[Music]
thank you
good evening good evening hopefully
everybody is okay it looks like we're
good to go on my end here
as always I literally just got into the
studio maybe 10 or so minutes ago
lots of news today
um if somebody can tell me in the feed
what today's topic is what would matter
above everything else I'll send you
something I'll tell you how to send it
to me in the whole works first person
who can tell me what the topic is what
I'm talking about before I talk about it
get something sent in the mail if you so
wish uh just FYI we're going to get into
literally what the title's talking about
it's the only thing that really matters
at the end of the day
um
I don't know if anybody's gonna get it
who's in no no reputation's great
um but none of that matters nothing
matters except for the the one thing
that the topics on we'll talk about a
few other things and I'm going to come
back into there nope not consistency
either
um let's talk about eBay for just a few
minutes here because there's some new
things they've got a new uh
international shipping option coming out
I just got an article on it at
e-commerce bytes if you get a chance to
hop over there
um it pops up in my feed so I usually
read read whatever she's got up there
but
they are replacing the global Shipping
program
um one of the questions on aina's post
was well what's the insurance going to
be on there can you get extra insurance
and on and on and on and on
eBay covers on the international up to a
hundred dollar was it yeah up to 100 I
think is what it is same with global
Shipping so if it costs more than that
you're out and the only in shipping
Insurance you can get on the new one
will be shipping insurance from here to
or wherever you're at to eBay shipping
facility here in this country after that
eBay is supposed to cover it but I don't
know if they're going to cover the whole
item or what we'll have to see
the only thing I would say about a new
shipping option that eBay is throwing
out there is that
they're too late
the the vat all the extra fees are going
to crush a large chunk of the
international shipping options the best
part about what they're doing and really
the only real super good part again it's
not eBay's faults in that aspect it's
their fault they're late with it but is
that um at least everybody will know
from the minute
that they see you're listing the exact
total cost shipping vat and everything
that's what's supposed to be all worked
into there now I haven't heard yet
either on combined shipping which is
always an issue with any of eBay's
international shipping options I've
never been able to get it to work it's
never worked like they said it was on a
couple of occasions and then I've seen
posts where they say it wasn't supposed
to work where you can combine multiples
on the shipping so if you can combine I
might be a little happier with it but if
you can't it's just replacing the old
one with something that will just
basically
um charge you uh loss you'll lose if it
gets lost a certain amount I don't know
how good it is it's the same people
doing the new Option Pitney bows is did
GS or the global Shipping program so
it's the same basic everything
uh there's just no explanation on the
details other than the page there is a
landing page too if you didn't know
um what else there was something else I
know I wanted to bring up today
oh shoot I wished I had my notes Here I
wrote them down somewhere other I don't
have them down here let's go back to the
to the hang on let's go back and see if
anybody answered the question here yeah
because I promise I'll send you out
something in just a minute here let's
see if anybody
identifying fakes no payment notes
standing by your product no making money
Kim Kimberly's addicts close
um I'll hit the questions I hear in just
a minute here
will you pay for the item hello good
evening cost basis cost of goods good
evening
if I'm not making a profit on something
nothing else matters if I'm not going to
make money a profit on individual items
one person got kind of close to it but
profit-wise is what matters if if you're
not looking at your items I want to talk
about this specifically because I look a
lot I look at a lot of stores I do some
private things occasionally and help
some people and I help set up some
professional business accounts here and
there for Sellers and things like that
for bigger companies occasionally and
the biggest problem that most people
have which those big companies don't
have is that they know the profit
margins for every single item they have
they can instantly tell the profit
margins and after looking at hundreds of
of reseller stores their eBay store I
mean you know like really looking at
them I'm surprised that the vast
majority of people who sell on eBay
couldn't tell me what their biggest
profit margin area is
they don't know they haven't a clue and
people will go along and list and say
well I'm making money off of them making
money off this I'm making money off of
that you know that's great that you're
making money but
you want to get
the the highest profit margin items up
and deal with those specifically many
times I look at stores in probably a
large chunk of time that I look at so
there's no disrespecting but I did the
exact same things when I first started
so this isn't a disc this is just you
you're you're it's the learning curve I
guess of learning to resell a lot of
items people sell aren't worth your time
and your investment to list them
and and that's the end result is is your
profit margins aren't there to
facilitate people selling a 10 20 30
percent of the inventory they've put up
and continue to still list because by
the time you think in in sourcing time
photoing or scanning and listing and
shipping and Storage
for the dollar you're getting or two
dollars you're getting off of an item
you'd have done far better to list a few
less items but for higher prices and you
would have come out better at the end of
the day you would have had a higher
profit margin for the items that you
sell the average per item sale price
average that will give you a little
window here I'm not going to give you a
set number because it varies by seller
but 25 to say 75 bucks is the average
price of the majority of what people
that I personally know so low end
depends on what they are usually the 25
or so is clothing sellers I'm just being
honest I I know that's not everybody
it's just the few that I know 25 bucks
is usually their their
profit per item sale price you know in
into that figures up to 75 bucks for
other people that sell other items ours
is 47.50 or some screw screw number like
that I've got it written down doesn't
matter it's not the point but we've
figured out if you spend a little time
looking at the items that you sell
category by category and figure out your
time invested into them as well as how
much profit margin you will make off
those items you can ditch some of the
items you're selling because they are
costing you money now how is it going to
cost you money if you're still getting a
dollar or two if you're only getting a
dollar two and you're selling a very
minuscule amount and you're only listing
say a hundred dollars worth of
merchandise an hour because you're
listing these cheaper items you could
have listed less items half as many a
quarter as many just a little dollar
value higher and you'll get more back
out of your your efforts your work your
time energy and everything if it's not
worth listing individually you throw it
in a lot and just blow it out that way
you'll come out most all of the time far
better now I do list a lot of individual
items but you're not seeing
the for every thousand items I probably
list on eBay I've got 10 000 other items
that'll probably be at some point thrown
into Lots I don't do Lots now at this
point because I don't need to I'm going
by again my profit margins so I list all
the individual items that will get me a
set amount and usually these days it's
15 to 20 bucks nowadays if it's not
going to sell for for that much I
usually don't list it anymore if it
takes more than five photos I don't list
it anymore I'm not saying I won't list
it I'm just at this point we've got so
many individual listing items that I
could list that carry a decent value
those are what we go for I've eliminated
anything that's Hit or Miss we've
eliminated things that take too long to
get up again anything over five photos
we've eliminated the Lots because of
that and it's it's a temporary we may go
back to it but at this point with the
amount of merchandise that's coming in
I've got quantity I've got bulk
purchases almost every single the one we
buy is a bulk purchase these days it's a
quick easy purchase boom we got it we're
done let's go and I can list stuff
immediately if I want but
my point is I've got huge quantity of
decent stuff and those will get me a far
better value than me listing the lots
and all that sort of thing because of my
time we try to do 450 to 500 we're
trying to push it in a merchandise
listed per hour per person listing it so
whoever's listing it we try to get 450
bucks to 500 up now we're trying to
increase that number too again the the
profit margin the the bottom end is what
matters your bottom line did you make
enough money to make it worth your while
to sell this item versus that item and I
I talk if you've done this a while if
you've been into the industry I've
worked in retail I worked in restaurants
it's regional so I I've seen it in big
numbers I've seen seen the the the
results of internal tests like one store
sells one item or four stars usually to
20 stores and then hundreds other will
sell just the normal so they run stuff
in test markets every company does this
and you'll see results is this item
worth continuing to sell by the time we
add Logistics and stocking something on
a shelf in retail establishment wise
they'll pull items that aren't worth it
one little foot in in a retail
establishments could be worth a hundred
thousand dollars to the company that's
you know putting the product on a
certain shelf if they sell enough of it
it's got to be the right product it has
to have a good profit margin not just
for the like let's say Pepsi issues a
new product they've got a new uh flavor
and they have a bunch up now
and they want space for it if that
product's not going to sell it's not
worth their time it's surely not going
to be worth the the grocery store or
convenience stores time either to hold a
product on there when it's not selling
when they could put something else in
that spot that will sell and that same
philosophy works for for resellers if
you're making two dollars and something
that takes you longer to list than
something that you can make 15 on why
are you listing the two dollar item I
guess that's the point the the the
profit margin you get is is the biggest
thing if you're not making money on
something it doesn't matter if you can
ship them out quick it doesn't matter if
if you can get inventory if you're not
going to make any money off of it it
doesn't matter your reputation means
nothing if you're not making money you
could sell a thousand items a week and
still only make 500 bucks 200 bucks 50
bucks off of that amount of items
it's not volume necessarily it's it's
the the profit margin how much profit
are you making and the biggest thing
