Birthday furniture!

Shout out to Rick - this post is for you...

So - November was a crazy productive month for me.. I had the crazy notion that I would give the weekly proceeds in November toward my husband's birthday present.. I wanted him to get an awesome gift so I ended up making a whopping $730 in one week!  Now, that did involve fixing up and selling some furniture that I already owned, but seriously - it was great - I think he spent it on electronics and video games.  It's really hard to pick a favorite item from November so I might cover a few of them.

First off... I went against my own advice and got a LARGE but FREE item... not sure if I mentioned this before but I tend to avoid trying for free items... people may think that's crazy and you can do really well with free items or dumpster diving but I find people** giving things away tend to be:

UN

• available
• reliable
• helpful

** with the exception of awesome Terri who gave me her prized antique desk for my own personal use which I love very much

I mean, think about it, they have no monetary/moral obligation to meet with you - sometimes won't return your e-mails or phone calls or even answer the door when you get there (at a pre-arrange date/time) so it's mostly going to be a waste of your time... less so if you actually speak to a human on the telephone but I digress.

So - this woman was giving away a complete Malm bedroom set at IKEA.. unassembled, missing some pieces but definitely workable.   We assembled it in our basement apartment, and took pictures... sold to a very nice couple - the husband who sells furnaces (I think I still have his card somewhere just in case)

We made out really well with this deal

Summary

Purchased: $0
Modifications: $0 
Sold: $230

Profit: $230

Why nobody buys furniture in the winter...

Oh my gosh - it's been so long - blogger has completed changed on me!!

Okay - I'll do my best to adjust to this... sorry that it's been ages since I did a post.. basically...Christmas happened, then it was yucky winter and no one likes to go out of their house (much less buy furniture) in the dead of winter so I took a little hiatus from selling furniture.  BUT - now the weather is nicer and things are picking up again.. I'll try and condense end of October to say January in the new few posts... ready?

I'll pick my favorite piece per month and discuss...

October brought me an antique dresser in aqua green/blue paint.  I loved the lines of this piece and new it had potential... it had lovely farm styling and barn boards on the top - nice rustic dings and dents.. what's not to love?

Summary

Purchased: $20
Modifications: had everything on hand, even reused the handles since I thought they were cool
Sold: $220

Profit: $200 (one of my best projects - sold to a lovely woman who loved it - I loved it too so I'm happy it went to a good home) :)

We (meaning I) stripped the piece, stained the top (along with the help of my wonderful sister-in-law Melanie) and painted the rest.  This dresser has a cool find in the bottom where they had replaced the bottom board with an old tin sign.. very cool.

How to create a good online classified ads - Do's and Don'ts

Okay - so this brings up another lesson.  The more info you can put about your item, the better off you will be.  These are things you should describe in a good on-line classifieds ad...

DO:

• A flowery description of your item.  Please do not put "table for sale" in your description... use lots of adjectives.. is it solid wood, say so.  large, small, elegant, dainty, solid, rustic, antique, well-cared for, heirloom.. anything that is appropriate.  If you aren't creative and your item is still for sale in stores, considering cutting and pasting the text from their website into your ad.
• The dimensions/size of your item
• The condition of your item (like new, excellent, very good, good, fair, etc.)
• Whether it is from a smoke and pet free home (I've even seen "child free home" - very interesting but adds value? :)
• LOTS of pictures.. more than you think is necessary.  Take pictures from all angles but don't focus on problem areas.  I'm not saying to hide defects, not at all but if there is a scratch/nick/whatever I will point it out in person.  This way, they still can reject the item but they are already mostly committed to buying your item by then.

example of a good ad:

DON'T:

• Take zero pictures - either you are lazy or have no idea how to use technology - either way it makes it difficult for me to buy from you.
• Take and post one crappy picture of your item
• Leave no e-mail address for contact... the telephone is for old people - seriously.. I want to text or e-mail you about transactions - if I have to call you - I'll pass.
• Try to sell something that you couldn't GIVE away - seriously, sometimes I want to e-mail posters and tell them not to bother. :)
• Re-list your item daily to get it to the top of the page.  Okay, this will work sometimes but if you do it every day for a week - I will consider turning you into the kijiji police.  I don't want to see your king sized duvet cover every minute of every day.
• Put in your post "I just want this gone" or "moving, desperate to sell"... have some dignity.. have some pride.  

example of a bad ad:

The Art of Haggling

Okay, so - I am a very shy person.

