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11/29/2018 at 3:36 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52484
I wonder how often some clothing gets worn when I watch HGTV or other shows and they have these huge walk-in closets with 100’s or 1000’s of outfits and 100’s of pairs of shoes. I’m sure some outfits get worn for only a few hours.
When you see how many gallons of water (2500 or more), and all the other resources that go into making one T-shirt, fashion is probably one of the resource wasters and biggest polluters in the world at the moment. When I see all the corporate T-shirts, community shirts for a one-day event, or other shirts I know probably were only worn a few hours and discarded to a thrift store, future historians will think we were crazy!
Not sure if the same applies with the IRS, but Revenue Canada lets you sell personal items at a loss against the original purchase price and you don’t need to claim it as income.
I just keep track of personal items in a separate spreadsheet to deduct from my income at the end of the year.
I bought a home safe once that was locked but could tell it had contents in it – it had a dial with 60 numbers, and required 3 numbers to open.
I read that with combo locks that you could be off several numbers, so I started with multiples of 3 – it took a few hours of guessing while watching TV, but I figured it out.
Inside was a few credit cards from the 70’s and 80’s, and some receipts. But at least I knew what I had, and I had a “working” safe to sell.
I would spend the time trying to open it – as Steven S said, you never know what is inside!
Julie – I agree with you on March being the best month – however, I don’t do well in January…my best months are (in order – 7 years sales history) – March, April, October, November, September, August, February, December, May, January, July, June.
Just looking at the numbers quickly, my top 4 months have sales that are almost double my bottom 4, with the middle four months a slow decline between the two.
January may be an outlier for sales as I usually purge my inventory at the end of the year during the holidays, and I always have the fewest listings in January. The rest of the months should have consistent inventory available.
11/27/2018 at 3:22 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52369The Canadian government just passed a law forcing the postal workers to go back to work and they can no longer take job action/strike. Soon as they announced the law, my sales that I felt I was missing the last few weeks all came in quickly. Could be the post office being reliable again, could be Black Friday/Cyber Monday, or just good luck, but I was getting frustrated with people asking if I could ship items another way (for the same price of course…). My sales were way down until the last 3 days.
Hoping the next few weeks go well and as expected now I can rely on the post office to be open and working as usual…
Just some additional thoughts on futuristic things I’ve seen that may add efficiencies in the future:
-I’ve seen systems used by companies in labs that you talk to – for example, if you were taking measurements of an item, you would say the field and the measurement and it would fill it in. With all the various home systems you talk to now, I can see this being a way to setup listings while you measure something or to even describe it. I can even see an app that will prompt you for information while you take photos, etc. It would ask for the length, color, etc.
-My post office has this machine that you stick your parcel in, and it weighs and measures it automatically, and can read an address printed on it to calculate shipping. As we wouldn’t write the information on a package, would be cool if this could be adapted/interfaced with eBay and your shipping label platform of choice to just stick the package in an area, and you just select the postage rate you want.
-photo recognition – I’ve heard some apps do this, but it would be neat if for common items, the system can tell what it is by looking at a photo and populate the listing automatically.
-Terminator vision – this would be a pair of glasses that you would put on, and in any thrift shop, store, etc. will point out the items with the highest profit potential – no searching necessary! Sadly, I’ve dreamed that I’ve had this power/technology available to me more than once…
Julie – agree on the thrifting/sourcing in an area with lots of stores. The initial drive to the city is worth the time you save going between locations. We’re going to keep track of how much time we spend getting to and what we make in profit at each store in 2019 as a new measurement for our business. The counter-argument I keep having in my head is that small town places are visited less often, and tend to be where my big finds were this year, so that is why I’m going to keep track to see what is best – my money is on travelling further to the big cities near us.
For me, scavenging isn’t something you could put a time on to be more efficient – either you want to spend the time looking, or just want to make a quick in/out at a store/sale. I find the more time I put in, the more I do find, but it all depends on what is available to buy…some days I’m VERY efficient and can find great items immediately, others are a struggle to find any items.
For me, I constantly improve a few processes as I feel scavenging can’t be changed:
-cleaning/repairing items
-photography
-listing
-shippingFor shipping, I have a setup similar to what you would see at any fulfillment center – a L shaped large workspace with all my packing materials, boxes, papers, scales, etc. within reach and in the same spot. I prefer a 3″ tape gun to a dispenser – just gives me more speed and control. I know that I watched a video on a packaging station at Amazon, and they use the dispensers, however, they are using only a few sized boxes at each station – I have about 20 different boxes.
For photography, I have a few different areas setup for small items, large items, and clothing – each area is separate, and I take photos of dozens of items at a time to get efficiencies.
Listing only gets quicker if you have templates, copy from items, or limit your descriptions/photos. I tend to still use a lot of photos on unique items, and I’ve gotten better are very short detailed descriptions. Still room for lots of improvement.
