HAPPY NEW YEAR: WELCOME 2021 GOODBYE 2020

GOODBYE 2020 HELLO 2021

A very large part of the world's population is so glad to see 2020 out the door. The COVID-19 Pandemic is a huge party pooper to understate it. 'Nuff said about that 

I will make my annual "State of the Blog" post to publish sometime early January. I usually plan to publish them on 01 January around Noon but I'm not sure when I'll publish the one for 2020. As far as my posting went 2020 was slightly more than just the bare minimum one post per month years. Oddly it doesn't look like it will be tied with the absolute lowest/worst years. Anyway.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ebay Reselling Update: November 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
November 2020 Sales

Lets see in my last Sales update I had 1 sale and 26 listings in the store. 

So What Sold in Nov 2020?

1. Number 10 business sized envelopes Red sealed pack 50 count $6.99 Free shipping.
2. Dream Games by Karl Hansen 1985 paperback $4.99 plus shipping.
3. 2017 Leaf Draft Football Trading Cards 5 pack $4.00 plus shipping.

With these sales the listing count is now down one to 23 listings. The store count is now 23 listings with 33 items quantity. OK that is not the final count because I have actually did some listings "gasp". Yippie Yahooie! So far the count is 12 listings all 1 unit count, most football cards so now I have 35 listings with item count of 45. some were listed as auctions w/ a Buy It Now option.

By the time this post is published I might have a few more listings posted.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Ebay Reselling Update: October 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
October 2020 Sales

Lets see in my last Sales update I had 5 sales and 27 listings in the store. 

So What Sold in Oct 2020?

1. Exilie's Quest by Richard Meade 1970 paperback $5.99 plus Shipping

With that sale the listing count is now down one to 26 listings. I had another pack of the 1991 Bowman Hockey cards I have listed so I added that to the count for that listing. I wasn't sure if I had another one or not, but checked my little box that I have some packs of cards in and there was one. That brings the "item" count up but not the "listing" count. The count is now 26 listings with 36 items quantity.

In November I have one sale so there will be a November sales update after December first. Plus at the end of the year I will have my annual New Years post (which doesn't really change too much) and then in early January on the first or second I will have my annual "State of The Blog" update on the past year's posts. Fun fun fun.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Ebay Reselling Update: September 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
September 2020 Sales

OK lets see in my last post I mentioned adding 4 additional listings to my previous listing update that included 4 item listings and before that a sales update. Yes I have been slacking since then. I've wanted to list but haven't. Part of my hesitation is because of only having Saturdays to do my shipping out and post office visits. Anyway those semi recent 8 listings lead to 5 sales in September that are listed below, and one sale so far in Oct as we are at the halfway point for the month.

So What Sold in Sep 2020?

1. Sealed pack of size 10 business envelopes red colored 25 count $3.99 Free Shipping
2. 2 Sealed packs 2017 Leaf Draft Football cards 5 count $8.00 plus Shipping
3. Sealed pack of 2017 Leaf Draft Football cards 5 count $4.00 plus Shipping
4. Sealed pack of 2017 Leaf Draft Football cards 5 count $4.00 plus Shipping
5. Sealed pack of 2017 Leaf Draft Football cards 5 count $4.00 plus Shipping

That took the number of store items down to 27 during Sept from 28 listings. Just a few days ago a book sold for October figures so now I'm down to 26 listings with 35 actual items. With the year 5/6 done I have had 24 (25) sales for the year. That is the most I have had in a year to date. At my busiest years ago I forget what my most number of yearly sales would have been. Until this year I had never been really consistent for more than 3 or 4 months tops for the year. I'm still pretty much just in the "smalls" market. I'm not ready to ship heavy bulky items on the regular yet.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Updates: Unknown To Be Determined

UPDATES ?

