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Yes.. Love to see the numbers presented this way. Very close to a P&L statement. I also break ours down into percentage of the income.
New comers seeing numbers this way will help them to realize that if they need $25k a year to live on, then they better prepare and gear up to sell a lot more than that, maybe closer to $50,000 for the year. Ebay and PayPal fees and the cost of the item is just the tip of the iceberg.
mike at mdcgfa
Here is another idea for you. I noticed you are missing a middle string. I suggest taking it to a instrument shop where they sell guitars and ask for the string to be replaced. That shouldn’t cost much plus will increase the sales price somewhat.
Tell them it is going to be a gift for a niece or nephew and you want to get the string replace and get it tuned. BUT while you are there and talking with them ask about it, dig for information. Is it a good choice for a student, will the neck warp, is it an OK grade for a beginner. Just play dumb but interested that as an aunt you don’t want to give the kid something that he will be embarrassed to start taking guitar lessons with. Maybe even ask them if they offer guitar lessons and the price. i bet they will dump their guts out on the quality of the guitar if they think you may be a future customer for the kid’s lesson’s, as a fantastic and proud Aunt or Grandmother should be. LOL :-), Try it, it may work. Who knows, it may be a great “Classical Guitar”, which Shinano seems to make.
mike at MDCGFA
Good Morning:
Check out this Worthpoint Link and also their is a ton of information on various models on Google as well as several videos.
https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=shinano+guitar&category=
The price points on the Worthpoint ones for the model SC-30 runs from $175 to $269 but if the number you mention 10F is a model number as it says on your label, then that is probably a different model, but the prices for the SC-30 would make me want to chase down your model number.
Also Google top 100 classical guitars. The Shanano is not in the top ten list is what I Googled.
Think you will hit pay dirt if you spend some more time searching on Google, Classical guitars under $500, student grade classical guitars, of course Shinano. Maybe even call or contact Shinano themselves if still in business.Good Luck,
Mike at MDC galleriesYes to what Jay and Ryanne have already said. The depressed circles are called “coin dots” and come in small and larger sizes. Yours are “small coin dot” and of course some call them “dimpled”.
Here is a link to a 4 pc set of mugs in the larger dimpled pattern. See if you can continue the search on worthpoint for other depression era uranium and / or vaseline glass.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/set-green-uranium-vaseline-glass-2016149243
As Jay says, many do collect them and we too have seen large curio cabinets filled with them with a black light on them. At night when the Antique Mall we were in closed at night and it was dark, that cabinet was really eerie because he left the black light on all night.
Don’t expect to get a very much for them. Remember they are called Depression glass for a reason. Tons of kitchenware were made during the war and depression time. Look to see if there is an “IG” anywhere on the bottom. That is the mark for Indiana Glass Company. They made a ton, but the IG pieces do tend to get a little higher prices. And of course Fenton made some too, but most of their “Coin Dot” pieces were of finer, higher quality work due to their highly skilled guild craftsmen that worked for them. Those will definitely bring higher dollar amounts.
Good luck on your search and don’t forget to look up some of this data on Wkipedia also. Always a free, quick source in many cases.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
@ Aperture: A Tip. We try to never use any words that even come close to a “grading term”. Words like Mint, Great Condition, Flawless, Perfect Condition.
We are collectors of many things and not experts in any one thing and I think That goes for most of use vintage, one of a kind sellers.
So when a grading phrase is used, it sets expectations of a certain level of quality on the buyers end. If they happen to have more experience than you in a certain area, then you may be in trouble if they disagree.
We use a multi-point system of inspection for quality and flaws and do that under our photography lights. We note irregularities that we see and then downplay those with words that are more vague, like several small “hairline” scratches, hardly perceptable to the unaided eye, can only be seen undermagnification, seen only when held up to a light and things like that.
Just a tip. And by the way, I have a very strong art background and knowledge on printing, art prints, paintings [all mediums] but still only state the obvious and list only visual flaws if seen during observation inspection. And never use a “scale” phrase such as “we think or feel it is atleast an 8 out of 10″. Buyers will eat you alive on that one and go for the Item Not As Described” button.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine art in Atlanta.
Yep and again, just a cost of doing business. If you had dropped the item pulling out of storage, or couldn’t find an item, you do what you have to do, stay out of the weeds as much as you can and $10 to $40 to correct a mistake, keep your record and reputation clean and safe, is just a part of “shrinkage” that every business has. Just categorize it as mental shrinkage.
Theft, breakage, shipped to wrong buyer which we did this week for the first time ever, eating shipping when you under estimated, refunds all can be classified in your accounting system and nothing more than that and not a personal battle.
If a buyer was up at the office in a B&M store and got unruly, you would call security and have them removed from the store.
Now, as an online seller, don’t argue, don’t fight, just have your in house procedures written down in a word document and cut and paste responses, eat the loses and get on with it.
