Earlier this year I wrote about selling vintage magazine ads and articles on eBay and wrote a brief update to the original article.
This morning, while making my weekly Tuesday morning visit to a small local antique mall. I purchased the November 1921 and February 1905 issues of The Century Magazine along with a bound volume of the May through October 1887 issues of the same magazine. The covers are missing from all three pieces and the binding of the bound volume has other problems also. I paid $3.00 for each of the magazines and $8.00 for the bound volume.
The two original posts resulted in ongoing conversations with several readers about the feasibility and profitability of selling this kind of stuff as part of a profitable eBay business. Because of that, I thought I would use these three items as a sort of mini case study of this eBay business model.
Over the course of the next week to ten days, I’ll disassemble the magazines and place the ads, the articles, and some of the short stories in my eBay store. Then for the next six months there will be monthly updates disclosing all expenses incurred, sales made, and what the net profits are from the venture.
Photo by Chad Johnson
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November 27th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Gary,
This should be interesting and fun!!
By the way, what kind of magazine was “The Century”??
November 27th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
hi,
interesting to see what happens with your study.
i a have been pushing into this market in the last 45 days. bought almost 1 grand worth of smelly old mag’s and been studying, and working - little tedious, but i have time, lol.
i have almost ‘made’ back what i have put into it or broke even, but have learned quite a bit too.
i started out rather lame, and that week is my ‘learned’ test. see what happens. havent even really got into my PILE of supply, so will definitely make money.
i am not the old collector pro like yourself, but am modeling myself on someone who in the last 3 months took in about $48k in sales, and $10-15 in profit - hard to figure. key is watching your sell thru percentage when doing auction item as this person does. i am doing both store and auction items. both sell, but have to REALLY watch your auctions or you will get killed.
dean
November 28th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Dean,
Has odor been an issue??
November 28th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Dean,
Selling $48K over 90 days and making $10K-$15K?? I would expect a much higher precentage. Seems like his “overhead” is way to high and eating up most of the $$$ What do you think?
I try and keep my “cost of doing business” at 20%-30%…hopefully in the 20% range or even lower!
I’ve just created a new eBay account that will be devoted entirely to Paper & Ephemera items. I have a slew of mags, most are pre 1950’s that I’ve been picking up when ever I can get them CHEAP. I plan to disassemble them and market the ads, articles, and some of the short stories via eBay, so I’m VERY interested in this business model.
Any chance you’d share your eBay store name or username, I’d love to view your set-up!
Thanks in advance and GOOD LUCK!!
November 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
@Stephen
Then Century Magazine was published between 1881 and, I believe, 1930. It could probably be described as similar to what the Saturday Evening Post used to be. A mixture of short stories, an occasional serialized novella, and articles about current & recent events.
@Dean
I don’t believe Stephen’s question about odors was out of line at all. In fact, when I read your comment, from the way you described the magazines the first thought that came to my mind was ‘mildew and it’s odor’ and to post a reply regarding being careful about buying magazines that smelled of must or mildew. The way a lot of these were stored can lead to mildew problems on occasion.
Gary H.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Gary,
I do have a tip for getting rid of severe mildew odors in books and mags.
I have a rubbermaid tub with racks laid on rocks inside that form 2-3 shelves on the very bottom of the tub I’ve spread out 3-4 boxes of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda.
I lay the books, mags or any other musty paper item on the racks and close the lid. I wait 2 wks before I open the tub and check the 1st time and then evry week thereafter until the odor is absorbed.
This works 100% of the time, but the biggest key is PATIENCE…you gotta wait and let the baking soda do it’s thing!!
I had a 1860’s Family Bible (1000+ pgs.) that took almost 6 mos. to deodorize, I kept opening different sections over 2 wk periods until the musty smell was gone. It took awhile, but it worked!
I sold the “clean” bible on eBay for close to $800 and I paid $5 for it at a church book sale.
I really doubt it would have sold for $800 if the description read, “Musty smell with Midew” instead of “No Musty Odor or Mildew”
Which item would you want?? Exactly!!
While I’ve only used this method on paper items, I’m betteing it would work well with cloths & textiles as well.
