uchiha101

I think part of it---- was with what is considered "inventory"..... He was using the paid amount - you were asking for overall value estimate. Both whorthwhile numbers to know. Gabriel - that first set of numbers you gave sales of ~ 5K, made about 1300 --- this is not a bad return. BUT make sure this is a real number minus all expenses. For any of the calculations - you need to keep track of everything. Get into the habit of doing this - will only help in the long run. For any of the info below - realize that this is based on US tax law and an individual running this as a side or lower end business (for US peeps - filing schedule C). This is a very simple way of looking at a business. A larger business with many other expenses - usually have to operate under more sophisticated rules and guidelines, but hopefully this will help you. It is based on "cash based accounting". This simplifies a lot of the record-keeping. Simply put - whatever money comes in and out is accounted for at that time. Also - it REALLY helps to have ONE credit card and ONE paypal - that is exclusively used for the business. I can download my ccard transactions at the end of the year - and pretty quickly sort items into the right categories. so Gross sales - cost of goods sold (COGS) = gross income/profit. Gross income - expenses = net income. Net income = the one we all want. With the exception of taxes - this is the profit in your pocket! ___________________________________________________ Gross sales = what you were paid. Easiest to throw shipping in this as one sum (as it can be accounted for separately). Ebay makes this pretty easy - you have a transaction for $500 including shipping - they send this over as one payment - then bill fees and shipping separately. This helps a lot. ___________________________________ COGS: This is everything associated with procuring and prepping the material for selling. This example is based on year end taxes - but can really be applied to any time frame - Any inventory cost listed here- is what you paid for it. Inventory value (unrealized gain or loss) - is a separate discussion. to calculate COGS - take------ last years inventory (what you paid for comics) add any new purchases made this year add supplies (bags and boards) add grading/pressing fees from this - subtract end of year inventory (last year inventory + buys MINUS the cost paid for anything sold during the year). ________________________________________________________ so - gross income = gross sales - COGS. Looks great - but now we have EXPENSES....... Expenses: Outbound shipping shipping materials ebay fees paypal fees office suppliers advertising (business cards) legal fees storage (shortboxes) etc..... NET profit = gross profit - expenses Thanks I'll check that out and yes the profit that I gave was after all expenses and I always count them in so that I don't think that I make more then I really do. Whew! I'm glad I just collect comics, this sh-t is hard. Not sure if that's a joke or not but it'll take me a bit to learn this as well. No, mo joke I don't sell comics for a reason. Ah I see I think that hard parts will be learning the accounting and taxes part of comics but if this turns out to be a good side venture I'll be happy with that too. I don't understand what you're saying sometimes but if this is what I think you're saying then that is so awesome. Not only can you get key SA books at 50% off FMV, but once you learn the accounting and taxes part, you'll be doing that as a side venture? Hot damn...Where do I sign up? Haha what's profitable to me may not be to another person but yes things will go better for me once I learn them and since one of my biggest mistakes was overpaying for comics and not keeping track out what I buy it'll really help out my bottom line. As for a side venture like I mentioned before if I can make a extra 100-200 a month I'd be happy with it as a start.

I think part of it---- was with what is considered "inventory"..... He was using the paid amount - you were asking for overall value estimate. Both whorthwhile numbers to know. Gabriel - that first set of numbers you gave sales of ~ 5K, made about 1300 --- this is not a bad return. BUT make sure this is a real number minus all expenses. For any of the calculations - you need to keep track of everything. Get into the habit of doing this - will only help in the long run. For any of the info below - realize that this is based on US tax law and an individual running this as a side or lower end business (for US peeps - filing schedule C). This is a very simple way of looking at a business. A larger business with many other expenses - usually have to operate under more sophisticated rules and guidelines, but hopefully this will help you. It is based on "cash based accounting". This simplifies a lot of the record-keeping. Simply put - whatever money comes in and out is accounted for at that time. Also - it REALLY helps to have ONE credit card and ONE paypal - that is exclusively used for the business. I can download my ccard transactions at the end of the year - and pretty quickly sort items into the right categories. so Gross sales - cost of goods sold (COGS) = gross income/profit. Gross income - expenses = net income. Net income = the one we all want. With the exception of taxes - this is the profit in your pocket! ___________________________________________________ Gross sales = what you were paid. Easiest to throw shipping in this as one sum (as it can be accounted for separately). Ebay makes this pretty easy - you have a transaction for $500 including shipping - they send this over as one payment - then bill fees and shipping separately. This helps a lot. ___________________________________ COGS: This is everything associated with procuring and prepping the material for selling. This example is based on year end taxes - but can really be applied to any time frame - Any inventory cost listed here- is what you paid for it. Inventory value (unrealized gain or loss) - is a separate discussion. to calculate COGS - take------ last years inventory (what you paid for comics) add any new purchases made this year add supplies (bags and boards) add grading/pressing fees from this - subtract end of year inventory (last year inventory + buys MINUS the cost paid for anything sold during the year). ________________________________________________________ so - gross income = gross sales - COGS. Looks great - but now we have EXPENSES....... Expenses: Outbound shipping shipping materials ebay fees paypal fees office suppliers advertising (business cards) legal fees storage (shortboxes) etc..... NET profit = gross profit - expenses Thanks I'll check that out and yes the profit that I gave was after all expenses and I always count them in so that I don't think that I make more then I really do. Whew! I'm glad I just collect comics, this sh-t is hard. Not sure if that's a joke or not but it'll take me a bit to learn this as well. No, mo joke I don't sell comics for a reason. Ah I see I think that hard parts will be learning the accounting and taxes part of comics but if this turns out to be a good side venture I'll be happy with that too.

