Selling on the Internet - Lesson One

Selling on the Internet 

Lesson Number One - Find a Schedule that Works

It took me some time to figure out a schedule that worked for me.  Being used to working Mondays through Fridays at a full time job I did love my weekends off.  Sadly, Saturday and Sunday can be some of your the best selling days on the Interent. So after a number of years of trying to figure out the schedule that best worked for me, I came to the following schedule which I try to follow religiously - unless I am on a trip or something unexpected comes up.  

Monday  - Drop new listings onto Ruby Lane.  Process orders, switch funds from Paypal to my bank account, prepare the mail for a Tuesday drop.  Answer e-mails.  Crop photos for new listings.

Tuesday - Do the mail.  Go to one of my favorite sources for jewelry and see if they have anything new.  Come home.  Eat.  List.  Crop photos in the pm. 

Wednesday -Eat.  List.  Crop photos in the pm. 

Thursday - Process any orders that have come on.  Eat.  List.  Crop photos in the pm. 

Friday - Drop new listings onto Ruby Lane.  Do the mail.  Grocery shopping.  Eat.  List.  Crop photos in the pm.   

Saturday -If I'm feeling energetic, then go to an estate sale.  If not, copy the Ruby Lane listings to ETSY, drop a few items on EBAY, and add items to Robins Troll Market, my new website.  Crop photos in the pm.

Sunday -  Same as above.  

Again, things happen to disrupt the schedule - like telephone calls, meetings with potential clients, a heads up on getting into an estate sale early.  Changing out inventory at the one mall I am in.  Running an emergency errand.  Disruptions will always occur and you just have to roll with them.  The other thing you have to contend with is your income.  You will not be paid every 2 weeks with taxes deducted and your SDI paid.  You will get paid when your Paypal account gets paid and then you have to have the courage to separate your money into different categories and keep it there.  

Check Book 

Day to Day Expenses - Bill Paying - Internet Payments

Savings

For Emergency and Taxes

Paypal

You always have to keep some money in your account just in case you get a chargeback or a return.  Yes, you have to contend with these as well.  

Emergency Cash

Yep, the proverbial "piggy bank" in the apartment just in case you get that call about an estate sale or you see something you absolutely need to buy because you know you will be able to sell it for more.  

So, there's the first lesson you have to think about.  When I left my job back in 1998, I had exactly $16,000 in my account in cash.  I had $15,000 coming to me in my pension from one of the law firms I worked at - another $2,500 from my last law firm.  With that money I thought I would be fine while I tried being in business for myself.  It was but only because times were different.  Since the Internet was fairly new it was still a novelty and everyone was trying it out.  Dealers used to joke it was a "license to print money" and for a time, it was.  Not anymore.  

At the beginning I worked solely on EBAY.  It was the website that was making the biggest name for itself and it was the site where the action was.  Still is to a certain point but when EBAY moved out of vintage items to BUY IT NOW in terms of electronics, DVDs, CDs and cars, well, we poor dealers in antiques and vintage knew what was going to happen - our sales would suffer.  And they did.  But by that time, the new websites had come along - ETSY and RUBY LANE.

And here I will leave till my next posting.  

Victorian Paper Lace Pretties

Sometimes, during the course of a day, you spot something so pretty, you just have to share with friends.  I don't know if anyone will ever read my blog, but I can certainly add tidbits every now and then (especially since I am in the middle of my life story right now and trying hard to get it up to date).  One thing I do like is looking at Facebook and seeing all the creative people and their designs, as well as antiquers who display at antique shows and brocantes.  Goodness knows, I sure miss traveling overseas but travel these days is a very scary thing and I prefer to remain closer to home.  Anyway, here's a few goodies I just have to share.  There is beauty in old age - and these items just prove it.

If you're wondering, the background is old ANTIQUE VICTORIAN paper lace.  The graphic is an old Victorian die cut.  The decoration, which is  hard to determine is either ribbon embroidery or a painted embellishment.

These beauties would have been crafted with love and then framed so that they may remain in pristine condition their entire life.

I like to think of the above image as having been on a decorative box - gifted to a little girl.  You know, they really knew about decorating the outside of a gift as well as the inside!

Till my next writing.....

