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Orders placed on the weekend have to be shipped no later than Monday evening Wednesday is 2 days so the calculation is not correct. THat being said, we’ve found AZ is no longr honoring the 2 days themselves. As FBM sellers we still have to ship in the appropriate time frame as we try to hit the 2 days as often as possible but we arent required to do so as we did not opt into FBM prime.
That is so awesome. It was one of those finds that has a coolness factor x 10. Congratulations.
They were pre-boxed– I just had to add some tape to some that had been opened.
45″– so I’m guessing he finally paid and the Wilderness Santa is finally flying to his new home?
It wasn’t the actual mainframe– it was part of the temperature control and power distribution system of a mainframe? That’s about all that I know. The first buyer bought them for something he was putting together for bitcoin mining or something. I know just enough about all of it to print the labels and carry the boxes to the truck. Then they go to people smarter than me.
Each one was boxed– they weighed 33 pounds and were 85 inches long.
Total Items in Both Stores: 1266
Items Sold: 72
Cost of Items Sold: $1073
Total Sales: $6958
Highest Price Sold: $5000 (lot of the last of the computer mainframe parts)
Average Price Sold: $96.64
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 42I haven’t done this in a while but it was a huge week for us and when I was breaking out the numbers I got really excited.
I talked about the mainframe parts/components that we won at auction a while back. At that time we got 24 at a little under $50 a unit— I had no clue what they were but I knew that they retailed somewhere between 2 and 3k. It took a couple of months but we found someone that ended up buying them in 3 different purchases over a month and a half. It ended up that he needed 10 more so I found the person that had bought a previous lot on the same site and still had 27 in a rambling listing. I was able to negotiate a local pickup at 50/unit and grabbed all of them. I left 10 in the truck, slapped the UPS labels on them and immediately dropped them off at UPS that day. Those 34 were awesome in terms of margins/profit.
I’ve had the remaining lot just sitting there for a couple of months and ended up selling them in one lot to a buyer and they have shipped and been received but no feedback yet. Our cost on the final lot was 850 but they take work to ship. Not as well as the first 34, but we will certainly take it.
Mezz, there are several on etsy and provide some great descriptions and history. If you just search “wrought Farberware” there are some with the Victorian design.
I have been thinking about this for a couple of days. There are so many facets. Living in a glass house is tough. I have had my integrity questioned and I have questioned integrity and it never leaves you feeling good about what happened. Hopefully people appreciate the honesty and the sense of self it takes to put a tough decision out there but, but more importantly, in my opinion, the sense of self it takes to weather the judgment of the decision.
My initial reaction was that I would not back out. I priced it. I didn’t fat finger the number. It was a price I picked and now I must honor it just as I would expect it to be honored. But that is because I think of it in terms of me as a person, not a business.
But this is a business. J & R are CEO’s of their business. They answer to themselves, the shareholders.
Let’s assume we are all shareholders in XYZ Corp. The CEO structures a deal to sell a division for in a structured deal for $1 Million. Once the deal is inked, internal information surfaces that suggests that the division will be worth $10 million to the new company. Given this change, wouldn’t you demand that the CEO find any way to undue the deal? In fact, I think every one of us would call for their heads if they did not try to find the provision that undid it. It’s business. The CEO owes maximizing the bottom line to it’s shareholders. Is it any different that the CEO’s and shareholders are one and the same?
When I remove the personal aspect of it, my analysis changes and my “gut reaction” to how I would handle it seems to go away. It’s business. In that light, they had to make a business decision. What was the cost of undoing the deal? The only two costs I see are negative feedback and the theoretical danger of a lawsuit. They managed the negative feedback portion and removed it as a cost. As for litigation, that would never happen for the reasons previously stated and the practical aspects. As a career litigator, I can tell you that you couldn’t afford me to recover what, a grand in damages? And the buyer would have to sue in J & R’s state unless they could prove substantial ties to their own state, so buyer is having to fund the small claims action in another state including travel. That won’t happen. So what is the downside to canceling the sale other than putting it out there for public fodder? I think they acted as CEO’s should.
No worries. The next go round I will try to screenshot it and get it up here. I truly wish we could ship 5 pounds for under $8 or even without the discount, $10. It would be a game changer for us as we leave a lot of items that we just can’t justify the shipping cost given the weight of the object. I would love to think we missed a trick, but we have played with the shipping multiple times trying to find a way to ship heavier low dollar items. At 5 pounds we are typically moving to Smartpost as our only viable option as priority will be in the $18 range if I remember correctly.
