Friday 2 November 2012

The Bag Lady

 
 
Who on earth is the bag lady you may ask yourself, well to be honest it used to be me.  I used to love my bags, I had one for every occasion, one to match each and every pair of shoes and boots I owned(not that many shoes and boots really, I was a BAG lady not a shoe-a-holic), but you get the picture.
 
When I lived on my own after parting from my first husband I rented a lovely little house in Barrow in Furness town centre and of course I had a bedroom all to myself for the first time in 24 years, so on one wall I hammered in lots of nails and ALL my bags were displayed directly opposite my bed.  I think I took comfort in seeing them all there, all my books were packed away in boxes as I had no shelves and I had yet to discover No-Nails so I couldn't put any up (and my ex had custody of all the power tools ...... and all the furniture and everything else actually!) and I think my bags took their place for a while.
 
 
 
Laura Ashley Leather Bag.
 
 
I don't know when the change came, it snuck up on me overnight and suddenly I began to see them all for what they were....an accumulation of stuff...... and this was way before I started living simply.  Over the next couple of years I gradually reduced the collection, I worked as a Manager of a charity shop during this time and some of them crept back there where I had bought them from.  Some went on Ebay and eventually when I had an almighty clear out I car booted the remainder.
 
Now I am reformed I have one bag on the go and it goes everywhere with me until it either wears out or I find a better version.  I have a couple in my wardrobe, one gorgeous leather slouchy bag that I bought when we went to Rome with Lovely Hubby and Jason a couple of years ago and that is a keeper, and I have my day to day tan coloured leather Laura Ashly bag, my 'perfect' bag, with pockets in all the right places and a colour I love, that I go back to time and time again and at the momentI have my little across the body bag currently in use that cost me just £12 in Sainsb**ys just before my holiday. 
 
 I thought that was it until last week when I went into the charity shop in Pangbourne, and there shining out at me was the bag in the picture at the top of this post. It is as new condition, and mixes my two favourite colours.  When I saw it on the shelf I couldn't resist picking it up, it feels so lovely it is made of the softest buttery leather ever.  I was about to put it back on the shelf, this charity shop charges through the nose for handbags usually and then I spied the price ticket, it was £2.99!!  WHAT!!  I double checked the price and the label inside the bag, it had a small sewn in label that merely says 'Genuine Leather, Made in Columbia SA'.
 
 
 
'Hotter' Leather Bag
 
So I made myself a promise that this beauty was coming home with me and this week I would put the only two bags that I own that do not have any precious memories or reason to stay, on Ebay and that's exactly what I did.  So this week until Sunday afternoon these two bags are listed, and luckily for me one of them is already above the price that I paid for my new acquisition.
 
But now rather suddenly I am starting to ask myself do I even need this new one and maybe this one will end up on Ebay too, we'll see.  I'm not rushing my Ebay selling, just putting 10 items a week to sell either on there or on Amazon.  I'm not doing too badly, I'll never get rich selling things like this but I am making money instead of spending it and that is really good in my opinion.  And step by step the house is getting more simple too.
 
What has been your experience of either Ebay* or Amazon*?   Do you buy, do you sell, do you think it's worth the effort with the postage etc?
 
Sue xx
(reformed bag lady)
 
*If you want to see my items for sale on either Amazon or Ebay, simply click on the appropriate pictures at the top of my sidebar, and you will go straight to my pages.

18 comments:

  1. *sighs* Oh dear, this is ALL my guilt-receptors pushed in one post! I love bags, have masses in the wardrobe, but do swap and change regularly so most get a chance to see the light of day. As for eBay - well, more guilt there as I never list half the things I should...I must get back to it, but bizarrely it's the photographing of stuff that puts me off. Silly, eh?!

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    1. I don't mind the photographing, it's the waiting for the photos to load that drives me mad....my computer is sooooo slow.

      Sue xx

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  2. We have loads of stuff bought a while ago and hardly used. Plus we're about to clear out my mother's house. ebay is something I've thought about often, but just not got round to doing. Is it time consuming and does it work?
    P.S. With me it always WAS shoes.. !

