June 26, 2008
Returned safely from eBay Live in Chicago. Wow! Do I have stuff on which to follow up! Blogging, emails, beta testing programs we signed up to try, networking, listing, and writing three various books I’ve been intending to write!
Met an awesome blogger and expert on SEO and Web 2.0, Alex aka The GuruofSales. Check out his blog – there is a LOT you can learn from this guy and he is more than happy to assist anyone who needs help, but primarily any and all information you will need with regard to these things you will find on his blog! You can find him at www.guruofsales.com!
Am off to do some catching up!
Cheers!
Jennifer
June 9, 2008
Woohoo! I input 926 categories on my Livedeal spreadsheet! Now I just have to add the picture URL’s and the descriptions! I hope to get that sheet completed before we leave for eBay Live in Chicago next Tuesday! I so cannot wait! This will be the first trip that my daughter and I will be taking alone together – just a fun girl’s trip!
Gotta go ship!
June 8, 2008
Well, we finally got what we’ve all in Upstate NY been wanting – NO SNOW! It is supposed to be 94 degrees today!
Thankfully, our house is split-level. My office is in our 18 x 25 wreckroom (no – I did not misspell that!) It is always a balmy 70 degrees down here! In the summer anyways…
Today I am working on building CSV files to send all of my listings off to Livedeal. I’ve built a nice little HTML sheet reflecting our “ItsAllOurVault” theme with all sorts of pirate lingo. I think it came out pretty cool!
My husband lost his right eye in an accident when he was 14, so he’s constantly walking around talking like a pirate anyways, so it wasn’t hard to come up with wording!
I’ve also just bought two more domain names through GoDaddy – they’re having a terrific sale right now for $6.95! So, we are now the proud new owners of www.FFLtransfer.com and www.AlternateAuctionSites.com.
I really, really need to be cloned! So much to do! So little of me! I also have three books in mind that I need to write! Yikes! I need to start getting up earlier!
TTYL!
Jennifer
June 4, 2008
Yikes! Things have gotten incredibly off-schedule here in the Smith household!
Our daughter is home from college. Having survived not one, but TWO horrendous car accidents, she really avoids driving whenever possible. Soooo, guess who’s been running her to and fro to visit all of her friends?
Then to top that off, once we finally got the majority of that out of the way, my sister-in-law and I attended an antiques and collectibles auction this past Saturday. Towards the end, we decided to check out before there was a divorce or two in the family. I had spent over $300.00 but oh what a huge pile of goodies I got!
We began carrying our boxes of treasure to our way-to-small 3000GT which entailed climbing up and down a rather steep hillside. Apparently my back disagreed with this method of transport because after spending the entire day Monday in bed with my back yelling incessantly at me, I finally made the trip to the ER yesterday. Lower Lumbar Strain. Got a nice little supply of pain killers and hope to be able to sit for a while at the computer to start getting caught up with things!
I have to migrate my eBay listings to eBid, iOffer, Amazon, Livedeal, and possibly Blujay. I have a person trying desperately to get me to try Blujay but haven’t had a chance to check it out yet.
So this leads me to a question for you: What do you do when your business has to come to a dead halt due to unforeseen circumstances? Do you have anyone else that knows what to do in your absence? I would love to have your input!
May 22, 2008
Remember those two boxes of old magazines that we picked up? We paid $2.00 for both boxes total. One of the boxes had eight years’ worth of Flower Grower magazines from the 1950’s & 60’s. Those just sold for about $51.00!
We listed each year as a separate batch, so what you see here is just one of several auctions. The entire lot is what sold for $51.00.
Specialty magazines generally do very well, so the next time you see a batch of Equine magazines, woodworking, painting, cats, dogs, poison dart frogs, etc, and they are reasonable priced, grab ‘em up!
We also recently listed two pathetic-looking pocket watches. They had no hands and no glass on the faces. We listed them for parts only. Could not find anything with regard to the maker’s marks other than the fact that they were .925 Sterling Silver. One fantastic eBayer contacted us toward the very end of the auction to tell us that these were actually chain-driven French-made pocket watches made in 1800 and 1814. They ended up selling for $360.00!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful, warm Memorial Day weekend!
Jennifer
May 20, 2008
Woohoo!! The punchbowl sold for $159.49!!! I’ll be looking for THOSE at yardsales!
