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This looks like a completely worthwhile, manageable project to me. Computer towers, even old ones, are easy to take apart and full of parts you can sell. Most parts of a tower will sell: hard drive, power supply, motherboard (usually sell with the RAM), optical drive…
Monitors sell really well for me, both eBay and FB/CL. Most accessories sell.
I would sell these a lot more if I could test computers and diagnose what was wrong with the ones that don’t work right. I don’t want to be selling repair people broken parts.
I’m 27, and have been doing this full time for about 5 years. The socialization problem is extreme, and I’m planning on getting a regular job again with that as one of the primary drivers. There are all the obvious problems: being alone for too much of the day, not having coworkers. For me, it has driven down my productivity: no hard deadlines, no management to be accountable to, no coworkers to see me work slowly and judge. I finally hired a kid to help me on projects once a week, and I look forward to those few hours all week because of how much we always get done together: well more than twice as efficient as I am on my own.
I would consider this problem seriously. I got a social life once I joined a Crossfit gym and became friends with all the folks there. I’m not sure that I could have been successful without that.
My numbers for holiday season are ok, but remain smaller than I want to see on a normal non-Q4 week. This time last year, I was seeing $300+ sales days on most of the days leading to Christmas. Time investment and growth all year, and my numbers are still lukewarm.
Week Ending: 12/14/19
Total Items in Store: 7180
Items Sold: 107
Gross Sales: $1,295
Cost of Items Sold: $84
Highest Price Sold: $80 (EVGA Gaming computer power supply)
Average Price Sold: $12.10Can someone remind me what the efficient way is to calculate sales volume for the week? The stupid shipping-inclusive sales numbers always fool me into feeling more successful than I am.
The town representatives kept insisting on using eBay despite my constant warnings, then the store was taken down permanently 3 hours before our announced sale start – eBay’s arbitrary fraud protections, then the sale was canceled and I was fired. Complete embarrassment and waste of about 3 weeks of full time work.
I would be happy to chat with you about beurocracy after this is over 🙂 I told them that many times.
If you’re in Central NJ, you should bid on our signs. Bloomfield is Parkway exit 148.
Hello from the brinks of hell! I tried to convince the town to use GovDeals or MaxSold before I even took on the project because the fees are so much more reasonable; they had already decided on eBay and wouldn’t rethink their position.
To my big surprise, we did manage to get the new account started with a 10,000 item selling limit. It seems they treat business accounts differently.
To Jay’s earlier question – It took me 5 days to photograph and organize 1200 signs, or 2400 photos. I’m spending this week creating and distributing advertising, planning with the administration, and using InkFrog to create scheduled listings for just south of 1200 listings. Wish me luck!
We are already getting media attention. I am the referenced “local eBay proprietor.”
https://www.rlsmedia.com/article/bloomfield-auction-street-signs
They were always going to do it through eBay auctions. We’re talking about a town with 50,000 people, with quite a lot of enthusiasm before we have even announced the auction. An auction house would never work for this project.
It’s going to be a doozy. My time to do the work was just cut in half. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opinions over it is finished.
This is a one-time, pickup-only auction – I don’t have flexibility on that. I’m going to be managing a team over a 2-day pickup interval. I have a few weeks to work with, and yes I need to photograph and list 1200 items (but it’s 1200 versions of the same item). 2 images per sign, and apart from the title it’s going to be the same listing, again and again. I’m going to be looking for a software to create a template with, and then apply to it to the photo set. I think it could save me some hours of work if the process was a little more automated than the ‘Sell Similar’ process.
I really hope you’re right about the selling limits. In my experience, they only raised them after time passed and positive feedback.
Mickdog, I want to second Jay’s sentiment. That’s remarkably useful; even anchor support rep didn’t know you could do something like that.
I ran a google search, and first result was a thread on this blog, haha. Thanks for the heads up.
Not competitor to eBay; competitor to Craigslist. It has absolutely outcompeted Craigslist up here in North Jersey. I still list things on both because it’s just a matter of copy/paste, but I must have at least 4x as much business through Facebook.
It’s really good for most of the things Craigslist is good for: affordably priced furniture, electronics, home goods. There is also a host of things I now sell only because Facebook enables me to. Things like appliances, cheap housewares, large kids toys are bulky and don’t make much over eBay. Craigslist wasn’t great for them because it relied on people specifically searching for them. But Facebook will advertise them to anyone with similar search histories, and people will buy stuff just because it’s cheap enough and seems mildly helpful – think garage sale model.
It’s also a REALLY good platform for sourcing. I see new bulk posts every time I look at Marketplace. Tons more efficient than Craigslist. I may buy as often as I sell.
Hi. Very psyched you guys are trying out Facebook finally.
1. Yes, people can pay through Facebook. They will still usually prefer cash, but the Facebook Pay option is outstanding. It transfers money quickly, and for free, between checking accounts. You don’t need a separate site account; both parties just need to give them their debit card. Once it’s on file, you can send and request money with strangers as easily as you can on Venmo.
2. You’re right about Facebook Marketplace concentrating your posts to your immediately surrounding neighbors. However, you’re going to receive plenty of messages from further away. If you’re selling something specialized, FB will bring your posts up to people states away. I ship over Facebook all the time. Requires more trust on behalf of the buyer, but it works.
3. You’re going to receive more “is this available” posts than you would over Craigslist because the algorithms advertise it more thoroughly, and Facebook makes it meaninglessly easy for people to demonstrate interest. This can get very annoying. Usually automatic responses options pop up if you’re looking at Facebook Messenger on your cell. I recommend just clicking the “Yes” in response to everyone, and not thinking about a conversation until they send you a second message.
4. I am earning more here than I am on eBay (not overall. on individual items). No fees, and you aren’t faced with the price competition than you are on eBay. People want things they can get too quickly. There aren’t going to be a whole lot of people selling the same things in the same region. I would strongly recommend listing furniture and computers/electronics – better than anywhere.–Where do you store so many items?
I was remarkably lucky to find a cheap 2BR+ apartment in my very expensive part of New Jersey last year. I have an attic where I built a recognizable wire shelf / storage bin system for clothing. I have a wall-length Ikea shelf where I store LPs. I have a few walls of bookshelves to store CDs, DVDs, and books. I used to sell a lot of loose CDs and DVDs, and I still have around 5 binders full of those. Some dressers to hold smaller assorted goods that don’t display well. Art, home goods, collectibles, etc I have scattered around my apartment, shared basement, and personal storage unit 10 minutes away. I have also been experimenting in bulk sales for cheap things like DVDs, which sit in storage.–Do you work alone?
Yes. It has been getting very difficult with the store getting so large. I have been convinced by your experiences with your helpers, and I hope to start hiring a high school kid for a few hours every week.– I am trying to build a career. I hope to continue my store as a second business, like I used to but in much larger scale. Unlike you guys, this is the only long-term work I have done. If I want to apply for a more traditional job, I need to legitimize myself in a way people with traditional career history don’t have to. Right now, I am in talks with a few businesses and organizations about consulting for e-commerce project, and a few people have convinced me to sell things for them through consignment.
