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I get calls from eBay every time they push out a new service. Most recent call was Monday but I didn’t answer it this time. The calls always come from Midvale, Utah. It’s nice that they take the time to make a personal call to a little ebay seller like me. It does make me feel like a valued seller. But after the 3rd call telling me about the same service I start letting the calls go unanswered.
Bitcoin!!!
I moonlight as an anti-money laundering consultant. For awhile some of my clients were cryptocurrency exchanges that due to the services they were offering, required them to comply with certain anti-money laundering regulations. In order to try to grasp the concept of cryptocurrency and the blockchain (the “blockchain” is really where the usefulness of the currency lies for transacting on the internet) I purchased 1 bitcoin for $112 a few years ago. I never put in more than I was willing to lose. Over time I bought and sold up to 4 bitcoins. Never paid more than $112 for one. I expect it might be too late for any new investors to make money off of it at this point. At this very moment the current price of 1 coin is $17,099. Of course, I have no idea, no one really does. It’s fluctuated by as much as $5,000 over a 2 day period recently.
While mostly used as an investment in the U.S., cryptocurrencies are most useful in certain third world countries were local currency is quite volatile and barriers to international trade are great. Infrastructure in many of those countries is such that most people skipped landlines entirely and went straight to cellphones, where cryptocurrencies can be stored. Cryptocurrency use in those countries has made global transactions (and local) easier, quicker and less expensive. An interesting documentary that you can find online: Life on Bitcoin. It was filmed a few years ago. It’s about a couple who attempted to live an entire year using only Bitcoin as their currency. Ryanne & Jay – take your broken computer in and see if they can salvage anything off of your hard drive. I wouldn’t tell them that you saved your bitcoin info there though.Snow in NW Georgia this morning. It’s the heavy kind that is weighing down branches. Our electricity has been flickering like crazy. I got my ebay shipments out to the mailbox early, but don’t know if the post office will be picking them up. The roads are never pre-treated around here and most roads are curvy and hilly. Georgians don’t “do” snow, we hunker down inside and eat our bread and milk that we bought in panic the day before.
Lately I’ve become a fan of online retail arbitrage. I’ve been swamped with outside work this year and have not had time to list or thrift much. But I can usually find time to shop online. The profit margins per item are usually (but not always) lower but I can buy a lot of quantity of a single item quickly, and listing is simple. I can pretty much just copy and paste what the online store has in their description (although I’ve found them to not always be accurate). I take some photos when the item arrives and then store the stuff in the packing materials they arrived in.
It’s illegal or at least against policy for them to accept money so I’ve never tried giving them any. When I was a gov’t employee we could only accept coffee and maybe a donut (how the heck elected officials get away with accepting entire international trips on private jets is mind blowing to me). Anyway, I stick to smaller stuff throughout the year. I receive a gift card for a free meal at Chick-Fil-A every time I donate blood. It goes straight into the mailbox for the mail person (the card, not the blood – hehe). During Girl Scout Cookie season I buy a few extra boxes and put them in the mailbox. I’m bad at remembering to use gift cards so any of those I receive are usually regifted to the mail person as well.
When I was a little kid the elderly neighbor lady was always leaving Little Debbie snacks in her mailbox for the carrier. Half the time the frosting probably melted off but I always remember how cute I thought that was.
Item was sent USPS via Priority Mail, shipped from GA to CT on Nov 27. Somewhere between GA and CT item got delayed for awhile.
Update: My buyer was freaking out about needing the dress for a holiday party this weekend. I refunded her yesterday so she could buy something elsetold her that if dress appears she’ll need to return it or pay for it. I also nicely suggested that when time is an issue she might want to consider narrowing her searches to items participating in Ebay’s Guaranteed Delivery program. This morning I got a tracking update from USPS informing me the dress will be delivered to my buyer by 8 p.m. tonight. Sighhhhh. I promptly emailed the buyer to let her know. I’m definitely going to be on her like white on rice about returning or paying for the dress. It was NWT Kate Spade dress. Orig retail $598, I paid $59 for it at TJ Maxx and sold for $149.99.
Total Items in Store: 937
Items Sold: 25
Cost of Items Sold: $125.02
Total Sales: $752.38 *
Highest Price Sold: $118 (Kate Spade Flamingo Bag)
Average Price Sold: $30.10 *
Number of items listed this week: Not enough
Had a number of older inventory move out this week – always a great feeling!
*caveat – I do free shipping so prices are bumped up to cover postage)I did a lot of online retail arbitrage during Thanksgiving week and now all of those items are arriving daily in the mail. One expensive retailer is killing itself with how inefficiently it is shipping its items to me. I bought literally 100s of items and I’ve gotten maybe a few boxes that contained 10 to 12 items each, and then everything else has been arriving as items shipped individually or in small groups of two or three. Most of the items seem to have been mailed from the same place on same day so who knows what’s going on in that warehouse. I paid so little for the stuff that sometimes the retailer lost money from postage alone. But it works for me because FREE PACKING MATERIALS! Also, it’s kind of like my own Christmas; lots of randomly sized packages to open and only a vague idea of what might be inside.
