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Becoming a RETAILER - and whats the bizzness ?
- Thread starter ThomasOrion
- Start date
The math just never worked out.
To sell it to the wife, it had to at least break even. So I had the initial amount I paid for the discs (got a wholesale deal from another shop to get around the brick and mortar thing) and to order more I had to sell a certain % of those discs before I could restock without going back to my wife and saying I needed to dump more cash into it. That took a bit and the people who would have been my "regular" base got used to me having nothing new. When I did restock, there were some discs that were still there from that initial period that just never sold. There was a pink S TD with the shouting monkey stamp that was just always there, and it became this symbol of "same old bunch of discs" that were in my van. I'd restock, people would look once, not buy anything and then make jokes about the pink TD. I realized at that point that I had to have a lot more start-up money to put in; I had to have enough inventory to shuffle so that the pink TD could stay back. I just didn't have the amount of money needed to do that. I actually needed the thing to make money now, and it wasn't going to do that.
I dumped the stock to basically break even. About a month after I stopped having discs in the van a guy comes up to me and goes "Do you still have that monkey disc?" It was in the van for like two 1/2 years and NOW he wants to buy it? Yeah, that's how it goes. I think if I had enough inventory to get it out of the van and out of sight, it would have sold.
The other issue at that low volume was molds. I only could afford to stock a few, and every week it was "Do you have any Ions? Do you have any Summits? Do you have any Rampages? Do you have any CE? Do you have any 11X TeeBirds?" I wasn't in a financial position to say "I'll try to order one for you" for stuff like Ions, all I could do was say "no." I said "no" a lot, which isn't a great business model. I had what I had, people either wanted to buy it or they didn't. Too many of them didn't. It just was never going to work the way I was doing it.
To sell it to the wife, it had to at least break even. So I had the initial amount I paid for the discs (got a wholesale deal from another shop to get around the brick and mortar thing) and to order more I had to sell a certain % of those discs before I could restock without going back to my wife and saying I needed to dump more cash into it. That took a bit and the people who would have been my "regular" base got used to me having nothing new. When I did restock, there were some discs that were still there from that initial period that just never sold. There was a pink S TD with the shouting monkey stamp that was just always there, and it became this symbol of "same old bunch of discs" that were in my van. I'd restock, people would look once, not buy anything and then make jokes about the pink TD. I realized at that point that I had to have a lot more start-up money to put in; I had to have enough inventory to shuffle so that the pink TD could stay back. I just didn't have the amount of money needed to do that. I actually needed the thing to make money now, and it wasn't going to do that.
I dumped the stock to basically break even. About a month after I stopped having discs in the van a guy comes up to me and goes "Do you still have that monkey disc?" It was in the van for like two 1/2 years and NOW he wants to buy it? Yeah, that's how it goes. I think if I had enough inventory to get it out of the van and out of sight, it would have sold.
The other issue at that low volume was molds. I only could afford to stock a few, and every week it was "Do you have any Ions? Do you have any Summits? Do you have any Rampages? Do you have any CE? Do you have any 11X TeeBirds?" I wasn't in a financial position to say "I'll try to order one for you" for stuff like Ions, all I could do was say "no." I said "no" a lot, which isn't a great business model. I had what I had, people either wanted to buy it or they didn't. Too many of them didn't. It just was never going to work the way I was doing it.
Hampstead
* Ace Member *
Might be a good idea to try and carve out a niche in this niche sport. Way too many manufacturers, molds, plastics and weights to satisfy everyone. Figure out what's popular in your area and try to focus on that. In the meantime, hope you win the lottery so that you can sell discs for fun and not as a source of primary income.
R-Ogre
Double Eagle Member
I think previous posters have hit the nail on the head. Unless there is a huge untapped market in your area for a brick and mortar type store or unless you're ready and willing to spend what it takes to go up against the Infinite/OtB/MSt online machines you're better off selling Buzzzs and Rocs out of the back of your van at the course on weekends. Or forget the discs entirely and sell weed and cheetos assuming it's legal in your state.