that everybody seems to miss as well
again I listed stuff that just weren't
listed weren't worth listening but your
time is so much more important than most
people give a credit for they don't even
think about it most people don't even
think about how much time I have into
something
again look at your your categories on
eBay get the breakdown off of eBay
there's two or three different ways you
can look at your information you can
crack it down by your store categories
if you wish which I do because I've got
them set up the way I want them you can
also use eBay categories which I do
sometimes as well and you can see which
items sell more of versus which items
sell for a higher profit you can figure
out how much profit you're making per
item per category what should I sell on
eBay I haven't asked that question 100
times a week probably what makes you the
most money
it's all that matters it's it's it's
literally what matters I I've got a
hundred different projects I'd love to
be working on all the time I've got an
animation short that we've been working
and we've got thousands of dollars
wrapped up into it I've got weeble's
videos that I've recorded and haven't
had a chance to do this I've got toys
and stuff that we've been working on and
I I just again my my time my energy our
business efforts go to what's making us
the most money now I don't like to
um gamble with hey maybe in the future
this is going to make something or maybe
this will get us somewhere maybe this
maybe that I don't like to do that I
like to have a clear concise Pathway to
go and I do that by comparing numbers
comparing profit margins comparing time
to list something
you know if you can list a bunch 50 of
something in an hour and you're going to
get at least 15 bucks for it and they're
a routine seller for you every day you
sell something of it the profit margins
you know a thousand percent versus
something that you can list three or
four an hour you may be lucky if you
sell one of those items the first day if
you're lucky and on and on and on and on
so again these are all factors everybody
should be paying attention to
it comes down to the bottom line if if
you're not making money this this
industry isn't going to give you any
bonus you're not going to get anything
out of this you're just going to be
sinking a lot of time and effort into it
and spinning your wheels and getting
nothing back out of it
nothing matters if you're not making a
profit off of it nothing nothing matters
if you're not making a profit off of it
and that's the end of it there's nothing
else matters doesn't matter how many
boxes how much inventory I have the
reputation even you know money in the
bank if you're not making money off of
this your business isn't going to to go
anywhere so again that's that's my take
on it you have to have the margins there
for whatever you sell
when I worked for restaurants for an
example we had a break-even point
so if a restaurant I'll get an Einstein
Brothers I ran Einstein Brothers for
years they're we had 31 stars under my
region I was a regional manager and
when you um didn't get a certain number
the store wasn't making money they were
costing the company money most of the
stores that run like an um Einstein
Brothers and this was years ago so I'm
sure it's not the same it was about
eight thousand dollars for my region on
average some of them the overhead was
more because of the location costs more
for the the per square foot not and on
so that's an average so if a store
didn't make at least eight thousand
dollars
in a week the store was losing was
costing the company money and that's the
same thing there's items that I look at
routinely in people's stores that are
probably that probably costs them money
not cost the money just to get the item
but cost them more money than they will
get out of it because of their time
because of the effort they put into it
you know once it's up just leave it but
you know there's a lot of things you
shouldn't list some items you should
maybe combine them and you know make a a
lot that way if you don't have a lot of
inventory go after those five plus photo
items go after the Lots go after all
that stuff
because it'll be worth your time if you
don't have enough inventory and on and
on and on so it really it depends too
obviously you know where you're at in
your your spot in your business it's
still though not practical to list two
dollar items no matter how many you can
get up no matter how routinely they sell
when you figure out your dollar per hour
doing that if you can get 20 up you got
40 bucks for an hour's worth of your
time that's before taxes
that's not worth your time I I 40 bucks
would be a joke for for you know a
bigger store and I'm not that no offense
that's not meant as a fence but you've
got to think like you're you're you're
at the big table right from the start
and think about what's so important to
you how are you going to feed the kids
how are you going to put a roof over
here how are you going to pay your car
insurance or whatever the case may be
you've got to get your margins up your
profit margins are what matters
I I can't speak that enough of how
important truly important and how much
that should be the one thing that's the
biggest thing in your business
especially if you're not doing well
especially if you're floundering
especially if you're not sure you know
what to do or where you're going with
your store you can't get the numbers up
you're still struggling you haven't made
a dent in it you're trying to put in
hours I talk to people you know quite
often that are going to have to go and
go back to a regular employment and
things like that they can't make it work
right off the bat from from day one you
should be looking at profit margins
I I I can't stress it I looked at two
people's stores just real quickly today
and in the same basic principle is there
that the their items are too cheap they
were piddling around with with cheaper
stuff again no offense on mechanicality
names or anything else I told him I'd
probably bring them up too but
that's a huge deciding factor on
everything I do these days I'd love to
do projects I'd love to go out and go
sourcing and go to more thrift stores
and hit some some estate sales it's been
a year or two since I've been to an
estate sale I was I was going to try
meet up with Paperboy uh million dollar
Peddlers and even another a patreon I
want to call it names because I didn't
say I would but
um at a flea market in Springfield I
didn't get to go we had too much going
on
um Halloween's right up around the
corner and I've been selling I do models
and toys and I've been swamped with
orders for those which I never get all
at once like I did and I had to do
produce a whole bunch I got a couple
more since the last call out on those
and
again thing things happen and that's
where my my time went because those are
good money it's 200 a pop profit you
know for nothing else other than
advertising you know free advertising on
a toy site I sold some on some toy sites
and things like that too just I've got
action figures we've designed and I've
got weevils so we've got production I've
even even have my my um injection mold
done ready the solid metal one and I
still haven't had a chance to get into
those but let's pop up here and see
again I know I ramble a lot but
uh let's see a craft-ematic stuff I
found today where are we at
found a small authentic glass Fishing
Float with most of its netting still
intact I I actually have always liked
the uh glass floats
I think that video was two days ago
yesterday I was up to here doing making
uh casting molds and stuff and uh
figures and
so we've been selling a bunch of other
items I do more than just eBay we do toy
lines and I've got some other things I
write for Ryan and a couple there I
ghost right for somebody else and anyway
things things get really busy but I do
love glass floats we've got quite a big
collection only from sourcing it wasn't
intentional
you know for what I paid for We just
hung on them every time I find some I
just hang on to them
tone Morris uh well thank you very
kindly
1970s pins yeah I picked up a few I say
a few I picked up about 60 rocket uh
like rock concert pins Rolling Stones
there's a zeppelin in there AC DC
um there's a swan saw there's a couple
swan song logos pins in there so all
Originals I love that sort of stuff pins
are great some rock concert rock you
know rock group pins can sell for a
couple hundred bucks a piece up to four
or five hundred I've seen some just a
little tiny enamel ones I love pins pins
we've done uh G since probably 20 years
I've been doing pins
well thank you very kindly tone Morris
and craft-o-matic and took antiquarian
Bookman how are you doing
I just picked up some leaves from uh
1577 and I also picked up some from 1570
or 1597 I think is the other one I hate
getting off the camera but I've got some
sitting up there they're 400 and what
would that be 45 years old some pieces
of paper and it basically leaves out of
um some Bibles early Bibles I've talked
about it before I do fairly good with
those sorts of things
um I used to buy them all the time I
just haven't had a chance to fool around
with them but an opportunity was out
there so I took advantage of it uh
disgruntled octopus how are you doing
good evening good evening our shower
curtain is a giant octopus actually and
it's been that way for a while in fact
we bought it off of Amazon it's one of
those designer like a gray and blue it's
it's like a art deco pattern love
animals I love octopus too but
uh May hey how are you doing another
Hawaiian we've got several folks from
Hawaii in-house good to see you all Mr
Hale how are you doing Mr Hale I will
have a patreon video out tomorrow with
everything going on with
um
I've got it all done I just haven't had
a chance to even look at it I finished
all the responses I think was yesterday
um so there's probably some new emails
since then but I'll get to all those
tomorrow I wanted to get all my stuff
out before today and have all the models
done painted mounted boxes open and all
that kind of stuff we kind of did an
assembly line and
poured the molds full you can see I've
got a video on doing the clowns I've
sold quite a few clowns I've had to do
quite a few sets of three at a time I
usually do them these days three at a
time I used to do them one-offs but now
I can't I sell enough of them now
surprisingly we've made thousands off of
that sort of thing too so I'm I'm not
complaining I I've sold quite a few just
in one week which is something I usually
don't do it's usually maybe one a week
if I'm lucky but um
no that's another one of those passive
income things that we do
um as well as some of the books for
those in patreon you know what I'm
talking about I'm not going to holler
out here but
the it's this the one little thing you
do here that's passive and come like the
toys or models or I do dioramas I do
some book related stuff too where I'm
really not doing anything all that stuff
adds up each item may only get you 100
bucks profit but when you add up six
eight things you know that's six eight
hundred dollars possibly an extra a week
when you're doing it like that so every
little bit helps and I know people say
oh it's only a few bucks I'm not going
to mess with it well it's easy money I
