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12/16/2019 at 10:57 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 441: How Do I Go From Rookie to Veteran Scavenger? #71730
My listings very clearly warn that foreign buyers will owe customs fees so I have not felt guilty for not refunding anything for the few package refusals I’ve had. And I’ve always received the item back with no postage due.
12/13/2019 at 3:41 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Record rack, Advent speakers, Super Shooter, Backpack #71633I can’t recall the last time I have seen one of those album racks in the wild. Good reminder that they do break down for shipping, however, if I do run across one.
Great radios, Sharyn! Nice to see they sold well even though a bit beat up and unrepaired. Speaking of flea markets; how is Englishtown these days? I used to go occasionally when I lived in Phila in the ‘70s, getting there at 0-dark-thirty to rummage with a flashlight. The market was huge and pretty insane.
My stores always get into the doldrums in the fourth quarter for some reason. It can be my worst quarter of the year and this year is no exception so I have been very slow. This year I’ve tried sending out offers to buyers but the result has been crickets.
This challenge coin for the destroyer USS DEWEY is from Raytheon, a large defense contractor. I don’t know why but the contractor coins can sell well and often at a premium over a regular ship’s coin. This one went for $39 plus shipping.
This ‘80’s vintage Nomex flight suit was not in the greatest condition with discoloration, fading, stains, etc but it sold on a best offer at $35 plus shipping. This was a yard sale find for $5.
Another type of challenge coin that demands a premium is one for a senior civilian government defense official. I took a best offer of $75 plus shipping for this Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus coin. Some SECNAV coins bring more but Mabus had a long tenure so it’s a relatively common coin.
Steven, your great backpack sale (my personal large camping pack is a Gregory) reminded me of this Camelbak, another desirable brand to BOLO. It sold at the listing price of $100 plus shipping. It was $18 at a Goodwill.
Another BOLO for higher value coins are Chiefs’ mess coins. Making the rank of Chief Petty Officer (E-7) in the Navy is a big deal, and among other things entitles one to join what’s called the Chief Petty Officers’ Mess. On a ship (and some shore units) there is a separate dining room – the “mess” – for Chiefs and it’s also an unofficial fraternal association of sorts. They’ll typically have their own coins made. This one for the USS CHIEF (a mine countermeasures ship – FKA a mine sweeper) sold on a best offer for $60 plus shipping.
The Chiefs’ mess coins will usually have some variation of the three anchor rank designs on the back that you see here:
This original WWII US military rifle bayonet was designated M4 and designed to fit the M1 Garand rifle. Mentioning either one of those facts in your listing can trigger eBay’s take-down ‘bots for “assault weapons” though many sellers do and get away with it. I never get away with it so I don’t use any bad words. Fortunately the collectors know what they’re looking at but I do have to take good photos of every little thing (the buyers fear reproductions) and it may take longer than usual to sell. I had $80 in it and it sold without a scabbard for $200 plus shipping.
Many US bayonets have markings on the guard – something to look for that sellers will miss:In 1980 when I got my first one, you did not give them to people. You were entitled to have and use your unit coin by being a member of the unit. And in the US I had never heard of them outside of Army Special Forces, either. But since then all the services (especially the Navy) have adopted them whole hog, and government civilians as well. Not only are they are now frequently given as unofficial awards and mementos and traded among military, police, fire, and government personnel, people do buy and collect them. It’s preferable to be given one but there are currently about 78,000 eBay listings in the Challenge Coins subcategory with a bit less than 50% sell through so it’s now a very active collecting field. But there are fakes, forgeries, and cheap China copies so you have to be careful buying them online.
That’s a great story you linked! It talks about the coin check:
“Not all of the branches of the military are into the drinking game, but those who play are in it to win it. Some have their coin on them at all times, even when they’re sleeping, running, or showering. You just never know when you could get checked.”
A friend of mine was one of those guys – you were never safe in a latrine shower or anywhere from a coin check from him. He got me once on a scuba dive – came up and tapped it on my mask.
Your experience with your friends giving you all that stuff reminded me that as a result of the TCJA giving some things but taking other things away, charitable donations at the level most people give are no longer deductible on their income taxes. So will more stuff end up on the curb, at yard sales and on Craigslist/Facebook etc., or given away to scavengers like us? Other than some initial complaints about it from charities that their donations would dry up due to the law change, I’ve not heard since then that there has actually been any reduction. Charitable giving is probably not primarily driven by the ability to deduct it.
I think many people don’t know that the law has been changed. The large consignment of military challenge coins I recently acquired from a friend was on its way to Goodwill until I told him about it.
