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1. instagram reality:
It is uncomfortably sad to see a girl taking her selfies for instagram in the real world. It’s like the sadness and loneliness becomes palpable in the vicinity. The way the seek out the perfect background to make their surroundings seem more luxuriuous. The way they smile ridiculously while holding the camera up high, and then immediately the smile is gone while they pore over the photo in frustration realizing it wasn’t “perfect” enough before trying again…and again…and again. If you have seen it you know what I am talking about.2. FOMO/envy
I’m personally and selfishly glad you guys have chosen to avoid turning Scavengerlife into a passive profit center for yourselves. I know You guys would be very successful if you chose to push for that online entrepreneur vibe here and I would be very happy for you, but in the process I would definitely hit the exit door. We’ve walked away from a ton of local friends who became obsessed with MLM programs or trying to build their online personal brand through affiliate links in EVERY facebook post and/or constantly trying to sell themselves or a product. Ugh… it becomes impossible to even have a conversation with these kind of people. It’s kind of hard to put it into words exactly why it bothers me so, but the best I can do is that everything starts to feel superficial.I’m not envious of these entrepreneurial people, I’m not irritated because of “FOMO”. At this stage in my life I just have no desire for superficial relationships and being treated like a potential customer.
I could absolutely do those numbers when I go to a bigger city to scavenge. Last weekend on an overnight stay I only shopped my 3 typical goodwills. I shopped total time less than 3 hours and I try only buy items that will sell for $50 or better, but make exceptions down into the $30’s if I really really like the item. In that 3 hours I bought 65 items.
I’m only hitting 3 stores with a very quick “low hanging fruit” approach to each. There are dozens of thrift stores in the area I go and I’m only hitting 3. If I spent 2 solid days even just doing low hanging fruit trips for $50+ items I could easily source 200 items. If I removed my Average sales price cap and searched the whole store I could double that easily.
I can’t do that right now because I just don’t have the time to process that amount of inventory.
This has happened to me. The issue is with the classic shipping page. Some of my packages shipping costs were coming in REALLY high, and some were coming in quite low when using classic shipping page. I actually called ebay to let them know of the issue. They were incompetent as always, and told me that I was the only person who had reported it. They told me to that if I am overcharged, to make a list and they would refund me the difference. And if I was undercharged, then that was no problem – I could keep the difference.
Normally this isn’t an issue, but for items I have listed with free shipping strategically, ebay DEFAULTS to the classic shipping page.
Eventually I realized what the problem was – ebay shipping zones are backwards in the classic shipping page! So items shipping to calfornia were charging me east coast rates, and items I was shipping locally here on the East coast were charging me West coast rates. Ebay still has not fixed this issue as they said they would.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I started getting emails that USPS adjusted my shipping costs. It was weird because they were worded like I had shorted the weight, but I hadn’t. Their reported weight on label would be 2lb and the actual weight would be 1.89 lbs for an example, and they would charge me a few bucks for underpayment. Turns out these were the items that I was shipping to the West coast using the classic shipping page. Grrr…
So now I just use paypal labels if I get in that situation.
03/15/2019 at 12:47 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58692We need an updated version of this commercial with these items alluded to.
I can tell you from experience that these stores do not catch everything. Not even close. You have to improve your game and stay a step ahead. I routinely find plenty of high quality items in our Gucci Goodwills. Am I ever going to find high dollar electronics or very well known recent Buckle jeans there for cheap again? Nope. I push myself to have a better eye for quality in brands or vintage items that are not well known.
And bottom line, if the numbers make sense the price isn’t really a factor for me. If the item costs $20 but I can sell it within a few months for $100, then I’ll take it.
Jay/Ryanne, forum at my post here. Can you help a guy out?
The last one I had I challenged I did everything right. It was a camera I marked as for parts only in the title, the condition, and the description.
Customer FIled an INAD because it didn’t work. To make things worse, they returned it without the lens cover or the brand new battery. The CSR agreed with me and “refunded” me $16.15 for the return shipping plus damages for the cap and battery missing.
