Finally a good one

Been at this since Sept 2011 and have been a rather consistent lurker of this message board. 
I have been gaining a lot of inspiration from everyone's stories and hope to contribute with my most recent find. 
So let's start with my stats :  11 units total to-date and am still down by 12% of my original investment. 
Been primarily using Craigslist and eBay to sell my product so once I include all those fees and gas my true return to-date is much worse. 
Going to be doing my first Flea Market in a couple weeks so am hoping to improve my percentages soon.   
This has certainly been a learning experience and a super tough thing to do in my "spare" time. 
With the exception of the most recently purchased unit, all of the rest of the units have been rather uneventful and nothing really great to mention.

So, on with the story....

I Went to a very small town in the middle of TN about 1 month ago.  My first time to this facility and there were 35+ units up for auction
and about 40 folks in attendance.  I was not able to recognize any of them as being regulars from the Nashville area. They all looked to be locals from the area. 
All of the units were going very cheap where most of them went between $50 - $200.  There were a few getting more than that including the one that I got.
I managed to score a unit that appeared to me to be about a 20x20 packed full for $535.  This was my first big unit and was very excited to get one but
realize now just how much work and planning you need to do ahead of time to buy one properly.  There was a ton of items visible from the enterance to justify
the price and to continue the gamble there was more to be discovered.  It took me 6 trips with my van and 2 trips with my brother-in-laws trailer to get it
all cleaned out.  It took me 3 very long weeks of inventorying, researching and taking pictures.  The entire contents of this unit was like walking
back into the 1960 - 1970.  There were so many Fisher Price and Playskool toys in great shape
and stored in their original boxes that I lost count.  There was even more without the boxes.  I must have 7 totes fully packed with nothing but
collectable crystal items.  I have 2 full totes of nothing but old Halmark Ornaments.  I have 6 totes full of nothing but old sewing fabrics. 
3 totes of old sewing patterns.  2 old doll houses with lots of furniture.  An old metal toy stove and fridge. 
Lots of odds and ends type house hold items from various countries.  1 tote of old oil paints and brushes still new
in the box and packages.  1 tote of old action figures.  3 totes of old dolls.  A six foot grandfather clock with an castle shaped top all made of match sticks.
An old coca cola carrier along with 3 trays.  7 Silver plated trays, copper plated pots and pans, etc....... 

My inventory spreadsheet for this unit is already over 400 items that I would classify as better than Flea Market pieces. 
If and of course this is always the big "If" statement... If I can actually get it all sold for the
prices that I have researched to-date than this unit should come in around $7,000 to $10,000.  I will be happy with $5,000 and do feel that this
will be more than attainable but will realistically take me until around mid summer to unload it all.  I just don't have the time to attend to the sales
side of the business as it properly requires but heck... I don't mind the slow turn-over.

I have just barely gotten started listing some of the higher end pieces on eBay and have managed to bring in $425 before fees.  I cannot wait to get the next couple
of months under my belt with this inventory along with a few Flea Market trips.

I realize to some of you out there that your not buying this story without proof.  The only proof that I can provide are the pictures of the items as I inventoried them along with a few pictures of the items as they stood in the unit while we were cleaning it out.  My only issue with providing pictures is that I have no idea how to do so using this message board.  If someone out there can message me throughout it then I will update this post with some of the picts.

So, it is my intentions to periodically revisit this post to keep my sales-to-date figure updated and slip some pictures of the items in.

To-Date (fees not taken into account) :

Unit Purchased : $535
Gas                : $325
------------------------------
                       $960
Sold               : $425
------------------------------
                        44%     

Wish me luck as I am out of the buying side of this business for a good long while I try to sell it.

Sounds good !

As far as pics go, I save my pics to a place out on the web; I know the address to that spot and a particular pic and I use a statement that looks like this:

Edit: took out all the explanation I had posted earlier...too difficult to make it look like anything that could be understood. If I typed it the way it would actually be written, a picture would show up !

Basically you are using some basic html inside image brackets.

I do see people do attachments of pics to their posts, but since I use the other approach I've never learned how to do that here. It gives a small thumbnail which can then be enlarged. Maybe one of the other folks can help you with that.

I have 6 totes full of nothing but old sewing fabrics. 

Congratulations on a great unit.  You should be able to sell the fabric on eBay.  I have a friend who sells that stuff (bulk thread, fabric, misc.) and makes good dough.  There's actually a pretty good market for it.   ETSY is another good place to sell fabric.  Good luck - looking forward to updates!

(img]http://webs.xxx.com/xxxmovie/images/pictureiwant.jpg(/img]*

Drew, be careful... MovieMan is looking to post XXX movies on your boards. Possibly inspired by some of the porn he found in a unit. 

@Cheesehead: My wife and I got a good bit of fabric and notions a couple months back and know we will make good money from it, but my big concern is properly identifying fabrics for the shopper. Just another thing to learn, I suppose.

