So many things to do, so little time.
This week’s goals:
Thrift. Flip. Repeat.
So many things to do, so little time.
This week’s goals:
Elmer Fudd plush: $13.49 + shipping |
Smee plush: $11.99 – shipping |
Mr. Potato Head Mickey Ears: $9.49 – shipping |
Scuba Grumpy Care Bear: $39.99 – shipping |
Chester Cheetos Cheetah: $16.49 – shipping (not yet paid) |
I’ve done quite a bit of thrifting recently. Over the weekend I went to two church rummage sales, a yard sale, and I returned to the $1 clothing estate sale that has apparently been running every weekend since I went at the beginning of Feb. I also made my Monday visit to Value Village this morning. I took a bunch of pictures of items throughout the afternoon. I’ll try to share some of my finds soon . . . and heck, maybe I’ll even try to get some of them listed on eBay!
NWT Coppertone Sport: $16.99 – shipping |
NIB Lightning McQueen vtech laptop: $39.99-shipping |
Fisher Price Crib Projector: $24.99 – shipping |
Dr. Seuss book lot: $39.99 – shipping |
Starbucks Desk Mug: $29.99 – shipping |
NWT Bamm Bamm Plush: $39.99 – shipping |
Tip Plush: $27.99 – shipping |
I’d love to see sales pick up, but I don’t think that will happen until I get some fun new things listed, which won’t happen until the typing project is over. The good news is that I only have 15 more pages left to type!! The bad news is that I then have 550 to proofread. Should be completely done by the end of the week. Hooray.
Better late than never, right? My “distractions” project is keeping me REALLY busy!
This last week was decent, sales-wise. I had 15 sales (from 122), so I reached my 10% goal again. I also surpassed my $150 weekly goal. This is what I sold:
Sold 1/11/12: $13.99 – shipping |
Small Woody and Jessie talking plush dolls. I’m pretty sure I picked them up on Jan 9th – I think they cost $2.24 for three of them. There were two Woodys – I’ve got the second one listed right now.
Sold 1/14/12: $14.99 – shipping |
Sold 1/16/12: $14.99 – shipping |
Bob the Builder – Birthday Scoop. I don’t remember when or where I picked him up, but I would guess that I didn’t pay more than a quarter for it. Pulled it out of one of my son’s toy bins recently.
Sold 1/18/12: $15.99 – shipping |
EB Rabbit! He is from the movie Hop. I haven’t seen this movie yet, but I knew quickly that this guy was going to be a winner. He actually didn’t sell the first week that I had him listed, but he had enough hits and watchers that I felt confident that he would eventually sell at the price I wanted.
Sold 1/19/12: $29.99 – shipping |
I sold quite a few items at “auction” this week. The way that I (have pretty much always) run my auctions is that I start with the minimum price that I am willing to accept, and then I will include a slightly higher BIN price too if adding BIN is also free.
I came across these jungle Caltoy puppets at a consignment store a week or two ago, and fell in love with them. They are super cute and looked brand new. They were $8 total, which was kind of spendy for me, but I decided to buy them anyway. I’ve had good luck selling puppets recently so I decided I would list them, but was secretly hoping they wouldn’t sell. They’re so darn cute! Well, they sold the first week, of course.
Sold 1/16/12: $26.99 – shipping |
Sold 1/19/12: $19.99 – shipping |
Vintage Fisher Price Little People. I talked about buying these on my very first Value Village thrifting-for-eBay-excursion way back in August. They finally sold. I didn’t lose money on them, but I think I made less than $5. Oh well, live and learn. Was glad to see them go.
Sold 1/19/12: $9.99 – shipping |
Sodor Mining Company. I talked about buying a bunch of wooden Thomas accessories in my first ever blog post way back in July. I bought seven different pieces for $20 total. I had been holding on to them to give to my oldest, but when I pulled them out at Christmastime both my husband I am thought: meh. They’re nice, but really, the kid has enough train toys. To eBay they shall go!
Sold 1/19/12: $39.99 – shipping |
Winnie the Pooh silverware and chopsticks set. I am almost certain this was a hand-me-down from my brother’s family. Our oldest already has a Thomas set, so I thought we could part with Pooh.
Sold 1/19/12: $11.99 – shipping |
Star Wars lunch box. This was kind of a mistake on my part. During a pre-Christmas sale, Woot had these lunchboxes on sale for $5 each. What a deal! I thought. I bought three for just under $20 total, including shipping. This is the second one that I have sold. While I won’t lose money on them, I do think that after the initial cost, fees, and shipping costs are factored in, they fall into the ‘not really worth the time and effort spent’ category.
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Sold 1/19/12: $18.99 – shipping |
Really? Random. I originally listed it before Halloween, and have been relisting with a bunch of other items on freebie days. I actually found a cute Halloween hat with some baby clothes last week that I was planning to list with it the next time around – oh well.
Sold 1/19/12: $7.99 – shipping |
I also came across these two Disney outfits when I was going through a big batch of outgrown baby clothes. Thought they might be eBay worthy.
Sold 1/19/12: $13.99 – shipping – not yet paid for |
Infantino Hip Rider. This was something I picked up at a yard sale for $3 thinking I might use it. Quickly realized I never actually would.
Sold 1/19/12: $16.99 – shipping – not yet paid for |
Sooo, it’s only ten days into the year and I am already way behind on my monetary goal. Why, you ask? The short answer is: I have almost nothing listed! Because I’ve been relying so heavily on the free Tuesday listings. I know, I know. Time to open a store. And I’m going to. As soon as I come up with a decent name. I can’t think of anything!
Sold 1/4/12: $19.99 – shipping |
Sold 1/9/12: $24.99 + shipping |
Yup, that’s it. I have around 90 items that could easily be re-listed, and a bunch more that have yet to be listed. I feel like this last week has been completely wasted. Time to get busy. And to think of a name for a store!