I use quotes because the refund never showed in 24 hours like she promised. I called back and of course, the CSR had not documented things properly – a regular occurrence with ebay. They said they would review my case and get back to me in 48 hours or less. That was on December 30th.
I heard nothing until I got an email on FEBRUARY 16th.
It was a simple denial of my appeal with this verbage:
“After reviewing this case again we decided to keep the original outcome because we determined that the original decision was correct.”So after all that time, they denied the already approved refund of $16.15.
I’ve recapped a previous INSANE INAD case I fought and eventually won in another thread on this site, so I won’t rehash it here (I don’t want to either).
There has been a heavy toll exacted here though from these two cases – I no longer wish to deal with ebay phone support in the least. Yes, I would absolutely take the loss now because the mere thought of calling that sorry excuse for customer service makes my stomach upset.
I might contact ebay for business if anything.
Can you post actual links? TinyURL is a big no-no at work.
You can always use the “link” button to hide the URL code if you so desire.
I hope buyers realize the coupon is out there. I have only had a single $8 sale since Sunday afternoon.
Just this past weekend we went to Columbus and I came back with a load of 65 items. I brought bins out to the van and sorted right there, that way only bins came into my ebay space rather than plastic bags of things.
I try to get things sorted neatly into bins as soon as possible. Even if I can’t get to them for a while, at least they are neat and sorted and stackable.
03/12/2019 at 7:35 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58544Thanks! My full size mannequin needs to eat a few cheeseburgers though. She don’t have much ‘junk in the trunk’. Lol!
The full size mannequin is a size 0/1. The lower half womens mannequin I also have is more like a size 6-8. I’m hoping that one day the plus size store will go out of business at the mall so I can score one of their full figure mannequins, that way I have all my bases covered.
03/12/2019 at 7:24 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58543I had an 89 Escort hatch back my senior year of HS and 1st year of college, but I totaled it near the end of freshman college year.
It was blacked out with black hubcaps and full window tint and had a sweet aftermarket bumper when I got it. Pretty cool car. It’s funny, just thinking about it while writing this I swear I can smell the distinct smells of that car.
Is this another weird Berenstein Berenstain situation??
https://www.strangerdimensions.com/2015/01/21/the-berenstin-bears-problem-are-we-living-in-an-alternate-worldline/03/11/2019 at 4:29 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58502You’re store is basically my model. My numbers work out to basically what you already do: get to 2500-3000 items as quickly impossible and then maintain at 75-100 sales a week.
I have a couple other interests as well as a contracting engineering gig that I am fleshing out currently to create other income streams.It looks like your average profit was right at $20 this past week.
The model I presented in this post was based on my last years numbers.
In reality, I think my Average profit will be $20 an item, which would have me averaging out around 100 sales a week. I like to have a good mix of items and don’t shy away from $10-15 profit items as long as they sell pretty quick.The benefit of me only being part time right now is that I can experiment a lot because there is no pressure. This past week I’ve been experimenting with my mannequins and thinking of how I can incorporate them and maintain most of my efficiency. I’ve been using my male and female lower half mannequins more recently and I just started experimenting with my full body female mannequin. My lighting setup is not optimized for use with mannequins other than the upper torso. I plan to add a second photo station for use with the larger mannequins.
My theory is that a mannequin doesn’t really help with the higher end items – they pretty much sell themselves. I think having a well modeled mannequin will help me on the low end with STR and ASP. The first three pair of pants I listed with the lower half mannequins sold quickly. Some Michael Kors slacks that I think would have sat a while and sold for $5 less if I just photographed it flat. The other was a mens Under Armour pair of sweats, and finally a pair of motocross pants. All three sold within days at the high end of the market price range.
Here’s a few examples of ones I just listed this weekend:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264231474970
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264231471934
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264229486848Again my lighting does not work well. The station is not tall enough and the lights are too close. I make it work for now though.
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