I am going to have to temporarily suspend posting so that I can fix this store up better. It needs streamlined so that my customers can have a better experience. Of course, the easiest way to do this is to close the store and then re open it. I think I will most likely do it this way. With any luck, I can get everything back to normal in a week.

I had meant to post other entries in this blog, but as you can tell, I've been busy. My ebay hobby has turned into something more - a way for family to stay afloat in this uncertain economy. I am the Yard Saler for my family, extended family, and friends. They bring their stuff and I check it, clean it if possible, and then post it for people to place bids. In return, I know that my family will have food on the table and stay afloat. For me, that knowledge is enough to keep me ebaying.

Ebay has fallen on uncertain times, hasn't it? DSRs aside, the atmosphere is somewhat fractured. I am saddened by this. It used to be so different here. But this place, like any relationship changes. I am constantly stuck between the elation of a great transaction and a broken heart from something that went wrong. Currently, I have a bidder who says they sent a money order payment but I did not yet get it. The customer has turned me in for non receipt.

I also dealt with a terrible problem when my tooth broke, which had me totally incapacitated. I had to rely on help from my non-ebay-literate hubby, who, bless his heart, missed mailing a very important package because it was hiding behind something in his car.

Well, as all things tend to work out, I am trying to recover from those delays and make things work in the ebay store. If you buy from me, you help several families who are just trying to make it.

I have started something that I hope will be well-received. I'm trying to find as many small lots of infants' plush toys that I can from local moms looking to cash in so I can list them on the Bay. Why? Well, the dream all started with a purple kitty. Namely, a Fisher Price puffalumps purple kitty, without whom my son would be lost.

Purple Kitty was purchased from a yard sale by my daughter in the spring of 1998. She loved Purple Kitty. The toy went with her everywhere. But when my youngest turned two in the fall of 2000, purple kitty had become closet clutter. Imagine the elation of a two-year-old toddler discovering the texture of this parachute-fabric plush toy. He did not care that Purple Kitty had seen better days. He was smitten from the start.

One trip through the washer . . . then another. From the flu to being left in the sandbox for a few minutes with an unexpected rain. . . Purple Kitty was starting to look very grungy though I kept her hygeine routine very strict. Enter eBay.

Some would say that it was far better to allow my child to know Purple Kitty was a lost cause rather than buy others. How do you explain that sort of a death to a Two-year-old who's been teething, potty training, and still can't get his motor skills to do exactly what he wants them to without frustration? We bought two more backups and he still, even at 8, loves Purple Kitty. Oh, I know he acts like a big boy around friends, but as soon as company leaves, she emerges from beneath the bed and finds her way back onto his pillow. So if you see weird things for sale among my standard dolls and ecclectic jumble of nick nacks, know that out there somewhere there might be a mom looking for the bear or bunny of her child's heart. I can't apologise. It's a soft spot in me that I can't remove.

I must get motivated, but thus far, it's been a really rough week. Let's see what happened: We bought a car last Saturday. It was a lovely Eddie Bauer Explorer. My hubby couldn't drive it home immediately, and I was exhausted, so we asked the dealer if he could pick it up that evening after work. The dealer said "YES!" Absolutely wonderful. That evening on his way home, my husband was horrified to notice the check engine light glaring at him from the dash. A few miles later, and smoke - followed by the transmission boiling out stuff that looked like quicksilver. In our state, when you drive it off the lot, there is nothing the dealer must do. We cried, ached, and called the dealer to let him know.

On Sunday night, we found out about a sad white Jimmy that its owner had decided to part with. It was a steal - his huntin' truck actually. Only one problem - the starter was going out. My hubby and a friend drove two hours to pick up the beastly, filthy white creature we have lovingly nicknamed "Our Yeti" and drove it home. The truck was wonderful until . . . the starter died a few days later. But that was okay. The tax refund would cover a new starter and tires. It was not the best looking creature. It looks like an obese dalmation because someone tried to start camo'ing it with black splotches. If anyone knows how to get black krylon off GMC paint, let me know.

Ah, but the tax refund was not meant to be. Our wonderful state decided to seize it. You see, back in 2003, the only way to get my name off the mortgage of my ex-husband's home (after selling off my precious collection of vintage Barbie to keep it) was to declare bankruptcy. When I went to the lawyer to file, he told me my ex had not paid taxes back in 2001 when he lost his job and cashed in the 401k. We researched it, and they determined it could be included in the bankruptcy (this was before the laws changed), so my lawyer included it, notified the state, they were listed on the meeting of the creditors. They did not show up. The judge cleared the debt, and I started out fresh - bruised but no debt. I went into singlehood with a clear mind, drained bank account, and no more connections to my ex.  Jump ahead to 2007, and they have basically taken this cash right out of a refund I was supposed to receive. They tell me it's because they can. They told me the judge and the lawyer was wrong, and that I am out of luck.

