Merry Christmas 2014

 

A Visit From St. Nicholas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my hand, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! His dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Thrift Store Reseller Guide

Have you ever wanted to resell thrift store items on eBay but had no idea what to do or how to begin? Or maybe you already have an eBay store, but you have questions about how to take your sales to the next level.

Here is a great guide from my mentor in Ebay selling, Meinard Agraan:

Thrift Store Reselling Guide

By now, most people are already aware that thrift stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Savers receive thousands of donations on a daily basis.  What most folks don’t realize however is that many of these donations can be worth A LOT of money on eBay…if you know what brands and items to look for!

I’ve resold thrift store items on eBay before but it was mostly coffee mugs, toys, and other small items.  After reading this eBook however, I discovered that there are many other great items with even higher profit margins to resell on eBay.

Every section of the thrift store – the shoes, jeans, jackets, athletic apparel, boots, housewares – is literally filled with tons valuable items that are just sitting there waiting to be found.  This eBook is filled with pictures of previous eBay sales.  I was also a little sad because I recognize some of these thrift store items from previous visits and I just walked right past them, not realizing how much they were worth.

Meinard, the author of the eBook, has been thrift store reselling for nearly a decade and he’s interacted with thousands of other resellers (myself included), helping them to expand their knowledge and increase their eBay sales.

His eBook covers a wide range of topics including:

•    Which Thrift Store Brands and Items You Should be Looking For and Which Ones to Avoid.
•    Common Mistakes that Beginner’s Make and How to Avoid Them.
•    How to Resell High School and College Textbooks for a Quick Profit.
•    A Beginner’s Guide to Reselling Thrift Store Nike’s and Air Jordan’s (A MUST READ!)
•    All About Vintage Polo Ralph Lauren
•    Women’s Jeans and Shoes
•    And much more!

Thrift Store Reselling Guide

It really does include so much more – it’s now over a 100 pages of content and he’s constantly updating with newer information.  Plus, all future updates are free after your purchase it. 

Meinard obviously loves thrift store reselling and loves the world of eBay. This is a must read for anyone who already sells on eBay or is thinking of doing it.

Bottom line

Honestly, I’ve resold coffee mugs and other small items in the past but I’ve been looking for a way to branch out into other sections in the thrift store.  Now that I have this book, I feel fully prepared to begin my adventure with thrift store reselling on eBay. Definitely one of the best reads I’ve had in a long time. Highly recommend it!

Here's the link again:

Thrift Store Reselling Guide

Swagbucks - September In Review

For the past month, I have been writing about Swagbucks, a site where you earn Swag Bucks (SB) which you then redeem for gift cards and other prizes. As a follow up to the Swagbucks 101 Series, I am going to put my money where my mouth is and show you my results. In the month of September, I earned 16,341 Swag Bucks. This equals $163.41. From these earnings I bought 5 $5.00 Amazon gift cards at 450 SB each - there is a limit of 5 per month - (2250 SB), and 5 $25.00 Paypal payments at 2500 SB each (12,500 SB). This left 1591 SB in my Swagbucks account. Here is my ledger:

The biggest earnings chunk (47%) came from running the mobile apps as discussed in the Swagbucks 101 Series. I earned 7800 SB ($78.00) from them. If you only run the apps each day you can see you will get a solid payout each month.

Next came Special Offers at 3589 SB (21%). There are many ways to earn in this category. Some include Cafe Mom (on the Swagbucks Mobile app), offers from the Wall (your "Home Page" in Swagbucks), Jun Group Videos (AKA Laptop Guy), and  most things found in the "Discover" tab.

The third biggest payout was Surveys (called Answers in the ledger) at 21%. Surveys are completely hit or miss, but if you try to do the ones with the best payout for the least amount of time you can maximize your time and effort. Be prepared to get disqualified a lot. I actually stopped doing surveys because of the time involved and the failure rate. We will see how this affects my October earnings.

The next best earner was "Other" which paid 778 SB (4%).  The majority of this was 700 SB for Swagbucks Accelerator. I have since upgraded to Accelerator Plus and will write about this in a future post.

