for your VINformation

So, it took exactly four months, but Project eBay ‘09 is officially over.

My last few auctions ended the other night and I added another $250.00, for a grand total of $2,164.00!

That’s averages out to about $500 per month which went almost exclusively towards advancing my career – mailing, repros, VO Demo, etc., etc. – money which would’ve had to come from somewhere and since the first quarter of ‘09 has been hard for me, it wouldn’t've come and nothing would’ve gotten done – I live as simply as I can already, the only other cutback to make would’ve been not paying the rent but I like having a roof over my head…

To see the pile of collectibles and shipping supplies dwindle down to near nothingness, I must admit, was bittersweet – more sweet than bitter, but bittersweet nonetheless.

I hear you asking, dear readers, "But, Vinnie, why was it bittersweet? Didn’t you want to get rid of all that crap?"

To answer you, I simply say, "Now I need to get another job to supplement my meager income, I liked working from home, making my own hours. And now I’ve got to go get another part-time job I don’t care about and follow someone else’s rules, I hate other people’s rules – I’m a rule breaker!"

Anyway, that’s neither here nor there, just a fact of life. I’m sure, I’ll find more to sell, but for now, Project eBay ‘09 is over and was a great success.

I believe the last few things of value – that I’m willing to part with – are photo’ed, listed and selling live.

I can’t believe it’s done, really – I need to raise funds for new head-shots and I know these last 17 items aren’t going to bring in nearly enough  – especially since two items aren’t even mine, the old Star Trek figures are Tom 2i’s 2e’s.

I’m having mixed feelings right now, I thought I’d be happy to be done with all this, but, I’ve been lucky enough to make some money – and not really extra money, real money – eBay has paid for mailings and headshot copies and postcards and my Voice Over demo and cat food and groceries and even new skinny clothes!

Now that Project eBay ‘09 is nearing it’s most natural end, I’m feeling a little sad.

I have eight weeks until my Headshot session, mayhaps I’ll need to find more to sell – or, get another job…

One of my least favorite things about eBay is the shipping – especially shipping overseas – unfortunately, it’s a fact of selling on eBay, if someone buys something you have to send it to them.

Shipping to the US and Canada is easy-peasy, shipping overseas always seems to be a problem. I don’t mind the packing and prep, in fact I sorta enjoy it, I take pride in making sure the items get to their new owners in the same condition as listed – it’s actually going to the Post Office – I’m lucky to have a PO just a few blocks away from my apartment and all the workers there know and like me; always asking how I’m doing and how I’m feeling, so that’s not the issue, it’s going there with all the proper forms filled out and getting home and see my PayPal account depleted…

Example:

• Today I was sending some stuff to Spain and Italy and had to come back home to repackage and re-fill out the customs forms because I put everything in Priority packaging and if I sent them out that way I’d've lost over $20.00 – luckily it was a quick fix but still inconvenient.

You see, I get so excited when a weeks worth of auctions end and my PayPal account fills up with cash – then I pack it all up and bring it to the PO and suddenly, all that money for nothing is gone…I don’t have a postage scale and never know how much a box is going to weigh and when sending overseas, I can sometimes miscalculate and end up losing a few dollars on the deal – sometimes that even happens with US shipping – it’s never more than a dollar or two so it’s no biggie, really.

Example:

• Someone won an auction for an item at ¢0.99 and paid $6.50 for Priority Mail shipping, the shipping ended up costing me $8.10 so I ended up paying him a dollar – when listing, final value and PayPal fees are taken into consideration – to take it off my hands. Ugh!

Here’s the thing, there is a strategy to the way I list:

1. Everything goes up to make sure the listing will include a full weekend.
2. I make sure the timing allows the ending time to be either when folks are securely at work or safely at home – never during rush hour and never too early in the AM or PM.
3. The listings only offer US shipping.

If anything doesn’t sell it gets re-listed under the same circumstances but I offer International shipping, reluctantly – but, the folks in Europe love me, so what can I do?

A good week would’ve brought in all the money I need to pay for my upcoming Voice Over demo, I can’t complain, I did make just about half – I haven’t gotten paid for all of it yet, but the money is coming in…

You can check-out what I currently have up here.

Also, as part of my fund raising project for the Emerging Artists Theatre, I’m running what I call EATbay – I got items from all the company members, everything from jewelry to playbill, rare books to kitchen tchotchkies – you can check out what’s up there by clicking here.

I’m not quite dredging the bottom of the barrell yet, for my personal auctions, but I am damn near close.

