It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. Things have changed quite a bit for me in the last few months, work-wise.

Before my kiddos were born I worked full-time as a librarian. After my oldest was born I resigned from my full-time job, and have been subbing ever since, working just a bit here and there. But in 2018 two of my coworkers retired. And, for whatever reason, the decision was made not to replace them. But of course the work still needs to be done. So, I have been subbing . . . almost every single day.

It’s good and bad. The best thing is that they will take pretty much any hours I can give so I generally just work when my boys are in school. I mostly enjoy my job. I like the people I work with, and I enjoy helping the patrons. The money is nice too.

But . . .
It means eBay is put on the backburner.
It means my schedule isn’t so much my own.
It means I have a backlog of yard sale treasures from last summer that have yet to be listed because my time is so much more limited.
It means my sales are WAY down.

I am still eBaying, but not to the extent I have in the past. When I am good (which I try to be most days) I get up at 5 a.m. and get 5 new items listed, and then package up my sales for the day to drop off at the PO on my way to work.

When I’m not so good a day or two or three can slip by with no new listings going up. My sales are down from the past year, which isn’t great but is to be expected.

I have no plans to quit eBaying, but there are also no signs that my work schedule will slow down in the near future, so this seems to be my new normal.

I do miss blogging and want to check in again more often, but if I’m somewhat sporadic I hope this helps explain why.

How did the last half of 2018 treat you? I would love to hear about it!

Well, I did get up a little after 5 a.m. this morning, and got a bunch of listing done before my boys got up.  I worked at my “real” job, went home and did a few chores around the house, enjoyed a BBQ with my family, put away some inventory, was (and still am) planning to take a bunch of pictures.  Overall, after the disaster of yesterday I was feeling pretty great about how the day went, and all that I got accomplished.  And then … (because of course it can’t just end there) … our internet went out.

My husband spent about an hour on the phone with our internet provider, trying to troubleshoot.  They say the issue is the router, and they are sending us a new one.  At our cost.  Today is Tuesday, and they can “overnight” one, which won’t actually arrive until Thursday, or we can use regular 2-day shipping, which won’t arrive until Monday.  What in the heck kind of math is that?  Anyway, we are “overnighting” a new router.  Fingers crossed it actually fixes the problem.

I was feeling all motivated to get up early tomorrow morning and list, but I guess that’s not gonna happen.  So, my store is now on an impromptu vacation.  Which almost belatedly occurred to me, I made a mad dash to the library to update everything on their wifi.  And now I gotta go, because they close in less than 5 minutes.

So – ha!  Best laid plans, right?  My new plan is to take hundreds of photos so I can list, list, list, list when the internet is restored.

Hope your week is going more smoothly than mine.  🙂

I have worked at the public library in my town for nearly 16 years, starting in the Circulation department, then working in the Administration office while I was getting my graduate degree, and eventually becoming an actual Librarian.  I worked in libraries in high school and college too, so it’s kinda in my blood.  I enjoy it.  But after my oldest son was born I moved from full to half-time, and after a couple months dropped down to a sub status.  I will always feel lucky that I had that option, and appreciate that I was a mostly-SAHM while my boys were young.  I started dabbling with eBay shortly after my second son was born (6ish years ago?) and for a long time I thought of eBay as a hobby or a “fun job”.  And it was, and still is.  But over the last couple years (as my boys are in school more and my time has become more my own) things have started to shift, and I have taken it more and more seriously.

A couple weeks before we went on our Disneyland vacation I found out that one of my coworkers at the library was retiring.  I was asked if I could work more hours through the end of the school year.  The good news is they are totally working around my schedule, so all of the extra hours worked have been when my boys are in school.  Which is great!  And … not great.  Great, because I am able to help out my coworkers (they definitely need the extra help), and the extra money in my paycheck is nice too.  But not great, because the majority of shipping and photographing and listing hours are now being used in other ways.

I like working at the library, but I have come to realize that the more I do it, the less I enjoy it.  When I am just subbing and working a couple 4 hour shifts each week it is a fun time to engage my brain and get out of the house.  But now that I am working four or five days a week I am really, really, REALLY missing the fun and flexibility of eBay.  Having ownership of my own time is HUGE.  So, if nothing else, working all of these hours is a stark reminder to appreciate the things I love about eBay.  And they greatly outweigh any of the drawbacks or annoyances that come with it.  How lucky are we to live in a time to have opportunities like this outside of the mainstream to make an income.  So lucky!

So for the next few weeks I probably won’t be hitting my listing goals, which means I probably won’t be hitting my sales goals either.  And in this situation, that’s just the reality of the time I have, and I’m (mostly) okay with it.  But it is also motivating me to set some big goals for the summer, and gear up for the fall and holiday seasons.

Did you set some eBay goals for this year?  I would love to hear how they are going!