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It’s allowed (at least if the flat rate box has been “modified”); the policy changed a little while back. However, USPS employees have enforced that rule stringently for years and a lot of them don’t read memos, so it’s generally a bad idea to do it.
I came to say the same thing. I think the total hold time before they will return the item is 15 days.
Also, I don’t think you need to pay extra for signature confirmation because (in theory*) USPS offers a “hold for pickup” service for First Class package, Priority Mail and Parcel Select service. The maximum hold time is 15 days.
There’s no extra cost as far as I can tell. I’m not sure if eBay labels supports this option but it is available with USPS Click-N-Ship and some paid shipping label services.
Info:
https://www.usps.com/ship/insurance-extra-services.htm
More info than you need, but the FAQ is helpful
*There’s some mixed info online on whether or not the hold for pickup service is handled reliably. It’s also not available in all locations.
USPS offers a “Priority Mail Mailing Box” that is 9-1/4″ x 6-1/4″ x 2-3/16″ that fits inside the PFRE
that’s box 1096 for those playing along at home
In your ebay settings for calculated shipping, you can choose to either pass your “ebay” shipping discount to your buyers, or charge them the full retail rate. The problem is that there is no retail price for first class packages over 13 oz (13 oz is still the limit if you buy labels from the post office). So, ebay is instead calculating the retail price for a 15 oz package which would have to ship priority mail.
The solution is to change the listing to use flat vs calculated shipping, and set it to the price you want for a 15 oz first class package.
Hey Jay and Ryanne,
Regarding LLCs/s-corps, there’s something you should check into; it could potentially save you quite a lot of money (scavenge those $$$s). This is info I got from my CPA:
1. There’s a potential tax savings available to you if you elect to have your business taxed as an s-corp. I won’t try to explain it in detail but the bottom line is that you can reduce the amount of self-employment tax you pay by receiving some of your business’ profits as dividends instead of income. You still have to pay yourself “a reasonable salary” and the employment tax owed on that. “Reasonable” is fuzzy and different people/accountants are comfortable w/ higher or lower ratios.
2. You don’t have to organize as an s-corp to elect to be taxed as one. s-corp has more paperwork. you can form an llc for $50/year to the scc (easy enough to DIY but I’d pay a lawyer a few hundred to do everything). Once you have an llc you can file a form w/ the irs asking to be taxed as an s-corp.
3. You’re already paying quarterly taxes (and you’re adding an employee) so it really won’t be much more complicated. Besides, pay your accountant to handle the paperwork.
My cpa said the amount of money saved in taxes would more than offset his fees to handle it starting at about $20k of business income. You make way more than that so there’s essentially free money you’re passing up.
As others have stated, the liability reduction you get from an LLC is a bit overrated, but the tax saving bit is real money in your pocket.
The first link I found about this: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/why-you-might-choose-s-corp-taxation-your-llc.html
Unless everything you sell is about the same size, I’m not a fan of light boxes. I have three. A giant 4 foot one, a 2 foot one and a 1 foot one. If you put a small item in the giant one, there’s not enough light getting to the item. If you’re shooting costume jewellry all day, a light box might be great.
Personally I have shoot-through umbrellas. They are more flexible to use. They do take up a lot of room. I’m a bit of a photography snob I guess. I tried shooting stuff w/ my old iphone 4 and thought the quality was terrible (for what I was doing / that’s just me).
No matter what camera you have, using a tripod will dramatically improve your photos. Yes, it’s a pain compared to being able to move all around holding the camera.
Is it worth the hassle to try to take really great photos? Who knows. Probably depends a lot on what and to whom you are selling. I sell custom, refurbished, vintage video game consoles. There are plenty of other people that sell the same types of items I do, but I’m generally able to charge a much higher price for mine (up to 50% more). I attribute a lot of that to the fact that my photos tend to be the best in my category.
On the other hand, I did this experiment. I found a game for sale on ebay w/ horrible photos, bought it, took better photos and tried to sell it back on ebay at a profit. It didn’t work.
Draw your own conclusions and do whatever works for you!
Also, 12x12x12 isn’t a limit on First Class package. (although probably not too many things in a box that big are going to weight under a pound)
Under 1 lb/16 oz, First Class Package is the cheapest. For over 1 lb, you can use FitShipper Listing to find what the cheapest option is for shipping an item to each of the 9 postal zones (since you won’t know where you’re shipping until the item sells). It basically checks the USPS, FedEx and UPS price for all zones at once and sums it up for you like this:
You can use that information to help decide which shipping options to offer in your listing.
Make sure the weight and dimensions you put in are as accurate as possible. Usually I recommend people actually box the item up to make sure they get it right until they get the hang of estimating. Occasionally an ounce here or an inch there can dramatically change the shipping cost.
Ryanne’s method will work; as long as they can tell what you meant, 99/100 they will get it to the right place.
The USPS preferred way is for you to use the “competitive street address” which is essentially the street address of the post office where the PO box is located.
I wrote an article on competitive street addresses and how to find the correct address for a PO Box you can check out.
Hi Jay, I was wondering about your $10k deductible. It seemed like the amount you saved on the premium wasn’t much compared to the deductible increase. Wasn’t it like $200/year for each house? So you save $200 but increase your risk by essentially $10k? If so, you’re basically betting you won’t have a major claim in the next 25-50 years, right?
On insurance agents and riders – I had an old-school state farm agent handle my insurance. He seriously saved me (by personally pulling strings when my policy didn’t quite cover a situation). Was well worth whatever commission he was getting.
And, he saved me another way: although he didn’t try to snow me w/ worthless riders, he insisted that I should absolutely purchase a rider for sewage incursion (septic in your area?). It isn’t covered by most policies w/o a rider. Three years later we had some crazy rain and the sewage system backed up and ended up in my place. Luckily I was covered because I paid the couple bucks a year for the rider.
Anyways, as always, great podcast and info!
Wow that’s nice! I got a smaller one in not as good shape (electronics and turntable didn’t work). I also found out that console radios are hard to sell / aren’t worth all that much. I kept mine – it’s nice furniture – and I retrofitted a new amp and bluetooth to play my music through it. Big woofers and tweeter horns sound good!
@Simon you should be able to do that w/ tampermonkey or greasemonkey or just by running this in the browser console:
document.body.classList.remove('custom-background')I flipped (scalped if you want to call it that), Smash Bros 4 bundles when they came out. I think I paid $100 and was selling them for $200-250. I had my wife run to the stores when I found some in stock. I had buyers thank me profusely for selling them one at double retail because they wanted one and weren’t able to find one. Yes, some people will “hate you” but such is life.
