Monday, August 23, 2010

More eBay Adventures

First day of school!!

Sorry, I've been remiss in my blogging. I was off flirting with a boy.

But I'm back now.

Fortunately, I have not been as remiss in my money collecting!

The eBay promotion allowing free listings continues, and I have been attempting to take full advantage of it. I've even gotten smarter about it; I try to have all of my listings close on the weekend, so I can send Dan my Ex and Errand Boy to the post office on Monday or Tuesday. Of course, that only works if people are prompt in paying!

Last week, I listed 8 items. Sold one.

So this week, I relisted the 7 unsold items plus one more. Sold 5. Go figure. And I'd be happy to pack them all up... if the two holdouts would pay me! I also had the fortune of finding a second Calvert Grammar Disk after I'd sold the first one for more than I thought I'd get (around $17), so I was able to make a “second chance” offer to the second highest bidder, who promptly snapped up my second grammar disk.

It's all good.

This weekend, I was trying to list like a demon, but some listings are more time-consuming than others. I'm selling everything from spelling disks the kids are done with to my commemorative silver Star Trek coin.

And selling a bunch of items at once brings up a whole new problem. Not packing material. Oh, no. I have a garage full of empty Amazon boxes. But keeping all the packages straight, making sure I'm sending the right item to the right person, is a bit more stress-inducing than I had anticipated!

Another problem I encountered is that on two items I forgot to charge shipping!! Fortunately, they were light cheap items. But, hey, two bucks is two bucks, especially when the item only sold for around $9. That cuts into the profit margin big time. I now watch that step very carefully.

Maryanne is back from her month-long European vacation. She got back on Friday and promptly headed to school on Monday. She licked jetlag in one day! Ah, to be young again.

On Saturday, Maryanne will be taking our dog to the vet for her annual physical, shots, and all that. And the following week, our ferret is due. I'm trying not to think about that. Between the two of them, we're talking easily $300. And here I am selling spelling disks on eBay for $9 or $10 a pop! I'd have to sell far more of those than I have to pay for the vet...

But that's why I arranged the system this way. No co-mingling of funds. The vet visits would have happened either way. The eBay sales go straight to the credit card debt. Of course, the vet visits will probably also end up on the credit card... Sigh...

No comments:

Post a Comment