Bag Lady Auctions Blog

Saving Money while Selling & Real Housewife of Atlanta, Kim Zolciak is selling on eBay

Happy New Year! Okay, I know its February 9^th, but I have not written in my blog for a while. It is 6:27 AM, and I should be still asleep, but I’m up thinking about more snow that is coming today. We were already hit with a massive snow storm on Friday night into (2-5-2010) Saturday afternoon. I shoveled snow on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I did not measure but I know it had to be at least 30” and now they are calling for another 18-26 or something like that. I just don’t know where we will put more snow.

Postal service was cancelled on Saturday, but I was able to arrange for pickup on Monday. Wow, I go to the Post Office almost every day and I have never arranged for my postman to pick up my packages. At first it was because you have to have a least one Priority Mail package for them to pickup, and then I did not think I would have my packages ready, because I am usually still packing items at 4:00 PM when Oprah comes on. Some days it takes 4-5 hours or more. I usually start at 10 or 11 AM. I pack through The View at 11, Court TV at 12:00, All My Children at 1:00 (I just started watching soap operas again after losing my job, I hadn’t watched a soap opera in over 30 years), Dr Oz, at 2:00, Ellen, at 3:00, and Oprah at 4:00. It felt soooooo good when the postman picked up my packages yesterday. I know people who have been scheduling pickup for years.

I just started printing my own postage about 7 months ago. I SAVE SO MUCH MONEY. Do you hear me? OMG, I save money printing my own postage. I was paying $0.80 for delivery confirmation on every package and now I pay $0.19, oh and I forgot delivery confirmation is FREE for Priority Mail. Well, I do use more ink, but I usually use coupons at Staples or Office Depot when I buy ink and I buy the large reams of paper at Costco. To give you a rough idea of how much I saved. I printed postage for over 950 packages, and I saved $0.61 for each package or $0.80 for Priority Mail. This is a very rough estimate because I don’t feel like figuring all the Priority Mail packages, but at 900 packages, I saved $549, so really it is a few hundred dollars more. WOW! Now if I stop driving the 8-10 miles to and from the Post Office that is an additional saving.

Okay, this blog entry was really supposed to be about, did you know the Real Housewife of Atlanta, Kim Zolciak is selling on eBay. She has a new eBay store; looks like the store was set up the end of December. She has a lot of nice designer pieces being auctioned. I wanted to Tweet her and tell her about her photos, they look like maybe they are over exposed. Not sure, I’m not a photographer. As an experienced eBay seller we all know how important good photos are and the more the better. She has lots of photos; just not clear, but I’m sure they will get better. I would hate to go back and look at some of my photos/listings when I first started on eBay in 1999. It’s good to take about 8-10 photos of the item and try to capture every angle. We also know price matters, the lower the starting price the better. But I do understand when you are trying to get a certain amount and you do not want to settle for less. Some people don’t like using reserve prices because they say bidders don’t like bidding when there is a reserve price. I don’t use reserve prices often, but when I do, I have not had a problem. Check out Kim’s “Kim Z Couture Closet.” (link bottom of page) She has some really nice designer items and maybe she plans to add a lot more. I added her to my favorite sellers. I wouldn’t mind having one of her Chanel or Prada’s handbags. But as most of you know from reading my blog I was laid-off my IT job of 23 years last year, so no Chanel or Prada for me. eBay and Amazon are my full-time gigs right now and I am loving it. I do a lot more on Amazon because it is easier and I can list faster. I probably have over 1000 items on Amazon, but I have been selling lots of stuff. I have two empty shelves in my bookcase and that is not good.

Hopefully, I will be adding a lot of clothing to eBay very soon – St John, Talbots, NY&Co, GAP, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Liz Claiborne, J. Crew and lots more

Hey, it takes me a while to write in this blog, but once I get going… Sorry it’s so long, thanks for reading and I will write again soon because I still have a lot to say. Bye for now.

My Amazon Store

http://www.amazon.com/shops/jpatriceconsulting

My “O List” Store from Oprah Magazine, a few things that they think are great

http://astore.amazon.com/bagladaucblo-20

My Amazon Affiliate Shoe Store

http://astore.amazon.com/01182010-20

My Amazon Affiliate Pet Supply Store

http://astore.amazon.com/01172010-20

Kim Z Couture Closet

http://stores.ebay.com/Kim-Z-Couture-Closet

My Items for sale on eBay

http://shop.ebay.com/elegantbaglady/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1