My Top eBay Moments This Week

It's been a weird week on eBay. I had a crazy buyer email me that she would be returning a pair of shoes because "these shoes are beautiful, but they don't fit". I asked her if she compared the measurements in the listing to the measurements of a pair of shoes she already owns. She sent me back a picture comparing my shoes with her shoes, and a note that said, "Your shoes are in a folder with my antique furniture."  I don't have any idea with that could possibly mean, but I'm still cracking up laughing about it a week later.  Anyway, I told her I'd accept the shoes, but that I would be charging a 20% restocking fee. Then she opened a SNAD (Significantly Not As Described) case against me! Paypal put a hold on that money. I went into my account and read the case details. Her complaint was: "These shoes are my size, but they are not as comfortable as the ones I already own." Ummm... That's hardly a SNAD. So I called Paypal. The representative read the complaint and laughed out loud. She denied the buyer's claim and released my money. It was over and done with in less than 5 minutes. I sent my buyer a message with my shipping address and told her if she wanted to return them, I'd refund her purchase price less the restocking fee. I haven't heard a word from her since, so I guess she decided to keep them?

I also had a buyer complain that the boots she bought from me were uncomfortable, so they are on their way back to me too. Ugh.

I just got this positive feedback on a pair of practically new tap shoes: "Item was a bit hard and stiff"  Sigh. What the heck. At least it was a positive.

And I'm in the middle of a situation with the most whacked-out buyer I've ever had. But that's a story for a separate post.

Anyway, I had 42 sales this week. 17 pairs of shoes and 1 pair of ice skates. I didn't have to open any unpaid item cases this week. Hooray! My list of favorite sales is long this week. I had a lot that made me smile for one reason or another:

I bought a Nintendo lot at a yard sale last month for $15. It included 25 games, the system, 2 controllers, the gun, and all the necessary cords. The system doesn't work, but apparently people buy them anyway, fix them and resell them. I broke it up into 3 listings: the 3 Mario games, the system and accessories, and the other 22 games. I listed the system and 22 games at auction, but I put the 3 Mario games on fixed price with best offer. I accepted an offer for $23 this week. They are going to the United Arab Emirates. That's different.

I sold a Gymboree peacoat last week and mentioned here that I had it in a size 3T also, if anyone was interested. Apparently someone was, because it sold this week too. Paid less than a dollar for it (in that huge lot I bought for $300 in February) and sold it for $23.99. I was a little bummed to see that I forgot to turn the free shipping off, but I got it into a flat rate envelope, so it's ok.

New latch hook kits always do well for me. They don't sell quickly, but they sell pretty high. I paid $3.15 for this one back in May and took an offer for $25 the other day.

The broken NES system and accessories sold at auction for $27. If you're keeping track, the 3 games and the system/accessories sold for $50 total ($15 invested, and 22 games left to sell. They didn't sell at auction the first go-round, but I had 9 watchers, so I relisted them this week).

I bought these Birks while I was out shopping with Lesley. She picked them up off the shelf and literally threw them back down and said, "Oh gross! Those are disgusting!"  Well ... I'm not one to let a little shoe crud deter me. I snatched them up and said, "Yeah, but they're Birks!" I paid $1.50 for them, and they cleaned up pretty nicely, wouldn't you say? Sold for $30 this week!

I love these Clarks. I priced them at $35 instead of my usual $25, just because I liked them more and thought they were pretty. How's that for a business-like pricing strategy? I paid $7.90 in July and sold them for $35.

Just the other day, I declared that I would never buy another Polaroid, because I've never sold any, and the ones I have in stock are taking up space. Then I sold this a few days later, at my full asking price. Paid $2.11 in April, sold for $39.99!

Remember the Revere Ware I paid $40 for last week? I sold a piece from that lot already ... for $40! So the other pieces will be pure profit!

Last but not least, I sold a pair of earth shoes. That's earth-with-a-little-e, not Earth-with-a-big-E. Little e is very good. Big E is Walmart. I paid $5.25 for these in July and sold them this week for $45.


I know that was long. I just couldn't narrow it down! Thanks for sticking with me. What were your favorite sales this week?

A New Mini-Venture For Me

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on the website for a huge upcoming kids' consignment sale about an hour from my house. I live in a really small town, so I had never heard of such a thing. I studied the website and read everything I could find about how it works. A seed was planted in the back of my head. I have a gazillion pieces of kids' clothes I'm trying to sell. Maybe I could take a few of them...

Also, consignors get to shop the evening before the public sale. AND consignors get to shop the half-price sale the evening before the public half-price sale. My sister wanted to go along and buy things for her new baby, but she didn't have anything to consign. I told her I'd try to scrounge up enough stuff to split between the two of us, and that I'd list some of it under her name so she could get in as a consignor too.

