Julie Gumm - Author

Looking Ahead in 2011

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I figured it’s too late to do a 2010 recap – feels like old news. So instead, this is a looking ahead post.

Things I’m looking forward to in 2011…

  • At the end of February I get to stand up beside my best friend as she gets married! So excited for her, the kids and Dan as they start this new chapter of their lives.
  • In March I’m leading a World Orphans trip to Haiti. I’m taking this awesome group from Siloam Springs, Ark – the town where Mark and I went to college – to visit their Haitian church partner.
  • In May I’m leading a breakout session at the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit conference titled “Creative Fundraising for Your Adoption”. Anything fun to do in Louisville?
  • Hopefully I’ll be finishing the book on above topic before then 🙂 Either way I’ve got tons of great conference material.
  • April 1 the “No Shopping for a Year” challenge ends. I will then have a large bonfire. Just kidding! I’m not planning a big shopping binge but rather purchasing from the mental list in my head that I’ve been creating this year. Note, it’s fairly short and well thought out.
  • The Together for Adoption conference is going to be in Phoenix this year in October. Woohoo! Trying to talk a certain Texan family into making the trip and hanging out at our house 🙂

I’ve been thinking through my goals for this year. They’re not necessarily well thought out, but this is a quick list of things I’m hoping to do in 2011.

  • Finish writing the book on creative adoption fundraising.
  • Besides, CAFO Summit,  have at least 2 other speaking opportunities.
  • Attend SheSpeaks conference in July (if funds allow).
  • Be more intentional about one-on-one time with the kids.
  • Have a couple-only vacation of some sort with Mark – even if it’s a weekend trip to California. We used to do this every year but haven’t done it since Luke & Beza have been home and we’ve been traveling more for work.
  • De-clutter and simply our stuff – including selling my stamping and scrapbooking stuff that is going unused. Together we’ve started to make quiet a dent in this over the holidays. Plus we’re making some money on ebay – maybe it will help fund one of the above 🙂

What are your plans for 2011?

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 🙂