Hmm, I gotta post more often

Hello world!  Yes, I'm assuming there are some people reading this, though I think I'm only following myself right now.

I opened the blog then kinda dropped it for a while.  Having five kids and an elderly father-in-law in residence can make you forget your own name, let alone keeping up with a blog.  We've still been selling, though.  I mean, eBay is our only income so there's no such thing as taking time off.

We were this close to opening a brick and mortar store, but it would have meant giving up some control of our business so we decided to stick with our current model and just keep plugging away.  Hubby has a helper now so he's freed up more time to go to auctions.  What are some neato items that have come our way?

Well, we've been acquiring exercise machines, including this Nordic Track treadmill with a built-in TV.   I'd love to keep this for myself but the potential $$$ is nicer than trading in the elliptical cycle hubby brought home.

Seriously, while we're talking exercise equipment, don't you DARE buy new.  There's always, always something out there to buy from Craigslist or eBay or your local paper.  If you live in an apartment complex or do laundry in a laundromat or have another place people gather, put up a note saying you want a treadmill or whatever and you'll have people desperate to get that thing out of their house. 

Oh, and looks like this little Cuisinart dual ice cream maker is popular.  I suppose if you are two people with one kid or something and no one can agree on a flavor this is a perfect peacemaker.  I have five kids at home so we tend to buy our ice cream by the gallon, though I do use my larger capacity ice cream maker when I want to make mango frozen yogurt. 

Ebay keeps making changes to the rules but we're rolling with the punches so far and keeping on top of it.  I do like the longer titles; you have to remember to put the essential keywords in first, and then fill in at the end with your phrases like "free shipping" or "parts or repair".  I think it's helpful for everyone.

That's about it for now.  I'll try to come back more than once every six months.  Twice a day would be good.  I'll be posting all our IDs here soon so you can track our listings.  I'm thinking about doing name changes to make everything easier to find but we'll see.  Sometimes it's good to keep different selling IDs totally separate and unrelated just in case you get a lunatic stalker buyer.  It happens.  Go read the eBay discussion boards and you'll see.

Later gators!

Axis & Allies Bits & Pieces - Where Are My Glasses?

Okay, so hubby went to a flea market this weekend.  Selling, but he also scours the other tables to see what is for sale.  He was making his rounds at about five in the morning (yes, he is crazy) when he saw a guy putting out about fifteen games.  They were a mix - several partial sets of little war game miniatures, stuff from the '80s and '90s.  He asked the guy how much he was selling them for, and the guy told him $1 each. Well, hubby had expected to hear something like $5 each, so he was happy.  He bought all twelve of the games and brought them home.  He knows I like listing games; it's a bit of a pain in the butt but if you sort everything, take nice pictures, describe all what you have, people appreciate it and that is reflected in your bid price.

Yesterday I worked on the Hero Quest games.  Today I listed all the miscellaneous parts from the Axis & Allies board game, which is a WWII thing with tons of miniature figures.  The kids helped divide the armies into baggies.  Today I put them all nicely on the table, counted everything, took pictures, and listed them on all three sites, Ebay, BooCoo, and Bonanza.

Let's do the math.  The price of the games altogether is $12.  We are starting the auctions for the pieces at $14.99.  There are six auctions for the game pieces.  So after we sell the first one, all the rest are pure profit, minus the fees.  Fees run about 15% when you add up the eBay fee and the Paypal fee (BooCoo and Bonanza are cheaper and free to list).  So, this is a profit margin that Wall Street can be proud of.  And remember, that's only for the one type of game.  I have a complete A&A game, a Hero Quest game, and more Hero Quest parts listed as well.

Ebay is a funny beast.  They are trying like crazy to get rid of small and medium sellers like us, using restrictions, punishment, and disincentives to make us go away.  It's gotten harder and harder to make a living, but we've been muddling through okay.

