Good Day For The Challenge

Previous Total: $368.96

Current Total: $368.96

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 13 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 44 minutes

A very busy day today and I will start working on all the details after this post. I had most of the items from the trunk sell today and they came in at over $400 and that isn't counting the flag that ends in a couple of days which I figured would cover the cost of the entire trunk. It's very good news and hopefully I can continue the trend.

The last minute bidders also came through on the sake cup set which ended above $80 meaning I made some money there, too.

I also had some sake cups ending today with half the profits going here - and another $100 cup sold. I don't think I'll reach $1000 today, but I will be a lot closer.

Another Star Wars Set Sells

Previous Total: $361.78

Current Total: $368.96

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 5 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 31 minutes

Just received an email noticed that the Star Wars set was purchased with a buy it now. Take away $0.52 final value fee + $0.75 paypal fee + $2.50 for the set + $2.00 shipping and I can add another $7.17 to the total. Will have to pick up the set tomorrow when I do the grocery shopping and place another one up for auction.

I've been thinking. The hobby shop has a lot of different cards, but most I don't think would sell for much on ebay (and after listing fees, final value fees, paypal fees I don't think there would be much profit there) and that is why I haven't taken more time to take photos and list like I have with this set. I may, however, set up a blog with the photos and offer to sell them through that avoiding all the fees. Again, if I can get the photos, then there is little risk on my part and no initial investment. It would simply take time (something I seem to always be short of) to set it up.

3 Olympic Medals

Previous Total: $347.59

Current Total: $361.78

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 26 minutes

I placed 3 more Olympic medals (one - two & three) on auction last week for my friend and they all sold for a total of $56.76 of which I get 25% (and he takes care of all the fees). That adds $14.19 to the total.

I have mixed feelings about the auctions ending tomorrow for this challenge. The trunk of goods has done wonderfully - the items from it are above $200 already. The sake cup set has me a bit worried. It is still at $10 with less than 12 hours left. My fingers are crossed that there is some last minute bidding on that or I will take a loss on that particular item.

No Go On Froogle

Previous Total: $347.59

Current Total: $347.59

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours o minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 16 minutes

It doesn't look like the froogle thing is going to work out for this challenge. It's not a bad concept, but it's meant for online stores and since the items I'm going to be placing in the blogs are only temporary previews of auctions (with an opportunity for a quick sell), it's not quite what I need. The main problem is that you need to load up a bunch of information about each product -- exactly what I was trying to avoid -- which will take as long as putting the items on auction. I will certainly keep it in mind for another time...

Junk That Is Not Junk

Previous Total: $347.59

Current Total: $347.59

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 16 minutes

Strange things on ebay. It just goes to show that what you think is complete junk others won't view in quite the same way. The leg warmer gators (link above) that came from the trunk of all the things I put on auction are selling for the most money currently at $22. They are the one item I thought would sell for a low price if at all. In fact, I almost threw them out due to their condition and thinking there was no way anyone would want them. Sure glad I didn't. I do hope the other items I thought would sell well, do a little better though.

Froogle Account

Previous Total: $347.59

Current Total: $347.59

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 7 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 16 minutes

I headed over to froogle to set up a free merchant account. Very easy to do and took me a little over 5 minutes to complete everything. Now I am waiting for the feed to be processed - while I don't know if it will bring any sales, it's bound to bring a bit more traffic and that can never be a bad thing. I figure that I will get some pretty specific hits from it if it all gets set up correctly because I know there aren't a whole lot of people selling what I am. Another fun experiment to play with.

A New Free Selling Platform

Previous Total: $347.59

Current Total: $347.59

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 23 minutes

Time Spent Total: 1 day 0 hour 09 minutes

I've been thinking a lot about how I could sell more of my items outside of ebay. I could start up a store, but that takes just as much time and work as listing the items on eBay and there are still fees to be paid. I could set up an area on the main site (which I had been planning to do) but loading the photos onto the server and all just takes a lot of time and effort. Then it came to me!

Why not set up a blog and use that as my selling platform. It's easy to load photos into the blogs now, there are no fees for doing so and no final price fees - 100% free and easy to do and manage.

The way I plan to use it is whenever I get new items in, I'll load up the photos as a preview. In the preview, I'll give the cup or other item a unique number and a "buy it now" price. Then if someone wants the cup, I can sell it quickly with no fees involved. If nobody wants it for the buy it now price, then I will list it on auction whenever I can.

