Year End Report - 2011

Well as the end of 2011 gets closer and closer I decided to finish up my last calculations.  Only purchased 1 unit this month for $150 ($160.50 w/ tax).  Sold a vehicle AC freon draw-down system or what ever it's called to him for $200.  Still have a car part that guy bidding against me wanted and few other items from the locker.  So will make some money.  However, one big mistake wipes out everything for the year.

16 Units Purchased for the yar.
$1964.50 spent
$1239.73 items sold / cash / same-as-cash items (gift cards, stamps, etc.)

So ($724.77) in the red.

Kept just under $400 worth of stuff for myself, kids, family.  Have a bunch of inventory still for spring flea market.  Not counted all the items I took to Goodwill for the tax write-off.  So not a great first year for this auction buyer.  Looking forward to 2012.

Have a Happy New Years Ya'll!!!!!!

Well, I won't go into that much detail, but after today' flea market my year end is looking like this:

I am sitting at 1.82 times the money; so for every $1,000 I spent I brought in $1,820. Not the "double" I aim for, but it will have to do.

Of course, I still have inventory left over from lockers and individual items bought in the last couple of months. I'm never in a hurry to turn something over just to get quick cash and this model has served me well over the years.

A couple of days and we'll be back attending auctions again and here's hoping everyone has a great year of buying and selling !

I am sitting at 1.82 times the money; so for every $1,000 I spent I brought in $1,820. Not the "double" I aim for, but it will have to do.

New year resolution to do as was told by Movieman to do the Percent of cost sold, Balance to recoup ect..
  (husband does it in his head now) LOL

Year end update.

 6 lockers Purchased
$ 1215 spent (includes yard sale finds)
$ 1326 Sold

In the black by $110

With projected inventory of $1,515  (some not included mainly clothes and yard sale smalls)
So not a bad start for these noobies. 

Looking forward to the new year.

A couple of days and we'll be back attending auctions again and here's hoping everyone has a great year of buying and selling !

Same here.

Happy 2012 to all!

Just did some quick figuring and we actually had a good run for newbies.
Bought 8 lockers starting at the end of Sept.  Just the quick breakdown looks like this:

Total cost~$2435
Total made~$7635
for a net of~$5200

We still have about $600-900 in inventory and some nice seed money.  We probably kept about $200 worth of merchandise and another $100 on Christmas gifts.  Of course finding that one painting was a difference maker and thank God I didn't sell it at a yard sale for $20!!!!

We've learned a ton and are looking forward to a prosperous new year.
This forum has been such a help and inspiration to us.......

11 units purchased
Total sales to Units cost ratio... 2.24
Total sales + Items Kept(resale value) to Units cost ratio... 3.74
Approx $900.00 remaining inventory

These numbers do not include any expenses.
9 units turned profit, 1 unit will turn profit, 1 unit will lose small amount
Best unit currently at 9x purchase price.

I wish this was all due to skill, but I had a lot of good luck and learned a lot this past 6 months.
Thanks to everone for sharing your experience with us newbies.
Happy New Year!

Spent Roughly $950 on 5 units(since 1st week of September)

Made Over $2k

So made roughly $1K, with still over $1k in stuff to sell.

Purchased 36 units this year.

Profit/loss to be determined by my accountant.

Highest gross sales from a unit = 10x20 - $4000.

Best ROI from a unit = 10x10 - 17 times the initial investment.

Worst units: closed out = 1 break even, pending = 2 or 3 80-90% recoup of capital. (will lose 10-20% of initial investment)

Most expensive unit 10x20 = $1480
Least expensive unit 10x10 = $1 (this was not the best ROI unit by-the-way) 

Last auction of the year, on New Years Eve cancelled by the auctioneer by phone 15 minutes after posted time, because he "forgot" it was on his schedule. 

I do this for fun, I have a full time job, I tend to only buy units that look interesting, that are big, full and clean. I donate the cheap stuff, give away stuff to friends & keep the really interesting stuff. The tax break helps & I try to sell enough to cover the cost of the unit.

I started buying 6 months ago and in that time:

Spent $6200 on 18 units (average of about $350/unit)
Sold ~$5800

I have kept/giving away to friends about 2k worth of stuff, have about 2k in inventory of stuff I need to sell, and donated god knows how much.

Seeing others peoples numbers are interesting though, using MovieMan's numbers of 1.8, to achieve, say, the median US average of 45k,

$45,000 profit / .8 = $56,250 would have to be spent on units.

You would have to sell the stuff from those units for over $100,000. Thats about $2000/week in sales every week of the year.

The number of units one would have to buy depends I guess. From what I have seen the average price where I live is close to what I pay, about $400/unit. Meaning one would have to buy 140 units a year.

Again, I do this as a hobby, I spend on average 5/hours a week messing around with this. But I often wonder how the people who do this for a living make a living, and, in my mind, the numbers don't add up.

I But I often wonder how the people who do this for a living make a living, and, in my mind, the numbers don't add up.

Did you forget to factor in that $5K a month some of us receive from having won the lottery ? 

Did you forget to factor in that $5K a month some of us receive from having won the lottery ? 

Haha if thats true, then great for you. Your numbers are just a good example because you obviously spend lots of time on this. The enigma still remains for the unlucky few who haven't won the lottery.

Dregs...

No, I don't even play the lottery, but success is measured by many standards and money earned is only one of them.

If I only needed $1,000 a month to meet my needs your figures would have to be altered substanially downward; probably the most important thing for the people who write and read here is that they are satisfied in one way or another with what is happening for them, or if they are not, that they then move on to other endeavors.

If one has shelter, food and water one is doing well these days, and if there is money for extras and the future, what more could one ask ?

Dregs - the difference between you and I and MovieMan / Teacher / etc is an issue of time and experience.  We both do this as a hobby (though w/ wife quiting work may turn into more for me).  As such we spend 5 - 10 hours if that a week researching, doing auctions, sales, etc.  I know for myself I hit maybe 20% of the auctions in my area.  Most I can't attend due to my full time job.

People that do this as a job have a few advantages.  They can hit all sales so see more units, gain exp faster, make good contacts, sell at flea every weekend, etc.  They can purchase multiple lockers a week since they have more time to clean / sort / sell.  More lockers you buy the better chance of hitting a good or great locker.

As I told my father one time.  If I had to do this as a job my wife, kids, and I would be starving.

As for the #s.  If it hadn't of been for 2 units (1 in particular) I would of been up about $500 or so.  Not counting all the stuff that I kept and inventory.  Not bad since most hobbies you spend money, don't make any.