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2009
- Messages
- 6,852
I think Cheetos are legal everywhere except Rhode Island.
wolfmandragon
* Ace Member *
<tangent>
The best side hustle I have ever heard of was the girl scout that set up her cookie sale outside of one of California's medical marijuana dispensaries....
Pure genius.
</tangent>
The best side hustle I have ever heard of was the girl scout that set up her cookie sale outside of one of California's medical marijuana dispensaries....
Pure genius.
</tangent>
Dr. Bogey
Birdie Member
Truth. I buy discs in lots on Ebay, keep the ones I want, and resell the rest individually. In a typical lot that I buy there will be a couple of discs I keep, a couple that I sell for a $5–$10 profit, and a few that I break even on. I've made about $200 net profit in 2019, plus the discs I've kept. It's a fun way to get discs and make a bit of extra money, but terrible as a source of income.
That's interesting. If you were doing that full time, and selling more/keeping less, how much du you think you could earn per month?
I've dabbled in this, but always too lazy to actually sell all the discs I'm not going to collect or throw. So I'm a long way from turning a profit or even breaking even. (Although that was never my goal.) But I also have a heap of random discs in storage, with a pretty wide range of value.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
When you are ready to start I will give you a great deal on banshees from the late 90's...
Glide
Birdie Member
It can be done. I just wrapped up my 12th season. 99% of our business is through our brick-and-mortar pro shop. Online is commoditized. Razor thin margins You really have to play the volume game to be successful online. My advice. If you're going to do it, commit to it. Don't try to ease into it. I put in some of my own money and took out a small loan. It was a full-time job from day one. I also had a part-time job for the first two or three years and lived off of that income. That allowed me to pay off my business loan in one year. People underestimate what I call the fondle factor. There is a lot of value being able to put your hands on a dis and see it with your own eyes. Admittedly, it might have been a little easier when I started because there were fewer established manufacturers. Over half of the brands we now carry didn't exist in 2008. When we first opened our doors, we had 33 bins of discs. About 1,000 total. We have been in a larger space in the same building since 2012. We currently have 140 bins and almost 10,000 discs.. Another piece of advice. It is better to be located at or next to 1 course than in between several of them.
ShopTom.com
Birdie Member
Definitely concentrate on your local market. Twenty percent of your customers account for eighty percent of your business. And only buy inventory with money that you don't need, ever.
Dr. Bogey
Birdie Member
*Maybe* $100. I'm already watching Ebay like a hawk, which is really easy with the searches I have set up and takes about 10 min. per day. Only a small percentage of the lots on Ebay have any profit potential. If you just get a bunch of 7/10 throwers you'll be lucky to break even. To make any money you need to get a good price on a lot that includes desirable discs like AJ Destroyers, tour series discs, fancy Zones, etc., or at least a few popular molds in 9/10 condition. There just aren't that many lots like that.
The best scores are the ones that say "frisbee glof dcis" where the main picture shows only a DX Shark, and it turns out to be a stash of PFN Destroyers, 9x–11x stuff, and early Buzzzes that you win for $45. But that's a twice-a-year kind of thing.
Dr. Bogey
Birdie Member
And of course most of the time when you see this it turns out to be...
...a DX Shark and nothing else.
jakebake91
* Ace Member *
Casey would be thrilled!!!
kw83028
* Ace Member *
Overall, I think it would be a tough jump in to the online sales game. The amount of online dealers has jumped probably 10X in the last 6 years.
Long story super short, I got in 9 years ago before the modern big rush of facebook dealers, so I'm pretty established. I rarely deal with facebook groups mainly because I sell so much on ebay, my website, and in-store that I'm too busy to deal with others.
There are hundreds of authorized dealers that sell on facebook only, let alone the hundreds (thousands?) more on ebay/amazon/personal websites/etc.
Pretty much what everyone has said on here is truth. It's a tough game. It's going to be tough making a name among the hundreds or thousands of others. I'm fortunate that I made a name for myself many years ago. I rarely advertise or spam social media which definitely holds me back a bit, but I'm happy where I'm at. Ebay/Website/In-House, keeps me busy. For the past 5 years I've sold 10K-13K discs per year and I'm able to take a regular "paycheck". If I was to put an hourly rate on it, I would not be making jack squat per hour though. Soooo much time is invested.
