Let’s hurry this since eBay’s spring promo lasts only for a few more hours (7pm PST). So Pulpconnection’s eBay store is now open! Passions, pulp, and addictions to kicks can be found at:
http://stores.ebay.com/pulpconnection
Take advantage of eBay’s 15% promo by using the code:
PSPRINGTIME
Promo details here.
It’s now official though it seems Ross employees already knew, but a new Ross location is indeed opening at Windward Mall.
Consider this positiving thinking. I ordered a bunch of Priority Mail Shoe Boxes from USPS to be ready for shoe sales.
These sales will come, won’t they??
Be it any social media circle, but Instagram by far is a double-edged sword for resellers. Sure, you know what to keep an eye out for at your local discount stores when you see pics on IG. In that regards, Instagram is your friend, giving you scouting information.
But then Instagram can easily make you feel defeated when you see the hauls and pickups others are finding. Yeah, not you, others like Hustler Hacks, The Hustle Bee, Nachoaveragefinds, and Soupyz11 for example. Seeing the quality and quantity of their finds is simply discouraging.
It was bound to happen, but I got my first unpaid transaction on eBay. The buyer made an offer on youth soccer shoes, and I accepted. However, days went by without any payment, and eBay’s recommendation is don’t ship the product until payment is received.
Luckily, eBay has everything covered. It was easy enough to open a case against this open transaction. After several attempts to contact the buyer over a period of days, I finally closed the transaction. eBay then asked if I wanted to relist the item (which I did). Thanks eBay!
Just a few lessons I’ve learned so far during my try at reselling.
First and foremost, reselling online takes time, a LOT of time. Like a super duper lot of time! But then that stands to reason. If reselling were easy then of course, everyone would be doing it. Actually the fastest part of reselling for me could be sourcing aka finding the items to resell. I’m thinking the most time consuming aspect is listing your sourced items. Taking pictures, doing the research, and actually adding the item to eBay is much harder than I expected.
Bottomline: If you’re not willing to invest the time, don’t even bother trying to resell.
Just what are you going to resell? Whatever it is, be sure to know the subject matter. That knowledge makes it so much easier to know what items have a resale value. For me, it’s shoes. I love me my kicks, and I can easily spot shoes that shouldn’t be at Ross. But then again, I don’t know all the different kinds of shoes out there. For example, track and field shoes sell well online, but I know nothing about them, so I’ve stayed away.
My interest in reselling started with Supreme and its rabid fanbase. It seemed every item released by this popular streetwear company sold out in a matter of seconds. Every single item. Easy money maker right? Just get one item when released and sell it on eBay.
It don’t work that way. Not every Supreme item has the same demand, hence value. And not knowing the culture, I couldn’t predict the hot sellers. Sure, everything sells out, but not everything is easily resellable. I finally unloaded that Supreme logo-ed, camo wool cap but didn’t make anything from the sale. eBay is flooded with this cap, and I think the upcoming season will see that cap once again.
Bottomline: Stick with what you know. Or learn a niche (quickly). I think I’ll stick with shoes…
The first lesson painfully learned for reselling in Hawaii is the high cost of shipping. Mailing a pair of shoes in-state costs around $8, but once that Pacific Ocean is crossed, another $10 is added on. And that makes a huge difference for eBay sales. Paying an additional $18 for shipping on top of the item cost itself makes my listings less appealing.
Reducing prices for my listings is an obvious method but then this almost makes this venture cost prohibitive. USPS flat rate boxes don’t really help either. The medium size flat rate boxes don’t fit men’s shoes, and the large flat rate box costs $18.90. I think I may offer $10 fixed shipping and eat the difference. Sure that eats into profits but hopefully this attracts more customers.
Is it possible to monetize a passion and still keep the sanctity of this love intact? I’m going to find out as I take my first steps as an eBay (re)seller. You see, more often than not, when I visit a Ross Dress for Less store, I come across a pair of shoes that’s intriguing. The kicks may rekindle nostalgia, remembering them from back in the day. Or I could have missed out on them when they originally launched or there’s an interesting backstory to the shoe, or they just look cool. But historically, that’s where the story ended when I put the shoe back on the sales rack.
But now things are different. I’m actually buying these gems and then (hopefully) reselling them on eBay after learning about the shoe and possibly getting a new appreciation for them. Take these Air Max 90 from the Campfire Pack. Nope, I never heard of this series nor saw one before. But when I spied the colors at Ross, I knew I couldn’t leave them there. Yeah, they crazy, but they crazy good. Then you learn the Campfire Pack pays tribute to the creation of Nike’s All Conditions Gear (ACG) when legendary designers including Tinker Hatfield met for a true life camping trip.
Sure there’s not much difference in that I’m not actually collecting the shoe for personal reasons, but yet, having the shoe for longer than a moment feels like an elevated experience of satisfaction. After selling some of my older shoes as they fell out of my rotation, I realized that I don’t need them all, and I don’t have to let them sit deteriorating in the Hawaiian humidity.
Maybe my kicks perspective has changed with the rapid-fire nature of the modern day shoe game where new color ways and collaborations are released on seemingly a weekly basis. So a love for a shoe is probably more of an infatuation that will be soon replaced by another crush. But in all of this, getting a few bucks here and there can’t hurt right? I guess I also view this reselling as a curation of kicks for other shoe heads. I’m doing the finding so that they don’t have to. All they need to do is go to eBay and search for a wanted shoe, and hopefully I’m offering that match. I think that ease for the eBay seeker is worth the price differential aka my profit.
