I'm Back!

Sorry about that! 

Did you ever have one of those months? Nothing has been going wrong or anything, but I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. We had a yard sale this past weekend, and I had a massive amount of stuff to put out. Of course, I waited until 2 days before the sale before I started pricing anything. So that kept me very busy last week. We have just a couple days to recover from that, and then we're headed out for a camping trip with my sister and her family this weekend. After that, I'll have a couple days to recover from THAT before we leave to travel to Indiana to meet my bestie Tina for a shopping weekend!!!  June has been a whirlwind! July looks pretty empty, so I might be able to be more productive then...

On the eBay front ... I have temporarily changed my frame of mind regarding eBay. My sales for the month of June are currently at 60% of what they usually are this far into the month. I spent the first week or two of the month feeling extremely discouraged and even a little angry. But then I started to realize how much I was enjoying NOT rushing around like a maniac every morning, trying to catch the mail lady. So, while I'm not doing anything different, I have embraced the fact that these summer months are going to be slower. I'm not actively promoting my store or my items. I am not studying traffic reports or analyzing anything. I'm just doing what I can, when I can. I list a few things here and there. I end old items and relist using Sell Similar, when I am able. I'm not fretting or stressing over eBay at all. It is what it is, and for the moment, I'm okay with the slower sales.

I live in the northeast. Our yard sale season is very short. I'm trying to get out to as many as I can and use this slower period to focus on storing up inventory. I'm even having a hard time doing that, because yard sale prices this year are higher than thrift store prices!

eBay is a roller coaster. Of course we all get excited during the highs, and it's easy to get discouraged during the lows. But I am considering this slower time a blessing. I can spend more time outside bike riding or going for walks and picnics with my family. I don't feel stressed or overworked.

I am very fortunate in that my eBay income is not a necessity. It's definitely helpful, because we don't have to pinch pennies. But it is not a requirement for our survival, for us to pay all our bills each month. I imagine all of this is easy for me to say, considering we are not dependent on my income. I can't even begin to imagine how stressful this is for those of you who ARE dependent on eBay for income. I am sorry I have no words of wisdom for those of you in that situation. All I can suggest is to make the best of it. Do the opposite of what I am currently doing. Promote your items on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. Maybe cut back on your shopping for new inventory. If you need your income to pay the bills, don't spend it on more inventory. Or at least not as much inventory. It's a double-edged sword, because we need inventory in order to make money. Look around your house. Find things that you can sell that you already have - that you don't have to spend money on.

Tomorrow I'll post the few highlight sales that I have had this month.