Selling on eBay Diary November 13th

I'm kind of embarrassed because I haven't kept up with leaving feedback for my customers! When I was a member buying and selling without using an eBay Store, I had feedback reminders at the top of the landing page. I set up a Basic Store in October (free for the first month to give it a try-I'm still a Tightwad after all!), I no longer have the feedback reminders at the top.  I've made myself a note to call eBay and find out how to make these more apparent in the Selling Manager.

I have 100% positive feedback, but don't always have happy customers.  I take it all in stride as part of doing business and appreciate those who take the time to leave feedback and try to be nice to those who aren't happy anyway.

Once in a while I get feedback that really makes me smile!  I work very hard to have the top customer service.  I iron the clothes before shipping, wrap them in tissue paper and insert a handwritten Thank You card.  My husband thinks I spoil my customers!  I want them to feel spoiled, I say!

What has been your favorite or best feedback buying or selling on eBay? I would love to hear your responses!

Selling on eBay Diary November 12th

I added up my sales as of yesterday and will make Top Rated Seller this month!  If you're new to eBay selling or you are considering selling, this is the first goal to set! I've been selling for about a year and a half.  I met all the criteria last December, called to ask when I would see this distinction show on my eBay membership and found out about the bane of a Sellers' existence, The Defect.  What's a defect I asked? After I was walked through the process of looking at these, I was crushed!  I had 100% positive feedback, how in the world did I have defects?

I didn't know that cancelling a transaction would cause me a problem with eBay.  This leads me to my next subject:  The Unpaid Assistant.  eBay allows buyers to purchase or win bids without immediately paying for the item.  I had several not pay at all, so I thought I could simply re-list and move on.  Not true.  eBay requires the buyer REQUEST a cancellation and even though I sent a couple of messages through eBay's system, I would re-list with confidence because the Buyer obviously didn't want the item.  NOT OKAY, says eBay.  I turned on the "Unpaid Assistant" and now a year later, all those defects have finally come off making me eligible again to build my sales to achieve Top Rated Seller.

To the Buyers, please understand when you wait to pay, the Seller is required to hold this item for you for a total of 9 days.  If you do not reply to eBay's prompts to pay or cancel, you will also receive a defect.  You will not however, receive any restrictions to your account if you simply contact the seller and request to cancel.  Most sellers will agree, since no money has been exchanged and nothing has been shipped. No harm no foul!

I hope you can learn something about selling or shopping on eBay today since we have Black Friday coming up!  I belong to a Facebook group called The Thrifting Board and one of our admins asked us to set a new challenge today for two weeks.  My goal is to have 200 total listings available including 25 toys, games or Christmas gifts.  I will keep you posted on my progress!  What have you planned for Black Friday?

eBay Seller Diary Nov 9th

My husband does most of the purchasing while I take care of the listings and the marketing.  Its such a genuine thrill to find a bargain, clean up the item a bit, list the item(s) on eBay and sell them for a profit. There is a little bell at the top right of the eBay Member page that lights up with there is a sale, its such a thrill to sign in and see that thing lit up! And have a big number!  My highest notification number has only been 4 (partially because I check frequently) but we'll be in double digits soon enough.

Selling on eBay

While I am still very interested in blogging about being a Tightwad, and all things Frugal, I am taking my Tightwaddery into a new direction.  I have been selling on eBay now for over a year and have maintained an average of about $150 a month in profit.  I started out wanting to just clean out closets and drawers without having an actual yard sale and turn these items into extra spending money.  My approach up until about a month ago, was very part time and more in the vein of a hobby than a job or actual income making scheme.

About a month ago or so, my husband found a watch at a garage sale for a $1.  The watch didn't fit me so I listed it on eBay and sold it for $86.  It was at this point that my eBay "hobby" got his attention.  With his help, I have now opened a Basic Store on eBay (free the first month) and have built up a modest inventory of about 150 items, up from about 40 items.  My profit in October rose to $260, so its coming along nicely.

I am changing the tone a little of my blog to the life and times of selling on eBay and hope you will find these posts useful and amusing as I grow my little fledgling of a business.

