Crazy Cat Buyer Beware

For the last 5 days I have been dealing with a real psycho on Ebay. I hate to be mean but this lady has issues. Either that or she is a 12 year old child. It started out with a simple question. I have a huge, and by huge I mean 30 inches huge, plush cat listed on Ebay. It has free shipping.

Eleanor (fans of the Simpsons will get the reference) messaged me asking if I could sell her the cat for $10. I responded with my standard "Thank you for looking at my items but at this time, I am not accepting offers." Usually that will make them go away. But no, not Eleanor.

Her next message tried to play on my heartstrings. " as a mother of 4 as it says in your description, you know how sad it is when a child wants something but can't have it" I tried explaining to her it would cost me $8 to ship to her and after fees, I would be selling it at a loss.  I thought maybe she would understand simple math. 

She was getting desperate and asked if no one bought it before it was about to end, would I sell it to her. Again, I told her I would be losing money. She continued to persist and I told her maybe she could find one at Goodwill. 

Eleanor told me she was not able to go to places to search for this item. Of course not. She is a home bound crazy cat lady. I decided maybe, just maybe, ignoring her would make her go away. Nope, this made her more desperate. 

By this time, I had already blocked her but she was still able to message me. 4 messages filled with the word please. I had enough and called Ebay. The first rep told me she would send a report and see about being able to prevent Eleanor from messaging me. Good, I thought this ordeal was over. Then I got another message. I responded with "Please do not contact me again. Your message will continue to be reported to Ebay and this could result in your losing your privileged to transact on their site, under any user name." 

I called Ebay again and explained my situation to another rep. I asked her if Ebay could send her a message telling her to stop contacting me. The rep assured me that she would get this taken care of but it might take 24 hours. 

In the mean time, Eleanor responded to my do not contact me message: 

"look you can report me to eBay as much as you want and I will message you if I please and you know what I was trying to be nice and give you money when lets face it no one else will and you know what I don't need your item resellers like you are heartless and defiantly not "amazing people" I have tried being nice and you know what I hope you never get anything sold so you and your "4 beautiful children" go bankrupt and guess what you are going to wish you accepted my offer because you would have got $2 but now you won't get any hope you are happy" 

ahh the true side of her begins to show. I was going to ignore it but I had enough of her and Ebay not doing anything to end this harassment. During this time I had been posting my dilemma on a FB Ebay page. One of the members suggested part of this response. (She had called Eleanor a nut job and I removed that part) 

"What? I don't know what your problem is but I am done being nice with you. So listen up. I sell on ebay FOR MY KIDS.. so they can have clothes on their back and food on the table and can get back and forth to school and activities.. but oh yes Im sure that some total stranger having a used stuffed animal is far more important to them than eating or being clothed. Once I pay for shipping and ebay fees and packing material the whoppin 10 cents I might make on this sale would certainly keep them fed and clothed"

Again I called Ebay, this time the call center in Utah and asked to talk to Trust and Safety. I explained my situation to the 4th rep and she told me I didn't have Eleanor on my blocked list. I wasn't logged in to check and I said I'm certain I blocked her. (I did have her blocked and the rep was wrong) The rep also told me if Eleanor was violating any policies, they would deal with it.

So is this the end of my story? Not quite. I woke up this morning with 2 more messages. Apparently she found another seller willing to give her stuff away. 

"Look I'm sorry I'm gonna stop messaging you only because I'm tired of this and I got a deal on another one of these and the seller was very nice and helpful thanks for not being like her enjoy not getting even 10 cents and yes your right "some random stranger" who wants a used cat us more important" 

What a freakin flake. A used cat is more important than feeding my children? 

and at last an attempt at an apology. 

"Fine I'm sorry I shouldn't have said those things that was mean I'll stop messaging you good luck selling your cat"

Impulse Buy Velvety Awesomeness

It isn't a velvet Willie Nelson or even an Elvis, but I found this velvet picture at the thrift store today. The first time I was in there, I left it as I wasn't willing to lay down the cash they were asking. But I had to return. On my first trip there, I bought a CPR Infant. It was a blow up one and I should have inflated it in the store but I didn't want to put my mouth on the valve until I had a chance to clean it. The baby had a hole somewhere and wouldn't hold air. They let me return it.

So here it is in it's velvety glory:

I misjudge it's size and it just fits in between the bedroom door (on the right) and the end of the wall.

Don't you love the deer?

and the cabin I would love to live in.

linking to Sir Thrift A lot

Thrifty Thursday Finds

I hadn't been to the thrift store all week so I thought I'd find some good stuff today. I found a couple of things but nothing spectacular. They did have a end table of sorts with an Eagle on it that was kind of cool but they wanted $25 for it. Maybe if I can get something to sell tonight, I will go back tomorrow to get it.

I thought this Barbie Caboodles was pretty neat. Back in December, one sold at auction for around $60. I wonder if it was a Christmas present?

Some kitchen items:

Euro Chopper It's missing the storage container and lid. I'm almost positive I saw it in another area and I should have looked at it more closely. Maybe it will still be there tomorrow.

Mirro cookie press: I have sold a couple of these before but it may not be the right time of year to sell now.

