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07/31/2020 at 2:52 pm in reply to: Managed Payments: Paying for shipping with a credit card – how? #80214
Well this is disheartening. I was hoping I could go to direct card payments once in managed payments. I do the paypal clearout trick currently, but the way paypal reports the transaction to my credit card I’m not getting full points for shipping transactions.
Things are rapidly changing for the better at ebay in the CSR realm. The new chat function is excellent. They even send you a transcript of the chat after you are done for your records.
The feedback removal tool is pretty good.
I firmly believe the new leadership team is actively trying to become more seller friendly.
07/30/2020 at 8:37 am in reply to: ebay managed payments & GoDaddy Bookkeeping – good news I hope #80187The sales transactions missing the title is a BIG deal!
That’s how I cross reference my COGS since ebay won’t allow us to download a years worth of data (which is inexcusable).
07/27/2020 at 3:53 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 473: Does Insurance Make You An Adult? #80027Regarding death piles/life piles:
Same as with most things in life, it can be good or bad. It all depends on your plan.
If your plan is
1. Collect piles
2. ……….
3. Profit!
Then you definitely have death piles.
If you simply have no plan and you’re just piling up junk, then honestly it is WORSE than death piles.
If you are going to play the game of purchasing everything sellable that comes across your path then you have to plan.
You MUST have storage
You MUST have an organizational structure
You MUST be efficient and list as much as possible when you can.
You MUST NOT have a “precious” mentality towards anything in inventory.
You MUST be able to establish and uphold self imposed limits/constraints at any time.
I try to stay mindful of my death/life piles but they can still get out of control occasionally if I have a stretch of amazing sourcing and limited listing time.
My whole purpose of having death piles was so that if I lost my day job I could hit the ground running with zero scavenging for 6 months so I could maximize cash on hand.
Next month will be my 5 year anniversary at my current job, and after talking with management last week it seems I’m up for another promotion likely around that anniversary date. It looks like there’s no end in sight for my current career, but I still have those death/life piles.
So….I have to adjust my plan again if I want to keep them as “life piles” instead of “death piles”.
That plan is hiring my children to do alot of the work. Time will tell if that works out. If not, I’ll adjust.
Another issue is that if you ship that 1st class you will get a late item ding in your metrics since ebay expects it to be delivered via priority.
07/27/2020 at 9:16 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 473: Does Insurance Make You An Adult? #80006Two 36x12x12 boxes get resized to 36x12x8 and fully closed. Then I cut out a side on each so I can slip one over the other. I wrap the skis and place in the first box then slip the other box over it, adding extra padding at top and bottom. I usually have to reopen the top of the 2nd box in order to get the second box over everything. THOROUGHLY tape everything once together.
Voila – a custom 60x12x8 box.
Shipping wizardry is my jam.
07/27/2020 at 8:32 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 473: Does Insurance Make You An Adult? #80003In a bit of other news, I just projected my sales for the year. Last year I had just over 40k in gross sales. This year I’m already at 37k and Projecting my weekly average out for the year has me at 65k in gross sales for the year.
Wow! Looks like I’ll be making “real money” on my taxes this year. Lol!
07/27/2020 at 8:22 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 473: Does Insurance Make You An Adult? #80002Items in Store 1315
Items Sold 30
Total Sales $1,153.00
COGS $70.00
Total Profit $1,083.00
Average profit $36.10
Average sales price $38.43
New Listings 3
My two best sales of the week were two sets of water skis. A couple years ago I stopped at a yard sale late in the day and there were several sets of water skis. The person at the sale said I could just have them if I wanted them. I FINALLY listed them from the death pile a few weeks ago and I’m glad I did. $150, $100, $250 were the sales prices on them! They are a pain to ship, but very much worth it.
07/24/2020 at 8:38 am in reply to: Re-assess your fixed costs (mortgage, insurance,etc). It is WORTH IT! #79918The average on a 15 year in 2015 was 3%, so you getting 2% is quite crazy.
Currently the 15 year is at historic lows right around 2.5%.
My refinance is at 2.62%. My existing loan was 30 years at 4.25%, so it’s a huge jump for me.
07/24/2020 at 7:33 am in reply to: Re-assess your fixed costs (mortgage, insurance,etc). It is WORTH IT! #79915When did you get 2%? They are hovering around 2.5% right now and that’s incredibly low.
07/24/2020 at 7:26 am in reply to: Re-assess your fixed costs (mortgage, insurance,etc). It is WORTH IT! #79914Here in WV, cable/internet companies have regional monopolies. You can’t switch providers since there is only one in most places. It really sucks.
07/23/2020 at 4:13 pm in reply to: Re-assess your fixed costs (mortgage, insurance,etc). It is WORTH IT! #79904I had been with nationwide since day 1 as a teenager because they did me a solid. I got in an accident. My parents told me I was insured. Nope, they never insured me – just the car!!! I was an uninsured 17 year old driver.
I started my own policy at Nationwide with an agent that was the mother of one of my school friends. They never penalized me for that accident that I was at fault in.
A small thing to earn lifetime loyalty. That loyalty was rewarded with SEVERLY bloated rates. Lesson learned – don’t be “loyal” to any company. Switch early, switch often if you can. Make them earn you.
Ok so I have to resolve this issue because I’m refinancing my home loan and I have to reconcile the credit inquiry that the EIDL application put on me.
I called to talk to a person and they confirmed the $1000 that hit my checking account was the LOAN, not the grant. She said they ran out of grant money on the 3rd…my application was approved on the 4th due to an issue that needed fixed. Grrrr….
She said they might get more grant money at the end of the month.
She also said I should be able to access the loan terms, payment amount etc in my account. I need this info for my home refinance. I went to account and this info is NOT there. Double GRRRRR!!!!!
This was most certainly not worth the effort it seems. Maybe I’ll change my mind if I do get the grant funds and they forgive my $1000 loan.
07/23/2020 at 1:20 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 472: Biggest Sale, Biggest Scavenge #79892I’ve built my store with 5 homeschooled children – my oldest is only 13, a full time job, and a full plate of honey-do and children activites to boot.
The key is efficiency. When I am away from my family I want to maximize every minute I have. I get two 15 minute breaks and an hour lunch at work. I used to spend both breaks and lunch either listing or shipping (now I spend them exercising).
I have listed out of the trunk of my car during kids soccer practice before. I’ve sat in the audience during a play practice creating listings of a bag of hats.
I will take photos on my phone and then upload them to listings in every spare minute of the day I have – walking around Wal-mart, using the bathroom (don’t judge), etc.
I used to have my wife drive to places so I could be listing in the passenger seat. We’ve switch back because now my wife is writing her novel while we are in the car (again, every minute counts with 5 time demanding children).
You have to find time – even a minute or two if you can – and make it count to the max.
If I can build a store in my spare 10-15 minutes at a time, you can too! Good luck!
07/22/2020 at 8:15 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 472: Biggest Sale, Biggest Scavenge #79842$3000?
Make time. Tonight.
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