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Yes I agree hiring as an employee and yes it is a pain. Our payroll at the large printing company was very high and we had three employees that did nothing more than handle payroll and do the payables.
But in my smaller companies we do 1099 BUT all of the vednors are sub-contractors in the true sense.
First you have to get a signed W-9 form on everyone you pay as a sub. It includes their name, business address, their SS No. [if sole proprietor] or Fed ID no. You must have one of these completed every single year you use them as a sub.
Then as a sub-contractor you are not allowed to mandate a starting time, work schedule or any rules or regulations on them. As an independent sub they call the shots on the hours, days and schedule that they work. They can “agree” to meet your schedule [such as for Cable guys, house or carpet cleaners, etc.] but they don’t have to stick to it and can actually come and go on the job as they please. IRS will also want you to have an invoice from them for the services rendered and a total amount. Your records need to show that as a “payable” and have proof of payment.
As far as the sub is concerned they need to have a business checking account, have a fed ID number or their SS number set up with their business and be able to bill-invoice you. In turn they will need to file their taxes as a business, but that is not your concern. You just need to have that paper trial for your records.
Caveate .. When you start hiring employees [even one] it wouldn’t hurt for you to begin to outline for an employee hand book. Because you will need to start setting the ground rules for “precedents” that if or when you have a second or third employee you can react, rule, act, and apply all situations evenly across the board for all concerned equally. We have had to go to an EEOC claim before and have an employee say we did something for another employee and not for them and that is discrimination. That one cost our company $7,000 in back pay.
So start decide right now about if they will be less than 32 hours = part time or over which is full time, will you pay for Holidays, which holiday’s. Hourly or salary, what if you are closed due to your travel, [when we closed our plant one time for two weeks due to illness we had a lawyer tell us that is called a “lock out” and all employees that were willing to work and could not work due to having the “doors locked” for whatever reason meant we still owed them pay. We got around it by pink slipping all of them and they collected unemployment. But that also made our share of unemployement taxes go up 7% for a period of time, what about their vacation time when you are not on vacation, vacation pay, sick time, reasons to fire them that is in writing, voting notices, written expectations [how many times I have heard, “that is not my job and it wasn’t in my job description so I am not going to do it”].I have authored 6 “Employee Handbooks” in my times and have had to cover a lot of topics. Now with only one employee this is way ahead but it is still some things to think about and to help give you some help in at least putting together a short starter of a few pages to hand to your new employee. You don’t need a full blown handbook especially in your low key environment, but even one person can come up with a few issues and questions that you need to maybe have given some forethought to.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
I just did the same thing with my coupon yesterday but it was by a “fluke” which I think is not good within the system.
I got my coupon code and had it copied. I went to the Ebay Supply store and selected my items which came to $55 went to my cart for checkout, copied my coupon code and saw the total at the bottom at $5 and few cents. Great the $50 was applied. Then I thought I may like to purchase one other item so I went bak to the store to review another item but decided against it. I went back to my cart and clicked check out. Guess what, when you do that your coupon code is gone and if you don’t catch-see that it is, then when you check out you pay the full amount.
I double checked and went to PayPal and yep, only the $55 charge was there and no $50 coupon credit. So as a reminder, once you go to your shopping cart, do not use “continue shopping” or your back arrow or anything. just make sure your code is in place or re-paste it then proceed to check-out.
Now that I can’t use my coupon $50 gone on that slip up.mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Howdy.. Found only one sold within one of our research databases. Not a sale from us. I just Copied the following:
“Large Early 1950s Pan Piston Filling Fountain Pen ( West Germany )NEW OLD STOCK, NEVER USED..In ORIGINAL Wrapper and Box, BURGUNDY Fountain Pen and the body unscrews and will accept Pelikan (M200), Esterbrook, Sheaffer Cadet, Venus and Osmiroid nibs among many others…..It may be a MontBlanc sub brand,but the similiarities in style seems apprarent and it also has the same type of filling system.
