A Few Good Sales!

I've had a fairly steady stream of sales coming in this week, thank goodness! I haven't had many earth-shattering sales, but I'll take a steady stream too :)

There's absolutely nothing spectacular about this sale, except that it sold for more than the retail price on the tag. Before I shipped it, I did remove the original price, because that's just asking for trouble.

• Acquired On: --- sold on consignment for a friend
• Listed On: 10/3/12
• Sold On: 10/21/12
• She Paid: $1.50
• Sold For: $12.99 + shipping (retail price $10.50)

I regretted buying this Wiggles pillow as soon as I got it home. It was pretty pilled, but it didn't have any holes or stains, so I priced it to move fairly quickly. I didn't really expect it to sell as quickly as it did, but I'm okay with that!

• Acquired On: 7/12/12 (Facebook yard sale group)
• Listed On: 10/13/12
• Sold On: 10/17/12
• Paid: $3.00
• Sold For: $17.99 + shipping

 For some bizarre reason, I had Priority Flat Mail Envelope as an option for this. The thing is 26", so I'm not sure what I was thinking there. I did end up losing a little over $1 on shipping, but again - no big deal. It was bulky, and now it's gone :)

The only reason I'm mentioning this is because I had JUST decided that if it was still around this winter, I was going to keep it to wear to church Christmas Sunday. It's pretty and sparkly, and the fit is very forgiving :) But I'm pretty okay with it selling too.

• Acquired On: 2/21/12 (Goodwill)
• Listed On: 3/6/12
• Sold On: 10/21/12
• Paid: $3.99
• Sold For: $21.24 + shipping

This is a no-name brand that I have never heard of (Weatherproof), but it was new with tags and pretty on-trend, so I gave it a chance. It also sold quickly.

• Acquired On: 9/23/12 (Goodwill)
• Listed On: 9/25/12
• Sold On: 10/18/12
• Paid: $2.99
• Sold For: $25.49 with free shipping ($4.93)

This Miche shell came from the huge lot I bought for $97 at a yard sale this summer. I only have 3 shells left from that lot, and I am up to $777.77 in sales. It was worth dragging the kids out of bed early that day! What's odd about this sale, though, is that there has been absolutely ZERO interest in it. Then the other day, I got a message from an eBay member about it. Then a few hours later, it sold, but not to that person. It is amazing to me how often that happens - an item will sit with no interest, then I get multiple questions and/or a sale.

• Acquired On: 6/28/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 7/2/12
• Sold On: 10/20/12
• Paid: $2.00
• Sold For: $29.99 + shipping

I really hate prepping hot rollers, but once I do and get them listed and the sales start rolling in, I'm always glad for them. I have now sold 6 or 7 sets of these Conair Ion Shine hot rollers. I don't know why. They aren't vintage. They aren't super hot. But who am I to question these things? I just hold out my hand for the money and say "Thank you!"

• Acquired On: 7/7/12 (road-tripping with Tina)
• Listed On: 7/31/12
• Sold On: 10/19/12
• Paid: $2.14
• Sold For: $31.99 + shipping

I cannot stress this enough - always pick up SAS shoes that are in good condition!! You just have to make sure of 2 things:  the size isn't rubbed off, and the side of the shoe isn't misshapen from bunions. Seriously. You think I'm joking. I have seen SO many of these shoes with a big ol' deformed bulge sticking out the side of them.

• Acquired On: 4/20/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 5/23/12, but just relisted on 10/19/12 without the HTML
• Sold On: 10/20/12 (the day after I removed the HTML!)
• Paid: 50 cents
• Sold For: $35.00 + shipping

I bought this probably 2 years ago, figuring on reselling it. But my then-7-year-old son saw it and wanted it. Because I knew nothing about K'Nex at the time, I foolishly let him have it. Let me tell you - I have been picking up K'Nex pieces for 2 years now, and he's not ONCE put the thing together. In his defense, it's an extremely challenging one with 1280 pieces. I had made a deal with him that anything like this that I buy, *IF* he puts it together to make sure it's complete and works, it then becomes his. Then once he decides to sell it, I will split the money with him. He seemed pretty happy with that deal, but he never put this one together, so I reclaimed it. I had to order a couple pieces from K'Nex, and it was still missing one tiny piece that they don't carry anymore, but it was huge and I wanted it gone, so I listed it even with the missing piece. It sold very quickly.

