Monday Musings - 9 July 2012

"We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is." - Eeyore

I read a blog about the fairness, or lack thereof, of starting a sale early.  You know, the paper lists an 8 a.m. start time, but the seller actually starts selling at 7 a.m.  Therefore, you miss all the good stuff by playing by the rules, and showing up at the published time.

Obviously, the seller is master of his (or her) domain, and can start the sale any time he/she wants to.   But does the seller have an obligation, an implied social contract, if you will, to be fair to all potential buyers by starting on time?

I think not.

When it comes to yard/garage sales, my motto is if you aren’t early, you’re late. I wouldn’t show up for an 8 a.m. sale at 6 a.m., just out of consideration, but I have been known to show up shortly after 7 in the off chance that the seller is ready to sell. And, more often than not, even if the seller is not completely ready, he/she is more than proud to let me start sifting through her items.

Church sales, at least in my area, are notorious for starting on time.  8 a.m. means 8 a.m., even if there is a line of 25 to 30 people waiting outside in the cold, begging, cash in hand, to be let in.  I’ve stood in lines like that, and I see absolutely no sense in keeping the doors closed when you have people ready to buy.

On a related topic, I learned on Saturday, thanks to Ella, who is in Ohio, that most sales in Zanesville start at 9 a.m.  9 a.m.?  Are you kidding me? By 9 a.m. here in Georgia, I’ve been working/thrifting for more than two hours.

Speaking of Saturday in Georgia, it was slow, slow, slow, both sales-wise, and yard/garage sale-wise.

I did find a few items, though, including a basketful of Eeyore merchandise, including several talking plush, a couple of shirts, a hat, a picture frame, key chain, etc. Hopefully, there will be an Eeyore fan out there in eBay land.

I also added a couple of more Nerf guns to my arsenal, including an apparently rare red Scout IX-3 pistol.  I finally got around to listing them, but still have to list my Nerf rifles.

That’s about it.  How was your weekend?

Sorry for being on this page

Calling Johnny Carson ...

As I was rushing around a church sale this past Saturday, the reality finally hit me.  Two heads really are better than one, at least when it comes to thrifting and online selling.  Unfortunately, Ella is visiting relatives in Ohio for a while, so I am left on my own to source, purchase, list, sell, pack, ship, and, here’s the kicker, get all the packages to the post office, all while holding down a full-time job.  Since it is in excess of 100 degrees here, I can’t leave the packages in my car, so I have to leave work, rush home, then rush back to the post office before it closes.

No one who knows what they are talking about ever said this job was easy.

My thrifting weekend got off to an early start last Wednesday after a call from Rosita, my favorite estate sale planner.  She invited me to preview the merchandise at a sale that she was working, so I headed to the house after work.  Honestly, while the house was full, not much grabbed my attention, except for a few vintage fishing reels.  However, this jewel caught my eye:

It is an executive phone in a carved wooden box, and was labeled Johnny Carson’s desk phone.  At least, that was the deceased owner’s story. Obviously, there was no way to prove (or disprove) the tale, but it makes for an interesting conversation piece.  Plus, it’s a rotary dial phone, which is collectible on its own. I decided to auction the phone, instead of just placing it in my eBay store.  Hopefully, the novelty of it will generate some interest.

On Friday, after I dropped Ella off at the airport, I headed to a series of estate sales in and around Atlanta, as well as to a library book sale in the thriving metropolis of Jonesboro.

At a sale liquidating the estate of a former Coca-Cola executive, I found several neat items, including a Coca-Cola Monopoly game, and some Coca-Cola books, including these:

However, I think my homerun find of the sale is this new Cherry Coke jacket.   Apparently, original Cherry Coke merchandise is hard to find, and I picked this one up for $7.

The other estate sales weren’t that exciting, so I headed over to the Jonesboro book sale.  The sale information said the doors would open promptly at 1 p.m., and not a minute sooner.  Since I was 30 minutes early, I figured I could at least wait in the library, out of the heat.  To my surprise, and dismay, the sale had already started when I got there.   I scoped out the room when I entered, and was surprised to see no buyers with scanners in hand.  So, I spent the next hour checking every book that looked promising, and a few that didn’t, and came away with a rolling tote full of so-so, but sellable, titles.

In my admittedly short selling career, I’ve noticed that big book sales draw all the excitement, but smaller sales can be lucrative as well, without the pressure of competing with other dealers.

On Saturday, my first stop was the aforementioned church sale, where I really could have used another set of eyes and hands.  Still, I found some neat items, like these Austin Powers collectible action figures for $1 each.

