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Messages - MTP

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1
WOW!!! I'm surprised your quitting the game so soon after finding that much gold!  :-\

The gold was nice and it seems to reflect other guy's experiences to find SOME gold in every 4 to 5 units.

I found gold in 8 unites. One with over $2,000 total.
Most with around $200 give or take.
One witjh just one tiny piece worth 30 bucks or so.

I quit mainly because there seems no way to sell stuff in this area that's not internet sellable. CL is a nightmare. IF people show up they lowball you to death.

I was lucky that a friend led me on to a new venture that is 100% web based. I hate depending on ebay etc. But one I have an inventory up, I actually should be able to make $$ on my own web site as well..
I kn ow I could have made it work, but just was too much. Not getting younger and with arthritis and all it's just too much.

Probabl;y will be a small unit here and there for fun, but that's it.

Read my post in general talk 'Quitting the game, was a nice run' or something like that.

2
You have no idea what was in there, who took out what.
Highly likely the original owner did that.

Besides contrary (TV infused) believe, there are NOT bags of cash in every unit.

I have not found any cash in the 32 units I bought before quitting the game.
I did find a few silver coins. Prob a total of $50 in change.
2 gold coins (1800s Half Eagles, sweeeeettt).....
Some kind of gold in 8 out of the 32 units the best one was the one with the coins (total $2,000+ in gold incl the coins alone at $500 each).

However, if you got 6 bags of stripper clothes for $25 you actually scored fairly well for such a small investment.




3
Craigslist / Re: Stupid Questions From Craigslist Buyers
« on: July 05, 2013, 01:27:20 PM »
Offered electronics for bulk purchase.
DVDs, VCRs, lots of speakers.

He: What do you have?

Me: Like I said (see above)

He: Do you have any Iphones Ipads Androids etc?

Me: Yes, because I sell the good stuff for pennies on the dollar. Dip****. (did not send this, just sent NO)

4
Yup,
bought a unit of some former fleamarket seller.
Canopy, tables, all there.
100s and 100s of Jeans.
Really liked the jeans. I sell a ton of those on ebay. Turns out 75% are kids jeans (no money online) and bundled jeans are heavy as &%^.
Also the fleamarket setup stuff isn;t selling after 6 weeks on CL. Not even a bite.

5
I talked to a former regulqar buyer the other day.
Yeah, it's getting better, but NOWHERE to the old days ort even close.
He is doing it for 10 years. Used to buy a locker a week. Now he bought 2 in the last 7 months.

The rule of thumb used to be: Triple or quadruple your money on a unit on average.
Also add the 4 highest priced items you can see and that's your max bid.

If I'd apply these rules I would NEVER buy a unit.
People bit DOUBLE of what BOXES they see. Of course 90% of the boxes are emtpy or filled with dirty kitchen utensils.

There is money in the game, but the return on inverstment and time and labor involved is too much for a newbee like me, who does not have a network of connections that takes years to build.

6
I sell $2,000-$3.000 a month in clothing on ebay.
It is one of the biggest categroies on ebay.
Brand name, good or better condition condition.
Does NOT have to be Gucci or True Religions (I actaully hesitate listing those due to the number of knockoffs).
I sell most in the $10-25 range.
It's my bread and butter business while switching to my new venture.

7
Those shows probably caused irreparable damage ton the entire industry.

Evn the people hanging in are never going to have the same returns as they had.

People now know their **** gets SOLD and they don;t get evicted, meaning the quality is down.

Even though every working brain cell in the world KNEW from the getgo the shows were rigged some idiots will still go in and make all the classic newbee mistakes for ever.

Oh well, I hope it was worth it for the TV 'stars'....
Dave Hester was the first to learn that his 15 minuts of fame ruined his career for ever.
I hope it paid well, while it was going strong.

8
I am going to do some yard sales.
Actually made $380 last weekend blowing out some stuff.

Wholesale the rest, recycle some and maybe donate stuff.

Right now I would SERIOUSLY consider an offer on everything that's left IF the person takes everything!

2 storage lockers full 10x10 and 10x30 and some stuff at my warehouse.
$500 takes all.

Well, once can hope. LOL

9
After about 30 units I am done with the game.

I know Rome wasn't built in 6 months either, but I am tired of trying to sell nice stuff and nobody I mean NOBODY wants to buy it. OuR arEA (California Central Valley) is so depressed people need $$ for food.

I know I could have made it work, but I know for a fact no matter what it would have been TONS of backbreaking work.

Thankfully a friend led me on to another very promising business venture that's more along my alley.

