Tuesday

My collecting of things has slowed down in the past 6 months or so and it's a good thing.  Everywhere I look there is something taking up space in our home.  For us, space is valuable so I really have no business buying anything else, well not for a very long time anyway.  This occurred to me several months ago, after I was searching for something really important and could not find it.  I was frustrated and I was fuming!  'Something has to be done!' - my mind yelled at me!  

So I bit the bullet and opened up an eBay sellers account.  The husbeast already had a buyers account, so he added selling onto it.  Then a few weeks later, I opened up a second account.  Between the two accounts, we can list 30 items per calender month.  yay!  Now I can off load a few things and make a buck or two in the process.  I'm so very please with myself.  But don't think it's been an easy task, oh no - because buyers and bidders are few apart.  I certainly don't claim to have made a big bundle of money (yet), but what I have made is quite good.  

It's true we all love a bargain and when we see something for 99 cents on eBay, we SQUEEEE, don't we?  Unfortunately I wouldn't be making anything if that was my starting bid was 99 cents for everything, and I'd be loosing if anything at all.  I'd even go as far as to say that I'd be PAYING YOU to take it from me!  (lol).

If I list my items for 99 cents a sellers fee will come out of that AND a paypal fee would come out of that also.  What am I left with?  20 cents?  50 cents?  It's besides the point of selling, donchathing?  People that have a tonne of items like businesses and shops do ok with this I'm guessing, but it doesn't make any sense for casual seller like me.  

People that have been bidding on my stuff have been the ones that see worth in my items, thankfully.  And don't forget, 99 cents will never guarantee that you are going to get a good quality item!  

I've learned a thing or two in the last few months as a seller.  One very important thing I've learned is the fact that the buyers are more protected than the seller.  I will share what I mean tomorrow, because I'm now very late for a very important date!

Two gorgeous genuine bone china mini plates found for 99 cents each.  Wow, I really love these!

Talk about a bargain - and that's the type of bargain you want to find, right?

Saturday

Today is a great day to show off my thimble collection.  Out of all my collections, this would have to be my favourite.  How could anybody not like thimbles?  They are simply adorable IMHO and I squeeee every time I find them... which isn't often these days.  I have fine porcelain, fine bone china, ceramic, metal (brass?  silver?  who knows?) and one plastic or at least I think it is.  I have found a lot of them for 50 cents each, some for $1 & $2 each and the most I've ever paid for one is $5 (the blue with gold flower which is gorgeous in real life) - and it was a must have!

Mini Plates

You know I adore them by now.  Miniature plates - I squeeeeeee every time I find one.  And I've always managed to get them for a tad less via haggling. 


 I paid $1 for this one so I didn't haggle for it, although getting it down to 50 cents would have been rather nice;

These extremely pretty ones were originally $4 each but I got them down to $3 each;

And this one was originally $6.  That's a steep price for a teeny plate!  But I just had to have it... the shop assistant was a little tough to break, but I did manage to get it for $5.

Now you may be wondering how I display my iddy biddy plates.

When I found a previous mini (  clicky, clicky here! ), it actually came with a little wire stand.  So I got to wondering how I could get these either cheaply (and believe me I've looked and inquired as to where to find them - but to no avail.. and honestly I'm not prepared to buy them from ebay if I know there are other ways of solving the problem.) or try and make my own.  Well the latter won and I did made my own but let me tell you, they ain't the easiest things to make.

I measured each point of the stand and went to work with wire and pliers and yes, I succeeded!  Here is my best attempt;

And of course, they work very well thank you very much!

$1 can buy so much happiness.

Miniature plate with its own stand.  I was happy to part with $1 for this little baby.  Being only 3 inches wide, it's the cutest thing!