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I use PirateShip to cover anything over $50 but unfortunately they do have limits: $5000 per shipment, or $1000 for USPS First Class Package domestic and $400 for First Class Package International and Simple Export Rate. There are other conditions for jewelry and computers and some exclusions. See https://support.pirateship.com/en/articles/3222601-shipping-insurance-terms-and-conditions . I shipped a high dollar item early last year by FedEx Ground and relied on Declared Value. It’s not insurance because you have to prove it is FedEx’s fault to recover if there is a loss, whereas with insurance you only have to prove the loss, not whose fault it is. Generally I like UPS better, lately. I think you can purchase insurance with UPS but there is a 10% deductible IIRC.
$250.00! On June 26 2017. My dad lived in Hershey for many years. An interesting company town.
Sold for $55 in October 2016. Such a cool set of the great classics, it’s a shame. I assume without leather bindings? It’s like selling book club editions I guess.
As for your query, it was good of you to revive an old thread, so I got a notification. I’ve never been able to get SL set up to send me alerts of new posts.
A lousy week with $148 gross from only four items sold. I haven’t been listing, sending offers, or running sales at all recently which I guess puts me in the eBay search doghouse. I’ve been busy elsewhere with a few things, especially with tax prep since we sold a rental house last year that had been our residence which complicates things (but saves us on taxes) and now between my wife and I we’re up to four different Schedule C’s. Speaking of taxes, I noticed that our quarterly estimated tax payments are due on Monday the 18th, unlike last year when they were due on the 15th even though tax day fell later.
Regarding Time Away, the times that I have used it, it has strangely seemed to trigger sales for me while it was on, with more sales during the Time Away than either shortly before or after. But I have not needed to use it for almost a year now.
@ChristineR – I have never regretted quitting my steady law gigs. It was good for my mental health, and I’m sure it will be for you. On the other hand, I have regretted listing low value items that I normally would not have, but they were family items that I felt guilty about disposing of. Be strong! 🙂I love those slides, Steven! I would have bought that lot in a heartbeat if I’d seen it – glad I did not though. I need more stuff I’ll never sell like I need a hole in the head.
I found a box of a bunch of these NIB Dirt Devil HEPA vacuum filters at a yard sale for $4 for the whole box and they have sold like hotcakes at $12.95 each with free shipping (less than $4). Not very exciting but it’s the kind of thing that pops up at yard sales for cheap, sells quickly, and is easy to pack and ship and not something that gets returned.
I ran across a box of 15 vintage US Department of Navy mess hall china cups and saucers at an indoor flea market where dealers who’ve been there forever pile stuff to the ceiling. Desirable items can sit hidden for a long time. Even so, the dealers are not bashful about asking high prices but occasionally they just decide it’s time to let it go. I dug out this box and asked, and for $1 each I guess he was tired of them. I sold two of the bouillon cups at $20 each plus shipping to the same buyer.
Despite the resurgence of interest in cassette tapes, I’m still finding them at yard and estate sales for good prices. From a $5 box of about 150 mixed NIP, prerecorded, and recorded blank tapes, this 2-pack of Radio Shack Type IV Metal sold for $23 plus shipping.
This was a good real photo postcard, with a classic Florida Mediterranean Revival apartment building and a cool old car, taken in Vero Beach, FL. I paid $1 at an antique co-op and it sold for $17.50 plus shipping (buyer paid for First Class Mail Package).
I needed Google image search to identify this tiny vintage Mark Master Mason 50-year lapel pin after I got it home but at only $1 at the flea market I figured it was worth taking a chance on it. It also tested positive for 14K gold filled, though unmarked. It sold for $20 plus shipping.
I haven’t had one of these in a while but here’s what I recall doing. I uploaded the USPS tracking number off the New York label to the listing so I would get the on-time pick-up scan etc. I sent the buyer an explanatory email though because eBay will show the item delivered when it gets to New York, and the buyer will freak out when they get the “congratulations, it’s delivered!” email from eBay and of course they didn’t get it yet. IIRC, only Pirate Ship account holders can get the tracking from the AHOY number – I entered the buyer’s email address to receive updates when I bought the label and their phone number, and the Code:Paid pre-paid VAT number. I tried to upload the AHOY number to eBay but it wouldn’t recognize it.
As for customs, you enter all the customs data when you buy the label and it’s stored and transmitted electronically. The New York to foreign transit leg I believe is a consolidated shipment by DHL or someone like that but at some point I assume it gets a label for the carrier to know which house to go to, just like eBay International Standard Delivery. What’s interesting is that sometimes when shipping a one pound or less item, both eBay Int’l Standard and Pirate Ship Simple Export will print a full USPS customs label rather than it going to Kentucky or New York first, respectively. I assume it depends on where it’s going. If you go back in your Pirate Ship labels you can see the customs data you entered.
I rarely use the Pirate Ship Simple Export because you need a tolerant buyer (since they won’t get accurate tracking in eBay) even though it can be several dollars less than eBay Standard. I just make sure to charge enough for shipping. Someone else here who uses it more may have a better method or can correct me.
“Whew, that really took a HARD turn into detailed tangent territory!”
