Enough with Black Friday already

I am just about fed up with all of the hype about Black Friday.

What about Thanksgiving?

Do we just forget Thanksgiving and go shopping? Some workers can only afford to take two holidays off a year. Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. How would you like your holiday time cut in half?

Think about it.

I know it's nice to have a job, but someone has to pull those early hour shifts. I know they offer overtime and extra pay.

But enough is enough. Stop pushing shopping on Black Friday.

I went shopping once on Black Friday, back in the 70's, before it was officially called Black Friday. Didn't find anything spectacular, didn't find a parking space. Long lines, frazzeled clerks, grumpy shoppers.

Count me out.

I choose to spend the time with my family.

How did you start you ebay journey?

I've been snowed under the last few weeks. No, not actual snow, the ebay kind. I am slowly digging my way out of the piles of stuff. Just in time to be the hostess for Thanksgiving for the family.

October sales were just average. But only slightly above last years sales. I have almost twice as much inventory this year as last year. Should that make me have twice as many sales? You would think so.

November has been super good. I have sold a lot of items that have been listed for a while, some over a year. I really think that Good Till Cancelled is the way to go. Why did I put it off so long? So, it really is true that anything will sell eventually.

That got me to thinking about August, 2010. That's when I lost my medical job and just couldn't find another one as good. No one wants an "older lady" CMA. Funny, while I was in school my instructor kept saying "you won't have any problem finding a job" Yeah right. Well, after I left that job I decided to give ebay a full time tryout. I had been selling off and on while I was out of work and in school, selling stuff around the house, leftover craft stuff and textbooks. I convinced my SweetiePie that I could make a REAL profit from ebay and I wanted to take a chance. He supported my efforts by not complaining about the lack of household organization or clean underwear. Thanks SweetiePie!!

So I took $100 from my "secret stash/mad money/emergency funds" and went to purchase my first real inventory. I remember planning my trip to make the best use of time and gas. I took some granola bars and a couple of bottles of water, some IKEA bags and off I went.

 Who knew that 4 years later I would still be going strong. I don't remember much of what I purchased that first trip, but I do remember going the cheap route. I purchased a ton of men's polo shirts, children's clothes, women's clothes and vintage glassware the first few months. Looking back on my logbook of inventory makes me laugh. I learned lots of lessons that first holiday season. I no longer buy men's polo shirts unless they are big name brands. I don't buy children's clothes unless they are Halloween costumes or fancy dress outfits. I don't buy anything that needs major repair. And at first I wouldn't purchase any shoes. Now shoes and boots are a major seller. In women's clothes I have stepped up to higher prices and better quality items and don't sell much vintage glassware.

But I am grateful for that first learning year. I wanted to argue with every return. I didn't want to deal with customer service. I learned how to pack everything correctly. I learned where to get boxes, tissue paper, packing peanuts, labels, tape and just about anything else I needed. But most of all I learned the most important thing...RESEARCH.

That first year I relied on the old gut. Well, the gut wasn't right enough of the time to suit me. So I started looking things up. Duh!! Why hadn't I thought of that before. I started reading blogs about people doing what I was doing, making the same mistakes, learning, and moving onward and upward. I started to make some money. I was happy, SweetiePie was happy, the cat was happy, everyone was happy!!!

So I'll share some of the things I've learned.

**Don't buy junk. If you buy something damaged, realize that it will take time to fix it. Time is money and if it takes too much time you don't make any money.

**Learn how to clean....everything. I don't like to scrape old gum or horse poop off of shoes. Who does? But sometimes it just has to be done. I bought a pair of Ariat boots for $4.59 and the soles were covered in dried poop and straw. I cleaned them and made $50. That's what gloves are for.

**Learn how to take good pictures. I'm still working on this. My camera hates me. Really. Black items come out green or blue. Red items come out pink or orange. Its still a work in progress.

**Learn how to write a good description. I cringe when I see items listed with one or two pictures, and the only description of the items is "good condition". How do they ever sell anything? Maybe I over describe, but at least I am familiar with my items and that helps me find little flaws and any issues with the item.

