Electric Elm

Moving site

2010-02-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

I've moved this blog to electricelm.com

So go there.

The Long Lost Booth

2010-01-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

After 2 months, we've decided to give up on the consignment booth.

It's just not that exciting.

The first week or so was exciting. I moved stuff around, bought stuff, sold stuff. I think I was out there at least 3 times a week.

I say "out there" because it takes us about 15-30 minutes to get from our house to Trader Bucks, which I think is the main reason we've lost interest.

Other reasons:

1. Katie's stuff didn't sell well. I really thought it would, but nothing sold.
2. To much overhead. $120 rent, gas to the booth, gas to auction's, money you have sitting in inventory.
2.5 This then turns thrifting and going to auctions something I HAD to do, which takes some of the fun out of it. Selling on-line is a much better.
3. I don't really have the time.
3.5 I tricked myself. I started this while I had sometime off work. When work started back up, I just didn't have it in me to run out there enough and to go to enough auctions.

I think if there was one closer to us I would of stuck with it. I still have my name on the waiting list at Deja' Vu. I don't know what I'll do if they call with an opening. Not that they're any closer.

Anyway, we gave it a shot.

Okay, February it is!

2010-01-21T13:53:00.000-08:00

So, I made resolutions December 1st for the coming New Year.

But, I'm sticking to my old ways and going with starting resolutions in February. I do like starting in December though, it allows you to decide if you want to really do them or not.

Off the original list: Getting an auctioneers license.

This is still something I want to do, but it's not something I will be able to do while I work a 9-5. After some research, it would take 80 hours of class and nearly $1,200 to get a license. These are deal breakers this year.

That's the only one that is being completely taken off the list.

Obviously I'm blogging so that one is going well and I plan on going above and beyond. I purchased a domain and soon this blog will be there. I also plan on selling things on a few sites, with those accounts all collected on the domain. I'm also starting a Tumblr account to post other stuff.
Why? I've bought into the idea of branding yourself. So, I'm adding onto the blog resolution, I'm going to build my brand. Electric Elm is that brand.

Where did that name come from, you ask? I just made it up one day.
Why brand yourself with a made up name, you ask? I'm just doing it, okay.

My number one goal is losing 40 pounds. I don't consider myself unhealthy, but 6 foot, 240 is considered obese. This always bothers me. And in my younger days I was this height and 140 pounds, so somethings got to give.
But losing weight is on everyone's list? I eat very healthy. I really do. The biggest issue is my love for Budweiser (let's just say that I'm not the type of person to have 2 or 3 a week) and my lack of exercise.

So, I'm skipping the amount of weight I want to lose and changing this goal into I'm going to ride my bike a lot this year. Problem is that I don't currently have a working bicycle. I have 3 in the garage, only one is ridable, but not a long range bike, the other 2 are in pieces. So, get a bike together is on the to-do list.

You'd probably think that cutting back on drinking would be a goal. It's not, but if I increase the amount of time and effort on bike riding, the amount of time drinking should naturally go down.

Opening a consignment store is going to be a difficult one. Truthfully, I have other business ideas that I'm hiding behind the term "consignment store". But, you will be able to come into this store and buy things that aren't new, and it may be other people's stuff, so it is a consignment store in a way.
I would also have to quit my job to do this and we are a one income family. I don't really think it is something that could happen this year, but if the all the right pieces fall into the right place it could.
I really need to sit down and put together a business plan for this. So, I'll put that on my to-do list.

Number 5 was easy to write and I didn't really think about it while I wrote it, one of those you think you can mark off this list as it's being written.

"Keep my family healthy and happy"

I thought about it more after our family meeting and realized how hard my wife works at her goals. After stepping back and looking at it, she has accomplished a lot in the last year.

January 2009, she was 9 months pregnant, had just quit her job and tinkering with making her own line of natural body care products. We kicked around some names, decided she should start blogging and off she went. A year later she's really built a good small business.

