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03/01/2019 at 11:33 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Clock radios, Red Wing boots, Fairytale book, Vintage City Cafe Menu #57922
@totommyto: “Soul soothing” indeed – well said. (I also had to laugh reading your listing for that old prop. A great sale even without bent tips! LOL Maybe it’ll show up in Architectural Digest.)
Loved the doggie extended play, Steve! They have zero concern about snow. It looks like you could use a good pair of Gore-Tex gaiters so you don’t have to hang your frozen-leg jeans up to dry when you get home.
This plastic Alfa Romeo emblem is specific to 1964 – 1971 cars. Lacking the usual factory numbering on the back, it is probably a later aftermarket copy, but originals (also plastic) are hens’ teeth and copies are now getting harder to find so not much price difference between them. This was an eBay snipe at $4 and sold for $40 plus shipping after a couple months, going to a forwarder in Florida.
CPAP supplies and equipment are a bread and butter staple for me. It’s a racket for the medical equipment suppliers because it seems that insurance allows frequent automatic resupplies, more so than many patients really need if they’re good at cleaning their gear, so new-in-package equipment turns up often at yard sales. On the other hand there must be many people in the US who don’t have insurance to cover it or it’s under their deductible or something, and apparently Canadians and Australians also need to buy it, because it’s a consistent seller for me in those three markets. There are some eBay restrictions on medical equipment in general and CPAP therapy is only available by prescription. So to avoid having your listing taken down, only sell sealed supplies, and never list a complete CPAP setup in a single listing. Pieces and parts are fine. This CPAP mask “headgear” (head straps only) was a couple bucks at a garage sale and a quick sale at $17 plus shipping.
Vintage leather is a great seller, even if there are condition issues. This hippie belt (found in my dad’s estate) was not constructed of a single length of leather, but two pieces stuck together, and they were starting to come apart. There was plenty of interest in it at $38 plus shipping and a couple low ball offers citing its condition, to which my answer was “that’s why it’s cheap already”. It sold quickly for full price, going to California.
Finding this XXL shirt at an indy thrift’s bag sale (so I only have pennies in it) I tossed it in the bag without a close examination, thinking it was a real motocross jersey. Going to list it I realized that there was no padding where there should have been and found that Enyce is a hip hop streetwear brand. It’s all good! It sold quickly for $30 plus shipping.
Even when there are signs in the thrift shop that items without tags will not be sold but returned to intake for pricing, sometimes it pays to just ask. This incomplete Vemco Detailer 3500 drafting machine was missing a price tag but the indy thrift I found it at is very large and busy so I figured what the heck and brought it up when I checked out and stuck it at the end of my pile. With a line waiting behind me the harried clerk said “this is $4.99”, I said “yup” and he rang it up. It paid off – I turned it into $126 plus shipping within a week or so of listing.I don’t presume to answer for Terri, but as a tender myself I like to review my listings when they come up for renewal. I have found typos, wrong item specifics, outdated shipping options, and descriptions that need freshening. With a store of your size, of course this is not practical.
Maybe with this I’ll be forced to join the list it and forget it crowd. That’s probably a good thing.
02/26/2019 at 8:38 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 400: Tax Season Advice for Newbies from Strangers On The Internet #57755Well said, Jay. So true regarding debts and liabilities, and taxes. The LLC (in the US) is no panacea. And the LLC is strictly a state-specific administrative structure and does not dictate how the entity is taxed. There are essentially only 4 ways a for-profit business files taxes under federal law: as a Sole Proprietorship (Form 1040, Schedule C), Partnership (Form 1065), Subchapter S Corporation (Form 1120S) or a Subchapter C Corporation (Form 1120). An LLC is a type of entity that can file a Schedule C if it only has one member (i.e. one owner – or only a husband and wife as members, under certain conditions), or it can be set up to file Form 1065 (needs more than one owner), or even Form 1120S or Form 1120 with the appropriate documentation and IRS filings.
02/25/2019 at 11:47 am in reply to: Made in Italy Pottery Pitcher – anyone recognize the signature? #57610Thanks! Good call on “style” not “vintage” for the title – I’ve put it in European Pottery/Italian and Contemporary Original in Item Specifics. Also good eye with the “St” something – I didn’t notice that. I was seeing “Fortini” as a last name but that rabbit hole got me nowhere.
