Well the 2008 Garage Sale Challenge has ended and we fell far short of our goal of $5000.00 in net profit for the summer. We were way too optimistic about how much inventory we would find and how much we would be able to list. We’ll plead naivete since mid August marked the end of our first year selling on eBay. We learned a lot over the course of the challenge and had a lot of fun. Having a goal kept us moving some mornings when we might not have otherwise.
Some things we learned….
It’s easier to buy things than to get them listed. In short enthusiasm can’t make up for a basic lack of time! We still have unlisted inventory from the summer even though a family emergency essentially kept us from buying from mid August through September. Since we do this part time weekends are often the only time we have for both buying and listing.
Mileage is a huge expense at least in the small town rural environment where we live. Our mileage expense for the challenge was 23% of our total sales – we were stunned to learn this. We were pretty sloppy about recording and deducting mileage last year and it’s clear now this is a mistake. Needless to say we’re paying much more attention to it now.
Our instincts for what sells well are pretty good and getting better all the time.
We enjoy doing this and we enjoy doing this together (this cannot be understated since we’re not really making any money at it yet!).
It was fun “meeting” the other challenge participants and following along as you worked towards your goals. Best of luck to everyone going forward. Gary, thanks for organizing the challenge and thanks again for sharing so much of what you know at Auction Rebel. We hope you’ll do it again next year!
| Week # | Sales | Cost | List Fee | Fv Fee | PayPal Fee | Misc Fees | Mileage | Net Profit | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 105.50 | 8.40 | 53.03 | -166.93 | |||||
| 2 | 353.33 | 27.85 | 13.80 | 25.80 | 16.73 | 2.99 | 71.71 | 194.45 | 27.53 |
| 3 | 161.94 | 86.35 | 6.86 | 15.57 | 11.45 | 0.00 | 74.74 | -33.03 | -5.50 |
| 4 | 314.36 | 584.50 | 3.15 | 24.62 | 13.06 | 5.52 | 44.44 | -360.93 | -366.44 |
| 5 | 108.78 | 20.20 | 9.80 | 8.16 | 3.81 | 0.00 | 90.40 | -23.58 | -390.02 |
| 6 | 155.09 | 0.00 | 2.80 | 12.94 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 139.35 | -250.67 |
| 7 | 56.98 | 73.00 | 2.45 | 4.71 | 3.55 | 0.00 | 48.48 | -75.21 | -325.88 |
| 8 | 94.93 | 41.14 | 13.30 | 8.43 | 4.35 | 59.59 | -31.88 | -357.75 | |
| 9 | 155.70 | 0.00 | 5.60 | 13.21 | 6.60 | 0.00 | 130.29 | -227.46 | |
| 10 | 66.46 | 183.40 | 4.06 | 4.94 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | -125.94 | -353.40 |
| 11 | 151.70 | 41.75 | 3.88 | 1.62 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 95.36 | 9.10 | -344.30 |
| 12 | 136.17 | 0.00 | 2.10 | 9.41 | 1.75 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 122.91 | -221.40 |
| 13 | 65.00 | 0.00 | 13.33 | 6.39 | 4.05 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 41.23 | -180.17 |
| 14 | 325.20 | 100.52 | 0.00 | 25.74 | 12.12 | 0.00 | 68.44 | 118.38 | -61.79 |
| 15 | 9.99 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.99 | -51.80 |
| 16-17 | 49.58 | 0.24 | 5.95 | 1.04 | 42.35 | -9.45 | |||
| 18-21 | 425.01 | 10.15 | 34.25 | 25.48 | 355.13 | 345.68 | |||
| TOTALS | 2,630.22 | 1,264.21 | 99.92 | 201.73 | 103.99 | 8.51 | 606.17 | 345.68 |
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