What to do? What to do?

It is going to be a beautiful summer day today! Low humidity, mid 80's, not a cloud in the sky... I think I will eBay tomorrow! This is the beauty of working for myself!

This past Saturday was another frustrating day of yard sales. I must have driven over 75 miles and I only picked up a few books and other odd items and only spent $15.00!

The plan was to hit the thrift stores today. That is an all day excursion for me since the good ones are so far away. And they aren't even that good. It seems like the thrift stores have caught on about eBay and now they are researching and raising their prices. I have seen some nice dinner sets at the Goodwill that have been there since last fall because they are priced so high. I rarely go to the thrift stores any more because of their high prices but since I am not having much luck at the yard sales, I have no choice.

I live on the Eastern Shore in Maryland and my garage saling is wide spread. There are lots of small towns with plenty of farm land in between. I have been to some awesome yard, garage, barn and estate sales in these small towns and out in the country but I have also driven by a ton of yards with just piles of clothes. And like I said before, there is a lot of driving involved.

I am about an hour away from Annapolis which is across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I love going to Annapolis! Once there, the population is so dense that different neighborhoods are not that far apart. I almost always have good Saturday mornings in Annapolis.

The problem with Annapolis is the traffic. The Bay Bridge is the only way to get to the Atlantic Beaches and on Saturday mornings the east bound traffic back-ups (which is the way home for me) can be pretty bad. I don't usually go to Annapolis in the summertime but after my bad luck this past Saturday I will have to. I'll just be sure to make a potty stop before I get into the bridge traffic! ;0)

This may be a slim week of auctions for me. The weather is changing tomorrow and the rest of the week they are calling for scattered showers and higher humidity. I will try the thrift stores later in the week. I am also hoping there is a change for the better with regard to yard sales when I go across the Bay Bridge on Saturday mornings.

My goal is to have 2500 items in my eBay store by the end of the summer when I go to 3-Day Live Boot Camp. I think there is still time to to meet that goal!

* Policy violation - ARGHH!

I just got an eBay policy violation this afternoon for trademark infringement. Sooooo frustrating!!! It was for a Kate Spade (or so I thought) handbag that I purchased at a yard sale my wealthy neighbor had last weekend.

What do I know about expensive purses? Nothing! What was I thinking? I am sure that my neighbor wasn't trying to deceive me any more than I was trying to pull one over when I listed it for sale. But I know that there are certain companies that watch eBay like a hawk for this type of thing. And they are right to do it. But I am innocent so please don't give me a violation! That high pitched sound you may hear right now is the sound of me whining.

I will never (unless I forget) try to sell or even purchase any name brand clothing or accessory items again!

* I am desperately in need of a dinner set!

After my May hiatus, I have been trying very hard to have lots of items at auction at all times. June has been pretty good... so far. Every week I have had 100 items at auction.

But now we are three weeks into June and I am getting behind. I really need a dinner set or two to get my auction numbers up. Unfortunately the garage sales that I have been to have not had what I am looking for in dinner sets. I am finding interesting things to sell, but it takes more time to get my numbers up one item at a time.

Dinner sets are so fast and easy to list. I tend to take a lot more time with the single items. I always get bogged down with research and composing the item descriptions.

Today I found a large set of bamboo patterned brass flatware from Thailand. Yeah! I got it written up quickly and when it is photographed, I will have 33 items to list at auction. This flatware plus the "singles" that I spent a good half day writing up, my total for this week will be 78 auctions.

So, it looks like I am not going to make my 100 auctions this week. It is a good goal and if I continue to take it seriously, I should make some progress. The more I list at auction, the bigger my store inventory and that equals more sales and more money!

Gotta just keep plugging away :o) !