A Week in the Life of SecondMoonshot
I thought I would document what a typical week is like for me with SecondMoonshot. I’ll start with Monday and close with Sunday. This will be a live blog post and will update as I progress through the week of May 16th to 22nd, 2022.
Monday
Monday through Thursday are mostly days filled with posting new listing from purchases acquired over the weekend. I start the week with creating new listings on my iPad. I normally will have all the items filtered in the great room downstairs an sort between garbage, donate/yard sale and resale by Monday morning. Garbage goes in garbage, donate/yard sale goes in attic waiting for the next neighborhood yard sale, and resale goes into the office for new listings. Zabrina hates when I have the piles in the living room for too long so have to have everything moved by Sunday night. Purchases will have come from One Man’s Treasure Auctions primarily, consignments I picked up the prior week, with an occasional estate sale or thrift store thrown in. I usually have 8 to 12 sales I need to ship from Sunday and get any books or pictures from the house and take them to the warehouse for packing. I will spend between $200 and $400 on a typical weekend. I also load any supplies received and pictures which are good for parts (glass, frames, pictures to be restored), then head over around 6am to the warehouse and pack shipments. Between 9 or 10am, I go to UPS if needed, then to USPS to drop off and head home and begin my listings. I’ll do this for 4 to 6 hours. As I list items, I do a light wrap in paper or bubble wrap to protect the items from damage and load them into the car for transport the next day to be located and recorded in the warehouse. Usually I will start with quick hit bulky items to try to free up some space. I do most of the pictures for the listings right on my desk.
Tuesday
More listings and transport to warehouse for stocking, pack and ship. Occasionally I will head over to Shorty’s Hot Dogs in downtown Wake Forest For lunch (2 all the way, fries and a small glass bottle Coke), not going to go today as we have a ton of leftovers from the weekend and last night. I like Tuesdays because the funds from the weekend sales typically get deposited on this day. Tuesdays are usually my travel day if I go to see my dad 5 hours away in Beaufort, SC and also may run to Hilton Head for some consignment pickups; long day on the road with mostly driving - always just a day trip…maybe once a month or so. I just picked up a small consignment customer outside of Hilton Head and next trip will be June 7th.
Today my printer was running low on ink and I only had 1 cartridge left so ordered 4 more off of Amazon. Also, my insert sheets were running low so printed out 100 more. One goes in each shipped package and has information about the company, returns and web site links. I sign each one by hand and will continue to do so until it’s just not possible, I just don’t like receiving a package with no evidence of the sender, so I don’t…it’s in my power to make critical decisions like this!
Wednesday
More listings and transport to warehouse for stocking, pack and ship. Wednesdays and Thursdays are usually slow on sales, so may do some custom framing projects in the queue. Every morning before I get out of bed, I review eBay stats, see if any orders came in over night and may do a blog post. I am about 90% through the listings for the items I got at OMT last weekend and pleased with the quality of listings overall, some good gems unexpected. I have about 1 1/2 boxes left that I will finish up Thursday on schedule and the other remaining pieces in the back are items I am doing for my consigner in Hilton Head, mostly japanese items (Kimonos, Cloth gift wrap, mostly textiles)…maybe work those Thursday and Friday.
Starting to come down with the flu or a cold (or COVID? Nope…test was negative) so going to call it a day.
This morning I also started to convert my personal eBay account into a business account. Only thing left is to do the bank account verification. Ok, maybe I do naps more than once a month…I’m sleepy.
Thursday
Still feeling under the weather. Went to Lowes before the warehouse to get some heavy duty boxes. Made some improvements to the blog layout. I’ll do some listings but will take it easy today. Talked to a friend of mine that gets me some boxes at fair prices and we will make plans to pick some up in a week or two. He uses the proceeds to help rescue dogs in need.
I did a few listings for some tools and odds and ends and a 1960s complete Lionel Electric Train set that was pretty cool. Oh, my EarPods (AirPods?)…anyway, mysteriously showed up on my desk, guessing some family member picked them up by accident…made my day, that $150 I don’t have to spend. I thought I left them at the OMT auction house and would have to go back for the 3rd week in a row telling them I ‘forgot’ something - wasn’t looking forward to that and already getting a reputation for my forgetfulness.
Friday
More pack and ship. At 5pm head over to the 6pm auction at One Man’s Treasure. I sometimes hit a Friday estate sale in the morning and will mow the lawn mid day so I don’t have to worry about it over the weekend. The auction will end around 8pm. Zabrina usually joins although will only make the Friday auction this week due to some travel plans. After we unload, we go through the boxes and do some pre-sorting and research any interesting finds.
