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WoW! Thanks AdE. Never thought of that. After condensing down all of this stuff I am down to just 3 small shoe box sizes boxes. Think I will just slide them up and under our incoming inventory tables. That at least frees up that surface for us to start working on the new estate buys. I can double back on the stuff later when we are caught up with the higher end stuff. In no rush.
But very interesting about a phone that just makes calls and not tracked and hacked like the SmartPhones.
Thanks for the heads up … mike
Good point. Maybe the chargers are somewhere in the pile of adapters and chargers I just sorted out. Have to see if they will even fire up first. They have got to be from early 2000’s +/-.
Yeah as Jay said I will have to just check them out. Some repair guy may want a bunch of assorted ones just to have around. Or if I find they have some value, will then just bite the bullit and list them.
I did just find about 8 old cell phones in the bottom. Old Motorola flip phones from way back when we first got our first cell phones [after using pagers for years] and 2 BlackBerry phones. Have to look those up also. Maybe some value. Maybe the “scrappers” will have some interest if there is any gold parts in these models.
Regular, plain phone cords RJ11 [male to male] are so cheap. New ones in 4 ft. to 10-12 feet cost next to nothing, new at Walmart 50 ft. for $8.00. Sellers from China are selling them for $1.00 each and Free Shipping. I don’t think there is nothing special about a plain phone extension cord. You can buy a whole spool in 50 ft. or 100 ft. lnegths, buy a bag of connectors that snap on and u cut to length. These I will dump.
But now the power supplys, adapter and converters another story I guess. AC/DC to converters from 110 house volt current to various step down voltages. Those I am up to about a dozen or so and am seeing some in the $12 to mid- $20 range. We may just lot those together. These days we don’t like to list items for much under $25 and don’t take offers on items much under $29.99 and in some cases about $35.
We got 28 items yesterday at an Estate Sale for $175 [$6.25 each. So far the two bigger scores which we knew as soon as we saw them was a Satsuma 2 pc. set and a Moser decanter, look these up and then be on the look out for them. The rest we will all list at 10 times ++. So about $1,600 on those plus the two treasurers total listed at about $2,500. BUT these 3 dumb boxes of adapters are in the way on top of our incoming inventory tables since we pulled them from the garage and figure, we need to be cleaning up and working on the stuff from the Estate Sale not worrying about 4 ft. plug in phone cords, but we know a $10 dollar bill is still a $10 dollar bill. But since we specialize more in Asian Decor and original limited edition art prints, more eclectic home decor and such, hard to get my heart into a box of tangled adapter cords. 🙂
But I will have them all sorted out by this evening, get them processed and out of our way, then move onto our estate sales stuff.
But inventory is Inventory. Another last consideration is we are at about 940 items on our Premium Store. When we hit 1,000 we will then start going over. But that’s no big deal.
Anyway onward to finish up the adapter / cord sorting.
Too bad you are not closer. I would have given you all of the stuff from the old Antique booths and still have a death box [not a pile] of just plain old, press molded glass. I would almost drive up just to give it to you..but what would you do with it yourself.
We have certainly learned from our “Ooopsies” through the years.
Went to a large Estate Sale yesterday and came home with 28 pices. But pieces we knew about, were in good shape, no chips, flea bites, cracks, NO REPAIRS, everything fine and we know what we can sell them for and what we had to pay for them and got the estate manager to hit our price. Years ago we would have loaded the car up with all that junk and walked out with 100’s of item. Not any more. trying to use our heads and not our backs :-).
Well back to sorting. Our daughter came to visit a few days back and she was in let’s go and be a tourist mode. Nope. had to list. She asked, don’t you ever stop.
Answer: .. NOPE.
Catch ‘ya on the flip side…
MikeYeah, I am biting the bullit and working on untangling them. I have about a dozen chargers.
Also a ton of old phone jack cords and am dumping those. Also about 6 audio [white red, yellow, blue] cords. So maybe dump the junk and just keep the adapters and audio-video cords.
I did find an old Palm Pilot along with an attachable keybord, stand and charger. So maybe worth finishing it of.
Thanks… mike
I would strongly suggest that you talk to a CPA before you do anything else. The things you are talking about do have tax implications that will affect how you pay taxes, how you keep records and what you do have to or not have to pay.
You mentioned “I am unsure what I am doing business wise”. Many of us here who do this full time as a business, even if some do there own taxes, have talked with or use a CPA for help and support. They are your business consultant and partner with you to help to make these types of decisions, when to do it, what type you need and address your questions and concerns to what form of company you should be.
Unless you have the time to teach yourself accounting law I would suggest finding an accountant-CPA that is local to you. Making an appointment and going to see him-her and sitting down and discussing your plans. And, that will be a “good business decision” to make as your first step in transitioning to a full time business.
