driveway | ResaleQueen

Season 1 Ep 2: Resale Kit, On the Driveway, No Co-Pilots

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:14:27 -0500

Resale Queen - 2008-01-26.mp3
Show: #002
Length: 18:36
Size: 12.8mb
Format: mp3

This Week's Show: What you need in your resale kit.
Cell phone
Don't call, but text
Don't draw attention to yourself
Use misinformation
1. Screw drivers - all kinds and Allen Wrenches
    a. Tape measure
2. Batteries - all kinds to test the toys
3. Magic Erasers - cleans everything
4. Grubby t-shirt - also for cleaning and camouflage
5. Knife
6. Some boiled potato type of dude to look stuff up
7. Car should be prepared
    a. Baby seat Removed
    b. Gas tank filled up
8. Black Light - to see if McLovin owned your product at one time
9. Stack of newspaper - so you can look homeless but also wrap your own stuff

Most of you will know us from our podcast Croncast (every M-W-F)

Next week: You're ready to brave the dumpster. Here's what you need to know.

Tags: Magic Eraser Sharpie Resale Kit driveway used china

Karma As Co-pilot

Thu, 31 May 2007 13:29:56 -0400

Yesterday's post about the universe using Goodwill and garage sales to offer it's wares came true yet again.

I have been collecting baby crap for a woman who is broke and didn't even have the cash for a car seat. She works at a retirement home full time for seven dollars an hour and has a 2 month old girl.

Two weeks ago a friend of my mothers-Pat-who works at the same retirement home called and asked me to collect stuff for her, she had gone in with her coworkers and raised $20.

All they wanted was a car seat to keep the baby safe and free up mom to go to the grocery store alone with the baby. I took this as a challenge.

My 2 year old had a 1 year old highly rated car seat she was to big for, so I cheated a little and passed that along. I asked did she have a bouncer, swing ya know all that junk the rest of America takes for granted.

No, Pat said she has nothing. She works all the time and her mother watches her daughter. She financially supports her mom, herself and her daughter on 7 bucks an hour.

So Karma and I went shopping.

Saturday in mid- May is prime sale season. On this particular day there were 29 subdivision garage sales, each sale having 11-110 sale houses.

I started at 7:30. Now one of the problems with starting early is that people are reluctant to negotiate prices with the first person on their blacktop, they figure someone else will stop and happily pay $35 for their exersaucer complete with last month's rice cereal splatterings.

By 8 I had not had much luck, so I started telling this chick's story. I told mommy after mommy "can you imagine having no network of relatives and friends to help you get the basic things you need- is there any way you can come down on prices?"

The mommies invariably looked around and thought about all the requirements to mommydom on their driveway and recalled how they really hadn't bought a lot of it. Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie HooHoo binged at Babies R Us in their honor.

They also remarked- no car seat? How is that possible?

To most people around here, putting your child in anything less than a Britax car seat is a breach of the parental contract.

Soon my car was full, I got a nearly new stroller, cool swing with the mobil attached, bath seat, exersaucer and a vibrating bouncy.

The mother who received it all was so thrilled so didn't even speak- then she hugged me. I told her it wasn't me I told her about all the women I had met that day who had dug through their stuff and given me things for her. I told her everybody has been there- being broke is hard being broke with children is living in a constant state of panic that lots of women know.

Giving someone else the baby junk that you loved is one of the ways women show their love and care for one another.

I told Pat the only other thing I could think of that wasn't really a requirement was a Bumbo seat- which is a very cool invention and the newest mommy must have, though I said it's kind of new and I have never seen one at Goodwill before.

I walked into Goodwill this morning and there she was perfectly pink and $1.99- a Bumbo seat.

I am still on the lookout for a high chair and baby girl clothes, but tomorrow is Saturday and Karma is my co-pilot.