• Acquired On: ?? 2010? (Goodwill)
• Listed On: 10/6/12
• Sold On: 10/18/12
• Paid: $7.99
• Sold For: $99.99 + shipping

What Have You Been Up To?

Please allow me to explain my absence ....

#1) My sales have been pathetic, so I haven't had any exciting sales to blog about.

#2) I have been feverishly getting caught up on my unlisted inventory. My store inventory had dropped from about 900 a year ago to around 450 a month ago. I am just above 500 right now. I wish I could find the time to list more regularly, but our homeschool is back in full swing, and we are trying to enjoy these last few days of nice weather before the winter arrives. I also have gotten back into running, and my husband has a lot of schoolwork that has to be done on the computer, so I have had to share :( 

#3) In addition to getting as many new listings up as possible, I have been editing current listings to take out all of my SSB templates. At eBay on Location, we learned that listings with 3rd party templates, photos, and HTML in the body of the listings really deter mobile buyers. I had heard this before, but listings look perfect on my phone, so I thought it was just another conspiracy theory. But then I saw a listing on Tina's Android (I have an iPhone), and it was an absolute mess on her phone. If I had that phone and I had opened that listing, I would immediately have backed out to find one that was easier to read. With mobile commerce on the rise, I am aiming to target those buyers more, so I need to get all of that coding out of my listings.

Each morning, I take a look at the listings that are due to end that day. If I recently listed it, I just revise it to take that coding out and make it text-only. If it's an older listing, I end it and relist it using Sell Similar, and take all the coding out that way. I'm also tweaking my pricing and keywords, and adding free shipping to all my first class items. My Shipping DSR has been steadily slipping, so I'm trying to bump it back up before it becomes a problem.

I am now officially moved into my building. I am set up to take pictures out there now. I absolutely love it. That's my peaceful time at the end of the day. I slip out there in the dark, lock the door, and blast my iTunes while I work. Sometimes I do packaging, sometimes I rearrange, sometimes I just look and smile :)  That has been the best move for my business. I really enjoy working out there.

I can't end the post without just one or two sales from the last couple weeks. Let's see which ones were my favorites...

This is a Faded Glory (Walmart) skirt. It always makes me laugh when I sell a FG skirt for good money, but it has happened enough now that I won't hesitate to pick them up in the future, *IF* it's a cute one. I think all the FG denim skirts that I have sold have been seamed like this AND have been plus-sized.

• Acquired On: 8/30/12 (Goodwill)
• Listed On:  9/17/12
• Sold On: 10/15/12
• Paid: $2.99
• Sold For: $24.99 - $4.99 shipping

My Miche items are still selling well. This purse sold VERY quickly, with free first class shipping, on a Monday. My buyer immediately messaged me offering to pay extra if I would ship it express mail because she needed it by Saturday for a wedding. I messaged her with a shipping quote for Priority and Express, with instructions to send whichever total she chose to my Paypal account. A few minutes later, I received a payment for Express mail. Now, I live in Pennsylvania. She lives in Ohio, right next door. The purse would easily have made it in time with just the free first class shipping option, but I wasn't about to take the chance that some freak occurrence would make it late, so I got it packaged and made the special trip to the post office to ensure that it would get there the next day.

• Acquired On: 9/19/12 (Facebook Yard Sale)
• Listed On: 9/27/12
• Sold On: 10/15/12
• Paid: $6
• Sold For: $26.99 + $21.95 express shipping

More From the Inbox

From Barbara:

I love hearing about your sales AND your purchases! Seeing a realistic view of an normal, everyday person like you (versus these professional ebayers who've made a gazillion bucks over the years) making a go of it is really motivating! It's people like you who keep me motivated to want to continue selling on ebay (because it can really be a drag sometimes)! 

 Thank you, Barbara! An overwhelming majority of the comments on my post asking for questions said that they enjoy seeing my sales. I'm so happy to hear that! That's always an easy kind of post at the end of a long, tiring day, when my brain just can't come up with anything else to write about, but I didn't want this blog to be all about me bragging about my sales. Haha.

I don't know if I would call myself "normal," but yes, I am an everyday person who does NOT have a gazillion bucks in her checking account. :-D


Over the summer, I bought a lot of 25 WWE action figures from a woman on my Facebook group. I paid $10 for them, knowing absolutely nothing about them. I researched each individual one and decided that individually, they were basically worthless, so I put them in a lot for $129.99 or best offer. I got several very low offers. I counter-offered on some, I declined others.

