Costume Drama

When I was pregnant with my son, I was also filling in as the Scheduling Producer at One Life to Live.  While that job was like spending all day every day doing one of those logic problems with all the little boxes (if Sam is next to Mary but can't be next to Joe and if Joe and Judy have to be next to each other--you get the idea), it was always dependent not only on information that I generated but also on the pieces of the puzzle that I could only get from other people.  So, in between the periods of chaos when I had to figure out how to shoot scenes around actor availability and sets being up, I had down time, at a desk, down time that I had never had as a PA or AD.  And that, my friends, is when I discovered eBay.  Whether it was baby items at a discount or little dresses for my girly-girl three year old or storybooks in Spanish for my first-grader who was learning Spanish, I became hooked.  So for a while, every few days, an exciting package appeared, like magic, on our doorstep.

My obsession lasted only a few months--once I had the baby, I was quite otherwise occupied--but over the years, I have returned from time to time to look for treasures or exciting deals.  Even my husband, not always a "deals" guy, bought our Wii system in an eBay auction (a transaction that had me hyperventilating as he waited until the last minute to bid).

This weekend, the not so girly-girl now 11-year old and I discovered the other side.  After the second or third eBay email about selling Halloween costumes, I thought, hey, let's give it a try.  She photographed, I uploaded, I wrote descriptions, she edited them ("Mommy, it's orange, not brown!"), and within a half hour, we were eBay sellers.  No setting up tables and posting signs and hoping for good weather for people to come to a tag sale.  No putting stuff out and bringing it in and then giving it all away when it doesn't sell.  Just a few clicks of a camera and a few clicks of the mouse, a seven-day auction, and a whole lot of laughs as my daughter and her brother tried on items they had long ago outgrown.

And what do you know?  The first item on my "to-do" list this morning was mailing two packages--we've already sold two of our items.  This may be the most fun we've ever had cleaning out our apartment!