The plastic has NO cracks,chips,engravings or removed,ect…UNUSED OLD STOCK-Even the Box is NEAR MINT not even a smudge and original instructions……. The Pen is a Large 5 inches capped. ” , and that is all it said and it sold for $55 on Dec. 27th 2007.
Hope this helps a little bit.
Mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaTry laying them spread out on a wood floor or maybe out in the driveway. Unless you are in an area that has snow covered drives for the next few months 🙂 LOL. Then Weight or tape down the corners or have “the kids” stand on them and then do a thorough vacuum cleaner job on them on both sides. A good vacuum with a rotor / beater bar brush. We have a Dyson “Animal” that really gets hair off things very well. Also comes with a smaller “animal hair” attachment for the end of the hose that we go over some furniture cushions with also. I would think trying this would get the job done.
I have done University Logo polyester blankets this way and they came perfectly clean. Then we folded and put into a plastic bag along with a 1/8th scissor cut piece of a fabric sheet for nice smell – odor control and Viola’ good to go. We still have some stored for some months now.mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
I agree with Nancy. When used as a noun and referring to wine it is meaning the year of the grape. Vintage 1940 or Vintage 2014. It represents the year bottled. But according to the dictionary it does include “usually meaning of quality”. But with wine, the 2014 “Vintage” may be a better year for the grape and thus the wine of “better quality” yet newer.
But to those of us that are re-sellers we refer to vintage as a time-period date stamp. Vintage thus older, Antique is fairly accepted in local and world wide auction houses as 100 years old or older, except in certain categories.
Yes it is a marketing tool. Many Ebay buyers are looking for collectibles that are older, movie prop masters are looking for period pieces, museums are looking for period pieces so vintage fits into that marketing ploy. “Vintage= thus an older period, which is as stated above is relative. I am 69 years old, I find items that fit into many styles, mid-century, retro, atomic, art deco, Abstract Modern, Hollywood Regency, and now even Shabby Chic all representing time periods to us.
My big question, especially since we are just about to open an Etsy shop brings a bigger question into focus. Who policies this 20 year rule. First a seller has to be able to even find a date stamp on an item. What if the item is 18 years old, who can prove it is not 20 years old? What or who at Etsy even tracks this? Some companies have been in business since the 1930’s, 40′ 50’s and still made the same ceramic pieces they did then using the same molds and the pieces look the same. Is the piece I am selling only 14 years old or 45 years old?
I am also a an artist. I have a sketch book of ideas going back to the 1960′ and 70’s. I also have brushes, canvass, paints that are that old. I decide to do a painting useing 50 year old concepts, 50 year old materials, he only thing “new” is the assembly of the art object. Is that new non-vintage by way of only a physical action or is it very vintage by way of conceptualisation, material age? What does Etsy do if you have a modern reproduction of a ceramic piece but are unaware of it and only an expert can tell the difference? I know that Roseville pottery was sold years ago and the new owners still use the same molds to make new pieces.
So, we have thousands of items we have removed from our six antique booths we closed down and are moving online. We are going to still use the term vintage on anything we know is definetly dated at 20 years old or older BUT ARE ALSO going to list items that are less than 20 years old and know no one at Etsy can tell the difference. Again who at Etsy can differentiate between something 19 years old and something 21 years old in the real, true vintage world of commercial mass production?
Also being a master fine art print maker, I can tell you also that many new highly technical manufacturing processes that are capable of dead on detail reproduction of older objects and prints. I see many art prints that were produced by a 22 color, second generation Piezo head laser printer with archival inks making Giclee’s these days. I can tell the difference but only under a 30x power loupe or higher. I have even had to go to a 100x power microscope at times.
I pose a question to you…Can you tell the difference between a real $20 dollar bill and one of the new counterfiet $20 dollar bills? Or tell the difference between a new real $20 bill or a “real” yet old $20 dollar bill that has been kept in a archived plastic sleeve since it was first produced years ago but looks brand new?
So, if an item has any traceable means such as sku number, bar code, mfg. serial number, model number, etc. then keep it off Etsy. But if not, then it is going to be fair game for all of our “VINTAGE” items. Etsy opened the door by saying they will allow “Vintage”, now they will have to pay the price to build a manpower team to police everything that gets listed under that heading and I just don’t think they will or can.