I hope this little tip helps some of you folks salvage some inventory!
Good Luck Everybody!!
November 30th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
hey all,
sorry if I was short. my wife complains about the smell - I never noticed till she started saying something. not sure if mildew or what. I do notice I start to cough when touching and listing them - so something in them.
this seller may make more - have lower costs, etc - I am just making estimates using terapeak 90 search, and nortica’s calc: http://www.nortica.com/UserArea/EPC.aspx
the seller only sells around 15-17% and focuses pretty much on auction - about 75/25 to store. because sell thru is low, ebay fees kill them - about $20-25k just in fees which is super high - but these are low dollar items, and fee percentage will be higher.
profit/margin is low especially when you figure the large amount of time needed to list 10-15k of items per month. sure they re-circulate they auctions, don’t even want to think about listing that much per month…!!! but if you can make $3-5k per month doing something you enjoy - what the heck - better than a ‘day job’!
dean
November 30th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Gary,
I just discovered your blog this evening, actually stumbled upon it from another blog. I found this blog entry interesting because I have been selling ads and articles on Ebay for 3 years now (but have been selling for nearly 5).
Up until June of this year, I was putting up a wide variety of ads and articles from agriculture to World War II, about 150 auctions weekly. One day would be aviation related, the next day maritime, and the next day another topic. My sell-through was all over the spectrum from 5% to 40%. And on occasion even had 0%. What did not sell at auction went into my Ebay Store. The beginning of 2007, I was averaging 2 sales per day from my Ebay Store. I kept thinking that I had to do better at this or just get out of this area of selling. But then…
Since early 2007 I began searching out as many sellers as I could find who were selling ads. I watched their auctions and stores weekly. I began working up a new selling strategy for myself, one last ditch effort to see if I could increase my sales at both auction and stores.
Beginning in June, I made the decision to concentrate on one topic only (until I ran out of magazines I had available and then start another topic). So I put up on the average 30 auctions per day, five or six days a week. At the end of June, my sell-through rate climbed to 35% to 50% and still is at that average today, 6 months later. From my ebay store, I am now averaging 5 sales per day. My monthly sales has increased 3% to 12% each month. And also approximately 36% of my sales are from repeat buyers!
Like with brick and mortar stores, experts say it can take a business several years to strike it in the black. Well I feel I have finally reached that level starting this past June.
At this time I plan on staying with this one topic. So in the past several months I had purchased two large magazine collections (came to about $4.50 per magazine), and still have plenty to last me into early next year. So in the meantime I have started selling off my other magazines on Ebay to free up space in my storeroom.
I did not intend for this to be long, but I thought you would like to hear from someone in the trenches. There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get this business off the ground, but now things are much easier and I am continuously working on fine-tuning my business model.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts! And good luck to all of you are testing the waters in this niche selling area!
John
December 1st, 2007 at 8:53 am
Dean,
I’d suggest you use a face mask when working with these! If you’re coughing the mold/dust spores are causing it and there are some mold spores that can cause serious health issues…BE CAREFUL!!
I never buy any paper item (if can help it) that show visible mold, mildew or anythng like that, again…BE CAREFUL!!
December 1st, 2007 at 8:57 am
Quincy,
Welcome and what an insightful posting..Thanks!!
Any chance you’d be willing to share your eBay username or eBay store name so we can view your success?
I’m sure I speak for lots of others who are looking for the type of insight that can only be gained from experience.
Thanks in advance!
December 1st, 2007 at 1:27 pm
@ Dean,
I’m going to be testing different ways of attracting potential buyers to the store once I have all these listed, but off the top of my head, I’d guess that listing most of them in auction format first, may be pretty expensive.
For starters, I plan on putting two or three at auction each week with a link to the store in each description saying I have plenty more in the store. I’ll see how that works, but may end up trying a few different ideas also. Will keep everyone posted on how it goes.
@ Quincy,
I want to echo what Stephen’s Thank You for an educational comment. Sharing your experiences and what you have tried is extremely helpful to other readers.
Welcome to the blog and I hope you will continue to check in and add to the discussion whenever you like.
