The question begs to be asked... WHY?
I want to rip my ears off every time I hear, "Don't forget to pay the lady."

I'm sure you know by now that not everyone has the same discriminating high taste that you do.

In my area I have actually seen newbies with "Yupp" hats and t-shirts.

It's sad I know, but....IT'S REALITY, and I offer the picture for the few (if any) members here who might want to
go get an autograph that could then be sold for a HUGE sum on eBay. 

I'm having a debate with myself while it's slow in my store.. Is it better to start an auction off with a low price and charge or shipping, or higher price and free shipping?

The past few days I've listed stuff with free shipping, but setting my starting price higher thinking I'd get good results, not so much..

I know it's all about what you're putting up there, but I see similar items sell daily and mine get glossed over..

Who's winning the debate?

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Back in the day when eBay charged a different fee for different levels of starting prices we placed I had a friend to always started EVERYTHING at $.99.  He just had to save that extra $.50 to $1.00 he would have to have paid to start an item at a higher rate. One time I bought something from him for $.99 that was worth $15 to me and I would have gone that high had anyone else bid on it, but no one did and I got it for $1.00 (I gave him the extra penny for delivering it to me at the flea market the next time he came.)

This was all OK since we were friends but he learned a bit of a lesson.  He had another set that he hadn't adverstised and I bought it from him for $5.00...again we were both happy.

Anyway, I start an item at the price I want it to bring (for the most part). If I paid $5 and I have seen them sell for $50 I might start it at $35 or $40, but sometimes I'll start it at what the last one on eBay sold for. Has worked pretty well for me.

Also, I have had things NOT SELL (say at $45) and I will relist it at $55 and it will sell. Sometimes (maybe more often than not) it's just a matter of who is online.

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As to free shipping, I usually only do that when it's something light (like a patch) sent first class, and even then I might build that $.46 into the asking price !

Glossed over?  Sometimes it's something you'll never know... why they took person "B" instead of you.

Getting a "your item sold" email from eBay isn't surprising in itself, especially when it's based on a "buy it now" 30 day listing which could happen at any time, BUT....

...it was surprising to see this $50 item had sold through the new Global Shipping program.  I didn't even know I was enrolled in that.

When I then tried to send an invoice eBay pops up a message that I can't do that for a global item. OK. That made me look at this carefully to see if it was a scam from this buyer who had ZERO FEEDBACK.  Nope, it's a genuine email from eBay and shows up as an item needing payment in my sold listings area.

SO, I went to the help section in eBay and read a few pages about the new global shipping program. I printed it out because there are several multi-step pages in there about how to opt-out of the global shipping, opt in, etc. There is even a section that says if you have exclusions built in to an item for sale that they an be overridden!

Needless to say it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I WAS able to look at the profile for the zero feedback buyer and one slim line shows he is in Australia.  I also sent him an email detailing some of what I have said here and asking him to respond. Since all eBay based email is kept by them it's just backup in case something goes wrong.

Meanwhile, AFTER he pays I ship the thing using eBay labels (which I always do anyway) and it goes to Kentucky where it is then taken over by the global shipper.  If this thing works right I might stay in the global program...we'll see. I have had bad luck in the past with two items to Canada so I have only sold to the USA for many years now. This might be the change date.

In this business, a mostly cash one, how do you protect yourself? Its not uncommon to carry large amounts of cash, and even if you havent made enemies, you cant predict other people. Ever been in a situation where you needed it?

Share here.

I have seen at least two or three people here speak to the fact they are carrying money in one pocket and a firearm in the other.

I have never done that, nor will I, thinking it might be better to give it up than get shot trying to defend it. Money can be replaced, life can't. And if some little kid (or an adult for that matter) got caught up in the gunfire because of something I did, that would be hard to live with.

Anyway, that being said, one could always secure the bulk of one's money in a vehicle (assuming that was felt to be a secure way to do it) and there are more than likely a half-dozen ways to insure that the money wouldn't disappear from your person.

I know one fellow who carries two wallets. This is for a buying situation of course (he plainly opens the one wallet when making an offer..."That's all I've got except for the $5 I need for gas") while in the other wallet he might have a couple of thousand. I guess it works for him...not something I would do; I would just keep $20 or  $100 lose in a pocket when making a deal at a flea market, etc.  So, maybe the wallet idea would work to foil a robber...just give him the  one that is the low-end wallet. Put a couple of expired credit cards in it, etc.  Might work.

The likelihood of any of us getting robbed is pretty slim I think but it could happen...just as you could get struck by lightning or win the lottery. I don't know what the odds are, but probably more likely to get robbed and those odds would still be hundreds of thousands to one I would guess.

I've never heard of a robbery taking place at or around a storage auction. Maybe the thieves read the post about the guys carrying guns. 

I don't own a store but I know people who do (or did).

This is about a fellow who DID.  He opened a store November, 2012 is closing it by the end of September, 2013.

His problems were multiple:

It was half a block off a busy street, but no way of directing people to it.
He had a parter...a cousin. Things went bad as sometimes happens with partners (more often than not IMO).

He was paying $750 plus a month for rent plus the usual other costs. He wasn't selling that much so guess what happens next.

On the other hand he has yard sales about once a month and does dynamite biz...or at least that's what he and a mutual friend tell me. Now he and the mutual friend are having a falling out because the friend wanted to bring tools to the sale and the sale "owner" saw that (rightly I think) as competition.

When you get right down to it, friendship, family and business are a possible toxic combination and that was certainly part of the problem here.

Knowing this guy, I predicted (only to myself and our one mutual friend) that I didn't think his store would succeed and I based that on what I had seen happen for 3 or 4 other people over the last 10 years. There are many factors in running a successful business and the "failure" rate is higher than the success rate as one might expect.

Still, if a business made it "x" years and provided a living for those involved it really can't be considered a failure. But, if the money goes out faster than it comes in and people are working for free for longer than say 6 months or so, it's time to move on to plan B, or to already have a plan B and C in place (like other income from self or spouse)...but that's just my opinion.

Pics 10, 11, 12

Pics 4, 5, 6




Cases in pic 4 above were empty. Didn't count them but they wanted $8 each or $150 for all.