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11/18/2020 at 9:06 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 488: Remember When Life Was Boring? #83552
PirateShip has a specific form tree for cubic rate. You select bagged and it only allows you to enter length and width. So as long as your big box fits in 18×16 poly, you simply enter 18 and 16 and it figures out the rest. It looks like this:
I have never bothered to tape down the loose ends so I don’t know about whether that’s an issue, but it seems to me it would not make any difference. The bag is just a different way of measuring the same cubic space by wrapping two finite two-dimensional planes around something. Obviously you cannot stretch or modify them. It’s pretty ingenious, actually, and would be quite valuable for high volume shippers with different sized boxes if they all fit in a certain size poly mailer. You’d never have to measure the box for a given shipment since the measurements are always the same.
I did witness an issue with cubic-priced packages once at a very small post office where the clueless postal clerk thought it was some kind of scam. The clerk had never seen it before.
11/17/2020 at 7:38 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 488: Remember When Life Was Boring? #83536Can’t say it’s the best three days I’ve ever had because I’ve sold cars and big things on eBay before, but for my inventory selection now, yes it is crazy. Just happened to have a couple big ticket items go at once.
11/17/2020 at 7:09 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 488: Remember When Life Was Boring? #83534(I think I had a post disappear – I apologize if this is a dupe.) Thanks Sharyn and Simon – I haven’t responded and the stamps went back out today with the label provided but the counterfeit thing peeves me, and it peeves me that the seller gets them back so they can be resold to another unsuspecting buyer. I wanted to report it to the Postal Inspector but they’d want the evidence (if they cared, which I’m not actually sure they do), which I needed to return to get my money back. And I’m a little mad at myself for thinking I was smart enough to be able to buy some bulk postage on eBay without being snagged by one of the countless counterfeit stamp listings.
End of rant. I feel better now. And it’s only Tuesday night and I’ve already had over $1400 in sales since Sunday so it’s all good.
11/17/2020 at 11:29 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 488: Remember When Life Was Boring? #83507I’m presently dealing with an unpleasant situation where I purchased a large lot of Forever First Class stamps on eBay that turned out to be counterfeit. I do know better than to buy the heavily discounted rolls of Forever flag stamps from new, low-feedback sellers but this long-time, TRS seller seemed legit and the type of stamp wasn’t one that I recognized as counterfeited. Once I examined them in person and realized they were counterfeit I called eBay. I was disappointed to find out that they had no interest in the issue and told me to do an INAD return, which I did. Now I’m getting multiple emails from the seller who says to send them back but is going on about how they are from a trusted friend who bought them at the PO and how do I know they are counterfeit? I took a closer look at his store and his range of products does suggest a China connection. He probably wants to pass on tips to his supplier on how to make the stamps more convincing but I have not engaged. It burns me to have to send them back to the seller. I’d better get all my money back, is all I can say (he has free returns so he could short me if he wanted to).
11/08/20 – 11/14/20
Total Active Items (3 different IDs): 356
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales not incl shipping: $512.37
Highest Price Sold: $85 not incl shipping – ‘70’s East German rifle bayonet (paid $21).
Returns: 0 (but I did have a $10 INR case I had to pay)
New Listings: 22
$ Spent on New Inventory: $11Solid numbers this week, for me; way above my usual weekly average gross. I too am still feeling jet-lag/hangover from the time change but at least I listed more than I sold.
I had an APO package the week before last that eBay labels couldn’t handle and was able to use Shippo to print a label. Military mail (APO/FPO) must use a customs form but is paid for at US rates and travels within the military mail system once it gets to one of the export processing centers. USPS international service suspensions due to the pandemic do not normally affect military mail. But sometimes there are size and weight restrictions added by local commanders and any host country restrictions on certain types of items generally apply.
11/01/20 – 11/07/20
Total Active Items (3 different IDs): 349
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales not incl shipping: $161
Highest Price Sold: $54.89 minus $4.57 free shipping – 2000 US Sacagawea Dollar $25 Mint Roll ($25 at the bank in 2000).
