Store Hiatus Begins Sunday + Thoughts on What I Have Accomplished

Reminder:  The 10% off sale ends tomorrow (Saturday) night.  On Sunday by the end of the day, I will make all of my listings inactive.  My listings will remain down for some time, probably several months.  One plan is to open back up during fall break, which is in October.  The other plan is to wait until Thanksgiving break.  

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Unlike last year, the reason for closing has nothing to do with the pandemic.  I anticipate that I will have a strong autoimmune flare and that I will not be myself for up to two months.  I am closing since it is best for my body and mind.

My concern about the pandemic and the upcoming school year has increased in the last week.  Our governor signed a bill into law in May that forbids school districts from mandating masks.  The only way that districts can mandate masks if he declares a state of emergency.  He has declared that he will not do so.  So he's got us.  Fortunately, vaccinations are increasing again in Oklahoma, and I hope this situation doesn't get too much worse before it gets better. 

I am not worried about severe illness or death since I am vaccinated.  I am worried about having to self-quarantine.  The district policy is that vaccinated staff must self-quarantine for 10 days if they show symptoms.  Even catching a cold will be a problem and will require a Covid-19 test.  I am quite prone to catching colds. 

We will be returning to school without masks for five days of in-person learning per week.  With the spread of the Delta variant, I feel like we are about to throw ourselves into another debacle.  

So I'm a bit concerned about what I might catch once we all return to the incubator.  I am definitely much less anxious than I was a year ago at this time, but I do have some worries.  I'm also dreading the tooth extraction on Tuesday but will also be relieved to get it over with.  

I accomplished most of my goals for this summer.  I sold off a ton of books.  I still don't have everything quite back after painting in June, but I'm close.  I'm close enough that I can see how much space I have cleared.  I had around 20 boxes of books that I sold.  I also sold off enough books to clear the equivalent of 2 1/2 bookcases.  

Since March, I have sold 975 listings on Etsy, nearly all of them for individual books.  On eBay, I have sold 708 listings.  I tend to put bulk lots on eBay, but most listings were individual books.  Going by listings, I sold 1,683 of them on the two sites combined.  I do not know how many books were in the bulk lots, but I surely sold a least a few hundred books in bulk lots.  All told, I must have sold at least 2,000 books since March.  I can see how I ended up clearing off at least 2 1/2 bookcases besides emptying all of those boxes of books.

In a moment of clarity a couple weeks ago, I realized how much my collection is actually worth.  My thought was, "I sold $_____ in books since March.  That's a fraction of what I still have.  So I can probably multiply that amount by __, which means that my collection is worth around $_____."  I knew that my collection was worth more than a certain amount, but I hadn't considered that it was worth a good bit more than that.

A goal that I didn't accomplish this summer was getting draft blog reviews published.  I have already mentioned that the photo problem with Blogger has taken away my motivation.  Earlier today I finally tried to add photos to some draft reviews.  I was shocked when each photo actually landed in the right place.  This means that I actually do have some reviews ready.  I will likely set them to publish sometime in the next few weeks. 

I hope that after I close my stores that I can catch up on the blog and get some other draft posts ready as well.