AM I GOING CRAZY......OR ALREADY THERE?

I feel like I am already there.

I have been listing like mad over on ebay.
(Mad...crazy.....I see a trend here)
 
I need a kitty hug...

Things I think that will sell well......they sit there and no one looks at them.
The things I list because I think they are interesting.......they sit there.
The things I think are so-so......they sit there.

Explain this to me please. How can an item.....any item. Sit in ebay for 10 days and not have anyone, not a single soul look at it? It seems impossible yet I have had 5 or 6 items do just that. Then all of a sudden I get views and three of these items sell within minutes of each other. Two to the same person and one to another. Within minutes of each other!!

That tells me two things.  Don't watch what you have listed. Don't take it for granted it will sell. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. (That is three but math has always been a challenge for me.)

Over on EBU a discussion about how ebay has rolling blackouts is very interesting. I understand that ebay has lots of things online at any given time. But if everyone's stuff is not going to be available for viewing at any given time I think ebay should discuss this with us. With their extremely high fees(12-15%) for selling I feel ripped off if my items aren't the "things" that ebay wants to sell. Certain categories just seem to get left out because ebay is trying to promote what they feel will sell.  Someone has commented that ebay is trying to get to the point of everything new and not resold stuff. I don't see how they can do that, but.....

I guess I'm just frustrated that last week was a long, hard week.
No luck job hunting.
No yard sales or thrift trips.
No luck selling on ebay.
My sweet brother in law passed away.

I just want to find a cave and close the door for a while.
I can't wait to get back to normal (what ever that is)

MADE IN.......WHERE?

I have been busy listing, listing,listing. Trying to get out of the deep end of the pool.

I have this ready to list and I just think the tag is ironic.

If you can't read under the H-D eagle it says "An American Legend" and right next to that tag is the Made in Mexico tag.

If it's an American Legend, could we at least TRY to make the clothes in America?

Silly me or do you think so too?

MORE NEW STUFF.........

I love yard sales!!!

Did you HEAR me? I LOVE yard sales!!!

I especially love yard sales where everything is priced to sell, 25c to 50c!!!!!

You can get some really good stuff, but you can get some crap. My daughter SmartA** is a great bargain finder. She has the nose.

Some of the stuff I got yesterday.

The two Tommy Bahama were $1 and the other three are
from the giant thrift and were 50c each. Got them listed today!

Bag of 81 skeins of DMC floss---only 6 colors---but I can deal with that.

A bag o'babies 89 teeny tiny babies for 25c---I'll deal with that

A pink pig cigarette lighter---the flames come out of his nostrils---double flames!!

This is the end you PUT the butane in...just funny to me!!

This bag of wooden train track and building pieces was 15c.
There are at least 30 pieces in the bag. Woo Hoo

An my daughter has a thing for nail polish. She has a large selection of colors for her nieces to choose from when they visit. They prefer pink, but she has blue, green, yellow, black and just about any other color imaginable. She picked up 6 bottles yesterday for 25c each. Two bottles were intriguing. One was an older Christian Dior, paper label, and another a Chanel. I asked her to check them online. I already knew that some OPI colors bring $20-$25 a bottle. She checked. Dior goes for $20 and up and Chanel goes for $65 and up.
Her bottles were about 1/4 full, but still....yikes. Who pays $65 for a bottle of nail polish? I don't care how good it is. Who?

It's a pretty color. I volunteered to test one finger to see if it really is better.  Maybe I should have chosen a different finger.......

KNEE DEEP IN IT

Do you ever feel like you are going crazy? Like you are digging a hole and the sides are falling in?

Well, join the crowd. I'm sure that all you armchair psychiatrist out there are ready to analyze me. I could use the attention. But things around here have been super busy this week. I have been trying to get as much in my ebay store as I can, trying to get ready for the shopping season. Last week end I had 12 auctions ending. That is always a busy time, exciting but busy. Then everything has to be boxed, weighed, and get the postage on the box and then get them out the door. Whew!! I did it. While I didn't sell everything, I sold enough to make it worthwhile. I finally got the last package mailed today. A late payer always keeps you on edge because you keep thinking they are going to back out. But it all worked out.

About the crazy thing.....I am so tired of boxes of stuff sitting everywhere. By the couch....by the table....by the window....by the door.....everywhere.

Have you ever sold on ebay? I mean really geared up for mega sales? I currently have about 90 things listed and I easily have 3 times that much stuff to get listed. Also, because I have had a store for over 30 days, things that did not sell are coming off. Do I pull them, do I relist, do I donate them, do I have a yard sale?????

