Not Even Gonna Lie

Seriously, I'm not even going to lie. I just opened my blog to see the last update was Dec 8, 2017. I am SLACKING. On this. I had said I previously wasn't writing because of politics and the state of the country, world, etc. And that's partially true. However, that's not the whole deal. I actually have a decent amount of things to write about. Happy New Year, by the way.

I'll give you a little teaser of some things to come- I found awesome French Macaroons. I got my genetics tested or something - by a company called Gulf Stream. It's testing to see what medications work with your body and which don't, in every part of your whole system. Yeah, in this context, that may not make a whole lot of sense, but I'll explain further in it's own entry. Greg- I got you. I'm just slacking. (Greg is the guy who does my testing). The holidays happened. We saw some movies. We watched some tv shows. Awesome tv shows. Some of my shows got cancelled because sexual harassment and allegations of rape. Not me, but the actors in the shows. I went to a 40th birthday party at a cool place I want to tell you about.

But I need more time for all that. Instead I'm going to just talk about shopping. Or selling. Or both.

What I've been obsessed with, and spend all my time dealing with, is selling my old stuff. I talked about Tradesy before. And I talked about Poshmark recently. But Poshmark is a totally different animal than Tradesy and eBay. I tried to sell on eBay once. It was so confusing and a rip off, that I posted a few thing, they didn't sell, and at the end of the listings, I owed THEM money. Tradesy was good when I started with them. Their site is the most professional looking. They also used to only take 9% commission. It was 2.9% to deposit into your bank account. Then they went to 14.9% commission, without doing much else to help sales. Now they're just over 19%, not counting the 2.9% bank fee, and there's NO help with sales.

I keep my stuff on Tradesy just in case something sells, but Poshmark has a "feed" like Facebook. So people are liking and sharing your stuff all day long. I started selling on there in mid-October. I've sold fifty-four items. FIFTY-FOUR (update that to fifty-eight only 24 hours later). Now, because Poshmark seems to run on haggling, some of these things went for ten dollars, so the profit is ridiculously low with Poshmark's cut taken out. But it's fine- the old stuff is leaving my house and it adds up. I'm also not in any hurry to sell these things, so if someone really lowballs me, I just don't accept the offer.

Potential buyers do ask QUESTIONS. They might ask a lot of questions, even before they buy that ten dollar item. Someone asked to see a photo of the inside of a kid's practically new coat. Then, *crickets*. Yesterday, while the person was super cool in general, she wanted to know if a pair of E's shoes "smell". I told her I didn't think so but I'd go home and sniff them later. I did, they didn't, and *crickets*.

All of my stuff is stored where we don't allow the cat. Not specifically because I want to keep it cat-free, which is just a bonus, but because we just don't want her in these spaces. When someone wants measurements, or the only piece of info I don't have listed about something, I have to battle Kitty-High-Five to get to my things. Really- you're buying an Express shirt with stretch from 2000. Do you have such abnormally long or Cee Lo arms that your purchase hinges on the arm measurements?

I've bought only shirts from Poshmark and I've never needed measurements. I just make it work. Or re-sell. But whatever- I'll have it out with Kitty to do some "pit to pit" measurements for whomever asks. I should've recording measurements when I first started listing but I'd never asked when buying and I've never been asked when selling on Tradesy so I didn't really think about it. I'm starting to think some people ask questions just to mess with you. To see if you'll do it. Like being hazed. Especially because when they do buy it, I'm supposed to make it pretty like a ZTA "do-nice".

Of course I found a "group" or two- like message boards, but on Facebook, of other Posh-ers as I think we're called. The one group has been great for bitching and goofing about situations that arise, and general questions and whatnot that have helped me make sales. I didn't realize though, the one annoying thing about that group is that the admins need to approve your question or post before it's posted. So if you want a quick answer, that isn't happening. They really police what you can and can't post about too. Yesterday we got the rule that we can't post about lowballers "because there are too many people in the group". I have NO IDEA what one thing has to do with the other and the whole idea of "groups" is to bond with the other members. Part of bonding is bitching and lowballing is what there is to bitch about when talking Poshmark. I guess I'll be limiting my time in that group.

The pros of selling on Poshmark are many. You have access to SO many people seeing your stuff. I have almost ELEVEN THOUSAND followers in the almost three months I've been selling. The more followers, the more shares I get from them, the more chance that someone is going to buy something. If you have a lot of stuff to sell, without making your own website, it's a platform with a lot of users in general.You also are dealing with people from all over the country, people who may not or flat out don't have the access to the kind of shopping we do on the coasts & metro areas.

