Hello from the Pacific Northwest

[Spelunkin_Paul]

Hello everyone,

 

My name is Paul and I am from Oregon.  I have been following this great website since early in the summer.  There is great insight from all of you, as well as some great humor.  I lost my job earlier this year and started selling my own items from around the house to create some extra cash.  I am using ebay, of course.  I have done this from time to time over the years and have always wanted to start my own business selling online....so I have done just that...just getting started.  I have found that Legos, and toys in general, are the route I want to take.  I hope I can pick your brains from time to time.  

 

I do have a couple of questions to start:

 

Anyone else from the Pacific Northwest?

 

Anyone here use Quickbooks?  How do you account for your inventory within the program?

 

When parting sets, how do you determine costs for your minifigs?

 

I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas this year.  Can't wait to be engaged with all of you throughout the forum.

 

~Paul

[TheOrcKing]

Salutations, Paul.

[wywfwywf]

I am live in Seattle.

I love Portland, before of tax-free. We always went for Portland for overnight shopping on BF, when I would most of sets I want for that year.

I am not investor though. I only buy couple thousands lego maximum per year.

[speedsausage]

Hey Paul. Welcome to BP. I'm from the west coast but just north of the border. Wish I could answer your questions but I'm on the same timeline as you. Just got part time serious into this this summer too.

Good luck.

[stephen_rockefeller]

Good morning Paul and welcome to to the site. The best way to get an idea of minifig value is ebay. Just refine after your search to sold listings.

[Spelunkin_Paul]

Good morning Paul and welcome to to the site. The best way to get an idea of minifig value is ebay. Just refine after your search to sold listings.

Hi Stephen, I should rephrase myself.  When you buy a set and sell the base and minifigs separate, from an accounting standpoint, how would you suggest placing a 'cost of good sold' value on your merchandise?  Say the set you buy for $50 comes with a base item and 3 minifigs for a total 4 separate listings...I was thinking of just doing an average cost per item $50/4items = $12.50/item.  I hope that makes sense.

[Neosphinx]

Hello Paul,

Welcome.

You are very ambitious to start  full time a webshop already but you will need to have some serious capital available to buy investments. Don't forget, for Lego anyways, in general, you will need to keep the items for a year or more to get some nice gains on it. Of course there are sets like RI that can gain you a quick buck but don't count too much on them.

Perhaps it would be wise to just keep half time another job to see how it works. Should your earnings during a month fail, you still have a back-up in that job.

By no means do I imply you will fail, but as I have experienced already, investing in Lego does require patience, and when the bills need to be paid, the people claiming money have little of it.

I wish you succes in your endeavour!

[Spelunkin_Paul]

Hello Paul,

Welcome.

You are very ambitious to start  full time a webshop already but you will need to have some serious capital available to buy investments. Don't forget, for Lego anyways, in general, you will need to keep the items for a year or more to get some nice gains on it. Of course there are sets like RI that can gain you a quick buck but don't count too much on them.

Perhaps it would be wise to just keep half time another job to see how it works. Should your earnings during a month fail, you still have a back-up in that job.

By no means do I imply you will fail, but as I have experienced already, investing in Lego does require patience, and when the bills need to be paid, the people claiming money have little of it.

I wish you succes in your endeavour!

Thank you!  I hope it is successful.  I found a full-time job during the summer, so this endeavor is on the side...however, I would love for this to become full time at some point in the future.

[MartinP]

Welcome to Brickpicker!!

[justapilgrim]

Used sets and volume flipping of discounted sets is the way to go if you need to start making money now

Good luck from idaho

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Brickpicker mobile app

[minicoopers11]

Bricklink is a powerful avenue for parting out. 

 

For example, check http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=9498-1

 

Under "Lots for Sale" click "Part Out"

 

For the "Default Prices to:" dropdown select something like "Current Items For Sale Average" and Bricklink will automatically price everything. 

 

Click "Submit for Edit" then you can review the prices automatically set and edit them for all the pieces and minifigures.

 

In this case, the minifigs are:

 

Even Piell @ $9.67

R3-D5 @ $9.46

Saesee Tiin @ $8.45

[LegoPup]

Welcome!

 

From your soggy neighbor in Washington.

[Ciglione]

Welcome Paul!

 

I heared Oregon is a beautiful state. 

 

Good luck with your business.

[gopalkrishnan]

Hey Paul. It is a good thought that you will be starting your own business. Although I not from Pacific Northwest but I could help you with Quickbooks, each inventory item requires an income account

When you set up your first inventory item in your Inventory List, QuickBooks automatically adds two accounts to your company data file's chart of accounts:

12100 - Inventory Asset, Type = Other Current Asset.

50000 - Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). Type = Cost of Goods Sold.

When you purchase an inventory item, your Bill, Check or Credit Card Charge will debit the Item's Inventory Asset account and credit you A/P, bank or credit card account.

 

I hope you do well and get all the support from BP. Meery christmas to you & family in advance.

[lobo1969]

Welcome!

[biking_tiger]

Welcome and good luck!

[@rtisan]

Hello, welcome to the site!

[redghostx]

Welcome - I am also from the Northwest, but I can't answer your questions as the boss does my accounting for me and I don't part sets out. But I would value each as a percentage of the set - if I bought a set at $20 and could sell the 4 pieces at 5, 5, 15, and 25 then I would represent their purchase prices as 2, 2, 6, and 10 respectively.

 

It sounds like you have started creating a plan for yourself and that's important.

Good luck.

[wsuskee]

Just wanted to introduce myself to the group as I currently live in Yelm.  I am just getting into this as a hobby and a way to help pay for Legos for my girls.  I have been selling on ebay for 12 years with some success.  I mainly sold stuff I found at garage sales like CDs,DVDs and mostly video game stuff.  When I first started out it was lots of fun as I would make atleast $150 pretty much everytime I went out.  Over the years though the competition got tougher as I was dealing with a herd of grandmas fighting over gaming stuff.  I gave that up and this holiday season sold off everything I had left.  So now I have some money to put toward my lego adventures.  

 

As for the places I check on a bi weekly basis if possible consist of 5 Walmarts(Yelm,Lacey,Spanaway,Puyallup and Tumwater) 6 Targets (Lacey,Olympia,Tacoma,Lakewood,2 puyallup)3 Fredmeyers (Lacey,Tumwater,Puyallup)Shopko (Lacey) and once and awhile I hit the Ross,TJ Maxx and Marshalls.

 

One good thing about being in Yelm is that I am centrally located as none of these places are most than 25 miles from my house.

 

I know some of you might not want to share and I understand but does anyone have any heads up as what time of day these places do the mark downs?  I know the day after Christmas is a big one but I am more looking for what time of day not so much time of year.

 

Thanks so much 

 

Josh