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Free returns is my default. I start considering whether to uncheck it at 2 lbs and up, but it depends on the type of item and price. With heavier items I’ll still offer free returns if it fits in a Padded Flat Rate Envelope (or Small FR Box) or if it is high value and low return risk and fits in a Priority Medium Flat Rate Box I’ll consider it. Also I do not offer returns at all on ephemera, books, and media. So I end up with no TRS on a small percentage of my store because my inventory is mostly smaller items.
I don’t find the eBay selling costs page information to be helpful. Like the OP, I find the numbers from various pages on eBay and Paypal don’t match. I use EasyAuctionsTracker and it provides what appears to me to be good numbers, providing gross sales and shipping and handling received separated, and expenses broken down separately (COGS, actual shipping paid, listing fees, FVFs item and shipping, paypal fees, refunds, and a line item expenses that includes store fees) in Monthly, Quarterly, and cumulative P&L statements in addition to a detailed sales spreadsheet with more information than I’ll ever need. It pulls all information automatically from your eBay and Paypal accounts. You still have to enter COGS manually and outside expenses if you want a complete picture.
04/26/2019 at 12:57 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Danskos, Lava Lamp, RR Map, Fire Prevention poster, Patch, Mailbox #60852Hey BigSally. We had a 1980 Scout II for many years and loved it. About every 5 years it needed another round of rust repairs on the body and frame but we loved it.
04/26/2019 at 12:19 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Danskos, Lava Lamp, RR Map, Fire Prevention poster, Patch, Mailbox #60850Good job on the video! And good sales. Vern sure perked up when he heard that tin can sound.
04/26/2019 at 11:00 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Danskos, Lava Lamp, RR Map, Fire Prevention poster, Patch, Mailbox #60845Thanks for the video, Steven. I know lava lamps are popular but the only ones I run across are the cheap ones that are still available. I also have bad luck with small tins so I usually avoid them. Thanks for the tip on the rubber repair tin niche, Winchester38.
This Marbles No. 80 Rear Sight for .22 Rifles went for $17 plus shipping. I had pennies in it as part of an auction lot. There are large lots of gun parts to be had at giveaway prices but usually the parts are uncatalogued and without original packaging which makes it tough to profitably part out the lot unless you’re a gunsmith, which I’m not.
This 1972 Tiffany Catalog Blue Book is a neat reference, providing a nice picture of what was stylish with the upperclass at the time in jewelry and accessories. It sold for $45 plus shipping. It was a couple bucks at an indy thrift.
I have had this well-worn sterling ring for many years. I don’t recall what I paid for it but since it’s not the type of military item I used to collect, it had to have been very little for me to have bought it, probably only a couple bucks. It bears the distinctive unit insignia of the 312th Engineer Battalion of the 87th Infantry Division, which was a unit only in existence during WWII. I had to let it sit out there for a while to get $247 plus shipping and it went to Belgium.
Another foreign sale, this time to Italy. This is an OG 107 US Army Utility Sateen Shirt dating from after WWII. An early 1st pattern but it had some condition issues so I put it up for $54 and took $45 plus shipping. (With foreign shipping I made about another $5 profit on it.) Part of a lot, I have about $20 in it which is more than I like but it’s a sure seller.
I was very excited to find this custom handmade knife made by Chubby Hueske with its original numbered sheath for only $100 at a gun show even though it was in rough shape, as it could have been a $500 sale once cleaned up. I got it to about 95% there but there was some corrosion on the blade edge that I was not able to resolve without possibly damaging it so I put it up for $208 plus shipping with full disclosure. It did not take long to sell for full price.
This is a set of United Airlines food service tongs. It’s marked “Executive Service” which consisted of specific United flights only offered in the 1950s – 60s. A couple bucks from the flea market, sold for $19 plus shipping.It is indeed fun to be pleasantly surprised; it’s probably one of the primary reasons I have not tired of digging through other people’s stuff for all these years. I’ve been doing it long enough though that I am rarely truly surprised. I found this beat up Jack Daniels trucker wallet at a flea market last year for $3 that did. It was an afterthought; I had asked about something else on a junk table for which the seller gave me a very good price, so I started a little pile and threw this in. I even balked at the $3 but I figured I’d make an easy $20 on it so just kept it in the pile and paid up. I almost listed it for that without further research. Fortunately I thought I’d better dig a little deeper just in case and found out that there is some gold in distressed leather. It took a little while but went for $100 to Germany.
