Success Is Mine!

... for one more week anyway. I didn't do it. I didn't shop. Instead, I came home and took pictures to list! The more I see my unlisted inventory pile shrink, the easier it is to avoid shopping and making that pile grow again. I'm getting there. Slowly but surely.

Some fun sales today:

Even American Girl dolls lost a shoe now and then. I had only 1 of Kirsten's meet outfit shoes, but ones I realized that a pair sells for almost $25.00, I decided to list this one by itself, just in case someone else needed one. It sold a lot faster than I expected! It went to Oregon for $9.99 + shipping.

These Dockers shorts are going to Greece for my full asking price of $29.99 + shipping.

My microwave turntables sell in spurts. I hadn't sold any for about a month, and now I've sold 3 in the last week or so. I have Best Offer on all my turntables, but all three of these have sold for my full price. This one was $29.99 + shipping. It was a big one - 16"!

I had this skirt listed pretty high ($39.99) because it was different - not your ordinary denim skirt. I had several watchers on it, but no bites. Someone messaged me last night, asking if I'd consider an offer. I added the Best Offer option, and woke up this morning to a $32.75 offer. Good enough!

These are Worishofers. I've never heard of that brand before. I found a pair of their sandals back in November. They looked like they were a quality sandals, so I bought them and have gotten zero interest in them. For some reason, I decided to pick these up anyway. I just got around to listing them 2 days ago, and they sold the next morning for $35! I'm not convinced that's an official BOLO brand though.

I have had this frog forEVER. That blue ruler is a 12" ruler. This thing is enormous, which is why I put off listing it for so long. I think I had it for 4 or 5 months before I finally decided to list it. I just couldn't figure out how I would ship something like that. I finally bit the bullet and listed it in November. There was only one other one that had recently sold for around $90, so I priced mine at $129.99 or best offer. That first week, I got several offers:  $10, $1, another $10, and $25. lol. No.  I recently reduced the price to $99.99 or best offer and finally accepted an offer for $50 yesterday. Plus $16-something shipping to Ohio. I had only paid $1 for it, so I'm quite happy with that profit margin. The thing takes up half a shelf and is just plain IN the WAY, so it was time to send him on his merry way.

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I'm listing some more odds 'n' ends tonight. Those always take me forever, because I have to research each item. And then I stop in between listings to write a blog post (ahem). Back to the grindstone! Can't sell it if it isn't listed!

Goals (Week of 1/23)

Last week's goals were:

• Sales Goal: $800. I am happy to report that I PASSED this goal! Hooray!
• Listing Goal: List at least 20 new items. I actually got 33 new items listed! Another Hooray!

This week's goals are:

• Sales Goal: I'm going to bump this up just a bit to $850.
• Listing Goal: List at least 20 new items again. I have 2 laundry baskets of stuff to get listed this week, and I plan to shop on Wednesday, because I have a 20% off clothing coupon for Goodwill that's good the last Wednesday of every month. I am very confident that I'll reach my 20 new listings and probably more!

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I have an unpaid item case open right now. I had someone offer me $20 for a $29.99 microwave turntable. I accepted the offer and haven't heard from them since. Doesn't it drive you bonkers when THEY offer to buy it and then never bother paying? When/if they pay, I'll just drop it into one of my new "cute" turntable boxes (wrapped safely, of course), and send it on its way.

Those turntable boxes cost me about $2 a piece with shipping. I sell a LOT of turntables, and at a very high profit margin, so I don't mind spending that $2 on a box. But if you are only selling one or two, do you want to place an order for 25 boxes? No, probably not. Before I started buying boxes, I was making them myself. I used other large boxes, redesigned them, and cut them to the size and shape I needed.

I have a new document available under the "Products and Services" tab at the top of my blog. This document includes the template that I use for turntables. I have sent this template out to people in the past, but this document includes the template for 4 different-sized turntables, as well as a step-by-step tutorial on how to build them. This tutorial will save you the cost of having to buy the boxes. It will also save you the time waiting for your shipment of boxes to arrive. If you sold a turntable this morning and you need to ship it tomorrow, do you have time to wait for your order of boxes? No. This tutorial will help you get your turntable shipped out on time! Check it out under the "Products and Services" tab at the top of my blog.