(Not to mention that she's also started another project recently.
Oh, and we shouldn't forget that she gave birth naturally to our lovely Archer in a baby pool in our living room.
Oh, we should also not forget that she gave up a job as a Braille Transcriber (where she made the same amount of money as me) to stay home and raise our two son's because she felt it was the right thing to do.)

Enough bragging...

So I'm switching this goal to helping Katie with her businesses. Keeping my family happy and healthy really shouldn't be a resolution for the year, it's just what you do as a father and husband. The bulk of this will require me to take Jackson and Archer out of the house so she can get work done. The rest will be doing whatever I can.

I also realized how hard it would be for both of us to be working on starting our own businesses at the same time. Really, it would just make it more difficult on all of us. The smart thing to do is to both work on making one successful, which would increase the likelihood of the other to be successful later on, or just sticking with the one that's already successful. While I'd love to own my own business, I'd love it more if Katie was making enough money that I didn't have to do anything!

So here's the final list (in order of importance)

1. Ride my bike a lot more.
2. Help Katie with her business.
3. Build my brand.
4. Open a consignment store.

I've been well trained in goal making, and you go-getter nerds out there are probably pointing out the lack of ability to measure these goals. In fact, I've removed measurement's from the original group. That's how I'm doing things.

In November, I was going through my, "I should be doing my own thing and need to start working on it now" feelings. I'm sure you all get them. Where at any moment, you feel you may get up and walk out on your day job. I've taken January to look at things with a calmer mind. When I look at the above list, they don't look like resolution or goals really, but more as things that will make my life less complicated and more fulfilling.

Really, the top 2 are talking about riding a bike a lot and taking the kids out of the house when I get home from work a couple days a week.

I think this is the kind of year I need.

In March, Katie and I will have been married for 5 years. Almost every day of those five years, I've thought about increasing job satisfaction/starting my own business and providing the best I could for my family/trying to make more money. It's actually been pretty busy 5 years.

A brief run down of what we've been up to since March 5th, 2005.

- We've lived in 4 different places, which included buying 2 houses, selling one.
- We produced 2 children.
- We've had 3 cats (currently 2)
- We've had 4 dogs (1 had puppies, but won't count them)(Currently have one dog)
- Katie has held 3 jobs (currently 0)
- I've held 4 jobs, one at a time
- We've had 5 different cars (currently have 1)
- Been on 6 trips of 5 days or more.

And that's just the big stuff I remember.

I guess what I'm trying to get at here is, it's been a crazy 5 years. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy craziness but, I really just want to play with my kids, help my wife, and ride my bike this year. When there's time, I'll work on the brand stuff and fine tune my business ideas, even if they don't amount to anything.

Family Meeting

2010-01-13T19:19:00.000-08:00

The other night I called a family meeting.

Topic: What do you want to do this year?

This is the second family meeting that has ever been called. The first was mid-last year. I think I called that one when I realized we were operating at a loss and things had to change. Katie laughs because that meeting consisted of me drinking and sitting at the computer going over the books while she and Jackson sat near by. And me telling them they couldn't leave because we were in a meeting.

This one went better.

Jackson had the biggest goal: To do karate in China.
(Jackson Van Damme, you say?)
It's important to let your children dream, well at least don't crush their dreams to quickly.

During the meeting we said we would look into him starting some karate classes, which we will. Later, during story time, I learned he thought you could only do karate in China.
(something he learned from watching Mulan?)
I explained that China is a country that you had to get in an airplane and fly to, and that he could learn karate here in West Lafayette, and that there were karate places by Menards or by our old apartment downtown. Karate in China wasn't going to happen.
He seemed pleased by this. He also said he wanted a real drum set, we'll see, I've always wanted one also.

Katie didn't have any outlandish goals that included travel to developing countries. Her goals were to stick to the path she's on with her business, while trying to get her products into one (1) brick and mortar store.

I think it's entirely possible that she could get them into more stores, but it's hard to gauge the time she'll have to actually 'work' on her business. Plus, if the rate of on-line sales continue to increase the way they've been the last 2 months, she won't need to put them in stores at all.

I had to remind her of the newest idea, which she plans to start working on soon.

She is also helping her mother and me run our Etsy shops, which is no small task.