Our shrinkage is several hundreds of dollars per year, less than 1% of our gross. Yes it eats into the bottom line net, but worth the cost to give refunds, or ship something. Just do it, mark it in your accounting, which can be a tax deduction [expense] and go onliving.
Slept late and just having first cup of coffee, that opinion and my half cup of coffee is worth about a plug nickle, maybe.
Hope everyone had a Great Christmas. Our fourth quarter sales were up 37% over last year. With everything that has been going on this past year, we will “grab it and growl!”
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine ArtCast iron will be melted / liquified and poured into a mold or extruded through a series of rollers to form it. If a two piece mold, there will be a seam line some where. Smaller pieces can be poured into smaller cavities just like a cup cake pan. Pour the liquid in several rows of cavities and let it cool and you have several dozen smaller pieces all from one “smelting” pour.
Any type of “casting” is made from molds were usually made just like metal sculptures are made. First a bees wax carving is made, then a plaster or concrete cast is made of the shape, figure or decorative piece. Then molten liquid metals after extreme heating are poured into the molds and cooled.
Also ornamental pieces can be made by stamping “soften” metal slabs between a male and female die mounted on a two part [above and below] hydraulic press and the thinner slabs of very hot-softened are guided or rolled between the upper and lower die parts and the press slams together and “stamps” or “Molds” the design into the metal and the cutting edges of the dies also cuts the part out at the same time like a cookie cutter. The rough edge or burr as it is called can be ground off later after all parts are cooled or left with a rough edge.
Cast iron and steel and stainless steel are magnetic. We keep several magnets at our work stations and I always carry one along with my 10x power jewelers loupe [magnifier] when we go sourcing.
Brass, copper are not magnetic, or at least only very slightly so if mixed with a metal that is.
Sterling Silver is not but electro-plated will be because it is coated over other metals that may be.
In this case, this part is made up of several smaller parts that were molded separately then drilled and assembled into the one piece as a final product. It seems to be a cap or top of something. It looks like a finial that would go over a fence post as a decorative topper. Research metal finial post tops, etc.
But it could be anything, who knows.
Hope this helps.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
Sharyn and others are steering you correctly
QuickBooks is an Accural system [general ledger and Journals] and is more suitable for businesses that need to create invoices to submit to their customers and at year end, if they have unpaid balances, from those they have invoiced, the balances get carried over to the next year.We used to use QuickBooks but finally just changed over to Quicken Home and Business. Just no need for that kind of fire power and at such a high cost.Everything is on your computer unless you wish to use their back-up system.
We are a Sub S Corporation and it works for us to fine. It has been greatly improved after Intuit [the QuickBooks Comapny] sold Quicken to a separate company and they did a lot of improvements. Quicken is much cheaper than QuickBooks also.
In all cases any user of these software programs, even go daddy, you need to have some understanding of accounting. We have even figured out a work around to be able to create and submit invoices for some services we do.
Quicken interfaces and downloads from our bank, credit cards, and PayPal. It handles or personal accounts and keeps those separate from our business accounts and balances. We reconcile monthly and get reports and Quicken furnishes a Balance Sheet and a Profit and Loss statement. These reports will also show dollar amounts and the percentages of those expenses against the business income. AND we keep multiple stores separate also.
There is just a little bit of a learning curve to get everything set up the way you want it. Unless you are creating Purchase Orders for buying lots of stuff from vendors or are sending invoices out to sub-contracts or billing your customers just no real need for QuickBooks.
Hope this helps to some degree.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
Yep like Sharyn mentions. Our CPA uses a spread sheet I prepared just for this purpose many years ago.
The principle works off square footage.
The sheet has the total sqaure footage of our house, living, basement and garage.
Then 12 columns across for each month with several rows down. I place each months utility bills across for ea. month, Gas, elec., then mortgage, cell phones, internet, etc.Then at the end of each row, I have a cell that contains the sqaure footage of the garage, basement, attic, under bed storage and full bonus room over the garage. Then I also have a spot for what percentage of the line item or area is used for the business.
Then I have formulas built to auto calculate based on the square footage of the area being used, the percentage of the total square feet and those percentages auto calculate the dollar amount, based on my monthly bill inputs and I get a total amount of the allocated space used for the business.
Our CPA loves it and I talked with Mark Tew a few years back and he seemed to buy into it. Also helps to be either an LLC or corporate type business structure. Also small equipment like printers, computers, label printers can all go into small equipment and expensed and large equipment can be depreciated. We have bought some art equipment for the studio that ran over a thousand.
