Stockpile Cleaning can be Hazardous to Your Health

So after almost 2 weeks of doctoring, my shoulder is finely feeling back to normal.  I guess it was a bout of bursitis like the doc suspected.  I hope to heck I never have bursitis again!!
Not.
Fun.

And I hear you asking, just what did I do to bring on this painful malady?
I'll tell you.
It all started while I was decluttering and working on the stockpile in the garage.
Yes dear friends, couponing can be hazardous to your health! ;-)

With the assistance of hubby and surly teens(well, not so much their help!), I have made some headway on both projects using only my left arm.

Here are some things I have pulled from the stockpiles and am sending from my house either via freecycle &/or food bank donation....

There is another couple of boxes of food in the trunk I have to get photos of as well before I drop them off.

I didn't take but 1 before photo in the garage.....

Now, after 2 weeks, here is what this area looks like with everything put away and some things pulled out to donate......

And the shelf next to it.....

I moved all the pasta from the top of the shelf into the pantry in the kitchen onto the top shelf there.  I had been storing condiments/marinades/spices/and other small jarred items up there but with it being so out of sight, it was hard to find these small items up there if they weren't right in front.  That space is much better stoarge for large boxes of noodles....

The Wacky Mac, Egg Noodles and Ramen are still all out in the garage stockpile since there isn't enough room in the pantry if I want that noodle shelf organized.  I could jam it all up there but then I'd have "can't find it" syndrome again.

I got the soap/cleaners closet in the garage some what organized now too....

And the Big shelves are looking a tad less disheveled....

Top Shelf--Crackers, Cold Cereal, Rice
3rd Shelf--Sauces/Marinades, Ramen/Wacky mac, Bread Crumbs, Stock/Broth, Canned Beans, Canned Pasta, Popcorn, Pudding

2nd Shelf--Pasta Sauce, Fruit, Tomato products, Chili, Hash, Jelly, Peanut Butter
1st Shelf--Salad Dressings, more Fruit, Mustard, Ketchup, Mayo, Oils

Bottom Shelf--juice boxes, Seltzer Water, Vitamin Water, Juice bottles
In front is some overflow of Pasta Sauce, Ketchup and Applesauce.  I don't know why a bottle of Olive Oil is down there.....the kids doing probably!lol

And here is another set of shelves with lightweight items....

Top Shelf--more Cold Cereal
3rd Shelf--beverage central(tea bags, coffee, and some jello overflow)

2nd Shelf--Hot Cocoa, Oatmeals, biscuit mix, Jello, taco shells & 1 can of beer(DH didn't want-will use for fondue or rarebit)
1st Shelf--Bisquick, boxed potatoes, Nutri-Grain Bars, cracker overflow

I still have a second massive shelving unit to work on after I go through and purge more items for donation.  I'm hoping to get that done sometime this week.
Here's a tiny preview of that mess.....

It was neat and tidy at one time but then we just started piling stuff on top.
Ugh.

So now can you understand why I haven't been to the grocery store in 2 weeks and why I am in no hurry to make a trip there still??

Sluggy

eBay....Again....WWYD?

So I sold 2 items to some guy on eBay.  He contacted me twice to get an Invoice.....the 1st time he said ship to China, the 2nd time he said ship to somewhere in NY.
So he pays me and the Paypal page says the shipping address & the place I should ship these items is CA!

Now if I don't ship to the CA address(User is telling me to ship to the NY address and the shipping quote is for that location), and then this guy turns out to be a scammer and does a chargeback on me through his cc company, I have NO Seller protection through eBay.  This means he gets my items, I get the payment yanked by eBay from my account PLUS a chargeback fee eBay will charge me and I will have no recourse....I lose my items, I don't get paid for them plus I lose $10 of my own money.
(I was part of a serial scammers game a few years ago.  He bought lots of things off of lots of sellers and a month later told his bank he didn't buy any of the items and the bank & eBay yanked all the payments through Paypal. At least this guy's shipping address and Paypal address matched up so I did end up getting the chargeback reversed and my payment back.)

And this User just joined eBay on April 9th, bought some thing from someone else on April 11th, so they have no track record for me to refer to or take comfort in the fact that they have a history as an upstanding eBay member.

