Buy and Sell Online Part Two - Experiences and Tips

Since my last sale transaction with regards to my buy and sell online, I made two sales of my items. Selling my items are bit slow but posting them on Tipidpc.com helped a lot. Here are the rest of the things I had to do.

1. I needed to update my items and pricing versus the current posted price on the internet. I had to lower  a bit my prices to be competitive. That resulted to several inquiries for my items.

2. I also reviewed the title post of my items to ensure that it gets to the top searched items. Sulit.com.ph had a feature to check the rank of the item in the most search keyword related to the item. I had to revise my item name to align to the keyword. For most part, I made my item name more generic as usually keywords type are general words.

3. As I am mobile  most of the time, whenever a I receive an SMS query, I have difficulty to responding because I don't have onhand information on my items. It is a good thing I have mobile internet to check on my posts. It is still a good thing to have a softcopy of the items especially to check if prices can still be lowered.

4. Whenever there is query, there is a need to respond immediately. A lot are selling similar items and buyers are inquiring and comparing. I answered an SMS query too late, the buyer bought from another seller.

So far these are my experiences I can share. Do you have any tips for selling online?

Tips: Storage Boxes

We just had our Christmas tree stowed this weekend. Since we bought this 12 footer Christmas tree, I have been searching locally for a extra extra large plastic box which is at least 1 meter in length. The paper box or wood box is not recommended as mouse and termites are perennial problems in the house. The longest so far I was able to search thru the internet was 90 centimeters. I went to local home depot, Ace Hardware, Handy man and Wilcon but they don't have that plastic boxes that long.

I also got a chance to search in the US visiting Costco, Target, Walmart  and Bed and Bath. Fortunately I found these extra large boxes in Home Depot. You check it here. The storage box cost 20USD. It was perfect to store our Christmas tree. I am unable to bring home the box because it was a bit large so I planned to ship it home.

After I got back from the US, I research again the internet for a local plastic storage and fortunately I came upon this from sulit.com.ph. The dimensions are perfect for our Christmas and it will also fit in our storage room. I compared the cost of the local plastic box and the one from the US (with shipping cost) and it turns out the US is more expensive. Likewise, I will still wait for at least 30 days before the US item arrives. So we purchased the local plastic storage box (you check the product on trioplast).

Let me know also if you find alternative extra extra large storage boxes.

Organizer for Chargers

I am sure you have several phone and tablet chargers lying around the house. In our household alone, we have 3 chargers for Apple Ipads and Iphone and 3 chargers for smartphones. I have search the net for good ideas and tips for organizing these and found the following:

1. Organizer bag (old post from everythinginbudget.com)
2. Phone and charger holder
3. Charging Station Gadget
4. Another Charging Station Gadget
5. A very elegant charging valet 
6. A handicrafted charging station (lazada.com.ph)

My plan was just to buy a plastic tray to hold together all those chargers in one place. Just a small plastic box where one can just take and place back the charger. I planned to drop by the Japanese store to look for this as they have lots of cool practical items. Instead yesterday we went to this organizer specialty store in a high end mall and found this small long plastic tray with rubber mats. And we thought it was perfect for our use. In  addition the item was being sold 50% off. We bought one and here is how it looks with the chargers. The plastic box was long and small enough not to occupy much space.

Buy and Sell on line

I had to write about this today as today I was able to complete my first sale transaction thru an online buy and sell website Sulit.com.ph. After a month of posting my items for sale on line, I was able to sell two items.

My buyer saw my ads on sulit.com.ph. We communicated over sms and voice calls and we met up at Starbucks. My buyer saw my merchandise and instead of originally buying an item, he bought a packaged item.  Now that was cool. After the sale I felt good. I had those thoughts before going to the meetup if I was able to make the sale or would I end of  a bad buyer.

My merchanise is a bit high end and within a month of posting, I thought they won't get noticed. I guess sulit.com.ph also has reach to different segments. I was also thinking on posting on focused forums where these items are being sought or sold. Maybe in two months time I will post my items. But so far I get inquiries still for my items.

So what's my take away from this? Apart from being able to sell my merchandise I was able to add contacts and connections.  Can you help me and advise tips on buy and sell online?

Tips : Window Type Airconditioners

I was able to schedule today cleaning of our two window type air-conditioners. I engaged a home service and it took about 3 hours to clean two units. As expected the aircons were very dirty considering more than a year of not being cleaned. Both aircons had rust forming already. We have 5 year old 0.75HP Carrier Aircon no drip that was very dirty and with rust forming. We have a 3 year old 1.0HP York Aircon that was dirty and with a worst rust condition. The York Aircon has also its fan swing broken whereas that of the Carrier aircon was still working. Apparently, the Carrier aircon has better build quality given our experience.

Here are few tips from the aircon service person.
1. Aircon with no drip is not recommended as water left at the aircon can result to rust.
2. Aircon cleaning should be performed every three months to ensure longer life for the unit ie better air circulation and cooling,  lesser power consumption.
3. No additonal filters are needed to be installed with the existing aircon filter. Particles from the additional filters can accumulate at the fan and can cause damage.
4. Inverter type aircon consumes less power but parts are expensive and their availability is a problem.
5. Condura Aircon are recommended for their build quality ie sturdy plastic frame.

The service costed me 450pesos per unit. What's your personal experience with your airconditioners and how much does it cost you?

Tips: LTO Car Registration Renewal

The 3-year LTO registration for our car expired this year and I have to renew it now every year. I browsed the net to get some tips from fellow motorist who have went thru LTO car registration renewal. There several  detailed write-ups on the net which made it easy for me to go thru the renewal process. Here is one. Here is another one done at LTO Kapitolyo Pasig Office which is very extensive that comes with the procedure, pictures and fees. The renewal process here took 30 minutes at the closing hours of the office.

Here is how I went thru renewal process on a Friday morning.

1. I prepared the necessary documents: Photocopy of OR/CR, CTPL.
2. I had smoke emission test 8am at  a test center along West Drive Kapitolyo.
3. I went to the cashier area, submitted a photo copy of OR/CR.
4. I paid 430Pesos for the smoke emission test.
5. Unfortunately the computers at test center was offline thus I waited for 30minutes before I received emission test results and my Photocopy of OR/CR.
6. I proceeded to LTO Kapitolyo Pasig Office. I paid 20pesos for parking fee.
7. I parked our car in the MV inspection area.
8. I was asked to proceed to window 10 to secure stencil doc. I gave to the inspection aid the stencil doc plus photocopy of OR/CR and CTPL docs.
9. The inspection office completed the stencil doc and attached the photocopy of OR/CR and CTPL documents.
10. I proceeded back to window 10 for evaluation of the documents. The LTO officer approved the documents.
11. I proceeded to a designated evaluator at Window 14 (depends on the ending plate number).
12. I waited for my name to be called.
13. Once my name was called. the renewal documents were returned to me.
14. I lined up at the cashier, submitted my documents and paid a fee of 1,829.60Pesos.
15. I proceed to releasing window, but unfortunately there were no stickers available at that time. I have to check and return to the releasing office once stickers are available.

The whole process took 1 hr on Friday morning wherein I a spent a total of 2,859.60Pesos for renewal of a 2010 sedan for 2013. I read that for some, the total fees are more than 3,000Pesos. I was happy it costed much less and it was due to my CTPL. Let me know thru the comment box if you want to save on your car registration renewal. Also you may want to get the services of AAP.