What I’ve been making has been going to support my acting career; so I’ve very grateful for the money I’ve made so far, but still need more!

As I’ve mentioned before, being an under-enjoyed actor in NYC is not cheap – add to that the fact I’ve not been at my cash and carry job at the  Duplex for some time because of my ankle issues and I’ve had to dip into the Acting-Fund for necessities like groceries and new smaller clothes – well, new-to-me clothes – going out with friends is not an option as this moment in time and I’ve already cut back on everything from household bills to Metrocards – there is one big thing I can rid myself of, but I’m not ready to do that yet…

But now, I’m just rambling…eBay ‘09 is soon coming to an end as the quantum singularity I store all my crap in as to not clutter my apartment is nearly empty, it may be time for another part-time job…I wonder if Starbucks is hiring?

I decided to pair down my collections, and sell them off – I’m not doing it for fun and games, I’m doing it ’cause, it needs to be done – for oh so many reasons…too many to get into, or actually, isn’t that what this blog is for?

I’m doing it ’cause I’m broke….

I’m doing it ’cause I’m currently damaged and am unable to woke my waiting job at the Duplex…

I’m doing it ’cause I’ve been cut to only two days a week at Americana…

I’m doing it ’cause I need to do mailings and even though they’re seemingly futile, they’ll still get done and they cost a shit-load of money…

I’m doing it ’cause I want the freedom to take an acting job if one actually becomes available to me…

I’m selling my things ’cause if I have to move out of my apartment, I don’t want to pack it all up and put it in storage or into my parents garage…

People have accused me of selling my memories, telling me that I’m "cold-hearted" and have no feelings. That I’m ridding myself of my childhood and early adulthood for reason I don’t want to get into and that I should focus on that and not de-cluttering.

I’m not getting rid of my life, I’m trying to make my life better.

I have one-of-a kind collectibles, that I would prefer not to discard by the wayside as I try to live my life, but they’re not helping pull their own weight.

I was once a hoarder – in almost every part of my life – from food to comic books, from action figures to booze and pot but I’ve changed my thinking and the way I live I don’t need or want to hoard anymore. I want to be lighter, physically, emotionally and literally.

I’m using eBay a tool to bring my life to the place where it needs to be. The past few weeks haven’t been very lucrative for me, and it actually made me quite sad to see some of my treasures go for pennies but like every lucky penny I find, it’s a penny I didn’t have before – I basically made enough to pay for the shipping supplies – padded envelopes, bubble wrap, etc. etc. – supplies which are needed and supplies I can’t get for free ’cause I no longer work in an office…

In the upcoming weeks I plan to put up more and more, things I thought I couldn’t live without, but realize now I could live better without…

Project eBay ‘09 had a very successful week.

Purging is easy when you’re making money from it…

I’ve officially made enough to spring for the paint and supplies to make my 1R a little prettier then it is already – the recession has helped keep me at home, and I’m so over the Tiffany Blue living room and the Federal Green bedroom. I’m going with a browns and creams for both rooms – the brown I’m using is called Mink, and I was assured no animals were harmed in the creation of the color  – the neutral I’m going with is Sandy Stone; both from Benjamin Stone. The stone will cover most of 1R with the Mink (and existing blue and green) as accent walls – I’m going to really HGTV it up with stripes!

I’ve decided to take a week off form eBay-ing, I want to get all past shipments out and everything past taken care of, believe it or not, there’s still a bunch of crap worth selling cluttering my kitchen and I won’t stop until it’s all gone.

Then, I guess, I can start selling other people’s things…

So, Project eBay ‘09 – week seven, comic books, was a huge disappointment!

I had a feeling the books I was selling some random signed copies and some rare prestige format comic books might go or might not go. I knew it was going to be a low total but I didn’t realize exactly how low – it barley covers the current fees!

I only made $48.71.

Hopefully, getting rid of more doll house miniatures, some Zippo lighters and some thimbles will make up for a bad week – but I doubt it.

I’m quickly running out of stock – which is the idea, I don’t want to do this the rest of my life, maybe just the rest of the winter – but while I’m doing it, I want it to be worth my while…and I want to make enough to buy paint for my apartment and to take a voice over class, I could use another grand.

My NY Yankees memorabilia didn’t disappoint.

I thought about a hundred and I made a little over. I’ve deduced, if I don’t make at least a hundred bucks a week, it’s not worth it – after all, my time is worth something.

