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FYI trash elves.
“The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) began drafting new regulations to implement the decision, which are to take effect April 1.
Meanwhile, state legislators and state Treasurer Fiona Ma are fast-tracking a bill that would impose a looser requirement, exempting smaller Internet retailers from collecting taxes. They hope to have it enacted by the April 1 deadline set by the CDTFA, thereby avoiding the confusion of having two different and conflicting tax-collection systems.
However it occurs, Californians will begin paying sales taxes on many, if not most, of the items they have been ordering via the Internet. And that means more money flowing into state and local government coffers…Much of the additional revenue would come from a provision in the bill that requires “marketplace facilitators” to collect taxes. Those are organizations, such as eBay, that don’t sell directly to customers but are marketplaces for sellers, much like updated, electronic versions of the old newspaper classified advertising sections.” Full Article
03/11/2019 at 7:30 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58517True. You might talk to a qualified attorney about using entity wrappers though. I know you like your local accountant, but really it is a legal issue. I’ve seen a lot of misinformation on the web about LLCs.
03/11/2019 at 1:40 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58472That’s cool. Glad it was worthwhile and you made some connections. There is a bit of risk involved with any business but since you have several irons in the file that should help. I’m not a corporate attorney and I avoid giving legal advice online, but make sure you look into liability issues for all of your businesses. I’d hate to see someone derail you. Look forward to seeing the photos of the new rental.
Great job! I listed 9 RA items, all the new clearance I have in hand so back to new being 100% listed. Don’t need any more used, vintage piles but I went late to a church sale and found a cute little midcentury painting, some 70s print napkins, and a 60s art instruction book. Glad I didn’t go on time because there were ghosts of better stuff that I don’t need to add to the piles. I have missed two out of our three “monster” rummage sales. I have to admit it hurts just a wee bit to see the announcements but I’m staying away.
03/11/2019 at 9:40 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58430Total Items in Store: 283 yikes Ebay, about 40 Mercari
Items Sold: 4 Ebay, 1 Mercari
Gross Sales: $152 Ebay, $18 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $25 + $7 shipping included + three items ours
Highest Price Sold: $70 Ebay, midcentury pitcher from my parents’ kitchen pitcher
Average Price Sold: $38 Ebay, $18 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $5 late arrival church sale + RA clearance roughly $100
Number of items listed this week: 9This podcast reminded me of another video I saw on Youtube this week. There are so many things Ebay could be doing better. I feel encouraged that they seem to be coming around to listening to sellers and modernizing in a smarter and less disruptive way. Hopefully they will focus going forward on improving and simplifying the app and listing process. This is my #1 hope for improvement. I’m sure they are doing more back end work, and you always wonder if that affects sales. At least they are not glitching like they used to. There are some clues to more capable programmers on board. Remember how frustrated we all used to get when they were rolling out changes?
Again I’m grateful for the sales this week as I have many extra demands on my time this month and not much time at all for listing unfortunately. Kids’ birthdays, company, COGS bookkeeping, taxes, work on a school fundraising auction, spring break, planning my kids’ summer activities, etc. are all still ahead. My contract work is also busy. My Mercari listings are stale and I haven’t been promoting there so that’s pretty dead.
Congrats to R&J on the latest acquisition. I miss hearing more about your reno and wish you the best. Regarding the business class, LOL. It sounds like it must have been difficult to sit through some of those speakers with your valuable time. You set yourselves apart because you are very wise and work SUPER hard. Much harder and more consistently than most people are willing to if they are being honest with themselves. I’d bet on your business being very successful so long as it works in your remote lower income location.
Have a great week everyone!
I got 8 items listing this morning between kid duties and taxi service. Multiples but better than none. I think my Ebay store had a thick layer of dust on it. Quite a few 16 month banners going on :/ Next week we have company coming. Ugh.
03/04/2019 at 4:35 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 401: You Don’t Have To Quit Your Job To Sell On eBay #58101Total Items in Store: 273 Ebay, 40 Mercari (deactivated half of the week)
Items Sold: 7 Ebay, 0 Mercari
Gross Sales: $275
Cost of Items Sold: $57
Highest Price Sold: $60 (Set of Dansk salad plates, paid 5.99 GW)
Average Price Sold: $39
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $20 on two new items
Number of items listed this week: 0Grateful for the sales, as I have been tied up and not listing for weeks. Most sales were part of my dwindling RA inventory. I’m very grateful for Ebay reselling. It started out as “extra” money that I initially plowed into RA inventory, but I use it to pay for expenses and quarterlies now.
