Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Guess who has two thumbs and Actually Made a Profit?


You guessed it!:
This girl again!

I am so excited, you guys!  I stopped by Kenrick Antique Mall yesterday to pay March's rent on booth 78 and get my check/info for last month and find out what all I sold.  Now, I didn't have anything available for sale until the 13th, so I'm feeling kinda spiffy at this point, because: I sold 15 items, for a total of $113.50!  Of course, my pro-rated February rent was $79.00, plus the mall's commission and the 3% per item I lost if the customer payed with plastic took off another $12.84, which leaves $21.66.  Minus what I paid for the items in question (I had to guestimate on some because of my extremely poor organizational/planning skills), I would say I made at least five bucks!

Celebratory fireworks - Wahoo!

Perhaps I'm crazy to celebrate making five dollars in the course of two and a half weeks, but here's my reasoning:

1.  When I was pondering giving this a try, I chose to consider it an educational opportunity and, expecting to lose money, at least initially, told myself that it would be like paying for a class in reselling vintage goodies.
2.  I'm already starting to learn from it.  I have a list of 15 items that sold right off the bat.  I have already sold 2 of the 3 men's hats that I started out with in the booth.  That wasn't something I originally expected to be a big seller, so now I will be looking out for more.
3.  I also told myself that if I lost money consistently for 3 months, the experiment would be over.  So this at least means I get to keep trying.
4.  It's $5 for doing something I actually enjoy.  Hundreds or thousands made doing something you tolerate in order to pay the bills is useful, but occasionally depressing.  Ten bucks made doing something that I love doing, while it won't pay the bills, at least makes me feel justified to continue doing this very fun thing.

So yay me!

8 comments:

  1. Congrats! I'm over at Kenrick pretty frequently. I'll have to check out your booth the next time I'm in.

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    1. Oh, do! I'll be adding more items on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully some things will have sold and made room, otherwise I'll need to do some rearranging again :)

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  2. That's great--congrats! I told myself the same thing when I started out...as long as I made enough to support my "vintage habit," it would be worthwhile. :)

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    1. Thanks! That's pretty much all it is for me so far, just a minor(?) addiction. Hopefully I'll be able to turn it into a useful addiction eventually!

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  3. Awesome! I can't wait till we are healthy and can go and check it out!

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    1. Oh me too - I've been praying. I'm glad you found out what had all the tummies hurting, hope everybody's feeling better!

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  4. we are also experimenting with a booth...it will be a year (or is it 2 years?) in april. so far, we've only had to pay out maybe 3 months. I would say if you sold things that fast, you may want to up the price a bit...even just a dollar or two...you HAVE to consider your time as well....EVEN if it's enjoyable. You still have to drive there, clean items, price items...etc.

    BUT...SUPER job on making a profit!!!

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    1. Thanks for the advice, I'm always glad to get it, since I'm winging it most of the time. Do you find it goes up and down? I'm afraid since I did better than expected my first not-quite-month, I might end up disappointed if I don't do so well this month. Still, at least for awhile, I've got no expectations, and am prepared to pay for the booth out-of-pocket.

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