She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

February Goals

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February already!  Week one of my brother’s family being in the states is already over.  They left our house less than an hour ago, headed down to CA for the next week to visit some friends and more family.  I feel like the pressure is on to get a ton of stuff done in the next week before they get back!

January was decent for me sales-wise.  I had a total of 90 sales, and that included a week of my being on vacation and almost two full weeks with no new listings.  I am hoping to get 100 new listings up this month, amongst all of the family fun.



Have a great month, everyone!

2014

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With the new year I have, of course, been thinking over the goals I would like to achieve in 2014.  

They include:

#1)  Keeping up with the boys.  I am still a busy mama with two young boys (ages 6 and 2), and they will always be my priority.  I know how lucky I am that I am able to stay home with them full-time.  I am very thankful to have found a way to contribute to the family budget while being with them, but I also know eBay could take over my life if I’d let it.  Sometimes I will need to put eBay on the back-burner of life, and just let it simmer.  And that’s okay.

#2)  Continue growing my eBay store.    I know it will be a slow grow.  But, I would like to eventually get my store up to 1000 items, and then try to hold steady.

#3)  Continue to branch out, but also list what I love.  It’s gotten to the point where I feel like I could list pretty much anything, and I do.  And while I am always happy to find a hot item that sells for big bucks, I also enjoy some smaller sales too.  Some kids clothes or plush may not bring in a lot of money, but if I enjoy buying and selling them – then it’s worth it.  I want this “job” to stay fun as well as profitable.

#4)  Tackle Amazon!  I’ve procrastinated long enough.  I’ve sold a few things myself, but still haven’t ventured into FBA territory.  This is the year.

#5)  Continue attending my local eBay sellers Meet-Up group.  I found it on a fluke, and have been attending regularly for almost a year.  Even when the topic of the month isn’t something that I am especially interested in, I am always happy that I showed up.  There’s something great about sitting in a room with like-minded people who totally get the eBay/Amazon/Etsy draw to selling online.

#6)  Continue to write this blog.  I love reading the blogs of other sellers, and I am always happy to be able to pay it forward when I come across a BOLO.  I value the connections and friendships this blog has afforded, and for that I thank all of you.

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January is going to be a very busy month for me, so I am keeping my listing goal conservative at 100.




Happy New Year to all!

50¢

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I logged into Paypal earlier and was thrilled to find that I am only 50¢ away from making my monetary goal for this month.  YAY, December!

December Goals

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December already?  How can that be?!  This year has flown by.

I had pretty consistent sales this month, a total of 130.  I am hoping to match that in December.

I came sooooo close to making my listing goal this month.  In fact, I could have met it easily.  I’ve been 20 listings away from completing it for days.  

But, Thanksgiving preparations happened.  Family came into (and are still in) town.  I went to bed earlier than usual more than one night.  I had a date night with my husband and some friends.  And, and, and.  So many excuses.  But basically it boils down to the fact that I took some down time, and it was nice.  But, I am refreshed, refocused, and ready to go.  Bring on December!


P.S. My other success for this month was getting my store listings up to 750 items for the first time ever!  Although, due to recent sales and a lack of listing, it’s dropped a bit below it again.  Time to get listing!

November Goals

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I sold 108 items in October – randomly, exactly the same number as last month.

I barely made it half way to my listing goal in October.  I can’t even remember the last time I hit a listing goal.  This month I am shooting for 150.  That’s only an average of 5 new listings a day.  Slow and steady, right?

 


Part of what is really slowing me down with my new listing is keeping up with my old listings.  I got rid of all of my GTC listings months ago.  I have around 700 items in my store at any given time, with listings expiring every day that I need to “sell as similar”.  It can take up a lot of time. 

A couple months ago I started dabbling with OBO.  I’ve never been a big fan of the idea – it seems like telling potential customers that you don’t really think an item is worth what you are asking.  But, I decided to add it to some of my old listings, and it’s gone alright.  Most of the offers come in at about 2/3 of the asking price, which for an old listing, I am pretty happy with.  A few have come in that would barely pay for the cost of shipping, and those I just decline.  As I’ve been “sell as similar”ing the last couple weeks I have been adding OBO to even more of my older listings. 

I am also trying to get all of my Christmas and new-in-box items into my store.  Hoping for a busy November!

Well, that’s embarrassing.

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Half way through the month.  Thought I should have a reality-check/check-in.  I am sooo far behind on this month’s goal of listing 200 new items.


Yup.  I’ve only listed 38 items in the last 16 days.  In part because I was getting ready for the last fall consignment sale (dropped items off on Monday evening), in part because for about a week at the beginning of the month I was dragging, on the brink of getting sick and going to bed at 10 p.m. every night instead of staying up until midnight or 1 a.m. getting things listed.  The good news is, I never got full-blown-sick.  The bad news is, my listings really suffered.  Ah, priorities.

But, on to the really embarrassing part of my day. 

