Yesterday I told you folks about an opportunity on the table to rent out a large warehouse in our area and today, it is time for the details.
The warehouse isn't quite what you would expect from a typical warehouse but it has potential to be a functional workspace for what we are doing. Gary, the fellow who owns the property, led us through a door about halfway down the building and as we walked in, the musty smell of an unused workspace hit my brother and I - an immediate indicator to be on the lookout for mold on the books that were stored there.
Just as soon as we walked into the building, we made a right into an office area that was piled up with clutter. A decent layer of dust laid on the equipment including some computers that looked like they were from the early 2000's. Gary showed off the area where book preparation and cataloging was performed before the books would be taken out to the shelves in the warehouse. Walking a little further into the room, I noticed it took a left into another area with more wall shelving and a large counter top looking area that stretched out like a kitchen island in the center of the next room. As I stood in the threshold of this section, I noticed to the right that there was another room with even more storage.
Gary then led us back the way we came and out to the main warehouse area where we were greeted with a lot more clutter. It was so much that I didn't even noticed the bookshelves that were to my immediate left and right. He pointed out where most of the inventory was kept and the picture became a lot clearer to me. I would estimate overall that from what I saw in terms of additional inventory compared to what we currently have on hand, this could be at most only half of that. The truth is though with all of the stuff in the aisles, there was no way today that we would get a very clear picture of what was going on just based on what was visible. I did notice though that the books all had Post-It notes sticking out of the top with cataloging information. According to Gary after I asked him about his organization system, it is possible that the database may still exist on one of those computers in the office.
Moving deeper into the narrow and long warehouse, the space really opened up in the next section and stretched another 75 feet to the rear of the building. Boxes and random items cluttered this space as well as my eyes navigated what else could potentially become available to us. Our tour would reveal another two rooms and more storage space.
The best way I can describe what we were looking at was a overly sectioned mess and a lot of potential. Best part of all of this - it will only cost $150 per month and utilities are included. I didn't mistype that amount either - $150. And when it all opens up, we may expect a raise in rent of only $100 more a month but we get free reign to do whatever we want to do with the space... install toilets, knock down walls, install bay doors, install a security system... whatever we want.
What a week and weekend it has been. I expect things to relatively calm down for the rest of the week as far as unexpected deals but you never know what can (and will) come up. What's on the agenda is to finish cleaning out the major bookstore acquisition and seek a buyer for all of our unwanted inventory.
Love ya steemfam and keep hustling! Let me know your stories below of your own journey and be sure to check out my other blog posts this week:
First Book Bros Blog
Paintballs and Helicopters
Amazon Reselling for Beginners - What I've Learned
Looks like fun :D I've always wanted to do book selling.
Do you use Fulfilled by Amazon?
What scanner software do you use?
Hey @carn I do both fulfillment by Amazon and fulfillment by merchant. Amazon usually takes around $4 for selling fees and if you do FBA it's around another $4 for the pick and pack service. The scanner software I personally use is FBAScan but there are a lot of people that like the new kid on the block which is ScoutIQ. There are a few reasons I like FBAScan over ScoutIQ including the fact that it is cheaper. If it piques your interest, I wrote an article comparing the three best selling methods for beginners including bookselling. Hit me up if you have any more questions. The article is here. Have a good one!