This Thanksgiving vs Last Thanksgiving

Last Thanksgiving was a difficult one for me. I had three days off from school for "vacation," and cried almost the whole three days with the dread of going back to work.

I missed spending time with my children.  I had been sick 6 days of the school year already, including going to work with a 102.3 fever, only to be given a "surprise" evaluation. I was having 4-5 days a week with migraines and was sleeping 2-3 hours a night, because I literally could not sleep from the stress. I was taking medicine for a stomach ulcer. I was losing my hair handfuls at a time.  I cried everyday driving to work and driving to pick up my kids, in the shower, and usually several times during the day. My hubby had to give me a daily pep talk just to get me out the door to work. It was one of the toughest times of my life.


Fast forward to this Thanksgiving:
I have had only 3 migraines since May. I have only been sick once. I usually sleep 4-5 hours a night, but because it's my decision, and I either take a nap or go to bed early a couple of times a week.
I am not taking any medication for the migraines or ulcer and my hair is finally starting to grow back in. I have only cried 2 times since May.

I am consistently making enough to cover the bills and am only making about $100-$200 less than I made teaching. (before 4th quarter even started)

I spent all of Monday spending time with my children. I taught my son how to make loom potholders, which he is now making for everyone for Christmas. My daughter learned to say Elmo and Abbey and how to put a diaper on her baby doll. My son and I had a discussion about what Black Friday means, a mini economics lesson, if you will. I still managed to get 10 FBA boxes out, found Christmas gifts and art activities for my kids to do at the Thrift Store. (at half price at that!)

In October I went to the Women of Faith Conference in Denver with my mom and some of my best girlfriends. There was a prayer time to pray for things you need in your life. This year, I honestly could not think of anything more I needed or wanted, just for my life to continue just as it is. What a difference from last year, when my heart was so heavy I could not get any words out of my mouth thru the tears, I could only think, God, please help me.

I am so thankful this Thanksgiving for the life I have been given. For God and his endless love, despite my struggles with disbelief and sin. No matter how many times I stray from Him, He always welcomes me back with open arms. I am thankful for my family and their support of me. For the soldiers who fight to keep my country free, for my business and for my ability to spend this year at home. This year I have so much to be thankful for it is beyond mere words. I plan on unplugging on Thanksgiving, to giving my undivided attention to my family and loved ones.

And then hitting the stores early and hard on Friday morning. I have a few last Christmas gifts to purchase and some FBA inventory to buy. Then it's a major push from there on out until Christmas.
And I wouldn't want it any other way!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Melissa

Drowning. . . . someone throw me a lifesaver!

Ugh, what a few weeks it has been!
My computer is officially done for. According to the Geek Squad the hard drive is about to go. So I purchased a new one yesterday. I am going to have to see what I can rescue from my hard drive and then it's adios.

I've been buried under tons of new inventory, and I've been trying to do my best to get it out the door. I just sent 18 boxes out the door this morning with my UPS man, totaling 300 items. I have about 50 more that I have to write new listings for.

I have also been going back and forth with a customer who purchased my old dish network box. 4 weeks later he left a negative feedback saying the man who previously owned the box owed the company $300 dollars and he wants his money back.

I have a few issues with his request  demand
It was my box, only owned by me, ie: not a man, and I don't owe the company any money.
I called the company and they said there was no way he could tell who the box belonged to and that the person who owed the money is probably the person who lived at his address previously.

I messaged him and asked for the name of the person who owes the money. He has sent me back 3 messages  saying the same thing as the feedback. He wants his money back.

If someone cost me $300 that I didn't owe. I would want more than my $30 back. And he doesn't want to send the item back, which tells me he already has it up and working. He also has only bought 2 things on Ebay.

I am so annoyed, I know that he is trying to scam me. After the whole bad wallpaper incident I don't know what to do. I don't want to refund this guy, but if I don't ebay probably won't remove the defect. And even if I refund the money, I'm sure he won't remove the feedback.

Anybody have some advice for me?

