Items Sold on eBay Update!

Greetings!

Sold a few items over the past week/weekend:

Vintage Brunswick Bowling Ball Case

Paid: $4

Listed at $69.99 or Best Offer

Accepted Best Offer of $59.99 + Shipping!

Vintage Smith Corona Typewriter (with case)

Paid: $3

Listed at $69.99 or Best Offer

Accepted Best Offer of $35 + Shipping!

Antique/Vintage Jewish Menorah

Paid $2

Listed at $39.99 or Best Offer

Sold for $39.99 + Shipping!

Guess Brand Suede Women's Jacket (Faux Fur)

Paid $2

Listed at $59.99 or Best Offer

Accepted Best Offer of $35 + Shipping!

Lot of 3 Star Wars Figures

Paid .50 cents

Listed at $19.99

Sold for $19.99 + Shipping!

Vintage Scarf

Paid .50 cents

Listed at $19.99 or Best Offer

Accepted Best Offer of $15 + Shipping!

Vintage Nash Cruiser Roller Skates (with box)

Paid $4

Listed at $49.99 or Best Offer

Sold for $49.99 + Shipping!

1980s/1990s Letterman Jacket

Paid $3

Listed at $79.99 or Best Offer

Accepted Best Offer of $44.99 + Shipping!

Vintage Beige Izod Cardigan Sweater

Paid .50 Cents

Listed at $24.99

Sold for $24.99 + Shipping!

Total Spent: $19.50
Sold For: $309.94
Profit Of: $290.44 (this doesn't include eBay and PayPal fees)

Happy Hunting!

The eBay Freshman

Things I Don't Leave Home Without

Greetings!

Just thought I would give you a little insight onto a few things I like to gather before getting ready to head out on a long Saturday afternoon excursion of treasure hunting.

Prior to heading out I like to prepare. I go to my local newspaper website and find the garage sale listings for the upcoming weekend (Thursday - Sunday). This is usually listed under classifieds. If you can find this - it is extremely valuable! I then copy and paste the text of all of the listings into a text document.  I proceed to take the time to organize the sales in a way that makes sense to me. For me I separate them into Thursday Sales, Friday Sales and Saturday Sales.

Then I take my long listing of Thursday Sales (for example) and I order them in order from the furthest North sale to the furthest South Sale ... and then the same with ones that are on the East side of town and the West side of town.  Adjust this method for your area  ... if you have suburbs, organize them by those in the same way.  I then edit the listings so that the address is complete (fill in the street names if they are abbreviated and add the city and state). The reason I do this is to come ...

The next step is to email myself the text by copying it and pasting it into an email to myself. Then I send it to myself. When I receive the email ... all of the addresses have been turned into hyper links ... and you guessed it - now I can simply select the address hyper link and my gps will take me directly to the sales. I start furthest North and work my way down. GPS usually will get me right to where I need in a timely fashion.  Feel free to stop at any other sales that weren't listed on the way!

That's how I do my big 6 hour Saturday excursions to keep them in a timely manner. That's also how I choose where to go on my lunch breaks and after work on Thursdays and Fridays ... find an area of town that has a few sales that are open during those times and sneak them into my plans for the day. Grab a few items and move on ... but Saturday is almost always my big day. If I could do Friday mornings that would be much better - but my day job prevents that from being a possibility. Once I have a bit more PTO built up I plan on taking off 1 Friday a month to really hit the sales early and hard.

The next thing I don't leave home without (obviously) is my iPhone. I use this for GPS and for tracking mileage. It's not a bad idea to have a car phone charger for your smart phone - GPS really sucks up the battery power. You also want to have your smart phone with eBay app open and ready for when you hit the sale. I try to look up items while at the sale ... especially if they seem valuable or priced higher than I want to risk. I don't just look up the listings on eBay ... I do an advanced search and search for Sold items only. That way you aren't getting a false idea of what stuff might sell for ... you are seeing what it actually sells for. I then like to take a photo of my newly purchased items, or jot down in a note the item and how much I paid for it so i can reference back after an item sells and feel super happy and cocky about how great I am for picking up that item. ;)

The next thing I don't leave home without is my coffee. I'm a Folgers man myself and I like to brew a nice big pot before I go out. I fill up my thermos and that way I'm good to go all morning. I like to do that rather than start my day off with spending $4 on a coffee at a local store. Think of all of the treasure I can buy and resell with that $4!