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I had a buyer from Alberta over the weekend. She bought a board game. She paid for it this morning, choosing First Class International shipping. A couple minutes later, I got this note from her:

please ship out today as i am hoping to receive it before saturday for an 80's party i am hosting!!! thanks again

Now, geography was never my strongest subject in school, so let's consult a map, shall we?

 

The red dot is me, in Pennsylvania. The green dot is my buyer, in Alberta. The yellow line is the long, long path that this package needs to travel between now and Saturday. Alberta is roughly two light years away from Pennsylvania, so I'm pretty sure it's not going to arrive on time. I sent my buyer a message saying, "I'd be happy to ship today, but I really doubt it will arrive on time!" I then waited several hours to hear back from her. The time came when I had to ship it, or I'd be too late for the post office, so I went ahead and shipped it first class. After I sent it off, I wrote her this note:

Hello! Your package is on its way! I hope it arrives on time - your party sounds like a lot of fun!

Notice I ended that message on a happy note. I didn't end it with: "I don't think your package is gonna make it on time."  The "your party sounds like a lot of fun!" took the focus off the bad news. I've got my fingers crossed, but I'm not expecting anything good to come of this transaction....

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My husband's off to class again tonight, so the kids and I are headed out for some pizza!

Here Comes the Bride

Late spring and early summer are BIG for weddings. That means brides-to-be are shopping NOW. I sold this dress today, specifically for a wedding.

I had it listed for $34.99 OBO, with free shipping. I received this offer for $24.99 today. I was all set to counteroffer (because of the free shipping), when I realized it was going to Canada. So no free shipping! I accepted the offer. The buyer immediately wrote me, thanking me profusely for accepting the offer. Her daughter is very excited to wear this in her aunt's wedding in February.

So if you have anything that can be used for weddings: white/cream dresses (adult or child), mother-of-the-bride outfits, or of course wedding supplies, now is the time to get them listed. Even if it's not specifically wedding-related, but could be, be sure to market them to wedding shoppers. Go through your existing listings and see if any of those could be marketed to wedding buyers too.

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I shipped out 22 packages this morning. Whew! 3-day weekends are really hard on online sellers. Every weekend, I declare that I'm going to keep up with my packaging as the sales come in, but it never fails. Every Sunday night (Mondays on 3-day weekends), I find myself still packaging at midnight, sometimes even the next morning, rushing to beat the mail lady. Every time. This weekend was no exception. I'm grateful for the sales - don't get me wrong. But I SERIOUSLY need to keep up with my packaging throughout the weekend next time!

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Remember how I said that some categories sell in spurts? Microwave turntables would be one of those categories. I don't remember the last time I sold a turntable. It's been several weeks. I sold two of them today. I don't mind shipping those at all, now that I'm buying boxes for them. The profit margin on these is so huge, that I don't even mind paying $2 a box for them. I just got a new box shipment in yesterday. I had been buying 16 x 16 x 6 boxes, but 6" was too deep. I was having to use WAY too many packing peanuts (which I also buy). So I went with 16 x 16 x 4 boxes this time. The UPS guy dropped them off, and I shrieked, "Oh! They're so cuuuuute!!"  My 11 year old rolled her eyes and said, "Mom. They're boxes."  I said, "Yeah! But I'm used to deep boxes. These are little and cute!"  She said, "They're boxes." I told her to hush up and just let me be a nerd for a minute. She loved that.

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I also sold these today.

I always buy Soffts when I find them, as long as they're in great shape. I can usually get $25-30 out of them, but they are NOT a quick seller. These were a funky enough color that I knew they'd sell this spring. And sure enough! I'll ship them in a padded flat rate mailer, so I'm only out $4.90 on shipping for these.

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I stopped in at Goodwill today. I was there for 2 1/2 hours (with 2 toddlers!), but I found a TON of stuff! I'll be writing all about that tomorrow. I'm excited to get pictures taken of the new stuff so I can get them posted here and listed on eBay.