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We ordered all boxes and email said everything shipped last night and is in transit. Should be here by weekend or Mon. Also placed an order for USPS boxes. We take a quarterly inventory count of shipping supplies and order what we need. we use a spread sheet and keep a min.-max. number on it. When we get at or below the min. amount we want to keep on hand of anything, we automatically order enough to bump us back up to over the maximum level. Have about 60 to 70 items on the spread sheet.
Bet some sellers use tons of boxes and supplies.
T-Satt: It is not all about just fake items. Some of the companies on the list in the link I just provided is that some companies don’t want anybody reselling there items at all unless they are an “approved vendor-reseller”. 3-M is real bad about it. In the printing business they didn’t want us saying we were selling decals with 3-M adhesive backing unless we would buy 250,00 square feet of material directly from one of the 3-M warehouses. Then after we had spent thousands with them, then they approved us as a re-seller and viola’ we could use the words 3-m and Minnesotta Mining in our collateral material / brochures.
LL Bean is also bad about it because they offer a life time guarantee. Buy any of their rubber duck boots and for the lifetime of the product if it ever gets a hole in it or wears out, call them and give you a replacement free. Well they only like people who buy from them to actually sell them because of the guarantee issue. They figure you are not going to re-sell worn out used shoes.
resell them,…yes you can Call them LL Bean Duck Boots and you are not on their vendor [have bought from them list] and your name is mud.
Some companies police Ebay, Etsy, Amazon constantly, like John Deere and Harley Davidson. Others not as much.It seems to sell used online and not be an actual re-seller is to always be just taking that chance that you will get called out on the carpet. Of course some mad buyers or mean competitors turn people in also. Not to Ebay, but to the actual company who in turn looks it up and then jumps on Ebay.
It has the potential to be viscious.
mike in atl.
Here ‘ya go. You won’t like it because there are hundreds on the VERO List. Click on any specific brand name and it tales you to their Copy Right statement, infringement rules and Ebay specific info.
As you read it think about what you said in your post. Seems like most of the items on Ebay couldn’t be sold. Well you are not far off if ALL of these companies had their way about it.
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing/create-effective-listings/vero-program.html#m17-1-tb3
Good luck …
mike at mdc galleries in atlanta
I’m with you buddy! 🙂 WonderLister, Quicken HB and Excel all we use also. And we have had as many as 5 companies running on it with separate P&L. Now only running 4 on it but all is fine. Our year end finacials I am doing now. Will be about 2 or 3 days and I am ready to send to the CPA. Being a Sub-S Corporation our company’s taxes have to be finished by March 15th but we are way ahead of the game. More time moving papers around and into files to save than anything else.
Utah Bill: Think you just have to tell Jay you want to be added to the list [I think]. Been getting it every morning for a few years now [again I think]. Jay will chime in a let you know how shortly, I am sure.
mike at mdc in atl.
Amatino: In Outlook you can create folders and set up “special rules” for those folders. Any time an email comes into those folders those specific emails will be re-directed out of your main Inbox and re-directed to those folders. I have numerous sub-folders set-up ffor my favorite places and all emails from those go directly to their respective folder. So all of my SL emails are forwarded automatically to the SL folder. All my Ebay goes to the Ebay sub-folder and even broken down further, all sold notices goes to our Ebay/sold folder. Offers from Ebay goes directly into that folder, counter offers into that sub-folder, etc., etc.
Seems like using the “Set Rules” feature would be of benefit. That way all emails from addresses you have a specific interest in goes to their own sub-folders and all that is left in the “main In-bin” are junk or non-important emails whereby they can easily be sorted and deleted.
You can even set a rule for your junk folder and have those deleted automatically with out even looking at them. Also in the Advanced settings you can create a Special Rule that any e-mail that contains a specific word in the body of the E-mail will be routed to a custom folder. I have one set-up for Christine-R. Anytime she posts anything and it comes into my In-bin, it is automatically re-routed to the following SL weekly pod-casts/members/Christine-R, also have one for T-satt, Retro Treasures, Brian from Grandmas.
