Has anyone tried to track net profit growth instead of set value growth?

[redeemed763]

We all know how sets tend to spike in value really quickly right after EOL, especially if it goes out of stock at all the retailers at once. It is not uncommon to see sets double in value over this time, this is when many sellers take it upon themselves to go ahead and sell the set. I will use my winter village bakery as an example... Purchase Price - $47 Sale Price - $95 - it is was going for this amount 2 weeks after I made my purchase Ebay/paypal fees - $14 Shipping - $12 Final Profit - $22 This actually did pretty well on its own, I haven't actually sold mine yet since I am hoping it will go for much more later, here is the interesting thing though, even though the growth has now slowed considerably for this set, it is going for roughly $125, some listings are quite a bit higher, others are lower but thats not hard to do. By Christmas, it should be at $150, at that point, my profit would be almost $70. If you were to track the profit, you'd see that it keeps growing pretty nicely, even though the value growth slowed quite a bit. Do any of you track this and try to forecast it for your sales?

[CNH1974]

Yes I do this for all my purchases; on a spreadsheet. I am hoping for a profit spike when Jeff/Ed had in the UK data. I expect them to be higher I have not included Ebay fees, or shipping. However I have never offered free shipping. When I say profits, I actually mean losses, most of my sets are still available, only 1 has gone EOL so far. But i think i am breaking even.

[redeemed763]

Yeah, I think we are talking about different things, I think everyone here tracks the value of each of their sets, but profit is very different than value, the value may grow at 20% but my actual profit could have grown by 50% in a given period of time, making the two very different items to track.

[Snowcrash]

Calculating profits is simple. When you sell deduct your costs from the sale price and there you are. Before you sell you're basically guessing at his much the set will make you. It's all academic until the money changes hands, and in the case of eBay until the 45 day buyer protection period expires.

[CNH1974]

Yeah, I think we are talking about different things, I think everyone here tracks the value of each of their sets, but profit is very different than value, the value may grow at 20% but my actual profit could have grown by 50% in a given period of time, making the two very different items to track.

Um, not sure. I thought it was the same thing. FOr example:

I bought 853373 Chess Set for

[jaisonline]

We all know how sets tend to spike in value really quickly right after EOL, especially if it goes out of stock at all the retailers at once. It is not uncommon to see sets double in value over this time, this is when many sellers take it upon themselves to go ahead and sell the set. I will use my winter village bakery as an example...

Purchase Price - $47

Sale Price - $95 - it is was going for this amount 2 weeks after I made my purchase

Ebay/paypal fees - $14

Shipping - $12

Final Profit - $22

This actually did pretty well on its own, I haven't actually sold mine yet since I am hoping it will go for much more later, here is the interesting thing though, even though the growth has now slowed considerably for this set, it is going for roughly $125, some listings are quite a bit higher, others are lower but thats not hard to do. By Christmas, it should be at $150, at that point, my profit would be almost $70. If you were to track the profit, you'd see that it keeps growing pretty nicely, even though the value growth slowed quite a bit. Do any of you track this and try to forecast it for your sales?

i do this all the time when selling sporting event tickets. Very nice figure. The lone diff between my ticket and lego sales from your example is that i don't give free shipping unless the sold item is expensive & a repeat customer.

In the past, I had ...

Ticket Price Revenue

(I didn't keep track of shipping fees since i charged exactly what i paid)

- total price paid

- ebay fee

- paypal fee

------------------

net profit

[redeemed763]

Um, not sure. I thought it was the same thing. FOr example:

I bought 853373 Chess Set for

[CNH1974]

I do something similar:

[redeemed763]

It looks like you have a pretty good system for tracking all of this, now the big part is tracking how much the profit goes up over time as the value of the set goes up.

[CNH1974]

Um, not sure. I thought it was the same thing. FOr example:

I bought 853373 Chess Set for

[CNH1974]

It looks like you have a pretty good system for tracking all of this, now the big part is tracking how much the profit goes up over time as the value of the set goes up.

Yes that was a 6971 from a bulk lot :)

[Anakinisvader]

I use OUTRIGHT on EBAY and it does a pretty good job. It is a free app and tracks your paypal account, fees, sales, and cost of goods sold. You can also track and do other things with it. It isn't the greatest but it serves its purpose.

[Grolim]

I tend not to forward forecast potential profits. But I do keep very good records of current sets I have in my inventory and their current market value, along with sets already sole. Tracking profit after all transaction costs. Plus being outside the US I often have to figure in exchange rates as well. It's all in an Excel spreadsheet. For most sets when my current market value gives a net profit percentage that I deem acceptable I start listing them for sale, other sets I have in longer term storage.

[Guest ph4tb0i]

I don't really track net profit growth as the expenses are a fixed value, so ultimately it's the set's appreciation value that i care most. Like everybody else here I also track my purchases/sales/expenses carefully. I wrote a web app on my private server to do it as I like to dynamically calculate how many sets I have on hand and the net profit I'm earning for that particular Set # right after a transaction is logged (e.***. If I bought 10 vampyre castles and sold 3, what's the $ figure I need to break even on the remaining 7). My next goal is to export the Brickpicker CAGR values I need via the CSV tool, then using it to do forecasting via my own reporting app. I tried with Excel but since I'm a database guy during the day time I don't like using it as a "database" per se. Makes my life a bit more complicated this way but I figured it keeps me sharp with my trade. :)