The Ebay Room

For those of you who read the blog you may have noticed my "projects under constructions" list on the right side of the page. "Craft Room" has been on the list a LONG time. Not that I haven't worked on it- it's really, pretty much done- the only problem is, it's not really a craft room anymore, it's an Ebay room. Lately I've had several questions on how I keep everything organized. I thought I'd take you through a photo diary of how my week goes. The week begins on Thursday with dollar day. I unpack my treasures and pile them up by the front door...It doesn't usually look this bad, but I had a big garbage type bag rip open :( Thursday night I take out each item, look it over again and remove the Goodwill tag...

This is one of my favorite parts. You get to really see how many great items you found and the family is always close by incase I found something they want.

My 11 year old thought I should give her the Nicole Miller New With Tag $275 formal dress- I don't think so. But I did find some Hawaiian shirts for Mr. Right...

He's been wanting to change up his style a little- less dressy, more casual. I love that we can do that at $1 per item. As I look at each item and remove the tag, I sort the clothing into piles on the back of our couch: Jeans, pants, skirts, dresses, sweaters, tops, etc. This makes listing go much faster when you don't have to keep changing the category of a clothing item.

Next, Friday morning, two of my girls help me with the photography. I stand on a chair with the camera and they take turns laying out each item. They have gotten very good at this (trust me it was frustrating in the beginning when I'd say, "straighten the hemline a little" and they'd say, "What's a hemline?") Now they know all the terminology, how to square up shoulders, fold over arms and smooth out wrinkles. We can photograph over 100 items in 30 minutes. When an item is photographed it then goes into a pile next to the computer...

This looks quite messy, but works for me. I then import my photos from the camera, then export them from iphoto onto my desktop, naming each photo by the brand and size. I move all of these photos into a folder on my desktop labeled with the week that I'm on. I mostly do this so I can retrieve photos of my top selling items for the blog. As each photo is exported I pick up the item and stack it in a storage bucket. The storage bucket gets moved to the ebay room until Monday morning (no working on the weekend for me!) Monday morning I will open the bucket (sometimes it takes 2 or even 3 buckets if it's been a big week) and take out one or two categories of clothing (for example all the skirts and pants) and I'll list them on ebay. Once they're listed they are placed on hangers (I pick these up at garage sales for pennies) and hung by week in the ebay room...
I have 2 clothing racks (I purchased these at Target years ago when I was teaching drama- I think they were $50.00 each for the super sturdy ones) I can hang 300 plus items on these two racks! Items are grouped by week. Newest items are on the left all the way day down to the last chance $2.99 items on the right. These racks have extension rods that pull out to give you more space. When an item receives a bid on ebay, I move the item down to the far right extension rod (This is what I see when I walk into the "Craft/Ebay Room" This makes shipping super easy. When an item is paid for and ready to ship, I know it will be on the end of the rack. Each week I shift items down to the right as I sell and buy new. Also, I list each item for four weeks: week 1: Full price, week 2: Full price, week 3: 5.50, week 4: 2.99. If it still doesn't sell at 2.99 I take it off the rack and either return it to the store or put it in a bag for my next garage sale. Goodwill likes the tags to be attached when returning, so more often then not I just put them in my next garage sale. Whatever doesn't sell at the garage sale gets donated. I do all of my new listings on Monday and Tuesday. My rule is that if everything isn't listed, I don't get to shop that week- this challenge keeps me motivated to list right away. I can list between 15-20 items an hour so I usually list while my 19 month old is sleeping and my other girls are showering/getting ready for school. A good time for me is after I make them breakfast and pack their lunches (6:30am-8:30am). This may not be the best time for my auctions to end, so I always do my relists in the evening when the kids go to bed. One of the benefits of ebay is you create your own schedule. I don't want ebay to take me away from my family, so I list when I think they need me the least. I hope I didn't completely confuse anyone- what seems like a simple system to me might not work for everyone. If you have any questions feel free to post a comment or send an email. Next Friday I'm going to do a picture diary of SHIPPING! This seems to be the scariest part for many potential ebay sellers, so were going to tackle it head on. Enjoy your weekend. Love, Kelly.