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Yeah, kinda did it backwards: read up on all the forums and THEN posted in the intros. Sorry! 😉
Yes, we have five houses and one 4plex. One of the houses has just been taken off the rental market though, as my MIL has moved in. That bites, much as I love her! All of them are pre-eBay business, but I would like to cashroll a bunch more. Rick’s ideas of owner financing a bunch of them sounds like a plan, all the benefits of monthly payments without the hassle of maintenance, etc. But the equity of owning property is also very attractive. All the properties are standard rentals as they are 4 hours away from us, too far to operate as a Airbnb option.
Wow, Rick, you really are something incredible!
While I’m all agog for your eBay business system information, and hope to emulate your listing speed some day, I’d actually like to ask you about your property sales. How do you vet your buyers? If you are financing, the banks aren’t going to be running credit checks etc., so how do you ensure you are getting a “good” buyer? Do you ask for a deposit, and if so, a percentage of the purchase amount or a fixed sum?
I have rental properties and have been looking into expansion. I was considering flipping, but this option of yours sounds much better!
Dang, I’ve heard of them (family in UK) but have never seen one. Good catch there, AATOUK. I should buy one for my family. They complain of slugs all the time!
You know, there must be a catch. Surely they don’t just send the shoes? They must include a bunch of photos or something. No way somebody is going to pay $100 for the couple foot photos on the eBay listing, right? Or am I missing something here? I’m probably missing something here…
Invite your mom to sit in on a listing, not necessarily one from the family estate. That way she’ll get a hands-on feel for how much work it is. I had a small “discussion” about my “hobby” with a family member and did one listing with them, start to finish, and then packed up one sale item. Then I filled in the blanks with information like it requires storage (cost of storage and storage materials) and time for questions and answering offers, packing material cost, etc. It won my argument, perhaps it will help yours.
At worst, it will give your mom a new appreciation of how much work you actually do, so she’ll stop thinking you should get a real job! LOL
Jay, here’s a pic of the Gallery Plus.
On the left you can see the little photos you find in search. Below it, marked with the big red arrow, is a small magnifying glass icon. Hit that icon and it gives you a large photo over the top of the search list, per the image on the right. It’s a way of seeing a larger image of the item without actually going into the item itself, so that you can stay on the search page.
Now, in this search page of men’s casual shirts, there are no magnifying glass icons. Nobody here has bought into the Gallery Plus.
It is my totally unsubstantiated opinion that buyers don’t know about the option. I didn’t!
Jay – I was thinking in terms of death or getting too old to want to continue = retire.
If I die, the business will die too because my husband has less than zero interest. He would then just be pissed at me leaving him to deal with “all my junk.” (You have may noticed a theme on the naming front here! LOL) If we both die, my family is going to be going through everything with a WTF? mindset.
If I ever get too old to want to continue with the business, at a doddering 96 years old for example, what do I do with my successful eBay business that has tens of thousands of items?
It’s a bit of a forward-thinking question, but my husband and I believe in the Death Drawer principle: having a drawer filled with all our information in case of our death, such as our Wills, funeral plans, insurance, etc. Disposal of all our assets are in the Wills. Do I consider my business an asset, or just part of my physical estate to be disposed of to some lucky future Trash Elves?
Shortandstout: great point. Having the closure of the business included in my Settlement of Affairs is an excellent idea. Somebody needs to know how to close the store and settle the accounts for eBay and PayPal.
The translation I got was wool 90%, polyurethane 10%.
That doesn’t make any sense! 🙂
USPS actually has “board game” boxes that are fairly good. I’ve sent mine in Priority Mail boxes where they fit. I usually top and bottom with sponge or peanuts so that they aren’t damaged in transit. Not a major pack, like breakables, just a bit more protection. I think about it this way: I have board games myself and I store them all in a cupboard. If I bought one and it arrived crushed, I’d be pretty bummed. It adds maybe 2-3oz, so it’s not much more cost.
I’m out, temporarily. Had knee surgery and it’s worse than they thought, so I’m not listing anything at the moment. 🙁
Will get to it as as soon as I can.
I have a “cleaning bin” which is a lidded plastic tote with all my cleaning supplies, including every color of shoe polish, each stored individually in its own bag with a polish brush, shine brush, and polishing rag. I have Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to clean the rubber on sneakers. I found that Folex removes that silver marking pen, but I’ve not found anything that works on Sharpie. And an old nut pick picked up at a garage sale does wonders at picking dirt out of the soles! 😉
All my shoes are cleaned before photographing and listing. I put out a pile of newspapers to work on, a tub of water and rags/brushes for cleaning soles, some poly bags, and a pile of shoes, and sit on a stool for an afternoon or so and knock them all out. Once they’re all clean and shiny, they go into the poly bags that I’ll use for storage later, then get put aside for me to list at leisure.
I have an account with shoedazzle.com and most of their listings show shoes on a foot model, so that you can get an idea of how they would look. When I started selling on eBay I considered posting photos with a foot model for the same reason. It never occurred to me there may be a fetish about it! Yikes!
Thrifty2: thanks. Great idea for the flagging. Maybe I can have some fun with washi tape or something. I bought 9×12 and 12×15 poly bags from Uline that I use. Each item goes into a bag before it’s stored. I clean my items before listing, so the bags help to keep them clean, dust free, and separate. I remembered hearing about folks who send two similar shoes that are not a pair (2 left shoes, perhaps?) and so I like the fact that my shoes stay in pairs. Also, they’re easily scuffed by other shoes, so it helps there too.
So Cal Joe: that’s a great idea! I love it! Then I would only have to worry about doing a new consolidation when my bin started to look like nuclear launch codes! 😉
