I want to Open My Own Store and I have No Capital. Advice?

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
You're better off selling stuff through Ebay or other such sites than trying to set up a physical location. Look at the stuff that people are buying at stupid prices due to the pandemic and try to build a cheap inventory by buying cheap stuff and selling it high to retards. For example, get some cheap used office PC and put the components in a nicer case and sell it for 150% markup, or see if you can find weight plates, dumbells etc at a local flea market and sell them for 250% what you bought them for.

You could also look into buying old games consoles and videogames at flea markets or Goodwill or whatever and selling them for several times what you bought them for to the literal retards that waste money on that shit.

And do research by searching for common goods like clothing, shampoo and stuff on Ebay and see what the people that are doing well are pricing those things at, and if you see a local store selling those things below that price then buy some up and start selling them at a markup.

Make sure you take decent-looking photos of the stuff you're selling - use nice lighting and make sure the spelling and grammar in your items' descriptions are ok: a lot of sellers don't bother with presentation and making the effort will set you apart.
 
  • Like
  • Agree
Reactions: Mister Mint, Loogle and ApeBass
There is no job where you don't work for someone else in some capacity, even in this store you'd have to cater to customers and deal with them and the closer to any sales position the more you have to deal with customers.

A better idea would be to find a job with a good boss where you can sit at the back and do your own thing without being bothered
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: Psychotron
redcent said:
There is no job where you don't work for someone else in some capacity, even in this store you'd have to cater to customers and deal with them and the closer to any sales position the more you have to deal with customers.

A better idea would be to find a job with a good boss where you can sit at the back and do your own thing without being bothered
Click to expand...
I love dealing with customers! Customers are great.
 
  • Disagree
  • Feels
  • Dumb
Reactions: Ira the Weatherman, Mister Mint, Law and 3 others
BlueSpark said:
You could also look into buying old games consoles and videogames at flea markets or Goodwill or whatever
Click to expand...
Flea markets have already been picked over decades ago. The next frontier is the dead.
The local retro games store around here does a brisk trade in rare games pulled out of estates. Stuff owned by people who died, or left their childhood junk in their parents' attic and then the parents died. They've got a whole rack of Nintendo magazines from the same doomed soul.
 
  • Agree
  • Thunk-Provoking
  • Informative
Reactions: Spiny Rumples, Mister Mint, Law and 2 others
Don't Tread on Me said:
Alright, that makes sense, so if I specialize more I can be successful with organizing and providing a space for gamers, I would just need to eat a lot of upfront cost and work hard to advertise and get people in the door as soon as possible.
Click to expand...
How are you going to "eat a lot of upfront cost" with only 2000?
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Mister Mint
Just say you need a college loan.

For some reason banks won't give you a small business loan of 20,000 dollars if you are young, broke, and have no income. But say you are going to college and they will give you 100,000 dollars no questions asked.




I am being sarcastic btw. But not really.
 
Don't Tread on Me said:
As for a hook or loyal clientele, the only unique thing I have to offer so far is that I do tarot readings, which I think might help me appeal to the female audience a bit more than the average game shop since that's very similar to astrology.
Click to expand...
how is that supposed to help?

byuu said:
Why the fuck would you open up a new store in the middle of all the Corona shit?
Click to expand...
game shops are booming right now
Hippopatumus said:
First thing you do is due dilligence on your business idea, in which you would discover that you are only likely to net $20 per sale of a premium board game, and you're unlikely to sell more than one or two a day. 40 * 30 = $1200.
Click to expand...
what? Premium boardgames have a pretty decent margin. 30% are no problem even for a small store, with loyalty bonus for your big spenders.
they also get pretty expensive once you go for the real nerd shit. you will also sell alot of them.
People will also buy them localy if they can look at them before buying.

there are also less premium games people buy all the time as small gifts. thats the bread and butter for most game shops.
also kids games...

Hippopatumus said:
Cards are a better business model, but even then you are looking at huge up-front costs to get started with inventory. Most people that get into the game already have a huge collection to bootstrap with.
Click to expand...
Cards are HORRIBLE. big spenders are mostly online and there is a crushing race to the bottom most of the time. Rudy is selling at cost to his Patreons.

Don't Tread on Me said:
As I have been reading things from people and working on my business plan I have decided to try to wait and accrue more starting capital and accept that I can't take advantage of inflation right now.
Click to expand...
well you could start a small webstore as your sidehustle, build contacts, test if games is realy something for you, etc.
You are pretty safe to not lose money if most of your capital is sunk into high quality nerd games, the only way their prices go is up.
you also should start a blog with the webstore, people want information about stuff they buy AND you need to get to know all those games.

How many of the more premium games have you played? do you like playing those games? what kind of games do you like the most?
You can sell Dune, Terraforming Mars, Gloomhaven and others all day long, but is your heart in it?
 
Stoneheart said:
How many of the more premium games have you played? do you like playing those games? what kind of games do you like the most?
You can sell Dune, Terraforming Mars, Gloomhaven and others all day long, but is your heart in it?
Click to expand...
I have played Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Resistance, a super long Scooby Doo board game, Arkham Horror, and I love all of it. I really do enjoy sitting down and playing games with other people for like five hours, it's the best.

Haven't tried any of the games you have listed.
 
Don't Tread on Me said:
I have played Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Resistance, a super long Scooby Doo board game, Arkham Horror, and I love all of it. I really do enjoy sitting down and playing games with other people for like five hours, it's the best.
Click to expand...
Well thats not alot. there are alot of games coming out every year that you need to know in addition to the evergreens and their expansions.
you need mutliple groups if you want to learn whats needed every year.
there is also the issue that the big money is done with autistic stuff that will make a normal persons brain bleed.
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: Don't Tread on Me
Kosher Dill said:
Flea markets have already been picked over decades ago. The next frontier is the dead.
The local retro games store around here does a brisk trade in rare games pulled out of estates. Stuff owned by people who died, or left their childhood junk in their parents' attic and then the parents died. They've got a whole rack of Nintendo magazines from the same doomed soul.
Click to expand...
Flea markets are a good way to dip your toes into sales. Different markets will have different demographics, but if you can find one where your the only nerd shit in town, get a cheap folding table, and hawk all the bored nerds who's mother's drug them there to attempt her dream of selling homeopathic water or whatever, you may be able to make some dosh and get some clients.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LilShotaBoy and Overly Serious
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back