Returns: 0
New Listings: 10
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0Good ones, all! I love Captain Beefheart. I would add Big Eyed Beans of Friday, but the gauntlet is thrown down to go elsewhere:
Tough Friday
So Young, So Hip, So Friday
Liquor Store Friday in Space
The Loneliest Friday in the World
Giddy-Up-A-Friday
The Last of the Friday Idols
Friday Wall Blues
10/25/20 – 10/31/20
Total Items Listed (3 different IDs): 345
Items Sold: 22
Gross Sales (with a total of about $18 of free shipping included): $556.09
Highest Price Sold: $115 plus shipping – 1970’s Bulgarian rifle bayonet bought for $37.
Returns: 0
New Items Listed: 32
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0Another good week for me, with numbers pumped up by some coins at auction. I discovered this week that eBay Labels under Managed Payments has lost the ability to support shipments to APO/FPO. When I called to complain the CSR said that they’re working on it and that I’d need to go to the post office and buy a label. I replied that I’ll use Shippo instead, thank you very much. He got a little defensive about that. Thanks for the tip on the broker fees under UPS to Canada, Sharyn. I always ship international direct but 99% of the time it’s under 4 lbs and goes First Class. I haven’t had to deal with a larger package in a while but I will at some point.
If the character above the rifles is a “1”, it’s intended to be 1st Infantry Regiment. Unfortunately for identification purposes there were a handful of other 1st Infantry Regiments at the time such as one in the North Dakota National Guard and a federal one in the US Army that operated in the American West that this could be associated with, besides the California National Guard.
If the character underneath the rifles is an “R”, I’m at a loss because there just wouldn’t be that many companies to get to the letter R and it is not a letter commonly used in that insignia for other purposes that I’m aware of.
I do think the 65 is just a local inventory number.
Regarding the mark, in that era the top character was the Regiment number and the bottom character is the Company letter (Company A, Company B, etc.) or sometimes “S” for Supply Company and a couple other letters used. Here’s an example of the enlisted cap insignia that the stencil maker was copying:
This example is for Company M of the 7 Infantry Regiment. Here’s how it was worn:
I wasn’t suggesting you donate it – museums do buy acquisitions. I’ve sold a couple things to museums over the years.
This confirms US military manufacture and use of this box. The “QM D NY” lower line stands for the New York Quartermaster Depot. This box was made specifically for the military, containing military quartermaster supplies for delivery to units across the country. New York did not distribute uniforms or weapons so more likely non-textile camp equipment such as kitchen equipment, though I’m not an expert on what New York distributed. Note the name in the top line of the stamp and the second line, “INSPECTOR”. That’s the name of the actual guy in the depot who inspected this box and stamped it before it left the depot.
I look for eBay auctions occasionally in a few niche collecting areas where I have specialized knowledge. My technique is to run certain narrow category and key word searches on Auctions only during off-peak hours, sorting for Time: ending-soonest. If something looks promising and is still at a low price within say an hour of the end of the auction, I put a snipe in on Gixen for what I’m willing to pay for it. I typically only win maybe 10% of the auctions I snipe since many items get bid up in the last minute, or there is already just a single bid on the item that isn’t showing how high it really is until I come along and bump it up when my snipe goes in. This method works best in categories with a many listings and cluttered with low value items, or more obscure collecting areas with few buyers.
But I don’t sell on eBay for a living. If I did, I wouldn’t have time for this. It’s too time-consuming for how much inventory I can get, which in addition to the specialized knowledge requirement is probably why as Jay said it’s not common.
There are a couple other things sellers do to get inventory on eBay, though, like buying lots to break up and sell.
Sorry, my cut and paste messed up some formatting. Let me try this: what I was referring to was the 1st Infantry Regiment.