My head hurts...

It's a vicious cycle. You must buy to list.....you must list to sell.....when you sell you must buy more to list.......
Sometime I wonder if it is worth it....But I need the cash and the distraction of keeping busy is a plus. I mean, you can only look for a job so many hours in a day. And there are only so many out there......and more than enough applicants to fill 10 times the number of jobs available.

My goal on ebay is to average $100 a day in sales. A few days I have accomplished that. Most days I don't.
I don't know the secret to selling on ebay. (There are dozens of books, ebooks and the like out there, for a price) so I am just flying by the seat of my pants. 

The way things sell on ebay just baffles me. When you are on the selling side things are weird. I sold this earlier this week.
For $12.99. There were other cups just like this one listed for less but mine sold in 3 hours. Why? Who knows.  I charged a reasonable fee for shipping and that may have been the selling point
I also sold this
It's a used jelly jar glass.It came free with the jelly, well in this case strawberry preserves. Of course it has the original lid and it is kinda cute if you like Snow White and Dopey. But $6.99 cute? Not for me.

See, the things people will buy just boggles the brain.

Based upon this type of sales I think my skull nail art will be a hit......But I don't think I'll hold my breath just yet....

Off to yard sales tomorrow. Hope I find some real treasures.

NOT MUCH GOING ON.......I'M GONNA GET IN TROUBLE

It has been kinda slow and uneventful at the casa this week. Sales on ebay were slow this week. Not much to do except housework. And that is not my favorite hobby.

Its a holiday today. Labor Day. It would be a holiday if I had a job.

So what to do....what to do....

I have been gearing up for the holidays and have been trying to come up with some unique things to separate money from folks. I have been working on miniature Christmas trees and ornaments and miniature Halloween trees and ornaments. I picked up some items at the $store to play with.  It doesn't pay to be bored and start trying stupid things. Or does it?

A few days ago my daughter Smarta** introduced me to deco-den. It is from Japan where excess in ordinary things is the way. Check out her blog here. She explores the world of deco-den.

With that thought in mind I tried this
What was I thinking? Too plain? Not enough bling?
I can see green gems for the eyes, a bit of blood dripping from the teeth and maybe a little paint to highlight the crack in the forehead.

Do you think I am on to the next BIG THING or should I just go clean the bathroom?

REFLECTIONS.......

Well, so much for my plans for today. Last night I was thinking about "taking the day off" today. Which really means that I wanted to go thrifting since yard sales were rained out this week end because of Irene.

HA!!!!

As I was shutting down my computer last night I had one more email. So...being the inquisitive person that I am I just had to open it. 

It was from ebay....great something really pertinent and life changing....not!!

Well, this time it was.....sorta.

Today was penny listing day for ebay stores!! Now, for the store owners that pay only 3cents per listing every day it may not mean much. But for us store owners on the bottom of the pile it means something. It means saving 19cents for everything I list today. That makes a difference....especially since its the end of the month and fees are due in a few days.

So this morning I got busy washing, drying, sorting and taking pictures of everything I wanted to list for auction today. I photographed and cropped and sized until I wanted to cry. Then I saw this picture of my Starbucks French Press and almost died......laughing.
.

Does this qualify as obscene?

This was really shiny and hard to photograph without a flash back. I refuse to do it again.

I showed this to my daughter and she asked me if it was "reflection porn". I have never heard of this, but I will be careful and not take my auction pics in the buff. 


Sales would plummet!!

BLOWING IN THE WIND

I have always like the Bob Dylan song, Blowin' in the Wind.

Not so much the actual blowing in the wind, as in Irene.

We are hunkered down here watching our tall tall trees blowin' in the wind. Several years ago we had to have a very old oak tree cut down. It was leaning and starting to die and we were afraid it would fall on something or somebody. When it was cut down almost 3/4 of the inside was hollow. An accident waiting for a place to happen. I hated to see the old oak tree cut down, but it was time. I am glad now that we don't have to worry about it hitting the house or barn. The old gentleman who cut the tree down estimated it was between 200 and 250 years old. Yikes!! And it was about 120 feet tall. I guess we should have called him "Big Boy".(oak tree...acorns...nuts...;p

Here is hoping that all of your tall tall trees will just be blowin' in the wind.

What a week. An earthquake and a hurricane.

Lets hope next week is dull and boring.