Saturday, February 16, 2013

Our First Storage Auctions Attended & Unit Won in 2013

We got lost Thursday looking for the storage auctions and only caught tail end. Friday we went to a bunch of them. I believe in all we saw 33 units (actually about 29 some got paid up and were taken off list). Many were dud units, one when opened was actually EMPTY! Some only had 1 box that looked like stuff people just didn't feel like throwing away.
This made me think about something though - if you ever rent a storage unit - when you leave make sure you take EVERYTHING don't leave junk behind because you might have something with info on it like SS # or something and even though people are SUPPOSED to return things like that to the office after they win a unit, who is to say that everyone does? What you think will go into a dumpster might just get auctioned off..... That's what it got me thinking about .

Then a bunch we knew people were just bidding us up so we didn't play the game. Figured okay you want it for that much go ahead and try to make money on it LOL.
Second half of day I stayed home and John went by himself. He almost had a real good one but we had given ourselves a budget and only brought that much cash with him (thats how you keep within your budget no matter what lol). This time we were wishing we had brought an extra hundred on top of budget - like a just in case their is an awesome one kinda spare money but oh well.

At the last facility he did wind up winning a unit. Paid about $50 more than he was wanting to (but still well within budget). So now after taxes and all we have $351.00 invested in this unit. Unfortunately it was seriously missing that WOW factor ha ha ha.
We did some math though and it will probably take the vintage poker table (after we refurbish top which is not hard), and the leather chair & ottoman plus maybe the Hammock we found to break even. Then we will make a little profit from a couple telescopes, some bric & brac, and some plush for Halloween and Motorcycle/Biker plush Teddy Bears etc. So we MIGHT be able to at least double on this one, but we were not overly thrilled with it. They can't all be amazing though! Hopefully next time.

Other things we found in the unit: Books that were just too dirty to be anything but garbage, a ton of Christmas decorations most just dollar store or homemade and not good homemade, an entertainment center (we can resell that probably for 50.00), a long wood table but its missing its glass pieces, not sure what we will do with that yet. Some electric tools we have to test still also were in there. We have a small pile of old Christmas cards, some paperwork etc. with personal info we are going to hand into the office their on Monday so they can return to the previous owners.

Oh I almost forgot there was this neat little chair in there. It is a folding chair and is obviously vintage. We just took some quick photos of it. It has a metal tag/plate that has two little nails/tacs to hold it onto back of the chair but the writing is oriental so we need to figure it out still. It looks like a child size chair. The blue flip flop is there to show size its a womans size 6 or 7 shoe. The other picture has my husbands large McDonalds drink.



 
 
 I like the chair, but not sure if it has any value. As of right now all we know is it is cute and in good shape other than needing a little cleaning/dusting and some of the screws/nails are a little rusted on the heads from age.


Sometimes you find things in units that just don't go together. This unit was one of those kind of units. There was a glass pipe in there wrapped in a towel (certainly some type of drug paraphernalia) and also in the unit was a bunch of Jehovah Witness materials, books etc. These two things just didn't seem to be a combo that made sense to me. Certainly not the strangest combo we have found, but one to make you go hmmmm and scratch your head a little.

Well now time to turn this unit around and see if we can manage to at least double the money. Looking forward to the next auctions and hopefully will have lots of wonderful finds to write about.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Winners Of Our First Blog Contest - Better Late Than Never

Sorry to be a little late on this but we have just barely been able to keep up with our eBay shipments as we have been battling this evil cold/flu thing that has not only hit our house once now but came back and knocked me and my daughter on our butts AGAIN for almost a week now. The men of the house have been lucky and this time around our son only had a runny nose and hubby managed to not get sick at all. NO FAIR!

Well as fun as it is chatting about being under the weather I am sure that is not what everyone is really interested in. I am sure there are two people out there who are curious about their PRIZES! We ran our first blog contest, but did not do that great of a job promoting it. That is okay we live & we learn. We only had TWO OFFICIAL ENTRIES so there are two winners. With only two people being entered all we did was gave them the numbers 1 & 2 then for each of their entries wrote on pieces of paper, crumpled them up and put in a bowl. My son picked the Grand Prize winner out of the bowl........ and the Grand Prize winner is.........

