Use the 10% Rule to Negotiate at Yard Sales

What do you do when the seller at a yard sale says, "Make me an offer." The Simple Dollar suggests taking a minute and applying the 10% rule.

If the seller says "make me an offer," always say "let me think about it." Then, do some quick research (if you can). Look for the price of the item on a retailer's website, then figure out what 10% of that price is (just take that price and multiply it by 0.10 on your phone). Make that your offer.

This 10% equation is best when the item is in good condition. If it shows wear, you can even go down to 5%, and if it's in great condition and the seller bargains, you could even settle for up to 20% of buying it new.

The full post at the blog has some other great tips, like going to yard sales on Sunday afternoons for the best deals or only looking for collectibles that you know well.

Seven Principles of Yard Sale Season | The Simple Dollar

View the Original article

Use the 10% Rule to Negotiate at Yard Sales

What do you do when the seller at a yard sale says, "Make me an offer." The Simple Dollar suggests taking a minute and applying the 10% rule.

If the seller says "make me an offer," always say "let me think about it." Then, do some quick research (if you can). Look for the price of the item on a retailer's website, then figure out what 10% of that price is (just take that price and multiply it by 0.10 on your phone). Make that your offer.

This 10% equation is best when the item is in good condition. If it shows wear, you can even go down to 5%, and if it's in great condition and the seller bargains, you could even settle for up to 20% of buying it new.

The full post at the blog has some other great tips, like going to yard sales on Sunday afternoons for the best deals or only looking for collectibles that you know well.

Seven Principles of Yard Sale Season | The Simple Dollar

View the Original article

Amazon’s Annual Shareholder Letter Talks Drones And Grocery Delivery, Not Sales And Supreme Court Cases

Amazon’s annual shareholder letter from CEO Jeff Bezos is out today, and it includes a few juicy details on Amazon’s products, services and future plans, though not any hard data like how many dang Kindles Amazon has sold, of course. But some of the more interesting items on the report include updates on Amazon Fresh expansions (the company’s online grocery delivery service), Amazon’s “Pay to Quit” program which will pay unhappy warehouse workers to leave the company, and, oh yeah, they’re totally doing delivery by drone.

Totally, like that was not a PR stunt at all. Nope.

Drones!

In case you missed it, “Prime Air” was introduced at the end of last year as an in-house experiment which had Amazon testing delivery of small packages by autonomous delivery vehicles (drones). Bezos referred to them as “octocopters” in a 60 Minutes interview during which the company showed off the technology. The drones can reportedly carry packages of up to 5 pounds for 10 miles, which could mean you could take delivery in 30 minutes or less. You know, like pizza.

Of course there are a few issues with those plans, including commercial regulations, the placement of Amazon warehouses outside of densely populated urban centers where drone delivery makes sense, and not to mention the fact that gun-toting Americans could easily make “free stuff from the sky” a fun, new national pastime.

But no matter, drones are definitely in the works, says Bezos today:

“The Prime Air team is already flight testing our 5th and 6th generation aerial vehicles, and we are in the design phase on generations 7 and 8.”

7 and 8! So that’s like any day now!

Amazon Pays (Warehouse) Workers To Quit

The company also revealed its “Pay to Quit” program, borrowed from its own Zappos division, which will pay Amazon’s warehouse workers up to $5,000 to quit their jobs. (Yes, just “fulfillment center” employees, mind you. Developers wanting seed money as they run off to build their own startups are out of luck.)

Explains Bezos:

It was invented by the clever people at Zappos, and the Amazon fulfillment centers have been iterating on it. Pay to Quit is pretty simple. Once a year, we offer to pay our associates to quit.

The first year the offer is made, it’s for $2,000. Then it goes up one thousand dollars a year until it reaches $5,000. The headline on the offer is “Please Don’t Take This Offer.” We hope they don’t take the offer; we want them to stay. Why do we make this offer? The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want. In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don’t want to be isn’t healthy for the employee or the company.

Usually people want an honest day’s wage in a safe work environment with reasonable goals and decent working conditions. Not, you know, this.

Oh, and workers also want to be paid for the half hour they’re required to wait in line to leave their workplace so they can be searched for stolen goods - a case that’s made its way to the Supreme Court, in fact.

Groceries

Amazon also offered a little tidbit regarding its grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh, which is now available in Seattle, L.A. and San Francisco. Bezos confirmed the service is expanding to new markets, as has been previously reported, but was vague on the details:

We’ll continue our methodical approach – measuring and refining Amazon Fresh – with the goal of bringing this incredible service to more cities over time.

Everything Else You Already Knew

As for the other highlights, much of it is a rehashing of things Amazon watchers have already heard, but it’s handy to have it all spelled out in one place.