The remainder was split up among Encrave (216 SB), Bonus SB (120 SB), Swag Codes (110 SB), Searching (99 SB), Tasks (53 SB), Games (42 SB), Swagbucks TV - not the mobile app (24 SB), and Referrals (22 SB).
As you can see this is a pretty easy way to earn some extra cash with minimum work involved. Check out the Swagbucks 101 Series for more info.

Part 1 Swagbucks Basics
Part 2 Swagbucks TV app
Part 3 EntertaiNow app
Part 4 Moviecli.ps app
Part 5 Sportly.tv app

eBay - My Thoughts

I have been a full time seller on eBay since January of 2012. I got laid off from my job and needed to do something to make ends meet. eBay became the answer. I am my own boss, answer to no one (except an occasional unhappy buyer), and I enjoy the experiences that picking and thrifting offer. Since then a lot has changed, sometimes good, sometimes not.
When a change does occur, one thing I have noticed is that a lot of sellers will say how unfair it is, or they will never sell on eBay again, how it will put them out of business, or what have you. From uploading tracking, to Cassini, to the defect rate, to the coming spinoff of Paypal, there has always been a "sky is falling" mentality among certain sellers.
The bottom line is this: I have weathered all these changes and survived. Why? How? Because when something new is introduced instead of protesting and complaining, I adapt to it as quickly as possible. I find out as much as I can about it and do what I need to do to stay current. The defect rate is a good example of this. I was very concerned about this so much so that I actually called eBay about it. The rep I talked to basically said "you're doing a great job, just keep it up". And guess what? He was right. My defect rate is down to 0.81% (4 defects in close to 500 transactions). I have maintained Top Rated status through it all, and I have opened a second account that has become Top Rated also.
One thing I have found is when things start going sideways it is usually my fault (not listing new products, not adapting Best Practices, etc.), and not some eBay conspiracy to put me out of business.
The lesson here is do the right thing, and keep doing the right thing. And then do the right thing again. You know what will happen? You will usually come out okay.

Swagbucks 101 Part 6 - Indymusic.tv

Welcome back to the Swagbucks 101 series. 
Part 1 Swagbucks Basics
Part 2 Swagbucks TV app
Part 3 EntertaiNow app
Part 4 Moviecli.ps app
Part 5 Sportly.tv app

The next app you will use is called Indymusic.tv. This app was introduced a few weeks ago. It is currently available for Android only and you can find it here:

Android (2.3 and up)

As of now, this app will give you 36 SB per day (subject to change). You will get 2 SB for every 15 clips you watch. You can simply let the clips play in order, or you can favorite the shortest clip or clips and loop. This is the preferred method of the savvy Swaggernaut. By doing this you can reach your max fairly quickly and move on to the next app. The list below (courtesy of Reddit) shows the shortest clips on Indymusic.tv. The numbers in parentheses indicate which video if there is more than one from that movie.

Love is All Around by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts	:30
Life Force by Joan of Arc	1:11
Carpet Bombing by Jungle Rot	1:12
Contention by MxPx	1:19
United States of Whatever by Liam Lynch	1:27

Keep in mind you will not find all of these as the clips rotate. Also new clips may be added. Once you find the shortest clips available to you, favorite one or a few. Then just go to your Favorites section in the app and play. The other benefit of favoriting is that you will not lose the clips when they go out of rotation.
By running these apps daily, and doing a few simple things discussed in Part 1, you can earn enough for a $5 gift card in about 2-3 days.

Check back soon for the next installment on Swagbucks apps (1 more!). Also coming up, 2 more sites to earn gift cards on, and in early October, my Swag Bucks earnings for the month of September!

Swagbucks 101 Series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Swagbucks 101 Part 5 - Sportly.tv

Welcome back to Swagbucks 101. In Part 1, I talked about simple ways to earn Swag Bucks (SB). In Part 2, I discussed the Swagbucks TV Mobile app. In Part 3, the EntertaiNow app was highlighted. The Moviecli.ps app was discussed in Part 4.

The next app is called Sportly.tv. It is currently available for Android only and you can find it here:

Android (2.2 and up)

As of now, this app will give you 36 SB per day. You will get 2 SB for every 15 clips you watch. You can simply let clips play in order, or you can favorite the shortest clip or clips and loop. This is the preferred method of the savvy Swaggernaut. By doing this you can reach your max fairly quickly and move on to the next app. The list below (courtesy of Reddit) shows the shortest clips on Sportly.tv. The numbers in parentheses indicate which video if there is more than one from that movie.