**Don't argue with a buyer. It's just stuff. Return it, refund, and move on. It's not personal unless you make it personal.

**Buy a  mannequin. I haven't done that yet. I have those plastic half people that really aren't all that great, but they are cheap and will do until I find a mannequin that I can afford. I do have Emma, a vintage sewing mannequin that my aunt gave me, but she is dark and doesn't adjust anymore and not really clean looking for good photos. I'll keep looking. There is one out there with my name on it. I just know it.

**Research everything. Twice. You won't be sorry. And you learn so many interesting things.

**Be thankful for all of the nice people who write blogs about the same things that you enjoy and are willing to share their successes and failures with the world.

**Don't believe everything you read on the internet. All of those youtube videos about such great hauls of stuff. It's nice to see what you bought but I would really be interested to see what sold and for how much. I don't really need to know the profit margin, just that it did sell

OK.....whew that was a lot of words. Now how about some pics of recent good sales.

 Raccoon collar and cuffs picked up at estate sale sold for $50 plus shipping
A yard sale find for $2, ordered the safety harness, sold quickly for $25 plus shipping to Brazil
Found at a thrift store and sold within a week for $75 plus shipping to Australia

Found at the same estate sale as the fur collars. Purchased 3 for $10 and have already sold two for $35 each. These were really damaged with some blocks  with chunks of fabric missing. Nothing that couldn't be fixed, by the buyer not me!! 

Found these at a yard sale for $2. VTG 70's with almost no wear and the original gold logo. Others online were selling for $60-$75. I wanted more, not greedy but I knew I could get it because of the condition of the logo, so I listed for $125 and free shipping and I shipped them out today. Only listed for about a month. Ask higher and you can always take less.

I sometimes sell items for my daughter and split the profits 50/50. She picked this Maya Wrap up for fabric and decided it was too nice to cut up. She is really happy that she didn't cut it up. Purchased for $1, sold for $50 plus shipping. A nice little profit for Mother and Daughter

So get out there and find something great, take great pictures, write a great description and sell it, and tell us. And share with me how and why you got started.

 

Is it a coincidence or conspiracy?

I don't know if anyone out there watches "Bones" on Fox, but I love it. She is a forensic anthropologist and is so funny, blunt, brazen and adorable. Well, anyway there is a character on the show, another scientist, Dr. Hodgins, or just Hodgins, who is always attributing anything that happens to a conspiracy plot. I don't think that everything is a conspiracy but some things make you wonder.

The bay has been after all TRS to opt in to the 45 day return policy to take effect after Nov 1. I planned on doing just that since I have been able to hold on to TRS since the "big change". I just hadn't opted in yet. Well, this week I received two messages from ebay about how they were looking out for my welfare with all of the wonderful ads they had on TV and cable. Both had sections to opt in to the return policy. I didn't respond. I decided to wait until the end of Oct, thinking that it would change my current listing to 45 days.

Duh!! it didn't, but hey I'm a procrastinator at heart.

So, the moral of the story is don't wait. Why?  Because I have had absolutely no store activity for the last two days, except for one nice person to point out an error in my listing, no sales, nada. Then I get back from errands today, with still no action, and decide to go ahead and opt in. Just to see if it would make a difference.

I opted in to the 45 day returns at 3:24 pm. At 3:32 pm I had my first sale in 2 days.

Coincidence? Maybe, but just let me wallow in my conspiracy theory for a while, OK?

On another note, thanks to all of the lovely blogs that I read I picked up an old Nintendo 64 system and 20 games at a church sale a couple of weeks ago. I picked up the bag, and since it was just after 8 and the sale had just started, not everything had prices yet. I asked and the volunteer said 25 and put a sticker on one of the game cartridges. I thought $25 but was pleasantly surprised to find out it was 25 cents when I checked out.I got the original game console, all the wires, 4 controllers and 20 games for 25 cents. Oh how I love church sales and volunteers who don't have a clue!! Everything works and I'll probably make close to $350 with everything.

