Total Spent Today: $298.31
Net Spent Today: $243.33 

REI — ($50.13)
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I collected all of our old Nalgene bottles (well, all the ones the kids could find — one of The Daughter’s is still missing) to return for a refund/store credit.  The return process took a couple of minutes but overall went very smoothly.  Ironically, the computer showed a record of my 2001 purchase of two older, smaller bottles I returned but had no record at all of the large bottles I purchased last October.  The clerk still issued store credit on the larger bottles — partly, I think, due to the fact that all of the bottles had the name REI stamped on them as bold as you please (they must have been a special-issue Nalgene manufacturered specifically for REI stores).

The only downside to this whole transaction is that, for whatever reason, the clerk wouldn’t put my store credit on a REI gift card.  My credit comes in the form of a paper receipt that I can use in any REI store or on-line but I must have the receipt.  If I lose it, I’m S.O.L.

REI — $10.26
Spent in the form of store credit (my paper receipt now states I have a credit of $39.87).  I bought myself a red wide-mouth Nalgene bottle.

Auto Stereo Store — $277.57
I’ve been shopping for car stereos for the past month or so and just last week finally decided on the model I wanted.  So today we did a little car juggling so I could have The Husband’s Impreza.  The stereo is The Husband’s Father’s Day gift.  But it’s not for him at all.  It’s for The Daughter.  Here’s what happened:

The Impreza came with a very bare-bones stereo.  Two FM bands, one AM band, and a single disc CD player.  Nice and functional but nothing special.  What it’s really missing is an iPod/aux input capability.

I’m a realist.  I know how important music is to 16yo girls and I know what a distraction music and CD’s and radios and iPods can be for a new driver (well, any driver but especially new drivers).  So I presented my argument to The Husband several weeks ago — we should install an iPod interface stereo in the name of safety.  The criteria was very specific:  the 16yo had to be able to control the iPod through the stereo itself leaving her hands and attention free for driving and the buttons and layout had to be simple enough for a 73-yo radio-listening dad.

Finding a stereo that met both criteria was harder than I’d expected it to be.  I ended up going with an Alpine CDA-9884.  Happy early Father’s Day, sweetie 

Target — $10.48
I found a Michael Graves tie/belt hanger  ($3.99) that I like better than the one I bought the other day.  I also bought two 3-packs of skirt hangers ($2.99/ea.) for The Daughter’s closet.  Each hanger has a metal center hook so you can actually hang another hanger from the first hanger instead of having each individual hanger hang from the closet rod.  Helps save closet space which is at a premium in The Daughter’s closet (yeah, she has more clothes that she probably needs but mostly it’s just a tiny closet).

Once Upon a Child — ($5.85)
I took my bag of rejects from yesterday’s Plato’s Closet run to see what OUAC would do with the contents.  I had slightly more sucess (in # of items accepted) but their value was lower.  They rejected several things because they were too large (those in-between sizes of 16 and 18 don’t have much resale value, apparently) but they did accept 4 pair of Old Navy shorts.  Anyway, it’s another $5.85 I didn’t have this morning.

Since all of the items sold were The Son’s, I’ve added $5.85 back into his clothing budget category in my YNAB program*.

I received my first check from Opinion Outpost* today!  As soon as my account reached $10 (the minimum payout amount), I requested my first check.  I didn’t necessarily need the money immediately; I did it more to confirm that the company was legit and that I’d really get checks.  Otherwise, there’d be no reason to continue with the surveys, right?

I must say, I have mixed feelings about this survey thing.  I really don’t mind completing the surveys and the time they require is not an issue.  The problem is that at least half of the potential surveys I get contacted about I end up not qualifying for.  I guess I’m not in the most desired demographic.  We probably make too much money to qualify for most of them; that and I don’t belong to a minority ethnic group.  My guess would be that most of the companies behind the surveys are looking either for a more representative “middle American.”

The few surveys I have qualified for and completed were rather fun.  And now that I’ve confirmed that the company is legit and they do issue real checks, I’ll continue to respond whenever they send me an email about a new survey and be glad for the few that bring in completion points.  I only need 38 more points until I hit my payout threshold again.

