Mid Month Check In

Time to check in with the sales for the month so far.  May has been slow all around- on eBay and Etsy!  You can spend a lot of time speculating why that is so, but it doesn't do any good!

Here are the month's sales so far.

Etsy OVG:

Mother's Prayer Mug: $12.00
Dachshund Mail Sorter: $32.00 (On Etsy for less than 4 hours!)
Metal Tray: $14.00
Brownie Camera: $22.00
Metal Tray: $14.00
Fish Flashcard: $4.00 (On the front page of Etsy at some point in time. Sold a couple days later.)
Silverplate Forks: $18.00
Silverplate Forks: $12.00
History Book Set: $20.00 (On Etsy for over a year! I almost pulled them last go around.)
Owl Card: $6.00
Memory Game: $65.00
Mortar and Pestle: $22.00
Christmas Card: $6.00
Christmas Card: $6.00
Christmas Card: $6.00
Christmas Card: $6.00
Picture Flashcard: $10.00

I'm slowly working on getting things listed.  I am on a buying hold for the shop for awhile unless I find something that is just too good to pass up!  This is to concentrate our inventory dollars on buying items for the eBay store.

Christmas has come up as my top search term for quite a few days so far this month.  People getting into thinking about fall shows and projects I guess.  Get those items listed!

eBay:
Mexican Pottery Bowl: Purchased $0.50, Sold $19.99
Longchamp Champagne Coupes Set 2: Purchased $2.00, Sold $14.99
DeGrazia Candle Holder: Purchased $1.00, Sold $34.99
Arabia of Finland Coffee Pot: Purchased $12.00, Sold $100.00 (FS)

That's it!  Sad, huh?!? 

DH and I spent last Saturday out shopping for the eBay store.  We spent 6 hours and $100 on inventory.  We focused on clothes, plush, flatware, and newer items.  So far this week we have listed 35 new items.  No sales from those items, but traffic has increased substantially in the store.  That's a step in the right direction.  We should have the store back up to 200 items by the end of the week.  Hopefully the sales ball will start rolling again soon. 

We will go out again this weekend with the same mindset.  I must TRY very hard to not get distracted by lovely, lovely vintage.  So hard for me!

Well, I hope your sales are doing better than mine!  Here's to a better second half of May!

Changing Again!

Look into my crazy eyes! CRAZY I tell you!!

I know.

I know.

You all think I'm CRAZY as a loon......

Or you might when I get done with this post.......

DH and I are going all in on eBay.

Yes.

You read that right.

I'm serious!!

Stop laughing.

Are you done yet?!?

We have found ourselves in a bit of a "leaking ship" kind of financial situation.  I'm making some online, but not as much as we need to float this boat again.  So, DH has been putting in apps for a second job, but his current job isn't exactly flexible.  He is also overqualified for the jobs that are available around these parts right now.

We have both had a rough week and were very discouraged.  I was awake staring at the black ceiling a couple of nights ago wondering what we are going to do.  I was mulling it over and praying about it and I had a light bulb moment.

What if I teach DH how to do the online selling thing with the goal of caving to feebay maximizing and learning eBay?  REALLY learning eBay and selling the stuff that SELLS and not just what I want to list there.  Busting our butts and getting a store of 500-1000 listings up before the end of the summer? Hmmmmm.

The business is all set up- licensed and everything.
I have been selling on eBay for 2 years and know how it works. (NOT what sells, but how it WORKS! Big difference there!)
It would take minimal investment funds to get a couple of things I would want for clothing pics.

I proposed it to him the next morning and he was all for it! He didn't laugh or spit water on the mirror or commit me to a mental institution.......YA!

We spent quite a bit of time looking at completed listings for items we have passed up at yard sales the last couple of weekends.  We passed up some GOOD stuff! **slaps forehead**

We printed out a couple of BOLO lists from successful sellers and read through those.

I have been studying blogs of successful sellers and rereading posts on eBay Underground.

I used some of my Etsy funds and purchased a male manni, a LARGE white backdrop, and a plus size manni.

We are ready to go!

Here we GO!

We need to be making a DECENT profit by October. 

I will still do my Etsy thing during the day.  It's still my goal to get the shop to 1000 listings.

I will take the pics for the eBay items during the day.  In the evening, we will list on eBay.

Them's the plans!

I think you need one more look at CRAZY eyes........

Like looking in a mirror........

Except my eyes are even.....

And I have nice eyebrows........

What about the traffic issue?

I realize that some of that is eBay, but it's also the fact that I don't list what sells.....quickly......or sometimes ever...........

I am willing to give it a go with different items as there are people who are doing a-ok there with items I haven't bothered to look twice at.