I'm not sure what this post will end up being. As I start drafting this post it is only a few days before the end of September and I still haven't decided what to blog about. Sure I have some drafts in my posting queue, but they aren't ready yet. Many require scanning that I have yet to do, even some that have been sitting for years in my post draft queue. The recent format changes that Blogger did has really hampered the way I do my blogging to the point that I sometimes think of just abandoning the whole damn thing. But I have 3 blogs to juggle. UGH. I am also wondering if maybe there is some other blogging platform I can use that is similar to what Blogger was? 

I do have some Ebay updates. Since my last post I listed 4 more items. I really should list more and then do some more listing. They were packages of size 10 business envelopes, colored. So they brought up my item count at 28 items total. However one of the packs of envelopes sold. Plus I sold some packs of those Football cards I listed at the end of August. So now I have 27 items. See you start listing and you start selling, you don't list and the sales stop. So it is likely my first Oct post will be my Sept Ebay sales. Maybe I'll have more than one post in October? Could happen. I won't guarantee it.

Back to the Blogger format change thing: In the back of my mind, however the solution is to go into even more debt and spring for a super long greatly needed computer upgrade replacement. We're talking an ancient HP laptop using Windows XP that can't upgrade Windows (or Google or Chrome, or Firefox or more recently YouTube) so many frequently used sites are not allowing access anymore. Getting a new computer would mean that I don't have to do this new thing with the copying the scans onto a thumb drive thing, then working on the post on my work laptop, which I sometimes bring home but don't like to bring home. It has been ages since I have seriously looked at all the tech specs of "current" computers to do some semi-educated new computer shopping. IN the 1980s and 90s I used to keep up with all that crap, now days I don't even bother. If the thing connects to the internet and allows me onto the sites I use the most then I am fine. When I do get a new computer it will most likely be a notebook/laptop with regular PC Windows not the dang tablet, smart phone "Mobile" versions. UGH I hate when those devices default to the mobile version of websites. I can do some stuff with my tablet but it is annoying. Doing something as detailed as making a blog post is NOT a task for a tablet or a droid smart phone. 

Ebay Update: Added Listings

 

Ebay Update: New listings

This will probably be just a quick update on my Ebaying. As for sales I haven't had anything sell since June. That is mostly because of what class? I didn't do any listing. Right. So about 2 weeks ago I corrected that and added 5 more items to my Ebay store giving me a total of 24 items in the store. Most of the listings in my store are one item/unit only one shots. I only have 2 multi item/unit listings, before this recent added listings I just had one multi-unit listing. I haven't gotten any new sales, but the views of my items has gotten back to being a thing and not just one random view every few weeks. It still isn't anything to really write home about though.

So as I said I added 5 listings. 3 were sealed DVDs and 2 were sports related of those 2 one is team branded general merchandise you could stretch it some to say it is breweriana as it is a set of drink coasters, the other is a multi-unit listing of some trading card packs.  For these 5 items each has shipping on top.

Here is what was listed:

• New York Yankees branded drink coasters unopened 10 pack $7.95
• DVD: Castle The Complete 5th Season 5 discs SEALED set $14.95
• DVD: Road to Perdition SEALED $9.99
• DVD: The Shawshank Redemption SEALED $9.99
• SEALED pack of 2017 Leaf Draft Football trading cards $4.50  $4.00 (x6)

The DVDs will probably sit for a while since they are big name movies and there are a ton on Ebay, plus I'm somewhere in the high middle on pricing. The drink coasters I won't get much of a profit on if any and I might even lose some even on shipping. The key rookie card in the Draft packs is Patrick Mahomes II. I mentioned that in the description but not the title. I also mentioned he is the key rookie but there is no guarantee of pulling his card. I think he has at least 2 cards in that set maybe 3. I started them off at $4.50 but this past weekend (28 Aug) dropped the price down to $4.00. I had gotten them from some of those Fairfield repacked boxes of 20 (or was it 24?) packs of Football cards or maybe one of those boxes of 4 packs w/ 100 loose cards.