The packing and shipping is what takes the most time,

I probably spend about eight hours a week on Project eBay ‘09, about four hours for prepping, photo-ing and posting the items and then again about four hours to package the items up so they get to their new owners undamaged – between listing and packing, I spend up-teen hours following the auctions, going so far as to refresh the page over and over again to see if there’s any change in status, even though I know most of the action happens in the last few hours.

Seeing the boxes and padded envelopes piled-up next to the door, waiting to head to the Post Office gives me a certain satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment, if you will.

I try to time my auctions to end on a weekend so I can get everything ready and ship out on Mondays, this week was no different. The Yankees stuff is already out of my house and on it’s way to new homes across the country.

I don’t have anything up yet this week, I’ve decided to go back to the 5 day auctions, if someone’s looking for something, they look; if I miss the casual eBay browser, so be it!

Today the Post Office Lady said to me, "I like when you come in, you’re always smiling, it’s nice."

In over a thousand eBay transactions I have never sent the wrong item to the wrong buyer – well, once, once out of a thousand is pretty good – but now, I’ve messed up two!

I sent the wrong books to the wrong people.

It’s only a little mess, but a mess none the less!

It makes me feel stupid…

I’ve listed a bunch of books up at Half.com.

It’s a great way to sell anything you may want to rid yourself of that has a ISBN Number or UPC code. There are no listing fees – they only get a portion if the item sells; and posting your merch is quick and simple.

I’ve already sold about $75.00 worth of book. Most of them I got for free while working at DC comics others I paid either full or half price so listing most of them for only $5.00 each – a few are up for more, but 90% are only $5.00 each – it’ll cosmically even out – with the book sale, I’m not looking to make a mint, I’m looking my stuff work for me and bring in a few extra bucks.

Go, check out what I have up, there just might be something you’d like to read…

The wizard of Oz plates didn’t sell!

I’m actually really shocked. I thought they’d be a hot seller being that’s it’s the 60th anniversary of the movie’s release…

Oh well, I’m not complaining, every little bit…

This week, it’s New York Yankees Souvenirs. I was lucky enough to get to quite a few games this past season, the final season at the old Yankee Stadium and because of that, I got a bunch of great give-aways. It’s just more clutter to me now, so I’m hoping it all goes to a super-fan.

Heading into week four of Project eBay ‘09, I’ve had some success.

We’ve gone through the original art, the watches and the doll house furniture; this week it’s Wizard Of Oz Plates and other things you can hang on the wall…

Something to note: during this purge, it’s actually making me feel lighter.

Not only have I been able to use the profit to buy another set of postcards, the stamps for my next three postcard mailings and the envelopes for the big SAG Agent mailing, but as I’m losing weight physically, I’m finding it easier to give up what now feels like clutter around me.

I’m not sure if this will even makes sense, but it’s almost as if giving up the baggage I live with is helping me get rid of the baggage I been carrying around with me all these years.

It’s like the pairing-down of my body and of my belongings share a symbiotic existence, working hand in hand to make a better Vinnie.

2000 Mine!

Go buy something!

About 12 or 13 years ago – maybe even 14 years ago – when I was working through my Martha Stewart phase by paying the bills as a custom framer and floral designer, I was planning to build and decorate a real fancy-smancy doll house with my niece Donna.

Well, Donna’s in college now…the road to hell and all…it never got made, and it never will.

Therefore I found I had a box full of doll house furniture and accessories that I’d never use collecting dust in my Mother & Father’s attic.

Some of these pieces were very expensive – I didn’t pay for any of it, I got it all at a very, very good discount – – so I priced it all really cheaply just to get it to a good home.

If you’re a miniature or doll house enthusiast, go check-out what I’m offering.

I’ve started week two of Project eBay ‘09.

Getting rid of clutter and making money doing it, Project eBay ‘09 isn’t going to be close to setting the records Project eBay ‘06 did when I had hundreds, nay thousands of items to put up – thanks DC! -  or Project eBay ‘07 when I had a modicum of celebrity behind me – made a pretty penny selling all my 5 Takes backpacking crap – but I’m hoping Project eBay ‘09 will finally allow me to get rid of the last drips and drabs of my collections.

I’m having theme weeks – Art, Watches, Doll House Furniture, Decorator Plates, Toys, Electronics – I think I have enough to get me through the winter – all the money I make is directly going to help advance my career. That and an iPod Touch.

Go check out what’s up this week…

to make a living?

Well, when it’s all you really got, I guess it really is.

I really thought I didn’t have anything left to sell, but after my travels and living with so little for so long, I just don’t want all the extra stuff my 30 odd years have accumulated.

If I can pay the rent getting rid of my crap…eBay it is!