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01/30/2020 at 12:23 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Glass ice bucket low ball cocktail set, Lineman belt #73496
Still crickets for me here, way off from previous years despite having about twice as many listings this year. Sending out offers to watchers (25% off or more)? Crickets. Putting things on 50% sale? Crickets. And to top it all off, I got an insulting message from eBay to “help” my listings not moving, telling me to price items right, provide item specifics, and use Promoted Listings; all of which I do already. Sheesh.
Not to encourage anyone to try and sell mugs especially with increasing postage prices now, but I do find that at least military ones sell, if not for high prices. This diner-style one from Naval Surface Force Atlantic Fleet sold for $14 plus shipping. It was a freeby.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273863385600
Same with hats – only military ones are selling for me. This US Army 1st Cavalry Division baseball cap from their time running an Afghanistan task force in 2011 – 2016 sold for $23 plus shipping. It was $1.50 on sale at Goodwill.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273989929035
Old style shaving is making a comeback. Self-contained Rolls Razor kits have been cluttering flea market tables for years but now people will actually buy them to use so they do sell. They were kind of the first safety razor and there must have been millions of them made. There’s a bit of a trick to get the kit all put back together and if improperly done, the honing stone will crack, so check for that if you’re buying. And if the stropping is done incorrectly, the leather strop gets nicked. This one (no cracks or nicks) sold quickly for $33 plus shipping and was $5 at a local flea. Having the instructions helped the sale; it would have done even better with an original box. I put a note in the box for the buyer to please watch one of the Youtube videos on how to disassemble, use, and reassemble these if they did not already know how.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274196039998
These unbranded 1930s boxing gloves were out of my dad’s estate. I had high hopes at about $100 as the brand-name ones can sell for, but it took dropping the price to $45 plus shipping to sell them after a year. They went to Australia for $75 total cost to buyer.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273833373301
This US Navy submarine Commanding Officer’s presentation challenge coin was a recent higher-priced one that went for $44 plus shipping. The Los Angeles class attack subs (there’s over 30 of them) are named for US cities so sometimes there is hometown interest as well as from military collectors. That class started in the ‘70’s when the US military was dying from lack of funds, low-quality recruits, and post-Vietnam negative perceptions. The Navy probably thought using city names would help, getting the military mentioned in local news with a positive story.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274141773415@MyCottage: It pains me to give you a thumbs-up for a “like” for your two posts because I don’t “like” these policies, but I do thank you for these important reminders.
Recently I’ve been frustrated by another aspect of the search tracking – not just the selling platforms that dominate a Google search for anything, but also how anything you’ve searched for then affects subsequent searches. For example, I was recently looking for news specifically regarding a Canadian issue. Then when I was back on Google or any news site for a while after, all I got was Canadian news on the topic I was searching. Very annoying (not that there’s anything wrong with Canadian news, but it was not what I wanted at the time). It had not occurred to me before but maybe using duckduckgo will prevent that.
I have an iPhone 7 (AT&T A1660 128 GB) that seems to work fine with my 9-year-old PC that I recently upgraded to Windows 10 (which I hate, BTW). I take all my item photos on the phone then upload them and list on the desktop. It takes great photos but it is sensitive to background colors so I have tan and forest green rug/cloth remnants that I use for background depending on the color of the item. I find that a white background always makes an item too dark but maybe I’m doing something wrong.
I bought it from a private seller two years ago. I was told to remind private sellers to make sure to remove the phone from their iCloud account before sending it out. Overall I’ve been very happy with it.
I’ll bet they’re custom made-to-measure shoes from Hong Kong.
My old school brain does not multi-task: if there is music or talking, I have to listen to it and cannot do much else. So I can’t have anything playing while working if I expect to get anything done.
So I only listen to podcasts (or music) on long distance drives, or on flights if I tire of reading. To add to the above good suggestions: This American Life, Serial Killers, Criminal, In Our Time, Every Little Thing, TED Radio Hour (there are several different TED apps).
01/25/2020 at 7:51 am in reply to: How to list an item when you can’t find any info about it’s very existence? #73268That’s funny – I just ran across some Kamenstein kitchen knives at a thrift and wondered if they were worth reselling. They didn’t appear to be. It’s a cheap Walmart/Bed Bath & Beyond brand.
I have never gotten anything like this. Sounds scammy. I agree to ignore. Let us know if anything more comes of it.