To try to get some things moving I am having a store wide 10% off sale for about 10 days Sept 01-11. Maybe some stuff will sell because of that sale. I hope so at least.

The New Blogger Experience: Updates to Blogger

OK so Blogger made some major updates to the platform format. I DON'T Like it. It seems that all the functions I normally have done are either hidden or are a second step in a new process, where the old process was just one step. The last update I didn't like at first either but I eventually warmed up to it. I'm not sure about this version. I don't even know where to begin.

Well for starters my ancient laptop with ancient browsers can no longer edit posts so I have do some alternate walk-arounds to get scans and new photos attached to my posts. Long story short it is well past time for me to get a new home 'puter/laptop. That is for another post another time if at all.

Many of the functions that I had grown accustomed to have changed. Some of them as I said at the top now require additional steps to do. For instance when going to a blog linked on your "reading list" you are now taken to a redirection page that asks if you want to be redirected to the link you were requesting or return to where your reading list page. Very counterintuitive and a huge pain to do my daily blog reading now.

I haven't tried returning to my reading list page in case I didn't want to return in the first place. I wanted to go directly to the link I requested. OH Lookie at that it doesn't send you back to the previous page. Only moving on to the page you wanted works. I just tested to see if it would send you back if you picked the go back page which I would rarely want to do. Unless I had clicked on the wrong link in the first place. 

The new format for the labels I don't think I'll be doing labels much anymore. I hate the way it looks (even though I like the old checklist trading cards that it is reminiscent of, and you can't see all of the ones you are trying to use.

Took me a while to find how to switch from the HTML view to the "compose" view and to find where the dang "SAVE" was. Still not sure how to tell if your publishing date and time is saved to where you want it. OH and I thought I would never find the damn "new post" button which is the damn plus circle that I thought was continue down the page or go to the next page.

I wonder what else I will find that I want to do that I can't anymore, or that I have to do a totally different way that is more complicated.

One good thing I noticed. When you click on the publish button it does give a pop-up asking to confirm publishing. In case you aren't quite ready to publish yet. There were a few times on the old format where I was nervous that I would accidentally click "publish" instead of just "save".

UGH I just. I just don't know anymore. I am frustrated by the new changes and am not sure how much longer I'll put up with this latest version.

Pop-Tarts Limited Edition Taste Test: Froot Loops

OK so once again I was tempted by the evil Pop-Tarts demon. This time it was a new limited edition flavor for kids "Froot Loops". Based on the Kellogg's breakfast cereal of the same name. I think I had seen this flavor on the shelves before but didn't feel the urge to try it until just recently. I bought a box of 8 pastries at my Safeway.

I didn't know what to think of the things. I wasn't expecting anything super great, and I was right. They taste pretty much like you would expect them to. My first bite of the first one I tasted was awful. Sure it had a bit of the "fruit" flavor of the cereal and the filling and frosting do sort of have the Froot Loop flavor, but mixed with the new awful dry floury taste of the pastry's base dough it was hideous. I guess I started to get used to them after the first two, which I didn't think I would even be able to get through the first one let alone two that first morning. The following days they weren't as bad but they still weren't enjoyable.

To attract the kids to beg their parents to buy these things there are six different patterns/designs drawn on the frosting. I only come across 4 of the 6 designs. Well maybe 5. Not sure about that first design in the upper left showing the group of six or seven however many of the cereal "loops", but I definitely did not get the one that says "I'm with Sam". I got three of the spoon and 2 or 3 of Sam himself only 1 bow tie and 1 of the "glasses".

I'm sure to kids these things taste great, and for the kids that are Froot Loop freaks they can't go wrong. However for me and probably most adults they are to be avoided. Blah.