@ Dean,
Whenever I buy any old paper items, including magazines, I always put them to the ’sniff test’ before making a decision whether or not to buy them. I’ve passed on a lot of nice stuff simply because it had a hefty mildew or musty smell.
If items do have an ‘odor’, not only can the ‘odor’ invade your entire home, but it can lead to unhappy customers and result in increased returns.
Gary H.
December 1st, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Quincy,
I would love to hear your niche, but I know that you have put a lot of hard work into finding it. I know I have done a lot of research, and am really focusing on 2-3 niches, and 3-4 decades only.
when I first started, I was putting up every ad I thought was interesting, but like to think I have a formula for what ’sells’ now, although looking at the 90 auctions I put up to a test my theory, looking bad so far. and funny to see some ads that I thought would never sell - sell - as I put them up just for the heck of it.
I have found that if it is a collectible item that people want, then a ad to compliment it will sell. if its a cool mod stylish ad from the 50’s or whenever that is of something people don’t collect in general - then it wont sell. I have done a little research on some ads, and even store items just sit there - course research is only 90 days long. even the highly collectible ‘coke’ - if the ad is boring - it wont sell.
hope it don’t take years to find a good formula, don’t think want to test that long.
in terms of using store or auctions: I think if your item is worthwhile and being searched and it comes up on eBay’s store list with less then 20 auctions? - forget all those search rules - it will sell.
I started putting ads only in store - and they sell surprisingly. they sell better then most items I have ever put in stores - must just sit there forever. I think I even had a sale the day after I put my first batch up - which was encouraging.
but you do have to be careful on what you put in auctions as sell thru is hard to ‘guess’. and as my 90 that end tomorrow, most likely taking a hit in the red! only one bid, and only one buy it now - sad, sad, sad. come on Sunday shoppers!
dean
December 1st, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Question…
Is a gallery picture necessary??
December 2nd, 2007 at 5:24 pm
i think gallery is a must for ads and for any item. gives searchers heads up to what item is, many wont click your item if no gallery. it does add to bottom line, but i have never not used gallery - just gotta do it period.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:07 pm
@Stephen,
I think a gallary picture is essential when putting old ads or articles in a store. And, at only a penny each, they don’t cost much to list.
@Dean,
If I’m reading your comment right you’re saying “Its a MUST, NEVER done it, I need to try it.”
You’d better be careful. Your starting to sound just like me.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:33 am
We are one of the leading antique magazine sellers on Ebay, both loose and disbound issues.
The statement that one member here sold $48K (loose or disbound? not clear) in just 3 months is hard to validate.
Our data from Ebay’s own stats is that such a revenue level (imagine almost 200K per year!) is not being fetched right now by any seller on Ebay.
I would love to hear what the average sell through rate, average sale price and average margin per item is, to get a better idea about the validity of the assertion.
December 31st, 2007 at 2:45 pm
This is a very interesting post in an area of selling that I’ve been active in for quite a while.
The antiques/collectibles world has a funny market in the sense that it’s very easy to sell a good item, but first you have to find a way to purchase at a price you can resell.
How this differs from other retail sales of course is that you can’t order from a catalog or a manufacturer the items you want to sell, so the hunt begins eh? And isn’t it that sense of adventure that keeps our feet cemented in this crazy world reselling old items?
If anyone here is interested in learning how to better educate themselves on buying as ‘dealer’, my latest podcast features techniques on how to do this, I also welcome comments if others have tips.
To list to that one should go to http://auctionwally.blogspot.com/2007/12/episode-5-of-auctionwally-show-buying.html
January 14th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
“The statement that one member here sold $48K (loose or disbound? not clear) in just 3 months is hard to validate.”
its called terapeak research - and i have “validated it”. love to show you how to use it, but not going to…
March 19th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
What dean.e wrote about 48K in 3 months is pure fantasy.
Your terapeak research is faulty.
We work with terapeak all the time and there is no such online antique magazine vendor with a level $200K sales per year to be found via Terapeak.
Even a B+M store like that will be hard to find. There are only a few of those in the entire country.
September 24th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
For free magazines you can get those from magshark.com
free magazine subscriptions