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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rhiwfield, post: 304533, member: 924&quot;]Nice find!</p><p><br /></p><p>In the UK that would scrap at about £60 (not saying you should!). And it brings home the different motivations for buying. I think we all like the thrill of the chase, finding a hidden gem, researching its history and maybe turning a profit.</p><p><br /></p><p>When we first started, initially motivated by a conviction we could do a successful Bargain Hunt (!), we used to drive round the charity shops, and got the occasional so-so find but as we were just beginning to run it as a business with a profit and loss account it quickly became apparent this was not the business route forward!</p><p><br /></p><p>In the UK HMRC allowance for cars for business use is currently 45p per mile (petrol/depreciation etc). So if we did a round trip of charity shops in local towns we might have to do 100 miles (£45) with no guarantee of finding anything worth having.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then there is the time factor. Did we really want to spend most of the day for a very small profit or worse (as it often was) a loss after costs?</p><p><br /></p><p>If we were younger we might have got into house clearance but as we are creaking at the joints our most profitable sources of stock, in order of merit, are now:</p><p>1) General auction sales without online visibility</p><p>2) General auction sales (online visibility)</p><p>3) Fine auction sales, occasional large ephemera lots.</p><p>4) Car boot buys (not many now as I don&#039;t like to get up at 5am)</p><p>5) Charity shop buys (hardly ever now...payback just too small to be worthwhile, may pop in one if passing and we make buys just once or twice a month)</p><p><br /></p><p>The big advantage of auctions is the chance to buy in bulk and split up lots to sell. Inevitably you pick up some sleepers and, if you resist the temptation to lock horns with a collector prepared to pay retail, there is usually a good gross profit margin and your costs are contained and spread across many purchases</p><p><br /></p><p>With general auctions the range of goods for sale is enormous, so we operate a policy of bidding for any portable, interesting lots that we can get for a good price and dropping out of those where aggressive bidding means resale margins are too low. We may mark up 50-100 lots to bid on and maybe get 10-20.</p><p><br /></p><p>Whoops...long post, sorry![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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