That's life

We've been trying to make a go of eBay and the website for about 7 months now. We've had ups and downs like anyone would, but the last few weeks have really tried us a lot. First the camera came down with a strange ailment. The display screen wouldn't display, an interesting phenomenon when one is trying to take pictures of clothes and such. Becky is obsessive and may take 20 shots of one item to be sure she gets the "right" pictures. This isn't wrong by any means. But it's kind of important to be able to see what she's doing. The camera couldn't see them either. Suspecting it may be terminal, Becky scoped out the problem and discovered it's an issue with this particular model and Canon had a fix. The downside...the camera had to go back. This is another version of ET calling home, only this time he had to go home. Estimated 3 weeks for return to taking pictures. Yikes!

She borrowed a camera for a full day of pictures, hoping we'd get enough to last until the camera came back. We managed. Our listings got low, but still okay. Then the eBay announcements came out about how they intended to shake up everyone's life by lowering listing fees, raising final value fees, changing the default search mechanism, and eventually, not allowing sellers to leave neutral or negative feedback for a buyer. I don't know how any of this will affect us yet, but I'm hoping it will not be a killer. The default search favors low prices, high volume sellers, especially power sellers, and those with high "star" ratings. I'm trying to figure out where the vintage clothing sellers come out in this change. Searching vintage dress for instance might pit a designer 1920's flapper dress in mint condition against an '80's something or other that would obviously be priced way lower. Now someone looking for that flapper dress might actually put in "flapper dress '20's", but if they don't, it might be hard to find. We'll have to see. I have always been in favor of paradigm shifts even though I don't like change. I think if it's time for major change and it has to be considerable, then everyone bites the bullet and makes it happen. In this case though, eBay orders the change, says here you go kids, have fun and the shift is on the way. So people protest. Talk about boycotts. Say they're leaving for greener pastures. I wanna be one of them, but whew. Not sure. In the meantime, I'm perfecting my ability to leave "positive" feedback for non-paying bidders and general boneheads who may have done something other sellers should be warned about. It HAS to be positive feedback. So we hit the positive button (I'm guessing that's the only option we'll have at that point) and leave a comment. Positive: Worst buyer on ebay. Should be shot at close range. Do not sell to him. Or possibly: Lousy buyer, scumbag never paid. Lol. I will say though, we have not left any negative feedback and hope with the changes, we still won't have to for anybody. But you never know. I need to track down Dilbert to help me hone my skills.

A week or so ago, Becky's computer started acting up. Every little while, it would restart itself and say it had a major problem. She has the pictures, editing tools, templates-you name it, she has it on her computer. Everything she needs to run an online business. It's like my purse-her whole life is in there! Every time it had a major GERD episode, I thought Becky was going to have a heart attack. She cleaned it up, ran every diagnostic she and Charlie could think of, and the thing just kept restarting. She would get it to stop for a day and it would start doing it every hour again. She used my computer when she had to, leaving me to find other things to do. It's okay, I'm easily amused. She was not. She hates my computer! It doesn't have the stuff on it she needs. But she kept editing and listing and taking pics all the same. Grumbling, but working hard. Finally she and Charlie came to the conclusion that it had thrown a shoe and it was probably not long before it would throw another one. He got on craigslist and-wow! He found a computer right here in Lockport and it would fit the bill. 24 hours later, Becky was moving data from her old computer to her new one. It seems to be working fine and it doesn't restart at the oddest times. Hopefully, it will stay healthy.

It has been an entertaining little while in a morose way. The "Devil went down to Georgia" and man, I hope he stays there!

I haven't posted any clothes lately, so I'll add one that's up now.




Check it out on eBay