2018 Cont'd

My last trip to London was in February and I must admit I had a good time. There was no side trip to Paris but there was enough to do in London with the many shows that went on. Portobello of course (which is mentioned below), Kempton Park and the Horticultural Hall show all kept me hopping and contributed to my collection of jewelry. The weather cooperated quite nicely and the trip to and fro had no problems at all. Not like my upcoming trip which is in 7 days. I'm wondering if the volcano in Iceland is going to keep quiet and if I am going to have fair weather while I am over in England. This time I will be taking in the French Antiques show at the Place de la Bastille and I am hoping to add some French flavor to my inventory.

My condo is a little further along now in the decorating arena. Not only do I have the aforementioned painted walls, but I also have a wonderful 36-drawer apothecary sideboard sitting in my dining room though my dining room is NOT a dining room - more a catch-all at the moment for holding boxes yet to be unpacked. I am still waiting to find the right pieces of furniture for my condo and my bed is still lacking a headboard.

Do you like the above pieces? They're Essex Crystals set in yellow gold and they are probably the finest I have come across in a long time (now sold). Essex crystals are quite collectible and if you are wondering, each piece is a half portion of a round rock crystal lovingly carved from the back and then handpainted. The result, if done correctly, yields a piece of artwork that shows all the nuances of the designer's choice of coloring. The crystal is almost always backed with a flat piece of mother of pearl to highlight the painted piece. The MOP backing is almost always white so that the design seems to have a 3D effect. One mishap in carving, one mishap in painting, and the artwork is spoiled and the artisan must start again. The best Essex Crystal jewelry was manufactured in the late 1800s and more often than not manufactured in England. A Victorian era Essex Crystal shows clarity that is not seen in later pieces. As the years progressed, the painting grew haphazard and plastic replaced crystal. There is no substitute for the best and the pieces shown above are premiere quality!

Anyway, I'm getting off track. Let's go back to London.....

 

London used to be full of what I call the "daily" markets, but property speculators decided that two of the best shows just had to go.....

Camden Passage was the fare of the day for Wednesday. You could get up early, take the tube to ANGEL and exit the station, turn right, and hit the start of the market. Open air stalls combined with small booths inside buildings. The walk was quite refreshing and you could find all manner of goods from the old to the new. I don't think I ever left Camden Passage without buying at least one thing. I knew one dealer at the market that started out in the open, then moved inside to one of the buildings, moved to better spot (got kicked out), moved to a better spot again (got kicked out again), and now she's in her own little cubby hole of a shop in the one remaining area of dealers under cover. You see, the property speculators decided that the Islington area of London was "up and coming" and that the antiques dealers just HAD to go! So now, what was once a thriving area for antiques is now a real "hit and miss". You might be lucky to see maybe 30 people outside. And if some of the remaining shops are open, you might see a few more dealers. But for the most part, Camden Passage died a death a long time ago and basically, it's a crying shame. I still mourn its loss to this day.

The same thing happened to the Friday Bermondsey market. If anyone has been to the market in the past, they will know that it was composed of three sections, along with a few buildings on the outskirts that held the overflow of dealers. When word got round that there was going to be a new tube stop in Bermondsey, everyone thought the stop would be right where the market was. Well, it turned out that that wasn't the case but instead, rumor grew that the space would be converted to flats over some retail shops. Well, over a great period of time, the market began to shrink. First, the "powers that be" closed off one section - the dealers moved to the other 2 sections. Then another section closed down - the dealers converged some more. Then finally the show shut down completely for some time. When word finally came through that the show was open again, a visit to the new site verified my worst fears. No, the new owners of the development did not provide the "cover" they always seemed to show in their promotion about the fact that they weren't going to change the market (HA!). Instead, they placed the wonderful dealers who braved wind, rain, even snow, right smack in the middle of a wind tunnel between two buildings! And because of this now ridiculous happenstance, only a handful of dealers even opted to brave the show. I ventured out to the show in 2008 and was sadly disappointed and terribly upset at the new promoters. A few dealers were huddled under layers of clothing trying to stay warm in the new "wind tunnel" and there were so many gaps between sellers that the time it took to get to Bermondsey from my hotel was not worth the trip. I managed to find a few things, mostly I bought because I felt so sorry for the dealers. There they were, cold and in circumstances that were not what the promoters had promised to them. I was so angry I could have screamed but what was there to do but spend some money and try to take home a few things. I haven't been back to the show since and maybe one day, if word improves and the promoters provide the "cover" they promised, the show might find its footing once more. Until then, I'll stick closer to town and the shows that are still surviving, if not thriving.

