Business Starting With MNG Will It Last

I don't envy you and your wife your sorting/soaking task!

I assume that all of the mint no gum on paper stamps escaped cancellation on the mail pieces to which they were originally attached.

Are the comparable ebay sales you mention for those stamps as being listed on or off paper?

I'd expect off paper listings to bring a premium over the on paper variety due to the time and effort involved in getting them "glue stick" ready.

Wow, that's a lot of uncancelled stamps - what are your stats for the number of stamps you get from the 5Kg lot?  Maybe 18,000 if on trimmed paper?  That's a considerable percentage of stamps making it through uncancelled.  I receive regular envelopes so seldom that I couldn't guess how often it happens in Canada, but for the type of mail I receive (mostly oversized envelopes or packages) I would guess somewhere around 30-40% receive no cancellation.

Ryan

In 36hrs we have sold enough MNG stamps to buy 10kgs of kiloware on paper. There is still two more lots and we are going to wait till they sell so 12kgs kiloware on paper can be purchased, 6kgs very recent and 6kgs from the last 15 years.

The sale of the Mint No Gum stamps was so quick it has caught me off guard. It is very popular!

I am no kind of businessman, but I recently did a study of the business of a friend and we found out that one of the most important factors was the time spent to earn the money. He was just charging too little per hour in order to cover all his costs including overheads. We discovered that unless he charged somewhere between $120 and $150 per hour, he was likely to show a loss at the end of the year. This will vary from business to business, but it is an important factor, afterall we all get 24 hrs/day and a limited number of days...it pays to make the best of them.

When we started out 3 years ago our prices were very cheap because we started selling on eBay .com with "0" feedback score. It took 3 months to sell our 1st item and we were selling $50 items for $5.
Now we have a reputation for selling top class stamps and have a large following and lots of new buyers and our pricing reflects the quality of our stamps and have 750 to 850 different Australia 1990 to 2013 items up for sale each week in our eBay store.

We have just finished a restructure that has taken my wife and I an hour extra a day for about the last 6 weeks. The result is stunning! Now the work for prepareing the stamps to list takes an hour instead of 3hrs.

When it comes to time for me it is firstly about quality of life. I sit to do the computer work but stand for everything else. My spine has been shattered..... that is enough of that talk.

By adding more sitting into my day at regular intervals or as my back determines I have added sorting stamps as part of a possible part of my working day.

I am sorting with as little movement as possible. It has taken many years to work out how to do everything because of my physical issues.

My sorting set up. There is another plastic tub in between the chair and large tub.

Our business structure is to sell singles by auction basically. There is not much competition selling like this in the our selling stamp years. It costs us $500 per month for our eBay store but we can list as many items as we like and that is about 3,400 items per month. Last month we sold over $5,000 in stamps. Soon it will be $50 per month but our eBay store will only cost $50 per month with 200 free auction listings.

The other cheaper approach is to sell "buy it now" . Take 15 bundles of a 100 stamps in sets and list 10 lots per listing. No listing cost because you stay within 50 listings per month plus you keep using the same image and listing for a 100 sales per set. Great way to start. Less profit but a good start.

The "buy it now" way is how I have started selling the kiloware 1st as mint no gum and soon by using the profit buying and selling sorted kiloware, as well, and then buy............

Maybe a better image. I lean forward so I am very comfortable and my hands are in the middle of the plastic tubs. The rejects are in the large tub.

KG5, you seem to have found your niche and, with the MNG stamps, perhaps a niche within a niche. I did check out your ebay store. Since I collect mainly pre-1940 classics, we probably won't be doing much business together, but I admire your offerings.

The 55c stamp short fall is resolved as last years left overs have been found and have filled in the holes nicely.

With so much stock it is just so easy to forget about a bunch of stamps here and there.

Also found 400g of International Post kiloware on paper but it is only made up of about 15 different and it is not sorted for self adhesives which started me thinking and looking.

 Found an auction with some International Post kiloware lots on offer.

Have used them before but with mixed quality outcomes.

The last lot I won about 12 months ago and I sent it back because it was all common International Post stamps with practically zero different.

They are telling me that the mixers are great and  I will not be disappointed.

We have a huge amount of International Post stock as it sells very well.

It is a bit of an issue because this type of kiloware sells for a $1,000 to $1,500 a kg at auction if you are lucky! That is 25c to 35c per stamp! There is less numbers per kg because some of it comes as parcel post.

Have been looking at this kiloware for sale on eBay and it looks to have room for good, quality lots. But the best stamps would need to be sold as singles as the bulk lots will only sell at cost and a bit more. 50 stamps per lot sounds right at $15 per lot. Would get close to 50 different which might lift the cost to $25. Anything bigger and it is going to be hard to sell.

Some lots on offer on eBay. Listed as Buy It Now lots
200 Christmas stamps on paper at 12.5c per stamp.
500 Christmas on paper 20c per stamp.
Reasonable but all definitives mix 400 on paper 25c per stamp.
Nice lot 450 stamps off paper 30c each. This lot has been for sale for months! " I will buy this lot for our business." It has a huge resale! Sold at $135 mailed.

I think after all that I will leave International Post kiloware alone for another 12 to 18 months and start making lots up from the 400g on hand.

Back to putting the thinking cap on. Maybe bulk low value KGV's?

This business from mint no gum has $280 in the kitty so far. All from the scraps of our stores kiloware for modern sets.