Of course, I'll also place adsense ads so there is a chance to add a bit of money there too (what a concept...getting paid to list items for sale instead of the other way around!)

I think this will work perfect for previews of items I will be listing. I don't think it will be difficult to get people to go and see...I will just use a list of past winners and let them know I will be previewing my items from now on. I'm hoping this will help the turnover of the cups (since I'm not wrapping them) to generate a bigger income in less time.

You can take a look at the new preview blog at sakecups.blogspot.com - very basic set up and only a bunch of test posts at the moment, but I will work on it a bit tomorrow and hopefully have a few preview items up.

Busy Morning

Previous Total: $318.71

Current Total: $347.59

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 45 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 under garments (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges (one)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 1 hours 47 minutes

Time Spent Total: 23 hour 46 minutes

Wow. I'm close to a full day of working on this project (or three full days of work). It was a busy morning here. I managed to place another 11 cups up for auction as well as one of the hunting license badges and the flag from the trunk. I also placed another of the Star Wars card sets on auction. The listing fee was $9.70 of which $6.40 is my responsibility. I'm looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

I also had 5 cups sell today for a total of $80.09 with $9.53 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $70.56 and an additional $35.28 to my total. So with all the items sold and placed on auction, I was able to add $28.88 to the total today.

While I'm a bit disappointed that my current total still being in the $300s, I do have quite a bit of inventory which will hopefully increase that amount quickly when it starts to sell.

Hunting Badge

Previous Total: $339.71

Current Total: $318.71

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 50 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two) - 7 hunting badges

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 54 minutes

I was at the local grocery store yesterday and popped into the antiques shop next door and found 7 hunting license badges which I purchased for $21 ($3 each). While these probably wouldn't be worth much usually, Japan prohibits firearms so there can't be a lot of these given out. I'm really interested in seeing how these sell and will put one on tonight. my guess is they will either sell for very little or a lot, so I'm curious to see what happens with them.

New Items

Previous Total: $464.71

Current Total: $339.71

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 7 sake bottles, 50 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 44 minutes

My partner came by with what she picked up and I have a new supply of cups and bottles now. She picked up 40 new cups and 5 bottles for a total of $250 which is $125 to me. A lot of the cups are older - early 1900 cups - which I'm not sure how well will go over with collectors. Most have chips and the patterns on them are not as colorful or interesting as the later cups. I will start listing those tommorow and we'll find out

Today's Totals

Previous Total: $293.58

Current Total: $464.71

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 10 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 34 minutes

It was a busy day. Along with listing all the items, I also had 13 sake cups sell. There was a huge difference in their selling prices. As mentioned before, one sold for over $150 while another only went for $2.25. All 13 sold for a total of $380.22 with $37.40 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $342.60. That gets split in half for $171.13 that gets added to my total.

With the big selling cup, all the cups averaged a selling price of $29.25 but if I take away that one cup, the average price falls to $10.14 so that one auction really helped.

I will try and place the flag, the mini trays and the 2 sake bottles (the rest of our current inventory) on auction tomorrow. I'd love to make it to $1000 by the end of this month, but it isn't looking very good at the moment. I need to find some more big ticket items and possibly look at different ways to increase the savings.

Trunk Items Listed

Previous Total: $304.98

Current Total: $293.58

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays - 1 wood sake cup set - 1 flag - 1 pair of pants - 2 undergrmets (one & two) - 3 belts (one - two - three) - 1 officer's cap - 1 pair of gators - 1 winter coat - 1 winter coat cap - 2 helmets (one & two)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 3 hours 11 minutes

Time Spent Total: 21 hour 34 minutes

I ended up listing a total of 24 items today for a total of $11.40 in eBay fees. That included 10 more sake cups of which I'm half owner (so only half fees on them) plus all the items from the trunk except the flag (14 items). I decided to split the winter coat and the winter coat cap into 2 auctions instead of a single auction since the cap wasn't attached to the coat when I took it out of the trunk. I will place the flag on auction tomorrow or the next day when I have more flags to place with it - they sell better in groups. I have placed links to all the auctions. As you can see, none of the items are in very good condition, but I'm still hoping that they sell fairly well.

It's time to start looking for more sake cups. They have been doing well so no reason to stop with them now. My partner has some, but I haven't been over there to see them yet or find out the cost to me for them. I will before the weekend.