Congrats! Nice sale!
I have to agree with IndySales. I know this can be an issue for returns especially with clothing but I think there is a law of diminishing returns at work here for trying to get accurate color balance. The fact is that about 8% of men and 0.5% of women in the world have some degree of color blindness many of them don’t realize it, not to mention the monitor issues mentioned. You’re not going to make everyone happy no matter what you do.
I take photos in mostly open shade with some incandescent fill and find that my iPhone is pretty close most of the time except for fluorescent colors. Much better than my Nikon D5100. If I see some obvious differences between real and photo for art or clothing I’ll mention something in the listing but otherwise I don’t worry about it.
04/12/2019 at 2:41 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Vintage TV trays, Quack medical device, books, Tension pole lamp #60102Good stuff, all! I bought this 1968 contract US Army surplus OG-107 M65 Field Jacket as a teenager at I. Goldberg Army Navy in Center City Philadelphia in the early 1970s. In excellent condition when I bought it – never even had patches sewn on – I wore it to work in the yard and on the cars, and on construction and gas station attendant jobs. Despite the wear, battery acid holes and oil stains it now has, it sold for $115 plus shipping. Maybe to a buyer going for the Travis Bickle / Frank Serpico look? It did take about 2 years to sell.
This hat, made by Tilley Endurables in Canada, has a lifetime guarantee. And apparently Tilley has quite a following, judging by the $47 plus shipping I was able to get for this pre-owned one even though they sell new for about that. It was $4 at a Goodwill.
This unmarked brass ice cream scoop was a family item out of the donation box, a housewarming gift from someone a while back. (Who gives an old ice cream scoop for a housewarming gift?) It sold quickly for $35 plus shipping and in researching sold prices before listing it, I was reminded that there are various types and brands of kitchen utensils out there that people will definitely pay up for. Might be worth digging through those boxes of kitchen utensils you always see at the antique malls for sleepers.
This was something I brought home from my tour as a military advisor in El Salvador in the 1980s and recently rediscovered in an old photo album. It is a psychological operations leaflet, aimed at the FMLN guerilla fighters during the war. It exhorts them to think of God, country, and family and go to the nearest military base to turn in their gun for cash. “The armed forces will protect you” it says. It took a while to sell for $70 plus shipping and went to England.
This interesting Topshop brand two-tone blue metallic skater dress is the same model that was worn by Princess Eleanor in an episode of the first season of The Royals, which I had never heard of and would not have known about if an alert fan had not contacted me about it. They were very excited to see it but did not buy it. Fortunately, someone else did, for $30 plus shipping. It was my daughter’s. Her taste in clothing has always been … eclectic.
After WWII the government auctioned off huge amounts of brand new military surplus to wholesalers, who then retailed it at army navy stores that popped up all over the country and through ubiquitous ads in the back of magazines like Popular Mechanics. Everything from entire jeeps and small boats on down to the smallest parts and pieces. This WWII US Navy Mark 1 utility knife was probably sold to someone for $1 or $2 fresh out of the warehouse after the war in newly manufactured condition and it appears to have spent the ensuing decades in a drawer. It sold in about a week for $69 plus shipping. I have about $10 in it as part of a large auction lot. Probably millions of these were sold after the war so it is not uncommon to find them in pristine condition. I’ve even seen them with the original packing paper and care directions. The government still auctions off its military surplus but the volume and variety of items are not like they were after WWII. No more entire jeeps to be had.I’ve been shipping international direct (selectively) for as long as I can recall. (Part time on eBay since 1997.) Over the last several years I’ve averaged 25 – 35 items a year going international and all but one or two of them a year have gone First Class. I’ve never had a non-delivery claim except once in Brazil, and I went on AfterShip to pull up the tracking (was not available on USPS to Brazil even though it was Priority) to confirm the package was waiting for him to pay the customs fees and pick it up. He refused so the package was automatically returned to me (at no cost). I gave him a little of his money back (just for goodwill – he was new to eBay) and resold the item.