would recommend doing it again profit
margins you know
I don't like to get the last minute
calls on you know hey can you make so
many of these by such and such a
deadline I'll remember next year for
Halloween to see how it goes make some
some more I do I do one of
um one of the killer clowns from outer
space and I've done that for she's like
I think I made the mold like three or
four years ago and I've luckily been
able to the Mode's still good you know
I've been very careful and I've been
making it I'll probably wear that mold
out I've made so many I actually saved
the very first time I ever cast that
came out mint just for uh so I can mold
another copy of it if I need to make
another you know mold of it anyway I
know I'm rambling but I love that sort
of thing
um
hey I might have missed your thoughts
and feedback about whatnot you know I
haven't done another whatnot and
honestly I've had a lot of people asking
that I've done four whatnots on average
per what not
um maybe making
70 bucks an hour or so and it's just not
worth 70 bucks an hour for me to
continue to do that for the what would I
almost have
like 10 hours into maybe more than that
probably more like 12 hours I think is
what I wrote it all down but so probably
about 12 hours I think if I'm thinking
right about 70 bucks an hour is about
average
it just wasn't worth it for me you know
honestly we made you know some money why
nowhere near what I would have liked I
had to pay an employee and you know I
had on the last two I've got a 50 rate
of people not paying so half the time
there's somebody who doesn't pay and I
know people said well you can tell you
can tell well you can't tell until the
very last minute when the show ends what
what not told me is you have to wait to
the end of the show to do anything about
it and the only thing you can do is just
resell it and if I'm gonna have to spend
20 minutes of a show on whatnot showing
an item and then having to reshow it
again though that 70 bucks isn't going
to be 70 bucks it's going to be like 60
bucks and again I could make 60 bucks
doing almost anything else besides what
not so I'm not I'm not gonna probably do
another what not it's just not worth the
time or effort I don't think maybe for
some random bulk items and stuff like
that but I I haven't I haven't done one
what a month or two maybe three months I
don't know I did four of them as I said
and I gave it a shot I looked at the
numbers
you know they were doing a record one
this weekend I think or something or
last weekend I think it is this weekend
and with the shipping costs again it's
not worth it because there they promised
hey it's a dollar extra and all this for
the second item and that's not the case
the the every record one I did I had
complaints about the shipping costs and
you know some of the items that were
were uh not paid for were records so
that really bugged me so
you know there's no way to catch that
there's no built-in to say hey they're
not going to have to pay for it there's
no mandatory this they can you know it's
not like on eBay where you know it goes
through or I don't have to sit there and
run a live show I can just change the
quantity from zero to one and I'm done
it's already still running all the time
I don't end my listings I let them sit
there on um zero quantity now let's
let's talk about zero quantity because
I've I've had people say well you're
hiding your stuff you're doing this
you're doing that because I'm using zero
quantity I sell
on many platforms I get large quantities
of things in I've got
maybe a 30th of all the items out of 30
000 items in my store I have
replenishables of
so and also when somebody cancels or it
sells in one site and that person
doesn't pay for it or something happens
all I got to do is change the quantity
on on in the system from zero to one and
it's it's never ended so I don't lose my
Watchers uh if there are any I don't
lose anything tied to it the listing is
just there I just change the quantity
from zero back to one and then boom I
don't have to sell similar I don't have
to list I do sell similar later on but I
don't have to do anything to get that
item active again other than change the
quantity I don't even have to click edit
I don't have to uh even go into the
listing you can change the quantity from
your Hub listing tab at any time you
want I got tape on me sorry but
anyway that's that's my take on whatnot
I probably unless you know I want to get
rid of some bulk won't mess with it you
know I thought about selling some 50
pound boxes of Records but again I don't
want to have to drive down and carry 10
or 15 of those into the the post office
I wouldn't have my postal lady pick them
up here because that'd be a lot of
weight I'd have to call ahead and let
them know that I'd fill up half the van
and all that kind of stuff too or
they're they're little their little uh
mail truck so I'm I'm not gonna I don't
think mess with what not too much you
may see one in the future but you know I
don't like the way they've got the
calendar where if you're lucky you can
get a spot and people were taking three
and four spots and anyway I it just it's
just not set up very very prop it's not
set up right you know even the replies
I've gotten from them just weren't
I'm not impressed at all just truth I
know there's a lot of people saying oh
we're making a ton of money but when I
look again profit margin looking at my
profit margin it's far lower than
anything else I do
you know even selling on other sites I'm
just clicking a button and syncing with
other sites I don't know it doesn't cost
me anything
you know for the amount of time and
effort I could have had four or five
hundred dollars of merchandise up per
hour instead of 70 bucks worth of sales
and yeah I'm not going to sell every
item I list for four or five hundred
dollars worth of value up per hour at
right off the bat but it's there forever
I never have to recreate it I never have
to show it again on on a live auction
but
um
setting up your business as a business
if you don't have a profit margin you
don't have a business you don't even
have to file taxes if you're not making
money
you know if you haven't made a profit
you're not you're it's eaten up by your
expenses you're not making any money
it's not even a business it barely would
qualify for a hobby almost in some
extent but
um
all the answers were good everybody's
saying that's so important reputation
consistency
um payments of course stand by your
products yes that comes back sort of
tied to to reputation identifying fakes
that's all good stuff you got to know
all that too but profit margins is
definitely number one do I not plan
Elijah hungs Meyer backs or do you not
plan on posting on Art Professor anymore
I do I've got some videos just again it
comes down to where's my time
um more useful where am I going to get
the most bang for my buck I guess we've
got we're down employees to be honest
with you too and part of that's been
been a little struggle and I don't bring
just anybody in to work for us and you
know we're working on a couple other
people right now takes time so I don't
have as much backup I guess as I did
before so things change my kids are in
are took a you know a full-time job with
benefits and all kinds of stuff so you
know that's what they wanted to do I
know I've never ever forced my kids to
work for me you know they never have
been required to do anything they don't
want to do and they wanted a a job where
they can you know make you know good
money they're going to college one's
graduating so that's I'm down employee
so that's part of part of why I don't
get a chance to do other things I'd love
to do some more art videos I've I record
stuff when I'm doing stuff for me I just
haven't done anything with the videos
I've got hours of videos if I'm drawing
or something I almost always record it I
just haven't had a chance to produce
anything from all those recorded things
I recorded me doing some more molds and
stuff today actually and the last three
days it just began because it only takes
a couple minutes to set up a GoPro or
one of the other cameras in a tripod or
my mount
I just haven't had a chance to post
again the most important thing is is my
profit margin
Kim Kimberly's attic is the closest but
profit is the word I was looking for no
idea pricing is important passion Drive
customer service list is endless yeah
the list is endless for some things but
if you're not making a profit Nothing
Else Matters there's only one thing that
matters if you work in the real world in
a brick and mortar if you're not making
profit you're you're not going to be in
business very long because you're paying
for overhead you're paying for fees
you're you're heating your electricity
you're driving around you're buying
merchandise or shipping and merch all
that stuff costs money and again if
you're not making anything out of you
everything else is is it doesn't matter
it's totally useless stuff if you can't
make a profit off of what you're selling
most people got a business because
they're not making profit they're not
going out of business because they they
missed something or they weren't super
super psyched or pumped about it or or
they didn't have a drive necessarily
they're not making money off of it money
the profit margins is number one
that's like the top three number one
number two number three
the ones the the sellers that I know
that do the best
every time I'm hand of God every time
every time I run into a seller that's
doing really good really good across the
board all they're you know dotting all
their eyes Crossing all the t's
everything is rolling along they're
they're in the same boat position as we
are they can get the merchandise their
profit margins are good and they know
every single item in their store what
the profit margins which categories at
least if nothing else they know the
categories and and I can ask them well
why do you sell this well the profit
margin's better why haven't you stopped
selling that well there's no profits
there they instantly know that they're
paying attention to that they treat it
just like I do like I'm working for some
big company I'm like you know I'm I'm
running a region or something I treat
this like that
I treat it my job as a regional was to
figure out where the problems were to
fix things when the numbers weren't
coming in I'd go to a store figure out
why their accounts were off and
inventory was wrong
their their food costs was really high
chances are they got a new cook chances
are people may be stealing in the store
taking Stakes home that was usually the
biggest one in a restaurant chain for an
example you categorize it by item I know
I've sold 72 sirloins I purchased a
hundred I should still have 28 left if I
don't have 28 I got now eight someone
swiped 20. again if if they sell it it
gets damage you're supposed to report
those you know any spoilage is reported
so if you've got to throw away five of
something you take that off the list so
again these are things that the managers
never thought about they couldn't figure
out or this happens or or um here's one
I caught
they're one of the stores I worked for I
took it over and I was there for a
little while and the produce company
turns out they weren't doing their
obligations I won't say this was in
