Sunday, April 29, 2012

Let's panic!

So, Ms. These-pants-aren't-new-even-though-they-have-tags decided to leave me negative feedback!  I was apologetic, I refunded her money...what else did she want???  Then, when I tried to log into eBay to comment on her feedback, eBay won't let me in!  It says my password is wrong when that's total bull!  PANIC!  Panicpanicpanic.

***Update***
eBay let me in.  I wrote "buyer recieved full refud as requested.  Item had tags and was never worn"  They don't give you enough space in those things.  I wanted to say:

"Buyer is obvious sociopath.  I would request that she remove this, but then she'd probably try to call in the FBI.  This is ridiculous, why can she even do this when I gave her a refund?  I hate eBay."

I think if you refund the full amount of an item, the transaction should be automatically cancelled and they shouldn't be able to leave feedback.  I have never had a buyer be this rude.  I've had returns on more expensive items (remember these were 14-bloody freakin-dollars) and no one has evern pulled this crap. 

Anger.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

First neutral.

Well, I got my first neutral today.  It was for a Ralph Lauren sweater I've been trying to get rid of forever that went to a buyer in Norway.  They said there was a hole in the sweater near the logo.  I never saw this hole.  It's not that I don't think they're telling the truth, it just irritates me when I let stuff like that get by me.  It was a sweater my mom's had for a while and never wore, so she let me have it.  I guess even if stuff is new, there can be problems...like my wonderful pants that I got returned to me.  That case got closed, btw. 

The neutral's really got me down.  This is on the heels of several lackluster reviews.  Like I've said before, I hate it when people just say stuff like "satisfactory".  It's not that I want "OMG I LOVE IT", but when people leave stuff like that, I feel like they're not really happy with the item...does that make sense?  It seems to go in cycles.  People leave me really great, excited reviews and then for a week or two, it's like the cynics come out and decide to say "meh" to everything.

I mean, I would rather give a refund than have a neutral.  They only paid $12.00 for it, anyway...heck, I would've refunded it and let them keep the stupid thing to avoid a neutral. 

This is going to bother me all night.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Yard sale and BOLOs

The yard sale was very slow yesterday.  Well, we had a lot of people who wanted to spend about $.50 on everything.  Sold lots of books, DVDs and baby clothes.  I made about $200 for both days, so thank goodness we decided to have it on Friday, too!

I had this Kelty internal frame backpack out there and had to get $20.00 for it.  I only used it once, but no one was interested, so when I got home, I snapped a few shots and threw it up on eBay for $75.00 OBO.  It sold about 2 hours later for my full asking price!
These retail new for about $140.00.  I bought it about three years ago for significantly more, but all it took was one overnight trip sleeping with a rock in my back, cooped up in a two person tent with Tyler and our 50 pound dog to realize camping is not for me.  It's not a heavy pack, but the internal frame will make it tricky to ship.

BOLO alert:  I bought a black version of this bicycling skort a few months ago from the SA and it sold really quickly for about $30.00.  I found this one yesterday:


It looks great and is super clean, so I posted it last night for $27.00 and it sold this morning to a girl who bought that and a pair of Columbia capris I wore once.  The brand is Terry and they specialize strictly in women's cycling gear.  Their stuff is so cute (and pricey), it almost makes me wish I was interested in bicycling!

Another BOLO:  John Le Carre books!  He's the author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which was recently made into a big movie and has boosted his book's popularity.  His protagonist, George Smiley is like the anti-James Bond spy and my husband loves his books.  A local thrift shop we have has a ton of the books in hard back with dust jackets that are first trade editions.  They're $1.00, and Tyler told me that they sell for a good amount online, so I went and got some.  These two sold to the same person last night for $15.00 each!

Not bad for a $2.00 investment!  They also sold quick..in about a day. 

So what was an excrutiatingly slow week has turned into a very profitable weekend!  This is one of the best eBay weekends I have had in a while and I'm very glad for it!  Our chances of taking a great vacation are looking better and better!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Purging

I love to get rid of stuff.  I have zero sentimental attachment to anything.  I mean, I wouldn't sell my husband or child, but if the price was right, I could let mom go.  That's why selling bags of clothes and other items super cheap at our yard sale is so satisfying. 

I was taking stuff over to my parent's house yesterday when dad told me it was supposed to rain this morning (no rain so far, though!).  So, being the genius I am, I said "well, let's do some of it this afternoon!"  And we did.  We were not prepared and ended up being the annoying people who are digging stuff out of boxes while people are showing up, but we were "open" for about three hours and I got rid of a ton of baby clothes (fill a bag for $5.00....iknowright? crazy), knick-knacks that aren't selling on eBay, and some junk we just had sitting around serving no purpose.  I even remembered to take the stuff off eBay after I sold it!  Hooray!

