Selling On eBay IS A REAL Business Not A Yard Sale

I am happy as can be selling in an eBay store again! I really enjoy the whole process. From locating the products to sell, to listing, to seeing my items sell and shipping it out. I am sometimes as excited as I hope the buyer is to receive it. Over the years, I have seen so many whiners and complainers about eBay and Paypal. No matter what they do, it will never please the masses. That is just the way it is. Many times that is why a seller gives up.

I saw a comment on the eBay for Business Facebook page that said, it is lying if you say you have free shipping, and you include the shipping costs in the price of the item. What deserted island has she been living on for the last thirty years? Why do buyers expect a seller to not include the price of shipping in their price? What about shipping supplies? What about Paypal and eBay fees? What about your time???

If someone thinks the price they pay at Walmart or any store locally, does not include the freight or shipping cost of their products on their shelves..........then you are crazy! Anyone in business gets that shipping cost back through the sale of their products. A real business has to pay for other things besides buying that item at wholesale. She thought sellers should say the shipping isn't free, but included in the price. Okay, my shipping costs are pretty low as my items usually aren't very heavy.

So according to this person, I should say my price on this item includes:

1.   My time to locate this item.
2.   My cost of buying this item.
3.   My time to clean it up to sell.
4.   My time to research it for price and description.
5.   My time to take good photos of the item from every angle.
6.   My time to list the product.
7.   My time to keep my listings updated.
8.   My cost of storage of this item.
9.   My cost of relisting it if it didn't sell yet.
10. My cost of an eBay store.
11. My cost of ink and paper for printing out the packing slip after it sold.
12. My cost of printing the label to ship it.
13. My cost of bubble wrap to wrap it in.
14. My cost of the box or bubble mailer to send it in.
15. My cost of the postage I paid to ship or mail it with.
16. My transaction fee from Paypal.
17. My final value fee for selling it from eBay.
18. My time to package this item and get it sent quickly.
19. My time to give you positive feedback.
20. My cost of an accountant to do my business taxes on my eBay store.
21. The cost of my internet connection.
22. The cost of the electric to run my office equipment.
23. The cost of my camera, battery and storage data card.
24. The cost of my computer to keep it updated, virus free and working to run daily.

I am sure with more time, I could think of much more. What do you think? Do you think sellers should buy items and pay to ship them to you for free? How long do you think a seller would stay in business that way? One reason I like free shipping for the items I sell on eBay is because nobody complains that I could have shipped it a cheaper way. It is one way for me to control my feedback because they cannot say I didn't ship when I said I did. If you sell on eBay how do you manage the shipping options?

Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2018

Pontchartrain Beach, A Story in Old Photographs

My eBay store, katlupe's Shop

As many of my readers know, over the years I have sold on and off on eBay. Presently, I have a store, katlupe's Shop and am selling a variety of items. Mostly used items and many are my own things that I need to downsize. As you get older, you start thinking about what will happen to all that stuff. Not having a daughter means my stuff isn't the type of a stuff a son would want to inherit from me. Speaking of inheritance, when my father passed away in 2012, my husband and I were the ones cleaning his home out. He had a lot of stuff! My niece stole most of his good possessions before he was even in his grave. As not only his daughter, but his executor, I got left getting rid of mostly what I would call clutter. Some of that was old photographs.......ah, my niece overlooked the value in those!

Photo I am selling in my store.

I am selling most of them on eBay and they are selling good. What this blog post is really about is the knowledge I gain by researching the various photographs. These photos are mostly from my parents' early years together. In 1942, my father was stationed in New Orleans. There wasn't a lot of photos from New Orleans, but there are a few. The ones I found and listed on eBay (and already sold one!) was taken at Pontchartrain Beach. My parents talked often about their time in New Orleans, but I never heard them mention Pontchartrain Beach. So I had to research to list my photos. This is what I found out.

According to Wikipedia:
  "Pontchartrain Beach was an amusement park located in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It was founded by Harry J. Batt Sr. and later managed and owned by his sons, Harry J. Batt Jr. and John A. Batt. It opened in 1928, across Bayou St. John from an existing amusement resort at Old Spanish Fort. Pontchartrain Beach's original location is the present-day lakefront neighborhood of Lake Terrace. In the early 1930s, subsequent to the construction of a seawall extending from West End to the Industrial Canal that created a new shoreline for Lake Pontchartrain, Pontchartrain Beach was moved to a new location at the lake end of Elysian Fields Avenue, a location formerly offshore of Milneburg.

