Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
07/08/2019 at 8:49 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 418: Brick & Mortar Store Is Not For Us #64617
Would you be able to possibly share a photo or two and a general description of your setup in the Photography section?
This two camera tethered setup sounds quite interesting!I’ve always thought it would be cool to have an overhead camera, use a remote shutter release, and have the images show up on the computer screen just like a photography studio.
07/04/2019 at 2:52 pm in reply to: Fathead Pizza – keto. Unbelievably easy and similar to real pizza crust! #64531Yes I’ve read it. Very enlightening book.
I joined their facebook group and quit a couple days later. Some people take his words, twist them, and develop SERIOUS eating disorders. It was like a pissing contest, who can go without eating the longest to wear as a badge of honor. Sheesh!The Fat Burning Man podcast is good too. He has interviews with alot of great doctors and researchers.
Gimp is free and very powerful. I’ve used it and liked it.
07/03/2019 at 11:47 am in reply to: Fathead Pizza – keto. Unbelievably easy and similar to real pizza crust! #64462My carb cravings were gone in 48 hours. Maybe that was because of the initial 24 hours fast and continued 16/8 intermittent fasting?
Did you do any fasting last time you tried Keto?
Once I have the sugar and processed carbs out of my system, I become quite in tune with what my body needs and doesn’t like. For instance, my body does NOT want to go hog wild on fats. Adding fat to just add fat is not for me. Then after I read enough about it, it is recommended that obese folks don’t have a minimum fat intake. Just meet daily protein requirement, minimize carbs, and let fat be where it lands as long as you have healthy fats in your diet.
I’ve also found myself turning away from meat protein on some days.
It is nice to be able to trust my gut.
I also now understand I simply cannot go back to eating junk in any way shape or form. Ever. This eating has to be permanent and it absolutely can be. I threw away a 70lb weight loss 2 years ago because I had a cheat week on vacation while working through an injury. I never recovered from that decision, even thought I convinced myself I could. It sucks feeling like a prisoner in your own body that feels incapable to make good decisions. That is what it is like once unhealthy eating takes ahold of me.
I’m 37 and have been fat since I was 9. That’s long enough.
Same here – all baseball style hats go in an ebay 8x6x4 box.
I have in the past done this with arcade parts. I don’t have the time/patience for the testing/repairs anymore, so I moved on. If you have a good rig for testing, there are TONS of “for parts/repair” listings on ebay to purchase and fix.
The barrier to entry is MUCH lower on Reddit. You’ll get alot more casual users there as well as trolls.
I’ve been reading in the r/keto forum over there lately and the majority of folks are awesome. Every single thread seems to have at least one troll commenter though.I understand your desire to simplify though. Do what is right for you guys.
07/02/2019 at 7:31 am in reply to: Claiming mileage and expenses on travel as well as other tax advice for a newby #64382Trips can be business and pleasure but as Jay said, there is a limit.
Personally, we take weekend trips to a bigger city that is 3 hours away 4-6 times a year. On these trips I scavenge every day and buy a bunch of inventory. Also on this trip my family comes and we stay in a hotel, go out to eat, go to the zoo, shopping, etc.
Would we go on these trips anyways if I wasn’t ebay selling? Yes. We did this before I was ebay selling.
However, it is still a legitimate business trip now. I have the receipts to prove I was doing legitimate business on this trip because I actually was doing legitimate business. I claim the mileage of the trip as well as the hotel cost. Sometimes I claim my meals (not my families). I would confidently claim these trips in front of an IRS agent.On another front, we take a trip every year to the beach or somewhere else much farther away than 3 hours. The main point of this trip is a vacation – not business. I may occasionally check out a thrift store along the path.
For vacation trips I do not claim the mileage or the hotel. I do claim a few miles here and there if I make a specific short drive trip to go scavenging.
I could very well turn a vacation into a legitimate business trip if I wanted to and claim all of it. But… the point of the vacation is to disengage from work and be with my family. I am happy to not claim those deductions.
The art of the self employed tax game is to make your life deductible. Combine your daily tasks and expenses with your business as much as possible. If you need to grocery shop at walmart, you may also need storage totes and batteries for your business. Now that grocery trip is a business trip you can claim the mileage on. You have a receipt for your supplies to back up the validity of your claim.
Hopefully this helps you.
07/01/2019 at 4:02 pm in reply to: Fathead Pizza – keto. Unbelievably easy and similar to real pizza crust! #64353I’m down 28 lbs since 6/5. I eat 1700-2200 calories a day in 2 meals. I don’t eat until after 12 and I am done eating by 8, most nights by 7. I never suffered keto flu or anything negative. I did start with a 24 hour fast and have intermittent fasted the whole time. Matter of fact, I had the euphoric feeling of being high and super energized for the first 2-3 weeks. Once I became fat adapted about a week ago I thought I had completely kicked out of ketosis because I felt more normal. I miss that high feeling and general lack of appetite. It was pretty cool.
I don’t count calories as I know almost all clean whole foods meal made with my staple ingredients is always between 700-1000 calories. I eat around 100g protein each day and don’t bother counting fat. I make sure to add healthy fats to everything in moderation.
