I’ve loved the speed of the free Google Starbucks Wi-Fi service available at most Starbucks locations, but this “feature” looks new.
Since when did the Google Starbucks Wi-Fi service start this authentication system? I’m used to selecting the Wi-Fi network then surfing the Internet.
I’m not really sure how this works as well. At a different location, I didn’t see this screen, but I still had to pick the network (same behavior as before). More of a security measure?
Can you tell I’ve bee preoccupied this March Madness? Instead of watching all the upsets and craziness that is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, I’ve been curating the Pulpconnection store on eBay. So instead of doing the full series of Kicks Analysis for 2018, I begin and end with the championship that belongs to Villanova.
But really with Michigan and Villanova facing off in the Finals, Nike had already claimed the 2017-2018 season. The best shoes of the champion game has to be the iconic Air Jordan 11 worn by Michigan’s Moritz Wagner.
Sure there was heat on the floor, but #13 busting out the 11 was straight up fire, even in a losing effort. So that’s 17 in 20 – raising Nike’s championship winning percentage to 85% over the past 20 seasons.
1999 Connecticut (Nike)
2000 Michigan State (Reebok Answers)
2001 Duke (Nike)
2002 Maryland (Nike Shox Stunners)
2003 Syracuse (Nike Shox)
2004 Connecticut (Nike Lebron Zoom Generation and Air Force Operates)
It was a matter of time, but Apple’s HomePod music and smart home system is now showing up at Target. It’s still priced at $349 but using the Target REDcard 5% discount is as good as it gets on Apple devices.
If you’re thinking of picking one up in store, I would call the location first and double check inventory. Although online inventory may say in-stock, the stores may not actually have the HomePod available to sell. Units could be processing through the shipping channel.
Apply this saying to your items being sold on eBay:
A watched pot never boils
So stop keeping an obsessive eye out on your items, watchers, and view counts. Buyers will buy when they buy.
But… if you are looking for some kicks, you can check out Pulpconnection on eBay, and I promise I won’t watch your activity (but we can talk discounts). 😉
Let’s hurry this since eBay’s spring promo lasts only for a few more hours (7pm PST). So Pulpconnection’s eBay store is now open! Passions, pulp, and addictions to kicks can be found at:
Be it any social media circle, but Instagram by far is a double-edged sword for resellers. Sure, you know what to keep an eye out for at your local discount stores when you see pics on IG. In that regards, Instagram is your friend, giving you scouting information.
But then Instagram can easily make you feel defeated when you see the hauls and pickups others are finding. Yeah, not you, others like Hustler Hacks, The Hustle Bee, Nachoaveragefinds, and Soupyz11 for example. Seeing the quality and quantity of their finds is simply discouraging.
It was bound to happen, but I got my first unpaid transaction on eBay. The buyer made an offer on youth soccer shoes, and I accepted. However, days went by without any payment, and eBay’s recommendation is don’t ship the product until payment is received.
Luckily, eBay has everything covered. It was easy enough to open a case against this open transaction. After several attempts to contact the buyer over a period of days, I finally closed the transaction. eBay then asked if I wanted to relist the item (which I did). Thanks eBay!
First and foremost, reselling online takes time, a LOT of time. Like a super duper lot of time! But then that stands to reason. If reselling were easy then of course, everyone would be doing it. Actually the fastest part of reselling for me could be sourcing aka finding the items to resell. I’m thinking the most time consuming aspect is listing your sourced items. Taking pictures, doing the research, and actually adding the item to eBay is much harder than I expected.
Bottomline: If you’re not willing to invest the time, don’t even bother trying to resell.
Know Your Niche
Just what are you going to resell? Whatever it is, be sure to know the subject matter. That knowledge makes it so much easier to know what items have a resale value. For me, it’s shoes. I love me my kicks, and I can easily spot shoes that shouldn’t be at Ross. But then again, I don’t know all the different kinds of shoes out there. For example, track and field shoes sell well online, but I know nothing about them, so I’ve stayed away.
My interest in reselling started with Supreme and its rabid fanbase. It seemed every item released by this popular streetwear company sold out in a matter of seconds. Every single item. Easy money maker right? Just get one item when released and sell it on eBay.
It don’t work that way. Not every Supreme item has the same demand, hence value. And not knowing the culture, I couldn’t predict the hot sellers. Sure, everything sells out, but not everything is easily resellable. I finally unloaded that Supreme logo-ed, camo wool cap but didn’t make anything from the sale. eBay is flooded with this cap, and I think the upcoming season will see that cap once again.
Bottomline: Stick with what you know. Or learn a niche (quickly). I think I’ll stick with shoes…
The first lesson painfully learned for reselling in Hawaii is the high cost of shipping. Mailing a pair of shoes in-state costs around $8, but once that Pacific Ocean is crossed, another $10 is added on. And that makes a huge difference for eBay sales. Paying an additional $18 for shipping on top of the item cost itself makes my listings less appealing.
Reducing prices for my listings is an obvious method but then this almost makes this venture cost prohibitive. USPS flat rate boxes don’t really help either. The medium size flat rate boxes don’t fit men’s shoes, and the large flat rate box costs $18.90. I think I may offer $10 fixed shipping and eat the difference. Sure that eats into profits but hopefully this attracts more customers.
Is it possible to monetize a passion and still keep the sanctity of this love intact? I’m going to find out as I take my first steps as an eBay (re)seller. You see, more often than not, when I visit a Ross Dress for Less store, I come across a pair of shoes that’s intriguing. The kicks may rekindle nostalgia, remembering them from back in the day. Or I could have missed out on them when they originally launched or there’s an interesting backstory to the shoe, or they just look cool. But historically, that’s where the story ended when I put the shoe back on the sales rack.
But now things are different. I’m actually buying these gems and then (hopefully) reselling them on eBay after learning about the shoe and possibly getting a new appreciation for them. Take these Air Max 90 from the Campfire Pack. Nope, I never heard of this series nor saw one before. But when I spied the colors at Ross, I knew I couldn’t leave them there. Yeah, they crazy, but they crazy good. Then you learn the Campfire Pack pays tribute to the creation of Nike’s All Conditions Gear (ACG) when legendary designers including Tinker Hatfield met for a true life camping trip.
Sure there’s not much difference in that I’m not actually collecting the shoe for personal reasons, but yet, having the shoe for longer than a moment feels like an elevated experience of satisfaction. After selling some of my older shoes as they fell out of my rotation, I realized that I don’t need them all, and I don’t have to let them sit deteriorating in the Hawaiian humidity.
Maybe my kicks perspective has changed with the rapid-fire nature of the modern day shoe game where new color ways and collaborations are released on seemingly a weekly basis. So a love for a shoe is probably more of an infatuation that will be soon replaced by another crush. But in all of this, getting a few bucks here and there can’t hurt right? I guess I also view this reselling as a curation of kicks for other shoe heads. I’m doing the finding so that they don’t have to. All they need to do is go to eBay and search for a wanted shoe, and hopefully I’m offering that match. I think that ease for the eBay seeker is worth the price differential aka my profit.
So we’ll see how this plays out. It’s surely not a stable affair since there’s no promise of any sort that Ross will have anything worthwhile. But the hunt has been fun, especially when you find something interesting like this Copper Flightposite. I originally thought Foamposite when seeing the silhouette and had forgotten that the Foamposite evolved to the Flightposite.
Nike Copper Flightposite
Stick with me as I explore this new fad, love, interest, adventure, and learning experience!
