The X Files Strike Again

When Trish and I were first selling things on eBay, I felt really encouraged when we had a pretty fast turnaround on an X Files t-shirt. So in the fall of last year, when we found a set of X Files-themed Barbie dolls, we bought them, even though they cost more than most items we pick up at the thrift store.

Well, it took quite a while to sell these. We listed them on craigslist a couple times, too, and never a peep of interest. Then today they sold for $50. We were pretty excited!

Really if I were a collector, I would like these dolls. They even come with little badges, and their clothing is pretty cool, too.

It just reinforces the lesson of patience. I think that a lot of people who are successful eBayers have a separate space for storing all their finds as they wait for the right customers to come along. We are kind of in the middle of the road as we have a spot where we tuck away our stuff, but it's not a huge space.

Honestly, one of the things I like about online selling is that there are as many ways to sell online as there are online sellers! I don't think there is one "right" way.

Just Call Me Your Personal Thrift Shopper

I'm not fashion-conscious enough to ever be a personal shopper, but sometimes I feel like I'm a personal thrift shopper for the people who buy items from me on eBay. I enjoyed thrifting for many years before I ever started selling anything on eBay, but of course my purchases were limited by the scope of what I personally could use or stuff that I knew my family and friends might enjoy. With selling stuff on eBay, I can always find something at the thrift store that I know will just be perfect for somebody out there, even though I don't really know who that somebody is...

Well, sometimes I buy things that the right somebody doesn't happen to see for quite a long time, but such is life. This week I was glad to sell this retro-style t-shirt. I have a weakness for tees with lettering that reminds me of the old-school iron-on lettering from the t-shirts of my youth. And I figured someone would get a kick out of the reference to MySpace.

The shirt was listed for months and months; I listed it sometime last summer, and it just sold now in February. But the cool thing was that the guy who bought it said he was glad to find it as he was going to be able to use it in a photo shoot. It just seemed cool to me that months later, this tee I found at the thrift shop was going to be in a photo shoot.

I think it's fair to say that I'm one of those people who love the simple pleasures in life. Thrift shopping and eBay sometimes have a way of brightening my day.

Continuing to Be Patient

Do you ever list something for sale and think it will sell quickly, only to find it languishing in your sales listings, month after month? I imagine this happens to all of us, and probably more often than we'd like. I know I posted recently about thrifting and waiting; the Zildjian tee I mentioned in that post still hasn't sold, unfortunately.

It's always a thrill when one of those lingering items finally does sell. That happened for me this week when I sold this Billabong hoodie that I bought at the Goodwill Outlet over the summer. I'd thought with the skull design and the thick, comfy fabric, it would sell right away. Oh well. It sold over the weekend; I had listed it multiple times at auction and as a buy it now with different prices. It finally sold for just over $13, plus shipping. I probably paid a a dollar or two for it, since it was part of a "by-the-pound" purchase.

I see a lot of Billabong stuff selling on eBay, but it hasn't been too lucky for me so far. I have another Billabong t-shirt that's been hanging around since October. I think it will sell eventually, too. I bought it for a dollar at a rummage sale, so no worries.

T-shirts don't take up much space, so it doesn't bother me too much to wait for them to sell. I do have a couple that I might just need to accept as ones that aren't going to sell, but then again, you never know...

Sometimes Slowly Sometimes Quickly

I was just writing a post in my blog about View-Master reels and remarking how you never know what will sell on eBay. I love selling View-Master sets; they tend to sell pretty slowly, and they aren't big money-makers, but I just love them. As with anything else, with the reels, I never really know which ones will sell and which ones will hang around in my eBay listings for weeks (or months) on end.

Same with t-shirts. Sometimes I get a feeling that a shirt will sell quickly, and sometimes I'm right, but other times, I buy something and think it will be a quick sale, and it's not. Luckily, I'm pretty patient. I try to think of it like putting pennies in a piggy bank; eventually a buyer comes along, and it was worth it to spend the time thrifting, photographing, listing, etc.

A good example of this is a t-shirt I bought with the logo for Zildjian cymbals; I knew the logo right away when I saw it at the thrift store as I recognized it from my days of taking guitar lessons as a kid. It's a black tee, and it looks brand new. I figured a drummer was going to snap the shirt up right away. But there are a lot of similar shirts out there, and no one has bought mine yet. I've tried it at auction; I've tried it at fixed price. I think it will sell eventually!