For someone that says she never has time to do anything, she does a lot of stuff.

Then came my turn.

Not much changed from my post in December, well, that's not entirely true. But that's another post that I will hopefully finish soon.

Archer can't talk so he didn't have much to say about goals. Plus, this will officially be his first full year here, so we let it slide.

I think doing family meetings are a good idea and plan on doing them more often, especially now that Jackson is becoming more independent. We see each other all the time and converse, and are actually well aware of what the other's dreams and goals are, but they usually get lost in the commotion.
These allow a time for us to speak our minds and for everyone to hear.

Also, without taking everyone else's goals into consideration, you may find yourself making goals that aren't really possible or fair to those around you. This is another topic I plan to cover in my next post.

So give it a try if you'd like. If you don't have a spouse and kids, try it with your closest friends or people you aren't comprehensive around. Don't come prepared. We didn't write anything down, or put time frames on anything. Actually, no one knew what the meeting was about until I got them on the couch, so it was rather informal.
But, we all know what we want to do this year.

Well, at least until the next meeting.

End of Break

2010-01-03T18:21:00.000-08:00

Break is over, almost.

Have to go back to work tomorrow.

Kind of got 2 of my 3 things done.

The entertainment center is in the house. It was to cold to stain or paint it outside. So, we just left it in it's sanded state. Didn't put shelves in either. So, it's only about 1/3 finished, but it's in the house and serving it's purpose.

Game area was set up, Jackson and I have been playing some Mario World and Donkey Kong on the Super Nintendo. He's still working on the hand/eye coordination, so I didn't hook up the Nintendo 64 yet. I'd say this project is 2/3 finished.

Computer desk, nothing.

Did make it to 2 auctions outside of Lafayette, got the booth looking better. Had a good Christmas and New Years.

So, it was a good break, a good 2009.

Christmas Break To-Do's

2009-12-23T17:33:00.001-08:00

Starting tomorrow, I have 12 days in a row off of work.

I have many projects that I've been hoping to do around the house, but I'm lazy and never do them.

One is an entertainment center idea. We purchased some oval shaped wood pieces at a garage sale over the summer. They've been sanded, not stained. I hope to them stained tomorrow, maybe put together. Once it's done, I've got to hide all the wires and set up all my A/V stuff that's been sitting around since we moved in.

Also need to set up the 'video game' area. I've got a Nintendo NES, Super Nintendo and a Nintendo 64 that I've been wanting to set up in the living room. This is one Jackson's been waiting on. Finally got a TV with RCA inputs, so now I just need to do it.

Finally, need to redo the computer desk. It's really quite the eye sore and it takes up to much space in the TV room for how often it's used. Don't really have any ideas for this one yet, but would love to free up some space. Really just want to stick it in the corner of the room.

Anyway, thought if I wrote down what I needed to get do, I may actually do it.

I'm a believer in the idea that if you get all the little things you want to get done, done, that you're more able to get big things done.

So, hopefully I'll have some before and after picks of these projects up in the next two weeks.

I love my Royal Canadian Airforce Jacket (by Evin)

2009-12-22T18:43:00.000-08:00

I just purchased it less than 3 hours ago, but I can tell it will be with me for as long as it holds together.

See, I have an addiction to jackets, so it's quite a thing to say that I love a jacket after 3 hours and only wearing it once.

I bought it at Goodwill for $4.99. Katie sent Bunkers and I out while she finished up Xmas type chores. I rarely buy new jackets, not by choice, but because I've been told I have too many. I put it in the cart, walked around, put it back, walked around, came back and decided to buy it. I just couldn't get passed this.

Seriously, how could I not buy it? Here are a few more pic's for documentation purposes.

Top Tag:

Telescopic Arms: This is a patent I would buy. It sounds funny, but I can lift my arms over my head and the rest of the jacket doesn't move.

Another feature that is awesome, sleeves are recessed and leather trimmed.

Huge double pockets, probably a foot deep. My wife said they're like a purse x 2.

The hood and collar are removable, with buttons:

This isn't your pansy YKK zipper, it's a Waldes.

