Try It, You Might Like It

So you want to try selling stuff online.  If you have CDs, movies (DVDs or VHS tapes), books or video games to unload then I’d suggest starting with Half.com, a subsidiary of eBay, where sellers offer items at fixed prices.  You set the price you want to sell your item for. It’s easy to sell on Half since they supply the pictures and descriptions of each item and they accept credit card payments on your behalf. Half.com does not charge any fees to list items, but you will get charged a 15% commission on any sales you make.

To get started selling on Half you need to register for a free account, sign up to become a seller, supply a credit card number which is used for identity verification, and supply bank account information for direct deposit of sales proceeds.  Half details the steps here.

After becoming a seller on Half it is easy to list your items.  You will enter the UPC or ISBN number of the item you are selling and select the quality rating of the item from a list, anywhere from Brand New to Acceptable.  Half.com supplies the general description of the item but you must supply a specific description of your item which supports the quality rating you chose.  I would suggest supplying as much detail as you can to make your item more desirable to a buyer.  Some examples of good item descriptions are:

• Pages are clean and flat.  Spine is tight.  Book overall in very good condition. (Very Good)
• Front cover is creased. First few pages also have creases but rest of book pages are clean and flat.  Spine is tight.  (Acceptable)
• Disc is mint. Comes with original artwork and instruction booklet. (Like New)
• Disc has surface scratches that don’t affect play.  Comes with instruction booklet and original artwork.  Front of case is cracked.  (Good)
• Disc has surface scuffs and scratches.  Previous rental.  Comes in case with original artwork. (Good)

The next step is to set a price.  Look at current prices of items already listed on Half with the same quality as your item.  If you judge your CD to be of Very Good quality, look at the price range of all Very Good items listed.  Your item is more likely to sell if you price it closer to the low end of the range. For more detailed steps on listing items see here.

Once you have listed your item you will need to wait for a notification that your item has sold.   Once it has sold, you will need to ship your item within 3 business days.  (See here for details on fulfilling an order.) Package your item so it won’t get damaged in shipment (save those bubble mailers and small boxes).   If you have a digital postal scale to weigh the packaged item, you can print out a shipping label on your home printer and stick your item in your mailbox, if it fits.  If you don’t have a scale, you will have to take the item to your local post office to determine the postage. Half will pay you an allowance for shipping which may or may not cover the cost of your postage.  Twice a month, Half will deposit the proceeds (minus their commission) of your sales in your bank account, along with the shipping allowance.

Selling on Half.com is the easiest way to get started selling online.  Start listing those unwanted items today!

Are you a BF addict?

It’s about a month until the big day.  Have you been counting the days?  Are you waiting to get your hands on the first big ad?  Are you one of those crazy people who stand in line in freezing cold weather in the wee hours of the morning in the hope that you will one of the first people to enter the store to get one of the 10 gadgets offered at super bargain price?  If the answer is yes, then you are a Black Friday (BF) addict!

I’ve been known to stand in line myself in the hopes of snagging a good deal.  But I draw the line at standing outside or inside for hours.  I remember those snaking lines inside Circuit City, no thank you.  CompUSA was nice because they would run their specials on Thanksgiving evening which meant you could get your items and go home to sleep in on Friday morning, if you were fortunate enough to have the day off.   My general rule of thumb is that if I wake up in time to hit the store close to opening time then I’ll give it a go, as long as they are within 10 miles of my house.

The best thing to do is plan your attack.  Register your email at Black Friday Ads and they will notify you as they receive unofficial copies of Black Friday ads.  See their FAQ section for some good tips on how to use the info you find at their site.  I have actually tried both Options they suggest but my preference is Option 2.

You may see some enticing sales in the weeks leading up to Black Friday.  If you see something at a price you find attractive, go ahead and buy it, but don’t open it or use it so you can return it if you see the item somewhere else at a better price.  Be aware of store return policies before purchasing to make sure you can return the item without a penalty.

The last few years I’ve done more shopping online for BF deals.  Many times the BF sales start online on Thanksgiving day, since the web stores are open 24 hours a day.  Last year I got some of the items I wanted by buying them on the store website.  At BestBuy.com you can order online and pick up your item at the store, if it’s in stock.

If you do brave the cold to go out that morning, be sure to bring a partner so you can divide and conquer.  One person can stand in line while the other shops. If you have a few items to buy, split up and meet up again at the register.

