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No Sharyn:. It was not about the Valet program. I have known about that effort for years. That is an old program of having drop of points like UPS stores where you take your items and they do the photography, create the listing and post and sell it for you for a large commission.
BTW that program though is getting some new juice with FedEx. FedEx and Ebay are talking about FedEx doing this for random sellers again.What I was hearing was a pod-caster talking about Ebay creating it’s own fulfillment program. This is a current discussion because he was talking about the Ebay Open Convention being moved to the Mandalay Hotel and the agenda and that is this Summer 2018. I was just asking if anybody else has heard about this.
But as Jay says above, who was it. So I will dig back through my pod casts lsitens this morning and get the link. I think I know who it was but have to find the link.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
04/08/2018 at 8:42 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 355: We Catch Up w/ Mark Tew, Not Your Dad’s CPA #37324Mark is a good guy. Communicated with him after the first interview and also downloaded his book back before it was openingly available.
Good stuff, as he and Jay said for the beginner or newbie who is getting started or a serious part timer. Covers all the basic questions that do come up in the very beginning.
In my case I already knew most of what we talked about and his book covered. Some of my questions were more deeply involved being a Sub-S corporation and he referred me to an acquaitance of his that he thought would be better suited for the more complicated issues.
But in my case, my current CPA understands the buying and re-selling of used unique, items because his sisters used to have antique booths and bought and sold very similiar type of stuff.But the one common thread is that as one’s business grows the need for a CPA not only to do your taxes, but to act as a consultant is very valuable. Especially the COGS / Inventory issues. Yes, one pays for a CPA Services but they also are there to answer any questions you have throughout the year. They become your partner in running your business. I talk to my CPA every 2 or 3 weeks.
Deductions are a big topic and area of our business which impacts what we owe in taxes big time. How to cost out any personal items sold, mileage, home office deductions, utility expense, procurement cost, cell phones, etc., etc. and as Mark is saying there are simple ways to do all of this, but as a seller you have to take the first step to get help by reaching out and get a CPA who will become your business consultant.
Just my opinion on the issue, but a CPA is more than just a form filler at Tax Time, he is your partner in your business success.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Maybe some type of chemistry lab instrument like a “specific gravity separation tube”, or some type of “sediment or liquid separator”
Or an ugly bud vase. LOL 🙂Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Yep.. John Deere pays people / has a team who do nothing but scourer the internet for products and the word John Deere associated with it. We know. We got two VERO’s from Ebay and a Notice from Etsy and Bonanza [had some cross listed] and got notices from all of them. There are a lot of hats, toys, patches, jackets, vests, that are fakes and knock offs.
I actually reached someone at John Deere and asked how can you tell and the first thing they said is anything silver is not there’s or original. Our hats had a silver embroidered back ground. So, down they came and to make sure they did not get back into the market place we didn’t donate or re-sell them. We gave them to a few friends who were farmers and handymen. They loved them and we told them about the John Deere story and they said they would just dump them in the trash once they were done with them.
for what it’s worth.
Mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaFor a good portable solution we have used the paper and cloth backgrounds. In both cases we taped the thin background to a 1/2″ metal conduit pipe we got at HomeDepot. We made two large 6″-8″ “S” hooks out of a white coat hanger. We then find a place to hang the “S” hooks [nail on the wall, the shower curtain rod, stick up Command Strips etc., etc. and hang our back drop. When done, we roll up the back drops on the metal tubing and lean up in the corner and put the wire hooks in a drawer.
Also we have used an old movie screen in the past. It rolls down into it’s own metal case, flips verically and stores away. When we needed it Raise the rod, flip it sideways and pull up the screen, place on the top hook and then raise it up. You can adjust a movie screen up and down at both the top and bottom. That screen was about 4×5 ft or 5×5.
But figuring out how to roll backdrops up for storage and unrolling them allows the most flexibility. We have dark ones, light ones and several textured ones. Also you can buy a wooden handrail at home depot that comes I think up to 10 to 12 ft. long and cut it to the length you need. Roll up every thin backdrop onto a metal or wooden dowel like core and just hang and unroll as needed. Then place your stands, bases and mannequins in front, shoot, then roll everything back up.
Hope this gives you a little food for thought.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Agree.. Take it off. If you had bought it anywhere else it would not be on there and you still would have listed it, described it, sold it and shipped it.
Now if it read Neiman Marcus.. well leave it LOL. 🙂Also try flippertools.com. It was created and maintained by one of the SL members. There is a menu that has his calculated shipping tool. As Sharyn states, Canada may prove to be a hurdle, can’t remember.
But at his site you put in the dimensions, the weight where from and where too and it will provide a suggestion as to the lowest cost method to ship, what size box to use, show USPS, FedEx and UPS [again not sure about Canada].Worth at least checking it out. He also offers a label printing service that he says is competitive with Ebay’s.
