Missed the Boat on the 300 Mark

So....  I was doing the math so I could update my earnings at the top of the page and I realized I missed the $300 mark entirely.... I'm actually now $20 from the $400, which is encouraging considering I have six or seven items listed (four of which are dresses).  Three of those items have more than 10 watchers each, which bodes well for my sales.

And speaking of watchers, I've been thinking about doing another watcher experiment.  I'm wondering what would happen if I displayed a counter on my items that told viewers how many watchers my item has.  I'm not even sure such a thing exists, but if it doesn't, I could always do it manually.  My thinking is that for really hot items with a Buy It Now price, knowing there are many other watchers might push people to throw their hat in the ring sooner OR might prompt them to use said Buy It Now price.  On the other hand, for items with very few watchers it might prompt buyers to think they'll be able to get the item for a really favorable price.

For those of you who are eBay buyers out there, what do you think of the idea??

What to Do if an Item is Damaged

ARGH.

I damaged an item.  When buyers open their items from me, I like it to be obvious that I went out of my way to send them a clean item - still smelling of detergent, if possible.  This weekend, I sold a baby doorway jumper, and in preparation for shipping I put the harness in the washer... except I couldn't figure out how to detach it from the plastic rod it goes with, so I put that in the washer too.  I changed the setting to cold water for delicates and hit start.  Unfortunately I didn't count on part of the platic rod rubbing again the rim of the washer, and the friction made a pretty obvious groove on one of the sides. :(

Of course, I'm fully prepared to give the buyer a complete refund, but in my opinion that's not enough.  This person spent a lot of time bidding on this item, probably let other items go in favor of this one, and will in all likelihood be mad.  The doorway jumper still works and the damage is purely cosmetic, but even though I didn't say anything about defects in my listing I DO NOT send my buyers items I know to have blemishes without letting them know.

So what to do?  Well, I'm going to offer the refund, offer to send him the item anyway, and offer to pay for return shipping if he doesn't find it's in acceptable condition.  I'm also going to offer a discount on the next thing he buys from me.  Hopefully that will make up for my stupidity.

So what's the lesson here?  Well, there's one new one as far as I can tell:

eBay Lesson number 5:  Prepare your item for shipping BEFORE you sell it!!!  That way if you accidentally damage it you will have a choice as to listing it and describe the extent of the damage or not sell it at all.

Wish me luck with my buyer.

Thirteen watchers...

I listed one of those dresses today and it already has thirteen watchers and one bid.  Given how popular it seems I wouldn't be surprised if someone used the Buy It Now option this weekend.  I've never had that many watchers before!  Let's see if my theory about the ratio of watchers to bidders holds...

It's  beautiful dress.  I'm kind of sad I'm selling it.  At the same time, it's a size 4, and I'll probably never wear that size again.  C'est la vie.

Updated Earnings and Over Under Poll

I've updated my earnings from a couple of items I sold this week.  One of them sold for the Buy It Now price of $19.99 - yay - and the other went up to $9 after a 10 or so bids.

Also, no one's voted in the Over Under poll this week. :(  The listing ends soon, give it a shot!  Will it sell for over or under $3?  I'll give you a hint.  It's got 2 bids and 8 watchers.

Up to My Eyeballs in Dresses

I guess the universe heard me complaining about my lack of inventory.  My parents are here visiting me and my mom, trying to get into the spirit of the whole eBaying thing, brought me like seven gorgeous evening gowns we had languishing in my old closet at home.  A few of them are pseudo designer, like the Betsey Johnson one I'm showing here.

Now, considering the most exciting place I go these days is the corner grocery store, I think it's safe to assume that I won't be needing an evening gown any time soon.  So now on top of my brother's J Crew stuff, I have these gowns to sell this weekend.  I've already listed four, and I've scheduled a couple for tonight, but I need to get on it and take pictures, upload pictures and write item descriptions if I want to take advantage of peak selling time tomorrow evening.

On a different note, I got feedback from the lady that bought the mystery item.  She loved it and was very happy with her purchase, even though it had a spot on it I only found after she'd bought the item.  Whew.  I guess the discount and offer to take the item back and pay for shipping helped. :)

Yesterday's post was a joke...

...just not a very funny one.  April Fools?

I'm going to continue to torture you with my blog.  And the eBay thing.  Sorry.

My Final Post

Thanks to everyone who's been regularly reading my blog for the last two weeks.  I wanted to share some news with the two of you.

I've decided eBaying and blogging take too much of an emotional toll on me and my family, and once the six items I have listed sell, I will close up shop and go back to focusing on my other hobbies: gardening, spelunking and bird watching.