SecondMoonshot Active Growth Strategy and Side Hustles

I am always looking for new opportunities for sourcing and revenue, here are my primary directions: 

Present:

• eBay and Sourcing: Less known in-person auctions where the bidders don’t congregate in such huge masses and drive the prices up. I have found one in a small rural town outside Raleigh 30 minutes where people are nice, prices usually fair or better; I continue to seek out more.

• eBay and Sourcing: Estate sales are still a big staple but I am getting pickier on which ones I attend and continue to build relationships with a few key ones. They aren’t as fun as auctions, well…maybe a few, but finding in-person auctions fun….and at the end of the day, I am in this to do something I enjoy. 

• eBay and Sourcing: Thrift stores. Me and Z will still hit a thrift store if we pass one that we haven’t been to before. As our experience builds month over month we are able to find things we might not have picked up on in earlier days. 

• Consignments within my social network and customer requests. Every few months a friend of ours will come and say, “Hey, I have this collection of widgets that has been in my attic for 30 years. Can you sell it for me.”…..or “Hey, I bought a book from your store and within driving distance from you, would you like to look at my storage unit and see if you can sell it for me?”. I generally will do all consignments at a 50-50 split after fees. My services include housing the inventory, sales reports and payouts on a monthly basis, handling all listings, shipping, supplies, returns…..etc, basically all operations.  It’s kinda fun too and quality items are more likely to come my way.  Not many, but want to do more. 

• Custom framing. I really enjoy this and will keep adding to my skills in this area. Need to move to making my own frames at some point.

• Blogging. No, it doesn’t generate any revenue directly and no proof it does indirectly either. But, I enjoy it, so I do it. 

• I list 1 or 2 standard frames I make to order on Etsy and also list some books on Amazon.

Future:

• We are considering doing larger flea markets and renting a spot, but still feeling it out. Sounds to much like real work right now, but Z has interest in doing this. Still brainstorming on a strategy that makes it fun and profitable, like combining it with a weekend getaway or hiking. 

• I really want my own warehouse and/or retail storefront. Storage unit is cost effective but cant really bring people there on a regular basis. This would also allow me to get into larger items I pass up on. Maybe look more into this after I get my auctioneer license. 

Not Doing:

• Amazon Affiliate program and getting payed for people clicking on links or advertising on this blog like with Google Ads.  Right now I just don’t generate enough site traffic. Some bloggers are really hot on this, but you have to be pretty established and be at or near influencer level….which I am not and not sure I give a crap (nope, I don’t). 

• Online auctions with no preview. Just too risky. 

You should see a theme…things I enjoy doing and have fun with. 

When I started this, I was all about the math. If I do $x with y listings, then if i have 2y listings, I will do $x x 2. Doesn’t work out that way for whatever reason, partly because I changed some buying patterns and did a lot of low $ listings which may have impacted the brand I am trying to present and other reason is the unknown reason, maybe it just isn’t linear. So, scrapping the 4000 listings thought for now and focusing more on quality listings. While I like the estate sales, they stress me out and having less fun at those (and it is about fun for me). So going with the venues that offer the best ROI….auctions where I can get good items for low $s, estate sales where I have built a relationship (and only a few a month) and always hit thrift stores when I have time to kill. One of my goals this year was to hit $20k in sales per quarter (includes shipping, but ok…that’s the $ ebay shows me so I use it for good or bad)….and I have hit that. Other goal was adjusted to 3000 listings by the end of the year and I am on track for that, but going to regain focus on quality listings. 

Also changing my auction style for online auctions. I have decided I will continue to focus on auctions where I can preview, but will put my max bids in and not look back. Did this the first time but found myself looking back a few times…so need to build discipline.

I can’t stress enough to anyone that gives a crap and reads my garbage, but it is a continuous learning cycle. I make mistakes, learn from them, try hard to not make the mistake again (and again)…I am getting better, while I make bigger mistakes, I am taking higher risks and excitement is pretty….well…exciting.

John