Summertime slowness
There is an entrepreneurial meme floating around, positing the modern capitalist dilemma:
"Do you want to work 9-5 or 24-7?"
I can say for certain that I don't want to hustle 24/7 just to sell toys and plush. But what I noticed during these summer months is it's harder than I thought to get anything else off the ground. I was slow to start making upcycled art with the toys this month, and even when I got a kickstart, my anxiety and indecision took over. Creativity requires a bit of space. I need to make more room, on my apartment floor and in my reselling schedule.
When most people are out on vacation, I want to be preparing some fun and interesting ways to recycle seemingly useless toys. Or teaching others how to find what to sell. The dream continues.
Let's see what sold:
By the numbers
Spend: $281.36
Net profit: $776.54 (vs. $688.63 last month)
Listed on eBay: 44 (vs. 39 last month)
eBay rating: 100%
What Sold
Wins
Artsy Fartsy
It took quite a bit of effort but I was finally able to slam some toys together and make an art project. I'm pretty proud of how it came out too! But before I was able to spend an afternoon carefully gluing toys into a shadowbox, I ran into some issues. I first bought some crystalized rocks and rubber cement to stick it to a cardboard background. Turns out both materials were not the best. I ended up finding some already glittered paper for a better (and much cheaper) background option. Plus, I learned, as always, that you get what you pay for. I bought a $3 glue gun that immediately backed up and died after I burned through one stick. Luckily, my girlfriend had a heavy-duty Gorilla Glue model she leant me to finish it up. Victory!
Garage sale slangin’
And, in a close second place for the monthly highlights, I held the annual Scharch Family Garage Sale. This year, unlike others, I avoided the major anxiety of early bird arrivals by pricing everything a few days before. When sale day came, the weather was great and I even had the added bonus of my neighbors having their own sale too. More traffic meant more buys. And I ended up with $83 for these items and more:
Some other smaller highlights to the garage sale:
Books are never an easy sell, but Ma sold two giant stacks of Disney children's books for $15. The buyer was a soft-spoken giant of a man that asked her what she wanted for them. When talked herself down from $15 to $10, he reassured her, "what do you really want?" She said $15 and the man paid her. Amazing!
Unlike that gentleman, a very strange man with a strange sense of humor tried to demand my childhood Pokemon card collection. I had mentioned earlier that I had none for sale because they were mine to keep. He looked at me, dead-pan, and said "You're old now. My grandson is young. It's time to give them up." Clearly, I was not budging, but, boy what a weirdo! I was seconds away from freaking out on him. Luckily, he shelled over some dough for some other things without negotiation.
A customer from my neighbor's sale spent a good half-hour trying to jam a four-piece outdoor patio set into his family's minivan. When he finally got it in and drove away, he took a balloon and lawn sign we had to publicize our own sale. It dragged behind his car as he drove away. Funny enough, they returned shortly after to pick the rest of the patio set with the balloon in hand. We all had a good laugh.
I was just so happy to see some particularly long-term items go, including some large artwork, a giant slinky, and tons of toys that just didn't make the eBay cut.
A few days prior to the garage sale, a fellow reseller, Andrew of Rust n Retro, asked if he could take a look beforehand. I said sure and he made a nice dent before I even needed to bring it out. It's always better to do deals with friends.
Fails
Slow start
Vacations shouldn't be failures, but I did take July 4th seriously and went upstate to see my friend, Jess. I didn't officially start listing this month until July 6th and I think that had a small impact in how much I could get done. Oh well!
Also, I barely made a dent writing a 30 toy guide to begin building my newsletter audience. Why? I started researching Masters of the Universe action figure prices and got overwhelmed. There are so many figures! And after multiplying those by the possibility of writing a bit for 29 other toys, I thought it was too much work for too little payback. I need to rethink my approach and get back to work.
Exorcism of a sale
It's incredibly rare that I find a good deal on Facebook Marketplace. The competition is too fierce in these parts. Everyone else that has the internet can research the market, so some people are just ready to buy at the drop of the listing. That's why I was dumbfounded when I saw someone local selling some horror movie collectibles. including a limited edition Neca Exorcist figure. It was a motorized and possessed Regen that spun her head and played the bone-chilling theme music from the film. I asked the seller if she had a ballpark idea on price, she said she didn't. I took a chance and asked if she could put the post as Pending and I would scoop it up the next day. She obliged.
The next morning, I made the anxious drive over to a particularly crummy part of Bloomfield, NJ. I bought a $100 in cash, almost fairly certain she didn't know the gold she had. Plus, to soften the deal, I started digging through an eclectic DVD collection she was trying to sell too, thinking if I bought a few movies, it might sweeten the deal. But then, when we got down to business, she mentioned that, one, she checked the toy with fresh batteries the night before and the music was no longer working, and, two, she had done "her research" and she saw it could sell for $400+. With that being said, that would be the price if it was pristine, brand new, and working. This was not. I said I could only offer $40. She said "40 what? Dollars?" I said "yeah" already knowing further negotiation would not be happening. We were both silent for a while, a game of reseller chicken, until I cracked and said "well, I'll take the movies, but $50 is the most I can do." She still said no to the offer, and that's fine. I already had a sour taste in my mouth about the experience, BUT I did bring home a couple of DVDs worth $20+. Not a bad little lesson.
Going forward
I'm not sure where to begin this month. There are still a number of things I want to accomplish and they don't get done. I don't know exactly if it's fear or laziness or a mix of the two, but I still want them to get done. Maybe I don't know to know how exactly they will on the first of the month. Time will tell.
The garage sale gave me the nudge to start burning off the deadwood. There are some things in my inventory that are too old or too unwanted to ever go. It's time to come to terms with certain things and lighten the load.
Consolidating pairs nicely with my recurring idea of flyering for toys. I figure why not straight up ask people if they have vintage or modern toys that don't want. Who knows what could come of it all?
And, as always, lately, I still need to officially register my business and get going with creating both upcycled art and reselling guides. I don't know what path will bring what, but the motivation is there. I want to save more form the landfill and make a job out of it. Let's go!
