My Little Store

This sort of evolved... I began selling some of my old machine tools online and then this guy contacted me and I bought his stuff from Argentina and sold it and then I began going to auctions, buying, and selling in my store here http://stores.ebay.com/theshopsmith

It has turned into a fairly lucrative hobby. I buy, fix, paint, list, and sell almost anything having to do with machine tools and laboratory instruments and accessories. I never sell for less than three times my buying (bid) price plus expenses. Sometimes I get lucky like being the only bidder on this force dynanometer times which I fixed up and calibrated and hope to sell it here for the amount shown (it cost me about 20 cents per month per item to list it here). So you can see I can sometimes get real lucky. I can also get real unlucky but the more experience I get the less chance of that. My rule for bidding is to bid no more than 25% of what it will sell for. After expenses this comes out to be about three times what I put out.

Please note that I do not auction off my items or even accept offers. Its my price only. If stuff sits there too long I cut the price and let it sit some more (many times up to two years before selling). However I do bid on items at auction on ebay. There are many estate auctioneers who dont know what they have and start it off for $1 or something. I wait until five seconds before the auction ends to bid and sometimes win at the opening bid price. SO far I dont have too much in the way of competition in the force measurement field which leads to low winning bids.

I ship world wide which really helps the store sell science oriented equipment. About 10% goes offshore.

So there you go Patrick ... open your own store. Its fun and a good way to pass time during retirement.

Ron

PS I maintain 100% positive feedback... I never argue with a customer and give them 100% refund as soon as they ask. Nevertheless I have "power seller" status and if someone gives me a negative feedback unjustly I can call ebay and they will remove it... a benefit of being a power seller. It is easier for me to get these benefits because they are based on yearly sales and my average item price is more than $100... harder to reach a big number selling nic-nacs