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I’ve been getting mine at Lowe’s the last few times I’ve needed to buy it – occasionally you can stack multiple offers (the bubble wrap will be on sale, they will have a % off a certain amount spent, and free shipping after a certain amount spent). With all the discounts, I usually get 4 very large rolls for under $100.
The problem I’ve had with the Lowes bubble wrap is that it use to be clear, now they sell only green…
I have also bought in the past from Uline, but you need to place a volume order to get a discount.
I like getting food cheap.
I always like having a bunch of canned meals readily available as well – not as easy as a sandwich, but Chef Boyardee is quick in the microwave!
Every once and awhile I’ll go crazy for a sale where canned foods are 4/$1 or 3/$1 or something ridiculous and stock up like crazy. Use to also love getting Banquet meals for $0.79 and filling up my freezer with Salisbury Steak…
Another favorite is hot dogs – they are cheap, and you can cook them anywhere.
I’ll eat cheap food all week, then crack on a Sunday and buy a $20 roast…
I’ve slowed down the beginning of this year with the listings. Back in September we did a big push and got close to 1000 items listed, had a tremendous sales period because of the extra volume (we don’t usually go over 200 items listed at any time), but got burned out trying to mail items and working two full time jobs. Made lots of cash, but had zero free time for about 3 months.
We’re back down to a more manageable 150ish items up giving us some free time to catch up on relaxing! I wouldn’t do a big push before the holidays again – I think my limit is to stick to only having around 100 items up at a time which usually results in 1-3 sales a day that is manageable to ship in 30 minutes or less in the morning.
However, it gives me a good idea of what I can handle going full time with a large volume – having 2000 items up seems like a goal next time I’m out of work or retired.
But you can keep half of the member dues for yourself as “management fees”…
For me, the best meals are a combo of:
-quick to make/little prep time
-are cheap
-easy clean-up
-taste goodFor me, the easiest meals are sandwiches. Take a minute or two to make, cheap ingredients, little or no clean-up, and to me they taste good. Also get me back to work quickly.
For a cooked meal, anything on the BBQ or campfire is easy – the Crock-Pot takes a good soaking and scrub to clean. I know the Instant Pot was a hot present this year, but those things take 30-45 minutes to clean properly! My BBQ just needs a good brushing, and the odd scrape down every couple months.
My marriage was similar – $55 for a marriage license, and we thought we would be out $130 for having a justice of the peace come to our house to do the ceremony.
When the justice arrived, she saw I had a bunch of product in my garage from the company I work for – I gave her about $500 in retail value of product and she waived the fee!
We spent the next couple of months laughing when people noticed our rings and we were finally married after 17 years!
I have the odd “Single Serve” nemesis that in an empty thrift store will need to be within my personal space looking at the same 4ft section. Really frustrating when looking at racked clothing and you jump to another aisle to avoid them and they all of sudden need to be there as well.
My regular nemesis is the cashier at a local Goodwill that questions the prices on items when I bring them to the checkout and has to get the manager to confirm the price on the tag is correct. My wife thinks that she just “likes” me and wants to spend more time with me…LOL
I buy and design boxes for the company I work for – and have been for over 25 years. Here are some general rules to get the best price:
Under 500 – always Uline or another pre-fab box supplier – not worth going elsewhere. Some other local “supply” companies may be competitive, but Uline will give you discounts every month by email and just wait for them to place an order.
Between 500 and 5000ish – you can get custom printed/sized boxes cost effectively from a local corrugated company. These companies generally do not make the corrugated material, but buy sheets from paper mills and convert them for you (cut, score, glue, print, fold). For custom sizes they will charge for a cutting die, but usually you can negotiate with them this price or see if they have an existing one close in size to use for free. In this volume, for a box about 12″ square you should pay between 50 cents (unprinted) to 75 cents (printed 1 colour) to $1.25 (white box, multiple colors).
Over 5000, you will want to deal with a big corrugated company – but doubt many eBay sellers are at that volume. These companies are Georgia-Pacific, International Paper, Temple-Inland, and Westrock to name a few that may be in your area. They generally supply industrial companies. When I buy 50,000 to 100,000 boxes you can get down to 20 cents for a custom box – but again, way above eBay seller volumes.
