An invitation to our google plus picking community

Join our picker community on google +.

We are inviting all pickers, resellers, treasure hunters, garage hunters, thrifters and anyone else who loves to find treasures to join our picker community.

https://plus.google.com/communities/105677307208689007327

From naval special operations to full time treasure hunter & garage sale picker.

From naval special operations to full time treasure hunter & picker post #1.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am proud to report that as of October 4th 2012 I am finally on terminal leave until November 30th at which time I will be officially separated from the Navy.    I am technically now, I am a full time garage sale, thrift store, yard sale and whatever other kind of sale you can think of picker.

I have managed to keep a military style routine in the morning by working out first before I do anything else which keeps me refreshed and ready to sit at my desk and list, sit in my car to hunt for treasures and sit on my butt to play some Borderlands 2 when I need a break.

This is a very exciting time for me and my business.  I have been working hard to get some meat on my ecommerce site ( which I have been making organic sales on ),  getting all of my video game product listed on my Amazon store ( I just broke 100 feedback (, and unfortunately listing more items on the site I hate with a passion.  EBAY.

I also started some google plus pages.

If you use google plus, +1 me and be in my picker circle, or +1 my business to be in my business network.

I find it interesting now that I am working for myself, I find it very hard to keep track of what day it is and you know what?  I LOVE IT!   

Although I am on terminal leave and no longer have to report to my command, I am still receiving a paycheck.   We shall see how I do once my safety net is gone, then we'll really see if I am loving it.

Good luck out there!

How to ship video games international.

 

How to ship video games international

This little how to guide will show you how I personally ship my video games.  It is down and dirty,  just breezing over what shipping services I use and some of the limitations that go along with them.

I will throw this out there before starting, some countries do not allow certain items through customs and video games can be one of them.  Make sure prior to shipping that your package is going to make it through customs.

When shipping video games in general I use 2 methods to ship.

#1. Boxed games 

 I ship all of my complete vintage NES / SNES games in boxes, I don't want to be that guy to ship them in bubble mailers, they will end up crushed just like my feedback.

#2. Loose game cartridges 

On loose games and DVD style cases, I always use Kraft bubble mailers just like the ones at the top of this post.

When shipping video games international, you normally have two different options when shipping USPS.  Priority International and First Class International.

I am not going to on Priority International, the high shipping costs will deter most buyers so below is the shipping method that I use to ship all of my video games.

First class international 

It is the cheapest and easiest.  Paypal and Amazon fill out all the necessary forms for you so there is no need to fill out the first class customs form.     Before choosing first class international for your own packages there are a couple things you should know.

That being said there are some things that you need to know about shipping your games first class international.

 #1.  No Tracking 

First class international does not provide a tracking number.  I have never had an issue shipping this way, and even if I did, it would be few and far between.  The ease, low cost and better chance of producing a sale will always keep me using this option unless a buyer requests to have a tracking number.

#2.  Restrictions

I am not going to get into the physical requirements for packages, just know that there are restrictions but video games fall well in them.  If you would like to learn more about first class international restrictions you can check the USPS website.

#3. Thats all you really need to worry about.

The final thing you need to do is either print your postage and your customs declaration will be filled out for you, or fill it out.  It is nice to have it properly filled out before you get to the counter so you don't get turned around.

How to fill out a first class international customs  declaration

To:  The senders address

Left side of the form

Check the Merchandise box

Detailed description:  If sending a video game just put "video game"

Qty:  Number of games

Weight:  If you have a scale you can get the weight but I just have them fill it in.

Value:  Amount the buyer paid.

HS Tariff#:  Leave blank

Exemption/Exclusion Legend: Leave blank

Sign and date at the bottom and you are set.

It really is that easy, don't read into the whole international thing.  People don't ship internationally because they don't want to fill out the paperwork or they are afraid that their packages are going to get lost, which is fine by me.  The people who are willing to go the extra mile, get the extra money.

Thanks for reading my down and dirty how to guide on how to ship video games international.

If this post was informative please like it, and share it.

Check my blog for other useful tips at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

Using The Eye-Fi 8gb wi fi Pro x2 wireless memory card for your ebay listings.

 Last month a came up with a way stream line my ebay listing process.  I was wasting a so much time taking pictures, going to my office, loading the pictures on to my computer then uploading them to my photo account.  I felt like there had to be a better way to get the job done.

I did some research and found out that there are wireless memory cards that are perfect for listing on ebay. I purchased the Eye-Fi 8 gb wireless memory card for my camera and I cannot believe how much time I have wasted.   

My wife and I often team up to list items faster but one of us always ends up waiting for the other on something, and it seemed like it was always the camera.  Well guess what, I don't have to wait for the camera anymore.  As soon as my wife snaps a camera it is automatically uploaded to my flickr account!

