I feel like I am in limbo. So many things to do. What to do first? I’ve been dragging my feet all month, waiting for inspiration. Mostly I’m just recovering from the burden of mental effort and worry expended the past year.
I’m balancing my business checkbook today, something I’ve been putting off for three months. Going through all my mail. My car insurance payment is several weeks overdue. It’s easy to ignore mail when you’re in debt. Better not to look than be constantly reminded. I used to be so good at paying my bills on time.
My 60,000 book inventory is up for bids on eBay. Will I make enough to satisfy the IRS? Will I be set free? I’ve placed a reserve price on the auction, which means it won’t sell unless the reserve is met. What happens if the reserve isn’t met? I tell my IRS agent, “Sorry, but I don’t have any money yet. You’ll have to wait some more.” Not a pleasant prospect. I’ve already put her off a month.
The auction has been going for five days with three bids, the highest being $610. I hope others are just waiting to get nearer close of auction to activate sniping software.
The weather is turning and I have a long drive ahead of me. I can’t afford to stay much longer in Oregon. I need to beat the snow in the mountain passes. And I’m not sure how I’m going to move eleven cats. My Mazda Speed 6 will do the job, but it’ll be really cramped. I’ve called around to auto rentals for a van. The best I’ve come up with so far is an SUV for $93 a day plus tax.
For years I kept a motor home just in case I was evicted from my apartment. I’ve heard about all the families who’ve had to surrender their pets to the shelters when they lost their homes. It’s so heartbreaking. I added cats to my tribe of six when I moved into the house because I knew we were safe. There were no landlords to evict us from here. The home was large and they had an acre of room to roam. I wasn’t counting on bankruptcy. (Who does?)
My friend in Pennsylvania has a place ready for me to move into. Getting there is the current challenge. And it all hinges on how this auction goes. Will I have only enough to pay the IRS and then have to scramble for moving funds? Will I have to sell my Star Trek, TNG, Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, SG1 and X-Files DVDs? Or will the auction provide me with extra money to move with?
Waiting for Tuesday night. Auction end. New direction.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
have you considered just holding a book sale at your place?
I’m considering that now. I wasn’t really expecting the auction to flop. I think I’ll be auctioning the inventory off a title at a time.
I took a look at your auction the other day. Quite frankly, no one wants to see the acronym “IRS” in an auction whee one wants thousands of dollars. You then went on to talk about how much you netted,working 4 hours a day, which then creates the suspicion, that if its so great, why are you selling off.
I think you should wait and try again, but re-word it. However, you ought to be more realistic about what you are going to get from them. Large book lots have been sold on Ebay, and did not go nearly as high as 36K.
Sorry, I just thought you deserved to hear a frank assessment of your auction.
BTW, there is a federal mortgage relief program out there. you ought to see if you qualify before uprooting your whole life.
I’m selling off because I have to pay the IRS back payroll taxes. Whoever gets the inventory doesn’t have to worry about that.
If people can’t figure out on their own that netting $9K a month is good income, what can I do? I can’t think for people. I suppose I should have been very specific and explained my situation thoroughly, but I was expecting people intelligent enough to be able to read a spreadsheet. No such luck.
$36K was the take it price. It was not my reserve, which was considerably less. I would certainly expect more than $7,500 for inventory that nets $9K a month.
I don’t want mortage relief, but thanks anyway.
I thought you bought a house with 20 acres out in the country two years ago? is that where you still are and will you lose that too?
I remember when you were the head honcho on amazon
Yes, but it was 10 acres in the country. I am giving up the house.
I am sorry to hear that. I remember when you bought it .
I was wondering where you had gone about two weeks ago.
One thing is I wondered how people could keep going as prices for books kept dropping, and if you’re having trouble , then anyone could.
I noticed what you said about being evicted. Do you think this was because landlords were threatened by someone who was creative and independent? who didnt act like a slave and bow and scrape before them.
I have had serious trouble keeping housing and I always paid my rent on time, but I never deferred to anyone.
so what you wrote about being evicted hit a note. I was evicted in 2004 right after the elections just for having art work clutter on my condo patio.
I was never evicted. I just meant that I was always concerned about what would happen to my cats if I were evicted, like if the apartment owner decided to sell his building and the new owner wanted to make condos.
I’m surprised I wasn’t evicted, because I had six cats in an apartment. Luckily, one manager loved animals and the next one didn’t know any better. The owner never knew, thank god.
Far, the opposite, Dont explain anything on Ebay. Just say you want to go in a different direction, that sort of thing. No one wants too much personal info. on Ebay. I think you will get much more $$ with that approach.
Thanks, Lillian. I’ll do that in my upcoming auctions.