Cut me some slack, will ya?

Ugh, I have been in open case, return, scanned but not delivered Hell for most of August. I have had more cases opened on me in ebay these past couple of weeks that I have the other 11 years I have been selling on Ebay!  Amazon wasn't fairing much better for me either. I was down to fair status after two negatives in a row. One may have been partially my fault, it was a book that I had listed as like new, from my very beginning days of listing and probably should have been listed as very good. Then I also had a product I sent in to FBA that when it was sent to the customer the box was empty. The customer has not returned the empty box yet, so Amazon will not look into my claim until they do, and will not change my feedback score of a 1 until then either.

My ebay problem have been coming mostly from USPS. I have had 8 items that have not been delivered, two were international, the rest were in the US. I am so annoyed when I fuffill my part of the deal, but then end up having to give a full refund because it says it's still in San Franciso, since June! or because it was never scanned and there is no tracking. I work so hard to get my packages out the next day, and it's very discouraging to have to refund because the item never gets there. There were also two cases where I contacted the person with a question before sending their item, to which they didn't reply. I refunded their money and then they were upset. Apparently, the ebay message system has been having some issues as well.

As of last night my Amazon account was back up to good, and knock on wood it's been a few days since someone has opened a case, so maybe things are back on track again. It's so scary when you are counting on that money to come in. In light of all of the people who got booted from Ebay last week, it's scary to think that if I am ever able to do this full time, what would happen if they closed me down!

How are things for you? Are your packages getting there?

Thriftstore redo

I decided to update my decor since I was moving to a new classroom anyway. My Granny loved owls and when I found this Owl Utensil Holder at the thrift store for $2.99 I knew I could use it for something.

I wasn't going for a 70's look, so I gave it an update with a little bit of teal paint.  I plan on using it to hold teacher supplies, like markers, scissors, etc.


so, for less than $6, I now have a little statement piece for my classroom.


I was also able to score this latch hook Owl rug for $4.99 and 20% off at my local Goodwill.

What do you think?

Back to work

It's that day I have been dreading for months. I return to my "real" work today. To a new job I hadn't planned on moving to. Leaving my 4 month old and my 4 yr old for the whole day, something I have not done in over 5 months. I am not ready for this. I want so badly to just say forget it, forget it all, I'm staying here where I belong. This feeling is the reason that I can go on 3 hours sleep and the hope that next year at this time, I will not be saying goodbye to go back to work. That I will be able to do this full time. I have talked to hubby and he is at least saying maybe. That's so much closer than I was last year.  Here's to a great year with my new kinder kiddos, a great year for my own little kiddos and a successful year online, so that I have a choice to work from home next year if I so choose.

I can do this because I have to . Can someone give me a pep talk now? I sure could use one. 

Takin' a little break

I'm not gone, just overwhelmed.
I officially started the new job last Monday. Have been in trainings everyday since then. Found out that things at this school district are pretty much the opposite of everything I have ever been taught or done in my 10 years of teaching.  It's a whole new ball game.  I just have to keep telling myself that it will all be ok.

I start with kids on the 20th, so I will be taking a few weeks off to get into the new schedule and hopefully figure out what I am doing!

I will be back to post soon!

My Christmas Wish List

Okay, so I know it's a little early but here is my Christmas Wish list.

Dear Ebay,
Please make an option so that I can add or take away free shipping on multiple listings at a time.



Dear Etsy,
Please make an option for calculated shipping. I am tired of losing my butt on shipping because someone from Florida bought something from me.



Dear Amazon,
Please stop letting people return items for no apparent reason. What am I supposed to do with an item that was once brand new, was customer damaged, and which I now have to pay for you to return to me, only to discover that said customer apparently was missing a part, which they stole from my item, and then returned for a full $169.00 refund.  Also, please reimburse me for the other item which when I sent in had an item in it and when it was returned to Amazon, didn't anymore. I wasn't the one who lost it, you or the customer was.

By the way, did you know Christmas in only a few short months away?  Crazy!

Listing Strategies

I always like to read how other people handle the most important part and more time consuming part of an online selling business- listing!

I know that everyone has their own system, but here is the one that works best for me.

For Clothing:
fill laundry basket with clothing items from my shop (or more ideally fresh from the thrift store ie: fill the basket straight from the car) bring it in and place next to my recliner in the living room.  After kiddos and hubby go to bed (I make too many mistakes when people talk to me in the middle of listing) I start writing up my listings for items, measuring etc while everything is next to me and easily accessible. I put everything in the listing except for the photos. I usually save them as a draft on my ebay selling page, but recently lost 15 listings that way, so I am looking into turbolister or inkfrog to handle that better.  Once I have approx 50 listings ready to go (or my basket is done) I take them out to my shop and get the photos taken. Then as each photo loads onto my computer ( I use an Eye-fi card, saves tons of time, another post, another time) I edit the photos, (pic monkey) resize, and then put in the listing. I can get about 50 listings a week up that way, if I have about 5 hours during the week to work. I usually try to work out in my shop to keep the ebay clutter out of the house, but with the two littles and hubby and I not having much time to spend together right now, this is working for me, and the basket keeps the clutter a little more under control.


For dishware:
Here is my best tip for dinnerware. I take one photo that has the tape measure in the photo and one that has a paper with how many I have in stock. I also take a picture of the back to get as much info as I can.  This way, while I am in the house working I have all of the information I need without having to write down a bunch of stuff, just a few extra minutes for photos and I'm all set.

I don't have a system for the other items I sell, but hopefully you found something that was helpful.  

Happy listing!

update: I listed the 50 new items yesterday and have already sold 10 items, all from the new listings, less than 24 hours later. It's true, the more you list the more you sell.  

BOLO: g diapers

Sweet baby girl has had some issues with being allergic to every kind of disposable diaper known to man. Little man had similar issues, but we were able to use diapers.com diapers for him. They must have changed the recipe or she's allergic to different things, because we had a very bad diaper rash for almost a month while trying to find something that would work.

I had looked into cloth diapers before she was born, but since they were so expensive and we have a septic tank and can't flush the disposable liners, I figured they were more work than I could handle with working full time.


I finally gave in and bought some gdiapers.  She no longer has diaper rash and they have been working really well for us.  I bought a few cloth liners to try, but have been sewing my own to save some money.  Since she is finally (yay) gaining weight, she only used the size small for a few weeks. I knew from looking for used ones on ebay that they would have a good resale value.  (They usually sell within a few dollars of new ones, or sometimes even more than new ones!)  I cleaned them up and am getting ready to list them. I will keep you updated on how they do.

If you're out and about at the thrift store or garage saling, be sure to keep an eye out for cloth diapers and their components, they are a real BOLO!

I paid $25.00 for two diaper covers from my local grocery store- simply because we needed them that day. I bid on some online after that.
Here are a few recent gdiaper sales from ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Small-Gdiapers-/130947104245?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e7d0e3df5


http://www.ebay.com/itm/gDiapers-Little-gPants-Size-Medium-Pink-Gs-/111116607010?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19df10de22

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Medium-gDiapers-gPants-With-Snap-In-Liners-Pink-and-Red-/281137250957?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item417516028d

happy hunting!