Thrifting Electronics 7-25-2018-- A bad day?

in #thrifting6 years ago

The vcr/dvd combo that we sold the other day was returned because it wasn't working when it arrived to the person.
I was only in for the 5.43 + vcr tape cost so it was not worth having returned. So -39.83 instead of $61.00 profit swing.

However, the Apple iigs I had up on ebay sold for $250 + $125 shipping so we took a profit of $264.78, however a portion of this is being given to the neighbor since he was the source of the item, not sure if he'd be considered an "partner" so then have to pay taxes. I'm just putting it down for $264.78 for accounting purposes and pay taxes on that amount, so going to put that as part of the total profit here.

Then later a sony vcr sold on amazon, which I thought was good until.. I saw that it was from alaska and apparently amazon gives no additional shipping help compared to one just sold to the lower 48 states.. And you need to pay for the pro selling account to block shipping to specific states. :( Not cool. Was in for 6.51 so it ends up being -1.32

695.57-61.00-39.83-1.32+264.78 = 858.20

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Ouch, it happens though. Plus stuff like this is what keeps people away from reselling. That means less competition.

Little do they know the large amounts of profits that is had with just a little bit of negatives like this.

I, too, had to refund an item today. About $22 because the digital display didn't show one section of a number.

Nice sales but frustrating that there were problems. I try to think of it not as losing profit but paying for a learning experience :)

Learning for sure but I wasn't going to be quitting with a minor setback.

I don't understand why Amazon does not take into account Alaska and Hawaii on bigger items. The under 1lb items are the same prices. It was about double the normal shipping ($35 vs $20)

That is a hugedifference! Very difficult to work with. FOrunately for us, the UK is much smaller so only get issues with the Highlands of Scotland and the Isle of Man , and then it is only a few pounds difference.

On eBay I have Alaska and Hawaii blocked, but I can also set surcharge for specific states (or countries I assume). I think if you paid for the $40 /month Amazon pro seller you can block states

Ah right :) Things are so different over there.