If you will note, every posts from SL that a member posts it begins with Amatino wrote: etc., etc. The special rule you create will route any of those e-mails to their own custom folder. You can also create sub-folders for your bank name, utility company name, any common word that is consistantly used can be the “key word” used to route and sort all emails into separate folders. Thoise folders acn be broken down several tiers. I can read, follow, sort. organize all SL emails directly in Outlook and don’t even have to open SL in a browser except to enter my own reply. But everything posted can come in and be sorted into their own folders directly from the fire hose and other sources.
Unsure, but seems some work on organizing the global Outlook folders may be of help, or G-mail, etc. But maybe you have already done this and still you get just too many emails in total. And it certainly doesn’t hurt one way or the other to also have it directly on the forum.
As far as what’s already posted I use the search box on the forum and also the windows search function in the open SL tab.
Maybe we are talking two different things and I am way off base on what you are trying to do or look for.
mike at mdc in atl.
How well foam seals is tested by doing what is called a blower door test. It is a giant fan that sucks from the house side. It is mounted in your front door and sealed. it has instruments on it that measures how much air is being “sucked” from your house. We did 2 tests for each customer. One before we began, and most houses leaked like a collander, then after we ‘foamed” a house, you could see the resistance needle swing way over to the right, showing that now it is much harder to suck air out of the house.
Your walls and windows account for 17% heat loss, the attic is 55%-60%, the floor, chimney, outlets in the walls, around light fixtures, around plumbing fixtures then represents the balance of approx. 20%. You can never get a house 100% sealed. But also wrapping a house in a “skin” like Tyvek wrap when built helps also. And of course when we foam a house for new home builders is the best scanario because we can reach the whole house.
We finally went to selling mostly to new home builders here in the Atlanta area. Easiest and fastest for us and best for the buyer and builders actually use the term “energy effecienct foamed home” as a selling point in this market. The houses sell for more because of it.
Guess you may not remember but my last business we owned was “Spray Foam and More”. A 2 part set of closed cell foam cost us $1,795 [1 55 gal drum of part A and 1 55 gal drum of part B.] That is ISO and Resin. These 2 chemicals are sucked into heated hoses and mixed inside the hose and then sprayed. We got 1,500 BOARD FEET per “set”. That is 1″ thick x 12″ x 12″. so approx. $2,000 cost for foam to cover a 1,500 sq. foot sub floor application at 1″ thick. Then add labor. We sold “open cell foam” and my buyer of my business still sells open cell at $1.25 per sq. ft. and $1.95 to $2.25 per sq. foot for closed cell which you do want under the floor. Open cell is for the walls and attic areas. So if you have a 1,600 sq. foot house that price should be about $3,500 +/-. Get another quote, or get several. Barter with my old supervisor who bought my business, tell him you will give him $3,500 and a free week vacation for him and his family in the farm house. Ha-Ha. LOL 🙂 For $6,000 you should be able to get your whole floor AND attic done.
The term R Factor does not even apply to foam even though they use it on the foam board. The R stand for “Resistance” and “solid foam” is 100% resistant. Think of all of the styrofoam coolers you can buy at the store. Fill it with water and it will hold it forever = 100% resitance to loosing the water. The rating for foam is “Performance Factor”. Any and all fiberglass and, brnad is 33% effecent. Foam is 92% effeceient.i
By the way Ryanne. Doubling up on fiberglass and then “crushing” it down between drywall and exterior siding does not increase it’s R factor it actually diminishes it. Jambing fiberglass in tight spaces around the jack studs around doors and windows decreasing the R factor in some cases down to belive it or not, to “0”. Any tight spaces need to be filled with a special can foam., called Suda-foam. This foam comes with a 6″ nozzle and is soft enough to not expand and in turn bow your windows and doors in and thus making them stick and hard to open and close.
My house is foamed [of course] completely. You can see when ice or snow is present down here, it stays on my roof for days where all our neighbors is melted and gone the next day due to all the heat escaping.
But I know you heat with wood so no use talking about heating and cooling [natural gas and-or electricity] savings for you guys. It is about comfort.
