Saturday, August 28, 2010

To Buy, To Make, Perchance to Sell?

About 25-30 years ago, an old friend of mine and I had this "bright" -or maybe not so -idea about having our own crafts type shop located, preferably in one of our homes or in some little place that we could perhaps rent cheaply.

Without a computer -obviously then, no internet -I have no idea how I researched anything, trying to locate suppliers -who actually qualified as a wholesaler -but I did find one place, located in Delaware, that would allow me to open an account and make small purchases from them of items that I could then offer for resale here.

Since, back then, I was also the local Avonlady and had a pretty good-sized route, I used to take photos, information on pricing of the various things I had in stock or could special order for a customer.

Sadly, apparently it was not an idea whose time had come because, though I did make a couple of sales, much of what I did sell was purchased by my Dad's two sisters. I'm pretty sure they bought these kits just to try to give me a bit of a start in the business world, albeit the world of very small business, ya know.

As most of you may be aware now, I'm really into doing embroidery work -tablecloths, tabletoppers, pillow cases, specialty towels and things like that and my goal is to get a little bit of an inventory, of sorts, of these items and then, post them on and Etsy.com account in the hopes of selling a couple of these items. Maybe even make a couple extra bucks that way.

I will say this much though about that idea, if I get an Etsy.com shoppe up and working, I'd better make a whole lot of sales and at really, really huge prices too so I can then make a dent in the medical bills I have that keep accumulating now too, as it seems every time I turn around the doctors want another test done or they figured out now I have this or that problem now too.

Thank goodness though between my Medicare and my supplemental insurance, I am not responsible to pay the entire bill for my five-day stay at the Pittsburgh hospital last month.

I almost fell over on the spot when I opened that bill Friday afternoon and saw what my total charges were for that five-day stay.

Can you believe it, but the bill was over $60,000?

And what hurts is I didn't even get a good night's sleep while I was a patient there either!

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