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Sell All Your Clutter on Ebay Now…

November 26, 2015 by Lazy Man 1 Comment

I probably don’t need to remind you that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. You are likely already preparing your turkeys. You’ve made sure your football is properly inflated. You have mapped out your plan of attack for Black Friday.

Over the next week or two, you might want to add one more thing into the mix… selling your clutter on Ebay.

For the last couple of years, my wife has been selling dozens (maybe hundreds) of items that we no longer use on Ebay. With our youngest child nearly two, there’s a lot of toys and clothes we simply don’t need any more. It’s not limited to that though. We’ll sell anything that we don’t need or use. For someone that doesn’t typically spend much, it is amazing how much stuff we have. (I think we have “stuff” elves that create stuff while we asleep or it just multiplies like rabbits.)

You can sell your clutter any time on Ebay. These couple of weeks are by far the best time to sell items. I think my wife sold more items in late November and December than in all the other months combined (except February – more on that later). It’s like having your own personal Black Friday sale.

The two advantages are obvious… less clutter and some money. We might even sell enough to cover all the money we are spending on gifts this holiday season.

I’d like to give you more tips about what kinds of things sell. However, it’s been my experience that nearly everything sells. The only thing that we haven’t been able to sell are these Grillie ornaments for your car. I was able to get some on a deep discount and thought I could flip them to make $15-20 each relatively easy. I should have anticipated that the world doesn’t know what a Grillie is, and there’s not just demand for them.

Don’t let that stop you from posting your own stuff. Even if you only make a few sales, it’s money in your pocket and space saved.

I’m very, very good at procrastinating. (That’s probably why my wife takes the reigns in the Ebay business.) If you are nearly as good as I am, here’s one last motivating push: go to Ebay now and post just one item.

Update: I forgot to get to the February thing I mentioned earlier in the post. I don’t know exactly why it is, but February was a huge sales season for us too. I thought maybe people are using gift cards they got over the holidays. My wife thinks that maybe people are buying the things they want for themselves that they didn’t get over the holidays. Who knows, but February seems to be a hot time to declutter on Ebay as well.

Filed Under: Holidays Tagged With: Declutter, ebay

Let’s Go Bargain Stock Hunting

October 15, 2015 by Lazy Man 1 Comment

I have a watchlist of 24 stocks and mutual funds. They are all companies that I either own, have thought about owning at some point, or an MLM company that I keep track of (for when the FTC inevitably acts on Herbalife).

Just recently, I’ve noticed a few of the stocks have “gone on sale.” That is to say that they’ve gone pretty low in pricing. However, they are big companies and brands that you know… at P/E ratios that a bargain hunter can love. This isn’t a deep dive… I’m using no stock screener. It’s just an observation. I’m thinking about investing in them (except for the one I already own) for the long term and I want to share that.

The three on my watch list that stand out are:

Wal-Mart

You might have noticed that Wal-Mart dropped 10% yesterday. When one of your 24 stocks has a double digit move, it is hard not to notice it. I was extremely busy, but I did some quick research. It’s not enough to make a stock buying decision on, but this is my take from what I’ve read.

Wal-Mart is expecting lower profits for perhaps the next couple of years. It’s heavily investing in infrastructure to help speed future growth. It is expanding its stock buy-back program to $20 billion and it pays a decent dividend. It’s easy to see the bad news and I don’t want to overlook that. However, a historically rock-solid company is trading at a P/E of around 12.5 and seems to be doing the right things for the long-term.

If you are a buy-and-hold investor, I think you could do a lot worse than picking up Wal-Mart at 30% off year to date.

IBM

This is a stock I’ve held for probably more than a year now. It’s another company with some bad news. They’ve had declining revenue for what seems to be 6 trillion straight quarters. The huge company had a lot of momentum into technology that isn’t very profitable. They’ve been steadily moving away from those from those business and towards more profitable businesses, but it is a slow process.

I do like what IBM has done while they restructure. They’ve been buying back tons of shares. That has steadily grown their earnings per share and lowered their P/E to under 10. It pays a healthy dividend. There’s some huge growth potential with their Watson technology.

I read that IBM is Warren Buffett’s biggest holding. Overall, it feels like when I had Apple at $70 and it jumped up to more than $125.

Ebay

For years I’ve watched this stock trade in the 50s. The other day I saw it around $23. I was apparently away from my computer the day that Paypal spun off and took that value out of Ebay.

Ebay has a $30 billion market-cap, which is much smaller than the previous two Goliaths. I view that as having more room to grow. It has a monopoly in the online auction business. Truth be told, I simply use Buy It Now, so it is more like a store to me, but the lack of competition is notable.

Finally, it too has a P/E under 10, so there’s value there. It’s also on a 15% off sale after the Paypal divestiture. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pay a dividend.

Consider a pick for a little variety compared to the previous two.