Ebay Reselling Update: June 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
June 2020 Sales

Not much to report I continue to procrastinate in regard to adding new listings. I only sold 1 item in June and my Ebay store only has 19 items still. The item that sold was a pretty nice price. It was a book that I had gotten with a bunch of other books years ago. I forget when it was or how much the lot was or the exact total number of books. It was 20-30 science fiction books in the lot and I probably spent $1 - $2 per book. It wouldn't have been much more than that because that would mean spending over $40 for the lot and I would have been crazy to spend that much on the lot. Anyway when researching this book it surprised me when I saw that was apparently slightly rare. There were very few if any copies that had recently sold and they were either another copy or a copy with another book. I think there were only one or two copies that were even still listed. It seemed to comp for $20 - $30 maybe a little more if pristine condition. My copy sold for $25. Just when I was thinking of dropping the price down some to maybe $20 or a little less to try to force a sale, BAM it sold.

So What Sold in June 2020?

1. A Planet in Arms by Donald Barr (1981 Paperback) $25 plus shipping.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

My Music Reviews: New Feature Idea

In my recent "spare" time I have been trying to get back into listening to music more and to get back into reviewing my albums on vinyl or CD or whatever format they are on and I happen to be listening to at the time.

I already have a few reviews from years ago over at rateyourmusic.com. I decided I would basically cut and paste most of those and publish them here. Perhaps at one time I had already wanted to do that but never got around to it. Unfortunately some of my reviews are just simply "I listened to this album again and I liked it" sort of reviews. Others are fairly lengthy and I would go track by track giving useless information and saying if I liked the track or not. There are also some that are somewhere in between.

Some record album websites:
rateyourmusic.com
discogs.com
bandcamp.com

Ebay Reselling Update: May 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
May 2020 Sales

This does seem to be a regular standard thing now I guess.

I am now down to 20 19 items in my Ebay store. I continue to procrastinate in regard to adding new listings. It has been about two months since I have listed anything new. I need to reset my goals. Then I really need to make an effort to complete any goals I make. A few months back I thought it would be easy to do some more listing and be close to 100 listings near the beginning of April. If I had kept to some sort of routine of listing "x" number of items per week I could have easily done it. However I soon slipped back into my unmotivated procrastinating ways. Very very big sigh.

So What Sold in May 2020?

1. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
2. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 x3 ($4.50) Free Shipping

Update: It is now June and Hey I got another sale on the 5th that means I'll be making another one of these types of posts in about a month a few weeks. Number of items in my Ebay store is now down to 19.

I also have had an Ecrater Store for quite sometime. It has been stale for at least 10 years or so. They don't have all the fees Ebay does. You can list with no limits and no fees. You do have to do all the promoting of it yourself and they don't have all the traffic Ebay does. Amazingly it still seems to be a valid and viable site for some resellers. I did a little freshening up and updating to that store. Man some of those photos need to be updated or changed to scans.

Anyway I have definitely lost the motivation to list. This month I have been focused more on my music listening and trying to get back to reviewing at rateyourmusic. But that is an entirely different subject.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Ebay Reselling Update: April 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
April 2020 Sales

Well the world maybe in a strange state but Ebay is still functioning. So long as the USPS and other shipping services are deemed essential, sellers will still be able to ship stuff out to buyers. I really really need to do more listing. Even though I didn't make any new listings I did have a few sales near the beginning of April. It has slowed down because I haven't been listing new stuff. I have done a little updating current listings making some adjustments. For all my books listed I now have a scan photo of the book's spine and a scan of the copyright page to indicate which edition it is. So each of my book listings have pics of both front and back covers, the spine, and the inside copyright page. If there are any markings inside I'll post those as well.

I am now down to 21 items in my Ebay store. I wanted to get those extra book spine pics up before adding new listings because some of the stuff I'm planning on listing are more books. For some reason I kept procrastinating on doing that scanning. I do too much scan procrastinating. I think part of it is the process is tedious.

So What Sold in April 2020?

1. Unopened 1990 Univ of Notre Dame Football Trading cards 8 card pack: $1.50 Free Shipping
2. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
3. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 (x2) Free Shipping
4. Unopened 1990 Univ of Notre Dame Football Trading cards 8 card pack: $1.50 Free Shipping

I have 4 packs of the Babe Ruth Collection cards left in my store. I started with 9 packs of that.