Evin is a Canadian company that has been making stuff for the Royal Canadian Air Force for a long time, I took this from this Craigslist post, I'll quote it since that link probably won't be around too much longer.

"The Evin Industries Ltd., organization was founded in 1938
focusing on producing specialized cold weather clothing.

The "Telescopic Sleeves" invention was created for the Royal
Canadian Air Force. Specialty outerwear, with the Telescopic
Sleeve invention was developed for the construction of the DEW
LINE and MID CANADA LINES (early warning radar stations across
Canadian Arctic and Alaska). Our company also outfitted the
icebreaker/oil tanker "Manhattan" (for Humble Oil) for both
voyages through the Northwest Passage.

The "Evin Self Sizing Liner" invention (permitting proper fit,
with or without detachable liner) was introduced to the market
In the late 1970's. It is now patented in approximately 20
countries. Uniform garments with this invention are being worn
by the Australian Federal Police, New Zealand Police Service,
numerous forces throughout Belgium, Holland and Germany, in
addition to its use in Canada and the United States.

Both the Telescopic Sleeves and Self Sizing Liner have been
evaluated by the U.S. military (Army and Navy) in 4 separate
evaluation contracts."

Why so much on one jacket you ask? I've decided to do brief research pieces on stuff I get and can't find much about. I hate it when I can't find anything on items I get.

Anyway, if you come across a jacket like this, buy it. I would have paid $50 for it now that I have it.

Thrifters vs. Auctions

2009-12-20T18:37:00.000-08:00

I've attempted to write two meaningful post tonight, they didn't come out right, so I'll just ramble a bit.

You can't group people that go to auctions with people that go to thrift stores. It's a different mentality and a different commitment. Usually, people that sell at thrift stores go to auctions to buy their stuff. I can go through Deja Vu' and tell you what some items there sold for at the auction.

You want to go to Goodwill and look around, pick out a coffee mug and a t-shirt and leave. That was pretty easy. Go to Trader Buck's and Deja Vu' looking for some cool decor for your kitchen. Maybe you find it, maybe you don't.

Auctions are like a job. The auction this weekend started at 9:30 a.m. and probably went until 3 p.m. You get there, you look around and inspect everything you may be interested in and you wait.

Also, like a job, there's a social scene.

There is an older crowd that usually grabs a seat in the metal chairs and never moves. They bid on old cast iron trinkets, quilts, depression glass, etc. They eat breakfast and lunch here. I imagine these people have garages and basements full of this stuff. When they pass on, it all comes up for auction again. This is the only way to explain the large amount of this stuff that is at every auction.

Then, there's the collectors. These people have magnifying glasses in their pockets. They sit patiently, not wanting to make a request (you can ask that a specific item be auctioned soon)for their one special item in fear that someone like me will think it's expensive and try to buy it. They are experts in their field. They know coins, stamps, old toy trains, jewelry, etc. They know people that will buy what they get and for how much.

Then, there are people like me, the resellers. These are eBayers, consignment sellers, furniture resellers. These are the people that make auction interesting. They bid at will, just thinking, "I think I can sell that for more than x" I once bought a red plastic oil lamp for $25. Well, I thought it was glass and thought I know what it was. It wasn't it and I still have that lamp. These are the people that will buy boxes of junk at the end of the auction just for the fun of it.

It's my form of gambling.

Today's the day

2009-12-18T04:50:00.001-08:00

Booth #400 officially opens at 11 a.m.

Decided to take the day off work to get it ready.

Was up pretty late last night collecting, gathering, cleaning, pricing, etc. Hopefully, it will only be this rough once. Had flashbacks of the ol' eBay days. The best part now is that I don't have to box and ship everything. That was such a pain in the ass.

I made my first Etsy sale yesterday. Wasn't expecting that. Katie made me take down the Sun Tea jar, so I only have one item up. This would have bothered me when I had my eBay store open, but it doesn't matter on Etsy. +1 Etsy. Would put more up, but all energy and items are being focused on the booth right now.

