Friday, January 13, 2012

New Year, New Sales

Happy new year! I had taken a break from reselling to focus on family over the holidays and I am just now getting back to posting things on eBay. Since I haven't been yard saling or thrifting for a while, most of the items I'm posting are things around me house that we no longer need.

I had a couple of sales before Christmas that really discouraged me. One was a mirror that we had sitting in a closet. I didn't weigh it before listing it and grossly underestimated how much it weighed. I also underestimated how large of a box I would end up needing for it. And, I took the first offer that I got on it since I was anxious to sell it and get it out of the house (we're trying to get baby's room in order and it's still a work in progress). Well, I think the buyer ended up paying $40 for the mirror including shipping and I ended up having to fork over $15 for a special picture box to ship it in and $20 just to ship it to California. So I made a whopping $5, although probably not even that when you take into account the eBay fees. Lesson learned - I'll be sure to box up and weigh large items before I even list them.

The other transaction was the sale of the Target Missoni sweater dress that I had found on clearance. Someone bought it within a couple days of listing it for $100 with free shipping. I think I paid $16 for it. Well, the buyer never paid and I had to open an unpaid items case. By the time the case closed, I had missed the Christmas shopping window so I gave up on relisting it. Fast forward to this week and I finally got around to relisting it. I lowered the buy it now price slightly and kept the free shipping. I always list my stuff that I will ship worldwide because it really isn't any more work to ship to another country than down the street. Well, one day after listing the dress I was pleasantly surprised to see it sell for my buy it now price plus shipping to Australia. I made about $75 profit on this dress after all was said and done. I've still got a Missoni blouse and romper to sell, but now I'm not as discouraged as I was before.

The other pick me up to get me back into the eBay game was my Pottery Barn girls bedding set Craigslist find. I've been looking for a nice twin bedding set for my daughter so that she can transition out of her toddler bed and into a twin bed before the baby comes. All the Pottery Barn bedding on CL is crazily overpriced (I guess because it's overpriced to begin with). I finally found a set for $30 close to home that included the quilt, sham, fitted sheet, flat sheet, dust ruffle, curtains, and two valances. It is the Michelle quilt with pink sheets and green gingham curtain/valances. The quilt and sham alone sold for $45 on eBay, so I'm quite happy with my $30 find. The icing on the cake is that I don't really need the curtain/valances. I'm still undecided on the valances, so I'm keeping those for now and might use them, but I'm definitely selling the curtain because it turns out it is actually a shower curtain with dimensions of 72"x72". I'm not sure how they used this as a window treatment, but I prefer the look of two curtains as opposed to one. This one sold recently for $42 plus shipping. I'd be happy with $30 to make my bedding set find for my daughter be free so we'll see how it goes.

After the dress and the curtain, I think I'm feeling a bit less discouraged now. I hope new year sales are up for everyone else too!

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