@Cheesehead: My wife and I got a good bit of fabric and notions a couple months back and know we will make good money from it, but my big concern is properly identifying fabrics for the shopper. Just another thing to learn, I suppose.

I will check with a couple people I know and see what I can find out.  They buy in bulk and sell it - so there must be a system for ID'ing the merchandise.   

Congrats!

Drew, be careful... MovieMan is looking to post XXX movies on your boards. Possibly inspired by some of the porn he found in a unit. 

Actually, there IS money to be made in porn, but there are so many providers of it on the internet I don't know what percentage of the biz a newcomer would get.

At the four fleas in my immediate area three of them allow porn to be sold in a booth that has no visibility from the outside and signs posted that say one must be 18 to enter.

The best flea does not allow it to be sold and that's the flea I sell at.  They called me on it one time when I had an issue of Playboy with Anna Nicole Smith on the cover...just after she died.

TN_Hunter
that sounds great. Glad you have the patience for your return. And not a "greedy buyer" Will be sharing the wealth buy waiting to buy another unit. 

We all have to live and learn in the beginning and sometimes even the pro's get burned part of the business. Our 1st bad unit is a little in the black with a table left to sell. Fortunately we bought two that day at the same place or would have been really bad applying all the gas. 

So Movieman that is how you get your pictures so big. Not sure I can follow the mud. 

To attach pics the other way, When you post Left hand side Additional Options (in blue) Open it buy clicking on it and it has an attach Line just click browse and find your pic  they have to be small though.

On the fabric and craft supplies remember women can not resist it. Even I bought a tote of silk flowers at a yard sale  I used some of it to make up three wreathes (also bought at yard sale) Hopefully will break even on the $ definitely not on the time.  Took some old yarn to the Flea had 20 women look at it, and had to touch it. Didn't sell to fine of a yarn (why I am trying to get rid of it) even tried the pitch it makes great eco friendly shopping bags. 

But fabric is a feel thing. @ Cheeshead would be great if there is trick to it. When recovery chairs digging through my totes of material husband says "that color would look good" me "yes but I don't like the feel of it for a chair."

good luck and sounds like you have done your homework.

Oh and your numbers look a little funny
 Spent $860 ?? Or did you pay your buddy to help you?  Not that I do better I find mistakes in my spreads all the time. 

Congrats TN_Hunter~
our first unit was also in Sept, but unlike you we started out with a 10X20 packed to the gills.  Luckily we live on just over an acre, so had plenty of room to sort, inventory and store.  We're still moving stuff out of that unit, but most of it is gone.  Still have a couple odds & ends.

Since then we've landed 10 more units, but none quite as full.  We're now desperate for another big unit as our inventory is rather depleted.

And thanks for asking how to post pics.  I've been tempted to ask, but figured I'd get the 'use the search option' speech.  Instead MovieMan answered it and I have to admit.......with directions like that.....don't think I'll be figuring it out anytime soon~


Nice to read about treasures.  While microwaves and electronics pay the bills, the unusual & unexpected make it sooooo much more fun!

Movieman and Money4Nothing... thank you very much for all of the picture posting tips and Money4Nothing... thanks for catching my math error... My spreadsheet doesn't account for gas (yet) so I was running the numbers on the fly.  So, the bad news is that I am not a math genius but the good news is that you made my percentage better 

I don't have a place on the Web establish to dump my pictures yet so I am opting for the attachment technique for now.  Attached are some of the larger sized items we found in the unit.  If folks out there continue to be interested in the additional items then as I update the stats then I'll continue to add a few pictures... if not then I'll just periodically update the stats if anyone continues to be interested (don't want to wear out my welcome).

So, I did manage to stumble across a rather easy technique for taking pictures that are too large to attach and quickly shrink them down in size.  If you open up a file browser such as (My Computer) then right click on the file and click on the send to -> email an option to compress the size of the picture appears... then an email will be generated with the smaller sized picture attached.  Just save that smaller sized picture to your hard drive and cancel the email.

To-Date (fees not taken into account) :

Unit Purchased : $535
Gas                : $325
------------------------------
                       $860
Sold               : $425
------------------------------
                        49% 

For those of us in our mid 40's here are some pictures from our childhood retrieved from this unit :

Thanks for sharing we love hearing about good units.


Glad I could help the bottom line.    My husband says just remember "Figures don't lie but Liars can figure" LOL

Boy those are some old toys.  Love the clock that is really cool.

Hey TN_Hunter, I am in Tennessee too, can you tell the name of the town that auction was held or to you wanna keep it a secret?

Hey TN_Hunter, I am in Tennessee too, can you tell the name of the town that auction was held or to you wanna keep it a secret?

Can we say "chutzpa" ? 

Congrats TN!  Tenacity = $$$

(btw, the secret facility is near Nashville, give or take 350 miles!!)