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I’ve found a trick to not getting ‘screwed’ by a buyer on things like framed art behind glass, batteries, light bulbs, etc. Make that stuff ‘free’ and ‘not included in price’, but build it into the shipping cost. I also add text like that allows the buyer to request that that extraneous heavy stuff be left out of the package and invoice, thus affording them a shipping discount. Have never had a problem once the item is received. Glass is so cheap, I honestly can’t imagine someone wanting to pay to ship it free or not. In the case of batteries and light bulbs (often found in lava lamps, clocks and radios, etc) it gets me off the hook if those things die after arrival. Anyone have any other tricks?
I am in PA. I could submit by tax exemption certificate to eBay and use it for shipping materials and other expenses, but I would have to submit my use tax (it’s done twice a year) and get a very small discount for doing it before a certain deadline. The small discount is not worth the effort IMO however. And I rarely buy stuff on eBay to resell.
New years resolution was that I would not thrift while unlisted stuff was lying around. I am so regretting that now and envy those of you with death piles to work on. I also have consignors but they are nearly all elderly, so can’t source there either. We just sold our rental property in OBX and on Friday 3-19 we managed to beat the border being closed to non resident homeowners with 1 hour to spare so we could get in and get our owner’s closets emptied. Back home in PA now, we’ve been getting some of our meals from Home Chef. I have bought enough that they have gifted me free boxes to give to two friends. If anyone here would like to try it, email me at veranda.estate@gmail.com and I’ll send them your e-mail address – a free box generally gets you 2-3 meals for 2 people. Who doesn’t like free food! And the boxes are great for shipping stuff too.
If only! There are 4 of us but one of my brothers is incapacitate / disabled so most of it is going to a supplemental needs trust for him. At least we don’t have to worry about how to take care of him. That kind of peace of mind is worth more than the $2.6 mil.
I went through PSU on less than 10K which included tuition, room and board back in the 70s. My kids did same (they are now 25 and 27) but to the tune of more than $100K each. I am currently working on my mother’s estate and one of the things she and my father did was give ~$200K to a guy at Wells Fargo Advisors about 20 years ago. It was split between a standard investment portfolio and an IRA. When she died in April, the whole thing amounted to ~$2.6 million. They did a split of equity to fixed that was 60/40. If you aren’t saving/investing, you probably should be.
I’ve looked all over site preferences and communication preferences under my ebay and can find NOTHING regarding receiving offers on watched items.
I’ve been a little out of sorts as my mom died in April and I am executrix. Since I am licensed ebay trading assistant and deal with estates all the time, I thought what the heck, I should sell some of her stuff as well. Probably the most expensive thing in the whole house was a Charles Revson Love Bracelet (gold plated copy of the Cartier Original) that my mom bought for $4 in 1970. I have one as well as we bought them together, but she kept the box and paperwork and I tossed mine. Hers sold for $489.99. And her stupid Revlon Nail Whitening Pencils sold for $19.99 each! God Bless you mom! RIP!
Maybe not the same thing, but I am having similar dilemma: buyer ask me if I would take $20 for a $29.99 item that did not have Best Offer. So, I responded with an offer as requested. About a day later she e-mailed me and said she was prevented from accepting it because she had too many outstanding offers…has anyone ever heard of this???… and she wanted me to make the offer again after this one expired. I actually decided to just ignore her and figured if she went around getting all these sellers to lower their price and still wasn’t completing the transactions, why bother.
Jay, before 2019 USPS rate increases, PS was cheaper nearly 100% of the time (no toggling back and forth necessary) because of cubic shipping and in cases where they were the same (some flat rates) you at least got credit card points, so discount was 1-2% depending on your card. Now that rates have gone up, this is no longer the case. I have yet to find a case where any Priority package was cheaper with PS – in fact it’s just the opposite – eBay is cheaper. First class rates seem to be the same so I continue to use PS for those. Their platform actually seems a little faster to me and you can use them for GPS and international as well.