Side Lunges with Bosu Ball-Women's Fitness	:25
Bizarre Sightings-Laughter Yoga	:26
How to do Side Lunges	:27
How to Perform Eyes to Sky Neck Extension	:28
How to do Hand Walkouts	:28
How to Perform Upper Back Stretch	:29
How to do Windmills	:29
How to do Explosive Jump Squat	:30
How to do The Side Leg Stretch	:30
How to Perform Egyptian Stretch	:30
How to do Crab Walks	:30
How to do Triceps Kickback	:31
Standing Knee to Elbow Exercise	:32
How to Perform Upper Chest Stretch	:33
How to Perform Plank Position	:33
How to Perform Bicep Stretch	:33
How to Do Overhead Squat	:34
How to do I So Jump	:35
How to Perform Triceps Stretch	:35
How to Perform Chin to Chest Exercises	:35
How to Do a Bridge Pose	:36
Squats with Vertical Barbell	:37
Hop Flexor Stretch	:37
How to do Bear Crawl	:37
How to Perform Neck Rotation	:37
Standing Abs - Bent Over Punch Exercise	:39
How to do Lateral Raise	:39
Standing Abs - Bent Over Punch Exercise	:39
Fashionable Shoes for Your Workout	:40
Black Diamond Razor Carbon	:40
How to Perform Barbell Squat on a Bench	:40
Fashionable Shoes for Your Workout	:40
How to Perform Standing Chop	:41
Hula Hoop Arm Exercise	:42
How to do Hurdle Hop	:42
How to do Knee Plank Curls	:42
Curtsy Lunge With Kick to Side	:42
Bridge Pose With Yoga Ball	:43
Overhead Exercises With Dumbbells	:43
Plank to Downward Dog	:44
How to do Sumo Squats with Dumbbell	:44
Fitness Through Sensual Dance	:50

Keep in mind you will not find all of these as the clips rotate. Also new clips may be added. Once you find the shortest clips available to you, favorite one or a few. Then just go to your Favorites section in the app and play. The other benefit of favoriting is that you will not lose the clips when they go out of rotation.
By running these apps daily, and doing a few simple things discussed in Part 1, you can earn enough for a $5 gift card in about 2-3 days.

Check back soon for the next installment on Swagbucks apps (2 more!). Also coming up, 2 more sites to earn gift cards on, and in early October, my Swag Bucks earnings for the month of September!

Swagbucks 101 Series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Swagbucks 101 Part 4 - MovieCli.ps

Welcome back to Swagbucks 101. In Part 1, I talked about simple ways to earn Swag Bucks (SB). In Part 2, I discussed the Swagbucks TV Mobile app. In Part 3, the EntertaiNow app was highlighted. Now we will move on to the third app.
This one is called MovieCli.ps. It is available only for Android. You can find this app here:

Android (2.3.3 and up)

As of now, this app will give you 36 SB per day (this can change). You will get 2 SB for every 15 videos you watch. You can simply let clips play in order, or you can favorite the shortest clip or clips and loop. This is the preferred method of the savvy Swaggernaut. By doing this you can reach your max fairly quickly and move on to the next app. The list below (courtesy of Reddit) shows the shortest clips on MovieCli.ps. The numbers in parentheses indicate which video if there is more than one from that movie.

The Other Woman(2)	:25
I,Frankenstein	:26
The Giver (2)	:26
Grudge Match(1)	:29
The Fault in Our Stars(3)	:31
Think Like a Man Too(2)	:32
Parkland (2)	:33
Ride Along (1)	:35
Godzilla(3)	:38
Enough Said (2)	:39
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom(3)	:39
The Ledgend of Hercules(1)	:41
Belle	:41
Enough Said(3)	:41
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom(2)	:41
What If	:42
Ride Along(3)	:42
Hercules(2)	:43
Noah(1)	:44
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom(1)	:44
Transcendence(1)	:45

Keep in mind you will not find all of these as the clips rotate. Also new clips may be added. Once you find the shortest clips available to you, favorite one or a few. Then just go to your Favorites section in the app and play. The other benefit of favoriting is that you will not lose the clips when they go out of rotation.
By running these apps daily, and doing a few simple things discussed in Part 1, you can earn enough for a $5 gift card in about 2 days.