A few of the notable stats and details:

• Prime: over 1 million customers joined in December; now “tens of millions” of members worldwide; 20 million+ eligible products.
• Prime Instant Video: 40,000+ movies and TV episodes; exclusives include: Downton Abbey, Under the Dome, The Americans, Justified, Grimm, Orphan Black (OK, Amazon, thanks for this one), Suits, and kids programs SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, and Blue’s Clues. Some of the originals include: Alpha House, Bosch, The After, Mozart in the Jungle, and Transparent.
• Kindle: You can read it on a plane during takeoff and landing! Amazon says it tested this on a plane once using 150 Kindles.
• Publishing: CreateSpace, Kindle Singles, and Kindle Direct Publishing were joined in 2013 by Kindle Worlds, the literary journal Day One, eight new Amazon Publishing imprints; Amazon Publishing also launched in the UK and Germany.
• Fire TV: No, they won’t talk sales numbers. Offers over 200,000 movies and TV episodes; lets you access Netflix, Hulu Plus, VEVO, WatchESPN, and more.
• Appstore: over 200,000 apps, nearly 200 countries; added Amazon Coins.
• Audible: “millions” of customers and audiobooks; nearly 600 million listening hours in 2013.
• AWS: 280 services and features added in 2013; 10 AWS regions around the world, including the East Coast of the U.S., two on the West Coast, Europe, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Brazil, China, and a government-only region called GovCloud; 26 availability zones across regions and 51 edge locations for its content distribution network.
• Employees: a few details about various programs including Pay to Quit (see above); Virtual Contact Center (a work from home program); Career Choice (pre-paid tuition); Veteran Hiring (hiring armed forces)
• Warehouses: 96 fulfillment centers and is on its 7th generation of fulfillment center design; YOU CAN TOUR THEM!: www.amazon.com/fctours is a whole site about how awesome it is to work in Amazon’s warehouses.
• HQ: “Added 420,000 square feet of new headquarters space in Seattle and broke ground on what will become four city blocks and several million square feet of new construction.” Nothing about the crazy, soap bubble design.
• Amazon Fashion: …is getting serious: new 40,000 square foot photo studio in Brooklyn and now shoot an average of 10,413 photos every day in the studio’s 28 bays.
• Sellers: Fulfillment by Amazon grew more than 65% last year.
• Pay with Amazon: No numbers regarding adoption. Some customer called Cymax Stores, an online furniture retailer, is using it and it’s just great for them. “More in 2014.”
• Amazon Smile: Charity program. Numbers? Total donations? Nah.
• Kindle’s MayDay button:

Mayday Tech Advisors have received 35 marriage proposals from customers. 475 customers have asked to talk to Amy, our Mayday television personality. 109 Maydays have been customers asking for assistance with ordering a pizza. By a slim margin, Pizza Hut wins customer preference over Domino’s. There are 44 instances where the Mayday Tech Advisor has sung Happy Birthday to the customer. Mayday Tech Advisors have been serenaded by customers 648 times. And 3 customers have asked for a bedtime story.

Good to see Amazon taking informing shareholders seriously, yeah?

Read the whole thing here.

Image credits: Aim.org, Amazon

Sales of the HTC One (M8) could boost HTC to 3% global market share

With the HTC One (M8) flying off the shelves in Taiwan in the first week of sales, analysts expect HTC could sell as many as 4.2 million of their flagship device this quarter. To do so would boost their global market share to about 3% and possibly mark a turnaround from 3 years of near-continual losses for the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer.

As the pinnacle of HTC’s design and technology, the One (M8) is an impressive phone. We’ve seen it make its mark on benchmarking tests (in High Performance mode, at least,) usher in a new generation of sub-50ms screen touch response time performance and enthusiastically show off its curved metal casing and more in a short behind the scenes video.

“In 2013 we introduced the best smartphone in the world, but we never stopped challenging ourselves and the status quo in this category. I’m proud to launch the most stunning, intuitive and advanced handset that the industry has seen to date, the new HTC One (M8).” – Peter Chou, CEO HTC

When it comes to the specifications, the HTC One (M8) does not, however, stand above the crowd. Most of the currently releasing flagship devices, from manufacturers such as Huawei, LG, OnePlus, OPPO, Samsung and Sony, offer very similar internal specifications. One major differentiator between the devices is their main camera sensors. With LG, Samsung and Sony providing 13MP, 16MP and 20.7MP sensors, respectively, the HTC One (M8) has a lot riding on its software and dual lense depth sensing, as their main camera measures in at only 4MP.

Beyond this quarter’s expected 3 million to 4.2 million HTC One (M8) sales, sustained sales are very important to HTC’s overall success. However, the HTC One (M8) high-end smartphone is not solely responsible for the success of HTC, as we’ve already discussed the merits of the HTC Desire line of phones. Improved marketing and avoidance of any supply chain mistakes should make a difference as well. HTC currently sits below 3% in the world market share and will require exemplary sales of all of their devices should they hope to regain, or surpass, their former 10.7% global market share that they held in 2011.

