It will probably take 2-5 years before we see clear and concise language in our lien laws for all 50 states. Several states now specifically allow online storage auctions and other states allow the storage facility to dispose of the storage unit however they see fit after after all legal requirements have been met. Other lien laws are ambiguous.

That's the risk take the online auction place and facilities take, if it is illegal and they interrupted the law incorrectly, they can be shut down and fined and prosecuted. It's always best to get concrete information before engaging such activities.

When I used to own my pet store and I was thinking about manufacturing and selling my own pet food. I called the state dept of agriculture to see what the rules were and if I was legally allow to manufacture my own pet food for sale and what types of certification I would need at the facility to make it happen. What are the label requirements, etc.  The real issues came in, if you do out of state Commerce, You have to follow the rules of each state and on top of that you have to deal with the federal regulations. You also had to pay the state per amount of tonnage of food you produced.

Ultimately, it's a long process to be in compliance.  The storage facility just has to worry about the state they are in, a global online marketplace has a lot more to worry about.

Don't you mean 50 state governments ?

Yeah, I was thinking state regulators..  Some states may decide it's illegal to conduct tenant auctions online, violating privacy rights of the tenant, the tenant still technically owns the rights to the unit until it's sold.

The whole online auction thing concerning the tenants right can blow up and be shut down. It's the risk ones takes.

 

Who buys paper?  I'm sitting on around 7000 sheets found in lockers!

However, I bought another color ink cartridge yesterday for 47 bucks.....

Great idea on the thermal printer....I keep thinking about it but it's one of those things you just keep putting off looking into so you never get around to it.  New goal for the next couple of weeks, I want to get one of those set up in the shipping area!

Any suggestions for brands?  And is it any harder to print postage through ebay than it is now?  Does it print out a receipt too?

Once you get one, you then think to yourself, how did you live without one so long. If you're looking for a brand, It depends what you want to do with it, Look at the compatible brands for ebay shipping, then fedex shipping, usps shipping, amazon shipping, etc and find one that's right for you based on how you ship and where you ship from.

I was that way, I used to use a 2 inch tape gun, then I switched to a 3 in gun and kicked myself for not doing it earlier.

When I used to ship from my pet food store, I was so against getting one of these machines..

mrboxonline.com/image_thumb.php?img=images/BETTERPACKEXTRALARGE.jpg&w=750&h=699.94246260069

My wife, just bought it $300 dollars and then I learned to love it, greatest little machine ever.  Especially when you're shipping 30 lb bags of food.

I no longer have the machine, sold my store,  don't really have the need for it with lockers anymore, but if I ran a locker business out of a big warehouse and shipped a ton of stuff, I would in a heartbeat buy one again.

10) Get yourself a label printer, if your doing first class postage on small packages, I use the QL-710W brother - Prints out a small label that can easily fit on small envelopes and packages.

how much do these cost? i was recently in the market for a new printer i wound up going with a laserjet but considered specifically a lable printer. ultimately i decided with a laserjet its cheap, toner is cheap, way more prints than a inkjet and i dont have to have 1 lable printer and 1 regular. label printer if you do quantity probbly cehaper in long run as its meant to print labels efficeient. lotsa black lines and barcodes take lots of ink or toner.

I paid around $75 for mine, the cool thing with the label printers are that they are thermal and require no ink, it's just heat. So all you need to do is buy thermal paper for the printer you get. I buy continuous feed paper from here: houselabels.com/brother-dk-2205-4

It's cost effective, lets say a label for USPS is about 6 inches, each 100 feet roll makes 200 labels and you pay like $4 a roll so it comes out to about .02 cents a label.

500 sheets of paper cost $10 bucks at wall mart so the cost is .02 each also

So you save money, you just peel and stick on the box for .02..

If you use a laser jet, you need the paper, the toner, tape to put it on the box, takes up more space, and it uses more energy.

I have both a laser jet and the label printer, so much more easier with the label printer.

The only winners in the online auction in the long run is the facilities and the site that charges the commission. 

rulesforrebels,

What time zone is that chart in?

Here's what I know about eBay, their are some other very knowledgeable sellers that have posted some very valid tips.

1) Always use 12 photos - No matter what - It's going to give you the biggest bump. Make up photos, whatever it takes, show the item next to a ruler, the box it ships, anything you can think of.

2) If you have say 50 shirts to sell, always do GOOD TO CANCEL, this will maintain all your watchers and sold counts and this will also boost you in the search relevancy.

3) Being a Top-Rated Seller helps boost search rankings.. Their are pro's and con's some cons are you have to include tracking numbers, so no sending out baseball cards using postage stamps. It's going to count against you, you have to maintain 90% of what you sell with tracking. So some items will cost a little more to sell but the benefit is great.

   a) Using fake tracking numbers to keep you in compliance will ultimately get you busted.

4) Always use Fast and Free shipping (They get a bump also in rankings). So when you're selling multiple "Fast and Free is the way to go" along with Good To Cancel, with 12 photos.

5) Ending times on auction, It's different based on gender and merchandise categories.  Call eBay and ask for advice on when to end an auction for particular categories.

6) Theirs a new feature, not all accounts have it enable, its still in beta called, Relist your items up to 3 times automatically if it don't sell. Using this feature will re-list the items at no charge and no use of a free insertion.

7) If you need additional keywords to trigger that don't fit in a title, create Item Specifics for those keywords.

Always use the Ebay Global Shipping program, all you have to do is mail the item to ebays shipping center which is a commercial address, I sell a lot of items through it.

9) 1 day handling and 14 day+ return policy, gets you better search results.

10) Get yourself a label printer, if your doing first class postage on small packages, I use the QL-710W brother - Prints out a small label that can easily fit on small envelopes and packages.

11) Get yourself two scales, I have 3, one for measuring lbs, one for ounces and one for grams (I use for selling precious metals online)

12) Get yourself a box sizer (reducing box sizes save on packing material and dimensional weight).

13) If you can manage 2 ebay accounts, do it, once for being a top rated seller and one for selling things that don't qualify for top rated seller. 

My dad is one of those crazy sellers on eBay with a gazillion feedback, I'm just starting out. I had many conversations with eBay regarding selling, this is what I have learned.

I have a commercial paper shredder that I got from a locker, I normally shred most of the papers i find in lockers.

But to be honest, paper is very heavy, so it's really best to use the white peanuts, to reduce shipping cost. You can but those huge 20 cubic foot bags for like $18 from a wholesale packing place.

Sometimes I use paper, depending on the weight of the box, lets say something weighs 2.2 lbs going fedex, since fedex is by the pound I can use up to .8 lbs of paper for packing. I also use bubble wrap.

I also use a box sizer to reduce the amount of packing I need.. It looks like this.