Is the American economy bad?

[brsel48]

This qualifies as a rant, I do not take eBay seriously and I like to watch how many views my items get and with that knowledge I can learn what’s in demand. 

I’ve learned that Snow Globes are very popular for example.

Many people complain with their eBay sales as well as locally selling using other platforms.

One think I’ve noticed is so many items posted online and in local platforms are stolen which drives the margins down, a common stolen product near me (Dallas) is laundry soap and so it’s hard for people to competitively price when you’re trying to compete against someone seller(s) getting things for free...

1) are people just cheap?

2) are people that poor? 

3) Is there too much stolen product on all these selling platforms saturated making it hard to sell anything for a fair price. 

[turquoisetulips]

not seeing this great economy, Americans seems broke overall  brsel ---------

It may seem the economy is bad and crime is up   in very poor districts and ghetto areas  but that's the way it's always been in those places  . It's not a sudden bad  situation . The rest of the nation especially the middle class  have  seen marked improvement .  Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

Can't speak for the rest of the country, but the economy here in North MS is thriving. There are more jobs than there are people to work them. There have been more factory expansions and hirings here in the past two years than I've seen in the entire 26 years I've lived here.  Retail is booming. There is absolutely zero reason for someone who wants a job here to be unemployed.  If someone claims they can't get a job, they're either truly disabled in some was as to be unemployable,  or they're just plumb  lazy.

And yes, a lot of people out there are truly cheap. There are also a good bit of lazy people who would rather steal than do actual honest work.  These people aren't going to spend money, they're going to take it any way they can. That's what happens after decades of entitlement. southern sweet tea 

 All True - Tulips 

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[gracieallen01]

You say you've worked in 'product protection', so I guess you know about products and shrinkage.  But, it doesn't seem that you know too much about 'people'.

As the population grows, so does the 'want'.  People without, want more.  People with a little, want more.  People with a lot, want still more.  People with a whole lot want even more.

If something is easy to steal, small enough to hide or palm or whatever, it will be stolen.  The higher the density of the population, the more theft, though, proportionately not necessarily that much of a higher per capita rate.

Then again, the more some people have, the more some others want.  Even the homeless have smart phones and tailor made cigarettes.  Are they donated by passerbys?  For some things ebay may not be at fault, or the economy, or China, or .....

(personal opinion - your mileage may vary)

[turquoisetulips]

40oz Tide is already available for under $5 at WalMart and under $4 at local dollar store. Even if there was no theft at WalMart and no local black market of stolen laundry detergent, it would still be hard for people to competitively price laundry detergent.

The black market is not the problem with reseller margins on laundry detergent. The problem with margins on laundry detergent is that is it a widely available, low priced commodity item. luckythewinner 

Correct ,, I just can't see  buyers choosing to pay the shipping fee on boxes of laundry soap  when it can easily be purchased  at just about any corner market.  Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

Everyone is moving to Texas because it has one of the strongest economy’s. brsel 

A lot of California and native New yorkers are leaving their home states  as well  because of overcrowding , high taxes and crime .  Tulips 

[fuzzface50]

I got dragged into a discussion at the bar shortly before Christmas and didn't realized how many claimed they won't buy new products from ebay, cl, facebook or any other place that wasn't connected to a b/m type store.  They were pretty much all in an agreement that if it is a new boxed item being sold by an individual it is stolen somewhere along the line and they don't want to be part of those type of people.

I tried to explain how I get my new products but it didn't fly with some of them and the others really wanted more info. 

Anyways I work hard to be this broke! 🙂

[luckythewinner]

@brsel48 wrote:

Everyone is moving to Texas because it has one of the strongest economy’s. 

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Migration to Texas appears to be slowing.

Domestic Migration to Texas Slows as National Labor Markets Tighten (Sep 2019)

https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2019/0903

Fewer Out-Of-Staters Are Moving To Texas, And A Lot Of Texans Are Moving Out (Sep 2019)

https://www.kut.org/post/fewer-out-staters-are-moving-texas-and-lot-texans-are-moving-out

Fewer Americans are moving to Texas. What does that mean for the state’s economy? (Sep 2019)

https://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/Fewer-Americans-are-moving-to-Texas-What-does-144...

[kittykat.949]

The way I see it is that things like rent are rising faster than I have ever seen in my lifetime . My daughter is a Disney FREAK & ever since she was a kid we would buy her an annual pass because I liked the idea of her hanging out at Disney instead of on some street corner getting into trouble like I did. When she got older & started working she started buying her annual pass herself every year until present---the other day we were talking & she told me that the price of the pass has risen to the point that she could no longer afford it but the big shocker is when a few minutes later she told me that she sees a time in the not too distant future that she will not be able to afford her apt. rent & will most likely become a homeless person. My daughter is not a rocket scientist---shes average---she has always been a worker bee since shes been young---she has never developed an alcohol or drug habit---she is not a clothes horse & lives a pretty simple life---her rent on her 1 room studio apt. in a building that was built in the fifties has in the last 5 years gone from just under $1000. monthly to the current slightly under $1600. monthly. My point of this rant is that yes everybody is working but wages are not keeping up. A lot of people are busting their butts just to barely have a roof over their heads & a large percentage of the U.S. population do not have any disposable income for even the smallest of treats or frills on Ebay. I recently read an article that said a large percentage of people could not cover a $500. sudden problem like their car breaking down. I myself feel that I am working harder than ever for the least ever. The thought of me dying & my daughter being a street person TERRIFIES me---We all cannot be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs---most of us are average Joes---SOMETHING IS WRONG AMERICA .

[jamwspr85]

Yep! This is totally true.

