Business This Week: $23.56/hr - Cool Numbers & Cool Stuff

It's been a great week for Burrage Mining Company, so I wanted to share some cool numbers & cool stuff!

First, just a TL;DR numbers summary for the week:
ESTIMATED $ PER HOUR FOR THIS WEEK: $23.56

(NUMBER OF ITEMS PURCHASED: 42
MONEY SPENT ON NEW INVENTORY: $67.5
MONEY SPENT DRIVING: $57.69 (cost to operate the Cube is approx 0.185 per mile)
FOOD MONEY: $20.34
so, TOTAL COST OF SOURCING: $145.53
[PER ITEM: $3.46 (ouch)]

but, EXPECTED PROFIT: $754 (approx, after eBay fees)
HOURS WORKED + TO BE WORKED: 32)

Inventory has been one of my biggest costs in this business. I knew that cost needed to come down if I was to be successful. So, I did my first major experiment with one of the cheapest ways to get manageable amounts of inventory: the Goodwill Outlet, or the "weigh & pay." You dig through gigantic bins of items, filling literal trashbags with your finds, and are charged by the pound at checkout; my nearest outlet charges $1.39/lb. (Someday I want to buy my first storage unit, but that's not for a while.)

After an hour and a half's drive - grand total of $29.60 in vehicle operating costs, pretty painful - and three hours of digging, I picked up about 27 items with an average value of approx $8.77/item. Now, this is a truly abysmal average profit, but each of the items I picked up is easy to research, photograph, list, and ship; relatively small time investment for small profit. Fine with me; I knew going into the Weigh & Pay Experiment that I'd be getting a bunch of cheap items with a bunch of low profits. And there's always the chance of finding something actually valuable. I'll definitely go again some time, but it will be on a day when I have time to stop at other area thrifts to try to bring up the numbers a bit more.

The most valuable item I picked up there (a new with tags Christmas stocking) should bring $40.

Today's "yard saling" was unusually successful; found two items which should bring in $100 and $125 - $200. The first was a Fisher Price new in box castle toy from 2014. I grabbed it for $5 because it was new, didn't even check the value while I was at the yard sale. Later I found out its value and was pleasantly surprised. The second valuable item I found was an "ultrasound bone healing" device (I LOVE to sell questionable medical devices) I paid $20 for at an estate sale. I was very hesitant to make such an investment, even though eBay solds were showing a solid $100+ value, because the sale of certain medical devices is restricted on eBay, but I did it anyway. Worst case scenario, I sell it locally for half of what it's worth.

Craziest find of the day: I've been picking up every sealed cross stitch kit I run across. They're usually priced very low, and some are worth a LOT. I'd been planning to just buy a whole bunch of them at $.50 - $1.00 each and bundle them for one large sale. I got like 8 or 10 kits today and was researching to see if any were particularly valuable on their own and found that one had recently sold for $45! Not bad for a $.50 investment! The rest turned out to be worth more than expected, too, so that was nice.

And I found this guy. I had two brass animals on my mantel. Now I have three. As of today, I collect brass animals. Congratulations to me!!!!!

The past week was also unusually successful; I happened to find a painting valued at between $150 and $250. I am in love with it - seriously - but it's being listed tomorrow.

Cool sale this week - I paid $5 for an ancient (1966 is really old for a toy set with liquid components) item-making kit with plastic "goop" that had leaked all over the container. I purchased this item MONTHS ago and it sat around because I did not want to mess with listing it. When I finally got it off the "Unlisted Shelf," I was going to set a price of around $40, but saw that it was actually in great condition compared to others of its type. Put it up for $83, received an offer for $70, and it was out the door within 12 hours of me finally listing it.

All in all, a lucky week for Burrage Mining Co!

Another SUPERRRRRR HIGHLIGHT of the week is that I finally FINALLY got my pile of unlisted items listed! Some of this stuff had been sitting around since LAST JANUARY. These were things that required a lot of research and/or a lot of work, so they'd been put off and put off. The evolution of my ability to take quality photos due to figuring out my lighting was also a big factor in getting caught up. It feels fantastic to not have 40 stupid unlisted (read: HOARDED) items hanging over my head anymore!

It's been a lot of work and effort and waking up early, but this has been a great and super interesting week - just wanted to snapshot it here! :)

To Raleigh, On Your Discovery of "No"

It was probably the dog's water, left down while I wasn't paying attention, then you playing in it (the one unwinnable war) while I was trying to cook dinner, frustration into "Raleigh, NO. You KNOW you're not supposed to do that. That's YUCKY." You had been smiling and happy. I wiped your hands, and you ran into the living room, and I followed. From the other side of the couch, you looked up at me and said "NO!" Your lips turned down, hard. "NO!"

Not "no," like "stop it," but "no," like "noooOOOOOOOOOOooooo!!!" as if you'd just discovered that everything dies. And that is how you say no. Like it's the most painful thing in the world, every time.

I guess it is, for you. Everything you see is amazing, and at least 1/8th of it is removed from your little hands with a "no," and you have no way to understand or cope with that. Multiple times a day, the only thing you care about in the whole entire world (whatever it happens to be at that moment) is taken away.

I just took away the shriveled piece of carrot with black around the edges that you were trying to eat: "noooOOOOOOoooooo!!!!" And yesterday, when we were all sitting at the table, and you caught sight of the bag of bird food on the windowsill. You wanted it, because (I guess) it looked like a bag of Raleigh food. I picked it up and said "This is yucky, it's bird food," and put some on your tray for you to see or play with or eat. You pointed at the bag again, and I said "That tastes yucky" again, and pointed at the bird food I'd put on your tray. "NoooooOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!!!!!!" you said. It wasn't even exactly a valid response to the situation - you HAD some right there, and no one had even said "no" to you. "That was a weird time for him to say that," I said. "'No' is more of a feeling than a word," Joe said. 10% funny, 90% exactly true.

This is difficult. You're so awesome and precious and wonderful and smart and happy and adorable and YOUR SADNESS IS AN EMERGENCY. You want that black-edged carrot? I'm sure it can't hurt you! You want to splash in the dog's disgusting saliva-water? We have antibacterial handwipes and I can mop it up! (No. Just..no. He EATS POOP. I have boundaries.) Whatever you want, I'm sure I can deal with the consequences of you having it!

But - I know, I know - that's just not how it works. I know. I can't give you everything. I can't fix everything. Everyone knows what happens to the kids whose parents give too much, fix too much.

Another But: The important thing, one of the most important things so far, I think...

That "NooooOOOOOOOoooo" feeling, that huge emotion in your tiny body - we'll be there for you when you're experiencing it. Kitchen floor, at the park, in the car, Chik-Fil-A floor, Target floor - if you're overwhelmed, we'll try our absolute hardest not to be.

[On the days I don't fail you,]

You will not be punished for "tantrums."

[When I am who I want to be for you,]

I will help with your problems instead of reacting to your behavior.

When you're screaming because I asked you to put the dinosaur back on the shelf, I won't squeeze your arm and hiss "STOP IT," - I'll stay next to you and say "You were having fun, and I said we had to go. That is hard. You're very upset right now. I understand, and I'm here if you need a hug." I mean, picking you up and gently removing you from the situation causing your upset is probably what will happen next, but all the yelling and hitting and lashing out in frustration will be on your end.

Guiding you through your overwhelming emotions when I'm overwhelmed, too, will be the biggest challenge I've ever faced, but I will do everything in my power to give that to you.