 Then a month or so later, I got another 43 of them at a yard sale for $18. I never even took them out of the book - didn't clean them, sort them, research them, look at them - nothing.

The other day, I got a $50 offer on the original 25. I decided I had had them long enough, and the buyer caught me in an exceptionally good mood that day, so I accepted his offer. Any other time, I'd have probably gotten annoyed at a $50 offer on a $130 item, but I needed the money. Before I accepted the offer, I checked out his user ID and discovered that he resells these things individually (for an average of about $10 with free shipping). It just wasn't worth my time to mess with trying to sell them singly, so I decided I was still happy with that price and messaged him:

Good morning! I am going to accept your $50 offer on my 25 piece WWE Action Figure Lot. I have 43 others that I haven't listed yet. If you are interested in them as well, I will sell them to you for the same price of $2 a piece, for a total of $136 + shipping. Please let me know what you think.

 He immediately wrote me back that he was definitely interested, but could he see a picture of the other lot first. I sent him a few pictures and he offered me $65 + shipping on the second set. I gladly took it! No eBay fees, no cleaning, no researching. So on my initial investment of $28, I ended up making $115 + shipping, and I didn't even have to bother listing the second lot!

Lesson: If a buyer is interested in something that you have more of that isn't listed yet, offer it to them! This is NOT against eBay rules. You aren't allowed to discuss completing an eBay sale off-eBay, but my second lot was NOT an eBay listing, so it was perfectly okay. You never know when you might be able to drum up an extra sale.

***

This post is getting long already, so I'll go to machine-gun-style for these other three items:

Yesterday, I sold the last Miche shell from the very first Miche lot that I bought back in the spring.

Here are the final results from that lot:

This next sale was a real surprise. I cannot remember if I had best offer on it or not. I probably did, but it sold for my full asking price Sunday morning:

• Acquired: 8/9/12 (road trip)
• Listed: 8/22/12
• Sold: 9/23/12
• Paid: $3.00
• Sold: $42.99 + shipping

And finally, I have a contact on my Facebook yard sale group who has nearly 30 pairs of Converse that she is gradually weeding out because they aren't supportive enough for her since she had back surgery. I've bought a few pairs from her, and they've all done well. These were my favorites - super-boring shoes, but exciting sale :)

• Acquired: 7/12/12 (Facebook yard sale group)
• Listed: 7/22/12
• Sold: 9/24/12
• Paid: $8.00
• Sold: $50.00 + shipping

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My next post will be about packaging and shipping, which Ashley wanted to know more about. I might split it up into 2 posts - one about packaging and one about shipping. Logical division, don't you think? :)

Miche, Miche, Miche!

Boy, I'll tell you what. I am having SO MUCH FUN buying and selling Miche! You're probably getting tired of hearing it, but I'm gonna talk about it again. I have sold 6 shells in the past 7 days, 3 of which were just today. I am currently running a 10% off Miche sale, so I guess that's what's going on, but it's still a great profit.

Remember the big lot of Miche that I bought for dirt cheap at a yard sale earlier this summer? I paid $97 for all of it, and here's what's sold:

For those of you who don't want to drag your calculators out, that's a total of $632.32 in sales so far, with 8 shells left to go. In addition to the photos above, there was also a lot of 5 stained shells I sold quickly in a group, and I do have a second purple Ellie shell (bottom left).

I've been buying a few shells here and there from my Facebook group, but yesterday, I bought another largish lot:

I was a little disappointed to discover that 3 of them are slightly damaged, but I think I should still do alright on this lot. There's some designs here that I haven't seen or sold before, so I'm curious to see how they do.

Things Are Picking Up!

My sales are finally picking up! My June sales were about 80-85% of what they were before this big long dry spell. Woo hoo!

I sell a lot of the same types of items over and over again, so my sales posts get a little monotonous. I apologize for that. I only wish I could find the fun and exciting stuff more often :)

My sister-in-law brought me these Pikolinos to sell. It was a brand I had never heard of, but after researching them, I expected them to do well. I'm a little disappointed, but hey - I still more than tripled my investment, so I can't complain :)

• Acquired On: 11/26/11 (sister-in-law)
• Listed On: 12/13/11
• Sold On: 7/31/12
• Paid: $5.90
• Sold For: $22.50 + shipping

 More Converse! I don't care whether they are made in USA or Vietnam or China. If I see great condition Converse for $5 or less, I am buying them. They sell very consistently for me.

