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Excellent.

Nuture this.

There are 117 days and 23 hours until Christmas Day 2013.

Get into holiday mode now.

May the Force be with you. x

:cheer:

I dont handle non selling products at all. I dont sell much new and a large portion of my stock increases in value just sitting there. I purchase antique with many items purchased that no one knew or knows what the item was when I bought it. No less then 100% markup with average 300-500%+.

Like a fine wine, I can buy an antique like I did buy a van load of antique today at the estate sale and let it sit for months. Most of those items value will rise over time.

Most here sell new items and the values usually never go up and if you pick a product that is a fad it can destroy your profits.

For example. I purchased a Jadite Glass vintage 1950's dinner ware set in January of last year. It is sitting on a shelf at my warehouse. Going price then was 400-450. I paid 95.00 for the set.

I watch certain things and the last one to sell was a week ago as they are very rare to find in the original boxes like I have and it sold for 600.00. Price went up.

Keeping it for December listing and can see it hitting 800-1000 as true collectors will pay to get it and gift it as a gift or add to their own collections. One sold for 852.50 last December on ebay.

Having a warehouse of stock is like money in your bank to me only I will easily double my money and can many times triple it if I time the sale of an item correctly.

I buy entire houses full of items many times a year. I sort the goodies/antiques, sell off the stuff I dont want to deal with such as new furniture, appliances etc and in many cases get more then 1/2 my money back doing this alone.

For me working long hours is a treat as I can like today not work on anything except for going to the auction, buying a van load, paying their workers to load my van up and drive into the building to leave it for my girl who will sort it, clean it and inventory it for me in the morning.

Come home, spend some time with my kids as the DH is out of town, once they go to bed I can make accounts, check ebay sales and do whatever I want.

Being your own boss is awesome. Like tomorrow I can pick to work all day or head to the mall. Or work half of a day and pick up my kids from school and go to Disney for the evening.

I have been dealing in antiques since I was a kid. Not much competition anymore as most older folks who were competition have stopped or retired completely. Younger folks have no clue what an antique is and only come to the auction to buy for themselves or to take a risk. Competition anymore is not fierce like it was for years so I usually have my pick of the entire buildings anymore.

I get a pit in my stomach to get to it knowing online what is up for sale.

Getting paid to live your passion is simply awesome.

As the saying goes the best time to buy an antique is now.

I broke my all time sales record for a year this year and it is only August so the year has been fruitful.

Long days are common for me. When I owned my own manufacturing business in my 20's I put in many 20-24 straight hours. When I sold it and worked as a sales rep for a large corporation I was on call 24-7 and (LOL) and had my own seat on the airline warmed up and ready for me at any minute.

I would not trade what I am doing today for anything.

I hope others who do not want to put out the effort understand what they could accomplish with a few more hours of work put in.

I totally agree with Sandy. I also sell used items, I specialize in rare, out-of-print books. Most of them are bought as a collection. I take everything for one price. I get rid of the garbage for cheap on Amazon and list the rarer books at whatever price I want to get for them. I also find some rare items selling online for cheap. I buy them and re-list at a much higher price.

I sometimes have people call me about buying a book, or a few books, as rare items. I tell them upfront that I will only pay between 25% and 50% of what I expect the book to eventually sell for. Why? Because I might have to hold on to that book for more than a year before it sells. The quicker I think I can sell it, the more I am willing to pay for the book.

Like Sandy, I can choose WHEN to work on my business, but if I want to make money, I MUST do the work. Books must be graded, listed, sold, shipped, etc. Inventory tracking is extremely important as well, since I sell on multiple venues.

I also sell other items, when I can find a niche product. I DO sell new items frequently, but the business is not as stable. If I find a nice new product that I can get cheap, I can make some money on it for awhile, but monkey see, monkey do. Meaning, I have maybe a month or so of good sales with good margins before everybody and his brother is trying to sell the same thing, driving down the prices.

Still, I have noticed that the competition for online sales has DECLINED over time. Back in the late 1990's, the competition was MUCH tougher. A lot of people figured they were going to make big $$$ fast by selling online, and it was not unusual for more than 100 sellers to be selling the same item. Now, there are far fewer sellers. My GUESS is that a lot of people gave up on the idea due to the competition and are not interested in returning.

Don't get me wrong, competition can still be BRUTAL for the better selling items and more of today's competitors don't seem to have any qualms about resorting to dirty tricks to try to get other sellers banned. That part of it is worse now than it ever has been.

That is one reason I like what I am selling now. My competition is limited as the supply of goods is limited. I'm guessing it is one of the things that Sandy likes about selling antiques. The fact is, I can want to sell a vintage glassware set just like hers, but first I need to buy one at a price that will allow me to make a profit. And even if I AM able to do this, there is likely enough business where we can both sell our items at a decent profit.

Research and knowledge is key here. Sandy can probably look at a lot of a hundred items and know what they are worth based on her previous experience. I can do that with books. It DOES take more time and effort than selling new items, but the rewards can be worth it.

If the above posts don`t motivate the new forum members to get going on sales and stealth...then that`s a shame...very eloquent

Lol, I hear you. At random I can get a call about something being available that I know I can sell. When that opportunity arises I have to jump on it or it is gone. I largely sell products that are in liquidation. Sometimes I know it might take me 2 years to clear out what I am buying at the price I want but that is a cost benefit analysis. With interest rates near Zero in recent years holding cash in a Savings account compared to holding inventory has been relatively indifferent. But yea, if I can avoid a storage unit I always try to. But a few years back I did get over my head and had so much inventory I had to stack in the bathroom, the shower etc. Was hard to even figure out where everything was it was so cluttered.

@jeffweico & SandyD...

You guys should start creating a big e-book guide like Aspkin based on your experience of the trade and make some mega bucks from it SFB style!

Thanks.

Already working on plans to do an e book on how to purchase antiques and collectibles ( what to buy and what not to buy in todays market ) and re sell for large profits. I have the website owned I want to use for it but just seems like I never have time. Hopefully someday soon.

I catalog every item I intend to sell.

I account for everything & where it is stored.

:mod:

I do as well. Have to be organized. I have shelfs labeled for example Vintage Glassware, Silver, Railroad items, Cosmetic Jewelry, Porcelain Signs, Brass, Nautical, Coins, Pottery, Arrowheads etc etc etc.

No item goes onto the shelf until cleaned and added to the clipboard in front of each section. Dated when purchased, where purchased, how much etc.

@Sandy

Sounds very much like me.

Everything is checked and undergoes quality control

:surrender:

I love the Items I sell to the point that it hurts to see them leave!!! some items are mass produced so I could care less, but some item are unique and one of a kind I hold a ceremony for my one of a kind items.... It sucks to be a collector of the same items you sell..:s:s

I collect oddball pieces from the group of items I collect. They must be rare, seldom found by most collectors ( they dont know what to look for ) and must be an error, oddball, sample or employee specials.

I do find them because most people in this area of items has little to no knowledge of what errors, oddballs, samples or employee specials are.

I find them on ebay in the wrong category, wrong maker, wrong type, wrong description etc. Last one of these I found was in an antique mall and it was marked as the wrong maker and 100s under priced even if it was not an oddball.

Thrill of the hunt.

Great minds think alike :)

I often wondered why a guy like Mark Cuban would think like I do.

:heh: