What the heck Ebay?

I promise to come back later today and post some what solds for the week. But I had to take a minute and update you on the wallpaper negative. I did get a defect earlier this week, I have called ebay three different times and they will not remove the negative, as they say it's my fault,the wallpaper must have a problem. It was new in the package and the negative isn't not about the quality of the paper. The wallpaper did have a problem, the person installing it!

So I am going to be adding this disclaimer to all of my wallpaper listings.

* depending on the texture and type of the wall you are applying wallpaper too, additional wall paper adhesive may be required. Please make sure to read wallpaper application instructions oroughly before attemtping to apply your wallpaper.

I was also thinking of including this

Instructions for appling prepasted wallpaper

1. Fill water tray with lukewarm water and set it on the floor at the end of your table.
        
2. Completely immerse the rolled strip (pattern side in) in water and slowly pull it out, pattern side down, unrolling as you pull, laying it on the table.
         
3. Once you've pulled the entire piece out of the water, look for dry spots. If you find any, sprinkle a little water on them with your sponge and work the water in lightly with your fingers.
      
4. Fold the top of the strip back to the middle of the strip and the bottom back to the middle, being careful not to crease. Allow 10 minutes in this folded position for wallpaper to "cure."  

 An alternative to the water tray method is to use an "adhesive activator" for pre-pasted wallpaper. It's applied like paste and eliminates the need for soaking each strip in water.

 I don't want to say anything about not refunding if the paper doesn't stick, as I think they would just say something else was wrong with it to get a refund. 

What do you think?  Suggestions? Changes? Other ideas for covering my butt for future problems like this? 

Make it Monday: Healthy Halloween Party Ideas

I was in charge of coming up with some healthy Halloween treats for my son's kindergarten class. Here's what I came up with:

Pumpkin Water Bottles

supplies for water bottles:
orange paper strips, small (or large) water bottles, green pipe cleaners, glue dots, orange drink mix
instructions:
remove original paper strip from water bottle, add glue dot and apply paper strip, twist green pipe cleaner around the lid and secure drink mix with it. twirl pipe cleaner by wrapping around a pencil
enjoy!

and fruit cup Jack O Lanterns, simply add a face with a black sharpie





Happy Halloween!

Update: Leap of Faith

So far I've gotten 9 different styles/colors of my excercise wear and have had 2 sales already!  They both were this bright floral print leotard thong.  I almost didn't get these because of the print and the thong, but I'm glad I got them. Hopefully the other styles will start flying off of the shelves soon.

What Sold Wednesday

I spent the morning sorting my huge find all over the driveway.

I've gotten almost all of the single color and size ones photographed and I hope to have them all listed by the end of next week.

Here's a quick run down of my sales this week. It's really picking up and I've sold a lot of large items this week. A pain to pack, but nice to free up some room in storage.


Ebay
1970's Bedspread paid $7.00 half price day sold in two weeks for $49.95

Macrame Swag Light paid $4.99 sold for $30, listed for two years

Charlie Brown Twin Flat Sheet paid 1.47 sold for $39.95 in one day

Boyds Bear Firefighter Throw  paid $3.99 sold in two months for $34

Mid Century Modern Suitcase paid $2.99 sold in a week for $24.95

Tip Tuesday # 10- sometimes you've got to take a leap of faith

this post could also be titled- What did I do?

Either I hit pay dirt today, or I just wasted alot of money. I'm really hoping its the first scenario!

I visted the local Gdub in my town on the way to a well baby check up.  I was cruising quickly thru the Halloween costumes when I happened upon several hundred NWT excercise/ work out wear items. I had purchased a few of them this summer and had really good results. Since they were in the Halloween section they qualified for my club blue Halloween Costume 2 day Discount.  I ended up grabbing two carts and loading up and I even left a few behind. I now have approximately 200 excercise work out wear items to list. I think it will go fast, as there are several of the same design, just different sizes. I am hoping for nice weather tomorrow so I can sort them out on the driveway and figure out exactly what I have.  I paid $1.00-$2.00 a piece and expect to sell them for $18-$39 a piece.

So I am now either $400 in the hole or I am about to sell over $4000 dollars. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith.


How about you, have you ever taken a leap of faith?

I have to tell you, because I know you will understand.

No one in my family understands what this means, but I know that you will.