HTC faces strong competition in the Samsung Galaxy S5, the LG G Pro 2 and the Sony Xperia Z2, all of which offer similar specifications at a similar price point. With so many exciting and powerful phones to choose from, will you be helping HTC One (M8) sales reach 4.2 million?

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eBay Now Allows Virtual Currency Sales

eBay, owners of payment service PayPal, has quietly added a new Virtual Currency category to their sales site, allowing users to sell virtual currency like bitcoin, as well as miners, and mining contracts.

The category is sparsely populated right now and the listings are all classified ads, suggesting that eBay wants buyer and seller to hash out their sale outside of the company’s jurisdiction, thereby reducing risk of become liable for scams and fake sales.

The company has been moving into digital sales over the past year but has long held a no-nonsense policy against digitally downloaded items. One listing for dogecoin, for example, notes that the cryptographic keys to the currency will be sent, presumably on a thumb drive or hard copy, via USPS or UPS rather than via email, something eBay has long frowned upon.

The category is so scattershot and clearly new that there is no telling just how this will change eBay’s policies towards digital items. Considering bitcoin is a direct competitor to PayPal and recent patent filings have shown eBay is working towards a type of cryptocurrency for its users, it makes sense for them to test the waters in this way. I’ve reached out to eBay for comment and will update when they respond.

UPDATE – eBay writes:

To promote a trustworthy marketplace and ensure compliance with applicable regulations, eBay updated its Currency Policy in February. The updated policy clarifies that listings for Bitcoin and other similar virtual currencies must be listed in the Virtual Currency Category in the Classified Ad format. In terms of mining gear and mining contracts, those can be listed as auction or Buy It Now.

eBay has updated their currency policy to reflect this change.
via Coindesk

Nest Halts Sales Of Protect Smoke Alarm Over Safety Concerns About ‘Wave To Dismiss’ Feature

Nest CEO Tony Fadell has just issued a notice recommending users disable the Protect smoke alarm’s ’wave to dismiss’ feature. In testing, it was discovered that people could accidentally trigger the dismiss feature, delaying a smoke alarm.

Sales of the Nest Protect have also been halted.

He recommends that users disable the feature for now, and says Nest is going to update units that will allow the feature to work correctly. In addition, if your Nest Protect is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, it will have the feature disabled automatically.

Until the feature has been corrected, users can tap the button on the unit to silence alarms.

“At Nest, we conduct regular, rigorous tests to ensure that our products are the highest quality,” says Fadell. “During recent laboratory testing of the Nest Protect smoke alarm, we observed a unique combination of circumstances that caused us to question whether the Nest Wave (a feature that enables you to turn off your alarm with a wave of the hand) could be unintentionally activated.”

Fadell says that the testing will take two to three months, and that they will update consumers as they progress.

“We’re enormously sorry for the inconvenience caused by this issue,” he continues. “The team and I are dedicated to ensuring that we can stand behind each Nest product that comes into your home, and your 100% satisfaction and safety are what motivates us. Please know that the entire Nest team and I are focused on fixing this problem and continuing to improve our current products in every way possible.”

In a related FAQ, Nest says that it had observed the issue in testing and has had no reports of it from any customer. There are also instructions provided that will allow users to disable the feature even if the units are not connected to the net.

The post notes that if any consumers do not want to keep the Nest Protect, a complete refund will be offered. Somewhat ironically, the Nest Wave feature was promoted heavily as a benefit of owning a Protect unit.

On the plus side, because this is a device that has built-in software and connects to the net, it can be updated remotely to fix software-related issues. But recently, an issue with a Nest Thermostat software update caused problems with Wi-Fi and batteries in some units, highlighting the delicate nature of software that powers our environmental systems — and that we trust with our safety.

The Nest Protect was the company’s second product after the Nest Thermostat. Nest announced plans to be acquired by Google for $3.2 billion in cash in January.

T-Mobile CEO Fires Back After Losing BlackBerry Sales Arrangement

An Open Letter – and Offer – to BlackBerry Loyal
By John Legere, President and Chief Executive Officer

April 3, 2014

Being America’s Un-carrier is simply this. It’s about listening to and advocating on behalf of US wireless consumers. That’s it. The simple act that first ignited this Un-carrier revolution – and set T-Mobile apart from the entire US wireless industry – was that we listened to the customer. And that changed everything.

And, of course, that goes for the BlackBerry loyal, too. We hear you and stand with you. We always have and always will. So, obviously, we were disappointed in BlackBerry’s decision this week to end their agreement with us.

