I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Archive for the ‘selling stuff’ Category

Well, if I just count this go-round.  If I count all four times I have now sold books online and mailed them with a Merchandise Return Label via Media Mail, the score is actually now Post Office: 2, Me: 2.  But I am equipped to never lose again, on this matter at least.

As a public service announcement, in case you may be selling books online and sending them with a Merchandise Return Label in the future and wish to insure the package at your cost, Section 507 of the Domestic Mail Manual, Mailer Services 10.5.2, Insurance added by sender, clearly states the sender has the option of adding insurance to a Merchandise Return Label.

Just in case.  Have it in writing.  Take that post office!

Is it so much to expect for someone to actually know the rules and regulations involved in their own job?  Or at least be willing to look them up themselves when you claim they may be mistaken instead of just telling you that you are wrong and not listening to you?  :mutter:

Have it in writing.

~J

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Today I called Vanguard and talked to them about transferring my Roth IRA from Wachovia to them. I learned that because it was already a Roth IRA, I could simply transfer it online and I didn’t need to go through any special hoops (I read on the Vanguard site something about setting up a tradtional IRA before you could open a Roth IRA so I was concerned, but it turned out that did not apply in this case) so I said thanks and proceeded to go to the Vanguard site.

I created an account on the Vanguard page and then proceeded to fill out all the online forms to transfer my account to them. Using my current Wachovia account statement, I actually found the process pretty easy, if a little bit time consuming (my portfolio at Wachovia has 6 different mutual funds I am invested in plus a money market so that took a few minutes to enter). At the end I printed out the paperwork I needed to have my signature verified on (I learned what a Medallion Guarantee is today lol) and mail in to Vanguard.

Well, I tend to lack something in the follow-through, so I figured this is what would take me forever to get around to. Go to the bank *and* the post office. Ugh. Heh.

But, not the new improved me! Not the me that takes action and is invested in improving her financial future!

I got the kids ready to go out, gathered up my forms plus my books I sold this weekend (and my printout showing exactly what part of the Domestic Mailer Manual says that indeed, I *can* add insurance to a Merchandise Return Label) and headed out the door. First a stop at my bank to get the Medallion Guarantee on my signature (while they tried to get me to sign up for a free retirement analysis through them which I repeatedly declined lol) and then off to the post office. I managed to buy a mailer at the post office for the forms, address it, put my own stamps on it (after confirming postage amount with the teller), and send it, and *also* get insurance on my media mail package (after showing the printout of the Domestic Mail Manual citation), all with a baby strapped to my front in a carrier who kept trying to eat my pen, and a three year old who thought we were at an amusement park and tried to climb and/or run over everything in sight.

I’m the chick you don’t want to be in line behind.
And that is not even all! When I got home I created an online log in for the Vanguard site and signed up for electronic delivery of all my statements so I will not get charged an annual fee. Cha-ching!

I feel efficient. For me at least. This might have taken the old me a month (or more) to do. No more wasting time or money for me, I just got my newest Wachovia statement in the mail this morning! This is like a record amount of action for me to take in one day, and the same day I got the information to boot. I am a procrastinator at heart, which is part of why I got into this mess in the first place. But no more!

At least, for today.

~J

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I am supposed to meet someone tomorrow at the shopping center around the corner from my house to sell them a toy I have listed on craigslist. It is only $3 but that’s still $3. Hopefully they show up. That would bring my Capital One payment up to $230.97. <insert random dancing>

And hopefully I resist entering the Target also in that plaza… or even the Dollar Tree. Temptation is everywhere! lol

Oh and it turned out to be 136 unique visitors yesterday to the blog. Wordpress starts the clock over at 8pm EST. Thanks for visiting and reading!

~J

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I committed to one site (lets call it site B) that would take 3 of the paperback books for $15.24 and packaged them up, and will drop them off today at the post office. I could have gotten *slightly* more (less than 50 cents total for the three books) if I had gone with another site (let’s call it site C), but they required you to pay for shipping and then be reimbursed with your payment. I’d rather have the site pay for shipping up front unless there was a HUGE difference in the price.

Hopefully I get the check from the first site (lets call it site A) today and can deposit it in the bank. Once that check clears I am going to yank the stats book off of half.com and send them that one as well.

The nice thing about site B is they pay for the insurance on the package which site A does not. But they were offering $5 less for the stats book than site A and insurance is less than $2 so it wasn’t worth it. Both site A and B pay for your postage up front.
Confused yet? I think I am :).

I’m addicted to snowflakes.

~J

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I’ve been digging up every single non-fiction book we own and doing online pricing with a bunch of different buyback companies trying to sell them. Every one seems to have its own format for where and how to enter the ISBN numbers so it isn’t as simple as cutting and pasting them over and over again… which is what I was hoping to do. Oh well.

I’ve been trying to figure out at what price point each book is worth it to me to sell. If someone offers $0.46 for a book, is that enough? How about $0.96? Does it depend on the book? Am I ever going to look at any of these books again anyway, even if they were once interesting to me?

And sometimes one site will reject a book but another site will offer $9.00 for it, so I can’t just run them all through one single site and then recheck only ones that had a value at that site on new sites. And there are SO MANY different sites…. and we have a *lot* of books.

:crazy:

I wonder what I think my time is worth doing this. lol

I did score with a few items and I think over the next few days I’ll be able to send out some books I’ll get ~$20-30 total return for… plus I still have the stats text I can get $40 for if I decide to pull it off half.com.

It may be starting to snow soon here… I hear little flakes a fallin’
This feels better than just sitting around on my butt wishing I was doing something proactive to lower our debt.  I hate when I feel all blah and stymied and stuck.

~J

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