I ended up in Florida for most of November and half of December so I had to put things on hold, but I’m back to plugging away on this and have made some solid progress.

The saltwater equipment was sold in two separate transactions. The first to go was the skimmer, which I sold two days after the last update.

It was sold to a guy in midcoast Maine. He actually stumbled on my eBay auction, at first not realizing I only lived an hour away. Knowing the skimmer was going to be a nightmare to ship, I was happy to meet the guy for an in-person transaction, which I did after the Patriots made short work of the 0-4 Browns. It was Brady’s first game back after a 4 game suspension… like Ice Cube once said, it was good day.

Plus, an in person transaction meant I didn’t have to pay exorbitant eBay and PayPal fees… stickin’ it to the man, y’know?

Despite the auction having 0 bidders at my $179 starting price, the guy offered me $190 to end the listing early and sell it to him. Truth be told, he probably could have offered me $100 and I would have taken it. Don’t forget from the last update, I only paid $50 for this beast. Still, like the greedy bastard tenacious individual that I am, I talked him up to $200 by throwing in a couple of random odds/ends that I got for free from update #2:

Originally paid: $50
Sale price: $200
Total profit: $150

The other transaction was for the UV sterilizer. I first put this on eBay for the fairly obnoxious price of $489:

I then remembered that there’s a free online forum, specifically for buying/selling saltwater aquarium equipment. ReefCentral to the rescue.

Cutting out the eBay ‘final value fee’ also allowed me to put a more reasonable price tag of $325. It sold, though I agreed to pay for the shipping fees.

Originally paid: $150
Sale price: $325
Shipping fees: $120 UPS (about $50 more than I was expecting… I shipped in two separate boxes, one of which was extremely large and awkward, check out my frankenstein’d box photo below)
Other fees I paid: $20 (PayPal fee + original eBay insertion fee + realistically an entire roll of packaging tape)
Total profit: $35

…hardly a home run on the UV Sterilizer itself, but breaking even, or even “losing” a little bit on the UV would have been perfectly fine, because I already profited 300% on the skimmer transaction.

Total profit from this update: $185

Total profit from previous updates: $200

Grand total cash to use for next update: $385 (up 185% from where I started… not too shabby)

Funny side note, when I was chatting with the dude who bought the skimmer through eBay messages, he predicted another Patriots Superbowl apperance:

I remember laughing to myself a bit about his comment. Not because I was doubting the Patriots, but because it seemed a bit crazy to predict “another Superbowl trip” a third of the way through the season. Apparently not. #gopats

Next:
Update #4 • 1/31/17

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Update #2 • 10/7/16
Update #1 • 9/15/16