This is a VERY interesting box! So Antique Frog being from across the pond will have a different perspective and he may be right, but if I assume it is of US origin, here’s where I as the military nerd would go with it (thank you, Jay 🙂 ), having had my 2 mugs of espresso today:
The US Army infantry crossed musket insignia was adopted in 1875 (previously it was the kind of French-horn-looking design of the Civil War) but it wasn’t until about 1896 that it was common to include the regiment number above and company number below the crossed rifles on insignia. Although your box’s rifles are not quite the same as the characteristic US musket design, this would have been painted on with a locally-produced stencil so omission of the flintlock and trigger guard on the rifles can be excused. The use of the regiment/company numbering with the insignia declined after WWII, and modern regiments would not have a Company K, as that would be the 11<sup>th</sup> consecutively-lettered company which is too many. They also like to use stencils to number things in the Army, so I’d say this was miscellaneous box number 65 in the supply room, or perhaps corresponding to rifle rack number 65 or tent number 65 (though as you’ll see below, I don’t think there were that many rifles or tents in this unit). I’m not sure what might originally been in the box, since most boxes I’m familiar with containing military supplies would have been wood or metal and are well-stamped or labeled from the factory as to their contents. I’ve seen that characteristic riveted hard board construction in boxes before but can’t really date it, myself.
So I think this was locally-obtained and numbered “Box 65” for some kind of quartermaster supplies in Company K of the 1<sup>st</sup> Infantry Regiment of US forces, after 1896 and before 1949. A quick internet search finds that Company K of the 1<sup>st</sup> Infantry Regiment, California National Guard, was designated as infantry in 1895 enrolling 57 men in San Francisco, mustered into United States Service to deploy to the Philippines in 1898 for the Spanish American War, deactivated and returned to State Service in 1899, then conducted miscellaneous duties in San Francisco such as military funerals and ceremonies, and was reorganized out of existence in 1901. So (if I’m right) this box was labeled and in use only at some point between 1895 to 1901, by a very tiny unit!
I’d bet the California State Military Museum in Sacramento would be interested. Value is anybody’s guess. It being from an era not super-popular with collectors and not being a uniform or firearm-related item (I don’t think) it won’t be broadly sought after, but it is still unusual and interesting and may be a somewhat of a unicorn among unit-marked items. I’d follow Jay’s advice, using some of these key words, and perhaps some better military nerd than I will tell you exactly what came in that type of box.
Welcome Eliza Bee. I lived in Hayward for a couple years in the late 1980s and sold at a couple different Bay area flea markets and had a mall booth myself, back then. You ask about buying “at” eBay auctions – are you talking about some kind of live auction?
10/30/2020 at 12:40 pm in reply to: Junghans wall clock, 45rpm spindle, MCM Mailbox, Pioneer CD File Player #83001I’ll add my thanks to Steven! Very informative – as well as everyone else’s sales.
This German musical beer stein took quite a while to sell, but eventually went to a buyer in Israel for $49 plus $23 shipping. The music only plays when the stein is lifted off its base, so I guess it’s not very desirable for music box collectors, and apparently it’s not a particularly interesting stein from a collector’s point of view, either. It was $5.25 at an indy thrift.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273882978406
This pair of Torque by Gargoyle sunglasses was in a yard sale free box. Both lenses had identical half-inch vertical cracks at the bottom but it’s a well-selling brand, if not real high end. It went for a best offer of $15 plus shipping after about a year listed.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273998570420
This US Navy challenge coin was a personal named coin of a Command Master Chief I knew a while back. He had a long career, was hard-core, and was very well-liked by the officers he worked for, his peers, and his sailors. I knew someone would want his coin and would pay a bit of a premium for it. It sold quickly for $55 plus shipping to a buyer whose ID identified him as a Navy vet. It was on consignment.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274458248377
Military unit wall plaques are a good BOLO, though it’s not a very well-kept secret what some of them can go for, so they can be hard to find cheap. This 1990s vintage one from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, took a day to sell for $68 plus shipping. It was a family item.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274473362280
This is a well-selling military item that I frequently run across that is more often undervalued. Late in WWII the military started publishing pocket-sized foreign language phrase books for many of the languages encountered by our forces worldwide. There must have been many thousands printed and distributed. The ones published during the war years sell best, but this 1953 printing of the German language guide still sold quickly for $30 plus shipping. It was $2 at an antique mall booth.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274467055746 -
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