"Burrage Mining Company" Year One, wow

I am ALL ABOUT significant dates. Like, "One year ago today we painted the kitchen, wow," or "Three years ago today, I took a picture of all the orange juice for sale at Wal-Mart, wow." And like yesterday. It marked the official one year anniversary of the start of Burrage Mining Company. December 17th last year, 2014, was the day I listed for auction a babies' RealTree camo jacket that I'd gotten in a bag of clothes I'd bought for tiny 4-month-old Raleigh. I hadn't planned to start an eBay business; I just thought, "Hmm, I bet this jacket is worth more than I paid for it, and I might be able to get some money back on these clothes if I sell as a lot the rest of the ones I don't want." And then I found out that some people do this for a living. And I started buying stuff.

That little (damaged) jacket brought me a fantastic profit of......$2.18. (But my worst flip? I lost $13.34 on the sale of a lamp made out of a bowling pin, because I accidentally listed the lamp with free shipping...and it cost a LOT to ship.)

The business sprouted right when I needed it. My sweet baby was no longer sleeping all the time, leaving me with very few long uninterrupted chunks to play video games or just stare at my phone for hours like I used to. With the loss of that free time came the loss of my life before Raleigh. I felt like I had nothing of myself left; I couldn't do any of the activities I used to enjoy, because I couldn't become unavailable. That feeling when you're in an office waiting for them to call your number or name, and you might be watching something interesting on TV, or reading something cool, and you might even get immersed, but at any moment they're going to call you away from what you're doing? That became the feeling of my whole life. Even now, I'm typing in the middle of the mess of something else I should be doing, listening for sounds of Raleigh waking.

So, I couldn't do anything that required my attention for long periods of time...but I could photograph an item. I could give something else its pre-photo-shoot clean & polish. Write a listing. Pack a box. My newfound fun required only that I have 3 or 5 or 10 minutes available at a time. And it was a blissfully, surprisingly, amazingly easy answer to the question of every mom: "How do I stay at home and make enough money to significantly contribute to my family's income?" (My best flip? $200 for a curriculum I sold for over $750. Profit was $517.)

It's flexible, profitable, AND fun; the items that come through my office are so diverse. And the amount people will pay for some things just blows my mind. Like, I found this straw hat at Goodwill for $2.25, and some lady bought it for $69.95 and was REALLY happy about it. Before that, there was this vintage oscillating plasticky fan from like the 80's that looked like absolutely nothing special. In fact, we had one growing up.

it was just one of these.............

I'd bought it at a thrift store for $6. Someone paID EIGHTY DOLLARS FOR IT. PLUS SHIPPING.

One of the coolest things I sold was a really neat vintage sewing machine I paid $19.91 at Goodwill for and sold for $114, plus shipping. Yeah, it was great to pack, it was a giant chunk of metal that weighed...34? lbs once everything was done.

it just looked cool

BUT! If you really want to feel like you're in Crazy Town: I purchased for $4.04 a Littlest Pet Shop Monopoly from Goodwill. Inside were four dumb tiny little plastic bobblehead animals. I trashed the game (incomplete) and sold the dumb little animals for $28.99.

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I'm always learning more about what is valuable, always researching so I don't miss an opportunity. It's paid off; I picked up a necklace a few days ago for $4 I expect at least $100-$200 from. It's made of an obscure vintage plastic. It's so cool to be able to walk into a thrift store and know that I might find hundreds of dollars that day, just lying around. The thrill of the hunt!

Soooo, it's 2 in the morning and I'm ready to go to bed. There are probably too many semicolons in this post, but I have too much to worry about to add semicolons to the list. I just wanted to commemorate this occasion. And add a mention that yesterday, on Burrage Mining Co's first anniversary, we had an anniversary/First Annual BurrageCo Christmas Party at a local steak & seafood place we'd never been to (like Goodfellas in Gloucester) even after having lived 5 minutes away from it for 2 years. It was a perfect experience, from the great Christmas decor and the ambiance to Raleigh throwing pieces of french fry and hush puppy on the floor then getting restless and needing to be walked around the restaurant while our check was prepared.

This is to commemorate the accomplishment, the learning and the fun and the profits and the Frankenbox creations when I didn't have a box of the right size. I've gotten so much better and faster at all of it, and I still have a whole world full of items to learn about. Honestly, I continue to surprise myself. I'm happy.

And super tired.