Really.

It's true.

One thing I hate the MOST is face-to-face haggling.. whether it be at a marketplace, with a salesmen, with a buyer.  Hate it.

I'm getting better at it but I still don't like it - especially when you are least expecting it.

I bought this Bombay company table as part of a multi-buy with a fireplace mantle (not sure WHAT I was thinking - stay tuned for that one).  This relates back to my earlier tips of

1. Buying multiple items from the same person
2. Noting WHERE they are currently storing their item (note the unfinished walls with insulation - bingo!!)

Anyway - I offered a paltry $40 for this item and the mantle..  so effectively $20 for this table.  I knew that they retail for about $180-200 (I know - say wha?) so I figured I could make a quick buck on this.  I listed it up and reduced since it wasn't selling.. I thought I had a buyer coming in at full price but she did the oldest trick in the book - the bait and switch!  Oh yes, I will most definitely buy this at $70.. then when she shows up.. she's like "oooh, it's smaller than I thought".  Okay, that made me a little mad since I make a point of putting the dimensions of all my items (this is going to spawn another post I think)  She was like "I'll give you $50 since it's so small"  

ugh.

I'm buggered here - hate this stuff.

me: $60

her: $50

$50?  I think to myself.. dang, this girl is a legit haggler and I am out of my depth.

me: $55

her: "um... ahhhh" (she circled and touches the table some more) "okay"

<groan>

She happily pays for the table, picks it up and leaves...  man!

Summary


Purchased: $20
Modifications: $0 (just buy low, sell high)
Sold: $55

Profit: $35 (because I suck at haggling)

Try to avoid HEAVY items

First, a big shout-out to all our Canadian Veterans today past and present... thanks for making this country and planet the way it is today.

So the next "lesson" is... try to avoid buying really heavy and hard-to-move items.  This will

1. make it hard for YOU to retrieve the item 
2. make it hard for your buyer to get it from you

I suppose if I was doing this professionally - I would have a pickup truck and offer delivery service.. but, I'm not and.. I don't.

Anyway - this very wealthy gentleman was selling his EQ3 dining table (imagine, condo overlooking the Rideau canal wealthy... okay, so if you're not from Ottawa - here is the view that this guy was waking up to in the morning)

He was originally asking $40 for his modern dining table (retails for $499) because it had a bubble in the wood on one of the legs.  Honestly, this guy was just thinking about turfing it into the garbage.. insane.

So, I took advantage of the situation - offered him $30 to pick it up within the hour and he said.... YES.

Poor Geordie went to go pick this up.. the ordeal lasted about 2 hours total.. trying to get this HUGE heavy piece of furniture from his condo, down the stairs, in and on top of our van and back home.

I would totally have kept this table - it was gorgeous - except it didn't fit in the space where I'd hoped to use it.  I didn't realize how MASSIVE 42 inches was? (no jokes please) :)  Anyway, I listed it up for $180 and had multiple buyers right away..  Now, here is where the lesson comes in.. the hardest part of this sale was not the marketing or finding the buyer - it was the moving of the item, in/out of the house AND finding someone with a truck to pick it up.  It took a couple of days to figure out the logistics with the buyer - they had a friend who had a truck, yadda yadda..  Anyway - finally - happy ending, they picked up the table, were thrilled with it..  Enjoy!

Summary


Purchased: $30
Modifications: $0
Sold: $180

Profit: $150

Find the cash cows

Cash cow

from wikipedia:

In business, a cash cow is a product or a business unit that generates unusually high profit margins: so high that it is responsible for a large amount of a company's operating profit. This profit far exceeds the amount necessary to maintain the cash cow business, and the excess is used by the business for other purposes.


What does this mean in the kijiji world?  Find the items that have a very high resale value even if used.  Everyone knows that certain car companies retain their value more than others - but only slight less well known is that some brands of furniture, baby equipment, clothing, etc. have similar reputations.  These reputations can translate into mondo cash in your pocket if you buy low and sell high.


One such cash cow for the reseller is any Chariot brand child carrier.. these are stroller and bike trailer combinations which also happen to be the most useful/practical/awesome product if you have children - FYI.  It is because of the durability of the product and the deserved brand reputation that these things retain their value for many many many years.

