Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Time and date stamp on each post would be great.
I like the “Latest from the Forum” section. Is it possible to have ten items there with a smaller font and/or less white space?
Overall, I think it’s been a successful switch-over. I still notice the podcast comments and what sells forum pages becoming catchalls. I wonder if it’s worth trying to get people to post in appropriate topics? I’m not really attached either way. I’ve noticed in organizing other things that having a small number of very broad categories with more sub-categories is helpful when trying to find stuff (I see that you had that in mind). I had to make the categories and then train myself. I’m not sure if it’s possible with a lot of people and categories, but I bet the regulars would give it the ol’ college try…
That was a little vague so let me try an example:
Right now, This is a topic: “Selling on Etsy – Share Your Stores!”
This is where it is:
Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on Etsy › Selling on Etsy – Share Your Stores!Now, Buying and Selling is definitely a broad category, but since that is pretty much what Scavengerlife is all about it may be a little too broad. Maybe ETSY would be a good broad category with Share your Stores as a sub-category.
Random Thoughts may also be a little broad and maybe unnecessary as Podcast comments and what sold are still catchalls.
Well, just some thoughts.
Thanks for all of the work you two have put in here and thanks to all of the posters. You all have been a big help to me.
~ Happy Holidays
I can’t see your pictures. Probably wouldn’t matter though. I’m not an expert at all, but non-vintage Rolex’s don’t really have flaws and nothing on them looks or feels cheap. Use a magnifying glass. You will have to open it up. There are a ton of sites about how to authenticate watches. Agree with (here is my handle:) shortandstout [ 😉 ], any place that fixes watches should be able to tell you almost right away. You shouldn’t be out any money if your thrift store has a return policy. Even if they don’t, a good manager will take them back if you return them within a couple of days and tell them they were fake.
That’s great. Looks like it’s right out of a 50’s/early 60’s Playboy. Can you decipher the signature? That would be a great first step. You could also try to just type a description of the cartoon into a search engine, or a google image search. You could also look for a forum or site that might have people knowledgeable about adult illustrators/cartoonists.
Are sales numbers down for multi-channel sellers? Eventually, I’d like to learn etsy and have everything on ebay cross-listed there. I know OMFUG does some of this, but not sure who else. There seems to be a quite a few here who sell on amazon and ebay. Are their numbers down as well?
R&J: Future building:
There are pros and cons to this, but What if you put up a metal building or pole-barn with barn doors and a regular door and then have a big “tiny house” built to park inside, or even cheaper, a big old RV or bus that isn’t running (or 2?). Tow it in there, gut it, and build what you want inside, or use as is.
The main idea is that the tiny house on a trailer (or a bus or RV) is not a permanent structure, so you wouldn’t be taxed on it and you could still have even more storage in the area not taken up by the tiny house/mobile home. You could even build a kind of 2nd story inside the way they do in some warehouse spaces. I know this is probably not the clean aesthetic you want, but I’m just trying to think outside of the box (or in it, in this case).
The tiny house could also just be the office within the metal or pole-barn building. Another pro, is that you could make the tiny house off-grid with a mains connection option to plug into your power and water, thus avoiding the huge cost of wiring and plumbing a regular house. Come to think of it, I was assuming you would have to/want to have the tiny house on the concrete pad in the structure, but you could just park it outside and still have the whole structure for storage. Well, just some thoughts off the top of my head, to give you even more to think about…
Just did a search for vintage eyeglasses and a lot of them have “Hot Rod” in the title description. The only thing I can think of is that they’re mostly for the horn-rimmed buddy holly (also a descriptor) style glasses that were popular in the classic Hot Rod era. Anyone have a better explanation? It’s so common, I wonder if it helps sell them at all. I guess it couldn’t hurt.
I feel like I’ve learned quite a bit researching, but I wonder what I’m missing, so I’m curious if people have any good knowledge to pass on when it comes to selling glasses. I think I have the basics down (I thought it was interesting that there are a ton of gold filled glasses out there). I have a pile of mostly vintage I need to get through sooner than later. It’s not exactly a death pile, maybe more of a zombie pile…
– Cheers all
p.s. should this be in another section? it seems like podcast comments continue to be the big catchall.
No problem. Just to clarify, I didn’t say there were too many variables to get into it. I buy and sell vintage electronics exactly like Steven does with the same skill set, I just wanted to flesh out some of the pitfalls and realities and mention most people don’t have access to the same deals he is getting. The amount of cherry stuff he is finding for next to nothing is mind-boggling.
