I would very much like to do this full time. I've been doing some here and there, and just ready to be my own boss. I'm no stranger to long days and hard work, I'm just tired of making someone else money so I ran some quick numbers which I listed below. I also have knowledge and currently posses several comics, die cast, figures, and several thousand sports cards that would be in addition to Lego. 

Income Goal	$60,000
20% for taxes	$12,000
Need before fees	$72,000
Bricklink sales	$38,500
Bricklink fees @6%	$2,310
Bricklink Profit	$36,190
eBay sales	$20,750
ebay fees	$2,697
eBay profit	$18,052
Amazon sales	$20,750
Amazon fees	$2,697
Amazon profit	$18,052
Total profit	$72,294
Sales needed	$80,000

 

So if my calculations are in the ballpark I'd need to clear about $80k in sales to bring home $60k by the time you add in taxes and selling fees. 

Then comes inventory, shipping supplies, and office supplies, I'm thinking I need to purchase at a base rate of 2x part out, would be in the neighborhood of $50-55 a year to allow for replenishment and growth. In turn this would bring my required estimated sales of about $130,000 a year to clear and bring home $60k a year. Do these numbers sound about right? 

 

Also those that have gone full time, do you strictly stick to bricklink, ebay and amazon? Or have you ventured off to build your own website in hopes of saving some of the high fees, but then comes the website fees, and the task of bringing traffic to your site and gaining customers. 

A couple of things not mentioned or that need highlighted. 

20-30% return is very reasonable to expect. So you will need to spend around 200-300 to make 60k a year.

If you are making this a full time job talk to an accountant or financial planner. LLC vs S-Corp are little things that can save a boatload on taxes if done right.

Also if going to be full time business, have you looked into doing builds for birthday parties and other events? Look around there are plenty of mom and pop lego stores that do build events and parties and others that are mobile. Pocketing $200-$300 for a few hours of your time, adds up and you can use those proceeds to grow the other parts of your business

Just thoughts

 Many of you are missing the part where the OP is selling loose parts with 90% of what he buys - all the talk of flipping and long-term holds doesn't fit his current (and I assume future) business model.

For our Belgian poster - I don't have any familiarity of the laws in Belgium, but in the U.S., where the OP is located, it is perfectly legal to sell currently available sets, if he WERE a flipper.

The parts selling model is different than the retired-sets or current-sets-flipping models. If I'm wrong and the OP plans to drift more over to those models, carry on. If not, it's more useful to post what you know of parts selling (if anything).

 Many of you are missing the part where the OP is selling loose parts with 90% of what he buys - all the talk of flipping and long-term holds doesn't fit his current (and I assume future) business model.

For our Belgian poster - I don't have any familiarity of the laws in Belgium, but in the U.S., where the OP is located, it is perfectly legal to sell currently available sets, if he WERE a flipper.

The parts selling model is different than the retired-sets or current-sets-flipping models. If I'm wrong and the OP plans to drift more over to those models, carry on. If not, it's more useful to post what you know of parts selling (if anything).

​This may be my Robitussin induced mind talking, but how is it ok that cost of goods be excluded from his calculation ?  I can see year 1 if he just has millions of bricks to sell from his collection.  Assuming at the end of the year he sells 75% of inventory to reach $60k profit, how is he going to replenish the inventory for year 2,3, etc to make this sustainable ?  Shouldn't that cost be included in the calculation ? What am I missing ?

​This may be my Robitussin induced mind talking, but how is it ok that cost of goods be excluded from his calculation ?  I can see year 1 if he just has millions of bricks to sell from his collection.  Assuming at the end of the year he sells 75% of inventory to reach $60k profit, how is he going to replenish the inventory for year 2,3, etc to make this sustainable ?  Shouldn't that cost be included in the calculation ? What am I missing ?

​He did mention cost of goods sold in a subsequent post (or, replacement inventory as I think he put it).

But I wasn't defending his calculations specifically, I was just trying to draw the attention of the mob to the fact that he's selling parts, which is a different business model, a different sell-through rate, etc. than flipping sets or holding sets.

Thank you everyone for the replies and input. 

justafrog is right, I did mention replacement inventory in my calculation. After reading the posts again I thinking maybe I didn't clarify enough that what I plan on doing is part outs. I do plan on selling some sets, but mostly polly bags and smaller easier to ship sets I get good deals on, like the cement trucks I got for $3.50. In an ideal world I'd do 100% of my business on Bricklink just to A) simplify things and B)save about 7% in fees

I was able to get some down time today and put together some more calculations broken down into more detail. I added further expenses like gas, car mx, and similar expenses. I think my initial goals of $130k in sales to bring home $60k might have been a little low, so I'll continue to run estimate numbers and try to get a more dialed in number on estimated expenses like shipping and office costs. 

I also know I need to establish a baseline inventory. My current inventory is just over 42,200 pieces at just over $6,800, which is a starting point. Using these numbers I'm roughly estimating if I can maintain about 350k items, that would be just over $50k in inventory as a baseline in addition with continuing to replenish more than I sell, which will in turn also help me grow. I am sure I will have better baseline numbers as I increase in size, sales will increase, so when sales become constant at that point I should get a better baseline number. 

Hopefully I explained that the way it was in my head so other can understand it.