So plan your attack and set your alarm.

Are you a hoarder/pack rat/collector/saver?

Meredith Janson, in her House Call article in the November 2009 issue of Family Circle, tackles the topic of clutter.  “The cure for clutter isn’t just devising a new storage system.  It’s figuring out why you’re holding on to the stuff in the first place. “

	Look inside >
November 1, 2009

I can totally relate to what she is talking about, being a person in the midst of de-cluttering.  I like that Janson explores the various reasons people hoard stuff and tries to get at the root issue instead of just dealing with the immediate problem of too much stuff. Janson supplies research data that shows that too much chaos and untidiness saps mental energy and tires us out.  The disorder also reduces our productivity.

Borrow or pickup a copy of the magazine to check out her article and try some of her suggestions to improve and simplify your life.

Aldi – Offering a Good Value

Here in Rochester, NY we are lucky to have the Aldi chain of low-priced, value grocery stores.  If you haven’t checked one out yet I highly suggest you visit a store near you.

Aldi stores are small, so they don’t carry as many items as your superstore (about 1400 items vs thousands in your typical grocery store) but that means you can usually get in and out much quicker.  Aldi usually only carries one brand of an item, typically their house brand, but that means you get a good price on that item.  The cash registers don’t have scales, so all produce items are packaged and priced or are priced per item (e.g. 49¢ for a peach or $1.69 for a 2 lb. package of grapes).

I have found that the quality of items is very good, though sometimes the produce can get a little picked over.  Aldi is a great source of staple items like flour, sugar, cream cheese, eggs, etc.  I usually visit my Aldi store weekly, to pick up any specials or to stock up on basics. Aldi usually runs a 1-2 page flyer in the Sunday paper, featuring seasonal items and any specials for the week.

Because Aldi is a no-frills store, it means that you have to pay for bags or you can bring your own.   Or you can use one of the empty boxes leftover from stocking the shelves.  You will also need to pay a quarter to use a shopping cart, but you will get your 25¢ back when you return the cart.  Some days you may have to wait in line a bit to check out, but I’ll gladly do that to save money.  The cashiers do not bag your items, they only put them in the cart.  This saves time during checkout.  They also don’t accept credit cards and I don’t think they accept checks either.  I usually pay cash or use my debit card.  I have no complaint since this keeps the price down as well.

Some of my favorite items at Aldi’s that I keep going back for (prices may vary seasonally and by region):

• Flat leaf spinach 9 oz – $1.69
• Mangoes – $.99
• Tortilla chips 13 oz – $.99
• Cream cheese 8 oz. – $.99
• Sliced cheese (Swiss, Pepper Jack, Muenster, etc.) 8 oz. – $1.69
• Blocks of cheese (Colby Jack, Cheddar, etc.) 8 oz. – $1.29
• Dozen eggs – $.89
• Cookie Dough (Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, Oatmeal Craisin, etc.) – $1.99
• Packaged pasta sides – $.66

I especially like visiting the freezer case where I can find marked down frozen items, priced to move. One day they were trying to move their hamburger and hot dog rolls and they were selling them for 10¢ for a package of 8 (and no they weren’t near their expiration date)!

If you are trying to save money, you can’t afford to not visit Aldi. Does anyone know of similar chains in other parts of the country?

They say it’s your birthday!

Birthday Cake

One of the cool things about having a birthday and growing older is that some restaurants actually reward you for it.  We all know restaurants that do this for children, but did you know there are some dining establishments that do this for adults?

My favorite birthday deal is Red Robin’s eClub, which will give you a coupon for a free burger (including fries) to celebrate your special day.  That deal is worth about $10!  Sign up the whole family.

Here are some more good birthday deals:

• Moe’s Southwest Grill offer’s a free burrito on your birthday when you register your email with Moe’s eWorld.
• Friendly’s birthday club – you get a free sundae for enrolling (with the purchase of a meal) and special deals on your birthday.
• Famous Dave’s Bar-b-que offers a free treat on your birthday if you join their P.I.G. club.

Check into whether your favorite restaurants have special deals on your special day.  You usually have a 1-2  week period in which to use your birthday coupon, so you can go out and celebrate more than once.  Most restaurants make you pre-register online to get the birthday treat so be sure to do this weeks in advance of your birthday.  Sometimes the companies will reward you for registering by giving you a discount, free appetizer or dessert.

