Low end, Middle, and High end Merchandise-----The benefits of having a Mixture!

[getitright1234]

Low end, Middle, and High end Merchandise-----The benefits of having a Mixture!

Last year my average selling price was $35-40,  I turned my nose up at selling anything below this amount.  As I watched other sellers I found their average price was $12-$20 and they were getting a lot more sales.   I am now motivated to mix things up.    I will seek what I have and list to create a mixture of Low end, Middle, and High end merchandise.   One other seller explained:  the $12-$20 items are her bread and butter items, all other items are the extra gravy items you hope to sell 4-5 + a month. 

So, what is your store made of:  Low end, Middle, or High end items or do you mix things up?    

PS:  How does this work for you?

[adkhighker]

Whether it's doing business on ebay or out there in the brick and mortar world, I always find the middle of road stuff the hardest to make money on. It's so common that you have to price it way under value to sell it because of all the competition, yet it's harder to buy it right because so many people who own it have an overinflated idea of its value. 

I have my best luck with either the high end stuff or the junk.

The hardsest part with high end stuff is finding it. The next hardest part is buying it for the right price. However, if you can find it for the right price, you can really score. High end stuff is the most fun for sure, but the work is in finding it for the right price.

Then there's the junk. It's easy to find and it's easy to buy it for next to nothing because most people who own it are simply glad to get anything for it. If it's at all saleable, the profit margin is usually very high and makes it worthwhile to spend the little bit of time involved in selling it. For example, someone might sell you a box of old tools for $5 where you can sell one item in the box on ebay for $20 and then dump the rest through a brick and mortar auction house for another $20.

[mr_lincoln]

@getitright1234  Good topic - great post ... I think in the area of Collectibles the mixture of low-mid-high priced items is a winning combination.  I also think setting one's lowest sale amount is key too.  For us, items that do not sell eventually get processed through local Auction hoses to simply add to the ongoing cash flow and making room for new inventory.

I think its important to have a number of higher price good quality items even if they take a while to sell, I think it shows Buyers that your store is not a thrift shop.  And of course when they eventually sell its a nice boost to the monthly average.

It takes just as much time to acquire, prep, list, sell, pack and ship a $ 10 dollar item as it does a $ 300 item ... but your smile is a lot bigger when you drop that $ 300 off at the post office!!!!

[juststuffisell]

I have a mixed bag like most sellers. I try very hard to minimize items under 10 bucks but this is a catch all store. The last few months I have had Christmas ornaments up and books up which you can't seem to sell for very much of eBay. Heck, I do alright - I have seen other sellers in worse shape so I have no room to **bleep**....even though it depresses me seeing the direction my store has traveled this year. I suppose that is why I spend more time in the forum than working on listing....lol

My average ticket is 39 bucks and my goal is 90 to 100 dollars. Kind of irritating as I was doing quite well until the summer update. Since then, my views - and corresponding with that - my STR have tanked. I've sold more items I believe running auctions to move items not worthy of fixed price, or cleaning out inventory in general, than I have selling fixed priced items - least it feels like it.... So, the auctions have made up for the drop in actual fixed price sales through the second half and they drop the average ticket  price - so the numbers look the same, but they really aren't versus past years. More items sold, less money per item, and what is looking like a 10% or so drop in gross sales for the year, higher costs to sell and a 26% drop in Christmas sales which is about a 1500 or so hit this month so far on eBay. Tragic

On the plus side I have another store with  71 transaction with an average STR of $130.56 per item. Harder sale items but I do smile every time a new order needs shipping.

Anyway, my goal for next year includes adding new platforms I am selling on. While eBay has a large presence, it seems to me that it comes with a larger portion of buyers that have a "Yard Sale" or "Walmart" mentality here in the past year. It was always a small issue as many of you know, but now it just seems to be growing. I am so tired of getting emails from people offering me 50% to 70% of spot gold on antique jewelry they'd have to pay 2 to 3 times what I am selling it for on certain other domains...sigh.....grrr....arghhhhh.... That said, I am starting to think that is part of my issue. I need to jack up my prices to be more in line with the researched items and maybe that will take care of that. Just afriad if you raise them too high, I'll just hear more crickets...