Hopefully buy the time this post is published I will have more than just 21 items listed in my store.


Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

Ebay Reselling Update: March 2020 Sales and Stuff

EBAY Reselling Update:
March 2020 Sales

I am thinking of making this a regular or semi-regular series of posts. Might come up with a snappy pun-filled title. I don't want to make this an exclusive Ebay Blog though. It all actually depends on if I continue to make sales on that platform, which depend on a few obvious contributing factors like listing the items for sale and people actually buying the items. I also think in some ways I give too much info in these things sometimes. That is something else to ponder. Anyway another Month has gone by and with a smidgen of listing effort (I still need to pick my butt up and go to town on listing) I sold a few more things off of Ebay for March 2020.

Since I haven't been doing any listing of stuff my store is now down to only 22 items. I need to motivate myself to do more listing. I'll have more time to list in the next 2 weeks. There are a few delaying factors that I won't go into here online, or to anyone for that matter anywhere. Sometimes I don't inform others of some of my life's minutiae.

So What Sold in March 2020?

1. Unopened 2016 Leaf Draft 5 card pack Football Trading cards: $1 Free Shipping
2. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
3. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
4. 2000 ECW Wrestling: Champion Clashers Stickers set 5 stickers $15 plus shipping*
5. The Stardust Voyages by Steven Tall 1975 paperback $6.99 plus shipping
6. Word Bringer by Edward Llewellyn 1986 paperback $4.45 plus shipping
7. The Inverted World by Christopher Priest 1974 paperback $2.99 Free Shipping

*The ECW wrestling stickers were originally sold in packages of the ECW Champion Clashers Action Figures packages. I don't know how many different figures there were in the set of figures. It was apparently random as to which sticker went with which figure at times. I think there is only the 5 stickers. I also think the ones I had gotten as part of a free collection I received from a friend. Probably from the 2nd or 3rd wave of cards from that collection. Also my original listed price was a bit high at $25 for the stickers. I didn't see any trace of the stickers being sold separately and some of the figures still mint on card/in box I think went for up to $25 with shipping included. The stickers sat at that price for a while. Then I noticed they had a watcher, after a week or so I decided to send the watcher an offer of $18 they immediately counter-offered with $15 still with the shipping attached. I thought for a while and later that evening accepted the counter-offer to get the stickers sold.

About a day and a half to 2 days after selling the ECW stickers I got a surprise of another buyer making a purchase of 3 books. One of the books had 3 watchers so someone watching that book decided to make a 3 book purchase. They paid the shipping I had on two of the books and the watched book had free shipping. At first I was going to refund some of the shipping, but I had largely underestimated the cost of shipping 3 books in one box, that ended up going 2 day shipping. I thought it was going to go first class, oops. So I actually paid double in shipping vs what I had charged for shipping.

I recently got a digital postal scale that can handle up to 25 pounds. Anything heavier than that I'll probably have problems lifting myself anyway. I was actually wanting to get one for 50 pound limit but that one was too damn expensive at Office Depot. I spent more than I really wanted to on the scale I got but what the heck? Now I need to find a good flat surface to use it on.

Back to the shipping costs thing. I am going to try to avoid doing the Free Shipping, or at least make sure the item I'm using it for is listed for $5.00 or more (and never goes on a discount sale). If the $2.99 book (the one that was being watched) had sold just by itself I would have lost money due to the shipping. As it is I think I might have broken even on the deal. I'm not exactly sure of the cost of goods since it was so long ago that I had bought that lot of sci-fi books but I made up for it some on the sales price of the books. The Paypal and Ebay fees cut into any total profit for the sale. I'm going to call that one even. The packs of cards that have Free Shipping I usually lose a little since I don't do PWEs for Ebay stuff and the minimum cost of a first class package is close to $4 now days. I still need to find that healthy shipping cost balance. I like to keep things relatively low since I myself don't like paying a ton for shipping. That scale I bought will help in that matter, that and putting the real item weight for each item instead of having everything listed at about an ounce or whatever.

