Telephone Frustrations?

Are you tired of getting talking computers instead of humans when you call a company?

Go to http://gethuman.com/ and get the dial in numbers that will connect you to a person. Many companies have other numbers to get to their operator rather than '0'. Ex.: MasterCard - dial their number then press '0' three times in a row; at Chase - once the robot voice begins speaking, push in "*0".

I also heard that if your call gets transfered to a foreign company (India and Philippines most likely), you can request to be transferred back to a US assistant. Often it is too difficult to hear over the boiler room noises or to understand and communicate. You are legally entitled to this transfer so insist if you need to.

USPS Announces New Priority Short Distance Rate

Starting in March, when you ship short-distances, you can use the new USPS Priority Mail® Regional Rate^TM boxes - available online only - for shipments of up to 15 lbs and shipments of up to 20 lbs. Choose this new option when your buyer is close to home.

For example, if you ship a 10 lb package from San Jose to Sacramento, look at the savings:

Priority Mail® costs $9.80
Priority Mail® Medium Flat Rate Box costs $10.50
Priority Mail® Regional Rate Box A costs only $4.97

Look for the USPS Regional Rate box option when you print labels on eBay. Remember - you've got to use the box to get these fantastic rates!

Expensive eBay items

Sometimes my students ask what the most expensive thing was that ever sold on eBay.  A little research turns up the following items:

The most expensive item till date which has ever been sold is a yacht which was bought by Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire. It was in February 2006 that it was bought and the total cost of it was $168,000,000.00. The yacht had a retractable elevator, helicopter garage, eight guest cabins, 10 multi-level VIP Suites, fitness room, cinema room, salon and luxury office area. The sale of this yacht breaks the record set by Gulfstream II jet which was sold for $4.9 million.

Besides the ned yacht, there are several items which are declared as some of the most expensive. The most valuable baseball bat which has ever been sold is that of Joseph Jefferson Jackson, (who was known as Shoeless Joe). His bat was sold for $577,610; it was a handmade hickory bat. It weighed more than 40 ounces, which is heavier than many of the bats used today. He was one of the most famous baseball players of all times, known for his perfect swings.

One of the other most expensive items on eBay is the Harley Davidson sold by Jay Leno, the television host and stand-up comedian. It's said that he raised $800,100 which was used to help the victims of the tsunami of 2004.

Pope Benedict XVI sold his Volkswagen Golf automobile in May 2005 for €188,938.88. It was sold in the German webpage of eBay and is considered one of the most costly purchases in eBay. The GoldenPalace.com, an online casino placed the winning bid.

A surprise sale was a Cathedral pickle bottle for just $3.00. This jar of pickles was in the shape of a cathedral and was bought at a garage sale. The surprise is that this item was so rare that there were only five of these cathedral shaped glass bottles in the world. Later on it was sold for over $44,000.

In June of 2008 a charity auction raised $2.1 million.  It was for a chance to have lunch with Warren Buffett, who donated the money to a homeless charity. 

One of the most outrageous and expensive bids which was placed in eBay was of a human kidney. The description read that a functional kidney was for sale and the buyer could choose the kidney which he or she wanted. The buyer had to pay all the medical and transplant costs. It's illegal to transplant human organs for sale and so this sale was blocked. However, the bid amount reached more than $5 million. 

It's President's Day, so no mail service today

And it's a good thing, since I don't have my eBay packages ready to go....

In case you forgot here's this year's Post Office holiday schedule:

2011 USPS Holiday List

January 1 - New Years Day

January 17 - Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday

February 21 - Presidents Day

May 30 - Memorial Day Holiday

July 4 - Independence Day 4th Of July

September 5 - Labor Day Holiday

October 10 - Columbus Day

November 11 - Veteran's Day

November 24 - Thanksgiving Day

December 26 - Christmas Day

January 2 2012 - New Years Day

I'm on both the radio and TV today!

It’s been a busy day!  I’ve been interviewed twice already this morning!  I was on the radio talking about my upcoming class:  How to plan a wedding on eBay.  And then later the local television station interviewed me about saving money while I was at Goodwill. 

Here I am at our local Goodwill, talking to the reporter about how to find good deals.

The Goodwill interview was planned (the reporter called last night to see if I could do the spot) but since I was there I got a few things to resell on eBay—some Winnie the Pooh wallpaper border and a crewel embroidery kit, and some denim fabric. 

Just for Valentine's Day!

Love the candy hearts?

Make your own to include in emails, or on your blog, or whatever!

Go to CandyHearts to get started!

What Fun!

Paypal Fees

Paypal fees are inevitable—they are just part of the cost of doing business on eBay.  There are advantages and disadvantages, but since we are stuck with it, it’s a good idea to be totally aware of how Paypal fees work. 