The box design you want to buy if you are looking for a cost effective box is called an “RSC” which stands for Regular Slotted Carton. This is the box design with top/bottom flaps the same size when flat, and is the most commonly used as it doesn’t waste much material. The downside with this design is that it needs to be glued or taped closed, but it is the cheapest option.
It’s really easy to research the parts as well – you don’t need to know anything about appliances – there are lots of resources online with detailed diagrams/pictures of almost every major appliance showing the part numbers/descriptions and all you need to do is cut some wires and undo some screws.
I’ve not only done this with my dishwasher, but in the last couple years traded parts from a broken dryer and vacuum for new versions.
Some items are worth looking into parting out before throwing it out!
I had my dishwasher die in October and stripped the thing – so far I have paid for my new dishwasher (disclaimer – the old dishwasher was a mid-range Kenmore model, the new one was $199)
The most expensive parts are the timers/control panels/dials/buttons if you can strip those. Also, I sold the kickplate for $30.
I sell a lot of appliance parts lately – easy to find, and they make good money. Just find the manual for the particular one you have online to get the specific part numbers to help people find the parts they need.
I don’t know if you have looked into programs in your area where if you hire employable persons with various disabilities, that the government would handle most of the taxes, as well as a portion of the pay (where I am it is 50%) if you hire someone with a disability.
I’m not sure how widely available these programs are, but something to think of if you are just looking for someone to take photos, edit photos, type out listings, print labels, etc.
12/14/2017 at 10:26 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Ham radios, Tiki S&P, Betty Cookbook, JBL speakers, Vintage games, 16mm news reel, Pipe stand, 1946 calendar #28777Always appreciate Steve’s videos. It has helped my knowledge of various items, and has helped me make some good purchases/sales this year (especially vintage electronics that were not stereo system/video game related – Realistic vintage electronics from Radio Shack has been one growth area for me that he shows again in this episode).
I’m sure a couple gifts this year under my tree were paid for with help from these videos, and other knowledge sharing on this site.
Thank you all those that share!
I personally like to calculate how much time I put in, and how much profit I am making to give me an hourly rate for my work.
Because I work a full-time job, I’m only doing things part time but my numbers this year are $303.21 profit per week, with an average of 12.25 hours per week put into eBay activities (sourcing, listing, shipping, etc). That gives me a hourly pay of $24.75.
I think the hourly rate is a good number for someone to go by – that way you can figure out if you scale your business, and are looking for a certain income level, how much time you need to put into doing the work.
For me it was also a good exercise to see how I was doing vs. what I am getting paid working for someone else – with a pension, medical insurance, paid vacation days, and consistent income, for me it isn’t worth going full time on eBay yet. However, I have figured that if I retire early at a reduced pension, it would make sense.
It also gives me a good number to see how I am doing month to month as the inventory mix changes, and seasonally – for example, my sales are slower now during the weeks leading up to the holidays, therefore my effort is not worth as much as compared to other weeks/months where my sales are higher.
It’s just another metric – I see numerous ones on this site, but it is my favorite one to let me know how I am doing with the time/effort I have to put in.
I take out all my money from Paypal every month after the eBay fees are paid. I then keep track of what I spend – I don’t really limit myself or force myself to spend a certain amount a month – if I find something good, I’ll buy it to resell, if I don’t find anything, I don’t buy anything.
At the end of the year I reconcile things, but I know I’m ahead of the game.
Isn’t this what the UPS Store, FedEx Kinko, Staples, and some licensee Post Office locations offer?
I have a friend who works at a UPS Store and says that they charge really good money for boxes, packing materials, and the “time” to pack items for customers and then get the store’s shipping commission on top.
I always thought, expanding on just the pack and ship, that a consignment shop that sells items on eBay would be interesting. Lots of people don’t want to take the time to list items, pack, ship, and deal with buyers – but may be willing to sell for less money for someone else to take a % or flat rate cut.
One local business that has a similar idea is a mid to high-end used clothing store that sells on various websites and in-store. When an item sells in-store, they just remove the listing from the various websites they have it on. They also do all their packing, shipping from the location, and run a pawn-shop type operation where they buy clothing and accessories or loan money against them. The women running it started 5 years ago and now has 3 locations in the area – so it may be a good business.
Running a pawn shop to me is a little sketchy – they get a lot of stolen items and I would be afraid that the police would take back stolen inventory. Doing it the consignment way would allow someone not to put any money out.
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