Wow! in less than a month, I have rid myself of about 30 items for a total selling price of about $200!! Okay, so it's not a gold mine, but it got me out of a tight spot! I have learned a little something: the US Postal Service has it out for the "regular people"! LOL hahahahaha... no, seriously. Check this out:
I do not have a postage scale at home so I have to guess what the weight of a package is. I set the shipping charges on my listing by what I think the item weighs. I am a poor guesser! BUT parcel rate on a package takes 3x as long to get there, but saves me only 25 cents over Priority Mail! That's right, one quarter of a dollar, twenty-five cents! Plus, since I am adding delivery confirmation/tracking on each package, the deliv. conf. with Priority Mail is 10 cents LESS than with any other option!... so, really, it's costing only 15 (fifteen!) cents to upgrade to Priority service!... Fifteen cents to get there in 2 to 3 days, versus 9 to 11 days. My clerk always asks if I want to send a package Priority, I think the postal service is pushing priority mail. Maybe one day ALL packages will go priority 2-3 day and none will be dragging around the system for two weeks until someone finally decides to deliver it. Why would you not opt for Priority?
Ok, that's not where they get me.... it's the graduated postage scale... If a package is under 13 oz. it can ride first-class (cheap). GREAT! If it is 13.1 oz, however the rates jump up considerably and I am wondering why the postal service eliminated some of the smaller flat rate box styles and increased the rates 25% (twenty-five PERCENT, not 25c). GRRRRR!
But I am getting better with estimating. In 22 mailed packages, my postage error is under $15. (yeah, I did a couple of free shippings! like a dummy!) My eBay fees (listing, if any, and final value fees (9%!!) and PayPal fees (30c plus 2.9% of total amount received)) and my postage costs errors, and any tape/boxes I have purchased for the endeavors have all run me about $60. Then, 22 sold items put $140 in my account. Not too bad? Paid cell bill, car insurance and one credit card. So, put to good use....
Still need a steady source of income. Thank goodness I hadn't donated ALL my stuff to Goodwill and could eBay some of it. Applied at a local department store last week. Won't hear back until after Christmas. PartyLite and Avon are a little slow while people are looking for instant delivery/ cash-and-carry items and not wanting the stress of waiting for shipment hoping it arrives in time. I DO have hostesses lined up for January, just need to remind them of their commitments... and check my class schedule! Classes start up again after the First.
Okay, enough chit chat! My room is a chaotic mess again! Today it's because I set up my little 3 ft Christmas tree on my dresser. Now I need to stow all the stuff that WAS on the dresser! Cute tree, though. It was my grandmother's. She bought a new fiber-optic tree that turns around and gave me her old pre-lit tree. It's nice. I should take a picture for you. (Haven't learned how to add pics yet). TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!
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