I should have stated this more clearly. As a general rule of thumb most people who are selling their duplication off usually will not need much in the way of storage, which is why I wasn't going to deal that. I do apologize for the misunderstanding.
It became obvious in a hurry that everyone uses some form of glassine or 102 and a box and an index. So I'm not too far from off. I also love the library cabinet. Thanks for the input everyone.
Michael, I started out some time ago just selling off duplicates. I started to really like selling, finding Hipstamp and getting away from Ebay made it even better. Right now, I am about 10 years short of retirement. My current goal is to build up some inventory and a client base so I can have something to do once I retire. The money is nice, it helps support my stamp habit, but I much prefer the smiles when I happen to have that one item that someone has been looking for. I don't give much thought to what I am selling. Right now, I sell whatever I can find and re-sell at a reasonable price. My price point is also a bit of a moving target, generally nothing less than $1.00. I try to package stuff in a manner that it is worth my time to list, but also something that I think someone else would buy. I look for groups and sets. Maybe down the road, I'll find something to specialize in. For now, I live and learn.
I have a separate box for over sized items anything that will not safely fit in a regular small envelope. but as far as shipping most ship in small envelope but i carry all sizes of StayFlats for more expensive or oversized items. (they are free from Ebay I was paying $50 for a box of them before they became free fromEbay --else cost at uline- free is good!)
When I finally started looking at becoming a full time seller, I had 3 things happen between 2000 and 2005. My wife died in 2000, in 2002 there was some other family dynamics which were coming up and I need to be able have something to do that could provide my basic needs which are minimal in comparison to the US national average for a single person, which as of right now is $3,200 a month. I also needed the time to be able to take care of the family dynamics, that was far more important to me to take care of. And for over the last 17 years every single goal I had set, in the end were met. And also enjoy doing this.
One of the things I found is that the more you can store your inventory by size or item types, the more you can maximize your storage space. You can also have # 4 glassines and 104 cards as one size, and 107 cards for certain plate blocks and other slightly larger blocks that are not as large as the oversized items, they do make storage boxes for those also.
For storing the boxes 102 cards I adapted one of the bedroom closets. in which that room is used for storage of material that is listed.. Took off the doors and left it opened. My father built 2 racks out of scrap lumber. One of them was built to take 102 card boxes, stacked 2 high on each shelf, 5 shelves, and being able to hold 14 boxes per shelf. On the other shelf that was built to handle 104 cards and #4 glassine boxes on the top 3 shelves, the bottom shelves hold UN FDC's. On top of those racks I keep the standard size worldwide FDC's. The reason for keeping the FDCs that way is because after doing this long enough is that most people will buy either US, UN or worldwide, not all 3 at one time so it makes it a bit quicker to find them as you don't have to spend as much time locating them.
On the lower value sets and singles I figured out a way to keep those in stock books and I found a way to give them a private ID where I can list them, and find them quickly, and you don't have the expense or storage problems of putting those into 102 cards. (At $50 a box per 1,000 that's going to cost you over $200 to store them in those cards) whereas if you can store them in a stock book and have the inventory number figured out. a 64 page stock book with 9 lines per page and 8 stamps per line, 1 book will hold over 4,500 stamps and you can get lightly used at a show from $10 up. And anything I store in those books are the items that are less than $3, with the exceptions being sets of 5 or more. ( The problem with trying to store sets of 5 stamps or more is that they will shift in the book.) If you find them and repurpose them, you can use lightly used manila stock cards or the black cards to ship them out on. On the manila stock cards you can get size from 3 x 5 up to the full size stock cards depending on the number of stamps they buying.
Just a couple of ideas for you. Please don't let some of these sellers that have a skewed perspective of what you should and should list and how you should run your business, when they have no clue of what your goals are and what's going on in your private life, get to you.
Comments
I should have stated this more clearly. As a general rule of thumb most people who are selling their duplication off usually will not need much in the way of storage, which is why I wasn't going to deal that. I do apologize for the misunderstanding.
Michael, I started out some time ago just selling off duplicates. I started to really like selling, finding Hipstamp and getting away from Ebay made it even better. Right now, I am about 10 years short of retirement. My current goal is to build up some inventory and a client base so I can have something to do once I retire. The money is nice, it helps support my stamp habit, but I much prefer the smiles when I happen to have that one item that someone has been looking for. I don't give much thought to what I am selling. Right now, I sell whatever I can find and re-sell at a reasonable price. My price point is also a bit of a moving target, generally nothing less than $1.00. I try to package stuff in a manner that it is worth my time to list, but also something that I think someone else would buy. I look for groups and sets. Maybe down the road, I'll find something to specialize in. For now, I live and learn.
When I finally started looking at becoming a full time seller, I had 3 things happen between 2000 and 2005. My wife died in 2000, in 2002 there was some other family dynamics which were coming up and I need to be able have something to do that could provide my basic needs which are minimal in comparison to the US national average for a single person, which as of right now is $3,200 a month. I also needed the time to be able to take care of the family dynamics, that was far more important to me to take care of. And for over the last 17 years every single goal I had set, in the end were met. And also enjoy doing this.
One of the things I found is that the more you can store your inventory by size or item types, the more you can maximize your storage space. You can also have # 4 glassines and 104 cards as one size, and 107 cards for certain plate blocks and other slightly larger blocks that are not as large as the oversized items, they do make storage boxes for those also.
For storing the boxes 102 cards I adapted one of the bedroom closets. in which that room is used for storage of material that is listed.. Took off the doors and left it opened. My father built 2 racks out of scrap lumber. One of them was built to take 102 card boxes, stacked 2 high on each shelf, 5 shelves, and being able to hold 14 boxes per shelf.
On the other shelf that was built to handle 104 cards and #4 glassine boxes on the top 3 shelves, the bottom shelves hold UN FDC's. On top of those racks I keep the standard size worldwide FDC's. The reason for keeping the FDCs that way is because after doing this long enough is that most people will buy either US, UN or worldwide, not all 3 at one time so it makes it a bit quicker to find them as you don't have to spend as much time locating them.
On the lower value sets and singles I figured out a way to keep those in stock books and I found a way to give them a private ID where I can list them, and find them quickly, and you don't have the expense or storage problems of putting those into 102 cards. (At $50 a box per 1,000 that's going to cost you over $200 to store them in those cards)
whereas if you can store them in a stock book and have the inventory number figured out. a 64 page stock book with 9 lines per page and 8 stamps per line, 1 book will hold over 4,500 stamps and you can get lightly used at a show from $10 up. And anything I store in those books are the items that are less than $3, with the exceptions being sets of 5 or more. ( The problem with trying to store sets of 5 stamps or more is that they will shift in the book.)
If you find them and repurpose them, you can use lightly used manila stock cards or the black cards to ship them out on. On the manila stock cards you can get size from 3 x 5 up to the full size stock cards depending on the number of stamps they buying.
Just a couple of ideas for you. Please don't let some of these sellers that have a skewed perspective of what you should and should list and how you should run your business, when they have no clue of what your goals are and what's going on in your private life, get to you.