There are a ton of jobs in my area, but they are all minimum wage. You can't pay $1000 for rent and still pay utilities and eat on $9.10 an hour. Even at $15 an hour it's pushing it if you have car insurance and buy gas for your car

[ifyouloveit]

Tide laundry detergent has been a common drug addict theft item for years. It's crazy, but it is a real thing and has been for quite some time.

https://www.tesh.com/articles/most-stolen-item-tide-laundry-detergent/

[fab_finds4u]

Yes, people are cheap and want you to give the item away and ship it free.

But I see problems with your listings.  People mainly buy Christmas items well BEFORE the Christmas season  or they expect to find them CHEAP after Christmas.  So that's a problem I see with your listings as most of them are Christmas items and you haven't marked them down.

And you have a big typo in the Kidnapped VHS.  Nobody will find it unless they're looking for the word Kidpanned.

And the last one sold for $29.95 and you're asking $70 for yours.  People check to see what they're actually selling for before they buy.           #174036197075

If you're seeing a lot of listings of new items with ridiculous prices those are usually fraudulent listings.  Someone made an account and sold 25 things to be able to have direct access to the payment.  Then they list a lot of expensive items  dirt cheap.  There's no item.  They get the money and run. 

If the seller does have new items like Gain laundry soap that's sold at Walmart for $13.44 and they have the same item for $5 then I'd suspect the seller might be stealing new products to resell.  And so would eBay.  That's why eBay asks sellers to provide receipts for the new items they're selling if  someone reports the listing as being suspicious.

Our economy?

I can only speak for myself.  

I'm one of millions of retired people in America.   The average SS retirement check is $1,470 a month.    The federal poverty level for one person was $12,490 in 2019 in 48 states.  You'e in deep doo-doo if you're home and car isn't paid for when you retire.  Lucky for me my retirement check is a little more than that and my junk is paid for.  
The stickler for me though is if you work  or sell on eBay to try and supplement your income to manage your meager lifestyle on a retirement check  Uncle Sam will take a dollar from your check for every $2 you make if you're retirement check exceeds a certain amount.   This month I was informed my retirement check puts me $200 below the threshold. In other words if my earned income outside of my retirement check is more than $200 in 2020 I'm subject to having a dollar taken from my check for every $2 earned.   

Our government holds us down by penalizing us if we try to rise above our circumstances.  If  I make $10  an hour to put in my pocket and they take $5 out of another pocket then basically I'm working for $5 an hour.      I have ways and means of creating more income by renting a room or two and renting out my cottage or my little Puck or my rv space  but I hate the idea of giving up my privacy by sharing a space.  It could actually happen that I would earn twice as much as I'm receiving from SS thereby eliminating my check entirely.  Mind you, a plan I paid into to have benefits when I retired and not to have them taken away.  Those benefits shouldn't be touched.

And then there's the millions of households on SSI,  where here in FL the check is $1,157 for a couple, or $771 for an individual.  Try living on that.  There's no money left for snow globes.  

And the cost of living adj the retirees just received is a joke. 1.6% increase they claimed is a blatant lie. If they would actually give me the whole 1.6% raise that's fine but they're taking almost $10.  My check reflects less than a 1.6 % increase.  Which make it another government lie.  You might not think $10 is a lot of money but it adds up over a year.  Yearly increases just in medications eat that up so it can be a hardship when you don't get all of your promised cost of living adjustment.   

Anyway, enough of my rant about our gov't.  I want to be able to solve my own problems without "help" or gov't interference or assistance.  Just give me the money they took out for SS like they promised.   If you visit the SS Administration building in Gainesville FL  you'll see what the problem is.  Most of the people there waiting to be seen  are not retirees.  They're ABLE bodied young people.  Why are they getting benefits?  Is that why SS is predicted to run out?  More non-citizen young  people are there than retirees.  Why are non US citizens entitled to benefits US workers paid to secure their retirement or if they became disabled?  Something's got to give.  

[mtgraves7984]

@ifyouloveit 

I'm glad you explained the Tide thing. Great big bottles???... my mind wouldn't wrap around the theft of those. I thought the OP meant packages of Tide Pods slipped into teenager's hobo bags and assumed it was part of the Tide Pod Challenge.

I really need to get out of the house more.

[brsel48]

All you have to do is log onto Facebook go to marketplace and see how many people are selling laundry soap or laundry soap bundles that’s usually stolen

[femmefan1946]

@futurespast1113 

The baby boomers are now getting old and are mostly on Social Security and fixed incomes.

I don't disagree with most of your conclusions, but I would like to correct you about this point.

The Baby Boom ran from 1946 to 1964 (which was when The Pill was legalized and came into widespread use.)

Boomers are about to turn 73 at our eldest and the youngest Boomers are still in their mid-50s.

And some 14% of seniors are still in the work force.

While we retirees don't have the same opportunity to make a lot more money (from raises or promotions) we do have a fair bit of disposable income. We own our homes - no mortgage or rent. And when we stop working we don't need as much in the way of clothing or transportation.

All that money can go on-- well health care (although Justin Trudeau may have won our last election here in Canada on bringing in Universal Pharmacare) but also on those same experiences that our millennial grandchildren (1990 -2010) prefer.

Which reminds me, it's time to take our daily walk to one of the 21 local coffee shops in my neighbourhood for a latte and a Nanaimo Bar.

[femmefan1946]

@fab_finds4u 

I'd suspect the seller might be stealing new products to resell. And so would eBay. That's why eBay asks sellers to provide receipts for the new items they're selling if someone reports the listing as being suspicious.

That's interesting. I had not seen that reported before.