Overalls are my favorite kidswear to put Jack-Evan in.
Too bad they’re much to hot for our South Carolina summers!
Posts Tagged: Clothes
28
Mar 09
More Hard-Earned Lessons from Selling on Ebay
Last month I had the seemingly bright idea to sell my clothes on Ebay in 2 huge lots – one for my “career” clothing, and one for my “casual” clothing. Both lots contained around 35 pieces each and weighed a TON (well, ok, only about 20lbs each, but it felt like a ton!).
Now, I only hop on Ebay a once or twice a month, and this was my first venture in selling clothing. I’ve been a happy Ebayer (typically I just buy, but sometimes I sell random things) for the past 7 years on the same account and have always had a 100% feedback score (hey! I’m a decent, honest person!).
That is…
until now.
I logged into my ebay last night and saw ::::::gasp:::::: a negative review. My heart about stopped!
The negative review claimed that all of my clothing was shrunken, stained, and couldn’t fit a 10 year old.
Uhmm.. considering I’m 26, 125 lbs, 5’4″ and all the clothes fit me fine…I found that rather harsh.
It went on to say I refused to answer their emails. (“What emails!!??” was my thought train at that point). I almost thought they had given feedback on the wrong auction because they couldn’t be talking about my auction!
After reading that review, I checked ebay’s message system and sure enough, there was a lonely little message with their complaint dated March 6…… a few weeks ago. *sigh*
I have sent her a response now, but there is no way I can redeem myself in Ebay’s eyes.
So where did I go wrong??
Each piece of clothing was meticulously photographed, and I detailed the exact size as stated on the label, color, and flaw with each piece…even stating pieces that I thought fit snug on me. Only one piece had a stain that I could tell – the rest was simply typical gently used clothing (many of which I had only worn 2-3 times!). I didn’t consider any of them “shrunken” so of course I wouldn’t have stated that in my ad. I even had the clothing freshly washed, folded extremely neatly, tied in bundles with colorful ribbon, and wrapped in plastic.
It didn’t even occur to me that someone would take issue with any of them as they were all great clothes, in my opinion. The email even stated that she had thrown some of them in the trash! That makes me sad in itself. I can’t even imagine which articles she deemed trash worthy. Sheesh.
And considering that the lot in question included 37 articles of casual shirts & brandname jeans for a whopping total of 35 bucks, including shipping? What do people expect from used clothing? Pristine Gucci??!
I have never ever given any negative feedback on Ebay (and I’ve been disappointed with a variety of my own purchases). It’s USED things we’re purchasing on Ebay, no? And it’s the general public. We take a chance, and take a risk. Too high expectations on Ebay never served anyone well.
But now.. now my Ebay feedback is 85%. I myself wouldn’t even buy from someone with an 85%. I also would hesitate to even sell to someone with that low of a score. Yet here I am – stuck with an 85% because of ONE single negative feedback in 7 years. ONE single negative feedback out of over 45 transactions. And it annoys me. Especially after all the work I put into selling those stinkin’ clothes - photographing in detail, designing the auction listing, taking the time to examine and describe each piece in detail, washing, folding, bundling, packing and shipping it all. After all was said and done (ebay fees, paypal fees, and very high shipping) I ended up making absolutely no money whatsoever off of either auction. Actually, I think I lost a little. (Don’t laugh!) *sigh*
The only good thing that came out of it was that the person who purchased the “career” clothing gave me a positive feed back that said “Awesome lot! Thanks for the nice packing and great items!”. Yay. At least I feel redeemed on that part.
So, anyway…to make a short story long…
I must say, my days of selling clothing on Ebay are over. Done. Poof. Gone. It’s simply not worth it to me. I just want to scream in frustration! I know some of you out there have succeeded in turning a profit on Ebay, but I have never been able to – and this experience only hammers in the lesson that Ebay’ing is just not worth my time or efforts.
From now on, all of my clothing will be going to the curbside for the local kidney foundation truck to pick up on donation day.
26
Feb 09
5 Top Lessons Learned From Selling Clothes on Ebay
5. Use spell check.
4. Weigh your clothes before auction begins.
3. Purchase your shipping boxes before the auction ends – or, in your haste, you may end up with two expensive “too big” unreturnable boxes.
2. Have someone with you to help haul the packed two 20″x17″ 20lb boxes into the post office.
1. Don’t cry when the postman tells you the total shipping cost for the two said boxes is $40.00 parcel post.
23
Dec 08
So, it’s great to have cousins
I have this most adorable little cousin named Christina….
Here she is on the right in the blue top.
Ok, well, she’s not exactly little anymore – she’ll be 16 in a couple months. That picture up there was taken the day before I graduated from high school in 2001. But I still remember diapering her and sometimes I wonder when she ever stopped liking Barney. Where have all the years gone?
Anyway, today I gathered up some sample clothes from my online store, www.CollieShop.com and went to her house to have her model them for me. Real clothes on real people look so much more professional than the cafepress generated plain products that are in my store.
Here’s two of the ads I’ve worked up so far from our shoot!
I’m quite proud of her! My sweet little babydoll is all grown up…sniffle…