I used to ship everywhere it was legal (and had successful shipments to a number of trouble spots such as Russia) but now I use the ShipSaver list of destination countries they don’t insure for my blacklist. The Shipsaver blacklist shrinks over time; they took Mexico off not long ago so I did and had a successful sale there recently. Ebay won’t let a sale to go through to an embargoed country so that’s pretty much automatic.
I use Shipsaver to insure anything over $50 (purchase price and shipping combined) and am willing to eat the loss for anything smaller. It ranges from $.75 to $.95 for a foreign shipment under $100 and they apparently don’t care about tracking. The most I’ve ever paid for insurance was $2.85 to insure a value of $261 (item + postage) to Belgium.
When I ship international I do not automatically use the original listing title that is loaded by default in the customs form in the ebay shipping label printing process but instead write something clear and generic that describes the item and often I will fill in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule number. For certain things like electronics I don’t offer international shipping.
It just occurred to me that maybe they are planning to do Automated Pricing like on Amazon, where Terapeak drops your prices automatically to market.
I also have a basic store, went to sign up and got the same message which gave me pause, and I tried to go down the rabbit hole on just what I was signing up for. It was a week or two ago and my memory is fuzzy on it but I do recall it was difficult to get a clear answer to that, even after reading all the links. All I could make out was that it seems that Terapeak plans to add some kind of “helpful” information or “assistance” to the listing process.
It was not clear what exactly they would be doing to “act on my behalf” on my account so I did not register. I’ve decided to let others be the guinea pigs on that.
A Freedom of Information Act request! They have to answer it, if they have the info. Great tip, thanks!
Good stuff everyone! Another vintage Alfa Romeo OEM tool kit piece sold. This spark plug socket from out of the bottom of my toolbox went for $29 plus shipping after a couple months. I was speaking with someone recently who really wants an original complete tool kit for his 1960’s Ferrari and he said he’d likely have to pay “15” for the correct one for his model. I looked at him quizzically and he added “that’s with three zero’s”. He bought the car in the ‘70’s and paid about that for the whole car.
Aside from its Foreign Internal Defense mission in Vietnam, US Army Special Forces from the 1950’s into the 80’s had to be ready to drop behind the Iron Curtain into Eastern Europe and recruit irregular forces to conduct guerilla warfare against the USSR in the event we went to war with the evil empire. This 1975 dated 10th SF Group guerilla training program of instruction manual was locally drafted and photocopied in cargo-pocket size. It contained lesson plans to instruct the locals in the necessary basic skills to harass the Russkies from behind the lines. It sold within a couple hours of listing for $65 plus shipping to an address in Colorado Springs, CO, home of Ft Carson where 10th Group is currently stationed.
Zippo brand lighters have been hot collectables for years and I don’t think there has been any slackening of demand. Usually they sell to Europe but this one from the USS VELLA GULF, a US Navy guided missile cruiser, out of my personal junk drawer from the late 1990s sold domestically within a couple weeks for $70 plus shipping. FYI the Vietnam-era military engraved Zippos are heavily faked now.
Google image search was my friend in discovering that the design on this small Richard Ginori porcelain tray was the Italian Navy crest. A couple bucks at a yard sale, it sold in about a month for $35 plus shipping.
I’m not sure why someone would pay only about $10 less for a used one than the cost for a new one that can be ordered direct from the Boy Scout store, but this iconic red heavy wool official Boy Scout adult uniform item is in great demand. Found at an indy thrift for $10, it sold within a month for $69 plus shipping.
Political party/candidate donor giveaways like this are very common and are not particularly well-made, as medals and medallions go, but they do sell eventually. I only had pennies in this group of four items from the 80’s from a large box lot and it sold for $17 plus shipping.Prayer rugs can be a range of sizes, and this one is definitely within the normal range. Also it is a double. There are two niches with the pointed representation of the mirhab – the roof – of a mosque in the design. I didn’t find exactly what I’m looking for in my references, and again I’m no expert, but I think the keyword for region based on the heavily geometric design is Tribal Caucasian, not Persian.
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