I read their pricing strategy. They suggest pricing Gymboree clothes at a third of retail. Well, that's what I price mine for on eBay, so buying any Gymboree there for resale is obviously out. But if I sell my Gymboree for a third of retail, and they sell Gymboree for a third of retail, why not just take all of it? Yes, I'll lose consignment fees (this particular sale gives consignors 60% of the sale price), but the idea of having so much of that clothing pile gone in one weekend was very appealing to me.

Then I read their list of what they'll accept. They wanted nothing older than 4 years (2007 or newer). Drat. The bulk of my Gymboree is 2004, 2005, and 2006. So I went through and picked out all the newer stuff. I ended up with about 50 items. I entered it into the database, priced, tagged, and sorted it. Then I ended my eBay listings for those items (don't want to sell the same thing twice!)

Yesterday, I took them up and dropped them off. I happened to mention in passing that I have tons more of this stuff, but that it's more than 4 years old. She told me I should bring it anyway. Well! You don't need to tell me twice. I only had until midnight last night to get my stuff entered into their database. I rushed home and got to work. I ended 120 eBay listings last night. Several of those listings were lots that I broke up into individual items for this consignment sale. I frantically typed and typed and typed and got done at 11:50! Phew!

I ended up with 167 items. But I don't have anymore cardstock or safety pins for making tags. Ack! I have to drop this stuff off at 5:30 this evening when we go for the pre-sale. So guess what I'll be doing today (after an emergency Walmart trip)...

I have $1400+ in items that I'll have at the sale, which means that IF it all sells (which of course I don't expect it to), I could potentially make over $800 this weekend. Sure, that's less than I could get on eBay, but how could I resist the idea of clearing out my storage space and coming home with an $800 check all at once, rather than shipping them out one item at a time for $8 here and there?

Here's what I'll be taking up this evening (in addition to the 50-some items I took yesterday):

I'll let you know how I do!

Your Favorite Things

I thought I'd do a showcase of all your favorite things from the giveaway post. It was fun to see what you all are excited about this week!

Kristen's Cold Water Creek Jacket

Becky's Sugar Canister

Amy's Polly Pockets (giveaway winner!)

Shannon's Pals and Gals Paste-Up Book

Handkerchiefgal's Crayola Jumbles

Tina's Mid-Century Peacocks

Carrie's Custom-Made Birthday Invitations

Megan's Justin Gypsy boots

Maggie's Vintage Crochet Pattern Book

Danelle's Kiss Diaper Bag

Celina's Vintage Napkins

kdelrosario's Smurf Houses

Nancy's Vintage Clothespins

Christy's CakeWalk Dress

Angela's Vintage Dr. Seuss books

Elizabeth's Dorothy shoes

Bekah's Sock Monkey Sheets

Diana's American Girl doll clothes

Trish's SAS shoes

Sarah's Duplo Blocks

Sandy's Federal Punch Bowl Set

Moriah's Nine West Shoes

Thanks for playing, everyone! That was a lot of fun to see your favorite listings :)

Giveaway Winner!

Well there's nothing like a contest to bring our readers out of the woodwork!

The random winner was Commenter #3, Amy (Coupon Tipster), who wrote:

Amy, I tried to send you an email with the details on how to claim your prize, but it bounced back to me. Please contact me at jacalhoun @ centurylink.net.

Tomorrow, I will put together a post with screenshots and links to all the listings that were mentioned in the comments. Thanks for entering, everyone!

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!

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~Lesley

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There was a yard sale a few miles from my house on Wednesday. Who has yard sales on a Wednesday? They had advertised in the paper that they had Revere Ware. That's all it said. Well, actually it said "Rever Ware".  No indication of  how many or which pieces. Every piece of ReverE Ware I've listed has sold within a week and has sold well! So I knew I wanted to be at the sale the minute they opened the doors at 8:00. But the kids would NOT get out of bed! We ended up getting there at 8:05, just in time to see someone handing over $75 for the whole 21-piece set!! :-(  I was devastated. But then I heard her say, "I didn't want the whole set. I just wanted a couple pieces out of it." Apparently the seller was unwilling to split the set up. So I tapped the buyer on the shoulder and said, "Did I hear you say you didn't want that whole set??" And she said, "No, I really don't. I just wanted a couple pieces." I said, "I'd love to buy whatever you don't want!" And she said, "Well then let's work out a deal!!" I browsed the rest of the yard sale (found nothing at all) while she decided which pieces she wanted to keep. She kept the stockpot (naturally) and one set of 4 saucepans. She sold me 3 skillets and the other 3 saucepans (as well as lids for 4 of them) for $40. I was absolutely thrilled, she was absolutely thrilled. It was a win-win. Of course it could have been a win-ner/win-ner if we'd been there 2 minutes earlier, but that's ok. I really am very happy with the ones I got. I'll make my investment back on just one pan!

Wanna know the craziest part?? They're already listed! Yep, I actually managed to list something the same day I bought it :)

 ~Jessica

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What did you find this week? Anything exciting?

Giveaway!