I made a little over $100 yesterday, which I think is good considering it wasn't for very long.  Hopefully this morning will be hopping.  We went through more stuff and have a few more Sterilites full of junk to sell.  So, here's to having enough by the end of the day for a new, used dining room set!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Oh yeah? Your face is not as described.

Well, apparently I was riding high on my American Girl doll streak (which netted me about $300) when I told Tyler I could pay for our entire vacation with eBay earnings.  This week has been totally dead.  I've got watchers, but no buyers.  And I have one crazy buyer who is currently making my life hell.

I sold some Ralph Lauren pants that were new with tags.  I said they were new with tags because they were NEW and had TAGS ON THEM.  I said in the listing that they had been in the closet for a while so they were not "brand new" and the tags were wrinkled, which was true.  My mom's had them for at least a year.  So someone finally bought them for $14.00.  On Tuesday I get an "item not as described" message from them saying they're returning the pants because they were not new.

I'm sorry.  What?  I informed her that they were new and I wanted to say "because no one is stupid enough to walk around in pants with the bloody tags on", but I didn't.  I said I was sorry she wasn't happy and told her I would gladly take the return.  After my message, she opened a freaking case.  I've never had a case opened.  The people just send me the return and I give them their money (in her case, FOURTEEN DOLLARS, mind you) back.  She said I "raised a red flag" when I asked her to send the pants to my parent's house since we're going to be moving and I want to be sure they get to the right place.  I sent her a message explaining, as I had already explained to her, that there was no shady business going on and I didn't want the pants to get lost in the moving shuffle.  And then I cussed loudly at my computer.

So that's been my week.  I'm off work tomorrow because we're going to have a yard sale on Saturday since there is entirely too much crap in our house and I don't want to pack it when we move and I need to get it all together.  This will involve me indiscriminately throwing stuff into bags to take over to my parent's house that I will probably sell at the yard sale and then forget to take off eBay only to sell it on there sometime next week.  Because my life works like that.

On the bright side, everything is a go so far on the house buying front and we close on our first house on the 30th!  The owners are even putting a new roof on it.  I'm not the sort of person to use "blessed" as an adjective because I think God has more on his plate than our mortgage, but we are blessed to have gotten this house.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Unproductive

So I had big plans for my spring break week off.  I was going to list, list, list.  Here is why I can't do that:
I had taken some pics while she was napping and was trying to write a couple sentences real quick.  She was settled down with her baby piano game on the iPad (I know, I know...rotten), but once mommy started typing, all bets were off.

Saggin britches.

So tonight I listed five things, for a total of 160, which is the most I've had up in a while.  Yesterday and today have been slower than earlier this week (today was dead) and it turns out the woman doing our mortgage is a total airhead and didn't tell us we have to get her the downpayment on Monday, which we were $400 short on.  Guess who had $400 in her Paypal vacation account?  Me.  So now the vacation fund is back to zilch.  Oh well.  We shall persevere. 

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Like A Boss!

Guess how much I paid for this...
And this...

And this...

And this...

$10.00!  Yard saleing like a boss!  Ok, so I went to a yard sale yesterday at a rich house just two blocks away from us.  When I walked around to the back of a large and well-manicured yard, a box full of these ladies was at my feet.  My mouth dropped open when I saw a small sticker on Samantha that said "$10.00 box".  With a shaking finger I pointed to the box and asked "has this sold?"  The lady running it told me it hadn't and I practically threw myself at the box.  I said "I'll take this, this is mine, I'm going to put it somewhere."  She looked at me like I was crazy.  Crazy like a fox!

I found a stack of books for resale and a cool Ben Franklin quote print for us and wound up paying $21.00 for everything. 

I drove home and ran into the living room with my box.  I picked through it and tested each doll for "standability".  They all stood up!  The strings on Felicity and Kirsten were sort of loose, but oh, well.  I've put Josefina up for $80.00 and already have 8 watchers.  Addy went up for $95.00 because she's in great shape and I have 2 watchers.  Samantha's on auction starting at $15.00 (they go for about $50.00 at auction, which is better than the BIN prices) and she has 8 watchers. 

Now for the FASTEST flip ever:  I put off listing Kirsten and Felicity (first pic) because I wasn't sure how to do it.  I decided I would list them together.  Kirsten is in rough shape.  Her hair is horribly matted and Felicity has no clothes (which apparently does not really matter).  Baby is taking a nap, so I figured, I'll go ahead and take pics and group them as a lot.  I listed them starting at $20.00 with a BIN option of $75.00.  Within about 60 seconds, they sold!  Did I price them too low?  Obviously.  But look, I paid about $2.00 for each of them.  Tyler and I have decided that 100% of my eBay earnings will go toward vacation since our house buying adventures will take all our vacation savings, too.  $75.00 is almost a whole night in a gorgeous vacation rental and I'll take that any day!