EarthAngel’s World

I DO have other irons in the fire, of course, workwise, as always, so all is not lost.

Back to eBay. It has taken me a while to begin to get the hang of buying AND selling well.

Practice, practice. And a massive amount of reading, looking, deducing, learning.

So far I have sold one garment, have another listed right now, and have another one scheduled for listing this Sunday. After selling the second garment I will have covered the cost of what I have bought so far.

You learn by doing, and that applies to me more than to most, I suppose. I am not a genius of writing, but I do love storytelling, telling and reading stories about other people, in words and images.

In this second eBay listing I have tried a direct marketing approach, both because I am beginning to really appreciate that style of copywriting… because it is damned good practice… and because I want to work out how to get the best level of buyer interest out of each auction.

I have been coming to conclusions by looking at a large number of auctions as they occur and after they close. Look at trends, and patterns.

One reasonable conclusion from this is that few sellers - in the Fashion category at least - write very descriptive listing titles. “Jeans size 12″ … what is THAT meant to do to get me interested, to tell me enough to make me click?

Worse, when you do get to the listing itself, and look for hard, accurate details - the style, the design name, the sizes, the colours, the fabrics, and so on - you get little to nothing in far too many of them.

It is hard enough buying clothes sight unseen except for a little, dark, fuzzy snapshot. There is so much variation in sizes, from brand to brand, design to design, and even between manufacturing runs. I have bought two garments via eBay that are a very different size to others that I have owned in the same brand and size, but different designs. No matter. There is always eBay to resell them on.

My solution is to measure each garment thoroughly, provide more such details than anyone could possibly want, and then preface a table packed full of such stuff with plenty of copy discussing the benefits while telling true stories associated with the garment.

So far it is paying off, with my current garment auction, closing this Sunday. Several watchers, one bidder so far. Sniping near close of auction seems to be the pattern now, so I will only really know how well I have done by Sunday night.

Here is hoping!

It is so ironic, this thing of being deemed too old to work in advertising any more… aside from the fact that some of the finest creatives I know, overseas, are way over the the age of 28 and are just getting better and better.

And that is, my life has only just begun… I really am in early puberty… I am young and youthful and look young too… I have the mindset and thinking of a young woman, in fact a teenager… same as my beloved who also only managed to get medical treatment and became her real self at a late age… all as a result of being intersex.

That recruiter in my previous post is the same one who told me, earlier this year, that one of the major advertising agency Interactive ECDs had announced that no creative over the age of 35 could possibly understand the digital/online world. And thus, that nobody that age or over need apply.

The recruiter was of the opinion that this was only a temporary blip, and that good sense would prevail in due course.

But, alas, the quality of the local digital work has not improved, ad agencies continue to look bad, and continue to turn out poor and ineffective digital work, and they continue to look for scapegoats.

Tragic.

Well I had intended not to write any thing further about my search for work in the advertising industry in this blog, but what happened today reverses that decision for this time only.

I met the friendly recruiter at lunchtime. He told me that all the local advertising agencies have now adopted the policy that they only hire creative people between the ages of 22 and 28. Anyone over that age is not even to be considered any more. As soon as any creative employee approaches the age of 33 then they are in the dead zone, about to be sacked for being too old.

The reason? It seems to be rooted in the Australian agencies’ failure to cope with digital communications. Their clients know about that all too well. So reasons have to be invented, theories promulgated, ideologies created from no actual evidence, and scapegoats blamed, and punished, and the agency and client belief now is that no writer or art director over the age of 28 can possibly grasp the digital era - the current era - of communications.

Apparently we are just too old, or too dumb, or too technophobic. Thus we have become totally unwanted, useless, boat anchors. Regardless of the facts, regardless of the truth.

Worse, my recruiter tells me that because I have not got an agency job yet, the Interactive ECD of the multinational advertising agency who really, really, really wanted me on board as soon as he could get management permission has now decided that, because I am still looking, waiting, that I cannot be any good after all and so I am dead to the Australian advertising world.

I am f*cked, apparently. I will never work in advertising again.

Of course, the old men who own and run the agencies are not subject to the ‘mean age of 25′ rule - meaning that creatives can now only be aged between 22 and 28. The old men continue to enjoy their lush lives and plush expense accounts.

Disgusted? Me? Yes, of course!!! So is the recruiter! He also is a former creative, an art director.

After being told by the CRS Australia guy that they can help out with work clothes, I dropped into some major boutiques and department stores to see what was actually available right now. So glad that I am in Sydney now - so many stores here compared to WA.

But even so the choice is limited. The season, perhaps? Just one suit of all the many I tried is cut to fit women with breasts… well, 12Ds at least. No tops that are business-like enough. Almost all the stores are still packed with maternity-inspired clothing… totally unsuited for work IMHO, and more than faintly ridiculous when worn by anyone over the age of 35.

In support of that assertion, the streets were full of women of all ages, all wearing maternity-inspired clothes, all in beigey colours with ruffles and frills, and I did not see a single woman that particular look actually looks good on.

