Timing Down Until the Close of Betsey Johnson

(sigh)

All of the Betsey Johnson Stores in Texas are officially closed. That's a bit of a depressing thought. I'd say about 95% of the time, if you'd go into the store, it would be cheaper than what is online, but now the internet is really the only option.

Betsey Johnson closing I've approached with the thought "wow, I may just be buying a piece of history." There's also something nice about buying something cool and when people ask you "where did you get it?" you know they won't be able to imitate.

I shall post up pictures of my finds later as this is a time sensitive posting. There are only three more days until July 22nd when everything officially closes. The website is odd, I know that. You click on all the links and at most one or two items show up. I'm not sure the reason for this, but what I do know is that they still have items available on their online eBay outlet, so why not on the website?

If you go to the search on the Betsey Johnson homepage and type in...oh "dress" or "skirt" there will be a full grid of what is still available which is definitely a lot more than what is showing up from the links.

Have at it. Buy something nice. Wear it proud. Betsey Johnson Store

Selling Cosmetics to a Chemistry Major #2

A coworker of mine has a small side business selling Amway products. The resident makeup brand of Amway is ARTISTRY.

In reference to their exfoliating scrub, my coworker commented

"It sloths away dead skin and revitalizes the skin in such a way to encourage the grow of new skin."

I wonder how that is.

"It alters the mitochondria"

WTF!!! [Me] "Have they done studies on it's ability to predispose people to cancer? That just doesn't sound safe." This sales pitch sounds too carcinogenic

The Impulse Monster

I've decided that another reason that I don't like my birthday is the idea that I'm entitled to forego practicality and do something nice for myself. I'm a teacher, I have to do nice things for myself to postpone the development of my aneurysm, it's the forgoing practicality that is the add on of the birthday.

Well...the prime conditions for the Impulse Monster to come out are sales. Yes, I'm not buying any new clothes this year, but I'm just like a dog you try to train off of an obsession: I switch to another obsession. I've been focusing more on accessories and shoes this year and for my birthday, I allowed myself to procure FOUR pairs of shoes from Anthropologie of all places.

It started with the Cider Press Clogs, by Schuler and Sons:

There's something intriguing about a pair of red shoes, like the fact that I currently don't own a pair. I saw these at the Anthropologie store multiple times and they had just about every size except mine. I'd hope that someone would have maybe bought them online and then returned them to the store, but alas, they always seemed to have every size but mine and every time I was there I made sure to try on all the sizes around what would've been my perceived size in order to make sure that I wasn't hoping for the wrong size to appear. I did this over the span of a month. Since shoes were massively on sale and the red clogs wouldn't be

work appropriate even if I had a chance to get my size, I ended up coming home with two pairs of tan shoes by Schuler and Sons: The Marcia heels and the Gamut Spectators.

I felt odd buying two pairs of tan shoes despite the significant difference in style. I figured that it wouldn't hurt to just try them out. So far I've worn the Gamut specs once to work. My beat up orange loafers are my default and they're quite comfortable. There are times that I've been on the fence on the Marcia shoes. I still have the receipt, but when I try them on, they're cool design and practical quirkiness show me why I opted to keep them in the first place. Anyway, these two were not a birthday purchase. I was looking for shoes for work and even though my job doesn't allow for high heels, it's hard to pass up a pair of practical nude heels.

My birthday rolled around. Since my family lives an hour away, I spend my birthday, largely, by myself. It's not so bad, refer to the previous post on how I feel about birthdays. Still, I allowed myself to indulge. At this point I felt that the Cider Press Clogs were a lost cause. I was down, and there was a sale on boots. Why not? I thought, I'd always wanted to try out ankle boots but I thought my calves were too big. These were extremely comfortable and the design was very unique. At 30% off I saved about $60, but I also could've saved $150 just by not buying them. Sale logic doesn't make sense, but neither do happiness preferences. These, like my other shoes, I felt I had nothing to lose just by trying them out. Pencils have erasers and purchases have receipts. I had my birthday coupon, so I was kind of on a mission. One thing I did not anticipate was the procurement of a pair of cuffed heels I had seen previously.