Summing It Up

If you are interested in holding stocks for the long haul, I think you could do lot worse than these three stocks. There’s a saying that you make money on the buy and not the sell. I believe that’s the case here. It feels like the right time to buy.

That said, I also thought it was the right time to buy SodaStream at various points as the company has crashed from $50 to $15. Something would have to go terribly wrong, like losing 2/3rd of their earnings, for any of these companies to do something like that. I don’t see it happening.

If you are going to buying stocks, you are going to need a brokerage. It’s been a long time since I looked at the best ones, but I do like the idea of Motif Investing. You can create a basket of all these stocks in just one trade. They’ll even give you up to $150 to get started.

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With: ebay, ibm, Motif, walmart

Why Am I Receiving a 1099-K?

February 10, 2012 by Lazy Man 10 Comments

Today’s article comes from Johnny Goodman, the sports columnist at The Soap Boxers. While he is a fan of many sports, his passion is golf. Johnny is a recognized authority on vintage golf cards, and his writing has been featured in the print edition of Sports Market Report.

Paypal’s ratting us out to the IRS!

This year there are many sports card collectors receiving an unwelcome email from Paypal – informing them that they have met the guidelines to receive a form 1099-K. This has been a hot topic on many message boards. Most of these collectors do not really sell items to make a profit, but they buy and sell items and then use any of those funds to purchase new or better items for their own collection, and then sell off the older or less valuable items to supplement their purchases. In the minds of these folks they are not running any sort of a business, they are just increasing their collections and enjoying their hobby.

The IRS views this as the person is under-reporting their income, hence the 1099-K reporting form.

I am not a person that sells enough stuff that I am anywhere close to this mark, but I am certain a few people may have “accidentally” met these thresholds – primarily by not knowing the IRS guidelines.

Some will argue it is the right thing to do to make sure people all are reporting their income. Others will argue that it is just another case of keeping the man down.

At the end of the day, I feel that the IRS was really trying to target the people that only sell on line, and where thereby not reporting all of their taxable income to the IRS. But in the end, there are a myriad of collectors in various lines of collectibles that have no profit motive to their buying and selling that are also getting snared in the net of using PayPal and Ebay.

Form 1099-K

Back in 2010, the IRS passed a law affecting people who conduct business online. If you are a person that does a LOT of selling online you were probably aware of this change in tax code. It applies to sellers that do $20,000 in sales in a calendar year and do at least 200 or more transactions. If you are a person that meets BOTH of these criteria, you will be receiving a Form 1099-K from PayPal.

When this change originally was announced, the IRS solicited feedback before making its final ruling. Many in the Ebay community suggested that the gross amount should be defined as “Net Sales” taking into account chargebacks, the fees taken out by Ebay and PayPal and other adjustments on the ideology that the gross amount is not a true indicator of revenue.

The IRS decided that the gross amount will be the amount reported. The gross amount is defined as the “total dollar amount of aggregate reportable payment transactions for each participating payee without regard to any adjustments for credits, cash equivalents, discount amounts, fees, refunded amounts or any other amounts.”

Does This Affect Me?

If you are asking this question, the fact is that it is already likely too late and you may have some reporting to do.

Many folks use Ebay and similar sites as a way to sell unwanted or used household items. Much like a large on-line garage sale.

If this is your stance you are likely nowhere near the thresholds for the $20,000 in annual sales. It is not in the interest of the IRS (at least at this point) to try and track down what they would refer to as the “small-guy”

If you are a full-fledged business that also uses online sites as a way to generate income in addition to your brick and mortar storefront, then you likely have an Employer Identification Number, already are aware of the tax ramifications of selling and making a profit as you have used sites such as Ebay to further your marketplace and increase your sales.

How can I minimize my tax liability?

Here are some tips to minimize your tax liability:

  • First of all, I’d caution against trying to circumvent this rule by opening Paypal accounts in the names of your wife, six month old daughter, and dog, especially if you are conducting all of the business. The IRS tends to frown on people who skirt the rules.
  • The most important thing you can do is keep good records. Get an itemized receipt any time you buy an item. This allows you to establish a cost basis (often referred to simply as “basis”) for the items, as well as the holding period to determine if a gain is a short term capital gain (held less than one year, taxed as ordinary income) or long term capital gains (taxed at the capital gains rate).
  • If you don’t have any documentation of your cost basis, the IRS can simply deem that your basis is zero, meaning that the entire gross price is profit.
  • You should also track any expenses related to the transactions, such as Paypal fees and chargebacks. These costs can be deducted.
  • Finally, if you make a significant amount of money from your “hobby” on a consistent basis, you may want to resign yourself to the fact that you’re actually running a business. There’s one big distinction regarding the tax treatment of a hobby versus a business. Business losses are deductible, while hobby losses are not.
  • If you decide to turn your hobby into a business, you’ll want to exercise some caution. Decide which portion of your collection belongs to you and which portion will belong to the business. Create an itemized list, since this is a capital contribution to the business. Take care to not co-mingle assets, and any time items are transferred from one party to the other, document the fact that the transaction was an arms-length transaction at the fair market value. Sorry, you can’t buy that 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle from your business for a dollar and then write off a big loss. Track other expenses and keep the receipt.
  • One final tip. Unless you want to run afoul of another tax authority, look up the rules regarding sales tax in your state, county, and city. If your transactions will be subject to sales tax, you’ll want to apply for a retail tax certificate (which allows you to collect sales tax and remit it to the state) and a sales tax exemption certificate (which allows you to purchase items for resale tax-free).