The ePackets are what have caused so many issues on eBay and Amazon. The subsidies are so high that most of the time you simply can’t compete. On the few items that we do sell that are in competition with the ePacket sales is to point out we are a USA seller and therefore the item will be there much quicker. Doesn’t always win the day, but it keeps us in the game.
Ouch. I haven’t saved past examples as I wasn’t aware my veracity was an issue. From Oregon, anything going further than somewhere around Kentucky that is over 3 pounds will certainly be less exensive to ship in a Regional or Flat Rate box. I certainly know how to compare prices. We don’t get a 30% discount and that may or may not be the difference, but we certainly don’t choose a more expensive alternative. I will certainly report the numbers to you when the next time comes up.
Mike,
We use it all of the time– if something weighs 5 pounds and will fit in a small or medium flat rate, it is going in.
As for the chinese shippers, it’s the ePacket thanks to our government. We subsidize the nickel and dime knock off stuff for next to nothing. It’s hard to swallow when you consider the impact on most of us.
Therein lies the rub. I don’t know that you need to change much. I think if you label them “collectible” but stay away from anything that alludes to actual or authentic you are free to ask what the market will allow. It looks like several sell them as you are, it is just a matter of symantics.
+10
I wish I had TSatt’s forecasting ability. I do okay, but I don’t anticipate everything.
I also walked from a 6 figure professional gig. I waited til everything was in place and then jumped with some savings built in for the lean times. For a couple of years we kicked every projection in the rear. In fact, we were 8 months ahead of schedule for Shan to quit her job as well (she has only held on for healthcare). As some of you know, we have been involved heavily on Amazon and Amazon was about 80% of our monthly sales. We did just over 100k between May and August of this monthyear with really good margins. We are niche sellers and it has worked for us. It took hard work but the money was there. By the end of August Shan could quit based on every metric we came up with a couple of years ago. We decided at that point she would quit in the second quarter of next year as this would allow us to do several things including being able to get all of our advanced medical stuff done.
Ever feel like you are doing 100 miles per hour and then the wall comes out of no where?
September and October have been our worst months in four years. Amazon is dead to us. We simply do not have the inventory to do anything. We can’t find anything in our niche. Our one white label product was reassigned categories and died. We aren’t walking away from Amazon but there is nothing there for us right now.
Ebay is okay, but we neglected to build a pipeline sufficient to do what we want. In the last couple of months we have revamped that and it is turning around.
Does this mean anything has changed? No. I don’t need to consider going back. Shan will still quit. We have always been very similar to J & R in that frugality is the underlying current in our lives. I think the frugality is the part of this journey that doesn’t get enough recognition in choosing to control your time. You can make more. You can spend less. Ultimately we do everything we can to control our time. We squirelled away way more than we need to survive months, or years, of adjustment.
Here’s what I would echo or add to doing this as your sole income:
1) Do not rely on one income stream as the sole source of income. We sell on five platforms. We have rentals that Amazon and eBay income purchased. We are looking at a couple of others outside of what we are currently doing.
2) Plan for failure. Amazon is not working for us right now. That’s okay. we have already changed gears.
3) Understand that your time is not just owned by what you make, but by what you don’t spend.
4) Taxes are a bear if you rely on tax deferred accounts to provide a safety net. Retirement accounts should be left alone. Plus, they are the safety net at the end. Our retirement is fully funded assuming we don’t touch it in the next decade. Not that we will stop doing what we do.
5) Once you jump, believe you are living the way you were intended to live and do everything you can to keep it. Your time is yours. As I approached 50 I was developing health issues related to stress. Some have gone, some have stayed, but they will not define me. My time is mine. I answer to no one but myself and Shan. She would tell you I only answer to her but she would be wrong. or maybe not. That is a whole other topic I love this life and the fact every morning I wake up and choose how my day will go.
Plan. Think. Do.
Brian, you are one of my favorite folks to follow because you rock it in areas I can’t even begin to understand.
I don’t know anything about the Beatles stuff. The locks are questionably, if not certainly, inauthentic.
http://www.switchkeys.com/INDIA.HTML
I’m positive Alcatraz did not have a death row. It’s a tourist item based on a misperception. The other give-away is that they all have similar brass identification plates. I have never seen that in authentic pieces for a single prison, much less across multiple facilities. I am certainly not an expert, but I’ve been interested in Justice system items for about 20 years based on my profession.
I only recognized it because I just sold a glass with the promotional colors of the appliance enamel on it a couple of months ago. Since then I’ve dound some other smaller items. I’ve learned a lot from SL and from you and thought I would pass it on. But no remorse! Sales are great, and who knows if that would have changed the value. We are always happy to take the money and run.