Oh well. Somebody out there will still want it.
02/25/2019 at 11:31 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 400: Tax Season Advice for Newbies from Strangers On The Internet #57605Maybe that Swedish guy was blocked under your automatic Buyer Requirements for too many unpaid item strikes? You can look under Site Preferences > Buyer Requirements for a block activity log to check. It does not provide the buyer’s ID but does provide the date and item they tried to buy.
02/25/2019 at 11:07 am in reply to: Made in Italy Pottery Pitcher – anyone recognize the signature? #57601Besides the signature I’m open to suggestions for key words. Would you call this atomic age MCM?
Great article! I love the postal service – I think they do an amazing job. I can’t believe it’s only 55 cents to send a letter to Hawaii if I want to. As a federal prosecutor I occasionally worked with postal inspectors, who were definitely as good or better than any other LEOs I worked with. There’s even a TV show about them. Watch full episodes here:
https://www.cbs.com/shows/the-inspectors/Hey for you Pirate Ship users out there, do you have any problems with your local post office due to the cubic pricing?
I was in line yesterday at my local PO behind a customer who was dropping off a load of small boxes and padded envelopes (not flat rate) with Pirate Ship labels and the clerk was unable to process them. Her scanner was telling her that there was not enough postage on them. She refused to take the packages but was then talked into phoning a supervisor. She was on the phone for 10 minutes and after she hung up she grudgingly took the packages, but did not scan them. They just went in the bin.
Are you able to get a scan at your local PO without trouble? Admittedly, mine is a very small satellite office with a clerk who finds her duties quite challenging (which is why I wait in line for a scan for my packages), but I was wondering.
In fact I am packing and shipping right now and I plugged in one of my packages to the Pirate Ship calculator and found I could have saved about $1 on it. (A #4 Priority box at 1.5 lbs going across country.) So I’m definitely intrigued.
I’ve read the previous comments and it seems you all like it. Are you finding any problems with it that a new user should know about?
I’ve only been lurking because my piles pale in comparison and my list rate is pitiful as a part timer but you all have been inspiring me to ramp it up. I hate clothing, so I’m digging into bags of family items that I’ve been keeping as worth too much to donate. Just grabbing one thing at a time and listing when I have a minute. I’m up to 187 listings which is huge for me. Thanks!
It appears to be a homemade audio pass filter of some kind for old school stereo equipment, passing certain frequencies and blocking others. It looks like it’s adjustable to cut off either above or below .8 to 30 kHz, which is audio frequency output (bass/treble). Someone else here probably knows more than I do but that’ll get you started.
Love that snow Steven! We got an inch or so yesterday here in DC and the whole government shut down. Even though it was above freezing and rained a bit overnight not leaving much around to slip on this morning, the OPM gave the feds “liberal leave” policy today so it has been pretty quiet.
I’ve had this bisque pelican figurine up for almost 5 years now with nary a nibble. Not even sure where it came from. I started pretty high originally since I did not see any for sale. But apparently there was a reason for that because there’s been very little interest in this, ever. I’ve been lowering my price here and there until it was finally down to $14 plus shipping but I refused to go lower. I wanted to just donate it and make it go away but for Jay’s voice in my head telling me to let it sit and someone will want it. After a while a buyer from Switzerland, obviously a novice on eBay, got all excited about it and started emailing me if I would sell it to him, how would I ship it, etc etc. I think it took a couple emails to get him to understand how to just check out and buy it and he finally did. (I ship worldwide but don’t use GSP so maybe that confused him.) People collect animals, right? (My wife used to buy cows.) Well, apparently no one collects pelicans, except one guy in Switzerland. Who knew?
This original rear sight for a WWI US service rifle Springfield M1903A3 was part of a large lot of them I sniped on eBay a while back. It was a great buy and a good example of making money on things bought off eBay even in really hot categories. I have $5 each in them which might seem high but 1903A3 rear sights are a guaranteed $25 – $55 each depending on condition and manufacturer’s markings and don’t take long to sell. This one had some unsightly cosmetic damage and no markings so it went for $25 plus shipping.