Just my opinion here guys and many things to ponder. It is what makes all of this fun, for us at least. 🙂 …
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.Our databases we use show these are the attachments for a kitchen grinder. They are the fore runner of the modern day food processors. They are part of a unit that is attached to a counter top, usually by way of a screw which when turned applies upward pressure and secures the unit to the “lip / overhang edge” of a formica counter top. They are made under the following names. Healthy Gourmet, King Kutter, Salad Master, Rival, Vintage Magic and Dazey Universal.
Our databases show the complete units, [base, handle and 5 various slicing/dicing. shredding cups] selling for $20.00 to $49 over the past few years. Then we see some of the older, more collectible vintage models selling as complete units [base, handle, & cups] for $40 to $99 dollars, but again they are the complete units.As far as age goes, stainless steel is hard to say on age and how much used. New stainless could get scratched up pretty bad in a short time. Older stainless could have been used a lot and only washed by hand with soap and a wash cloth. So careful on saying “not used very much”. You really don’t know.
Now as Jay always says trying figuring out what keywords a potential customer will use to look for your item and do some Google research. Also use Google’s Image Search feature. You can even photo your item, drag your photo into Google Search and it will look for and present to you images that it thinks are a match. Not accurate many times, but just another tool. And if you are going to be a serious re-seller of older vintage things, I suggest two or three paid subscriptions to various databases, like we do, which will show you photos, descriptions and prices of items sold. We have access to items sold over the past 10 years. Ebay’s 90 day “SOLD” listings are not a comprehensive go to choice at least for us.
Here is what you are also going to be looking for to qualify the age, what they are and which models. Obviously look for any markings on the unit. Then put a magnic up against them and see if “steel” they will be magnetic, if alloy [more modern] the magnet won’t stick. The various models do have some degree of various “angles” to them the slant or slope]. Also I see six rectangular notches, some have more and some less. I see a center round hole, some have a center rectangle and some have a small notch on them. Yours have a depression around the center hole and “dimples” in the side “spokes” so to speak, indicating some type of stamping or pressure applied when the hole was made. Some have welded flat area onto the cylinder. The stamping would indicate thinner gauge metal which would allow stamp forming to take place. Older units have thicker metal which indicates older forming techniques such as casting or forging.
So as a vintage re-seller all of these types of observation skills need to be learned and many things need to be considered and observed in any vintage item in order to locate it’s place in time, country or origin, which units separate parts go to, in turn then, which units are the $100 units vs. the $19 dollar units or the rare collector items.
This now leaves me at the point of wanting to tackle Etsy on their detailing, policing of and validating “Vintage ITems” at a 20 year old bench mark. But that is a discussion for another time and place, bt it will come. Look for it. 🙂
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta….
Yes they are man made abrasive piece of melamine foam. But not completely chemical free because of the formula that is used to actually make the resin into a softer material. melamine is also what is used for the “plastic counter top laminate material” and also some dinner ware as in “Melamine Non=Breakable plastic plates”.
But in any case below is a more detailed look at “Magic Erasers” and how they are made in sort of layman’s terms.
Grease splatters in the kitchen, crayon streaks on the freshly painted wall, scummy rings in the bathtub—these fouls are powerless against the cleaning strength of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Since hitting the market more than a decade ago, the erasers have rounded up a consumer base that swears by the magic. But the secret behind the material that makes up the scrubbers, melamine foam—the same stuff that’s widely used as an acoustic insulator in recording studios—is less magic and more simple chemistry.
Melamine
On its own, melamine is just an organic base in the form of white crystals. But when combined with other compounds, it can transform into a plush foam—the Magic Eraser—with a sandpaper-like microscopic texture. You can use it to scrub off sticky dirt and scum from all kinds of surfaces; just avoid using it on delicate or glossy exteriors. Melamine’s high nitrogen content also makes it a useful flame retardant and fertilizer. In 2008, Chinese fraudsters used melamine to make milk and infant formula appear to have a higher protein content, killing six babies and making nearly 300,000 others sick. Two of the perpetrators were executed.