DH is also willing to give it a go which means a lot.  He knows what a colossal flake I am and still sees potential.

We'll see how it goes!

Red Hot May!

If you see something you are dying to check out (Mother's Day is just around the corner......) just click the pic and it will take you back to Etsy where you can check out these talented shops!

The Total eBay Overhaul Continues and Some Cool Finds...........

I am letting all my listings on eBay expire and as they do I am doing some hard scrutinizing of whether or not said items are worth their shelf space.  I am listing ONLY 150 items a month, I'm NOT going one listing over the free allotment I get with my basic store.  I am listing 5 items a day.  Most items right now are being listed "Sell Similar As" and when I am done dumping duds I will start listing new items again if I have any listings left.

This weekend I have 5 boxes to take to the Goodwill truck.  5 Boxes!  That's a good deal of stuff! It is freeing up loads of shelf space though so I'm happy with that.

Last weekend was an awesome yard sale weekend, so naturally, this weekend wasn't so great.  We hit up some sales and I found various odds and ends.  Nothing too spectacular to note.  Staples that keep the sales wheel moving.  I ended up having a wad of cash left so I headed out to a couple of my favorite antique stores.

It's vintage show season here and there are pros and cons to that.  The pro is that there are far fewer dealers out at sales so I actually find great stuff.  The cons are that the antique stores get rid of their 50% off sections and jack up the prices to take advantage of the surge in customers.  To find anything good (i.e. priced low enough to resell) you have to be willing to dig- look under tables, behind shelves, crawl around on hands and knees....which I have been known to do! 

I wasn't finding anything that wasn't out of my price range with my first stroll through, so it was time to employ the dig method.  I was scoping out shelves, looking under tables, and found a couple of cool items.

The first was a movie marquee letter set.  This is one that would be in the lobby of the theater so the letters are smaller.  It was hidden behind a chair.  Decent price but I decided to see if I could find anything unique.

The second was a book of wallpaper mural samples from the 1960s.  These are the murals in miniature so you could see what they would look like and how many panels it took to make the larger version. Not in the best of shape but the mural samples were beautiful!  It was propped up behind another shelf.  I flipped through it and put it back and then picked it up to mull over the decision between the book and the letters.

I ultimately decided on the mural samples as they offered up the most options as far as what you could do with them.  Frame them, display them as is, or use them in other artwork......they are poster size with the paper itself measuring 21.75'" by 15.5".  There are a total of 7 murals in the book as well as coordinating wallpaper samples.  Each mural is done in 6-7 color combinations.  Some dark and moody, some light and pastel.  Very cool!

Here are a couple I listed in the shop today:

 One of my favorite scenes!  I love the colors and the subject.  So peaceful!

A beautiful Paris street scene in pastels.

Paris in Spring!

This one is very manly!  A wonderful seaport scene! I LOVE the houses, so I guess it appeals to women too!

What did you find this weekend?

My Thrifting Score

My boys royally ticked me off today as teenage boys are known to do.  So I decided that I needed a thrifting break.

I stopped by Goodwill to see if there were any decent leftover garage sale donations.  I wasn't finding much when on an end cap I spotted a set of black glasses.  Mid century black glasses.  Glasses I have coveted every time I have visited the flea market because I know they will do well in OVG.  A glass set with pieces that I don't want (vendor not willing to break up the set) and at prices that were out of this reseller's budget.

I know they are the same glasses because I haven't seen anything like them around and they had just as many pieces sitting there as the vendor had at the flea market.  I bought 8 of the set, finally having the pieces I originally wanted!

Then I got to thinking, "Hmmmm. Vendor's items at Goodwill. Maybe I should check out the flea market and see what is going on."

So I made a side trip.

It is completely rearranged and the vendor who had the glasses is gone (no surprise there).  There were a couple of new booths which I decided to check out.  One had some nice stuff at dirt cheap prices.  I picked up a Mickey Mouse coffee mug. As I was continuing to check out their wares a splash of orange and white caught my eye in another new booth across the aisle.

I made a beeline and what to my wondering eyes should appear............................................ 

Now I have seen Catherineholm items before, but everyone seems to know what they have and want the top retail prices they can get for it. 

I walked up and didn't expect to find the pricing any different than I have seen before. 

I flipped over the tag and it was.......

$5.

That's it! I snatched it up looking over my shoulder to make sure no one else was eyeing it. I looked it over and put it into my cart........way in the back.............under my purse...........and hightailed it to the checkout!

Now it is filthy, greasy, stained, and gross at the moment.  It has definitely been used and neglected.  It's going to take some TLC to get it back to any sort of decent shape. 

I'm so excited to have found a piece!

Now if I can just keep myself from falling in love with it..............