Do you know about other restaurants that reward you for getting older?

http://www.redrobin.com/eclub/

A Tricky Topic

One of the trickiest parts of selling things is determining the price.   You want to price things so you’re not giving things away but you don’t want to ask so much that no one buys.  The approach to pricing is different depending upon how you plan on selling.   I will go into more detail on pricing for garage sales, selling locally and selling online in future blogs.   I do want to talk about common issues with pricing here.

I highly suggest you research prices regardless of where you are selling an item.  You should find out what the cost of the item was new.  You should also find out what the going price is for these items.  I suggest checking for these items on Ebay, Half.com (movies, music, books and games only), Craigslist, Amazon (entertainment items, toys and household) and your local classified ads.

On Ebay, you’ll want to check if your item is selling and for how much.  You can do that by searching for the item.  See how many of those items are listed and what price is being asked.  See if the items have bids on them.  You can also check recently ended auctions by selecting Completed listings in the Preferences > Show only option on the left hand side.   Completed listings are listings that have ended within the last 15 days, whether or not the item sold.  If there are a lot of the items listed and no one is bidding on them then this is probably an indication that your item will not sell online.

Search Craigslist and your local classifieds to see if there are similar items for sale.  That should tell you the local going price.

Generally items will command the least amount of money at a garage sale. If the going rate online or locally is fairly significant ($10 or more? decide for yourself) then I suggest you try selling it online or locally prior to a garage sale.

If you’re considering selling online then you’ll also need to research shipping costs.  You can get a rough estimate of shipping cost by checking out the  Calculate Postage tool on the US Postal Service website.  You can do something similar on the UPS website.  You’ll need to estimate the weight and dimensions of your packaged item to get a good estimate.  Generally when selling online you can get the buyer to pay the shipping cost but sometimes you’ll want to entice more buyers by offering free shipping, meaning you will pay that cost.  Shipping large items is not always practical which may mean you want to stick with selling your item locally.

The condition of the item will also determine price.  Obviously new items will command a higher price than used, regardless of how you are selling it.  Also consider what you’d  be willing to pay for the item if you were in the market to buy one.

As you can see, setting the price is an art, not a science.

It’s over…now what?

The garage sale is over.  Now what do I do with all of the leftovers?

You will need to sort through all the items to decide what to do with them.  Group them accordingly:

• Items you want to try to sell online or locally.  By the time the sale is over people have mentally given up their garage sale items,  so they don’t want to “take them back.”  There might be a few items you have that could reap some good cash if you try selling them through another avenue, like Ebay, Craigslist or a classified ad in th paper.
• Items to give away. These things are not worth donating.  See if friends or family want them.  If I think there is some value to an item I usually try to give it away before throwing it out.  You can try posting them on Craigslist or Freecycle to give away.  Craigslist has a category called “Free” under the For Sale listings.  You could also try putting them at the curb to see if they get taken.  Failing all else, toss them in the garbage. Give yourself a timeline when they need to be gone and make sure they make it in the trash if the deadline passes and you’ve still got possession.
• Items to donate. If you’re going to donate and you want the tax write-off, document items as you box them up so you have a detailed list for April 15.  There are many places to donate items:  Volunteers of America, Goodwill, local schools and churches or other non-profit agencies.   Contact the agency to make sure they will accept the items you want to donate. I was lucky with my last garage sale since I was contacted by a teacher who asked if I’d be willing to donate any items to the children in her city classroom.    After the sale, she came and took all of the toys and books I had wished to donate, which was about 10 boxes.  It was great because I was able to clean out my garage without ever leaving home.  The teacher was very happy because I was able to help a lot of families with my donation.

Reminder:  Don’t forget to take down any garage sale signs you posted.  You can potentially reuse those signs for a future sale, saving a few bucks.  Plus, it’s rude leaving your signs up on posts until they blow away.  Most municipalities don’t have a a problem with the signs being up a few days but if they’re left up indefinitely you are littering.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites

Clip your costs

They recently opened a new haircut place near me, in Henrietta. I knew about it because they had signs along the road advertising $2.99 haircuts!   It’s a Great Clips salon which offers hair cuts and perms.  The $2.99 price is an introductory price to bring people in the door.