Tags: Bumbo Seat Peg Perego Britax Karma Goodwill Naperville garage sales

Ebay, Taxes, and Elmo

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 12:09:10 -0500

Question: I found your sight in my search to find if my tmx elmos would still sell well
closer to Christmas (I'm sure you noticed the expected drop over the holiday).
I sold pretty heavy for a month or two last year and then bought heavier on ebay
than I sold. I stopped buying do to a couple really bad experiences and and
back to the selling side; when I started my biggest concern was taxes (When to
charge, when to declare, what forms, etc...) and at what point I became a
business versus an individual selling a couple items on ebay. I didn't know
what it all entailed and just decided to drop selling for a while. Stay at home
mom as well, knowing my ebay options would be helpful. What have you learned
about declaring taxes at the end of the year, etc / and at what you become a
business and need to start worrying about legalities.
Thanks for your time
Amy

Answer:

Without fail this is THE cocktail party question I get asked once I cop to selling on Ebay as a mommy profession: "Do you have to pay taxes on that?

What people really want to know is:
"Do YOU pay taxes?" Though generally, people are far to polite to be that forward.

According to my accountant, tax year '05 was the first year the IRS had a professional category named "online auction sales".

I pay taxes. It is income and in this country you have to pay taxes on income.

Now, when do you know that you are a business.

If you go to the IRS site or the Small Bus. Admin. site there are a lot of in depth questionaires to help you answer that question.

Once again, according to my accountant if you are conducting yourself like a business then you are a business.

For instance, if you go to Walmart and buy your kids clothes for $7 a piece, then later have a garage sale and sell them for $1 a piece- though you may feel like you are rollin in the dough actually you are in the red.

However if I go to your garage sale and buy your Garanimals for $1 for Ebaying and sell them to a Garanimal collector for $25 then I have conducted myself as a business.

Keep in mind that the mileage between my house and your driveway, the $1 item cost, Ebay fees and Paypal fees are now all costs of doing business and therefore deductible.

Local and state stuff varies a lot.

So if you find yourself in line at Toys R Us at 5am waiting for an Elmo TMX or PS3 to sell, do yourself a favor and find an accountant to help you out.

Tags: Elmo TMX PS3 Happy Feet Mumble

Garage Sale Etiquette

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:35:12 -0500

Now when I am walking up your driveway, you should welcome me with open arms.

There aren't too many occasions in life when people come to your house to hand you money.

OK so your garage sale ad says 9-2, and I was there at 6:30 but the early bird catches the.... and I've got cash.

Don't try to make me feel like I should be honored to set foot on your blacktop. I have a college education- I just choose to dumpster dive- I could totally go get a job tomorrow. OK so I would be hawking rental upgrades at Enterprise- but I'm not a total loser.

Tags: naperville garage sales garage sale etiquette resale passion your driveway

Elmo TMX- how to find and sell yours for mad cash

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 14:32:34 -0400

So this week's sale of the century wasn't at a garage or warehouse honey. It was at Toys R Us.

Last week I recalled all I had gotten my niece for her birthday was some previously nibbled play food, and since she was standing on the driveway i bought it from- it wasnt actually a surprise.

So out of guilt I went where the Queen rarely goes, somewhere where new in box is an expectation not a bonus. Yup Toys R Us, walkin around the joint I realized how I make such mad cash. Toys are pricey plastic!

While I was wandering around the store I stopped in front of the Elmo display- my niece loves Elmo. Of course there was a giant blank space where there ought to be floor to ceiling Tickle Me Elmo TMX dolls. I had seen a segment on Good Morning America about how these were selling out and my sister had looked up the completeds and told me they were worth $80-$100. Toys R Us is selling them for $39.99.
Now I know to the rest of the world a 100% mark up is unheard of in most things legal, but to the Queen its not all that impressive.

As I was standing there a store person walked by and I asked if by chance they had any Elmos in the back, since what the hell I'm standing there and I have$ 80 bucks burning a hole in my pocket. The dude looked genuinely apologetic and went into this long spiel about how it was so sad that the children who wanted Elmos were unable to have them -like TMX Elmo's are Flintstones vitamins or something. Then he volunteered that he was getting shipment on Wednesday morning and hopefully there would be some Elmos on the truck but he honestly didnt know for sure.

