Julie Gumm - Author

My first clothing crisis

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I’m having my first true clothing crisis of our 12 month no-shopping challenge.

Black boots.

For the last 5 years I have had this fantastic pair of casual black ankle boots. I had bought them from a charity shop in England for something like $8 and I LOVED them. That pair plus a pair of brown ankle boots are pretty much my winter footwear wardrobe. Just like flip flops get me through March-October.

But last winter that beloved pair of boots literally broke in half and I had to throw them away.

This week it has finally gotten cool enough that flip flops really don’t work – feet get too cold.

But I have no black boots.

And you can’t wear brown boots with black – everyone knows this.

I think this calls for an emergency purchase but Mark is not so sure. I even told him I would get rid of two pairs of shoes in exchange.

What do you think?

eBaypalooza

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“eBaypalooza” is a term Mark and I coined last year to denote a weekend set aside to get a bunch of stuff posted on eBay.

My little hissy fit was actually in the midst of my own declared eBaypalooza but I think I guilted Mark into participating because he was eBaying away today.

I’ve had a couple people ask what we sell and how we do it so I thought I’d give you our quick version of eBay how to. eBay was founded in 1995 and we’ve probably been using it since 1996, well mostly him at first. (Mark’s over here telling me how he was one of the “first golf club component sellers” on ebay. Aren’t you impressed 🙂

Mark’s used eBay to sell golf clubs for years. Some he’s made, some he’s picked up at thrift stores and resold. This is why I have a garage full of golf clubs….still.

So Mark and I are very different kinds of eBayers. He buys stuff he knows is worth money on eBay and resells it. There are people who make entire businesses out of doing just that. You’d be surprised what you can make money off of. Like TV remote controls. Go figure.

I, however, use eBay to sell stuff we’re no longer using – video games, movies, small electronics.

I’ve had a bunch of people ask me how to do it so I’m giving you my quick version.

  1. Go to eBay and type in the search field the name of the item you’re thinking of selling. This shows you all the items currently for sale.
  2. Now over on the left hand column where it says “Show Only” click the little box next to “Completed Listings”. This shows you ALL the auctions that have closed. (Auctions are typically 7 days.)
  3. Scroll through the list and look at the dollar amounts. The ones in red means the buyer didn’t sell the item. The ones in green sold. Peruse the prices. Decide if it’s worth your time to list the item based on the price. I typically won’t sell anything less than $10.
  4. I keep a notebook handy with a list of all the items I’m going to sell and I’ll jot a quick note on what the average sold price is. I go through and do this for everything I have to sell. (Like I said we kind of let it pile up and then do it in bunches.) Whatever is not worth my time goes to Goodwill.
  5. Next I spend time taking pictures of each item. If it’s a movie you only need one picture. Electronics – take pictures from a few different angles. High end item – take lots of pictures.
  6. After I’ve taken pictures of an item I go ahead and box it w/ whatever protection it needs and then just fold the top closed. I write in pencil on the top of the box w/ what’s inside.
  7. After I’ve photographed and boxed everything I get my notebook back out. I weigh each item on our postal scale (which we bought on eBay), write it down. Then I measure the box (w, d, l) and write it down. I stack all the boxes in a corner and hit the computer.
  8. I will open two tabs in my browser with eBay. One for research and one for posting.
  9. Starting with my first item I do that initial search again, find the item closest to mine that went for a good price and give the listing a quick glance to see what it was titled etc.  Then I create my listing based on that and some tweaking. Be specific about the quality of the item (especially if it’s expensive), what parts are included, if the manual is included, etc.
  10. There’s a whole strategy to pricing that I’m not really sure how to explain. You want to start low enough to gain some interest but if it’s a high dollar item you don’t want to start too low. For example a couple Disney movies I have up should go for $10-15. I started them at $4.99. A camera lens that should go for $75 I started at $49.99 (but maybe could have been lower). You can also set a “Buy It Now” price which means that person can purchase the item at that price immediately, ending the auction early. But that option goes away as soon as one person bids on your item.

There’s some good info on eBay…

You can track all of your auctions during the week and see how many people looked at it and how many put it on their “watch” list. Don’t be discouraged if no one bids right away. The expert eBayers wait til the last day, hour and minute to bid on something they really want 🙂

Yesterday I got 11 things listed. Probably took me about 2-3 hours total. But IF they sell for what I think they will then that’s about $800 (half of that is my Canon Rebel XT Digital SLR). That’s pretty good money for an afternoon, right?

The other 10 items are: 2 movies, 1 Wii game, inkjet photo printer, nutritional food scale (Mark thrift store purchase), sling, old software (2), Rock Band drum set (Mark bought on clearance), and a telephoto lens. Weird mix, huh?

So that’s the Gumm version of eBay 101 🙂

Not my finest moment…

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Confession: Yesterday I had my bi-annual freak-out about the amount of crap we have.

I had dared to venture into the under-the-stair closet.

What you can’t see in the picture is that the closet actually turns the corner to the left (while quickly becoming about 3 ft tall).

And that is where I was headed, in search of the box for my Canon camera that I’m selling on ebay.

This back section of the closet contains Mark’s boyhood baseball collection… and his Hot Wheels collection.

And 2 bins worth of misc. computer parts, cables, remote controls, wireless routers …

And the original boxes for some of our small electronics.

It was also the scene of one not-so-grown-up hissy fit.

By yours truly.

Standing precariously amidst the portable DVD player, a box of remotes, unused backpacks and the kids board games, I tried to see the sought-after box.

As I started to move some things around I could feel the frustration building.

And then I lost my balance, barely catching myself but banging my head against the wall.

And then I lost my mind.

I started picking up empty boxes and hurling them out of the closet. Along with several empty backpacks. (You know, to get put somewhere else…ahem.)

Probably against his better judgment Mark came to see if I needed help.

I will leave out the rest of that conversation, but suffice it to say that I took out my frustrations on my poor hubby who was ready to load everything into the back of the van right there and haul it to Goodwill. Which I was tempted to let him do except a lot of the stuff needs to go on e-bay.

STUFF drives me nuts. Specifically UNUSED stuff.

And CLUTTER.

You know those neat little IKEA showrooms where everything is put away in color-coordinated boxes and displayed on shelves in just the right way? Yeah, that makes me all warm and fuzzy.

Now that we don’t have money fights this, quite honestly, is probably the area where Mark and I struggle the most.

Usually I don’t throw things though.

Sorry honey!