Happy Halloween!

I'm back in town and trying desperately to recover from a marathon 3 and a half days in Mexico.  I'm trying really hard to get back into the swing of my business, and even went to see my secret supplier for a short while on Saturday to check whether there were any good goods left over from the special event on the 27th.  There were (lots of Prada, YSL, Manolo Blahnik, even some Louboutin), but my heart just wasn't in it.  I ended up buying a pair of flats for myself that I was seriously needing and putting a pair of shoes on hold for a friend of mine.

There were about three or four other places I should have visited to complete the rounds but my son was invited to a birthday party and I couldn't resist considering how cute I knew he would look in his penguin costume.  I did put in a few hours today shopping for some of my favorite clients, but I rarely find good deals online.

Finally, I've still got two pairs of Louboutins on eBay that haven't sold - one because they're a small size (6.5) and one because it's a wedge (people who pay over $300 for a pair of shoes generally want you to be able to tell they paid $300 for a pair of shoes - you can't see the red soles on the wedges).  I've also got a pre-owned Gucci bag for sale, so we'll see how I do this week.  Nothing like a good bidding war to get the adrenaline pumping again. :)

Good night, everyone!  Wish me luck on my first full week back!

On Hiatus

Hey guys!  I know, I know, it's been a while.

I'm going on a short hiatus from the blog.  I'll still be working on my projects over this weekend and for those of you working with me I will have updates on Monday.  After that I'm going on a business trip to Mexico City so I'll kind of be out of pocket.

Unfortunately my business trip is going to put a serious damper on my shopping activities.  My secret supplier invited me to a super special event to celebrate their new arrivals on October 27th.  I was invited to come to the store 1 hour before opening to get my pick of the best stuff.  Sadly I will be in Mexico that day so no special event for me.  Hopefully there will be SOMETHING left for me to buy after I return even if I can't go on the first day.  Ack.

Wish me luck and I'll speak to you all soon!

Props to My Lovely, Lovely Client and Her Handsome Beau

Remember my wedding client I was telling you guys about?  Here she is, in all her splendor!  Isn't she booo-tiful?  And you know that purdy dress she's wearing?  Guess who got it for her! :)

Congratulations to the lovely couple!

I Think There's Something Wrong With My Business Model

I was out shopping today for one of my special projects when I came upon this pair of beauties at a Barney's outlet near my house -picture courtesy of Net-a-porter.  There are Christian Louboutin Gres Mule 70 sandals in gold.  They were $266 including tax.  I considered buying them to post on eBay for a minute, since they were a pretty popular style in the Spring/Summer line and I was fairly confident I could sell them.  If I had decided to buy them I would have listed them on eBay at first as an auction for a starting bid of  $319, which would have enable me to roughly break even, if not make a couple of bucks.  If I had sold them to client, depending on their budget, I would have sold them for about $315, for a $50 profit.

I decided not to get them because I'm trying to be careful with our cashflow, I have about six projects I'm slowly working through right now, and while I knew I would get paid for them I didn't know WHEN.  However, when I get home I decided to do a little research on them I found out that had I listed them on eBay for the price I mentioned they would have BY FAR been the cheapest pair in this style and color.  Other sellers have them for $499.  Net-a-porter is selling them for over $700.

This isn't the first time this has happened, although it kind of makes me wonder.  Am I SO GOOD at this that I manage to find these items for a much better price than everyone else, OR are other sellers pocketing $150 to $200 per item while I drive 100 miles every weekend and spend HOURS on my computer for a measely $50?

One way or another I have to look into this because I'm clearly under pricing my items, and potentially missing out on a much bigger profit opportunity by doing so.

100% Sell Through This Week

I had four pairs of shoes for sale this week and they all sold! Woo-hoo!!  The includes the LAST remaining pair from my original foray into luxury shoes.  You konw, the pair from the extremely expensive designer no one's ever heard of that are super impractical and I paid way too much for.  I took a $140 loss, but hey, such is life.

Not Your Mama's eBay?

I don't really have that much to say about eBay anymore.  Is that a turn off for you guys?  The thing is, most of my business now is coming from personal shopping.  I have an average of 5 to 7 projects in any given month, and that makes me just as much money as selling on eBay used to... except it's better, because it's a guarateed sale, whereas with the eBay merchandise I STILL have two pairs of shoes that I'm going to have to pay people to take from me!  It's ironic, but now that I'm a Powerseller and have Top Seller status I list half as much as I used to because 75% of the time I buy something it's for someone specific.

The problem with the personal shopping is that I can't talk about it as much as I do eBay.  I'm sure people don't want me blabbing about their personal purchases, and besides, going into detail about my projects involves revealing trade secrets about how I do what I do.  Yes, I've given you guys tips and the like but it's not the same as telling you exactly where to look for things and how to get them at a discount.

So it struck me as really ironic that this blog is called Not Your Mama's eBay but I never really write about eBay anymore!  I'm going to have to think up some eBay-related thing to tell you guys about, otherwise I'll be forced to change the name of my blog. :)  Hopefully a few of the things I'm selling this week will atually sell.  Maybe they'll sell for a terrible price and THEN I'll have a fun story to share with you.  Either that or I'll have to start dipping into my arsenal of personal stories to keep you all around.  One way or another I'll have a lot more to talk about next week!

Sharing the Magical Shopping Powers - Family Style

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents are visiting this weekend, so things have been a little more hectic than usual.  What I didn't mention is that my two brothers and my one sister are here as well, since we're celebrating my dad's 61st birthday this weekend.

Some of my very earliest shopping memories involve going to Dadeland Mall in Miami with my mom and my sister for our biannual "there is absolutely nothing to buy in Nicaragua because we're a crappy communist country" international shopping excursion.  This weekend my mom, my sister and I reprised our shopping trips of yore by embarking on a tri-state shopping tour - Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.  Ok, we only passed through Washington, DC, but tri-state sounded so much cooler.  Not that DC is a state, but anyhow... I took my mom and sister to all the places I go shop either for eBay or for my personal shopping projects.  I brought along all my coupons, discounts and invitations to special events.

We covered a grand total of 240 miles spread out across 2 days.  Shoes were our main focus, although my mom did buy two evening dresses and my sister got a handbag and some running shorts in addition to her three pairs of shoes.  I picked up a handbag for a special project, but as usual, nothing for myself.

Anyway, the real point of the story is about the shoes below.  Many people think they can get the best deals on shoes and clothing online.  I cringe every time I hear one of my friends say they bought something on Bluefly, Endless or Zappos.  I took my sister to one of the places I regulalry shop.  It was one of the shoe warehouse places - you know the kind, nothing special, everyone has one within driving distance of where they live.  Well, she picked up the Giuseppe Zanotti shoes you see below for about $175 before tax.  They were 70% off, and they had them in just about every size you can think of.  Fast forward to this morning.  I'm doing a little research on a different pair of shoes, and I come across my sister's shoes on Bluefly.  At a discount.  For $500 plus tax.

We didn't do anything special.  Didn't buy wholesale.  Didn't even use a coupon for God's sake.  All we did was get off our butts to do a little in person shopping in strategically selected places.  That's it.  That's what my magical shopping powers boil down to - patience, research and two well-heeled feet to pound the pavement with.

And if all else fails, if that combination sounds like too much hard work for you, that's what I'm here for.  Give me a holler!