How much time do you think you would save if you didn't have to hook up your camera to your computer, download your pictures, then upload them to the internet?   Especially if you have the type of camera where your battery is always dying.  You snap the pic and it is off your camera and in your photo account.

I am sure these memory cards will eventually come down in price, I paid around $80.00 for my card, but it was worth every penny.

If $80.00 sounds too steep there are a few other options such as the Eye-Fi 8 GB Mobile X2 SDHC which costs around $60.00, and the Eye-Fi Connect X2 4 GB  which is around $40.00.

I am going to be using my wireless card to implement a new feature to my Amazon items.   I will be taking a picture of each item I have in my store, it will be automatically uploaded to a public flickr account, I will assign the photo number generated when taking the picture as my Amazon SKU and my customers will be able to view my actual item by going to the flickr account and looking up the SKU number.  Hopefully it will give my customers a warm, fuzzy and help drive more sales.

I will be adding the 8gb model to my highly recommended list, I think it is a must have for anyone listing on ebay or any other online selling platform.


If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

video blog on 2 items that I came across.

If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

Quick post about a textless ebay listing

Have I mentioned that I love waking up in the morning with money sitting in my account?  Well I do, and if you are an online seller, I am sure you do too.

I sold something today which isn't out of the ordinary, but what is out of the ordinary is that I didn't use a single piece of text in my listing description.

Check it out for yourself

So far I have tested about 7 video only ebay listings ( really it was because I was sick of writing descriptions but then again, I like testing stuff too )

Out of the 7, so far I have had 5 of them sell.

Obviously I don't think that a video only listing is the most efficient way to sell a product, but it does prove that having a video can increase the exposure to your listing by opening it up to youtube and other video sites.

Now if only I can get Auctiva off my listings!

FT OUT!


If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

A video from my past picking finds.

Digging though my videos on my youtube account,  I was looking at my old finds videos and realized that the majority of the stuff I have found has long been sold.  Here is one of the videos I wanted to show you because I sold almost every single item in the video.    I just wanted to do a little recap to show you what kind of profit you can make when you are buying low and selling high.

Here is the video

Treamcast -  Paid $15.00
Porcoleir Art Deco light fixture - Paid $5.00
Tomy Air Jammer Road Rammer - Paid $4.00
Cage Light - Paid $2.00
Jack Brown dive mask and manual - Paid $10.00
Aqua Lung dive master regulator & Manual- Paid $10.00

I still don't have that table high chair listed yet, but I'll get it on there eventually.  Adding up the total purchase price from the above items we come up with a $46.00 investment.

Now let's go over how much I sold each one for.

Jack brown dive mask sold for $270
Aqua Lung dive master sold & manual for $175
Caged worker's light sold for $99.99
Aqua Lung technical manual sold for $59.99
Porcoleir Art Deco light fixture sold for $97.45

So with an investment of $46.00, I resold all these items for a grand total of $702.43.   I'll take these numbers over the stock market all day long.

Thanks for reading

FT OUT!

If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

What happens if I build a local online video game store for purchasing used games.

I have been trying to figure out a way to find more product for my stores on top of my normal garage sale and thrift store finds.

I came up with this little idea after I was doing some google searches for my area and realized that there are very few video game stores advertised on google in my county.

I decided to try to capitalize on this and see if I could create a website with keywords targeting the cities around me advertising a video game store that buys used and new video games.  

The goal is to get my website ranked #1 in in the search results in my area.  Since there isn't much for competition besides gamestop, I am hoping I will be able to do it.    

The website, which I just created at http://www.sneakysquirrelgames.com has pretty much one purpose.  To help me find sellers in the local area that want to sell their used video games.   I don't know if it will work, only time will tell.

 I created it in less than a day! Check out the website and tell me what you think. 

FT OUT!

If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

How I go to yard sales to find my treasrues.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share my routine when it comes to prepping for the big weekend garage sale hunts.

Unfortunately for me right now, I work on Fridays so I don't get to hit the garage sales on the first day they are open.  That will change once I get out of the military and when it does, hopefully my finds will increase.

Everyone has their own way of going to garage sales, and there really isn't a right or wrong way, but for me, it's all about time management.

Now, around here the garage sales don't usually start until 9 am....  Yeah that's right, I said 9!  I am from the Midwest where the garage sales start EARLY!  Anyways, I start out the night before, planning my route with google maps.

I go to Craigslist and look up keyword specific items that may be listed in the garage sale ads to see if anything comes up.  If I find a sale that has something I want or might want but the ad is very vague, I will contact owners directly so I can find out exactly what they have.