Meridian Mississippi and the produce
company that they they signed a deal
with quoted this much price for a boxes
well it turns out they've been charging
the store and the store never looked at
it until I got in there I wanted to see
where every dime was going and the
company was charging them like a dollar
fifty for a delivery charge or some
screw charge for every single box that
showed up there for the last three years
so I sure as enough pulled out the
invoices and counted up all the boxes
sent that to my company and act and sent
it to the produce company and I got my
full bonus as well as every manager
under me did for the food cost just
because of that because I got a check
for every box for the last three years
they didn't go back into monetize it
they didn't go back and and you know um
balance it out from prior years I got
all the credit for that it saved it was
like 78 it was a huge amount of money
close to a hundred thousand dollars
it was a no-brainer though it was it was
looking at your contracts looking at
stuff like that those are simpleton
things looking at the price you pay
something in your purchase price managed
all that stuff matters but again to get
a profit you got to make sure everything
else is in line
if you don't have a profit you're
screwed that's why at least three people
this week have said that they're not
going to be able to continue to do this
to me personally I think it's actually
Four this week
again because they're not they're not
making the profits they're not getting
the stuff in again it may be for various
different reasons but you know I'm I'm
not going to go back into the restaurant
chain I'm not going back into retail so
if I work 14 hours I'm happy with that
you know I don't I don't mind at some
point I may not be able to do it so I'd
rather do it now and relax when I'm
older and and you know get all the the
revenue coming in now you know
bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush I'd rather have that bird sitting
in my hand right now than worry about it
10 years from now or something so anyway
let's pop back over to the chat I know
I'm rambling if you haven't hit that
thumbs up please slam that thumbs up
here I got 172 people in house 49 thumbs
up I know I'm terrible on saying that
but
where are we at here
regional manager FYI well I thank you
very kindly appreciate that
I was a regional manager as I said
district manager DM
for many years for Einstein Brothers
um views and searches again views and
searches views mean nothing to me you
know the search and view that whole that
means nothing even Watchers unless I can
send an offer to them I don't even look
at it I haven't looked at my views in
Forever views mean nothing you can sell
something and it won't even show a view
up there views again they're they're
totally meaningless it only takes one
person to come in see the item and buy
it and that's it so I don't really care
if it's got 50 views 100 views or what
it's it's meaningless information when
you're selling long tail items and and
it basically turns it to passive income
and there's it's it's meaningless
information for me I don't once the
item's up it stays up it doesn't matter
you know if it sells today tomorrow or
next year quantity and volume make long
tail items work
if you didn't have quantity long tail
would not be your thing you would not
want to do lawn tail if you don't have
quantity if you're working up to get
long till you start off doing five or
ten percent long tail and 90 95 percent
you know quick Flip or as quick as you
can get
that's that would be the best take on it
uh
uh Ariel Miller yeah what you pay for it
that semi comes down to profit but hey
Daryl Carolina picks in the house
welcome welcome Daryl good to see you in
better buys online sales welcome
hey Dave Midwest picker another YouTuber
in-house how you doing Dave check Dave
out if you get a chance he seems to be a
very nice guy
he's got a sense of humor too I have
seen no a d cost basis cost of goods
profit again profit margin is the
biggest thing if your profit margin's
terrible you're not going to pay your
bills and nothing else will matter the
whole point is to pay your bills you
have to have a profit from what you're
doing you have to be your time again
that comes back to time and too many
people just waste their time and don't
realize how much time they're wasting
Melanie Kimball Majolica information I
could go on and on I've got a couple
pieces here that would be a whole case
in and of itself
lmb 320
no notifications I'm I almost never put
up
um my video announcement for a live feed
the day before if I put up my my uh
posts for my live show uh you know at
least a day in advance everybody would
probably get a bigger notification
notice but I don't I literally just
posted it an hour before I work like mad
these days and
um again if I did it I'd probably get
more views and make a little more money
but I'm I'm not really worried about
that on this
so that's probably why you don't get a
notification very often from my live
shows they're always Thursday at seven
unless something's going on Brenda Bloom
welcome welcome
Matt Jake how are you doing Douglas
Lockhart usually I can't use USPS
Priority Shipping when I combine
anything it only gives me uh UPS FedEx
I can use whatever I've never had it do
anything else
for uh just standard shipping us so I'm
always able to combine and if you can't
combine with the invoice all you do is
you ship the first item and then you
just go back and add the tracking number
to the other items and boom you've just
combined them just make sure you
calculate and refund any shipping that's
over what the the amount is we do it all
the time I you don't have to combine
them on an invoice even if if that's the
case somebody will buy something from us
and this happens almost every day and
they'll see something else later not
even realize it's us and then buy
something else and then go hey I didn't
realize this is you can you combine them
and they've paid for them both so all I
do is well with those all combined on
eBay but regardless if it's something
sometimes eBay you know is is not
working right or something all I do is
just print the first one if they're all
going in the same box the same person
being shipped on the same day all you
got to do is add the the tracking number
to the second item the third eye fourth
fifth sixth seventh however many items
you got in there that wouldn't combine
through eBay and boom they're already
combined they're all set to the same one
as long as the person you're shipping
them to is the same person you can
combine a ton of them that way just
paste the tracking number it's not going
to tell you hey you've already used this
tracking number if it's going to the
same person within a 24-hour time span
I've done it for years we just did it
the other day so I know you can still do
it and we're on eBay's new the item
specific
um cell phone look mobile listing thing
too
um Hey Joe cenard how are you doing good
afternoon where you were at I see
regional manager FY yeah the higher the
margins the better and that's like again
what I look at I I stopped selling so
much clothing for us was one of my
lowest margins my lowest profit margins
has been clothing and it was we were
selling similar items
why my son what I sell now the profit
margins are better easier storage easy
to pick up buy in bulk almost never
return no chance of me missing something
I mean there's just so many reasons the
pros and cons of clothing versus what I
sell are incredibly insane uh in my my
favor for what I sell so you know that's
the that's the biggest Factor I'm
looking at the profit margins
I've got
Oodles of stuff that I could throw up in
Lots I even lighted up some buttons just
because I've got so many and I did those
and whatnot but uh you know
it's just not worth selling something
that's too cheap it's you're going to be
spinning your wheels on cheap stuff
that's not gonna make you much per hour
your time is going to be wasted so
anyway
where are we at
J dad 303 well thank you very kindly for
the five dollar Super Chat love the
videos I watched them as I work daily at
my eBay shop sure got me looking for
paperbacks these days I named the shop
Tian so after him I said well very good
very good interesting name for sure very
nice name
well thanks again jdad 303 for the Super
Chat really appreciate it
oh oh where are we at where are we at
Murphy's Mercantile how are you how are
you guys doing over there hopefully
you're doing well
Low Country Loft I wonder what Low
Country there's a lot of places that
they call Low Country having shipping
problems that were not there until I
listed some of my items one day shipping
I'm so discouraged eBay can't fix it
not knowing what the shipping problems
are just ship it off a pirate ship or a
PayPal until it's corrected if it's an
issue where you can't print how you want
the way you want that's all I would do
uh
and hopefully if you're having issues
you've got policies business policies
set up for the shipping and I would have
done if I was going to start a new
policy I would have kept the old policy
as well and just created a new one for
the listings that I wanted that way if
something happens I can switch all of my
listings from one policy to another one
in 10 seconds business policies if
you're not using business policies to do
your shipping that that that's your
biggest problem right there the the
business policies for shipping are
awesome for the most part and I never
have to go back in and mess with them
once I got them set up you can do
separate costs for international versus
versus us so my us has free return
shipping for 30 days my foreign overseas
has the buyer pays it for the return
shipping so again you can set them up
differently you can you've got global
Shipping and the whole works whatever
you want and that's what I do for
everything I've got I think eight uh
shipping policies one payment policy and
then one return policy my payment policy
the same for every item so I only need
one my return policy is the same I've
got it broken down just like I said us
is free return shipping and then
overseas is buyer pace for return
shipping that's what I would recommend
for everything personally
um
your system seems highly functional and
profitable let's go through the roof
that's what I'm I mean
I'm comfortable with the sales coming in
right now let's put it that way I'm
happy with what's going on I'm not
discouraged by the sales because I'm
almost at a fourth quarter Mark right
now
and again I'm working the store
constantly though every day every two
days I run sales I'm doing end and sell
similar three times on my store a month
flipping my items over so no items you
know sitting up more than say 10 or 14
days at the very very most uh we've been
mixing up that a little bit but I'm
always working on the store I'm always
doing something someone's always sending
out offers to watch or someone's always
you know tweaking stuff or doing
something all that action has helped us
and maintain my sales across the board
if you're not doing action on your
account on a routine basis it gets
stagnant Amazon's the same way if you're
not messing around with your account if
you don't do anything in your account
and so so certain like the time they
