eBay and Me

Its been so long! I unfortunately had to put a lot of my eBaying on hold during the end of my pregnancy... as I got sick. And HUGE. and out of energy.
But it was all worth it because I have a little squishy baby to love on and some very happy siblings.

During all of this I stopped listing completely. I would relist old listings occasionally, but that was the extent of my selling. How exciting. (Not).

Ive started listing again, now that I feel I am in the swing of things... and as back to normal as much as I could be.
My husband and I didn't realize how much we enjoyed my extra income until it was gone. I  took it for granted- and now have a better appreciation for all those cha-chings I have missed hearing on my phone throughout the day.

Here are some note worthy sales I have had recently to kick off my return:

 Thomas Pink Golden Bear Tie. Paid $1.25 sold for $22.95 Fs

 Beatrix Potter VHS Set. I have had these sitting for almost a year! Got for free at a yard sale. Sold for $24.95 Fs

 Clairol Kindness Short Hair Curlers. Paid $2 Sold for $45.95 Fs

Eliot Disney Electrical Parade Plush. Tail lights up and plays music. Paid $1 Sold for $24.95

Sometimes I wonder what people do with these things! Regardless, I am happy there is a need. 

A Warning For Sellers

Last night around Midnight, I sold this cute Paddington bear. Paid, .75 Cents for it, sold it for $20. Not bad. When I went to ship it this morning I noticed a strange address. It was going to a company called ACI Express Inc. in California. The address also had a weird reference code after the letters KGL. I thought it was weird but decided to ship it. After I packaged it all up, I decided to Google the address just in case.
I only googled "ACI EXPRESS" and tons and tons of forums popped up with sellers saying "DO NOT SHIP TO THESE PEOPLE...." etc.

ugh.

Apparently they are a forwarding company. They buy from US sellers and then ship overseas. They buy thousands and thousands of things a day. The problem is... things do not get to their destination safely. The international destination. So they try to hold US, the sellers, responsible. They call Paypal to get a charge back. There is SOOO much stuff about this company online. They have TONS of buyer IDs. And this has been going on for years.

The most common thing I have read they are doing is either 1. Saying the package never got to CA (really their international destination), and opening a claim with Paypal...NOT EBAY. Or 2. Saying the item is broken. Because they are buying thousands of things everyday... and shipping it overseas... sellers are learning about this company.. and many are posting about their experiences on the web.

Luckily my item is a stuffed animal... so it will not break... but there is a good chance it can mysteriously disappear.

So. If you sell anything with the name ACI or KGL in the ID or Paypal name... use caution. I strongly suggest you have them sign for the package.

I posted about this in the FB group... and a few sellers remembered the name and had some weird encounters/emails with them already. Chances are some of my readers have to.

Interesting Christmas in July find

 Today there was a huge Christmas In July sale at our main Salvation Army in town. I decided to pack up my kids, grab my mother (for morale support of course), and make the 20 minute drive to the sale. It was such an AWESOME sale. They had pallets and pallets of Christmas stuff that they were pulling out, and selling for dirt cheap. The manager told me that they had accumulated so much in the last 7 months, they had to have a July Sale or they would run out of room. She could tell I was in the market to fill up a cart, so she said she would make a deal with me if I bought alot. The only problem was that it was outside, super hot, and my kids were so cranky. So I had to find stuff quick.... even though I wanted to stay forever because they just kept pulling out more and more stuff. I ended up filling up an entire cart for $15 which included a huge box of Christmas China. Yay!
So this was by far my most interesting find:

I was in a hurry, and quickly posted the above picture in the eBay FB group to see if anyone knew anything about it. I couldn't find it on eBay. A few ladies jumped on it and did some research for me and came back with nothing.. but encouraged me to buy it if it was cheap- since it was unique.

Well it is unique. It has a rolling screen that displays "Happy Holiday." And some cute twinkle lights. All battery operated. 

Interesting right? So I found the company's web page, and emailed them asking for info. The company is an aquatics company that makes swimming gear. Weird. 

Anyone see anything like this? 

I paid $3 for it.. worth just the amusement of such a weird item. Trying to decide what to price it at on eBay... I cant remember what those rolling screens are called either!!

Blog probs

I am SOOO annoyed with blogger. I have written two posts within the last week and they keep getting deleted. Theres something going on with the draft portion of the publishing area. I am seriously so frustrated with my blog. I spent probably an hour on the first post that was lost, and almost 45 mins on the second one. So frustrating.
Ok. Rant done.


So I had a bunch of things I wanted to blog about.. But Ill stick to just one since this post will probably disappear too...

I have had some great sales recently... but two in particular that have been stellar.

My brother got ahold of some busted Zebra thermal printers.. He was thinking he might fix them up and resell them. After realizing they were too much work, I gladly took them off his hands (he was going to throw them out).

He had two of them, and I sold each one for $255 free shipping, FOR PARTS!
Isnt that amazing?
Rule of thumb, always check completeds with busted electronics. You never know what people are looking for..especially when it comes to parts.

The Ol' Switch-a-Roo

So this will be kind of a boring post (no pictures), but I have some good info you might want to consider.

I have been doing alot of online chatting, and joining in various eBay groups... and there seems to be a common scam going on in the eBay world with buyers....

Buyers are buying items, opening up INAD cases (INAD= Item not as described), and sending back their "similar" item that is broken.

For example... One seller said that she sold a new without tags Vera Bradley purse on eBay. The buyer contacted her saying it had flaws. She was confused because the purse had never been used. She thought maybe she overlooked something so she accepted the return. When she received the return, it was the same style purse she sold.. but definitely not the same one. The inside was clearly worn, and covered in cat hair. The buyer was clearly trying to get a newer version of their purse.

There were lots of other stories of this happening! Its crazy.

***Update: Lorraine @ CLAMCO just informed me this situation just happened to Kimberly at Garage Sale Heaven. You can read the post HERE. Totally missed this post by Kimberly. Sorry this happend to you too Kimberly!!! 

There was alot of talk of how sellers are now secretly marking their items with black light pens so that in case of a return, they can verify that it really is the item they sold. Some sellers are even tying color coded zip ties with their own markings on it, and stating in the return policy that the item has to have the original zip tie on it in order to receive a refund.

I found this all interesting. And I have been thinking of ways to protect myself as a seller in case this happened to me.

Anyone hear of this happening, or have any experiences?