We've never done a giveaway here before, so let's do one. Just for fun! You almost don't even have to do anything for it. I want you to leave a comment on this post linking to your FAVORITE item that you currently have listed, and tell me why it's your favorite. It doesn't have to be the most expensive, it doesn't have to be the newest or the oldest. Just the one that is your favorite.

The comments will close at 8PM EST on Sunday, September 2nd. I'll use a random number generator to choose the winner. The winner will win a free pair of shoes from my store! Well, free up to $25 anyway, which is practically all of them. Or if you've just GOT to have a pair that's more than $25, well then I'll give you $25 off. And shipping's on me. Sound good?

Get to linking! 1 entry per person, please :)

My Top eBay Moments This Week

If I was worried about things slowing down a bit last week, I needn't have. I had 52 sales this week!! I did have a couple customers buy several jars of shoe cream in one order, so I guess that's why my quantity is so high.

18 of those sales were shoes. 3 haven't been paid for yet. I had 2 unpaid item cases open this week. One paid, the other still hasn't. Another one will probably be opening today. Sigh.

The highlights:

I bought this coat as a part of the huge lot of Gymboree I bought back in February. I paid well under a dollar for it. I was glad to see it finally go this week for $23.99! (I have another in a toddler size 3 if anyone's interested.)

I love Vision Ware. I have a full set of saucepans that I use every day. I used to sell it ALL the time, but it's really time-consuming to package, so I'm trying to move away from it except the biggest pieces. But they still call out to me and I still buy them. Then, when one sells and I'm packaging it and muttering under my breath, I'm reminded of why I said I wouldn't buy them anymore.

My sister-in-law picked this up for me. She handed it over with several bins of other stuff, but she forgot her receipts that day. Imagine my dismay when I saw that she paid $12.xx for it. Even moreso when I looked this particular pan up and saw that they don't sell well. And then imagine my relief when she gave me the receipt and I realized it was half off! I paid $6.45 for it in May and sold it this week for $24.99. And yep - packaging was just as time-consuming as I remembered. Didn't help that I had to cobble a box together (and messed that up and had to redo it), and that I ran out of packing peanuts halfway through filling the box and had to use shredded newspaper for the rest.... And guess what I bought at Goodwill a couple days ago.

Interesting story about these. I found them in the bottom of our own shoe bin. We had 2 pairs of cowgirl boots in the same size, a pink pair and a brown/pink pair. So the pink ones got listed. Add that to your BOLO (Be On the LookOut) list: pink Circo cowgirl boots. Yes, Circo. Target. People want these. But anyway, I also had a smaller size that I sold awhile back for my full asking price of $24.99. I priced these the same and kept getting really low offers. Yeah, the toe was scuffed, but still ... I had decided I was going to lower the price to $19.99 and remove the Best Offer option. But before I got around to it, I received an offer for $7. Come on. So I countered with $15. I came down TEN dollars. She countered $7.50. I countered $15 and told her that was the lowest I was willing to go. She wrote me a note, asking if I was sure I wouldn't come down on the price, considering they were scuffed. I wrote back and explained that I had already come down $10 specifically because they were scuffed. They sold the next morning to someone else for my full asking price of $24.99 :-D   So there.

Also in the huge lot of Gymboree clothes that I bought back in February was this pile of stuff with small stains on them. I was going to put them in our next yard sale, but I decided to list them as play clothes instead. I took very detailed pictures of each and every stain and was sure to point them all out in the listing. Again, I paid well under a dollar a piece (I'm thinking it worked out to around 30-35 cents per piece) and they sold this week for $29.99. If you can get them super-cheap like that, don't be afraid of a few small stains.

I bought this vintage soldering gun back in May. I paid $8.47 for it. That's a lot for something I didn't have a CLUE about. And then there it sat for 3 1/2 months. I finally dragged it out, had my husband test it, and I sorted through all the miscellany that was included. I listed it the other day for $39.99 or best offer. I was being optimistic, because the only other ones that had sold recently didn't go above $14.99. But they were either the gun only, or the gun and case. No extras. I accepted an offer the next day for $30! I could probably have squeezed a few more bucks out of it if I'd have waited, but I'm quite happy with $30.

I bought this back in October for 99 cents. It's unopened, and it's a Normal Rockwell design. This particular design was nowhere to be found, going back a full year on Terapeak, so I priced it really high ($89.99obo with free shipping). There it sat for almost a year with nothing - no watchers, no offers, and very few hits. Finally a couple weeks ago, I lowered my price to $59.99obo with free shipping. I got a $40 offer from a buyer in Russia. That makes me a little nervous. I don't hear much of anything good about shipping to Russia, but I took the offer anyway. I'll insure it with U-Pic (assuming my buyer pays!) and hope for the best.

Last but not least, I paid $2.99 for these Naots in February. ALWAYS pick up Naots. I had them listed for $89.99 obo. I had intended to lower the price to $50 fixed price, but I forgot. I received an offer for $51.20 this week , so I jumped on that one!

What'd you sell this week?