I’ve been using Letter Track Pro and Popeye’s Postcards’ (John Miller) shipping methods for postcards, stickers, and patches for about a year now in my budget store. I use a cheap 4.5” x 6.5” cardboard envelope that’s stiff but not too stiff (see Mike’s post above), a thin plastic bag-weight postcard sleeve (or a small ziplock like a 3”x3”), and a first class stamp. Miller only uses Letter Track Pro for more expensive cards because there are a couple of extra steps involved but I’m low volume so I always use it.
The tracking is not so much a hack as it is sort of like how eBay passes on commercial USPS rates to us no matter how few packages we actually ship, with USPS’ blessing. Letter Track is passing the ability for anyone to add the address barcode that is in common use by bulk mailers and I’m sure it’s also fine with USPS.
How it works is that you have to go into Letter Track Pro, manually enter the address and purchase a barcode, which includes a tracking number. Pricing varies. It is pay as you go, starting at $0.01 per address and up, depending on your volume. No subscription but it’s like Shipsaver where you preload money for your transactions. Then you have to manually print out the address (that includes the barcode) from the Letter Track Pro website and manually copy and paste the tracking number into eBay. It does not work for non-machinable letters (too stiff or more than ¼” thickness).
The benefits are limited. Ebay does accept and recognize the tracking number, but it does not automatically upload status updates. If you click on the tracking number in the orders list during shipment, it will always show nothing more than “tracking has been uploaded”. Not even “accepted”. You can go on the Letter Track Pro website and see the additional usual updates but it always ends at “out for delivery”. There is never a “delivered” scan.
You can also receive email updates of the status changes if you wish, but I have turned those off. I don’t think eBay will accept this tracking as proof of shipment or delivery as it does with regular tracking. Also, it does not work for foreign addresses.
All in all it’s not worth much more than a selling point in my listings and peace of mind for me if a buyer ever wants to know where their item is.
Go for it Jim! I use a couple Stamps.com scales. One was free with an account I opened a while back and the other I picked up on eBay. Since they were received free with an account opening (maybe still are), lots of them seem to turn up for sale for reasonable prices. Others here who do more volume have more sophisticated scales but these work for me and they are accurate.
You’re smart to focus on household castoffs first and friends and family. Not recommended to get buried in inventory until you’re really in a selling groove. Eventually, for better sourcing, in my experience the estate and farm auctions can be good in the rural areas (not storage auctions). Does the business paper you deliver have the town or county probate notices? Call an attorney handling one and see who they get to do the sales. Or maybe they don’t have anyone and you might be able to wangle a house cleanout or two.
While you’re driving around at night with few distractions look for other clues for stuff entering the stream besides the curbed free stuff. Store going out of business? Maybe buy their old inventory and/or equipment. House sold in the middle of winter? They’re not going to have a yard sale in a MN December/January they might still need to get rid of a lot of stuff. These are just some ideas.
Certainly. The first one: $19.50 on Apr 08, 2014. The second: $19.00 on Feb 09, 2011.
12/06/2019 at 11:21 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Reel tapes, Rummikub game, Cigarette dispenser, fanny pack #71423Thanks Steve, Steve, MD and Sharyn. @Steve List, what a great find in that radio and the embedded video in your listing was very funny! There’s nothing like the world of AM radio. Maybe you already tried it but a little squirt of contact cleaner probably would have resolved that scratchy volume pot.
This unmarked pair of vintage Portuguese Army camouflage pants were $5 at an indy thrift. Collector interest is due to the connection to Portugal’s Colonial War of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s in Africa. Plus it’s an attractive camouflage pattern. Sold for $59 plus shipping.
The military challenge coins from my consignment lot of 800 are selling well though at the rate I’m going it’s going to take years to get through them all. I wouldn’t have taken it on if they weren’t easy to store, research, list, and ship; and the consignment accounting is easy in Easy Auction Tracker. This one is personal to a former Command Master Chief of the US Navy Explosive Ordnance Group One at Point Loma, CA. It sold for $39 plus shipping.
This US military issue Woodland camouflage wet weather parka is from a year 2000 contract. Not of real collector interest, these parkas are nevertheless desirable due to their quality construction and Goretex outer (the latter cannot be stated in the listing due to VERO, but anyone looking for one of these knows what it’s made of). There are many for sale but the size outliers – either real big or real small – sell quickest and for the most money. I had to pay $10 for this one in X-Small / X-Short at a Goodwill and it went to a China forwarder for $89 plus shipping.