• Acquired On: 6/6/12 (Facebook group)
• Listed On: 6/14/12
• Sold On: 7/30/12
• Paid: $5
• Sold For: $25 + shipping

I've sold this particular design twice now. I absolutely love it, but I do not like the shape of the classic Miche bag, so I won't keep it for myself.

• Acquired On: 6/28/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 6/30/12
• Sold On: 8/1/12
• Paid: $2
• Sold For: $34.99 + shipping

I have sold this exact style of SAS sandals twice now. SAS is something else I will always buy in great condition. Some people can squeeze $50-60 out of SAS shoes, but I aim for $40 to get the quick sale, especially when I get them at Goodwill for $2.99.

• Acquired On: 7/7/12 (Indiana Goodwill)
• Listed On: 7/22/12
• Sold On: 7/31/12
• Paid: $3.94
• Sold For: $40 + shipping

I am making a killing on that huge Miche lot I bought in June. To recap, I bought 5 bags, an organizer, and 29 shells for $97. To date, I have sold all 5 bags, the organizer, and 17 shells for a total of $489! I still have 12 shells left, and I sell them for $30-35 each, so that's another $300+ once they sell. Woot!

I spent all day yesterday and the day before testing, cleaning, and listing hot rollers. I had 10 sets that had piled up. I just finished listing them a few minutes ago. That is easily the most detestable part of this job. I love almost every aspect of this job, but not cleaning hot rollers. I wish I could just learn to leave them behind, but the profit margin is so good on them that I just can't stop myself.

Big exciting news!! Several of us are getting together to go to eBay on Location in September! I don't recall it ever being anywhere near me in the time that I've been selling on eBay, so I was excited that it's in Philadelphia this time! I'll be sure to post pictures and my thoughts on the conference when it's over :)

What a Weekend!

Well I'm back! My husband and I drove out to Indiana over the weekend to visit my dear friend Tina. It was absolutely awesome to finally meet in person and get to spend the weekend shopping together!! We had a blast!!

We shopped, we yammered, we ate, we giggled. And I can hardly wait to do it again!


I had put my store on vacation the first day I was gone, and then took it back off of vacation Friday afternoon. I'm not sure what happened, but my sales have significantly improved since then. I'm still nowhere near my first quarter average, but I'm doing much better than I had been. Thank goodness.

Some noteworthy sales from the past week:



My hard-won Miche lot has been treating me well. This discontinued Cori shell sold for $29.99 this weekend.

• Date Acquired: 6/28/12 (yard sale)
• Date listed: 7/2/12
  
• Date Sold: 7/7/12
• Paid: $2
• Sold For: $29.99 + shipping
  

My Facebook yard sale group has been treating me well too. I bought these toddler Keen sandals on there recently. They sold fairly quickly.

• Acquired On: 6/11/12 (Facebook)
  
• Listed On: 6/14/12
• Sold On: 7/2/12
• Paid: $4
• Sold For: $25.00 + shipping
  

Another Facebook find. I'm amazed at how often people sell Converse on that group for dirt cheap!

• Acquired On: 6/14/12 (Facebook)
  
• Listed On: 6/26/12
• Sold On: 7/8/12
• Paid: $5.00
• Sold For: $25.00 + shipping
  

More Miche from the yard sale lot. This is a petite bag, only about 6"x8"

• Acquired On: 6/28/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 7/3/12
• Sold On: 7/7/12
• Paid: $5, but it had a shell on it too
• Sold For: $19.99 + shipping

And more Miche. This is the classic size bag. It also had a shell on it (which I'll be able to sell for $25-30), and the second set of straps you see in the picture.

• Acquired On: 6/28/12
• Listed On: 7/3/12
• Sold On: 7/7/12
• Paid: $10 (that included the other shell)
• Sold For: $29.99 + shipping

More Miche. Y'all are gonna get so sick of hearing about this lot. These 5 were stained, so I was going to throw them away, but I decided to put them in a lot with Best Offer, just to see what would happen. Imagine my surprise when they sold 2 days later, for 75% of my asking price!

• Acquired On: 6/24/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 7/3/12
• Sold on: 7/5/12
• Paid: Approximately $2 each
• Sold For: $30.00 + shipping
  

My sister-in-law brought me this denim skirt recently. It is a really dark blue wash with red stitching down the sides, so I wasn't surprised when it sold quickly.

