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After our first child died, we never put a cap on things or discussed what the “perfect number” would be. Nothing planned, nothing prevented. We can thankfully financially support our children, and we love spending our time with our children. Every one of them is a blessing. Breastfeeding acts as a natural birth control I guess you could say. All of our kids are right around 3 years apart.
If I try looking from the outside in, I can see how it seems extreme. It’s just normal for us though. There is definitely never a dull moment.
Yep, #6. We’ll be maxing out our 8 person minivan this year. Doh!
It’s either a 9 passenger Tahoe/Suburban or a passenger van for us in the future if we want anyone else to ride with us.
Well here’s the deal. You can contact ebay and ask them to put a 10 day hold on the transaction to allow time for the package to be sent. This is supposed to stop buyers from being able to escalate the case.
In reality though, they will still be able to escalate and get an immediate refund with no chance to appeal on your part. The system is still broken and unfair to the seller. Ebay clearly does not care.
Week ending 1/3
Items in Store 1412
Items Sold 25
Total Sales $1,179.95
COGS $75.00
Total Profit $1,104.95
Average profit $44.20
Average sales price $47.20
New Listings 22
I had one day where I sold multiple $100+ items. Man it would be nice to have the 200 item store of nothing but $100+ items and sell 2-3 a day. That would be the life right there.
This past year has been wild. I know it has been a disastrous year for many, but for my family it was a true blessing.
We stayed healthy and avoided Covid.
We traveled/vacationed more than I ever have in my adult life.
My home business grew substantially.
My day job sometimes was ….ok (Better than it has been in years). I also got to work from home for a substantial period. I have a promotion coming up shortly that will put me in charge of the entire foundry. I actually found purpose and satisfaction in my work. That’s nice!
I ended the year with zero balances on all credit cards and a TON of money in the bank. I still don’t know how that is possible with all the travel we did plus having to replace the fridge and dishwasher, but here we are.
I’ve lost 120 lbs since June 2019 and have effortlessly kept it off.
And the best news of all, we found out last week that we have another baby on the way. Yay!
So happy New Year to my SL family. I hope you all were able to make the most of a trying year and I wish you all to have a phenomenal 2021.
Oh and regarding the menu, NO to chili dogs!
I recommend you partner with a local baker and keep a display case with sweet and savory baked goods. Minimal work on your part, minimal equipment/labor, shelf stable foods to minimize shrink.
Week ending 12/27
Items in Store 1415
Items Sold 19
Total Sales $708.94
COGS $53.00
Total Profit $655.94
Average profit $34.52
Average sales price $37.31
New Listings 12
It was definitely a slow week for Christmas. The word definitely got out that online orders were a no-go for Christmas shopping. Bummer for sure, but not as bad as it could have been. I had a $200 sale late Sunday night but the cancelled immediately because they didn’t read the description. No worries, that item sold the following week.
Scavenging wise I had another one of my “gut feel” runs. Sometimes out of nowhere I will get these overwhelming urges to go to a specific thrift store for a quick look when I originally had no plan to go. I have learned over the years to trust these urges as they always result in the best items.
This time it was for this little cash only charity shop that I RARELY go to. It had been over a year since I went there. I drove past the general area of it with not even a thought of it, but then all the sudden I told my wife “We have to go to the Paws ‘n shop”. I turned around and went back. Turns out they were having a 50% off store wide sale. I picked out a TON of stuff. In the end when they rang me up it was $180. Then they reminded me they were cash only (I had forgot). I never carry cash, but checked my wallet anyways. Surprisingly, I had just over $200 in cash. How convenient! I never use cash and had sold a few things on FB marketplace over the past 2 weeks and just put the money in my wallet and forgot about it.
All told, that $180 worth of stuff will net me over $2000. There is one item in there though that is a wild card – a complete vintage Silver dinnerware set. I paid $50 for it. Preliminary research told me it’s worth at least $200, but there are a few similar sets that have sold in the UK for over $2000! I haven’t done a deep dive yet to see what makes the multi thousand sets special.
It felt SOOO good to refinance my mortgage a few months ago. At the same time I switched home & auto insurance as well and saved a TON of money on both. Nationwide was taking me to the cleaners. Lesson learned: NEVER be loyal to an insurance company.
So how did it go considering you are self- employed now? I’m really curious about the details.
Park in garage? No way!
At my last house I removed the garage door, put in a wall with a double door, and converted it to a sweet gameroom. At that time I had around 20 arcade and pinball machines out there.
In my current house my garage houses my ebay office, a full size 8×8 weight lifting platform and rack, and a hot tub.
It would be so boring to use a garage to park a car.
01/04/2021 at 8:53 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 493: eBay Helping Buyers Understand Shipping Delays #84861Week ending 12/20
Items in Store 1422
Items Sold 26
Total Sales $1,000.00
COGS $62.00
Total Profit $938.00
Average profit $36.08
Average sales price $38.46
New Listings 11
01/04/2021 at 8:51 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 493: eBay Helping Buyers Understand Shipping Delays #84859That is GREAT to hear you are out-earning your previous job! You’ve really done a great job building your business. How is your wife’s store doing?
12/21/2020 at 6:38 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 493: eBay Helping Buyers Understand Shipping Delays #84537FYI,
a buyer opened an item not received case. I uploaded tracking and messaged buyer. Couple days later buyer asked eBay to step in and eBay auto refunded them. Contacted eBay and they basically said “ tough crap” even when I pointed out their 10 days announcement.
Oh and that $93 shipping refund from the Hawaii fiasco – still never got it. I am PISSED at eBay this week.
If it was never scanned by the shipping company at any point then you definitely have an issue. The documentation basically shows you never actually used the label so ebay will not remove feedback or close case in your favor. If the item is finally delivered and you see it in the tracking ebay will not reverse the case – they will tell you try and settle with the buyer on your own.
I guess my question is how did you do Fed Ex without a receipt scan? Whether I drop mine at an independent shipping store or a place like Office Depot, they do an acceptance scan to take ownership of the package.
It’s really just a preference thing.
If you are comfortable listing, storing and shipping the stuff, there is money to be made. The unique items such as large serving pieces, tea pots, etc will sell quick. Individual pieces will be real long tail.
I’ve broken down a few sets and it all eventually sells.
I liked to sell by place setting (One of everything).
I recently passed on a very large complete set that would have netted me a few hundred dollars. I even thought about buying it, just taking the unique pieces, and donating the rest right back but it just wasn’t worth the effort for me. I didn’t want to deal with it.
My personal interest in selling the item is always a part of my formula for sourcing inventory.
Brilliant plan by FedEx and UPS. It’s easy to meet metrics when you control the input and move the goal posts.
Restricting a customer who normally has 2500 packages a day to 200???? WHAT?
No wonder USPS is screwed. They can’t turn anything away. And this folks is one of those adverse side effects of a free market, capitalist mail system. What happens when the for profit company starts arbitrarily capping their service? What’s next – a Premium surcharge for “priority” pickup?
I asked my carrier about this, but she would neither confirm nor deny. She would just say she is required to pick up things. I took this as a “no”.
Maybe it is a regional thing.
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