I reassured him that I had an entire posse of Elmo deprived toddlers at home (those damn quads are so demanding) and that I would be sure to be in bright and early on Wednesday. I then asked where they would be and would there be a line. He assured me that the fabulous TMX was much to precious for floor space and they would be safely tucked behind the service desk. I thanked him and added that he had ensured the Quads faith in Santa for one more precious year- this made him blush. You can call Wed. morning if you like just to make sure we got some he said.

Your Queen knows better than that. People if you have a hot lead you have to follow it up with foot work. Rule #1 of Ebay selling Get your ass out there and dont be afraid to look desperate and destitute.

If you drive a BMW, then buy a garage saleing GMC and park the skanky hunk in the garage if you are afraid of what the neighbors think- sometime I will describe my hunka junka but back to Elmo.

So of course Wednesday morn rolls around and my kids wake up vomiting with fever. Thats where hunka junka car comes in- you can toss your vomiting offspring and take subdivision curves at 40 miles an hour and you don't have to worry about messing up the upholstery.

I pick up my sister/apprentice and we arrive at 957, and TRU opens at 1000- now normally i would be there at 4 in the morning however the vomit team slowed me down a bit. My tardy arrival didnt seem to mean much since there were only about 7 other Ebay freaks outside waiting. My sister went in first and got 2, then i went in. There was a teenager at the door handing out fliers- each good for one Elmo.

Unfortunately there was a store limit of 2 and I opted not to start my nagging quad story since judging by the other buyers she had heard the same story. There they were a mad tower of red fuzzy battery operated cash. The chick in front of me was slowing the flow with a run of the mill store return- oh the nonselling public is such a bother.

While I was standing there the phone didn't stop ringing "Got Elmos" they were asking sitting in their jammies-"no" the store clerks said they will probably be gone within the next 15 minutes. Ha! i thought your lazy ass will have to buy one from me off Ebay. People must not remember the store raffles, scavenger hunts and Kmart cafeteria BINGO of the Cabbage Patch 80s- you just have to get your body in there if you want one and stand in line- at least if you want to pay retail. So I got my Elmos and we jetted off in Slowski- my garage salein beast.

I let my sister list them and I gave her the same pricing advice i am going to give you. Check the completed listing and see what they are selling for then sell yours for just a few dollars lower. So according to Vicky sister/assistant's research if sold as a lot of 2 Elmo's the auctions were ending for around 199- so i told her to sell ours 2 sets of 2 for 195.00 buy it now 197.99.

Ya gotta look out for the mommies of quads who need 4 and put ability to combine shipping in the listing as well-I advised. However I forgot some of the most important advice! IF YOU ARE SELLING SOME MUST HAVE IT NEW CANT FIND IT TOY MAKE IT A ONE DAY AUCTION for the third world is busting their starving asses to supply our gluttonous souls with more Elmos.

Vicky listed on Thurs as a three day ending on Saturday afternoon- a pretty dead time on Ebay also you dont get the same feeling of emergency you do if the auction is one day. And of course the most important thing- GO ON COMPLETED AUCTIONS AND FIND THE ENDED AUCTION THAT WAS MOST SUCCESSFUL AND COPY THEIR TITLE WORDS- my sister put us at a disadvantage by listing as- Elmo TMX lot of two-when most people would put the number 2 in their search not the whole word two- also tmx is T.M.X. as well as 10th or tenth anniversary- also using the word "of" is just fluff filling and you only get so many characters so you have to make them work for you. See what i'm saying PEOPLE CAN ONLY BUY WHAT THEY CAN FIND!

Oh well thats why she is the apprentice and not the QUEEN!

P.S Im still waiting for the fertility goddesses to send me my check will keep you posted.

Tags: Elmo TMX Elmo T.M.X Tickle Me Elmo