So if I decide this isn't worth the potential trouble and I cancel the transaction and refund his money, I can get back the $ eBay/Paypal take for letting me sell it.  I will be out .40¢ for the listing fees and then this guy can leave me negative feedback.

I wouldn't be so concerned if this was a $10 item, but it's just shy of $100 worth of stuff!  So my scammer radar went off...lol

So.....what would you do if you were me?

Sluggy

Monday's eBay Fun.....Well NOT Fun Really

So remember yesterday and my "the shipping can't possibly be that high!" guy?
I sent him a pleasant reply with the size of the package, the weight, my zip code and suggested he go to the postal website and check what price he saw after imputing all this information.

Then I get another email from him....
"Well I did check the usps site and why on earth would it be oversized when all 4 items fit perfectly in a large flat rate box. That is a huge gouge in a consumers pocket for shipping. Perhaps if you charge what it actually costs someone instead of such a high price for such a low item , perhaps you will actually sell it. Good luck with that. Unfortunantly that shipping price is way to high for such a cheap toy. maybe u might want to check usps site again for FLAT RATE SHIPPING. Either way I wanted it but I will pass. that shipping cost is outrageous LOL"

All I can say is that this CHUCKLEHEAD is CLUELESS!
The largest Flat Rate box measures 12"x12"x5.5".
He has some insane idea that I can fit FOUR items that measure 12"x9"x3.5" EACH into a box that size.
Furthermore, is he has a problem with Gouging on eBay, he should complain to eBay, Paypal and the USPS.
I told him I was sorry but there would be no way I could ship to him since he seems to be living on URANUS and I don't ship inter-galacticly.

Now my guy registered as being in China who bought 2 items wants to know the shipping.  He has asked for shipping to China and to 2 different addresses in NY.  I have a bad feeling about this and I think I have to cancel these sales.

Oh, how I have missed the eBay fun.
Ok.....I lie....

Sluggy

eBay Ranting.....Long and Rambling

Well, I finally got my eBay store back up and running about a week ago.

I realized about 5 days in that it was strange how I hadn't gotten any stupid "Question to Seller" emails yet, as I usually am deluged with questions about the items that if people would just take a second to actually read the listing, they would have the information they seek.

Hmmmm.
5 days in and no emails and nothing sold.  So I go to my auction management site and see that I have ZERO hits on the pages.
Not a soul has actually clicked on one of my auction listings and looked at it.
Weird!
This prompts me to go to my Seller's page at eBay and check on my store.
I finally figure out why I have not sold anything, nor had anyone look at my stuff.

I never changed the vacation settings on my Store!
UGH!!
My listings aren't visible on eBay because of the settings.
Double UGH!!!!

Pretty dare bright, huh?lol

So I clicked off the vacation settings and make my listings go live on eBay.....and if I was worried about the lack of as Bugs Bunny would call them...."maroons", I should have feared not!

Here is what I got within 48 hours of the listings being visible to the eBay using public.

Ok...I sold TWO items without a hitch.  This makes me happy!

But then there's.....

1.Someone emailed asking WHY the shipping was so high.  When I figure the shipping I don't just pull a number out of my ass like some sellers do.  You would be shocked at the number of eBay sellers(both now and again sellers and the fulltime pro sellers)who just set a price for shipping without much regard for the ACTUAL costs to them to ship an item they sell on eBay.  Between that practice and the ever increasing fees on eBay(and their trained monkey Paypal), I wonder how anybody ever sells anything on there and makes a profit!(not counting people just getting rid of used items who have already realized the sunk costs on the item).  
I measure & weigh everything I sell before listing it so I have the ACTUAL costs from the US Postal Service for shipping.  Then I add a small 'handling' charge to cover insurance through a non US Postal company(much cheaper than the USPS),my time to pack & the materials to ship that I have to buy.  My shipping price is as low as I can make it and NOT lose money.

I have decided that most people either have NO CLUE what current shipping costs are or are so used to either what they USE TO BE or so used to paying shipping costs from Sellers who regularly underestimate/under charge their customers just to get them to buy things.