Formaldehyde
This stuff is best known as the smelly liquid that’s used to preserve dead animals for decades and possibly forever. By itself, formaldehyde can be dangerous and sometimes lethal—irritating the skin, corroding internal tissue, and even causing cancer. But if you mix it with melamine, the result is a tough resin in which those toxic effects are neutralized. High tensile strength makes the resin a suitable material for dinnerÂware and countertops. Force gas bubbles to form in the resin during the manufacturing process and you end up with Mr. Clean’s melamine foam.
Sodium Bisulfite
Alone, this stuff has antimicrobial properties; it’s excellent as a preservative for winemaking. Here, it can help boost resin production, but it’s best used sparingly—sulfite-modified foams are less stable and can emit formaldehyde under certain conditions.
Water
Procter & Gamble says the key to the Magic Eraser’s stain-fighting properties is in its “water-activated microscrubbers.” But there’s nothing water-activated about it—the eraser can be used dry as well as wet, with little difference in the result. Water likely makes it easier for dirt to cling to the eraser, though—the same way you might wet a paper towel before wiping down a wall or table.
We too use Magic Erasers to clean off certain stains and dirt but only on surfaces that don’t scratch. They will and do leave a “dulled” / scratched surface due to the abrasive nature. In the bathroom it is OK on ceramic tile or glass but be very careful on plastic, fiberglass and highly polished metal chromed surfaces.
I think I remember an old TV slogan..something like …. “Better Living Through Chemistry!”
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Hi guys… Here is a copy and paste of an in house analysis I did of the Ebay Tape back in May 2nd, 2016 when the Ebay tape first came out.
copied: “All pressure sensitive materials (decals, tapes, sheets of sticker material for printers, etc] are sold by the MSI [that stands for thousand square inches]. The last order of Duck Tape I got [which is listed here on SL as a source, was 2″x55 yds = 3,960 MSI [thousand sq. inches] per roll x 24 rolls or 95.4 MSI for $62.27 [Tape that Ryanne states she uses]. It is HD [heavy duty at 2.6 mils thick]. It is one and a half mils of plastic base material and 1 mil. of adhesive for a total of 2.5-2.6 mils total. That comes out to a cost to us at $.655 per MSI or approx. $2.60 per roll.
The new “Ebay Tape” is 5.4 MSI per roll x 8 rolls for a total of = 43.20 MSI for $15.99. The Ebay Tape only 2 mils thick instead of 2.6. So it is thinner than HD [heavy duty]. The base material is 1.5 mils thick and only has 1/2 mil of adhesive as compared to the HD tape Ryanne and we use. The cost difference is that the Ebay Tape comes out to $.37 MSI or about 43% less for the Ebay Tape.
But here is the quality difference. The thickness of the two base materials is the same, but the HD tape has a half a mil thicker adhesive to it. That extra adhesive allows it to “grip” better to cardboard surfaces. A thicker material actually oozes down into the irregular / coarser surfaces of cardboard and other porus surfaces and thus grips and holds much better.
So if the Ebay tape is working for you it is cheaper. But it is also technically an inferior product to the thicker adhesive tapes. Actually the best tapes are the nylon reinforced paper tapes that are water activated but are messy to deal with.
So bottom line, The thicker tape is better but costs more the Ebay tape is lesser quality but also is cheaper.
Personally, we use both. The HD tape to seal the tops, bottoms and side seams of our boxes and the Ebay tape for one wide strip across the bottom and top for branding and advertising the Ebay logo and to save a few strips of the HD tape. Trust the Ebay tape or the HD tape in various temperatures, various stress factors, bursting / tensil strength our vote goes to the HD Heavy Duty Duck tape. Don’t forget you can find discounts on the HD tape also.
Good luck with using your tapes.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.Hey Linda or other members:
As we have been going through all the inventory we pulled out of our former antique booths we have been setting off to the side all mold made glass. We kept the crystal, Waterford, Tiffany and all high end glass for our listings. But now with a table full of just plain glass items any suggestions on getting those moved out of inventory?