Woke up at 6 a.m. to the furnace making a weird knocking noise. Used my I.T. Service Desk skills and turned it off and on, it seemed to fix it. Called the furnace people anyway to come and look at it.

We're taking about ~60 vintage items to Trader Bucks. If it all sells for what we're asking, it will be quite a profitable endeavor. I'll be happy if half of it sells. I'm happy to be getting all of this out of the house. The sad thing is, I barely looked in the garage at all, cause there was so much stuff in the house.

I'll let Katie tell you what she took.

When I first started selling on eBay, I priced everything I saw in my head, and if in the right company, out loud. I think I drove most of my family crazy. My parents began to wonder if they should give me family heirlooms in fear of them being sold to the highest on-line bidder.

Looking back, I was a bit obnoxious.

The summer of 2008, I (and Jackson) went out every Saturday morning garage sailing (I would give up drinking for the ability to go to garage sales, thus the "sailing"). I would also go at lunch time on Fridays and after work on Fridays. Sometimes, Sundays.

I would spend almost $200 a weekend. While I didn't sell everything, I almost sold $6,000 worth of stuff that summer. I know where about 1/6 of that money went (towards the house) the rest, who knows? Probably gas, smokes and beer (and of course, thrifty items).

It was a lot of hard work, actually.

This time around, we're going to keep close track of what goes in and out of the booth. It will probably be easier because Trader Bucks provides a list of everything they sell for you. But, this has to be profitable. We get our first check from Trader Bucks on 12/30. I will gladly report the first checks sales to you. Maybe the second.

Well, looks like the sun is up, time to get to work.

Good day to make a move (not a mistake)

2009-12-14T19:06:00.000-08:00

Was feeling a little itchy to accomplish something today after work.

It was either call the guy with the van and make an offer or go get a booth at Trader Bucks.

I named it booth #400

It's an 8 ft. x 8 ft'er. Got a built in shelf and an electrical outlet. Cost $120.96 a month. The price goes up $10 a month if you want to use the electrical outlet. There is a $120.96 refundable deposit also.

My main goal here is to get a little experience in the consignment area. Originally, I just thought I could sell some of my junk I acquire, plus any nice, cheap furniture. Of course, we have to cover the $120.96 a month in sales. Haven't crunched any numbers, but I think it's a realistic goal to sell $300 the first month.

I got a hint from one of the workers that the highest grossing seller is the person with all the 'junk' in the banana boxes on the floor as you walk in. Who knew? One of the other best sellers are the people that sell the dragon clocks and stuff. Again, who knew? I was just dogging these very people in my last post and they're who I've got to learn from.

Well, I just learned that I don't know much about selling at Trader Bucks.

Katie and I kicked around some ideas, and came up with a few good ones. We open up December 18th, so we've only got a few days to get ready. Katie is going to put together as many phone cases and t-shirt bags as she can. I'll round up some junk from the garage and house. Hopefully we can fill it on Friday (and have it empty by Monday.)

One thing I'm positive of is that I can fill it on Friday.

One interesting thing is that I can work my booth. Tempting. Maybe I'll just go hang out for a while this weekend after the auction.

*Side note: With this move I had to kill all hopes of acquiring the '86 Bonaventure Van for now. Maybe if we make a bunch of money this month at Trade Bucks and the vans still for sale, then maybe I'll get it. So, I won't be getting it. He dropped the price to $950 yesterday.

On Consignment

2009-12-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

This coming year I plan to sell stuff at a consignment store, then possibly to open my own consignment store. So this weekend I made a point to hit up as many of the consignment/thrift stores in town as I could. I had to take the kids with me, so I didn't do a lot of shopping, but I did get to ask some questions.

De Ja Vu'
(I know, that's not their website. That's because they don't have one.)
This place had no openings, they actually had a waiting list for a spot. Personally, this is my favorite thrift store in town. Jackson bought a Casper the Ghost VHS tape. I decided I'd go ahead and put myself on the booth waiting list. I was surprised that they didn't ask for my e-mail address. When I asked the guy behind the counter if they use an e-mail list.