Milneburg Lighthouse, dating from the 1850s, predated Pontchartrain Beach, was a landmark in the park for decades, and still stands within the boundaries of the University of New Orleans Research & Technology Park. The lighthouse once rested offshore and was reached by a wooden pier. Land reclamation in the 1920s stranded it several hundred feet inland from the current lake shore.

Pontchartrain Beach included a beach with a large art deco style bathhouse and swimming pools, amusement rides (including a wooden roller coaster called the Zephyr), and concession stands. The park featured live music concerts, including many local musicians and touring national acts such as Elvis Presley."

Photo of my Dad's friend

Pontchartrain Beach opened in 1939, a little time later, our country prepared for war. The area around the park became a tent city military base for the young enlisted men. Of which, my father was one. Camp Leroy Johnson and Camp Polk were within walking distance and the Navy used the parking lot at the beach as a drill station. Harry Batt Sr. gave the men in uniform half price tickets for rides and games as well as inexpensive entertainment for young soldiers needing some relaxation and entertainment who had war on their minds.

Cockeyed Circus

The photo, I sold? It was this one, which on the back my father had written, "Pontchartrain Beach, Cockeyed Circus" and it sold in a matter of hours after listing it. I wondered about that name, "Cockeyed Circus" and was that just my father joking around? Nope, that is what the name of it was. I researched it and found elsewhere on the internet: "The clown was part of a ride called the Cockeyed Circus, a fun house of distorting mirrors, slanted floors, and gusts of air that blew up ladies’ skirts." (quote from Denise Trowbrdge)

New Orleans 1942

If you have a lot of old photographs and don't know what to do with them or wonder what will happen to them after you are gone. Maybe selling them on eBay will help you to bring in some extra money, as well as, putting them in a collector's hands instead of ending up in a landfill somewhere. I am pleased to see mine go to a good home.

Update 2018: I have removed all my links in this blog post due to having closed my store.

Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2018

My New Business Of Selling In An eBay Store

Warming up!

After one of the worst winters, we have finally had our hopes of spring in the air. New York normally has cold, snowy winters. That is not unusual. What was unusual is the below zero temperatures for days in row. We would have below zero nights, many times. But not for a week or more at a time. That is how it was for us this winter. I, for one, got really sick of it (Can you tell?). My husband, too. He had to shovel snow and do many outside chores, while he was freezing doing them. Come on spring!

Lots of snow!

One of my projects during the winter was to open an eBay store again. katlupe's Shop is the name of it. I really do enjoy the process of listing the products and making sales. Like my husband always says, "It's making money while we sleep." What can be better than waking up in the morning to some sales you have to package up. I have greatly improved my sales there, by reading every eBook on selling on eBay that is sold in the Amazon Kindle shop. What am I selling? How did I start without buying the inventory? I started by selling all my extra stuff. Now I have done that before. But I had some stuff that was hard to get rid of. For sentimental reasons. But now is the time!

Lot of  16 Bradford Bells 1950's

I used to go all out for Christmas while my son was growing up. I would have two Christmas trees and decorate the whole house. My family always came to my house for Christmas. It was a house full! The food I spent days preparing. I loved it! After my divorce, and when my son went out to live on his own, I never quite celebrated Christmas the same. It wasn't the same. Not for me anyway. I have not decorated my house in years, or even had a tree. So time to re-home my decorations to someone who will appreciate them. Now why can't I give them to my son? Well, he doesn't stay in one place for long. And doesn't take care of things, that are fragile so well. If you know what I mean.

Lot of 5 Mirrored Christmas Tree Ornaments

I have been going through them slowly and will list them in my store. Maybe someone might want something new for next Christmas. It is hard to part with your things, but as you age, you see the value of them going to someone who really wants them. Besides I am in a new period of my life. I want to be a "Minimalist" if I can. I hope to sell a lot this year so I can start going out to look for new things to sell. Not new as in brand new, but going to garage sales, estate sales, auctions and thrift or antique stores. That makes it even more fun!

Raggedy Ann & Andy Christmas Ornaments

Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

Closed My Ebay Store Just In Time!!!!!

