Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
If you’re not going to use a CPA, you should probably at least consider TurboTax or TaxAct. I have used TaxAct for years and it seems to get me what I’m entitled to (I think it automatically does QBI).
The IRS website has a lot of good information. Here are some links, assuming your business is not a partnership or S- or C-Corporation.
I use the categories listed on IRS form Schedule C (with some explanations provided in the instructions) here:
https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-schedule-c-form-1040
And for more in-depth questions about what’s deductible and what is not, here:
An interesting change for eBay in this update is that they are discontinuing and consolidating hundreds of subcategories. For years eBay got more and more detailed with subcategories that would assist browsing and searching but now they’re going in the opposite direction. For example, under Comics alone, there are hundreds of subcategories. If I had a post-1992 superhero comic to sell, I had to choose “Modern Age” among various vintages, then “Superhero” among various subjects, and then decide which of almost 60 subcategories it would fit into. They are all going away. Now with Comics the top category, all US comics are going into a single subcategory – “Comics & Graphic Novels”.
EBay will be automatically moving our listings. Without many drill-down subcategories, item specifics and a good title will be very important. If a subcategory is going away eBay says where the listings will be going and warns: “Before 11 May: If you would like your listings to be moved into an appropriate category, please use the applicable eBay recommended item specifics.” There are huge changes to many categories but some areas with many subcategories (like Militaria – woo hoo!) aren’t being touched. (Yet.)
Here’s the link to the category changes: https://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/categorychanges/preview2021.html
Thank you both! I’ve used registered mail before for sensitive documents but didn’t realize insurance could be purchased for it or for that much value.
@incompetent-picker – great advice. You don’t sound very incompetent to me.
You didn’t ask, but the insurance can be tricky, too. I recently took on a consignment for an item listed in the $5,000 range and went down that rabbit hole. USPS caps at $5,000 and independent insurance providers like Shipsaver and the other carriers have some fine print and deductibles. So if you have not already figured that out, don’t wait till the last minute.
In my agreement with the consignor I disclaimed any liability for loss once it is in the carrier’s hands and warned him that he could lose the item and his money in a worst case scenario. I explained that if he wanted more safety he should take the item to a local auction house.
I didn’t even think about the chargeback issue. Sheesh. I hope someone who sells high dollar items chimes in here.
2/21/21 – 2/27/21
Total Active Items (3 different IDs): 337
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $410.83
Highest Price Sold: $90 – 1970’s Russian rifle bayonet.
Returns: 0
COGS: $134 (including commissions but not including cost of any family castoffs sold)
New Listings: 23
$ Spent on New Inventory: $25The bayonet sold to a former Russian soldier now living in the US who was looking for the type of knife he used to carry on his belt 40 years ago (or so he said). I let him have it on a low best offer for old times’ sake. I did spend much of my waking hours around 40 years ago training how to do him and his comrades in but no hard feelings now.
My wife and I drove up to visit friends outside of Atlanta GA last week and took the opportunity to hit a few antique malls and flea markets and found a few things that will pay for gas. It was nice to get into some interesting scenery of varying elevations. I love Florida but it is flat. On the other hand, it was too darn cold up there for me.
2/14/21 – 2/20/21
Total Active Items (3 different IDs): 324
Items Sold: 15
Gross Sales: $667.22
Highest Price Sold: $285 –1895 Dutch Mannlicher Cavalry Bayonet.
Returns: 0
COGS: $105 (including commissions; not including cost of any family castoffs sold)
New Listings: 22
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0The eBay gods do like me to be listing, it appears.
2/7/21 – 2/13/21 Total Active Items (3 different IDs): 317
Items Sold: 8
Gross Sales: $241.41
Highest Price Sold: $69 – official invitation to the ship commissioning of USS ARLEIGH BURKE in 1991 signed by Admiral Burke.
Returns: 0
COGS: $45 (mainly commissions)
New Listings: 9
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0I just received an email regarding Managed Payments that indicates eBay may be throwing a wrench into being able to pay for shipping with a credit card:
“Beginning in late March, eBay will phase out the billing of selling fees and expenses via a monthly invoice. Instead, eBay will collect fees and other expenses, such as those resulting from refunds, claims or disputes directly from your earnings. If your earnings are not sufficient to cover these amounts, we will charge your payment method on file (debit or credit card, and/or linked bank account).”
It sounds like we won’t have the option but I hope it’s just their usual lack of clarity and we’ll still be able to choose direct collection from a credit card or from a card through Paypal.
They also mentioned that we’ll be able to create listings on eBay UK, Germany, or Canada sites. Not sure what that would get us as our items should already be visible on those sites if we offer shipping there.
Bad family. Yes indeed. It got really bad in my 40’s when my kids were born and through their early childhoods. Seeing life through their eyes dredged up the worst of my bad memories and it took a mighty effort to make their childhoods better – without spoiling them 🙂 . Not to mention reliving embarrassing moments from later in life, too.
