Sunday, February 19, 2012

Greetings from the Black Hole


Helloooooooo! Can you hear me out there??

I know I've really complained a lot about this week's slow sales. It's been a real bummer. I didn't even make it HALF WAY to my sales goal. A slow day or two here and there is nothing unusual, but it has officially been a full week of really crappy sales. It's really hard to stay positive and optimistic after day 7. This whole week's sales added up to what I made in 2 1/2 DAYS last week. Ugh.

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I just got a bunch of new listings up, so maybe that will help stir up some activity. I came home from my road trip with 12 denim skirts. After that last batch sold so quickly, I'm optimistic that these will sell well. I got a good variety, and I finished listing them all this evening.

Here's my "favorite":


How hideous wild is that? My sister thought I was out of my mind for buying this, but look what I found when I was researching it yesterday:


Yep, that's right. $41 bucks for that ugly thing! Mine's a size 2, so it will take longer to sell, no doubt, but I have it listed for $39.99 + shipping. I'm willing to wait for just the right buyer.

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Speaking of my road trip ... here's the vehicle I wanted to take:


Here's the vehicle I could have gotten away with:



I didn't come home with nearly as much as I was hoping. I had optimistically budgeted a very large amount of money for this trip. And remember I said I wasn't going to buy clothes? Well, I had to resort to clothes. I was just not finding anything worthy of my time, money, or effort. Besides shoes and clothes, I found 3 turntables, 2 sets of hot rollers, 3 pieces of vintage Tupperware, 2 handheld video games, and a knick knack that was a stupid impulse buy. I think I was just so desperate for non-textile stuff that I bought it, even though I knew better. Bah.

Two trips in a row now Harrisburg has let me down. I'll be heading to Philly next time. My sister-in-law lives out there, so I stay with her for a long weekend. They are 3-day trips, and I come home with tons and tons of goodies. So for now, I'll just focus on finishing up what I've already got laying around, as well as my small weekly trips to my one Goodwill. I'll save up some cash and head out her way in May.

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Not much else to write about, since I haven't been selling anything. I am VERY on the ball with my shipping these days. I have my packages (all 5 of them - sigh) all ready to go out in the mail tomorrow, but there is no mail tomorrow. So I'm a day ahead! Wow!

5 comments:

  1. I went over my last three months of sales to see if I could find a selling pattern. Days 1- 15 of the month are great days (for me anyways) but the end of the month 16-31 is about 1/4 of the sales I got at the beginning. So if I sold 20 items in the beginning Im at 5 at the end. So now I know not to expect many sales at the end of the month and not to freak out. (Im sure since I know figured this out, the pattern will change)

    Its either really late and Im overtired or I have gaudy taste but I kind of like that skirt. If it was like 5 times bigger it would fit me. How much do you pay for the skirts? Im thinking of looking at them the next time I go shopping.

    ok I really hate word verification Am I the only one who can not read those stupid words?????

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  2. The most expensive skirt i bought was $5, and that was the Ralph Lauren one. They should all sell for $20-25, so i think $5 is a good price to pay for them.

    I hate word verification too. I once got locked out of my facebook account for a week because i got the word verification wrong too many times!

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  3. I thought it was just me with the word verification issue. I can
    never read those things right the first time.

    Becky, my GW typically sells ladies skirts for $3.69 unless its tag color happens to be the half-off color of the week. Sal. Army sells them a bit cheaper if you have a decent one anywhere around you. Skirts are easier to fit than dresses so if you're easing into clothing, skirts would be a good place to start. Check the seams at the hips, rump, any slits and the lower part of the skirt (esp. if it is a longer skirt - the prior owner could have popped the seams when walking). Check for stains (ie. dropped food on lap, sitting on dirty bench). Always give the waist and length measurements. GL! :)

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  4. Hi - I've been enjoying your blog for a few months now and am just now getting around to commenting. I've been selling on ebay for almost 6 years now - no store just 'casual' selling - although I've stepped it up in the last year & made power seller. I really enjoy doing this but it does get discouraging at times. My sales have also been pitiful for the last few weeks - the worst I've ever seen it. I get discouraged with low sales & ebay policies & I read so much negative stuff on other blogs - you have such a positive attitude about the whole process that I get a little boost when I read your blog. Do you ever get really discouraged?

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  5. Lynn, I'll be honest with you. I'm very discouraged right now. But I try really hard to keep that to myself and not let that come through too much on my blog. (It did slip through last week though - a person can only take so much! LOL)

    I have two reasons for keeping positive about it on my blog:

    1) The reason you mentioned. A lot of other blogs and the eBay discussion boards can be really negative. I did a lot of complaining last week about my sales, so I have to make a conscious decision to be more positive.

    2) I am really fortunate to not HAVE to sell on eBay. We don't really NEED huge sales. My eBay income pays for our extras: gymnastics, music lessons, horseback riding lessons ... I occasionally buy a tank of gas or a cart of groceries, but overall, I am under no pressure to reach X amount of sales, other than the pressure I create for myself by setting a high goal. But it's not a required amount, so it's not the end of the world if I don't reach it. That usually helps me to not get too down about it.

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