I think part of it---- was with what is considered "inventory"..... He was using the paid amount - you were asking for overall value estimate. Both whorthwhile numbers to know. Gabriel - that first set of numbers you gave sales of ~ 5K, made about 1300 --- this is not a bad return. BUT make sure this is a real number minus all expenses. For any of the calculations - you need to keep track of everything. Get into the habit of doing this - will only help in the long run. For any of the info below - realize that this is based on US tax law and an individual running this as a side or lower end business (for US peeps - filing schedule C). This is a very simple way of looking at a business. A larger business with many other expenses - usually have to operate under more sophisticated rules and guidelines, but hopefully this will help you. It is based on "cash based accounting". This simplifies a lot of the record-keeping. Simply put - whatever money comes in and out is accounted for at that time. Also - it REALLY helps to have ONE credit card and ONE paypal - that is exclusively used for the business. I can download my ccard transactions at the end of the year - and pretty quickly sort items into the right categories. so Gross sales - cost of goods sold (COGS) = gross income/profit. Gross income - expenses = net income. Net income = the one we all want. With the exception of taxes - this is the profit in your pocket! ___________________________________________________ Gross sales = what you were paid. Easiest to throw shipping in this as one sum (as it can be accounted for separately). Ebay makes this pretty easy - you have a transaction for $500 including shipping - they send this over as one payment - then bill fees and shipping separately. This helps a lot. ___________________________________ COGS: This is everything associated with procuring and prepping the material for selling. This example is based on year end taxes - but can really be applied to any time frame - Any inventory cost listed here- is what you paid for it. Inventory value (unrealized gain or loss) - is a separate discussion. to calculate COGS - take------ last years inventory (what you paid for comics) add any new purchases made this year add supplies (bags and boards) add grading/pressing fees from this - subtract end of year inventory (last year inventory + buys MINUS the cost paid for anything sold during the year). ________________________________________________________ so - gross income = gross sales - COGS. Looks great - but now we have EXPENSES....... Expenses: Outbound shipping shipping materials ebay fees paypal fees office suppliers advertising (business cards) legal fees storage (shortboxes) etc..... NET profit = gross profit - expenses Thanks I'll check that out and yes the profit that I gave was after all expenses and I always count them in so that I don't think that I make more then I really do. Whew! I'm glad I just collect comics, this sh-t is hard. Not sure if that's a joke or not but it'll take me a bit to learn this as well.

I'll get back to you on that but I'm sure you guys wouldn't agree

Believe this was the actual stock cost (would then line up with my process) - if you are selling enough to pay taxes - you need to know the cost paid. What you think it will sell for - just an opinion (but boy - I wish I could pay taxes based on opinion, ) Even if you have to sell it for LESS than what you paid - this should be the general "inventory" number. This is what is used for the gross profit calculation --- or in some cases,,,,, gross loss ( and boy, any loss is gross)! Sales for losses happen. They need to be tracked as much as gains--- and at the end of the year, the hope is the business plan was strong enough to be in the positive side. Yes that's correct the inventory is comics I have yet to sell but know for sure that I can sell them at the same price I bought them for and I haven't calculated any profit I think I'll make from the inventory. If you guys are interested in gross loss and gross profit I can calculate those as well. The majority of my losses are due to overpaying for comics and some deals I got burned on and I'm surprised I did as well as I have I thought with all my mistakes I'd be deep in the red.

Tough question since I focus on what I believe I can flip but my biggest focus with the my sales has been the silver age comics.

Not at all my inventory, sales and purchases are all separate but yes the inventory does add up to $4709.97

