Sourcing in the Month of May

[sin-n-dex]

So I did most of my sourcing in December and January. At that time there were deals to be had. Everyone was preoccupied with Christmas spending and after Christmas credit card bills. I got into a few bidding wars where I lost something that looked pretty good, and occasionally I misjudged what I was bidding on and got burnt (but I can only think of two albums I bought that were disappointing like that, which is a pretty good ratio considering I was in part buying blindly).

March and April were very good selling months. I obtained everything I could from the B&M store as my sourcing for coins and tokens (and military stuff too), and started getting the stamps ready to sell. FWIW, I've recovered 45% of what I spent on stamps, and I have about a dozen untouched albums, and a few binders filled with pages that are listed right now.

So now we're into May... I looked at what I was at for my halfway point for this month and I did this well in a single week during March/April.

I decided to go back to sourcing (stamps, because that's what I get online... the coins and tokens are a better deal from the B&M store being sold on "commission"). There seems to be no good deals to be had on stamps right now!! I've looked at quite a few albums and they are all pretty ordinary, or too recent, too much new material, which means it can't really be resold (I have resold new stuff by sheer good luck, but I am not counting on these sales). I did find one album I liked last night but when I calculated shipping it came to $400 CAD which is more than any album I purchased. My average album purchase is around $200 CAD. I'm trying to not take any very big risk on any one album.

So please do share your sourcing stories...

C.

[mr_lincoln]

@sin-n-dex   You are preaching to the choir not to mention the entire congregation ... locally ALL live auctions and auction houses are closed and our Governor is bound and determined to tank the entire state economy for political reasons.  Millions of people in our state (we have about 12.8 million) have been going to grocery stores for months during the pandemic and are NOT dropping like flies.  We KNOW HOW TO SOCIAL DISTANCE, we KNOW how to wash our hands, we know HOW TO WEAR A MASK, we KNOW how to protect the elderly so I think we KNOW how to safely open businesses ... but we are still being treated like we are in Kindergarten ...

Online auctions are a source of inventory but it has become highly competitive ... thrift stores are just starting to open and probably NEVER should have closed in the first place, they would be no worse then the local grocery stores.

Sales are fine IF one has inventory so the pics below are a little subjective BUT still reflect the affect of the Pandemic from China ... a picture is worth a thousand words ...

[fern*wood]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

...our Governor is bound and determined to tank the entire state economy for political reasons...

I find that statement to be a terrible thing to say.  People are doing their best to try to save lives.  Mistakes have probably been made, but to err on the side of safety should be praised as far more admirable than making money.   I miss sourcing too, but I would miss my dad far more.