I'm trying it out since I just opened my own ebay acct. rather than using others.  So far I've gotten one item...well, a 'lot' of many items.

A friend of mine does well at it.  He set up alerts plus just browses constantly.
Tho he does have money so he can have 100 bids out at a time and if he wins them all he can cover it.
He says averaged out he wins and resales about $1000/month profit. 

Just wondering if anyone (besides him) actually makes this work?

Question: what is the appropriate amount of time before contacting seller about shipping?

Situation: I bought/paid for an item on Monday night.  About 10pm-ish.  So I count that as Tuesday. They say they ship within 24hrs. So I figured Wednesday, but they sent tracking number on Tuesday. Awesome!

But here it is Friday and tracking is still blank.  You know that bar? Accepted>In Transit>Delivered.  It's blank.   I've never come across this before.   

Should I wait untill after the estimated time of delivery or is it cool to send a (friendly) note asking if they've shipped?     I don't want to bother them if its the post office......

Should add, I only care because I use a mail drop.   Don't want to keep driving there (its far) to check.  Small packages are in lock box but this item is pretty big and will be left out....it's security is okay but not guaranteed.

2nd, seller has a rating of just under 1400 at 100%.   So I don't think it's them.....

Last safe I saw was a gun safe.   Besides that there wasn't much else.  Went for $750.

Guy goes in a its unlocked! WhoHoo!
Inside are seven hard case gun totes and piles of mint coin boxes!  Heck yeah!!

Proceeded to open everything......empty....empty.....empty..... 

We were all like WTF?!?

Okay, little odd to take guns and not hard case but maybe he sold each gun without case?  Came and took all so loaded in something less conspicuous since guns aren't suppose to be stored there?   Fine.

But who takes mint coins out of case?

Guy still had a nice score.  Safe was $2k new. Even with re-combo fee he either got a nice safe cheap or made a few hundred.    Pulse each gun case? Couple probably only $25ish but most were the nice rifle case's that (new) go for $150-$250.

Anyway, the point is he only went to $750 based off value of safe.  What he could get for safe, not its possible contents........


<side story>
It was funny because this particular facility has a policy that firearms must be turned over to police.
And around here, once the police have your gun for any reason your not getting it back any time soon, if at all.
So the auctioneer is there and see's this guy going to open safe and he runs over and says:  "looks like its all locked up, eh?  Can't get into it?"  And stands right in font of it with he door about two inches open.

We are all confused for a second and then owner gets it.  "Yep. Locked.  Going to have to haul it home and call lock smith!" 

So a lesson learned.  Don't open safes unill your alone......which would be good advice anywhere.  I'd hate for everyone to know I'm all alone in a dark warehouse after cracking open a safe with millions in it.

I just ran into this.
I've always used others ebay accounts.  First my ex and then roommate.
Last week I wanted some copper pans, set up acct....couldn't bid because no feedback!

So I bought something else on buy-it-now.  Couple hours had feedback.  Problem solved.

Yep, and we all ride our horses to work too.

I was simply stating that I find women in summer dresses and cowboy boots appealing.
We don't get that much on this side of the mountains here.  However, I see it frequently down there.
Not trying to stereotype you big hat wear'n, gun loving, rednecks by any means!   

You gave it a shot.
Most leave after just a few lockers.

It's tough out there right now.  I'm just picking.  Good luck in your net venture!

I've put in max bid of say $100.   Auction ends and the winning bid was $50.  Why didnt it take my higher bid?     Ebay confuses me a lot......

In situations like yours I've been told its something to do with he proxy bid process.
If multiple people put in max bid then it just skips to max bid without listing ALL bids.
So at the end the next lowest is only the last *physical* bid.....

At leat that's how it was explained to me......but I've see the bids listed out too....So i dunno.  Ebay sucks?

Our shop just lets a guy come dig thru tire pile.
Every tire he takes is a tire we don't have to pay disposal of...

Closest I've come is in college we would go at night to the aluminum manufacturing plant and sweep up all the shavings from around dumpter.  They loved it.  They PAID to have it taken away so every bit we took was money saved and they didnt have to clean it up.

We could get several hundred dollars worth in under an hour.

But then recyclers started paying for it and we were told to stop.

Then we went to Boeing surplus store where you could buy 100lb blocks of aluminum for $75.  Recyclers paid $100 to (at one point) $137 for it.    Boeing caught on after a while and changed price to just below spot.    Wasn't worth it then when adding in gas and time.