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Good point Amatino. The egg cartons aren’t indestructible.
However, they are much more sturdy than packing peanuts and cleaner to customize than foam. Plus they can be acquired for free in most cases. Adding too much extra around the cartons in a box adds a lot of extra space and possibly a little extra weight.
Dimensional weight is impossible to get around, but if the item is fragile or expensive enough then in some cases it may be worth it to add extra protection.
Well, I guess I can’t upload photos, but I made a video on youtube that represents the same thing titled “Ebay Shipping – Using Styrofoam Egg Cartons to Ship Fragile Items”. Check it out if you’d like.
Welcome WendyRoyal5! I’m fairly new to the forums and to selling on my own through eBay. Sounds like you have a good store in the works, there are lots of suggestions and inspiration here on the forums to help with the processes.
Sad to hear about your trip, Thrift Raider. Never been to Japan and if I had to cancel a planned trip to there for something not in my control I’d be upset.
Thanks for the well wishes from everyone. I’m trying to source when I can and build things up.
It’s interesting that everyone seems to have a big “regret” mistake in our scavenging careers. When it happens, we all tend to feel so self conscious and embarrassed. It’s nice to hear I’m not alone in that.
Interesting topic this week. Mistakes happen to all of us. One of the worst mistakes I ever made was to wash a valuable coin in silver cleaner when I was working for a coin dealer. The silver coin’s surface had “tarnished” into a rainbow tone that is very valuable, but I was new and didn’t know any better. According to the lecture I received from my boss, it cost us about $500 in value. Whoops…
First week of sales, and I’m happy with the results. Sold a few “freebies” for low prices but if you don’t count those my average price was $6 higher. Going to a couple auctions this week for the experience and to scout the companies who are running them, hope it goes well.
March 1st-7th
Items in store – 41
Items sold – 7
Total Sales – $73.59
COGS – $20.75
Highest Price – $22.95 (Wilson tennis racket bag)
Average Price – $10.51
Cost of Sourcing – $0
New Items Listed – 11Grace, I think we have a lot in common.
I too worked for Shopgoodwill, at the Toledo OH branch, for several years in the early 2010s. I was a lowly lister at first, and worked up to manager. I too have been working for private companies the last 5 years or so, selling their products on eBay to go along with a storefront.
Sounds like you have a nice little operation going on there, working the “pipeline” as Jay and Ryanne say.
Tam,
I agree that you can only change yourself and be aware of your own habits. I think that living by example is the best way to change others.
Jason K,
I’m 100% with you on that, especially for electronic items and appliances. That’s why vintage items can be so much easier to use – they were made to be repaired and luckily you can still find parts online, i.e. eBay!
I had a similar experience this week. We are remodeling our home, and so we tend to go to the hardware/home store once a week. We decided to take a look in the dumpsters behind these stores and found a treasure trove! They threw away some items with minor damage, several usable tools and at least 10 items that were never used and are entirely undamaged (not boxed). We filled our SUV to the point that we could not properly close the back hatch!
A lot of it will be used on our home, but some will be eBay sales. What a waste….
One week in and, no sales.
Items in store: 35
Items sold: 0
Total sales: 0
COGS: N/A
Total Profit: 0
New listings: 2Find of the week: Box of 12 Halco HPS bulbs in the trash of a home store, listed for $7 each (lowest on ebay) so I can hopefully make $50+ on them over time. (p.s. – we bought $45 of stuff from the store that threw them away, so it will eventually pay for that shopping trip!)
No sales yet, but I have four auctions with at least one bid totaling $35, so hopefully next week I’ll have some real numbers to report. Several items have watchers and I’ve received several low-ball offers. Looking to list about 30 more items this week, found a bunch of stuff in the trash.
Now that some items have some action, my partner is much more excited about this new venture and is planning to source some items herself this week.
I agree with Antique Frog. Maybe for thread or yarn instead of wire? It almost looks like a modernist Christmas tree.
First week of listing seriously. Don’t have much stock yet, so I only have 33 items active so far. I do have my first bid! I listed several items at auction for low prices to get things going, it’s all stuff I got for free from random relatives and I want to get some sales/feedback going to help motivate me. Hoping for some actual sales reporting next week!
Inventory purchased – Goodwill buy for $24, got 10 items
Buy of the week: Briggs & Riley luggage bag for $3, think I can sell for $60+Welcome, I’m new as well. Sounds like you guys have a great operation.
In fact, when I was assistant manager I caught my boss, the manager, shipping unsorted jewelry donations to his own address.
We heard about some complaints at first, before I ever started working there. But the reality is that the sorters still miss a lot, and the overall quality of the items I received was only slightly better than what was on the store sales floor. The biggest difference would be what scavengers would call the “home run” items; the obviously valuable items (designer purses, high quality boots/shoes, clothes with tags, precious metals, etc) that are easily recognizable as high dollar.
Stealing is always a problem at Goodwill. I had to fire 4 of my own employees for skimming in only two years as manager, and caught one of the store sorters doing the same thing. Management does what they can, but most of the staff is paid close to minimum wage and struggle to make ends meet.
