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I listened to the podcast as usual as I was listing, accepting and countering best offers etc. Thanks for the shout-out ( I guess). LOL
How about Colonial Harlequin? (that doesn’t exist I just made it up)
Here is one scantly familiar resembling that are offered up as “Pennsylvania Dutch”
https://img0.etsystatic.com/143/0/12671724/il_570xN.1102375444_en7u.jpgThanks T-Salt those are some solid accounting habits to really help me gauge real progress. I bit the bullet and upgraded to Premium this morning (no foolin).
Headed to an auction tonight, gonna buy some Jay and Ryanne style treasures.
Ugh Summer…you are correct wise one!
I will say one of the greatest things I learned from Scavenger Life is that what appears to be very banal items are wonderful bread and butter sales of $20-$40 that really delight when you wake up and see multiple ones of that type sell through. I made the mistake years ago of always hunting for the home run items and that is not a great business model. Often times I have found that I discover new niches by simply throwing items up for sale that I would have never considered in the past. I am currently working a new niche that is a solid 2-3-4 times the money with an occasional home run. It is a highly competitive niche but each item while when they were new had an exact MSRP, in the used / vintage market they range from $40-$300 completed depending on the overall condition. These are items that have a large following and can be sourced from as little as under $10 to as much as $100. I have bought the item in ranges as such and have experienced that type of return commensurate with their condition as perceived by the end user / collector. To answer an earlier question you posed as to what would I do with the money once I achieve those lofty goals, …… TRAVEL and source on the road as I have seen you and Ryanne do. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to combine two of my favorite things.
Jay thanks for your input. I am thinking late Fall of 2017 to achieved gross sales of $15-20k a month. My costs of goods and expenses actually will be higher by then as well so I am hoping for a net profit after cost of goods (inventory), supplies, mail miscues (those times where you try the “free shipping” aspect and the final price fails to cover, as well as eBay and PayPal’s take that I will end up in the $6000-$8000 a month realized income. That would allow me to go full time and maintain a 5,000 item inventory premium store as an individual seller. I may be shooting a little high but these are simply my goals. If I fall more toward the $10000-$12000 range and the $3000-$4000 income I will just have to continue to refine the system and raise my completed sales avg per item from the $60 range. After I began the basic store on March 8th and took my listings from the 125 or so items to 480-525, the views, watches, and sales increased rapidly. Perhaps by adding 1500 to as many as 4500 consistent listing to my store inventory over the next 6 months the numbers will not quadruple but if I experience anything like the growth I did going from 125ish to low 500’s I will be very very pleased. I will let you know how things go.
Another thing about my business model is that I mainly source from local auctions and heavily online to leverage my time. Interestingly enough I currently have set a 3 day handling time on my shipping and I have had zero complaints since I did that. Often I am able to ship ahead of that cushion and the customer responds very favorably. While many a breaking their necks to be “Top rated” and ship same or next day I disclose that I typically ship every three days in my listings. Hasn’t been a problem over the last 90 days of actual ramp up and lowers my stress immensely.
PS …I believe I have listened to everyone of your podcasts over the years and they have been a great source of motivation and plain speaking vs the hype that surrounds the community sometimes.
