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06/23/2019 at 8:17 pm in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #63975
These are all true but I don’t think going from Adequate to Good in these areas really moves the needle that much. What you scavenge is the skeleton key.
Still don’t know how I could use someone else’s labour. I don’t think the parts of my business that are outsourceable are really worth outsourcing. I don’t spend much time listing and packing.
This was a really dead week on eBay for whatever reason. Until Friday I had zero sales. My major cash infusion came from some Herman Miller chairs I put on consignment at a local vintage shop a while back. All 10 of them sold and I received a payment of $860 last week. I’m including that as a “sale” in my numbers.
Sales: CAD$1777, 5 items, COGS: $420 –> Item profit: $1197
Expenditures: $702 –> Cashflow: $915
Hours: 11, $84/hr
Listed: $810, 22 items
Apart from my consignment payout, I got another $600 in microscope sales from my haul a couple weeks ago. That has been going well although I did have to partially refund one of them for a faulty mechanism.
Got some cool random stuff and auctions too.
One $300 item I sold to a Chinese buyer in December finally came back to me. I had the insurance payout for this already and the buyer was made whole. Hoping I can re-sell it to the same buyer again.Next week I am planning to take possession of another 25’x10′ storage unit to supplement the 30’x10′ I already have. Now I’ll be up to about $350 in storage costs per month. Hoping this can last at least a year. Presumably at some point my inventory grows to the point where the volume leaving is equal to the volume I can scavenge (?). But I think that happens at about the fifth storage locker. :/
06/23/2019 at 12:10 pm in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #63913Well, tbf Jay, at least when I scavenge I see lots of stuff at auction that I kind of ignore because I know it’s going to be bid up too high. Good name brand tools would again be a nice example. I see tons of them, but they usually go for 1/3 or more of retail, which I pass by as “not enough meat on the bone”. But they ARE popular items and they would sell pretty fast.
The point being, I *could* start buying that stuff more often, which would mean higher costs but also higher turnover. I’m not convinced I want to do that, but I am pretty sure it is *feasible*.
06/23/2019 at 12:04 pm in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #63911My other difficulty with the logic is that I am not that limited by cashflow. Meaning, when I find something flippable I usually have the cash to buy it. So the “compound interest” logic of “flip your inventory fast so you can buy more” seems misplaced. What stops me buying more is finding it, not affording it. (Given the buy/no buy criteria I’m using.)
06/23/2019 at 11:58 am in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #63909I think if this is possible at all, it’s primarily about choosing more popular things, even if you have to pay up for them or they don’t give a huge percentage return.
In my niche that would mean e.g., going for things more like Milwaukee tools versus weird specialty items – you won’t get them super cheap, but they will sell fast.
In a vintage niche, I don’t know so well what that would mean.
I am still hesitant to go to this kind of strategy because I believe my model is a better return on my time, even if it’s a worse return on money/storage.
06/22/2019 at 12:11 am in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #63865I consider trimming dead inventory to be one of my business’ unsolved problems. I don’t really have criteria for when to cull items, nor a process to identify them. I just sort of get angry at items from time to time when I see them in storage, and chuck them. But not at a scale that really makes a dent.
06/21/2019 at 11:59 pm in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #63862Thanks for the explanation. It seems like by “inventory value”, you mean expenditures, costs incurred in that year of all goods whether sold or unsold – is that right? Or does value mean some sort of estimated price?
The way I like to see my numbers net of all expenditures is Cashflow, but it doesn’t conduce to a percentage so I see why you like this number.
Computing, I find my ROI on expenditures (inventory+supplies) is 102%, ROI on COGS is 442%. Both of which are after fees.
Your 800% return on inventory number has given me some food for thought. Maybe I oughta make this store turn a little faster, and be willing to pay up for some slightly more popular items.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by
simplicio.
06/21/2019 at 12:41 pm in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #63832I don’t understand the distinction between ROI on COGS and ROI on inventory… can you elaborate?
>When I sell an item, I log what I sold and what it’s original cost in an excel spreadsheet. At the end of the year when I file taxes, the Go Daddy COGS (inventory value) minus the COGS from my Excel sheet will equal the end of year value of my inventory.
Just curious, where do you find the original cost for this exercise? Where is that information stored prior to the sale?
Definitely a lot of dollars in that house, but the time/money costs to sort, get rid of the junk, and purify to reactor grade – my godddd.
I don’t think it’d be all that easy, logistically. The stuff would be sliding all over, and if you fill the whole space with bins or inventory how are you going to get in and find stuff that sells?
I guess the way you could get this to work would be a numbered bin system with enough space leftover for access and strapping to keep the bins in place.
If I were going to do that as a lifestyle I’d probably have a carpenter custom-make some shelving sloped toward the trailer walls with hitching locations for rope or something.
Seems like the hurdle is not so much the cost but securing inventory for travel while ensuring it stays organized.
06/18/2019 at 7:32 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 415: Importance Of Being Honest As A Business Owner #63708Hey Paulo – I listened to that ep as background noise last week, just went back and re-listened to that portion.
I wish he had explicitly distinguished *# of things listed long ago that sold before and after periods of heavy listing activity*, versus *things that sold within 30 days of listing*. The first is what is interesting, the second is not surprising at all and doesn’t really speak to this ending/relisting strategy’s effectiveness. For me at least (can’t speak for Pete), a huge proportion of my sales are within 30 days of listing.
On a rainy day I will try to ask this question of my data. However I am low volume enough for it to not be very conclusive.
06/18/2019 at 3:08 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 415: Importance Of Being Honest As A Business Owner #63675Happy Birthday Ryanne!
I had a great father’s day – we camped for 4 days in the Cypress Hills. No cell coverage, so ebay kind of ground to a halt, which was a nice break.
Nonetheless I had a very good week on ebay.
Sales: CAD$2325, 12 items, COGS: $593 –> Item profit: $1356
Expenditures: $637 –> Cashflow: $1312
Hours: 6, $219/hr (packing mostly happened this Monday)
Listed: $1030, 14 items
Notable sales: another microscope $490, medical film to Germany $200 (2 packs, paid $10 for 33 packs).
Listed: bought a few good auction lots. One is a total flyer, a huge lot of protective sleeves for directional drilling pipes. I have no idea how to price these – are they worth $20, 200, 2000? Can’t find a damn thing. I put them up for $500 each, no takers so far. I’ve got about 50 of them. This will either be a huge score or a giant pain in the ass that never sells.I agree that a small business owner needs to be honest with themselves. It’s really hard to do, maybe it’s the hardest thing to do. We want our businesses to be successful, and we especially want our time not to have been wasted. Sunk costs can drag you down indefinitely.
I try to ask myself from time to time, if I was somebody else and was suddenly teleported into owning these assets – would I still do what I am actually doing with them, or something else?
>I did however once find a blazer with solid 14K gold buttons for $6, I sold the buttons to the local jeweler for about $1100, replaced the buttons and flipped the jacket for $200.
That’s nose to tail eating right there.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by
simplicio.
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