• Acquired On: 6/25/12 (sister-in-law)
  
• Listed On: 6/25/12
• Sold On: 6/30/12
• Paid: $7.90
• Sold For: $29.99 + shipping
  

Remember how terrible my Kaya doll looked when I bought her? I got a really low offer on her last week. I counter-offered, but as usual, never heard back. I was thrilled to accept an offer yesterday from someone else.

• Acquired On: 4/6/12 (yard sale)
• Listed On: 6/7/12
• Sold On: 7/8/12
• Paid: $10.00
• Sold For: $75.00 + shipping

My American Girl lot has performed stunningly well! To recap, I paid $31 for 3 dolls and a ton of accessories. I have my Kirsten doll left, as well as 5 outfits. To date, I have sold $564.26 worth!!

Holy Moly Miche!

I promised to regale you all with tales from my yard saling adventures from Thursday. Nearly a week later, here goes....

Wednesday evening, someone posted an ad to my local Facebook group that they were having a yard sale the next morning, and that there would be Miche bags and shells. I commented asking how much they wanted for them, and she said the bags were $10 each and the shells were $2. I asked her to hold them for me, and that I would be there at 8:00 on the dot and would probably buy them all. She said she would hold them for me.

Shortly thereafter, someone else who was involved with the yard sale posted a PHOTO of the Miche bags. Several other people asked how much, and the first girl commented that she had someone coming at 8 to look at all of them. I posted that that was me, and that I would like to get there at 7:30 or 7:45, because I would hate to miss them since she had said that she would hold them for me. The person who posted the photo wrote "8:00 sharp - first come, first buy."  Ugh. So I messaged that person and said that the first girl said she'd hold them for me. He replied, "I can't control what she says."  Ugh again.  Other people were commenting that they wanted at least 1, but that it looked like they would all be gone right away and that they [me] should save some for other people. Pshht.

I dreamed about the stupid things that night. I was so annoyed that I was going to miss out on them, even after arranging to buy them all. So I set my alarm for 6:00. Dragged the kids out of bed at 7:00, and we were out the door by 7:30. These people only live about 8 minutes from me, so we got there early and just sat and waited at the stop sign near their house. Someone came up behind me and honked, so I waved her through, and darnit - she went to the yard sale! So I pulled up and parked at their next-door neighbor's house. Fortunately, that woman wasn't anywhere near MY Miche bags and shells, so I continued to wait. Finally at 7:55, they noticed that I was hovering and waved me in with a smile. Yay!

No one else was in sight, so I hopped out of the van and headed over. The man who had posted the picture met me and took me right to them. He explained the pricing on them. There was an organizer full of shells, plus a purse that were all his wife's and they were being sold as a lot. I didn't bother taking the shells out and looking at them. I just said I'd take them. Then there was a big pile of individual shells for $2 each. TWO DOLLARS. Can you believe it?!

So I bought them all (except for 2 of the individual ones that had spots on them) for a grand total of $97. He helped me to my car, I thanked him profusely, and drove off. No one else had shown up yet, but I wanted to be long gone before anyone came and realized I bought them all. lol.

It wasn't until later that day that I finally got a chance to inventory my goodies. I ended up with 4 classic (medium-sized) bags, 1 petite bag, the hanging organizer, and TWENTY-NINE shells!! For $97!!! Two of the shells are still in their original packaging. Y'all ... I am going to do quite well with these!

5 of the ones that were in the organizer are stained. They had apparently been stored right up against other ones, and the dye bled. I went ahead and listed them in one lot and will take offers on it. Someone might know how to clean them, or someone might want to re-cover them. You never know. I didn't want to just throw them away.

I immediately got the others all identified and listed. 3 or 4 of them were duplicates of ones I already have listed or sold, so they were easy to list (relist or update the quantity). I've got watchers on several of them, and am anxiously looking forward to selling them!

 Here they are. Aren't they purrrrrdy?

Revitalized!

Yay! I am encouraged! I had a really great sales weekend. After a really long slump with an occasional one-day slight bump in sales, I had a rocking weekend. I sold 13 items yesterday alone! Fingers crossed that it continues for at least a few days. I've got a storage building to buy in less than 2 weeks, and my checking account has NOT been going in the right direction the last week or so.

This was given to me by a friend, and it sold fairly quickly. I priced it somewhere toward the higher end of the currently listed ones, so I expected it to take awhile. I am currently running an almost storewide 25% off sale to boost my sales, so that's probably why mine sold before some of the others did. $10.49.

