The upsides of Covid-19

Despite the vaccines, what I heard in the news every day is the death number, last Friday 450000 (0.45M) people died from covid-19 or covid-19 induced complications. 

The first upside of covid-19 is the very fact that 97% of  patients of closed covid-19 cases recovered, or 16.38 Million people recovered! It is not that dire after all.

The biggest upside of covid-19 is that it drove the global carbon emission in 2020 down by 7% from 2019, or 2.4 billion ton green house gases. This is of course due to reduced economical activities, including less driving, less flying, …. This also supports my conclusion that the root cause of global warming is over  consumption.

The other big upside of covid-19 is that it starts to drive people to form the habit to wear facemask to prevent contagious diseases, including flu; this has been demonstrated by 2020 Influenza activities. At least wearing facemask is no longer a weirdo. I hope that we will continue to wear facemask during flu seasons when pandemic is gone. This effect is very similar to 9-11 effect on people's reaction to fire alarms. 

A fourth upside of covid-19 is the acceleration of digital transformation, especially in communications - microsoft TEAM, Zoom and other applications, make virtual meetings, conference calls more robust and widely accepted. 

There are many small upsides - eliminated commune time due to work from home, more time to do other things outdoor, at least at Texas! 

Exploring our neighborhood, community parks, city parks, and state parks.  We actually traveled more frequently in 2020 than 2019, though not too far due to restrictions in other states and countries. We explored our community parks and neighborhood daily ! 

Snow geese at Hagerman National Wild Life Refuge

During the pandemic we finally bought our first kayak and explored lakes and rivers, frequently all by ourselves. Exploring and enjoying nature make us feel so alive!

Covid-19 is serious matter, take precautions, follow general guidelines, don't be scared, life goes on.

Note

We need to put the coronavirus death rate in perspective, e.g. compared to influenza infection rate and death rate, which I listed some examples in my random thoughts about coronavirus,  as well as overall mortality of the population. Here are mortality rates of the whole world, China,  and US.

World wide: 150,000 people died everyday in 2019
China:  27850 people died everyday in 2019 (mortality rate 7.261/1000, 10.2 million for the year).

United States: 7200 people died everyday in 2019 (mortality 8.782/1000, or 2.63 million for the year)

Super Salesman!

As we started selling unused but useful stuff last November for downsizing, in online Marketplaces, in less than 2 month period, I evolved from a novice salesman to a "highly rated" "Super Seller"!

 

Highly Rated Super Seller 😀

There are two sides to a sale - seller and buyer, supply and demand. The essential of a sale is supply and demand - is there a need for the stuff I want to sell? if there is, how high the demand is, typically many other people are selling the same or similar stuff I try to sell. If there is no demand, then I have no chance to sell.

Here I will focus on how to make a sale when there is demand.

The number 1 trait my customers valued is timely response to their inquiries. Typically people will shop around to get the best price for the items they want. The fast response makes me a leg ahead of competition! Since the inquiries usually come at meal times or weekends, I reply them right away if I have my phone with me.

The number 2 trait my customers value is the description of the sale item. When I write a description for a sale item, I put myself in the buyer's shoe, what I want to know if I plan to buy the item. Sometimes I also include a bit educational content, e.g. a framed nature poster is great for home office. When buyers made inquiry about certain aspects of an item, which I did not provide in my original description, I would quickly add those information in so the next prospect buyer would have the information. 

The 3rd trait my customers like the most is fair pricing. To sell an item, I always do a quick Marketplace survey to see what are the prevailing price. If my item is "used- like new", I would list it at prevailing price, if it is "used - good" or "used - fair" I would list the item at a price lower than prevailing price. As described in "One man's trash is another man's treasure", for the heavily used and very old items, I list them at very low price for quick sale. 

Here are a few short stories of  sales. 