My usual response to someone complaining about is professional and unemotional.  I give them the dimensions, the weight and my zip code and direct them to the USPS website where they can input the item's information and see with their own eyes what it actually costs(just in the shipping fees, not to mention the insurance and materials used to ship) to mail their package from me to their location.  This usually satisfies them and they either buy it or they slink away and I don't hear from them again.
I am just so tired of it that I soooo want to be a wise-ass some days and tell them to do us all a favor and please step off the planet. 8-P

2.Then there is the "can't wait" Buyer.  They emailed me asking for a price on shipping to an international location, and they want 2 items shipped together and want to know the price, and they insist I ship a particular rate.

Before I can get the information for them and email back, they go ahead and buy the items 15 minutes later.  Then they send me another email that they HAVE TO HAVE it shipped a certain rate(which it can't go because of weight and size restrictions), they insist on NOT paying insurance(which I INSIST on in the listing, especially on international packages).  Oh, and they want it shipped to them.....in China.
So at this point I know the shipping is going to be alot more than they want to pay.
I go to the restrictions page on the USPS website for China to make sure this size/weight package can be shipped to there.  That's fine but I see that the limit on value per package mailed to China is equivalent to $14.65US.  What they bought is worth $90.  It is highly likely that this package will either be sent back or be confiscated in Chinese customs since I'm not going to lie and say it's worth $14.65.  Either way, having to refund this dope his payment and go through getting my fees partially refunded on eBay is not going to be pleasant.  And if it's confiscated I am out the merchandise too.

3.  This one takes the cake!
Email from a potential buyer about a HUGE set of Legos....Mega Bloks actually but the same thing really.  It's a $100 set of Mega Bloks.  He wants to buy 1 mini-figure out of this set and he wants to pay me $10 + shipping.  While $10 for 1 little Lego man is not bad, this will destroy the value of the New/Unopened/Mint set of $100 Building Blocks if I remove this piece.
Soooo....I can sell the whole set for $100 or I can sell 1 piece of it for $10.
Hmmmmm.....what makes the most sense to you?lolol

Now I could limit my international sales to Canada, Australia and a few European countries that make up the bulk of my overseas business.  That would cut down on the aggravation I guess.
I hate to stop selling overseas as that is how I built my business up....selling international when all the others on eBay refused to(and alot still do refuse to). 
But then again, the last couple of postal increases(combined with the eBay fee/Paypal increases)pretty near killed off my overseas sales.
I don't know....I am conflicted......and after 2 days of eBay I am already tired of dealing with it.

Just taking this all to Salvation Army and getting a tax write-off is looking better and better.lolol

Sluggy

Spring is Early in My Yard This Year

When the weather hit 80 the other day(yes, I said 80 in Northeastern PA in early April!) I went outside to see what poor flowering plants had been lulled into blooming already.  Just so you know if you have never lived around here, early April can be snow weather time at this latitude and elevation.

So here is what I found.....


The perennial tiny flowers(don't know what they are) in the front yard are up.

The flowering tree on the side of the house is in full bloom, as is the white flowering tree on the far side of the back yard.

That is another of the same tree to the left in the photo.  That 'tree' sort of branched out and doesn't have a main trunk, but lot of branches so it's more of a bush.  I know nothing about this sort of thing but I'd love to be able to 'fix' this bush so it looks like a tree.
Anyone??


The Forsythia bush I showed you all HERE in 1 week's time has filled out to be this.....

And my prized Lemon Magnolia Tree still has no leaves showing yet this year but it has budded and is blooming like crazy!

The tree is young and only about 6 foot tall.  DH bought it for me 3 yrs. ago for a Mother's Day gift since I so miss the Magnolias from where I grew up down South.  This hybrid was hardy enough to grow up here in Yankeeland.  This type doesn't produce a white flower like a true Magnolia Tree but I still love it.

When the flowers open up they smell just like lemons.  I hope the next few nights in the 30's don't do in my blooms....

I won't show you the disasters that masquerade as gardening beds here.  Maybe next weekend we can start cleaning those out.....maybe......lol

What is going on in your yard?
Show us some photos!

Sluggy