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Also I would look at the sell-through rate on eBay listings. It might be a really long-tail category. Which means you’d need lots of storage space for the inventory that will be sitting.
Great episode. Congratulations on your sizzling 10,000 feedback! OK so it maybe it means nothing, but still it’s pretty cool.
Sorry to hear it has been slow for you. My Jan – Feb – Mar 2019 has been the best ever, but I will admit that every year these months have traditionally been my strongest months. Maybe that’s when eBay turns on my store and turns off yours? Ha ha, just kidding.
Comcast may suck but it’s awesome, given rural alternatives. Congrats! Comcast was all we had in Florida on a military base and I was very happy to have it. Here in DC on a military base again and it’s dismal – either dish or AT&T over phone lines. Lots of cable laid but no tapping into it for personal use. With a teenager who’s gaming, we have to take turns. We have a house in Texas and the only internet is air. Full time residents in that area are always crying on Nextdoor and hassling all the providers about when they’re going to wire/cable the area but no one coming in any time soon. “Too remote; not enough people” is all they say.
Recession! Talk is in the air! The press wants SO BAD for there to be a recession going into 2020 for the election so I expect that’s all we will hear about for the next year and a half. Before you deny it, I always say that just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.
It’s also my opinion that the press turned what should have been just a minor blip recession in 2008 into a full blown depression by scaring the living crap out of everyone. People just stopped buying things. Restaurants were empty. Convenience stores were empty. All retail was a ghost town. Nobody did anything. Why should a stock market drop hurt the average person? So a bank goes bankrupt, but your deposits are insured! People were irrationally frightened and the government reacted stupidly in response. Many of us here on the forum know and practice living frugally but with our current economy it’s those people rich and poor spending their paycheck every week who keep our economy chugging along. I wish it weren’t.
Flea market bargaining: It may be painful and perhaps a little disgusting to watch but I always attract more flies with sugar. You cannot be too obsequious with a flea market seller. Flattery will get you everywhere. The story may change about why I can’t pay full price but I always love their item, their display, their clothes, their car, their hair, whatever I can think of to butter them up. It works!
I have been top rated for years, have been getting the discounts, have never had a shipping claw-back. Not for USPS nor for FedEx.
You’re welcome. That time I was having a problem with the site I called eBay and although I only have a basic store I got an American CSR who seemed to know what he was talking about and solved my problem. It was a weekday, though; not sure if you’d get a good CSR on a weekend.
That’s weird. It did not do the same for me. The $450 Fuschia one was first. Here’s the link to it:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dooney-amp-Bourke-Florentine-Small-Fascia-Pink-Satchel-Shoulder-Bag-/113496015602?hash=item1a6ce3c2f2%3Ag%3AtcAAAOSwmaJcJSyA&nma=true&si=bDt4RTk977KlTi6QCfSJv3tudec%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557And there are like 20 more in the $400s, $300s, and $200s showing before hitting the $214. Are you sure you don’t have a price limitation entered over on the left?
Also, one time I was having weird glitches and the eBay CSR suggested I clear my cache / browsing history in the browser and that worked.
I’m not, and I’ve been on last night and this morning and also doing solds searches.
Although at random times for a long time I occasionally come up with 0 results on a search that I know should have some results. Then I rerun the search and the results then do appear.
Joe, that’s the price I get for padded FRE. I ship through eBay, usually charge buyers calculated shipping and have shipping settings to pass on my discount. Since the last rate raise for a padded FRE, USPS retail is $8, my buyers are paying $7.55, and I am being charged $7.33.
For other USPS shipping, I sometimes a get a little bit of a discount off what my buyers pay (up to several dollars when I ship international), and sometimes my buyer pays exactly what I pay. (I have not used the regular FRE that I recall so cannot comment on that.)
Don’t know why it happens and it may be a glitch but I am happy to get a little extra sometimes since I do buy some shipping supplies but do not charge a shipping and handling fee and of course I pay a FVF on shipping.
03/23/2019 at 9:44 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Ray Bans, Long Haul jeans, McIntosh preamp, Florsheim shoes, Zippo #59116Thanks for sharing your video Thrift Raider. That Dick Dale CD was probably real, just a bad printing from his low-budget record label. He was a guitar legend – pretty much invented surf music in the ‘60s. The theme from Pulp Fiction is a song of his from 1962. That album was at a low ebb of his career in the early 2000s after the boost he got in ’94 from the movie so I doubt many were sold, but probably not worth someone bootlegging. He just died last week.
Fascinating and unique set of pictures from Iran! That area was known as Persia to the west prior to the 1930s. In the ‘80s and ‘90s Iran was frequently in the news and not in a good way, after the hostage crisis, Desert One disaster, etc. If you met an Iranian back then in the US and asked where they are from, they would just say “Persia” to avoid an uncomfortable situation. There is a trade embargo against Iran and in fact eBay prohibits Iranian goods from being sold on the platform, though their enforcement of that is spotty. Your pictures are not an issue since they’re actually US items and they are photographs, which are all allowed. Care should be taken with key words, though, to avoid being nailed by the take-down ‘bots.
I’ve been watching that now and again. It is entertaining. It does help that the hoarder was a notable Canadian potter and that he’s found a few of her pieces buried among the newspapers and trash.
