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Winchester,
Yes, if space is not a concern then you are good.
The Double Clothing rack runs around $90-$95 plus tax.
Mark
Winchester,
If you used Double Clothing Racks, you would need half of the space you are taking for the clothes. Now they would go close to the ceiling, but you would save a lot of valuable space.
Mark
All this talk about trying to understand Cassini reminds me of the movie “The Maze Runner”. They are not told how the maze works of what secrets it has. They just have to do trial and error to figure out how to get out of the maze. The creators will not tell them anything, they have to figure it out on their own.
So it is with Cassini. We are not told how it works and its secrets, we just have to do trial and error to figure it out. Of course, the creators will not tell us much of anything.
Are we in an ebay Maze of some sort?
Mark
SilverFoxFinds,
I would make it simple. Just do a flat 50% and only take items that sell for say $50 or more.
Mark
Thanks T-Satt!
Thanks Jay. We are very proud of her.
Mark
2019-03-24 – 2019-03-30
Total Items In Store: 2841
Items Sold: 17 (15 ebay, 2 Bonanza)
Cost of Items Sold: $ 70
Total Sales: $ 715.69
Highest Price Sold: $ 150 (Antique Stereoview cards)
Average Price Sold: $ 42.10
# Items Listed: 5
Money Spent on New Inventory: $ 178Gut Sales Report for the week: Felt slow again. The Antique Stereoview cards sold on the 30th, so that really helped. Turned out to be a decent week. Bonanza surprised me with 2 sales each over $40.
Challenge of the week: My goal was to finish my taxes and I did it! This should be easier next year now that I have the custom label populated for all of my listed items. Now it will be a simple lookup. I would like to keep up with the taxes during the year so that it doesn’t get out of control. That is my new challenge.
Scavenge of the week: I bought a THOMASON MEDALLIC BIBLE produced by the Franklin Mint in 1970 and only 1000 copies were made. It is the complete bible on medallions with engraved photo on front and scripture on the back. I buy old Bibles and this is by far the most unique one I have found. I knew I had to buy it when I saw it. I paid $60 and it should sell for about $225 or more.
I went to the first Rummage sale of the year in my area. I got 21 pairs of shoes for $32. It was $8\bag and I stuffed 21 pairs of shoes into 4 paper grocery bags. For you numbers guys, that is about $1.52 per pair of shoes.
News of the week: I am now the proud dad of a Michigan State Champion of the Gymnastics Balance Beam! Isabelle, my daughter, won this on Friday for her skill level\age. She also took 3rd place all-around, so we are off to the Regional Championship in Kentucky in early May. Wish her luck! She may go to the National Championship in Misouri in June.
Mark S
HistoryNerd,
I think you are right. The only caveat that I would say is that we may have to change our tactics, but the stuff will be there. I think everyone has seen this with Goodwill. I have avoided that place for years.
Unless something extrodinary happens, I think the smart pickers will always have an abundance. Being picky and choosing the right sales and items is the key.
I also see a huge abundance of items. There is always way too much for me to take in. I pick and choose what I think will be the best sales for the use of my time. I am generally correct, but sometimes it is a bust. Other times I have under estimated the sale. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed like at that clock sale I talked about.
My focus right now is to get the higher quality (and higher selling price) items at a good price. I find that going to as many sales as I can is the key. I still pick up bread and butter items if they are priced low.
Also, my new strategy for going to my independent thrift store at least 3 times a week has really been paying off. It is less than 5 miles away and I plan other things near it so I am not really going much out of my way. This gives me consistently high quality items at the price I want. Over the course of a couple years, I think this will turn into a gold mine.
Mark
2019-03-17 – 2019-03-23
Total Items In Store: 2848
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $65
Total Sales: $687
Highest Price Sold: $76 (Allen Edmond Shoes)
Average Price Sold: $40.41
# Items Listed: 15
Money Spent on New Inventory: $Gut Sales Report for the week: Felt slow, but sales were really up this week – probably because of the ASP. My STR for March 2019 is way down from March 2018. But my ASP is way up, so I guess that balances things out.
Challenge of the week: Those clocks are still sucking some time. There are so darn interesting that they suck a lot of time. But the good thing is that I know my Big Ben Westclox clocks now. Got another one today at an estate sale.
Scavenge of the week / Sale of the week: The last 7 days of scavenging has had some strange things happen, but a good strange. I call it “Scrat Scavenging” (means buying something not knowing exactly what you are buying, then it turns out to be a great buy), let me explain.
I rarely find items older than the 1950’s at estates sales. But in the past week I have found 3 great items from the early 20th century: 1. One of those Big Ben clock was dated 1915 (the first style they made and it is working). 2.
Yesterday, I found a Stanley Woodworking plane circa 1910-1918. 3. I found a No 1 Kodak Camera circa 1914-1927. What are the odds of all that in 1 week? Not very likely at Michigan estate sales unless you go specifically to the Antique ones, which I didn’t.
The other strange Scavenge of the week was two different sets of Fireplace Tool Sets. The first one I picked up at my shoe thrift store. I tell my kids I was like Scrat (the character in the movie Ice Age who saves the world, but doesn’t know it – that is why I call it “Scrat Scavenging”) finding this Fireplace Tool Set. I bought it for $5 not knowing what it was and just tossed it in the garage. It turns out that it is a Seymour Mid Century Modern set in excellent condition (I think the condition is what threw me off what it was). The Seymour will easily go for $150+. Then yesterday, I was at an estate sale and I see another Fireplace Tool Set. Again I didn’t know exactly what it was. I looked it
up and it was a Vintage Brass Mid-century Fireplace Tool Set. Then today, I ran into another Fireplace Tool Set that was fairly old, but bad condition, so I passed on it. I need to study up on these Fireplace Tool Sets!Mark S
Walters,
Does this have to be an all or none situation?
