Best offer

So someone made a best offer on an item of $100 from $250. I am fine with $100 but I countered $150. I figured he would just take $150 or offer $125. 

Never heard from him again. Rats.

Funds: about $1,600 I estimate to have about $1000 of product left

I am a drop shipper?

So the cameras are selling likes hotcakes. Only 5 of the indoor ones left. I received an order on eBay for 2 cameras. I went to print off the label and the destination address was different than address of the person who bought the cameras. I found a note that said please package the item well and do NOT put an invoice in the package. Looks like they sold it somewhere else and then bought mine on eBay and had me ship it to them.

So basically I was a drop shipper in this case. OK with me as long as they sell.

Zebra 105S

I purchased a Zebra 105S yesterday on eBay for 20 bucks. It is local so there will be no shipping. I am hoping to start using this to print out my labels rather than my laser printer. I think over time it will be cheaper. Though I am not sure if it will work with eBay. Will let y'all(this being pretty much me) know.

Funds: $200(still a lot of product to sell)

Buying threshold

So I started my pricing out at $70 for my WiLife Indoor camera add-on.

Nothing for 9 days. Then last Monday(the 29th of August), I dropped the price to $65.

In three days I have sold 10 of the cameras. Not sure why 5 bucks makes that big of a difference but sure seems like it did.

No, there were not other products like mine selling for more than $65 but less than $70.

I find it all very interesting.

PayPal doesn't trust me

PayPal has to decided to hold my money for 21 days before releasing me. The reason is that I sell electronics and my seller rating does not have enough ratings. This is different than your eBay rating. My eBay rating is 222. My seller rating only has 11 ratings. I guess being a customer for over a decade with no problems means little.
Calling them was an exercise in futility. . If there was any other good options I would take it.

This seller rating is not good enough for PayPal!

Logitech Wilife Digital Security System

I just purchase a large lot(at least for me) of these cameras.

 In all it will cost me about $1700. $200 of that will be to go and pick them up as they are about 4 hours for where I live.

There are 14 outdoor camera and 28 indoor cameras.

Few reason why I went after these:




First, they were brand new in brand box. This simply sells better on ebay.
Second, there are only 2 different kinds of cameras. This makes so much less work than than if there was 20 different kinds of cameras.
Lastly, they are logitech, which is a brand most people recognize.

I am hoping to make $1000-$1500 off of these. Looking forward to getting them and cluttering up my house even more.

 I am now broke.

Fund: -100 dollars

UPS cheaper than Post Office

So, I sold a Apple Mac Raid system for 50 bucks.

It weighs a lot. I packaged it up weighed it and did the online post office thing. I weighed it at 70 pounds. Cost 68 bucks! Took it to the post office this and it weighed too much. Anything over 70 pounds they will not ship. The scale wouldn't even say what the weight was. I took the package to the UPS store during my lunch break. It weighed 74 pounds and cost 64 bucks. 4 dollars cheaper than the post office?
This surprised me.


Two lessons: Post office doesn't ship things heavier than 70 pounds and UPS is cheaper on heavy objects than the post office.

Funds: $1400

North Face

Purchased 3 North Face jackets at the garage sale for $90.

They were new in the bag with price tags. I have found that items with price tags sell alot better than new items without.

Two of them were also 3X. Experience shows that larger than 2X and very small items sell better on the resale clothing market.

I have to decide if I want to sell them now or wait until coller waether. I would like to move them but they will sell better then rather than during the heat of summer. I think I will wait.



The Fund: $1350

Sold some stuff

Sold a bunch of stuff including all the DELL servers. Sold the DEC equipment for $300. Since I only paid $30 it was a nice profit. Most of the other stuff in that lot wasn't great, so I won't make much more.

I opened a bank account to help keep track of this. They gave me $100 for opening. I have also found mint.com. Nice little site if you can trust them with your bank account information.

The fund is growing and I have crossed the 1K mark. Next goal is 2K.

Funds: $1300 + equipment worth around $200-$500 bucks

Another auction

I found a local auction with some more DEC equipment 700-16.

These are worth $100-$200 if they work and are in good shape.

The description in the auction was vague, but I had purchased there before and e-mailed them for a parts list. There were 3, 700-16's, so I was willing to go to $100. I got the auction for $30. So, I expect to make good money off this auction.

Interestingly, he explained he keeps the auctions vague, because while he has a parts list he doesn't want to go through the pallet and confirm the list is 100% accurate. Because, if someone wins the auction and there is an error with the parts list, it is a pain in the butt.

So the parts list is something I had that most other people did not. When I picked up my stuff, I brought them donuts. I always want to be able to get a parts list for vague auction.

Funds: I really have no idea, it is crazy right now

FedEx means slow boat?

Got a  message from my Taiwan customer. He hasn't received his package. Looking at the tracking number is departed Alaska, yes, Alaska, 11 days ago. Good grief, I guess they put it on a boat. Of course the form I filled out says International Air Waybill, but maybe Air doesn't mean airplane. I admit I don't much about international shipping.