May 13, 2008
To pick up where I last left off, my husband and business soul mate spent Saturday morning finding treasures and various yard sales in our area. One trailer park was a virtual treasure chest of goodies! I swear, everyone in that park had some form of Pampered Chef! We purchased most of it for about $8.00 or less depending on the piece and it was all brand new still!
Found boxes full of old magazines and catalogs (Sears, Montgomery Wards, Aldens) at one sale and scarfed those up! You would be amazed at what some people are willing to pay for a vintage store catalog!
We also found an old Underwood Typewriter that was an absolute STEAL at $3.00! This typewriter is from the 1930’s and will typically sell for about $200.00 or more if in good condition!
Spent Sunday being wined and dined, well actually chocolated, flowered and gift carded by my three children! Nathan brought back a box of chocolates from his recent trip to Washington, DC. They stopped at Hershey Park on the way home! Can’t go wrong with chocolate! Trinity sent me a gorgeous vase of flowers with the most beautiful card! She said that she thought me amazing and was so glad to have me! What an awesome kid! And my little guy, Joseph, gave me a gift card to the Olive Garden! Again, can’t go wrong there! Yum!
I spent Monday with my mom trying to convince her that she should go into business with me! The woman is an incredible accountant! Not by trade, but she tracks, literally, every penny ever spent in their household and can tell you what they bought on March 26, 1952 if you asked her!
Tuesday, May 13
Today was one of those days when I really should take my own advice and let the answering machine do its job. I was on the phone for over five hours today! I finally made it VERY clear to all family members that I was no longer in existance and was taking NO MORE PHONE CALLS! None of it was business-related. All friends and family, whom I love very, very much, but I can’t seem to make them understand that even though I am at home, I am at work. The thing that I really think they have a difficult time understanding is that they aren’t the only person calling me. I truly did add up to over 5.5 hours today when I finally lost my cool! (Not to mention I’m on day 3 of not smoking – yay me!)
So, I am now glued to my computer, sans a phone and am going to spend the rest of the evening listing so that I will have some funds for yardsaling this coming weekend!
May 9, 2008
You know the saying “some days are diamonds, some days are coal”? My phone would NOT stop ringing today! And it was mostly relatives. Stop, start, stop, start, let the dog out, start, let the dog in, start, surprise visit from another relative, start… Get the idea? I feel like I’m getting nothing accomplished! I did get shipping done first thing this morning, but that’s been about it. Finally swore off the phone and let the answering machine get it! Hope to be able to go to an auction tonight!
8:10 PM – never made it to the auction! That’s alright – there’s a community-wide yardsale that we’re most definitely going to tomorrow! I used the time instead to list a whole bunch of goodies.
We had recently cleaned out a 160 year old house that had been in the same family for that entire time. In it, there was a complete and beautiful punchbowl set. The coolest thing happened when I opened it up to inspect it! On the inside flap of the box were notations with dates and the occassion during which the set was used. Two of the listings were for weddings for cousins of my mother! What a small, small world! Had to call my mother up immediately! She thought that was pretty neat, we talked for a bit and hung up. She called right back and said “Guess what? I have a picture of that punchbowl because I was at one of those weddings!” How cool is that?
Working on figuring out some more about this site tonight. Then to the school at 11:30 tonight to pick up my son. He’s just returning from a class trip to Washington, DC! He’ll probably sleep the rest of the weekend!
May 8 – May 9, 2008
I finished off last night formatting 115 pictures and listing, listing listing. My final hoorah for the night was when I checked in one last time on my auction listings to find that someone had finally bid on a horse drawn carriage we listed! $1,199.00!! This will be the most expensive item we’ve yet sold!
On a non-work related note, I also had to order two tires for my car. I have a Mazda RX-8 and although it seemed reeeeeaaaaalllllyy pretty at the time I bought it, the tires are about $250.00 apiece! Our local police officer told me about a website, MavisTire. He said they order all of the police vehicle tires from this site. I went on and lo and behold, my tires were only $89.00! For the exact same tires I always get! The shipping was only $24.00, so for less then what I pay for one, I got two!
www.PrecisionBluingPlus.com
As always, we start out the day waking up, drinking down vast amounts of coffee and checking emails while watching CNN Headline News and being harrassed by our not-quite-one-year-old Maltese, Swiffer. (Husband’s twisted sense of humor!) His eyes don’t always look quite so demonic although he is quite the little trouble-maker! (The dog, not the husband…)