Another must have for me ... and others might not see the need for this ... is a little travel size thing of germ x or an equivalent. When you are handling all of these used items that 20 other people have also handled that day ... and probably even more in the items history ... you might want to be aware of germs.  I like to frequently cleanse my hands ... just makes me feel better ... and probably keeps me healthier which means I can adventure out more frequently and steadily. Getting sick can really cost you!

The next thing is also pretty obvious but it's part of my routine. Music.  You have to enjoy being out all day and one thing that keeps it interesting for me is jamming out. Find a great radio show or podcast ... maybe treat yourself to some new music for your 'business outings'. The last thing you want is to be bored out of your mind while you are driving around all day ... the right music might be just what you need to keep you going, especially if you are a solo shopper like myself. The Princess Bride Soundtrack that I picked up on Cassette last week has really been getting me through the trips as of late ... what a great movie and soundtrack!

Probably the most obvious thing you don't want to leave home without is money. I like to go to the bank when I can and take out $50 - $200 depending on how big of an adventure I'm planning. I like to get plenty of ones, fives and tens and a few twenties. Sometimes Grandma Francine might not have enough nickels to give you your change for a $20....or she might have enough nickels and you won't be able to keep your pants up with $19.50 all in nickels in your pocket. ;)

I'm sure there are plenty of things I'm forgetting on this list. But it's a start. Is there anything special you like to make sure you have with you when you go out?  Any secrets to share about how to prepare for inventory shopping excursions? Do tell.

Happy Hunting!

The eBay Freshman

It's Not All Rainbows and Butterflies

Greetings!

Just thought I would give a little update on how our store is doing. 

We technically started our store in June 2013 but it definitely wasn't a full month of sales. By the end of June we had spent more than we made on inventory and shipping supplies. Just started hammering out the beginning foundation of our store.  We had a loss that month of around $17 even though we sold $267 worth of items. We had 33 items in our store by the end of June.

In July we had tons of problems with our house (and health) and didn't get much done at all. Again we took a loss by the end of the month but our inventory had grown. We ended up with a loss of around $52 even though we sold $222 worth of inventory. We had 71 items in our store by the end of July.

August was our first full month of working on the store and making decent sales. We walked away with a profit of $318.60. That's after spending $200 on inventory and $129 on eBay fees, and buying a Brother Printer for the store for $129.47. So it was a great month! Sold 19 items for $760. By the end of August we had 174 items listed in our store.

Which brings us to September. We had a great first half of the month, sort of mirroring August. The second half of the month has been surprisingly slow. We've also spent twice as much on inventory this month to try to bulk up for the winter. We have taken out $400 total in September for buying inventory. Our eBay fees this month will be around $190. So far we've sold around $413 worth of items which barely covers our inventory spending money for the month. We still have 10 days to have a blitz of sales but we haven't made a sale since last weekend. Currently we have 265 items in our store.

So it seems like we're climbing up month to month and making more and building our inventory more. So that is good, but I've also started to feel a little bit of doubt about some of the inventory I've been buying. Why is this item and this other item still in my store since June? I think it's cool, but no one else is looking for it I guess? It's times like these that I have to remain patient and just keep on listing. When in doubt - list more stuff! Our goal is to hit 500 items in our store by XMAS this year. We will see if we can do it!

In closing - sometimes it isn't easy selling on eBay. It comes in waves of awesome sales and then nothing. I think the important thing is to just keep going and have a little faith in yourself. Try not to get discouraged if you have an awful week of sales. Just get back out there and find more cool stuff to list!

I wish you good luck out there friends and hope you wish the same for us!

Happy Hunting!

The eBay Freshman

Weekend Garage Sale Finds 9/13 and 9/14 2013!

Greetings!

I took Friday off last week for my birthday (which was on Saturday) and Devoted a 9 hour day to shopping on Friday and a few more hours on Saturday morning. Here is the majority of what I came up with:

Vintage Plastic Owls - $1.

 Scissors to use in store - .25 cents.

 Shelf for store. $2.

 2 1980s boy scout shirts with many patches/pins. Paid $2 for the pair.

