Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

I'm slowly working my way through more flatbacks - 32 left now out of 70, so I've reached the halfway point. I'm going slower than I could because I'm working my way through the contents of the Sky+ box as I list and have spent the afternoon watching Here Comes Honey Boo Boo in a state of slack-jawed disbelief!

Only £80 to bank this morning which was a bit worrying, but I've had a nice big £200+ order today which helps a lot

brizzledfw

Keep going :-)

cazmanian_minx

It seems that my fortune is going to be made on small pink plastic My Little Pony unicorns. I put 18 packs of 4 up for sale on eBay last night and had sold 3 by lunchtime today!

I need to place an order with the UK supplier that doesn't do credit as I'm out of one of my best-selling blanks after selling 20 yesterday. But it's going to have to be a small order, as I need to shut down my Amazon shop. I'm due to be charged long term storage on August 15th for stock that's been in their warehouse over a year (some pairs of pliers didn't sell as well as others) - it's about £44 which isn't so bad, BUT thanks to their new 'Add on item' thing, the higher fees in the jewellery category, their insistence that I can't sell items cheaper on other venues and a fee raise coming in next month, I think it's time we part company.

This is a bit of a problem because I still have 686 items in their warehouse. I can have them all sent back to me, but they'll charge a 60p per item picking charge plus P&P on top so it'll cost something in the region of £450 to get the stock back and it's only worth £825. I won't make that extra money back in profit selling it elsewhere, so I think I'm going to have to write it off and have it destroyed. I'm trying to find out what the charges will be for that (I'm sure there'll be some) but if they're the same as the USA site it'll still be about £225

Still, better one swift financial hit now than being slowly bled to death by all the fees and charges over the next six months. I've been barely breaking even on that platform for the last quarter, once I ditch it I'll be able to lower my prices for gemstone beads on eBay and my own website and sales should pick up enormously for those two venues. I'll be able to put all my inventory on Etsy, which has a slightly better profit margin than eBay, so I should make that loss back fairly fast.

gallygirl

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

It seems that my fortune is going to be made on small pink plastic My Little Pony unicorns. I put 18 packs of 4 up for sale on eBay last night and had sold 3 by lunchtime today!

Classy :rotfl:.

How much would Amazon charge if you actually bought all the stock (or at least if Mr M did )?

cazmanian_minx

gallygirl wrote: »

Classy :rotfl:.

How much would Amazon charge if you actually bought all the stock (or at least if Mr M did )?

Funnily enough, someone else came up with that as a potential solution as well! For starters, the retail price of it all on Amazon would be a couple of thousand pounds and Amazon would take 25% of that PLUS the Fulfilment fees, so I'd be out of pocket to the tune of about £750. Cheaper to get them to send it back directly, but it's not worth it - even if I sold all the returned stock within a month of getting it back (which I won't), I'd only be about £50 better off than if I'd had it disposed of.

cazmanian_minx

It's Friday

(last week/this week/ + or - amount)
Business
Overdraft: -£-8161.47 / -£7712.19 +£449.28

Business total: -£-8161.47 / -£7712.19 +£449.28

Personal
Overdraft: -£0.00 / -£0.00 no change
Egg card: -£3280.00 / -£3280.00 no change
Barclaycard: -£2575.00 / -£2535.00 +£40.00
Nationwide card: -£2685.00 / -£2685.00 no change

Personal total: -£8540.00 / -£8500.00 +£40.00

Grand total: -£16,701.47 / -£16,212.19 +£489.28

Better Not too many business bills next week either, though I have to pay for my magazine advert (£153.60), one invoice is falling due from a UK supplier (£360.94) and I need to place an order with the other UK supplier as I had an email overnight asking for 50 of the blanks I'm sold out of. Going to go and sort that now - with a bit of luck that'll be £100 in the kitty towards the middle of next week

cazmanian_minx

I had a bit of a brainwave yesterday afternoon about the Amazon situation. If I'm going to write the stock off anyway, then as long as the sale price covers the Amazon fees, I might as well have a gigantic closing down sale and slash the prices. So if I've managed to figure out Amazon's promotions engine correctly, everything will go to 50% off overnight and with a bit of luck that'll clear a lot of it out. Anything that's left the day before the storage charge becomes due can be put onto a disposal order at 20p a unit. Sorted

Finn pony has managed to destroy his fly sheet this afternoon by completely ripping off one of the surcingle straps and shredding the rug in the process. Not entirely sure how he did it, as the strap was still done up on the ground and he'd ripped both ends off the rug - I suspect he was rolling, kicked out and somehow caught the strap, though they were done up tight enough that that shouldn't have happened. With the weather as it is, I've got no choice but to put a new one on order straight away otherwise he's going to be eaten half to death. He's getting a bog standard £24.99 Masta Zing though, not a £42.99 Weatherbeeta like last time.

He's not looking bad though



And this is my new all-time favourite photo of Merlin:

cazmanian_minx

It's been too hot outside to even consider doing anything other than the necessary for the horses, so we've spent the day inside flaked out on the sofas watching the Open. Tough life

My neighbour northwards is bringing a friend up tonight to ride two of her horses on the beach, so I asked if she'd like me to take my camera down and get some shots - got a resounding yes please! She also invited Finn and me to join them same time tomorrow night. It's exactly what we need and I know Finn will be completely fine, but I am *bricking* it!!

cazmanian_minx

Neighbour hasn't been able to come up tonight, which is probably a good thing as I'm in my pyjamas on the sofa

It's been a very busy day - 56 orders posted and a quick trip to the doctor to sort out a couple of minor niggles that I've been meaning to get round to sorting for years (and that's about a decade in the case of the skin tag on my leg!).

The Amazon sale is up and running and when I checked last night I'd already sold 21 items, so fingers crossed I won't have too much of a disposal bill next month.

Mara_uk7

Oooh amazon ... Sale ... My fave words .... Guide me oh great Caz ...