I usually do not pick up Wilton cake pans because the t.s. prices them to high but I got this one with 2 inserts.

and last but not least, vintage Star Wars fitted twin sheet

all of these great items are up for auction in my Ebay store here.

Auctions Meh

Why do I fall for it every time Ebay has an free auction listing special? From past experience, I should know by now that auctions simply do not work for me. This time, Ebay let you list up to 1000 auctions each day for 10 days. Since a lot of my listings were ending soon, I decided to change them to auction. Right now I have over 300 auctions with only one item with one bid. I just don't get it. I started the majority of my auctions at $9.99 with $3 shipping. Most of it is plush or clothing. My mugs I started at the same price but with calculated shipping. Maybe my items are not good for auctions?

I have more listings that are ending in under 8 days. I could change them to auction for 5 days and once those expire, I can relist at another 7 days. Therefore giving me 12 days of free listings but I wonder if it is worth the time and effort?

Some items I have up for auction:

Kenner R2 D2 Radio Controlled Figure

Eddie Bauer Goose Down barn jacket This has some damage so I'm not sure if it will sell.

Vtg purse

Christmas Story t shirt

Cartman Plush

Baby Blanket

To bid on these items or to see my other auctions, click here

Thrifty Tuesday Finds

Some stuff  I came across the last few days. Yesterday was pretty much a bust but I did find this vintage coat that I thought about keeping until I saw they can sell for $50+ I listed mine high with best offer.

I also found this Hi Ho Cherry O game from the 60's I was surprised to see all the cherries were there. I failed to notice one of the buckets was broken and repaired. Check out the sweet graphics.

Some stuff I found last week. Although I do not have any luck selling dolls, I had to rescue these Cabbage Patch ones. I spent more than I cared too Between $2.99 and $4.99 but look at those sweet little faces.

I thought the My Child doll was the one that sold for good money. Nope the ones with the cloth face sell better. I think I may have put Best Offer on her as well. The other two are CPK for toddlers.

.
Lil Miss makeup Doll from Mattel. Unfortunately, her makeup doesn't respond to water anymore but I wonder if any of them still do?

I keep telling myself no more mugs but I couldn't pass up this Sandra Boynton one or the candy container. Maybe I need to stop looking at the aisle until I can sell the 30+ I have listed.

I picked up another set of bookends, this time in Eagle design.

A kitchen plaque I could not resist and some glasses.

linking to Sir Thrift A lot

All of these items are up for sale in my Ebay store here

Friday Final Feb 1 - Feb 7 2014

Still pretty slow on Ebay. I had one sale on Bonanza this week and one on Etsy. I sold 8 on Ebay. Unless noted, items had free shipping. One person has not paid yet.

Kitty kitty Kitten Tyco $48.97

Wild Puffalump Panda $41.99

St Johns Bay Purse $32.99

Monterey Melmac dishes Best Offer $25

Conair sound machine $20.99

Camp Snoopy drinking glass $16.99

Wooden miniatures $12.99 (These actually sold when I did my $2 auctions for $2 but the buyer never paid so the item was relisted at BIN and sold the next day.

Miss out on these items? Click here to check out my store

Thrifty Finds

New color this week at the thrift store. Purple tags were half off.

Yes, those are granny panties sitting on my table. Some of them can go for big money. I put best offer on mine hoping I can get a good price.

I thought these bookends were cool.

I can't resist vintage aprons. I might put these in my Etsy shop.

Some vintage lacing blocks

More plush

Air Force coffee mug

Marine Corps mug

and of course, the granny panties

All items are available for sale in my Ebay store here

Dismal Sales More Retail Therapy

I don't know what the heck is happening with my Ebay store. I ran a traffic report yesterday and it said I had 529 page views for the month of January. In December, I had 3,305. I thought ok maybe the time of year. People are paying their credit card bills and have stopped shopping. But then I looked at last years page views 4,540 Ummm, yeah something is seriously wrong on the bay. Anyone else experiencing little to no traffic? How can I sell anything if I'm not getting any page views?

There is a theory that the more you list, the more you sell. Right now I'm at over 600 items, a significant increase compared to last year at this time. I look at other sellers items that are similar to mine and they are selling. Why aren't mine selling? I pinterest, tweet and advertise my listings on Facebook. I tweek my listings, run sales and still little to nothing. What else can I do?

Guess I can shop and increase my inventory for when the buyers return. Yesterday, I went to the thrift store to look for a Ty Boos I saw there a few days back. Apparently, these Boos can go for big money. I did find him but of course he is one that isn't a high seller. Oh well maybe next time. Here's some things I found. A lot were half off as they were the color tag of the month.

The Snuggle bear is recalled so I can not sell that. The recall says the eyes and nose fall off. I tried pulling them off without success. Little kids must be chewing them off or something. The books and the alligator pull toy are for Ryker. I got the baby bottle because it goes with something I bought awhile ago but I can't remember what. The brown bear is the Ty Boos Honey bear.

I can't resist vintage plush so I bought the koala bear even though she is missing her baby. Maybe I will get lucky and find it another time. The monkey is called Little Monkey Lost. I looked at solds and some seem to go for good money. Except mine of course.

I'm seriously thinking of keeping the nail art train picture. It's kind of cool. I haven't researched it yet.

linking up to Sir Thrift A lot