The rest of the morning was uneventful, and very warm, with temperatures climbing to near 100 before noon.  I felt guilty for buying four Nerf guns and a Nerf target set from a kid for $10, but only for a few minutes, and then it passed.  I was tempted to buy an unworn wedding dress at a moving sale for $25, but decided it was too hot to fool with it (I know, probably a mistake).

My last stop was at a sale to benefit senior citizens, where everything was by donation (i.e., take what you want, and make a donation in the jar on the way out).  I picked up some items, including these:

By the time I got home, it was above 100 degrees, and finally topped out at 107 by mid-afternoon.  It was too hot to do much of anything but pack what had sold, and to list items on eBay.  So, I listed the rest of the day Saturday, and most of Sunday.

Before she left, Ella had set a goal for me to get caught up in my listing, and to clear out her Great Room, before she comes home. Even after two days of listing, I still have a long way to go.

How was your weekend?

Proud and jealous

For the past four years, my younger brother, Joey, who lives in Roswell, GA, has been listening to me brag, for lack of a better word, about my yard sale finds.  At times, I would encourage him to seek out his own Amazon/eBay treasures.  He resisted for a while, but finally bit the bullet, so to speak, over the last year or so, and gradually has become a faithful early weekend riser to look for sellable items.

On Saturday morning about 8:30 a.m., I received a text from Joey saying that he finally ran into another seller, but was proud that he had beat that seller to the punch by at least 30 minutes, and had all the goodies that the sale had to offer.  He didn’t elaborate, but if you can judge a person’s mood from a text, he sounded excited.  I learned later that this is what he picked up:

I was both proud and jealous.

Besides the obvious, here is what was really interesting about his find. 

Joey wrote that “A lot of the new DVDs were sealed with Big Lots price stickers on them of $2 - $3, including that one.”

I knew Big Lots was a good place for inventory, but never thought to look at their cheap DVDs … until now.

In my neck of the woods, Ella and I spent a good chunk of time at a sale to benefit animal rescue and spay and neuter programs.  We got to the sale early, and had first dibs on the books and DVDs.  In fact, we had first dibs on most of what I consider sellable items, and quickly amassed two overflowing boxes full of good stuff, including this remote-controlled Robosapien (priced at $2):

Each item was individually priced, and by my count, we had at least $50 worth of items in our boxes. Now, I know this sale was for a charity that is near and dear to my heart, but I never let that get in the way of getting a good price.  So, I asked the person in charge if she would make a deal for the whole lot, as opposed to counting each and every item.  She suggested $10, and I quickly accepted her offer.

Bundling items together is a useful tactic at a big sale.  Workers usually do not have an emotional interest in the individual items, usually just want the money, and really don’t want to deal with any leftovers after the sale.  I always let them name the price, though.  If they name a price that is too high, I can always negotiate down.  If I name a price that is too high, and they accept, well, I’ll never know if I could have gotten it cheaper.

Otherwise, Saturday was full of hit and miss stops along our route.  We wanted to go back to the animal rescue sale at 1 p.m. (charities tend to almost give their stuff away at the end of the sale), so we were hurried, and didn’t get to go everywhere we wanted to go.

Our last stop was at an estate sale, but it was nearly noon, and I really didn’t expect to find much. Everything by that time was half price, though, so I was determined to walk away with something.  I managed to snag a few CDs, a vintage erector set, and this vintage 1968 calendar:

Originally priced at $30, it was half priced for $15, which is still a little out of my comfort zone for what I call a speculative buy.  Take a closer look at the woman on the front, and you can get an idea of what kind of pictures are included.  I figured it was just quirky enough to appeal to the prurient interest of some small segment of the eBay buying population.

We made it back in time for the closing of the animal rescue sale, and managed to snag a few more items cheap, including most of the remaining books, CDs, and books on tape, which they just gave away to avoid having to move them.  Unfortunately, most are headed to Goodwill.  As most of you know, I usually don’t donate to Goodwill, but I figured dumping a bunch of old and/or water-damaged books would be a sort of poetic justice, at least for me.

How was your weekend?

A tale of two Goodwills

When I first started selling online, Goodwill was the nirvana of sources for me.  I had their patterns down, I knew when they put out fresh books, and, for the most part, I was the only dealer who frequented the multiple stores in the area on a regular basis.

One day, two years ago, the bookshelves at area Goodwills started drying up.  After talking to a few managers, I learned that Goodwill corporate had directed that all donated books be sent out of town to a Goodwill bookstore, which would, in turn, send books back to the local stores as needed.  Shelves in local stores never returned to normal, and what books they do get now are mostly old fiction, old textbooks, and multiple copies of the Left Behind series.

