Sunday, November 21, 2010

A gift and a curse...

Talking about computers in general and E-bay in particular.
About five years ago I took the plunge and began selling on e-bay. It took a little time to set it all up, but the rewards were worth it. I had a great small buisneess selling things for myself as well as for a few friends. Before 40 Year Old Virgin came along, I was selling on e-bay and that scene in the movie where she has piles and stacks of things to sell and to ship really made me laugh- mostly because that is what my house was beginning to look like! Then I met Chuck and began selling for his store, and I made great money. A few more folks heard,and I started selling for them too. All out of my little back room.
But things being what they were I finally decided that e-bay was getting too complicted to sell on. They were making it harder and harder to list, charging more and more money for the fees, the shipping kept going up and so I stopped selling on e-bay.

Now I am back selling there again.

Things have changed, it still is a giant pain in the arse to sell something, but some things just need the venue of the internet- Craigs list, while good for small or large things that you want to sell right away works for a lot of stuff, still dosen't have the international power of e-bay.
So I have listed a tin wind up toy, made in Germany during WWII. Its in great condition, with the box and the original key.  I hope to get a couple of good dollers ( the ones with more than one zero on them).
And then I was scrounging around in my garage and came up with some more stuff...
This is where the gift and the curse enter in.
Once you start it is hard to stop! And once you are locked in- woe to you if the computer goes down for any reason! LIke mine did last night due to the thunderstorm we had. I actually think the cat scampered across the cord and unplugged it while in fearful flight!
So most of today was spent figuring out the computer, re loading, rebooting, adding pictures, resizing pictures, listing on the e-bay form and coming to stop after stop to make sure I was doing it right!
I spent almost all day at the computer, most of it staring at the screen and trying to understand...anything.
My brains are tired!
But hopefully the collectors toy will bring out a few bidders and they will battle it out to own this nice bright object.
And tomorrow I will sweep the cobwebs from my rooms and from the corners of my pore lil mind!

Wish me luck- I think...