Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume V, issue number 5

Crazy two weeks! I was in San Diego for a day and half for a mini vacation. We stayed at the Hard Rock hotel–very bizarre I must admit. Then, they landed. My mom, sister Kiki, and nephews Zach and Kai.

My brother came out and boy did I have a full house. The weekend brought a baseball tournament and the boys took second place. Yippeee!! Unfortunately, I did not get to ANY garage sales. Oh well, I have enough items to keep me listing on eBay well into the next century. Just kidding (sort of!).

Since I didn’t go to any sales, I took that time and finally got the stein collection listed that had been staring me in the face for quite a while. Check out this Monk stein that sold for more than I could have imagined.

Click here to see how much!

And that is the reason for this week’s article. I am becoming emotionally detached from things and listing them on eBay. Don’t miss this week’s feature article “How to Detach, Let Go and List!” to see how I am handling this.

The fun week with my family ended with everyone (but me) going to Disneyland on President’s day in the pouring rain. I had to stay home and work. They had a blast. Check out this photo of them at the end of the day with my little nephews fast asleep. Too cute!

Great news from eBay. Larger pictures can be uploaded. eBay says between 1000 and 1600 pixels on the largest side. Also, up to 12 pictures are now free in the antiques and collectibles categories. Be careful since categories like books and clothing are not offering this same great option.

In the Lynn Recommends section, I am asking for your help. One of my favorite students, DivaDawnLV, sent me the nicest email. It was about a contest to pick a favorite mom-run business and she thought I should enter. Please read this section to learn more and place your vote (you can vote everyday). I would appreciate it greatly!

In the Special Announcement section, we have an awesome email from Judy/Trudy one of my returning live boot camp students. You will not want to miss out on her find of lamp parts. It was a score that stared her in the face for two years until she took the plunge and got them listed.

Don’t forget the Live Boot Camp special offer ends in two days!

Speaking of in two days, on March 1st my dad will turn 75. What a huge day for him! Unfortunately, we won’t be able to celebrate with him in person but he is coming down to visit a few days later–so will celebrate then.

Here is a photo of my dad that I put in the Bellingham Herald when he turned 60. He was so mad at me! I can’t believe that that was 15 years ago. Boy does time fly.

Last week also brought a terrible cold for me. If any of you Queen’s Court members were on the Lisa Suttora call or have listened to it–you will know how bad I sounded.

For those of you who are not members of the Queen’s Court, the 74 minute call with Lisa was amazing (as usual). Lisa is always such an inspiration and knows so much about marketing, product trends and what is going on in the world of online selling. We do have this audio download available for sale for a short time at a great price. Click here to purchase now.

Here is that email I got from DivaDawnLV and why I signed up for the contest on StartupNation. Many of you have voted. Thank you! We are up to about 800 votes and would love to see it go higher.

Thank you to everyone who wrote in to tell us that you can vote once a day. So, if any of you have time, please vote everyday!

The contest ends March 31st so there isn’t much time left. Thanks!

Hi Lynn,

I’m sure you’ve received this email. I’m just forwarding it to encourage you to sign up for the Top Mom-Run Businesses competition. I think you do a marvelous job of both running your business and being a mom — not to mention being a friend, daughter, sister and all around terrific person. No one can sign you up, you have to do it yourself, so please do! And then let everyone know that you are participating. I can think of “one or two” folks who might vote for you!

DivaDawnLV

Please go here and place your vote. I would really appreciate it! It has been a lot of fun so far.

Thanks!

Lynn

‘How to Detach, Let Go and Just List!’

by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions

I am one of the most sentimental people in the whole world. If my grandmother gave me something, if it has her handwriting on it or if she at one time even owned it–I have a very hard time selling it.

It is a terrible trait and that is why I go out to garage sales every weekend looking for non-sentimental items to sell. Well, the garage sales have been few and far between lately and not very good. So, I have started to sell some personal things. It has been a serious challenge for me and I am very proud of my progress. This is one of the reasons that I was motivated to write this article.

Another reason was that I just noticed that my “La Reina no cocina” wall plaque had broken, Houston broke one of my very rare “Dralle” powder boxes and I realized that there are just too many items in my house that could get broken.

Here is my broken wall plaque that translates to

“The Queen Doesn’t Cook”. Darn it!