I was lucky enough to find someone selling their double Cabriolet CTS Chariot stroller for $50!  It was insane.. insane I tell you.. I knew these things sell for hundreds.. minimum.  This also happened to be the same make/model as my own Chariot for which I happened to have extra parts (bought a stroller kit with an extra handle, parking brake that I didn't need)  I feared the worst at $50 actually... but it was in near perfect condition except for a bit of mildew.  It also had no cover (or so they said).. oh well, still worth it I thought.. and brought it home.  I opened up the back of it -> and found, the rain cover!  BONUS!


SO - I kitted it out with my extra handle, parking brake and wheel and voila








I took loads of pictures.. under priced it slightly at $285 for a quick sale (since these things aren't small) and sold it within 2 days to a lovely woman... hope they have many years of use out of it. Interestingly enough, she was already a Chariot owner and was going to post up her older model Chariot for sale on kijiji... ah, the circle of life.

Summary


Purchased: $50
Modifications: $46.67 (the portion of the stroller kit that went toward this)
Sold: $280 (okay - so I didn't have change, she would have paid full price though - my bad)

Profit: $183.33


(best score so far - hope to do more like this!)

Assemble it and they will come.

Here is an easy one... this lesson fits in with

• Marketing your item appropriately
• Having enough time set aside to sell 
• Selling stuff once you move

Okay - so this guy is selling a table and six chairs for $200... It's actually a fair price if I was intending to keep the set, but I know that this guy has already failed the first three items mentioned above.. his pictures were crap (good for me - bad for him), he was moving (good for me - bad for him) and actually moved out of country while in the middle of the transaction (bad for both of us).  Also unfortunate for me was that he had completely disassembled the set.. nice to fit it in the car but not great since I was intending to re-market this set.

So - I assembled them (with the help of my father-in-law AND my hubby), filled holes/scrapes with putty, polished with beeswax and voila!  They looked REALLY good in the end.

Summary


Purchased: $120
Modifications: $0
Sold: $210

Profit: $90

Multi-item - Multi-money!

If you've read my earlier posts, you would know that buying multi-items is the way to go.  Not only do you save yourself time and gas to pickup from one location, you can make a killer deal on the purchase.  You can also make your own multi-item out of a single sale.

Case in point, I bought this - thinking I was getting a table and chair set.

but I when they got home, I saw this: (one of these things just doesn't belong here...)

I decided to just try and get rid of the chairs on their own, that same afternoon..  I listed them for $15 a piece or all for $50 and sold in one afternoon.  A neat $30 profit off the top.  This covered almost my entire cost of the table and chairs (purchased for $60 total)  Note - putting a "per item" cost as your ad cost is a GREAT way to get views/interest.. Seeing a picture of four chairs with a cost of $15 will draw people in like Boxing Day - then you hit them with the fine print.. $15 each.. but by then, they are probably have the adrenaline pumping and are hooked.

Unfortunately for me, the table was kind of in poor condition.. in retrospect, I should have not touched it and re-sold it for $50 or something but no.. I decided to refinish the top completely...

Here are some gratuitous pictures taken by my father in law of me refinishing the table.. stripped it, sanded it and stained it.. this is just mainly proof that

a) I exist

b) I do this stuff myself

Final product was a really nice dining table - pretty flawless top.  The lady who bought it seemed really happy... unfortunately I forgot to put a second coat of touch up paint on the bottom with the right sheen of paint (sorry lady wherever you are!)

Summary


Purchased: $60
Modifications: $3 (stripper) 
Sold: $190 ($50 for chairs and $140 for table)

Profit: $130

Don't spray paint furniture - it's not worth it.

 So - I bought this daybed thinking... oh - I totally like the way it looks and I can spray paint this and have it look fabulous.

WRONG

I bought about three cans of black spray paint, spent an entire afternoon covering every inch of this bed - probably three coats to get proper coverage and it came out looking like this:

Okay  - not bad in the end but it was a PAIN in the butt and cost me more to modify than I could reasonably ask for a piece of spray painted furniture.

I staged the bed with some pillows and a mattress I got for free (before you say ick - it was in really good shape - no worries)

I sold this to a nice gentlemen looking for a guest bed - he seemed happy with it but my $10 profit was my worst mistake yet.. it didn't cover the gas to pick it up nor certainly my many many hours of labor.  Alas, it could have been worse.. I could have lost $40, right?

