My Heart Belongs to Facebook

Don't worry. eBay will always be my first love. But my Facebook Yard Sale group has been treating me well lately.  Not only have I been selling a lot (!!) of stuff on there, and not only have I been getting some great stuff for my family, but I've been finding some GREAT stuff for resale!

Like this, for example:

Now seriously. What the heck do I know about Hulk Hogan action figures? Nothing at all. But for some reason, when I saw these listed on the FB group, I thought I'd look them up. Turns out that not all Hulk Hogan action figures are created equal. Some are complete duds that don't even sell for $5. Others will sell for upwards of $60-70. Don't be quick to grab up any Hulk Hogan action figures, just because you read about them here. Be sure to research them individually!

Anyway, I bought 4 of them from this lady, for $8 apiece. I didn't expect them to sell quickly, but I only pay 5 cents a month listing fee, so I'm usually content to let my items sit for awhile. This one sold within 2 weeks of listing - for $34.99! So yes, this one sale paid for all 4 of the ones I bought. The other 3 sales will now be pure profit. Woot!

**********

I bought these at our library's used book sale several years ago, thinking my boy would love them. He did. For about 3 viewings. And then, like most 7 year old boys, his brain moved on to something else. I kept asking him if he was done with them yet, and he kept insisting he wanted to watch them more, but he never did. So I made an executive decision and I listed them on eBay. I had $19.99 obo on them. They were up for a month or so with no interest, so I decided to post them on the FB group. I put them up for $1 each or $5 for the whole lot. Still no interest. I accepted a $15 offer today on eBay! So it's good to keep your fingers in more than one pie :)

**********

And now class ... it's time for an important lesson. I've talked about earth shoes before, I'm pretty sure. I love to find earth shoes, but only if they have a lower-case 'e'.  Earth Shoes with a capital 'E' are Walmart brand. I'm not really sure what happened to my brain that day, but I came across two pairs of Earth Shoes and bought them without thinking. Of course, as soon as I got home, I realized what I had done, but decided to try to make the best of it anyway. I sold the first pair, but only because they were a women's size 11 bright red vegan mary jane athletic shoe with a lime green interior. Wow. Picture that.  But this second pair. Yeesh. What was I thinking?

I had them listed for $25 obo and was glad to accept a $10 offer today just to be rid of them. So the lesson? Remember your capitalization. Big E = Big Box Store.  Little e = buy them!

**********

Sold these vintage Tinker Toys for a friend of mine. We're splitting the money. I expected these to take awhile to sell too, but I just listed them a month or so ago. They sold for $29.99 + shipping.

**********

I sold my sister's bumbo seat in only 3 weeks, and for my full asking price of $29.99 + shipping! These are hard to find for a good flippin' price. I have only ever found 2 or 3 out in the wild, and the sellers wanted $15-20 for them. If you're looking for one to buy to use, that's a great price. If you're looking to resell it, that's a terrible price.

**********

I can't decide how I feel about Florsheims. I used to love them, and I bought up every pair I found. But then one day I realized I hadn't sold any of them. They just sat there. So I started playing around with my pricing and realized I just had them priced too high. I started pricing them for $35 fixed (no OBO), and they started selling. I think this was one of my last pairs. Sold today for $35 + shipping.

**********

I have a potential problem buyer that I'm dealing with right now. My eBay business isn't all gumdrops and lollipops (you're welcome for the earworm...)   I sold a pair of sandals that had some silver paint on them. I mentioned twice in the item description that they had paint on them, and I showed close ups of the paint. My buyer wrote me today complaining that I wasn't explicit enough about the paint. S/he pointed out that my photos are "quite good," and that I did in fact mention the paint, but s/he still feels that there was some misrepresentation on my part, and that I need to either accept a return (paying shipping both ways) or issue a partial refund so s/he can take them to a cobbler to have them fixed. (Ok, I had to laugh at that part ... do cobblers even exist anymore? And do cobblers remove paint from leather? But anyway...)  So after a bit of back and forth, I finally said that I would accept the return and, in the interest of good customer service, I will reimburse for original shipping. I'm hoping that that is satisfactory, or that if it isn't, s/he threatens me with negative feedback.  Once a buyer threatens negative feedback if you don't do what they've asked, you're golden. eBay will remove negative feedback that was given in cases of feedback extortion. I haven't heard back yet, so we shall see. But I absolutely refuse to give a partial refund, and I absolutely refuse to refund shipping both ways, when my listing quite clearly mentioned (twice!) and showed pictures of the damage.

Sigh. Another lesson learned.  Don't list damaged goods. Even if you point out the damage and show pictures, there will always be the buyer out there who didn't read about it.

**********

Meeting up with a lady tomorrow to buy a HUGE lot of Build a Bear outfits! They are a little on the pricey side, but I'm optimistic that I can at least triple my money. Eek. I hope!