Busy Shipping Day

It sure feels like a Monday -- I have a lot of shipping to do! The 99 cent sale was moderately successful -- I sold about 30 items, about half of them at 99 cents so buyers will be happy and I cleared out some things. A lot of combined items though so at least shipping will be less trouble. I have 20 packages with about 36 items to power through this morning -- thank you multiple bidders. A lot to do today -- and I've already wasted most of the morning on this dumb machine -- so off to work.

I love my Post Office

People complain about the post office, but mine is great. Believe it or not, this pic was taken at high noon on the Friday before Labor Day. My "lovely" minivan is the only non-employee car in the lot. Plus it is only about a mile and a half from home and all the people are nice and know me by name -- and I them. It is kind of like having co-workers in this often solitary business. The hours are the only problem -- only open until 4:30 on weekdays and 11 a.m. on Saturdays. Though they didn't slam the gate on me when I arrived at 11:02 on Saturday with 2 packages -- even when I admitted that I'd been sleeping until 10. Now that's a good P.O.

eBay foodchain

Usually the items I sell go to people who use them themselves -- sometimes they are resold by others further up on the collectibles food chain as it were. I just signed off paypal and saw a link to a vintage clothing store that I recently sold an item to - some very funky vintage men's pants. I clicked over and there they were for about 8 times more than I sold them for. More power to her! I know my sister's had the same experience with a dress she sold to a vintage dealer.

Over the last half of the summer I've been hording vintage clothing myself with the idea of holding special weekly vintage auctions -- maybe under another ID -- in conjunction with a MySpace page. I've been inspired by a number of seller's I've seen who do good business using a MySpace page to increase interest in their vintage clothing eBay stores. The only thing holding me back is my inherent uncoolness -- these are mostly skinny 20-something boho arty types who model the clothing themselves. That's just not gonna happen. I considered getting my daughter to model -- but in the past - the only way MySpace was on my radar screen was as a thing to keep my daughter away from if you know what I mean. Plus she's more of an arty slacker girl not into the dress-up thing. Well, I'll come up with something. Here's an example of the kind of thing I'm thinking of -- showing a mix of old with new pieces.

I can't stop buying

Everyday this week I have been out hunter-gathering and using up vast amounts of time better spent actually listing the things I have already bought. It is like an addiction -- "but if I don't go I might miss something good." So far I've actually been right -- the cool sinks yesterday (plus a really neat metal table base for myself), a great J. Peterman 1910s repro midi dress, some Chico's stuff and some fun vintage clothing including the most gorgeous brown leather elbow length gloves. I have some shipping to do this morning so that may keep me home a few hours. I really don't have room for anything else though. Here are a few of my finds that I will be posting -- if I can keep myself in the house.