* affiliate link

Wow, things are popping at Wagglepop!  I’ve had 6 sales in November alone — two of them were for multiple items.  I have no idea of why things have picked up in my Wagglepop store but I’m certainly not going to complain.  Of course, this month’s $300 worth of sales can’t even begin to compare to the $3,000 I was averaging every month on eBay back in ‘05 and early ‘06.  But it covers the Wagglepop fees.

I’ve had a few sales from my eCrater store, too, in the past month but nothing like I’ve experienced at WP.  Then again, my eCrater store inventory level is only 127 listings compared to 1,419 on WP.

You know that old saying, “When it rains, it pours.” Well, it sure applies to me today. And this is the kind of rain I love.

Sales.

First, I had multi-item purchase from my eCrater store. Not half an hour later, someone purchased three items from my Wagglepop store. Even better, both buyers paid immediately through Paypal — and they both have confirmed addresses.

While my sales these day can’t begin to compare the old days of $3,000/month sales in my eBay store, I’ll take them just the same. There are no Final Value fees associated with the eCrater sale and the Wagglepop sale results in only $0.75 in Final Value fees. The same sales on eBay would have cost me $3.63.

Every once in a while I find myself wondering if I made a big mistake in closing my eBay store. Surely I could have absorbed the higher Final Value fees. Then I remember the real reason I left eBay — my sales dropped by more than 1/2 when eBay took store listing out of their search results. The hikes in store FVFs and listing prices merely added insult to injury. The saying about beating a dead horse comes to mind.

My plan remains to sell of my entire business inventory in wholesale lots — when and if I get the energy and the time. In the meantime, these sales, as small and infrequent as they are, help buoy my spirits and help pay my Wagglepop store fees.

The last of my eBay auctions ended yesterday. It certainly doesn’t take a financial genius to realize that Hanna Andersson was clearly the leading brand for getting a return on my clothing “investments.”

I hope you can guess that I’m speaking tongue-in-cheek here about viewing clothing expenditures as investments. Still, I can’t argue with the fact that someone paid $71.00 for three pair of Hanna Andersson long johns that probably cost me a total of $75.00 brand new. Sure, I “lost” $4.00 on the deal overall but each pair had given us at least 1 calendar year of service, probably more, and one pair had been The Daughter’s before being handed down to The Son so it gave us no less than, and likely way more than, two years of service. So if you look at it another way, that’s a $1.00 per pair per year of ultra-comfort PJ use.

True, not all of my auctions for Hanna Andersson garments did quite as well as the lot of three pair of long johns. But overall, HA hands-down brought in the most bidders and the highest bids.

The brand that came in second for providing the best resale return compared to original cost was Columbia. I sold The Son’s winter jacket and snow pants for very near to, if not over, what I originally paid for the set at Marshall’s last year.

Interestingly, The Gap brought in no higher resale prices than it’s lower priced corporate cousin brand, Old Navy. And neither brand came close to meeting the return value that the Hanna Andersson and Columbia brands brought in.

Barnes & Noble — $21.41

• Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett — the last book I owned The Son in exchange for the Best Buy gift card he was never going to get around to using
• Infinity in Your Pocket — a really cool little hard-back reference book with all kinds of theorems and formulas
• Anguished English — the originally intended purchase; The Son wanted to give this to The Nephew for his birthday; all three kids (The Son, The Daughter, and The Nephew) love a book we have called The Bride of Anguished English filled with hilarious examples of mutilated facts and grammar taken from student’s papers, public signs, and newspaper headlines. We hoped that this book would prove as entertaining. The Son laughed all the way home so I’m guessing it will.

Post Office — $30.50
shipped box of clothing to auction winner in Canada — she won three different lots

Paypal shipping — $4.70
shipping label for The Nephew’s birthday package — sent the book mentioned above and four pair of boxer shorts.

