away for a few days at the beginning of the month and then again at the end of the month (just came home today). Profit margin was right around 50% which is low for me. Average sale price was $22.91, down from $24.89 in August.

For the 3rd quarter:
$2,833.46 gross
$1,915.34 net

That's not so bad overall. Our budget counts on $500/month from ebay. For the quarter, I averaged $631. YTD I'm at $753/month average. I'm hoping the 4th quarter boosts the numbers.

[disneysteve]

Yesterday I went to an estate sale and picked up two sets of Lionel trains. Paid $200 total. One set is worth $200-250. The other set is worth $500 or so.

I listed the bigger more valuable set on ebay yesterday afternoon. It sold last night for full asking price of $595.00! That makes it my second highest sale ever after the $610 bottle cap. Nice flip. $125 to $595 in just under 2 weeks. It's getting shipped out later today.

Ebay has been on fire for me this week. I've sold 11 items since October 1. Three of them sold within hours (or even minutes) of me listing them. The holiday shopping season has clearly started.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Fast sale getting it sold in the same day, good feeling, and a nice profit to boot too. Last night I sold a new shirt which I had listed for 1/2 year. I was happy to get it sold finally.

[disneysteve]

Fast sale getting it sold in the same day, good feeling, and a nice profit to boot too. Last night I sold a new shirt which I had listed for 1/2 year. I was happy to get it sold finally.

Nice. Every sale counts. Sometimes those long tail items are even more satisfying. I had one of those today too. A Goodwill item from about 6 months ago. I’m sure it helps that it is kind of a Halloween item.

[disneysteve]

Yesterday I went to an estate sale and picked up two sets of Lionel trains. Paid $200 total. One set is worth $200-250. The other set is worth $500 or so.

Looks like I may have underestimated the cheaper set. I got it all ready to list today and looked up comps more carefully. Two sets recently sold. One for $299 and one for $350. The $350 set did have an extra car (which doesn't exactly belong to the set but it matches). I listed my set for $325. Now to see what happens. I was hoping to get $225 for it so I'm happy to negotiate if someone makes an offer. If it goes for anything more than $225, I'll be very happy.

[disneysteve]

Paid $10 for a Franklin Mint Little Rascals statue at an estate sale on Friday. Listed it last night. Sold it today for $100.

I never get tired of this.

[james.hendrickson]

Paid $10 for a Franklin Mint Little Rascals statue at an estate sale on Friday. Listed it last night. Sold it today for $100.

I never get tired of this.

This should be in the wins thread. Its awesome to x10 your money, on anything. Good move Disneysteve!

[disneysteve]

This should be in the wins thread. Its awesome to x10 your money, on anything. Good move Disneysteve!

Thanks James. I decided a while back not to put my ebay scores in the Wins thread as it would just clutter it with that.

Making 10x on a resale purchase is actually pretty common for me, but it's usually $1 or $1.50 going to $10 or $15. Getting 10x on a $10 purchase doesn't happen as often.

It's also notable because a lot of resellers think Franklin Mint stuff isn't worth it or doesn't sell well. While that's true for some of their stuff, clearly there are exceptions, especially if you get the items cheap enough as I did here.

ETA: Year to date, I have spent $1,373.52 on items to resell. From those purchases, I've had sales of $9,914.24. So 7.2x my spending overall. A lot of those purchases haven't sold yet. Some haven't even been listed yet. So the end result will likely be closer to the 10x number.