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Ok, as some of you may remember from an earlier post, I had a goal to try out the Arbitrage system on eBay. This is where you take advantage of a poorly described and/or photographed item on eBay, purchase it and then resell it at a profit with better pictures, better spelling and so forth. My goal was to accomplish a flip in the month of January. A lot of folks I know use this method to 'flip' jeans, sweaters and other pieces of clothing. I decided to try something a little different. I used the site Typohound to research misspelled listings using the word 'sterling'. I quickly came up with a listing for "salt & pepper stering". Took a peek and saw that the seller had a pair of weighted salt and pepper shakers by Duchin Creation (also misspelled). I went to my favorite free sniping tool and set my bid for what I was willing to pay. (Keeping in mind shipping for this item was $4.50) Well, happily, I won the auction for 3.50..plus my 4.50 shipping so I was out 8.00 but I knew I could double or even triple my money on this.
When my package arrived, I actually started laughing...I guess the seller's shortcomings in the description/listing department extended to his shipping abilities as well. He/she/they had shipped my Sterling S&P set in a granola bar box!! The shakers themselves were loosely wrapped in bubblewrap. This is what my $4.50 got me!
My laughter quickly ended when I realized that one of the tips of the shakers was dented!! I ran back to the computer to double check his photo..but no..they were in good shape in his photo. The damage happened in transit.
Normally I would say...'darn that postal system!" or similar words but considering the inadequate packaging...I could clearly see where the fault lay. I contacted the seller, (who was quick to respond), I sent photos, long story short....(too late i think), since I didn't feel that I should have to pay to send the item back since it was a damaged item I ended up eating the $8 and keeping the damaged shakers. By the end of the email exchange where no admission of fault/poor packaging was given, the seller was basically screaming at me (all caps and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Anyway, so my first attempt at Arbitrage wasn't so successful. That's ok. I am willing to try again. Soon. I do have some other damaged sterling items that I think I can lump together with these and sell as a scrap lot. Hopefully I can get my $8 back at least! Let you know!
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