Packing for eBay.
Sad to see some of this go is an understatement.
But I see them as money that can be invested to earn me more rather than sitting under my stairs.
Biography of a nobody day 39. February 8th 2021.
I started the morning by chilling with Alex after getting her ready for nursery. Today is sad Monday. I know as soon as I wave her off to her teacher I won't see her again for 7 long days, this week she is with her Mother. We ate breakfast and laughed as we watched a little Disney plus. She loves going to nursery so as scary as it is to let her go at the moment I think it is really important for her development and vitally important I embrace her loving her education. I just need her to keep that up for another 13-18 years and she should be set for a wonderful career.
Along with the sadness of seeing my daughter go for the week this morning, I then had to set to work packing up my recent eBay exploits. I took a leaf out of my friend Dan's book and decided to Marie Kondo some of my old collectables out of my life. I am really sad to see some of this go- yet at the same time, I think it needs to be done. I have nearly every old games console since the SNES buried in boxes hidden all over my house along with a ton of games for each one. My favourite collection of games though is definitely my Final Fantasy collection. There aren't just games in it too- there are limited edition guides, old and new versions of each game and even the films. I am a MASSIVE Final Fantasy fan and I would even attribute my ability to read in part to playing Final Fantasy as a kid. I couldn't progress in the vast and immersive stories if I couldn't read them. Regardless, they weren't getting any use being stored away, I knew I would never display them despite how much I love them, and they aren't really going to appreciate in value much more. Well, they may- but I can appreciate more in the stock market over that time if I sell them now and use the money for that. My main reason to keep them was that I wanted my daughter to be able to play them as she grew up. Well, I own digital copies of my favourites on my PS4 and my phone anyway. I am pretty sure I moaned about this last week when I first put them on eBay.. so I am going to move on. Or try to... *sad face*.
Packaging for eBay. Maaaaan I had no idea how time-consuming or expensive this could be. Let me start by saying I am completely disorganised and I leave everything to the last minute. I had bids for over £100 on my Final Fantasy collection and Nintendo 64 collection as early as last Thursday- So I knew I would need to package them well (I would anyway) but these bids deserve the extra effort. Well, the bids end today and I don't have so much as an envelope ready. Off to the post office. What started out as a scout around co-op for old scraps of boxes ended up in me buying fancy official royal mail 'postpak' boxes and bubble wrap. I F*cking love bubble wrap. I realised I ended up spending most of what I had charged in postage for all my bids just on what I was planning to pack them in. Oh well, there goes my crypto money. It took me AGES to individually wrap each item and try and Tetris them into the boxes. Like a genius though (Tell me if I am wrong) I semi inflated balloons to make up the difference in space in some of the boxes- I figured that would stop stuff rolling around and would also protect them. I had some fancy pink ones left from Alex's princess party last year. My bidders better leave me some pretty solid feedback.
How much!? The bids completed and I messaged the winner's thanks for paying- also explaining my wacky packaging and how I hope they enjoy their items. I copied their names and addresses onto the boxes then took them to the post office. I then ended up paying around £40 total in postage on all the things I sent. I mean for the size of some of the packages that really isn't too bad- but why didn't I try and calculate this properly to add onto the eBay listing? I think I added around £3.50-£5 on most. I spent that on the bloody boxes and the bubble wrap. Bloody flippin bubble wrap. I will still be up over £450 though, so not such a bad deal for things that were collecting dust.
What next. After learning my lesson with the packaging I now know I need to be a little savvier with prices and postage. Maybe later this week I can some of my other consoles and collections online. When looking through my stuff I am seeing the holes in certain collections of games or films that I have lent to friends and family. Not getting them back now then. There is a calculable amount of time before you have to re-borrow something back from someone you lent something to. Once it has been with them over six months- they think it was always theirs, you have lost any evidence or back up to claim it was yours... and... sod it all, I can sell all this other crap as is. I have sold my most beloved stuff- I am far less attached to what I have remaining. More nostalgia than love. Well, nostalgia takes up space and I can trade their value for some more stocks and crypto.
Bee has been off work even though she received her confirmation she is Covid negative yesterday. She is really really ill, I am pretty worried. I picked her up some anti-biotics from the pharmacy earlier which will hopefully help. She has been up a lot last night so we were both pretty knackered. I had started off the day feeling pretty good, but after dropping off Alex and selling some stuff I really used to love I started to feel a bit mentally drained. Times that by the exhaustion of no sleep and chasing a puppy around the house as it tries to find more inventive and hidden places to poo... I don't know. I have just gone a bit blank. I am not in disconnection, but I am close. Bee got me moving earlier and I had a bath with some music so I am feeling better- it is just weird how I can be so up and down in a day.