The first person who entered and they actually had MANY entries due to they completed almost every option to enter the contest they possible could.

OUR GRAND PRIZE WINNER IS CORY BOUDREAU one of our Twitter followers.

Then because there was only two people entered there was no reason to pick any more out of the bowl by default the only other entrant would obviously win 2cnd place.

OUR SECOND PLACE WINNER IS: User: Vanwyckkelsie (that is the info from email address I am not going to enter the entire email here due to spam/junk mail issues I don't want her/him to have email plastered in the middle of a blog post).

I am getting ready to send them their WINNING EMAILS and they can claim their prizes and receive within 24 hours of claiming.

Thanks for entering. We hope next time around others will now see that YOU REALLY CAN WIN BLOG CONTESTS. Actually I personally love blog contests because I feel my odds of winning are a lot better than lotto, or other raffles with big companies.

Thanks again... and keep an eye out NEW CONSTEST COMING VERY SOON!!!!!

Below is the list for the winners to choose their prize from 

GRAND PRIZE: 

The Grand Prize WINNER gets to choose from this prize list below - The Grand Prize options 1 & 2 are open to BOTH US and International Winners.

Grand Prize Option 1 - $15.00 (usd) eBay Gift Card

Grand Prize Option 2 - $10.00 Cash Via PayPal

Grand Prize Option 3 - (For U.S. Residents Only) - Surprise Basket Of Goodies (Value Minimum of $20.00 usd)

 

SECOND RUNNER UP PRIZE LIST : 

Second Place Runner Up gets to choose from this Prize List - 1st and 2cnd options available to both U.S. and International Winners.

2cnd Prize Option 1 - $10.00 (usd)eBay Gift Card

2cnd Prize Option 2 - $7.00 Cash Via PayPal

2cnd Prize Option 3 - Small Surprise Package Of Goodies (Value a Minimum of $10.00 usd).

Friday, February 1, 2013

We Will Be Doing Drawing For Our Blog Contest 2/2/13

There was not too many entries for the blog contest for January. I did not do a very good job promoting the contest actually. Next time around I will do better I am sure.... Anyways with a handful of entries I am just going to put the entries into a hat (each person still gets the amount of entries they earned) mix them all up and draw one out for Grand Prize then so on.... So be sure to check back tomorrow and see who the big winners are.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

How To - Add YouTube Videos To eBay Listings SIMPLE VERSION

   After spending over an hour trying to figure out how to add a simple YouTube video showing how an item works to one of my eBay listings I decided I would do a short blog post and try to save other sellers the hassle I just went through. This is not a YouTube how to, it simply covers the steps to embed the video into an item listing.
To make this simple - YouTube has changed the code they give you and it does not work in eBay auctions.So instead of going crazy like me trying to figure out why it isn't working just follow these simple steps
1. Go into your youtube video you are wishing to add to your new item listing. This is assuming you know how to use YouTube videos (if not wait for my more detailed blog post coming soon)
2. Switch your auction listing to enter html code instead of standard
3. Decide where you want your video placed
4. Now it is time for a little copy and paste & edit 2 simple spots in the html coding
COPY THIS HTML CODE AND PASTE INTO YOUR EBAY LISTING
 <p align="center">
<object height="385" width="640"><param
 name="movie"
 value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XXXXXXXXXXX?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param
 name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param
 name="allowscriptaccess" value="always">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XXXXXXXXXXX?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"
 type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always"
 allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="640"></object></span></strong></p>
You notice the XXXXXXXXXXX  - NEXT STEP IS TO REPLACE THOSE X's WITH YOUR 11 DIGIT YOUTUBE VIDEO NUMBER
(I found the most simple way to do this was to go to video and simply copy the 11 digits right out of your web browser from the url to your video)
ASSUMING YOU HAVE ALREADY PASTED THE CODE INTO YOUR AUCTION BODY (in html editing not standard) THEN ONCE YOU REPLACE THE X's YOUR GOOD TO GO!
Now this is NOT like other html editing that when you switch back to "standard" editing in your eBay listing you will be able to see the video. THIS PART HELD ME UP FOR A WHILE. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. Turns out I just could not see it. If you are done working on your item then just simply go onto the next step in the listing process and you come to the page where you can "edit" "submit" or "preview" - at this point PREVIEW your listing. This is when you will be able to see the video in your listing.
I have included my video to the listing that took me over an hour below. So to save you some time just follow the simple steps above and you will not have to go insane like I did. Hope this helps someone out there. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me here on my blog, through my email, facebook, twitter, or any of the many social media networks. I am easy to find and always willing to help in any way I can. BEST PART - NO I don't CHARGE A DIME..... I don't always have the answer, but if I do I am more than happy to share.

