What I have Learned So Far - What I Like and Don’t Like about eBay Selling and Life in General

I am closing in on my 18 month milestone of starting SecondMoonshot and my second career selling on eBay. Not so much a lessons learned, but a few things I like and some I don’t, some about eBay, some about life in general. In no particular order. eBay gets a lot of gripes on the forums, but for what they offer on the platform, I have no issues and fully support the direction they have taken.

Likes

  • In-person auctions: human interaction, meet new people, better people, better wins
  • The thrill of finding a gem and paying little for it
  • I get to spend time with Zabrina
  • I get to drive around in my cars most days
  • I am learning every day, keeping my mind active and feeling productive; by nature I am a workaholic; I will never know everything and that’s a good thing
  • I run the business like I want to, treat customers the way I want to, every good decision and mistake is mine, I am solely accountable; I.e. if a customer is not 100% satisfied, they get a full refund plus shipping, no questions asked (except to learn more on how to improve)
  • I have no issues making mistakes, buying bad, it’s all learning and try not to make same mistake twice
  • I have a mission and goals, I am growing something
  • Total freedom, I have a big happy grin on my face every minute of the day; I am at peace, I am happy
  • The joy of a delighted customer, it’s pretty cool when you get communication and pictures from customers about their purchase and what it means to them
  • My weekly lunch at Shorty’s Hot Dogs
  • My beard is really coming along well!
  • I still feel like I’m 18 years old; I turn 57 next month 
  • I really enjoy the framing and restoration projects I am doing more of, near instant satisfaction
  • More time with my kids
  • Nap time, I joke about this with Z, but I only take an afternoon nap maybe once a month, but knowing I can is awesome, and when I do take one…life is good. Ok maybe a little more frequently.
  • A big sales day
  • Quality alone time
  • I do like the blogging and sharing my knowledge, learnings and journey. More like my journal and have no idea if anyone reads it. Best I don’t know. 
  • There is a satisfaction ever so little, but there, when you pack something complex in an exceptional manner…that’s why I enjoy packing large pictures

Dislikes

  • The end of month accounting, only takes a few hours, but not fun
  • I used to love estate sales, now I have better things to do besides sit in a car 2 hours before start and do the rat race to get so-so deals, good finds at good prices are few and far between, but have to do them occasionally
  • I am not getting rich (yet), but money was never really the goal (and still isn’t…not completely anyway)
  • Days of my 6 figure salary are now a figment of my imagination
  • My memory is starting to fail, I use a LOT of Post-it notes to compensate
  • Stability of the eBay iOS app is very inconsistent in stability, every update is a crap shoot. Since I essentially run the entire business with the app (listings, shipping, communication, etc), when the app is in a bad state, I feel the pain.
  • Yard work

I knew it would be a 2 year plan to get to a point to cover all my bills, not a lot and have very little debt, but I am on track. I’m probably doing that now but profits all go back into the business for now. As long as my “likes” list is double my “dislikes” list, I am doing good. When I stop enjoying this and it starts to feel like work, I’ll stop, life is too short and I wasted a lot of it on out of whack priorities.

In September, I am taking an auctioneer class at local Wake Tech and will work to get my license, just another tool in my tool belt…who knows where that will take me.

John

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