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Interesting. I hadn’t really thought about that aspect of it. The nice thing will be my ability to take or leave any position that I find myself in. Thanks for the perspective!
Awesome! This is something that I expect/hope to be able to do in the next year or two.
If you don’t mind me asking, what are you paying her? Hourly or per piece? Will she do all aspect of the listing? Just pics/measurements/etc?
For many of us, the listing is the bottle neck, so outsourcing some of that work can really help to grow your offerings I’m sure. Super interested to see how it goes for you! Congrats!
Nice topic, and something that’s been on my mind for a while as we prepare to move. Once we buy a new home, we’ll either repurpose an existing building (garage/etc), or build a new one to completely house the online business.
It won’t be cheap, nor will it likely happen right away, but if I can have enough space to receive, list, store and pack ebay inventory, as well as receive, prep, and pack Amazon shipments without encroaching on our living space, it will go a LONG way to both scaling up my business, and to keeping our home clutter, work, and drama free.
I’ve never really thought about it in terms of income per square foot, as I’ve yet to hit a storage limitation. I definitely understand your logic if that’s the case though. If it were me, I don’t think I’d stop buying or listing new inventory, but maybe stop buying the lower returning but storage intensive items on a go forward basis. If the potential income is there, I’ll always buy and figure out storage later.
Relatively small, yes. I think the city is only about 60,000 people. We’ll eventually set up about 20-30 minutes outside of the city in a more rural setting.
I have no doubts that if/when I want a part-time “hobby” job, that I’ll be able to find one. I’m just not willing to commit to more hours than I want to, nor am I willing to work somewhere I don’t enjoy myself.
Minor updates:
We’re hoping to finalize movers for the big stuff this week.
I’ve been selling a bunch of stuff locally. Left overs from our antique business, tools, furniture that we’re not keeping/taking, etc. There’s still a BUNCH more to sell, but things are moving relatively well. Facebook seems to move this stuff WAY better than Kijiji does.
I’ve had a pipe dream of working for next to nothing in a small brewery, and “applied” to one near our new home last week. They called, and we chatted, and they pretty much offered me the job, but wanted a full-time person, so I turned it down. I don’t need/want a “job” so really only want to commit one or two days per week IF I take something, and it has to be somewhere that I enjoy going. They asked me to stop by for a pint once I’m there, and if they have a part-time need in the future, they may bring me on. If nothing else, it feels REALLY good to be offered a job, and to be able to honestly say that I don’t need it, and it doesn’t fit what I’m looking for, so “no thanks”. VERY empowering.
Store 1
Total Items in Store: 1,696
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $220.90
Cost of Items Sold: $19.00
Highest Price Sold: $32.99
Average Price Sold: $22.09
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $25.97
Number of items listed this week: 19Store 2 (CAD)
Total Items in Store: 927
Items Sold: 8
Gross Sales: $90.67
Cost of Items Sold: $8.50
Highest Price Sold: $13.99 (vintage patch)
Average Price Sold: $11.33
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 16Amazon.ca sales: $299.00 (CAD) (Approx $89.70 net profit)
Amazon.com sales: $2,272.00 (Approx $681.60 net profit)Wow. What a dismal week of sales. Both stores took a bit of a nosedive. I’ve been listing less that usual, but have been trying to list at least a few things each day to keep the algorithm happy. Been pretty busy with moving planning, taxes, and other personal stuff, so that’s taken up some of my time. Additionally, I lost my TRS status a month or two ago as a result of some cross border issues (eight late shipments in one week, BARF). I’m close to getting it back, but suspect this has done nothing but hurt my sales. I’ll push to get more listed this week, and will run a few sales to try and flush the late shipments out.
Amazon keeps chugging. I’m going to be soooo close to breaking $10k gross in the US this month, but expect I’ll end up landing in the $9.500 mark. It’s entirely an arbitrary goal, but nice to know I’ve got a spread of products that can sustain that level of sales on a monthly basis. Really helps when ebay has a “soft” week.