 Now that is an ebay religious experience!!

Go where???

I was busy listing away for ebay the other day when my phone dings that I have a message. I went over to messages and checked to see if it was a question about a listing and got this "lovely" message about an item I have listed:

"IN OTHER WORDS YOUR(sic) SELLING JUNK YOU EITHER GOT AT A GARAGE SALE
ORSTORAGE LOCKER AUCTION. I HOPE U BURN IN HELL"

I thought it was nice of him to be concerned about my soul, so I called ebay to share the information with them.

Granted, he only had a feedback of 3 and he didn't appear to have ever sold anything but this jack-ass needed to learn a lesson, and stop yelling. I hope ebay taught him something!!

The customer service person I talked to said that ebay would send him an email and they "may" restrict him from buying or selling. They couldn't tell me if that happened or not. I don't really care what they do to him, probably nothing, but I don't think he should be able to pick an item at random and just rant to the seller.

The item he was so upset about? A Panasonic VCR player/recorder. There are currently about 250 listed for sale on ebay. Not the best or worst item in the world, but if you haven't upgraded to blu ray, it may be just what you need. In any case its my store and I have it listed

SO THERE!!!!

And you butt is blocked!!!

Good luck or Bad luck?

While I was on vacation, Labor Day week, I put my store on vacation and left it visible. I had average sales with only one person to request a refund because he didn't want to wait for shipping. On Thursday before checking out of our hotel, I made a mistake and duplicated 10 listings that I had listed 3 weeks earlier. I didn't delete the listing after I relisted. A stupid mistake.

A mistake that ebay caught and made me pay for. By restricting my new listing for 7 days. OK, I made a mistake but ebay has software that catches the mistake, sometimes but not all the time. I called, they wouldn't change the restrictions. I lived with the consequences. Don't tell SweetiePie, but I did make a mistake!!

Is that the end of it? Yes, maybe no.

I noticed that the week I was on restriction from new listings that my sales were about the same as a normal week. About average at $450 for the seven days. Then I noticed something else strange.

For the 7 days during the restriction ended sales were fine. Then last Thursday, all of a sudden, a screeching halt to sales. For the next 7 days I averaged 1 sale a day. And I think that every sale I had was less than $20. One day my only sale was $8.99. Not the way to pay the bills. Then on this Thursday, about noon, all of a sudden my phone starts dinging like mad. Five sales on Thursday and, so far, five sales on Friday.

When I was put on restriction I jokingly told SweetiePie that I would probably be on ebay's crap list for the infraction of the rules. Little did I know that it would be so soon, and so drastic.

Maybe ebay did nothing to my listings, or maybe they did something. It could just be coincidence. But then again, everything seemed to commence around 11:45 on each Thursday.


Some Interesting Finds
 While on vacation I picked up some old fragrances. Estee Lauder Youth Dew bath oil and Prince Matchabelli Golden Autumn cologne parfumee. I have done pretty good with old fragrances so I didn't even bother to look them up on my phone. Youth Dew, the original formula, is very popular. My Mom used Youth Dew and it was always soooo strong. It seems that people are using the bath oil as perfume because it is cheaper than the original formula perfume. Check out the completed listings here I found a full 4 ounce bottle.


Everybody knows Prince Matchabelli's Wind Song. But do you remember Golden Autumn? I pays to remember it. When I purchased my classic crown bottle I thought I was getting Wind Song, but since they had the price taped over the label, I realized later it was Golden Autumn. A nice mistake. Check out the completed listings at perfume. I found a 4 ounce bottle with about 3.75 ounces.

I know I shouldn't be out thrifting but gee whiz a girl's gotta shop. Last week I was taking a break from staring at the "lovely" computer screen and I hauled my re-donations to Salvation Army. While I was there I had to check out their store.