OH and since I have delayed some in finishing this post to publish it, I sold one item from a multi count item (a pack of trading cards) on Wednesday 01 Apr 2020 which will insure there is similar kind of post at the end of this month.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

Ebay: More Selling Stuff and Ideas

CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post

So here is another post about Ebay and selling there and just some related stuff I want to talk about.

In my earlier post about getting back into the swing of Ebay selling I probably should have made a brief mention that in my earlier height of Ebay selling at one time I had reached the milestone of having 100 items Up On Ebay in my store. Then a few days after that I think the highest I had was 110 or 115. I only kept track of the fact that I had broken the 100 item milestone and for the briefest of moments whatever my real max had been. I forget how long I was at that height before the sales knocked it back down below 100, but I haven't been there since and I want to make having 100 items in my store inventory my standard lowest inventory point. My goal for March is to have the total of 100 items listed in the store. From there I want to keep that the basement limit. Currently as of this posts publishing my store item count is 26 items. So  74 items more to list.

In general when selling on Ebay you have to list new items regularly to get your items noticed and viewed as the newer listings get priority in the searches. It takes somewhere between a dozen and 2 dozen items to start picking up views and making a sale or two. The more your list the more that your items get seen and more importantly the more sales you make. You don't have to list things that are huge ticket items, but if you only list a few things here and there that are only about a dollar you won't make much or will have to list a ton of items to start making good money.

To stress this point for many years my Ebay Store has been sitting with only 6 stale items in it. 1 item only is a multiple "copies" of that item. A collectible button, pinback or as the say in The UK a "badge" I think patches are also usually called badges so that is a little confusing just as using the term "button" here in the US is. Is that a shirt button, or one of those collectible things that has a funny saying on it? Every few months one of those buttons will sell. I mentioned in the previous post that I had gotten the particular design from a huge lot of buttons (100 count at least but less than 200) I had gotten from an Ebay auction, back in the days when Ebay was mostly auctions. I don't recall how much I paid for the batch or how many of each button there actually were. I do recall this specific button I had at least 50 of it maybe as many as 60. It is now down to a 10 count. Even though the other designs from that particular lot I sold long ago, I still have a boat load of buttons that I will eventually list and try to sell, including a bunch of buttons from my personal collection. I used to be pretty big in collecting buttons but not any more.  But I digress.

So long story shortish During the month of February I actively started listing more starting with listing 2 items one day, skipping the next day adding 2 more items and so on. I started with the 6 stale listings (I updated most of the photos/scans) dropped the price of the button from $1.50 to 99¢, then added those first 2 listings making the item count 8, then 10, then 16 items then jumped to 20, then 24 and then jumping up to 30 items total. When I was at about 14 or 15 items one of the earlier items I had listed sold. It was a listing of multiples and about half the multiples sold in one sale. It was a pack of football trading cards. So I continued to add listings. I got up to 30 listed items and for February made 5 sales. I can't stress enough how that simple act of regular listing of items increases both the views of your listed items but also increases the sales. Going many months without making any new listings I would sell maybe one or two items a year (mostly that same button). Making 24 new listings over about 3 weeks I made 5 sales. So far in March I have made one sale (one of the packs of football cards selling it out) but I haven't added any new listings  The number of items Up On Ebay is only 26 right now. I have some things set aside to list but I need to scan them. Yes right now I have been scanning the items mostly because I don't want to do the whole camera phone uploading thing. My other items are still being viewed but views have slowed down without any new listings.

