Life in Pieces

I keep thinking that time will magically appear for me to have time to blog. I want to blog, heaven knows I have plenty of material to talk about. However, I haven't had time to do any serious thrifting, just a dash here and there to GW, so I really don't have reselling things to discuss.

Like almost everyone whose blog I read, sales were up after Thanksgiving and the first three weeks of December. When the  week of Christmas started it was like a switch flipped and the pipeline backed up. I checked the average sale price for my store Christmas week and it was $14 per item!! That is a new low. Hasn't been that low since 2010 when I started full time.  It seems like every thing that is under $10 has been selling. Sales are nice but come on eBay... I need more cash. Poof... I sold a pair of UGG boots. I think that was the only big sale all week. Come on people...Time to treat yourself to what you didn't get for Christmas.

The week between Christmas and New Year's was much better. Several sales of $50 and a few more at $25 but still had those bread and margarine items at $10-$15. (Not good enough to call them bread and butter.)

Customer issues
Who buys a lot of Christmas ornaments (listed as having some with damage) and then leaves negative feedback because they are damaged?? Also let's throw poor packaging in there without providing any photos to back it up. Peace on Earth, good will to men? Contacted the buyer and she said she expected chipped paint and not damage. Guess she can't read.

Fantastic treasures
Well, I wish I had some fantastic treasures that I have found, but since I haven't had chance to go shopping I have zilch, nada, nothing. Things don't look promising in the near future.

What I have been doing is taking care of my SweetiePie. Two hospital visits in two months. Finally a diagnosis, not a good one, but I believe accurate. Changes in meds. More changes in meds. More cognitive decline, more compulsive behavior. Just more of everything. Now I'm trying to educate myself so I can prepare for what's to come. Nothing can prepare me for what's to come.  I wish more information were available on Lewy Body Dementia, I need more information but I don't want to know what's coming but I need to know what's coming. Can I handle the stress? I must handle the stress! A vicious cycle in which one of us need to stay sane and carry on. All of this would be easier to handle on a good nights sleep once in a while. I don't think I have had more than 2 hours sleep in a row on any given night for months and months. It's like having a fussy baby, only they never get better.

So you see, selling someone else's old stuff just dropped to the bottom of the list. But I need to move it to the top of the list and keep selling because we need the income. It's more difficult than ever to concentrate on selling.

 I don't have time to really dig for high profit items and go to multiple stores in a day. Bread and butter is what it will have to be, for the time being. It's the best I can do. My main source of items is now GW and the ones in our area NEVER have sales. Never, ever in the history of time. They only accept cash or checks, no shopping carts, no cards, no bathrooms. But you can still find gems if you look hard enough. They pick the most ridiculous things to price really high and place them on the shelf next to a regular priced item that I know will sell for $40-50. So this really does prove the theory that you can find enough to sell anywhere you look. You just have to look.

I'm still holding out for the bag sale for clothing. I was able to go to the bag sale on Friday and get a bag full of stuff for $5, average price per item 15 cents. I really can't see paying $5 for jeans when I can get a bag full for 15 cents each. SweetiePie even pushed the cart for a while so I could shop but he gets tired quickly and doesn't last for long.

So, my advice for the new year. Don't waste any time doing something you don't want to do. Life, ebay whatever you enjoy. You may run out of time. Enjoy everything you can, while you can. There were lots of things that we wanted to do but that isn't possible now so we will just enjoy what we can while we can. One day, sometimes one hour at a time. Things change fast.