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Wire Transfers outside the US
Friends,
In many countries of Europe, Latin America, Middle East, among others, Banks function like PayPal, they are transaction brokers.
For example, in Brazil, you dont pay accounts directly to the Power or credit card company. Rather, you receive a type of invoice with a type of barcode. You pay to your Internet Banking (this is all electronic, just using these examples to make it easier to understand).
As such, besides the payments (please notice you cannot make payment directly, very rare, since you cannot bypass the payment document generated by the bank), there are basically 4 types of money transfers:
Transfer to another account in the same bank: real time, it is available immediately upon hitting enter
Transfer to an account in another bank (this is the Wire Transfer): same day, funds are available next day but with the date you hit enter.
Electronics Funds Transfer: this is similar to the transfer in the same bank, but for different banks. For amounts higher than US$1.5k, you can use this option, it is available in under a minute after hitting enter
And finally International Wire Transfer, or SWIFT: it is available by end of day if you transfer early morning or net day if afternoonThere is usually no fee. For International transfer the fee is about US$6 (six dollars)
In Brazil the reason there is no fee is competition
It works more or less the same in the places I mentioned with small variations in the fee schedule
Slides Scanner
Friends,
For those curious about the definition of the low cost slide scanners available though Amazon for example, below is a listing I made a few weeks back.
Printing while on the road
Friends, it seems we did not have a closure on this topic last week.
There are some options for portable printing, one of them is using BlueTooth printers, there are many many many options from $45 new (Epson Expression) to $500 new. Some thermal label printers for $200 new from Zebra.
You can also use Internet printing, many, if not most, modern printers have the option to be made available through the web. In a nutshell, after you set up your printer in your hotspot as its home network connecting to the Internet, you send anything from your phone to the Internet printer. Then you connect your printer to the hotspot and any pending job you be printed upon connection.
The only tip is making a handful of printings first to get used to configurations and other things that can mean hassle to avoid loosing jobs.
Hey Manateejaq,
After some advice from Linda, I started to sell on Etsy, it took a while to take off, but now I have consistent sales, however I stopped listing.
I was cross listing, but since listing is what blocks me from doing more, I decided to stop there to maximize my labor.
From one side, there is no way for me to split since my focus is mostly the same, but apparently for my scope, more focus on Etsy would yield me more sales.Crossing my fingers for them to open import from eBay …
Thank you Linda, we always connected well since our first exchanges 🙂
Being a Misfit is all about me, I always try to do things differently, to break paradigms, break rules, find alternatives
When I got the idea for the freelancing blog here, this did not take long to come to mind
And the image I found for the graph blow me away 🙂
Well, I mentioned a couple of times I have OCD …
I use quickbooks for the each of the two businesses and I had Quicken Rental for the rental house.Everything is connected, including PayPal
Hello Friends,
I loved this question too, it is actually my favorite topic as I mentioned a few times.
Also, Jay says he does not have degree on this but what he does and the advises from him are much better than most. Jay is always super sound with clarity and objectiveness.
Also, T-Satt always post great details, they are really great compendiums on each topic he comments.
Having said that, I think both have shared great insights bout how to allocate cash, since biz ops management is my favorite topic, I will just add a few thoughts.Jay and the friends in this thread mentioned several times it is up to the model we decide to follow, possibly there is not only one right response or model.
However, the foundation is related to where is the business built in relation to your life. For example, Jay and Ryanne have their business and activities built around their personal lives. So their business entity (call it business persona) is themselves. eBay Store 1, eBay store 2, rental 1, rental 2, video producing freelancing are intertwined. Watching from “here”, they see their revenue, they have their personal expenses then they can decide how to use their profit, with a very solid inventory strategy.
Another model is when you have eBay as a complement to their main job. This is where I offer my first tip: if possible treat this eBay entity separately so that whatever you have to put down to start, you can have clarity when you have recovered and also you will have a decent understanding on how it is going. And, off course, have visibility about revenue, profit to give you solid decision points. You would also have clarity to assess how much investment on inventory for example yield in terms of revenue increase, among many many other things.
However if you do not keep it separated, it might be confusing to have clear understanding of where you are going.My case is the other side. I have everything separated as I mentioned in my post that Jay recovered. It started like that by default and eBay was one of the consequences, I did not start because of eBay.
Originally I had 3 independently running businesses, I recently sold my rental house (it was incorporated too).