So some might be wondering what Sold?
February 2020:

1. 5 card pack of 2016 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 (x5)
2. 5 card pack of 2018 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 (x5)
3. 1984 copy of Dune by Frank Herbert Berkley Books: $5.50
4. 5 card pack of 2018 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 (x6)
5. Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg 1971 paperback: $4.99 plus shipping

March 2020:

1. 5 card pack of 2016 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 

You can check out my series of "Up On Ebay" YouTube videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02 I know the quality of my cheap old webcam sucks. It also is a bit dark. Most everything I currently have listed has been mentioned and shown in those videos. I also mention what has sold. At the time I made the videos I think there were only a couple of sales. Video 2 might have been made before I got the second sale.

I think I mentioned that for many months I've been planning to get back into actively listing stuff on Ebay. Part of my motivation was from watching a bunch of YouTube Resellers such as Lonnie of Garage Flips/Shed Flips, Kevin the Commonwealth Picker/Flipper (with his wife Heather The Blue Ridge Mama), Matt "Part-Time Pickers", Jon Cincinnati Picker, and also Bobby TheCapGuy. There are a few others I've seen and followed but some of them are more recent discoveries and to be honest I found after my motivation was already in motion.

Eventually I would love to have the number of sales those people have. They tend to average 10 sales a day most days during the week. They also have a ton of stuff listed I think 500 items is the lowest number I've seen for some of these people, maybe one of them has between 300-500 but for the most part they have no less than 500 items and upwards of 2,000 items. Most seem to have over 1,000 items (and 2 or 3 Ebay Stores). My goal as I have said is to get to a minimum of 100 items and keep on building from there.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

Misheard Lyrics: Swing From That French Avenue Baby

It has been a while since I've made one of these Misheard Lyrics posts. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this in passing on any of the other posts. I'm not going to go back to look I'm just going to write it and post it the way things should be done. Hehehe.

This one comes from Sia off of her 1000 Forms of Fear album.

The song is Chandelier the lead single released from the album.

Now the real lyrics to the chorus are:

I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier

I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist

Like it doesn't exist

What I thought the lyrics were:

I'm gonna swing from the shan de liason, from the shan de liason

I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist

Like it doesn't exist

It made no sense that she wold be singing about swinging from a river. I was probably thinking about "Champs-Elysées" which is actually a famous French Avenue. UGH damn my semi knowledge of foreign things.

Also the line "one, two, three, one, two, three, drink" sounded like "one, two, three, one, two, three, three" as in dance choreography not party game instructions.

Back To The Swing Of Ebay Selling

Lately I've been getting back into the swing of listing and selling on Ebay. I have been a member of Ebay for both buying and selling since their early days (my profile start date is marked as 30 April 1998) when they were just an online auction house. For the first 6 months or so I was just sort of idle. I had signed up and checked out what they were and then had temporarily forgotten about them. I forget what my first winning auction bid was for. I know some of the early bids I made were for of all things Beanie Babies. Some theatre acquaintances of mine were into buying Beanie Babies on Ebay that is how I discovered the site. I Never won any of those back then I didn't know you were supposed to bid your max bid and my max bid was usually under $20 when those things were selling for at least $25 every time. Eventually I would get into buying trading card stuff. Now I get all sorts of stuff from there. I try to avoid big or heavy items though due to the shipping expenses. I don't dare sell anything that is too huge to ship normally.

Probably about a year after I had first signed-up I started trying to sell. I started with some books some VHS video tapes, trading cards, and pinback buttons. I always would have to relist stuff. At the time as I said Ebay was just auction listings the basic time was 7 days there were 3 day listings and 10 day listings. I think the 3 day listings were more expensive to list, but could be profitable. The auctions would end and I'd have to "relist" them, of course Ebay charged a relisting fee (having an Ebay store got rid of the relisting fees) I think the first thing I sold has also been one of the biggest sales I have ever had. It was $20 or $25 for a lot 4 (I think it was 4 maybe it was 2 or 3) VHS tapes of the Animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon TV show. The bidder was getting them for their grandkids. Eventually I sold some other stuff some trading cards here and there, some books, buttons (pinback collector type not shirt type) and an occasional odd and end. $25 is the most I have listed one individual item for. Once I sold a package of some lanyards I had gotten from Staples that I didn't recall actually buying. I think they had been left on the counter by someone else and my pile of stuff had mixed up with those things. It was a pack of 5 that I sold for $10 max.

