Thursday, January 27, 2011

FYI: I don't know what I'm doing.

Sometimes I get ahead of myself, and I do things without thinking.
Okay.. A lot of times.
This happens way more frequently than it should, actually.

Like sometimes I pour my cereal in the bowl, and then realize that I never buy milk.
Why I even have cereal in the cabinet is a mystery to me.

And sometimes I start driving to a friends house before I even ask them if they're home.

And the other day, I sold my books online before I even had the slightest idea as to what I was getting in to.

I always forget to sell my course books back to the university bookstore. So I decided it was time to try to sell them online.
I know nothing about selling things online. But I figured with the semester already started, the chance of these books selling soon, if ever, is not high.

I figured I would have weeks, maybe even months until I had to call my dad and figure out what I was doing. You know: how I get the money, how I package the books, how I ship them off.. I was clueless to it all.

So I got the books up and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and was just lounging around when I decided to check my e-mail; I had like six e-mails telling me that my books sold; within minutes of me listing them!
I froze. Okay, what's my next step?
And then I saw the special notice, that these books must be sent out within two days of them being sold.
Okay, where do you go to ship things?
FedEx!

So in the rain I'm driving around the city in my giant truck, trying to park, and lugging these heavy books into the FedEx store.
I told the man, "I'm sorry, I have no clue what I'm doing but I need to ship these books." So he gave me some slips, packaged them up, and weighed them. A process that took about 20 minutes.
When we were finally done he told me the price. 96 dollars.
"96 dollars!!??"
to ship, books?
"Are you joking?" I asked him. He said no. But he really seemed like the kind of guy who would play around. I thought he was about to start laughing and tell me the real price. So I asked again to make sure, "Are you serious?" "Yes. $96.00"

I could feel my face turning red as everyone in the store turned to look at me. "No." I said firmly, shaking my head. "No. I'm sorry, I can't mail these. How in the world can this cost $96.00 to mail; these people are only paying me $3.00 for shipping!"

"Well good luck finding somewhere to ship these for much less." he said as he shoved the books into my arms.

I ran out, in the rain, and just drove. No clue where to go. I called my Dad and he told me the post office would send them.
Duh
I don't know why I went to FedEx. I just figured the post office wouldn't be as helpful. Did I mention I didn't know what I was doing?
When I got to the post office, they were just as helpful and like a sixteenth of the price.

But the lady did look at me like I was stupid trying to mail these things packaged in Fed Ex packaging.

So anyway, now I'm just waiting for the money to hit my bank account.
..I hope that's how it works...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You'll get the hang of it! That's how I bought and sold all my books during college- by using selling to the highest paying site (amazon or half.com) or even sometimes the bookstores, and using those proceeds to buy the cheapest books for the next semester.

Sailor July said...

Wow, that guy sounded like a total dick. I've done this sort of thing. Jen and I moved into our new apartment, which offers us Cable TV. Woo! So I had to go pick up our free cable box.

I walk in, there's no line so I walk straight up to the counter. The snooty bitch behind the counter is like "No cutting in line, you all need a number!" really loud. So I looked around and in the corner of the room was a ticket machine. I felt so embarrassed, but seriously, WTF?

Anyway, hoping everything goes well with the money going in your account!

Marjorie said...

people can be so rude!!!

OKinUK said...

If the books fit, you must ship. Okay, poor Johnnie Cochran reference.

Got something for you on my blog.

Tom S said...

Great post, but I have to say I was highly distracted after the reference to "1/16th of the price." All I could think of was, what's 1/16 of $96? 1/16 is... what?.. 7%? 6%? 7% of $96 is... $6 or $7 or $8?? Sounds like you came in under budget-- that's great!

bent78 said...

hey you have very nice article here.. yeah as what theyve said some people are rude. you'll get used to it..

Jane said...

I tend to put cereal in a bowl before realizing I don't have cereal either.

I sold a book on the internet once too, and it was rough! I actually have no idea if I got the money or not.

Fail!