Hang in there. Take it slow and easy!
My vote is for silly. Don’t know about Google Shopping.
03/22/2019 at 9:23 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Ray Bans, Long Haul jeans, McIntosh preamp, Florsheim shoes, Zippo #59072Yeah, most holsters are certainly a dime a dozen. I’m sure you see your share out there. There are almost a million listings on eBay just in Sporting Goods, not including Military Collectibles. I look mostly for older military (though there are countless reproductions) or cowboy rigs of any age for likely good scores. Also any style, signed. I don’t know the custom maker names off the top of my head but if it is well-made leather and not a name I recognize, it’s worth looking up or just grabbing if cheap enough. I’m not riding anything at the moment unfortunately due to my current location, which is fortunately temporary. I’m counting the days….
Ha ha indeed it is so annoying. The message I get is that the seller is clueless and apparently does not realize not only that it is considered rude but also that all caps is harder to read. (People recognize words more easily and quickly by their contours.) If just the title, I agree with Sharyn on the intentional attempt to make their listing stand out. The same irresistible and brainless impulse that makes them write “WOW!” or “LOOK!” in the title.
But if you see the entire listing is in all caps, they are probably unintentionally doing it, having never heard of the unwritten rule. Yes, Jay, codgers like me tend to do it. Then there are the military vets (also like myself, but even younger ones too) who got in the habit of typing and seeing all caps in official message traffic at work and not having the visceral negative reaction to it that others may have. I will have to confess to initially doing it in my first days on the internet in the ‘80s until I got called on it a few times and changed my tune.
For me there is one positive to the all caps listings: Anything like that that annoys buyers and keeps them away can make the listing good snipe-bait.
03/21/2019 at 8:53 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Ray Bans, Long Haul jeans, McIntosh preamp, Florsheim shoes, Zippo #59052Great stuff Sharyn and Steven. Come on, Tommy, I am sure you’ve sold some cool things recently. Let’s see ‘em!
This is a Keyless 8 Day Auto Clock that was an aftermarket accessory to mount on the flat dashboard cars of the 1910’s and ‘20s. Turn the outside bezel to wind it, and pull out the bezel and turn it to set the time. There are many out there and don’t sell quickly but they do sell even though restoring the early cars is a dying hobby. Perhaps people are using them to make clocks with some kind of artistic frame, since they mount easily and wind/set entirely from the front. This caught my eye at a flea market probably for $5 or $10 many years ago and sold for $70 plus shipping after a couple months listed.
The particular model of this leather Bianchi shoulder holster rig (#13 Scorpio) is an old-school favorite with law enforcement but otherwise quite out of style. Not too many out there trying to concealed-carry a large frame, external hammer, steel .45 or 9mm auto up under their arm any more. The outdoor flea market dealer I bought it from should have known its appeal but probably thought he was shooting for the moon at a $40 asking price. I did get him down to $22 for it since I bought several items from him. It sold quickly for $295 plus shipping.
This like-new Serola Sacroiliac belt was left by a small crew of plumbers who were at the house one day. (Yes, we needed a crew. The house we’re living in now was built by the Navy as an industrial building in 1937. The systems were built to last but when they do go, it’s never an easy repair.) I called about it the next day to get it back to them but the boss swore it did not belong to them. Oh well. It took a couple months to sell for $39 plus shipping.
This US Army first award Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) qualification pin was post-WWII (with clutch-fastened pins rather than the older safety-pin type mounting or screw-pin back), pretty rough, and only 1/20 silver-filled rather than sterling, but had a rare maker mark. I had about $2 in it as part of an auction lot and it sold for $20 plus shipping after about 6 months. A very rare post-war German-made CIB recently sold for $578 on eBay just for what it was, without any provenance. But the Army still awards CIBs so you can buy a brand new one at the PX for a lot less.
I always do well with vintage distressed leather items. This simple legal pad portfolio had stains and no maker’s markings but sold for $49 plus shipping in about a month or two. Coming out of one of my death piles, its source is unknown but I think it might have been out of a family estate.Welcome! I grew up in Phila and got up into your area now and again. It is a pretty part of the country.
Some unsolicited advice from a “random stranger on the internet” who worked with many family owned businesses over the years: If you have not already, find a business lawyer you can trust and retain them to assist YOU personally in navigating your future in your dad’s business. It has to be someone who does not represent the business in any way, or anyone else in your family, or your business’ competitors but you want someone who works with businesses at least roughly in the same size range as yours. You need confidential advice in your best interests.
With family businesses there are two major issues. First is the family aspect. Every family is different but it is crucial to know and consider in depth where you stand with everyone else involved and what their motivations are. If I do X, will so-and-so do Y?
Second is the business structure. If you stay in the business, how much will you own, how much will you control, what is it worth, etc? If you leave the business, will you or can you still own a portion of it as a shareholder? If so, how much control will you have? Unless you are already well-versed in business law, you’ll need a lawyer to help you with your possible options and pros/cons as a shareholder and/or board member and/or officer (if applicable) whether you stay working in the business or not.
Of course I don’t know your situation so this may be way off base. But it might be helpful.
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