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    Replies
    1. Yes, e-bay works.
      I've bought a lot from e-bay and sold a couple of things, it can take a bit of time to wrap and post the sold items, and for the cheaper things the postage is a killer, especially since the rates went up.
      Probably more worth it for small but fairly costly items.

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    2. Thanks cumbrian, that's useful information.

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    3. eBay works as long as you list your items well and include clear photos that mean the prospective buyer(s) can get a really good idea of what you are selling. That way you are likely to get more/higher bids.
      It can take a while to list items and then to package them up, but if you don't mind doing that (I do my packaging up while watching TV), then it really can be worthwhile.

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  3. supa dupa bag. I bought a brand new Per una bag in my CS recently having used the same one for years & that was a cast off from a friend !

    Husband buys & sells boat bits on ebay all the time and never had a problem. I bought a Sari for a fancy dress evening. It described the lovely crop top as large but it was teeny so a friend wore that but I had the lovely silk.

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    1. That's the upside to working in a charity shop, you do get some good bargains, of course the downside is that you get lots of temptation to buy those bargains.

      Sue xx

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  4. OOOhhh bags..i must stop this now..i am sara and i once owned 50 bags or more,an addiction that cost me plenty and then i had a LBM what on earth did i need them all for,so i decided to go cold turkey and get rid..plus i needed the wardrobe space for new baby things. This was 7 years ago and i haven't looked back...phew what a relief...i gave them away to my dd's..now i have 3..a huge brown leather one..a little satchel bag and a black silk evening bag...plus my CK mummy bag that goes just about everywhere with me..i do how ever have a few purses
    And yes ebay is good..for both selling and buying..
    sara,fern,iris

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    1. Aha another 50 plus bag lady, we should start bag ladies anonymous....lol. At least we are in recovery now, I too like purses now, well they are so small and useful and don't take up the same room as bags, I have to admit to having three!!

      Sue xx

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  5. I was lucky enough to buy a lovely Harris tweed/leather handbag in my local chazza shop. Like you I use one bag until it's had it's day.
    I do buy and sometimes sell a few things on ebay too. How do you install the ebay logo sidebar tool that links straight through to your account? It would be very helpful to know. Thanks
    Jean x

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    Replies
    1. I like the sound of that bag!! I sometimes think I still am a closet 'bag lady' even though it's under control....but only just...lol!!

      I simply picked up the 'Ebay' logo from Google images and then saved it to my computer, added it as a sidebar 'picture' with a link through to my sales page (ie. cut and paste the web address that is on the top of your computer while on your sales page). Sorry I'm not very good at describing what I do, I simply play around til something works!

      Hope you can figure it out.

      Sue xx

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    2. Thanks so much Sue. I'll give it a bash this weekend, as there are no insertion fees.
      Love

      Jean x

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  6. I have got some things to put on ebay and some stuff to go to the charity shop.

    It's an interesting dilemma isn't it?

    I have bags and I love them but hardly use them.

    Sft x

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  7. I am currently downsizing and have 5 bags for the charity shop...and who has dived into those bags to pull out something I wanted to wear - I must put them in the car to drop off next week!!sigh....
    I have used ebay a lot - uploading the pictures is a pain, always so slow. Packaging for posting is also a pain but I have made some good money on some of the sales. Other items have just sold for a few dollars but they are out of my house and with someone who actually wants them (or will use them). My obsession is 'craft' items and those are my downsize project currently... so so hard to pass on!

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  8. Bags and shoes are my passion, but I don't actually buy many. Instead I 'browse'and get my fill of the delicious'new'leather bag smells and textures. If I am about to succumb to temptation, I always ask myself, Do I really need this? Works most of the time.I must admit I have never used ebay.I put things on a local directory or in the paper.

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  9. I'm going eBay craaaaazy at the moment, so much so that I reached (for the first time ever) the limit of 100 items that you can list for free in a month!
    I'm trying to get together as much spending money as possible for our holiday later this month, as well as paying off bills.
    It's going well so far; last month was the first time in a long time that I didn't go overdrawn, one of my credit cards is paid off, and I have spending money for our holiday - hoooray!

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  10. I'm bag crazy too, although I do part with some of them on Ebay.

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