This morning I went to the consignor presale of the consignment sale (with my youngest, because it’s allowed at this sale!), and the incredibly nice gal who runs the sale came up to me with a pair of pants in her hand, and said something like, “I think this is yours.  This tag isn’t from my sale.”  And I look down, and it still has the JBF tag on it!!!!  Face.  Palm.  And I said, “Well, that’s embarrassing!”  Was it ever.  (Caught!  Cheating on her!  Ack.)  She waved it off with a smile.  Could not be nicer.

I even knew that pair of pants had gone missing (new tag printed out but couldn’t find the pants to attach it to) – it never even crossed my mind that it was somehow already in the pile to be taken to the sale.  

I like this sale so much better than JBF.  JBF basically runs for a day and a half.  This sale starts Tuesday evening for volunteers and runs all the way through Sunday.  So much more time to get your items sold.  A bunch of items that I had at the JBF sale that just sat (for the day and a half) have already sold.  The folks at JBF are very nice too, but I don’t think I will be consigning there again.  The time and effort isn’t worth the small payout.

I’ve set all of my consigned inventory to be marked down as the sale goes on.  I am less concerned with how much money I make, and more concerned with how much of my stuff goes out the door.  I took 175 items.  I’d be sooo happy if 2/3 of it was sold, never to be seen again.  We’ll see . . .

October Goals

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September was a pretty good sales month, with 108 items heading out the door.  The beginning of the month was definitely busier than the end.  I didn’t even come close to my listing goal of 200 new items for September.  I blame moving.  And a general lack of focus.  I did get some listing done here and there, but I was not very consistent about it.


But, that will change this month!  I know 200 new listings has been my goal for several months and I’ve fallen short each time, but I think I can really get it done this month.  We’re in the new house, we’ve settled into our new school year routine, I’ve got plenty of inventory just sitting here, and honestly, we could use some extra money coming in.  All of those are great motivating factors to *finally* meet this goal!


September Goals

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August was a crazy month, mostly due to our big move.  Can I just say that I LOVE our new house!!  Love.  Moving out of the old one is actually still a work in progress, but the end is in sight.  Eventually I will get my act together / make the time to take some photos to show off my new storage room and office.  Love, love, love.

August on eBay was WAY better than I deserved.  I really neglected my store.  I only listed 62 new items in August.  I can’t even remember the last time I listed so few new items in a month.  

 


I was (am still) also really behind in getting items relisted after they expire.  Not enough hours in the day right now.

That said, I had sales on 30 of the 31 days, with a total of 92 items sold during the month.  Nine of those were sold yesterday alone!  More sales than I deserved, really.  Or, rather, all of my hard work over the past few slow sales months has finally started paying off.

My oldest starts kindergarten next week, which I can hardly believe!  I will still have my 2yo at home with me full-time.  I am not really sure what our schedule will be like, but I am going to set my listing goal high for September at 200 new listings.  

 

I really want to get my store rounded out, full to the brim, ready for Christmas.  And, if one thing became evident in our moving endeavor, it is that I have more unlisted inventory than I know what to do with.  It could keep me busy for at least the next year.  No, I am not exaggerating.  

So I am going to start – now!

August Goals

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July was a bit of a crazy month for me, and August promises to be even more so.  Most importantly, we are supposed to get the keys to our new house this afternoon.  YAY!  I know that it will be the start of a ton of work, but it’s still exciting. 

Sales seemed to pick up a bit for me in July, both in quantity and quality (some higher-priced items were selling).  I sold a total of 88 items.  

ALSO, I sold my first two items on Amazon!  I found a steal of a deal on a brand new set of books that I had previously sold on eBay.  I bought 4 sets for around $20/each, and two have already sold for $100 + shipping.  I still haven’t ventured into FBA, I just shipped them out myself.

I set a low listing goal in July of 100 new items, which I was able to meet.  

 

My family spent some time with my inlaws this last weekend, and I forgot my camera at their house.  (!!!!)  They are about a two hour drive away.  My MIL is incredibly kind and immediately put it in the mail to me (without my even asking her to), but I feel like I’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel as to what I have left to list that is already photographed.  In a way, it’s good – some of these things have been languishing unlisted too long.  On the other hand, I’m ready to photograph and list some new/different/fun items.

As I said before, this next month will be a bit crazy with moving and all.  I am going to keep my listing goal low again at 100 new items.



I’ll share photos of the new digs soon.  I’ll have a big storage room AND an office just for eBay.  Hooray!

July Goals

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Best laid plans, right?  I had a BIG goal for June: list 200 new items!  And, for the first half of the month, I was on track to actually meet the goal.  It was rather exciting! 

 

And then . . . we decided to seriously start looking for a new house.  And my evening hours became filled with square feet and numbers of bedrooms (and finding my perfect eBay room!) instead of eBay listings.  But, it was worth it!  We found an awesome house, made an offer which was accepted.  Pending inspection, we could be moving in the beginning of August.  SUPER excited.

No idea what the next month will actually be like, or how much time I will have for listing, but I am going to set a goal of listing 100 new items.


June was another slow month.  I had 76 sales.  The second half of the month was definitely busier than the first.  Here’s hoping that continues into July!