might even you know suspend it for a
length until you contact or update or
fill out or something too so
uh
Tom morris.i Source mainly from storage
auctions nothing over 40 is there really
a way to look at your p l if I'm basing
it on luck of the draw
I would never give out my numbers but I
do have a copy of what I use for my
piano and patreon but
um
again I my p l has everything in it it's
not just reselling it's I've got a
penile for the entire business I do have
P L's for reselling versus like toys and
art and stuff like that but I don't
share any of my personal stuff like that
be like my tax documents I don't share
that either obviously but
um
nothing over 40 bucks huh
I would look at other other sourcing
Avenues if if I was you personally
um
Wade Wade's Ventures he does storage
auction tonight we've talked before in
the past he seems always seems like a
nice guy his family man's got kids in
the works I know he had said once before
to me that like four out of
hundreds of storage units he did
extremely well on the most all the
storage units are you know you're gonna
make some money but it's not going to be
these fifteen thousand dollar profits
and all that kind of stuff I've seen
some that he's had that were really good
on average storage auctions are so hit
or miss I wouldn't rely on those
personally maybe a sideline or something
but I sure as heck wouldn't do that
personally personally again I'm not in
the best area for for high-end storage
lockers showing up California obviously
be the best for Miami or something but
you know I wouldn't I wouldn't base my
sourcing on Storage storage auction for
one I'm not going to be able to get
routine in the same niches for for one
that would kill a lot of my repeat
business uh it would kill the collector
area because how often would I get
Collectibles that would be in the same
categories I wouldn't be able to flood
or dominate categories by doing that
either because it would be random items
I so dislike random items these days
um like I don't I haven't been in a
garage sale and I don't know how long I
haven't been to a state still in a year
or two if we go to a thrift store I'm
not really going to Source you know
we're going to look for something or
we're out we were down the street let's
swing in there for a few minutes or
something I I don't again profit margin
there's not the profit margins not there
for any of that so I don't do that much
anymore I figured something else out
that works for us
uh try better better uh storage lockers
go up in value buy better ones more
expensive ones check out a different
area maybe even if you're you're gung-ho
on the Storage storage locker auctions
and stuff but I personally don't like
the hit or miss I just I just don't like
it you know and there's been some or
some of the items were stolen somebody I
know how to deal with that and they lost
the uh it goes on and on there's all
kinds of things that could happen
I know somebody else who was sued that
they bought a storage locker fair and
square and the family said they were
family heirloom out and there was
records and personal documents and they
got sued it it just was a fiasco there's
just too many too risky of a thing to it
some items in the storage locker may
have personal stuff on it that you may
not be able to sell some maybe promotion
lines for some other company and on and
on and on there's legalities on some
items uh hey Trina trainer Circle how
you doing this evening as a beginner I'm
hearing that I should sell cheaper until
eBay gives me a higher rank I don't know
who's telling me that but cheaper is no
I don't know why that would have any
play in anything that's very bad advice
so the best things you can get from day
one there's there's no the more the
better stuff you sell the more value you
are selling the better you're going to
do and everything else with eBay the
ranking or anything else has nothing to
do with that cheaper items are are just
that they're cheaper items you're gonna
make less money on and you're going to
get less value for your time into it
anybody's saying that I wouldn't pay any
attention to them that would be my
personal opinion I would avoid anybody
saying something like that let it go out
in one ear and out the other one if
they're telling you that that's very bad
advice so the best things you can sell
right off the bat
you know that that's my take on it don't
be piddling around don't be wasting your
time it's this profit margin you're
giving away your profit margin if you're
selling just cheap items just to sell
cheap items makes no sense the only
thing I would ever say is if if you've
got bad feedback bad feedback and you
want to you know blow some of that out
you blow out some really cheap 99 cent
sales or something and sell a whole
bunch of stuff really cheap and do a
phenomenal job getting it out
immediately and and your your goal is to
get a whole bunch of uh comments and
feedback really quickly by doing stuff
like that that's the only time I ever
see people where it's a good thing and
an occasion is to do something like that
if you want to help go lower your your
defect uh percentage that's what you do
you list a whole bunch of stuff for real
cheap really cheap you know I've seen
people even basically you know below
cost or at cost and not make anything
just to try and turn around their
feedback
that's the only reason I would ever say
lower your items like that and I don't
race the bottom I don't I don't do any
of that crap it's it's not it's not my
thing
somebody else wants to do it that's fine
like with the Collectibles I had
somebody and I'm not going to go into
details on this one but somebody was
saying well I got this item cheaper than
you why why would anybody want to pay
for it and buy it from you
and I said well I don't care if they buy
it from me or you you know it's not
there's nothing I can do about it anyway
you want to price a cheaper fine the
minute yours is sold I'm the only one up
again I don't have to sell today
tomorrow maybe they have to sell out to
pay their bills or something but I don't
have to do that so if my item's higher
than somebody else I don't care their
item is going to sell probably first and
then I'm again dominating the area again
with that item it's gonna set up I'm not
going to take it down what does it
matter
again long tail game works fine for me
manually ebit increases are just a
positive reinforcement one needs to
gauge success
I have to say when I see a massive
deposit in my bank account from a weekly
payout or for something that's a big
thrill you know and I'm I'm not I'm not
meaning that I'm money grubber and
I don't wear anything fancy I'm not into
all that stuff I just know that you know
it feels good to know that I earned
every damn dime of that money that's
going into that bank no one helped me no
one showed me anything no one's well
some work on the on the piano somebody
help me put that together Lou but
everything else is mine everything else
I did I earned that if you're working
for somebody else you earned your money
too but to be honest having worked for
somebody for years of my life it feels
so much better it's so different to earn
it yourself have at your company you're
getting the every bit of the profits
you're not sharing it it's all mine you
know pay my taxes and that's about it
but you know that's another thing that
there's going to be some people getting
some big issues come the end of the year
we haven't saved up money we send off
Seven Grand I think
five six times a year to to the IRS to
pay off our our taxes ahead of time oh
here's a new one you're gonna have to
worry about on eBay just to let you know
we got a notice from eBay requiring us
to submit a federal ID to continue to
collect payments from eBay
and I think from what I was told is
they're hitting all of the bigger
sellers first if I'm not mistaken so I
should have taken a screenshot but I
wasn't going to show the process because
you'd have to show information but we've
already done it I don't have a problem I
already had a copy of it you got to do
it for what not I think I had to do it
for an Amazon you surely have to do it
so if you didn't know if you want to
sell on Amazon you've got to send them a
copy of your driver's license front back
or your you could have used your
passport card or something too but so if
if you haven't received a notice from
eBay saying you're going to have to
supply your your photo ID you're going
to get one of those
again they're probably phasing it in
over time so I would again imagine that
they're going to get the biggest sellers
first they want to check your identity
it's going to be something you're going
to expect so I think that's going to
stop some certain percentage of people
from selling on eBay anymore if they
have to show personal information like
that I know people got all upset about
you know having to share a bank account
you know the driver's license will be
another one of those Nails in some
people's coffins where they'll give up
on eBay I'm not going to you know if you
really want to if they really need it
now I've got it at other platforms why
would I say no to eBay and Trust some
other platform in the first place which
you know that's the way it is
so if you didn't know that then they're
coming around in fact it was a big black
Banner at the top of my Hub so there's
no way I was going to miss it it doesn't
there's no way to clear it off until you
fill it in and it gave me I think it was
three weeks and two days from the time
it first popped up to fill it I just did
it right away because I don't really
care but
again it's it's the world we live in you
either do what they want you to do or
you don't sell on the platform and I'm
I'm not I'm making enough uh money
profit off of eBay I would never you
know give it up at this point unless
it's below that 25 Mark I've said that
forever is at 25 percent of reselling
Revenue wouldn't be worth my time
I could easily you know make up the
difference we're 15 higher than that so
again I'm not going to do it
uh
Josh got eight dollars is my minimum
profit
that's not terrible but again then it
comes down to how much time are you
including your list time are you
including your sourcing your packing all
that that's part of it if it takes you
an hour to make that eight dollars
you need to raise it it needs to be
higher than eight dollars profit because
if it if or if you can only do three of
those types of items that you're going
to get eight dollars profit on in an
hour I mean packing listing and all that
stuff
it's eight dollars an hour is what
you're making or twenty four dollars
would be in that case you're getting
three up so think of it that way don't
necessarily think of it as specifically
profit as I said your time has to be a
huge considering factor in whatever
you're doing why would I spend time
listing two dollars two dollar items
that take five minutes a piece to list
when I can list ten or fifteen dollar
items that only take a minute maybe a
minute and a half to list and there's no
huge ordeal I can store it instantly
large quantities in one small area
instantly again paper works best for me
because it's the easiest thing uh day
before yesterday somebody bought 55 Lots
one single person and that's not some
Oddball thing I've sold over 100 to the
same person