4 Arthur books: $9.99 – shipping |
$6.99 – shipping |
Promotional Rudolph Book: $11.99 – shipping |
T-Rex Little People set: $24.99 – shipping |
Musical Wonders Soothe and Glow: $13.99 – shipping |
2 Hardy Boys books: $5.99 – shipping |
Talking Shrek plush: $21.99 – shipping |
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$8.99 – shipping |
I also listed my first Care Bear a couple days ago, and it sold today. I kind of felt like selling my first Care Bear was an eBay rite of passage. And ya gotta love a quick sale!
Little People Christmas Train: $17.99 – shipping |
I can feel my motivation building back up, which is good. I’ve been thinking a lot about my goals for the next year, including what I want to do with this eBay thing. Will share soon.
Blues Clues Talking Dog $22.99 – shipping |
Baby Einstein Puppet Lot $29.99 – shipping |
Disney Princess Book Lot (of 5) $11.99 – shipping |
Rudolph Promotional Book $11.99 – shipping (not yet paid for) |
Little People Dog & House $11.99 – shipping |
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Notations 3X black skirt $19.99 – shipping |
Puss in Boots $24.99 – shipping |
Just Married Photo Album $15.99 – shipping |
I just listed this a few days ago and it sold this afternoon. It’s a mix of Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Betty MacDonald books.
Chapter Books (lot of 9) $20.99 – shipping |
Richard Scarry Brio Grocery Store $35.99 – shipping |
Little People Twin Flat Sheet $29.99 + shipping (going to Japan) |
Greendog girls’ skirt $9.99 – shipping |
Another week gone. This week of selling was cut short a little bit because all of my auctions ran for 5 days instead of 7. My original goal at the beginning of the week was to sell 5 of my 76 listings. Towards the end of the week I decided that my ongoing goal for sales will be 10% of my listings in any given week. I have no idea if this is high or low in comparison with what anyone else tries to sell, but for me I think it is a fairly obtainable goal. For this week 10% would have been 7 or 8 sales. I ended the week with 11, so I was happy with that. Of those 11, 7 were repeat listings, 4 were new listings. I also listed a BIN item on Sunday that sold on Monday that I shipped out with the rest of last week’s sales.
So are Sundays really the best day to list and have your auctions end? Well, I can’t say for sure, but at the start of Sunday I only had bids on 4 of my items, and by the evening it seemed like every time I checked another item had a bid on it. Several items had multiple bids. Maybe because it was a Sunday, maybe because of the upcoming holidays, maybe a combination. Regardless, I’m not complaining.
This week I sold a couple plush, a couple kids books, a Jansport bag, two pairs of infant shoes (to the same person), a girls holiday dress, a Thomas toy, and a couple other items. Around $130 in all. Again, my per-item sales price was not very high. But it’s better than nothing, for now.
Monday was kind of a hectic day for me since 8 of my sales had been paid for, and I was trying to get them all out that day. But it was also a one-cent listing day, so I was trying to get new listings up too. It was not fun to have them land on the same day. I’ve discovered that the shipping process is my absolute least favorite part of the whole eBay experience. I’m starting to dread it. It takes forever, and it has become kind of a grind for me. But, it’s all part of the eBay package (haha) so I’ll stop my complaining and move on.
I still have 2 sales from last week that have not yet been paid for, and one person who paid with an echeck, which is a new one on me. I e-mailed her to let her know that I had received her payment but that I was following the suggestion in the e-mail I received in waiting to ship her package until her check has cleared. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long.
As I mentioned before, I did spend a chunk of time listing on Monday. Between Sunday and Monday I got 18 new listings up, and relisted 65 items, for a total of 83 listings. I’ve sold one BIN item so far, so in keeping with my (around) 10% goal I will hope to sell 8 more items this week. We’ll see how it goes . . .
Well, if eBay continues its free listing days on (most) Tuesdays, it seems that Tuesdays will become my listing days, and Wednesday will be my shipping days. Yesterday eBay offered 5000 (!) free listings. I got 76 items listed. Only 8 or 9 of them were new (I had hoped to get up 20 new listings but missed that goal by over half), the rest are repeats. If I get 5 sales this week I think I’ll consider it a success. I don’t have many exciting or (potentially) profitable listings right now.
The twist for this week is that the free listings were only for 1, 3, or 5 day auctions. I’ve only done 7 day auctions before. But, I actually like the idea of the 5 day auction because when you list on Tuesday the auction will end on Sunday. I’ve heard (although I can’t say for sure) that Sunday is the best day to have your auctions end because that’s the day that the most people are shopping.
I had 13 sales for a total of around $190 over the last week. As you can tell, my per-item-sales-price isn’t that high. I need to figure out how to raise it. (Work smarter, not harder, right?) Ten of the 13 were new listings, only 3 were repeats. Once again my highest ticket item (around $30 + shipping) was purchased by someone international (this time Japan) and once again they did NOT contact me beforehand. I would be happy to sell and send my items to them, but it annoys me that they don’t contact me first when I very clearly state that they need to. After I finish up this post I am going to do some research on USPS and figure out how much it will cost to get the item to them (a vintage flat sheet – my first time dabbling in this area).
Eleven of the 13 sales have been paid for thus far, and I got them all in the mail today. Yay me.
I’ve done no thrifting this week (I usually hit at least Value Village every Monday morning, but this week I was partying it up at Chuck E. Cheese for my son’s 4th birthday instead). And I haven’t had the itch or motivation to go elsewhere. And, I will do no eBay listing tomorrow because I don’t want my listings to end on Thanksgiving. It will be nice to take a mental eBay break, even if it only lasts for a day.
So, until Friday, then.