Paypal fees are based on the volume of money that comes into your Paypal account each month.  If you receive $3,000 or less each month you will be charged 30¢ plus 2.9% of each transaction.  Keep in mind that your shipping charges will be included in the Paypal fees, too.  For example, if you sell an item for $10 (and they pay $2 SH) Paypal fees are based on the $12 your customer sends, not just the $10 for the item. 

This is why many sellers will not sell anything for under $10—after deducting eBay fees and Paypal fees, they are left with approximately 80% (depending on their eBay fees), so it is hardly worth their time (time is money!) to list the smaller items.  Remember: it takes the same amount of time to list a high priced item as a low priced one!

I found a free online Paypal fee calculator.  Keep a link on your desktop to remind yourself to be more aware of the Paypal fees. 

Missing some friends on Facebook?

Does it seem like you aren't seeing some of your friends' comments on Facebook? 

The “New Facebook” has a newsfeed setting that by default is automatically set to show ONLY posts from people who you’ve recently interacted with or interacted the most with (which would be limited to the couple of weeks just before people started switching to the new profile). So in other words, for both business and personal pages, unless your friends/fans commented on one of your posts within those few weeks or vice versa – you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you!!

HERE’S THE FIX: Scroll down to the bottom of the newsfeed on the homepage and click on “Edit Options”, click on “Show Posts From” and change the setting to “All Of Your Friends and Pages.”


Yours may be ok due to previous settings you implemented, but it doesn't hurt to check!

I almost threw this away

You just never know!

I was sorting through some things in my eBay room…and spotted a quilt top kit that I’d bought last October, but never got it listed. I thought it wouldn't sell because it showed some soil from age and being stored away.  I was getting ready to put it in the Goodwill box, but then thought better and decided to try it for a month on eBay—if it didn’t sell in a month then I could donate it.

That quilt top wasn’t listed for 30 minutes and it sold!  Bought and paid for before I even had a chance to catch my breath!

Moral of the story:  Don’t try to second guess yourself—I always say go with your first feelings about an item (and sometimes I ignore my own advice LOL).

NATIONAL WEAR RED DAY

“Heart disease doesn’t care what you wear—it’s the number 1 killer of
women,” says the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute as part of
their nationwide campaign to help deliver an urgent wakeup call to
American women.

If you still think heart disease is a “man’s disease,”
consider that women under the age of 50 are twice as likely as men to
die after having a heart attack. Unfortunately, women also wait
longer than men to go to an emergency room when having a heart attack.

When in doubt, Don't!

Yesterday I mentioned a Face Book app that tells you who has looked at your profile. Today I’d like to elaborate and warn about some of these apps—you could almost call them scam or spam!

Some of the new Face Book applications are designed to get your profile information, bomb you with spam and potentially expose you to malware and other bad stuff on the Internet have been circulating—they work on your ego to gain access to your private information.


When it comes to knowing how many Facebook views you have, the urge is fairly strong to take a look. It is natural to want to know who is looking and why when it comes to our profiles. Former boyfriends, girlfriends and others are often searching out our profiles, and it sounds so fun to find out. The makers of this app are banking on our urge to take a peek at who is watching. That voyeurism is certainly a creative way to trick us. It draws on a natural human tendency—vanity.


Several names are being used (two prominent ones are ProfileSpy and Pro Check) and they offer you these insights in exchange for your completing a survey and allowing them access to your information. It would seem that this would scare people immediately, but that is not the case with many Face Book users. The apps have been growing and show no signs of slowing down.


Keep your eyes open for these dangerous applications. While ProfileSpy and Pro Check are the two most common names circulating, they are not the only ones. If you are unsure about an application, then simply leave it be for safety. No application is worth getting a computer loaded down with spam and exposing your information and computer to problems. Ask questions before using any application and make sure you are on top of what is going on with it. Every Facebook application can be easily searched online to see if there are complaints about it, and these are no exception.


Many people see these applications and automatically assume they are from Facebook themselves. Not so! Facebook does not have full control over the apps that find their way onto the site. No matter what, you should always question Facebook apps that feel wrong in any way. When in doubt—don’t bother with it!

(and, if you already downloaded one of these, go look at yesterday's post to see how to get rid of it!)

OOPS! I don't really want that Face Book App

Face Book hint: 

How to remove specific  Apps that you don’t want any more (like the ones about who has looked at your profile or sweepstakes)
 1. Open the Account tab (upper right)
2. Choose Privacy Settings
3. Find Apps & Websites on the lower left - click on 'Edit your settings'
4. See the Apps you use List - click on 'Edit settings' and choose remove for those you don’t use.

Back Home in Nebraska

My trip to California is over…and I’m back in cold Nebraska. But, the good news is that I turned the “vacation” settings off in my eBay store—and things are already selling! I have 4 packages ready for the mailman this morning.