 Boy scout handkerchief pin. .50 cents.

 Old Monco Gasoline Can - $1.

 Old Eagle Gas Can. $2

 Large oval shaped Antique picture frame with White House. They were asking $15 but I got them down to $5. The frame alone should bring good money. We'll see.

 Vintage M. Liman Penguin Peacoat. $2.

 3 Old Avon Classic Car Cologne bottles. I normally stay away from these but they had the boxes and were in nice shape- paid $3 for the 3 of them.

 Random bag of goodies ... tape measurer, old lighters, stapler, random stuff. Haven't even looked in there yet but paid $1. The lighter might be worth something and I can always use tape measurers.

 Corner shelf for store. $1.

 Old cast iron canle holder and brass flower pot / serving pitcher. Paid $4.

 Vintage Fox Hunting Scene throw pillows. Paid $2 for the pair.

 Tape gun - .50 cents - always need these.

 Large bag of hand carved napkin holders and toothpicks. African animal themed. Very unique - Paid $3. We'll see how this goes.

 Vintage 'Aztec' looking throw rug. Paid $1.

 Adjustable wooden Elephant bookends. $1.

 Vintage Custom Design sweater with original tags. Awesome colors and animal themed. Someone will love this! Paid $1.

 Vintage Avalanche Wind Breaker. Paid $1.

 Pair of Vintage Holland Mold wall decor items. Paid $2 for the pair. Hunting/Rustic stuff seems to do ok. We'll see.

 Paid $1 for this coat. Little beat up inside but the outside looks great! Didn't take a photo of the tag so I can't remember the brand. It's not real fur, but still a cool looking vintage coat.

 Cassette Tapes - 10 cents each. For my personal listening enjoyment. My Jeep has a tape deck still so I like to treat myself to tapes once in awhile on my adventures. You gotta live a little right? Princess Bride sountrack is awesome as hell too. :)

 1969 Midwest Shrine Convention item. Not even sure what this is .. but it's old and it's Shriner / Masonic related so of course I will pay .50 cents for it.

 Vintage Anheuser Busch mugs. Paid $2 for the pair.

 Old Minstrel Art on Canvas. Framed. Nice shape! I actually just found a print of this guy and posted it last week ... this one is nice and framed and on canvas. Might put this up in the house since it's so nice. Paid $3.

 Vintage Uvex Ski Goggles. Paid $2.

 1969 Halloween Plastic Lantern. No light/chord included. Paid .25 cents.

 Old Metal "Zero" Vintage fan. These seem to do well. Paid $10 for it.

 Vintage General Electric Plastic Clock. Not in the best shape. Paid $2.

 Jafrum Leather Motorcycle Chaps (womens). Paid $2.

 3 1990s star wars figures. Paid $1.50.

 This will not be fun to pack, but for $5 I scooped it up. Vintage looking Bull Horn mount.

 Vintage looking Kodiak Racing Trucker Hat. .50 cents.

 Fox themed plate - .50 cents.

Not sure about this. Might just be a hokey tourist souvenir. Says Jerusalem and Holy City on it. Brass Candle Holder / Menorah. Paid $2.

 Medical Back Brace / Girdle. Paid $1. I think this hits two different categories, fashion and old medical. Sometimes you have to view things in a different light to see their value.

 Antique Music box. Paid $2.

 Old Hallmark Paper Halloween decorations. Paid $1.

 Soldier Panorama. Handmade during Vietnam Era. Showcasing the different soldiers throughout American History. Supposedly this was used by the recruiting office during the Vietnam era. Paid $2.

 Vintage Smyth & Townley Dart Board. With that awesome clipper ship painted on it you know I can't pass that up! Paid $3.

 Vintage Retro Brass Clock. $3.

 Brass Bell mounted on wood. $2.

 4 1985 Norman Rockwell Nautical themed cups. Paid $2

 Vintage Polaris Snowmobile Sweater. $2.

 Dr. Marten Boots. $9

 Bizarre Antique / Vintage Lion Doll. Caught my eye because of the weird plastic head. By Wayne M Kleski. Some of these go for big bucks. Will have to do some research. Paid $3.

Total Paid for items for store: $92.50
Estimated resell value: $800 - $1,000

Happy Hunting!

The eBay Freshman