If you don’t have a CPA get in touch with Mark. I would have had him do our taxes, we have to do a corporate return before March 15th and then personal by April 15th and Mark can do both for you. Also I checked his prices and they were in line with local smaller firms here in Atlanta and even a little less on some forms. Also he understands online selling because many of his clients sell online. Some local guys we used years ago, just din’t understand the concept of reselling older vintage, used items which were not bought brand new. Figuring out inventory costs and COGS is interesting with sellers like us. Especially when you sell your own old stuff that is 30 years old and no paper trail.
mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
This is interesting. never thought of that, but maybe spot on. So far with 1,200 items approx. and usually the offers are in groups of 6 to 11, and some items been in the store for a long time, it will take a while to plow through all of them. Add to this that we are always adding more, maybe we won’t run out of ones to offer to, but interesting thought.
mike at MDC Galleries
Working fine for us also. On the desktop: 9 yesterday morning, 5 in the evening and 7 this morning.
No idea on the phone.
mike at MDC GalleriesI agree whole completely.
We have the following on our packing List, only and not in our listings.
Thank you for your order, prompt payment and the complete information made for an easy transaction.
We hope everything arrives safely and you are completely satisfied. If you have any concerns please contact us immediately so we can resolve any issues.
If you are content with your purchase and our services, we would appreciate you taking a few moments and leaving us feedback. We have done so for you.Kindest Regards,
MDC Concepts, Inc./ MDC Galleriesand that is it. We offer Free shipping, free retruns up to 90 days, everything is insured, we use a “cocoon multi-layer wrapping process and always are running Sales. That is all we are going to do, if you are Happy, great, glad you are, if you are not, contact us, tell us and we will see what we can do.
That is it, end of story.
🙂 🙂 🙂 mike at MDCGFA
Don’t be too nervous. We have all been there but don’t make yourself sick over it.
It is just as Jay and IndySales state. All those factors come into play.
Something to remember, there is several places where J and R have said, we all started somewhere, we all had zero feedback, we all had a first Sale, we all had a first return at some point starting online Sales.
Buddy, just settle in, you have a lot of firsts to experience and some will test your grit and metal. But though SL is much smaller than a place like Reddit [Jay’s local hangout place], here you will get a lot of help from others that have been there done that and don’t mind sharing.
Jay calls my posts, which number up and over 750 ++ I think, “Walls of Text” because being Southern, I write the way I talk, and that is a lot. But many others have great posts on here and stick with J and R and you will learn.
Also learn to Search the Old Blog and the new forum. If you have a question, problem or issue try that first because at some point in time we have all probably written about it, maybe even several times.
Use “Control and the F Key and a Pop will appear down below and then type in your search term. You can even ask for the finds to be highlighted so you can see the matches better. Or, also use J and R’s search bar.
In any case you will get a lot of help here and without much grief. Just be open and honest with all of us and we will respond in like kind to you.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art in AtlantaYep, just as Ryanne says. AND BTW at 21 lbs. you will probably be able to ship the package for about half the cost via FedEx. Ebay does show FedEx but you have to look for the tab and click for the other shipping choices.
The shipping chart hanging above my shipping area we use shows about $21 to $22 dollars for us to ship that weight from Atlanta to LA 90501 using FedEx Home Delivery [NOT SHIP SAVER]. About the same travel time +/- a day or two.
Now one caveat… that will be for any package that is under 1,728 cubic inches. But even if it is larger and then gets classified in the DIM [over sized Dimension] weight category you will see that with the DIM Weight pricing tier it will still be far less.
A 30 lb package for us FedEx Home delivery from Atl. to LA is $29.00.
Here go to this link. This is a shipping calculator to use for boxes over 1,728 cubic inches [LxWxD]. Click on the clear tab to remove the pre-filled numbers, drop in your weight then your dimensions and it will auto calculate your cubic inches and then show you what pricing tier [level] to use
I just did a 24x12x12 example for you at 21 lbs. from Atlanta to zone 6 which is Denver, Colorado and it says to price it out at the 25 Lb. rate due to being over sized and falling into the DIM Weight rate chart. So to Denver it will cost you $25.00 and the USPS charge is showing at $$46.81.
The reason I use Zone 6 is because I have a package in my system right now and didn’t want to loose my numbers. But going on out 2 more zones will still cost way less than USPS.
AND BTW you can use USPS boxes if you wish because FedEx accepts packages done in any type of marked boxes, theirs, USPS or plain vanilla generic. Just tape it all up good.
Here is the link: https://www.fitshipper.com/freeTools/dimensional-weight-calculator.html?x=13&y=13&z=13&weight=13&method=Priority
By the way the guy who worked up this tool [calculator] is a SL member and has been interviewed by Ryanne and Jay several years ago. I an our assistants keep this tool open in our browser tab every single day.
Good luck and hope you can save yourself $20 to $30 bucks.
Kindest Regards and Welcome to the ScavengerLife Forums,
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
SmartParts Small Equipment
and soon to be added .. JR SprayFoam, LLCThe 25 Lb. FedEx charge will be
