The thirteenth week of The $10,000 Garage Sale eBay Challenge is now history with the auctions that ended on Sunday evening. There were thirty-three Challenge items listed and twenty-three of them sold for a total of $740.75. The sell-through rate was 70%.
Similar to the last three or four weeks, the number of garage sales this week was way down. In previous years Fridays and Saturdays during July and August would each have thirty-five to forty-five new garage sales. Often there would be as many as sixty or seventy. That definitely isn’t the norm for this year.
Originally, I thought the decline in the number of sales was largely a result of the higher-than-normal temperatures and humidity we had for several weeks. However, the last two weeks our weather has returned to normal for this time of year and this hasn’t brought the increase in sales I would have expected.
As it looks right now, unless the number of garage sales increases dramatically, or I stumble upon three or four items that individually bring $400 to $600 profits, my $10,000 goal for the Challenge looks to be in danger. I would estimate that, right now, I’m running approximately $1500 to $2000 behind where I thought I would be. With seven weeks left, I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.
After twelve weeks of sales, here is how things look to date.
| Ended | Sold | Cost | List Fees | FV Fees | PayPal Fees | Incid. Fees | Miles | Net Profit | Total |
| 5/13 | $405.62 | $61.15 | $24.10 | $17.82 | $17.40 | $0.00 | $29.39 | $255.74 | $255.74 |
| 5/ 20 | $135.88 | $12.50 | $13.10 | $7.03 | $4.99 | $0.00 | $39.27 | $58.99 | $314.73 |
| 5/ 27 | $579.76 | $47.05 | $35.85 | $26.39 | $18.54 | $0.00 | $57.72 | $395.31 | $710.04 |
| 6/3 | $500.79 | $36.60 | $19.75 | $21.29 | ‘$20.52 | $0.00 | $21.83 | $380.80 | $1090.84 |
| 6/10 |
No Auctions This Week |
||||||||
| 6/17 | $895.83 | $88.75 | $45.00 | $38.10 | $38.82 | $0.00 | $45.08 | $640.00 | $1730.92 |
| 6/24 | $355.65 | $27.55 | $23.25 | $13.81 | $9.03 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $282.01 | $2012.93 |
| 7/1 | $684.67 | $69.40 | $23.65 | $26.97 | $27.74 | $0.00 | $36.48 | $500.43 | $2513.36 |
| 7/8 | $773.23 | $72.10 | $38.65 | $32.11 | $28.71 | $0.00 | $31.68 | $569.98 | $3083.34 |
| 7/15 | $320.69 | $35.00 | $29.80 | $14.03 | $12.18 | $0.00 | $19.68 | $210.00 | $3293.34 |
| 7/22 | $608.69 | $54.80 | $13.50 | $23.08 | $20.83 | $0.00 | $25.44 | $491.87 | $3785.21 |
| 7/29 | $531.80 | $45.50 | $22.30 | $22.43 | $16.21 | $0.00 | $35.52 | $389.74 | $4174.95 |
| 8/5 | $740.75 | $25.30 | $25.75 | $30.56 | $31.21 | $0.00 | $48.96 | $578.97 | $4753.92 |
| 8/12 | $32.05 | $16.90 | $30.24 | ||||||
This week there are twenty-two Challenge items listed on eBay. Two of these are re-lists and the other twenty were purchased at last weeks garage sales. Here is what they are along with what I paid for them.
- The Raging Red - a re-list
- Coca Cola lapel pin - re-list
- Across The Wheatgrass - $.25
- Deluxe Brand red pepper spice tin - $4.00
- Elk Of North America - $.50
- Fosston Minnesota Centennial book - $1.00
- Harry Potter Vol. 1-5 - $5.00
- Julia’s Children - $.25
- Lewis & Clark Exploration book - $.25
- Looking Back From The Sunset Land - $.25
- 35 Time Life Home Repair & Improvement books - $5.00
- Medalta Potteries crock - $5.00
- Rosemeade Potteries Turkey salt and pepper - $.05
- Sex & The City - Season 1, 2, 3 - $6.00
- Stories Of The Great Operas - $1.00
- Tax Strategies For Business - $1.00
- The Best Of J.E. Coleman - $.50
- The Checkered Years - $.25
- The Land Of The Crooked Tree - $.25
- The Musical Heritage Of The Lutheran Church CD set - $1.00
- Alice & Jerry Runaway Home book - $.25
- Your Neighbor’s Story - $.25
That’s it for this week. As I’m writing this on Wednesday evening, seven of the twenty-two items have been bid on for a total of $172.85.
Popularity: 10% [?]
August 8th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Gary,
I still say you should include your Amazon income, as I’m sure most if not all of your inventory in that venue come from your garage sale scouting efforts.
Maybe you could add your ScoutPal expense into your Amazon calculations (if you don’t already) … Include your Amazon totals too!!
It sure looks like driving the extra 10 miles to that city-wide sale in Manvel was well worth the $5-$8 bucks it cost you in expenses!!
That handpainted Stag/Buck bowl, and the Cat Roly-Poly toy were really exceptional!! I still think that it could have been a Schoenhut piece with the paper label missing.
I’ll be back online after Aug 22-24