I never received any kind of a notice this axe was hanging over my head.

I never got a bill from the state.

Every year since 2003 I have received a refund from the state, and they have never seized it.

But this year, as crappy as things are, they decided to take from me what they can't bleed out of my ex husband.

But there is a silver lining to the week. The dealer was mortified that our transmission broke down. He took our car to his garage and will be fixing it free of charge. I have my bills caught up, tons of stock to put in my eBay store, a little money in my very own paypal account (was using my Uncle's so I could help him), finally helped my Uncle through his paypal and eBay ugliness. . . Things are looking up. My hubby got overtime. My kids are healthy. People have been really nice on eBay. So . . . .

Let me know if you need warm thoughts in your corner. I'm not looking to pull in customers - they will come when I have something good in my store. I want to spread the warmth that I feel right now because I have something that I've not had in a while - Hope. And as long as I have that, there is something that I can share with the world. The world's not so crazy, you know. It will work out if we just try.

I told my mother last night. . . life is like fishing with a rod and reel. Sometimes, that reel gets the line all tangled. It gets knots in it and you just have to sit there and untangle it, put your rod back together, and start fishing again. Some folks think the key is to buy more line and add it, but eventually you have such a mess under the new line, it hurts the reel. Some folks think the answer is to buy a new reel and start over. Sometimes, that can be tempting, but there will still be new tangles no matter how fancy the reel is or how much you spend. Still others stop fishing altogether. All I have to say is keep fishing, and if you can't untangle your line, get help from someone who has been there enough to know how all the knots work.

((hug))

It's time to dig out of this snowstorm, which inadvertantly delayed my shipping a couple of days, due to a sudden shortage of printer paper and tape coupled with the internet being flaky. Our county was actually shut down! I'm amazed at the level of snow for our area. It was a total shock to see the snow and ice keep coming down. Nevertheless, my family member (uncle)'s Ebay mess is still messy, but I've helped him through a lot of it. We still get an occasional missing package notification, but hopefully he won't make the mistake of trying to to ebay again.

The story begins as he was convinced that eBay would be the way out of his debts. He asked everyone for stuff to sell and started posting like crazy. He even decided to open a store. He was gonna eBay like there was no tomorrow! Only one problem: he forgot to get tracking numbers with the first few items he mailed out. This created a domino affect destroying any chance he had to ever eBay again. Please don't forget your tracking numbers if you get paid through paypal, folks!

He sold a pile of wrestlers, which should have mailed immediately, but he had some sort of payment come out of the paypal account, leaving his balance depleted. So, he wrote the lady about the delay. Then, he sent it six days after she had paid. . . she started calling. She called when he was at work and he got in trouble. She called the next day . . . then the next.  He refunded her money, but it didn't end. He soon discovered that several items mailed from that day were missing, including money orders to pay for items. A pen here. . . a pair of earrings there. . . and soon my poor uncle was in desperate trouble with his finances with claims pouring out his ears. To refund the money for the first customers, the shipments for the next groups were delayed, and the emails and calls got overwhelming.

All of this was preventable. He should have bought tracking numbers.

By the time I agreed to help him, he had lost half of his records, his account was a mess, and people were getting angry. We sat down and talked it over, and I told him that he would not be able to ever eBay again. I explained that timeliness was essential to getting eBay to work and that customers expect delivery within ten days or less. He literally had a pile of packages in the back seat of his car, who knows how old, and several items stashed in a box without any records. I shipped the pile of packages, and then we looked at the box of items, ebay information completely lost, and he was overwhelmed. I told him the only way would be to refund, because he had such an enormous mess, there was no way to figure out what had been shipped or not, so we went through his account and refunded everything until I can figure out who gets what and ship it out free of charge. We still don't know what items are lost in the mail or if packages have been swiped from his car. So basically, this mess was a serious incident that could have been prevented.

He and I had a long discussion about how it had happened, and he admitted to me that the wrestling figure lady harassed him constantly, leaving voice mail after voice mail, that he was frustrated from the bill coming out and messing up the account, and that he was literally flustered from life. I told him it would all be okay and have spent several hundred dollars of my own profits from auctions lately to help him catch up with those he owed refunds. I haven't sorted through his stuff much yet, as I've had my own things going on through eBay. I want to thank everyone who has purchased items from me lately. It has been helpful in helping my uncle regain his sanity.

This is a lesson we should all learn from. Tracking numbers are our friends. Speedy shipping is our friend, and keep our eBay seller funds separate from our bill money. Once I help him pay off his eBay bill, the account will be closed, negs and all, and he will have to come to me if he needs to buy eBay items. He won't be selling any though.