Check back soon for the next installment on Swagbucks apps.

Swagbucks 101 Part 3 - EntertaiNow

Welcome back to Swagbucks 101. In Part 1, I talked about simple ways to earn Swag Bucks (SB). In Part 2, I discussed the Swagbucks TV Mobile app. Now we will move on to the second app.
This one is called  EntertaiNOW TV Mobile. It is available for both Android and iOS. You can find this app here:

Android (2.3.3 and up)

iOS (6.0 and up)

As of now, this app will give you 36 SB per day (this can and will change). It pays 2 SB for every 10 videos you watch. You can simply let clips play in order, or you can favorite the shortest clip or clips and loop. This is the preferred method of the savvy Swaggernaut. By doing this you can reach your max fairly quickly and move on to the next app. The list below (courtesy of Reddit) shows the shortest clips on EntertaiNow.

Touch: The Complete First Season	:11
American Horror Story: Complete First Season	:15
Dragons: Riders of Berk: Exclusive DvD Premiere	:15
Titanic: The Complete Series	:15
Super Bad	:16
Paul	:16
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The Complete Season 8	:16
Dragons: Riders of Berk: Exclusive DvD Premiere	:16
Homeland: The Complete First Season	:16
Terra Nova: The Complete Series	:16
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Complete Season 7	:16
King of Paper Chasin'	:16
The Boondooks: The Complete Third Season	:16
Titantic: The Complete Series	:16
Nite Tales: The Series: Season One	:16
The League: The Complete Season 4	:16
American Horror Story: The Complete First Season	:16
Family Guy: Volume 10	:16
Modern Family: The Complete Third Season	:16
Homeland: The Complete First Season	:16
Brideshead Revisited	:16
Underclassmen	:17
Damage	:17
Brideshead Revisited	:17
Superbad	:17
Glee: The Complete Third Season	:17
Wrong Turn Five: Bloodlines	:17
Mad Men: Season Four	:18
True Grit	:21
Sebastian Live	:27
Comics Without Borders	:28

Keep in mind you will not find all of these as the clips rotate. Also new clips may be added. Once you find the shortest clips available to you, favorite one or a few. Then just go to your Favorites section in the app and play. The other benefit of favoriting is that you will not lose the clips when they go out of rotation.
By running these apps daily, and doing a few simple things discussed in Part 1, you can earn enough for a $5 gift card in about 2 days.

Check back soon for the 3rd app to use with Swagbucks.

Swagbucks 101 Part 2 - Swagbucks TV Mobile

Unfamiliar with Swagbucks? Check it out here. Welcome back to Swagbucks 101. In Part 1, I talked about simple ways to earn Swag Bucks (SB). In Part 2, I will begin addressing an easier, more lucrative way to earn: Mobile Apps. With the 5 mobile apps I will discuss, you can earn an additional (as of now) 266 SB per day. These apps will all run on most Android devices, in fact people will buy cheap Android phones just to run the apps. 2 of them (Swagbucks TV is one) will also run on iOS. All five are available from Google Play and you can have them up and running quickly. These apps will run video clips that you will get SB from. The best part is these apps are totally passive, meaning you let them run until they max out. Keep in mind that the amount of SB you can earn for any of these apps is subject to change. The numbers I am giving you are current as of the time of writing.
The first one I am going to talk about is Swagbucks TV Mobile. You can find this app here:

Android (2.2 or higher)

iOS (6.0 or higher)

This app will give you 36 SB per day (it was just lowered from 50 per day). You will get 2 SB for every 5 clips you watch. You will need to watch 90 clips to max out. You can simply let clips play in order, or you can favorite the shortest clip and loop it. This is the preferred method of the savvy Swaggernaut. By doing this you can reach your max very quickly and move on to the next app.
If you can find the 10 Sec Tips in the Home and Garden section, favorite them all (I have 18). Then just go to your Favorites section in the app and play. You should be able to max out in 15-20 minutes depending on the speed of your connection.
By running these apps daily, and doing a few simple things discussed in Part 1, you can earn enough for a $5 gift card in about 2 days.

