Cheers!

[Gracie]

Happy USMB birthday, Mertex!! Gosh, it has been a year??? Time flys when you are having fun with someone you enjoy!!

 

[FuelRod]

Are the troubles really all the same?

 

[Gracie]

I had two shops, Mertex. One was a ladies boutique apparel shop. Then I discovered ebay and closed it. No overhead on ebay. Did well, too. Until containers of the goods I was selling started arriving from Indonesia..batiks, old hand carved wooden statues, tropical apparel and bedding, art, etc and landing in Mervyns and Sears and other bigger stores. I knew my time was over being the only person in town with a unique tropical shop.

Then about 8 years ago, I had my antique store. I was there a year, but the building sold and the new owners said they were jacking my rent up twice to what I was paying..so I bailed from there.
I sold stuff from all over the world...but I specialized in Native American items made on the rez. Bows and arrows, pottery, jewelry, zapotec rugs, fetishes, medicine bags, books, art. That was one wall. Other walls were african, asian, european. And lots of paintings. And rugs. omg..the rugs killed me. HUGE, from Pakistan, Iran, Iraq. All over 50 years old, hand stitched, beautiful. I had to roll them out to show to customers, roll them back up if they did or didn't buy them. Did a number on my back, lemme tell ya. Plus, I sold all my hand painted furniture there too and had regular customers who came every weekend to see what new thing I painted.

When that ended, I started job hunting cuz I got bored. But then I woke one morning with my pinky finger frozen in place and my point finger on the same hand swollen to twice its size. That was when i was told I had RA. It's been downhill since then.

Anyway..I rarely go yard salin' any more. Hubby does that. But I need money..and all he looks for is scrap metal. So now I have to go. I buy, then resell on ebay or craigslist. And I still have to dig up 192 bucks for the vet. So..I went this morning. He goes to the swap meet tomorrow. Hopefully he will find more scrap metal...or at least a dresser or two that I can resell for a profit.

There was a business not far from my home called "Gitizad" - they specialized in rugs, mostly, if not all, out of Iran. So, back when I was married, we went there and were looking at rugs for our place. We found five that were awesome - and then we saw the price tags. The smallest rug, more like a throw-rug, started at €2.000 (about $2,600). I gulped. That was the end of the persian rug hunt right there.

Actually all of those prices are negotiable because the markups are ridiculous. We bought a 12'x10' Persian rug that was marked as $18,000 for $4,000. It is all in the haggling. First you take several hours and make them show you their entire stock including whatever is in the back room. Inspect both the front and the back of each carpet and the fringes carefully. You whittle it down to 2 or 3 making sure that at least one is lower and the other is higher priced than the one you actually want. Then you suggest that he gives you his best price on each of them. At that point you start to walk away and suddenly the prices become negotiable. By the time you are half way to where you want to be one of you walks out to go and sit in the car. When you are almost there you go out to the car to discuss the price. When you come back you make the final offer that you are willing to pay. It works because they are still making a decent profit even at that that price.

I got all mine from one particular dealer on ebay. I paid anywhere from 30 bucks (if I was lucky) plus shipping of 50 bucks...to 300 bucks with 50 buck shipping. I sold my rugs between 400 bucks to 900 bucks. Biggest one was 12 x 15 give or take. HUGE. I kept them all rolled up in the corner of the store..nice side out so customers could see the colors and designs. I would haul them to the street and unroll them on the sidewalk so they could see the whole thing. I sold A LOT of rugs. One guy came in and bought 3 of them....nice profit of 1500.00 that day!

My target was not really tourists coming in from the valley. My target was where the money was....OTHER DEALERS. So .....they bought from me and I made my profit but the prices were so reasonable, they could resell and get THEIR profit.

Me not stupid.

 

[Derideo_Te]

There was a business not far from my home called "Gitizad" - they specialized in rugs, mostly, if not all, out of Iran. So, back when I was married, we went there and were looking at rugs for our place. We found five that were awesome - and then we saw the price tags. The smallest rug, more like a throw-rug, started at €2.000 (about $2,600). I gulped. That was the end of the persian rug hunt right there.