I know you probably want to hear it all from the members here at SL but Jay will be the first to tell you to talk to an accountant. We are not experts and I talk with our accountant / CPA several times a year about questions involving our business. Our business is ever changing and if you make that relationship now, you will have a friend and tax person to talk, confide and talk to.
I decided to reply to your post item by item if you don’t mind…
I am currently trying to figure out if I should register my business as an LLC. >>> As of yet you don’t have anything to register. You don’t even have a business bank account. Co-mingling personal and business funds is an issue with the IRS. You need to establish yourself as an identity first. A CPA will give you a “To Do” list of the stepes you need to take to do this. And if local, probably names and contact info. to the various Gov. web sites to go to.
I am finally taking steps to make ebay my full time job .. >>> Do you know what all the right steps are? A CPA will guide and help you.
and unsure what I am doing business wise. Reading the IRS website isn’t making it easier for me. … >> A CPA has to know the tax codes, laws and be very familiar with the IRS Publications and bullentins. That is what they went to college and graduate scxhool for. That is what they have to have continuing education on and that expertise is what you will be paying them for.
I am currently a sole proprietorship, with no official business name, business bank account, and I have yet to file anything with the IRS. .. >>> Then I don’t think you are a business. You probably fall into the category as a “Hobbyist” or “Hobby Seller”. Some of the things I have said above and what your CPA will advise you to do, will be the steps you will take to become a “business”.
I want to have a legitimate business but feel I need to be an LLC. … That feeling is great to have. But you need to know exactly how to turn your desire into reality. Why an LLC? Why not a Sub-S Corporation [this is what we are], Why not a C-Corp, why not stay as a Sole Proprietor until you reach a ceratin plateau? These again are the things a CPA will guide you through.
Is it wise for me to register this or should I wait until next tax season? .. Again, the CPA is your business partner and business consultant. Mark Tews who was just interviewed by Jay here on SL can help you, but he won’t be local. You can get advice from many of the SL members here, but most are not professionals in tax code, tax laws, and corporate structures for various incomes and business models.
I guess a part of me doesn’t feel like it’s a real thing until it is official… This will come with time believe me, when you start paying quarterly taxes, have to tract helpers and assistants, set up your Chart of Accounts so you can track every dollar you make and spend, every mile you drive, every item you buy and sell. You will feel right at home with the rest of us..LOL 🙂
Maybe I am not understanding, but for my state, IL, it seems that the only thing an LLC can do for me, that a sole-proprietorship can not, is give an EIN. .. No, it does more than that. Again your CPA will explain the differences between the different business models and the advantages and disadvatages of each. Do you guys have two incomes, whatkids, what will your standard deductions be [especially with the new laws this year, how much do you expect to make???? You will have a lot to discuss with the CPA that we can’t help you with.
I have no current plans to employ anyone, especially in this first year. .. Boy, this is a can of worms. Even years down the road many of us approach the helper and assistant topic carefully. You have to issue a 1099 or a W-2. Withhold their taxes and match them if a W-2., etc., etc. Ask J&R and others. Tread carefully, especially as a newbie.
I would love to hear what made all of you go from sole-proprietorship to LLC! … What made us was, Sales Growth, Volume, a desire to expand, get an assistant helper, insurance, business deductions and write offs like cars, mileage, cell phones, home office space, partial utility deductions, all of which at a certain size made sense AND WE FOLLOWED THE ADVICE OF OUR CPA. He watched us grow and kept us informed as to what he recommended we do every step of the way.
He also told us what was illegal, wrong, what would get us probably audited, if we were audited what would smooth it over, what records we needed, how long to keep them. And he evaluates new ideas we come up with and tells us if we are not thinking correctly or if he thinks it is great idea and why.
So, Good luck…
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
SmartParts Small Equipment Parts divs.-
This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Jay.. There is the key. GTC “C” being “canceled”. As T-Satt says, you have to end / cancel the listing. Then go to bulk edit and bulk change all of the unsold-ended listings to the 30 days. Then resubmit. This way they get a brand new Ebay ID number. Ebay sees them as “new listings” and they get picked up and shown around by the Ebay search engine as something “new” in the chosen category.
Then from then on, without a third party “software” like WonderLister or SixBit you have to watch your ended listing and relist them manually and make any tweaks you want.
In WL and SB T-Satt and I use the built in auto end, then auto relist function. And a bonus is that we can schedule the relist to take place at intervals or time spreads of minutes or hours apart.
In any case we still have a lot of GTC listings and so I won’t have a whole bunch getting converted all within a day or so, I am taking each day this month and as items are coming up to end, about 2 days before I am running through the process of ending the GTC listings for that day and then doing the conversion. By the end of the month, I will have everything over to the 30 day setting, and then from their on out WonderLister will end and relist automatically. so in a sense, it is still working just like the GTC as far as we are concerned and internally, but what Ebay is seeing is all 950 items in our store getting ended. Then every hour on the hour Ebay is seeing a new item being listed. But, it just so happens it is the same listing we ended about 2 days earlier. So it is still working just like the GTC but Ebay just isn’t aware of it.