Tightwad Diary June 4

My favorite Tightwad subject is Tightwad math!  I recently participated in a Facebook Tupperware Party hosted by a young lady I went to church with when my husband and I lived in Edmond, Oklahoma.  My husband started a new job recently and to save time (and out of a little laziness) we bought some pre-packaged individual servings of pudding, peaches and tomato juice.  So what's a Tightwad doing looking through a Tupperware website?  It's super expensive and small sour cream containers work, too.

Well, let's do the math!  Buying full size cans of tomato juice, whole peaches and packages of pudding to be made at home would save about $6 per month for the Hub's lunches.  The set of four 4 oz containers from Tupperware cost $15 plus tax and shipping which is a little less than $20.  These have a long term guarantee (http://www.tupperware.com/info/Warranty) and I expect without losing the lids, they will last about 7 years in their same condition, maybe longer.  I only look at my Tightwad math annually, so $6 multiplied by 12 months is $72 dollars.  I certainly made a good purchase of $20 to save $72.

So, what happened to the small sour cream containers? What's wrong with them? While I still re-use these and other containers like Cottage Cheese or Avacado Dip containers for short term storage in the refrigerator, they are not microwave safe (follow this link to learn more http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/tools-products/cookware-bakeware/food-containers-safe-for-microwave) and because they don't seal well, there's spillage and spoilage to consider. Tupperware is both microwave and dishwasher safe, so I bought these with confidence! 

How do you figure when to spend and when to recycle? Share your Tightwad Math stories here! I'd love to hear them.

Set up an eBay Store called Aunt Weefa's Collectables!!!

I am sewing like a mad woman to get rice bags ready for the Holiday Season!! eBay had a deal to set up a "Store" for $5, so I'm giving it a try.  I've been listing for free for the last 5 months and have sold $1200 worth.  After cleaning out our closets and purchasing a few things at garage sales to re-sell, we wanting to step it up a notch and buy garage sale leftovers to go through, clean up and re-sell. I bought some garage sale leftovers for $15 and have sold some of these for a total of $37.  These were mostly household items that haven't sold very quickly.  I've done the best with cell phones, watches, Levi jeans, video games and memorabilia.  The hubster made me some business cards, they're dorky and he printed them on regular paper instead of card stock, but I LOVE them.  They have my name and phone number, so what else matters? Besides, you know this Tightwad can't throw them away or put them in the recycling! Next time we need some, we'll use the card stock.  http://stores.ebay.com/auntweefascollectables

Tightwad Diary October 22

We've been trying to SLOWLY switch from hamburger meat to ground turkey meat! There are several nutritional reasons, I'm sure (I won't bore you or myself with a bunch of links), but for us its purely financial.  At Aldi's it's $1.79 per pound where hamburger meat is $2.79 per pound.  The Hubster made spaghetti with turkey meat and chunky marinara for dinner this evening.  It was very good!! A little parmesan and a touch of black pepper and I was in heaven.  We've tried in the past to make hamburger patties with ground

turkey meat, breakfast burritos and stroganoff, it just wasn't the same! I can't quite go there yet. Since spaghetti gets made in our house at least three times per month, using 1lb per batch, we save $3 per month.  The turkey meat doesn't seem to shrivel as much as the hamburger meat, so there are more generous leftovers the next day.

Tightwad Diary October 20

Do you know the Paper Clip is the most important tool in your tool bag?  You can fix anything from a toilet to a zipper to a Thingy That Makes the Windshield Wipers Work! Hub fixed the wipers with a paper clip (and duct tape-did I mention the 2nd most important tool in your tool bag?)!! after asking Meineke how much to fix them and they said $50 EACH, he said, let me take a look.  Yay for Handy Hubby's!!! 

I want to recommend two new blogs I'm enjoying: www.thefrugalgirl.com and www.salvagesisterandmister.com.

I know not watching much TV and mostly watching Netflix puts me behind the times, but I am madly in love with Extreme Cheapskates.  I learned a few tricks myself and have watched OVER and OVER.  I haven't done any roadside or dumpster diving for food, but I have started unplugging everything not in use and have started using "throw away cloths" in the bathroom.  I love watching people living without to build up a savings account, even though I would allow more clothes for my kids...I just love seeing others like me, who are well, WORSE than me, is that too mean??? For once, I'm not the only one with the homemade gifts in the re-purposed boxes.  I hope they make more episodes, there's only 6 on Netflix.