For anyone who may find this thread because they have the same question: Today Buyer opened a case for item not received so I called eBay. The ebay response: Ebay considers an item lost in the mail once tracking hasn’t shown any change in status for at least 7 days. Note: that does NOT mean delivery in 7 days, but “any change in status.” My follow up question then was “What if I refund the buyer and then later tracking shows movement and ultimate delivery to the customer; what is my recourse then?” At that time Ebay doesn’t really want to be any part of it. Ebay rep told me that if that happens to send the buyer an invoice through Paypal. If buyer doesn’t return the item or pay for it, I would then need to open a case against buyer through Paypal.
By the way – I guess this example makes a good case for Ebay’s “Guaranteed Delivery Program.” I am not yet a part of that program, but I had I been, it is my understanding that Ebay would have been on the hook for the customer refund, rather than me since it’s a USPS delay causing the issue.
My 9-year old self really, really hopes you went roller skating in that storage building before you started filling it.
Ah – Thanks Jay. I didn’t think the Post Office would ever actually admit that a package had been lost. Here’s hoping I won’t ever have to find out.
I am so glad I clicked on this thread. I’ve done a lot of retail arbitrage over the last week (online retailers are offering great discounts that apply even to their clearance items. It’s been my own personal Christmas. All I really want for Christmas is stuff to resell). Anyway, all of the incoming stuff is going to need to be stored. A portion of my basement is an area of just dirt flooring. Nothing is level. I store a lot of totes in there but will be needing to store more and stacking totes is becoming precarious. I’ve been eyeballing storage shelves at Home Depot and Lowes but they are expensive and I’m not sure how they’d do on uneven floors. Plus they are too heavy for me to load and unload and put together. I think cinder block shelves may be my answer! Thanks for sharing your photos!
I see nothing wrong about canceling the sale. You made an error in the listing, it happens. Ebay has a system in place to weed out the sellers that abuse the cancellation system (i.e. canceling sales every time an auctioned item didn’t sell high enough). These sellers eventually rack up enough defects to be suspended. A one time cancellation shouldn’t rise to the level of an international incident. I haven’t read the string of comments above but this is the internet and commenters love to be sanctimonious on the internet.
Wow! Everyone in this thread has had some great sales this week! Quite inspiring.
My best sale of the week was a Ted Baker dress purchased for $6.99, sold for $125. I sold it before and it was returned due to fit. Sold it again to someone in London who kept haggling and wore me down from $155 to $80 on a day that I must have been desperate for a cha-ching. Once she realized global shipping fees were $40, she asked me to reduce the price even further. Nope. Relisted and sold within a day for $125. I love when that happens. https://www.ebay.com/itm/253257000976
Through retail arbitrage I purchased a toddler sized Ralph Lauren blazer that had original retail price of $375! I repeat, that’s for a TODDLER’S garment! I purchased it for $39 and after having it listed for quite awhile I finally took a best offer of $85. Not a great return but an interesting sale. I wouldn’t spend $85 on clothes for myself, can’t imagine spending that much for a messy tot who will likely wear it once. I’m guessing it’ll be worn for a family Christmas photo. https://www.ebay.com/itm/252720301757
Most unusual item sold this week was a Vtg Dr. Pepper Southwestern-themed leather drink coaster set. Coasters featured a covered wagon, an oil drilling rig, a cowboy hat- all things that everyone associates with Dr. Pepper, right? 🙂 I bought it for 50 cents at an Estate Sale where it was the only item worth buying. Sold it during a 30% off sale for $41.99. https://www.ebay.com/itm/252695339814
Only 19 sales this week but not bad considering I’m only listing a few items a week due to temporary outside work that fell into my lap back in February.
Finally, yesterday I saw a classified ad in the local paper. Someone is looking for an ebay seller to teach them how to sell on ebay. I’m gonna pass – it’s not a great sign when the person is posting the ad to a newspaper versus a local online classified forum. To me that shows they are already behind the 8-ball technology-wise and that’s more teaching than I’m interested in providing.
Hope everyone has a profitable week!
Hope the link works – its screenshot of the clock I sold that appeared on The Deuce
I find money on the ground ALL THE TIME! I guess while everyone else walks around looking up, I tend to look down. I found $200 on the ground at the Mirage in Las Vegas a few years back. It was two $100 bills crumpled up outside of the bathroom. There was no one in the immediate vicinity. Turning it into the casino for its rightful owner to come forward would have been pointless, that place is too huge for the money to ever have gotten back to the right person. Since I didn’t see anyone looking around for it, I pocketed it and got out of there.
More recently I found about $220 in a bank envelope at Ollies Discount store. It looked like someone had just cashed their paycheck. The envelope had an Ollie’s receipt in it which had the person’s Ollie’s Customer Rewards card number printed on it so the store was able to ID the person from that and called them to let them know. Was glad to find the owner because it was in the working class side of town and that was probably the person’s weekly pay.
Last summer I found a $20 bill in a purse for sale at Salvation Army. I find money so often that I’ve made myself a rule that if I find anyone who needs the money more than I do, before I get home, I’ll give the money to them. Well my local Salvation Army could definitely use it so I put the $20 in their donation kettle. And guess what – the VERY next day I found a $20 bill on the ground at the lake! Who finds $20 at a lake? I think it was karma, I was just meant to have $20.
I’ve found $20 on the ground at Publix, $5 in the parking lot at Sams, $20 when I was a kid in a Walmart parking lot, $11 on the ground blowing around in DC, $5 in loose quarters at the beach….. 🙂
