front porch trash

front porch trash

Friday, October 16, 2015

The Good, The Bad, The Dumb

People amaze me all the time. Ebay has some really "wonderful" people and some that are just normal and great.

I sold a Talbot's men's Hawaiian shirt last week. A silk, linen blend that has the normal texture that these fabrics have and was pre-owned. Pre-owned, meaning to me that is had been worn. I think that is what it means to most normal people.

I get this message on Monday: "I would like to return this shirt it is not what I expected".

I replied within an hour or so, "Returns always accepted. Just pack securely and send it back to me"

Next message at 1:30am, "Will you refund tge (sic) shipping cost?"

I replied the next morning, "Since you are returning the shirt because you don't like it, shipping is the responsibility of the buyer."

Next message, "The item you shipped was not as described. If you don't cover all of the cost, I have no choice but to open a request and leave negative feedback."

Next message from ebay that he did open a not as described case. In the reason for the case he included these words of wisdom: " The seller will not refund the full amount of the shirt plus shipping and handling. The item was not as described. I want all of my money back"

Next was a call to ebay.
I was explaining the situation to the customer rep and he read the emails. He said to wait until the response time had run out and then call back and they could change the return request to buyers remorse and remove any negative feedback. I laughed and told the customer rep that I couldn't believe the guy was so stupid to document everything in ebay emails, but I should thank him. The customer rep laughed.

So thank you Mr. Dumb A**. I don't think this is going to make you very happy.

On a happy note I have had two recent returns that buyers sent back that were normal. One honestly admitted that the top didn't fit and the other said she didn't know the luggage was vinyl. Both were honest and paid for return shipping.

There are nice buyers out there that overshadow the "others".

Monday, October 12, 2015

Quick Catch Up

I can't believe how long since my last post. Life has been busy.

August was really slow and I cursed ebay on a daily basis...but I still listed and shipped what sold. It was my slowest month in 2 years and I am glad it is behind me.

September is when my daughter and I go to Atlanta for DragonCon and shopping. Because August was so slow I was more careful in my shopping. I think it paid off. I found myself looking at things I picked up and putting them back on the shelf/rack if they wouldn't earn me at the very minimum $20...most of the time more. I came home with less stuff (really!!)and I hope better stuff. I have listed lots of it and it seems to be paying off. Here is the haul:

 Just a bit full don't you think? See that really big IKEA bag, second from the left on the bottom? It holds almost 3 times as much as the smaller bags. I filled two of them that I found at the outlets!!!
Just enough room to see over the pile of stuff so I don't get stopped.

When I went to pick up the rental car they upgraded me to a Toyota 4 Runner. I didn't think about how high off the ground they are. Just look at all of that room to fill with....stuff. My daughter is just over 5" (on tippy toes) and had trouble climbing up on the seat. Oops...won't do that again without thinking.

Back home for a week and then back down to Columbia SC for the grandson's graduation from boot camp. No pictures, they are on my phone and I haven't downloaded them yet.It's amazing how much he grew up and matured in those 10 weeks. I thought we had the wrong soldier until we hit the pizza place and he still could pack it in. That's my boy!! He graduated on Thursday morning and about an hour after graduation it started raining and raining and raining. Serious rain, as we all now know. Some of the places on the news were places that we had just been. I can't begin to imagine the amount of time it will take to clean up all of the damage. Thoughts and prayers to everyone dealing with the flood.

October has started off with a bang and sales are better than they have been in several months. Of course sales need to make up for the past slow months so I can save some for the spring.

The Atlanta trip was a business trip and the Columbia trip was a business trip.I went a day early and I stayed a day late and went shopping in Columbia and found some very good items. One bunch of items I found at a Habitat ReStore. I found 6 boxes of vintage photo paper.(They had a vintage enlarger but was way overpriced for me) The good kind made in Germany in the 60's. I have a box similar to this, mine is a larger size and not as old, but you get the idea. I have mine listed for not as much so I hope it sells. I also have some of these, only I have an original set of 8 with an old Meopta warranty card with them. So the moral of the story is to check out ALL of the thrift stores. Mom&Pop, Goodwill, Salvation Army, Value Village....whatever is there because the good stuff is there. All you have to do is look.

One quick tip that I learned from the Trash Elves is to keep listing...even on vacation. I was able to schedule at least 5 listing daily, with 5 day handling, for every day that we were gone and Sat and Sunday when we got back. I was able to do this because things were so slow in August. When I got home from vacation I had 34 packages to mail. More than a normal week!! I usually average between 20-30 packages weekly with low to mid range items and occasionally a big $$ item. I was able to do this when I went the next week to Columbia. Not quite as good in sales, but still sold stuff.

I want to save up enough to be able to go to Arizona for my grandson's school graduation in the Spring so I am trying to ramp up sales. Of course there is always a possibility that he will be sent to the Middle East or Hawaii after graduation. Right now I am pulling for Hawaii but we don't know. I don't know how I will make the trip to Arizona a business trip, but I am willing to try. Any thoughts as to how to pull that off?

Keep listing and shopping and listing and shopping.  Feed the ebay beast!!