Thy had called in an expert and sure enough.  Fake.   And he confiscated them.

What exactly do you mean "he confiscated them"?  It's perfectly legal to sell fakes if you advertise them as such.

Sorry guys I'm still here. Just been a crazy few weeks. I have been hitting the auctions big time. I'm still here!!!

I have a couple of questions about the show if you have a few minutes. I assume you get paid something from the show, after all having someone getting in your way when you trying to clean out units or doing those outtakes takes up some of your valuable time, so I would think they kick a few bucks your way. I'm guessing around 10k for the season, not enough to make you rich, but enough for you to put up with them.

Also it's been alleged that the units are staged with items to make the reality show more interesting. Personally I don't believe that, but your not seeing the 9 other units out of ten that do not hold anything interesting. If you film enough, chances are your going to come across something interesting and highlight only the cream of the crop on the show. Am I correct in my line of reasoning?

Is the conflict on the show between characters something the shows producers encourage? I find it hard to believe this was the way things were before the TV cameras showed up.

   

 

I'm currently unemployed and looking for ways to earn extra cash on the side. Anyway I answered an ad on Craigslist about selling items for someone on commission. Here's the email I received:


Hi XXX,

I feel glad you are interested in my job.

Let me tell you more about it...

I own a pawn shop and I need someone who can post my items ( watches, electronics, etc. ) on eBay.
I will provide the photos and details of the items that need to be advertised. Your job is just to post the ads, I will talk with the peoples who are interested.

I will pay you when the auction ends. There are 2 possibilities:

1. If the item is sold:
    YOU RECEIVE $100 + eBay POSTING FEES + 5% OF THE SELLING PRICE

2. If the item doesn't sell:
    YOU RECEIVE $100 + eBay POSTING FEES (I'm sure that the item will sell )

Maybe you wonder, why not sell my products myself? I wanted to start an eBay account but I read on one of ebay's community pages that sellers with 0 feedback have not the same success as the others sellers with feedback.

I can pay you via PayPal or Bank Transfer every 4-5 days. Let me know if you have an ebay id and when you can start listing.
I need you to post 2-3 auctions every week...


If you agree with everything I explained here, notify me, and I will send you the items so you can post them (item description + pictures + all details)!

Waiting for you

Regards !

I feel pretty confident this is a scam, but I replied back to him asking for his Pawnshops address just in case. Anyone have a clue how such a scam would work? If I were to sell a non-existence item on Ebay using his photo's and description, I would get paid, Not him. I don't think he understands how Ebay works. It's no longer possible to be paid directly with a check or money order, everything's via Paypal.

OK so I get paid, he would want the money from me minus commissions, but if no item exists, the buyer would never receive the item and I would be on the hook for the refund. But if I don't transfer the money to this guy until I received verification the buyer received the item they won in the auction, what's my down side here? At worse I'd have to issue a refund, get negative feedback and have to pay the listing fees.

The only way I could think of this would be to the advantage of a seller would be to avoid taxes. Say if you have 1 million dollars worth of stock to sell. If you sell in to Ebay, your on the hook for around 13% from Ebay transaction fees and then you have to pay taxes on top of that, say 20%. But if you where to have 50 or so people sell the stock for you, each could sell less then 20k of stock and be under Ebay's the threshold for reporting income to the IRS, you could them offer each seller 10% or so commission and pocket the other 10% you would have had to pay taxes on other wise.       
   

I had my own account with UPS, and used that to print shipping online, after I stopped selling stuff on Ebay for a year or so, UPS cancelled my account. When I started selling again, I decided to try Ebays shipping option, I was surprised to find that there rates are better than the rates I was paying.

As for shipping, I try to use a flat rate when selling. I try to pick the farthest point to ship to and quote that price, if they are closer, I pocket the difference.  However, free shipping has yielded some results as well.

It amaze me how some Ebay sellers can offer free shipping, I can't understand how they are turning a profit, if I were to ship the same item, it would cost me more than the item cost to do so. I suspect they are using someone else's shipping account (like the company they work for) without there knowledge. I still know the log on for the Fedex account for the FAA, but I would never use there account to ship personal items. The consequences of getting caught make it too risky to do.
     

That's roughly $2,600 in silver, not bad at all. Not quite gold, but almost as good. 

I paid $160 for the locker and got $1,000 from them for the boxes and two computers with more info in them.

You let them off dirt cheap if you ask me. You could have got a lot more out of them, and if they don't agree to your price, just threaten to call a newspaper reporter to give them a good story. No one likes negative publicity. 

Anyone willing to share how they stay on top of shipping charges? 

Thanks

I charge flat rate shipping. When calculating shipping charges, I have the item in the box I'm going to use to ship and measure box dimensions and weight. I then get a quote from UPS and USPS using my zip code in NJ and 90201 (one of the furthest shipping destinations from me) and round the quote up a dollar or two. That's the shipping I list for my auctions. The Buyer's location usually it ends up being closer and I pocket the difference in price. I prefer UPS, cause the shipping charges are not on the label and the buyer is none the wiser shipping was less then they paid. I have always used this method, I never used the shipping services from Ebay or Paypal. Although from reading here, there's shipping discounts available for power sellers, something I wasn't aware of.