I won every. single. auction. that I bid on via Buyee! 5 auctions in total. I was not expecting that. Now I just gotta wait for the packages to arrive at Buyee’s warehouse, at which point I will have them all consolidated into one or two packages, then shipped to me. It’ll be a week or two before I see the cards, which leads me to believe that I will have some time in which I don’t have any cards to list on eBay.

I have 6 booster boxes of Weiss Schwarz Hatsune Miku Project Diva f English Edition. I suppose I could start opening booster packs of those, and listing the cards contained within. I’m still giving my collection priority. If I happen upon a card which I don’t have, I’m holding onto that card for now. It’s kind of a bummer because I think I’m going to be holding onto a lot of cards which I could get some money for. There’s one SP card per box and I probably don’t have that SP in English. Those SPs are worth the most money.

Maybe it doesn’t even make sense to open the booster boxes. Maybe it makes more sense to sell the booster box.

I had an idea to sell booster packs from booster boxes which I already found the SP. This way, I keep the SP and I sell booster packs which are guaranteed to NOT contain a SP.

I have a few Weiss Schwarz cards on eBay. It seems that nobody wants commons though. It’s all the high end holo foil cards that get sold. I think Weiss Schwarz is too common to get my target price of $7 per card. At least for the Rares and lower. I have so many commons. I think the only way people will buy those is if they’re getting multiple per dollar. Right now I’m just not competitively priced on the Weiss Schwarz cards.

The nice thing is that I can always reduce the selling price. I’m just focusing on getting everything listed right now, so when buyers happen to search eBay for the card they want, they see that I have it. Over time I can make all the tweaks in the world to actually get them sold.

I’m a little worried! I think I overspent on the Buyee auctions. I wasn’t expecting to win all 5, so I placed more bids than I was planning on winning.

I’ll probably be fine, but the pressure is on! My eBay sales the past few days haven’t been so good. I haven’t been listing nearly as much as I have in the past month. I need a good inventory replenishment! Hmm… I need more revenue streams, because eBay is pretty fucking boring.

Well, I really enjoy listing cards. i could do that for many years to come. The listing of anything else which requires a different process for each item is what really grinds my gears. Say I have an old computer motherboard and RAM to list. I gotta carefully separate all the parts, photograph them, and write a description, store it safely and weigh it and estimate shipping.

With a card, I have a streamlined process and sorted boxes for storing them. It’s a breeze and it’s relaxing and I can watch JRE while I photograph and list cards. A motherboard or a camera or some other electronic takes way more effort, and the margins are all over the place.

Cards are so simple, fun to list, easy to ship, and buyers pay well. What’s not to love?

I gotta be realistic. I need to figure out more ways to make money which entail doing shit I like doing.

I suppose this month I’m covered by the money I’m going to withdraw from Robinhood today. This month is a good one to take lower eBay earnings and really focus on getting precious-decks online. I’m on borrowed time. I’ve got debt and bills so I can’t do this month after month. I have to be realistic and figure out a way to be a successful capitalist, and work hard to make it happen.

It’s eBay. It’s really eBay. I’m all in on eBay.

Well it’s going to be a couple weeks before I get my inventory replenishment… I have to make some sales before then.

Price drop! Drop the price of the Weiss Schwarz cards. Some of them anyway. Maybe the ones I have the most inventory of get a price drop.

I’m thinking no. I’m thinking that the corona virus scare has got people tightening their budget. I’m just going to have to ride this out, and I’m going to experience a period of reduced sales volume.

I just have to stay the course, continue as I have been, and list as many items per day as possible.

Stay. The. Course.

That’s what Rudy with Alpha Investments says. He’s well aware of the COVID-19 scare, what it may do to the economy, and we investors just have to stay calm and not act emotionally.

My dad said with high confidence that the economy is going to tank. I think his confidence is unfounded. I think he’s confident because he’s confident in the person he heard it from.

I’m choosing to not be afraid. This virus scare is just like mad cow disease, SARS, vika, and all the other disease scares before it. Somehow, this one struck a chord in most people’s minds, and they for some primal instinct reason are reacting more strongly than the other scares.

I’m not afraid. I’m not going to change my lifestyle because people around me are afraid. I’m not going to act irrationally because people around me are afraid.

If I end up with COVID-19, I will not be afraid. I didn’t get mad cow or Zika/vika/whatever-it-was, SARS or the other ones. Even if I did, it’s not a death sentence. I would have 97% chance of recovery. For fucks sake, the coronavirus meme is orders of magnitude more contagious than the virus itself, and all it does is propagate fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

On to the next topic.

I’m going to attempt to sell flyingdeer.org today. It’s been two weeks since I bought the domain. I think it got around 100 clicks. I’m going to send a polite e-mail to the people running flyingdeernaturecenter, and see if they are interested in purchasing. I would like to get $200 for the domain, but I’m open to offers and the lowest I would accept is $40. I want a good return on investment, and at this point I’ve paid about $15 for it.

I sent the e-mail to flying deer nature center. Flyingdeer.org got 92 clicks in the past 2 weeks. I failed to mention that, because I want to keep it up my sleeve for later. For now I just mentioned that the nature center was incorrectly mentioned as flyingdeer.org and that I own the domain and would like to sell it.