I will miss the gold scores and fun people I met at the auctions and still might come out from time to time for some BSing. But I am going to get rid of what's left and move on.

Good luck all and thanks for all the advice and fun!

10
Here in CALI you can sell TVs and Monitors to prof. recyclers.
They sell them back to the state. Part of keeping that junk out of landfills.
Only have to sign a paper swearing it was from CA and you owned it.
Limits the volume a little as they actually check on that.
So large volume might become a problem.
Just use friends, family etc IDs.
They pay 3 to 6 cents a lbs. Not much but adds up quickly to 25-30 bucks for a quick 20 minute roundtrip to the recycler.

Charities here LOVE them. I believe if you are registerted directly with the state you get 49.5 cents a lbs.
Charities here usually don't even bother trying to sell them in their stores. palletize them and make big $$ with the state.

Other electronics go for 2-3 cents.
Cell phones $1.
Insulated copper wire $0.80-1.00
Odds and ends stuff depending on type 6-30 cents.
All prices per lbs.

All adds up!!!

11
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Taking Merchandise To Mexico
« on: June 20, 2013, 07:13:17 PM »
Years ago at the local Goodwill AS IS sale a Mexican lady bought for 1 1/2 weeks straight. Every day she picked through tons of clothing.
She then hauled it south to Tijuana I believe and sold there for 4 or 5 days.
Then she came back for 1 1/2 weeks and started over.
A GW employee told me, she spent about 40K a year at GW and I am sure she didn;t bother with just doubling her money.

She also was extremely knowledgable in vintage clothing.
She once showed me a jeans (not a Levi's) and said $600 at least. Told me a few weeks later she sold it to a dealer in L.A. for $1,250.

GW and other charities export 1,000s of tons of used goods to 3rd world countries.
Most bulk buyers at these charitable outlets ship overseas.
If you have the right connection it's huge business.

12
I know I get hated on for this, but here is my take on kids at auctions.

DON'T FRIGGIN BRING THEM!

It's annoying enough to have adults take for ever looking at a near empty 5 x 5 for ten minutes, sweat in the heat, listen to the annoying know-it-alls and new bee non-sense. Or the same joke by the auctioneer for the umpteen millionth time, lol.

Really don't have the patience to listen to your whiny kids, or screaming kids or get ran into, balls kicked at me, bumped into by them and what not. Can't even count how many times I get hit by strollers and how much those gosh darn strollers slow things down even more.

Only thing worse than strollers is Moe in a broken down wheelchair.

For real now.

13
That is really good rent, but REALLY look at it as an average guy driving down the street before comitting.

I rented a super high traffic store once right halfway between 2 of the biggest most successful thrift stores in town and a Harbor Freight Tools anchoring the shopping center.

I really counted on the traffic. But once I had no sales and I tried to analyze why I realized that the layout was so sucky that nobody could see us. Sandwich boards on sidewalk did us little good as well.

The Harbor Freight traffic worked a LITTLE but they all entered the parking lot on the left, and we were on of the far most right locations.

Lasted only 5 months. Advertised in yellow pages, pennysavers, tons of craigslist, hired a sign twirler and had 2,000 sq ft of great reasonably priced stuff but still had $20-30 days. Needed $160 to break even. That hardly ever happened.

Stupidly it was at the peak of the storage auction shows so buying good stuff that way did not work. NOW I get all the stuff my custiomers always asked for but I didn;t have back then.

Go figure
 Murphy's law....

14
And that is the crux of it right there and what I am struggling with.

Keep it in my inventory longer (maybe0 and get full price or give someone else a cut and potentially be ripped off.

Hmmmm…

I hear you and I generally tend to feel the same.
But after I bit the bullet and took some stuff to the 50/50 split consignment place and they sold stuff for $100-125 that I could personally never sell for more than 20-30 or maybe 40 on a lucky day I was ok with it.

I rather take 50% of $125 than 100% of $30.
Only works with select items, but my biggest problem has turned out to be moving stuff altogether.
Ebay is fine (except let's talk about people controlling the rules, yuk)...
But in person sales I bad. No yardsale opp due to living in an apartment. Warehouse it toally of the beaten path. Lucky if I have 10 people show up at a yardsale there.
So I am tying to develop other ways to move stuff.
Otherwise might as well give up on the storage biz.

15
I think you would have to play as it comes.

Antique malls / Co-ops are very popular and there is always the risk of theft and/or shoplifting as is in every retail environment.

As long as you feel the owner isn't doing it, that's just something you need to accept.

More valuable and easily stealable items should be locked in a case.

Otherwise just apply common sense I guess.

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