Sunday, July 8, 2012

GOOD SALES WEEK, STOCKS NOT QUITE SO GOOD

Had a great week of sales this week!  Picked up some fantastic merchandise at the rummage sales for my flea market booth, including an entire collection of Coca Cola collectibles.  Sold a nice bedroom bench on Craig's List for a 300% markup!  Had the best week ever in sales at the flea market and they were all very profitable sales.  We've been setting up at the flea market for 5 weeks now and each week the sales have gotten better.  Of course we learn from each week's sales, what items sell best and at what price, so while we're not making the kind of money I'd like to see, we're definitely headed in the right direction.  I'm going today to check out the flea market at Osage Beach to see what kind of setup they have and how much customer traffic.  I'm thinking of going twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays, but I'll have to see if the sales are worth the increased costs of an extra day.  Probably the best thing about this week was the tremendous markup on all the items sold.  I haven't figured out the average markup, but thanks to items like the water purifiers, which I bought for 25 cents each and sold for $7.50 each, I've estimated the average to be well in excess of 200%!  So not only have sales increased, but profits from sales are dramatically higher than in previous weeks.  Right now I'm loving the resale business!

The stock market didn't do so well this past week.  I did negotiate a 50% reduction of my bill with cardiology, so I transferred enough money from my account to pay my bill there.  Collected dividends from RAI, AT and WR and put in an order to buy a stake in PSEC.  PSEC has a $1.22 dividend for a 10.38% yield on their recent stock price of $11.74 per share.  Their price to earnings is 7.0, but they are subject to volatility in price due to frequent stock and debt issues to raise capital, due to the type of business they are in.  Would not be the right fit for some investors portfolios, but I'm willing to take the risk for the potential returns from dividends.

No comments: