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Yesterday, I said I would tell you about the other Craigslist deals I made last week. You will have to wait another day for that. Today is all about Dinnerware. Yes...plates, cups, dishes and pretty much anything you would use on your table or near your table while eating.
A few months ago I went to an eBay OnLocation event in Atlanta, Ga. One of the speakers there was a Lynn Dralle. She spoke as a part of the Top Rated Sellers panel and had some pretty interesting insight into her business. At the time I was not focused on similar items so what she said did not resonate with me all that much. As the last few months have gone by though our business has gradually shifted to more "one of a kind" items.
We've spend more time at yard sales, estate sales and local auctions than anywhere else. Although, the time spent on these items is much more than our normal wholesale sources, the markup is exponentially higher than on those same wholesale items. On a good day I can make 20-30% on many of our wholesale items. However, on a good day with these one of a kind items we can easily Triple or Quadruple or money.
The challenge with 'One of a Kind' items is, FINDING THEM. More directly, the challenge is finding enough of them to keep your money turning over. We have 5-10 different types of items that we look for, but as our money started compounding we were having a harder and harder time spending all of it.
I'm sure hat sounds very odd to most of you, but in business if your money is just sitting there that means you aren't making anything off of it. See Compound Interest.
The #1 thing that you DO NOT want, if your wanting to build wealth, is to have a significant portion of your capitals (i.e. Moeny) sitting in the bank. If you do that means the money is not making you anything. I like to have a reserve, don't get me wrong, but not too large.
As a fix to this delima we are constantly looking for new types and categories of items to buy. We like to find a category, learn all we can about it and test it out. We've done this with numerous types of items. Here are a few examples (Vintage Electronics, Golf bags, Helmets, Golf Clubs etc..)
It can be scary jumping into a product for the first time. Case in point DINNERWARE. As a guy, I knew absolutely nothing about plates, cups or gravy boats. I didn't know any of the brands to look for and I sure didn't know the difference between a Cup and a Grand Mug or a Dinner Plate and Salad Plate.
I immediately thought of the lady at the eBay OnLocation event. I went back and read over her website and went to the library and read a few of her books. Then I finally sucked it up and bought her newest book entitled "Dinnerware Success".
It was expensive, very expensive, but well worth it. She charges $150 or so for it. However, it can literally teach anyone how to buy dinnerware and sell it on eBay. It took me, a guy who new NOTHING, and in less than 24 hours I bought my first set of China and a really cool platter.
I said all of that to lead you into the ITEM OF THE DAY...Dinnerware.
These are my first buys. I spent $25 on a 55 piece set of 'Lenox Merriment' and $4 on a ugly Lenox platter. There are a ton of auctions up with all of these pieces so I wont bother to link them all here but I will keep you updated with the totals.
Check out a few of them below:
We paid: $4
We paid: $25 (for entire 55pc set)
You can see everything at our store HERE
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1 comments:
You mean you didn't think the Christmas-themed bird platter was pretty?
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