All I really want is a suit that fits, an extra skirt or two, and enough suitable tops to get me through the working week.

Over a week since my last post… ah well, sometimes you just have to live and not comment on living.

The last week has been… challenging. The OOS pain has been much worse… CRS is grinding along slooooooooowly… I go there again middle of next week to look at the report on me that is being written up… I go to my GP tomorrow for a look at the OOS in my wrists… and for her to officially acknowledge how much my shape and size have changed although since she has not really seen me so much she is not terribly qualified to comment… and I continue to learn about eBay.

I have now bought 8 garments online, and have received one so far. I have been very lucky… I have almost nothing to wear to appointments anymore, but now have a nice leather jacket, a suit jacket, a long skirt and two decent pairs of jeans coming. Payments via PayPal have been made and completed but the sellers have not yet sent the items.

I hope they arrive soon, though. Today I have an appointment with a recruiter I have seen already, so I can get away with grotty old ill-fitting jeans and a far-too-loose jeans jacket. Good thing he is a recruiter for the creative industries, so you can get away with dressing as most creatives do. If he was working for corporate clients I would be screwed - I so badly need a suit, and shoes or boots for the current equivalent of corporate power dressing.

CRS has told me they can help with the work clothing situation, and that will be great if and when they do. I am not holding my breath though - they take forever to do anything.

Meanwhile I have at least 24 items I can sell on eBay, 24 listings I am working on, and a number of smaller items boxed up under the house. I continue to learn about how to sell, how to write up listings, and what REALLY works as opposed to what people believe might work. I am still far from really knowing what I am doing.

The idea of buying an eBay mentor at $49.00 per month is still very tempting.

There has been a development in my divorce case. My lawyer phoned to tell me of an interesting development, but until she tells me the outcome I do not want to think or talk about it any further. It could be very good, or slightly less good than it currently is.

The late S. - who died just over a year ago as the victim of medical malpractice at a Catholic mental hospital, who lived here in these rooms, and who did things to my beloved due to her iatrogenic (medically-caused) mental illnesses - is still the cause of withering grief in my beloved.

It is as if my beloved is frozen in life, scarred psychologically and physically by what S. did to her for the 3 or more years that my beloved looked after her, sacrificing herself for S., losing almost everything for her sake, including almost losing her life at S.’s hands, and certainly losing most of her possessions - furniture, clothes, almost everything.

My beloved’s paralyzing grief is paralyzing me, and our life together. Sometimes I do not know what to do, and whether there is hope for us.

S. dragged my beloved deep down into the pit with her, deep down into the grave, and I am dragging my beloved out but right now I am not succeeding.

I know what was done to S. by the medical profession, and how savagely brutalized she was by her father. When S. and my beloved met in 2002, S.’s nose had been flattened and bent to the side years before, as a child, when she was regularly beaten almost to death by her father simply for having been born this way.

I was physically and psychologically abused by my mother as a child, and when I last lived in Western Australia her insanity, anger, violence, and fear did things to me yet again.

It was my beloved who saved my life when she came to visit me in WA twice. It was she who finally persuaded my mother to loan me the funds for urogenital surgery. My crazy mother had offered me the funds and then withdrew them three times without reasons before my beloved got her to finally begin thinking straight, for a short time at least.

It was my beloved who again saved my life by helping me escape Perth at the end of last year.

Now I must save my beloved, in turn.

I am learning ebay, by listing one item for sale, and by bidding on some items of clothing. I have lost two auctions so far, but I am managing to work out some buyer psychology, and I continue to do my research. It is a slow process, but I learn by doing, not by theorizing based on little or no evidence.

I cleaned out another drawer of lightweight tops today, and am about to deposit them in a charity donation bin. They are all too cheap and of poor quality - how Perth! - to auction online IMHO. The imperative to get some decent clothes the right size is even more urgent now. Hence bidding online for clothes suitable for work and interviews. Pity there is no guaranteed way of winning these things. I am so cold right now, and I dislike being poorly dressed at any time, anywhere, even at home.

I am learning about the sniping phenomenon, whereby bidders wait until the last minute to make a lat minute attempt to outbid each other. And I am coming across sniping software and services, such as BidNinja and Auctiva, and am trying them out.

If I had the spare income, I would pay for a mentor to teach and guide me. There are two possibilities, a couple who live in Australia, and a man in the US, but I will probably go with the Australians in due course.

The service for T. was so packed out that people spilled out of the church into the cold though sunny outdoors. Fortunately the organizers had set up a TV projection screen outside, in the shade, so that people could at least see the videos and photographs that were played throughout the service. There were 100s of people there.

My beloved is ill yet again, this time as a result of an influenza vaccine shot the previous day. Her immune system is so compromised by these intersex co-morbid conditions that anything can happen to her. She is also depressed about T.’s death. The late S. admired T. for her kindness and optimism.