Judy:
Well no cold north wind here this morning. But as the tourists continue to come they will bring the cold weather with them.

The bottom line should be simple - they taught us how to figure that in 8th grade or something like that. However, doing what we do - the auction thingie - it is like pinning down Jell-o. I know I'm not going to the poor house, I'm making money, but where does it break to the point that I'm loosing. My formula is pretty straight forward. I know what I pay for say a 10 volume collection of stamps. I know that I get x number of lots out of the 10 volumes. So it's what I paid divided by number of lots plus eBay/PayPal charges plus a fudge factor. Well that's all and good and from that I can tell if as material sells if I'm going to be able to keep my shirt or have to give it up.

People don't understand that it is a lot different than a bricks and moartar store. If we really want to get into the depths of finding that bottom line then of course all of the equipment involved in doing auctions (Internet Connex, 'Puters, Scanners, Packing, Shipping, Postage) has to be figured in. If it is taken to the logical end then we have now spent our entire day figureing bottom line and haven't spent one moment on preparing anything for auction.

I've been working lately on a formula of sorts that seems to work however. I looked at last year's numbers under expenses - the usual stuff from phone and eBay charges right down to envelopes and postage. Took the total amount I took in from all sales either on line or off line. Punched some calculator keys and came up with a percentage of cost of goods to cost of auction. In a way it is the cost of any auction - basic cost regardless of the item being auctioned - the amount that is built into the very fact that an auction is being put up on eBay or OS. I'm working on that now and at least I think I've found a way to have an idea if a particular group of material is making money or if I have to rethink how I'm selling it. It's strange isn't it. You know you aren't going to the poor house but the way material for sale fluctuates it is difficult to pin down a profit margin. It all goes back to what you said earlier "moving product around".

Didn't mean to get into Econ 101 here. Just thinking out loud in reply to your calculator comment.

Garry