I was right! A few days ago, I closed my eBay store, Lupole's Peaceful Forest. It made me a little sad, but I felt it was the right move. eBay is struggling to stay on top, and in the process they are stepping on us little people (sellers). What they may have forgotton is, who do they think is on ebay all day long working on their little stores? The store sellers, that's who. Who do they think are their buyers? The same sellers of course! But they forgot that. My days of buying on eBay has been over for awhile now. I like to buy books on Amazon, as the shipping costs are so much less. I belong to the Paperback Swap at http://www.paperbackswap.com and I get my books for free there.  You will get 3 free credits as soon as you list 9 books, which you can use immediately!

The best thing to do if you are looking for a home business is to find a product that is easy to package and store. So your inventory won't take up much room. You can store it in your house and print your labels from your computer, package it up and put it in your mailbox. It is best to concentrate on one product in the beginning and then branch out from there as you have some success with the first one. You can add related products that go with the first one. One other thing to do is to find a product that is needed repeatedly by a consumer group. Something that goes with a bigger product or that is needed more than one time. Like people who sell vitamins know that if you like them and need them you will purchase them over and over.

Be sure to purchase all your packaging supplies in bulk. That is the best way to get them for the least amount of money. I have bought mine for a few years now from big packaging sellers on eBay. Only thing is the seller will be a big powerseller then all of a sudden..............they are gone. What happens to them? And why? Seems as if they were selling huge supplies to the other sellers on eBay as well as others. That has happened to my suppliers three times now! I cannot understand it.

Hopefully, I will do okay on my own on my site. Just need to put all my efforts in it and it should take off. I will try to get back tomorrow to post here but will be busy working on developing my business. Have a great day!

June Is Here!

June is here and it appears like a perfect summer may be headed our way. Our Spring has been just beautiful. Just enough rain, not hard downpours, like we usually get. My home is surrounded by the Ludlow Creek State Forest, and it is breathtaking. It looks like the Garden Of Eden must have looked. Everything is a deep green, the birds are always singing - and they are happy songs - not the angry ones I used to hear when I live in the city of Vestal, NY.

I have had reasons lately to go into the city nearby, Binghamton, NY. It makes me so sad to see how that city has changed. My mother grew up there and it was a whole different world back then. My grandmother raised chickens right in the city, grew a huge garden every year and canned all her produce. She worked, of course, at Endicott Johnson Shoe Factory (most people did back then!), and her co-workers shared their bounty with her. She always took it and canned it. My mother's family did not suffer from no food in the depression, because my grandmother knew how to provide it. She was raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, so of course she knew what to do.

She raised all her girls to know how to do all those things and more. They learned to sew, crochet, knit, and whatever else they had to do to take care of their families in bad times. Back then when someone lost their job and did not have any means to take care of their children, the parents would take the children to the orphanages and leave them there. My grandmother fought against that and did whatever she could to hang onto her children.

Anyway, I have been moving all my merchandise out of my eBay store. Somebody said that eBay was broken and I think they are correct. It is no longer feasible for me to keep my items for sale on there, especially when my own website, www.larrylupole.com/catalog gets way more traffic. So I can even lower my prices there and charge a very minimal shipping fee with no handling fees! It is just great. And so much easier to maneuver. I have been adding many different products there this week. So if you get a chance come take a look and see what you'd like!

Back To Work Today

Georgie Girl and Dark Shadow Relaxing!

Today, I finally got my power system back! I am like a addict getting her fix. I can't help it and I do not apologize for the fact that I love working on my computer. It is what I do. I remember very well, those days of going to a job and doing what someone else told me to do for a few lousy bucks in my pocket, that barely paid for my gas to get there! Who wants that kind of life anyway? It's true if you ask around, that most people hate their jobs, and especially hate it when they have to go to work.

So this morning, my wonderful husband fixed our system and got me back online! My work is way behind. I have my eBay store and I was trying to list enough things to get it up to 1000. But now I am far behind my goal. I had 560, but people kept buying things! I guess I shouldn't be complaining about that, and I'm not. That's what I want.

Today, was a rainy rainy day in upstate New York. Our horses hate rain. But they love snow. They would rather have snow any day. Even summer weather doesn't please our girls as much as a heavy snow fall! They hate bugs, storms, hot days, etc. But when it snows, they are running and rearing up and playing like young fillies. They love rolling in the snow! Two of our girls, Georgie Girl and Dark Shadow, want to eat their grain with the snow. So I end up looking for snow and putting it next to their grain so they can eat happily. Right now, the rain washes away the snow, but this is January and I know it won't last. Not here. In New York state.

I will be back tomorrow so till then...... have a great day!