The $150 Sake Cup

Previous Total: $304.98

Current Total: $304.98

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays, 1 wood sake cup set, 1 flag, 1 pair of pants, 2 undergrmets, 3 belts, 1 officer's cap, 1 pair of gators, 1 winter coat, 2 helmets

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 23 minutes

Got to love those surprise ebay auctions! I haven't gone through and done all the totals for the items that ended today (will do that right after finishing here), but it should add a bit of money to the pot when one of the auctions goes unexpectedly wild: who would have thought a sake cup would sell for over $150.00 (the one pictured). I will certainly keep my eyes open for more of that pattern.

Flea Market Finds

Previous Total: $404.98

Current Total: $304.98

Inventory:

Half Ownership - 2 sake bottles, 23 sake cups

Full Ownership - 5 mini trays, 1 wood sake cup set, 1 flag, 1 pair of pants, 2 undergrmets, 3 belts, 1 officer's cap, 1 pair of gators, 1 winter coat, 2 helmets

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 23 minutes

This past weekend I bought a couple of more expensive items. One is a wooden sake cup tray and set for $50 and the other was a trunk of clothes also for $50.

I'm off to start taking photos as soon as I finish writing here. I'm starting to get a bit of a backlog on the items I'ce purchased and want to get them all on auction. I don't need more things piling up around my house.

The wood cup set should be interesting. it was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but I decided to go for it anyway. It's going to be one of those where I lose a bit/ break even or make a lot on it, but I felt it was worth taking the chance.

The box should be a great income earner. I do sell quite a few flags and know that pre WW2 sell for $25 - $50 each. When I looked in the trunk there was a flag, so I figure that will pay for the trunk right there and everything else will be gravy. I don't usually buy trunks because 1) they take up too much space 2) the stuff inside is usually very old and in desperate need of a wash. That was not an exception in this case.

It was hard to resist though because besides the flag were two WW2 helmets, an officer's cap, a winter wool jacket with attachable cap, 2 undergarmets, a pair of leg warmers and 3 belts. All of these are in very poor condition, but even so I'M hoping that the purchase all together will net me over $100. I will put them all on auction tonight.

I picked up the Star Wars set to send and they still have more, so will also continue to list that set. I'm off to take photos...

Listed and Sold

Previous Total: $398.55

Current Total: $404.98

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 15 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 23 minutes

I finally got around to listing another of the Star Wars sets and it sold within a day. I had originally been selling them for $5.95 each since I could get them at $2.50, but it looks like I was selling them for less than I could. I decided to try a $6.95 start with a $9.95 buy it now and the buy it now was used right away. There was a $0.75 listing fee + a $0.52 final value fee + $0.75 paypal fee + $2.50 for the set +$2.00 shipping = $6.52 in costs for a profit of $6.43. It will be nice if I can continue that.

I will walk down to the store today and pick up the set to send out and make sure they still have plenty of others so I can relist again.

I also picked up some items over the weekend that were expensive, but have the chance to make a good profit. I will list that info in a bit when I have more time

Email Suggestion

Previous Total: $398.55

Current Total: $398.55

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

Received a suggestion by email on how to solve my listing time problem:

Regarding the listing time on eBay, don't you have the option to list at a future desired time for a small added fee? This way you can list in the morning when you have the time to do as many auctions as you like, but have the auctions end in the evenings, when more people are able to bid.

A perfectly simple solution that would work except that I live in Japan and use a computer with a Japanese operating system (you can ask Nate all the trouble this causes when he wants me to do something new...lol).

I could do this but I would have to do my auctions through the eBay site instead of through a listing program that I currently use and that would end up taking up more time than it's worth. I started using a listing program because I can list about 4 times as many auctions through an automatic lister than I can by going through the steps on the ebay site.

For some reason, my Japanese operating system messes up a number of the functions that ebay offers - one of which is the setting future times for auctions. I guess I should go and see if I can get ebay support to help me solve the problem, but if any of you have tried using their support, you probably know why I haven't attempted to do so thus far. Maybe if I get a lot more courage... ;)

Change In Tactics

Previous Total: $398.55

Current Total: $398.55

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

I think a change in tactics will be needed if I'm going to reach the $5000 goal. With only 3 and a half months left and I'm still not at the $500 in profit mark, I'm going to need to purchase a few larger items on my own with the potential of receiving a fairly big return on them. Now that I have more money, I can afford to take a bit more risk.

