Starting the New Year as a Self-Employed eBay Top-Rated PowerSeller

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I closed my last blog entry with the news that I have decided to no longer have a part-time job so I can put all of my time, energy and skills into self-employment as an eBay seller, antiques consignor and artist.  

I've been busier than ever since quitting my job.  Self-employment is highly motivating.  I've listed more stuff on eBay than I have in a while, so now I have to start being better organized.  Until a few days ago, I could manage all of my current inventory in just a couple of boxes, but now I have more stuff than the boxes will hold.

Yesterday I bought bankers boxes and today I will start putting my eBay inventory into boxes marked "Listed at auction," "Listed in eBay store," and "Not yet listed."  I will also start keeping a list of what's in each box, so I can find the items when they sell.  

 

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I'm also starting out 2013 with good recordkeeping.  The IRS only requires Paypal to report income if a seller takes in over $20,000 and has made over 200 sales.  I definitely qualify for the over 200 sales part, but I've never (yet!) made anywhere near $20,000 a year on eBay.  But this could be the year.  So I am tracking all of my expenses from the outset of this year, including what it cost me to buy those bankers boxes.  

So far, I've just been jotting my expenses down in a small notebook while deciding what sort of system I want to use.  I've looked at various types of personal finance and business accounting programs, and they all seem to be more complex than what my needs are.  So I am planning to use a simple paper ledger sheet instead.  

 

 Not yet listed Yoke Planter

 

I went looking for a ledger book yesterday.  We no longer have an office supply store in TorC, and Walmart didn't have what I needed.  So I went online and found out that almost any sort of paper you might need can be printed free from Printable Paper.  This site has lots of types of paper I might use in my art and music, as well--graph paper, postcards, music paper, etc.  If you're a knitter, quilter, or beader, there are layout sheets here, too.  I was able to print out exactly what I needed.

Figuring out your actual profit on eBay can be complex.  There are fees taken by eBay when you list the item, relist it, and if you sell it.  Paypal also takes a percentage.  Depending on how I've structured the transaction, buyers may pay for the shipping, but I often throw in free shipping as an enticement to buy small items that are inexpensive to ship.  Then there are shipping supplies, office equipment and supplies, and mileage or other travel expenses.  

 

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Even something like the eBay fees can get a little complicated.  I usually first list an item in a 7-day online auction.  Then, if it hasn't sold, I look at how many "hits" the item got (how many times people looked at it) and decide whether it's worth relisting at a fixed price in my eBay store.  There's a small listing fee for each month that the item sits in my store.  So, by the time an item sells, I may have paid listing fees on it a half-dozen times.  I haven't yet figured out an easy way to keep track of this particular phenomenon.
 
The hardest thing to determine and track can sometimes be the price of the item itself.  Sometimes I buy "box lots" or "job lots" of stuff at live or online auctions.  Simply dividing the cost of the lot by the number of items in it isn't always a realistic basis for determining the cost.  Some items in the lot are worth more than others.  

Also, some items, whether purchased individually or in a lot, need some work to make them sellable.  For instance, I may take a tray that I bought for $1 at a garage sale, paint and collage it and seal my work with a sheet of acrylic, and then I have a $25 tray.  But certainly not $24 in profit.  

And what about the item I bought for my own use at full price, but then sold for less when it was no longer something I needed?  If I bought it for $90, used it for a while, and then sold it for $25, am I selling at a loss?   

So, I can only do my best at trying to solve these little issues.  I keep hoping that some smart eBayer will come up with a great piece of software that's easy to use and takes care of all the little problems.  Until then, I just have to find whatever information I can to help me make decisions and trust my gut.  I have years of experience, and I've made myself a Top-Rated PowerSeller, after all!  I can do this! 

 

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Besides eBay recordkeeping and inventory management issues, my self-employment presents some personal challenges.  I do love the freedom of self-employment, but some days I can get obsessive and spend too much time working or too much time by myself without enough interaction with other people.  A friend commented that I probably have more time for artwork now that I am home more, but so far that hasn't been the case.  Carving out time for friends, art, music, exercise, housework, and cooking healthy food is pretty much the same, whether I'm working for myself or someone else.  