When I saw these the first time, I thought they were cool looking, but they were not what I was looking for, I was on a work shoe mission and these were uniquely shaped and not for work purposes, but now I was on a birthday mission and I just had to see what these shoes looked like on my feet. Perhaps sometimes I'm searching for the validation that if a really cool looking pair of shoes looks bad on my feet, I can send my wondering and curiosity elsewhere. This is one of those (un)fortunate situations where the realization that lots of things look good on me comes into play. It didn't take me long to decide that these were mine. Financial practicality thrown out the door. Birthday coupon used.

I recognize that I can only have one pair of shoes on at a time. I've told myself that I will make more of an effort to wear my many pairs that have been sitting in the closet. I find myself in a position similar to a person taking too many puppies home from the shelter and can't decide which ones should go back. Even worse, procuring a new puppy.

Back in the day when I bought clothes (it feels like it's been that long), there were times when I'd search for the clothing name and when the page would be back up, magically, the clothes would be back in stock - and then I had to act fast before they went out of stock again.

This is why I'm not fond of bad days either, the idea that if I make it through a particularly bad day, I should reward myself. If you search "Cider Press Clogs," you'll observe that they're back in stock...and the size 8 just decreased by one in inventory.

Sometimes I'm not fond of how smart I am and it opens up a side that is not as smart. I applied the method above to a bag on the website that I had been eyeing for a while, the Mini Bucket Bag from Anthropologie. It's just a really awesome bag, but I'm sure I've said that before about a different bag. I've been rather fond of smaller bags as of late. After having made the purchase in the previous paragraph, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try the search with this bag. I knew it was out of stock so I was madly surprised when it was in stock on the sale site again. I had JUST made a new purchase. (clogs) This bag is under the limit for free shipping by a nickel. Ohhhh my lack of patience...to my relief, it had sold out. Out of site, out of mind.

...but then again, based off of my usual modus operandi I think I'll just go to the store and have one sent to me from another store. Once sale items are off the sale site, they get reduced again.

Yes, my innocent checking account is taking some massive abuse. I know, I'm a monster.

Death of a small-time Salesman

One of the things that really sucks about being in middle school is coming to the realization that having money is fun and that you're too young to do anything. I remember getting involved with eBay back in 1999.

Yes. That would put me at about age 13. They didn't require a credit card to gain membership, all you had to do was sign up and all I had to do was alter my birthday to 1981. You did need a credit card to sell things and after my dad repeatedly denied me the use of his credit card, I just resorted to the credit card of my eldest sister. My ability to sell on eBay opened up monetary doors for me. I didn't have to wait until my birthday, Christmas, or New Years for money from my relatives, I could make my own money. I was able to sell a set of video tapes for $50, just in the nick of time before VHS tapes pretty much lost all of their value and it became hard to sell them at $0.50 each. I was able to raise about $200 selling my figure collection to get money for college. Money came in all forms, it was nice when it was immediate, through Paypal, but it was also nice receiving checks, money orders, and cash through the mail.

I'm glad I started selling then and that I have some kind of history now because this modern eBay definitely makes it hard to make an honest buck these days. Paypal is basically the only option for payment both ways, receiving and sending. Paypal hold your money for a certain number of days forcing new sellers to front the money to send packages. I don't know who they're catering to, but it's not the little guy, that's for sure. Maybe it's because I've lived in Austin for so long that I appreciate local business. It's kind of depressing going through eBay and not even seeing crude home photos of junk that people don't want anymore. I know a lot of the new regulations had to do with bad seller practices and is seems that sellers are being punished with the new feedback policy and Paypal money holds, consequently, buyers are now instigating bad practices as well, but a business wouldn't dare punish the buyer. What happened?