Street Magic - 11 Recent Curb Recycling Finds Salvaged & Sold For $625 (82.5 Pounds Saved)
After a successful showing today, I'll find out any hour now if my 150 pound fitness machine will be sold for $2,700-$2,800 cash on Tuesday! Some will go towards topping off some crypto. Recycling pays.
Check out more high-quality items I salvaged from my city's curbside recycling and recently SOLD for income.
All items were shipped using personally recycled packaging. I've also been recording the weights of these items to further measure my impact.
Revenue is before platform fees, costs or shipping.
I have a lot of nice sales in the works, so my next update will be more substantial.
It's also hard to think about USD right now when crypto is moving up again, but I'll try to focus on the POUNDS I save.
Salvaged Stuff:
Working midi keyboard sold for $50 cash. Recycled weight of 8 lbs.
Printer sold for $129 cash. Recycled weight of 32 lbs 6 oz.
Vacuum cleaner sold for $80 cash. Recycled weight of 10 lbs 4 oz.
Lego 9450 set sold to a fellow Steemian for $45 in Steem. Recycled weight of 2 lbs 4 oz.
Stroller bassinet sold for $50 cash. Recycled weight of 9 lbs.
Vacuum power nozzle sold online for $72. Recycled shipping weight of 6 lbs 3 oz.
Vacuum power hose sold online for $40. Recycled shipping weight of 3 lbs.
Vacuum power wand sold online for $40. Recycled shipping weight of 2 lbs 4 oz.
Modem/router sold online for $64 and hand delivered to customer down the street. 2 lbs.
Math textbook sold online for $25. Recycled shipping weight of 5 lbs 2 oz.
Vacuum motor sold online for parts for $30. Recycled shipping weight of 2 lbs 3 oz.
That's a total of 82.5 pounds SAVED between the items and their recycled packaging. That's also an average of $57 per recycled sale. A little weaker than usual, but I can't complain with free inventory.
Day in and day out, recycling to help OUR environment is my priority. The world needs more people to take our global waste problem seriously. Sitting on the sidelines is the fastest way to prove that you don't care enough, and there's a price to pay for that. Just a few minutes a day makes a huge difference.
Some people talk. Some speculate. Some are full of it. Some just do the right thing. I hope more people get the drift and take action. It's not that hard.
I see you still are using those eagle eyes for them worthy stuff on streets!
Keeping the cash coming! Nice work brother! <3
Love these posts.
I have had a little success dipping my feet back in. A few gripes though and confusion.
First, woke up this morning to find an email by Ebay they had reinserted best offer on two of my listings, despite my opting out as they make you do (and hide as well) when making the original listing. Frustrating that they seem to feel they have the right to decide for me what I will do with my items.
The second is shipping. I don't fully get how many things are sold online with the outrageous costs involved in shipping. I have several tubs of items (some new in their boxes) that seems would not be worth selling as they are worth in the 20-30.00 range and between shipping and fees (and costs to buy) would leave little on the table for me. I need to figure out shipping better as I see others selling things in these price ranges.
I've considered looking online for a cheap shipping course like on Udemy.
I'm not sure how eBay reinserted OBO. What was their reason in their email? I haven't noticed that before on any of mine.
As for shipping, I usually build the cost into my price. If you have bulk lots of stuff, does it help to sell an item in pairs or 3x to combine the shipping cost to squeeze out more profit (as long as a quantity discount doesn't hinder that extra benefit)? I saw your dialogue with @getonthetrain below who pointed out some of the other points I would have made.
I suggest listing some items on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for cash as an experiment.
Since you mentioned wanting to try Mercari, has that shown any promise if you started there?
They didn't give one. I read the seller boards there for years despite walking away for 10 years. In the last year+ there have been numerous complaints on this happening. They also have them turned on (as I'm sure you know) when listing, hiding it unless you expand the section.
That's what is confusing me. The dimensional weight coupled with the vast increases these last few years (including in the last weeks) on shipping make me wonder how viable many things are for online selling if they are any size or weight at all. I'm waiting to see on the seller boards if the FedEx rates are what is being shown or if many sellers will receive a surprise in their monthly Ebay fees at the end of the month.
Craigslist was a gold mine in Tucson, but in my current locale not so much. I gave up Fakebook years ago, but will need to create another account soon as I'm wanting to scale to my own website and use venues like Ebay as a funnel (obviously Fakebook as the largest funnel).
I haven't set up Mercari just yet. I will let you know how it goes when I do.
On a side note, can't believe the changes they made to the site here since last night. Evidently there is no more feed from those I follow, so not sure how I will know when anyone posts.
If you bulk edit your listings, you may be able to toggle through the options to quickly turn off OBO from them at once and repeat as necessary.
FedEx is almost always accurate with their cost estimate following through to the end billable on my monthly invoice. There have been a few instances where package shape caused a penalty fee, but 9.5/10 are accurate from my experience. If it's not accurate and there is no penalty for an error in my packaging, the additional charge is usually minute.
I try to stick with First Class packages for any under 16 oz shipment. If over, I usually list my item with "standard shipping" if I'm not sure if USPS Priority Mail or FedEx Ground will be cheaper. This gives me full control over shopping for the best shipping rate instead of forcing myself to use a service that may be cost prohibitive with respect to the sale price/destination. It may cause items to sell a little slower if competition offers faster service, but I prefer customers who aren't in a rush to get something where they'll be more relaxed about other elements of the post-sale process as well.
I also don't have a strong sensitivity to the shipping since I get most of my inventory for free or near free. I'm never close to losing money on a sale unless there's a quality issue.
It appears they are doing this to those of us without a store that are using the free 50 listings. Exactly one week after the listing is live if it doesn't sell.
Supposedly Ebay has negotiated new stellar rates with Fed Ex since Amazon cut their contract with them, but the consensus on the seller boards seems to be wait till the end of month invoice to make sure there isn't any surprises.
Going to wait till the beginning of next month and experiment with listing bulkier items to test shipping rates.
You in the US?
First off, you must buy shipping and print your own label. I use a dymo label printer with 99019 labels (the 2x7 ones). This doesn't use ink, which is expensive.
If it is a book or media (DVD, CD) you can ship cheap using USPS media mail.
Anything under 16 ounces is first class (so $5 or less). Buy some polymailers or bubble mailers in bulk.
If it is over 16 ounces, you need to use the USPS resources as best you can.
You need to use USPS flat rate envelopes (both regular and legal), USPS padded flat rate envelopes, and region A and B boxes. As well as flat-rate medium size boxes.
If it is large, then FEDEX is probably the way to go. eBay has special FEDEX rates.
Nothing much to it really.
Yeah, I get the media mail. It's the over 16oz part that leaves me scratching my head how any business can afford to sell items that are in the 20.00 or less range. Seems shipping eats most of that, before even considering the cost of the item and fees for selling.
Like I said, you gotta use the flat rate stuff as creatively as possible.
https://steemit.com/ebay/@getonthetrain/cheapest-way-to-ship-shoes-for-ebay-with-pictures
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Love that you get all this money from the street. :D