again I sell items in categories that
that are are uh that that happens to
frequently I sell items that most people
or most days I'll sell two three four or
more items to one single person or two
single people two different people
buying that many which is a typical day
for us here if I sold other items I
wouldn't get that push
so I could sell items that might get me
about the same amount of money as what
I'm selling now but I don't get multiple
sales from those other items maybe the
the return repeat customer business from
those items aren't as good as the ones
that I'm selling now
so again profit margin is first and then
I go after issues like that am I going
to get repeat business is someone to
keep coming back if I sell this item
versus that item so again pros and cons
lists pros and cons of whatever I sell
paper for what I sell I'm very happy
with paper on a given day I could get a
700 or 700 profit on one single day from
just the paper stuff
you know and maybe you only have five
eight bucks invested into that seven
hundred dollars on top of it and maybe
even already have the money back a year
ago because the items have been up for a
year I mean that's the kind of thing
that I I work with and that's the kind
of thing that I try to Center in on you
know if you're going to get something
that may only sell once a year you know
I don't really look through sell through
rate other than the categories
specifically itself
If an item in the say the military World
War II Section routinely sells you know
uh has a 50 South through rate in a
year's time I'm pretty pretty happy with
that if it had a two percent or five
percent that's a different story if
those same items there was 400 of them
active and only 10 sold I wouldn't mess
with it either
because it wouldn't be worth my my
chance time or investment to sell
something that'd be a flooded category
once you hit anything over 20 or 30 of
the same items up that's fairly flooded
in my book clothing wise you might see a
hundred 150 of the exact same items
you're you're trying to sell now a
t-shirt or something unless it's vintage
or something unique or something
different again that's that's just my
take
um
well time and money comes into play
together in my book my profit margin
includes the time I have invested into
it that's why uh how why do I look at
time I look at time because I want to be
able to get 450 to 500 worth of
merchandise up in an hour so I'm I'm I'm
looking at the time aspect as well as
the The Profit the margin I'm going to
get how much money I'm going to make for
my hours worth of time
so my profit margins are based on time
as well as the the actual dollar amount
hopefully that makes sense because if
profit margins are great of course most
important aspect but if the profit
margin is like 0.05 percent that means
nothing again so you've really got to
weigh out everything that goes with
getting the profit margin the best so if
I sell something that I'm going to sell
for for from a specific Niche to the
same person on on a daily basis those
items give me a higher profit margin
but I'm combining my time I'm cutting
the time to wrap four individual items
or ten individual items down into
wrapping them all into one one single
plastic sleeve all together they're
wrapped up into one piece of cardboard
instead of far four five six eight ten
different pieces of cardboard I'm not
wasting 10 poly bags they're all going
together so selling items that have
repeat business or that somebody might
buy multiple different items in that
same Niche raise your profit your profit
margin because instead of selling say a
twenty dollar item to one guy that one
guy may have bought five twenty dollar
items so I'm selling a hundred dollars
to this guy my initial cost on those
items maybe four or five bucks and I'm
not worried about some one shipment my
time's cut down again we're coming back
to time again
so I stick to items that I sell more of
you know multiples to the same person on
a daily basis over items that are are
one-offs or you know I won't have that
approach going on or maybe seasonal or
something else like that again if you're
enjoying the conversation please slam
that thumbs up got 182 people in house I
got 84 thumbs up at this point
uh don Albertson a pawn shop told me
they won't buy anything they can't
profit 20 from that's a perfect example
Dan perfect example
Katrina I have low cost items that I
could bundle
look at those items look them up
individually see how quickly they sell
don't here's another mistake everybody
makes when they look up item the prices
of an item they just look up at a Tara
Peak well Tara Peak I see 20 that sold
for 10 bucks or 20 bucks but they're not
looking at the Active listings
you can't just look at ended listings
because yeah 20 sold Tara Peaks for a
whole year so that's 20 that's one less
than one a month sold what if there was
400 of those items up and only 20 sold
you've got to look at both both ones you
can't just look at one or the other you
can instantly do that on terapeak too so
um
Trina back to Trina for just a second if
if those items are maybe going to sell
for four bucks a piece or something and
your profit margin is going to be two
bucks
but if you put five of them together on
one sale your profit margin and they're
two dollars a piece that's ten bucks
instead so would you rather maybe sell
one or two of them for two bucks a piece
or for sure or almost for sure sell all
of them for 10 bucks for the whole lot
I'd rather get the 10 bucks immediately
from all of them instead of trying to
nickel and dime a two dollar sale
truthfully
if you have no other inventory fine list
whatever you got cheap items or not but
again you're just you're occupying time
if you don't have anything do what you
got to do but if you've got stuff to
list prioritize the stuff that's going
to give you the highest profit first
profit margin that's that if you're
listing the two dollar items or whatever
and you've got ten dollar items sitting
there what are you listening to two
dollar items for stop listening to two
dollar and list the highest stuff first
especially if you're new if you've got
to turn over stuff to pay your bills why
are you messing with the two dollar
items I see it all the time all the time
in fact we raised even when we stopped
selling at a certain point the the
cheaper stuff
our dogs upstairs going off when we stop
selling the cheaper stuff
the stuff we decided that would probably
sell I raised the price to 10 bucks or
higher for all the cheap stuff as well
I've never went back and lowered it and
we still sell that stuff
an offer comes in I get what I used to
have as the the offer price so I'm
getting more for those items so nothing
in our stores under 9.99
mm-hmm
obviously I don't list new items below a
certain point if they're already up I
just keep them why would I waste the
time that I invested to list something
if like with Trina if you can bundle use
one of the listings you already have up
and just you know download a copy of the
the photos from the other listings and
just re-upload them to the one listing
so you're not going to lose the one
listening you'll lose the other ones but
you just have to alter the title
and just download a copy and then
re-upload those to the listing so you
can easily bundle them without taking a
new photo just change the title to a lot
of five a lot of ten or whatever else
you're doing that's all you got to do
and I do that all the time you don't
have to end all those listings just keep
one running and then download the images
that's all you got to do
uh dragon bricks uh yep I have to work a
not to buy low profit items
I pass up a lot of stuff and sometimes I
pass up stuff that there is a profit
margin there and it might be a good one
for the item but taking into account
China I don't mess with most pottery and
stuff takes up too much space to store
shipping it takes a little longer to
ship there's breakage issues and stuff
like that and you know so I don't mess
with certain things again pros and cons
there's too many cons against something
like that in the same area one base
takes up I could list and store 500 plus
pieces of paper 500 listings I can store
in the space of one vase
so pros and cons my profit margin if
that vase isn't going to get me 450 to
500 why would I even List It
because again I can get 4 to 450 to 500
worth of paper items up and in any hour
so again we're going for the profit
margin again I know they're not all
going to sell it once but if that base
doesn't sell I've got one item that's
sign up space time time for photos time
to list time to package so it
automatically cuts my profit margin down
in the item once I equate my time into
it you got to think where are you
spending your time that's why I don't do
a lot of other stuff that I'd love to do
is because my time has to go where the
profit margin is
so I haven't done as many videos or
hardly any lately on on the auction or
on the art Professor the my other
channel I don't even know how many
subscribers I got at this point on that
other channel but I'd love to do it I do
artwork all the time but I don't want to
spend the time or effort to edit them at
this point you know I don't make money
on the other channel and that's that's
another another issue because again I've
got to weigh the time again that's why
my time is so important I can't risk
wasting time I'm getting older so I
can't risk you know in the the last so
many years that I've got to put put
forth all the extra effort to get the
the my Revenue up and get enough money
stocked in the bank I don't want to risk
it on stuff that's not making me a
return on that investment
um
the mayor if it doesn't make dollars it
doesn't make sense that's a that's a
perfect perfect uh comment there yes
it's true
it's got to make multiple dollars and a
couple dollars isn't going to cut it you
know I could list hundreds of items of a
couple dollars it's just going to waste
my time
prioritize what you're selling
I would bulk up anything that's a couple
bucks
wouldn't be worth your time to list it
wouldn't be worth your time to sit there
and monitor and all this other stuff
just just it doesn't make sense that's
the bottom line uh it's Aquarian Bookman
I started selling on eBay and later took
a consignment Booth after I collected
enough low price items have large
section now that sometimes makes more
than eBay that can work too
I'm not so much a person on
um boost but I used to have them I used
to set up in several and in fact in one
booth I had or one antique mall is a
real big one in Meridian I had quite a
few boosts there in different spots you
probably didn't even people who bought
probably didn't know they were my stuff
here and over there and stuff sometimes
if you need more space the one next to
you isn't available so you might have to
take a booth in a different aisle or
something which is what we had to do
sometimes
I I mean I made okay but if you don't
have a prime location
it could hurt you if they're cheaper
items I don't know again I don't want to
have to drive out to a antique mall
there's a decent one not too far away
but
I'm not looking to do that route I guess
I'd have to service it and anyway
if you make good money at more power to
you I just I I just don't like the the
atmosphere anymore I don't mind shopping