Filed Under: Tax Tagged With: 1099k, collectibles, ebay

Reward For Tickets to MTV’s The State (and Personal Finance Links)

January 4, 2009 by Lazy Man 8 Comments

I’m looking to get tickets to the reunion of one of my favorite shows… MTV’s The State at San Francisco’s Sketchfest. This is the first reunion in 12 years for the comedy group. The bad news is that I found out about it after the tickets were already sold out. I’ve been keeping an eye on Craigslist (very popular in San Francisco) as well as Twitter for possible tickets. I’m starting to use their Facebook, but I think everyone is going to be there.

If anyone can connect me with two tickets for $150 (total), I’ll send them a $30 Ebay Gift Card or Amazon Gift Card (receiver’s choice).

Some other thoughts that I have this week:

  • Adopting a Dog is Difficult – My wife and I are looking into adopting a dog. We thought we’d go to the animal shelter for an hour on Saturday and learn how it works. It turned out to be a 5 hour round trip, including a two-hour wait to see a counselor. I understand that they want to match up dogs with the right people, but the process is more invasive than applying for a job. Considering that there are about 20 animal shelters around me, I’m not sure we are going to have the energy to work with more than one of them.
  • Fage Greek Yogurt – We picked up some of this yogurt at Costco at a price of $7 for 32 ounces. At that price, you’d expect it to be good. It’s better than good, it’s tremendous. It’s almost like sour cream, but with no fat and 20 grams of protein per 8oz. The problem that I have is that at a $1.75 a serving it’s fairly expensive. We’ve looked at how to make our own Greek yogurt, but it’s not as good nor does it have 20 grams of protein per serving. If anyone has a place to pick up Fage (or similar brand) Greek Yogurt cheaply, let me know. We are going to give Trader Joe’s a shot to see if they have a good price.
  • Let’s Make a Deal – One of my guilty pleasures is catching the old-school Let’s Make a Deal on weekends on Game Show Network. I’m probably just weird, but seeing people win Oldsmobiles and kitchen appliances that would be considered extremely ugly today is entertaining. The costumes are nice touch as well.

Onto the Links…

Money Writers:

  • Brip Blap talks about how to judge compensation for new job seeking grads.
  • My Dollar Plan writes Donating Bodily Fluids for Cash.
  • Frugal Dad asks would you sell all material possessions for debt freedom?
  • Wonder how to keep your job while unemployment is on the rise? Generation X Finance gives some pointers.
  • Million Dollar Journey looks into how Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIF) work.
  • Digerati Life posts on family life in America: report on lifestyle, economic trends from the trenches.
  • Money Smart Life writes best hybrid cars.
  • The Sun’s Financial Diary publishes lazy portfolios built with ETFs.

More Financial Posts:

  • Mighty Bargain Hunter asks what to do with those state quarter maps?
  • Free Money Finances posts some rules of thumb on when to replace old appliances.
  • Five Cent Nickel gives his the #1 tax tip for 2008.

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: adopting a dog, Amazon, animal shelters, ebay, game show network, MTV The State

My Favorite Last Minute Gifts

December 24, 2008 by Lazy Man 5 Comments

Similar to last year’s post, I still believe that Amazon gift cards are one of the best last minute gifts. If you’ve been out shopping today, you probably agree with me. The beauty of an Amazon gift card is that Amazon has nearly everything you can imagine. That’s why I used it as a wedding registry when everyone else was using Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

This year I’d like to add Ebay gift cards to the Lazy Man Hall of Fame of last minute gifts. My sister-in-law got me one last year and it was great. Like Amazon, it can be used for almost anything. I think it might be better than Amazon. It gives the receiver a chance to be frugal and get a coupe of second hand things instead of just one shiny one. Of course you can buy plenty of new items on Ebay as well.

The other advantage to these gifts is that you can determine the value at the last minute as well. Rather than explain why you’d want to do this, allow me to use a scene from one of my favorite new television shows, The Big Bang Theory. A little background is necessary. Sheldon’s character is extremely analytical in nature and subscribes to the notion that gifts of equal value should be exchanged. Penny’s unexpected gift was something that Sheldon hadn’t planned on. Hilarity ensues.

As you can see, it wouldn’t have been as funny if Sheldon just went in the other room and fired off an order for an Amazon gift card or Ebay gift card.

Filed Under: Spending Tagged With: Amazon, Big Bang Theory, ebay

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