I’ll have to say that I am much more at peace now in my mid-60’s with the passage of time. It has been one advantage to the forgetting stuff part of getting old. Bad memories and embarrassing moments don’t pop into my head any more. You youngsters have that to look forward to!
Good stuff y’all. Love that football booklet, Sharyn.
This is a neat unused 1954 notebook calendar that would have been available for purchase by sailors at the ship’s store on the Midway-class aircraft carrier USS CORAL SEA at the time. It came with a boxed CORAL SEA cruise book from the same year that I picked up years ago. It sold for $60 plus shipping.
This consignment US Navy challenge coin is from Special Warfare Unit 3 in Bahrain. It does not have the fancy colors and designs that many of the better-selling coins do but it is uncommon and the SEAL connection helped me get $125 for it plus shipping.
Another US Navy item, this is a wall plaque from the USS KISKA, a fleet oiler, circa 1990. Plaques such as this are given to departing crewmembers as a going-away gift. A small brass plate would have been affixed wishing them “fair winds and following seas” or something similar. It sold for $50 plus shipping.
When I found this large metal vase in the shape of a horse’s head at Goodwill for $13 several years ago I thought it was the perfect Hollywood Regency living room accessory and priced it high. Unfortunately there was very little interest in it and I lose patience with large items like this so I kept dropping the price. It sold on a best offer for $12 plus shipping. Somehow eBay’s fickle shipping label calculator overcharged the buyer by $7 more than I had to pay for a FedEx Home label so I about broke even on the deal.
This interesting large framed print from 1936 featuring a map of the campus of Harvard University was issued in honor of the 300th anniversary of its founding in 1636. It was a family item and sold for $200 plus shipping.
This was another remnant from my childhood that turned up in my dad’s estate a while back. Not many of these tiny HO OO scale toy soldier Airfix Attack Force Jeep and Trailer sets survived from the ’60’s, hence the $96 plus shipping I was able to get for it. It went back to the UK where Airfix toys are big.
Your tracking should have updated by now and you should now be able to file for a package return online if you didn’t go to your local yet. (Costs money, though.) The buyer could have had their account hijacked or something, or claiming an unauthorized purchase. I would call eBay to see if there any indications that there are issues with the buyer’s account or if they’ll do anything different than throw their hands up since the package has not yet been delivered. Though you may get an unhelpful CSR when you first call, given the value of the item you might be able to kick and scream and get a supervisor to help.
Let us know how this turns out.
Well, that’s a different matter. Our point is that even a foreign buyer having someone else do their pickup we don’t think is in itself a red flag. As for Italy, I’ve sold there for years without any problems except once when their customs service didn’t like the knife my buyer ordered and returned it to me but I lost no money on the transaction. I’ve heard that Italy has an unreliable postal system but Shipsaver insures my packages going there so it can’t be too bad. But eBay accounts are hijacked sometimes and there are attempted scams from anywhere so if there’s something else suspicious I’d say to call eBay and see what they say.
What Jay said is a good idea. Sometimes it takes a little noodling around if you don’t want to deal with the fanatics, though. If you search “Joe Rohde” in Terapeak, what comes up is some kind of adult Mickey Mouse hat he designed that sells in the $375 range. Also try searching “autograph” and “signed” in the Disneyana collectibles category. Based on just a quick perusal if it were mine I’d put it up in the $400’s to have some room to take a best offer if it comes to it. A little more research might give you confidence to ask more.
I have not dealt with a “personal courier” but I’ve had local pickups done by UShip and others without the actual buyer ever showing up. Seems that if you’re ok doing local pickup for this item, you could give it to anyone who shows up with the right eBay code who you’ve been told will come get it by the buyer through eBay messages.
1/31/21 – 2/6/21
Total Active Items (3 different IDs): 316
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales not incl shipping: $444.45
Highest Price Sold: $174 not incl shipping – USN Challenge Coin from USS THUNDERBOLT PC 12.
Returns: 0
COGS: $193 (all 6 sales were consignment coins)
New Listings: 9
$ Spent on New Inventory: $0Great pew pew there to celebrate, Ryanne. Let me add my congratulations and heartfelt thanks to you two. I started listening in early 2015 in the Episode 180-ish range I think it was and I still can’t do without my weekly fix of your wisdom and insight, belying your youth. Yes, nihilists can be optimists.
I am one of those who can’t seem to find the time to really ramp things up but it is mainly retirement fun for me so I can live with that.
I think it’s also the AI giving you results for what it thinks you’ll be interested in. I find it particularly bad on major retailer websites for auto parts and home improvement. Type in a specific search and get hundreds if not thousands of irrelevant results. For me eBay seems to do it sometimes, and sometimes not.
Searches for sold items on Terapeak seem to be consistently better. I always get results with titles specific to my search.