UPDATE: 4/18/2014  - There is an option on YouTube videos to use the old coding. REMEMBER TO SWITCH the code before copying and pasting into your listing. I will be writing a more simplified & updated version of how to add youtube video to your listing on ebay VERY soon. If I have time over the weekend I will do, but with it being Easter weekend and having 3 little ones... it might not happen until during the week. 

Special Thank you & credit to pinkfloydtrader of eBay for their very helpful guide. Whom I learned how to do this from.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

$10 Garage Sale Find Becomes $200 eBay Sale

My Big eBay Sale Of The Week

 
I wanted to share something to be on the lookout for when your out shopping garage sales, church sales, etc. Many times they will have a large amount of unused cards for sale. Cards are a pretty good seller, especially if those cards have envelopes and are in good shape. I got really lucky at a yard sale in my neighborhood when I noticed some really nice greeting cards, post cards and tons of envelopes. They were Avanti cards which are made in the USA and are very nicely made and normally have colorful envelopes to go with them. I noticed they were 3 for 1.00 and I passed the first time but then decided to go back and ask how much for all of them. They said 10.00 for stand they were in and all cards. I did not even bother to haggle as this was an awesome deal and I was happy to hand over $10.
 
So far from this deal I now have a really nice wood display/storage rack. I listed the Avanti cards all in a lot and I got a best offer of 50.00 less than I had set the price for. I had it set to auto accept offers of at least $200 as I thought that was an incredible return on my investment. Less than 24 hours later I had my sale and the buyer paid right away. Below I have included in this post a couple pictures of the cards. You can see the actual eBay listing here: Avanti Card Lot Auction on eBay
 
Now in addition to that nice stand I own now, and the really nice turn around on the cards - THERE ARE STILL MORE! Yep there are still at least 200 or so postcards still that need to be listed, and about 50 or so more greeting cards of other brands all with envelopes too. There is also at least 15 - 20 or so small gift type tag cards. So I figure by the time I am done I will have at very least turned $10 into $300 or possibly more AND I still have the wood stand I think I will keep for me.
 
 

 
Come again soon.... I haven't been keeping up on my writing so well in the last couple of weeks, but I am going to try to get back into swing of posting almost every day. I love sharing ideas, tips, tricks, and passing along any info I discover in order to help others.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

What, Did I Hear Right? "Breast Enlarging Gum" Turn That Up!

 
Okay just when I thought I had certainly heard it all I am proven wrong again. I am in my truck this morning and hadn't adjusted the radio to my station yet. There was a man and woman talking about breast enhancement. At first I thought it was a commercial but then noticed from how they were speaking that it must be one of those contests they do on some stations to win a breast enlargement surgery. I was not paying too much attention and the volume was on low. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot of a local store I swear I hear the woman on the radio say the words "breast enhancement gum". Needless to say my first thought was "HUH?" and immediately turned up the volume. I had to have heard something wrong, right? You would think, but what on earth wording about breast enhancement could possibly sound like "GUM"?
 
I pull the truck into a parking space still paying close attention for the word gum again and sure enough she said it again "GUM". At this point I am awaiting the punch line, but the only one cracking jokes is the male radio host. The female voice is completely 100% serious and not for comedic value. She is serious because she is talking about a new product she had heard about. I still was thinking it has to be a joke and I somehow missed the punchline. My second thought was, "If this is for real my goodness what are the ingredients and how much damage are they going to do to the rest of a womans health?
 