I was also trying to emphasize that it’s a numbers game that may have a little more consequence when you’re laying down a bit more dough to make more. In the example you mentioned, I’m not willing to say you’ll get $250+ because the solds don’t bear that out (though I often make sales above the ebay sold prices). I went with $80 as a safe minimum b/c there happened to be a sold for repair at that price. The one that sold for a max of $250 was free shipping and probably near mint. Steven may have more experience selling that model though, so I will definitely defer to him on that. It’s all about the numbers in the end. Good luck and happy hunting!There are many variables with electronics. You could sell it for parts/repair, but remember, you have to account for the time you spend acquiring it, testing it, researching, photographing, listing, and packing it, so you’ll want to see a good ROI. For example, if it was working and you could flip it (and it may take a long time even on ebay) for $80 (w/o shipping), by the time it’s shipped out you might have at least a couple of hours tied up in it. So, subtract the fees and the cost of the amp. You’re at about $48, give or take. Divide that by at least two hours and a fair amount of work (reminder: you have to double box when shipping, so you’re packing twice). To me, it’s not quite worth it. If it just needed a knob and everything else was pretty cherry (which you can only really know by seeing it in person and then testing), it might be worth it even at $35 if you could get at least $125. Again, the amount of profit you will see is not guaranteed and the amount of work you’re willing to do for that profit is a personal choice.
Those are just a few of the variables when dealing with electronics. Another big one is that electronics can break or stop working at any point in the game. Also, they can have intermittent problems, so you you could do a quick test when buying it, get it home, test longer, and the problem could show up. Or worse, the buyer discovers the problem and returns it.
My general feeling with vintage electronics is that you have to be interested in them and have, or want to acquire, knowledge about them. The more you know, the more profit you will see. For example, very knowledgeable people could part out that amp for maybe $400 (again, because of the time involved, even that may not be worth it).
In the end, it’s a numbers game, and the numbers have to work for you. I believe Steven has everything one needs to be successful, but he also happens to be in a sourcing paradise (which I think is directly related to the fact that most people don’t see his particular part of the country as a paradise [no offense intended Steven, there is obviously a lot of beauty there]). He is also willing to “pay up” for the nice stuff. That works particularly well in his area because he can pay $100 and get $300-$500 back, and sometimes more it seems. That is rare in most parts of the country. In a lot of the country it’s probably more realistic to have to pay at least half of the item’s worth to get the full amount back.
Those are just a few things to consider. Hope this helps.
I’ve been using nomacs for windows. It’s free and simple. I think it works on all major OS’s.
When you open a picture, you can press C for crop.
CNTRL+SHIFT+M is a shortcut to the image manipulation tools. I often just need to adjust the exposure (if that doesn’t work, it usually indicates I’m doing something wrong getting the image in the first place).
CNTRL+SHIFT+L also does an auto adjust, but results vary with that option.For major editing and pretty much anything photoshop does for free, gimp is the answer. Lots of tutorials all over the web including youtube.
I also hear photographers talk about photoshop elements for those people itching to pay money for software. (of course, a donation is always a good thing for free software you use and enjoy.)
My case was resolved in my favor yesterday after about a week. No explanation. I still don’t know what happened.
For people coming to this late, I called paypal the same day I got the email notification stating the transaction was being contested as an unauthorized sale. They said they would notify the credit card company that the tracking was uploaded and had to wait to hear back from them. I guess the original sale went through the buyer’s credit card via paypal. The only thing I can think of is that the transaction might appear on the buyer’s credit card statement as just my paypal email address and they might have not connected what they bought with that address. I think I remember a fairly deeply buried setting in paypal that lets you put what address you want to show up on someone’s statement, but I was unable to find it just now doing a quick look.
Here are some links people can explore if they are looking for alternatives to corporate news (almost all have podcasts or videos so you can listen while you list):
https://thisishell.com/
http://therealnews.com/t2/
https://democracynow.org/
http://fair.org/counterspin/
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
http://www.truthdig.com/
http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
http://www.truth-out.org/
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/tag/belabored
http://www.counterpunch.org/Thanks Ryanne, I just called. Looks like the buyer told his credit card co. that he didn’t recognize the payment. The Paypal operator told me they will send the tracking number to the issuer as proof. He gave me the impression it would be resolved quickly and in my favor, but didn’t (couldn’t) say the latter. Hope to find out soon…
Simon, That’s what I thought too. Which is why I went for it. Just started thinking about it (probably a mistake), so I went to the USPS for clarification and couldn’t find any.
The label prints with the customs’ form and other info formatted together, so I was able to print, tape it, sign it, and send it off.Mike, Yep. I agree. That’s why I’m in the GSP. As you can tell from what I just wrote, this transaction didn’t go through the GSP, but it was going abroad. I was pretty sure about military mail getting handled like it was in country no matter what, so I took a chance and decided to save a couple of bucks on shipping with media mail. Just thought it was weird that USPS didn’t mention it (at least where I looked).
I like that the GSP takes care of customs forms, but I still have to mess around to print FedEX and UPS labels with my 6×4 thermal. Usually I have to make them bigger and print in landscape view.
SIPs, structural insulated panel, might be an option. You would have to see if it was cost effective and you could find an expert in your area. I have it in the back of my head if I ever get the chance to have something built. From what I understand, the two main benefits are insulation (because of the built-in insulation and because the structure ends up being essentially airtight) and short build time. Though the Amish option sounds cool…