"We don't do that yet"

Leaping Leopard
(Maybe no website is better than this website)
This is the first time I'd been here, it was upscale compared to other thrift shops in the area and the lady's talked to me as such. They seemed very nervous that I had children with me.

I asked the stuffy lady behind the counter if they sold handmade items.

"We don't sell crafts"

Then I asked how I would go about selling thing here.

"We'd have to look at what you have"

I got the feeling she didn't want me there, so, I don't think I'll go back.

Klassy Klutter
(No site)
This is located next to Leaping Leopard, so I stopped in, didn't stick around long. My oldest son had became unable to keep his hand to himself. Didn't talk to the lady working, but I got the idea stuff I would sell on consignment wouldn't fit in there.

Maybe I was feeling put out about not being fancy enough for Leaping Leopard so, I decided this place wasn't fancy enough for me. I'll try again another day.

Trader Buck's
This place is as big as the first three put together and is basically the combination of these three. If you can get past the weird excess inventory stuff and carnival prizes there is a lot of good stuff.

I'm a believer in the idea that if people weren't making money, they wouldn't be selling it. So, people must make money here.

So, I think I'm going to open a booth at Trader Bucks. Hopefully as soon as possible. They only have 4 booths open, so I'll probably need to act fast.

. . . .

One place this industry needs to improve in is, how do I say it, web savvy-ness? I have noticed that some people that have booths post advertisements on Craigslist. But that's about it. I may put some ideas together about thrift marketing and see if any of the stores are interested.

But, would thrift shopping on the web still be thrift shopping? I guess it would be Craigslist and eBay.

. . . .

I went to an auction Saturday night, Schoolhouse Auctions in Yeoman, a bit different than the auctions I go to in Lafayette. I got the feeling that this was the hang out spot for some of the locals. It was also the first auction I've been to where they sold food (can goods, mac & cheese cups, Gatorade bottles, etc.)

I missed out on a very old (and possibly expensive) bicycle that sold for $1 (looked like this), but I did not leave empty handed.

How awesome is that?

Are odd occupations genetic?

2009-12-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

I remember at my Grandpa Fry's funeral, someone listed off all of the different occupations that he held throughout his life: farmer, school bus driver, bar tender, ran the window at Dairy Queen, etc. There were more, but I can't remember them right now.

Towards the end of his life, he owned Jack Fry's Curly Fries.
This was a pull-behind-trailer-food-type business, you know, the kind you see at festivals and county fairs.
He had a Slushy machine, a refrigerator, soda machine, a deep fryer. And he hand made his curly fries.
I got to help out a few times and remember thinking that this is what I wanted to do with my life.

(One of my only regrets in my life is not buying that food trailer when he was trying to sell it.) I was probably 18 or 19 then. I'm 29 now.

1986 Chevy Bonaventure

2009-12-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

There's a 1986 Chevy Bonaventure around the corner that's been for sale for about a month. I want to buy it. The guy's asking $1,200. Not too bad.
My plan is to haul stuff around in it (hopefully I'll be needing to haul stuff around soon.)
The odd thing is, when you Google "1986 Chevy Bonaventure"... nothing of any importance comes up?
There's no Bonaventure fan club, no big list of them for sale, nothing. There aren't even a lot of pictures of them.
I still want to buy it though.

pre New Years Resolutions

2009-12-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

One of my New Years resolutions for 2010 is to finally start blogging... and stick to it.

I'll tell you the others at the end here.

I always use to wait until February of the new year to start working on my resolutions. I felt that starting on January 1st was unrealistic. November and December are months that cause a lot of stress and don't allow the time one needs to mentally prepare for life changes. So, I would take January to reflect and plan, and start in February.

The last 2 years, this didn't work. I don't think I accomplished much of anything.
So this year, I started a month ahead, December 1st.
I also have set some lofty goals this year:

2. Loose 40 pounds. I gained ~40 pounds when Katie was pregnant with Bunkers. This is something I decided to do cause it sounded like fun. He was born in February, she lost all her weight, I still weigh 240 pounds.

3. Get an auctioneers license.

4. Open a consignment store.

5. Keep my family healthy and happy.