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12/19/2018 at 11:31 am in reply to: Has anyone found shelving units that will fit 3, 30 Gallon containers/shelf? #53699

I like to use grocery store bins to store my items – they are either free, or have a small deposit and worst comes to worst, I just return them if I don’t need them. 2 fit well across on a 4′ shelf and I get 7 of them high in my basement. The size is good as they don’t get too heavy and you can see to the bottom easily.
I’m not sure if this is a thing in the U.S., but it’s been around in Canada for over 30 years at different stores that don’t supply bags.
12/19/2018 at 10:19 am in reply to: Large unusual sized item – should I find a box now or wait till it sells? #53688I always make sure I have a box for an odd sized item before I sell it – saves a lot of headaches! Learned the lesson the hard way numerous times.
If I know it is something hard to pack that will sell, I’ll also pack it up ahead of time if it will take a lot of time. I currently pack and ship in the morning before work, so avoiding an annoying package that eats up all my time allows me to still get my breakfast in.
Packing ahead of time has some advantages with storage as well – items that won’t store easily or stack well on their own stack easily when in a box.
I also like to pack items ahead of time that have multiple pieces to them – such as a video game system that has the game unit, controllers, wires, cards, games, etc. to keep it all together easily.
I’m curious if anyone packs EVERYTHING ahead of time – I’ve seen some fulfillment centers do this.
They barely lasted 2 years in the UK…
12/18/2018 at 10:06 am in reply to: Crazy Buyer trying to scam me or rightful owner of my estate sale finds? #53608I assume it was full of bad memories for them. I know I gave away my high school yearbooks as they just didn’t mean much to me and someone else wanted them.
One other tip if you are organized – start putting you forms together now, even with estimates, to see what you owe or will be getting as a return.
If you owe some money, it will give you a few more months to save it up – instead of having a last minute shock when they are due and the number is not what you expected.
Most online tax software for 2018 is up now as well – this is what I use as I am small and find it is worth the $20-$30 for all the helpful hints that it prompts for.
12/17/2018 at 2:39 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 390: Building a Business to Build a Life #53538The hourly rate number is important to me for a couple reasons:
-it allows me to compare what my effort is worth compared to my “career job”
-after working 40-50 hours a week, there is limited time to determine how much I could make on eBay full-time. The hourly number gives me something to extrapolate from.
-the hourly rate shows me how much time I will need to put in to reach an approximate financial goal, and to give me reasonable expectations when I go full-time.Changing from a corporate career to self-employment can be very scary – however, I feel very safe the more numbers I put together, and when I gamble I like a very sure bet.
I also agree that everyone’s situation is different – if you have your home paid for, medical expenses covered, a good amount in savings, no children, and worst case have a career to fall back on, it’s very different in my situation then someone else who has another situation in their life.
This sadly got me thinking – I still have a huge shoebox of well over 1000 35mm photos from items I listed in the 90’s…wonder if they are worth selling? LOL – would be funny to “double-dip” on the same items 20 years later…
For a smaller scale seller like myself, I find that having a setup area with proper lighting is a great starting point if you are moving up the ladder. I have 3 separate areas:
1. is a small photo box (bought on eBay) – it’s about 9″ square with LED lights built in, takes great photos for small items.
2. a larger workbench, where I have LED lighting overtop, and down each side. This area is about 3′ x 6′, and I use it as my packaging station when not using it for photography. I have been using a felt white sheet lately as a backdrop that I roll up when not in use.
3. the floor against a plain wall, for very large items and clothing. I have a mannequin, tripod for both my camera and lights, as well as various “podiums” to put items on.I’ve also bought 3 identical Nikon cameras – one for each area. They have interchangeable batteries, lenses, etc. so I only need a spare battery for all 3 ready, and can move lenses around as required.
I like the photo aspect of the “job” myself – however, I started out in the 90’s taking 35mm photos to the 1 hour photolab, scanning them in my computer, FTPing them to a server, and writing HTML code to get 1 photo on eBay, so maybe my current setup compared to 20 years ago seems like a futuristic dream still.
12/13/2018 at 10:09 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Dart board, Hats, Models, Car parts, Original painting, Vintage Crib Mobile #53291Nice sale on the dart board – I use to play baseball darts all the time as a kid. Good memories! Another thing for me to keep an eye out for. The premium boards by Nodor and other high-end darts manufacturers are always a good find for a few dollars. If you can also find vintage dart flights they sell great as well and are very easy to ship (Europeans like flights with American themes).
Interesting comments – however, how many small businesses would not exist if they wanted a set salary, or if the owner of the business hired someone to do all the work? How many small businesses in your area start off small, and are successful, but once they expand they fail quickly?
To me, scavenging is a skill – it is like any other skill that you have to learn, you go through stages from apprentice scavenger to master scavenger and your knowledge can be shared, but never directly transferred to someone else.
It’s a very unique business we are in – even amongst us on this site our businesses, what we sell, and how we run them vary drastically. It’s also what is great about online selling – you can focus on what you want, and other can focus on other things and we all still can make money doing it on the same platform.
I’ve had two neutrals in the last couple months…they bug me, but I just let them be.
Neutral feedback doesn’t affect my 100% score, so I’m OK with it. And the comments left were not bad (one was someone that didn’t like an item didn’t have instructions – which it didn’t have in the listing; the second was due to lengthy delivery time out of my control).
Thanks for the app tip – I’ve downloaded and I’m going to play with it on various devices to see how I can play with the cross-functionality. I’ve also edited my “employees” by task instead of name to show where my time is spent.
My theory is that I spend about 40% sourcing, 40% listing/cleaning, 20% shipping – see what it really is!
Always look in boxes – don’t assume that what the original item that was in the box is in there – sometimes people put great items in boxes for other items (or put junk in a box for a good item).
Some context on my numbers:
-491.6 hours combined this year between my wife and I – that is about equal to one person working full-time for 3 months. Will see how scaleable this number is…
-We shop together often, saving time at stores by splitting up where we look – a single scavenger would need more time to look for items at the same location.
-we feel we left around $500 on the table by not having a subscription/store this year until this week.This year is my best year by far – however, we are becoming better year over year. 5 years ago, I was at just over $25 CAD an hour of work – therefore, through 5 years we’ve doubled our income per hour. Now the challenge is to scale that to 2000+ hours, and keep getting the hourly rate up if possible.
It includes unsold inventory, but not net of taxes – that’s a little more complicated to give a straight number as I will have to combine my eBay income with my job income, my wife’s income, etc.
It gets pretty complicated, but I use the number to compare my pre-tax income of my job against it, and that I will be in a much different tax bracket when I go full-time, and where I will be moving has different income tax rates provincially.
It would be a good exercise for me to fill out a tax form this year without my job’s income to see what I would be paying out in income taxes, and what credits I could get back.
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