After that, I begin my address gathering by copying the addresses of Craigslist and into google maps with my house as A. and then go on down the line in no particular order.  I start out with the immediate area around me.  After I run out of sales in my immediate area, I move on to the next area and do the same thing over again until I have all the garage sales that I want.

I then hit directions and it gives me a large jumble of garage sale points in no particular order.

I fix this by moving the sales into alphabetical order according to the path that I am going to be traveling away from my house.    If you have a sale that is directly next to your house and it is listed as Z, you can move the Z from the bottom of the directions area and drop it right below A, and your Z will turn into a B.  I line up all my sales just like that so I have a somewhat linear path for my garage sales.

One word of warning though, You need to make sure that you pay attention to what time the sales are open and place them in order that way also.

I also give estate sales and other sales of interest priority, and if they are the furthest away, I will usually go to them first and work my way backwards.

I try to stick to the path as much as possible, I don't know how many times I have come across garage sale signs that were old and ended up wasting time trying to find a sale that didn't exist so I just stick with my plan and it works out well for me.

So that is how I do my garage sale hunting,  I would love to hear how everyone else does it!  Please comment!

FT OUT!

If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

How to safely ship mirrors, pictures, wall plaques and other flat, fragile items through the mail

Today I am going to show you my method of safely shipping mirrors, wall plaques, picture frames and other other flat, fragile items so the arrive safely at their destination.  

Let me tell you, I have had many things break in the mail, it happens.  Whether it was due to poor packing ( I was a shipping noob, leave me alone! ) or rough handling * cough * USPS * cough *, it doesn't really matter.

For me, shipping these kinds of items has always been a challenge, boxes were never the correct size and I would always come up short on packing peanuts. I spoke to my very wise online sales mentor, aka my mother and she recommended the method that I am about to show you.  I have been using this method for a year now and I have not had a single issue or complaint about my packages.

Things that you will need:

• Box cutter
• Sharpie
• 3/4" or 1" thick styrofoam insulation sheet, I buy mine at Home Depot.                                                                             
• Stretch Wrap
• Tape 
• 19 x 24 Poly mailer
• Fragile stickers
• Something to ship

I will be packing up this vintage mediterranean wall mirror from the 60s.

The first thing you need to do is lay out your styrofoam sheet, place your mirror on the sheet and mark around your item with a 1" buffer zone.

Cut your styrofoam piece out, trace the piece you just cut out so you have two of the same size pieces.

For added protection, I cut another piece of styrofoam to fill in the gap that will form when the mirror is sandwiched between the two pieces.  This will keep the mirror from vibrating or shifting.  I just placed a piece in the mirror as an example, I would recommend filling up the entire space.

Next, wrap the entire mirror in stretch wrap ensuring that you are maintaining the 1" buffer all the way around.   I recommend lots of shrink wrap :).

Sandwich the mirror with the other piece of styrofoam and continue shrink wrapping.  I didn't want to waste all of my shrink wrap so there isn't much on there, but you get the idea.

And last but not least, cut a 19 x 24 poly bag or wrapping paper sheet and wrap it all up, attach your fragile labels, a shipping label and you are off to the post office!

I would like to put out a disclaimer that while this method works well, there is no guarantee that it will work 100% because s#*t happens.

I hope this was an informative post, give it a shot and leave me a comment on how it works out for you.

Famous Turtle OUT!

If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

How to find cheap video game on Craigslist.

Recently I have been having a lot of luck finding TONS of vintage and modern video games to fill up my Amazon store.

Here are a few tips that will help you find great deals on games and whatever else you might be looking for on Craigslist.

#1.  If you do find a killer deal, go pick it up as soon as possible.   I have had many amazing deals get snatched up by someone else because I was being lazy and didn't want to conduct the transaction the same day.

#2.  Don't be afraid to drive a distance to get a great deal, but make sure it is worth your while and ask if you can get a discount for the drive.

#3.  If you don't like driving to pick stuff up, you can always offer a better purchase price if the person comes to you.  I do with with Playstation 2s all the time.  I pay $15.00 if I have to come to them, and $25.00 if they come to me.  $25.00 is a good price for the seller and it usually draws out people that were on the fence about selling at $15.00.

#4.  Don't low ball people.  If you pay people fair prices, they are going to tell all of their gamer friends and you will end up having more games to buy.

#5.  Make sure to ask if they have any other games they are looking to sell, and if they do not, ask them to let all of their friends know that you are looking for games.

#6.  People are more likely to contact through text message so if you have unlimited texting, Have your phone number in your listing.  Don't use all numbers or bots will pick up on it and you will start getting phone calls, instead spell out the numbers like this:  Eight 4 Three 5 1 3 Six One 3 2.

#7.  If you are looking for something specific, make sure to try your luck with the most general search region in your area.  You never know when someone may have placed the thing you are looking for in a completely different category.

