Covid Journal, Day 233: Working on the Ebay Workroom

I promised a post about my ebay activities so here goes. 

It's been a busy, busy month for selling. The sale I've been running generated a lot of sales, which is wonderful. Best month I've ever had on ebay, actually. But. My stock was so unorganized that I about had a few panic attacks trying to find things. I had to fix that.

So I spent an entire day sorting shelves. I got through six of them, and have the bottom shelves and the tops of the shelf units still to do. Four big totes and 3 boxes of stuff went out the door, some to a re-seller who gives me 50 percent of sales, and the rest to our favorite thrift. These were items that I'd either had listed for a long time and didn't sell, or things that I'd had for several years and never got listed. Ebayers call those things the "dead pile." Believe me, I still have plenty in my dead pile, but I made a good dent in it. 

So here's the shelves now. 

I sorted by type: all tumblers and goblets on one shelf, another of tumblers, wineglasses, and cups and saucers, a third of candleholders, salt and pepper sets and cream and sugar sets. Then there's a shelf of cake/dessert/bread plates, two of bowls, and two of dinner and luncheon plates. There's also a stack of platters on an unsorted shelf. So at least I know which shelf to look on when something sells. There's a tote of Christmas and several of dinnerware sets, and one of silverplate. Along with several other totes of linens which I need to go through as well. 

At least I've made a start, and will continue stabbing at it as time allows. It's fun to find things I had totally forgotten about--along with the what's-that-doing-here stuff.

Here's a look at a few of the things that have sold recently:

A mixed lot of Colorado vintage ephemera--postcards, brochures and the like, from the 1950's. I had several lots like this, from New York City, California, etc. They were from the estate of an unmarried lady, and I suppose no one wanted them. A friend gave them to me--someone had given them to her. So now these have gone to a happy buyer in Colorado.

A vintage 1980's large binder of knitting patterns. There were over 100 patterns in the book, some of them pretty amazing, others of the OMG variety.

A lot of vintage women's hats and hatbox. I'd had these in one of my booths, and decided to try them on ebay. They sold quickly. 

And of course, glass. Lots of it. This was a favorite, an Early American Pattern Glass sugar bowl, made in 1910 or so.

And these Viking birds, which I've owned for several years. Talk about a challenge to pack safely.

Then there's pottery, too, like this range set of Ransburg,

and plates--lots of plates. Which are work to pack, but a steady seller. These are by Myott-Meakin of England. It was a set of 8, and the buyer liked them so much she came back and bought the matching cups and saucers.

There were many other things too--framed art, aprons, lamps, vintage women's coats, handbags, even an antique wool shawl that went to The Netherlands. 

It's a fun job, selling--a lot of work but so interesting, and I've met many nice people. Maybe one day I'll get organized, and it will be even more fun. I can always hope.

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