Make yourself a rectangle cooler out of fiberglass. Tape it together with duct tape and then cut a top for it. Now take a styrofoam cooler you buy for $2 at Walmart. Place a bag of ice in each, set out in the sun and leave for 24 hours. Come back either 12 hours later or the next day and the ice is melted in the make shift fiberglass cooler-container you made BUT there is still half a bag of ice left in the styrofoam cooler. So, there you go, twice as effecient at keeping the heat out. AND YES, that level of 92% effeciency does cost more.
May I suggest you do some quick research about this. If you are a business and wish to get an instant P&L statement [Profit and Loss Report], then GDBK may not do for you. GDBK is just a journal system. Just like a green paper accounting pad you buy at an office supply store. If you wish to have a way to set up a Chart of Accounts [COA] and be able to categorize all income and out go an shown and stored in those categories and then pull your monthly, quarterly and year end reports and see all expenses by amount AND percentage of income, those reports come from a more, as Jay calles it a Robust System.
But you don’t have to have QuickBooks, Quicken for Home Business will do. Quicken was bought last year from Intuit and now is owned by a new corporation that has made a lot of improvements.
But here is what you should do. Search Google for the top 10 or 20 home business accounting and you will see in every list that GDBK is either the last or next to last one listed and not even on the top 10 or 20 lists. There are 20 more programs out there that out shine and out perform GDBK.
Even though J&R use it and it is mentioned tons of time in this forum, does not make it the best or even the cheapest out there. What separates to more expensive apps from the cheaper ones is the ability to “Invoice” your customers. If you provide a service or are in the trades you have a need to create invoices that list what services you provided and a price for those services you absolutely need a more robust system and it costs more. But make sure you review the comparison list of what the app provides
If all you want is a glorified check book register then GDBK will do, as a business we look for more than GDBK can provide. nd even if all you do want is a fancy check book register program again GDBK is way, way down almost all list we found when we Googled, “best app for the small business”, what is the best online bookkeeping software”, “what is the top 10 accounting programs”, you want even find GDBK listed on most. You will see “Fresh Books” on top on most of them, but be careful, some apps are ONLY for INVOICING PURPOSES and “Wave” is even free.
May I suggest, like Jay has said many times, first get an accountant, doesn’t have to be a CPA but a CPA does help. Then ask them what program they would suggest. remember the person who prepares your taxes may have a preference for how they want to see your business numbers oprganized and presented to them. Also most CPA’s have the Accountant’s version of Quicken and QuickBooks so they can access your files remoetly and just pull all the data they want directly off your file or you can send them a .Pdf file of the data and files.
But as a last word, any organized program whereby you can categorize your income and expenses and deductible numbers is a big plus for your business.
Are these suggestions nothing more than a different way to present Jay’s Daily Fire Hose email. Everyday I get an Email from Jay – ScavengerLife that says “SL Fire Hose”. At the top of it is every comment-post that has taken place within the last 24 hours as a single line title in Bold Blue.
Then if I scroll to the bottom of that single line title listing of “ALL NEW” posts, all of those are shown in full text format.The single line blue title post is a blue link. If I click on the Blue Title line it opens my browser and takes me to that Forum area-topic and there is the whole topic.
Save these daily posts and you can use your “Search Function” to search any and all topics posted on the forum since Jay started sending these out.
This seems to fill my need to find anything or any topic on the SL Forum. But maybe I am missing what else it is you are wanting over having everything posted on SL in chronological order by title and in full text and linked to forum topic – subject. Guess I am confused like Jay.
Hhmmm … mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
The one big advange we find to using the clear totes is that we can see into them and know which ones are low and have room for more items to be placed in them.
We use an inventory control number system and any item can go into any bin, any place as long as there is room in it. We use a metal rolling cart that holds all the new items that need to go into inventory after uploading the listing. We place the items on the cart and roll up and down our inventory isles. We can see which bins are low and have “air space” in them. When we see bins only half, or three quarters emoty we stop and put a few items in that bin and then write down the item number and bin number on our clipboard, which we later enter into our WonderLister program.
