Lynn’s eBay Ezine Volume IV, Issue Number 1

My plan this year is to attack every closet like that first one. I am going to clean them and sell things on eBay until they are empty. Once I am done with the extra closets, I am going to go through every room in my home with a fine-tooth comb. This house is going minimalist this year!  Very Eames-era retro…sleek and empty! Wish me luck.

#2: Make Sales and Profit Margin Goals

I received a wonderful note from one of my Queen’s Court Members, Dawn (Cape Cod Treasure Chest), this past week. What she writes about is exactly what I encourage you all to do this year.

I love numbers and truly believe you need to analyze them. What better time to do this than at the end of a year. It’s great to make plans and to set goals for the new year.

Hands down, Lynn’s system works!!! I’ve been following it for the past few months but over Christmas kicked it up a notch. (I’ve purchased many of Lynn’s items and the Boot Camp in the Box.) Although I must admit getting those 100 items listed every week sometimes was very difficult.

A couple of things I did to analyze my figures was first to add up all my sales for November and December. You could even look at these figures for the whole year. But I chose not to since I was not using Lynn’s system the whole time.

Figure out all your expenses, make sure you include your help, shipping supplies, all fee’s etc.

Next figure out how many items you sold during the time frame you are looking at.

My figures were very interesting in that I sold approximately 31 items a week. Which is approximately 1/3rd of the 100 items listed.

Next, take your sales minus your expenses to get your profit. Hopefully it’s a nice high number.

Divide this number by the number of items sold to get the cost of profit per item.

Mine was $25. Which is pretty high, but I do sell some expensive items, so I’m sure this is why mine might be higher.

Now the fun part. How much do you want to make a week? $100, $500, $1000.

I personally would like to make $750 a week or more. 

So how many items do I need to sell? I need to sell 30 items per week. 30 x $25.00 profit per item equals $750 per week. Giving me a salary of $39K per year.

Based on the information for the past six weeks it really shows that I need to list 100 items per week, approximately 31 of the 100 items will sell and for a total profit of $25.00 per item.

Now I really have the proof that 100 items is my number.

Even though not all my items sold, I’m listing them in the store. I’m assuming with all these not sold items going into the store, it should be easy to make even more money. But I’ll have to look at the end of 2008 to test my theory!

This obviously is going to be different for different people. But I just wanted to share. So many people want to know if it’s possible to do this full time and the answer is a resounding yes. We all want to be like Lynn and sell as much as she does! I know I’m on my way, thanks to her.”

-Dawn

No, Thanks to Dawn for sharing how she analyzed her business and is setting goals!!

Here is my plan for 2008: I sold $117,877 on eBay in 2007. I want to sell $200,000 on eBay in 2008. I want to do about 1/2 in higher-margin (80% to 90% margins) unique one-of-a-kind items and 1/2 in lower margin (30 to 50% margins) brand new goods. What is your plan?

#3: Clean up Slow Selling Merchandise

This is really funny. I was looking around my eBay rec room and decided to start clearing out slow-selling merchandise as a goal for 2008. I know where it is and about how long it has been there–especially since we implemented Mo’s system about 1 1/2 years ago. If you have the shipping DVD, you have seen the letters and dates on each shelf.

So, if there is no letter or date on a shelf–I know it has been in my eBay store for about two years. One of the items I fixated on was this set of 12 really neat plastic plates with cups that fit into the center. Very mid-century minimalist (like my house is going to be).

They were on the shelf near the ceiling above my treadmill. I said to myself, “That will be one of the first things to go.” Too bad because I really thought they were neat. Guess what? I wake up the next morning and all three store auctions have sold!!!

Check out this auction for four of the dinner sets.