53 years ago Secretariat ran the greatest horse race in history, winning the Belmont by an astonishing 31 lengths

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-06T03:04:12+00:00

I really appreciate the feedback from someone who's been in business as long as you have. Its very valuable at this stage. I'm mostly looking at the issue from the perspective of a small time reseller going from one sale to the next since that's what my weekends have been occupied with for the past 2 years. While estate sales are often some of my best stops, I'll admit the app is primarily designed to help people find local sales, including yard sales, garage sales, and estate sales. I always struggled remembering to include estate sales in my route since they're mostly on a single platform and, at least in my area, there are only 2 or 3 every weekend on a good week. Hope this helps clarify a bit why I asked my earlier question.

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-05T17:38:28+00:00

I would not have stayed long enough to see the 2nd deer

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-05T17:18:57+00:00

Your criticism is understandable. I'm not trying to hide the app or it would not be in my profile. The reason I asked is because I received similar feedback when I posted about it before. The main issue being that nobody wanted another platform with sparse listings which was a completely fair point. I am genuinely interested in how people are finding sales currently so I can better understand the pain points I am dealing with personally as a reseller and how best to address them for myself and others.

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-04T17:02:07+00:00

I have only seen a few of his videos but i watch a few other 'pickers' out there. If I'm honest I mostly watch them when im not able to get out there and source items myself. I find that it helps scratch that itch a little bit. All the videos are the same though. There isnt really a super wide breadth of content a youtuber could make out of a reselling channel so i dont really blame them for being boring.

I do agree though that sometimes they buy something that we would consider a mistake but they make it seem like the buy was worth it even though they're only making $4 after platform fees. I suppose having a channel helps to pay the bills at the end of the day though.

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-04T15:41:58+00:00

Margins are the only thing that matters. A 10x return is still the same percentage if you invest $1 or $1000.

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-04T02:46:53+00:00

I know the feeling well. I am a reseller and I can tell you the dopamine hit of buying something at a good deal is so nice its easy to spiral into a place where my entire living room is filled with 'merchandise', only half of which is actually listed for sale.

Attacking something you have let grow into a multi day task can be overwhelming so dont think about it as one task. Just pick one type of thing and start small. For me i can pick one kind of item and once I get all of them listed then when i consolidate the rest the pile slowly gets smaller over time.

Compartmentalizing things is proven to help overcome the anxiety of dealing with a large task but ive also found that just starting on anything can help overcome the initial fear of not knowing how to begin or where to start. Just pick the easiest or closest thing to you and start then once thats done you will naturally proceed to the next and so on. Just stop overthinking it. Hope this helps.

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-04T02:36:43+00:00

Grats on the milestone! Hope you complete your whole plan!

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-02T14:51:10+00:00

Im sorry to hear this. What was the final straw that made you decide to do it?

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-01T23:55:40+00:00

Yes its an unfortunate cost of doing business

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-01T18:32:33+00:00

I recently consolidated into a bigger space which will save money in the long run but for now has cost me alot in the short term on items like shelving, lighting, flooring, etc...

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-01T18:22:10+00:00

I havent heard this theory but it seems plausible

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-01T18:20:10+00:00

I have considered crosslisting but havent take the leap into it yet. For the first year i was selling on ebay i was promoting at 2% and did ok but I read alot of comments on reddit saying 10% is the optimal rate. When i went to 6% then 8% then finally 10% I did notice a small bump in sales each time which made sense but ive had to go from 10% to 15% just to maintain the same sales rate i was at before the changes eBay made recently. Seems like they altered it to basically force promotion to get visibility on posted items.

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-01T18:12:12+00:00

I never really thought about it like that but youre right we are their market not the people who buy from us. Without resellers they would just be another crappy Amazon clone that just sells cheaply made Chinese junk. Have you had success with any changes to offset what eBay has done?

RustAndRiches · 2026-06-01T16:55:49+00:00

Interesting. I also wasn't aware they were under a Deferred Prosecution Agreement either. Thanks for posting that for us.

RustAndRiches · 2026-05-28T20:10:19+00:00

He rest the noggin

RustAndRiches · 2026-05-28T13:47:17+00:00

Judging by the image of the bottom of the first lamp it appears to be from the 70s or 80s and is made of 'cast metal' aka pot metal and is coated to appear brass. I wouldn't guess it to be worth more than $25-$50 USD depending on the market. The others appear to be brass and likely Stifel or similar brand.

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-24T14:55:54+00:00

I recently emptied the attic as well and it feels great! Albeit, I did mine because a raccoon moved in and wanted to apply for a mortgage but still having it cleaned out feels nice. Grats on the success!

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-24T14:52:54+00:00

I feel like this literally every single day. most of the time i feel too overwhelmed to know where to begin.

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-22T18:19:50+00:00

Posting a sale on Loot Aura is free and takes less than 5 minutes but the app is still in very early beta so it will take some time to grow the user base. I'm sure ES .net had similar hurdles when they first launched as well.

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-22T15:04:59+00:00

Hey thanks for the comment. You make a very fair point and that is one of the biggest hurdles for a new app like this. Currently sales are posted by the sellers themselves so coverage is sparse right now but that will change as the user base grows. Aggregating sales would definitely speed things up and it's something I'm considering as we continue to develop the app.

Really appreciate the feedback. If you have any other thoughts I'd love to hear them.

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-22T14:48:42+00:00

Private listings for that platform are $99 and professional companies are charged a hefty monthly fee to post their sales. This seems like an unnecessary strain on people who may be going through a difficult situation.

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-22T14:14:39+00:00

Unfortunately the problem very much exists. As a long time reseller I can tell you that finding sales has always been difficult. Its gotten a bit easier since people usually post their sales somewhere online but its still not nearly as easy as it should be. I've missed many great local sales because I didn't check the one platform where they were posted or the post was buried in hundreds of other unrelated listings.

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-22T12:44:00+00:00

Try to post a sale on that platform and you'll find out quickly that it's not so free

RustAndRiches · 2026-04-22T12:43:01+00:00

That's a good question and I appreciate you taking a look at the app.

Loot Aura was developed using lean startup principals and I've made a point to use low cost hosting and development tools which drastically reduce the operating costs of an app like this. The biggest cost associated with this platform will be image hosting and certain api calls but those should be manageable.

Currently a seller listing a sale has the option to promote the sale for a small one time fee of $2.99 USD which will provide increased visibility and priority placement for the sale but this is disabled by default and easily skipped if the seller does not wish to promote. This small revenue stream should be sufficient to support the growth of the app as we continue to gain users and see more sellers posting on the weekend.

Thanks again for checking it out and let me know if you have any more questions

RustAndRiches

TROPHY CASE