I somehow managed to forget about this for most of the day. I just got busy and I forgot to jump on google when I returned home as I had planned to. Then early evening I stopped by dollar general and had to buy some first aid supplies, something with our metal scrapping business is of great necessity. The medical supplies and something the cashier said reminded me of the gum. I started telling her about the crazy thing I had heard on the radio this morning. Her feelings were the same as mine. Immediate shock & amazement and then the thoughts of what on earth is in this gum? I mean what could the ingredients be that instead of spending thousands of dollars on a dangerous surgery you can chew gum and your chest will not only grow, but become firmer as well. My husband had been waiting outside so as I exited the store I practically yelled across the parking lot about what I had forgotten to tell him I had heard on the radio this morning. I tell you when you yell something out about breast enlargement and the word gum peoples heads turn. I know the expressions well on their faces, I had same one on my face sitting in my truck this morning when I heard it for first time.
 
Now this time when I arrived home I was sure not to forget to open up Google and type in the curious keywords for search "Breast Enlarging Gum". Sure enough lots of returns popped up and right in the top 3 was one I decided I would check out as soon as I actually was finished putting groceries away. No need to tell you about where I put my stuff away or what fun I had cleaning out my fridge.... Lets talk about when I sat back down to the website that was awaiting me.
 
I had found the gum on a website by the name of http://zoftfulfill.com there was a lot of info and I read the majority of the first page and then still I had many questions. At the bottom of the page there were two options one of which to find out more about the product and one to buy it right then. I can't imagine anyone would actually be like "oh sure you say it works and its natural it must be so - sign me up". Even though I did read on that first page it was natural and worked etc. I still wanted to know more about it. Mainly I wanted to know what made it work? How does the gum make you need a bigger bra and not a whole new wardrobe in a bigger size? Which actually the man on the radio this morning had said something about making bellies bigger eating something or another. I can't remember word for word but mainly along the lines of chewing gum with sugar might make you gain weight in turn increasing bust size just like donuts will make your waistline larger.
 
Basically from what I have learned even I am tempted by this gum. I am sure many women out there that are not 100% happy with their size and want to increase it or not happy with firmness etc. will certainly be tempted to try this product, especially when they read the part about "Puberty". Yep you read that right.... Puberty is how they explain what the "over 13 safe and carefully chosen herbs" do so women "Don’t suffer any longer with small or sagging breasts. Get the larger, fuller, firmer, more attractive breasts you deserve". They honestly have me 95% convinced from reading the website that not only does it sound like a safe method to try but also that the gum will actually produce results.
 
See us women know very well that one of the first signs of puberty is when our breasts begin to swell and get very sore. I read this statement on the website -  "During puberty, the female body naturally produces estrogens that promote the development of new tissue. These hormones determine the size, shape, and fullness of a woman's breasts. Lower levels of these hormones result in smaller, less developed breasts." and I must say that actually makes sense to me. Just think women who cannot afford to drop thousands on surgery, or are afraid of the risks of such a drastic cosmetic procedure or they just are worried about what people will think about "fake breasts" can now chew gum and let their body naturally grow their chest into a larger and firmer look. I like the sound of that don't you? Also it is not only for small chested women, it is for any woman that is not happy with sagging, or firmness is just not as good as it could be, or they are just not as full shaped as they would like. Seriously how many women does that cover?
 
Now if you want to try this gum out please look into it further. This is one site http://zoftfulfill.com and there is a lot of information there. However keep in mind this is a site that also sells the breast enhancing gum and probably one of many (I cannot be sure it is the one I went to in order to satisfy curiosity). They are obviously going to have all high opinions about how well it works and not mention any bad effects it might have. Oh which by the way, I did see a link about other extra benefits but I didn't read on that far as of yet.
 
As with anything you consider whether it be a medication, a diet, excersize routine etc. please read up on it before jumping in. Make sure you are very well informed about anything you are going to be putting into your body. Everything I have written here is as someone who just heard about this miracle gum this morning and have only out of curiousity went to one website to find out what it is. Of course if I really decide to try it I will be checking out other websites, opinions and asking my doctor as well if he has heard of it and what he thinks.
 
If someone has really discovered a way to make chewing gum that truly works to make any kind of noticable difference in the size, shape and/or firmness of our breasts you can expect that in the near future 9 out of 10 women you run into are going to have nice full & firm breasts along with great breath!
 