This OEM power camera winder for Canon A-1 and AE-1 was left over from a large Canon lot I bought in order to get my daughter a film camera she wanted for Christmas. I was heavily into photography myself starting as a teenager and there was no digital. I never cared for all the time I spent in the darkroom or messing with finicky equipment or carrying around a huge camera bag with multiple lenses and bodies. So I switched to digital pretty early and never looked back. When she got interested in film photography I rolled my eyes but never said a word. This winder worked perfectly but had battery corrosion that I was unable to completely clean so I sold it for $23 plus shipping with full disclosure. Camera items always sell well for me but like selling electronics, the cleaning and testing can be time consuming and you have to be ready for the flaky buyers.
These vintage clip-on Ray Bans with case were a garage sale find for $10. You do have to watch for fake Ray Bans. I’m not sure if the clip-ons have been faked, but the large wire rim Aviators definitely have. There are websites that show how to spot the fakes. This genuine set went to Canada for $60 plus shipping.
This Dexter Russell 8” chef’s knife was $3 at an indy thrift where I can’t be seen checking my phone because they’ll ask you to leave if they think you’re a reseller. The knife looked well-made so I just took a chance and grabbed it. It turns out it’s not a high priced brand but still desirable so it did not take long to get $26 plus shipping even though you can find them NIB for not much more than that. Well the buyer started a return for the “just didn’t like it” reason, writing about a paragraph of weird excuses, including “maybe it’s not sharp enough”. Whatever. I followed the R&J no-drama method: eBay automatically approved the return so I just sent him a label without comment. Nothing happened. So the day the return expired for him I called eBay and got it closed. I only have a basic store so I get the non-American CSRs but I calmly walked her through what she was supposed to do and why, and after a few minutes off the line to speak with her supervisor, she did it. I had to repeat myself a few times, but it was not too bad.Military information can be difficult to research online because there is so much of it, and so many different types of things and from different eras.
If I don’t know what something is outright I have hard copy references but I usually just Google it. There are many specialty sites but Wikipedia is an excellent quick reference. In this case my recollection was that the patch was for an infantry division so I googled “US army division patches” which got me here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_insignia_of_the_United_States_Army
And the patch was easy to spot. A little more googling then got me to more up to date information.The DUIs can be harder to identify. There used to be online keyword-searchable database operated by the US Army Heraldry Institute but it has been down since last year. This one I had never seen but I found it easily in a reference I have.
The Google Image search is my last resort. Take a good jpg and drag it into the search box to get pages of similar images to look through.
The shoulder sleeve insignia – called the “Cross of Lorraine” – is for what used to be the 79th Infantry Division in WWI and WWII and is now the 79th Theater Sustainment Command, a US Army Reserve unit in Los Alamitas, CA. The DUIs are for the 347th Replacement Battalion, a US Army Reserve unit which has been reactivated and deactivated over the years for various wars but does not seem to be in existence at the moment.
Still striking out on the cuff links though it occurs to me they could also be a car or motorcycle brand emblem.
Hey Sharon, the patch is a US Army unit dress (full color rather than black and green) shoulder patch and the two pins are Distinctive Unit Insignia, also Army. The pins are worn on the epaulettes of the dress uniform jacket, for example. The cufflinks do not look US military at all. Maybe fraternal, possibly fire department. Could be foreign military but nothing common. The patch and DUIs I can probably find out and get back to on what unit they’re for.
I have used TurboTax in the past, but that was years ago. Since then I used an accountant for a while, until he made a few major errors that I caught necessitating amended returns and he seemed to have trouble with our different income streams. Then I went to TaxAct in 2014 for the 2013 return. We use Premier at $40/year and no problems yet. TaxAct guarantees accuracy, paying up to $100K in liability for any penalties or interest incurred and audit costs, if there is liability for penalties or interest. Additionally I can buy Audit Defense coverage that provides an enrolled agent or CPA representation for an audit, even if I end up with no liability. I think last year that was an extra $75.
I don’t recall why I did not go back to TurboTax though it may have simply been the reviews at the time I was looking to dive back in to doing it myself. I’ve been happy with TaxAct.
Dealing with the IRS is awful, for sure. Unfortunately no matter how you do it, though, there’s always a risk of being wrong.
Re Mark Tew’s comment, many resellers have always wanted to deduct inventory as they purchase it and it’s easier now to do it. (But I think you still have to take annual inventory.) It is a disadvantage of my method that purchased inventory will not be deducted as I purchase it but only in the year that it is sold or disposed of. Many folks prefer the earlier deduction.
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