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Need Your Help with Strategy for "Show Me The Pins"

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Need Your Help with Strategy for "Show Me The Pins"
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showmethepins

Gotta Find Mickey Pins!
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Hi, it's Jared again. For those of you not familiar with our project, please watch the half-baked welcome video at www.showmethepins.com. We hope to have the video completed within the next week.

But basically we have to amass the greatest collection of pins that have Mickey Mouse on them that we possibly can within 100 days without spending more than 100 dollars. Now that we're 20 days away from starting I'd like your input about how to make this a success. I was thinking of buying low/selling high on eBay (i.e. buy 20 pins for $12 and resell for $1-1.50 each). I do have a few people offering donations, which is great. But how else can I improve my collection quickly? I'm open to your best ideas, so let's hear them!
 
Wow....that could be difficult. When you say only spend $100 does that include postage if you do trades? And what is your measure stick for success? If you got 50 pins would the project be a success? 100 pins? More? And when thinking about bay, keep in mind all the fees associated with it. If you but 20 pins for $12 and sell them for $20, you won't be making $8. You might make $6, or less because you will likely spend $3 shipping just to get the pins in the first place. Plus, buying low is tricky. Sometimes what may seem like a low price is the actual market value because nobody wants those pins.
 
I don't have an answer to your question. All I know is that, if you sell on eBay, you're going to have to pay eBay and PayPal fees. Shipping costs are a further complication, whether you buy or sell on eBay or whether you just trade with people off eBay. Are you factoring those fees and shipping costs into your calculations of initial cost, profit, and loss?

(Erudolf beat me to the reply. Sorry for the seeming repetition.)
 
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Also, remember that with any type of buying low/selling high you run the risk of being susceptible to receiving counterfeits or scrappers. If you in turn re-sell any of those, you will be responsible (in my opinion) for making the transaction right (refund or replacement). So, make sure you and your "assistants" are savvy when it comes to recognizing pins that should not be circulated. Maybe you don't care if the pins you are keeping are not authorized, but if you trade them or sell them away, you should be honest about what you are sending.
 
Ok, I just watched your video (very cute by the way!) so I may understand a little more. Your collection now, is that for keep or do you plan on using them as traders? If you use those as traders then you could go fairly far with this because there are some nice pins there and I'd trade multiples for some of them. Starting from scratch with no base traders would be difficult though.

Also, in terms a measuring success, how are you weighing quality versus quantity? Would you consider one $20 Mickey pin at the same success level as 20 $1 Mickey pins?

Also, if you haven't read up on scrappers yet, I highly recommend doing so before you start this! That last thing you want to do is get knee deep in your project only to find out you amasses a big pile of junk. :(



Edit: I don't know what is going on with my posts but they keep double posting and I'm not hitting the button twice. This just started yesterday and I'm on an iPad. Any ideas on what the problem is?
 
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Great advice everyone, thank you! I will only start with $100 and any donated pins (2 so far) so I think this will certainly be a challenge. I do recognize profit margins will likely be razor-thin with ebay due to ebay and paypal fees, but I do think there is room for a small amount of profit. Another great question that I don't really have an answer to is this: What makes this project a success? 50 pins? 100 pins? Certain quality pins? I'm really not sure. I guess at the least I'd like to be able to look back after 100 days and say "wow, that collection is certainly worth more than my original investment of $100." Another great piece of advice is avoiding scrappers. I do know what a scrapper is, but I have not done much research about how to avoid getting them. Anyone who can help me with this, and more importantly, point me to a source for inexpensive legitimate traders would be greatly appreciated. Keep the good ideas coming!
 
Wow, very cool. Thanks for sharing Whitney, that will help me do some preliminary research before I start buying and selling. I appreciate the help!
 
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