Are Thrift Shop Resellers Getting Rich?

[MineralMan]

16. Exactly. I had a business selling mineral specimens to collectors

on the Internet. In fact, my site was the second such site on the Internet when I launched it in 1995.

Aside from reasonably priced specimens and a lot of variety, I also shipped every order at no charge, and in brand new boxes, including individual boxes for each specimen. I packed exceptionally carefully, too. That helped me build a long, long list of regular customers all over the planet. I printed customized labels for each specimen, too, using software I wrote and also sold. The same software also printed custom shipping labels for the packages.

I estimate that there are only a few tens of thousands of serious mineral collectors in the entire world. It was my attention to detail and customer service that make my little business a success. Packaging matters. A lot. You might get away with crappy packaging, but you won't build a strong regular customer base doing that.

Amazon knows. Every successful online retailer knows. What works, works.

In the end, the business was only marginally profitable, though, and obtaining stock to sell became very difficult as more and more dealers moved into Internet sales. After seven years, I shut the business down due to those factors. But, it was really fun for those sevn years.