Instead of waiting for the big earthquake and seeing what survives, I am going to list these fragile items on eBay and put the cash in the bank. There are certain things that I will absolutely never sell, but I have decided to focus on cleaning up my life, my house and really letting go.

The final reason that got me started on this journey was that during the Lisa Suttora interview from last week, Lisa mentioned that research is showing that those in higher income brackets (say $100k to $150k per year plus) are looking on line for expensive items. Their spending has not slowed down in this economy but rather has increased!

What a great time to sell our more valuable items! Thank you Lisa. Once again, if you are not a Queen’s Court member, that downloadable interview is available for sale at a great price, Click here.

With all these awesome reasons to list better items, I took a little tour around my house. I started with one of my master closets. I had recently completely emptied it out and had moved the bride’s basket with tulips that was one of my grandmother’s favorite possessions into my bedroom. Oh my goodness (Or OMG as my kids taught their cousin Zach last week). My sister told me that he says “OMG” all the time now. Great! Thank you Houston and Indy!

Here are H and I holding that beautiful piece.

Anyway OMG, How could I ever sell that item? Then I got realistic. It had been in that closet unappreciated and unviewed for six years. I started talking to Carmen about it and she said, “Lynn, you have too many things that are not being valued by the right collector. It is time to let go and let someone really appreciate the beauty of that piece and not let it sit in a dark closet.” Interesting and quite compelling argument, no?

So, I took a deep breath and wrote it up to sell while the family was at Disneyland. They would not have wanted to witness that process. In fact, when I called my dad to tell him I was selling some of my grandmother’s items, it seemed to make him sad. He said, “I understand why you are doing it and if you really need to talk it through I am here for you, but honestly, I would rather not hear about it.” Wow! He is just as sentimental as I am.

What are possessions anyway? Just things. You can’t take them with you but you can take the memory with you. So, my grandma loved this bride’s basket and enjoyed it for many years. I now have a great picture of it with my kids and I will remember it. Done deal.

It is funny because one of my friends is considering leaving her job and her house to go and live on a boat with the love of her life. She and I had a conversation the other day about traveling through life a lot lighter. What do we really need with us other than our friends, family and all those great memories (that don’t weigh very much nor need to be packed and unpacked)?

As I took the bride‘s basket apart to list it on eBay, I realized that my clever grandmother had made a bride’s basket out of a gas lamp shade! I got such a kick out of that and know that if I could talk to her about it she would just laugh her great laugh. You see things aren’t always as they seem.

So I decided to list the frame separately, the basket as a lamp shade and all the glass tulips individually.

Here is the frame.

Here is the lamp shade.

I did start both the frame and the lamp shade at $99.00. I would not let them go for less than that. I do have my limits!!

And here is one of the tulips. Notice how dark my photo table is. It just poured down rain here the day I was doing the photos.

We will see how it goes. I will update you on this in the next ezine. However, at the time of my writing this ezine, 46 people had chosen to add that gas lamp shade to their watch page. That is A LOT of people! And about 8 people were watching each of the 23 tulips.

As I continued my walk around my house looking for items that I really didn’t need, I came upon a few Abingdon vases. My grandmother was born in Abingdon, Illinois so she collected the pottery. Why not? She collected almost everything imaginable. I remembered that my sister had sold an Abingdon vase recently for quite a lot. I think she told me that it was an unusual glaze combination so I didn’t think that the two plain white miniature vases or the blue vase I found would sell for a whole lot. But, I really didn’t need them and they were gathering a lot of dust.

Here is the blue vase with the original yellow Abingdon pottery sticker from the factory. At the time of my writing this article I couldn’t believe how high it had gone. I started the bidding at $24.99 and it was already up to $75.99 with five days left. Yikes! It just goes to show you that (surprisingly often) when you think something is worth a lot, it isn’t and when you think it is worth a little, it is worth a lot! Strange!

Here is that little blue vase.

In conclusion, when deciding to part with sentimental items, remember these four important considerations.

1. It could get lost, broken or stolen.

2. Cash is King.

3. Online shoppers are looking for higher end goods.

4. It should really be in someone‘s collection that will be enjoying it.

Just detach, Let Go and List!!!!

Happy eBaying!

Lynn