Kinda tempted to clean house quite a bit when I can return to listing. I need to go back and clean up some shipping choices. I did already take off free shipping except under 8 ounces before the new rates took effect but I have some parcel select, smartpost, and whatnot to remove. I had overnight as well as the last option in case it helped with Guaranteed Delivery ranking but I really don’t think it did. I paid over a thousand in free (mostly first class) shipping last year. That’s a lot compared to my profit. Unfortunately hard to tell if I would have sold those items anyway but probably since my RA stuff is discontinued and my vintage items don’t usually have a ton of competition. As a buyer I do like my free shipping. As a seller I’m not comfortable contributing over like three bucks since I’ve got best offer on everything.
Regarding the Ebay preliminary spring update, I hope it is not a matter of good news, followed by the bad news (fee increases). Maybe so if that letter from the activist investor was just a kick in the butt and they are trying to control platform leakage by appealing to sellers and fixing things. I guess we will find out soon. I’m very happy and not at all surprised that they are not going forward with the product pages into my categories of new and used items. If they are going to bury my stuff I want it to be the old fashioned best match way, LOL. Also I’m looking for lazy convenience buyers coming from Pinterest who don’t comparison shop. It looks like they are getting Google to recognize them based on item specifics without requiring a product page for everything, so yeah! for that. Maybe they just hired some more competent tech people. After being exposed to Mercari listing, I also like simplification regarding the length of GTC listings. Hopefully more listing simplification will follow! Have a great week!
I had a wonderful getaway weekend with close friends. Back to reality now with a lot of non-Ebay extras going on, including more bookkeeping and taxes for Ebay. So, zero listed last week.
LOL I have this too. Ebay really should try hard to minimize embarrassing tech issues.
02/26/2019 at 10:38 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 400: Tax Season Advice for Newbies from Strangers On The Internet #57695Total Items in Store: 298 Ebay, about 40 Mercari
Items Sold: 3 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $69 Ebay, $44 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $19 + $6 free shipping + one item ours
Highest Price Sold: $38 Ebay, midcentury salad plate set (paid $7 indy thrift)
Average Price Sold: $22-23 across platforms
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4
Number of items listed this week: 0Happy 400! Thank you J&R for your consistent effort on the quality podcast and forum. I really appreciate being able to learn from others and share re my hobby now turned small business. Unfortunately, there are not many others out there making great content. A whole lot of get rick quick ads, jabber, whining, and click bait. I also really appreciate that you educate encourage others to honestly pay their taxes on reselling income and remind all that we all reap some of the benefits of it, even if we don’t agree with some things going on. I will certainly now leave that topic right there.
I really like doing my own taxes because it helps me understand how it works. It’s very, very different for us this year than last. The business deductions will come into play though an accountant friend of mine said to be cautious about storage space and I need to look further into that. Also most of the time is spent on the bookkeeping rather than the tax preparation work. Turbotax did pretty well predicting my new and much higher quarterlies so hopefully they are up to speed.
Dreadful sales but I’ve seen it before in February and I just simply haven’t had time to list. It’s weird not to have to go to the post office or pack in the morning. I look forward to a rainy school day off to sit and list by the fire without going to the office. Just not in the cards lately. Have a great week trash elves!
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
ChristineR.
Well, very busy life outside Ebay. I’m doing some heavy duty parenting, working on tax records, helping my dad prepare to sell his house and move here, and also I have some school fundraising volunteering coming up plus a fun and overdue girls’ weekend this coming weekend in Scottsdale. Soo, just filling orders and they are few and far between. Nothing to ship from the weekend. I listed zero items this week. Sigh. At least I’m not shopping. Missed a church sale this weekend.
@A, I agree with that – getting the stuff out of your living and processing place. Either just moving it or tackling it. Then, I like the Almasty method above, switching from type to type to keep it interesting. It also helps me realize what type of items I don’t like to list or that are most time intensive.
@T I’ve done our stuff (mostly clothing) on Mercari because i hate clothing too. It’s super fast to list vs Ebay, they discourage returns, and I’m willing too mark it down and move it quickly. It also keeps the personal sals out of my Ebay store. Good luck with your piles. I envy the people with small ones.
Bravo Almasty! That’s the way to do it.
Oh no! You are reminding me of someone trying to hold back the tide at the beach. Another wave of stuff rolls in. You and I are bringing up the rear of this challenge, but we’ve been talking finances at home so I’m getting really motivated!
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