Done with Drama

Quick update on the shirt issue.

Ebay did rule in favor of the buyer. Why? I offered a refund as required and he refused because he wanted return shipping. In the end, after 4 calls to ebay to fix things, I gave him his refund for original shipping and cost of the shirt. The same as I offered to start with. He shipped the shirt back to me. No damage, other than light wear as described in the listing. No structural damage. He never did say what the problem was and I really don't think there was one. Just buyers remorse.

Now this puzzles me. He shipped a lightweight shirt (8-9oz.), originally shipped 1st class in a poly mailer, back to me in a box, about 8" x 5" x 4", with the shirt stuffed in two WallyMart bags for $7.09 priority postage. He knew he was not going to be reimbursed for postage so why did he add extra weight and ship priority? It always amazes me when a disgruntled buyer ships something back. It never fails that they package it in a strange manner or put a small item in a large flat rate box or something stupid silly. But that is OK because.....

I AM DONE WITH THE DRAMA!!!

From now on I will not let returns bother me....no matter what. Most returns are fine but there is always the occasional one that wants drama. I'm not going there. So there!! For the most part I try to respond in a timely manner, go silent when demands are put on the table, call ebay for help, and follow their instructions. But I still let an occasional buyer get under my skin. Which is OK as long as I keep it short and professional with the emails and don't feed their rant.

On to more pleasant things.

I have had a flurry of espresso items lately. Don't know why but I have found several electric espresso pots and other accessories. New carafes, filter holders, cup holders and related stuff.

 

Found this never used Caffe Mattina electric espresso pot on vacation at a VV. It has an electric base that it fits on and I looked that entire store over, twice, trying to find the base with no luck. So I purchased just the pot and listed it as a replacement part. Immediately I had an interested person who decided it was priced too high. While she was "negotiating" someone else purchased for full price. I love when that happens!! and in less than 24 hours after listing!!

Also found this one locally at a ReStore.

It had been at the store over a week, according to the tag, and I'm surprised it was still there. It is a Bialetti Mukka Express and works just fine.

In researching electric moka pots it seems that the "true espresso lovers" don't like the electric pots and prefer the stovetop ones. I have an electric Krups espresso maker and I don't really see the difference. It's all in the coffee to me

Found this at GW, locally. Don't think they knew what it was because it was $3 and taped together weird.

A vintage stovetop espresso pot. Remove lid, put coffee in right pot, flip upside down on left pot with water in base, put on stovetop, make espresso, remove top pot, replace lid, enjoy. Simple, right? This one says Italian Style on the bottom and has some lovely scroll work on the sides. Very nice, made in Italy.

At a local Mom&Pop greasy spoon we eat at occasionally, the owner knows I sell on ebay. I  found some items he needed online and he purchased them from me. He asked me to sell his train set online.


Little did I know what kind of train set he had. This is a vintage electric train set sold in the Montgomery Ward catalog in the early 60's, made in UK and is absolutely beautiful. Metal die cast cars, tiny telephone poles, trees, and in the box!!The trebel-o-lectric 000 gauge translates to an N gauge now.(I have learned a lot about electric trains recently!!) One sold recently, from an antiques dealer, on ebay for $315 on auction. I don't do auctions and I started mine higher at $499 with best offer. No offers yet and after about 50 views I have 5 watchers. Hope they are really interested in the train and not just professional watchers.

So, as always, you never know where you'll find your next treasure. Look everywhere, VV, GW, ReStore and when you go out for lunch!!!

Keep listing and hope the goblins didn't get you last night.

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".

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!!

Getting Better...??

After a very crappy, yes crappy July it seems that August is a little better.

Yes, I have been around long enough to know that summer is slow. But this summer has taken the cake, cake plate and all the crumbs. Of course all the "good" news on the economy isn't helping anything. I have a way for folks to perk up the economy. Buy used. Buy twice as much for half the money. Save it from the landfill.

I have had a really crazy summer. Busy, grand daughters visiting, sick, busy, SweetiePie sick, busy, busy busy. Had the car in the shop for clutch repair, not cheap. The upstairs heat pump went out and cost $1500 to get it going again. One thing after another. But I'm a little squirrel with my paypal account and I had the funds to cover everything. Thank goodness. Never, never, ever empty your paypal account out. Keep something in there for an emergency and put the rest in the bank.