This used racket was sold to a person who bought it for his beginning child

This used Wilson tennis racket was not super popular. So when I got an inquiry about it, I replied right away, and provided requested information. Through text exchanges, it was obvious the person intended to buy. So when he asked for a discount I allowed 10% discount right away. The racket was sold the same day it was listed!

futon was very popular

Furniture such as futon, bed, sofa have been very popular. I listed them at market values. The shown futon received over 200 views the day I listed it, many text inquiries. A few people offered price at 20% to 40% off my listed price. I resisted the temptation to make a quick sale due to the high interests and my fair price for the item. The  day after listing of the futon I got a message from a buyer who wanted to buy the futon at its full price. The buyer told me why he needed the futon and we had quite some text exchange until he came for pickup the next day. In fact I sold 1 futon, 2 beds, 2 sofa, all at listed prices,

ski boots

I treated my customers as I would like to be treated, and help them when help is needed. A couple bought this pair of ski boots at listed price. When they came to pick up and try them on, it was apparent they were novice to skiing. So I taught them how to put the boots on, as well as how to carry them. 

I helped an old man to load sofa into his truck, reminded the woman who bought infant bed about the Allen wrench and screws, put tea set in a nice sturdy paper bag for my customer and left it outside for her easy pickup.

It is relatively easy to sell popular items; for not so popular item, all I need is to find the one person who needs the item I am selling. For the latter, marketing is critical. One needs to make a good presentation of the item, set a fair price, and reach as many people on the market place as possible  - joining some local garage sale groups is one way to target local buyers. 

In summary, sale to me is like anything else I do, it is a problem that I need to solve; as I got into the groove quickly, I enjoy the salesman role very much, like the handyman jobs around the houses.

Note 

Some observations on selling used items 

1) first impression is very important - e.g. if you list an item $10, it may sell quickly, if you start at $20, and eventually lower it to $10, you may still have a hard time to sell

2) timing is very important, especially for seasonal items - Christmas light for example.

3) Price is king  - online used items buyers are bargain hunters, like those go to garage sale

4) Most people don't like to negotiate even if I stated negotiable. A handful of people are on the other extreme, no discount no purchase

4)  People don't come  to Online Marketplace o buy new or expensive items. Online marketplace is online garage sales.

5) No demand no sale. No demand from my target customers doesn't mean no demand everywhere

One man's trash is another man's treasure

 As we prepare for downsizing, how to deal many items that have not been used for long time, but are still useful, is a question. Initially, for convenience, we planned to just throw them into trash.

Thinking about throwing useful items made me uncomfortable. We eventually decided to use online marketplace to sell the items at good price. The useless items to us can be useful to others who need them. We reduce our carbon footprint, and help others, and get some changes in the process, win-win-win.

The best sale for us is the tea set. It was worn out but still in decent shape. Lily recommended to trash it and I listed it at $5. Many people inquired about it to the big surprise of Lily. A lady bought it at listed price! The best buy for the buyers so far, was the double lighted Christmas reindeers, which I listed it at $5 on a Sunday before Christmas, nearly 100 inquires poured in within 20 minutes,  a couple who were treasurer hunting near by, came by in 10 minutes and snatched the two boxes. 

The sale process was pleasing - once the deal was made, I put the tea set in paper bag outside and asked buyer to take it and leave the payment at the door. Guess what? No glitch!

The two lighted reindeers were wildly popular with buyers, they were taken within 15 minutes. It was a super deal. The guy also bought a used tennis racket at listed $15!

Through the sales events I also found that some people buy used goods for very unique reasons. 

For  example the following AiWa Boombox, had beatdown looking, not many people inquired about it at the listed $20 for a week or so. Then one day a guy asked if I would sell at $10. We settled on $15. He told me at the time of pickup that he had no use of the boombox, but he needed the 6 inch speakers! which is sold new at $40.

The old range microwave got some people's attention, but it stayed on the market for nearly a month with no buyer. When I decided to leave it on the market for another week before donating it as a small appliance, a lady made an inquiry and agreed to buy right away. But it turned out that my house was some 20 minutes away from her husband's work, in the opposite direction to her home. She hesitated to buy due to the extra 40 minutes drive. I offered to deliver it to her hubby's work and made the sale.

A buyer got this boombox for its two 6" speakers

The lady who bought this range microwave is an artist, she plan to use the microwave
for her glass art project! 

One's trash is another one's treasure.