Stay tuned....

August 2018

It's almost August and try as I might, I must admit I never seem to find the time needed to do a little blogging. Every time I think I am going to post a new column, something comes up. With running a business on one's own, it's hard to find "free" time. It seems I am always listing on one of my sites, or shooting pictures or doing the bookkeeping (which I hate) or cleaning house. Balancing working hours with household hours is probably the hardest thing to do! But I try.





Buying and selling antique jewelry is a wonderful profession, but I find myself longing to go back into crafting. I did so many shows in the 80s and early 90s that there are, at times, moments when I want to go back to a show to see what I have been missing. Well, one thing I have not been aware of is Where Women Create, a magazine that (once I got over sticker price shock) I found to be the most amazing magazine. To have discovered its sister publications was like a Godsend. Not only did I bring myself up to snuff on the current "name" artisans, but I also found myself revisiting people whom I had known personally when I was still in Los Angeles.

Anyway, after seeing WWC I decided that I simply had to get my studio together. The only question was WHEN?? Well, I don't think it's going to happen this year as there are just too many things on my plate. My father is getting on in age and I have a trip to Vancouver at the end of August, back to back trips to London in October and November, and a cruise to Mexico with my father in December. And in b etween all that, I still have to file my 2009 taxes as I am on extension. Yep, that's enough.

But I do have time to make a few items at night so I did bring out a few bits and pieces and have been busy listing them on my sites on ETSY and RUBY LANE. Now when I break out the Christmas stuff, that will mean I am getting a little more organized!

Do you like the earrings I made? Here's a couple more pair.....

Things continue to change as I travel.  Every trip there seems to be one less shop open, one less market open. I had thought about moving back to Vancouver before I moved to St. Peters, but the realization that I would never be able to afford a home meant I had to choose where not only I could purchase a home for myself, but also where the inventory was. And it certainly was not in Vancouver. Like Los Angeles, Vancouver doesn't have much of a history whereas St. Louis goes back to the late 1790s. So the potential of finding goodies in Missouri was a lot higher than in British Columbia!

Like Vancouver, St. Peters has the same seasons - something Los Angeles did not. I love the turn of fall colors and I love to see snow. Imagining snow in Los Angeles is a bit of a stretch! Anyway, I'm happy here and the "green" certainly has put my soul at peace. If I can't live in Vancouver, St. Peters is the next best thing. Now if they could only do something about the heat!

I have made a promise to myself to get back into crafting. I think I have a lot of ideas to offer but I also realize that to offer them means having lots of inventory in place. Right now, I have little in the way of what I really want to produce. So my listings will continue to be slim on the handcrafted side, but hopefully larger on the antique finds side.

Here's a few of my latest antique jewelry finds..... 

And that's it for now. If you've stopped by, many thanks.

Take care.

2007 to 2018 - My Poor Condo

Now back to my condo problem...........

I visited my neighbors and sure enough each had the same noise, only my upstairs neighbor a little lighter hum, but my downstairs neighbor - well, let's just say if I had it 100 times, she had 1000 times. The only difference was she didn't stay home 24/7 and when she went to bed she had the TV on. She thought the hum was being caused by ME!

So with this new information I again began to make some calls. I think I am talking around mid 2008 when this happened. And since that time, NO ONE has helped me. But something funny began to occur. As each month passed, the hum started to get softer, more manageable. The vibration stayed but it shrank in intensity. When it rained, it got softer still. When winter 2008 came, it was practically negligent. So much so that I began to paint more walls and think that I was going to fully move in. But then the winter would end and the noise would come back. Which led me to a conclusion.....

New buildings were still being built around me and one of the construction people had suggested that since my unit was the first to be built, all the power for the construction was being drawn from the electrical box near my building. As each new building went up, the drain increased and my hum would subside. Okay, that's one theory. But the other is more plausible.......

Construction on a new freeway began at the same time the condos were being built AND as they worked, the electrical company started installing new power lines. So in fact, there were two sets of power lines running and perhaps I was getting the "overload". Once the freeway is completed, the extra lines will come down so that only the new remain. Again, could be the problem.....