Now I am trying to get ready for a road trip. Get caught up with everything before I leave and make room for my new purchases from my road trip. I have such a stack of stuff that needs to get online, because we all know that if it ain't listed it ain't gonna sell.It's almost like going thrifting when I open a tote and find stuff that is really good dollar wise that I forgot I bought. Merry Christmas to me!!

I know I should probably donate some of the things I have listed. But let's face it, I'm a cheapskate, a borderline hoarder, and don't like to throw money away, even a quarter. I don't mind donating something back to the thrift store but if I pick it up for less than 25c then I can wait for it to sell even if I only make $20 profit. I think that is a pretty good ROI.

There are advantages to going to the post office every day. See what I got at the post office:

Now this isn't something I ordered in the mail. It is something that my post office guy gave to me that he was going to donate. I listed everything in the pic except the letter holder. I used that to organize my shipping table.

When I go to the post office every day my clerk started asking me what I sold and how I sourced the stuff I sold. I told him he should try selling on ebay. I offered to help him get started but he said he didn't really want to, that he didn't have time to source and didn't know what to source. So a couple of weeks later he handed me a box with this stuff in it. I just took it and when I got home I checked everything out. The Bamboo is NIB, the post office regulation shirt is NIP, the pig wallet is NIP, the remote control is NIP, the drawing book is new, the art pencils are NIP and the Fossil wallet is new. The Invicta watch is used but everything is fine on it, very light scuffs. I got everything listed and have already sold the art pencils and the Fossil wallet.

I'm one of those people that is always on a diet, but never seem to loose weight. I like gravy, especially this kind of gravy. If I sell everything listed for the listed price I will have $190. Now that is good gravy.

Now back to listing. I have been trying to get 10 things listed a day. For me as a single person doing everything, I think that is pretty good. I find it, clean it, photograph it, store it, sell it, and ship it. I am also trying to get some listings scheduled for my vacation time to auto list. Every day I sit down to list I add one more item and schedule it for a vacation day. Even if I only have one item each day of vacation it will be something new and we all know how Cassini loves people who list regularly.

Happy listing, selling and scavenging.

To Measure or Not

I had a simple little skirt to list last night. Just needed to make sure that is was a women's skirt and not a girls skirt. Why?

Last week I accepted a return for a denim skirt that was a size 10. I measured it and included the measurements in the listing. Only one problem. I measured it as a 10 women's and it was really a 10 girls. Why did I make this mistake? Because I didn't check the charts. There is a small difference in the actual waist size (about 2" laying flat) and since I am no where in the neighborhood of a women's 10 I just went with visual guessing. Bad choice.

So, I didn't want to make the same mistake again.

So, I checked completed listings for similar style and maker skirts. Found one and checked the listing, no measurements at all. Checked 5 more and finally someone included the measurements. I checked 6 listings before I finally found someone who took the time to include measurements.

I try to be a good seller but this makes me wonder how many other sellers skip the essentials. I am beginning to understand why buyers react so negatively when they have a problem with something they bought. You shouldn't have to email a buyer to find out what the measurements of clothing are. Some buyers take days to answer emails. Most buyers want the answer instantly, or sooner.

I read somewhere, or heard it somewhere, that you should take pictures like there is no description and list like there were no pictures. I don't think I would go that far, but I think a good description helps make the listing more transparent, not like you are hiding anything.

I have reached a similar decision that "the Trash Elves" have reached and I plan on eliminating anything unnecessary from my listing. No more templates. More succinct descriptions and I'm really trying to do better photos. Coming soon to a listing near you!

So, cut corners by cutting out templates. Cut corners by cutting out words. But don't cut corners by leaving out measurements.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Don't you just love the online selling experience? You get to go shopping and scrub gum and poo from shoes and find amazing things. Well, mostly normal once in a while amazing.

The Good

Is this not beautiful? I found this by accident yesterday while out shopping. It was sitting outside under the sheltered front area right at the front door and no price tag. I WANTED it so I asked for a price. Surprise, surprise they gave me a price. $50. (Did I forget to say I also had a 25% off coupon!!)I didn't have the truck, just my small, 2-door car. And it was quite a struggle to get it in the car. Wouldn't fit in the front seat, duh. Had to tie it in the trunk. Well sort of in the trunk. More out than in. But I made it home and now it is sitting in my kitchen by the deck door. Too hot to go outside anyway.....

