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12/03/2018 at 8:17 am in reply to: The highs and lows and self torture of selling large items. #52561
I have a story I’ll be sharing on this item soon once the last piece of the story is finished tomorrow, but the end result is this item was returned.
Cue up your Netflix and watch it. It is an excellent movie with great music.
So you get tracking updates for every single item you sell? That’s a lot of emails!
I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve had a shipping issue with a buyer and needed to know the tracking updates. It isn’t a problem until it is a problem, and I don’t need to know until there is an action to take. At that point I can pull the tracking info easily. Why clog up my thoughts and email with a bunch of irrelevant information.
I seem to remember you do this basically for your entertainment as a shipping nerd, or am I missing something.
The Disney Store still stocks Nightmare Before Christmas every year from September through Christmas. Really I think it is there year-round. I guess since not everyone has a Disney store, that there is a market for it on ebay.
And for the record, it is a Christmas movie! It begins with a party celebrating a successful Halloween (hence, post Halloween) and is the story of Halloween characters celebrating (ruining) Christmas.
Why do people think this is a Halloween movie? Sheesh!😉 😉
I enjoy having this debate with my wife and kids every year. I have a strict policy (not really) that it cannot be watched until Christmas movie season.
11/29/2018 at 11:10 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52474In my memory bank of random useless memories, I still have a vivid memory of seeing an interview of Nsync way back when they were the new hot thing. The guy with the stupid dreadlock hair proudly stated that he would only use underwear once. He’d buy them new, use them once, then throw them away.
I took that as a sign of supreme wealth – being able to treat expensive underwear as disposable. Lol!Something tells me that once his 15 minutes of fame was done he quickly dropped that habit.
If I was full time ebay I probably wouldn’t be on here much.
I’m only on here as much as I am because I’m a captive computer audience from 7-4 every weekday at work.
11/26/2018 at 2:55 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52300I totally feel you on the need to do business housekeeping even when I really need to be listing. With a full time job and 4 kids, my time is severely limited. I feel like I can’t do anything to the best of my ability. My life has become one big effort of “meh, 80% done is good enough” for everything.
Sometimes I admire people who have absolutely nothing better to do than yardwork and decorating…and then I think “man….their lives must be so incredibly BORING!”.
I have not been able to do near the listing I wanted to do. I wanted to be maintaining 1500 active listings once 4th quarter hit. Instead, I’m not even keeping up replenishing the items I’ve sold.
But despite all of that, I have done multiple housekeeping projects. Condensing inventory totes, Assembling another table to better store items, building another storage rack, cleaning garage, reorganizing unlisted inventory, etc. These tasks help me clear my head and reinvigorates me to be more effective when I do have time to list. I also need to be as efficient as possible when it comes time to picking/shipping. If there is one thing you should never take shortcuts on, it is your inventory system. An ounce of organization and preparation can prevent a pound of frustration and wasted time!
11/26/2018 at 11:31 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52280Just be aware that pinballs can be a time/money pit if you don’t know what you are looking for. It’s easy to be blinded by what looks like a great machine/great deal. I have 12 years of experience in moving/maintaining/restoring these machines. I spent $1500 on this machine, and I was prepared to spend another $500 in hard to find parts if needed once I assessed the machine. In this case that was not needed.
There are many great resources out there online to help you get started with a machine.
11/26/2018 at 11:15 am in reply to: The highs and lows and self torture of selling large items. #52275Those places are a rip-off and they charge extra on the shipping as well.
I sold a very large item a few years ago and I got a quote from the local shipping store on packing and shipping. If I remember correctly, they wanted like $100 for the packaging materials/labor and $100 for the shipping.
I packed it myself and the shipping was only like $55.
I’m very capable of packing the large heavy items…I just dread it. Once I’m into the actual job I have fun.
11/26/2018 at 10:47 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52267I’ve sold many in the past. For the last couple years I’ve just stuck with my “keeper” machines. We had all the games we ever wanted and that was enough. I haven’t actively bought/sold in a while now.
10 years ago, I could buy arcade games for $50-100 and pinballs for $300-800 all day. Fix them up and sell them. Now that arcade games have become main-stream popular and apps like Pinball Arcade came out, the prices have exploded. The value of most pinballs has tripled or more in just the last couple years. There are tons more people who got into buying and selling too.
The fun of it all got sucked out for me. It was nice to get the thrill of the score again for once. Deals like this one are white whales at this point. I don’t expect to get another like this.
11/26/2018 at 10:06 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 387: Do Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday Matter? #52264Items in Store 1072
Items Sold 20
Total Sales $759.50
COGS $57.00
Total Profit $702.50
Average profit $35.13
Average sales price $37.98
New Listings 8Had a fun thanksgiving break with the family. For the most part I’ve lost interest in my arcade/pinball collecting hobby – mainly because the prices have increased exponentially.
Last week, I just happened to check facebook marketplace to see a local pinball ad for what appeared to be a very nice machine for a too good to be true price. I messaged the person expecting the machine to be long gone. I sent the usual message stating I have cash and can pick up ASAP. I was surprised to get a response with a phone number. I took a long lunch, picked up cash, and made the 45 minute drive to go get it. Definitely glad I had a truck for a day like this.
It was in even better shape than I hoped. All I had to do was adjust two switches and replace a few light bulbs. I already have it up on ebay for the holiday season:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264059926471
The kids are not happy that I have it listed so fast, but I did only buy it to resell. Lol! They get to play as much as they want till it sells.In other news, my 11 year old daughter wants to start her own store with her own paypal account.
These are her actual words during the discussion “I need to start making money now to get a head start on ife so I’m not a bum when I grow up”. Lol! She bought her first couple pieces of inventory yesterday with her own money.I’m going to teach her to use Excel to track her inventory as well.
I’m thinking about setting her up on poshmark or mercari instead of ebay though so we can both learn something new. Thoughts?
11/26/2018 at 8:30 am in reply to: Unintentionally tried to ship contraband, seized through GSP #52251One time I was directly asked by an international potential buyer to lie on a customs form for him.
Absolutely NOT!I explained I run a legitimate business and do not want to endanger that business for a $50 item. He got all nasty, called me names, and proclaimed that “all other sellers do it”.
I politely replied and informed him maybe he shouldn’t so openly and in so easily documentable a manner conspire to commit federal mail fraud. Never heard from him and he didn’t buy the item.
I ain’t got time to pity no fool! I’m not violating my own personal ethics for some cheapskate. The item ended up selling to someone else soon after.
This is the labels I use:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003F2Q7CU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1They work great and are very affordable.
Yes I store my shoes out there. I have not had any issues so far.
If you have a dedicated laser printer near your workstation that you can leave 2up labels in at all times, then that works great. I was having to load the labels every time I printed labels, which was annoying. Also, the printer was in our school room and my shipping area was in the garage. I had to walk across the house for every label.
Label Printer pro’s:
*Small – sets right beside my listing area.
*Lightning fast. The label is ready in the time it takes me to hit print and reach over to the printer.
*No ink. Ever.
*uses much less energy than a big laser printer.Personally I used a Dymo 450 turbo, and now use a Zebra 4×6 printer. I’m contemplating what to do with the dymo. I may bring it in to work.
Unless you have a 100% optimal laser printer situation, the Return on investment in time and money for the Dymo will be quite quick.
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