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75920 - Raptor Escape


Jeff Mack

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That's what I do. I resell to fund me and my  kids building hobbies and the wife can't complain because she's gets a nice vacation out of it. :derisive:

Anything more than that goes to long term investing

Do you use some sort of Excel spreadsheet to track your expenses and profits made ? or just tally it down with pen and paper

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I just listed the extra 2 sets I found. Now I just discovered online, that the town down the road from me has some at their walmart...... Wish I knew if it was worth the 30 min drive to investigate.... Considering no one has made a me a decent offer on the ones i put online. So I may just have to make a phone call to the store. I can always take them back...right?  I'm gonna try to get my hands wets trying the Brickpicker thing on the side. See if it is worth the time and aggravation it may bring. ( I read a lot of posts on here and decided to try posting some comments ) ...If I figure this resell thing out it will make it cheaper on me to build my collection. This way I can justify the spending to the wife.  And yes, I do open and build our sets... I have 2 boys and we have a blast together, build and playing with them =)

Here, let me save you the hassle.  Here is how it works in a nutshell.  You buy 2 of these for 88.00 (after sales tax, unless you live in one of the two tax free states left in the country).  Ok, you list them on amazon thinking "i'm going to double my money and pay for the other one.  So, you jump into the pool with 80 other people at the moment, some of which have 30 to 40 of these in stock.  So, you are sitting on two.  Current price is 85 in the "prime box", and about 65 on the lower end.  Unless you fight with the primies, forget it.. you're stuck competing with the bottom feeders.  SOooooo ..you wait a while, and it never rises, but lots of people are shifting in and out at the bottom.  After a while, you are like "well, i'll just wait it out, surely it will go up".  2 months later there is another restock, making it the 5th one in the last 2 weeks.  So, you give up, and list yours for 54.25 by undercutting the lowest guy by a few cents to hopefully get yours to sell quickly.  10 minutes later it didn't sell, but one of the 150 other new resellers that just came on board, decide they are in your boat too, so they undercut you by .20 taking the lowest price point.  Well shoot!  Now you are in a dilemma, because 3 other posters just undercut that guy over the last hour, and in that same time frame 10 new resellers came onto the scene.  And when you crunch the math on the fees/shipping, you realize you're just making a 1.00 more than what you paid for them if you undercut those guys, and you just spent weeks monitoring and looking at the inventory listings to make a buck!!  So you clench your fists, and let out a darth vader sized "nooooooooo"

So, to really undercut the competition, you end up donating it to the childrens hospital as a christmas gift and take the tax write-off.. 

Welcome to the club!

Edited by fossilrock
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Do you use some sort of Excel spreadsheet to track your expenses and profits made ? or just tally it down with pen and paper

yeah I do. It also helps that I have an accounting degree so that kind of simplifies it. I have two categories like I stated short term and long term. Sets like Jurassic world and Scooby doo and anything I find on clearance usually sell at 10-20 profit doesn't seem like much but do that enough times in a day and your onto something. I did really well with the Simpsons minifigures. I bought in at 40-45 a set and sell for 70-75. Since shipping is minimal average of 2.50 each set. I usually cleared 15-20 a set. Times that by about 100 sets and you have a down payment on a vacation. Something's work better than other but usually the first week or two weeks after a set is released is my high point especially if my stores here put them out early. Scooby sets for instance I bought in at 185. So even if I sell at minimum retail cost plus shipping still making about 30-40 on each. Sorry to ramble but each person has their strategy and do what makes it easier on you. Spreadsheets help keep cost of everything that why I use them. Shipping supplies I buy once a month and I usually take one my long terms and use that profit toward the cost. That's my strategy its minimal and I am not making millions but it keeps everyone happy

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yeah I do. It also helps that I have an accounting degree so that kind of simplifies it. I have two categories like I stated short term and long term. Sets like Jurassic world and Scooby doo and anything I find on clearance usually sell at 10-20 profit doesn't seem like much but do that enough times in a day and your onto something. I did really well with the Simpsons minifigures. I bought in at 40-45 a set and sell for 70-75. Since shipping is minimal average of 2.50 each set. I usually cleared 15-20 a set. Times that by about 100 sets and you have a down payment on a vacation. Something's work better than other but usually the first week or two weeks after a set is released is my high point especially if my stores here put them out early. Scooby sets for instance I bought in at 185. So even if I sell at minimum retail cost plus shipping still making about 30-40 on each. Sorry to ramble but each person has their strategy and do what makes it easier on you. Spreadsheets help keep cost of everything that why I use them. Shipping supplies I buy once a month and I usually take one my long terms and use that profit toward the cost. That's my strategy its minimal and I am not making millions but it keeps everyone happy

Thanks for all the info =)
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