Long time, no see.

Well, we are still here, planning another trip to the USA for April 2012 - albeit without Sage who is off on her own adventures overseas this year.

I am hoping we will be able to kick start the challenge again, but life (i.e work, school, homework, sport and volunteering) tends to take priority and pushes this challenge to the back of the 'To Do' list.

Our goal will be to try and sell enough to cover theatre tickets to see The Lion King on Broadway.

Apologies and and Update

2010: so far

Sorry for not updating, we had a crazy start to 2010, with new schools and new routines and then all my time seemed to be spent planning for our trip to the USA in April. So yes we went and had an amazing time, the money we had made selling our items was used to purchase tickets to see Mary Poppins on Broadway.

We did manage to squeeze in a few more sale items before we left, so I will update those in a separate post, and we are back in action - with plans for a return trip in 2011, yes we had that much fun we want to do it all over again. So thank you everyone for your support, and hopefully I will reach my goal before our next trip.

Sold 227 to 234

December is a busy month - school concerts, gatherings with friends, shopping and celebrating the festive season. We did not actively go out of our way to sell items this month, though a few sales fell into our laps.

Sage sold some more CD's - she now has to do a mini-production run to have more ready for future sales.

My sister offered to pay me me to make a skirt for one of our nieces for Christmas. At first I said no - I will just make it, then rational thinking came in an asked for payment of $1 - so I could add this as a sale for the challenge. I was paid $1 in USA quarters!

I think a goal for the next few months will be to review where we currently have items listed but not sold (Fishpond) and try either Etsy or Madeit Myself with a few different items.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog - I know how easy it may be just to give-up when lack of motivation strikes!

#227 - CD - Love Sage

#228 - CD - Love Sage

#229 - CD - Love Sage

#230 - CD - Love Sage

#231 - CD - Love Sage

#232 - CD - Love Sage

#233 - CD - Love Sage

#234 - Home Made - Skirt

Sold 225 to 226

Two sales of Fairy Floss sugar and sticks, means we are a quarter of the way through the challenge! Theoretically we sold more than 1 stick but I am counting it as a 'set'.

#225 - Fairy Floss - Sugar & Sticks

#226 - Fairy Floss - Sugar & Sticks.

Phew - Sold items 198 to 200

It seems like it has taken forever to get there, but finally have hit the selling of 200 items mark. 20% sold!

#198 - Clinique - Perfume

#199 - Clinique - Blush

#200 - Clinique - Eye Shadow

Technically, we should have reached sales of 201 - but one eBay user 'de-registered' after purchase.

Not sure how much will get done over the next month - my full time job is going into overdrive.

Hitting Triple Figures

Pho and I had a Fairy Floss stall at a 'Market' Fund Raiser today, selling Fairy Floss, we also made up some Fairy Floss a friend had requested for her nieces party. So add another 58 to items sold.

Goal: 10% of total sales reached and we have hit triple figures.

Items Sold: add 36

Success with last weeks ebay listing, 36 of the 47 items sold. The unsold set of books has been re-listed. Hoping to get some more items ready for listing next weekend.

Goal: 5% of total sales reached.

One month (and a bit) on

Well, it is just over one month since we started our little challenge - and this is what I have learnt so far:

1. It is great to have ideas straight after school holidays, when the absence of homework and extra-curricular activities leads you to believe that you have huge expanses of time on your hand. Only to realise that when school and activities resume, there goes any spare time you had. I guess what I am saying is we have not been listing as many items a week as I thought we would. Which leads me to point two.
   
2. Listing items on Ebay takes forever, even using Turbo Lister I find the time it takes to research the item to ensure it is described as accurately as possible, determine postage amounts and start price seems to take me forever. It could be I do get a little side tracked with the researching part, and go off on little tangents as I learn new things.
3. Point number 2, has taught me one trick to save time is it is easier to sell like items at the one time - for example one week I just listed Ladybird books, I am currently grouping Little Golden books together to list all at once.
   
4. The thought of having a garage sale/market stall in a Canberra winter is not very appealing. I am keeping this option open until spring when our Saturday mornings are sport free and the damp weather does not make everything wet and soggy.
5. Friends and family are very supportive - they want to know how we are going, and keep us believing that this is all possible.
6. It is amazing what you can find in your house to sell when you think about it. Pappy was looking for an Robotech model he wants to sell, and uncovered more things to sell. 
7. That it is very exciting when an item sells on Ebay for more than you thought it would.
8. It is important to focus on our goal of selling 1000 things - even when we seem so far away at the moment, because that number can only go down.

This week:

- 2 items listed on Ebay had closing bids - will list them as sold once payment is received

- have listed some items on All Classifieds - will see how this goes

- I am travelling interstate for work this week, so have not listed on Ebay (need to train everyone else how to check for messages etc). 

For Sale One Thousand Things

The idea to try and sell One Thousand Things, brewed while sitting on a bus. I am not sure why 1000 - it just seemed to have a nice ring to it. 

I proposed my idea to family and friends thinking they would try and talk me out of it - but no, one friend sent me all the details of getting my hawkers license (to sell food) while Pho wanted to no what % she would earn.

We do have a goal for selling things - pocket money for our family trip to New York City and Orlando, Florida in April 2010. 

Where will the one thousand items come from? We intend to be creative, as a family we are collectors, we have a few double up of items. We are also finders - scouring op shops, garage sales, fetes and auctions means we have picked up a number of items we could not go past knowing someone would want this treasure. We have a concept for selling confectionary (hence the hawkers license) and Sage has recorded two CD’s that she needs to sell. 

Stay tuned for our first sale listings update.

Teak