Friday, January 11, 2008

My Brain is too Small

This has nothing to do with the fact that my head is small, because I think it's quite average--though it naturally tilts to the side a bit when I think I'm holding it straight--but it's my brain I'm more worried about.

I'm the first to admit (rant about, pout, whine etc.) about having a busy life. I have a 5 acre piece of land to care for along with goats, chickens, oh, and four kids. I like to cook, I like my house to look tolorably livable and I prefer that my family have clean underwear. I write books and articles, I blog, I fulfull my callings at church. All these things take energy and brain space, and quite frankley there is only so much to go around. I think mine is officially full to brimming. In fact things like blogging, articles, clean underwear and cooking have recently been put into storage in order for me to make room for other stuff. Here's why:

My husband--bless his sleeping-in-today-while-I've-been-up-since-5:00 heart--is a dyed in the wool entrepreneur. Since our marriage he has owned at least a dozen different businesses and he is no respecter of industry. He's owned a telemarketing floor, assisted living facilities, cable reseller, horse racing business, and an eBay software company. He's been quite successful in all these ventures and is right now gearing up to start another one.

However, he's also had concepts that have not come to fruition, such as the idea to open up his own drop shipper for people that sell on eBay. What a drop shipper is, is (I bet I'm not supposed to have two iss together am I?) where someone can sell something on eBay, or yahoo or whatever, and not really own it. They pre-purchase it from a drop shipper but it isn't sent . Then they list it, sell it, and notify the drop shipper who then mails it for them. In essence the drop shipper is the consumate middle man. So my hubby had this idea in summer 2006 and in true Kilpack style he jumped in with both feet, ordering tons of stuff he could get through liquidation companies. These items began rolling in while he was developing the website, and then he decided to go another direction and he sold the company. The guy that bought it was going to continue this drop shipper thing, but he didn't. So all these items sat, and sat, and sat. Finally, my husband rented the office the items were being stored in and so he moved them to a storage unit at which point his terribly brilliant and martyish wife (that's me) asked him why he was storing all this stuff and why he didn't sell it on eBay?

"Great idea," he says. "Have fun."

Wait? What just happened here?

And so, here I am selling on eBay and paying daily homage to Julie Wright who works full time for eBay, runs a store, raises 3 kids, writes books, AND sells on eBay. I am not Julie Wright and all this stuff has given me a headache--the kind of headache where you wait at any moment for aliens to punch a hole through your skull in order to get out of there.

I've sold 30+ items and have 15 or so auctions going right now. I've had to learn about shipping rates (I got thoroughly taken on my first few auctions) I'm buying boxes and can tell you what a zone 6 means through the post office (in a nutshell it means that even though an item weighs not-so-much, the box size is so big that you pay double on shipping) I've had two auctions canceled because the buyers were hackers that hacked into someone else's account, I've given one full refund because the item (a $100 computer monitor) was damaged when it arrived. I am making daily treks to the post office and UPS and I can't sleep at night because I listed some iPod Nanos as new and then found out they were refurbished. I'm certain someone is going to send a mail bomb to my house for lying to them.

I know that most people could handle this, and it makes me very angry that I feel so overwhelmed, but I dream of things like sending the wrong item to the wrong person or having someone tell me that their child died of anaphalactic shock because a cat hair got into their box.

The good news is that I've made about $1000 so far and since these items were purchased so long ago, I have no idea how much was paid for them so I am more concerned with getting stuff out of my poor office (see photo) than I am about making my money back.

So, anyhoo, that's what's going on with me. I am hoping my brain waves will even out here soon and I won't feel quite so overwhelmed. As for now, you can find me on eBay. My tag name is Ismylee and if you're looking for a wristwatch style blood pressure kit, or an 8gb no name MP3 player--I'm your seller!

11 comments:

Holly (2 Kids and Tired) said...

I did the eBay thing for a few months after we moved to Idaho. Mostly all my baby and maternity stuff, 'cause we've got two and they're all we're going to get. I had a whole collection of cake decorating stuff too and sold it. It kind of burnt me out though. Now, I just sell the books I don't want to keep through half.com. No auctions.

Being angry at the situation is normal and it would overwhelm anyone at times. I'd take the $1000 as your reimbursement for doing this and then take the rest of the stuff to DI and be done with it. Whatever you paid for it is long gone anyway! Good luck sweetie!

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Oh Josi! You must be so, so tired!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

"I prefer that my family have clean underwear."

LOL.

Hang in there! Selling on Ebay isn't really that fun for me, so I can imagine how overwhelmed you must be. Your DH sounds like a character. :)

Janette Rallison said...

You are amazing. Hands down. I'm not doing half of what you're doing and I still don't manage to shower one day in three. Take that 1000 and buy yourself something really nice.

Josi said...

Okay, so now I feel really guilty because I went to check on my husband and he's sick today--let's hope it's not inadvertent Vodoo on my part. And as much as I would love to spend the money, it's going toward next months mortgage because we are waiting on a piece of land to sell and have no income right now :-) such is the life of the madly-in-love-with-entreprenuers

Glad to know I'm not the only one with eBay induced stress disorder

Anonymous said...

Tongue in cheek here 9 words Yard sale my yard your money I will help
You are amazing.

Annette Lyon said...

My brain aches just thinking about it.

Julie Wright said...

HA Josi! Your brain is not small and you can be grateful you aren't Julie-the-insane-wright. You are fabulous and sorry to here Lee is sick. being in love with entrepreneurs is so tough sometimes!

An Ordinary Mom said...

Oh my! My brain is having major sympathy pains for you! Hang in there!

Luisa Perkins said...

OH, Josi. I hope it all sells quickly and that you make some money back! Yikes!

Autumn Ables said...

Oh, boy! You are in it DEEP. {not to rub salt into your gapping wound or anything}

I was about to email you to check why you haven't blogged in so long...I was worried about ya. And it looks as if I do need to worry because I can feel your despair and loss of brain cells. Really.

My hubby sounds a little and a lot like yours and he is the Ebay King of this house. {As well as runs a pool cleaning/repair service} I have piles and piles of &*$* all over the loft which is our office and my garage is not able to hold 2vehicles as it is supposed to because the same @#*# is down there. grrrr

And my hubby sells and sells but buys and buys and buys and buys way more and one of these days I'm gonna explode! Now...my next question is going to be annoying. Why in the HELLo is your hubby not selling this stuff on Ebay himself?????

I think your amazing, wonderful and awesome for doing what you can and so hang in there, girl! Maybe get on Prozac? That may help. :)