O-M-G I So Totally LOVE My New Shoes! *Giggle*

Today I want to talk about the duality of me.  And shoes, of course.

I got a pair of new shoes in the mail this morning.  I saw them at Neiman Marcus a few weeks back and ignored every piece of advice I've ever given you guys by buying them on the spot at FULL PRICE.  They didn't have my size so one of the sales associates had them special ordered for me. I didn't even use a coupon,online code, NOTHIN'.  The shoes are high-heeled, cutout oxfords in a style I never, EVER would have imagined myself liking.  Just goes to show what they say about love is true - it is blind and it knows no bounds.

I rarely buy things for myself on my shopping excursions but this time I just couldn't help it.  The thing I want to talk about, though, is how much I've been daydreaming about these shoes as I waited.  And how excited I was when I got them.  And how I'm never taking them off again.

Here's the thing.  I've been a lot more in touch with my "girly" side lately.  Up until recently I suppressed that part of myself and something about the last few months has made that side come back with a vengeance.  I'm gossipping with my girlfriends in the office, talking about movie stars and crushes, getting my eyebrows waxed... all the things that I would roll my eyes at in my head while I was in "austere, kick-ass, all-business" mode.  As torn as I feel about my newly resurfaced girliness, I'm having a great time right now and while I'm a tiny bit ashamed of my girliness nothing's going to stop me from getting a huge kick out of wearing my awesome new shoes to work on Monday. 

These shoes represent the fact that I'm complex.  I can be totally no nonesense and totally "girly" in one conversation.  I can giggle while I look authoritative.  And I can get as excited about a new pair of shoes as I do about getting praise from my bosses at work.  This is who I am.  And God damn it, I LOVE MYSELF.

PS: So what do you think of my shoes??  Aren't they totally HOT?

5 Reasons Why I Don't Quit My Job and Become a Full Time Shopper

1) Stress.  In general, I stress about two things related to running my business.  The first is getting negative feedback and the second is being unable to sell things and winding up more in debt than I started.

2) Money.  At a whopping profit of - MAX - $500 a month (before taxes, and that's if I'm doing the numbers right), my family would starve to death.  It would help if eBay didn't charge such astronomical fees - or if Bonanzle traffic picked up a bit - but that's still only a small faction of what I make doing my full time job.

3) Energy.  I took the day off Thurs and Friday, and yesterday was a public holiday in the U.S., so I had 5 full days of tracking down ridiculously expensive crap for cheap, and as fun as that is, it's exhausting!!

4) Location.  I mentioned in a previous post that I'm here on a work visa.  It's a company-sponsored work visa.  And no, despite the fact that I've been here for a gagillion years and I'm probably as American as they come, I can't get a Green Card.  If I quit my full time job I'd have to pack up my stuff and move to Europe (where I can get hot shoes for cheap, but where supermarkets don't open on Sunday, so no thanks!) or Nicaragua (where I'd throw myself in front of the first oncoming ox-drawn cart I laid my eyes on).

5) Money.  Did I mention money?  My margin on the things I sell is not very high.  Typically I try to make between $15 and $50 on shoes and $10 to $20 on clothes, depending on how good a deal I got and how good a deal I can give the customer.  I don't like selling things that don't allow me to offer at least a 50% discount on retail, so that limits the margin or fee I can keep for myself.

As you can probably tell, after five days of shopping, hanging out online and spending a ton of time with my son, this list is my way of convincing myself becoming a full time retailer is a BAD idea.  I like my full time job, I really do, but I love the independance my side business provides.

Alright folks.  Back to work before my boss catches me blogging on the job.  Hope you all had as nice a weekend as I did!

Five Things You Don't Know About Me

Some of you reading this blog know me in real life, but most of you don't.  Because of my interactions with other blogs, I've had a lot of new visitors lately, and this spurred the idea to write a more personal entry about who I am and why I do what I do.

Those of you who know me will have to forgive me if this is too elementary, but I'll try to throw in some obscure Elisa V facts in here as well!

Five Facts About Elisa V

1) I have lived in 4 countries in the last five years.  In 2005, my husband and I moved from Nicaragua to Barcelona to get our MBAs.  After Barcelona we moved to London, where I was offered a position with the company I work for now.  My company then transfered us to the U.S., where we've been living since April of last year.

2) I'm sure some of you are thinking - Nicaragua??  a) Where is that? and b) Why on earth was she living there?  Google can tell you where Nicaragua is, but only I can tell you that the reason we were there is that that's where we're from.  Both our families (or at least our parents) still live there.  However, my father's family migrated to Nicaragua from Italy during the late 1940's, which means that due to Italy's lenient citizenship rules, I'm also an Italian citizen.

3) Why on earth do you run around buying up stupidly expensive shoes to sell on eBay?  Debt.  We've accumulated a lot of debt and for the longest time my husband stayed home with our son.  Now he's working for an insurance company, but it's 100% commission.  Instead of complaining, I felt like I needed to do something to create a little extra cashflow.  This is what  I came up with!

4) I have a two year old son who on a daily basis threatens to obliterate my entire inventory of stupidly expensive shoes.  He also runs up to me when I'm trying to list an item or answer a buyer's question and slams my laptop shut on my fingers so I will pay attention to him.

5) My shoes size is 7.5.  I may have mentioned this before, but you may have noticed a lot of the shoes I'm selling hover around that size.  I think deep inside I have the secret hope that I will get to keep all the shoes.  They're so puurdy.

Have any other questions about me or what I do?  Let me know!  Comment moderation is on so if you want to post a comment but don't want others to read it use the form below and then ask me not to approve the comment.  I will happily oblige!