Relatively uneventful other than spilling my coffee. Doing lawn today and auction in evening. Maybe post a few backlog listings.
Good 6pm OMT auction and Zabrina did the scribing again. Spent $20 and came back with an SUV full of boxes…some good, some bad…but in total, good picks although not likely any over $100 listings out of this pull, I would estimate between $250 to $300 in listings. We didn’t go through the lot tonight and opted to watch the next episode of Lincoln Lawyer (S1 E8). Saturday is looking pretty encouraging and expecting a lot of competition.
A pretty good sales day and finally got my bank account verified by eBay with the change to a business account so deposits will kick in starting Monday.
Saturday
More pack and ship. At 1:40pm head over to the 3pm and 5pm auction at One Man’s Treasure…man, it was hot out. This will end around 7:30pm. Zabrina usually joins but wont today due to travel commitments. After we unload, we go through the boxes and pre-sort and research any interesting finds. At this point we determine if it was a good pick or a bust weekend…hopefully a good pick. At around 11am I decided to go by Hoy Auction for a preview of a mega auction they are closing on next week and am bidding on a few dozen lots, but going to go with mostly lower bids this one…maybe I will get a couple lucky purchases. Competition is pretty strong and its an online auction. I also worked with a customer trying to work out a quote for 4 settings of a stoneware dinner ware and they ended up buying…..over the day, probably 6 or 8 sales, not great, but Saturdays are typically a little slow with Friday and Sunday doing much better.
I will only have the 944 today so the carrying load will be limited although I can pickup on Monday if needed (which it wasn’t needed).
Well, finished the OMT auction (alone) and got home about 8:15pm. For the 3pm auction I was recruited to be the scribe to record the buyer, price, lot # and description. Fortunately there was only one item I was interested in which was some china tea cups that go with a set I got at a previous auction, so now I don’t have to list just the saucers and can make them a pair of cups and saucers. I will say the scribe job is very mind intensive and requires focus, I don’t know how Z does it so easily…must be her Asian background with strong math and all :-). I am sure I was a little grumpy by the end of it all…but it all worked out good in the end.
For the 5pm auction, I again was the scribe and it was a little easier to record the sales than outside where I was walking around all the time, so I tried my best to multi-task, bid, record, whatever….but managed to get a 944 load full of stuff - should have taken a picture with the loaded car - it was packed to the brim and earned respect from the other customers who immediately claimed I was not as good a packer as Zabrina…just mean. Probably not a lot of high dollar items, but a half dozen signed prints (some signed and numbered/artist proof). Once I go through it, I am expecting a high ratio of donations and yard sale classification…but in the end, I only spent $135 for both days and should have $750 to $1000 in listings without much difficulty. No major regret purchases this weekend which is good.
Some pictures of where I am ending on Saturday:
I won’t go into exactly what I got in this blog, as the focus is really on what a week is like, not what great or not so great things I acquired.
Time for a drink. Still not 100% from being a little sick. If I were to give a statement on the quality of the buys this weekend: Low $ spent with good ratio of cost to listing price (a good thing).
Sunday
Sorting day from all the weekend purchases (see Monday), try to clear the Great Room before end of day, list what I can while its downstairs than trudge the rest up to my office for listing next week. I also have dinner and game night with my older kids. Maybe hit a last day estate sale or two sometimes (but not this weekend). I’ll typically run to the warehouse and putter around, check supplies, etc., contemplate great things, do some deep thinking and reminisce about the success of the prior week…it’s a quick trip. Maybe check on the cars a few buildings away and perhaps take Goldie out for a Sunday drive and clear my head. Since I have to go to Beaufort SC (and Blufton to meet with a new consigner) next Tuesday, will need to probably swap out for the 991 which is better and more reliable for long trips.
Went to storage in morning to pack a couple orders that came in overnight and in the morning, looking like a good sales day. Helped one of my consigners turn off Do Not Disturb on their phone. Sorted the weekend buys and some good surprises. Some may still go to yard sale after research. Played Dominion (I won) and Flinch (Carrie won)….got the Flinh at an OMT auction and we just started playing, very enjoyable game. We got Korean wings from Soo Cafe, very good
Then time to lug up to attic and office. This is how I end the week.
Then I do it all over again. May or may not sound fun to you, but its more like a hobby with payout potential. I enjoy it.
John
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