Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Just ordered 400 10×12.5 polymailers. Now lets sell some clothes!
01/02/2018 at 10:54 am in reply to: New Tax law and it's effects on your business (Politics free please!) #29698Exclusive use does not apply to inventory storage. So if you use half the garage as inventory storage you can count that square footage – just the storage footage, not the whole room. The same goes for closets and storage buildings. Another option is putting up a wall to separate the garage. And hey, that wall will be tax deductible too because it is for your business.
Items in Store 965
Items Sold 16
Total Sales $568.00
COGS $51.20
Total Profit $516.80
Average profit $32.30
Average sales price $35.50
Best item: Composite Softball bat for $150Since my kids got into baseball softball, I started scavenging baseball equipment. This was a composite bat that originally cost $400! Got it for $4 and cleaned it up with a magic eraser.
I had a great scavenge the other day – got a whole tub of Thomas the train stuff from Goodwill for $25. To gauge if I should get it, I researched the most interesting piece. That piece is very desirable and sells for anywhere from $150 to $250! Normally I have a bad habit of buying something great and then throwing it in the death pile. Not this time – I researched and listed everything in the tub ASAP. It took 20 individual listings for a total potential value of $711. But most importantly, it is LISTED!
I didn’t hit my goal of 1000 listings by the end of the year, but if you include multiple quantity items I am technically there. I have a pretty good system going now with my new setup and I have plans to ramp up my shoes and clothes inventory heavily this month. How I do this month will go a long way to determining what my goals for the year are.
12/29/2017 at 7:41 am in reply to: Photo slides of people… can they be sold if they are not your photos? #29498That’s the beauty of this self-employed business. You have the CHOICE to sell or not sell. Imagine if you were working for someone else’s store and they handed you that box and told you to list them. That could eat you up and your only option would be to quit if you stood by your standards. In this case, just throw them in the trash and move on with life. If it is that much of a conflict, just toss them and move on with life.
Don’t compromise yourself. Set your standards and live by them. You’ll be much happier.
12/28/2017 at 2:09 pm in reply to: New Tax law and it's effects on your business (Politics free please!) #29482There’s plenty of good summaries available. Most of them have a fair amount of spin one way or the other.Just google “new tax plan details”.
Just remember this: Business related deductions were NOT affected by the law. There was ALOT of mis-information floating around the last two months that business related deductions would be removed. That is not true.
What was removed was unreimbursed employee work related expenses. So if you are a regular employee of a company and you maintain an office at home then you can no longer itemize that office. That loss is mostly offset with the increased standard deduction and 3% lower tax rate. Side note: I have known many people who exploited the home “office” over the years to allow them to itemize. If you own your business as a sole proprietor, LLC, etc, then you are good to go with all the normal deductions such as home office, mileage, etc.
I live in a state with low property taxes, so the $10k limit doesn’t even come close to affecting me. Even before the standard deduction rate hike it was nearly impossible to have enough deductions here to itemize. The only year I was able to itemize was a year we were paying on two mortgages. Even then I barely beat the standard to the point it really wasn’t worth the effort.
For people like Christine though, this could potentially hurt. Christine, I don’t know what your exact situation is but have you already went over your actual numbers with an accountant to estimate your tax increase? I’d be curious to see a real world, non-cherry picked example of someone in our shoes who sees a tax increase if you could share some of that anaylsis.
12/28/2017 at 7:50 am in reply to: Amazon FBA and MTC (Multistate Tax Commission) tax amnesty #29450Amazon should absolutely handle the tax. It’s not a simple as “seller is responsible for everything” like amazon wants. Amazon decides where to send your stuff to benefit them. You can reduce the amount of places you have nexus by paying more in fees, but they still call the shots. I also had many shipments “redirected” without consulting me first. This caused an extra week delay in my items being available and put my items in a completely different location.
On top of that, amazon has structured their monetary system almost like a paycheck system. The hold all of your money for an extended period of time, then every other week settle up your account and “pay” you. If they want to be the money handler like this, then they need to handle the tax as well. Otherwise, they need to be like ebay and just bill you monthly for all the fees and allow every purchased to flow directly to your own account. Trust me, amazon makes a TON of interest by holding all of your money for 2-4 weeks.
The days before and after Christmas are usually great for toys and electronics. Folks are ditching the old to make room for the new.
I have said that same thing to “problem buyers” in similar wording to several potential customers. You should actually say it sometime. It can be said in a nice fashion.
You have seriously considered offering cash to complete strangers for the shirt and/or coat off their back.
12/27/2017 at 10:21 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 340: We Reconnect with Cyndi from Amazing Taste #29428I loved hearing a followup with Amazing Taste!
AmazingTaste,
Would you mind giving a general “day in the life” synopsis? I’d love to get a feel for what it is like doing the volume you do with a family. You’re story is one I tell to my wife often and you all are living my dream.12/27/2017 at 8:55 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 340: We Reconnect with Cyndi from Amazing Taste #29422Items in Store 923
Items Sold 12
Total Sales $383.50
COGS $58.00
Total Profit $325.50
Average profit $27.13
Average sales price $31.96After Wednesday (last shipping day for Christmas delivery), my store died.
I had a great sale cancelled after buyer claimed it was a fraudulent purchase. Sure it was…
I also got an unopened pair of shoes back marked return to sender. That one turned into a frustrating debacle that I called in to the podcast for. Note: I was done with my call – just didn’t get a chance to say thanks and bye. Lol! Anyways, I knew what to expect with that issue after hearing everyone else’s experience with the deeply flawed claim/appeals system but I was still very frustrated by the whole ordeal.I’ve been doing much better with listing. This week I’d like to take a crack at hitting 1000 items finally. Going to be a freezing cold week. Everyone stay warm and keep listing!
I hope I am multiple people’s nemesis. That means I’m doing it right? Jealousy is the sincerest form of flattery. 🙂
If you don’t have one of these, then you need to get one!
There is likely a typical Nike shoe code in these. What does the tag look like?
All my inventory money comes out of my business paypal account. If something really interesting comes along that requires more money, I have a separate “play money” cash fund I dip into and then repay myself. Anything bought with play money must be listed top priority first so I can pay myself back.
Last time I had to use that account for inventory was when I bought a very large lot of Nike shoes – paid $450 for the lot. I’ve made my money back already and still have plenty of those shoes listed waiting to sell.
-
AuthorPosts