Tune in soon for Part 3 which will feature the second app for Swagbucks.

Swagbucks 101 Part 1 - The Basics

If you are unfamiliar with the website Swagbucks and are interested in making some extra and relatively passive income, please read on.

What is Swagbucks? Swagbucks is an online based rewards program. Swag Bucks (SB) are earned through a variety of tasks and can be redeemed for gift cards from various retailers. There is a limit of 5 like gift cards per month. Some of the tasks are simple and passive, while others require more work. One of the most popular rewards is the $5 Amazon card that can be purchased for 450 SB. This is the "best bang for the swagbuck" as most other cards cost 100 SB per dollar. I personally have earned a bunch of these. When you purchase a card it can take up to 10 days to "arrive" in your Swagbucks account. Walmart, Starbucks, iTunes, Target, Paypal, Game Stop, CVS, and Hulu Plus are just a few more cards that are offered. Here are some of my recent gift cards.

How do I get these Swag Bucks you speak of ? There are quite a few ways to earn them. Watching videos, searching, surveys, tasks, and offers are some of the more popular ways. Let us examine them closer (in no particular order).

• Videos - There are dozens of videos to watch. You are awarded 3 SB when you watch 10 videos. The best part is you do not have to watch the entire video to get credit for it. There is a meter above the video screen (below). When the green light fills in just move onto the next video. The major problem with videos is they require babysitting.

•  Searching - You can get SB by using the Swagbucks search feature. It is possible to win about once a day, and you should not abuse it by continually searching. Therefore this is not a reliable way to earn SB, but more of a pleasant surprise.

• Surveys - Surveys are great when you finish one because you can get a nice payout (below). The problem is you get disqualified probably 90% of the time (if not more). As a result surveys can be frustrating and also take a while to complete.

•  Special Offers - These are a decent way to get a few SB. There are usually a ton of different offers available. I personally have done well with these. However there are offers that require you to enter your address, or phone number, or other info that people may be hesitant to give out. It is a good idea to create an email account just for this purpose.

•  To Do List - Simply 4 things to do each day to earn I believe 5 SB. Daily Crave is a couple short videos to watch (1SB), you get 1SB each day when you install the toolbar, Daily Poll pays 1SB when you vote in it, and NOSO is No Obligation Special Offer, which after you click "Skip" however many times, pays out 2SB (i think).

• Daily Goal - There are 2 goals each day. Goal 1 is the easier one to get. When you attain this goal, you will get bonus SB (the amount varies). Then there is Total Goal. When you achieve this, there is another SB bonus. The more SB you earn a day, the higher your daily goal gets. When I started my 1st goal was 30SB, now its 87. These bonuses are paid out once per month (usually by the 5th of the next month). So if you start earning today, you will get you September bonuses by October 5. You only need to make Goal 1 to get the bonus.

• Winning Streaks - When you meet your daily goal 7 days, 14 days , 21 days, and the entire month without missing a day you also get bonus SB. This is a wonderful way to get more SB for free.

• Swag Codes - Swag Codes are randomly issued by Swagbucks on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts and their blog. If you use the taskbar it will alert you when a code goes live and where to find it. Simply enter the code on the website and get your SB (amount varies).

These are but a few ways to earn SB. There are more, however. I will discuss the most lucrative (in my opinion) in upcoming posts. Please tune in and find out what they are.If you have any questions about Swagbucks, please feel free to ask.

Part 2 Swagbucks TV app
Part 3 EntertaiNow app
Part 4 Moviecli.ps app
Part 5 Sportly.tv app
Part 6 Indymusic.tv

Thrift Store(ies) 8/27

Our local Salvation Armies feature 50% off on 4 of the 5 color price tags every Wednesday. Needless to say, we go to as many as we can! Today was no different, and here is what we found.
Upon arriving at the closest (and one of the largest), I was quite surprised to see quite a few racks less than full. Usually this SA has a HUGE supply of stuff to go through. They were also in the process of changing things around for the fall.
I began going through the racks in my usual order, and after about 10-15 minutes had found nothing. Finally I found 3 silk Tommy Bahama shirts.