Here's some links to my various listings:

http://www.bonanza.com/booths/BuyLoSelHi/items/Lot_149_Axis___Allies_Game_Pieces_German_Army_FREE_SHIP

https://www.boocoo.com/auction/detail.asp?id=159236

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230605908248&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_4728wt_1139

Feel free to check everything out.  You can ask questions on the listing or drop me a line here to say hi.  If you'd like some tips on how to buy and sell, let me know :).

Hero Quest, Axis and Allies, Vintage Games Galore!

Whew, I've had a busy afternoon and I'm just getting started.  I shooed the kids out of the dining room and made them eat on the floor in the living room.  It's okay; that meant they got to watch cartoons while they ate, so they were pretty happy.

I've been sorting through the vintage board game "Hero Quest".  This game has tons of pieces, from furniture to orcs and goblins to little tiles for various game elements. I actually have TWO of the games, plus two expansion packs, so I cannibalized one game to make the other complete.  I just listed it on eBay for $50 to start and $80 to Buy It Now.  I hope someone will snap it up.  I listed the expansion packs separately.

Still more to do.  Time to get back at it.  Hubby has twelve more games for me to sort, take pictures of, and post.  Outside, it was unseasonably warm and so windy that I was about to tie the kids down to keep them from blowing out of the yard.  The trees are still swaying alarmingly back and forth; say a little prayer that nothing falls on a power line.  I must list!  List!  LIST!

Gee, I Love Vintage Board Games

Back when I was a wee lass, way back in the eighties, I used to play a Star Trek board game with my friends. This was no ordinary board game; this was advanced board gaming.  There was a huge map that we spread on the table.  We would choose our ships and figure out the hit points, strategize, and try to blow our opponents out of the galaxy.  Games often lasted into the wee hours or even more than one day.  This was before personal computers, WOW, and all that technology stuff.  My weapon was my grease pencil and I was quite the dreadnought pilot.  Until a friend blasted through my shields and sent me off into a wormhole.

I still love those games, so I was absolutely ecstatic when my husband brought home a dozen old games. War games, fantasy games, financial games.  Vintage games from the sixties to the eighties.  My job now is to check them all and see if they have all the pieces (doubtful), decide the condition, and research to see if they are worth the $$$ he parted with to buy them.  

We saw one game that is now on Amazon.com.  The seller is asking over $500 so I'm trying not to let my palms sweat.  It's a fact that you can ask whatever price you like.  What you get can be a lot less.  Well, I'm off to put on my reading glasses and poke through old boxes hoping for online auction gold.  I'll update my progress later on with pictures and all that.  Let's hope for profit!

Posting Across Three Sites Is Exhausting!

Whew!  I started posting across all three sites and now my brain hurts.  It's hard to keep everything straight.  Fortunately, I have a mind like a steel trap so I should be able to keep it all in.  My mental filing system is not the best, though.  I have to really keep on top of things.  I listed some Nintendo stuff, a game system and also some games, both on Bonanza and Boocoo, and some nice lenses on eBay.  Here's the lenses, which are very nice:

https://www.boocoo.com/auction/detail.asp?id=157933

I think that's it for the night.  Time to put back on the mom hat.  I'm going to have a nice bowl of white bean and chicken soup with potatoes and then toss the kids in the tub.  G'night everyone!

Three Venues and Counting

My imports for Boocoo and Bonanza are active, so that means I have items listed at three different locations.  I am going to check out garagesale.com and yardsellr, too, but I don't want to spread myself so thin that I can't keep up with the traffic.  I'm looking forward to emails and questions so I can answer them and sell these items.  Oh, and better get busy listing, too!

Time to Get Busy and Sell Sell Sell!

Boocoo.com just finished importing my listings from eBay.  I'm glad I don't have a ton of listings, because during the import a few things got knocked off kilter, like calculated shipping turning into flat rate.  No big deal; I can fix those one by one.  At the moment I am taking pictures of Nintendo games and a couple of systems to list, and some nice camera lenses.  I should possibly be cleaning something, or doing laundry, or what have you, but since hubby is busy packing right now and he's got a couple of oddly-shaped items that will take some time, I wanted to jump in and lend a hand.  Also, I'm BORED and tired from lack of sleep.  I need something to stimulate my brain a bit and keep me going until I can hand off the baby to big brother to watch for a while.  Trying to remember to list everything in the right places should wake me up.  Okay, time to work.  I'll be back later with a sampling of my wares (get your mind out of the gutter).