Paypal shipping — $12.38
shipping labels for three more packages sent to winning bidders on my eBay auctions (which reminds me that I’ve forgotten to include past label purchases here on the Daily Dollar Diary blog — total spent so far: $82.34).

eBay seller — $15.50
winning bid on a graphic tee The Daughter wanted to buy for The Nephew. Will be shipped directly to The Nephew. Seller won my business by offering a reasonable starting price that included shipping and by having good feedback. There was another seller offering the same shirt with a lower BIN but that seller had an inflated shipping price so I said “no way” and moved on. I sure was grateful to the second seller because I have vowed never to pay inflated shipping on eBay — just encourages the scammers — but The Daughter really had her heart set on that shirt and we were unsuccessful in finding it locally.

eBay seller — $10.00
Great buy and resonable shipping for a NWT (new with tags) Life is Good T-Shirt for me. My wardrobe consists mainly of t-shirts, shorts, and jeans. But the majority of my t-shirts are aging and showing undeniable signs of wear (fraying collars, small holes, thinning fabric) so I took the opportunity to add a new shirt to my collection. I happen to love this brand; not as much as I love Hanna Andersson’s clothing but they stopped offering their unisex garments in sizes XS and Small — such a big, big bummer.

Whole Foods — $45.69
Ironic, isn’t it, that my errands take me nearest to the one grocery store for which I don’t have a grocery card. C’est la vie. Based on my purchases, can you guess what I made for dinner?

• 4 cans of tomato sauce
• Amy’s frozen “Baked Ziti” — for The Daughter, she loves it
• box of lasagna noodles
• ground beef
• ricotta cheese
• mozzarella cheese
• cheddar cheese
• red cabbage
• carrots
• celery
• pears
• peaches

Auction Update
My second wave of auctions will start ending tomorrow. I have a total of 31 current auctions right now; there have been 18 bids placed on 12 of those listings totaling $100.73. This second wave of auctions is not going to bring in nearly as much money as the first batch — they’re just not the same caliber of clothes and most of these listings are for individual items whereas the first batch had quite a few lots. I’m still shipping items from the first wave but I think the only buyer who hasn’t paid yet is someone who’s bidding on a number of listings in the second batch. So she’d just waiting to combine all of her purchases together into a single shipment. That’s just fine with me

eBay’s listing sale ended last night and it’s just as well. I didn’t get everything listed that I’d hoped to but I was seriously burned out and the forced break came at just the right time. If the sale hadn’t ended, I likely would have continued pushing myself. But I really need a break. My fibromyalgia pain level is definitely climbing and my sleep-deprivation level is extremely high. I need to collect myself and try to get back into some better rhythms. Hopefully I’ll start to feel better if I can get a few good nights of sleep under my belt.

Auction Update
My initial batch of auctions have all now ended. I had 36 listings; 35 sold. My total sales value $681.88.

I currently have 16 active auctions. There have been 5 bids placed on 5 different items for a total of $39.95. My active auctions have a total of 15 watchers. This current batch of auctions start ending in 4 days 14 hours and 14 minutes.

I still have quite a few clothing items to list (I found a new stash today that included another boy’s Columbia jacket, a girl’s Obermeyer winter coat, and a beautiful F.W. Fischer gray wool dress coat that The Daughter wore a lifetime ago). But I’m really burned out on photographing and listing and since today was a busy away-from-the-house day, I’m behind on invoicing for and the shipping of items that have already sold. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow

Auction Update
My auctions are doing great. I really couldn’t be happier. So far I’ve had 28 auctions close; 27 of them sold for a total of $569.36. I’m working hard to get as many items listed as possible before the end of the month as that’s when eBay’s listing sale ends. And as of right now I have 18 current listings; those items have a total of 40 bids for a combined total of $129.59.

Sometimes I feel guilty for ending my boycott of eBay but I can’t argue with the cash I’ve managed to raise or the fact that I’ve saved quite a bit in listing fees. Yes, I still have to pay the Final Value Fees and the Paypal fees but there’s no way I would have brought in that kind of bidding on any other site. Craigslist is great, for certain things, but not for kids clothing.

Still, despite the cash I’m bringing in, I am burning out and ready to take a break for the work of listing auctions.

Auction Update
Fourteen of my auctions ended today. My total sales were $314.16 — a total that I couldn’t be much happier with.

There were a few items that ended a lower than I’d hoped but there were several that went as high as I’d hoped and one, The Son’s last year’s winter coat and snow pants, that went higher than I would have dared to hope.

I added three new auctions today and relisted the one item that didn’t sell. So now I have 25 current auctions. There have been 65 bids placed on 22 of the items for a total of $277.57. Hopefully the 13 items ending tomorrow will get a few more last minute bids before they close.