I haven't really experienced the cons except for the exorbitant commission they take. Apparently, there are buyers who are shady- some sellers have talked about buyers who have gotten an item, it didn't fit or they just didn't like it, so they damaged it themselves, then opened a claim against the seller. You can't return something just because you don't like it or it doesn't fit right. Only when an item is damaged or not as described. I haven't had anyone do something like that, so far. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen, but I guess the more you sell, the more chance of encountering someone unscrupulous like that is possible.

It's also VERY time consuming if you want to be successful. I'm sharing people's stuff whenever I get a moment during the day. I'm sharing my own stuff. I'm watching tv and sharing. I'm listening to you talk, I'm just not looking you in the eye because I'm hitting share. It's not like reading Facebook or looking at Instagram, not engaging. I'm listening to every word but I'm also hitting share on items I'm not even looking at.

I also didn't really take my photo taking very seriously at first. I've always had a dress form but I didn't think about background or lighting. Some photos I originally just took quickly and on hangers. Some were really wrinkled. B has a light box he set up in my little "dressing room"- our small spare bedroom where I keep my clothes, get dressed, etc. A light box sounds like something small, when it's more like a tent that could fit like 2-3 adults sitting in it. It takes up like three quarters of the room. It's cool though and I've been spending time re-taking most of my photos. They have to fit in a "square" on Poshmark and their photo editing is beyond primitive. Most of my old photos didn't fit into their square so some were cut off and looked bad. Now, most of the photos look awesome, especially in comparison.

Again though, time consuming. I've been in that bedroom with the door closed, so the cat doesn't come in, for hours on end. The cat is throwing herself at my door, meowing like someone is stepping on her tail. Meanwhile, I'm like, in a schvitz, because the heat is pumping and I'm trapped in there.

When you spend all this time taking photos, storing items properly, etc, lowball offers are annoying and you take them personally. The post office is up the street from home and work, luckily, and it's not a hardship going there. I know people want their stuff quickly, because we're in the Amazon Prime age of 2-day shipping. When someone purchases one of my items (or more), I make sure to get that thing out the same day unless the post office is closed. I'm not running for you when you're offering me eighteen dollars on something I have fairly priced at fifty-eight dollars.

Speaking of pricing, I also spend time researching prices. A lot of my items I had on Tradesy first. When you input the brand and the condition it's in, Tradesy gives you a range of what items like it are selling for. I also look up items online to see what they're selling for. I'm like the damned Price is Right. I know what things cost from food to my clothes from 1998. Don't offer me eleven dollars for near perfect Nike's you know cost one hundred and ten from a retail store when I have them priced at twenty dollars. It may be what you want to pay, but it's insulting when I look in your closet and you have everything priced super high. You're not willing to be lowballed either. My advice as a buyer and seller is just to be respectful. If you look at any Poshmark seller's offer chart, you know what a fair offer is and what is lowballing.

All in all, it's been a really good experience so far. I can't believe my clothes from the nineties and early 2000's are selling but they are. Fifty four things have left my house, gone to new homes and I'm making a decent dollar that I need. I'm listing things like crazy which is really opening up room in all our closets. I would've never been motivated to clean out the closets so quickly. I have my bags of stuff separate that E and I give to homeless people on the street in NYC- this is all just....MORE stuff. This is decades worth of stuff. Even with the bags of stuff I've marked for the homeless, I still have almost SIX HUNDRED listings right now. I give some, make money on some. If Rita was still alive, I really could've gotten some "vintage" items like scrunchies, denim button-down shirts, and fanny packs....

I'm still learning the ins and outs. In the past two days I've gotten offers given to me on size six boots when I'm a nine and a half and on tops I'd never wear. I figured out that somehow I added them to a "bundle" (when someone wants to buy more than one item from the same seller they save on shipping cost this way) by mistake. The seller then has the opportunity to send someone a private offer on cost or shipping when someone adds one or more items to a bundle. Yeah, like I said, learning. XYZ in Florida has no idea I wouldn't wear five inch heels and must have clicked bundle instead of "share". 

If you want to buy or sell on Poshmark, you need to make an account. Whether you do it in your browser or you get the app, and you want to give me credit, you can't sign up through your Facebook account. You have to do it with your email address. It's so annoying, but when you do it via Facebook, there's no input area to give someone credit. When you sign up with my closet name for credit, you get five dollars to spend and I get five dollars if you ever make a purchase. It's a win-win. And I'm more than happy to give you all my tips and knowledge. They don't call me know-it-all for nothing! My closet name is tsdk74 - just copy and paste it right now.

Ok, writing this today took up my allotted writing time. Tomorrow my goal is something else. Totally unrelated to my new selling hobby. At least it's not an MLM!! (NEVER)