I had a customer reply to my automated feedback reminder e-mails and say that they didn’t receive their order. I’m a little suspicious that they’re lying, because the tracking information says that the order was delivered.

Do I have to start doing signature required, now? For the low-value cards, it probably doesn’t make a difference. The high value cards though… That would be a perfect scam for someone.

Shit, I wonder how long it will be until someone pulls that shit on me? I’ve been lucky so far, with only low value items disappearing due to scams or porch pirates.

I just sold not one, but two K-ON booster boxes. A total of $308.49. It’s from an entirely different customer, in an entirely different state, but now I’m all concerned about porch pirates or scams. LOL, Fuck!

Ok well I acknowledge that I’m in an emotional state, and there’s no need to change my operating practices because of some shit that happened with a single order.

The most likely reason for a customer buying two booster boxes from me is that they are putting their economic stimulus check to use. This is a good thing for me and I want to be pleased with sales. I don’t want to be second-guessing every order, and automatically assuming that it’s a scam.

Ok so the customer who claims to have never received their package replied. I asked them what card they wanted as a replacement, and they said they wanted the same one that didn’t arrive. Given that response, it’s likely that they did not scam me, because a scammer likely wouldn’t want a duplicate of a card they already had.

That’s what I’m thinking, anyway.

Fuck, there was a booster pack with their order. I hope they received teh booster pack, because it would suck to have to send them an expensive booster pack as a replacement. I just can’t remember if the boosterpack was part of the same order or not.

Fuck, it was. It was all bundled together. So I guess I’m sending them a replacement booster pack, too.

Shit, my dude! That’s an expensive replacement. Hopefully I can get enough sales this month, to make up for this shitty situation.

It’s a booster pack valued at $13.61. Completely out of print since 2014. I have 5 left in my inventory right now.

I’m not even going to mention the booster pack. They didn’t mention it, but it was part of the same order so I’m just including it.

Maan, fuck porch pirates!

I suppose that should be my first response when I hear that a package didn’t make it from a mailbox to a house. Porch pirates are real, that’s for sure. I’ve seen enough of Mark Rober’s glitter bomb videos to know that!

I suppose that even a package with a signature required could end up being purchased by a scammer. They could claim that their neighbor or a stranger on the street signed for it, and they never got it. How fucked up would that be? Anyway, what I’m getting at is that I don’t think it makes sense to do signature required.

Me personally, I can’t stand signature required packages. It’s completely unnecessary with where I live. Drivers could (and have) dropped packages off in the driveway and any passerbyers wouldn’t even know the package was there. My parent’s driveway is 700 feet, and it twists and turns through the forest. It’s really secluded.

So yeah, I wouldn’t want my customers to have to deal with a signature, unless they specifically requested it in response to a porch pirate problem in their area.

If I were to start doing signature required, it would be for my piece of mind, at the expense of my customer’s convenience. Doesn’t seem like a good idea.

6:17AM.

Last night I watched Westworld S01E01. Pretty interesting show! At first I was thinking that I made a mistake, because the intro made it seem like the show had an old western theme and that’s not definitely not my jam.

Luckily, it turned out to be an interesting Sci-Fi, which is something I’ll stick with for at least a few more episodes!

Damn, I filled up my seedbox HDD already. It’s really easy to do that, once I get in a roll, watching this and that.

Did I mention the GOLD MINE of an order I received from Buyee? The order I picked up from the post office on Friday. There was one specific 350 card lot that has some mindblowingly good cards from the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Evangelion CARDDASS cards… lots of them. English Star Trek profile cards (holy shit!), Ah! My Goddess cards. OMG! English X-Files collectible cards. Collectible plastic A Certain Scientific Railgun cards featuring main characters like Misaka! Just wow. A lot of these cards will likely sell for $7 apiece, and I have 350 of them! The whole order cost $24 after shipping. A-fucking-mazing! I haven’t even gone through all the cards yet, and my mind gets blown at every new discovery.