But here’s what really matters most for BlackBerry owners. Whether you’re an individual customer or business customer, nothing changes. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

If you’re already with T-Mobile, you can continue to count on us for the great service you’ve come to expect, the regular OS updates, and, of course, America’s fastest nationwide 4G LTE network. None of that changes as far as we’re concerned.

And, if you own any BlackBerry that works on our network and also want the fairness and freedom that comes with being a T-Mobile customer, you can bring in your BlackBerry any time and enjoy Un-carrier benefits like no annual contract, unlimited everything with no overages on our wicked-fast network, no hidden device costs, no upgrade wait – and international roaming at no extra cost. And, don’t forget, you get to enjoy your BlackBerry with all of these Un-carrier advantages on America’s fastest nationwide 4G LTE network.
In fact, to show our appreciation for all current consumers so passionate and loyal to all things BlackBerry, we’re offering a $100 credit toward any new device, including the BlackBerry Q10 or the Z10. And this offer is good through the end of the year. So you can take your time.

One thing you can count on from us: we’ll keep listening to you and finding new ways to meet the needs of BlackBerry users – individuals and businesses – everywhere. But we’re not done. Stay tuned for another Un-carrier offer that gives you more value and even more reasons to stay with America’s fastest growing wireless company.

I’ll always fight for you. And our team remains committed to providing the same great Un-carrier experience to all BlackBerry users. At the end of the day, this has got to be about you – the customer.

Leap Motion Lays Off 10% Of Its Workforce After Missing On First Year Sales Estimates

Leap Motion won a lot of buzz early on for its motion controller, which is designed to make it possible for users to interact with their computer through gestures alone. The early buzz and pre-order interest led to a lot of growth, with the company swelling to 120 employees at its peak. But disappointing reviews when the hardware actually shipped took some of the wind out of the startup’s sails. Now, CEO and co-founder Michael Buckwald tells TechCrunch they’ve had to make some tough choices, dig in and prepare for a business plan where success is defined over the next decade, not in a first production run.

Leap Motion has been forced to part ways with 10 percent of their employees, including personnel ranging from telephone support staff to high-ranking executives, in a bid to get to a place where its spend on human resources is more in line with its new fiscal reality, Buckwald explained in a telephone interview. But, he’s quick to stress, none of said employees are on the product, design or engineering teams, and instead are primarily involved in sales and marketing.

“In order for David [Holz, Leap Motion co-founder] and I to feel financially responsible, we were forced to make a difficult decision and cut about 10 percent of the team from the marketing and support side,” he said. “So that we could continue to hire for engineering and product roles as we roll out our version 2 software and as we think about moving into new spaces and new form factors outside of the PC.”

Buckwald called the decision “extremely difficult,” and credited his “amazing team” but also noted that since Leap Motion had anticipated millions of units in holiday sales, many of the roles they’d hired for ended up being superfluous. The startup’s predictions for year one device sales had been on the order of up to 5 million; in the end, the first year for Leap Motion brought in sales of much closer to 500,000 units.

“We really had no idea what our expectations were [around holiday sales],” Buckwald said. “We didn’t know whether we were going to sell 100,000 units or 5 million units, and that was very scary. So we made a sort of best guess and we built up the team around that guess. We still ended up with a number that we’re really happy with and that, from a revenue perspective, gives us plenty of options in terms of continue to expand to new retailers and add new OEM partners, and continue to run and grow the company.”

As for what’s next, Buckwald is seeking more talent on the product side, as mentioned above. And the startup’s main job is to rebound from the perceived disappointment of its early hype to chart a more realistic path to success. Considering the company’s goals, which include reinventing the way we interact with computing devices, that means looking at things with a more long-term perspective than many operating in the startup space might be used to.

“In terms of how we see the technology, it’s always been about a five- or ten-year path to executing on that vision, and the peripheral as it exists now and the v. 1 software is an amazing device for many things, but it’s also the very, very, very first step in that direction,” Buckwald explained. “Both through software updates like our v. 2, and by creating new hardware and moving into form factors outside of the PC, that’s how we realize that vision.”

The version 2 software Buckwald describes aims to answer some early user complaints, in part by offering a continuous visual representation of a user’s hands on-screen while they’re using their Leap Motion Controller across applications, so that they don’t get confused by interface and control paradigm changes. The company has also already released 13 SKUs of Leap Motion-enabled PCs with OEM partner HP, and that partnership is alive and well according to Buckwald, with other manufacturer partners set to come on board soon.

Buckwald is frank and upfront about his company’s early missteps, which mostly sprung out of impossible consumer expectations for a device that looked immensely promising pre-launch, and ended up being well-executed early adopter or niche hobbyist hardware instead of the next mouse or joystick. And while Leap Motion may have suffered some reversals, it also created and continues to build tech that will likely feature significantly in one way or another into the future of computer interaction models.