But here it is now 2023 and yes, I still have my hum but it's the lowest its been. Yes, the floor still vibrates as does my bed but I can sleep now with just one pillow over my head and no ear plugs. I can tune the noise out with a loud TV and I can tune it out entirely with headphones. In other words, I can think and I can work and I can go to bed not having cried my eyes out because it was too noisy.
Friends and family visit and sometimes they can hear "something", other times they cannot. I realize that no one can understand my problem because they have not experienced it. 

A girlfriend of mine in England sent me an article dated April of 2009, about a "hum" epidemic within a certain community. So I was proved then and there NOT to be crazy.  And now, in 2023, if you do a Google on "hum in condo" you will see just how many problems there are with new builds.  Yep, the Internet has progressed since 2009.  Anyway, a "hum" is a nasty occurrence that I hope happens to no one. It's a horrific nightmare and I pray every day that one morning I wake up not hearing the dreaded sound. We shall see. 

Till next time.....



 

 

No noise.  That's all I wanted but in the now 11 years I have lived in my condo, I do not know what the word "silence" is.

In trying to explain my problem to others I was met with skepticism.  Since some people couldn't hear it, I know they dismissed me as crazy.  To those who did hear it, they couldn't locate where the noise was coming from.  They knew it was in the walls (you could hear it if you pressed your ear to the surface) and they agreed that if it was in the walls, it was certainly in the floor.  It really wasn't until 2016 when an Ameren employee came out and turned off the power to the entire building.  Even with the power off the hum continued and he suggested that it most likely had something to do with the Fire Alarm and Sprinkler system that was put into the building since it had a back up battery that NEVER went off.  But trying to get my Homeowner Association "Management" to do anything about it has resulted in a lot of e-mails, phone calls and nothing being done about the problem.  Even after the maintenace gent discovered that the panels in Buildings One and Two were different from the other buildings and HUMMING like there was no tomorrow.  Lighting a fire under CMA to get something done is like pulling teeth - they don't want to acknowledge the problem, instead they just want to ignore it.  Well, I am not going to rest until it is fixed and so I will continue my struggles in getting my condo to "go silent" through my blog!  Oh, and if my readers don't believe me, just go a GOOGLE for a "hum" in a condo.  when I first googled in 2007 there was nothing - today, the pages of Google are fairly filled with complaints!

I will prevail - it just might take awhile longer!

It is now December 9, 2018 and Christmas is right around the corner.  I haven't been back to London in a long time, 6 years I think, but I do manage to go somewhere at least once a year to do some shopping.  I was going to Brimfield for a spell and that was doing the trick for some time.  Then the Columbus Ohio area but as the years passed, something happened to all the femmy stuff in the area - it seemed to just disappear and because of that the malls started to lose their attraction.  The last time I was there one had closed and the others were decidedly more MASCULINE than feminine.  So I stopped going.

Shopping in the Internet is still a way to find inventory but not at the pricing I like.  So I went back to estate sales and auctions and now, I am starting to mix up my inventory on my web sites - I'm not just doing jewelry, I'm doing everything - antiques, collectibles, paper, photos, silver, fabric, you name it I will be doing it.

Oh, and I will also be featuring my handiwork here on my Blog.  Yes, some stuff is in my ETSY shop, actually come to think of it, no, there's not much there now.  I closed Gypsy Madonna on ETSY and instead am listing a little more diverse array of items on Robins Nest Midwest on ETSY.  Gypsy Madonna (the website) will eventually have everything from A to Z.  But it's taking me time to fill it.  Robins Nest Midwest on RUBY LANE will also be changing a bit - it will be more eclectic and not just jewelry.  So you can see, I am making changes!

So, starting now, enough with my past - let's get down to the present.  Think it's easy making a living on the Internet?  It's not.  So in order to show people just what I do, I will try to do a daily blog - things I do each day to ensure that I can pay my mortgage each month.  And buy groceries.  And pay my bills.  And buy inventory.  And buy supplies.  And gas for the car.  In short, what I sell pays my expenses.  Forget about a salary.  The money comes in and the money goes right back out.  It's not a bad way to live but if you are thinking about doing it yourself, well maybe you can take a lesson from me.

So sit back, stay tuned and please, if you are reading this, leave a comment.  I want to know if I am reaching someone or just blabbing to "air".

Till next time!