I don’t know if you can do this with the Ebay app or functions or not but we can with SB and WL.
I think I have all of this correct. T-Satt will confirm if SB is working this way for him.
It is called “creating rules” within WL. Create the rule, that tells WL to end a listing at the 30 day mark, AND Relist. Then that rule gets applied to the newly relisted and from that point on the “Rule Takes Precedent” and runs the show. And yes you can set a dwell time if I want to make some changes or tweaks.
I didn’t like the “Search” results acting like that either. So, I went to “manage my Store”, then clicked on “Listing Frame”, which allows you to Customize your header. I saw that the “Search within my Store” box had been un checked. I just clicked that back on and saved. Now the “Serach within My Store” field is back in it’s former place and that stupid Search within my store combo with my competitors also sharing that spot is gone.
give it a try and see if you get it back the way it was. I also had lost the “My New Features” left right scroll bar with the change this morning. I just “customized” that feature back also.
I already have a custom designed header and just left that the way it was. Our store was clean and simple anyway. Ebay just “messing around” I think.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
05/02/2018 at 9:28 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 358: Knowing What You Know Right Now, Would You Start Your Business Today? #38908Well that’s pretty much the way it already is for those of us in the Hassle Free Returns Program. If buyer is unhappy in any way, they get a return label automatically. Don’t want a customer unhappy for anything at all. So return it. The hassle Free Returns program has eliminated those buyers that want to “fish” for a partial refund. But of course we have to pay for that return.
But I was just thinking is there a way to get insurance to cover us sellers for the return shipping amount. But probably not. We only get a couple of returns a year. So not worth the cost of any type of insurance. Guess we just live with it.
05/01/2018 at 7:40 pm in reply to: My accountant never told me to charge sales tax, and now I'm in big trouble! #38883Tina, I have done as t-Satt and AdvenE state above years ago. But now, I use quicken which has all the data saved for me. But to answer your question, I followed t-Satt and AdvenE instructions above and it worked just as they say. I only went back two years, but from the Activity section, use the All Transactions and download that report. Save to your desktop then open it in Excel. You may have to do some formatting to make it pretty, pretty but once the column widths are set, and unwanted columns deleted, then from that as they say and sort it by state.
Now create a formula [if you are familiar with Excel] at the top of the Sales column and get a total of the sales for all of your state sales.
Line by line for all those years will take a long, tedious time. so, see if you can get all that data into a spread sheet and do your filtering there.
Good Luck.
04/30/2018 at 6:34 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 358: Knowing What You Know Right Now, Would You Start Your Business Today? #38814Here’s a thought that came to mind as I was iostening today.
I would be willing to pay $10 more per month to have Ebay cover me with a Buyer Problem Policy. For $120 bucks a year, that money would buy me Ebay as my customer complaint dept. Anything and everything would be handled by Ebay. Any have any issue whatsoever, call or meail Ebay and yack at them. They do it all. I already have 30 day returns allowed, I have Free returns allowed, so why not then pay more per month for Ebay to tell all complaining buyers whatever they want and leave me out of it. My Insurance Policy I pay for annually would cover me.
Just a thought. It is like the insurance you buy to cover the $5,000 50 ft. putt in a golf tournament. Chances are very few people in the USA make those $5,000 putts but everybody buys the insurance policy.
Crazy thinking. just smiled when I thought of what I would pay to not have to deal with any issues after the items are shipped.
Oh well, just wishful day dreaming.
Have some Maker’s Mark.. will that do. Susan did a new style old fashion with Badda Bing Cherries, Yuck!
You did play with data today and loved every bit of it. Going to make some modifications in WondeLister tomorrow to pick up some of your relisting methodologies. you have me convinced and especially after I re-listened to the Ebay Cassini engineer’s video again. Man it all sure makes sense to me.
But Susan is just like Veronica, while I am mulling over your data she is showing me where we need to go next week for some great stuff at an estate Sale. She loves to shop and leaves me to, as you call it, the back end stuff.
Great stuff today. all of your data [loved it], some art dialogue and we have had a great day selling also. cha ching after cha ching all day and still a couple of pending offers to deal with. 8 Sales with over 32 individual pieces [some sets sold] to pack and ship tomorrow. Almost $300 today all while sitting here and posting on SL. Maybe you guys bring us luck.
Well here’s to another tomorrow.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Got ‘cha. Thanks everyone for such fast replies. think it may be time for a Vodka & Tonic. Anyone want to join me??? 🙂 🙂
Thanks Ryanne, got it. Got jumpy for a second. Appreciate all the quick feedback. Didn’t think about being logged in.
mike
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