Some 2009 Sales Stats

I keep a simple excel spreadsheet to track the money generated by our eBay business. We started eBay in August 2006, and I started this spreadsheet in Jan 2007 - I found it was much easier to keep track of things. Also, I needed to be able to prove to myself & anyone else who cared that we were not losing money.

So, anyway, here are some stats for 2009.

First the money: eBay-wise our gross was 9.5% higher than last year, and almost 300% higher than 2007. Last year (and most of 2007) we rented booths in a couple of antique/collectible stores downtown, and we also had some sales on ETSY & eBid. Our total gross income was higher in 2008, when you include non-eBay activity. Renting and stocking booths was a lot of work tho, it took a lot of time and a fair amount of physical labor - I was surprised. We decided to concentrate on eBay, so we don't work the booths anymore.

Our net income is about 7% less than last year, again because we've all but stopped all non-eBay activity, sales wise.

Second, the customers: Domestically we shipped to all 50 states. The top 5 shipping addresses were located in California, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas. That's no surprise, last year it was the same except Florida was 3rd & Pennsylvania 4th.

Internationally we shipped to 25 countries, alphabetically from Argentina to Uruguay. The top 5 international shipping addresses were in the UK, Canada, France, Australia & Germany. Over time, and with a larger volume, I have a feeling that we'd send more to Canada than anywhere else. So far everything has eventually made it to the purchaser. I ship within one business day of receiving payment, but sometimes it takes awhile to get there.

We picked up consignments again starting from October, after a lull of sorts. We do consignments by word of mouth mostly, we don't actively seek them out anymore. Consignments are a love/hate thing with me. They add another layer of work keeping track of the sales for the consignor, eBay and PayPal fees & our commissions. And it requires extra communication with people, I find myself defending eBay fees (which are not cheap) and you sometimes end up trying to sell things that you might not really care about selling. But on the good side, you can get a lot of ideas about what to sell, you get more experience with what sells and what doesn't, you get a bit of money for inventory you didn't have to buy, and sometimes you present the consignor with a really large check, and that's always nice. Our profits from consignment sales accounted for about 11% of our net profits in 2009.

Third, the things we sell. I track the items well sell. I know which subjects sell the most, and which get the highest price (not the same). I know how much we spend per item, and how much well sell it for. Occasionally I'll track a group of items down to the penny, just to make sure of expenses vs income. That's pretty tedious though, so I don't do it often. I also keep a sheet of customer requests - if I come across a postcard or a picture that includes a collie, or an antique clock, or an interstate highway, I know who to contact.

Stats are boring, aren't they?

Colorized Cabinet Photo Circa 1890s

This is a cabinet photo from the 1880s-1890s, probably more in the 1890s range. The interesting thing about it is that it is colorized, probably with crayon, but I can't really say for sure. The woman's hair is blond and you can see some pink in her cheeks.

Cabinet photos (or Cabinet Cards) were popular from the 1860s or so until the very early 20th century. They are roughly (tho not exactly) 4 X 6 inches, and they changed thru the years. That's how we can come up with an educated guess as to the age. The thickness of the cardboard, the ornateness of the writing & illustrations on back (or the lack of such), round corners vs square corners, borders etc are all clues.

This photo has very ornate photographer information on the front and back - this one is from Richmond, Virginia.

Also the photo itself is an albumen print on very thin paper - if there is silvering, that is indicative of a gelatin silver print, which dates it into the 20th century.

Click on the title to go to the listing if you're interested.

Update:  SOLD!

Comic Art Postcard - Tex Lowell

This is an example of a comic art postcard by Tex Lowell. I just found out that Tex Lowell's real name was George E. Turner, but he used this name to hide his moonlighting from a newspaper he worked at in Amarillo, Texas. If this is true, then it's quite interesting because George E. Turner became famous in certain circles.

Tex Lowell drew a lot of these types of cards - they were something for tourists to buy in the 1950s. Sometimes he just signed "Tex" and sometimes he probably didn't sign them at all. This is a pretty good example of his art.