Okay, motivation has returned! Next I find a cool LL Bean Wool/Alpaca/Polyester pullover. Finally I hit the Blazers section and scored a Hugo Boss and Canali jacket.
Total cost: $22.94 or $3.82 per item. I should be able to break even by selling any one of these items.
Have a good one and happy thrifting!

Saphire

Goodbye old friend. Rest In Peace.

Saphire was my girlfriend Autumn's dog since she was a puppy back in 2000. Since then she has been a faithful and loyal friend, guardian, companion, and all around wonderful girl. When she came into my life she was about 10 or so, and still had plenty of get up and go. She loved to swim and we have a dog park with a river, so we took her there when we could. Eventually, her back legs began to fail and she could not get around as she once did. I carried her upstairs to our bed every night.
One day we decided to get her a wheelchair so she could be mobile again. We went to Eddie's Wheels in Shelburne Falls and purchased a cart for her. Well, being the stubborn girl she could be at times, she did not really take to it. But with some perseverance (and a lot of hot dogs), she eventually got the hang of it and was walking again. So we would go on walks again. She would stop every 5 feet to smell everything there was, and it would take us an hour to go a block, and I miss that very much.
She eventually lost the use of her back legs completely and the cart was no help anymore. We would help her go to the bathroom and do what we could to make her comfortable. Last week we had to make the most difficult decision a pet owner can make, that putting her to sleep was the best thing for her. Today we did that.
When I walk through the living room where she spent most of her time, not seeing her there is very saddening. I will miss you very much my old friend, I hope you can run and swim anytime you want now. I love you.

The Dog Ate My Blog Post. Repeatedly.

Well a lot has happened since my last post of 5 short months ago ;)  Pioneer Valley Fashion (eBay) is going well, I have surpassed 300 listings and aim to keep increasing that. I have switched from 30 day BINs to Good Til Cancelled. 2 reasons: First, when you do 30 day (or however many days) BINs, after that time the listing ends and any linking with Google, or elsewhere is broken. With GTC, the link is good until you end it. I will probably evaluate after 3 months or so and end and refresh any non selling listings. Second, I don't have things ending and needing listing every day, so that is one less thing to deal with.
My other eBay store, which is devoted to Lego and building toys, Pioneer Valley Bricks, is doing well also. I just received Top Rated status on the 20th. I have been selling minifigures like there's no tomorrow. I have probably 50 pounds (or more) of Lego parts that I need to list. I am (still!) trying to figure out the best way to sell parts. I have about 15,000 parts listed in my BrickLink store, also called Pioneer Valley Bricks.
I began selling on Amazon FBA a few months ago. It is very good for certain things, not so great for others. The fees are on the high side, but the benefit is that I just send stuff to them and they do the rest. It is very simple.
Yesterday I imported my eBay listings to Bonanza. I am going to give it a shot for a while. I figure another avenue can't hurt.
In the past month I purchased a new camera (Nikon Coolpix L610). My last camera was gotten at a yard sale and served me well for some time. Lately it began crapping out, so I decided it was time for a new one. It works great and I am very happy with it. I bought it at Buydig for $87.00 with free shipping, got it the next day and got a free 8GB Sony memory card and a free Vivitar camera bag.
I also purchased a Brother QL-700 label printer. Let me just say this: I LOVE it! No more toner, drums, any of that stuff. All I need to buy are labels, which I found on eBay at $5.00 per roll. A roll is 100 feet long which equals about 150 labels. Shipping has gone from something I dreaded to something I look forward to.
That, in a nutshell is the past few months, and now that things are becoming more efficient around here, I should have more time to post here. Keep checking back, and happy reading.

Legoriffic!

This past couple weeks there have been some great sales on Lego sets as retailers make room for the 2014 sets. Here are some of my highlights.

First, Amazon had a week of sales up to 40% off certain sets.  I scored 3 Lego City High Speed Chase (60007) at 0.06 per piece,  and 3 Super Heroes Spider-Cycle Chase (76004) at 0.05 per piece.  I sell Lego both on Ebay and BrickLink. On BrickLink, I like to part out sets. The part out value for High Speed Chase is 2.78x cost, which is quite good, and the Spider-Man sets part out at 3.08x, which is great.  I listed the minifigures on Ebay and have sold 1 Spider-Man already.