Tightwad Hint for Today: Only fill liquid laundry soap lid to number 2 or medium (this is what most manufacturers recommend and how they count the number of "loads" listed on the front) and toss the lid into the wash with the clothes to prevent build up on the cup/lid.

Tightwad Diary October 19

I wish I knew what to say to my husband to get him on board with being frugal.  He tries in lots of ways like buying jeans at garage sales or Goodwill (scored some carharts for $3 each a couple years ago) and getting Coke Rewards from the recycling center.  But he WILL NOT turn off the air conditioner (did you know its 50 degrees outside????) nor will he unplug things rarely used.  I ask, prefer, beg to have the phone chargers, microwave and VCR (yes, VCR, did I tell you I'm a tightwad???) unplugged.  Even when these are not in use, there's a battery in the phone charger, there are lights on the microwave and VCR (I don't care if it blinks when you plug it back in, it takes 5 seconds to re-set the clock!!!) and well, it seems obvious to me that the air conditioner is redundant.  Its not going to cool already cool air, but the condenser is still sucking up that electricity.  Sidebar factoid:  Did you know Mitt Romney runs through his house every time they leave unplugs everything and turns down the hot water heater?  I don't have a link to where I read this, I just love fellow Tightwads!! Rice bag update: I'm still staring at the sewing machine willing it with my mind powers to sew them up real quick.  Internet Service Update:  The only other option here at my apartment complex is Uverse and its half the price of Cox, but I'm nervous about making the switch.  I've always used Cox, but they keep raising the prices and the customer service continues to deteriorate.  Soooooo, still deciding.

Tightwad Diary October 18

No luck at the garage sales this weekend! We didn't go much out of our way, though, just near where we were running errands anyway, by the library, recycling center and grocery store.  The Hubster did find a bicycle helmet in a parking lot (far from any cars and kind of looked around and asked one person if belonged to them-no takers), so with a bit of clean up, I'll list it on eBay in the next few days since its in almost pristine condition and we don't need it.  Tightwad Sidenote: we sure are enjoying $2.71 gas prices and will soon enjoy a DVD The Hubster got for me at the library!

Tightwad Diary October 17

My hub and I traded in our $70 cable bill for a $9 Netflix account.  Now, a year and half later, I'm feeling resistant to the $80 internet bill.  Next on my Tightwad project list is Explore Alternate Internet Service to Cox.  The actual service is 59.99, but with the modem rental and taxes, its around $80 per month.  We live in an apartment so we cannot use Dish or AT&T.  I have heard of something called Uverse or something like this where a strip is placed near your computer or window or something like this which gives internet and I hope my router will still work for wifi.  Its supposed to be around $19 per month.  This goes on the list behind some rice bags I'm sewing for gifts and to sell on Ebay.  

Tightwad Diary October 15, 2014

While staring at the sewing station my hub set up for me in our bedroom, I'm thinking about what to blog about today.  I am really having a hard time purchasing garbage bags, why are they $400 each now?? Okay, I'm exaggerating, but they're going into the landfill! I've been reading a blog called Zero Waste and she's inspiring me to watch what I'm putting in the trash can in the kitchen including the bag.  One change we've made is the 13 gallon can is now exclusively for recycling, where the "go to the dumpster" trash is gathered in a small office trash can.  We use cloth bags at the grocery store as much as possible, but sadly the plastic shopping bags have made their way into our apartment.  We're using these in the small cans around the house until they run out.  My husband has offered to simply use no bag and he will wash out the trash can when needed.  I'm considering it.  We've started shredding as much paper as possible that would normally have been sent to the dumpster b/c it has the end of our debit card or our name on the envelope.  This has reduced out dumpster going trash by about 25%.  Since we go to the recycling center anyway, my hub had found a few 13 gallons trash bags that are clean and is trying to use them over and over until they're too dirty to keep.  We've also re-claimed some National Geographics from the recycling center that my hub reads and then takes to his dialysis center for others to read.  We cut off the persons name so we're not exposing them and we're surprised others would take the time to bring them to the recycling center but not share them with a nursing home or school? So, back to my topic, I haven't purchased trash bags in about 3 months with a savings of $6 (one box from Aldi's lasts about this long and costs $5.99).

New to Blogger!

I tried using Tumblr, but couldn't get the html codes to work! I like the look of tumblr but I want to interact with other users more easily! This blog is rated number 1, so I'm giving it a try!!