I think part of it---- was with what is considered "inventory"..... He was using the paid amount - you were asking for overall value estimate. Both whorthwhile numbers to know. Gabriel - that first set of numbers you gave sales of ~ 5K, made about 1300 --- this is not a bad return. BUT make sure this is a real number minus all expenses. For any of the calculations - you need to keep track of everything. Get into the habit of doing this - will only help in the long run. For any of the info below - realize that this is based on US tax law and an individual running this as a side or lower end business (for US peeps - filing schedule C). This is a very simple way of looking at a business. A larger business with many other expenses - usually have to operate under more sophisticated rules and guidelines, but hopefully this will help you. It is based on "cash based accounting". This simplifies a lot of the record-keeping. Simply put - whatever money comes in and out is accounted for at that time. Also - it REALLY helps to have ONE credit card and ONE paypal - that is exclusively used for the business. I can download my ccard transactions at the end of the year - and pretty quickly sort items into the right categories. so Gross sales - cost of goods sold (COGS) = gross income/profit. Gross income - expenses = net income. Net income = the one we all want. With the exception of taxes - this is the profit in your pocket! ___________________________________________________ Gross sales = what you were paid. Easiest to throw shipping in this as one sum (as it can be accounted for separately). Ebay makes this pretty easy - you have a transaction for $500 including shipping - they send this over as one payment - then bill fees and shipping separately. This helps a lot. ___________________________________ COGS: This is everything associated with procuring and prepping the material for selling. This example is based on year end taxes - but can really be applied to any time frame - Any inventory cost listed here- is what you paid for it. Inventory value (unrealized gain or loss) - is a separate discussion. to calculate COGS - take------ last years inventory (what you paid for comics) add any new purchases made this year add supplies (bags and boards) add grading/pressing fees from this - subtract end of year inventory (last year inventory + buys MINUS the cost paid for anything sold during the year). ________________________________________________________ so - gross income = gross sales - COGS. Looks great - but now we have EXPENSES....... Expenses: Outbound shipping shipping materials ebay fees paypal fees office suppliers advertising (business cards) legal fees storage (shortboxes) etc..... NET profit = gross profit - expenses Thanks I'll check that out and yes the profit that I gave was after all expenses and I always count them in so that I don't think that I make more then I really do.

I write all my purchases and sales in wordpad as I don't have a spreadsheet software yet. LibreOffice is free. I'll check it out thanks

I write all my purchases and sales in wordpad as I don't have a spreadsheet software yet. LibreOffice is free. So is Google drive / Google sheets, which is what I use. I'll check that out thanks

I write all my purchases and sales in wordpad as I don't have a spreadsheet software yet.

Thanks I'll keep improving and working at it.

I'll get better at this the more I do it and speaking of better what do you think of the numbers now?

This shows you have sold about 45% of the books you have bought. To see how much profits you have generated you have to compare the money you have spent to buy the $9,802.52 in books. If you have invested $3,000 in buying the books out of your pocket or getting the books graded then you would have about $6,800 in gross profits. I'm assuming you have the $4,469.11 in cash or you spent it on living expenses and did not put the money back into buying the $5,333.41 in inventory? I don't understand the first question you asked me I've spent $9802.52 to buy the comics. I spent the money on living expenses and did not put the money into the $5333.41 in inventory. That would mean you spent exactly (to the penny) the amount you expect to sell the books for. Your last post right before I started writing you back seems a little more reasonable. I'd expect you to make about 20% in profits before you take out all the fees and expenses such as shipping materials. I updated the numbers again so you can check them out.

Updated Numbers to the best of my ability and I made sure to calculate to the penny this time. Total Comics Bought $9498.17 Total Inventory $4709.97 Total Sold $6159.43

I calculated how much profit I made on the 5k I sold and I made $1371.23

I'm going to check and calculate those numbers.

With the remaining inventory I believe I'll make 200-300 dollars on this. Wait, so you are projecting to make $200-300 total in profit on the sale of $5000+ in comics? Cold Hard Truth: I dont think a 4-6% return on investment is enough to sustain this venture. what was your ROI for the previously sold books? (Im really hoping for your sake it was better than 4-6%) I would need to check those numbers and I'll get back to it.

So, with that remaining stock you are $5,333.41 "in the hole"? How much profit do you hope to make off of your remaining inventory? With the remaining inventory I believe I'll make 200-300 dollars on this. Ugh! You've tied up all that $$$ and you're only going to make 300? With that kind of money spent, you should've had books that could get you 300 profit on their own. I know you've seen this thread (you've posted in it), but you need to read this one over and over and over. Every day. Ed's 1 Man Comic Business I bought most of my comic before this thread happened but I'll check it over again.

This shows you have sold about 45% of the books you have bought. To see how much profits you have generated you have to compare the money you have spent to buy the $9,802.52 in books. If you have invested $3,000 in buying the books out of your pocket or getting the books graded then you would have about $6,800 in gross profits. I'm assuming you have the $4,469.11 in cash or you spent it on living expenses and did not put the money back into buying the $5,333.41 in inventory? I don't understand the first question you asked me I've spent $9802.52 to buy the comics. I spent the money on living expenses and did not put the money into the $5333.41 in inventory.

It's not, unless of course you are making zero profit and expect to make exactly zero profit. Your inventory should be worth more than what you paid for it if you want to stay in business. Yes I hope to make a profit about 200-300 conservatively and as bad as it sounds I'd rather break profit or even break even and his this done and over with so that I can move on and buy better comics.

So, with that remaining stock you are $5,333.41 "in the hole"? How much profit do you hope to make off of your remaining inventory? With the remaining inventory I believe I'll make 200-300 dollars on this.

Indeed I dont think that was intended as a positive I know but I'm trying to be positive and I'm working on my mistakes.

Updated Financials I hope this is what KPR Comics meant Total Comics Bought $9802.52 Total Inventory $5333.41 Total Sold $4469.11

Indeed