Wow. Less than an hour ago I got an email that sort of changes things and the same time changes absolutely nothing.
I love eBay! I love the concept; I love the premise; I love the community; I love watching capitalism at work. My eBay business and seller ID are: CapitalismWorks.
Eight years ago this month I made my first eBay sale. It was a candy thermometer I bought at an estate sale for $3 or $4. I put it on eBay and sold it to a buyer in England for $16. “That’s a good deal,” I said. “I bet I can do that again.”
Auction after auction, garage sale after garage sale, estate sales, library sales, ads in the paper, referrals by friends and overheard conversations, I have bought and then resold on eBay. I even at one point started to buy things from foreign eBay sites and resell them here for a profit. Probably by now, I’ve made more than 2,000 sales on eBay.
At first I was very broad in my buying and selling. I eventually settled on the book category and learned how to buy and sell them well. I’ve turned $25 into $800, $20 into $200, three or four times I’ve turned a $1 book into a $100+ eBay sale. It’s been about as exciting as it has been profitable. Eventually, the boys moved into our home and time became more valuable, more people started doing what I was doing, and I began to sit back and wait for business to come to me. I started selling for other people. That was so much easier. I have sold all size and variety of items…from silverware and baskets to cars and concession trailers (2). It’s been good and profitable, and Chrissy and I have always considered EACH sale to be another gift from God.
It was almost three years ago that I got my best deal. It was a gift from God in a difficult season. A local company asked me to sell their overstocked, used, new, discontinued items for them (mostly commercial appliances). I was pleased to do so. I worked hard for them, and they moved a lot of equipment. It was good for both of us and I basically farmed out all my other eBay work and concentrated on selling for this company.
An hour ago, I got an email that ended the relationship. They are going to do the work in-house now. A friendly and thankful email…and it’s done. It was a very irregular income. Sometimes that income met or exceeded my income from the church. Often, that income would stave away the red ink in our check book. And it’s done…. wow.
Chrissy and I have been preparing ourselves for this announcement. We knew we would do what we did when we heard this news and that’s exactly what we did: we looked at each other, shrugged and reminded each other how pleased we were with a great God who does all things well. That work was exactly what we needed when we needed it. Now we will see what else God wants us to do on the side…maybe nothing (other than the 3 hour per week cleaning job we’ve had for many years). The work of eBay (though I love it and it is easy to me) is time consuming to do well. So we will see what happens.
eBay has trained me to teach an eBay University class. That is an option to do more teaching. There are plenty of people who want to know, but still…wow! God is good to show us Himself and remind us to depend on Him, not on jobs or sales or men.
Things are going to change around here. Absolutely nothing should change.
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.” Ps. 145:3
Read Full Post »
To Be A Pilgrim 