at them occasionally
welcome welcome
oh let's pop on down here I have not
considered time at all I'm not even
making back the money lost by taking
Friday off work this seems so common
sense yeah I mean
as I said most people do not add time
into their their profit margins they're
not looking at the bottom line and the
the again profit margin is honestly the
most important aspect of this nothing
else really your feedback means nothing
if you're not making any money if you're
if you've got bad feedback and you're
not making money you know your store is
going to be dead obviously the bad
feedback might be causing you not to
make money but if you're not making
money it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter nothing else does
uh
let's see here Josh I routinely list
12.99 items with offers accepting at 10
shipping that included
yeah if I was going to take list a 10
item if I knew I'd get 10 I'd probably
list it at 29.99
again depending on how many have sold
and stuff like that
just because a handful of people might
have sold something for 10 bucks I don't
assume that's all I could get out of it
I routinely sell things that other
people have sold for two and three times
what they sold it for that's my end up
price somebody might sell something for
10 I might get 30 bucks the very next
week for that same item
you got to understand the perceived
value most people don't look up the sold
items if it's uh one-offs or vintage
antiques most people don't know
if the 30 bucks might be good though the
person who's buying it from you to
somebody else only nine bucks may have
been good for that same item
we just don't sell items less than 12 uh
twelve dollars my time is just too
valuable to do that if something proves
to fall below that I give it uh to other
sellers who are just starting out
uh antiquarium Bookman I rent three
booths now at local shop I pay for the
Boost 10 friend of the house and credit
card fees
yeah if you're unaware if you sell an
antique mall most of the ones I've ever
done you pay the monthly fees and you're
giving them 10 percent so it's like just
like on eBay you're giving you're
probably spending about the same in fees
for a booth as you would for maybe an
anchor store or something like that it
depends on the size of the booth and all
that stuff but that's probably a good
analogy comparing those two together in
my book
uh let's see here
you slide down oop my feet just bounced
let me see if I can get to back where we
were
oh yeah I think I'm lost now where are
we at
all right let me get back to where I was
trying to find where I lost my spot okay
here we go
uh Kelly you can be successful selling
cheap items depends on what you see as
success and where you want to take your
hobby hustle side business
cheap items can work if you've got bulk
of that same line if I've got a
replenishable that I saw on Amazon that
I'm only making two dollars a piece two
dollars per unit but I've got a thousand
units selling a week sure sure cheap
items are great volume of those cheap
items is great if if let's say I have
50 of the same item but the item's only
gonna it's only worth two dollars but
I've got fifty of them it's worth my
time to create one listing and sell all
50 through that one listing that's a
different take on that if I got one item
that's worth two dollars all different
items are worth two dollars I'm not
going to waste the time on a two dollar
item again because I can only list so
many of those up in an hour if I can
only list 40 of something for two
dollars a piece that's 80 bucks I can
list 450 to 500 worth of of other items
all day long at the same for the same
amount of time why would I do the two
dollar items it makes no sense for me
anyway unless again I've got 50 100 or a
quantity of the exact same item even if
it's only two dollars and I can just
keep adding one to the quantity I never
have to create a second listing and I
just keep adding one keep adding one
keep adding one that's another reason
why I do zero quantity because I I try
not to list all the amounts that we have
let's say I've got a hundred or
something and no one else has it I'm not
going to list 100 as the quantity for
sale I'm going to list one
and when that one sells I just change
that zero to one I don't have to relist
it or anything it's always active right
after it ends and I just resell you know
list another one of those I I've been
doing that for months for many many
items I got buttons that it that again
I've got a hidden factor in there so I
know how many I have just by looking at
the listing even if I'm not home
but those are the only exceptions I
would ever do for a cheaper item again
two dollar items that's not worth
listing a two dollar item if you've got
ten dollar items
it's not worth listing five two dollar
items when you could sell them together
for 10 bucks easily easier than you
could selling them individually
you've got to weigh all of those options
in there I I promise you what I'm
telling you now is what every single
true honest not some of these YouTubers
who pretend they're resellers but real
resellers who that's all they do that's
what they're doing exactly what I'm
telling you they've done that through
everything they sell you can do whatever
you way you want but I promise you
everybody that I know who's really
successful like us does what I just said
they don't list those two dollar items
because it's not worth their time my
time is worth more than 80 bucks an hour
it just is so I'm not gonna list eighty
dollars worth of item because I'm
listing two dollar profit items 40 of
them I'm gonna list 40 10 items or 40 20
items I'm going to bundle those other
ones up so I'm still listing 400 450 500
worth of items some of those may be
bundled two dollar items into one single
listing again that's the best way to
approach those cheaper items by the time
you take photos and upload and again
you're killing your time
eighty dollars an hour versus four
hundred dollars an hour it's a
no-brainer list the higher value items
you can right away get them up and worry
about those if you got nothing else to
list sure go ahead and list the two
dollar items because you're just gonna
use your extra free time because you
don't have stuff to list if you've got
stuff to list list the high dollar stuff
when we buy anything I don't care what I
buy if I buy a hundred records 500 this
500 of that whatever I'm buying I list
part of it to get my money back
immediately
that's why I've got so much inventory
because I get my money back like day one
almost for anything I sell
if I purchase a real good lot of
something and I know I can sell one item
immediately I do it that right after I
get home it might be sold before the day
is even done I got all my money back for
the big massive purchase purchase that I
get like the 78 records I sold a 78
record to somebody who watched one of my
videos and wanted one of the records I
paid for all my gas time and my my son's
payroll for driving out there with me
for one item one single item and I'm
done all of everything else is free now
I know that's my take but uh let's see
where we at
the land Lake Ford
hey Lance Cindy how are you two doing
hopefully you two are doing well again
tomorrow will be the next patreon video
it should be up early tomorrow
um I'm up at six in the morning I'm here
in-house tomorrow I'm gonna relax so I'm
not going anywhere tomorrow after all
the uh the models and the the moldings
done this week
foreign
Paul Carl cards I've worked out a method
that makes listing thousands of trade
cards per hour possible
I don't know how you'd list thousands
unless you had people doing it for you
you can't even take a scan of a card a
thousand cards in an hour truthfully but
the only other thing would be upload
through a CSV file a spreadsheet of them
you'd still have to upload the photos
uh let's see here Texas lady welcome
good evening
well thank you very kindly
Nelson Kennedy bottom line bottom line
is important
profit margin is important
um I always thought about having
bookstore realized how much cheaper
the reselling Boomer good evening
welcome wet town in Australia
welcome from the other side of the globe
yeah I I that's just what I said Excel
that's a CSV file just as I was saying
you can't do a thousand listings in an
hour and if you're CSV filing up your
your listings there could be errors
there could be glitches and they don't
come with photos
so it's there's I I've done CSV files
for 10 years you can't do a thousand an
hour that I'm aware of I've never seen
anybody and I'm talking about people who
are doing a million in sales on a weekly
basis I've never seen it
um
yeah I'd have to see that you've got all
the extra time to do all that I can't
see a thousand items in an hour I I I
would have to see that in person
yeah see you're not Paul Carl cards
you're talking about the the file
uploading to eBay or whatever in four
minutes you've got all the other time to
fill out that spreadsheet that you're
not counting in there you can't fill out
a spreadsheet with a hundred titles in
four minutes it's not physically
possible so again I don't know how you
know I see your automation comments here
but I don't I've worked with Excel for
25 years since 94 not more than that
since 94.95 I know every little glitch
every little thing I've all my I do all
my taxes through Excel I I do everything
my inventory purchases every business I
run is has an Excel spreadsheet all tied
together in my Ops at the end of the day
I've used Excel I know I can do the
formulas in my sleep I know all the
patches I know how to put PHP into it
you know I've got a a it degree as well
too I I can't there's no way you can do
a thousand listings in an hour and type
all that and that means you got to have
a thousand titles typed up in an hour
and that you're again you're not
counting all your time invested that
would be my honest opinion
uh let's see here
again you're not listing hundreds of
items an hour because you've got to do
all when I say I can list 50 items in an
hour that counts every aspect of the
listing that includes my photo my scan
time everything so in that hour I don't
have to do anything else other than that
that's including my my titles and
everything in that hour there's no way
you can type up a thousand titles in an
hour
you're missing your time invested
because you've got to type up that Excel
spreadsheet that's time that's there's
there's more time than you're adding up
you at most you're looking at
60 or so items most an hour no matter
what you're doing no matter what process
unless the computer is automatically
creating your titles your prices picking
the category for you as well it's
impossible impossible
uh
uh two glassy sisters what not really
depends on what you are selling it has
gone very well for us
you see if you're not comp if you're not
selling it on on eBay you don't know if
it's going well for you if you're not
selling I can't sell like to like items
I'm always going to get more money for
every single thing I sell and it's going
to be more practical to sell it on eBay
than it ever would be to sell it on
whatnot from what I sell from what I
sell it's night and day there's no way
on Earth I'll get I sold records on on
whatnot that the highest price I get was
30 bucks on eBay I could have got 60.