Using the clear bins allows us to try to always keep the bins topped off and mostly full thus utilizing our available cubic square footage to the best advantage. This keeps all of the inventory “tight”, “compact” and we are not spread out all over the place. Opaque [non-see thru] bins do not lend themselves to this. One has to either lift – feel each box and or take it down off the shelf, open it to look and see how much space is unused in it. A huge time waster in our opinion.
Guess the same would apply to the steel file cabinet drawers. 50 cabinets with 4 or 5 drawers each. Let’s say 2 cubic feet of storage space in each drawer for a total of 500 cubic feet of storage space [if my math is correct]. So at any one time, how much “vacant” – “empty” space do you have without pulling out each drawer and looking into each separately? Now if you only keep like items in each drawer, then you don’t need to look, but that can also waste space.
mike at MDC Galleries
Just went to place my first quarter order and noticed something. Ebay is now only offering 7 size boxes. They no longer offer the 18″x14″x12″oversize box. The largest now is: longest 16x12x8=1,536 cubic inches and the 12x12x12=1,728 cubic inches [which BTW is the cut off for sizes that have to go to oversize-dim. weight at 1,728 cubic inches].
So about 1.5 years ago the USPS stopped offering the Larger Reg. size “C” box at 15x12x12=2,160 cubic inches, but we loaded up and stockpile a lot of those but are finally down to only having 5 left in our stock. The next best thing was the Ebay 18x14x12 at 3,024 cubic inches. Now that is gone.
So size wise the two largest box sizes now are the Ebay 12x12x12 at 1.728 CI and the USPS Box #7 12x12x8 at 1,536 CI. Unless I am missing something.
So if you need more than 1,728 CI you will have to start splicing these sizes together to make custom size boxes for your larger items.
Just a heads up.
Mike at MDC Galleries
At a local closeout discount house in the local area. They buy the final close outs from the “Dollar General” type stores. They stack them in groups of3 and 4 bins and zip tie them together and then sell for $12. Sometimes we get the 4 packs and that is $3 each. Other times the 3 pack for $12 which is the $4 ea. The difference is usually on the 4 pack one of the handles is missing or there is a crack in one of the bins so they throw that one in for the $12. We usually buy these and save the odd bin until we find another good lid for it or get another handle from a really cracked up one.
Unfortunately they do not do online sales and are just a local railway type salvage company. They get them on an irregular schedule so we always stop in there everytime we go past them and check. It is first come first serve. Sometimes we just miss them and they tell us they thought we would be coming by but unfortunately someone just came in that morning and bought them out. When we find them, we buy all that they have. Been doing this for over two years to accumulate about 200 or more of them. We also get shoebox size ones for $1 each and have a fairly large stockpile of those.
By the way they have a ton of other types of stuff. Shoes, clothes, electronic items, luggage, household items but most is in fairly rough shape. Remember they buy what Dollar Stores can’t sell or take back for some reason. If a dollar store can’t sell it or is a return, then beware of buying from these guys.
We did buy 5 toaster ovens from them a few years back at $15 each and gave them as gifts to family members. The only draw back was the timer and other knobs were twist and turn for the settings and then they ticked down, counting backwards and a bell went off. Clumsy to set the timers, but ours still works fine.
They have great deals on napkins, paper plates, plastic goods that have the packaging busted open and usually are missing some pcs. but at dollar prices not bad.I hear you. It took a long time for us to get all matching. Once done though it allowed us to have our shelves all set up on the same level and spacing. Standardization helps.
On another note it also is an investment cost. We have approx. 250 bins at this point and room for about another 150. In the end that will be about 400 bins at $4 +/- ea or about $1,600 invested in bins.
Be careful with the “Snap on LIDS”. I have had numerous lids pop off or up on the ones that I had stored up over chest height. We only use the hing-swivel “snap over latch” tight lids now and converted all of the snap on lids to that style also. The lids stay locked on even if you have to use your palm pushing up on tub handles for the ones stored over your head.
We have had a couple of bins with those snap on lids pop off and get dropped years ago and we broke a bunch of stuff when it hit the cement floor in the garage. We often get 66 qt. Sterilite bins with the “latch” tops at a local dollar type store for $4 each. Our preference by far.
