Doing the Math - Week Five

I have a confession. Before my ardent supporters become concerned, however, I assure everyone that it has nothing to do with a premature conclusion to the project, nor does it involve any nefarious acts. In fact, the Mrs. had full knowledge of what I did prior to my doing it, giving me permission as it were.

I bought something on eBay™.

Yes, even within the throes of keeping the project moving forward, I managed to add to the clutter. I had my reasoning, however, which I shared with the Mrs. then and now share with you. It involves that wonderful capitalistic concept that drives the free enterprise system. Mostly. There is another method behind my madness, which I will share after I do the math.

You see, I bought a 'lot' of toys. In the range of 250-400 toys. The ones that come in kid's meals from a variety of fast food joints. As I was researching one of my items prior to listing, I came across the sale of this collection, and the notion popped into my brain that if I bought it, there was great potential in recovering my investment, at minimum, as well as bringing joy into the lives of others. The shipment has not arrived yet, so I will use the low end of the quoted range of items for illustration purposes.

Auction closing bid: $29.00
Shipping: 18.05
Total purchase costs: $47.05

Using the low end of the range provided by the seller, that works out to about $0.19 per toy. Granted, a little pricey for something that comes free with a hamburger, fries, and drink in a fun little box, but bear with me. Let's say that somewhere in that mix is an entire set of toys, perhaps something like the "Land Before Time" set of 6 dinosaur toys. A recent auction sold a similar (unbagged) set for $6.95, which works out to about $1.16 each. If I am fortunate to sell at the same price, it could be something like this -

Cost for set: $1.14
Sale price: 6.95
Gross: 5.81

That's not too bad, all things considered. Another example would be the "Pocahontas" set of 8 (bagged) that sold for $4.99, which works out to about $0.62 each -

Cost for set: $1.52
Sale price: 4.99
Gross: 3.47

Again, not too bad, all things considered. How about a "Hunchback of Notre Dame" set of 5 (bagged) for $3.99?

Cost for set: $0.95
Sale price: 3.99
Gross: 3.04

"Mr. Potato Head" set of 5 (bagged) for $7.75?

Cost for set: $0.95
Sale Price: 7.75
Gross: 6.80

Now, having gone through all of that, and shown the world the math, there exists the great possibility that I won't recover my investment. I did point this out to the Mrs. when I brought up the purchase in the first place, but added the extra little rationale that helped us both decide to bid on the auction. It may well be this rationale which, while incurring a loss, makes it all worthwhile. You see, I decided that whatever I could not resell would be put out at our yard sales.

In the 'Free Stuff' basket for the kids.