1

[Uncle Taco]

Jay et al,

I think that the “Frugality” part of this is CRUCIAL.  I couldn’t be doing this full time if I lived like a lot of my friends or relatives.

I believe Frugality is a KEY component if someone wants to do this FT the way we do it (i.e reselling vintage and not new items from China) and that we don’t talk about that aspect nearly enough.

I’d like to know if when you say that “ebay pays all your bills” are you including the mortgages (I assume you have mortgages)  on your Air BNB properties and you downtown building(s) and the renovation costs of those? I know you’ve mentioned you own your home.

Also, can you further clarify the average $1000 per week? I know that’s just sales so if you take out your cost of goods, your helper, your 13-14% ebay final value fees and your $75 per week for anchor store subscription, that’s closer to around $670 per month profit. I’m also leaving out taxes. Is my math close to accurate?

I know that’s how I run my numbers so I’m making 100% sure I’m bringing in enough to cover my expenses and my family and I live VERY frugally compared to most we know.

Thanks for all you do. I wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t found you guys online years ago so I feel like I owe you  alot. Thanks

 

[Uncle Taco]

Listen every week, don’t post very often but felt like I’d like to weigh in on the whole “should you buy an existing store with cheap sunglasses issue”.
I’ve been doing both eBay (the scavenger life “system”) and Amazon (new items from china) for several years now and IMHO BOTH are viable options if done properly and are worth the time/ effort.

I won’t go into eBay because most on this forum know its ins and outs but I can answer any questions anyone might have about the Amazon FBA selling. Last year my partner in Amazon and I sold around $350K in products on that platform and hope to reach half a million in sales this year (corona virus willing).
I love it, its fairly consistent and only requires around 15 hours per week and its growing year after year. We’ve even expanded to sell on Amazon in Canada this year with plans to expand to Europe in the coming years.
Happy to answer any questions or field any constructive counter opinions.
All the best

[Uncle Taco]

Mike,
I’m curious to know how you do on your MDC website as far as sales go? I’ve often contemplated putting all my listings on a website of my own (shopify or w.p) and seeing if I could drive traffic to it.
Any thoughts? Worth it?
Thanks

[Uncle Taco]

Jay, Ryanne
I asked this before but isn’t an Instapot just a “remarketing” of the good old fashioned pressure cooker???
We’ve had a modern pressure cooker (w/ electronic controls) for some time now and we love it.

Also, curious what you paid for the shelving in the new building. I’ve made my own out of 2 by 2’s, 1″ by 4″‘s and OSB sheets for around $80 each. they measure 9′ long by 2’ deep by 72″ Tall with 4 shelves.
Pretty simple and cheap.

Thanks

[Uncle Taco]

instant pot, Instant pot, Instant pot….
I don’t get it! Isn’t this just another name for a pressure cooker????? Sounds like a lot of marketing hype for an item thats been around for a long time.
We’ve had a pressure cooker for years and love it (one with electronics, not the older “manual” style) but can someone please explain the difference to me? I’m just so confused!!
Thanks

[Uncle Taco]

A few years ago we had all the old rolled insulation under our home removed and closed foam sprayed in. Cost us around 2K. The spray foam doesn’t have as much R value as the bat we had BUT it completely sealed all drafts and air leaks (we have an older home). That alone made a HUGE difference.
The best may be a thin layer of spray foam them rolled batt to up the R-Value

[Uncle Taco]

I’ve sold or garbage. Yes our garbage. Empty toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls and empty plastic creamer bottles.
Definitely not going to get rich doing it but I love the idea of turning something we were going to throw away into something of value. I think that’s a big reason why I’ve always loved scavenging. i.e Finding the value in what others may under value or consider junk.

[Uncle Taco]

Thanks Mike.
I hadn’t thought of “starting over” with feedback and number of listings I could start out with in a new store.
It might be worth it just to avoid the fees (maybe not)

I agree with the 3400 listings being the “break even” spot (at least that’s what my math was telling me) and I am at about 2300 so I’ve still got a way to go.
Time to make a decision.
Thanks for the help and suggestions

[Uncle Taco]

Thanks Mike,

What about my original idea….a second premium store. Another $59.95 per month but no insertion fees for the extra 1000 items it would probably take to make it worth an anchor store.
The challenge would be “moving” those items from one store to the new one.
Thoughts???

[Uncle Taco]

Thanks.
Yea, these are very subject to variance and still show a HUGE gap between Premium and Anchor subscription prices.
How do I save money on subscriptions UNTIL I’m large enough for an Anchor store??
Thanks

[Uncle Taco]

Can someone tell me if my logic is sound here?
Thinking about the cost between premium and anchor store subscriptions. Currently have a premium and my monthly eBay invoice had $116 in listing fees (for listing over my free 1000 per month).
The math doesn’t justify the cost of an anchor store sub yet, but the $116 is just gnawing at me.
Would this be a reason to have a second premium store?????
I’d pay an extra $59.95 per month in subscription fees but get an additional 1000 free listings per month thereby saving me around $60 every month (116-59.95= 56.05)
The final value fees wouldn’t change and neither would the shipping fees. The hassle would be “moving” my listing over to the second store and moving them again when I got big enough to justify an Anchor store.
Why eBay doesn’t have a level between premium and anchor is beyond me.

Just looking for a second insight into this conundrum.

[Uncle Taco]

Darlene,
The web store you set up looks great. I am, however, a little confused. What are you using for the web store you currently have up? Shopify, Volusion, or something else? I’d love to know.

I find it hard to believe that we can launch rockets into space but no one has come up with a simple inexpensive way to take current inventory (or list new) and send that data to several ecommerce sites to upload. I’ve used Amazons listing templates to upload hundreds of books onto their platform and it is VERY similar to the CSV files ebay uses with “File exchange” or even “Turbo Lister”. Surely its similar with ETSY, Sites like Shopify, Posh Mark, etc,etc,etc
Having said that, however, I have NOT been able to find one that does……
All the best

[Uncle Taco]

Hi Becky,
I’ve loved your videos for a while now. They’ve been a HUGE help with the few eyeglasses I have listed, so Thank you for sharing all your knowledge.
Welcome!

[Uncle Taco]

Jay,
My wife and I are actually making less than we did at our previous jobs (about half) but we’ve decided that money not the most important thing to us right now its raising our kids and being there to see them grow up. We’ve always been frugal so we have no debt at all save our home and that’ll be paid off in about 5 yrs.
I work around 20-25 hrs per week on ebay/amazon and make about half of what i did in a salaried 45+ hour job so I’m happy.She’s doing PT grant writing from home.Once the kids are both in school I’ll up my hours for eBay and expect to grow my store then, as for now the key is consistency. Trying to list at least 10 items every day while raising 2 kids and other home projects.

[Uncle Taco]

I’ve been looking for a piece of software that would let me create listings in bulk and then send those listings to several different eCommerce sites at once (ebay, amazon, etsy, Bonanza, etc). It also has to be reasonably priced….meaning cheap.
Does such a beast exist???

[Author]

Posts