selling your stuff on Amazon...part 2

purplepatch

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

carol_a, I was told that today was the last posting day for second class, were you at the post office after the van collection?

When they say it's the "last day", are they playing safe? Last week my second class items were still getting there in 2-3 days. Find it a bit hard to swallow that something posted tomorrow won't get there until after christmas.

I often wonder whether they bother separating the first and second class post at my local sorting office as the second class items always seem to be received as quickly as first.

larmy16

purplepatch wrote:

When they say it's the "last day", are they playing safe? Last week my second class items were still getting there in 2-3 days. Find it a bit hard to swallow that something posted tomorrow won't get there until after christmas.

I often wonder whether they bother separating the first and second class post at my local sorting office as the second class items always seem to be received as quickly as first.

I was chatting to a sweet postman the other day and I asked him the "official" truth regarding first and second class mail. He said that the truth was - if something is sent first class, then an effort is made to get it there the following day, but as we know this is no guarantee. Second class however, he said involves an element of luck. It can get there the following day or a couple of days.

He said that in these busy Christmas last week or so, there was no point in really sending anything first class, as it was a free for all. So that was from one of the "horses' mouths" :snow_grin

apprentice_tycoon

I've just been listening to 5 live and apparently the workload of the postal system goes from 80 million items a day to 120 million so we have to take it all on the chin and stick to the advised last posting days.

I have sympathy with Mike, I think that if you order a book in november and you're told that it will be with you for Christmas then you can be confident that it's all been taken care of.
At least us marketplace sellers have the book to hand (or flippin should have!!!) and will work hard to make sure that it gets to the buyer OK.

I have a number of ebay parcel to post this week and after the last 1st class post day of tuesday I will feel quite serene because if I haven't had payment by then all the pressure is off for me to get it posted FOR XMAS, I can take the parcels to the post from wednesday onwards knowing that all the irritated grumpy queues have gone for another year.

larmy16

Just wondered if AT or anyone else could enlighten me. I am self employed (not in buying and selling) and charge an hourly rate for my work.

I have had some success on Amazon mainly selling lots of old books we have already, but would really like to go into it more seriously.
So for tax purposes I would like to be on the legal side

I can understand the bit about, keeping receipts, also records for packaging etc. but how on earth would you sort out this if for eg. you bought stuff at a boot sale (they don't generally give receipts!) and nor would I want them to know I intended to sell on - the price would certainly rocket.

It is the amount of time spent sourcing, driving to and from the PO and petrol used that would seem incredibly intricate to keep details of.

Anyone got any advice?

apprentice_tycoon

My accountant says that for small amounts of expenditure like boot sales etc. just a record in a note book will do and he adds a guesstimate figure for petrol etc to the final figures

purplepatch

At what point would you declare earnings to the taxman?

I'm in the situation that I'm selling mainly personal items (had a collection of over 300 cds that I could whittle down to about 30 that I still listen to :rolleyes:) also my parents are moving next year and clearing out loft and cupboards etc - absolutely tons of stuff already listed and still more to come over the coming months. A lot of this stuff is mine from when I lived with them, but there are things that are officially "theirs" if that makes a difference.

As a sideline I have been buying a few charity shop books and one lot of books from local paper.

Obviously don't want to be paying tax on my personal stuff, so not sure what to do. When my own gear runs out I will definitely continue buying to sell as I enjoy it, so am I ok to wait til then before getting Mr Brown involved?

carol_a_3

All this first class, second class stuff must cause them extra work, manpower, equipment etc etc. Why don't they just have one postal rate for letters and small parcels, strike a "happy" medium price wise somewhere between the two current rates and have one level of postage. It's made a mockery of this time of year anyway when I've been getting first class letters five days after and second class the following day!

larmy16

purplepatch wrote:

At what point would you declare earnings to the

taxman?



This is my situation exactly purplepatch. A facsimile of in fact :0) - some of the stuff I have tried to sell on ebay has cost me more in fees! as it goes unsold. I prefer Amazon anyday. I don't want to declare any unless I really have to to as I am on such a low income anyway and I suppose I don't want to draw attention in case they think I am earning more than I am (if that makes sense!)

apprentice_tycoon

This post puts an interesting point of view regarding tax

jo_b_2

Listed 25 more items last night and have sold two books already!!! :j

Thankyou everybody for inspiring me to declutter and make money at the same time! xxx


EDIT: As of 27th Dec, have sold 6 books - two more went today! Am seriously loving this. Am going to list some of my old CDs if I get the chance this week.