I was upset, and I think I wrote/called everyone but my Congressman to complain about the unfairness of taking donations out of my community, and sending them up the road to the big city.  However, I adapted.  Goodwill became a source of toys, some electronics, and various odds and ends.  I rarely ever look at the books now because it’s a waste of time.

Several weeks ago, a brand spankin’ new Goodwill store opened across town; I had heard about it, but hadn’t made the short trip.  On Saturday, after a fairly decent morning of visiting garage/yard sales, Ella and I decided to ride over there, just for fun.  The new store is impressive; it looks like a department store - well lit, with plenty of merchandise, including books.  Wait a minute … what?

Yes, the store had books, three long bookshelves, full of books, front and back, plus books on the end caps. Luckily, I had brought my scanner, and we walked out of there with about 40 good-money books.

I was happy for the finds, but irritated that other Goodwill stores, including the up to then largest one in the community (my favorite), weren’t getting the same treatment as this new one.  I also learned that Goodwill had shut down another store in a smaller city nearby when this new one opened.

The way I figure it, the new Goodwill is pulling the old bait and switch routine.  Stock the store well to attract customers, then cut back on the inventory, and hope the customers keep coming back.

Now, I know you’re wondering why, if I dislike Goodwill so much, do I keep shopping there. That’s a fair question, and it reminds me an episode of Hazel, a TV show from the early 1960s.  In a nutshell, Hazel bought a lottery ticket for her boss, but later learns that the boss believes lotteries, like all gambling, is bad.  After much hilarity (OK, maybe only a little), Hazel and her boss give the lottery ticket to the preacher of the local church.  The ticket wins, and the church benefits.  When asked about the morality of taking lottery money, the preacher responds that he would take money from the Devil to do God’s work.

I may not like Goodwill, but as long as I can make money from the store to put food on my table, it’s a necessary evil.

 ********

How was your Saturday?

Aside from the Goodwill trip, Saturday, as usual, was profitable, but nothing extraordinary, seeing as how it was Father’s Day weekend.

My best find of the day was a tub full of Nerf guns, both pistols and rifles.  I think there were nine in all, and I paid a princely sum of $5 for the lot; at another sale, I paid $.50 for a Nerf target set, including two more guns, vests, and the cool looking safety glasses.

Oh, I almost forgot about the new in shrink-wrap copy of Windows 3.1.  Vintage software sells fairly well on eBay, and you usually can get it cheap when available.  I paid $.50, and I expect to sell it for close to $100.

Have a great week listing and selling!

When good sellers go bad

Whenever I buy something from either Amazon or eBay, I always check a prospective seller’s feedback. While I realize that no one is perfect, anything more than a random Negative or Neutral rating sends me to the next seller.  Obviously, this is the purpose of feedback, and it tends to work quite well, despite an occasional undeserved rating from a disgruntled buyer who can’t be pleased.

I’m not that kind of buyer, though.  As a seller, I realize how hard this business actually is, especially for those who have full-time jobs, families, etc.  So, I tend to be more forgiving of small lapses from sellers, and rarely give Negative ratings, preferring to just not leave feedback as my way of protesting any real or imagined slights.

Yet, there comes a time when my patience finally wears out, and I resort to leaving Negative feedback as a way to get a seller’s attention.  Of course, I reserve the right to remove the feedback should the situation warrant it.

Case in point, on May 24th, I purchased some poly mailers from a seller who apparently specialized in packing materials.  The seller had close to 100 percent feedback, 616 total ratings, with only one Neutral rating within the past year. Shipping was free, and delivery was estimated between May 31st and June 13th.   I also purchased some other packing supplies from different sellers during the same shopping spree.

Within a week, all my supplies had arrived, except for the poly mailers, which still had no shipping notification.  I gave the seller the benefit of the doubt, thinking that maybe he/she forgot to mark it as shipped.

On June 7th, I emailed the seller, but received no response.  I wasn’t concerned, because it wasn’t a lot of money, and I knew eBay had that buyer protection.  Still, I was getting a bit irritated, but decided to wait the full delivery time frame before pursuing that option.

Yesterday, though, on June 11th, I left Negative feedback for the seller.  It was his/her first Negative, and I hoped it would jar him/her into action.

Here’s the kicker, though.  Within a couple of hours after I left my feedback, three more buyers left negative feedback, each with a comment similar to my own.

How does a buyer go from close to sterling feedback to four Negatives in a row?  Computer problems? Health issues? Alien abduction?

EBay says I can pursue the buyer protection option on June 15th, and I will.  In the mean time, I hope that the seller gets his/her act together, emails me, and ships my product. 

I’ll even remove the feedback … maybe.