#8.  Search Craigslist on a daily basis and setup alerts for items you are looking for.

#9.  Like pictures instead of words?  Check out Craig's Easy, and set yourself up an easy button.  Once setup, you can go to Craigslist, hit the easy button and just view pictures.

#10.   Remember the renew your listings constantly, no one will be contacting you if your ads are expired.

Well that's all for now, I hope you found my tips helpful.   Good luck out there,  Famous Turtle OUT!


If you are not on my blog, come see my other posts at http://famousturtletreasures.blogspot.com

I recently opened up an Amazon store

Alrighty, so about 2 months ago I decided I wanted to try selling my video games on Amazon.  For those of you that don't know, I am a big gamer and love vintage / retro video games.  I decided to just go all out and pay for the pro merchant account which is $39.99 a month.

Of course the hardest part of this was trying to figure out what I was going to name my store!!!    Whenever I make a character in a video game, I always get stuck on picking names and how my character look.  ITS A BIG DEAL!   Well it didn't take me too long to figure out a name and thus,Sneaky Squirrel Games was born.

The reason I named my store Sneaky Squirrel Games is due to my special operations background in the Navy.   We have some very secretive mission in my line of work and when anyone I knew was going to go screen for DEVGRU I would always say they were going to go be Sneaky Squirrels.  I think it is a very fitting name and I hope everyone else likes it!

So within the first 3 months I have had some amazing results!  I have been averaging $3000 - $5000 a month in video game sales!  On top of that my ebay store is still going strong and I just had my highest month ever!  $6500.00 in sales!

I have a few tips for anyone that wants to sell video games online.  Picking the correct mailers for shipping is pretty important.    I have narrowed it down to 2 types of mailers.

These two types of self adhesive mailers are the ones that I use. Kraft bubble mailers are way to go, I have not had a single video game show up broken since I started using them.

The two sizes I have linked above are the 250 ct #0 Kraft Bubble Mailers 6.5" X8.5" Padded Envelopes which work great for the following types of video games:    Nintendo, Super Nintendo, N64, Sega  ( loose cartridges ) PS1, PS3, Dreamcast and any other smaller game media.

If you are looking to ship Xbox 360, PS2, Sega CD, Sega Saturn or DVDs I recommend the #0 6.5x10" KRAFT BUBBLE MAILER PADDED ENVELOPES-250 qty.

If you are looking at the $30ish dollar price tag for the envelopes I can tell you they are well worth the money and they go a lot faster than you think.  I burned through a 250 ct box of the 6.5 x 8.5 mailers within the first month and now I have the 6.5 x 10 mailers but I will be ordering another box of 6.5 x 8.5s for my smaller games.

If you have not opened up an Amazon store, I highly recommend it, you wouldn't believe how fast games sell on there.  Well thanks for reading my post, good luck with all of your finds.

Famous Turtle OUT!

Famous Turtle is back in action.

Hey everyone!  I have been extremely busy for the past year or so.  I have not had a whole lot of time to do much blogging.  I switch over to video blogging on youtube about all of my recent sales.  Come subscribe to my channel and check out my videos!   They are a little dated now but there is still some great information on things to keep your eyes out for.  

I am currently transitioning out of the military.  I have 4 very LONG months left in the military.

For those of you who do not know, I am an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician on the special operations side US Navy, I have deployed 5 times in my career, once to Iraq where I was lightly wounded by sniper fire while responding to a ordnance cache.   I have had too many close calls in my military career and I am lucky to be able to get out of the military with my life and all of my fingers and toes.

That being said, I will not be leaving the military unscathed.  I have hearing loss in both ears from explosives that detonated right next to me and from the sniper round that almost hit me in back of the head, have permanent high frequency buzzing in my ears and was diagnosed with moderate PTSD.

Of course I wouldn't change any of it if I could go back in time.  I have done more than most could even dream of, and I am proud to have the opportunity clear the roads of Iraq of IEDs to keep the soldiers that I worked with safe.

Having almost died multiple times, in multiple ways has really made my decision to leave the military a very easy one, especially since I am leaving the military to do something that I love to do.   HUNT FOR STUFF TO SELL ONLINE!!    Aaaah  that just made me feel all warm and gooey in side, I'm not going to lie!

Since I am going to have quite a bit of free time on my hands when I get out ( hopefully not too much ) I figured I should breathe some life back into this blog and my youtube channel so keep checking back to find out what new stuff I have been into recently!

Famous Turtle has a new website.

Famous Turtle's treasures has a new ecommerce website where we are going to be featuring vintage home decor styles such as Hollywood Regency, Danish Modern, Mid Century, Space Age, Atomic, Machine Age, Industrial and many more.   Check it out at http://www.famousturtletreasures.com.