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Make sure you factor in the consumables cost (plastic to make the bubbles).
I’d be cautious that they don’t get you on the back end like a computer printer – cheap equipment, expensive consumables.
I also wonder what a more industrial second-hand unit would be worth – I’ve used those in my working life and they worked very well – but they rolls of plastic where about 4-5′ in diameter that were on the back of the machine.
All of these seminars, MLM, real estate flipping, etc. that you can attend/buy boil down to just four words:
“BUY LOW, SELL HIGH”
The part most people miss is the effort between the buying and selling, and after sale completion of the transaction.
I don’t have my own kids, but I like to take my nieces and nephews (all under 10) out scavenging and let them pick out a thing or two from the thrift store and I list it for them to sell.
Most items are junk, but surprisingly there have been a few toys that I would never even look at that they have sold for $10-$30.
They like to follow the listings, and contact me soon as they sell to get there money…gives us something to talk about and do together as I have no clue what else to do with children!
I had this entire set and decided to sell it when we started moving. Most sold right away, but I’m sitting on Monopoly, Scrabble, and Clue at the moment – they are not moving at all.
Would be interesting if the U.S. government started taxing sales in the U.S. from foreign sellers. You never know these days…
I know that several years back my eBay invoices stopped having an address in California and changed to an address in Switzerland.
I get a huge tax package sent to me in Canada from the U.S. IRS every single year for 27 cents in shares that I got for working for a U.S. company for a few weeks 20 years ago. I think it is hilarious that they want me to show I didn’t make any capital gains on my 27 cent investment I own every year. I wonder what will happen if it does go up to 28 cents, or goes down one year…
I’m wondering what the seller’s risk is if someone gets seriously ill (Hepatitis A for example) from used cosmetics…
I feel some items are safe (like perfume that has to be sprayed) but open lip stick, used unsterilized razors, and other items that have direct skin/”fluid” contact with the previous user may be a risk.
On the flip side, buying used cosmetics for a cheater may be a good idea…I can see a daytime talk show where a guest is like “hey baby, I didn’t get herpes from cheating on you with your brother, I got it from that used lip balm from eBay I bought!”
I use to edit every photo, now I spend the time to make the first photo look amazing, and decide to edit the others depending on the item (high price items – $50 or more – I still edit everything).
I have found that if I take 1000 or so photos, then edit them all at once, I get REALLY fast in editing.
I don’t use props other then mannequins for clothing, or a Styrofoam head for hats. A white background is easy for photo editing programs to work with and edit out.
Awesome looking house – like the log cabin appearance of it.
Just need a good snowblower to make a path from the house to the garage/storage in the winter and you’ll be set!
Good luck with everything – keep us updated when you get more settled in. Interested in how you organize the space.
Good timing on this question…we were toying the idea of selling our new house because the market is crazy, but decided to stay and are designing things at the moment!
I’m carving out a room that is 11′ x 21′ as my “eBay” room, and another room that is 11′ x 11′ as my shipping and computer/office room.
The 11′ x 21′ room will have lots of natural light, and additional LED lighting built in the ceiling on adjustable fixture for photography. I’m going to setup half the room just for photography – and have various stations (table for small items, wall for larger items/mannequins, and a boutique background for higher end purses/jewelry). The rest of the room will have a wall of closets along the 21′ wall to hang clothing in (to protect it from pets). Then along one 11′ wall and the other half of the room not used for photography, I have metal racking to store bins.
We are going to paint the walls matte white, and have dark hardwood (probably laminate) flooring on the ground for photos.
My packing station/computer/listing room is going to have a big monitor on the computer – getting old and would like it. Also going to install some cabinets to store envelopes/supplies to keep the room clean looking. For a packing station, going to build a large 4′ x 6′ table to make things easy to wrap up and label.
I’m going to waste money on aesthetics…but want a nice looking, organized, and clean workspace this time!
I sell “vintage” cell phones all the time – I just assumed that collectors would know they no longer would work on a modern network…
I haven’t sold anything “new” as a 3G phone thought – mostly bag/brick phones and 90’s phones/pagers.
This is one I agree with – everytime I get a cart or basket at the front of the store I find barely anything, and when I go in without a cart/basket, I find a lot…always best to double-back and get a basket/cart when needed.
My wife and I each have a large Rubbermaid bin with “To List” on it – once they are near full (or when we have time) we tackle them – when they are full, we don’t buy anything else until we deal with them. It’s easy to toss items in the bin as you find them to keep them organized.
The bin can have 10 items, or 100’s of items in it depending on size of the item, but it is a good way to keep things looking clean in our room until we tackle them.
We also find that a bin is about half a day of photography, and half a day of listing – so if we are motivated we can empty a bin and have it for sale in a long day.
Unfortunately, everything is sky-high – even the fixer uppers. The market is crazy, and many people are speculating and buying without following many fundamentals – essentially, it’s a huge bubble in this part of Canada and it has to burst at some point.
There is no capital gains on personal property in Canada…as long as you lived there, you can make as much as you want tax free when you sell.
It’s just such an opportunity…but a tough decision as there is no guarantees for when the market will get back to normal.
Soon as my death pile clears up, I go back out sourcing – for me this is a normal cycle.
I always list what I have, then go scavenging again – that way I’m making my inventory available for sale without too much of a backlog.
@Jordan – I’ve used my Windows Laptop, iPad, iPhone, and Android device to list items. The only difference I find is that the apps for both iOS and Android take longer to list as it opens up various screens to input information instead of on one form.
I’ve also found that setting up some of the dropdowns for shipping preferences/costs to be very hard on the tablets – however, once you have your shipping preferences setup (and re-use them) you really only need to set them up once. You can also set them up on a computer, and they will appear as options on any device going forward.
You can do everything on any device – I’ve just been use to filling out the eBay forms on a computer for over 20 years, and can do it quicker. As an older Gen X guy, I’m just use to a physical keyboard (I can type very fast – on a tablet I’m extremely slow) and when you get listing, you get use to a certain layout and fields. I’m sure if I was forced to use a tablet for 6 months, I would get very fast at it as well and become very efficient.
I also edit all my photos – which I can’t find an efficient way to do on a phone or tablet yet.