01/24/2020 at 11:45 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Snoopy WWI Flying Ace figure, Reel tapes #73246Informative video, as always, Steven! What a great little Gibson amp! I don’t think I could have brought myself to sell it. My first bass was a Teisco Del Rey EB-200. It was $45 from a pawn shop in about 1968. The neck was awful so I switched to Fender as soon as I had the money.
My sales are still very slow. They usually pick up in January but not this year, so far. Here are some items, going back a bit:
This set of vintage US Merchant Marine shoulder boards was about $2 in an auction box lot. Listed at about $40 for a while, they sold for $25 plus shipping on a best offer.
This Argentine gaucho knife was a family estate item. Knowing its owner, it was likely found at a flea market for a couple bucks. It’s marked guaranteed French steel but it’s certainly Argentine-made and not of particularly high quality. The French were known worldwide for quality knives and I guess saying the knife was actually made in France would be too big of a lie. It’s like Italian-made knives that are marked “rostfrei”, which is German for stainless. Makes you think it’s a German knife but does not actually say it. It sold for $90 plus shipping within about a month of listing.
This nice Woolrich waxed cotton outback hat was $10 at Goodwill. It took a while to sell at $36 plus shipping.
These knife block sets turn up often at thrift shops and yard sales and sell well for me if complete and in good condition. This Henckels International Statement set is their low-end, China-made brand, but it did not take long to sell for $45 plus $25 shipping to Wyoming. I was disappointed that shipping was so high with Parcel Select/SmartPost. It didn’t fit in a USPS large flat rate box and FedEx Ground was no better.
This consigned challenge coin had two things going for it: US Navy NCIS and a New York City connection. It sold for $40 plus First Class International to a repeat customer in Switzerland. I include “base metal, not legal tender” in the description on the Form 2976 for challenge coins and include the appropriate HS tariff number so it’s clear to customs I’m not shipping money.
We’re getting ready to move again so we’ve been purging. My wife gave me this Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ornament to sell after going through the Christmas stuff. It was from a cruise we went on in the ‘90’s on a ship that was sold off shortly thereafter. The ornament sold for $30 plus shipping.
The Israelis love their fancy badges. This cute little bat is the insignia for an IDF Army unit called the “Daring Battalion”. It was pennies in a box lot and sold for $11 plus shipping.I like to go straight to the horse’s mouth and use the IRS form where the expenses are entered as deductions for filing taxes. 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, I look here:
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p334
This is for sole proprietors and single member LLCs who file as a sole proprietor using Schedule C.For partnerships and LLCs taxed as partnerships the Form 1065 and instructions are here:
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/partnershipsAnd for S Corps and LLCs who have elected S Corp tax status the form 1120-S is here:
https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1120-s(For anyone out there who’s gotten big enough to make a C Corporation worthwhile, hopefully you have a CPA telling you what to do.)
01/13/2020 at 8:59 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: 8 Track player, Napa Valley Box Co. Cassette rack #72865Good to know – thanks!
01/12/2020 at 3:11 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: 8 Track player, Napa Valley Box Co. Cassette rack #72822Ouch. Was it simply because the battery was for a medical device, or was it something special about the spinal bone stimulator? I thought pieces, parts, and supplies for medical devices were ok and only selling the complete unit was prohibited. I’m wondering if I’m no longer safe selling CPAP supplies.
Those would be low prices on those rugs here, I think. Old furniture used to go very cheap. Years ago people made good money filling ocean shipping containers with vintage furniture from auctions in England and selling them to US auctioneers and antiques wholesalers. I vaguely remember a round figure of about US$10,000 to have a container crammed to the gills show up on your loading dock in Philadelphia or wherever. Not sure if that’s still a thing. They used to say that Dear Old Blighty was the storehouse of the world. Do you think you’re running out of stuff? I doubt it.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the junky Indian rugs. We get them here, too. Funny thing about the Pakistani rugs, I’m not so sure Pakistan actually does have a weaving industry. They do certainly have active trade with their neighbors (ok, so maybe not India so much). I would not be surprised if the same rugs came to you in the UK as Iranian because that’s what they really are. Iranian goods cannot be imported into the US. It’s probably easy for the paperwork to get “corrected” for rugs put on the ship in Pakistan and going to the US.
I did not know about the identification service, thank you! I will send it in.
I did try Replacements thanks but the only pattern that was even close was the Vienna. I kept widening my search parameters until I was up to almost 100 pages so I thought I’d check here to see if anyone might know it or have a book reference where it might more easily be found. I’ll go back to Replacements if no luck here.
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