The Odd Investor
Starting with a relatively small amount of money, each week I hope to purchase and resell an item to make a profitable return on it, treating it as an investment vehicle.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
On The Search
I am loooking, loooking, loooking for that new item, hopefully by the end of the week!!
Monday, January 3, 2011
December Recap
Well lets take a moment to see how the numbers are looking.......
Took an extremely heavy hit on the sheet music, but have bounced back into the black with the coins. WHEW, that feels good! Currently up 7% on everything...fells good to be in the positive and gives me confidence that there are more deals out there to be had!!
Item | Paid | Costs | Total | SOLD | ROI% | CASH |
Black | 35 | 5.1 | 40.1 | 5.95 | 85.16 | -34.15 |
Penny and Dime | 7 | 7 | 14 | 52 | 271.43 | 38 |
TOTALS | 42 | 12.1 | 54.1 | 57.95 | 7.11645 | 3.85 |
Coins are money......in more ways than one!
Remember those two fancy dancy old coins from the police auction?
kaching cling cling ding ding bing ( sound of money(obviously))
SOLD for a total of $52
Definitely a great return! I will no doubt keep an ear to the ground, and an eye open for old collectible coins. It is however (like most collectibles) all in the eye of the beholder. If you can know exactly what people are looking to buy, you can hyper-focus your search leading to a great buy/sell!
When the going gets tough.....
....the tough check out police auctions!?
With not seeing much in the local area, I thought trying a new tactic might work. Instead of trying to buy local, and sell global......I reversed it.
There seemed to by alot of classifieds of people wanting to buy coins in my area. These collectors can be very specific in what the are looking for, but most list exactly what they want, so all that needed to be done were to find those rare ones in a sea of not so rare ones!
An Indian head penny and a barber dime! 1902 and 1911 for a cost of $7.
I think its so neat to hold something in your hand that is over 100 years old. Makes you think where have these coins been, what did they buy, whose pocket did they jingle in? The answers we may never know, but we can imagine some pretty exciting ones!
With not seeing much in the local area, I thought trying a new tactic might work. Instead of trying to buy local, and sell global......I reversed it.
There seemed to by alot of classifieds of people wanting to buy coins in my area. These collectors can be very specific in what the are looking for, but most list exactly what they want, so all that needed to be done were to find those rare ones in a sea of not so rare ones!
I searched on auction websites, or out of my area craigslist pages, to see if there was much out there that i could get shipped to me. Theres alot, alot, alot! Prices are like retail and I'm looking for wholesale.
I remembered stumbling across a site awhile back that was essentially the ebay of police auctions, and checked it out. They had a whole coin section!!
What I did from there was to check out the coins they were selling, then cross reference what they were selling for on more public auction sites. If I found any that were well under that value, I bid.
An Indian head penny and a barber dime! 1902 and 1911 for a cost of $7.
I think its so neat to hold something in your hand that is over 100 years old. Makes you think where have these coins been, what did they buy, whose pocket did they jingle in? The answers we may never know, but we can imagine some pretty exciting ones!
Oh the Holidays
As with most people the time around the holidays is busy with making great memories and sharing old ones. I continued to look around to get a new piece to help try to turn this investment around!
I had been watching a listing of some old glass insulators on craigslist. They were used on telegraph poles throughout the US and Europe. It was for a large grouping of them various styles and qualities. I started doing some research and found that some of these can be quite collectible and valuable. The average selling price of these on ebay were around 8-10 dollars. The listing was for almost 200 hundred of them, at $50. Thats a $.25 a piece! Seemed like a steal, even if there were a bit of a drive.
I made an appointment to take a look at them, but unfortunately holiday things came up, didn't have the time, and had to cancel the appointment.
Without a large selection of pieces to browse around the holidays, I will have to sit tight for the right deal!!
I had been watching a listing of some old glass insulators on craigslist. They were used on telegraph poles throughout the US and Europe. It was for a large grouping of them various styles and qualities. I started doing some research and found that some of these can be quite collectible and valuable. The average selling price of these on ebay were around 8-10 dollars. The listing was for almost 200 hundred of them, at $50. Thats a $.25 a piece! Seemed like a steal, even if there were a bit of a drive.
I made an appointment to take a look at them, but unfortunately holiday things came up, didn't have the time, and had to cancel the appointment.
Without a large selection of pieces to browse around the holidays, I will have to sit tight for the right deal!!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Current ROI
Black Americana Sheet Music
Price Paid 35
Costs involved 5.10
Total Investment 40.10
Price Sold 5.95
ROI 85.16%
Here's the breakdown on the first auctions.....Down quite a bit, but as stated in the previous post I think it was my timing.
Holidays Holidays Holidays
Good for family get togethers, egg-nog, fruit cake, but not good for selling Vintage Black Americana Sheet music!!!
On to the next one!!
Monday, December 27, 2010
Crash and burn!
Sooooooo the first set of items did not return as hoped!!
In fact I lost on them, lost big.
$5.95, and only three of them sold!!
Was it the pieces themselves?
I think it was the fact that the auction the week of Christmas, people just weren't out looking or spending!!
Tough lesson to learn, especially on the first shot!
Not going to stop me though, i'm out looking for that next piece!!!
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