These are the type of prime collections that I love buying. Someone is bored or has moved on from the hobby, and they just want to get rid of the cards ASAP. They take a low price, they get some cash, and I get this unique, eclectic little collection built with passion over many years. I LOVE IT!

I have my work cut out for me. I’ve got this big order which has more than one 350pcs collection in it. I’m going to be putting in 50 minutes every day on sorting and listing cards. Yesterday I did 25 minutes of pictures, and 25 minutes of listing. Today I have a stack left over which contains photographed cards that I didn’t get listed. It takes a lot more time to list a card than it does to photograph it.

The beauty is that I have 3 months to go through all this stuff. I’ve got one package at Buyee right now which has a shitton of cards in it. 8000+ cards. I’m probably making a mistake on shipping that, because it’s going to be HEAVY. Fuck, I’m actually certain that I made a mistake. The boxes I’ve shipped so far have been 10-20 lbs, and they get thrashed.

This next one is going to be 20-30 lbs because of how many cards are in it, and I waived the protective packaging so it would actually fit in a box that can be sent via seamail.

I’m convinced that it’s going to get destroyed, and cards within are going to get damaged.

I just checked the weight that Buyee says. 44 lbs. Yeah, no. That’s going to get absolutely obliterated without protective packaging.

Well here’s the thing. Buyee isn’t finished processing the order, and they don’t ship it out until I click the ship button. I could have them divide the contents into two boxes.

I think it would be better to pay extra and have piece of mind, rather than worry about it for literally 3 months as it travels via sea mail.

Ok well that’s something to do once Buyee finishes the consolidation. Interrupting the process is probably not an option.

Ok well I’ve learned something today. I know that 10-20lbs is safe, and it’s something that I could pick up from the post office myself via bicycle.

30-40lbs is probably too much. I remember getting one order a few months back that was 35lbs, I wanna say?

I’m just imagining those 4000+ card lots getting a huge dent in them as a minimum wage package handler chucks it onto a conveyer belt.

My initial idea was to split the package into two, but Buyee staff convinced me to waive protective packaging in order for the stuff to fit.

Maybe they’ll be wise enough to remove protective packaging only where it makes sense. What I’ve learned about Buyee is that they do protective packaging on every individual order, regardless of how well-protected that individual order is to begin with. Protective packaging is literally just a thick layer of bubblewrap around each individual order.

So maybe they’ll be wise enough to remove protective packaging where it makes sense, and leave it in the most effective places?

IDK. IDK.

It’s already going to cost at least $140 to ship this thing. Do I really want to pay double that, for safety’s sake?

I’ll have to think about this some more.

So yeah. Yeah. YEAH. Uh-huh.

We played board games last night. Splendor and Acquire. I had fun playing each, even though I’m not very good at either!

I’m going to try and fast until 3PM today, although it will be difficult. My mom invited me to go grocery shopping with her yesterday, and I used that opportunity to stock up! I’ve got weeks and weeks worth of food now. Bring on the winter, bring on the economic collapse.. whatever! I’ve got rice, oats, raisins, peanut butter, fruit, granola, frozen burritos.

omg Daiya makes gluten free + vegan, frozen burritos! I bought a couple. My sister says they are the bomb!

Ok that’s enough writing for now. I’m going to go do other stuff and make money and all that jazz.

Excelsior!

41. Excelsior!

40. I refuse to be pushed by my problems; I will be led by my dreams.
39. My life is filled with possibility.

I’m grateful for sandwiches. I don’t even eat them anymore, but I’m grateful that sandwich technology exists.

I’m grateful for nuts and seeds. I’m thinking of sunflower seeds right now. OMG I can eat those by the handfuls!

I’m grateful for TV and entertainment. I’m probably going to watch something while I list cards on eBay today. I’m looking forward to seeing interesting and exciting stories unfold!