Cleaning/Repairing is another area I spend a lot of time on – it’s a very hard area sometimes – things need fixing, or they need a good cleaning. The only improvements I’ve made is getting better brushes/tools to clean, and I have started using my dishwasher more for electronics to clean the outer cases. Beyond that, wish I could know how to fix everything quickly!
I would think storing a U-Haul of packing peanuts at a smoke shop would be a huge fire code violation…
What situations do others not use “Immediate Payment Required” when selling Buy It Now items?
For myself, the only times I don’t use the immediate payment required is on related items where I think someone will want to buy multiple items, and the shipping would be combined (and therefore need to be adjusted). Examples I recently had that are like this are related magazines (where a collector may want to pick and choose which ones they want) and a bunch of vintage tennis racquets where buyers wanted to choose several for one shipping cost. Both these situations had multiple buyers buy multiple items and they paid almost immediately after getting updated invoices.
Just curious if other situations beyond those forced by eBay where someone wouldn’t use immediate payment when selling BIN?
Just an FYI – Canada is not accepting parcels from the U.S. or other countries at this time via Canada Post (through USPS). Canada Post employees are on rotating strikes (and have been for weeks) and the backlog has reached the point where they have trailers taking up parking lots waiting to be sorted.
eBay has even written the Prime Minister to force employees back to work, which I expect may happen through legislation this week as many retailers are complaining about shipping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as the holiday season.
eBay is fully aware of the situation, and is working with sellers who have parcels stuck in the system (either in Canada or the originating country) to prevent any items not received issues or to reverse negative feedbacks related to the strike.
My bad buy was a bunch of Rawlings Baseball / T-Ball Batting helmets. I bought 50 of them, all brand new (labeled, tagged, and bagged) for $2 each. 25 Blue, 25 Pink. I bought them in July, and haven’t sold one. I’ll keep them up through next spring/summer (since I may have missed the buying period for them) and see what happens. The price with shipping is cheaper than Walmart and other stores, so I hope they will start to move. They take up a lot of space, and I’ve been saving bigger boxes to ship them in.
If nothing moves, I’ll donate them to the local kids leagues…
Speaking of the value of money, I started watching a documentary on China called “3 Wishes”. It is about the rise of consumer culture of China.
The “3 Wishes” were what everyone in the 70’s and 80’s in China “dreamed” of having – a bike, a watch, and a radio. They were the status symbols then.
Someone who grew up in the 80s in the documentary said that she “can’t stop smiling when she was riding her bicycle” since she got it, but now she people driving BMWs who are crying all the time.
It’s an extreme example, but I feel the value of money is lost on people and what true happiness is. These MLM’s prey on people who feel they “need” things they really don’t, and don’t really value money. A working 2000 Honda Civic does the same thing as a 2019 BMW – they have the same “functional value”, but yet people need to create some sort of status for themselves (that most people don’t care about). Look at any MLM marketing ploy to get you to sell their products, and they are full of people with luxury cars and stuff. I find it sad.
I just found it interesting that as society in China changes, the goal posts for people keep moving instead of being satisfied with what they once dreamed of. I feel the same is happening in North America a bit – people always need more instead of settling for what they have and choose stress to get those items over comfort.
I’m not sure who it was, but someone on here gave some advice on offers a few months ago that I’ve been using successfully.
Their theory was instead of making an offer to one buyer, tell them you are going to lower the price instead. Why only lower the price for one buyer, when you can lower it for all? If you are willing to accept less, why not for everyone?
I’ve been using this tactic lately – and almost everyone buys the item immediately. I believe they get “scared” that someone else will buy it now that the price is lowered for everyone. I’ve also had a couple people jump in and buy the item before the person who asked for a lower price does.
I like doing it this way – and if I’m willing to part with an item for a lower price, I don’t really care who buys it…
And I wish I could thank who suggested this – as it works for me!
Foreigners will buy everyday items – I’ve sold stuff I can pick up at any grocery store in Canada internationally because it’s only available in Canada.
Ryanne – my wife buys nail polish all the time off eBay – probably one of your buyers! She also buys various other cosmetics that are not available in Canada or are discontinued.
I personally buy stuff on eBay most Americans may laugh at – one thing is Kool-Aid. They changed the format to these liquid drops in Canada – I like the old packets/tubs that you can only get in the U.S., and like oddball flavors like Sharkleberry that were never released here. I’ve also bought Nestle Crunch bars, York Peppermint Patties, and LA Looks Hair Gel.
For any Canadians on the forum, I use to sell Kraft Peanut Butter, Lays Chips (Canadian ones like Ketchup, All Dressed, Swiss Chalet), Post Shreddies, Kraft Dinner, and any Coke/Pepsi promo cans/bottles for things like Star Wars or comic book movies. Not too profitable, but you don’t have to carry inventory on some of the items – just run out and buy it when you get a sale.
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