This is a standard/chrome postcard probably from the 1950s, certainly no later than the 1960s. If you're interested, click on the title to go to the listing.

And Merry Christmas!

Art Postcard Julie Andrews, by Al Herschfeld

This postcard is an interesting drawing of Julie Andrews by Al Herschfeld in 1968, while visiting the set of the movie STAR!. This movie was directed by Robert Wise, and was based on the life of British actress Gertrude Lawrence.

It looks like a simple illustration, but at the same time there are a lot of details and expressions represented.

I like it. If you're interested, click on the title to go to the listing.

The Trouble With Pictures

Unless I've made a mistake or there is a software glitch, every eBay listing we have has a picture or two. This post involves difficulties I encounter in getting it right.

The picture to the right is a sepia (ish) photo from the 1920s or so. And what you see is the absolute best I could do with it, and my best fell way short. The actual photograph has richer colors and much more subtle shading - it is a very nice picture. I could not reproduce it accurately - the physical photo looks better than the picture I ended up with.

The problem is lighting. I'm not a professional, and I don't have professional equipment or knowledge. I do have a small light box with "daylight" lamps and also a place close to a window that lets a lot of natural light in. I pick and choose which I think is best, depending on the situation. If you look at one of our listings and it has a black background around the edges, then I used the light box. If it has a light blue background, then I used natural light.

I think light has color. Daylight bulbs, regular bulbs, fluorescent bulbs, sunlight all have their own tint. Sometimes it is reflected off the surroundings, and sometimes not. But even though we don't normally think of light as having color, I'm pretty sure it does, and it changes the way a thing looks when you take a picture of it. This can be very frustrating, especially if you have a bit of a detail oriented streak about certain things.

Every picture I take gets moved from the memory stick to a work area on my computer, then pulled up into Paint Shop Pro 8. Why PSP8? Because that's what I have, no other reason. In PSP I crop it, I want to show the picture and the edges - edges are important to collectors - and not much else. Then I try to make the item on the computer look the same way as the physical item in front of me looks. This is tricky. The last thing I want to do is to doctor something up so that it looks better in the listing than it is in reality because that can lead to a very unhappy customer. At the same time, I don't want to cause someone to under value an item because it doesn't look as good as it should - so I do the best I can to get it right. Most of the time I come up short. Most of the time the picture in the listing does not look as good as the actual item - especially photographs like the one above.

I also resize the picture for the listing - I make it a little smaller. I just started doing that a month or so ago, because I ran into a space storage issue. This was a compromise I hated to make, because I think being able to super size a picture and seeing the details is important for online buyers. But it is a space = money issue, and I had to do it. They're still good size, but just not as huge as they used to be when you click on them.

After I'm done with all that I upload them into software called "Inkfrog", and that is where we create the listings with the pictures, then schedule them to be posted on eBay.

I know I'm not the only who has issues with pictures they use in their desriptions. Some people include a statement in their listings that the item looks better than the photograph, so they must be going through similar frustrations. Pictures are very important, and it is hard to get them exactly right.

Ivars Acres of Clams Restaurant

This is a standard/chrome postcard of Ivar's Acres of Clams Restaurant in Seattle, Washington. From the looks of the cars, it appears to be from the 1940s or early 1950s. It's located on Pier 54 on the Seattle waterfront, next to the fireboat station.

But not for long, apparently. I read an article online (dated April 2009) which said it was going to be used for fire training before being demolished.

However, they still have a website and still seem to be in business, so I don't know. Their website says they've been around since 1938.

Anyway, this card is in the neighborhood of 60 years old, and you can click on the title if you're interested in going to our listing.

Entrecard Kicked In

After 8 or 9 days the entrecard people finally approved this blog. Watch out world!

12/17: I've still yet to see ads other than the EC generic sponsor ad. There should be others running, so am I just missing it or have I done something wrong.....

Sigh.