It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To

My goal this week? SURVIVE!!

That might be easier said then done. I will be 30 something this weekend and I’m having a really hard time with it this year. Birthdays are never fun for me. I hate getting older. And this year I keep thinking about where I thought my life would be at this point and where it really is. And they don’t match. I know I have a good life. I’m healthy, I have a job, a roof over my head, I have the worlds greatest daughter, a family that loves and supports me, etc. But even though I know that I'm still feeling really, really, really down.

And to make matters worse eBay buyers and sellers have been annoying me. Sorry sir that the shirt that was labeled an extra large didn’t fit. I did include measurements but I’m sure it’s somehow my fault you won’t go on a diet. Sorry annoying seller who emailed me that I copied her title and that was against eBay policy. I know it’s hard to believe we all use the same key words on listings and no I didn’t copy your title but I will change it just because I’m not in the mood for a fight. I’m sure the reason you haven’t sold your outrageously over priced toy is because my listing had the same words as yours not because yours is 3 times more then mine. But I added more and better key words to the title so there!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I’m going to go sit in my corner and pout some more.

Goal Update

I always have great intentions. Follow thru not so much.

Goal:
List 40 items. Actual listings were 7. Oops
Sell $250 to put into my Vegas fund. Actual sales were $225!!! Can you believe it? I can't. Imagine if I would have listed.

Now on to the excuses. I usually list the most on weekends. I went to an A's game on Friday. Yesterday was a family friends birthday. Today we went to the mushroom festival. I have tons more excuses. But I have a out. This is technically a long weekend so if I list tons tomorrow I will still be ok. So if anyone needs me tomorrow I will be in my garage/eBay room.

Happy Memorial Day to all.

Maybe I Should Have Listed It For More

Recently I read a blog (I can't remember which one I read so many) about My Twinn dolls. They are bigger then American Girl dolls and just as expensive. You can customize them to look like your child. Today at lunch I ran into Savers and what did I see? A My Twinn doll. They had her priced at $6.00 and her hair was a tangled mess. I hesitated to buy her. But I confirmed with the cashier that I could return her for store credit within 7 days so I thought I would take a chance.

When I got home I looked up the care instructions for these dolls and they recommended washing her hair with baby shampoo. Her hair was so baf that didn't help much. So I spent the next 30 minutes brushing out tangles. When I was done her hair looked like my Princess' hair when we give her a bath at night. Not a pretty sight.

I debated about listing her but in the end I figured I would give it a week and hope for the best. I took lots of pictures and disclosed all conditions. Because of this I listed her BIN at $40. To my huge surprise she sold in less then 30 minutes. My first thought? "Maybe I should have listed her for more money" I'm sure that has happened to all of us when something sells so quickly. But I am happy with my $30 profit. I will definitely be on the look out for these dolls. And maybe next time I will do more research before I list.

Weekly goal:

List 40 items- so far I have only listed 6 items. 34 more to go.

Sell $250 - I have only sold the My Twinn doll so far so $210 more to go.

Weekly Sales and New Goal

This past weekend was a beautiful weekend in my little California town. Saturday morning I woke up to a warm day and garage sale signs on just about every corner. It would have been the perfect weekend except I had to work Saturday. I almost called in sick because I was feeling sick to my stomach passing up all of the possibilities. But then I remembered that there was no one at work to call in to so I kept on driving. Sob sob.

I didn’t get as much listed as I was hoping this past week. I know I’m bad. But even though I didn’t list I still sold $177.00. I was shocked. These are my favorite sales:

I found this costume at a garage sale several months ago. I saw it mixed in with a pile of children's clothing. I didn’t recognize the character at all but the tag was from Disney so I figured for $2.00 I would take the risk. I got home and asked the kids “who is this?” “Zurg from Toy Story” was the answer I received. I quickly looked him up on my phone. He had sold at a really good price but since it wasn’t the season for costumes I listed it for $60.00 and hoped it would sell. But it didn’t. It sat in my store for almost 3 months. I was getting tired of looking at it so on Friday I lowered the price to $50.00 and it sold the next day. I know I could have gotten more if I had waited but it is bulky and I am more then happy selling him for $50.00. Now I have a date with my nephew David. I told him if he would model it for me I would take him to Panda Express if it sold.

I will admit I am one of those people who always talks about losing weight. I have good intentions. But I have horrible follow through. This is one of those examples. I bought this DVD set for $1.00 at a garage sale so long ago I can’t even remember when. And it sat and sat and sat. Poor thing never got used. I decided to list it a couple weeks ago and it sold for $14.00. I’m happy to have it gone so it won’t sit there looking at me accusingly and yelling “you promised to use me”.

I also sold a Littlest Pet shop hamster set from the 80’s. It was missing one of the hamsters but it still sold for $10. It was part of the huge lot of stuff I bought a garage sale a few weeks ago. I paid $15.00 for everything including the Pocahontas set and Lion King set I sold recently.

I know the only reason I sold $177.00 was because I sold the costume for $50.00 and the ugly sweater previously mentioned for $50.00. Otherwise my sales would have been dismal. I have to get off my butt and start listing. So my goal this week is to list 40 items and sell $250.00 to put into my Vegas in July fund. Can I do it? I think I can. Wish me luck!

