Have you considered a purchase instead of a lease?

With the current real estate market you may be able to find something already zoned and ready to go. The community might be offering tax incentives as well since there is so much commercial property available. At least in my area of the country.

Another positive is actually owning the property. You should be able to purchase for less than a lease would cost. Also, you would be building equity for the future.

If the property is large enough you could sub it out and create a second hand store outlet mall of sorts.

Just sayin’

I have considered this at length.  There is actually a property that I have my eye on that would be excellent for both a store front AND have the space for an out door flea market AND inside "vendor" space.  The only problem is the seller is not currently aware that the real estate market collapsed.  If it drops a couple hundred, we would make a serious run at it.  As it is...  I can't find property to purchase that isn't ridiculously priced.

Sam

$1,000 a day at a thrift, antique, consignment, etc is crazy good money... The shop owners I have spoken to (and/or) have seen the actual financials are clearing ~$1,500-2,000 a week. Sales are ~$2-2,500 per week AND those are the really successful shops!

Have heard grumbling from the realtor regarding my LoI. Getting geared up for the booth opening - price tags ordered, inventory system devised, spreadsheets are getting linked together for master inventory and P&Ls... We open April 1st - I will be out of town March 24th-31st. Debating on putting anything in on April 1st or wait til I have time to fill booth space. I am expecting the first 2 weekends to be my best due to being the new vendor. Just not sure how to best leverage the opening...

Sam

Well it looks like I am putting a deposit on a booth at an antique mall tomorrow. I'll price it at $75 and see what happens. Thank you for the opinions - it helps.

Sam

So Ebay just kills me with their fees and paypal...  I read an article about ebay and their were a bunch of comments about eBid (in business since 1999 or something).  Flat 2% commission on sales and allows paypal, google, etc for payment.  Anyone have any experience with eBid?

I can't really afford to sell on Ebay.  They eat up too much of my profit for too little bidding.  Maybe I am doing something wrong, but all of my recent auctions only have 1 bid right at closing.  eBid has an auto extend feature which adds 60 seconds from the time of the last bid - would prevent sniping if I list some of the collectibles.

Sam

Bed's (even frames) and furniture move slow for me - unless it is a complete set.  I typically can't justify the storage space requirement so don't bid on them.  The only furniture that come back from the units I bought were shelving that is useful while I try to sell it (everything else was basically junk).

Sam

I will say it again. There is NO contractual guarantee as to the condition, quality, or type of contents in a storage unit unless you get an itemized inventory in writing from the facility, and that dosen't happen!

This is not necessarily true - depending on the state you live in...  If the advertisement for the auction states that it is for deliquency and the auctioneer states the same (or something to that affect), they have now just represented what they are attempting to sell.  IF you can prove that it was staged or they have gone through the unit you bought, you would have standing in court to claim fraud, false advertising, and breach of contract (most states consider oral contracts as binding).  The same reason your bid is "legally binding" means that their representations are just as legally binding...  An auction, in most states, is nothing more than competing verbal contracts between the auctioneer and the highest bidder.  I can tell you if I ever bid on a unit and found out while paying it was staged; I would not complete the transaction.  If I found out (meaning have proof) after I paid, I would request my money back.  If after 7 days I didn't have my money, I would file in small claims court.

Sam

So...  I have a full time job that pays the bills, my wife is a stay at home mom with a full time job with our 2 children.  I have been buying and reselling for several years now - primarily auctions, estates, flea market, craigslist, etc.  In February, I picked up a partner and we bought our first two units (2 of 3 lockers owned by the same person) for $1,200 total -  not including expenses.  We have cleared $1,500 so far and haven't touched the antiques, guns, jewelry, silver, gold, etc that we have.  We also have ~40-50 boxes of knick knacks, collectibles, and antiques we haven't gone through.  My issue is simple - I have too many small items that hold a good amount of value (~$1-2,000) added together but low dollar (<$50).  So the question is how do I move them.

Original thought - a store.  After joining the forum - an antique mall.

Store Front

• Benefits - set schedule, opportunity for consignment, opportunity sub-lease (ala vendor booths), lower price sqft, substantially more display space, immediate availability
• Drawbacks - very time intensive, higher overall cost, large overhead, pressure of maintaining inventory

Antique mall

• benefits - lower overall cost, lower time necessary, very high foot traffic
• drawbacks - high sqft price, commission/payment processing charge (15%), ~6 month wait list

My general thought is that with either option, I can continue my "traditional" reselling approach.  I am just needing to find an avenue to get the "smalls" out in front of more people.  My wife has the ability to work a store front with the kids.  We also wouldn't need to have the store be open every day during the week.  The important time would be Friday-Sunday to allow maximum road traffic and drop-ins.  We don't need this endeavor to put food on the table - strictly increase/maximize the profit. 

Just a note of clarification - I wouldn't consider goodwill, salvation army, etc as direct competitors to what I envision.  I couldn't compete with free merchandise and labor.  The "cheap" stuff is donated either for tax right off or to good causes.  I am thinking more of an antique/consignment business model for the store.

Still thinking through everything - meeting with a realtor on Friday to look at some retail properties and talk pricing.  I might be able to get a retail spot for close to the same as a vendor booth in an antique mall.

Sam

You would still have to do a bunch of business to justify $75 overhead PER day...

Sam