Actually all of those prices are negotiable because the markups are ridiculous. We bought a 12'x10' Persian rug that was marked as $18,000 for $4,000. It is all in the haggling. First you take several hours and make them show you their entire stock including whatever is in the back room. Inspect both the front and the back of each carpet and the fringes carefully. You whittle it down to 2 or 3 making sure that at least one is lower and the other is higher priced than the one you actually want. Then you suggest that he gives you his best price on each of them. At that point you start to walk away and suddenly the prices become negotiable. By the time you are half way to where you want to be one of you walks out to go and sit in the car. When you are almost there you go out to the car to discuss the price. When you come back you make the final offer that you are willing to pay. It works because they are still making a decent profit even at that that price.

I got all mine from one particular dealer on ebay. I paid anywhere from 30 bucks (if I was lucky) plus shipping of 50 bucks...to 300 bucks with 50 buck shipping. I sold my rugs between 400 bucks to 900 bucks. Biggest one was 12 x 15 give or take. HUGE. I kept them all rolled up in the corner of the store..nice side out so customers could see the colors and designs. I would haul them to the street and unroll them on the sidewalk so they could see the whole thing. I sold A LOT of rugs. One guy came in and bought 3 of them....nice profit of 1500.00 that day!

My target was not really tourists coming in from the valley. My target was where the money was....OTHER DEALERS. So .....they bought from me and I made my profit but the prices were so reasonable, they could resell and get THEIR profit.

Me not stupid.

Yup, you had the import contacts and the other dealers had the customers. I knew that the guys I was dealing with were bringing them in directly so there was no middleman. (They didn't know that I knew that ) Furthermore they were used to haggling but it was rare that anyone would walk in who knew how to haggle. As long as I didn't insult them by offering too low a price they were cool with it.

 

[Mertex]

Hey kids.

Just checking in. Been a very busy past few days of work.

Just got out of church.. Had brunch with the family.

Now home to do nothing.

Hope you are all doing well. ;-)

Well, Diana, since it's a Sunday and all...

That looks good.....what's it called?

 

[Mertex]

Attention!

Achtung!!

Attention, s'il vouz plait!

СМИРНО!

¡firmes!​

We lift our glasses and toast to [MENTION=43625]Mertex[/MENTION], who has now been in USMB for exactly one year as of today!

Congrats, Mertex!

Thank you, thank you....I'll take a glass of champagne please.....

Now do you have a designated driver or is [MENTION=36767]Bloodrock44[/MENTION] going to be joining you under the pool table later?

BR and I are meeting up in the dungeon later, but it's a secret, so don't tell anyone...

mums the word..................

 

[Mertex]

Are the troubles really all the same?

Oh no.......everyone has different kinds of troubles....

 

[blackhawk]

 

[Bloodrock44]

Getting ready to down a whole bag of Oster Zauber Knusper-Eier! Yummy

 

[MeBelle]

Are the troubles really all the same?

Dood you need an avi!

Nobody recognizes you.

 

[Mertex]

Going to bring my daughter to visit her 93 year old Great, Grandpa and bringing the dogs too to play with his dog. Then my sister and her girlfriend are coming over to my house after the dogs are worn out to help me trim their nails. She's a former Vet Tech like me but is much better at trimming those really thick black nails. I'm too worried I'm gonna make them bleed. Then it is just chill time and errands, housework. Too rainy this weekend to do much outside.

Everybody keeps talking about getting rain and here we sit, dry as a chip.

It was forecast to rain today......but nary a drop....

I'm getting very jealous of you all with the rain...

 

[Mertex]

Are the troubles really all the same?

Dood you need an avi!

Nobody recognizes you.

I remember him....he's been here a long time, was real sick at one time and recovered, a real miracle...

 

[skye]

champagne please!

 

[Mertex]

Getting ready to down a whole bag of Oster Zauber Knusper-Eier! Yummy

You shouldn't tempt us unless you are willing to share....

 

[skye]

bloody hell...WTF ok gimme a champagne cocktail then

 

[Gracie]

Hey Skye!!

 

[skye]

Hi there Gracie!

 

[skye]

Champagne now please

 

[Gracie]

Stat is sawing logs and will not be here to serve. Trixxie, or whatever slut he hired, is off somewhere probably boinking somebody..so....we help ourselves around this joint. Make yerself a double!

 

[skye]

huh?



LOL



huh?

whatever sweet