I had never seen this set of dominoes before. But I thought they were interesting. Worthpoint reports a set being sold for $225 several years ago, but I think I'll set my sights just a tad lower.

Also after reading about the luck some sellers have with vintage or vintage style sneakers I picked up a pair of Nike retro style purple leather sneakers. Like these Mine are exactly like these, with the exception of a little bit of yellowing on one side of one sole area. And for some reason blogger is refusing to load my picture of the shoes!!

Ya know, old things aren't so bad!!!

Trouble with the bay?

Is anyone else having trouble logging in to ebay?

I have been having trouble since Sunday with logging in and doing any kind of re-listing and printing labels and almost anything ... except shopping. Well, I had a problem with that also.

Monday it took me one hour and 15 minutes to get 7 labels printed. Seven labels! It should have taken 15-20 minutes, tops. I couldn't get to the print shipping page in any way, shape or form. And when I did I couldn't get to the print label page. I was able to access other sites without any problems.

How do they expect me to have any sales if they can't provide me access to my pages? How am I supposed to get my packages mailed in one day if I can't access shipping labels? Are buyers able to access my pages and make purchases? Are my items even visible?

I tried to use my "free" coupon to purchase a battery on Sunday and even though I had the correct code it didn't give me credit on my purchase. Grrrrr. I suppose that now they want me to buy something else to use the coupon. Customer support was no help, after 37 minutes on hold!!

I am so frustrated with "the bay" that I am wishing and praying for another site to step up and take control of the sales that they used to provide.

I can't wait until their fall ad campaign starts to attract new buyers. I want to throw something at the tv every time I hear one.

Rant over!!

Can you read this? ONE SHOE ONLY

Apparently some buyers have a problem with this.

You may remember a while back at an auction I purchased several pairs of shoes only to find a large discrepancy in the size. I had only paid $2 a pair for the shoes, but nevertheless I wanted to get my money back and make a profit. That's why I do this.

Since listing the single shoes I have had 3 sales. The first one to NYC only to be returned when the buyer contacted me and wanted to know where the other shoe was. He shipped it back for credit. And not a peep about me paying return shipping!!The second sale I was a little wiser and emailed before shipment and pointed out that this listing was for ONE shoe. Oops, the buyer made a mistake and we canceled the sale.

Now, today I have another sale of one shoe. This is a NWT golf shoe. I just emailed the buyer to make sure that he knew that he was getting ONE shoe only. I wouldn't be surprised if I get an oops message back asking me to cancel the sale.

I don't want to seem insensitive when I ask the buyer if they know they are purchasing just one shoe, but damn I'm tired of mailing out one shoe, only to get it back later in the week.

Does this sound insensitive?
 " Hi, I would like to verify that you understand that you are purchasing the RIGHT SHOE ONLY
 in this listing. This is for only one shoe.
Recent single shoe sales appear to be confusing to some buyers. The listing clearly states
in the title and the description that this is for one shoe only.
I don't mean to offend anyone by asking this question, I just want to make sure that
everyone is aware of this detail before shipment.
Thank you"

I can assume by the buyers names that they probably do not speak English as their first language. But in my listing I only show the one shoe that I am selling, not a pair. And I state several times that this is one shoe only.

I don't know what else to do. I can't read the listing for them. I would assume that they are looking at how nice the shoe is and the price and saying, "wow a good deal", purchase now.

On a similar note I have also had difficulty with replacement electric blanket controls. I have sold 3 from a recent purchase at the GW outlet store. The first was what the buyer wanted. The second one the buyer thought he was getting an electric blanket for $8.99. Really?

Now today I shipped out another one. I only include the photos of the control. No blanket photos or size of the blanket or any mention of a blanket included. Control only stated several times. I hope this one sticks. I mean, if you don't see a picture of a blanket why would you assume that the control came with one?

***UPDATE*** Sure enough, while I was composing this the buyer emailed me and said "I'm not interested in purchasing one shoe. Thank you for the information"  (Oh, you mean the information that
was stated in the listing?)

Ain't ebay just peachy?