Big weekend heading into a big week

So we've been checking out local furniture, hobby, and book stores lately, to determine how to unload the things that aren't moving (or won't ever get posted) on Amazon and ebay.  The furniture store's a good possibility if we're in their "pickup" radius, and if they like the photos we will eventually send them.  We've found a train guy, and we might send him some pics this week, and maybe visit him in person again with a bin of stuff if HE expresses more of an interest than he already has (which is to say, sight-unseen, he expressed "interest" but needs to know if there's any "real" value).  One more trip to a bookstore, for cash and/or store credit, and then whatever's left in our possession will probably end up at a yard sale or flea market, priced at $.50/paperback and $1.00/hardback.  OR, I will cobble together various wine/liquor boxes of various titles and list them on ebay as "grab-box specials" for supah-cheap and see if I get any takers!  What the hell, right?

This weekend, I put a bunch of dolls in the ebay store, and had lots of communications with potential buyers, and made some changes in how I had things listed, and then I MOVED four dolls and got bids and watchers on dolls and self-help tapes and comics.  I was BUSY this weekend!  THREE packages (all porcelain dolls) went out in today's mail, and another Barbie is awaiting payment (I think that buyer's going to snag another Barbie or two and is waiting for a bulk-shipment invoice - I'm hoping he opts for my last three Barbies so I can be DONE with that line).

Tomorrow, Stephen has the day off, and he's found another consignment store that may have an interest in all of the plastic/vinyl dolls we have left - maybe twenty? vintage 50's or 60's dolls with "sleep eyes" and shoulder and hip joints that I'll never be able to research for ebay.  I'm almost at the point where every doll I list is going to go up for a ten dollar auction or fifteen dollar "Buy It Now" - I've already got a shitload of teddy bears listed at five apiece OBO... and have sold three, with a watcher on a fourth.

You may not know this, but just as some Facebookers are actually just "lurkers," reading other folks' posts but never liking or commenting or posting on the happenings in their own lives, some ebayers are "watchers" - and I may not ever know WHO is watching my store, but I can track at any given time how many folks are watching a particular item.  When I was shopping on ebay, I didn't bother to watch.  If I had interest in an item and its auction was appropriate, I'd bid.  If it got out of hand, I'd quit.  If it didn't get out of hand, I'd win the bid, pay promptly, and receive the item I'd ordered.  Ebay is FUN!  I doubt Amazon lets you do those things, or track them as a seller, since they're set up more for "Buy It Now."  And Stephen manages that store.

But anyway.  I'm still applying for work IN LOS ANGELES.  We're still following the "transfer his job" path with Stephen and Sam's Club.  We're still looking at apartments in the areas we know.  We're counting how many earthquakes hit before we get home, and figuring on rent being supah-cheap by the time we get there, since a portion of the population will throw in the towel.  We're still downsizing and calculating HOW MUCH STUFF we'll have to ship, and how to get it done effectively and efficiently.  We're still going to see his mom for her 70th birthday.  We're settled on the transportation of us and the cats - MY CAR - but haven't mapped out our route yet.  We've gotten an invitation from a pair of Florida-based friends with whom we'd built our relationship in LA.  I wouldn't mind seeing as much family as we can, one "last" time, while we're still on this coast.  Just don't know how yet.  None of this last paragraph has any bearing on today's post, unless one of the jobs kicks in this week.  Still gonna be a big week, though!  And for you?