Monday Morning Miles Talk is a regular series that has some smaller, more quirky ideas to kick off the work week. These are essentially random ideas that I wanted to share with you. Here are the 4 most recent topics.
- Beware of buying Sam’s Club gift cards online
- Are Tips Covered With Hyatt Globalist Breakfasts?
- 5 Deals I Regret Missing Out on Since Joining the Hobby
- How to Stack Discounts to Save on Contact Lenses
If you would like to read even more articles in the series you can click HERE.
My Star Wars Reselling Snafu & Lessons Learned
A few months back, at the beginning of the 4th quarter, I had a reselling flop with a Star Wars collectible. I was able to get out of the sale with a limited loss but I learned some lessons along the way. My loss is your gain, learn from my mistakes.
Star Wars Collectible
I received an email from Disney saying they had a limited edition Star Wars collectible. It was released to Disney card holders only. There was a total of 1,000 made.
Yes I have a Disney card, I got it for a $200 sign up when I got my last IHG card. I wanted to add it to my app to combine the pulls and try to squeeze a little more out of the inquiry. There is an increased offer via referrals on the card that DDG wrote about last week.
A Star Wars collectible, that was a limited edition, and had a limited release, with only 1,000 made!!! I thought I had a sure winner on my hands. And the holiday season was fast approaching. But I had to do my due diligence on the item and make sure it was a good deal.
I am going to be honest I thought the thing was stupid and questioned who would want it. But it was a limited edition Star Wars item and I thought there had to be at least 1,000 nuts out there that would buy it. That was my first mistake.
Due Diligence
The cost on the item was around $179.95 plus shipping ($18) and tax (6%). I was able to find a free shipping code and cardmembers got 10% off the price. I also used Ebates for another 1% from the portal. The cost when it was all said and done was $170.
I checked eBay and there were only around 3 or 4 for sale. They all had prices around $300 – score! I then checked recent sales on eBay and one sold every week or two in the high $200’s – 2nd score! After that I decided to pull the trigger.
When I received my item and noticed that it was item 963 of 1000, I figured that was a good sign. I wasn’t sure if they mailed them out in order or not but it could mean that they were almost sold out.
I listed it on eBay for $275 and waited, and waited, and waited. The item got a lot of views but no offers. So I decided to lower the price and continued to lower the price at the end of each week until I was at break even with shipping and fees. Still nothing!
That is when I checked the link again and they were still available on the Disney site…a bad sign.
Cutting My Losses
At this point I figured it was time to cut my losses. It was the end of November so still not quite prime time buying season but I didn’t want to risk going past the return window. So I went through my emails and found the order and clicked through for the return figuring they would give me a packing slip to print. When I clicked through it said the return label was on the original shipping box…mistake #2.
I didn’t keep the original box or look at the paperwork all that closely. So I had to pay for the return shipping. It ended up costing me somewhere in the $15 range to ship it back. Not a big loss by any means but it could have been a no loss outcome.
Lessons Learned
Just because something is limited edition from a trusted franchise doesn’t mean it will sell. Trust your gut…if it doesn’t seem useful to you then question if others will find it attractive.
Also go through your shipping materials before discarding them to make sure you hold onto anything important. Not being prudent cost me down the road.
Always pay attention to return windows since you can get out of most reselling losers by simply returning the item. Right Shawn?…cough, cough…Luvabella dolls…
Conclusion
The experience ended up costing me $15 in future profit from another sale but I did learn some valuable lessons. I need to do a better job of following my instincts and keeping track of my original shipping documents. That will save me money in the long run.
If you enjoyed this article about reselling you can read my other reselling entires:
- Reselling SNES during the holidays
- Thinking outside the box to increase reselling gains
- Reselling AirPods at the end of their cycle
What are some of your reselling flops? Let me know in the comments!
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sounds like a great waste of time.
You win some you lose some – that is the nature of the beast.
Ethically questionable – you don’t return items unless they are defective. Disney did not send it to you on consignment. If everybody acted the way Disney will eliminate the generous return policy.
How so – they have a return policy. All stores give 30, 60, 90 days to return an item. As long as there is nothing wrong with it they can resell it.
Have you never returned something you didn’t want or need?
Selling Star Wars toys on eBay is now worthy of a travel blog?
JG is reselling not one of the major ways people manufacture points these days? Is this not a points and miles blog?