Your stats?

[Kevo_DFX]

Hi there all.

I have bought and sold many items in the past, but this is the first year that I have taken it seriously, I'd like to see if I can grow this into my main source of income instead of a secondary source. So, I've been keeping meticulous records, and I think I'm doing fairly decently as far as return level (if not in volume, I hate that I have a regular job which limits my buying opportunities.)

Here are some rough estimates (all figures are from this year only):

Amount spent on salable items: $700
Sales: $3200
Fees and Shipping: $500
Profits: $2000

So, so far this year I am selling for about 450% of what I buy for, and am making almost 3 times what I spend in profits. (I still have probably about $500 in items to sell as well)

I understand many of you may do more volume, but do you see similar, more, or less rates of return?

Note that less rates of return may not be a bad thing. I may be being too choosy about what I buy.

Your thoughts?

 

[diggummup]

It sounds fine but sometimes it's not about making "x times the money I spent". I think the question I would ask is how many items did you have to sell to make that 4.5x amount? The more items you have to list and pack and ship, the more work you are doing for that money. The higher the dollar average per item sold, the less actual work you have to do. It's much easier to make $50 on a single sale than it is to make that same $50 on 5 or more sales, even if you only spent $10 on those 5 items. Say for instance you spend $100 on an item and only double your money or even a little less. By the time you pay your fees, your making the same amount of money (or more) on that one item than you did on those 5 lesser items that cost you much less. So, bottom line is, while it's great to find items very cheap to re-sell for 4 or 5 times the price you paid, It's easier to sell one higher valued item at at smaller profit margin for the same dollar return. Make any sense?

Not that I actually heed my own advice. I can't resist a good cheap deal. I'll admit, I've got it bad. It is an addiction of sorts. If I did this full time, I would have to hire someone just to do my listings. That is the hard part for me. I have enough stuff to list a thousand or more a month. I'm lucky to list 100 though.

 

[dumpsterdiver]

I have no problems finding things I can mark up enormously either. I think the wall most people hit is trying to scale it to a larger size operation. Somewhere you hit a wall on how long it takes to pack or to list. Ideally in my mind someone would just pay me to go out and find things they could list and sell for a profit and I would take a percentage of the total. I could probably drown someone in items. If you only looked at how much they could mark something up. Today I passed up a technics turntable that probably had over a 10* markup because I had a good idea of how much I felt like properly packing a turntable. My desire to properly pack a turntable was totally non existent. I know people do it full time and I would like to as well. But their are some real obstacles at a certain point.

 

[diggummup]

I have no problems finding things I can mark up enormously either. I think the wall most people hit is trying to scale it to a larger size operation. Somewhere you hit a wall on how long it takes to pack or to list. Ideally in my mind someone would just pay me to go out and find things they could list and sell for a profit and I would take a percentage of the total. I could probably drown someone in items. If you only looked at how much they could mark something up. Today I passed up a technics turntable that probably had over a 10* markup because I had a good idea of how much I felt like properly packing a turntable. My desire to properly pack a turntable was totally non existent. I know people do it full time and I would like to as well. But their are some real obstacles at a certain point.

I couldn't agree more. I pass on many items because of this same reason. Either too large or too to much hassle to ship properly/safely.

 

[Tallone]

When I first started doing this I kept very careful records. I'm kind of a geek for data and spreadsheets. I wanted to know EXACTLY what I was spending and how much I was making. My results were similar to yours, Kevo. After a couple of years of doing this, I realized that as long as I had a full time professional position, buying and selling stuff was going to be nothing more than a profitable hobby. I just don't have the time and space for more than that. I also don't want the risk and hassle of large and expensive items.

 

[mkulltra]

All of the stats are relative. Profit margin, # of items, time spent, etc. etc are all interesting but at the end of the day for me, the most important thing to me is confidence level. Knowing that an item is going to sell and for how much is key. It doesn't matter if I'm buying a $10 item or $100, as long as I know it is definitely going to sell (rather quickly) and how much I'm going to make, then I'll buy. Whether I'm spending to spending $10 or $100 to make a $50 profit doesn't matter. It's $50 either way.

 

[2ndisbest]

I have no problems finding things I can mark up enormously either. I think the wall most people hit is trying to scale it to a larger size operation. Somewhere you hit a wall on how long it takes to pack or to list. Ideally in my mind someone would just pay me to go out and find things they could list and sell for a profit and I would take a percentage of the total. I could probably drown someone in items. If you only looked at how much they could mark something up. Today I passed up a technics turntable that probably had over a 10* markup because I had a good idea of how much I felt like properly packing a turntable. My desire to properly pack a turntable was totally non existent. I know people do it full time and I would like to as well. But their are some real obstacles at a certain point.

I shy away from turntables for that exact reason, however I just recently sold a Thorens on craigslist for $250 that I paid $25 for. Craigslist is a huge advantage for heavy and hard to ship items. I looked at ebay and seen the turntable going for around $300, so I dropped my price down to what I was going to get out of it after shipping and fees anyway. Win win for me and the buyer.

 

[dumpsterdiver]

I shy away from turntables for that exact reason, however I just recently sold a Thorens on craigslist for $250 that I paid $25 for. Craigslist is a huge advantage for heavy and hard to ship items. I looked at ebay and seen the turntable going for around $300, so I dropped my price down to what I was going to get out of it after shipping and fees anyway. Win win for me and the buyer.

I really don't like the idea of someone coming to my house that I don't know at all. And meeting someone at a parking lot with a turntable just sounds ridiculous. But I have contemplated it.

 

[Red James Cash]

Know what gets me?Is the people who dont hesitate to put some of their financial information on a website.Such as how much they make selling stuff.Theres even one person in here that openly admitted to fudging his book keeping when it came to sales and profits.Ahhhh to be so naive.Can you say IRS AUDIT,there you go I knew you could. unreal.