eBay

Some time ago I mentioned having multiple websites, getting rid of two of them and starting the one I have now. I had the other two for hosting photos for my eBay business, but I stopped selling back in late 2009. I had joined eBay in early 2001 and at one point had 5 different selling ID's, I sold clothing and crafting supplies and antiques and collectibles successfully for a long time, but gradually I became fed up with Bay's constant changes. Like not allowing sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers, even if said buyer didn't pay. Or not allowing sellers to accept money orders or personal checks from buyers and instead having to use PayPal, which eBay owns, and pay PayPal fees on top of the eBay fees.  Or including the shipping cost in their Final Value Fees, a percentage of what your item sold for. I was still making money, so maybe it was as much about being burned out as anything else.

Fast forward to now, with my down-sizing efforts and trying to figure out what to do with all the "stuff" I have sitting around, not to mention fund-raising for the Caboose restoration. I do have a small booth at the local flea market, but in this area and at this flea market  people don't want to spend much for anything. Antiques don't sell hardly at all, and the folks want to dicker down to pennies for the yard-sale type items that do sell. That's okay, I have a bunch of yard sale stuff to dispose of, but the vintage and antique stuff is a problem. I could get a booth at an antique mall either here or up north or both, but those are hard to maintain if you're in a different area of the country and not able to restock and clean at least monthly. Craigslist can be good for some large items, but I hate having to deal with all the scam emails, and it's frustrating setting up meeting times for people to come look at stuff and then they don't show up. When I've listed on CL in Nashville the site is so large that an item is on the second or third page in just a day so not a lot of people see it.

After much deliberation I've decided to get back on eBay. Wow, have things changed! Not only on the eBay site, but also in my own life. I no longer have the checking account that I had linked to eBay and PayPal, my address has changed, my shipping address has changed (ok, so there's like 4 shipping addresses depending on which part of the country I'm in at the time) and my phone number has changed. I spend an entire day getting everything up to speed, confirming bank accounts, etc. I had always used eBay's bulk listing tool TurboLister, and that had about a zillion updates to download and install. I had to dig through the storage shed and find my scale for weighing packages, and find all the USPS Priority Mail boxes for shipping items. I did still have about 60 gallons of packing peanuts, but also ordered another batch of them. I ordered a new cable for my printer, so that now works but needs new ink cartridges.

I've been working on setting up a good spot for photographing items, that's still a work in progress. The lights I used are currently in MN, which is also where the bulk of the "stuff" I need to sell is at. I do have a pretty good bunch of stuff here in TN that I can list though, and I actually got one item listed a couple days ago just to see if everything was working right. Despite not having any feedback in the last 4 years people are bidding, so I'm happy.

For now I will just list auction style, and try and figure out a way to make an eBay store work with traveling around the country.  I have a 30' x 50' shop building up north that is packed to the gills with leftover eBay inventory, so obviously I can't haul it all with me as I move north and south seasonally. In a perfect world everything I list in an auction would sell so there would be no reason to carry inventory in a store. Wouldn't it be great if the world was perfect?  LOL

I'll leave you with the Rose Breasted Grosbeak who hangs out at the feeder in the yard. Handsome fellow, isn't he?