Okay here are some actual numbers from Booth 1 sales for December 2007.
Total Sales $130.00
less 10% -13.00 (store owner)
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117.00
less rent -50.00 lg. upstairs booth
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67.00
less adver. -5.00
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Check $62.00
inv. cost -11.71
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Profit* $50.29
*Does not include taxes that must be paid, gasoline or my time to run it over there - I grocery shop at the same time, nor my time to price, or tithe - but it is nice to know that w/just $11.71 I can net sales of $130!
Sold 33 separate items which would average out at about $3.94 an item. I do have some large items in my booth, and nothing big sold this month, the most expensive one item went for $14.50.
I do try to keep a lot of 'smalls' in my booth as sometimes that is the only thing that sells. I remember my early days of 'junking' and I was happy to shop all day, but did want to bring some little something home for all my 'efforts' - HA! Thusly, I do try to have items in all kinds of price ranges available for my shoppers. I think my sales would about triple if I could get a downstairs space.
So, $31 to the Roth IRA today after I hit the bank w/the check I picked up yesterday. Booth 2 results are too sad to mention for December.
January 9th, 2008 at 06:50 pm 1199904639
January 9th, 2008 at 07:15 pm 1199906146
But, at garage sales & thrift stores - I do use it as a way to have things for my house - I buy them, use it for a couple of months, and then off it goes to the booths.
Good point though - if I moved downstairs the rent would double.
January 9th, 2008 at 07:20 pm 1199906433
Had you sold the same $130 worth of stuff on ebay, your overhead would have been more in the range of $34.00 counting listing fees, final value fees and Paypal fees. That would be about 26% and your profit would have been $96.00, nearly twice as much.
I understand that this is less labor intensive, but the reward could certainly be much greater going to online sales.
January 9th, 2008 at 07:35 pm 1199907336
I spent SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH TIME making my ads (they have to look pretty, don't you know? and my writing skills must be exercised as well) that I was working at it for zero after all was said and done AND I still had the stuff in my house in the meantime before it sold!
This way my design skills do get put to some use which is an important part of this for me as I do enjoy setting up vignettes in my booths and SOME TIMES I do make much more than just this piddly amount and the STUFF is out of my house post haste. To be more profitable I could probably list it out for tax purposes and make a donation. That does not fit much of the criteria though!
I do price items while I watch TV w/the family during the evening time, most are given to me by family and friends and it is getting the extra stuff of my in-laws out of my basement in a fashion that does not hurt Hubster's feelings - like I don't care for his parents STUFF. I know, I know, delicate feelings, but this way they just go quietly into the night and he doesn't really care because I'm making a bit of pin money. He won't let me just donate their stuff.
I guess you could say, it isn't supposed to make financial sense. It is not a lifetime proposition either. I'm just doing it until I can clear out the estate stuff and then I plan to shut 'er down.
ETA: I have had several months of over $600 take-home after rent & costs from this one booth.
January 9th, 2008 at 08:01 pm 1199908875
I rented a case in an antique shop for a while years ago and it just wasn't worth it. I made sales, but the overhead was in line with what you paid this month so I pulled out and went back to ebay-only.
January 9th, 2008 at 08:18 pm 1199909934