I really got my money’s worth out of these Levi 505’s that I bought years ago for personal use. There are many patches holding them together but I got tired of repairing them after one knee completely blew out. They still sold for $21 plus $15 shipping to Canada.
I often do not trust my eye for decorative items so I was very proud of turning this $5 set of Peggy Karr Fused Glass Coasters from Goodwill into a $28 plus shipping sale within a couple weeks.
This unbranded wood trim pen and pencil set was $2 at a yard sale and sold for $22 plus shipping.12/03/2019 at 4:01 pm in reply to: Porch Pirates on Steroids. 297 packages left outside closed Post Office stolen. #71319Whoops! Wrong post office. Apparently the contractors who deliver Amazon packages to the post office are of the same caliber as the ones they get to make the final destination deliveries.
My last Alfa project was a Graduate I flipped about 10 years ago. I think Spiders or Graduates could still be worthwhile; still enough of them out there that they can turn up cheap and that parts are needed.
Interesting idea re the Mini Coopers. My thought was doing ’92-’11 Ford Crown Vics/Mercury Grand Marqs/Lincoln Town Cars with so many people trying to keep them alive.
That’s a hoot. I’ve seen a few government workers walking around in them here. Still a bit hard for me to get used to seeing unless there are bagpipes involved.
Shipsaver can be set on automatic purchase for anything over a given package-value-plus-shipping dollar amount, or a shipper can purchase it on a package-by-package basis, though Shipsaver may charge a little more for the latter.
You make a good point on adverse selection but I think they allow for that. I think the business model for all insurance is that the company has better data and is smarter on the real risks (including our adverse selection behavior) and it is less risk averse than the individual consumer due to volume. Shipsaver for example has a list of shipment destination countries it won’t cover. Although I have some anecdotal evidence on countries with sketchy postal systems I’m sure it has better data than I do. (In fact I use their list for countries I won’t sell to.) The company will be less risk averse if losing $100 on a shipment is a big deal to me but they still made their $800, to use Jay’s example.
Also they can adjust what they charge and who they’ll sell to so the house always has the advantage.
First a shout-out to Kelly from a fellow attorney (I’m about 90% out of it now) and former vintage Alfa Romeo fix-and-flipper. I started the latter activity in the ‘70’s with ‘50’s and ‘60’s vintage Giulias or Giuliettas. I wish I had kept at least one of them.
I came to eBay in my 40’s. My parents grew up as depression babies. Mainly that meant that purchases were not made unless absolutely necessary and every bit of use was gotten out of things. My mother bought new, but usefulness and durability were the most important criteria. My father always bought used if he could; once buying half a house full of furniture at auction after a cross country move, for example, and frequenting pawn shops for stereo equipment. So I guess the scavenger life was in my blood but it did not really come out until about 1972 in high school when my girlfriend’s older brother (who was a full-time antique dealer) introduced me to the world of vintage treasure hunting.
I was hooked and have been doing it pretty much ever since. Sometimes it has been full time but mostly on the side with varying levels of involvement through my various careers and other activities. So I had over 20 years as a collector, hobbyist picker, and part time flea market/antique mall dealer before I discovered eBay in 1997. I love eBay primarily as my favorite way to sell found treasure and as a safety valve for my collecting jones. It’s a bonus that my favorite retirement hobby is a viable money making business.
As for categories, I particularly enjoy selling Militaria but I’m happy in just about any Collectibles subcategory.
That Manicase bakelite box should get you $25 even if empty.
And there could be something good inside that black Zippo lighter box.
11/23/2019 at 9:26 am in reply to: What Weight to Enter in the Weight Field for Oversize DIM Weight boxes #70957Is the theory behind entering 20 lbs as the weight so that you don’t have happen what happened to JasonK as he describes here: https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/fedex-shipping-overcharge/#post-70933 ?
I don’t think the after-the-fact repricing will happen if the package size is entered correctly. If the package is big enough to trigger DIM weight charge, the buyer will see the same price whether you put 1 lb or 20 lbs in the weight.
I always enter the actual weight using an estimate for box and padding. I do not simply enter 20 lbs because that will slow down my packaging process when it sells. I don’t want to have to worry about what box and padding to use so that it stays at 20 lbs or under. If it’s actually 15 lbs I like to enter 15 lbs so I know an extra couple of pounds here or there won’t matter. Obviously this will only be an issue with some items.
Also, what if one of the carriers changes its DIM pricing formula so that the pro forma 20 lbs you entered now screws up the pricing? I think that’s the best reason to enter actual weight.
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