Finally, in the blue instead of the red!  I'm barely in the blue, but next month some more defects should fall off and then I should be fine, if there are no huge problems this month, (knock on wood!)

and on an odd note, no defect has ever shown up for the wallpaper guy negative that I got over a week ago. I was going to call ebay and try to fight it, but I'm not going to bring to their attention if they didn't notice, so as long as it doesn't show up as a defect, I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie.

I apologize for not having a make it monday recipe today. I had to run some errands in town and didn't stay home to make stuff today, so I'll try and post something later in the week. Hope evaluation day brought a smle to your face too!

Warning Vent Ahead: Come on people, read!

Ugh, had it with people who don't bother to read the listings.

Two days ago I received a negative feedback (no previous communication) that stated the wallpaper the person bought from me wouldn't stay on the wall.  After communicating with the buyer, I found out he didn't read the directions and put the wallpaper up incorrectly. I will be calling ebay on that one. It arrived in the condition I described it in, what the buyer does after that I have no control over!

Then today I received two inquiries on items they claimed were not as described. One on Amazon and one on Etsy.

The Amazon listing was described as:
acceptable condition, gently used, has a name written on the back in black marker, plastic slightly discolored from storage

the customer wrote me today stating the item wasn't new and had a name written on the back-

umm yeah, I know!


and then the etsy listing which said (and also is shown in the photo)  :
12 matching pairs and 8 lone pieces

I just got an email from that customer wondering why there were 8 pieces that didn't have a matching piece. 

Some days it just never seems to end...... and now back to listing,

Tip Tuesday # 9 Garage Sale Shopping Made Easier

I have a hard time hauling around little man, baby girl, and the stroller all while keeping track of my purse when sourcing at garage sales, and even at retail stores  I found the perfect solution.  I can fit my cash, credit card, phone and most importantly my inhaler. (I run into a lot of people who are smoking at garage sales and in front of stores, which usually means I need to use my inhaler.) I've also been known to sneak in a package or two of fruit snacks to keep the littles busy. 

It keeps it close at hand and my hands free. 

I do not have an affiliation with this product or company, just a happy customer. 

What's your go to carry all for sourcing?

Makin it Monday: Cold Weather Drinks

It's been a few cold days here in Colorado. Right now it's drizzling, the wind is blowing like crazy and we are headed into town to take baby girl back to the Dr. She is still coughing a lot at night and the nebulizer doesn't seem to be helping, so I want to make sure it hasn't morphed into something else.

When we get home I plan on making this in the crockpot, so it will be nice and warm for little man to drink when he gets off the bus this afternoon.

BTW, I love this site, slow cooking for a year- this was one of the first crockpot websites I found a few years ago and I love it!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2011/01/quick-and-easy-caramel-apple-cider.html

What sold Wednesday: Sales are picking up

I have been listing a lot and it shows in this week's sales. My store is currently up to 850 items and I think I will be able to hit my September Goal by the end of October- which considering all of the interruptions I've had lately, is pretty good!

Here's some of my sold items for the week. Be sure to read to the end for my best sale of the week!

Hoover Steam Attachment Pack minus the cleaning fluid (please excuse the horrible picture, stuck taking photos in the house since baby girl is sick)

paid $4.00, BO $27.00

Equestrian Wallpaper Borders, originally listed at $14.95. I saw last night that they had eight watchers. So on a whim I decided to raise the price to $54.95. I got an offer of $20 exactly three minutes later and I accepted it!  I have recently been looking at wallpaper borders at the thrift store and have several really flip lately.I usually pay about .99 a roll and sell from between $15-50 dollars
a roll. Easy to ship, easy to store. Love that!

Pantyhose I got these this summer when I went camping with my family. There was a big store that was closing in the mountain town and spent about $400 on various items for FBA and ebay. So far I have doubled my initial investment and still have a whole plastic tote of pantyhose to sell (more than 100) Paid .50 sold for $14.95

Box of Coca Cola Christmas Cards I never got around to using. Paid 1? sold for $14.95

Women's Tinkerbell Footie Pj's paid $4.99, sold within an hour for $34.95

1970's Pink Frilly Dress paid $2.99, sold for $24.95

And finally . . .

I found this vintage coat last year when I was one maternity leave. I was in love with this coat and wanted to keep it for myself. I had my mom look it over and confirmed it was handmade she thought possibly a home ec  or 4-H project even. I could never decide if it was a cow print or floral print, but it was so unique and I knew it was something special, So I listed it high. It is handmade and really soft and warm. It sold this week on Etsy, to a New York address for $100 and f/s. I paid $4.00 on half price day. Love that!