But I remind myself, this is just my first week back at relying solely on self-employment.  I will be able to incorporate more fun stuff as I get myself more on track with the business.  Next week, my son comes to visit me, and I'll be driving up to Albuquerque to pick him up at the airport.  I definitely want to include some sightseeing (and not just thrift shops!) on the trip to pick him up and also a week later when I take him back to the airport.  

Which brings up the topic, too, of traveling.  Now that I'm completely in charge of my own schedule, I can begin making some eBay buying trips in The Guppy.  Like the old days (2011), before I got so settled down (2012).  That's a big part of my motivation to get things going really well with this business.  I'm looking forward to taking it on the road again.  I want to maintain my apartment here in TorC as a home base, but get out to other towns and cities throughout the Southwest to find stuff to sell.  I'll definitely be getting up to Albuquerque a couple of times this month, and maybe next month I'll head over to Phoenix, a thrift store mecca.
                    

      

Postcards, Treasures, and Art from the Heart

I've been doing artwork.  I had the opportunity this month to participate in several gallery shows here in Truth or Consequences.  

One was an annual Postcard Show at the Happy Belly Deli.  Last year, I just missed this one because I decided to go spend the winter in Arizona, and I was busy packing and getting ready to leave when the artwork was needed.  So I was really pleased to participate this year.  All of the work had to be 4 x 6 inches, in any media just so long as it could be attached to a wall fairly easily. I did the four doodly mandalas shown above.  

I got interesting feedback from several friends--one asked me if I used to be one of those nerdy artsy girls in high school who doodled on all of her notebooks.  "Why, yes, I was."  

Another friend, Brian Many Wheels, suggested maybe I'd done too much peyote in my youth.  "Well, no, I never tried that, perhaps I would've devoted more of my life to art sooner if I had?"  Then I reminded him of his earlier observation:  "I really like your art, Sue, but I wouldn't want to be inside your head."  Ha!  Brian bought the green postcard and has it in his Chinooky van for his current travels.

About the same time the postcards were due at the Deli, the "Treasures of Truth or Consequences" show was hung at Grapes, a nice big gallery on Main Street.  I played around with several different media for that show.  

 

This is a dry collage and acrylic paint representation of the Black Cat Books and Coffee logo.  Black Cat is a wonderful little used bookstore, one of the first places I experienced here last year that made me realize that TorC was "home."  I visited the store on my way through town when I was heading all the way to the East Coast, checking out various places I might want to live.  When I got back here a few months later, one of the customers overheard me tell Rhonda, the store owner, that I had just moved here, and she invited me to come sit with her and her friends.  That's the kind of place the Black Cat is, and that's why it was my first choice of subjects for the "Treasures of Truth or Consequences" art show.

 

Here's another dry collage and acrylics mixed media piece I did for the same show, called "We are the Water."  The mineral hot springs here in TorC are one of our country's secret treasures.  If people realized how inexpensively they could vacation or live here, while frequently "taking the waters," this town would be growing like Phoenix.  Fortunately, just a few of us find it and move here each year.  

Dry collage is an easy technique for successful mixed media pieces.  When I've done traditional collage using various types of glue, I've sometimes had paper bubble or become transparent or even regress to pulpiness.  (That is, the paper does these things...I usually don't.)  Dry collage preserves the integrity of all of the elements and the final work.  

Whatcha do is coat all of the pieces you want to put in your collage with acrylic medium (I bought a thick liquid type rather than the gel), let them dry, and repeat on the other side.  You also coat your canvas (or wood or paper, whatever you choose as a background) with acrylic medium. Then, using release paper (the slick paper that's on the back of labels or Contac paper), you can iron all of your pieces into place. If you've coated everything well, there are no bubbles and no corners or edges that pop up.  I totally love this technique and will be using it a lot in the future. 

