YARD SALE ALTERNATIVES....SCRATCHING THE ITCH

For the second week end in a row I have not been able to do yard sales. What??? you say. Or as my daughter is prone to say.... Whiskey. Tango.Foxtrot.

By Monday I was trying to figure out how I was going to scratch the itch. I had bunches of trash to turn into treasures and list in my store. Fix a button here, sew up a pocket there, wash,dry and fold and everything else to do to get ready to photograph and list. I worked like a madman Monday thinking I would get to thrift on Tuesday. Didn't happen. I worked like a madman on Tuesday thinking I would get to thrift on Wednesday. My oldest daughter, MotherOfGrandchildren, called and wanted to meet for lunch. Oh yeah!! The girls are tracked out this week and I haven't seen them in a while. She MOG had a doctors appt  and we were meeting after that. Meanwhile, on the way to the meeting I stopped at a couple of places, JUST TO LOOK...yeah right. I found some goodies and got there at the appointed time.

After lunch, which we kinda took our time enjoying, I headed for the really big thrift. I hadn't been in a couple of weeks and I NEEDED to check the 2/99c racks. I knew I had plenty of clothing items to list so I restrained myself and only found 4 items and one pair of shoes. I headed inside and started hunting...ahhhh....the smell of the hunt....moth balls....dust....Ben-Gay.

I found some hats, craft stuff and a lot of small stuff.
Hats were 99c and the Scotland towel, napkins, fabric and cross stitch were 25c each. I got a bunch of fabric, it was in the wash when I took the pics.

I looked at every pair of jeans in the store. I WILL find the pricey ones someday. In the meantime, I found a Ralph Lauren pair with velvet patches, gold thread embroidery with glass beads and tapestry patches. Some poor child in China is a very good seamstress....

I also found a pair of Antik Denim jeans. I didn't know anything about this brand, other than they appeared to be quality made with quality fabric. When I got home I checked them out on ebay and found that they average $25 a pair with the high end price being $190. I don't know about you but I would feel guilty paying more for jeans than I pay a month for electricity.... !
That's a lot of embroidery. On the left thigh, is that  a peacock?  These would have been great back in the 60's for my trip to Haight-Asbury.

On Thursday SweetiePie and I were out to breakfast. He likes to eat breakfast out, everyday if I let him.
HE suggested that we stop by GW because he wanted to look for t shirts. Stop....you're twisting my arm. I'll go....I'll go.... since you insist.

Of course I found a few things and he let me buy his t shirts too!!

A pieced tree skirt. Made in China, but it was in the bins so it was reasonable.
A Pottery Barn Teen double duvet cover and 2 shams, from the bins also. Yeah......$$$.... to ebay they go.

A bunch of small glass stuff. The ash trays on the left are German and the one on top is from Norway. A Napco cup/saucer and assorted mugs. Not pictured is a Boynton Baa, Humbug mug  and a Mary Engelbrect mug, Queen of Everything, that I have already listed. Baa, Humbug has sold already!! It paid for everything in the picture...I love fast sales!!

And this odd collection of items.

The California souvenir vintage apron, the Christmas colors smock/apron and the.....ummm..... red costume(?). I also picked up a similar pink costume that I forgot to photograph. Now I normally don't pick up "costumes" because of the ewwww factor, but these were not worn and Halloween is coming up and somebody somewhere will  need  a 4X red costume.

Ok, spill the beans, what did you find this week/week-end?

I'M WATCHING YOU.....

I'm having shades of George Orwell and big brother watching me.

As I have said, more than once, I sell on ebay. I keep checking things out over on ebay and it just amazes me the kinds of stuff that goes on. I have a store on ebay. I can go to my ebay and see all of the things I have listed. On this list I can see if anyone has asked a question about an item, if someone has an offer for a buy it now and I can also tell how many people have marked my item to watch.

Now everyone on ebay will watch something that interests them so they can find it again. I do it all the time. Mostly it is something that I have and am going to list or something that I am looking at to buy. I didn't realize how many people watch my stuff. So I decided to do a little count.

When I counted I had 184 items listed. Of those, 43 were being watched. Now those numbers are a little deceptive because sometimes more than one person is watching an item. I had a total of 69 watchers. Keep in mind that my items are listed for 30 days. Sometimes as soon as I list something I will get a watcher. Why would someone who wanted to buy something want to watch something for 30 days?  They don't. They are other sellers keeping an eye on your prices. They either have the same item for sale or are getting ready to list it. I have a $4.99 t shirt listed and I have 7 people watching. Why?

It's a $4.99 t shirt for crying out loud. Go find something else to watch.

On a good note I got the chance to go thrifting.  Whew, I almost forgot how.

I just love going through the 2for99cents racks at the really big thrift store. I always find something. The last time I went I found a few vintage dusters. This time I tried to stay away from a lot of clothes. I have a bunch I need to list and needed other items. But I did find 4 things that had to come home with me.

Have you ever heard of 7 for all mankind jeans? I WANT those jeans. Those puppies go for big bucks. Over 4,000 sold on ebay in the last 3 weeks at an average of $35 a pair with a high price of $190. Seriously!!! These things are on my radar.I looked through every pair of jeans at the thrift store and found a pair of Antik Denim, which average for $25 with a high of $119. They are cute, heavily embroidered and really not my style. I will have to just settle for those for now.

Oh well, the week end is coming up.Yard Sales!!! Maybe I will have some luck.

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?