I know that a yard sale this spring is an option or donation back to whence they came is the final thing we could do, but any better ideas from you guys? Does big lots of multiple pieces of glass together work? Or maybe all of it, but what a wrapping and shipping issue that would be and also maybe just a big waste of time.
We have sugar-creamers, mint-candy dishes, ashtrays, compotes, relish trays, cake plates, deviled egg trays, trinket boxes. Just way too much “plain old molded no name” glass stuff. Uggh, my wife and I just roll our eyes every time we open a new plastic tub of our old antique booths and uncover all of this glass stuff.
Just thought we would ask to see if anyone had any good suggestions other than the obvious.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Here is a copy and pasted link from our saved SL Episodes from way back in May 2015.
It came up when I did a search of our SL folders for Ebay Ripoffs. Thought it may be interesting reading for those that have dealt with rip offs in the past and it’s Ebay History.” this came from a Dusty Miller a year and a half ago I think: Some very iteresting info on how ebay sellers are getting ripped-off and how the ripp-offs learn to ripp-off.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Internet-sites-tell-buyers-how-to-rip-off-sellers-/10000000176961781/g.html” ….mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
I sure would also. Very hard to find those that have an Ebay store and are also running there own domain named store. Would love to see your structure and format. Shopify left so much stuff that it didn’t pull over into the store template I selected.
Etsy is the same issue so you have to cut and paste each listing from your Ebay store into your Etsy listing and then type in everything you have in the Ebay Item specifics area into the Etsy description area and that is what would have to be done on Shopify. A big time investment. And every time you add a new item, that would have to be duplicated in your own store.
Would love to also hear what your process is for listing in your domain store and for keeping things synched with your Ebay store, if you care to share.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
As a secondary experiment I was going to try one or two of the other big e-commerce site like BigCommerce, Magento or Volusion. But Volusion is also very expensive. I know of one artist that set up a Volusion site and ran it simultaniously while she had her Ebay store. She finally got so well known and had so many repeat customers that she dropped her Ebay store and now sells only through her own site and does extremely well.
mike in AtlantaI think I posted about my experiment with Shopify a few weeks ago but maybe not.
In any case, I tried their two week trial. I talked for hours with their reps about the Ebay to Shopify transfer, which template would be best for the type of products we sell, tons of stuff especially including their Ebay to Shopify transfer. I was assured that it would work well.
Well, NOT! It will only pull over the Title and description text from your Ebay listings. It does not pull in the Item Specifics or any Variations for those that use that feature.
Since Ebay has been pushing all of us to use the item specific areas for things like material, sizes, where made [country], then all of that and more was missing in Shopify. So I called again and asked what was up and they said their Ebay Importer did not pull all of that in and that it was just an infant in the world of data transfer and recommended a 3rd party app to do it. After I checked that app it was very expensive. Hundreds of dollars.
So I let the two week trial elapse last week. Ryanne, I would suggest you only do the trial, set-up just a basic store and import [transfer] over only a couple of dozen listings and then go and preview what they look like in the new template. Try a few of your old format and then some of your newer listings. The ones with very little copy in the description area and a lot of item specifics. I will be interested in what you see.
Now this is not to say that each listing can’t be fixed up, but from what I saw, it would mean doing each one manually. And we all know what a pain and time and laborious task that would be.
Keep us posted on what you find out or if you research out a good [cheap] transfer [exporter-importer] app that will do the trick.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Steven… Don’t forget Taghauer as a high end brand also.
I still have two fake Rolex watches from the 90’s. First thing that is easy to spot if they are running is most fakes are digital or Quartz movements and as such the second hand “jumps” at one second intervals, whereby a real Rolex has a “Sweep” second hand that runs smoothly and continuously around the dial non-stop and doesn’t tick-jump at the second intervals.
Also most Rolex watches are 21 jewels which means they had real rubies in them as do most old Swiss watches. But point is those Swiss movements usually have the word “jewels” on the
back.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