all day long any day of the week so
again it may depend on what you sell but
I'm not going to sell the cheaper stuff
that's that's leftovers or big box lots
and stuff I might as well just sell it
on hybid and have better security
personally High bid's just as good but
way better and honest in my opinion than
than what not as of now yeah sure it's
not the same format but I don't care
about the format
um
yeah and you're saying about Excel
formula to generate image URLs well
you've got to have the images uploaded
somewhere
just because you scan them they're not
anywhere they're just on your your PC or
your laptop so again you're missing all
that other time
you'll see you've got to type in the
titles you can't type in more than 50
titles in an hour that's your whole
point you can't do that
so you're missing your time is is
totally skewed on what you got going on
well I already do everybody who does
Excel probably you know just cut and
paste or you know control V control C
down the whole line you can do a whole
batch all at once but again you if there
are postcards you've got cities and
states and all that stuff's different
the Circa time frame is different it's
just not possible
uh Vin Chris collection welcome welcome
thank you Jeff Loft to say Jeff how are
you doing this evening good to see you
in house
about not 1984
a product returns making everybody yeah
you're going to live with some of that
unfortunately
Andrew telling tree good day from
Australia welcome good to have you and
we're going to end it here in just a few
minutes I'm looking at the clock
uh Nelson Kennedy well thank you very
kindly
if you want to be serious take it
serious from day one
um
I knew I I had to make the money I knew
that this had to go so I started off
like this is going to be lifelong thing
I didn't go half pardon me I'll say a
bad word half ass at all from day one I
went Full Steam all efforts from day one
if I meant I put in 18 hours a day
that's what I did you know and it's it's
worked out again I'm I'm not going to
let it beat me I guess so you got to be
positive you got to have that drive
jdad 303 I'm in the Ohio Michigan area
beau's garage can I change my personal
eBay account with a hundred percent
positive to a business account and keep
my feedback yes
you can upgrade it to a business account
at any time you want
um
VL Treasures
thanks Don for all the great videos well
thank you very kindly
thanks Kelly for helping out uh garage
Tim White how are you doing twerm
well thank you thank you very kindly
positive into Charles
Henry yes yeah I would never own a brick
and mortar at all that would be that
would be overhead would kill you
immediately it's just like I had a video
the other day about
um inventory we've probably got if I
count stuff that I'm not even that's
still locked in boxes I probably got
close to 4 million in inventory
obviously I don't have four million
dollars worth of value out of them that
would be the list price but the the
um where was I going with this where's
the comment that was on there
yeah but like brick and mortar if the
storage fees if I was selling clothing
I'd have to pay for storage
um immediately the minute you go to
storage you're like five thousand
dollars a year you're gonna get hit with
and again you gotta include your time
into that your drive time to the storage
facility your drive time from there to
the post office because most storage
facilities you can't have your products
picked up at you won't be there when
they're picked up I have to see them or
at least have it on video when they're
picking it up just so I can prove that
they picked up
you know
uh uh let's see here no indeed the lung
or a tail your items have the smaller
they need to be
it depends on obviously how much space
you have but generally uh I wouldn't
have a ton of long tail items if they
were big I'm not going to do electronics
or anything like that papers just
perfectly suited for it pins um stuff
Disney pins I know somebody who sells
Disney pins for a living
they've got hundreds of them on cards
and they've got them all numbered and
numbering system per row and all this
other stuff so it doesn't matter what
you sell but if you're going to sell a
lot of it and keep you know long time
yes you are correct you have to have
either small items or a ton of space and
if you're storing them in some other
place and you're gonna have to rent
again minimum I'm going to tell you is
probably five thousand it's going to
cost you five thousand dollars a year
the minute you go to a storage building
no matter what because you've got to
have electricity you got to have a
climate controlled building if you're
going to store merchandise specially
vintage
especially media items especially you
know vintage collectibles even clothing
you don't want a Musky smell you don't
want the temperature fluctuating it
creates moisture chances of mildew and
on and on and on and on if you store
them in bags and they're not airtight
bags you get moisture in the bags it can
ruin the items always have your your all
your merchandise in a climate controlled
building and I know there's YouTubers
who I run it out of my garage I do this
I do that well you open the garage door
in the winter there's snow and it's just
not it's not practical especially if for
those who don't storm in closed lidded
containers and store them they open
spiders and bugs and
you know it's it's not not what you
should be doing you should take care of
it like it's your Treasures your
personal Treasures anything you're
selling you know store them properly
even inside of a climate controlled
building
uh Green Giant 311 uh views are like
someone walking by your store exactly
and soar Watchers the a person doesn't
have to click on your item or even look
at look inside the listing to watch it
you can watch it from the view from the
gallery view page
so that's why you'll see Watchers and no
views
there's nothing wrong with that that's
not eBay screwing around with anything
sometimes people just scan it through
maybe they'll figure out maybe I'll look
at it later and they'll just click watch
and then just keep looking so they're
not going to waste time opening and
looking at it or opening up another tab
to look at some other item
uh Hey Big John good evening good
evening
all I ever think about is Big Bad John
the song
just in time flipping how are you doing
in a recession type of time the company
that holds on to the company and can
keep it afloat in bad times usually does
well after recession
yeah
the recession
for the normal seller could hurt though
I'm going to tell you right off the bat
if you're selling everyday items that
the average person is going to need but
doesn't have the money for you're gonna
have some hurt coming for you if if the
recession hits the way people talk about
if you're selling vintage collectibles
your buyers are not an average person
your buyers are somebody who has
Expendable income and for the most part
most people like that don't usually have
an issue when a recession comes when
when stuff was down like with recession
wise and 20 uh 2008 2007 when you know
the stock market and the bubble burst
and all that stuff I was still doing
just fine
again it depends on what you sell I've
moved again this is another reason why I
sell what I sell profit profit margins
clothing it's seasonal
the the overseas shipment I know people
say well it's it's cold somewhere it's
hot somewhere in the world you know all
the time well it's not feasible nowadays
with that and everything the cell
overseas sales have dropped for almost
everybody that I know I still sell
overseas don't get me wrong I sold some
today to England it's only a couple
slack countries it's only small items
so I'm not worried about missing out on
overseas sales that stuff just doesn't
happen it's
the recession or the recession isn't
going to affect those either way because
people aren't buying from overseas
because of that the costs and all the
other crap
um so if you hang on through this yeah
you'll probably do fairly well if you
can manage to make your revenue and get
your money coming in and still be
hitting those profit margins
through a recession you'll you'll you're
fine you weathered the worst part of it
I know a lot of sellers aren't making it
through right now through this Summer's
has crushed a lot of people who have
three four five people a week probably
tell me they can't continue to do this
because they're not making enough to pay
their bills
I live I mean I didn't sleep I just did
listings 20 whatever I could do I was
buying and then listing if I spent six
hours eight hours sourcing I spent that
much time at least listing those same
items when I got home after sourcing all
day long and that's what I did to keep
it going we lived we lived literally
item to item I'd sell an item just to
pay a bill so don't you know I'm I'm
right in the boat there with you but I
didn't give up I just put in an ungodly
amount of hours that most people
wouldn't want to do well I could have
worked for somebody else and put in less
hours yeah but this is a long process
you're not going to start a business and
then two months down the road you're
perfect you're fine everything's rolling
in it's all coming in it's it's a
long-term pipe dream for many but it's a
long-term goal I didn't say hey I'm
going to be a multi-million dollar
seller on eBay or something or in
general reseller it just happened I
never planned a date where I'm going to
have this much up or do this much in
sales I've just worked very hard at it
and said if if you put in the effort and
the work you keep at it it's going to
give you you know something back out of
it and that's what happens
I think everybody that I can think of
who's done this and put in the effort
like we have has made something of it
maybe they are selling something
completely different like us than what
they started off that didn't work for
them they changed you keep selling the
same thing and you're not getting a
return on it you need to switch up what
you're doing it's not working
you know anyway we're going to have to
cut it off here I know I always say I'm
going to do that but let's see if we can
get to one more
anytime Dave Midwest picker again in the
house Dave's a real good guy
uh Jonathan Britton sourcing is a
problem here so I've been saving up
inventory here and just now getting it
on eBay or getting it eBay gone
the best time to source is almost done
summer there's more stuff available we
buy the majority of it obviously in bulk
and I buy a large chunk of it in summer
because the people come to me in summer
more often than than not
buy it when you can but I'm not not
listing it that's all going up as we get
it so we're still having a steady flow
stream online while we're still buying
you know merchandise I don't really need
to buy honestly but
I keep saying that then I keep ending up
with new merchandise
um anyway we're going to let it go at
that
uh hey Don Don Wright welcome in the
house as well
let's let's end it off here I could keep
going on all day I know I'm sorry I do
do ramble a lot if you are enjoying the
conversation please slam that thumbs up
I get 187 people in house right now 118
thumbs up no I'm terrible about that but
uh please slam some love for the channel
here tomorrow's video was already shot
there will be another YouTube membership
video I do have a YouTube membership
here if you're not sure what you are
interested in patreon actually has more
benefits than the YouTube membership but
you don't have to leave YouTube
everything is right there it's all built
in so if you want the YouTube membership
that'd be easier but you don't have
email and all that stuff that you get on
patreon those in patreon who have email
me knows that I I give you a real good
response I try to answer thoroughly if I
don't know I tell you I don't know which
is
in certain areas I'm not a sports fan so
whenever somebody asks me about sports I
don't know much about it or video games
these days I only know vintage video
games
um clickovision that kind of stuff
virtual boy I know those two the old
sega's and NES but anyway we're gonna
let you go I appreciate everybody coming
on there'll be videos on every platform
YouTube YouTube membership and patreon
tomorrow all shot they should be up
early before four uh if you have any uh
concerns or anything else feel free to
post them below we'll try to at least
check those out today but again I thank
you all for coming out and I hope you
all have a good day
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thank you
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