Grand Lake plane crash

[AMP]

Modern times may spell more problems than good.  I have over $3,200 in digital credit card transactions that were either fraud stolen credit cards, or customers that cancelled their charges and were charged back to our accouts.

We never recovered any of those funds.  

Many of the electronic transactions we deal with over the past year have become more of a nightmare than good.  

I operate two Ebay Stores that have been operating for four+ years now.  Currently they hardly make enough per month to cover the cost of listing our 1,200 items in inventory on one and 1,400 on the other.  

If I added up the time it takes our employees to answer buyers questions I would say the two online stores operate at around a 2% margin. Believe we made $800 last year on both in net profit.      

We do more local walk up sales at that business that has the parts listed online.  However, I will add that buyers in other parts of the country are willing to pay close to double with shipping and handling costs to what they offer here locally for the same used parts.

Overall the Ebay store earns $10 to $20 more per item than if sold locally.

Overall two of my three businesses I have owned and been an investor in since 1985 are doing worse this year than any year prior to now.  This is the first year we did not have enough sales volume to offer our employees Christmas bonuses.  

[rwarn17588]

Maybe you're a bad businessman.

[AMP]

I only directly operate one of the three busineses, I am only an investor in the other two.

Arcades... I believe they became Casinos and are sucking the life blood out of this City by the second.  Between the multiple Yellow Pages, the Out of State Power Utility company and who knows what other rivers of revenue that flow out of here, there is not much left.

P.S.  Gas Stations also gave nice prizes for a Fill Up not too many years ago as a thank you.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

Modern times may spell more problems than good.  I have over $3,200 in digital credit card transactions that were either fraud stolen credit cards, or customers that cancelled their charges and were charged back to our accouts.

We never recovered any of those funds.  

Many of the electronic transactions we deal with over the past year have become more of a nightmare than good.  

I operate two Ebay Stores that have been operating for four+ years now.  Currently they hardly make enough per month to cover the cost of listing our 1,200 items in inventory on one and 1,400 on the other.  

If I added up the time it takes our employees to answer buyers questions I would say the two online stores operate at around a 2% margin. Believe we made $800 last year on both in net profit.      

We do more local walk up sales at that business that has the parts listed online.  However, I will add that buyers in other parts of the country are willing to pay close to double with shipping and handling costs to what they offer here locally for the same used parts.

Overall the Ebay store earns $10 to $20 more per item than if sold locally.

Overall two of my three businesses I have owned and been an investor in since 1985 are doing worse this year than any year prior to now.  This is the first year we did not have enough sales volume to offer our employees Christmas bonuses.  

What kinds of items do you sell on eBay?  If you are dealing in consumer electronics, clothing, etc. those are commodities in today's world.  Everyone's got them and low price rules.

I was fortunate in that I dealt in relatively hard to find vintage memorabilia and new old stock, used, and restored motorcycle parts.  The way I looked at it, I made my money when I bought things, not when I sold them.  I also started selling on there in late 1999 before eBay was so common in commerce vernacular so there were not as many competing sellers.  I did see the wholesale prices of my particular market nearly double over a three year period as more brick and mortar, and home sellers discovered eBay.

My starting price on a listing was anywhere from 25% to 50% to 100% mark-up.  Listings frequently ended with 100%-plus profit.  I figured my cost per transaction between eBay and funds processing ran about 7 to 10%.

I would do consignments on occasion for customers and charge them 25 to 30%.

I see some stuff sold on eBay and cannot figure out how the seller is making any sort of profit when they are done.  That and keeping up with 1200 listings a week would make my head spin.

So what exactly are you selling?  If you are selling stuff that there is plenty of on eBay, then that may be part of your problem.

[AMP]

We deal in Salvage, new and performance parts for ATVs, Motorcycles and Personal Water Craft in one store.  The other handles collectables such as jewelery, knives, rare metals.  

We handle consignments for 40% of the listing price and have other goods and services available.  It is a store so we do not offer bids, just By Now pricing with never ending listings.

[ky]

[]I was sad to hear about the crash but it just goes to show they need to monitor the pilots better you would not let an 8 year old child drive without a license would you? Even though they still let old people that shouldnt even walk still drive.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by ky

[]I was sad to hear about the crash but it just goes to show they need to monitor the pilots better you would not let an 8 year old child drive without a license would you? Even though they still let old people that shouldnt even walk still drive.

Ky, general aviation is mostly an honor system and subject to "self-policing".  The three years that I actively trained and then flew, I can honestly say I was never subjected to a ramp check at any airport to check aircraft papers nor my personal credentials.

The FAA doesn't have the resources to monitor who is flying an aircraft and whether or not they have a pilot's certificate, current medical on file, nor whether a pilot has the proper ratings to fly in given conditions or to carry passengers for pay.  They keep records on file in OKC as to ratings, medical exams, infractions, etc. but until a plane leaves a smoking hole in the ground or a big splash, it's pretty rare that any of that information is used.  

Really not any different than automobile drivers.  Fortunately for aviation, it's pretty rare that you have a drunken pilot incident.

There are no laws which restrict someone from owning an aircraft- whether they have a pilot's certificate or not.  The majority of the nation's airports are un-controlled.  I'm assuming he took off out of Pryor which does not have a tower.  Airports like Pryor have a fixed based operation or FBO which provides fuel, pilot services, and they usually have someone to monitor the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) during normal business hours.  They don't direct pilots, they only offer weather, wind direction, and preferred runway direction for landing.

[ky]

[:O]well I guess thats true they do not know who is actually driving vehicles since it seems like there are so many drunks and people without licences driving now. You are right you very rarley ever hear of airplane crashes but when you do its usally bad.

[Hawkins]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

I only directly operate one of the three busineses, I am only an investor in the other two.

Arcades... I believe they became Casinos and are sucking the life blood out of this City by the second.  Between the multiple Yellow Pages, the Out of State Power Utility company and who knows what other rivers of revenue that flow out of here, there is not much left.

P.S.  Gas Stations also gave nice prizes for a Fill Up not too many years ago as a thank you.

[Hawkins]

My comment somehow didn't make it under the quote.

I agree with the statement that casinos hurt arcades-- Including Bell's, as well as the smaller Fun N Games and the old Fun House on Memorial.

The new Fun House on the Riverwalk does seem to provide a service still. In between all those restaurants and the Riverwalk theatre, the concept of the arcade as a diversion must still work there, as well as provide a place to have a birthday party for the younger kids in a nice, non-smoking atmosphere.

And it is a safer place for teens to hang out than say, racing cars up and down Memorial.

It is sad that the casinos have become such a draw. Not my idea of fun, just bad mathematic probablities. The house always wins, and WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY GOING?

I'd like to know.