I have been paying for an Ebay store for many years. I forget when I first started it, but it was at the time when selling stuff at a "Buy It Now" fixed price was fairly new at Ebay. Having a store saves on the individual "listing" fees for making a single listing. In order to have it actually pay off however you need to have a minimum of 15-20 items for your items to get seen fairly regularly. Of course you actually need to get your items to sell for it to really pay off. You really need to be regularly "listing" items to keep your items at the top of the search lists. Back in the early days of Ebay stores you had to have at least one active Auction listing for your "In Store" fixed price items to be seen. Since at the time Ebay had no way to search for the fixed price items. That was many years ago and now most Ebay sellers and resellers rarely list any auctions. They list fixed price with "Best Offer" options. The more you list the more you sell. It isn't just a saying it is a cold fact. When I rarely listed anything I would rarely have anything sell. Only the occasional button, the supply of which I had gotten from a big lot of buttons that were about  7 different designs with multiples of each design, some only 5 or 6 buttons but most being about 12 buttons with the Express Start buttons being about 50 I think. I have 10 left of those but sold the other designs individually years ago.

For many months and a couple of years I have been meaning to add more listings and get back into actively selling on Ebay but kept putting it off. Partly due to the whole Photobucket changing the conditions on their free memberships and how much memory your albums can take up. It used to be at Ebay you needed an outside website for photo hosting, now you don't need an outside storage site unless you want to have more than 12 photos and use html for your listings.

At the beginning of February 2020 my store was at it's stale 6 items that I have had there for a few years. I then started adding some newer listings and I started getting more views on my previous items for sale. I added 2 listings then a couple days later 2 more listings then 4 or 5 listings and then I get a sale or two. Over 2 weeks I had gone from 6 items listed w/ very few sales per month. To 30 listings and now 5 sales during the month. As of this posting I have had those 5 sales in Feb (2 books, 3 orders of single packs of trading cards 16 packs total) and now have 27 items listed in my store. The Express Start pinback buttons (10 count), Some trading cards: a oouple of individual card lots, some packs and a few individual card lisitngs.

On YouTube I have started a series of videos called "Up On Ebay" where I mention recently listed items and try to show them as well. I also mention recent sales. I need to make some more listings before I do a new video and I will have to mention the last 4 sales all of which have shipped out now.

Related Links:
"Weird Al" Yankovic - The Ebay Song (fan made video there is no "official" video)
A version with a Boy Band acting the song out.

My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42's Federation Trading Post
My YouTube Channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

State of The Blog: 2019 Recap

STATE O THE BLOG

2019 Edition

2019 maintains the failing Red years in my annual State of The Blog tally. Did that really surprise anyone?

Here are the monthlies from 2019:

January: 1
February: 1
March: 1
April: 1
May: 1
June: 1
July: 1
August: 1
September: 1
October: 1
November: 1
December: 1

TOTAL: 12
Monthly Average: 1

No real surprise I FAILED my yearly goal of 32 posts per year. That is now 5 years in a row. FIVE, FIVE! 

Now lets look at how the 2019 blogging matches up with past years:

2006 - 32
2007 - 43
2008 - 36
2009 - 34
2010 - 18
2011 - 20
2012 - 38
2013 - 93
2014 - 57
2015 - 24
2016 - 29
2017 - 16
2018 - 18
2019 - 12
Yearly Average: 33.57

Yet again I am barely keeping up with my bare bones minimum of one post per month. My first year of blogging 2006 met and set my self-appointed blogging quota of 32 posts per year. My all-time high was in 2013 with 93 posts. This year was my all-time low and lowest possible. The yearly average is still getting worse and worse.