So we’ll see how this plays out. It’s surely not a stable affair since there’s no promise of any sort that Ross will have anything worthwhile. But the hunt has been fun, especially when you find something interesting like this Copper Flightposite. I originally thought Foamposite when seeing the silhouette and had forgotten that the Foamposite evolved to the Flightposite.
Stick with me as I explore this new fad, love, interest, adventure, and learning experience!
Is the Dress for Less Store headed to Windward Mall? If so, the last of the OG malls would have a Ross location. First was Pearlridge then Kahala. The Ala Moana location was a recent addition, and 2018 could welcome the former Sports Authority space in Windward Mall.
Update 1/5/2018: Battery changed out after making a return “appointment.” Servicing took about 90 minutes. Store is full of customers wanting to check out their iPhone battery condition. iPhone 6 feels noticeably faster with the battery replacement.
Update 1/4/2018: Battery has arrived in store and need to schedule an appointment when to bring the phone in. I also got an email stating stop by anything (within 7 days), but it’s better to call back and actually set a time for the repair (1 to 2 hours).
After hearing that Apple updated its iPhone battery replacement program to begin immediately rather than late January, I made an appointment for Sunday, December 31, 2017. Unfortunately, the Kahala Apple Store Genius Bar had already exhausted its supply of in-house batteries on Saturday.
The Genius did run through a hardware diagnostic as a formality but didn’t find anything wrong with the iPhone 6 or its battery. He did say that we could change the battery for $30 regardless of the battery condition. We now have to wait about three to five days for a battery shipment then return to the Apple Store when notified.
From that point, it’s a one-hour service to swap out the battery. Not bad for $30.
And while you’re at the Apple Store, don’t look at different bands for the Apple Watch. Otherwise you might give in and get something like this deceiptively multi-colored “black” Sport Loop. Although described as black, the band has iridescent qualities showing off red, blue, green, and even more colors. It’s super nice and actually very comfortable!
For the badminton court that is. Yeah, tennis shoes are a better match for badminton, but we both know my love for basketball shoes runs deep. Gotta blame Nike and that guy named Jordan for this continued love affair. And besides, some tennis shoes look good but not as good as the variety of basketball shoes out there.
For over a year, I’ve been playing in the Adidas Crazy Light Boost 2016. At the time, this shoe was probably the cheapest entry point for full length Boost, and they’ve served me well. Great cushioning and a comfortable fit. Its only drawback is the number of lace eyelets. With essentially only three eyelets per side, tightening the shoe seemed harder than it should’ve been. But still, a great performer on the badminton court at my level.
Over time I’ve noticed that the Crazy Light Boost cushioning isn’t as good where I feel the wear and tear of playing afterwards. A sign to get new shoes right? Only thing is I couldn’t really find a good replacement. I was thinking of using the Adidas Dame 3 featuring Bounce instead of Boost. However, the Dame’s one piece upper has a small opening for your foot, and since I wear an ankle brace, getting my protected ankle in the Dame 3 is just about impossible.
While doing a routine #rossfinds, I came across the Under Armour Curry 2.5. Overall, I’ve heard good things about UA’s Curry line so while on the high end of Ross prices at $65, I got the blacked out 2.5. Sadly, these didn’t work for me as a badminton shoe. The design needs for SC30 are different from mine, and this shoe while comfortable doesn’t provide enough impact protection.
The Charged Cushioning does feel interestingly good (though it took me awhile to get used to that foamy feel), but there’s nothing else to absorb impact. That burrito-style wrap also doesn’t really work for me either. I wear the same Zamst ankle brace that Steph Curry wears, but I couldn’t get the burrito upper to close around my brace. Steph Curry must have super skinny ankles to get the proper fit for his shoes and brace. So the Curry 2.5 has been designated as a casual shoe, but with the recent rainy weather, these high tops with a synthetic upper has been great at repelling water.
So where does that leave me in my search for a replacement badminton shoe? My own collection. A while back during a Nike clearance, I picked up the low version of the Air Jordan 31. While I was spying the black and pink color way, I just couldn’t do it and instead got what I thought was black and white. The colors actually were Navy blue and white but still a good looking shoe. Unfortunately as a casual pair of kicks, they aren’t very comfortable due to a snug toe box. But Jordans are always performance shoes, so I figured why not try these on the badminton court. And perform they did!
Supposedly the lightest Air Jordan ever made, they are ultra comfortable to play in, and I had no issues from the start. The snug toe box problem went away as the Flyweave construction stretched out I guess. I don’t recall every owning a shoe with full length unlocked Zoom Air but whatever the case, these just felt great while moving in them. From a mediocre casual shoe, I found my next badminton shoe going back to my roots with the Air Jordan line.
See more pictures of the Air Jordan 31.
While I considered the new Adidas Prophere done up in tiger camo in collaboration with Undefeated, I ultimately passed. There was an online release on Saturday after being released at select Undefeated locations. Anyways, there was still stock when I checked but not in my ideal size. Remember, these Prophere run big and the Undefeated site even mentions sizing down.
While my normal size 10 was still in stock, size 9.5 was already gone. I had the 10 in my cart, but the final hurdle when checking out was the $25 shipping charge. The normally priced $120 Prophere already had a $40 premium, retailing for $160. Then on top of that, add $25 for a total of $185?!? Compared to other collaborations, $185 is not bad, but I’m guessing it’ll be available on Adidas at some point, or there are many more colorways to follow.