The Wilding Issue Listing Is Nearly Complete, QEII Material Is Selling Well and Steph Joins Me Full Time

It has been a while since my last post. I haven't had much to report as I have been frantically trying to complete the listings for the Wilding Issue that I have been working flat out on for the past month. As of Friday last week, I have broken the back of it, with the 5c value nearly complete. This just leaves me the 6c, 10c, 15c, 20c and 25c, none of which should take me that long to complete, as they are not nearly as complicated, and I don't have nearly as much of them.

I have made so many additional observations about various aspects of this issue that I did not address in the series of posts that I wrote on my other blog, that I have decided to write an additional series of posts that address the various observations I have made along the way.

What has been interesting to note is that the material from this issue is selling just as well, if not better than the classic material. I was very nervous about this for most of this month, because it was taking a few weeks after listing the material to begin seeing the sales, and my overall sales for December are down from November. However, the sales did start to pour in with one of my customers buying a staggering 59 items out of just over 1000 listed items from this issue. So as of today, I have sold roughly 6% of my total holding of this issue, which is right on track with the sales rate that was forecasted in my business plan. I actually don't want to sell it too quickly because I don't want to run out of it when I am in the middle of listing other material, since I won't have time to replenish it. What is ideal is to sell 5% of the total amount each month for the next year so that I still have 35-40% of it left when I am finished lotting all my other material. Then I can purchase more of it and build on the listings that I have already posted rather than reinventing the wheel.

This is all really encouraging because the profit margin on this type of material is much, much higher than the classic stamps. It is way more labour intensive though.

Steph has decided to leave her job and is coming to join me full time starting in January. I am optimistic that working together, we can get all the rest of my inventory listed and up for sale over the next six months. This will hopefully enable us to get the sales level up to a level where we can sustain the business and our lifestyle.

The rest of this week will be spent finishing the Wilding Issue, then I break for Christmas holidays and return back to work on December 27 or 28. Despite the success of the Elizabethan material, Steph and I have decided that I will circle back and list King Edward VII and King George V first before I move on to the 1963-1967 Cameo Issue.

Have a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!!