If you need to make money, make sure you over-analyze what your expenses are going to be. A lot of small things add up. When you see what your dealer cost per disc is going to be, don't think that that's a great margin. $9 wholesale (plus % of the overall shipping to get it to you), $16 retail, does not add up to a $7 profit after you factor shipping, packaging, processing fees (if you take money with a service that has a fee), insane ebay fees if you sell there. I think my overall margins over the years has averaged between $3-4 profit per disc. Sometimes more on special editions, sometimes less on base plastic or when you have to run a sale to get rid of stock that's been sitting. You will have stock that doesn't sell. Molds that were/are popular, may not be popular next month. Latitude sold well for a few years and now I can barely give it away. Legacy sold well for a few years and now I don't even carry them because they ended up accounting for 1% of my sales for 2 years. I've sold 1/7th the amount of Star Destroyers this year since McBeth moved.
It's a crazy game to get into. I'd suggest picking one manufacturer and going strong with them. At least to start. I'd say Dynamic since you get all 3 of the Trilogy, or Discraft since their popularity has skyrocketed this year. If you plan on making enough money to support people, and call it a real job, then get a resale license / tax ID in your state and make sure you follow your state laws with taxes and such. Most manufacturers want you to have that anyways, and might even require it.
I don't know if any of that helped any more than what others stated, but I figured I'd take a break from listing inventory on my website for a minute lol.
Long story super short, I got in 9 years ago before the modern big rush of facebook dealers, so I'm pretty established. I rarely deal with facebook groups mainly because I sell so much on ebay, my website, and in-store that I'm too busy to deal with others.
There are hundreds of authorized dealers that sell on facebook only, let alone the hundreds (thousands?) more on ebay/amazon/personal websites/etc.
Pretty much what everyone has said on here is truth. It's a tough game. It's going to be tough making a name among the hundreds or thousands of others. I'm fortunate that I made a name for myself many years ago. I rarely advertise or spam social media which definitely holds me back a bit, but I'm happy where I'm at. Ebay/Website/In-House, keeps me busy. For the past 5 years I've sold 10K-13K discs per year and I'm able to take a regular "paycheck". If I was to put an hourly rate on it, I would not be making jack squat per hour though. Soooo much time is invested.
If you need to make money, make sure you over-analyze what your expenses are going to be. A lot of small things add up. When you see what your dealer cost per disc is going to be, don't think that that's a great margin. $9 wholesale (plus % of the overall shipping to get it to you), $16 retail, does not add up to a $7 profit after you factor shipping, packaging, processing fees (if you take money with a service that has a fee), insane ebay fees if you sell there. I think my overall margins over the years has averaged between $3-4 profit per disc. Sometimes more on special editions, sometimes less on base plastic or when you have to run a sale to get rid of stock that's been sitting. You will have stock that doesn't sell. Molds that were/are popular, may not be popular next month. Latitude sold well for a few years and now I can barely give it away. Legacy sold well for a few years and now I don't even carry them because they ended up accounting for 1% of my sales for 2 years. I've sold 1/7th the amount of Star Destroyers this year since McBeth moved.
It's a crazy game to get into. I'd suggest picking one manufacturer and going strong with them. At least to start. I'd say Dynamic since you get all 3 of the Trilogy, or Discraft since their popularity has skyrocketed this year. If you plan on making enough money to support people, and call it a real job, then get a resale license / tax ID in your state and make sure you follow your state laws with taxes and such. Most manufacturers want you to have that anyways, and might even require it.
I don't know if any of that helped any more than what others stated, but I figured I'd take a break from listing inventory on my website for a minute lol.
kw83028
* Ace Member *
So true. That's how I got started. I used to watch the listings like a hawk. Scored so many gems from people cleaning out their garage and not knowing how to list them. "Frisbee golf disk Lot" would have CE Aviar, AJ Destroyer, etc.