Alot of things seem to be different in my experience than what many people describe feeling. Maybe that is because I don’t stick to 20g carbs. All I know is that it is working.
07/01/2019 at 3:50 pm in reply to: Fathead Pizza – keto. Unbelievably easy and similar to real pizza crust! #64351Oh its totally attainable. People who do keto dirty can do 0 carbs easily. I read a blog about a guy who lost 175 with no exercise and all he ate was 2 bacon wrapped hot dogs every day. Most folks who hold 20g cut out all veggies.
When I started at the beginning of the month I was doing the math on all my meals and developing my go-to foods. I quickly realized that holding to 20g carbs would cut out a ton of foods I know are good for me. Veggies are a staple of my intake now, as is avocado and lower carb nuts. That’s where all of my carbs comes from.
I eat lunch and dinner and if I’m not already bursting at the seams (my appetite and bad food cravings disappeared almost over night), I either make my loaded protein shake or I have yogurt for desert.
Speaking of desert, I combine 1 cup of Fage 5% plain yogurt with 1 scoop of my chocolate protein powder. It mixes super smooth with just a spoon, tastes devilishly divine, and has 8g carbs. My wife has given up ice cream and has switched to this as her favorite desert too. The Fage 5% yogurt is sooooo smooth and creamy. It blows all other yogurts out of the water.
Also, 1 cup of 5% greek yogurt is ALOT of yogurt.
07/01/2019 at 1:41 pm in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #64333Mr Vintage,
Every once in a while someone comes on this forum with an all-knowing presence, starts telling folks how wrong they are, and never posts specifics on their own business. So what you are doing has been done here multiple times, which is why Jay is getting irritated.Kick your shoes off, loosen up a bit, and share a bit more specifics to back up your ideas and it’s all good.
How long have you been selling on ebay?
What’s your average sales price, Average Cost of goods?
How many items do you have listed vs how many items do you sell a month?These are basic questions that answers can be provided without giving away any personal or identifying info. If you can’t provide any of this data to provide a frame of reference for where you are coming from, well…then this will likely be the last I try to engage with you.
07/01/2019 at 1:36 pm in reply to: Answers on Finance, STR, and ROI to Mr Vintage Estate Liquidation from eBay #64332Some items need to be in the system long enough for google to pick them up. That is the benefit of “good till cancelled” for long tail items.
I wish ebay would supply more metrics on listings. The big hitters I want to know is how many people got to my listing from an organic ebay search, how many came from an ad, and how many people came in through a google search. That data has to be there. It would be very actionable data as well that would make ebay MORE money!
I’ve started to relist my generic items such as run of the mill shoes and shirts. Getting a boost in views is worth more in those cases than the google search boost.
That reminds me of a Marshall college football game my dad and I went to back in the late 90’s. The back of the ticket said we could turn the ticket in for a free Powerball ticket. After the game was over, we noticed there were tickets laying EVERYWHERE. If memory serves me correct, we collected just over 200 tickets. We got them all turned into powerball tickets and won…. twenty something bucks..
Ah it was still fun though!
Items in Store 1239
Items Sold 25
Total Sales $752.00
COGS $55.00
Total Profit $697.00
Average profit $27.88
Average sales price $30.08
New Listings 57Summer goal: Under target this week by $123. Currently cumulatively $409 under target
This was a very frustrating week to say the least. Ebay screwed the pooch with their updates. I’ve had to modify my listing process because they changed how uploading photos works in the app. I fought through it and went through all of my items to fix all my flat rate shipping items. I finished up Thursday morning fixing my items. Up through Wednesday my store was ROCKING and I was on pace to blast past $1k for the week again. Then Thursday, coincidentally as I finished fixing my whole store, my sales nosedived off a cliff! I went from having $200-300 in sales a DAY to being lucky to sell 1-2 cheap items a day. Yesterday I had ZERO sales. I’m not even getting much offer action either.
I only made $145 Thursday – Sunday on 7 sales. I hate being a conspiracy theorist, but I have had VERY consistent sales for several weeks which coincided with my increased listing. The only thing that changed this week was ebay’s site issues.I checked my promoted listings impressions and clicks data, and there was a significant drop in impressions and clicks from Wednesday- Sunday of about 20% each day for impressions and a 25% drop in clicks.
Both numbers rebounded yesterday to normal numbers consistent with what I was seeing prior to Thursday.This tells me something definitely changed on ebay that affected customers ability to see my items.
I wish they would provide those metrics for all my items outside of promoted listings.
Scavenging wise, the highlight of my Saturday yard sale adventure was a sale that had a bunch of lacoste clothing. I bought 12 items for $1 each. Score!
I finally got one of those rare people who actually thing free shipping is really free.
A buyer made an offer on an item that has free shipping on it. They are in Puerto Rico, which gets the free shipping just like domestic USPS.
I declined their offer and said that I would need full price to ship to Puerto Rico.
They messaged me and basically asked why it was a problem since the shipping was free. ::facepalm::I politely replied that shipping is free for the buyer but is most certainly not free for me, the seller.
-
AuthorPosts