@Jared Dollen From the Goodwill bins alone... our cost of goods is $1.77. When we add in thrift store finds... we jump up to $4.55 (including bin finds) and if you find the right Whatnot auctions and take advantage of the combined shipping (up to 5 lbs for $8.77) - we keep our whatnot cost of goods down to $4.24 which is still within our normal range.

@Jared Dollen What? Wow... that's crazy.

@Charlene Reeser You can close your store? How do you do that?

@Jerry Wilson & @Charlene Reeser Huh... good to know.

Whew... after this store review... we spent 16 hours going through every one of the 600 listings in our 45 day old store to change all titles to the recommended format of "Brand, Item, Gender, Size, Color, Keywords". We also repriced everything using the formula of 100% or higher AST - price at the higher range of selling price and from 50% or below... price at the average sales price (we were price about 20% higher).\ In the past two days we've seen our sales double! Of course, it's a bit early to tell but I'm thinking the on going results will be much, much better going forward. Thanks @Beau Johnson . Appreciate you insights and expertise.

@Jerry Wilson Yeah, I like BIGS. Works for me... :)

I studied this couple's model for ebay and whatnot BEFORE we decided to move forward with it. They do well on both platforms. They started on eBay - sourcing thrift stores and selling stuff with high STR rates. Their cost of good sdended up being too high - so they started sourcing from the bins to keep costs down and focused on using styles and aesthetic keywords to increase views and value. They started on whatnot about 5 months go and, yeah, they have a great business. The SECRET ADVANTAGE they have is they also have a wholesale biz - meaning they have a group of people THEY source for based on brand, style and aesthetics - who pay $7.50 per item. So how it might work is this: 1) Source a nice item from the bins - ebay sell-through-rate doesn't matter 2) If item has a nice sell through rate - they list it on ebay 3) If item does not have a nice STR but has value - they run it through whatnot 4) If it doesn't sell on whatnot - they can bundle it to their wholesale buyers. It's a nice model that works really well BECAUSE they have the wholesale biz part of it.

That's crazy