I'm in the Import / Export Business... Not Really

Well, sort of.  Just got off the phone a short while ago with John, who is busy importing my eBay listings into Boocoo.  And I did the import myself (puffing chest at my technical prowess) for Bonanza.  Actually, with Bonanza it takes about three mouse clicks to do so my toddler could have managed it quite handily.  Now to sit back and wait for the $$$ to roll in!  Well, I can dream, can't I?

My husband has been doing almost all the listing lately, in addition to buying the stuff, cleaning it, fixing it, and packing it.  Hey, what can I say, the kids have been keeping me quite busy lately and sleep is something for other people.  He has some shark thing on, let's take a look at it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230601870494&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_4501wt_1139

Now, who wouldn't want a singing, dancing great white shark?  Hmm?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller? Bueller?  (Extra credit if you get the Bueller reference).  Well, the shark has two bids and one day left, so obviously someone wants it.  I envision a gag gift at a stag party....

Sometimes what we sell is practical, sometimes, not so much.

Busy Day, Just Registered at Bonanza.com

I've been on a caffeine-fueled burst of busy-ness.  I just registered at bonanza.com and listed one item to get things going.  Here's the link:

My New Bonanza Booth

This site feels very homey and friendly, kinda like I hear eBay was back in the day.  I hope it will be a successful site for us.  Whew, I'm going to be dizzy checking all the site multiple times a day, but I have to have something to do with my spare time.  I mean, there are 48 hours in the day, right?  What?  There are are only 24 hours in a day?  Well, dang, how am I going to have time to do all this and still watch DWTS?  I'm a mom, I'll figure it out. Now I have to go keep one small child from whacking another.  If you all will excuse me....

Getting Started With BooCoo.com

I just got off the phone with a really nice rep from boocoo.com.  I opened an account there yesterday and just started selling.  I started with one item and now I'm having all my ebay listings imported to see how they do over here.  Boocoo is free to list and then charges 6% on your final value up to $1000 and then nothing after that.  Not that I ever sell a single item for over $1000 but hope springs eternal.  Here's my boocoo account, and a lovely little espresso machine I have for sale:

https://www.boocoo.com/auction/detail.asp?id=157394

Okay, time to get back to that housework.  I have to be able to take off my Mommy hat and put on my Businesswoman hat at a moment's notice.  But, hey, we women are made for multitasking :).

Who We Are On Ebay

This is a link to our "me" page on Ebay.  You are more than welcome to check out what we are offering for sale:

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=the_shehatas

Ebay, Feebay, Finding Alternatives, Trying to Make Some $$$

Hello out there world!  I decided to create this blog to share some of the cool finds my husband brings home.  First, a word about us.

We've been selling on eBay for several years now.  Through crazy changes and eBay boycotts and all that, we've continued to sell to support ourselves and pay the mortgage, feed the kids and cats, and all that.  We've been pretty successful.  We have a modest income that pays the bills and are always looking for the Next Big Thing.  I invite you to join us as we look beyond eBay to other venues.  I'll be introducing them all as I go along.  

Hubby is at an auction right now so it's time for me to do the household stuff.  You know, cooking, cleaning, finding where Mama Cat hid her kittens.  The normal life of a stay at home mom.  But the fun begins when hubby comes home and shows me what he bought.  It may be as pedestrian as a vacuum cleaner or as far-out as a chessboard carved with mythical creatures.  He also has a weakness for clocks.  Can't wait to see what comes out of the back of the van.  I'll be sure to share it with you all before we list it.

Have a great day everyone!  Back in a bit after I clean the bathroom.  It's not all fun and games here, ya know :).