Which is better selling fast or with higher profit margin?

I bought a bunch of computer equipment for $270 that I think I will end up getting $1000-$2000 for. Definitely a good deal.
I also bought the previously mentioned switches for $1500. I will make around $400-$500 on these. Not near the profit margin.But $400 is still nice. :-)

Here is the thing: I was able to turn around the switches much, much quicker than the various computer equipment. I could sell all of them on eBay, one picture and one listing.
Meanwhile the computer equipment will take dozens of pictures, multiple eBay listings, have to meet people for the stuff that is too heavy to place on eBay.

In the end while I thought the computer equipment deal was 10x better than the switch deal, I am starting to rethink this. There is something to be said for a quick turnaround and less work.

Live and learn.

Selling to Taiwan

Sold 6 switches to a company in Taiwan on Ebay I was a little nervous but his rating was perfect and he wasn't trying to pay out of band.
Shipping was fedex with his account.  This was my first international shipment with something other than usps.  It ended up to be no big deal.
So I sold 6 switches for $1,110. Ebay and Paypal fees will take a chunk.
Still need a about 400 dollars.

Funds: $1200 + lotsa stuff

Time to sell

Been on vacation for a week, so time to get back to work.

Posted a few items on eBay, and just sold one Dell 2650 server on craigslist for $100.

Someone asked me why I sell sometime on craigslist and sometimes on eBay.

Basically, if the shipping will be high, I sell on craigslist. I sell on eBay when the shipping is low(<$20) or the product is unique enough that the local market may not have enough buyers(my DEC server is an example).

I need to sell $1500 worth of equipment by July 20, to pay for equipment I have bought. Not sure if I can get there.

Funds: $180 + lotsa equipment

Board games and trading

I love playing board games. Not the old stuff like monopoly and clue or even risk. Rather I enjoy "Euro" games. These are usually more fun, quicker, better made, and require deeper thinking than the board games I grew up with.

That being said trading reminds me of playing board games when the tension gets high.

Should I have placed my piece there? Should I buy that building? Should I save my money to buy something better later?

Trading is much like that. If I purchase too much, will I miss a better deal later on? How long will it take me to move my inventory to get my money back to so I can purchase more? What kinds of risk is involved by buying that particular item(s)?

The decisions feel much like some of these boardgames I play.

That being said with boardgames you aren't playing with real money.

Cisco Switch Purchase

Just purchased a lot of 11 switches model WS-2960-48TT-L for $1400!

I am hoping these we will sell for $200-$300 a piece.

Time will tell:

Total Assests: -1320 plus a bunch of computer equipment

Brock pottery

7 pieces for 90 bucks.  I passed but I thought it looked cool.

Refund saga

I ended up talking to the purchaser of the DEC server who accepted a refund of $60. I think this was more than generous on his part. So I didn't make as much as I hoped originally but I am pleased this is done.

Total Assets: $80

Bad news, comes in twos

Someone withdrew their bid for the router module so it went from $142 to $131. And then no one else bid on it. Ouch!

Not only that but the DEC server I sent this week is not working.  Double ouch!
I will need to refund the money maybe he will take a discount.

On the plus side I have my eye on an auction that ends in a few days. The potential for good money is there.

Total assets: Not really sure until I refund the DEC server, possibly in the hole. :-(

WIC Card

One of the items I received in the computer lot was a router. I need the router for myself but I do not need one of the modules in the router. Turns out this module it is worth quite a bit, around 100-200 dollars.

I stuck it on eBay in auction format at 99 cents and in less than a minute the bidding was over $100. Not only that but two separate people offered to purchase it straight up if I put it on Buy It Now.

Never had that happen in all my years of selling on eBay.

 Bidding is now over $140 with one day left I hope it will go around $180.

DEC Server 700. It is worth how much??

The thing just sold on eBay for $175 including shipping. Subtract shipping, paypal fees, and eBay fees and I am pocketing about $140.

 I never dreamed it would have been worth anything. The thing is 20 years old. But I guess there are production environments out there that need old equipment to keep running.

Total Assets: $140 + lots to sell

Big Computer Purchase

I took the $300 dollars and purchased a computer lot from a local community college on GovDeals.com.
I was willingly to pay up to $700 for this lot and it went much cheaper than I expected.
I believe the reason was because they did not list each piece out. I happened to be in the area and they gave me a print out of everything on the pallet. I knew exactly what I was buying and I suspect the other bidders did not.
Of course now I am broke again.
Current Assets: $0

Why

I am using this blog mainly to record my buying and selling. So this is mainly just for me.
I will detail what I bought how much I sold it for and what I missed out on.
I started with about $50 bucks, using this to buy and sell garage sale items this turned into $150.
The $150(+$150 family fund) turned into a grandfather clock which sold for $700. $350 to my trader fund and $350 to the family.
Current assets: $300