Hope the site helps you out, we use it a lot and have it book marked.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
In our opinion 15%-20% Off is not much of a Low Ball. 50% or lower is what we call Low Balling. We always have 30% or more built in to Offset our 15% Off monthly Sales and leave room for an extra 10%-15% Offers. After 30% off we still are at or above what our regular selling price would be. On top of this if we offer free shipping, which we are doing more and more these days, we also throw another $18 on top of that. Just as Jay says”, there “ain’t no FREE Shipping” and he is right. We build 30% more into our top prices,plus shipping of 5 lbs. to zone 8 and list. Now we can have a 15-20% Off Sale every 5 to 7 days and also take offers at another 15% below our Sales price and we end up still at what we would have sold these for anyway.
All it does is give the buyer the “PERCEPTION” of a Big Discount / Big DEAL or WINNING the battle [which doesn’t even exist in the first place]. We convert about 75% of our offers into final Sales using this tactic.Just our opinion also.
MIke at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
The thing about these emails as it relates to us. We run 2 and three day Sales of 15% or 20% off our whole store [all 930++] items 2 or 3 times a month. We do see activity during our Sales. But I would guess that this meets this criteria Ebay is asking for. Any items in people’s carts, we would guess, is getting an Email about their cart items being on a 15% to 20% Sale every week or so.
Amazing Taste does the same for her store items. She is always running Sales, constantly. We give ours a few days break in between. Having short Sales shows the ending time and if a “Looker” wants to buy, they see they need to hurry up or the Sale ends. Having them several times a month gets a flurry of Sales happening during those times. We usually run from Thurs. morning until Sunday mid-night. That is when most people have time to browse, especially during the lighter day light summer hours when they are outside with kids or their yards, etc.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Well good luck. I am sure you will settle into a happy win-win middle ground with them.
It was all just my opinion and one person’s opinion is just another person’s situation comedy! 🙂
mike at MDCG in Atl.
Hi Sonia: It doesn’t really add that much to the height of the stack. A 10: dia. dinner plate stack of 6 plates gets about a 1/4-3/8″ or less added in between them. So about 6-1/2″-7″ high. Then add the thick bubble wrap around the outside for approx. 3/4″ and I end up with a stack about 8″ high x 11″ x 11″. If it turned out to be a whole set of 12 [if placed side by side] that would be in a box about 12″x10″x24″=2,880 cubic inches, so just a little over into the DIM. Doesn’t add that much.
If items hit into DIM weight, doesn’t matter to us, Shipping is what it is, always has been and always will be. We don’t risk breakage and having to deal with breakage complaints over a couple of dollars on a $75 to $125 +/- sale. We never worry at all about shipping. We know our costs on shipping and always calculate enough to cover it. Profit is made in the “buying stage” and then the bottom line is if customers want it they pay it. No if’s and’s or but’s.
To you phrase “Super High”, that is relative to the buyer. Just sold last week a new in the box massage table for $125 dollars and the customer paid $98 to ship it instead of cust. pick-up. It was 42″x32″x10″ and weighted 60 lbs. He didn’t care and neither did we.
Another angle on this is why care about a dollar or two extra shipping costs when we have found a piece of glass for $5 and selling it for $100 and shipping costs them $19 dollars instead of us skimping on packaging and worrying about a broken item arriving and all the headache that goes along with it just to save the customer say $3 to $4 on shipping.
On our free shipping items that weigh over a lb. We just take the finished weight and build in a Zone 8 fee plus 30% mark up. Anyone in zones 6 or less pay more for shipping, zones 7 and 8 pay the exact shipping. The mark-up is because we always are running a 15% off sale and take offers and by marking up the zone 8 column prices we allow for that discount and lower offer so that allows the zone 6,7,8 guys to not end up paying under.
As I mentioned to Jay a few weeks back, who knows how much shipping costs are that are built into an item you find for a couple of dollars and seller for 80 times that. Example: a $5 fenton glass basket we get at auction. Sell for $95.99 and free shipping. Then what was the shipping costs vs. the selling cost of the item. There is no way for anybody to know but us. Guess what we, sell porcelain and glass items a lot in the $90 to $125 range. Was the shipping $5, $10 or $40 out of that $125. Customer didn’t care, they just wanted that eclectic, unique, Lladro porcelain piece.
Now if we sold commodity items and every body under the sun could get them and are also selling them, that’s another story, but must of our inventory sells without much question on shipping. About 75% to 80% of our inventory is breakables.
We sold a bronze sculpture about two years ago for $450 dollars. We made a wooden crate in our studio shop and secured it inside and screwed the crate together and charged the customer $150 to make the crate and shipping ran about $150. he didn’t blink and eye. We have a 100 year old Nippon vase that will be about for Sale, that will be about 24″ x 15″ x 15″ and shipping will be what it is.Sold a HP wide format printer end of last summer for $1,100 and then shipping was $250 on top of that and the customer just raved about the printer and the over all cost. And lastly we used to sell a few pinball and arcade machines. We skidded all those up, used furniture pads on them, stretched wrapped them all over and sent them by commericial freight carrier. The 16 wheeler truck backed-up right in our driveway and use a hand truck with a hydraulic lift gate and took them away. Each shipment was $250 flat fee to the customer, but they didn’t seem to mind. So again, it is all relative to the customer base, relative to the objects one sells, relative to the desire-demand vs. availability and how bad they want it.