Tip Tuesday # 8 Before you throw it away

Two ways I have been finding new items to sell:

looking at everything again before donating it or throwing it away- case in point, the garfield at the top of this post. I was going through all of my son's old clothes for the consignment sale and found this garfield shirt, but it had a hole right next to the embroidered design. I decided to take a chance and cut it out of the shirt, and listed it  on Etsy for $14.95. It sold within 2 hours!



I have also been scanning pretty much every item that we buy to see if it's something that would sell well on Amazon. I figure if we use it at our house, other people do too. I've found about 5 products that my family buys weekly that resell well on Amazon.

Make It Monday- Salad in a jar

Today I am making a week's worth of salad for my hubby. With all of the recent meetings with the insurance company I have been thinking a lot about our family eating more healthy food. My hubby's family has a history of heart disease and his father sadly passed away when he was just 49 years old. My hubby will be 41 next month. Something that has hit me hard!

Since I am working from home I have more time to prepare foods that are healthy and quick and easy for my hubby to grab as he heads off to work so hard for our family.

I hit my mom up for some old wide mouth canning jars she had stored in her basement and purchased these lids from Amazon.

 http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Wide-Mouth-Plastic-Storage-8-Count/dp/B000SSN3L2/ref=sr_1_13?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1412565325&sr=1-13&keywords=mason+jars

Here's the way I layered the ingredients for a basic lunch salad. I will experiment with more combinations next week. I spent about an hour chopping and cleaning all of the vegetables and put them into several bowls lined up on the counter. Then I assembly lined them. A weeks worth of lunch for about 2 hours time. I think I will get quicker the more I do.

Bottom layer- half ranch/half thousand island dressing, both fat free (hubby's request not mine!)  I plan on using store bought dressing until we run out and then making it from scratch.

next layer- hearty vegetables- celery, carrots, baby tomoatoes, cucumbers

next layer- garbanzo beans

next layer protein- white cheese cubes, hard boiled eggs, cooked ground turkey

next layer- iceburg lettuce ( I'm still trying to get him to switch to spinach for more nutritional value)

Seal it up and then store in the fridge.  I'll let him try them out this week and report back on how they went. I have read some people have problems with the items getting wilted, so we'll see!

What sold Wednesday (a few days late!)

My sales have been slow this week, and it's mostly my fault. We found out last week (Wednesday) that our renters were moving out and it was my goal to get the house rent ready and rented to another family by October 1st, as the rent money helps supplement my selling income in a big way.

I had it rented to someone, signed the lease, put some money down and everything. They were supposed to start moving in Monday. Got a text from them Sunday night that they had changed their minds. So I started over again wtih 2 days to get it rented before the first and . . . . . I did it!
They saw it on Monday and signed the lease on Tuesday. So, we should hopefully have that income for another year. A big relief!
We also talked to our insurance guy and figured out a way to save over $900 a month on health and life insurance for our family! We were looking at having to pay an additional $600 a month just for me, so that's a huge refief as well.


But I spent almost 2 weeks driving into town everyday, running errands, working on the rental house, or meeting with people. I only got 50 items listed last week. This week I have been fighting the cold my daughter shared with me, in between giving her breathing treatments every 4 hours (if anyone wants to volunteer to help me hold her down to do it, please come on over!) I have some time to list, while I sit on the couch in misery, but I don't have any pictures of unlisted inventory left. My hubby doesn't understand why I would like my photo studio in the house instead of out in the shop. I could have gotten a lot done this week if it was. My mom said she was willing to watch little one one day next week so I can just take pictures all day.

So that's my long explanation for why I don't have much to show that I sold this week. But here it is anyway.

Alice in Wonderland Themed Halloween Costume
Paid 1.99 last year, sold for 14.00

Grumpy Stuffed Picture Frame paid $1.99 sold for 14.95. It was new with tags and I thought it would sell right away, but this was a dud for me that I took out of the garage sale pile twice. I was just happy to have it gone! I don't have very much luck with plush!

German Candles paid .99 took BO of 15.95 

Coldwater Creek 3X lace shirt paid $1.50 sold for BO 15.95

Vintage Men's Western Shirt 

Free from my dad sold for 12.95 I've this one for over a year, so I was happy to accept the offer 

Wishing you loads of listing time and sales!