Finally, dollar sales are important, but margin is exceptionally important. You've got to be able to make a good margin at lower volume otherwise, you're making no net income. I like the one posters point - buy it for 25 cents and sell it for ten bucks. That is a fabulous ROI. As I have learned the hard way over the years, even when you "think" you are getting a deal, one off items can eat your lunch pretty quickly. It's why I try to buy only in lots/grouping that I believe can produce that 5 to 10 x ROI and why I like to buy storage lockers. You can get a lot of misc diverse inventory for a little bit of capital and if you buy smart, you really only need 3 o 4 units a year to make a fabulous NET roi.

Cheers

[mr_lincoln]

@juststuffisell  wrote: " ... Finally, dollar sales are important, but margin is exceptionally important. You've got to be able to make a good margin at lower volume otherwise, you're making no net income. I like the one posters point - buy it for 25 cents and sell it for ten bucks. That is a fabulous ROI. As I have learned the hard way over the years, even when you "think" you are getting a deal, one off items can eat your lunch pretty quickly. It's why I try to buy only in lots/grouping that I believe can produce that 5 to 10 x ROI and why I like to buy storage lockers. ... "

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I've found that the best lots are ones you can break down into numerous listings and your point on "one offs" in your complete post is a good point too, the one off's HAVE to sell for a certain amount or profit suffers.  However, I will also purchase items at break even resale amounts if they are good attention getters ... driving traffic comes in many forms and you never know when that one off unique item brings a Buyer to your store who finds something else they like or want ... it would be great to know what items Buyers searched for compared to what they eventually purchased from you ...

[juststuffisell]

Oh yeah. I know what you mean. Those Attention getters are the unusual and usually expensive, they draw eyes bring in prospects who will buy other items. I would agree that those types of items are "investments" for cross sales. I was speaking more of the day to day purchases made for resale with intent to profit. I will definitely step up to the plate on a unique item that I think will bring in eyes for my related items and I have gone so far as to buy a bit at a loss just to have it in one of my stores.

It would definitely be nice to have the search data for sure! Would help with SEO for titles and descriptions. I am just not so sure why eBay doesn't make a lot of data available for store owner to use for research beyond fear of another site stealing data I suppose.

Cheers

[drusalina]

What I really don't get is sellers selling and losing money.  They will sell a bunch of items for $.99 cents, charge $3.50 shipping and never consider the cost of the item.  By the time you pay for shipping a first class package under 9 oz, (now before PO First Class prices go to by zone in Jan)  your profit is under $1.00.  But what did the item cost you?  They are losing money.  I don't get it.  They then have only a few more items at $10, $20 or $30.  It is costing them money to sell.  They aren't figuring their Cost of the item, the bag or box they have to put it in, packing material, tape, label, taking it to the PO.  I just don't get it.  

[adkhighker]

Could be they're just doing it temporarily to build up their listing totals so they can qualify for TRS more quickly?

[drusalina]

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@adkhighker wrote:

Could be they're just doing it temporarily to build up their listing totals so they can qualify for TRS more quickly?

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Nope, they have been selling since 2012 with only 350 feedback.  Not getting rid of stuff, homemade items, that are costing them at least $3.00 to make.  

[castlemagicmemories]

I have seen sellers with such a mix tend to have phenomenal, unbelievable sell through rates, so it seems you are right.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Maybe it's their "hobby"?

[cubano4u]

Here's my two cents.... It's really up to each seller depending on what you are looking for in sales. I sell everything in every price range but have very little high end items for sale. I started selling on here for enjoyment and as a means to have an online yard sale. So I'm happy with whatever my sales are because I make some extra money and am cleaning out my house of inventory I no longer want. I have a close friend who occasionally sells on here. She doesn't have a store like I do and sells only middle to high end items plus many electronics. She has a lot of returns, packages lost, and has been scammed twice now. She rarely accepts offers and I feel she is higher priced so that's why she sells far less than me. About a year ago I took some of her items she couldn't sell and was going to donate. I sold every single item within 3 months and gave her the proceeds, after deducting the fees only. I did it to prove a point to her because she let me sell them at whatever price I felt. I wanted to show her that by lowering her prices she would sell them easily. I also took new photos of the items and staged them. I wrote my own detailed descriptions vs her one line tepid descriptions and boring photos with a white backdrop. She agrees they sold quickly but she feels she'd rather sell them at her higher amounts or donate them because it's not worth it to her otherwise. She'd rather make $250 bucks or nothing at all, she doesn't care about making $50, she'd rather give them away. I feel different but that's also because I enjoy selling and don't mind the time I put in to each sale. It's a fun challenge to me. Tomato, tumatuh, it's all about individual tastes and preferences.