Red Tag Hobbies Introduction

[RedTagHobbies]

Hello,
I would like to take this time to introduce myself as well as my company.
My name is Zachary Rice, I am 20 years old and I co-founded the company, Red tag Hobbies LLP with my personal friend Adam Willard in May of 2008. Up until Feb 2009 our company was a part-time ebay store. During this time, I was working as an assistant manager at a popular retail store and Adam was and still is a full-time web-designer. Together we hope to take our forte's and create an online e-commerce Store.

My journey into full-time small business.
Two weeks ago, I decided it as time to do something drastic. Fast-tracking in a company for four years was great. But I knew if I took those 45 hours a week that I was working and put them into something that was mine, I would be destined to succeed. So that's exactly what I did. I put in my two weeks with the company, paid off my bills for the next year and started up last week revamping everything; finding products, creating a logo, redirecting our website to our ebay store-front for the time being and turning the once part-time business with a grim outlook into my new full time business with unlimited potential. Currently I have over 150 unique items listed and have tons more to list in the upcoming weeks. Adam is working on creating a full-html Ebay Store front that will include links to other various information (policies, shipping rates etc) and an HTML template for listing items. After this is completed he will begin his work on RedTagHobbies.com. Look for us in the upcoming months to really blossom and of course check out our Ebay store if you have time.

[Mega B]

Welcome to YE and good luck with your new venture.

[MisterMcJib]

sounds awesome, its great that you really put yourself into this new venture, i bet you're super excited

keep us informed about the progress, i'd love to learn from you're experience!

[RedTagHobbies]

I am very excited. In fact, I have never felt better in my life. So many people I have talked to are doubting me but that just makes the fire burn hotter inside of me to want to succeed.

Of course, there is always the what-if it fails. Well in my mind, I don't see how it can, I wake up and run this business, I am constantly aware of everything going on with the business and so if there are any problems I will fix it and improve upon it. But just in-case I am going to go back to school in the evenings to finish my degree. Everyone in my family runs their own business from plumbing to tool repair to car repair. Many of which have a website attached to their business, so I have a wealth of sources which I can use to better my business.

I am a very material person so to speak. I'm always wanting more, the newest the best. I have vowed to only pull a very small percentage out of the business and put the majority back into it with new products etc. So if I want the newest, the best etc for my personal life then I am going to have to get that extra cash through this business.

I do have a few problems I am facing right now that I need to focus on improving.

Currently, I have a wide-variety of items listed in our Ebay Store. I want to narrow that focus into just collectibles, the problem is and I'm sure alot of people face this question. Where can I obtain my merchandise. There are a wide-variety of places to get electronics and new items at discounted prices etc with very little effort. But collectibles and antiques you can't just buy in bulk and have them shipped to you on a pallet.

I am currently attending auctions on the weekends. Being located just south of Gettysburg,PA I have found quite a few auctions that I have been attending. Last week I spent four dollars at an auction for 6 boxes of things in which I got merchandise selling for well over $100.00.
But this takes time and and I am not guaranteed to go into every auction and get steals like that. Auctions are also hard because there is a variety of things being sold very fast so it is hard to look up the value of things.

On the other hand, I know a variety of sites where I can find electronics, marked down, shelf pulls etc. That turn around rather quickly for substantial profits. The problem again is the time=money, it takes time to test all of these things and ensure they are working and writing a description that can fully describe anything wrong with the item or what the item has included etc.

So again I am torn between the scope of which direction I want the company to go. I would also like to venture into selling more new items as well, but with competition the way it is, it is hard to image making a good margin on new items.

Its going to take research to figure these things out and experience. If I go to 10 auctions and only feel good about 2 of those auctions is it really worth the time? And should I buy new popular items and take a loss or small profits to draw in customers?

If I go the route of buying new items, I would like to see it set-up with Large items being drop shipped, medium popular items, that draw in customers, cheaper off-brand items that customers may decide to buy instead of Brand name items, and small items with high margin that I can cross-promote with medium and large items. For Example if you were searching for a Samsung TV on our site you will find the TV you want but there will be other brands of TVs with similar specs. Once you have decided which you want, the next page would cross promote smaller high margin products (i.e. TV cables, power surges, etc) Similar to amazon.com and others.
Once the website is finished, I would like it to be setup this way. But who knows which way the company will go by that time.

Anyways that is my long, drawn out blabber, feel free to comment or give any suggestions. I hope to become very active on this board.