Crossed Successfully into the Hundreds

I reached 100 feedback tonight.  I received my tourquoise star (although I have to say, I kind of like the color of the blue star better).

I know I said we would celebrate this occasion when the time came, and we will!  But tonight I've just gotten home from work, I'm stressed out about a work trip to Mexico I'm doing next week, and I really just need to get to bed.

Good night, folks, and happy 100 to me!

Taking eBay Out of the Equation

So along the lines of my post regarding my sales, I was equally astounded today to log into my account and discover that I owe eBay nearly $300 in seller fees.  It's not that I don't incorporate eBay fees into the price of my items, it's just that it irritates me that if I could lower my prices by HALF of what eBay charges me I could sell things twice as quickly, give two times the discounts and make twice as much money.

I'll give you an example.  I recently bought a Gucci bag that I intended to keep for myself.  Mistake.  It's white.  I have a two year old son.  You see where I'm going with this.  I got a really good price on the bag, but in order to recover my costs I have to sell it for 20% more than I paid for it on eBay, whereas on Bonanzle I would only pay $5 to complete the transaction.

As the summer comes to an end and the Fall merchandise starts to roll in it's becoming more difficult for me to find deals that are good enough to make a profit on eBay.  I keep thinking that if I ever do decide to turn this into a formal business I need to find a way to take eBay out of the equation but continue to get as many views on my items as I do there.

I thought at first that would be nearly impossible, but I recently bought a subscription to Terapeak and got a free subscription to Sellebrity, an eBay reearch service that allows you to see how many people are visiting your items, where they are located, and which items they're looking at.  On a GREAT day I get about 114 visits total.  On a poor day, like Saturday, I get about 40.  On Bonanzle, on the other hand, I get about 35 visits on a good day, and on this blog I get about 18 people visiting and about 35 page loads, again, on a good day.

I'm not sure that I'm really to take the leap into creating my own virtual store and driving my own traffic.  I don't have the first idea about how to do that, and as much as eBay is clearly not without its risks, I don't know that I would trust an unknown website more than I would trust an eBay seller with excellent feedback.

What do you guys think??  If I set up my own online store and could offer my items at a slightly lower price (which, by the way, I can do off eBay for blog readers), would you buy from me??

In Case You Hadn't Noticed...

...I updated my sales figures in the header at the top of my blog entries.  I kept talking about what a good week last week was.  Here's how good it actually was - I had over $1100 in sales.

I keep waiting for the universe to strike me down or something.  Knock on wood for me.

Check Out What's In Store for Me!

Get it?  "In store"?  Ha ha ha.

I went to replenish my inventory as mentioned (thanks for all the suggestions, by the way.  I could hear the crickets chirping all the way to the mall!) and I got a few things I've had my eye on for a while now.  Unfortunately I don't think I've ever had a shopping trip where I bought so many things for the store that I'm really hoping don't sell so I can keep them for myself.

You ready?  Tell me what you guys think!  Sorry about my creative use of shopping bags in the shoes.  I'm ok with modeling clothes but given the experience I shared in this post, I'm really reticent to model shoes!

Kooba Leather Clutch

Diane Von Furstenberg Maxi Dress XS/S

Sam Edelman Wedges Size 7 (PS: If you like these let me know - I can get them in just about every other size).  I totally bought these for me.  They'll never sell on eBay.

Black YSL Gladiator Strappy Sandals Size 37.5 / 7.5 (another ME purchase, though sadly these probably will sell)

Brown Flat YSL Gladiator Sandals Size 38

There are a couple of other things but I haven't quite figured out how to photograph them yet.  I need to take some real pictures of these things for eBay as well, but I'll be listing this stuff tonight.  Cross your fingers that next week is as good sales-wise as last week!

Good Lord, I'm Loaded

I've just had pretty much the best sales week of my entire eBay run, and I've got a ton of money burning a hole in my Paypal account.  I plan on using this money, in addition to a few discounts I've accumulated at major department stores, to replenish my inventory.

My question to you guys is ... what should I get???

Please please please leave me comments about what you would like to see in my eBay store!!

Pretty please?

Thanks, guys.

Having a Great Auction Week!

I don't really have anything super interesting to say tonight.  I'm having a fantastic week with my auctions, so I just wanted to share some of my successes.

I had a couple of Coach bags left over from a special project I took on a couple of weeks back, and since "Coach" is one of the most popular search terms on eBay I figured it would probably help my other auctions if I listed these two bags for a super low price instead of returning them to the store.  I sold one of them today and the other has a bunch of bids, so that's making me feel good about my decision.

I also got a bid on the Christian Louboutin Mary Janes I am selling, and it's high enough for me to make a small profit.  I was starting to be afraid I would get stuck with these shoes, even though they're super hot, just like I got stuck with those AMAZING Dior sandals in my avatar.  I listed those this week, as well - for $9.99!  Thankfully they're up to $60 or so with 2 days to go - although that's still quite a ways from what I paid for them, I figured that's a sunk cost at this point and I really need to get some of my money back to invest in other items.

Finally, I had taken on a T Bags maxi dress to sell for a friend and I'm happy to report she got a GREAT price for it.  It sold to someone in France for $150.  Apparently these maxi dresses are HOT on eBay, so I went and got the two I modeled for you earlier.

Oh, one last thing!  I'm having my monthly Bonanza tomorrow in my Bonanzle booth!  I know you guys are probably sick of my stuff and have seen it a million times, but stop by and say hello!  It's http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/notyomamasclothing.

Good night!

I think my next move may be a career in modeling...

I think a picture speaks a thousand words, don't you?