Next, Target had a Buy One Get One 40% Off Sale. I got 2 more High Speed Chase sets at a killer 3.66x part out, and 2 Chima Worriz Combat Lair (70009) - 664 pieces each! - at an astounding 4.30 part out, or 0.04 per piece, which is great for a set of this size.

Finally, Toys R Us has a Buy One Get One 50% Off Sale. In 2 orders I scored 8 Friends Mia's Lemonade Stands (41027) and 4 Friends Emma's Lifeguard Post (41028). I got these not because of a great part out, but because the Lemonade Stand set has the awesome Aqua Colored Scooter. These sell for more than half the price of the whole set. I got the Lifeguard Post sets to get the orders over $49 for free shipping and because it has a cool Light Blue Dolphin. I have sold 1 scooter on BrickLink so far.

I was at Walmart the other day and saw these 2 Galaxy Squad sets in the clearance section for $20 each. That is 0.03 per piece and a definite buy! They are listed on Ebay now.
The sales are coming to an end now, but yard sale season is right around the corner. My hunt for Lego begins anew! Adios!

Go Global Or Go Home!

A while ago I posted about shipping internationally. Since then Ebay has developed the Global Shipping Program. While I can see the allure of this, let me be the first to tell you it's completely unnecessary. I did actually sign up for it to see what it was all about. The main problem is the cost. It is more expensive to your buyer than doing it yourself. Another problem is they only offer shipping to 42 countries. Last time I checked there were almost 200 countries on Earth. Why limit yourself to 25% of your customers?
Let me be the first to say when I started Pioneer Valley Fashion over 3 years ago, international shipping was a complete mystery. For starters you had these confusing customs forms and special envelopes:

So I decided to not bother with it and just sold domestically. Eventually I changed my mind and tried it. By this time you could print international labels from Ebay. Boy did this simplify things. All you do is:

• Offer calculated International Shipping in your listing. Ship To "Choose Custom Location". Select all 9 check boxes. Add $1.00 handling charge.

• Go to the Applications tab in Ebay and find an app called ShipSaver. Sign up. More on this later.

When you do have an international sale:

• Go to the "Print Shipping" screen.

• Edit the description of the item. By default it is filled in with the auction title. Change this to a vague description. We don't want everyone knowing exactly what we're shipping, do we? For example when I sell Lego, I change it to "Plastic Toy Bricks". Ralph Lauren Shirt becomes Mens Shirt, etc.
• Print your label. I recommend using plain paper and not a shipping label in case the package needs to be opened for inspection. This way the label can be easily removed if need be.
• Tape label to the package, do not tape over the bar codes. (Taping over the bar codes is not bad if the tape is totally flat, but if you have bumps and bubbles it may not scan properly so I don't take the chance).
• If your label has EDelCon (Electronic Deliver Confirmation) service printed on it, you do not need to buy insurance as it has tracking. There are several countries that USPS offers this to, Canada being one.
• If your package is not trackable, go to your ShipSaver app and buy insurance for the it. The $1.00 handling fee you charged earlier pays for this. ;)
• Mail it! 

There are a few countries that I don't ship to. They are: Afghanistan, Russian Federation, Iraq, Italy, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. These countries are not insured by ShipSaver so I don't take the chance.

I know you're thinking "but Lou, what if my package gets lost, if I used the Global Shipping Program I wouldn't have to worry about it, but because I listened to you, I'm responsible"!  Fret not! This is where that ShipSaver thingy comes in! I Your package needs to be lost for 45 days before you can file a claim. Do not issue a refund to your buyer until you are refunded from ShipSaver.
I have had several hundred international sales and have lost exactly....1 package. ShipSaver took care of it, I was happy, and more importantly my buyer was happy because she got her money back.
So give it a go for yourself and see what happens. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

I Almost Forgot.....

We also got a new....

Cat! Just kidding, he's a dog. He's my new walking buddy, although slogging through 2 foot high snowdrifts and puddles of water and ice and you get the picture, is hardly either of our idea of fun. But just wait till it gets warmer!