Here's to another 10 years!

2010 has so far been a surprising year for my eBay business. I, truly, didn't even expect to be running it by now and had planned on moving on to different ventures. When 2009 started, I made a plan to sell off all of my inventory and close up shop by the end of the year.

But here it is, nearly halfway through 2010 and I'm still plugging along with eBay. :)

And I'm glad to be doing it. Instead of closing up shop this year, I've decided to pump inventory back into my store and keep doing what I've loved doing for the past 10 years.

It's hard to believe I've been selling clothing on eBay for over a decade now. I can remember so clearly making the decision to really sell full time with eBay. Before I made the decision, I had been selling a few things here and there, but it was in 2000 when I found myself laid off from what I had hoped would be the job that would start me out in a great career in Marketing, a new mom to a baby boy, and getting no phone calls back from any of the interviews I had gone on, that I knew I had to take matters into my own hands.

Back then eBay was a different place. I worked more closely with my customers, sending personalized emails to all of them. The site was auctions ONLY and I would sit at my computer as a batch of auctions were ending watching the bids go up and up as they closed. It was exhilerating!

And selling on eBay these days, though different, can still be so much fun. Sometimes I feel like eBay has forgotten about the smaller sellers, like me, who put so much time and effort into each individual listing. The one man (or woman) operations who search high and low for the best inventory, lovingly photograph each item, check them over for flaws, measure accurately, describe as best they can, package with care, and ship in a timely manner. Sometimes it seems like eBay would rather we fell off the site so they could focus on their big dollar sellers who list thousands of the same item and ship from a giant warehouse in another state.

But the buyers still want us around and that makes all the difference in the world. Our buyers like knowing they're purchasing from a real person, who really cares about their product and their customer. I'm proud to keep going into this next decade to serve those wonderful buyers. And who knows? Maybe I'll still be doing it until 2020. :)

XOX,
Beth
aka Jayde