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The night before big brother started Kindergarten
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Hello! If you have taken the time to come and view my page, then you must be wanting to find out a little bit about me. Or maybe so you can get an idea of the kind of person I am. BUT! More than likely you just want to get a feeling from my about ME page as to whether you can trust me enough to buy from me or not! I don't blame you! I would too! So I will try to give you some info about me and you can make your decision from there.
I really hate trying to "get to know" someone via email or some other written form like this though. You don't get to see the person you are talking to, and so much can be taken the wrong way when you aren't sitting there with the person to see their expressions and body language. BUT! This is all we have if we are going to do ebay business together so I will try to do my best to convey my feelings and show you my intentions through this impersonal method of communication.
My name, if you haven't figured it out yet by looking at my ebay user id....teehee.....is RuthAnn........last name is Alston. When I started out on ebay it was as a buyer so I never really felt a need to have one of those catchy little names that say something about my ebay business. It was later as a buyer that I realized how important that is but by then it was too late.
I first started out on ebay buying Princess House Crystal. I loooved Princess House and had many, many pieces. I was given some as a wedding gift and I have always liked it since. I started buying it like crazy and got some really good deals. Well, I have two boys who are now 7 & 8 so all this time since they were born, my pretty crystal had been gathering dust in the cabinets because I was scared to bring it out. It only took them breaking a piece or two before I had had enough and put it up. I told myself that when they got older, we would use it again....but each year they turned one year older and seemed to get more and more rambunctious only my resolve to leave it where it was safe. IN THE CABINETS!
While waiting for the time when they were old enough to bring it back out, we moved (once to a whole new state) not once, but TWICE. I had to wrap ALL that crystal up, pack it oh so carefully for the move just to move it all and have to try to find somewhere else to store it in the new house. THAT got old real quick!
After the second move, I was really tired of carting it everywhere so I told myself that this crystal was too pretty to just sit in a cabinet and if I wasn't going to use it, then by gosh, I needed to sell it to someone that would! So, I got on ebay and in a weeks time, I had made over $1500.00. THAT WAS ALL IT TOOK! I was hooked like you wouldn't believe!
I only thought I was hooked as a buyer, as a seller I was totally hopeless. There was nothing like watching your item on sale and seeing someone get into a bidding war and pay $100 or $200 for something that was probably only worth $50 to begin with. I didn't even have to make a big profit like that off of an item to get that "sellers high". It just needed to sell PERIOD. I was hooked.
I started selling everything in the house that we weren't using anymore. I even sold some things that we were using but if I am honest with myself and with you I will tell you that it was because I was running out of stuff to sell and I needed my ebay seller FIX!
On one occassion I had to go and remove a listing because I was selling something of my husband's that I didn't think he really cared about when in fact he cared VERY DEEPLY about it. It even had several bids on it! But when I explained to the nice bidders what I had done, they forgave me and didn't hold any hard feelings about me cancelling the auction.
It wasn't long when I no longer had anything around the house left to sell. I needed my seller fix real bad and didn't have a single thing left to sell in the house. I didn't let that stop me though, nuh uhh, no way! I soon found out that if I would hit garage sales, yard sales, flea markets and auctions that I could find some really neat and very profitable things to sell. I must tell you at this point though, I was never a "junkin' " person before. I would never go to a yard sale or rummage sale because I had enough junk of my own and I certainly didn't need to add someone elses to it! BUT! something once again came over me the first time I paid a nickle for something and got $60 for it on ebay. It was like treasure hunting in a MAJOR way and I was once again hooked. This time not just to ebay, because now I had to stop at every single yard sale, rummage sale, garage sale or junk sale I passed. A time or two I even passed a house that just had a bunch of junk in their yard and I thought it was a sale, so I stopped and started going through the stuff in their yard. Boy was I surprised when the owner came outside and asked me what I was doing. Long story short, but I soon found out that this was no yard sale, their yards ALWAYS looked that way. NOT good at all! I had it baaaad! I was so afraid that if I didn't stop and look, I just KNEW that would be the sale that had THE ITEM that was going to make me a big profit on ebay.
This soon started getting on my husband and children's nerves. I would drag my two boys (then 5 & 6) out at 6AM on the Saturday's when their daddy had to work to go hit those garage sales. I had to bribe them with the promise of a toy or two, and after a while that no longer worked either! We would be in the car and I would see a garage sale sign and they all would groan or shout "MAMA! Don't look!" well, of course I had to and then I HAD to stop.
It got to where I would have to schedule my "outings" on days when my husband was off and could stay home with the boys. That way I could get up as early as 5 am to start my day and stay as long as I wanted and stop at as many sales as I wanted.
I must confess that just like with every other addiction, there are some really bad consequences. One of those was that until I learned what items sold good on ebay and what items didn't that I accumulated ALOT of useless junk and clutter that I still have no idea what to do with. I don't bring home useless junk so much anymore now that I have gotten better at knowing what sells and what doesn't, but that still doesn't doesn't do anything about all that stuff I accumulated before I learned my lesson that will not sell and I can't even seem to give away!
In the last year I have stopped doing the junkin' sales as much and have gone strictly to selling the mres. The junkin' I will still do on a limited basis, but you couldn't always count on finding something to make your money that week. The mres, I know will bring in a certain amount of money each week so that is the main source of my inventory now. I will go to the sales during the spring and summer and sell garage sale things then, but the mres will be sold all year round.
I feel that by starting out as a buyer on ebay, it has made me a much better seller. As a buyer, I know what I liked from a seller and/or things that I would have liked for them to do and turned around and used that as a seller.
Communication to me is VERY important. Nothing would aggrivate me more than to pay immediately for something and not hear back from the seller again at all. I never knew when the package would arrive or that they even got the payment, or that they even appreciated the payment! I feel like no matter how busy a seller is, it doesn't take but just a second to shoot off an email saying thanks for buying and paying so quickly and here is when I expect to get your package out.
Like I said before, doing business on ebay, we are not looking at each other face to face to be able to get a "feel" about each other so I think it is even more important to make that connection with your buyers.
If you are still with me here, I am so glad. I tend to ramble sometimes if you haven't noticed all ready.
If you buy from me, I promise you will not be dissapointed. I have several repeat customers that come back to me again and again. I ship the very next business day and sometimes even the same day if I can get your payment before the UPS man makes the daily pickups and you will ALWAYS know what is going on with our transaction.
I have an awesome array of feedback that I am proud of and a detailed seller rating that ANYONE would be proud of. I take pride in having a happy customer and I KNOW how cheesy that sounds......but I really do.
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