What I Sell On eBay

According to my niece I sell ugly things. Case in point:

I bought this just to prove that I could sell it. I paid $1.00 for it and sold it for $20.00. It’s a shirt with dogs playing pool on it! Who would actually wear this?! Apparently someone will. Or more then one person because I had seen a few completed on eBay. It’s a Dragonfly shirt just in case you want to buy one for your honey.

Example #2. I bought this sweater for $1.00. That’s when I was on my sweater kick back in January. I listed it with the word GORGEOUS in the title. Inside I was thinking “why would you want to wear a bulky sweater with vehicles all over it?” I listed it for $50.00 planning on listing it high for the first month and if it didn’t sell I would drastically drop the price. Well that was the plan. I forgot all about it and it sat since January listed BIN for $50.00. And guess what? It sold today. Buyer already paid. Am I the only one wondering who’s going to be wearing a sweater in May?

Maybe that’s my niche. Selling ugly pieces of clothing. But like I always tell my niece when she makes fun of me “I might be selling ugly things but at least I’m selling them.”

Oh and if you happen to like any of these items I didn’t mean to offend you. Please check out my other listings. I have lots of other ugly things, oops I mean unique clothing listed.

Am I The Only One ...

... who never gets the eBay announcements about free listings?

Today only list auction style with buy it now are free. If you anyone needs me for the rest of the day I will be stuck in my garage a.k.a. my eBay room listing my buns off.

Weekly Sales

I have been neglecting eBay lately. And I thought for sure eBay would be upset with me and turn off my store “Open” sign. But shockingly they didn’t. This past week I sold $160.00 worth of merchandise. I am pleasantly shocked. Especially considering I haven’t listed in a couple of weeks. I was too busy getting everything ready of my Princess’ birthday party.

I sold 10 items for a total of $160. Well actually my total sales were $175 but I messed up on the shipping for one of my items that went international. I forgot to weigh it with all of the filler items in the box and it ended up weighing more then 4 lbs which meant it had to go priority. I ended making $30 instead of $45 on it. It was a large lot of Lion King figures I got for less then $1.00 so I’m more then happy with making $30 on them.

Here they are. Nothing special about them and I’m surprised they sold so quickly. But there were 50 of them.

I am known (or was before my mortgage and Princess) for paying hundreds of dollars for a purse. But even this sale shocked me. I wouldn’t have paid $30 for a used purse made out of seatbelts. But like I always say “if you list it, they will buy”. I sold this yellow Harveys seatbelt purse for $30. There was only one other yellow one listed so I might have been able to get more but it was dirty and I didn’t want to spend the time to clean it. I did take lots of pics and include descriptions of stains. I bought it for a quarter a few months ago and finally got around to listing it when I was in “Must raise money for my Princess’ birthday gift” crazy.

I was excited I finally sold my first coffee mug. I have read in several different blogs that these sell well. I decided to try it out. This one I bought as part of a lot of 3 for $1.00 and sold it for $12.00. I don’t know if I’m going to rush to buy more of these unless they are unique. Mugs are annoying to mail. You have to be careful packing them so they don’t break. I think I will stick to non-breakable clothing.

My baby loved her Dora themed party. She is the reason I sell on eBay. To make sure she never needs for anything. I have to remember that next time I find myself neglecting eBay again. And now back to listing.

My Princess is 3!

It seems like just yesterday I brought her home. But it's been over a year already. And how she's grown.

Happy birthday Andi. Love you!

Goal Update and Yard Sale Finds

I made my goal of selling $300 in two weeks. Woohoo!!! I actually sold $318.00. I will be honest though. My second goal of listing 5 items per day didn’t go so well. Last week I only listed 10 items. Oops. I was sick with the flu and not very motivated. I’m just happy that I was able to reach my goal without listing daily. But just imagine how much I would have made if I did list daily. OK lets not think about that cuz then I will get sad. Tonight I am going home and listing. Promise.

My next goal will be saving enough money to take my Princess to Disneyland. I don’t know if I want to make the trip before or after the new little one comes. Since I don’t have a date it’s hard to plan. But for now I’m concentrating on making my baby’s 3^rd birthday the best ever.

I work this Saturday so that meant no yard sales for me. It actually hurts knowing how many sales there were that I was missing out on. So Sunday morning I woke up mom at the crack of dawn (Translation in my world: 9 am) and out we went yard saling. I was so exciting. It was a beautiful day. I had visions of finding the next big thing that was going to make me enough money to retire from my eBay earnings. How did I do? Well I’m still working. I did find some interesting items though.

I finally found my first American Girl doll. She didn’t come with any clothing and her hair has seen better days. But for $2.00 I figured I could take the chance on buying her.

I found this frame. Kinda corny but I saw it and imagined it sitting on my desk with pictures my Princess and my beautiful doggies (who swear they are human). And it only cost $1.00.

I also purchased a couple of Air Jordon sneakers. I’ve never sold shoes before much less tennis shoes. And since I never wear anything but sandals I'm far from an expert. But I know these aren’t cheap shoes and they were in great shape. Best part, they were only $1.00 each pair. I figured I could turn some kind of profit on them. No pics of those though because they are being cleaned.

I hope you scored better this weekend then I did. But like I always say, every little bit counts. It all adds up.