You Did What? To Who? For How Many Jellybeans? An Extension Blog About My Adventures In Selling On eBay

"OMG, Whitney...YOU DID NOT just put Ms. Capital Boobs as your first picture for this blog!"

Indeed I did. This blog is about fashion.

 Were you expecting a cuter picture? You should know by now that if I wanted you to see cute pictures of puppies, rainbows, and kitty cats that instead I would deliver a shocker photo of a Madonna wannabe after a brawl with a can of Reddi Whip. BTW someone should feed her a sandwich before her collarbones pop through her skin. And she looks like she has a white McRib bodice on that dress. *Fashion Fail!! *SHIVER*

Fine...grrrr...

Awwww!!!!... (puke)

Ooooooh!!!!..... (hack, gag)

WOW!!!!! (splutter...yawn...stretching...patting mouth with open hand)

There ya go. Oh, and BTW, there's nothing pervy about the title of my blog this week. As the old song used to say, "It's all about the money. It's all about the nah nah nah-nah-nah-nah." This week's blog is about my new conquest to add money more quickly to my savings account. I continue to do this through my new hobby--posting higher end, to high end fashion items up for sale on eBay.

It's not that money is the center of my entire life--it just happens to (again) be the topic of this blog. Oh crap...maybe money IS the center of my life!!!

Not really true. Money is dull, boring, and a good place for people to wipe their hands after they use the loo before they hand it over to some poor, unsuspecting cashier. *blech*

Money is good for some things. I'm a fan of having some of it. I don't need to go all "Kim Kardashian" about it though. Not that I could anyway--as luck would have it I actually EARN my money instead of living off a trust fund from mommy and daddy. This has saved me from being exploited on reality TV, and having my body parts smeared all over People magazine. You're welcome.

 As most of you know I am a single mom on a mission. Each day that passes by is a day that is closer to me/my family peacing out to our new life on the Hawaiian islands. Our future will be filled with  days of sun, surf, and periodic pina coladas (the pina coladas will be for me). As awesome as this future sounds, it comes with a fairly large price tag. As a matter of fact, my ideal house is up on a bluff in Princeville, overlooking the pacific ocean, on the north shore of Kauai. It comes cheap at a mere $775,000. I'm on the 7-year plan to move to Hawaii, so I calculated it all out, and found out that I only have to save $35K/year to make an adequate down payment. It's in the bag.

Ok, fine, not really...I'll probably start out with a slightly smaller place in Hawaii. However, there are no more excuses for me not saving as much money as possible right now so that I can get there. Hence, the topic of this blog.

So what did I do? I started dressing people--really frickin' well (hence the title, "You did what? To who? For how many jellybeans (money)?"). And I did it all for next to nothing--for ALL OF US. I'm going to add "personal shopper/stylist" to my resume.

 I love love love fashion, but I also love shopping for great fashion. For years now I have cleaned out my closet on an annual basis. My rule is that if something hangs in there for more than a year and remains untouched that it has to go. I've taken numerous, higher end, to high end things to Goodwill that still have a flipping price tag on them--NEVER WORN.

A month or so ago I decided to try a new technique with these things that I had no use for. I decided to take their photo, and then posted them on eBay. By doing this, in a matter of one month, I brought in approximately $500. It went right into savings. However, since I lack a never ending abundance of useless crap in my house, I had to seek out to find other people's never ending abundance of useless crap--but I needed it cheap!!!! *DILEMMA*

Goodwill.

OMG...I didn't know if I could do it. I thought only poor people shopped there. I am sad to say I had "image" issues, and anxiety leading up to my first store visit. But I overcame that, and I went in the sliding glass doors. For years, Goodwill was MY crap dump. Whatever I didn't want got dumped on their doorstep (ok fine...I took it to the back of the store where they took donations). Now it was my turn to experience the "buyer" side--if for no other reason than to just poke around and see what I could find on the off chance it might sell for more money on eBay.

My goal? Add $150-300 worth of additional profit savings to my savings account each month. As I walked through the store, and started thumbing through the racks, I noticed something. Sure...there were many, many, many things that were torn, tattered, and looked like something that only a desperate person would buy. As I fought through the hangers I smelled Camel, Marlbaro, Jim Beam, Captain Morgan, Aunt Mae's moth balls, and Grandpa Billy Bob's armpits. I wondered again why I was there. However, by the time I got ready to checkout, I had a basket full of Steve Madden, Ann Taylor, Ralph Lauren, Guess, The Limited, Anne Klein, Coach, and many many other designers--most, or all of which had their original price tags still on them. If they did not, they appeared to have been worn/used once. I had a chance to be on the inside of the store and see what happens when people like me donate brand new things. What happens is that regardless of how much they cost in real life, you get to buy them for next to nothing--and then you can turn around to sell them for 2-4 times as much as you bought them for on eBay.

I have now spent a total of 3 hours in 3 weeks in the Goodwill store. I have sifted through some things that made me want to have a hot date with hand sanitizer, and Lever 2000. I've also scored some majorly cool things that I posted on eBay, they sold, and now I have my profit in my bank account.

I have suddenly become your worst nightmare at the post office--I show up with 7-10 packages at a time. I have, however, become pretty dang fast on that self checker touchscreen thingymabobber that they have there at the good old USPS.

Part of the way I got over my "image" issues with shopping at Goodwill was to put on what I consider my "AMMO"--a beautiful pair of stiletto heels make you feel like a million bucks regardless of where you are (same thing I do when I clean my loo so I can feel like Victoria Beckham). I also realized that there are a ton of people who shop at Goodwill, and from all different socioeconomic backgrounds. A good lesson for me to get over myself. ;)

Taking it all the way to the bank, baby. It is worth it. :)

**Ka-CHING**