How Many Dealers Do We Have?

Of the regular contributors how many sell material. Are you part time or full time. Does this support you or is it a second job to supplement your full time job? I don't sell as the sewing machine repair takes up a lot of time.

I am a hobbyist who sells on average about $1k per month, but I'm no dealer. A true dealer is, in my opinion, a person who makes a substantial investment in things like time, inventory, and travel to sell their wares. They depend on this income to put the food on their table.
I do this on a part time basis, I have other income.
Don

I sell sometimes only on ebay stamps what I have but not collecting.

$12,000.00 a year I think qualifies you as a smaller dealer who is supplementing your hobby. Do you buy material to resell it? My sewing machine repair doesn't generate a whole lot more than the $12,000.00 before taxes. I don't pay sales tax because parts are included for me. It helps me supplement my social security.
Tom

I do not buy to resell. I do periodically buy collections and cherry pick what I want/need. What is left over rarely goes for 10%-15% of what I spent for it; 25% maximum. Some gets donated. Some gets accumulated in the bottom of the closet. If I tried to declare this as a business (income tax-wise) I would certainly not see any profit for any previous year nor for any foreseeable one.
Perhaps I am old fashioned, but to me a dealer is a person who does it for a living. A dealer considers loss/profit. Virtually everything has a price on it; they know if they can turn the material they can most always replace it with something as good or better. But a hobbyist squirrels away material like a hoarder. I am a squirrel.
Don

Like Don, I buy stamps and cards for my own interest, and sell duplicates to defray my costs and prevent myself dying a horrible death of the Collyer Brothers kind. Thus far, I've really only sold cards. The money raised varies from month-to-month - between £300 and £1,000. I don't, of course, make money overall, but cards tend to be less of an automatic loss-maker than stamps. I'd usually reckon to get back something akin to what I paid. I see this as a spin-off from my collecting - it gives me a further interest since I retired. Couldn't have done it when I was working - scanning, describing, uploading, packing and posting takes up too much time!

Geoff

During the winter and spring of 2014, I sold some items. It payed for a bicycle build I was working on.

I would like to be a full-time dealer, but only online. I wouldn't like to do shows or have a store. My infant twin daughters are keeping me pretty busy right now and come first, but I work on auction material when I can. I did sell enough last year that PayPal issued the 1099 tax form, but doubt I'll see one this year. Hopefully sometime in the fall I'll have another big cover auction and sell off some more bulk stamp lots before that. The babies haven't stopped me from buying material.

Selling has accelerated for me in the last 6-9 months.It is all about your contacts for good material at prices that allow you to gain profit.

On line selling only for me. A shop is dead money and shows I do not see the point of doing it at all. Physically I can not even visit a show so it is no loss.

Having buyers is a big part of the selling picture. On friday I spent over $2000 and $850 of it will sell for $4000 min but not on ebay and the buyers are ready to purchase. The rest is a risk as I have not really seen it. Just hoping that it is a good buy. With selling you just have to make calculated risk buys at times.It all evens out in the end.

Stamps is not my major form of income but with two adult children back at collage with no government help and one that lives in another land helping people relies on others for her income. Stamp income becomes very important. Selling stamps is the only reason we still have a house. Simple as that really.

Add plants as another ebay store as well and that might just make it all a full time proposition. Maybe....

When we retired 10 years ago my wife and I decided to see if we could turn my stamp/ebay hobby into a part time business. We've gone through many changes both in our business and with ebay itself but we are still going.

I only sell on ebay and currently almost all my sales are auctions. Between us we spend about 25 hours each week, list about 40 items and average sales are $1000/wk. We could expand but we really don't want to. I travel occasionally to an auction but selling at shows requires way more inventory than I carry and much more time than we want to spend.

I have tried other venues such as Del Campe and Bidstart but the turn over is so slow that I would need a lot more inventory than I need for ebay. There are occasional problems but most of the time selling on ebay works very well for us.

I'd agree with this quote, whether they are pursing it full- or part-time. I think it is very much in the intent of the sales.




Congratulations! We have six-year-old twins.

I wouldn't mind being a dealer. I love shows, and think that would be a route I'd take, but as I own my own business in the publishing arena, I'm not sure stamp dealing is in my future - or at least immediate future. I do have some thoughts on philatelic publishing. We shall see...

That said, like a lot of folks, I do sell a few stamps - mostly stuff that I somehow acquire but won't ultimately go in my collection, on ebay. Nothing serious, but it does generate pocket change.

Good comments from all. For now I'll stick to the sewing machines. I'm amazed at the interest.

I buy auction lots, break them up and sell them mainly on ebay Canada, USA and UK. Specialize in Canada but also do world / plus posters / plus ephemera.

I sell part-time. Some on ebay (microscopic profit), some mail sales (better).

When I retired, I too decided to sell on ebay on a regular basis to supplement social security. I've spent years accumulating material which I've gone through only about 20% of. I have so much more to catalog...but it's time consuming and I have other things which take my time. I prefer mail sales with my regular buyers and I've built up a good amount of steady business. I've tried social networking but it hasn't provided many sales. It's a good thing I love the hobby, so regardless, I keep on adding more items on ebay and Bidstart. I consider myself a small scale dealer....but my personal collection always made my buying the driving force.