I’ve never been one to go to expensive salons for my haircuts.  I could never justify spending $25-30 or more for a cut.  I could see paying more if you want a new style, but if you are just getting a trim of your current style why pay big bucks? In the past I had frequented the Supercuts salon near me but it just kept getting busier and more expensive.  One thing I liked about Supercuts is that they offered a free cut after a specific number of cuts.  Since I took my kids there too, it didn’t take long to earn a free cut.

Soon a Hairzoo salon opened near me so I started going there when they offered coupons that made it $10 per cut.  I even have my husband going there too and they’ve started to offer a free cut after 12 cuts, so we’ll be earning a new cut before you know it.

Tips for saving money on haircuts:

• Shop around for inexpensive salons.  Go to the cheaper salons in between getting new styles at your favorite salon.
• Look for coupons in the paper, phone book, entertainment coupon book and online.
• Sign up for frequent haircut discounts.
• Get your entire family to go to the same salon so you can get more frequent discounts.
• Trim bangs and sideburns yourself to extend the time between cuts.  If you can visit the salon every 8 weeks instead of every 6 weeks you can eliminate 2 cuts per year.

On my visit to Great Clips I was given coupons for $4.99, $5.99, $6.99 & $7.99 cuts over the coming months, as well as a few other discounts.  I’ll definitely be bringing my family here for their cuts over the next couple of months.  With the tip I left the gentleman who cut my hair, my whole bill game to $4.99.  You can’t go wrong for that price.

An Even Sweeter Deal in Hershey

I’ve already written about Hershey Park and the Sweet Deal I got. If you go to Hershey be sure to visit Hershey’s Chocolate World, which is located right next to the park.

Hershey’s Chocolate World is FREE. Since it is located right next to Hershey Park and the parking is shared, they offer 2 hours of free parking to enjoy Chocolate World. The best part of Chocolate World is the Great American Chocolate Tour ride, which offers insight into the chocolate making process. The ride takes you through different parts of the “factory” to show you how chocolate is made. One of my favorite parts of the tour comes when you reach the area where the chocolate comes together, there is the distinctive, tantalizing aroma of chocolate in the air. The best part of the tour is at the end when they hand out free samples of Hershey chocolate. On our recent trip we got samples of the new Hershey Chocolate Meltaway Kisses.

We went on the Chocolate Tour ride four times since it was free and there was never really much of a line. Chocolate World was open 1 hour later than the park during our visit, so we visited after leaving the park both nights.

At the end of the tour you exit into the Hershey Marketplace Stores which holds all sorts of sweet treats made by Hershey, and items which you might not find in your local store. For example they were selling bags of 18″ Twizzlers which I have never seen in the store. They have numerous restaurants and cafes where you can taste more sweet treats.

If you are going to Hershey Park, then plan on visiting Hershey’s Chocolate World for an even sweeter deal.

A Sweet Deal

Map of Hershey Park

Our family just returned from a short vacation to Hershey Park in Hershey, PA.  If you haven’t been to Hershey Park I would highly recommend it.  It is only about a 4.5 hour drive from Rochester, NY, making it a nice destination for a weekend jaunt.

Hershey Park is probably my favorite amusement park after Disney World.  It is by far the best value.  The park was recently renovated to add a Boardwalk area including a wave pool and surrounding lazy river and new water slides. The park is large but they have placed roller coasters and little kiddie rides in each of the “towns,” making it easier for families with both younger and older children to enjoy.

We went to the park during the last week before schools start here in Rochester.  Since schools had already started in Pennsylvania, the crowds were non-existent and our kids were able to ride many of the rides over and over again.

We took advantage of Hershey’s Preview Plan.  If you buy your tickets the day before, you can get in the park for the last 2.5 hours (or the last 3.5 hours if the park closes at 11pm) of that day to preview the park.  While you have to pay $10 for parking to preview, Hershey will let you park for free the following day, essentially making the entire preview free.

The local Giant Food stores sell discount tickets for Hershey Park.  Normally an adult one-day admission ticket costs $52.95.  If you buy your tickets at Giant, you’ll pay only $41.95 per ticket, a savings of $11!  We bought 4 tickets so we saved $44, well worth the detour to Giant.  Savings on children’s tickets are only $2 per ticket.

The park was open 10 hours the days we were there.  Without discounts or previewing the park, each person would pay $5.30/hour to enjoy the park.  With our discounted tickets and the preview time, we brought the cost down to $3.36/hour, a 37% savings!   We got a sweet deal at Hershey.