Good morning.
 Flying Deer Nature Center was recently mentioned by a guest on Joe Rogan Experience podcast. The URL was incorrectly mentioned as flyingdeer.org which I own. Are you interested in buying flyingdeer.org from me? I'll make you a deal!
 -Chris Grimmett

I kept it short and sweet. I’ll wait 2 weeks before attempting to sell it to a different interested party.

---

Oh boy, the fun times of a reseller! I might have begun some family drama. So a few weeks ago, my brother B. told me about this deal on woot.com for a tactical sling style backpack. I ended up purchasing said backpack for $54, shipped. I had no intention to hold onto it, I simply planned on flipping it.

So it arrives and I repackage it into a bubble mailer so I can save on shipping cost. I’ve got the backpack listed on eBay now for $82 + $19 shipping. That covers my markup and the future shipping cost. I think it seems like a lot for a backpack, but this backpack is a 2017 model which is discontinued, and there are other sellers advertising at $108 + free shipping. Therefore, my price is very competitive.

The drama begins when B. texts me and is interested in buying my backpack. I tell him my asking price is $72.25. I probably should have mentioned that I have it listed for $82 + shipping on eBay, and that I’m cutting him a deal. He doesn’t respond.

Days later, I get a text from his wife asking what backpack I have and where I got it, because she wants to buy the backpack for him. This is a little awkward! B. knows what I paid for the backpack, because he was considering buying the backpack when it was on sale for $54. (It was 49.99, free shipping + tax)

So I don’t try to hide anything, I explain the situation to B.’s wife and that I’m selling one for $72.25 and that’s where I’m at right now. LOL.

I suppose I’m jumping to a conclusion that B. is offended at my asking price, since he’s the one who told me about the sale and he’s the reason I bought the backpack.

Here’s the thing. I’m on a shoestring budget right now. I’m in debt up to my eyeballs and I’m struggling to start a reseller business. I can’t cut my family deals because they’re my family. On the contrary, my family should want to pay full price because they should want to see me succeed!

B. could have bought the backpack at the time of the sale. He has way more money than I do, and so I don’t think he has an excuse. He didn’t so now he has to navigate the market and find a backpack if he wants it. I have one. I’d be happy to sell it to him for $72.25 which is below the price I am intending to receive from a sale via eBay. I am cutting him a deal, but I am being fair to myself and I’m fending for myself. I’m trying to run a business here!

Speaking of running a business… My amazon affiliate links have earned me $0.00! I guess this is to be expected. I’m guessing a lot of visitors run adblock. Those that don’t, aren’t going to click a link to buy something that they don’t want.

I just found out that my blog gets around 7,000 unique visitors a month. 15,000 page views per month. Wow, that’s pretty cool!

I got a huge bump in traffic on March 4th. I wonder what that was about?

Pretty cool stats. This info is good to know. You know what? I haven’t even started publishing the shit I write every day. That shit isn’t going to go live for almost 2 years, if at all.

Nah, I really want to publish my journal. My life. It’s the one thing I’m creating on a consistent basis that I’m proud of. I code every now and then, but my projects rarely see the light of day. Those code projects rarely make it to production and it’s a bit sad that I don’t follow through with so many ideas. I run out of steam!

Hmm… I think it might be more than that. I think a lot of it has to do with being uncomfortable creating code projects. I get to difficult parts of the project where I have to overcome some seemingly mammoth problem, and I choke up and quit. I get scared of the outcome sometimes. I get scared of success and having to maintain a production system and appease the visitors.

I think that’s part of why I’m trying to diversify my revenue streams. I want to be able to lean on eBay every now and again, so I don’t have to be stressed out writing code all day. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to write code for a living, but full time code writing would have to be a lot different than how I do it now. Right now, I code at the expense of my own health. I get so stressed out and tense and angry because I have a difficult time taking care of myself and coding.

It’s reasons like this that make me think I’m not going to have a professional career as a developer. There are people who are more naturally capable of dealing with stress. They might not be as good as me, or they might be better, but regardless, they’re better suited for the job.

That’s one thing my therapist brought up. I told her that I wasn’t exceptional at anything, and I didn’t feel like I could get a job in web development. She said that’s a common thing for a lot of people. They may not be exceptional, they’re just good at their job.

I just said the same thing twice, with different words both times. That’s a pet peeve of mine. I find older people doing it more often than young people. I think it’s because young people pick up ideas instantly, whereas old people do not, and they are speaking for themselves and trying to craft the right thing to say which drives the point home. In their minds, they haven’t soaked up the idea, whereas young people got it the first time and they’re rolling their eyes the second or even third time around.

I suppose I’ll go read now. I’ll close with some words of gratitude and affirmations.

101. I will learn from yesterday, live for today and hope for tomorrow.
6. The sun is shining; I am ready to take on another day.
23. Everything will work out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out yet, it’s not the end.

I’m grateful for thrift stores. They have good deals and I like good deals.

I’m grateful for mushrooms. I’m not talking about the psychedelic variety today. Today I speak of the food type which go great on pizza or in stir fry. They are a good source of protein and the deer love them as well! Deer are funny.

I’m grateful for paprika. No particular reason, I just picked a random spice that I like that I have in my cupboard. It makes food tasty.