For me it makes very easy. From eBay for example, being a steady cash-flow, I can pay mylself periodically. Please note this is a salary, I do not take a few bucks this week, than a hundred next month. This way I can also have clear understanding that I have that salary being paid by eBay business and even if I sell nothing in a month the business have that previously know expense to pay its employee.I think out of these 3 foundation models you can have your conclusions.
Loooong Tail / Slooooooow Sellers
Friends most of what I have, I dare to say 600 out of my current 620 items are slow sellers, they will take longer than a year to sell.
These are the items the potential buyers will think a lot to buy before actually taking any decision and even so they will try to push the price down.
Take a look at my “bread and butter”, Wedgwood Jasperware is the one type I sell the most, others I listed Jan/Feb last year are just selling now.
Even my personal designer clothes I purchased in the early 90’s originally from the designer stores take a long long time to sell.
This is actually by design for me, I do not thing I will ever be able to have other type of store because of lack of skills to find those items. As a rule everytime I try these things never ever sell.
Other issue is I cannot find things cheaper than my usual $5/$20, try to avoid anything higher, even though they would yield a lot more if they would sell. I have for example a super rare Armani Sculpture I paid $70 and it’s there sitting and looking at me. I out other $70 in a 19th century Tiffany’s custom cup that sold for $290 in 3 days.
Quick comment about Global Shipping
Global Shipping was removed from my options a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I would sell relatively well internationally.
I added other shipping options and my international sales grew over the period. Mostly Italy and Russia as been the normal.
It sort of aligns with feedback and complain from buyers related to Global Shipping not being good in terms of cost.Big Nasty Customer Issue
Friends,
As I always mention, I accept hassle free returns, no questions asked. Best scenario is when buyer messages me and comment about the issue or change of mind.
I also learned to avoid those customers who always bring trouble, usually those who come complaining even before bidding on an item.
On the other hands those cases where customers file for return and just lie with the item not as described or worse, these cases I usually move to eBay.One of these cases I mentioned 2 weeks ago, the person purchased one of the Austin Sculptures I usually sell, in summary the person came demanding email only contact and 24hrs turnaround otherwise several threats came following.
I replied over the messenger service and never heard back. About a week later the person found me or already new I was on other services and did the same, this time with pictures, HOWEVER THE STATUE WAS CLEARLY NOT THE ONE I SENT (we can discuss details if anyone wants).
More threats about erasing me from the map, etc.
Well, I just ignored all these interactions and just waited for a contact officially from the site where the sale was closed.
Nothing came. I am expecting more of this since each contact came in about 7-10 days interval and now it is about time for the 3rd contact/threat to be made.
Ouch
BTW, there is little return movement, very little. Usually the return generate positive comment.
Help with my last reply
Jay and Ryanne, I created a long reply to this post to talk about my operating model. Then I edited the post and made something wrong.
If you can please recover the post draft and republish I would really appreciate it.
It disappeared from my end and it included a lot of information about my operations and plans.Thank you and sorry for the mess
How my “list and forget” mistake helped me to bypass current eBay motion to remove older posts
I just recently learned there is a “Good til’ cancelled” option to list. Until a few months back, my listings were all 30 days and then I would select the last listings and add the “list continuously until the item sells” option.
What it does is that after 3 automatic re-listings your listing is finished but then this configuration makes it re-listed without the need to manual intervention.
I do not have any evidence but it dubs what Ryanne did for her 200 listings in an automatic way, so my assumption for not receiving cancellation messages from eBay is because I am bypassing the system.
AWARENESS: (apparently) odd items from Designer Fashion Brands
Hello,
Just a quick remark about the Gucci pipe stand mentioned in the cast today.
It is not uncommon for brands like Gucci, Hermés, Tiffany’s and others to have apparently odd items under their brands. Even more vintage or antique. I can dare to say that the more antique the higher the odds to have something unusual for these and other brands.
Also, as an interesting rule, they use alternative logo, symbol or brand recognition mark on those items, so it is worth paying attention.
Also, they always yield very high price, needles to highlight that condition and other details are impactfull too, So if you have the patient it is very likely you will make good dime on those items. They are very collectible and sought after (not necessarily that specific item but odd items from those brands).
Other important detail: it was not unusual for those brands to have customized items, for marriages, baptism, etc.
Example a few weeks back I found a 1870’s Tiffany’s silver cup from a grandfather in my auction. I did not pay cheap but I tripled what I paid in two days. I could have full prince (was asking $500 for a tea sized cup more or less) if I wanted to wait longer.