Actually, that’s an excellent tangent to do down for anyone with limited space for inventory. When I went back to college in the late ’80’s after my first Army stint I took a computer programming class where we had to write a simple program. (To fit on a 3.5″ disc, IIRC, if you can imagine. I don’t recall what the language was.) One of my scavenging income sources at the time was from buying small to medium sized English furniture from a weekly auction (gate-leg tables, dressers, drop-front desks, bar cabinets, etc.) and taking it to a certain flea market where it sold really well. So for the class I wrote a program to calculate the best loading of my van using its available internal volume and the average volume and sales price for each type of piece. There were other factors to think about of course but it was still helpful in picking out which pieces to take on a given day from what I had available in my garage.
“…could have been stocking stuffers at Kohls.”
Yup. That’s my vote. Or Kirkland’s, HomeGoods, Pier 1, etc. I’ll assume that the seller who got $650 for one took off the Made In Korea sticker.
“Back when I did it I shipped ammo and gun parts.”
Yeah, those are good GB categories. This time I just had several collectible items that were neither but eBay wouldn’t let me list them. One was an inert shell casing, for example. I saw a couple on Terapeak of the specific type sold on eBay, sold for 3 times what they go for on GB. Some eBay sellers get away with selling prohibited items but I can’t. I don’t even get the warning any more, now it just tell me I can’t list it and I can’t click through if I wanted to.
01/01/22 – 01/31/21
Total Active Items (2 different stores): 300
Items Sold: 35
Gross Sales: $791.85 (what the buyers paid, not incl shipping or taxes)
Highest Price Sold: $96 plus shipping – Panamanian folk art mola.
Returns: 0
COGS: $126 (including consignment commissions but not including original cost of any family castoffs sold)
New Listings: 16
$ Spent on New Inventory: $19702/01/22 – 02/28/21
Total Active Items (2 different stores): 332
Items Sold: 37
Gross Sales: $1,156.05 (what the buyers paid, not incl shipping or taxes)
Highest Price Sold: (tie) $165 plus shipping – Inscribed 2-Star Admiral’s Barge Flag and Star; and a 1968 US military issue pilot survival knife.
Returns: 0
COGS: $266.38 (including consignment commissions but not including original cost of any family castoffs sold)
New Listings: 69
$ Spent on New Inventory: $414For me a very busy 2022 outside of eBay so far so I’m taking the opportunity to look at and post my part-timer monthly numbers for January and February. Also in February I sold several not-eBay-friendly items on Gunbroker (not reflected in the numbers above) and was reminded how much extra work it is to list and sell on a platform that has not automated its processes to the extent eBay has. It was nice to only be charged half (or less, depending on sale price) of what eBay gets for final value fees, and only on the sale price, not shipping. Gunbroker is big on pricey optional selling promotions and upgrades, some of which I suppose you may need to use to stay competitive in hot categories, but my items were not in any of those. I would have gotten more for the items on eBay if I could have listed them there, though.
General-government-state-capitols-3764527046 – $99.99 Nov 23, 2020
c1890-allen-ginter-booked-collection-1880499696 – $43.15 Aug 04, 2017
1889-allen-ginter-general-government-1877404796 – $50.00 Jul 17, 2017
Sorry! I’m awake! Really I am! 🙂 Some more sales from late last year:
This 1952 college fraternity stein personalized to “Tom” was $5 at the flea market and sold for $25 plus shipping on a best offer. I’m finding the college steins are getting harder to find in the wild at decent prices as people wise up to their value. But they are long tail.
Here’s another Canadian postcard, this one of grain elevators in Saskatchewan circa 1910. It was part of a large lot of cards for which I paid $1 each. A bit much to pay for a postcard lot but they were all US or Canadian real photo cards of good subjects that I cherry-picked at an antique coop. It sold for $35 plus shipping and went back to Canada. Since eBay eradicated all the postcard subcategories, my card sales have fallen off a cliff. Only a couple of sales in weeks, next to zero impressions, and my entire postcard store has had only item eligible for an outgoing offer for going on a month now. I’ve tried ending and selling similar, 50% off sales, etc.; all to no avail.
After research indicated sold prices all over the map, I stuck this consignment challenge coin up on auction for what I thought was a very high starting price. It was bid up to $255 plus shipping to sell. It’s a named personal coin from the 74th Commanding Officer of the USS CONSTITUTION, “Old Ironsides”. Though maintained primarily as an attraction, the ship is the oldest active commissioned ship in the US Navy, has an active-duty crew, and occasionally goes for a short sail around Boston Harbor.
This is the last to sell of a set of 1950s silkscreens by Native American artist Harrison Begay that were family items. It went to California for $70 plus shipping.
Another family item, this welded scrap metal motorcycle sculpture sold for $50 plus shipping.
I don’t know that there are that many card flippers and speculators out there who have such little personal interest in the actual item that they don’t want to hold it in their hot little mitts. At least once. Even those who stash their precious acquisitions away in a safe or bank box take joy in unwrapping a new arrival. Don’t they?
At first glance I thought the beehive lady was Laura Palmer (Twin Peaks) but no, sadly.
I’m wondering did you consider sending a second chance offer to the last losing bidder on that $500 sale? Or did you figure the hat flippers were just running it up to mess with you and number 2 was a lost cause also? For sure $300 in your pocket is nothing to sneeze at so it’s all good.
I’ve done one or two second chance offers as a seller, and have received a few as a buyer. It was pretty evident to me I was being shilled in the latter cases (one guy sent me the second chance offer a half hour after the auction closed) but I swallowed my pride and took them since it was close enough to what I would have paid and they were junk drawer lots with significant profit potential. One lot I ended up netting like $1500 on it; the other ones less memorable but still worth it.