Its marked Holstebro Mobelfabrik A/S Made in Denmark!! I'm not a Danish Modern person but I did have enough sense to know it was Danish. I know it was made in Holsterbro, Denmark in the Holstebro Mobelfabrik factory. That's all I have been able to find out. The Mobelfabrik designer name is good and there are a lot of different ones. No actual designer, as I can't find another one even close to the style. In great shape with some scuffs in the wood from moving it around, but nothing major. If anyone has any knowledge or knows where to find any info it would be appreciated.

The Bad

I sold this men's 14K wedding band as my first sale for July. Not bad at $399. I should say I rented this wedding band. I got a return request last week and got it back this week. So much for making ends meet. I received a note from the buyer with the return request. "You can take out the 20% if you want" You bet I want!! Still trying to get the return closed thru ebay. The CS rep told me I needed to escalate the case in order to close the return. I will not escalate the case!!! The last time a CS rep told me that, I got a defect and I had already returned the money. I will not ask for a defect again!!!

The Ugly
While I was shopping yesterday it started to pour rain. The hard, blowing, storm kind of rain. I just kept shopping and let it rain. The building I was in was steel and it sounded like gravel being poured on the roof. When I got ready to leave it was raining so hard I got soaked to the skin getting the 100' to the car. I prefer to shower with my clothes off!! But that's not the ugly part.

On the way home I noticed something on the windshield. It was something small that was right where the rear view mirror was attached. When I got home I checked it out.

A crack in my windshield. I must have happened in the parking lot while I was shopping. I have no idea what hit the glass but with wind gusts over 50 mph whatever it was hit just right and did its damage. I was raining so hard when I got in the car I didn't even notice the crack. From the drivers seat the long, downward crack is almost totally hidden behind the mirror.

And when I got the car unloaded, SweetiePie informed me that he needed to see the doctor because he had an earache, sore throat....oh no!!!

So, if bad things come in 3's I've had my quota for the month of July. I'm totally ready for August. Bring it on dog days of Summer. I can take it.

How long does it take?

I've been very busy these last couple of weeks. I have a ton of inventory to list and I need to get my inventory organized. Two of my not so favorite things to do. I had rather be shopping or shipping. Finding treasures and shipping out sold items is much better than scraping gum off the bottom of a smelly shoe, any day.

I also had a visit from my two Princess Grand Daughters. I'm surprised that they could fit a trip in to Grandma and Grampa's house, what with their busy social schedule. But I picked them up last Saturday and we had a fun week. In spite of the fact that my car had an unexpected trip to the repair shop, we had a great week. I was on the edge of my seat when the girls had to ride in the back of the truck to the post office, but they thought it was fun. We only live about 2 miles from the PO and it is very rural and we barely saw any vehicles on the road. Still I held my breath until we got home.

So.....with all that was going on I didn't get much listed last week. I had better things to do. I didn't get anything listed on Thursday or Friday. No sales on Friday after 10am until 3:09pm on Saturday. That's over 48 hours with no sales. I have days here and there with no sales, but since I hit over 1300 items I very rarely have a day with no sales. Some days I may sell less than $20, but still a sale.

So, how long does it take....after you list something to start getting sales again?

Oh...about 9 minutes!!! I listed something Saturday at 3 pm and at 3:09 I had my first sale in 50+ hours.

Listing and selling definitely are tied together.

A sale of note last week was a men's 14K gold wedding band with 3 small diamonds for $400. Listed for about 6 months. A great way to start the month of July off!! And a plus was that my SweetiePie found it with his metal detector. And it helped cover my $600 clutch repair bill for my car. A win all the way around. Now if he finds a couple more items like that we will have the cost of the detector covered!!
Now, I just hope that it doesn't get returned.

I was busy last week with all sorts of things with the Princess'. The oldest is very artistic and when we went to the craft store she wanted some Sculpy to make things while I was teaching her sister how to sew. So after a trip to the craft store and the fabric store we were all set with stuff to keep us busy for the week.
Princess M, working on her dress. She did the whole under dress by herself. Cut everything and did really well with the seams. We ran out of time and I finished the fishnet overlay so she could take it home.

Princess H did these all by herself, with her very vivid imagination. She did one more later and we baked them so she could take them home.

Of course Firefly had to help keep things together, and pre-treat everything with cat hair.

The two Princess, as different as night and day.

A very busy week for one tired Grandma and Grandpa!!