I will be looking for items that I think will at least sell for what I purchase them for with the possibility of a large return if they happen to catch the fancy of a particular collector. I have to go on my gutt feeling on a lot of these since it's impossible to do research - when you see something at the flea market, you usually have to make a good guess and go with your feeling if you think it will sell or not. it alsways helps to purchase boxes with a variety of stuff in them since this sort of spreads the risk - if one item doesn't sell, another can make up for it - especially in areas where I'm not familiar with the collectible in question.

I will be going to a flea market this weekend and will be looking to purchase a few items in the $50 to $100 area with the hopes of at least doubling the money when sold.

Missing Auctions

Previous Total: $299.96

Current Total: $398.55

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 23 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

Oooooops. With all the Interent connection issues, it seems I missed a series of 12 cups that sold on th 16th of this month. Here is the information on them.

the 12 cups sold for a total of $223.35 with $26.18 in ebay and paypal fees for a profit of $197.17. Divided by 2 and a profit of $98.58 gets added to the total.

I wish I could predict with better certainty which cups are likely to sell for a lot an which aren't. Almost all of them sell for more than we purchased them for, but some make only a few dollars profit while others make over $20 in profit with some as high as $40. If I could consistently pick the cups that would sell for a $20 profit, I would be more than willing to spend the time wrapping them. I'll have to do some more research to get better at picking out those high value cups.

5 More Cups On Auction

Previous Total: $302.96

Current Total: $299.96

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 35 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 18 hour 08 minutes

Still fighting my Internet connection - will be glad when this whole episode is over. I did manage to get another 5 cups up on auction for a cost of $3, but then my access went out again.

I'm debating whether to list the items whenever I can. From experieince, I find that weekdays in the evening are the best times to sell my stuff to get the best prices, but that means listing them here in the early morning. I'm wondering if I just list everything when I have the time, if the extra listings will make up for the slightly lower prices I'm likely to see. Something for me to think about.

Access Troubles & More Auctions

Previous Total: $310.76

Current Total: $302.96

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 35 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 22 minutes

Time Spent Total: 17 hour 58 minutes

Internet access has hurt the challenge over the past week or so...still haven't figured out completely what's going on, but my access has been limited at best. It has meant that I haven't been able to put up many of the auctions I have wanted to. I did manage to get another 13 up yesterday at a cost of $7.80 in ebay fees and I hope to get the rest up tomorrow (Internet access Gods willing).

A Domain

Previous Total: $276.27

Current Total: $270.28

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 50 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 0 minutes

Time Spent Total: 17 hour 19 minutes

My planes to get up more of the cups failed miserably when my Internet connection went out the last few days - it didn't go out completely, but would only work for a few minutes, then go out, then work for a few minutes, then go out again. It was extremelty frustrating (not only for this challenge, but all the other things I wanted to do on the computer). Hopefully that has now been solved (fingers crossed). I'm looking at monday to list more since Sunday has never been a good selling day for me on ebay.

I did cave in and purchase a domain name for this little adventure. The way that it has been going, I feel that I will continu it even after the time period has passed (maybe a different challenge) I chose activeinvestingblog.com which cost $5.99 for the year and has been deducted. I can host it on our current server so there will be no costs there. It's just a matter of finding the time to get it set up.

Time Is A Challenge

Previous Total: $164.12

Current Total: $276.27

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 50 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 4 hours 22 minutes

Time Spent Total: 17 hour 19 minutes

Time. That is my biggest obstacle at the moment. I have too many things I want to do and not enough time to do them all. I need a 36 hour day ;)

I have found that I don't watch TV anymore since I started this challenge. Maybe news once every couple of days. That is where I've taken the time from. A good change since I tend to get mesmerized in front of it too often.

Since my last post I had 23 cups sell for $275.43 and incurred $36.74 in eBay and paypal fees for a profit of $238.69. That gets split in half with my partner for a profit of $119.35 to me.

Of the inventory we have, I've only been able to list 12 more of the cups (I put three sets of 5 on earlier) so there are 27 of the 50 currently on auction. I need to get the rest of them on and will try to do that tomorrow.

I need to begin listing those Star Wars items again too - I've just been lazy on that. No excuse for that. Time to take a bit more time and prepare some of the auctions.