What sold Wednesday Nov. 12th

I'm a week behind, since I didn't post last week, so I'm combining some of my best sales for the last 2 weeks.


bonanza
vintage shower soap dispenser new in box

pd 3.99 sold 54.95


etsy

commuter mug, paid .99 sold for 19.95 (I sold one a few weeks ago with original box for $34)

fabric ornament panel- pre cut 

free from my mom, I sold three different sets of these fabric ornaments for a total of $54.

ebay

I continued to sell lots of leotards this week. I think close to 20 across all of my sales channels. I upped the price a few dollars and it has slowed down a bit since then. I'm not sure if it's because they are down in the listings, or due to the price increase. I may lower them a bit again after Christmas. I'm getting lots of positive feedback on them, and multiple sales to the same person, which is great! Apparently the UK has a shortage of thong leotards, as I have sent 10 of them across the pond this week! 

Also, on a side note, don't be afraid to sell things with flaws, as long as you clearly note the issues in the listing. This coat had a quite a few including, rips stains and a large hole. I found this cool red plaid wool hunting coat in the Halloween section of a local thrift store I paid $7 and it sold in a few short weeks for $35.  I haven't gotten feedback yet, so hopefully he read the description  well. 

My computer has been acting up the last two days and it's taken me over 2 hours to get this post done. So I'm going to stop here. I have tried everything I know of to the problem, but I am still not having very much luck connecting to the internet. I have tried chrome, firefox, IE and Safari all with little success, they just keeep freezing and shutting down. I think I'm going to have to cave and take it to the repair shop on Friday. 

Although if I had my choice we wouldn't be going anywhere the rest of the week, it's -4 outside right now,  it was 60 degrees two mornings ago. In Colorado, we say if you don't like the weather, just wait 2 minutes, it will change!  

Tip Tuesday: Consignment Sales

I have been busy busy busy this past week sorting things for the consignment sale I signed up for. I was hoping to make enough money for Christmas gifts, but we had to take my car in for repairs to something with some kind of case- (sorry, car parts not really my thing) and the 3rd try to fix a problem I'm been having since the flood (yes, last year!) Let's just say it involves a large family of mice and me having to vaccum out my car every time before I go somewhere.  Happily, my car is finally mouse free (they finally figured out they chewed all the way thru the firewall!) and sadly the bill for both things was almost $500! Ouch!

I took my 250+ clothing items to the consignment sale last Monday and when I went to pick them up this Monday found out I had sold everything except 4 items! I made enough to pay over half of my car bill and have another sale closer to home next week. 

Why am I mentioning this?  Well, several reasons:

First the pros:
consignment sales are great places to get rid of old inventory, your kids outgrown clothes, toys etc
you can use the money you make to buy them bigger clothes, and repeat, repeat, repeat, 
For example I spent about $100 on baby girls first set of clothes and then keep using the money I make from selling them to buy the next size of clothes.
it makes for empty boxes and totes that you can now store your ebay stuff in! 

the cons:
mostly time- for all of the time it takes to price it all, its not a great ROI, my hubby correctly points out that I could make way more money listing or shipping to FBA
the time to sort, wash, iron, tag, haul store etc
having to find or buy hangers

I however, was happy to make some extra much needed money with things that were just taking up space, and my children had already gotten use out of. For kids clothes, it's the best money I've made, and I could have made more if I had volunteered also. I have almost 10 empty bins to store ebay stuff in and I am happy.

I am however hard at work again with digging up some more items to take to the sale next week, since I was planning on having a lot of stuff to take from this sale. I hope I can at least make enough to finish paying for the car bill. I am going to try to take the toys, books and baby gear I didn't get priced last week to the sale this week.

Ebay, Etsy, Amazon and Bonanza have all picked up a lot in the last week. I sent in 14 more boxes to FBA last Friday and my first box was checked in about an hour ago and is already selling!
I hope to have another 14 boxes ready to go in by this Friday. I will update on what's sold later in the week.