Personally, been selling a lot of odds and ends locally, and have been purging/donating a bunch of others. Our move is just over a month away. This week we’re hoping to finalize movers for the small amount of things we’re having shipped. We’e got a home to go to (month-to-month rental), and a cargo trailer to pull us, the cats, a few personal items, and all of the ebay inventory across the country. We expect the drive to take about four days (10-12hrs/day). The move is coming FAST. Feels terrifying, but eventually, we’ll have bought a new house, will be settled, and can just coast for the next 20+ years.
04/20/2019 at 12:26 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 406: Disposable Income, WTF is that? #60548Owners manual? Retractable cargo cover? Spare floor mats?
I’ve sold all three in the past. Shouldn’t affect your trade in value if any of them aren’t included with your trade.
It’s kind of heartbreaking to see how incredibly wasteful our society is. For every item worthy of picking up and reselling on ebay/etc, there are probably 100 others that are so cheaply made and undesirable that they become literal garbage once they’ve been worn a few times.
I make myself an absolute sponge for “useless” knowledge. I listen to 4-6hrs of podcasts each day, over a wide array of topics, and when listing, usually watch documentaries.
If I’m out in the world, whether sourcing specifically or not, I look into things. The broader my knowledge base of people, places, things, history, the better equipped I am to know a deal when I see one. That’s honestly one of the most gratifying things about reselling for me. One place where my knowledge really expanded quickly was antique auctions. There are some incredibly odd items/tools/things that will go across the auction block. Trying to figure out what the items are, and then having either the auctioneer or the crowd confirm/correct my hypothesis is pretty entertaining. I always learn something new at an auction. Always.
One of the best feelings is to be in a thrift store, rummage sale, or garage sale, and be behind someone that I’m sure is another reseller, and pick up all of the things that they miss. It makes me sound terribly conceited (I’m not, I promise), but in those cases, in my head, I’m often saying “I know more than you do” to the other reseller.
Now THAT would be great. Haha
We did a five day drive years ago with one cat that wasn’t travel friendly, with relatively good success.
The two we’ve got now travel relatively well once they settle in. I suspect they’ll do alright. Selfishly, part of me wishes I was making the trip alone, because I know I could do it in less time. I did Nova Scotia to Alberta solo in three days (about 4,900km, or 48hrs of driving time) once years ago. I don’t mind settling in for 15-20 hours a day behind the wheel. The wife and the cats will likely limit me to 10-12.
I sent probably 15-20 offers last week with solid discounts (ie listed for $28.99, offer $20.00) and heard nothing on any of them.
Very underwhelming.
04/16/2019 at 7:02 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 406: Disposable Income, WTF is that? #60260I almost never see storage fees in the US. It all turns over quickly enough. In Canada I pay a small amount each quarter ($10ish).
I don’t see much for returns. Sometimes on toys/etc I’ll get returns, but it’s not a significant amount of them, and not enough to deter me. As sad as it is, it becomes a cost of doing business.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by
Winchester38.
04/15/2019 at 10:40 pm in reply to: Winchester38's Journal – A Journey To Full-time Reselling #60249Fortunately, we already have a pretty good knowledge of the area. My wife lived there in university, and we’ve been there a few times a year visiting family recently. Between that, and knowing that I intend to cross the border two or three times a week, we’ve pegged our desired location to about a 30 minute radius. It’s just rural, so only so many listings come up. Just a waiting game…haha
04/15/2019 at 10:30 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 406: Disposable Income, WTF is that? #60248I still send in odds and ends from thrift stores too. Sealed board games and puzzles, used text books, etc.
My Canadian inventory is primarily clearance items, but I’m slowly trying to find good replenishables to set a solid 8ncome base too.
My US inventoy is 99% replenishable items. In some cases the currency exchange ends up working in my favor (buy for $10cdn, sell for $25usd, net $18usd, which ends up being $23cdn, for a solid doubling of my money, even after fees and shipping). I’ve put in the hours to find the items, and still spend an hour every Wednesday meeting online with my “mastermind” group to hone my skills further. It’s been a big help.
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