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These Ann Taylor capris were given to me also. They're a size 0, which, you know, ALMOST fit me. <end sarcasm>   They sold last night, and when I was getting ready to ship them, I realized that I had "NWT" in the title, even though they aren't. The item specifics and the body of the listing both say that they are pre-owned, but I sent a message to my buyer anyway, just to make sure she still wants them. I haven't heard back yet. $11.24.

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I've mentioned the big huge yard sale I went to last fall. I'm already looking forward to going to it again, but not until half-price weekend. I've also made a mental note of what I bought last year that STILL hasn't sold. Izod tops that list. It's strange, because Izod is a great brand name - well-known, high-priced. And yet, the vast majority of my Izod stuff just sits. And sits. And sits. So I'll pass on it next time. These finally sold for $11.25. Totally worth the 8-month wait, since I paid $4.50 for them. Lesson learned.

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I probably could have held out for more on this, but since my sales have been so pathetic lately, I was taking almost any offer that came to my email this week. This is a Tour de France cycling jersey, size 2X. It sold on sale this week for $23.99 plus shipping.

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I could have gotten a LOT more for this. I had it priced at $59.99 or best offer. It was 25% off this week, and I accepted an offer for $25 plus shipping. It's in perfect condition and had several watchers, but again ... dry spell. I only paid $3-something for it, so I'm happy enough with it.

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This was one of the Miche shells from the lot I bought last week that I was worried I paid too much for. Quick recap on that one:  I paid $45 for the bag with 2 sets of handles, a purse organizer, and 2 shells. I listed them last Tuesday night. I sold the organizer Wednesday morning, the purse Thursday morning, and this shell last night. I'm up to $75 on that investment, and I still have one of the shells left. I have it priced for $29.99, so once it sells, I'll have more than doubled my money on that. Not bad for a lot I was afraid I paid too much for :)

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I've had these Levi's since February. They're 30x30 skinny jeans, so I knew they would take just the right buyer. I paid $2.99 for them and sold them last night for $37.49 plus shipping.

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So all in all, a GREAT weekend! Here's hoping for an awesome week for everyone!

More About Miche

I bought another lot of Miche bags and shells from my Facebook group the other day. This one was a bag, 2 different sets of handles, a purse organizer, and 2 shells for $45. I was a little uneasy about that price. It felt high. I knew I would definitely get my investment back, but I was hoping to at least double my money. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do that. I got them Tuesday morning, listed them Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning, I sold the organizer for $14.99 + shipping. Thursday morning I sold the purse and handles for $29.99.  For those of you who may be math-challenged, that's the $45 I invested in the lot! So I still have 2 shells left to sell, which will be pure profit. Yay!  I need to stop second-guessing myself. I've been doing this long enough that I really should have more confidence in my business decisions.

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Since I've discovered this group, my progress toward saving up for my storage shed has drastically slowed. :-(  Therefore, I am setting a budget for myself. Every weekend, I will take out a fixed amount of money. That money has to last me for the weekend's yard sales AND for my facebook yard sale shopping. The only way I can spend more than that is if I also sell items on Facebook. So if I take out $100 and sell $20 worth of stuff, I can spend $120 that week, and NOT a penny more! I feel like I've been bleeding money the past 2 weeks. Yes, I've been getting great stuff, both to resell and to keep. The prices that I will be able to sell the stuff for will more than pay for the stuff I'm keeping, but I've been buying too much of it. I have to pace myself. I've been dipping into my business checking account too much the last two weeks.

I have been spending more on items than I normally would have at a yard sale, but I am justifying that with the simple fact that I'm not running all over creation to yard sales looking for stuff. I'm hand-selecting what I want to buy from the comfort of my desk, and I am working my meet-ups around times that I am already in town. So it's worth paying a little bit more for an item to save on gas mileage.

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I still have not set foot inside a thrift store since March 26. The twitching has subsided. I drove past there the other day and just smiled. I didn't call out to it or weep. :)  I'm just kidding about that part of course, but my point is, the longer I'm away from it, the less desperate I feel. Is that because I have broken my addiction? Or is that because I have replaced it with a new addiction? (Facebook group...) I'll let you decide :-D

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On the eBay sales front .... meh .... I mentioned the other day that I was in a deep, dark black hole for quite some time. I have still managed to avoid breaking my streak. I have had at least one sale every day during 2012. I have no $0 days. But they had dropped to about a third of what I had gotten used to. They are slowly creeping back up. Still nothing to write home about (or to write here about, apparently...), but better than they had been.