But if you are a seller who sells nothing but T-shirts or things one throws into a padded envelope then maybe a dollar or two does matter. But we try to stay away from those items due to way too much labor for too low of a margin in return.
So long story ended, we don’t worry too much about the shipping costs and when we get any type of message about high shipping costs, our pat answer, is “shipping is what it is, thanks for your patronage and supporting american small business and we hope to see an order forth coming”. If it does great, if not, just keep listing with the radio on or making art in our studio.Hopes this sheds some light on the topic. Your question opened up an opportunity to expand into a broader area, but maybe gives food for thought in other areas.
Good luck with the dinner plates.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
Sonia: Got a tip from Linda Shields here on SL a few years back and have added this to our “cocoon” method of packing and been doing this ever since. Not a broken plate yet.
I use styrofoam salad and dinner plates layered in between the single ceramic-china plates along with bubble wrap.
Take the first plate and put a foam picnic plate [you get them at the grocery or dollar store]. Flip it so it is curved side up [convex]. This creates a 1/2″ or so air space. Then lay a sheet of bubble wrap over it and then set your next ceramic plate on top of this. Then another foam plate flipped over and bubble wrap. Continue this up for 4 to 6 plates only [no higher]. Now cut two square pieces of cardboard 1 inch bigger than the dia. of the stacked plates and put one on the top and bottom of your stack. Now stretch wrap that all over numerous times. The stretch wrap ties the stack all together and pulls inward on all sides and doesn’t allow the plates to shift l/r or u/d. This whole stack [now stretched wrapped together is wrapped in 50 lb. brown kraft paper and taped. Then that bundle is wrapped with the 1″ bubble wrap. Now proceed to the next plates if you have more. If only a couple, those are done the same way on the stack is not as tall. Remember only 4 to 6 max. plates per stack.
Now you will have two “bundles of plates”. Then package these into the main outside shipping box leaving as Sharyn mentioned about an inch all around. [Floated in the bigger box]. You can also wrap the stack of plates with the self made cardboard box in place of the stretch wrap, but we prefer the stretch wrap because it gives a little bit. Or combine the two techniques.
But remember handling anything delicate, brittle or easily breakable takes much longer to pack. We can spend as much as 30 to 45 minutes and at times an hour packing up a set of dinner plates and combining them with a set of glasses all in one box.
Ceramics, glass, china, porcelain is not a “Throw and Go” packing technique.
Hope this helps or gives you something to help you design your own system. Linda Shields idea sure helped us figure out the best way for us to ship our plates. About 3/4ths of our inventory is glass, pottery, ceramics, china, breakables. Only had 2 or 3 breakages since 2002.
Michael at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Also there are two sites we use occasionally where you can use your mouse, roughly draw the characters and it will translate it for you and also tell you what the language is. We have “drawn” in what we were sure were Japanese or Chinese characters and come to find that the language was Korean, Vietnamese, etc. So Using those sites helps to not only get a translation but to identify the country of origin.
I am rushed and will look them up and attach later but you can also Google hand drawn Asian character translators and book mark them. There are two that are very good and a couple of others that are not. You will have to play with a few then bookmark.
Also Worthpoint and Kovels has a library of Asian hallmarks but those are only available to database subscribers.
Hope this helps.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
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This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Yes.. Same thing but I knew this was coming. On other sites it has been discussed for some time now that the newly designed labels are part of the 2018 changes.
Also Ebay is going to be changing the look and feel design of the way our stores look. Custom designed stores done by professional designers will be furnished with codes so they can change to the new design changes also. Seems like it has something to do with the change over to the //https security sites from the older //http sites. Also the big question being bounced around is the possible resizing of photos. But all just speculation from the influencers.
Welcome to the new Ebay, whcih is many new changes coming over the next few years.
There are “Ebay Influencers” you can find that have Blogs / Vlogs / YouTube vids who seem to interact with Ebay and seem to have a fairly good idea of what’s up coming.
Hang on to your hats boys, it’s going to be an interesting ride! [I apologize to Betty Davis for the rip-off]
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
03/19/2018 at 2:21 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 352: Scavenging is The Alternative Early Retirement #35582Yeah.. I didn’t know they wouldn’t remove it either. If I have a any neutral or negative feedback i will make sure from now on in the future that I will not respond. Even though we have never had a negative and only one neutral in 16 years, we always go in and comment on about every other one of the positives. We thank them for their purchases. Many comment on our packaging process and we thank them for those Kudos.
But if we do get anything other than positive comments we won’t rush in to comment.
Thanks…
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This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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