Should I Offer Carb O-ring Kits For Sale?

[allojohn]

I'll have two sets VM - and paypal gift payment is fine with me.

[bwringer]

...Also, will people hesitate if I ask for gift payment from paypal? I don't want to inflate the 1099 paypal is sure to send me (us.)

Please don't do that. I certainly trust you, and have done business with you several times, but that's not the issue.

The problem is that PayPal will very quickly detect that you're circumventing their rules and you could lose a lot of time and may even lose some or all of the money.

PayPal was the first P2P payment service, and works well for the most part, and so they're sort of a necessary evil. But they are very carefully configured to NOT be a bank and thus not subject to many important consumer protection regulations. In short, they can do what they want with your money, including just keeping it without telling you why. Properly setting it up as a sale of goods protects you in some important ways, as well as the buyers.

Please do this on the level. Charge what you need to in order to deal with PP's fees, filing 1099s, paying any taxes, etc. Obviously, your intent is to operate this thing very lean; you're not living off the profits. If your end profit is low, you won't owe much in taxes, and if you have other 1099 income it's not a lot of added work.

Lastly, please consider using ANY other payment service than PayPal. As I noted, there are some rather unpleasant aspects and questionable ethics in the way they run things. All the payment services charge fees, and you just have to build that in.

Personally I'm a big fan of using Square to accept card payments (or their Cash App for interpersonal payments). Their fees are reasonable, and their service is excellent. Any online store service will have an easy Square integration.

[Nessism]

Thanks for the dose of reality, Brian. Okay, I'll do this thing straight up.

It irritates me to no end that the US government is mandating a 1099 for us small-time "citizens" trying to offload some old junk, or run a small "hobby" business like this. I don't need the money this endeavor will generate, but I also don't want to hand it over to the IRS either. I make a good living from my regular job, and this project will generate "profit," roughly equal to minimum wage for my time. No disrespect to minimum wage workers, but I'm not doing this because I have to. Some extra "beer money" is always nice, though.

[mcycle-nut]

I'd like a set for my '78 GS750. If you won't send to Canada, I'm sure I can find a shipper with and American address. The last set I got from Robert had a "Global USA Forever 2014" stamp on it and they came in an envelope right to my door.

[robertbarr]

Lastly, please consider using ANY other payment service than PayPal. As I noted, there are some rather unpleasant aspects and questionable ethics in the way they run things. All the payment services charge fees, and you just have to build that in.

Personally I'm a big fan of using Square to accept card payments (or their Cash App for interpersonal payments). Their fees are reasonable, and their service is excellent. Any online store service will have an easy Square integration.

I don't have any complaints with Paypal as far as the basics of the transactions were concerned; however, in the interest of your own sanity, I would highly suggest avoiding Paypal Shipping at all costs. It's likely to seem easier and simpler than using an external shipper, but by an EASY margin, Paypal Shipping was the largest, most frequent source of headaches and frustration of my entire operation. They would change their software regularly, without warning, in ways that disabled my process or rendered it insane. So I get a few orders overnight, and now I can't print my labels in the morning before I leave for work. Or else the system now wants to print them on 8 1/2" x 11" labels. Or they start printing so tiny you'd need a magnifying glass to read them. This happened at least 20 different times over the years, and there was no workaround offered. I had to discover a new trick each time. If/when their system works for you, enjoy it while it lasts, because they'll find a way to break it.

When I threw in the towel, Paypal was launching a new (improved!) shipping process which required a Dymo label printer. Which I didn't have; I already had printers, plural, that worked fine. Even if I felt like buying new Dymo printers, guess what? The Dymos anymore use ONLY proprietary labels. Their rolls come with chips. Without expensive Dymo brand labels, your new printer is useless.

Toward the end there, I was ready to jump ship (pun intended, I suppose) to Pirate Ship just so I could abandon Paypal. I could complain for hours, but you get the idea. A little research now into an alternative shipping firm will pay off. Look into PirateShip. They might also have some competition to look over. (And by 'shipping firm' I mean simply an outfit that will take an address that you harvest from your transaction, take some money from you to pay for USPS shipping, and prepare a prepaid postage label for you, with as little repetitive effort as possible. You just slap that label on your envelope and you're done. In theory.) They'll also do the basic accounting, keeping track of all that DEDUCTIBLE expense.

And good luck with your operation!

RB

[chuck hahn]

ED...
Heres a place ive used off and on over the years not only for bikes but for almost anything i didnt need to spend 50 bucks for a complete rebuild kit when all i needed was a simple "special size" oring"

https://www.theoringstore.com/store/

[Nessism]

ED...
Heres a place ive used off and on over the years not only for bikes but for almost anything i didnt need to spend 50 bucks for a complete rebuild kit when all i needed was a simple "special size" oring"

https://www.theoringstore.com/store/

Hi chuck, I've used the O-ring store numerous times over the years. They are a good source.

[Nessism]

Order placed. Found almost everything from Global O-ring.

A week on and no O-rings yet. Good thing I paid for expedited shipping!


Supposedly shipped on Friday of last week. Hopefully, I'll be able to start taking orders in a couple of days. Thinking about an even $20 to start out.

[Nessism]

The O-rings have landed. I'll message Don about getting a post up in the vendor's forum, in the meantime, PM me if you are in need.

[Nessism]

First two kits shipping today.

Posted an ad in the Services forum.

[bonanzadave]

Posted an ad in the Services forum.

I see that. Wheres the order button ?

[Nessism]

I see that. Wheres the order button ?

Ha! PM, of course!

[JoeNashville]

Please do! I don't know what happened to Robert, but I'm good for at least 2-3 sets per year...