One of the things I love about collage is the subtle or not so subtle use of subtext.  People looking at my Black Cat or Water pictures from a bit of a distance won't notice, but those looking closer will see that the backgrounds are all words.  The Black Cat collage has scores of poems about coffee in the background, which I stained with strong coffee and coffee rings.  The Water picture has wall tiles as a background, and the tiles are made of articles from scientific journals or newspapers.  Some of the words are about local controversies on who has the rights to the water.   

Another new-to-me technique that I used for the "Treasures" show is drywall mud carving.  I learned about this when I was on vacation up in Jemez Springs this summer.  I saw some work by an artist named Kristin Mendenhall that just knocked my socks off.  She coated pieces of wood with joint compound, also known as drywall mud.  Then after the mud had almost completely dried, she would re-wet some areas with a sponge or spray bottle and carve designs into the mud.  Later she thinned down some acrylic paints and used them to lightly color different areas of the picture.  

Kristin mostly does pictures of pottery, fruit, and flowers.  I could tell from her work that she was a former potter.  We talked and she said, yes, she no longer wanted to be tied down by a wheel, kiln, and all that shelving.  Dry wall mud carving was a great find for her, and she's developed the technique way beyond anything you'll find in print or online about it.  How lucky for me to happen to walk into the co-op gallery on the day Kristin happened to be working the desk!

The picture above is my drywall mud carving of El Cortez, our local movie theater.  I called it "Enjoy the Movie!", because that's what the theater owners' kids always say right before the show begins.

This picture is another drywall mud carving.  I call it "All Who Broke Down Here and Stayed," because the people of Truth or Consequences are its greatest treasure, and many people arrived here exactly that way.  
  
After getting these pieces to Grapes Gallery in early December, I took a little breather from creating artwork and worked hard at the retail biz at January's art and antiques gallery while also enjoying a long visit from Steve, who stayed through Christmas.  We had some interesting items come in at January's from consignors, including one person's lifelong collection of pigs which I spent about three weeks pricing.  Pig Christmas tree ornaments, piggy banks, pig shaped cutting boards, you name it, she had it.  We had one entire 9-foot Christmas tree that had only pig ornaments, and it was packed!  People loved it, and bought a lot of pigs.  Steve and Sonja did not work retail:

Then it was time to start gearing up for the next gallery show, which will start early next month at January's gallery.  The theme is "Art from the Heart," and the work can be about any aspect of love, romance, or related symbols.  I've done four pieces for the show and may do more.  Briefly the completed works are:  

An untitled "love the Earth" mandala--mixed media

Another mixed media, called "Warm Hands, Chile Heart"

"Black Heart Mandala," framed colored pencil on cardstock, above; and "Heart Mandala," also framed colored pencil on cardstock, below.

    

The latest development in my life here in TorC is my recent decision to forego having a part-time job.  After about three months of working for January, which I enjoyed immensely, I realized that I was feeling a constant and growing sense of financial worry.  It's hard to make ends meet working at a hair over minimum wage, and I couldn't ask January for more money, because she's recently expanded her store and has a lot of new expenses to deal with.  So I decided to put all of my energy and efforts into my other streams of income:  Selling on eBay; continuing to consign antiques and vintage clothing at January's store; and making art.  Fortunately, January is a good friend in addition to having been my employer, and she sees the wisdom in my decision and supports it.  

I loved bringing my skills to work at January's, but now I'm putting all that time and energy into my own business.  So, since Christmas, I've been listing auctions on eBay like crazy, and it's already paying off.  Who knew that a little metal wastebasket that I paid a buck for at the thrift store would sell for over $20?!  To me, selling on eBay and doing consignment at January's is great fun--I get the thrill of the chase, I get to shop even though I don't need anything myself, and then it's like gambling to wait and see how much return I get on my investment, except I don't lose money like I do when I actually go to a casino to gamble. 

Next episode?  My son Sly is coming to visit me, just about exactly a year after his last visit, and a very changed guy.