Trekking Poles, Calculators, and other Miscellanea

I resold the trekking poles I purchased for $1 on the 14th for $35 on the 17th. A three-day turnaround on Craiglist is pretty much unheard of so I was pretty happy. To be honest, I probably could have gotten $10-$15 more for the set; the buyer told me trekking poles are very uncommon on Craigslist. However, the poles were in pretty bad shape (the snow baskets were broken off and the poles were covered in scratches) compared to the few other poles on Craigslist and they were all priced between $30 and $45 so $35 was definitely fair. I know I've said to never base your prices on Craigslist's prices but this was one instance in which I really didn't have a choice.

I resold the Nerf guns ten minutes ago for $65; not bad for a $2 investment.  In this instance I actually beat my projected resale value because one of the guns -- the Longshot -- is worth a fair amount among Nerf enthusiasts.  It frequently sells for $40+ on eBay.  I didn't realize this until I was browsing the Nerf wiki to determine what types of darts the it requires.  I guess this is an example of why you should always know your product.  Do your research before you list an item; make sure it isn't more valuable than you expect.

The poles and the Nerf guns remain the only purchases from the 14th that I have managed to resell. The silver has proven to be a poor investment. Right now I am investigating selling it to Replacements, Ltd. or a similar site but identifying the patterns is hard.  I have it listed on Craigslist for an absurdly high price in the hopes that someone makes me an offer.  At this point I'll pretty much accept anything.

I had my first Amazon return request last week.  The bad thing about selling on Amazon is that the Terms of Service require you to accept returns for a minimum period.  Unfortunately it was for the TI-92 graphing calculator and not one of the $5 books I've been selling.  Had it been for a book I would have told him to keep it and just taken it as a loss.  The calculator is too valuable to write off as a loss so I have to deal with the buyer shipping it back to me and all of that stuff.  It's frustrating because the calculator was relatively expensive to ship.  I will be able to resell it -- and the current Amazon prices suggest I will manage to get $3, $6, or even $9 more than I first sold it for, depending at which price I insert it and if another seller tries to undercut me -- but that money I spent shipping it in the first place is gone. 

The buyer's excuse for returning it was that it was an "Accidental Order."  This return category is bullshit.  You cannot accidentally order an item on Amazon; there are just too many clicks required to make any order an accident.  I assume he ordered it assuming it was the TI-92 Plus and not the TI-92 despite the description clearly stating it's "NOT THE TI-92 PLUS."  And yes, it was in caps.  I definitely will not be reimbursing him for his return shipping.