* If I decide to actually give this a try I will run a separate blog and link to it from here. Yes, if I actually try this supposedly amazing chewing gum I will share my results with you as I go. This is extremely outside of my comfort zone of what I would normally share with anyone outside of my closest family & friends but if I try it and it works I know others would love to know so they can give it a whirl. On the other hand if I try it and find negatives to it or doesn't work at all then I only feel it is right to share so others don't waste their time. At this point I am thinking it sounds promising.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Storage Auction Regret - When You Wish You Had Bid

 

Personal Opinions on Letting Good Lockers Get Away

 
I haven't written anything in a few days and I had really been shooting to post something each day in 2013. I am sure I will more than catch up here in the next couple of weeks as I start posting more "How To" type blogs. For tonight though I want to talk about the storage lockers that get away.
 
Anyone who has every bid on units knows what I mean I am sure. When you have a bunch of auctions to attend in the day and early on you pass up on some that were probably pretty good bets just in case something better comes along. Big mistake usually, at least for us that is. I would be curious to hear from other buyers about the topic actually (leave a comment and tell us about it).
 
Today we went to different facilities each location having a small but decent amount of units. We really thought the odds were in our favor today. However it apparently just was not meant to be. Then again I really think we just hesitated too much, passed over pretty solid bets and at decent bids to wait for units later in the day. See you always bring a certain amount of cash with you and you will wind up kicking yourself if you surpass your budget and then miss out on that "Perfect Unit", but I am here now writing this so you can learn from my what I call - Rookie - mistake here. The "Perfect Unit" rarely exists and more than likely you will wind up at the end of the day going home empty handed and kicking yourself for passing up on a handful of perfectly decent lockers that you could have easily turned a profit on.
 
So they cut the lock - the door opens - you look inside and determine BY THE UNIT YOU ARE LOOKING AT NOT THE WHAT IF LATER UNIT - "Can I make A Profit? Do I see a Profit in this unit? How much am I willing to go on this unit? Then don't even think about the unit that might come along. Think about what is in front of you and work with the current. If you win and say you have spent your budget for the day. Then just get to work and don't even go on to other facilities or units to see what could have been if you had held out. This is how I feel at least. It is actually a good practice in life in general. Live each day not thinking about the "What Ifs" "What Could Have Beens" "What Might Happen Ifs" its one thing to dream, but these statements go hand in hand with regret and second guessing yourself. Not healthy in life, not healthy in units.
 
So tomorrow is another day. More units, only this time north of us and some we have never been to before actually. Tomorrow we are not even going to think about the "next facility". We are going to focus on each unit and what we think we should bid on that unit and what kind of profit it will be.
 
Don't get me wrong there are times in which you will want to hold out. Depending on if your heading to an area that you know some history on the units and are waiting on a special unit you know about.Also if you are really looking for say a unit with a lot of boxes or a lot of furniture and you come across a unit that is real good but not what you are looking for. Then I would say to think it through and come to final decision (quickly before bidding is over). In no way am I saying to jump on any unit just so you win something, NOT AT ALL! I am saying don't pass up multiple units that you see your profit in just because you want to find that big score. Remember the bread and butter of resale is normally in the smaller items that you sell more often not the big rare items that are occassional. Use that logic when choosing what units to bid on and when to wait it out.
 
Okay - enough of my rambling for one night. If you made it all the way down here I must say THANK YOU for reading this. Hope you were able to get something out of it even though it is more of a personal rambling on about my feelings on a subject about storage locker bidding and not a how to or anything real useful............... Next time we will get to more "Bread & Butter" Of Blogs.....
 
HAVE A WONDERFUL NIGHT - TIME FOR ME TO GET SOME SLEEP - CYA ALL TOMORROW AFTER THE AUCTIONS
 
Head On Over To Our eBay Auctions - Link At Top Of Blog - Lots Of Prices Slashed Tonight BIG SALE - And Accepting ALL Reasonable Offers Too

1/10/2013 FOLLOW UP: We decided to wait one more day. We worked on picking up a bunch of scrap metal & taking it apart today to have ready to cash in tomorrow morning. We figured the units were kind of real far today and not many at each facility. Since we run into many where people pay last minute we figured instead of possibly just wasting a lot of gas we would work toward earning more investment money so tomorrow we can go to a couple with a bunch of units. One facility has 21 units going up for auction tomorrow. You can bet we will be there with bells on tomorrow....... Hopefully soon to come blog post about a great storage locker we win tomorrow.............