Haven't lost money yet - knock on ... veneer? :)






Summary

Purchased: $30 (probably too much)
Modifications: $10
Sold: $50

Profit: $10

Week 5 - It's a hard way to make a livin'

 Week 5

Number of purchases: 2
Purchases: $60
Modifications: $0
Sales: $140

Profit: $80


Boo hiss... not a lot of money in week 5.  Granted, I only sold two items but still... it made me question whether or not this was worth while.. The following week, I kicked it into high gear to see exactly how profitable this thing could be.  I think you will be surprised at the results.. stay tuned!

Week 4 - Recap

Week 4

Number of purchases: 3
Purchases: $85
Modifications: $3.39
Sales: $245

Profit: $156.61


Another slow-ish week but had my biggest score/profit to that time.. making $110 on one piece had me starting to think bigger.. maybe doing $20 jobs isn't the way to make it in this business?

Have I created a monster?

Showing (and knowing) what your furniture is used for...

I just realized I forgot to blog about a little table/bench thingie I bought .. this includes some lessons learned about knowing how in the heck to market a potentially versatile piece of furniture.


I bought this .. something ... for $15.


I liked it.


I thought I'd made a good purchase but boy in the weeks to come did I ever not think it was a good purchase..  


So.. what is it?  


Truth is - I thought I knew.. but apparently whatever I thought it was - was not marketable. :)






I took the left over knobs from my dresser makeover - drilled some holes for these drawers .. and voila!

Now - I'm cooking with gas!  I'm ready to sell this (I think to myself).. I list it as a hallway bench - you know, a place where you sit and put on your shoes, etc.  I even take a crappy picture with a mirror over it to illustrate..


Okay so it's not a great photo - I hear ya on that.


Apparently no one wants hallway benches... like, nobody!


Poor listing sat, and sat, and sat.  Nothing.




I re-market it as a TV stand and remove my crappy photo... now we're getting somewhere!  I got some e-mails of interest, a little back and forth.. but alas.. still nothing.

Finally, I take another picture - steal Geordie's computer monitor and make it look like an LCD TV to stage my piece as a TV stand and...


it sold the next day.


Moral of this story - if you don't SHOW people how to use your item... they aren't going to figure it out on their own.

Summary


Purchased: $15
Modifications: $3.39 
Sold: $55

Profit: $36.61

Quickie coffee

So - the one item that I found seems to be always in high demand is the Leksvik coffee table.. you know - the one with all the cubby-holes.  If you can snap this up for under $40 - you have at least a $20 profit on your hands.

This one was a no-brainer... I probably should have haggled more up front - but oh well...

OH - and if you can stage this piece with some baskets in each cubby - even better (regardless of if you are actually selling the baskets or not)

Summary


Purchased: $40
Modifications: $0 
Sold: $60

Profit: $20

What to do when a bear attacks your furniture....

So - this next project had me cursing and stomping my feet.. I figured that I'd spent WAY too much time and effort into one restoration - and I was probably right.. but I was very happy with the end result.

I bought this coffee table because I liked the lines of the furniture - not necessarily my style but I new I could do something with it - paint the legs or something.  Only problem is.. when we got it home it looked like a small bear had clawed/ripped into the top of it..

Not to be deterred - I promptly took it apart and started it's transformation...

Step 1- remove the top from the base

Step 2 - paint the base.  In this case, I did a brown undercoat - then put beeswax - then a top coat in matte coal black paint.  The top coat will not stick to the waxed areas so it gives you an instant antique look.  Great.

Step 3 - Strip or sand the top.  Unfortunately for me, my sander had JUST bitten the dust (or so I thought at the time) so I borrowed my friend Stephanie's mouse sander (I will give it back soon Steph - I promise) It wasn't a heavy duty sander so I suffered a little bit to get it to a point where all the existing finish and deep scratches were sanded out.

Step 4 - Stain and varathane to your color of choice.  I chose a dark walnut stain - it looked stunning - yay me!

Step 5 - Put all the pieces back together again and sell for big money! :)  Seriously though I would have kept this in my home, I liked it that much.

Summary


Purchased: $20
Modifications: $0 (I had all the paint, etc. on hand)
Sold: $80

Profit: $60

Other kijiji bloggers...

I will add to this post later, but Geordie found a funny blog detailing some funny/outrageous/crazy kijiji ads.. check it out:

http://www.yousuckatkijiji.com/