It sounds like your dad works long hard hours and you are not interested in that. That makes sense. But you don’t have to work like he does. Can you just commit to what you are comfortable, say 20 hours a week or whatever is good for you? Or, does your dad expect everyone to work like him? I think setting boundries here is a good idea.
But if you just don’t like the business, then that is another issue altogether.
I am with Jay, getting a profitable business up and running is not an easy task. I wouldn’t walk away too easily. Even if I didn’t necessarily like the business, I would stick around, but on my own terms.
Mark
Jay,
Yes, there is a connection there. I just find those clocks just so darn interesting.
I find that for a lot of the items I have in my store, if I think long enough, the reason becomes clear:
Golf items: I used to Golf a lot.
Shoes: I used to be a track runner and fanatic about shoes.
Stereos: I used to really be into stereo equipment when growing up.
Suits: I spent a lot of time finding just the right suits when I graduated from College.
Sport Equipment: I used to play a lot of sports growing up.
etc. I suppose for some of the items I buy, it was just because it was there at a sale. But I find that there is usually something in my past that draws me to an item. Like at that clock sale, I bought a presto Hot Dog machine because I had one growing up.
Mark
2019-03-10 – 2019-03-16
Total Items In Store: 2848
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $40
Total Sales: $439
Highest Price Sold: $70 (Golf Bag)
Average Price Sold: $36.58
# Items Listed: 52
Money Spent on New Inventory: $344Gut Sales Report for the week: Felt slow and it was slow, especially at the end of the week. My sales this week are half of what they were last week.
Challenge of the week: This was an unexpected challenge: I went to an estate sale on Saturday at 8:15AM and it turned into a whole day ordeal. I loved doing it, but it was a lot of work. This person put Doc Brown from Back to the Future to shame with the amount of clocks he had. He must have had at least 1000 Big Ben clocks! Now this was a challenge. I will explain more below in the Scavenge of the week.
Scavenge of the week / Sale of the week: So this estate sale had nearly every clock Westclox has made since 1908. The prices were about $10 and below, but the issue was most of the clocks didn’t work and the clocks were spread throughout the house and garage (about 50 yeards away and through some mud). I basically had to try every clock to see which ones worked and which ones didn’t. I would say I became an “expert scavenger of Big Ben” in 1 day. I ended up with nearly every style of clock that Westclox has made since they began Big Ben in 1908! I also picked up about 60 Brand new Westclox glass faces for the front – still in the packaging. I got these for $20 and I think each one will sell for $10 – $15, but real long tail. I also got about the same amount of replacement dials with the numbers on them ($10 for the box). I didn’t see any of these listed, so not sure how much they are worth yet, I am guessing $10-$15 each. I also picked up the service manuals for these clocks. I almost feel like a clock dealer. The clocks I bought are wound up and they make an incredible noise. I think I bought about 30 or so.
I probably spent too much time on these clocks, but I see 3 good things coming from it: 1. I will make good money from them 2. I now have a deep understanding about scavenging for Big Ben Clocks. 3. Most importantly, I really found that I enjoy these clocks and I am having fun with them. I grew up seeing a Big Ben clock nearly everyday, so I guess that is my affinity to them. Every time I see the style of Big Ben that my dad had, it reminds me instantly of him.
Mark S
The listing looks good to me, except a little overpriced.
Mark
03/10/2019 at 8:59 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #584152019-03-03 – 2019-03-09
Total Items In Store: 2808
Items Sold: 21
Cost of Items Sold: $80
Total Sales: $881
Highest Price Sold: $200 (Laser Printer Cartridges)
Average Price Sold: $41.95
# Items Listed: 45
Money Spent on New Inventory: $94Gut Sales Report for the week: Felt slow, especially in the middle of the week. But the bookends did well and boosted the total sales amount. So, I actually did pretty good despite feeling slow.
Challenge of the week: The Thrift store challenge for the year is going well. I have been named the “Shoe King” by the Thirft store.
Scavenge of the week / Sale of the week: Saturday was another amazing day for buying items. I went to a $5 bag sale and really made out. I bought a lot of things I don’t usually buy because they were so cheap. I got everything I wanted at the sale for $25 and that filled up my car pretty good. It really wasn’t a bag sale, you just grabbed whatever you wanted and then the lady gave you a ridiculously low price for everything. They just wanted all the stuff out of the condo. I love those kinds of sales! A really motivated seller basically giving away the merchandise. In these situations, I do a first pass and then buy that. They I go back for a 2nd pass in case I missed anything. I usually do miss things because I am going fast to beat the others to the low hanging fruit.
Mark S
I am on the Double Clothing rack band wagon. There are about 78″ High and about 60″ wide. These racks are beasts and can hold a ton of clothes. I love them – they fit about 10 Feet of hanging clothes each.
If you are worried about damage to the clothes from things like animal hair, you can buy a cover for them which I think is about $80. I just use a plastic garbage bag for each lot of hanging clothes. This protects them and make it easy to find by putting 1 lot # on label on each plastic garbage bag.
Mark
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