Jay, totally agree! I’m still using Pirate for first class (rates are the same), but haven’t found a PM package cheaper there since end of January, so using eBay for those.
just saw this thread about Pirate Ship. I began using it middle of 2018. Saved me a lot of money and I liked being able to use a credit card and get my points there, etc. Anyway, I have not had a problem with my carrier being able to scan these labels and I’ve often dropped off packages as well and they went through the system just fine. What I have noticed, however, is that when the rates went up at end of January 2019, that eBay shipping was less expensive for most priority mail. In other words, it looks like eBay’s negotiated rate is less than PS and/or they are passing along further discounts to sellers. (I am TRS, but not TRS+ as I don’t do free returns at this time). A representative of PS indicated that eBay’s rates are lower than permitted by law. I wrote to eBay for business to ask if this is an anomaly…basically, it seemed like too much of a good thing and I figured it was a mistake on the part of whomever built the rates into the system. They responded that it was OK. Then that rep from PS indicated that eBay could be ‘caught’ and when they are, they will be coming back to all of us and retroactively charging us for all the shortages. I have not gone back to eBay about that, but it seems like something they would not be able to administer. Any other thoughts out there?
Of course am familiar with Chatham – very cute little ‘village’! As for MaxSold, I always hit thrift stores on my way back from picking up. I think the farthest I have driven to a sale was to just north of the DC area so talking 2 hours or so each way, but could also hit 2 or 3 stores on way back. 5 years ago, nothing was close by, now there’s an auction within an hour of me nearly every week. I did a set up for a MaxSold auction in Jenkintown, PA several years ago, so I knew what the contents would be like. I really had no intention of buying anything, but I went on the site anyway just to see how things were going and ended up winning some really cool 1970s fabric for $27 which I later flipped at David Rago Auctions for about $300 as well as some furniture which we put in my daughter’s Philadelphia apartment (4 pieces for a total of $1 plus tax LOL). Have also bought box lots of vintage craft and embroidery kits, etc, where I could piece the contents out. If there are scavengers in Canada who follow this page, I’m sure they are very familiar with MaxSold. Just another good sourcing option!
Sonia, I too am familiar with that flatware pattern but do not know if it was named for our town – we are known as the home to Longwood Gardens and are also the Mushroom Capital of the world. We are about 25 miles southwest of Philadelphia and 12 miles north of the Delaware/PA border. Jay, I sell ANYTHING that I can safely pack and ship and since about half of what I sell is on consignment, I only take things that I believe will do better with me than they will at a local auction. I sell: antiques, sterling silver, collectibles, kitchenware, glass, pottery, china, dinnerware, clothing, accessories, books, tools, baby stuff, kids stuff, small artwork, jewelry, electronics, handbags, shoes, and so on. The list of things I have sold HAS changed a lot over the years, mostly because of shifts in market demand. I try to avoid the things that used to be ‘rare’ but are now flooding the market due to that generation downsizing. It was a phase that occurred with Hummel figurines about 10 years ago. Used to be you could get $30-50 each…now they sell in lots of 25-50 for that price. Lladros and Royal Doulton figurines are starting to go down that same road. 15 years ago, it was super simple to sell blue jeans for the entire family (men’s, women’s, kids) but now I mostly sell only men’s jeans. Women’s styles are too shifty and kids jeans are easily bought brand new at any WALMART ‘for cheap’. I source mostly from thrift stores (and clients) but will also go to an occasional auction or estate sale. Don’t know if you guys have heard about MaxSold but I almost went to work for them a few years ago and source from them when possible. It’s a good way to source if one of their auctions is being held near you. I think the biggest challenge I face as a 61 year old woman is staying on top of pop culture and styles and what millennials are looking for. I also wish I knew / understood more about the gaming market. Video games and equipment seem to be big sellers still but it’s a segment I never learned as we never had those things in the house because my kids weren’t interested in them. Thank you for adding me and I look forward to sharing and learning!