Some sales of interest from the last two weeks:

This has been laying in my "stupid junk I don't want to waste time listing" pile for quite some time. I finally listed it, never dreaming it would actually sell, but sell it did! During the first month too! It's just a small chunk of fabric, a little under a yard, but it sold for $7.99 + shipping.

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These came from the same pile :)  They are my husband's military shoes from years ago. They've been in our closet for as long as I can remember. I literally had to clean a layer of dust off of them before I could list them. Neither of us cared how much they sold for, so I just put $15 on them. They sold this week during a sale, so they went to Canada for $12 + shipping. Good enough for us.

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I absolutely fell in LOVE with the color of this Pyrex dish when I bought it last July. I bought it for $5 to resell, but I didn't have my phone with me, so I couldn't look it up to make sure it would do well. I loved the color, but I have absolutely zero use for a divided casserole dish, so I knew I wouldn't use it if it was a dud. Turns out it WAS a dud. It sat in my store for nearly a whole year before finally selling this week for a whopping $14.99 + shipping.

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I've had these since January, but just got around to listing them a couple weeks ago. They sold fairly quickly, which I suspected they would. Not sure why that wasn't enough of a reason to get me to list them earlier. $25.

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This is the Miche bag I just sold yesterday. I love the concept of Miche, but I really don't like the design/shape of this particular bag. Oh, and I don't like to pay more than $5 for my purses :-D  This sold for $29.99 and is on its way to Canada as we speak. Well technically, it's still in my mail lady's trunk on the way to the post office, but you get the point...

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This Miche shell was from the first batch that I bought. I'm doing alright with that batch. I paid $87 for 7 shells. I've sold 2 of them so far for $65, so I'll do just fine with them.  This one sold for $29.99 + shipping.

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I'm annoyed about this one. I've had it listed for several months now (possibly since November or December?) I've done my research. It is definitely an authentic Dooney & Bourke. I have gotten no offers, questions, anything on it. I was starting to get disappointed when I got an offer the other week for $40. I took it, without even counter-offering. I didn't pay anything for it, so I was perfectly happy with that amount. But the buyer still hasn't paid for it. Grr.

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And this sale came during a particularly dark, anti-eBay day, when the only sales I'd been getting were jar after jar after JAR of shoe cream.

More American Girl clothes. At the time that I listed these, mine was the ONLY 100% complete flapper costume. I'm surprised it didn't sell sooner than it did, but I'm pleased that it sold for my full asking price of $49.99.  To recap the American Girl project, I paid $31 for the lot and got 21 listings out of it. To date, I have sold 12 of those listings for a total of $458.88. One of the sold listings was a doll, and I still have 2 dolls left to sell. Not bad!

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I can't promise that I'm back to posting daily, but I can promise to make a better effort at posting more often than I have been. I miss blogging. I'll aim for every other day :)

Miche!

I wish I could come up with clever titles...

I joined a new local Facebook selling group. Wowsers! This one is CRAZY active!! I posted a couple things on there, and within minutes they were scrolled so far down the page! You've really gotta keep up on this one. There are nearly 2000 members, so the place is hopping.

I lined up 4 transactions for this morning. We all met at the same place -- along with many other people from the group. It was so funny. I got out of my van, and I could feel all the other buyers/sellers' eyes on me, trying to figure out if I was their contact with their item. It was like this big underground trading ring. It was so funny to see all these trades going on all over the parking lot.

I came away with 2 sets of bed risers, which we've been needing for extra storage space under the kids' beds, a pair of Converse sneakers for $3, and 7 Miche bag shells for $87. Gulp. That was a big chunk for me, for so few items, but I'm confident I can easily double my money on them. They're even already listed. I am on the BALL!

I'm gonna use my box lot system for tracking the sales. I'll update here as they sell.

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And 2 more box lot updates, then I need to get to bed. It was a long day.

I sold my last bit of play food. Final recap:  Paid $3.17 on 1/31/12. Sold it all for a total of $85.92 plus shipping, in just under 3 months. Not bad!

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My American Girl stuff is still selling too. I have sold 10 of my 21 listings so far.  And 2 of the unsold listings are dolls! Recap so far: Spent $31 on 4/6/12. So far have sold $398.90!

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On that note - good night!