My New Store!

Well I finally took the plunge and opened my own eBay Store. I took the advice of the Queen of Auctions (at least her articles and newsletters) and will use the store mainly as a way to sell my poor little orphaned auction listings. The rule will be list it twice at auction and move it to the store. There are so many items I list that I can't believe didn't sell -- the store will give them a bit more time for people to find them.

It is still pretty basic -- I'm going back through expired listings for the past year and adding things -- about 50 items in there so far. I used a standard template and just adjusted the colors so there is a cohesive look between my store and my listings. I would like to do something with a bit more personality but my html design skills are zilch -- I'll need to find something to adapt. At any rate -- check out my store here.

Tax time -- ugh

Been a bit slow at getting the listings up this week as I am working at our taxes. I use Turbotax online which seems to work pretty well -- it has the bonus of throwing in - It's Deductible -- which lets you easily calculate and import the value (incredibly high) of all the junk I cart off to Goodwill several times a year.

I'm still not taking a home office deduction, since it's basically my dining room, but I am thinking of taking the inventory storage area deduction because of my new ebay area. This is the first year that I've had a full year of eBay Reports, which also makes it so much easier to add up the eBay and Paypal fees -- I paid eBay $2800 last year! Paypal's bite was about half that. When you tote up all the expenses -- packaging supplies, the actual amount I spent on all the merchandise - it's surprising there's any profit left at all.

Enough griping - this hasn't kept me from going out and spending more! I went to an estate sale on Thursday and picked up some nice clothing and a few collectibles -- some vintage mohair capelets from Scotland, a Griffith Gray St. John Suit (which I later found had a tiny hole in the sleeve - boo), a men's Brooks Bros. Camel Hair jacket, an adorable child's strawberry quilt & pillow sham from The Company Store and a Porshe belt. The next day I picked up a pair of 1915 tankard-style mugs with portraits of dogs on them - very nice - and a pair of Cole-Haan boots. You never know what you'll find next. That's what gets me - the "thrill of the hunt" -- and why my merchandise expense is so high at tax time!