Experimenting With Sets

Previous Total: $179.96

Current Total: $163.16

Inventory: 2 sake bottles (half ownership) 73 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 0 hours 24 minutes

Time Spent Total: 12 hour 57 minutes

I listed three sets of cups today from the group of 50 I picked up over the weekend ($1.80 in listing fees - here is an example of one of them). This is kind of an experiment to 1) see if the cups sell as well in a group as they do individually 2) see how the sell on Sunday (I've only been listing them mid week thus far). If the cups sell well as a group, then listing them will be much easier for me. I'm hoping this is the case, but I'm doubtful it will be true.

I also found a couple of sake bottles that I picked up for $30 (split in half, so $15 to me). I made a big mistake of not checking the bottles carefully. One of them has hairline cracks that I didn't notice - had I noticed them, I could have gotten the bottle for much less I'm sure. It's a nice bottle so I don't think I'll lose money, but I'm not confident I'll make money either. I need to slap myself for not looking closely before buying.

I will try and list most of the cups and the bottles over the next couple of days.

More Items Sold!

Previous Total: $150.19

Current Total: $179.96

Inventory: 73 sake cups (half ownership), 5 mini trays (full ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 2 hours 10 minutes

Time Spent Total: 12 hour 33 minutes

The sake cup selling continues to go well. The last batch of 10 cups, 3 bottles and 3 mini plates sold for a total of $357.42 on eBay. Take out $38.73 in ebay and paypal fees and the profit comes to $309.53. That divides in two with my partner and it comes to $154.77 profit to me.

With the profit, I went out and bought another 50 sake cups and 5 mini trays I managed to find at another flea market this weekend. The cups came to $200 while the trays were $25. The cups I will split in half with my partner so the cost was $100 for those and the trays I am going to sell on my own (being metal, they should be easier to wrap without a lot of time or effort). That means I took $125.00 out of the profits leaving me with a current grand total of $179.96. I plan on putting up part of the items I found tomorrow (going to try a Sunday end time to see how that works) and the rest later in the week.

Now that I have started to make some money, I'm debating where to put the money. Banks in Japan give a whopping 0.3% interest (that isn't a typo - the decimal point is in the correct place - 0.003) so it doesn't make sense to leave it there.

I'm also not sure how long the sake cups will hold up. I've exhausted most of the places I know, so I'm going to have to find some other resources if I want to continue along these lines. I will surely continue as long as I can.

Good Selling!

Previous Total: $40.72

Current Total: $150.19

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 33 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 4 hours 32 minutes

Time Spent Total: 10 hour 23 minutes

A huge amount to update since the last entry. Over the weekend I went to a flea market and piked up another 23 cups. Again, I bought these as a group for $75.00 of which I had to pay half which took $37.50 out of the fund. There were some nice patterns, but I was pretty disappointed when I got back home to find almost all of them had chips and / or cracks. I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. Those have all been listed on auction already (one of the reasons the time spent on this has increased so much).

The first batch of auctions ended and the 17 cups did GREAT! They sold for a total of $321.96 of which half goes to me ($160.98). Take out $13.27 for my half of the ebay and paypal fees and it comes to $147.71 that gets added to the project. I wish I had more time and I would do all the wrapping myself if they keep selling like this.

That means I'm up to $150 plus a good inventory. It also means I can start looking at some more expensive items to buy 100% myself and resell and hopefully continue the sake cup partnership selling. I'll have a good time hunting this coming weekend.

Second Chance Offers

Previous Total: $36.35

Current Total: $40.72

Inventory: 3 bottles (half ownership), 27 sake cups (half ownership), 3 mini plates (half ownership)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 5 minutes

Time Spent Total: 5 hour 51 minutes

An extra $4.37 added to the pot for a few minutes work. My friend who had me sell the Olympic items last week brought some more over this week. Among them were another Sapporo 1972 and Tokyo 1964 medal - we decided that instead of relisting them, we'd make a second chance offer to the bidder from the last auction. There is no cost to do this for him except the final value fee if the person accepts the 2nd chance offer - which the person did. The total for the 2 medals came to $17.51 of which I get 25% so that is where the $4.37 came from.

If you have multiples of the same item, second chance offers can make quite a few sales quickly instead of listing all your items again and again. I find that if I can get three or four of the same item, the second chance offers work well - and you only have to make the offer if the price is what you'd accept. When medals go for more than I expect, I often use this strategy.